“Where do you live? What neighborhood?” Her tone turns desperate.
“East Village, down by the docks.”
“Blood, Vencrin area,” she whispers so softly I almost don’t catch it.
“Vencrin?” I ask.
“A local gang, bunch of criminals who sell drugs like Bloodlurst to anyone with a piece of silver to their name.”
I’ve heard of Bloodlurst before, a red powder that can enhance one’s power. One medical report at the academy detailed how addictive and destructive the substance is. It’s killed people. I try to remember its exact effects while the girl continues.
“I don’t know why they would be interested in firelight unless…”
“What?”
“Unless they’re trying to undermine the Belwars.”
“Or simply turn a profit,” Kalyan suggests.
“Yes.” She nods. “That’s more likely. But this feels personal.”
“Personal?” I ask.
She doesn’t answer my question, just gives Kalyan a determined look. “I need to go.”
“Are you sure you—”
“Please, I can’t go to Azure Palace, or wherever you are headed. I need to get back.”
Kalyan turns to give me a look, then thumps on the carriage three times in Samik’s direction. The coach slows and then lurches to a stop. The boy scoots close to the door, ready to burst from his confinement.
The girl glances at the boy and then shuffles closer to me. For a moment, I believe she wants help out of the carriage and I reach for her extended hand.
“Can I have the firelight?” she asks. I pull off an awkward maneuver to mask wanting to hold her hand. Read that one wrong.
“Oh, ah, yeah.” I give the firelight to her and feel cold again.
“Here, kid.” She tosses the orb and he catches it with fumbling hands. “Tell your mom if she has any red magic to add a little every day and it can light a whole fireplace for more than two months.”
“Thanks.” The boy smiles and then plunges into the street.
The girl hops down. “Well, thank you.” She pauses and I can see she’s clearly deliberating. “I’m sorry this was such an…awkward meeting.”
“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” I want her to say no. I want her to keep talking. There is obviously so much I don’t know, about firelight, the Belwars, and her.
“Yeah, I’m fine. You could say I’m the kind of person who when knocked down can get right back up again.” She stares pointedly at Kalyan. Then something amazing happens: her eyes shift to me, and she smiles, a laughing smile, like we have shared some kind of joke. In the next sweep of a second she’s gone. It’s like magic vanishing into thin air as you’re still trying to determine the spell. The carriage pitches forward again as if nothing has happened at all. Did any of that just happen?
“Blood!” I curse.
Kalyan starts. “What?”
“I never asked her name.”
I can’t believe he didn’t recognize me or at least suspect who I was. While I’m shocked, pride also slithers in. I’m winning this one. I have the upper hand after all. But how could he not have figured it out? I gave him such clues, practically waited for him to ask.
At the end, a part of me wanted to tell him, let him off the hook so our next meeting wouldn’t be even more awkward. But I couldn’t do it. I’ll let the awkwardness fade, the memory settle so that it can wear away a bit at the edges. I only now seem to process that I met Jatin, sat across from him. It’s almost laughable, but my anger at the Vencrin balances the scales or absolves the embarrassment. Five silvers! Five.
It takes me ten minutes of hard walking to get back to Basu’s. I had hoped the hike would calm me and get my head straight so I can properly threaten Basu and get to the bottom of this. Nope, the issue dwells for half a mile.
Children run up to me, materializing from the alleyways and into the bright streaking sun. I’m dirty, with a tear in my skirt, but the gleam of my silks must still smell of opportunity.
“Ten coppers, ten coppers,” they say, all smiles and big eyes. Hands reach upward, some with a Touch wrapped around their wrists, others naked. I search for my small sack of coins. But it’s gone. That boy, whose arms wound around me, tears rolling down his checks. That sneaky little—
“I have nothing,” I say, happy I don’t have to lie. I try to not give away any silver and gold like this, for it will find its way to funding Bloodlurst. Some of the older children, near my age, already wear the splotchy red sign of overuse in the crooks of their elbows.
Vencrin drugs have infected the East Village. Yes, they feel good. Yes, Bloodlurst in particular can make you more powerful for a limited time. And that can mean a day’s work down at the docks, making skyglider deliveries, or even illegal cage casting. But the drugs are slowly draining my people of their magic, of their lives. And now the East Village isn’t getting firelight either. Which means Basu, a bizarre old man who has been a family friend for years, has betrayed us. A man who let one-fourth of my city suffer due to vastly unfair prices and slide further under the control of criminals and druggers. Firelight is the first step in bringing light to the darkness, protecting people from the Vencrin who roam the streets and dispense quick boosts of power to teenagers. Without it…
My chest hurts. I feel like I’m going to explode.
I round the corner to Basu’s street and the kids slink and shuffle away. When Riya sees me, her shoulders unravel, but when a closer look confirms my safety, she breathes in anger.
“ ‘It’ll take five minutes,’ she says. ‘I’ll be right back,’ she says. What the blood, Adraa? You are covered in dust and…and…” Her speech slows. Gods, she knows. “You burned out?” Her voice trills up in a question, but she only needs a jerk of my head in verification. The shame of losing my magic creeps back in like heat. I’m sticky with the disgrace of it.
“I’ll apologize in full later. Right now, we have a problem.” I step closer to her. At the word problem, Riya shuts down her irritation, open for what is coming instead of yelling about what has happened.
“Tell me.”
“The Vencrin are stealing my firelight and up-charging it. Three coppers is five silvers for those near the docks.”
“What? Those—”
“Also, I ran into Raja Jatin.” I brush a hand through my hair, suddenly aware of its tangled state. And I had considered telling him who I was!