“No, thank you.” Eris waved her off, but the merchant manning the table beside the pearl lady shoved a pair of shoes in her face.
“When have you ever seen leather shoes of this quality? Today only, they are half price. Don’t miss your chance at these spectacularly crafted shoes! Handmade without magic. Now that’s quality work. Just look.”
Eris smiled halfheartedly and turned away. Nolan and Darren were gone.
She waved the merchants off and began searching the crowd, but couldn’t make out anything in the masses moving through the cobbled streets. She walked further through the market. She needed to find Darren. If he went back and told her parents where she was, they would lock her away forever. Because they couldn’t remember their other daughter, Eris could understand how crazy she had to sound to them. For the first time in her life, she felt truly alone.
When she got to the end of the row of tables, she turned right and walked down another street full of tables and pushy merchants. After a few more streets, when she still hadn’t found Darren, she began to wonder if she should she go to the castle without him. It was already well into the afternoon and she had wasted enough time. Finding Soraya came first, but she felt guilty leaving Darren behind.
She stopped in between a food stall selling meat sandwiches and one selling different kinds of potions in colorful vials, and searched the crowd again. She closed her eyes and tried to remember the last place she had seen him. They had entered the west side of the marketplace and looked at some leather bags for seeds, because Darren had wanted to stop. Then? She couldn’t remember where they had gone next.
A group of young women giggled and shushed each other across the road from where she stood. She couldn’t help but overhear their conversation.
“I heard that he offers them up, you know, those girls.” An older woman gossiped with a group of young women circled around her table of hair accessories. “He offers them up to the gods so he can stay young just like the Ice Queen. You’d be hard pressed to find me sending any of my girls within a mile of that castle.”
“Surely you don’t believe those tales, ma’am,” said one of the young woman. She wore a beautiful purple dress and looked to have the most money of any in the group. “The Prince was born the same year as I was, so what use would he have to offer up a sacrifice for youth?”
“You can believe as you will, miss. I know there is something not right going on at that place, and I’ll not set foot anywhere near it.” She nodded to the girls. “Now who wants this lovely turquoise hairpin? I just got it in from a special dealer on the coast. It is rumored to have belonged to a long-lost princess of the sea realm.”
Eris wondered what the Prince of Jara City was actually like. Was he a monster who had succumbed to the dark side of magic? Or was he simply a great source for rumors because of his curse? If he was into unspeakable things, then the gods would sort him out sooner or later. But if he was innocent in all this, then maybe she could help him, too. Light magic was the healing magic. She didn’t have a lot of experience healing more than minor injuries like scrapes, but maybe Master Garren could tell her how to help him.
Someone put a hand on her shoulder, and Eris jumped.
“What’s with you?” Darren asked.
“Where did you go? I’ve been trying to find you.” Eris willed her heartbeat to slow again.
Darren looked sheepish and held up a small burlap sack. “Seeds.”
Eris rolled her eyes. Of course he would have run after the exotic seeds he couldn’t find in Uwen. Earth magic-born were all the same. “You had better share those with Master Garren. You know how much he loves new seeds.” She smiled.
Darren nodded. He opened his pack, stuffing the seeds inside. Then he looked at Eris with knowing eyes. “Why don’t you tell me the real reason we’re here?”
Eris wished he hadn’t asked, that he had continued to pretend to believe her lies. She couldn’t tell him the truth. The truth made her sound insane, but could she care how she sounded if she wanted to get Soraya back?
“Does it have anything to do with that girl you mentioned? Your… sister?” He spoke as if he had read her thoughts.
Eris nodded. “I have to find her.”
“You know you sound crazy?”
“Can’t you just believe me for now?”
Darren sighed. “Where do you think she is?”
“I don’t know, but Master Garren told me about a magical map that can show me her location.”
Darren nodded, thinking. “Where is this map? I’ll help you get it.”
“Why? You can’t remember her, and—”
“And that’s what family does. They help each other. Even if they’re delusional.” Darren smiled and squeezed her shoulder.
She returned his smile, grateful to have one person on her side. “In that case, we’ve got to get into the castle.”
Darren’s smile disappeared. “I thought you said you didn’t know the Prince.”
“I don’t. That’s where the map is. Master Garren said it should be pretty easy to get inside. I don’t know if they will let you in with me, but we can come up with a plan for that on the way to the castle.”
He shook his head. “No way. We have to get you as far from the castle as we can.”
“Why?” A moment ago he had agreed to help her, and now he was trying to keep her from the only tangible plan she had?
“Something weird is going on in that castle, and it would be better for everyone if you stayed far away from it.” He took her arm and starting walking in the opposite direction.
Eris planted her feet. “I’m going to that castle, Darren. You can go wherever you please, but I am going to find that map.” She lifted her chin. “Stop speaking in riddles. If you know something, say it. Otherwise, let go.” Eris yanked her arm from his grasp.
Darren shoved his hands into his pockets. “I found myself at the castle with no recent memories. The Prince’s explanation sounded reasonable, but something didn’t feel right. Almost as if I lost something important. I’ve felt that way once before.”
“When?” Eris asked.
“When I lost my betrothed five years ago,” Darren said.
Chapter 14
Knox
Normally turning from corpse to human was painful enough to cause him to curse his existence, but that night it was the slowness of the process that threatened to drive him mad. Even though he felt as if time was going backwards, he could feel the stiffness dissipate centimeter by centimeter until he could finally move his fingers and toes. It was enough encouragement to remind him that he had already waited years, so he could endure a few more minutes of hell.
Even if Darren had walked incredibly slowly all the way to Uwen and back, they should arrive that night. Though he still wasn’t quite sure how he would convince the curse breaker to help him, simply being able to see her in front of him was enough for now. He had been searching so long; now he was afraid he had made up her very existence. It felt as if this were all a dream that would disappear like a wisp of smoke before the night was done.
An eternity later, Knox slowly sat up and waited for the dizziness from the pain to abate. Toran had come in at some point — evident by the fresh clothes on the chaise — but thinking about it now, Knox couldn’t remember anything the man had said, or if he had said anything at all. His mind had been that fixated on Eris.