Vir turned to Alda. “Keep this to yourself,” he said, half expecting her to blackmail him for coin.
The urchin nodded furiously. “I get it. No worries,” she replied, omitting any mention of money.
She led them to a smelly, dark wooden building that had seen far better days. Rotting wood had crumbled and given way to gaps from which the cool sea breeze entered. There wasn’t really a door to the place—more of an oblong opening that used to be part of a wall.
Inside, Vir found piles of hay, even worse smells than the slum outside, and a dozen kids all huddled around a rusted iron barrel with a fire going inside. The barrel had several jagged holes on each side, possibly to radiate heat. Looking up, Vir saw stars through the many holes in the ceiling. He pitied anyone who used this place for shelter during the seasonal rains.
“When are we gonna get paid? Badrak it! I haven’t eaten in days,” said a kid sitting around the fire.
Vir did a double take—the boy was his spitting image. Or rather, he wore the same clothes and had the same color hair and blue eyes. His face was unfamiliar, but Vir figured the boy would easily pass as his double.
“Dunno,” another kid said. “Guy ghosted us. Alda can’t find him, and if she can’t…”
“Hey, everyone,” Alda said. “I brought ’em!”
The gang of kids eyed the newcomers. Some passed their gaze over Vir and Maiya, a spark of hope in their eyes, while others looked as if they’d given up all hope. A handful stared at them in panic.
“L-Look,” Vir’s double said, standing up. “Didn’t mean anythin’ by it, ya hear? We got nuthin’ you can steal, so if you’re here to pick a fight, you ain’t gonna get nuthin’, okay?”
“Relax, Barid. They’re not here to fight,” Alda said. “Uh, you’re not, right?”
“I dunno, are we?” Maiya said, squaring off in front of Vir.
Vir squeezed her shoulder and shook his head. “Let’s cooperate for now,” he whispered, then turned to the boy. “Alda told us the story. Can’t say I’m happy about all this. Got beat up pretty bad thanks to you all,” he said, meeting the gaze of every kid there. Most looked away in shame after seeing his sorry state.
“Y-yeah? Well, welcome to our life,” Barid retorted. “Barely a day goes by without one of us gettin’ banged up some way or anuther. Guess ya ’ristos don’t know nuthin about that tho.”
“Akshully,” Alda said, throwing Vir a wink, rubbing her fingers behind her back. “Neel and Apramor here are ’ristos, alright, but those stupid guards still beat ’em up. They got no idea what’s comin’ to ’em.”
Vir still didn’t like her, but at least the girl was trying to help out. If they could keep up their aristocrat disguise, it’d bring many benefits, and Alda knew it. After all, Vir and Maiya had entered the city without having to show their papers. People were just nicer to ’ristos.
“Y’don’t know what life in da slums be like,” Barid said, his voice lowered.
Vir was about to argue but bit it back. Bullies had heckled Vir in Brij, and Rudvik never had much money, but he’d never had to fend for himself like these kids did. Alone, and in a hostile city. He wanted to empathize but found it hard after what they’d done to him.
“Still…” Barid continued. “We do feel bad, y’know? ’Speshully since ya were nice ta Alda. No one’s ever nice ta us, y’know?”
“And you show your gratitude by framing us, is it? Just help us get our Ash’va back,” Vir said irritably. Maiya may have been more vocal about her anger, but it wasn’t like he felt any differently. Just that his top priority was seeing them both home safely, and getting angry right now wouldn’t help with that. “Also, we need to buy some supplies as well. Help us out, and we’ll call it even.”
“Sure, once you give me back my coin,” Alda shot back.
“You’ll have your coin,” Vir replied, “after you help us. Better for you to come out of this with something, right? By the looks of things, you all could use it.”
Barid glanced at Alda and the others, then nodded. “Deal. Alda, can you help ’im out? You know where the Ash’va is, yeah?”
Alda shook her head. “Naw. But Old Man Bakura does.” She turned to Vir and Maiya. “Might catch him at the docks if we hurry.”
“Give us a moment,” Maiya said, pulling Vir away. “Bet you’re thinking the same thing I am.”
Vir nodded. “The man we ran into on the way to Saran. He’s gotta be the one who set all of this up. No telling what he might be up to if he discovers we escaped.”
“Why do you say that?”
They hadn’t been speaking loudly to begin with, but Vir brought his voice down to a whisper. “I think he may know who we really are. It’s the only thing that makes sense if you think about it. Hiring urchins to steal from a bunch of merchants? He had to have paid more for that than outright buying those things.”
“So he did it specifically to frame us? You think he’s related to the knights who came after you in the village?” Maiya whispered back.
That was the piece of the puzzle that didn’t fit. If he was a knight, why go through such roundabout means? Why not simply arrest Vir? “I dunno. But I think we oughta fly this coop as fast as we can. And that means leaning on the urchins.”
“Right,” Maiya replied. “If the guards really moved Bumpy, we’d be hard-pressed to find him. As for the supplies…”
“We could just change our makeup and buy the rest, but if they’re helping…”
“Yeah,” Maiya said. “Might as well take advantage of their help. Okay. Good. Sounds like we have a plan.”
“Stay vigilant, though. We can’t trust them too much,” Vir said.
“You’re telling me! I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them. Not after what they did to you,” Maiya whispered.
“You two done yet? We gotta move,” the urchin said, clearing her throat.
“One moment,” Vir said. “We don’t want to wait until morning for the shops to open to get the rest of our supplies if we can help it. Do you know where we can get these?” He retrieved the parchment from his rucksack and handed it to her. “I’ve crossed off everything we already bought.”
“Um… I can’t read. H-Hey!” she protested as Barid snatched the parchment out of her hands.
“Lemme see…” His eyes popped. “You tryin’ to feed an entire village or sumthin’?”
“You don’t need to know,” Vir replied.
Barid looked over the list again. “S’nuthin on here hard to come by. But that’s a lot of stuff. You’ll need some help.”
“Then you can help us after we come up with a plan to free Bumpy,” Vir said. He turned to Alda. “Let’s be off.”
Truthfully, he wanted nothing more than to sit down alone and meditate. Every shred of him craved to get Prana Vision pumping again so he could confirm what he’d seen in the dungeon. If his black prana truly existed in nature… Then that changed everything. It might very well be the key to unlocking other magic. Now was neither the time nor the place to experiment though. He choked down his curiosity and followed Alda out. It helped that the streets had grown quiet and dark, allowing them to cover ground quickly with little fear of detection.
“So,” Vir said after a few minutes of awkward silence. “What stuff did you steal? For the man who hired you to frame us, I mean.”
Alda looked back at him. “Promise you won’t rat us out?”
Vir nodded. “Sure.”
“Well, a bunch of stuff. Couple of crates of Ash’va food, some keys. Some papers,” Alda said with a grin. “Biggest heist we’ve ever pulled off! Got a huge payout for it. Like, we’re talkin’ silvers huge.”
Vir felt a little sad at seeing the joy in her eyes. Money was such a precious commodity to these kids, yet Riyan had given him ten silvers to buy supplies like it was nothing. It probably was nothing to a man whose wealth was likely beyond Vir’s imagination.