‘Will you use magic?’ asked Bel, managing to cover his anxiety. Baygis was famous for his ability to milk the truth from people using persuasive magic, and Bel was still sorting through the strangeness of the night before for himself.
‘No,’ said Baygis. ‘Just tell me what happened. I only want your story to check against the girl’s.’
Bel nodded. He recounted the events of the night before as though he hadn’t known Jaya previously, and didn’t mention his mercy in the garden, or the way he was stirred when he looked into her green flecked eyes.
Baygis was, thankfully, satisfied with Bel’s version of events. After he’d left, Bel prepared for his day on patrol. He met Hiza in Kadass at the keepers’ headquarters and together they set off into the streets. Hiza quickly discovered that his friend was in a contemplative mood, staring off into the distance and shutting down any attempts at banter with short, vague answers. When the patrol ended, Bel excused himself quickly and Hiza went off in search of livelier cronies.
Bel re-entered the keepers’ headquarters. He made his way along cream corridors, heading for the holding cells where Jaya was being kept. He arrived in a room lit by fickle candles. Behind a desk sat Gint, a gangly old keeper who looked after the prisoners, hunched over in a comfortable-looking chair and reading a dog-eared book.
‘Hello, Gint,’ said Bel. ‘Been busy?’
Gint glanced up. ‘Ah, Bel. No, son, no traffic today. Not even a single rambunctious drunkard.’
‘Thought you might like a pie,’ said Bel, placing a cloth-wrapped pie on the desk. Gint’s eyes lit up instantly. ‘Mind if I go through?’ he continued nonchalantly. ‘I want to talk to the girl I brought in last night.’
‘Go ahead,’ said Gint, waving at the door behind him, clearly anticipating quality time with the pie. ‘She’s to the left at the far end. Key’s in the usual place. Be careful of her, she’s a bit feisty, I wouldn’t go past the inner grille. Holler if you need me.’
‘Thanks,’ said Bel.
He entered the cells, closing the door behind him and taking down the set of keys that hung just inside. Before him was a passage lined with heavy oak doors, set with panels for observing the cells beyond. Bel came to the last cell and paused, attempted to collect his thoughts, failed, then opened the door. The room was divided in half by a grille of iron bars, creating a viewing chamber and the cell proper, designed so overseers could sit and question prisoners face to face in privacy and safety. In the ceiling was a grated skylight through which the moon dimly illuminated the cell and its occupant. She lay face down on a single bed pushed against the wall, one arm draped listlessly to the floor. Her clothes were the same as the day before – streamlined, body-hugging thieves’ garb: a long-sleeved jade cotton shirt and black leggings. She raised her head.
‘Who’s there?’
Bel shut the door behind him and stepped into the shaft of moonlight. She sat up on the bed instantly, watching him. He felt exposed, for she could see him properly though her face was in shadow. Inexplicably, he didn’t know what to do with his hands – just now there didn’t seem to be any natural position for them, so he forced them stiffly down by his sides.
‘Hi,’ he said dumbly.
‘Hi,’ she replied.
Bel waited for something else to occur to him. ‘You don’t have any lanterns lit,’ he said.
‘There was nothing to see,’ said Jaya. She moved forward along the bed, closer to the bars. ‘Light one if you want.’
On Bel’s side of the cell was a little desk where Baygis would have sat earlier that day. He found a lantern there and lit it. The shadows retreated and there she was.
‘Nothing to see?’ he echoed in wonder, and realised he’d said it out loud. She smiled at his alarm, and he smiled helplessly in return.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘this wouldn’t have been my choice of establishment for a second meeting. I don’t really count last night, by the way. Or are you here on official business?’
Bel’s eyes sparkled. ‘No,’ he said. He rapped the cell bars. ‘So, this is where teasing the peacekeepers gets you. Who would have thought it?’
‘Oh, hush,’ she said. ‘If it wasn’t for you , I wouldn’t even be here. Sneaking around in strange houses, leaping out of shadows to put your hands on a girl – really. You should be ashamed of yourself.’
‘Me?’ said Bel. ‘By Arkus, it’s you who was committing a clandestine act of vandalism. I was just doing my job. ’
‘So was I.’
‘If you’d just come and found me at the tavern instead, all of this could have been averted.’
‘Oh, really?’ said Jaya. ‘And how would that have worked? How would you have talked me out of …’
Her eyes screwed up and it took him a moment in the semi-light to realise she was trying not to cry. Without really thinking about it, he got up, unlocked the cell door and went in to sit on the bed next to her.
‘That took you long enough,’ she said, putting her arms around his chest.
‘I thought you might be angry with me.’
‘I am angry with you.’
‘And upset, I think – about something else?’
She tried to hold him closer, but his leather breastplate got in the way. She knocked on it. ‘Not very comfortable,’ she said, and he laughed. All his doubts about her affection suddenly seemed stupid.
‘Do you want me to take it off?’
‘Yes.’
Things escalated quickly.
His desire might have been frantic after so many days spent in want of her, but instead he relaxed, as if he was finally coming home after years away. Around them, the rest of the world faded to grey unimportance, while she became so real it was almost overpowering. Again he felt that burbling in the blood, a fire that did not burn.
Some time later, he wasn’t sure how long, they came to rest lying face to face with limbs entwined. He ran some of the hair off her face, and she kissed him.
‘Strange girl,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘I thought you’d gone away. When I went to the tavern looking for you, they said you had gone.’
‘I did go away. We were working the road to Ismore – there’s plenty of caravans and such this time of year. Me and my partners, Lerena and Jeshun …’ She trailed off.
‘Will you tell me what happened to you?’ said Bel. ‘I don’t care if you’re a thief, Jaya, but I want to help you get out of this mess.’
‘I doubt you can resolve this with a sword, Blade Bel.’
Bel thought about telling her then about his blue hair, about who he was. Perhaps the prophesied child of power would have more sway in getting her out of prison than just any old blade. He wanted to tell her, to reassure her, even just to impress her – but he bit his tongue, remembering Fahren’s warnings. There would be time enough later, if he decided to. She wasn’t going anywhere.
She sighed. ‘All right. I may as well tell you – you could just go and ask your friend Baygis everything anyway. It’s impossible to lie to that man. My secrets aren’t my own any more.’
‘Well, don’t tell me if you don’t choose to.’
‘No,’ she said, ‘I choose. Just a bit annoyed about everything, that’s all.’ She gathered her thoughts. ‘Lerena was in Ennoi village one day when she overheard Lord Cydus boasting tactlessly about his wealth – and about the Tulzan vase he was going to give to the wasp Trusted, who was soon to visit Kadass from my homeland.’
‘You were born in Cindeka?’
‘Yes, near Athika. My parents are farmers, raising cattle for the wasps, who are too lazy to farm for themselves. Anyway, Cydus’s boasting was enough to tempt us, and we decided to rob his caravan once it got back on the open road. It was ambitious, but we love our adventures …or we did …