Folding the Sky

-17-

Though all of them had managed to scrape by alive, Zuri knew they hadn't escaped entirely undamaged. She could see it in the other Celestials' faces as they trekked back to central Sinje, stopping not at the inn but at the riverbank, where Chike sank down onto the mossy grass like an old man who had been on his feet all day.

"Chike," Zuri started, but he just waved a hand, and she went quiet.

"I'm fine," he said. "Really. Healing takes energy, is all. I just need to rest for a second."

Zuri shared a concerned glance with Jem and Aldric over Chike's head, but she nodded, sitting down beside him. It was too peaceful a scene for the catastrophe they'd just escaped: the water a moving collage of black and gold as the reflections of the streetlights danced across it, young lovers strolling along the shoreline, the riverboats slowly chugging across the surface like magnificent beasts.

"I'm sorry," Zuri said after a while, though she wasn't sure exactly who she was talking to. "If I'd been paying more attention, then maybe—"

"He caught us all by surprise, Zuri. Don't apologize," Aldric said. He was standing behind them, his arms folded across his chest, his hair the same inky indigo as the cloudy, smoke-scented sky above their heads. Zuri could hear the sirens wailing faintly in the distance, and if she looked over her shoulder, she could make out the dying orange embers of the market fire.

"Sorin," Jem hissed, spitting the word out like it was acid. She plopped down on Zuri's other side, digging her nails into the soft riverside earth. "Who the hell is that guy, anyway?"

"We may not know him," Kalindi said, "but he seems to know us."

"You noticed, too?" Aldric said, glancing at her. The princess gave a curt nod. "Right. I heard him call you princess. And on top of that, I thought it was strange he wanted us so far away from him. If we were your average market patrons, we wouldn't be armed; there'd be no reason to stay away from us. So it makes me think he knows about our powers, somehow."

"Your ice works best at closer distances, doesn't it?" Jem asked, tipping her head back to look at Aldric.

"Yeah. I have more control over it that way," Aldric said, and a moment later, his eyes went wide with realization. "You don't think—that's why he was staying away?"

Jem shrugged. "If you're saying he knows about our powers, then maybe."

"Well, hang on," Chike interrupted, sitting up straighter. He arced a hand across his abdomen, tracing the spot where Sorin's phantom knife had entered. "If he knows about our powers, he shouldn't have been so surprised that he couldn't kill me."

Zuri lifted a hand to her chin, narrowing her eyes in consideration. "So there's a limit to what he knows, then. That could be the ace up our sleeve."

"Okay, more important question," Jem interrupted, flopping backwards, so that she lay flat atop the grass, hair pillowing out beneath her. "Whoever he is, he's someone else looking for Schmitt. The Queen told us finding the guy would be tricky, sure, but she didn't mention that we'd have competition. So who does he work for? Sorin, I mean?"

The group sunk into silence for a while, clearly stumped. A riverboat horn split the air, blaring and low-pitched.

"Is he a spy, maybe?" Chike attempted, when no one else spoke. "For some other state?"

"Could be," Aldric said. "He seems to have the stealth for it."

"No," Zuri said, and shot to her feet, the realization coursing through her like a wave of adrenaline. "He works for himself."