I wriggled my hand free of his and pointed to my temple. “My abum is brilliant. He is the greatest healer this city has ever seen. Even if we have been cast out, he could heal the lugal—”
“—but that doesn’t matter, because nobody would let your abum near him!” Iltani tried to pull me into a hug, but I shook her off, hope surging through me despite her fears.
“I have to go. There’s no time to lose.”
“Are you even listening to me?”
“No, I’m not.”
I took off for the tavern, and within moments, Iltani was at my side, rolling her eyes, disagreeing with me thoroughly, but as loyal as she could possibly be. I glanced back when Dagan didn’t join us. He stood five steps behind, hands on hips, skepticism written all over his handsome face. Boisterous revelers streamed around him like schools of fish around a river stone.
“They won’t listen to him anymore, my sweet. I’m telling you,” he said. “Iltani is right. And—”
I cut him off with a hand. “Dagan?”
He lifted those amber eyes to mine.
“What kind of sister would I be if I didn’t try?”
* * *
As we stepped over the threshold, entering the cool, shadowy interior of Assata’s Tavern, Dagan’s arm brushed against mine. The heat from his body seeped into my fingers, and I flushed from chest to cheek, chiding myself for such a foolish reaction when I desperately needed to find my abum.
Assata was one of the rare shop owners in the Palace Libbu to allow poor customers to drink her sikaru. I suspected it was because of her own humble beginnings, although she never liked to speak of her birth in Kemet, outside Alu. Her noble husband, Irra, had bought her the tavern, and she’d made it blossom into the busiest spot in the city, filled with people day and night.
I eased myself through groups of both rich and poor women and men, to a table near the back, where my father had been sitting day after day since my ummum had died. His stool was there, as were three empty tankards and a bowl with bits of braised lentils coating the bottom, but my father was missing.
Iltani edged past a man wobbly on his feet from sikaru. Behind us, a group roared with laughter as another man fell off his stool in a complete stupor. Assata’s and Irra’s guffaws were the loudest of the lot. Though different physically—Assata was little, wiry and strong, while Irra was round-cheeked with a big belly and a beard voluminous enough to swallow her whole—they could both shake the roof off the tavern with their laughter.
“Three sikarus, Assata!” Dagan called above the din of the crowd.
“I’ll be over there directly, Farmer’s Son!” Assata wiped down the bar, still chuckling to herself, then grabbed three tankards from the shelf behind her.
“I don’t have coins to pay for a drink,” I said quietly. “I barely have the shekels to cover the taxes.” Plus, aside from the sack of barley, I hadn’t gotten any food for the evening meal. And I’d probably need several rounds of tinnuru bread, as well, to help Abum soak up the sikaru.
“It’s my treat. For both of you.”
I clasped my hands together. “I don’t need your charity.”
“I know that.” His eyes tightened at the corners.
“Oh, relax.” Iltani snorted. “After the morning we’ve had, you need it.”
One will not hurt. I am not my abum, after all.
We sat on the stools around the table, Dagan situating himself across from me, his knees grazing mine.
The sikaru would definitely calm my nerves, but besides the effect that too much of it had on my abum, accepting the gift bothered me because it was pushing me closer to an acceptance of the betrothal. Like I needed him to take care of me, when I had everything under control.
His mother already considered me a daughter of sorts, having a house full of sons but never a girl of her own. And I’d seen the way Dagan had been looking at me for the past year. His eyes landing softly on mine while we walked to fetch water. Or his hand lingering on my arm when assisting me into his cart. As for how I felt…my insides squirmed.
Sitting across from me, so easy in his own skin, he was certainly the most attractive man in Alu, and I’d never find anyone as kind, or as willing, as Iltani repeatedly reminded me, but I was already drowning in other responsibilities. The last thing I needed was a marriage and children while also trying to prevent my sister from skipping happily to her death and my father from drinking himself to his. Never mind the fact that I wanted to be a healer—and a great one, at that—more than anything in the world.
“Do you think she’s seen your abum?” Iltani asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
“This is probably his mess.” I nodded to the tankards at the table, which were promptly swept away by one of Assata’s barmaids. “Do you think he’d go a day without sikaru? And she feels sorry for him and lets him run a tab, which is probably fifty minas at this point.”
“It’s a full talent and thirty more minas on top of that,” Assata intoned as she clunked a tankard of sikaru in front of each of us, her cheeks flushed red under her warm brown skin. “And it doesn’t need to be repaid anytime soon.” She nodded toward my cup, sweeping a black braid away from her forehead with her forearm. “I added honey and cloves to yours.”
“You remembered.”
She winked. “Of course I did.”
“Has he been here?” I took a sip of the sweet, bubbly concoction. It slid crisply down my throat.
“He has indeed. Damn near cleaned me out of the duck. He had three full bowls and then asked for some figs for dessert!”
“That sounds delicious. When you get one for me, fill it to the brim, if you’d be so kind.” Dagan patted his flat belly, and my eyes wandered to the taut muscles of his abdomen. Heat crept into my face and I looked away, pushing all other thoughts aside so I could concentrate on the real reason I’d come.
“Do you know where he’s gone? I need him to present himself to the lugal. I’m not sure if you’ve heard.”
“Nanaea’s been chosen. Yes, I heard.” Assata stood, her serving tray on one hip, eyes soft on mine. “She’s so beautiful—and so is that other girl. I’m not surprised, to be honest.”
I nodded, my eyes falling to my hands. “But I need to find my father so he can go heal the lugal and stop this.”
Assata raised her eyebrow at the comment. “Why would you want to do that?”
I sighed. She didn’t understand. Nobody did. “Never mind. I just want to know where he is.”