Flecks of Gold (15 page)

“There are orphanages, but many children slip through the sand. Some might consider children on the streets better off than those in the orphanages,” Breeohan said.

He stopped at a beat-up door in an alleyway, and I wondered what we were doing in such a grimy place.

He knocked and then said, “He may not be here,” as if I would understand.

We waited in tense silence. I was just about to suggest that no one appeared to be home, when the door opened a crack. Breeohan dropped his lacing. I held my breath and slid further out of sight.

“Who is it?” asked a voice that reminded me of scraping rocks on gravel.

“Don’t tell me I have been away so long that the sand has changed my face, Rafan.”

The door opened wider, revealing a dirty young man who looked to be Breeohan’s age. His hair was tangled and his clothes torn, but the dirt made his blue-green eyes stand out all the more. He grinned at Breeohan, reminding me of a naughty kid who had just pulled off some tremendous prank. I stepped into a deeper shadow.

“Breeohan, you look awful. Just back from the magician’s trial?” His voice was suddenly less deep, but it still sounded like sandpaper. I cleared my own throat as if I could fix his.

“I think you’d better take a look at yourself, Rafan. Why are you dressed so disreputably?” Breeohan asked.

“Come in, and I will tell you about it.” He gestured for Breeohan to enter. Breeohan looked all around but didn’t see my still form in the shadows.

“I’m not alone. Mary? Rafan is an old friend from school.”

“Mary? I never thought I would see the day when you would bring strange women to my door,” Rafan said, winking.

I knew I was a little paranoid with most men, but I figured I was justified by past events. After a moment’s hesitation, I stepped out of the shadows and dropped my lacing. If Breeohan trusted Rafan, the least I could do was give him a chance.

“Hello.” Rafan said the greeting like some men said, “Hello, beautiful.” Long and drawn out. He checked me out from head to foot, lingeringly. My face heated with anger, which only got worse as I realized it would look like I was blushing.

Breeohan was a little flushed as well. He gently pushed his friend back through the door, following him in. I came after and closed the door behind me. Inside, I was surprised to see a room furnished with bright red, purple, and blue rugs. The decorating was a mishmash, but the rugs looked to be woven well, with detailed designs integrated into the whole. They seemed expensive, and I wondered why Rafan looked so grubby when he was living in such comfort.

“You seem to be doing well, anyway,” Breeohan said, indicating the rugs. “This room didn’t look half so nice the last time I was here.”

“I thought I would make the place more comfortable since I’ve had to stay here for awhile.” Rafan turned to me. “I hope you won’t hold my appearance against me, lady. I am not usually so ill-prepared to receive guests.”

It was odd hearing such fluffy words from a raspy-voiced, grubby guy.

“Don’t worry. I’ve looked worse myself,” I said.

“I doubt that you ever look anything but beautiful.”

He’s certainly laying it on thick
, I thought, stretching my lips into a courtesy smile. After Kelson, I didn’t really care for flowery talkers. I looked him full in the eyes as I smiled, and his gallant expression faded at the sight of my golden irises, but he recovered quickly. Rafan’s reaction made me remember that I’d been too distracted with trying to figure out who wanted Breeohan dead to ask him to explain why my eyes startled everyone.

“Why do you look like something that’s been dragged through the sewers?” Breeohan asked. His arms were crossed, and he appeared to be in a foul mood.

“I’m undercover.” Rafan winked at me.

“Well . . .” Breeohan reminded me of a schoolteacher who had just caught his student in the middle of a wrongful act.

“There have been reports of several attacks against magicians. The king wanted me to blend into the background—find out a few things,” Rafan said.

“Have the attacks happened to specific mages, or are they directed toward all magicians?” Breeohan asked, eyes sharp.

“That is what I am trying to find out. So far the attacks
seem
random, but all the victims have been masters, key political figures in the court. It’s a good thing you came to me instead of walking through the city tonight. Now that you are a master, you might be attacked too.”

“We’ve been ambushed twice now.”

“Tonight?”

“In the last town and in the Klio Wadi. What have you discovered?”

“Nothing definite, and I’ve been a beggar for weeks. We have caught a few of the attackers, but none of them know who hired them, only who they were supposed to target and where to get the promised pay. We have tried hiding guards around the rendezvous points, but no one ever shows. It’s as if whoever is behind the attacks knows his thugs have been found.”

“Magic?” Breeohan asked.

“I don’t know. There has never been a lacing found that could do such a thing.”

The two men looked thoughtful. I stood near a wall, happy to be overlooked. I thought Breeohan and Rafan were ignoring a simple explanation as to why no one ever came to the rendezvous point. There could be someone on the inside, feeding the mastermind information. The person behind the attacks could even be the insider.

“If you’re going to the king,” Rafan said, “I think I’ll go with you and tell him what has been happening lately. It’s been a while since I last reported to him.”

“We can’t go to him quite yet,” said Breeohan. He turned to look at me, and Rafan followed suit, intensely interested. I took an involuntary step backwards, stumbling on a rug before catching myself.

“I need your help, Rafan. Since you’re already in disguise, I need you to go to the docks and bribe sailors to say they saw a grand passenger boat that came and left this evening. Then—”

“Wait.” I said quickly. My stomach was churning uncomfortably. “I don’t feel comfortable lying. If you introduce me this way, you’ll have to come up with lie after lie, and it might lead to trouble. I don’t want to pretend I’m a princess. The story has too many holes, especially if you have to bribe people. I would much rather just go to the palace as myself. The less said the better. I’ll just try to blend into the background or something. Why don’t we just say that I’m a foreign magician studying abroad?”

“And who are you really, lady?” Rafan asked. He had a debonair twinkle in his eye. I shifted uncomfortably.

“I
am
a foreign magician,” I said stubbornly. I didn’t want to go into my whole story with Rafan. The fewer people who knew, the less likely the story would get back to Kelson.

“I think you are right, Mary. The simpler the explanation, the less likely people are to question it. But there is a problem.”

“What?”

“Your gold eyes.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

I heard him mutter, “Fool,” under his breath and was about to get offended when he said, “I was so worried with what was happening, I forgot to tell you.”

“Tell me what?”

“That only nobility have gold in their eyes. You’ve seen that my eyes have quite a lot of gold? Well, the more gold, the more royal, supposedly.”

“Well, that’s stupid. What if a noble kid gets a recessive gene and ends up without any gold? Does that make him a commoner?”

“I don’t know what a recessive gene is, but occasionally there are commoners with gold flecks, and there are a few nobles with no gold. However, if someone has totally golden eyes, he or she is never just a commoner. They are from a royal line, always.”

Apparently my eyes were unusual everywhere. “Is this golden eye rule true in other countries too?”

“For some of them,” he said. I was uncomfortably aware of Rafan’s eyes on us as we talked. They were blue-green without a trace of gold. Was Rafan a noble or commoner? I hated to even have to worry about such classifications.

“I still don’t want to pretend that I’m a princess. Anyone would be able to see through it in a second, and you said that people with golden eyes come from a royal line, not that they are a prince or princess,” I said.

“I don’t agree about your inability to act royal. I have certainly seen you acting royal enough on occasion.” Breeohan’s serious expression relaxed into a smile.

“A royal pain, you mean.” I smiled back.

“You said it.” He laughed.

Suddenly, Rafan took my hand, and Breeohan’s smile faded. “I would have no trouble believing you royalty,” Rafan said as he bowed over my hand. I was glad he didn’t kiss it.
Maybe they don’t do that here
, I thought hopefully.

“Whatever we decide, it is too late to start tonight,” Breeohan said. “I think we should wait until morning before organizing a plan or trying to reach the palace. We might as well sleep.”

“I agree,” I said. I tried to get my hand back, and Rafan let go after another bow.

“I shall sleep in the far corner so you will not have to breathe in my unfortunate stench,” Rafan said.

“That’s very kind,” I said and meant it. He smelled like rotting tomatoes. Close proximity was making me queasy.

I wanted to talk to Breeohan alone, but there was only one room, so I settled down for the night. Breeohan was quiet as well. He looked deep in thought, and I wondered if he was still trying to come up with a plan. I really hoped we wouldn’t have to lie if we could avoid it. The phrase “The truth will set you free” kept running through my head. I knew it was pathetic to always use books as my life guides, but as a loner I’d had to do something with all that time spent without friends. In a book, a character’s lies usually create complications that eventually lead to some big catastrophe. I had a feeling that I was already going to be in for a wild ride, even without some made-up story to trip me up.

When I awoke the next morning, both Breeohan and Rafan were gone. “Great!” I muttered. “What am I supposed to do now?”

I practiced a few lacings, contemplating possible magical defensive maneuvers. This was hard since it depended on what was around me. I did think of ways to disarm someone with a weapon and was mulling over the possibility of a magic alarm system when Breeohan and Rafan returned.

“Finally. Where were you?” I sprang to my feet. “You know you could have at least told me you were going somewhere.”

“Sorry, we didn’t want to wake you. We had to get some things,” Breeohan said.

That was when I noticed Breeohan’s clothes. He wore a shiny purple coat that came to his hip. The coat clasped at the side as my vest did, but around its edges golden embroidery glittered in frilly designs. His dark purple silk pants were also embroidered. The effect of the whole outfit, rather than looking feminine, highlighted and accented his broad shoulders and catlike grace. I had to stop myself from staring.

Then I saw his bulging bag. Suspicious, I asked, “What things?”

Rafan had been partially hidden behind Breeohan, so when he came up and bowed over my hand, I was too shocked to do anything but gape. He was not only clean, he was dressed in richly designed aqua-colored clothes that brought out the brilliance of his eyes. I hardly recognized the guy. With his hair tied back in a ponytail, I could see that his face, now clean, was attractive, though his nose was too hawklike for my taste.

“We have been gathering the articles that you will need for your presentation at court,” Rafan said. His mischievous blue-green eyes stared into mine, but the rasp of his voice made me clear my own throat involuntary.

“I thought I was going to stay in the background,” I said to Breeohan.

Breeohan looked sheepish. “Rafan convinced me that no one would believe you were simply a traveling magician. I think our only choice is to present you as a foreign princess.”

I snatched my hand out of Rafan’s and backed up against the wall. “No way! You said that there were all sorts of bows that I would need to know, and I don’t. And I’m sure that there are tons of other things that I would be expected to just know. Plus, where am I supposed to be
from
? What if someone knows about the place? They’ll know there really isn’t a princess there.”

“You are the princess of Kirosan. It is far away, but I read about it, and I know that they have a princess there. Her name is Kasala Ramay I’Onaf. I don’t know how old she is, but I doubt anyone else will either.”

“I can’t even pronounce her name, and just because you don’t know how old she is doesn’t mean someone else won’t.”

“Actually, Breeohan is the only one who bothers to read those silly travel tomes,” Rafan said.

“We can stay here today and tutor you as quickly as possible on how you will be expected to behave.” Breeohan was a little red. I guessed from embarrassment.

“Breeohan, I just don’t think—”

Rafan cut me off. “My lady, I am sorry to say this, but with your eyes there is no way that you would be able to blend into the background. No one will question your authority as a princess, whereas if you simply say you are a traveling magician, many people will be curious, drawing even more unwanted attention your way. Besides, as a common magician, you would deprive the court of your beauty.” He smiled sweetly.