The innkeep's eyes twitched from me to Naji, who was leaning against the doorway and looking annoyed.
"He won't do nothing," I said, but the innkeeper shook his head.
"Run," he said, in a hoarse whisper. "Get away. I've seen what his type are capable of – what they'll do to an innocent like you."
I wondered why the guy thought I was an innocent. Cause I ain't pretty? I decided to give it up then. I obviously wasn't going to sell the poor guy on my safety.
"Don't feel the need to defend my good reputation," Naji said as we made our way up the stairs to the room, out of earshot of the innkeep. "I don't have one."
"Oh, I'm sorry," I said. "Did you want me to act like your prisoner or something? Slip him a note to send for help?"
"Please don't do that."
"What'd he think you were going to do to me anyway?"
Naji opened up the door to the room. It was smaller than the room I'd had on the edge of the city, and not nearly as clean. I thought of all the Confederation scummies that had passed through here and shuddered.
Besides which, there was only one bed.
"Blood magic, probably," Naji said, and I shut my trap at that, because I'd just seen how that part of the assassin stories was true and blood magic ain't nothing to mess with. Even Mama had warned me off it, before it became apparent my talents lie elsewhere.
"You can sleep on the bed," Naji said. "And you should sleep." He gave me a look like he expected me to sass him. When I didn't, he said, "And no, it's not because of the, ah, the oath. It's because I need you alert tomorrow night."
"What for?"
"I have some things I'll need you to fetch for me, so I can determine what we should do next."
He didn't expand on that, and I figured tomorrow I could make a case for our next step to involve convincing the Hariris not to kill me. I was awful tired, to be sure. I'd hardly realized it until we got to the room. Likely still running on the energy from the fight, the way you do during those sea-battles that go on for days and days. I collapsed down on top of the bed, not even giving any thought to the last time the sheets might have been washed. And, like any good pirate, I fell asleep immediately.
CHAPTER FIVE
I slept straight on through till nightfall, and when I woke up my entire body ached so bad I could hardly push myself off the bed. Naji was sitting over in the corner, his eyes glowing. I waved my hands in front of him a couple of times and when he didn't so much as twitch I went ahead and peeled off my dress, stiff with sweat and blood and sand, and put on a fresh one. I transferred the bag of coins into my new dress. Just cause he was protecting me didn't mean he wouldn't steal from me.
Then I sat down on the edge of the bed and waited for a few minutes. He didn't come out of his trance.
"Hey," I shouted. "Sure would be easy for me to sneak out on you right now."
That did it. The glow went out of his eyes and he stood up, unfolding himself gracefully like the fight hadn't affected him at all.
"Not as easy as you would think." He had taken off his armor and his cloak while I slept, and his arms were covered in strange, snaky tattoos the same iceglacier blue his eyes got whenever he settled into a trance. He didn't say nothing, though I know he saw me looking at them.
He walked across the narrow width of the room, to the rickety old table where he'd draped his cloak, and began to rummage through it.
"I'm hungry."
"I'm sure you can get something downstairs."
"I don't have no money," I said, trying my hand.
"Nonsense." He peered over his shoulder at me. His hair fell in dark ribbons over his forehead, and I felt silly for noticing. "You have a pouch of pressed metal in your pocket."
Immediately, I forgot his hair. "How do you know that?"
He smiled, touched one hand to his chest in the manner of the desertlands, that gesture that's supposed to stand in for an answer you don't want to give. Then he said, "I would like you to go to the night market for me. I'll give you money for that, but I expect you to return with everything I request. And I will bind you to me if I feel it's necessary."
I scowled at him. "You can't go to the night market yourself?"
"No vendor would sell to me." He didn't look at me when he spoke. I got a weird feeling in my stomach, thinking about the innkeep from the night before, and blood magic I'd seen Naji perform out on the street. The threat of Naji tying me to him.
"What exactly are you going to do?" I said. "With the, ah, the things from the–"
"Nothing that'll hurt you." He pulled out a stack of pressed metal, gold and silver both and worth much more than what I had in my pouch. I took a more or less involuntary step forward, trying to see where he'd yanked them from. One glare stopped me.
"And what about the Mists lady?" I asked. "Don't you think she might come back after me?"
"No." But there was a gap in his voice, some information he was leaving out.
"You don't think she's going to try again?"
"Not her, no."
"But someone."
Naji rubbed his head. "They won't come after you," he said.
"They came after me before."
"No, you happened to stumble across them. It's not the same thing."
I watched him, trying to decide if I wanted to tell him that I didn't get the sense that I'd stumbled across anything. I'd almost made the decision to say something when he turned away from me and said, "Run downstairs and ask the innkeeper to borrow some paper and ink."
"You don't need to write it down. I'll remember." I tapped the side of my head. My stomach rumbled.
When I didn't move he glared at me again, and I did as he asked. It was a different innkeep from the one who tried to convince me I was about to die. Too bad. I kind of wanted to reassure the poor bastard, or at least see the expression on his face when he saw I wasn't dead.