Page 6
My ire dwindles. Stupid, to anger the one helping me. I pull out a small jar of yarrow leaf paste from my sleeve, then spread a thin layer over his injury. “This will help stem the bleeding.” Over these past years, I’ve learned to treat my own wounds. Medicine is expensive, but plants and herbs grow wild.
His gaze is assessing. “You don’t shy from blood.”
“I’ve seen my share of it.” What would he know of such things—someone who doesn’t drive his own carriage, who doesn’t count the silver he spends.
“What’s your name?” he asks.
“Yining.” A false name would be safer, but he’s caught me off guard.
He repeats it, stretching it out in a drawl. “You may call me Jin.”
As the carriage jerks to a halt, the soldiers holler, “All occupants of the carriage must disembark to identify yourselves.”
“Do you see the crest of our carriage?” the driver announces loudly.
Heated whispering rises, the guards arguing among themselves. “Every carriage must be searched,” one insists, yet his voice quivers.
“Search this one if you’ve grown tired of living,” another replies in a muffled tone.
Only after our carriage rolls onward does my tension ease. I lift a corner of the curtain to see the soldiers bowing as we pass through the entrance. “They seem frightened. Are you a lord?” I hope he’s not; it’s too late to mind my manners around him.
The nobility rank just beneath the royal family of the Iron Mountains, treated with reverence. The wealthy merchants and masters of their craft come next, most of whom dwell in the larger towns. And at the very bottom are the rest of us—the hundreds of thousands who are meant to serve, spread across villages and towns that are scattered around the mountains.
“I am an advisor to a lord. Our carriage bears his mark,” Jin explains. “Are you disappointed?”
“I knew you weren’t one. What noble would trudge through the villages?”
He shrugs. “I’m keen to learn more about this place.”
A subtle reminder of my obligation to him. I’m almost certain he has a web of people like me, strewn across the kingdom—pawns to be used and discarded. Is he a friend or an enemy of the Iron Mountains? Regardless of any debt, if Jin threatens my safety, I’ll have to vanish. Fortunately, he doesn’t even know what I look like beneath the paint.
As the carriage rumbles along, Jin asks abruptly, “Why tell fortunes when you have no calling for them?”
“Not all of us are born into wealth.”
He ignores my comment. “That woman who was with you—is she really your aunt?”
“My step-aunt. My uncle is dead.” My voice cuts off; the less he knows the better. “Where are you from?” I slip in, hoping to catch him unaware.
“How do you know I’m not from here?”
I study him, from his shoes to his face. “Your clothes, your lack of iron despite your wealth. Your hair. Why is it short?”
“It’s how we wear it where I’m from. The days are warmer there.”
“Do the women wear their hair short too?” I ask curiously.
His eyes flick down my hair to where it curls just above my elbow. “Only if they want to.”
He must be from one of the other kingdoms: the Amber Forest or the Pearl Ocean. Envy slithers through me at his freedom, the ease with which he crosses the land. Even with my uncle’s old horse, it would take days to ride through these mountains. A sudden urge to get away from him grips me. He reminds me of places I want to see, things I’ll never get to do, dreams buried along with my uncle and aunt.
Pulling aside the curtain, I glance out the window, the sight of the familiar forest filling me with relief. It’s an hour’s walk from home, but I’d rather he not know where to find me.
I rap the side of the carriage. “Let me out here. This is close enough.”
As we slow to a halt, I hop down before Jin can object. He leans out the window, his head angled toward me. “Is this farewell?”
“Only for now,” I reply glibly.
