by T R Tells
Maggie stomped her foot on the ground, her voice rose. “Then, you need to show her how! Everyone here likes her, but you. Stop being an asshole already.”
Maggie’s curse surprised Thea. She looked between Maggie and Eddie, waiting to see what he’d say after Maggie’s outburst.
“You know,” Thea said, as she pushed off the arm of the couch. Both Eddie and Maggie turned to face her, “If this is going to be a problem I don’t mind staying here. I mean, Eddie’s right, watching over the place is important.”
Eddie looked at Maggie with a smug grin.
Thea rolled her eyes and wanted nothing more than to smack it off of him.
Maggie did not agree. She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
“No. I’ve already put it to a vote with the others.” She turned to look at Eddie and pushed her small fingers into his chest making him look down at her in surprise. “Thea goes out and steals, that's the end of this conversation. You will watch out for her and show her the ropes. Do you understand, Edward?”
The moment his name left Maggie’s lips; the smug grin Eddie had been wearing became a frown. He looked out the corner of his eye at Thea before rolling his eyes.
“Come on, before we lose the crowd,” he said with an exasperated sigh.
Maggie grinned. “Thank you, Eddie!” She gripped Eddie into a tight hug, who lazily hugged her back. Watching Maggie show him who’s boss made Thea smile.
Maggie released him and winked at Thea before exiting the living room.
Leaving Thea and Eddie alone.
“Well, you had it coming,” Thea said with a shrug. Eddie’s nose twitched as he tried to compose.
“Let’s just get this over with,” he said in a low voice and turned away from her. “Make sure to keep up and stay hidden. I’ll show you the ropes, but if you slow down, I’m leaving your ass behind, no matter what Maggie and the others say.”
Thea snorted in response and started to follow Eddie, but she stopped abruptly as a heavy foreboding presence surrounded her, like being encased in a wall of ice.
She looked around the room and wondered if there was a draft in the old house but didn’t see anything that could have caused that. She touched the back of her neck and the tingling in the middle of her back intensified.
What was that? She thought to herself and rubbed her neck.
“Asshole,” a voice whispered in Thea’s ear. It seemed familiar, but Thea couldn’t quite place it.
“Wha—” Thea turned toward the voice, but nothing was there. Who said that? She wondered.
“Hey! What’s taking so long?”
Eddie’s shout pulled Thea’s attention back to him. She wasn’t sure what it was, but the foreboding presence that surrounded her suddenly seemed as if it had a life of its own. The unsettling presence centering around her like a rope that had tied itself around Thea’s waist and on the other end was Eddie. As if the evil presence had something to do with Eddie or about him.
But what? Thea wondered. Nothing has happened.
“Err, coming. Just hold up and don’t rush me, Edward,” Thea mocked him, and his scowl returned. Thea grinned.
***
Even as she and Eddie walked through the crowds, an unsettling presence surrounded the two. Hel had not returned; she knew that much. It was something completely different. She had hoped she hadn’t started hallucinating; the bright gold line that connected her and Eddie was her magic.
Her magic wouldn’t be fully obtainable until the coming of age twelve when most Roma acquired their abilities. It was still new to her and Dominya had only shown variations of magic; so, she had no idea what kind of magic did that.
“I’m surprised you’re keeping up,” Eddie said, he was several steps in front of her; despite the marketplace being packed and loud, she was still able to hear him. “I thought I would have to make an excuse for why you were no longer with me.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m only here because Maggie wants me to get along with your stubborn ass as if you couldn’t do this for one day. There are eight-year-olds who act more mature than you.”
There was a pause before Eddie spoke. Thea assumed he was rolling his eyes at her. “Whatever. There’s a fruit stand not too far from here, stay sharp.”
Thea nodded. “Alright, what’s the plan?”
Eddie turned around to look at her and grinned. “Just follow my lead.”
Thea followed Eddie through the crowded streets of the marketplace and pickpocketed as they went. She kept Eddie’s instructions in mind as she did: The trick sometimes is to bump into them. It almost always works.
***
They crouched beside an empty stall.
Eddie held up his hand in front of Thea’s face, prohibiting her from moving forward. The bustling and chattering of the marketplace filled the air with jubilant and anxious civilians.
There were crowds of people that shuffled through the streets, stopping at vendors tables, and examining their wares. There were farmers from the villages outside of Kingsland that dragged their mule carrying an empty cart from selling their wages.
A few other tradesmen spoke with a group of people as they chattered about the day’s events. To the far right, off to the side, Eddie noticed two Kingsland Guards surveying a table as they examined some kind of knit knack.
He turned back around to Thea, who waited for him to drop his hand before speaking.
“Put your hand in my face again and I’ll punch you.”
“So aggressive,” Eddie said while laughing. “Back to business, you see the crowds around you. It’s pretty busy and there’s Kingsland Guards off to the side.”
Eddie pointed over to where the Kingsland Guards were, and they were now sauntering past other vendors.
“And how am I supposed to get past them?”
“You learn as you go along; now watch me.”
***
Eddie sprang through a crowd of people to hide better. Thea had to crane her neck at impossible angles to see where he was going, but she managed to see Eddie dig his hand into the pocket of passersby.
Not once did he let anyone see him if he didn’t want them too.
Thea had to admit he was crafty. There was no way she would be able to pull it off. She grabbed her wrists, remembering some time ago what Jiran had told her about stealing.
She finally saw Eddie emerge from the hoard of the crowd, who hadn’t noticed him as he rushed over to her and pulled her away from the stall and into an alleyway to the side.
“I don’t think I can do this,” Thea finally told Eddie.
Eddie was jiggling several pouches in his hand when he frowned at Thea’s comment.
“What the hell do you mean you can’t? You do realize that this is how we survive, right?”
Thea closed her eyes; she knew that stealing was wrong, but Eddie was right, and Dominya wanted her to be live.
“I know but...”
“Damn it, but nothing. Do you see this?” he said and dangled the pouch before her eyes. Thea slowly nodded. “It’s a bag full of coins. Probably enough to get everyone something to eat that doesn’t taste like mold.”
Thea’s stomach churned. She had been the victim of that a few times, and each time she had wished for a bowl of her sister’s stew.
“And if I get caught—”
“You won’t,” Eddie interrupted, shrugging his shoulders. “I mean, if you do, that’s your damn fault because you shouldn’t be out here in the first place.”
Thea stuck up her middle finger at him. “Just tell me what to do, Edward.”
Eddie’s nose scrunched in annoyance, but he sighed in defeat, he knew it was no point to argue with her.
“You see that table there?” he asked and pointed to a booth down the way. “That’s the fruit vendor we’re going to.”
Thea squinted and craned her neck to follow the direction of his finger. Her eyes grew wide when she finally realized where he was pointing.
The person tending to the stand was none other than Jiran, he shook hands with a customer, a grin on his face. Thea quickly looked away, afraid Jiran would spot her as he had before.
“No. I can’t.”
Eddie groaned loudly. “Why the hell not? Stop being scared or you’ll starve for the rest of your life.”
Thea shook her head. “It isn’t that. I’ve just met the man before . . . He caught me before, and I ran away from him, that’s all.” She shrugged her shoulders, hoping that Eddie would leave it alone. “If he sees me again, he may just call the Kingsland Guards.”
Eddie just stared at her in silence for a moment. Thea almost thought he hadn’t heard her and was about to repeat herself. Then, Eddie spoke, “Well, I guess you’ve got to be quicker this time.”
He’s setting you up to fail, Thea. Prove him wrong, the voice from earlier suddenly whispered, but there was nothing there when she looked.
Chapter Six
Thea walked out from the alleyway and toward the fruit vendor. She had no choice. Her heart hammered in her chest as her feet tread on the dusty ground. Thea spied Eddie hiding behind the building. He gave her a stiff nod. Thea turned back around and continued to move forward being careful to dodge people passing through the marketplace.
You can do this; she thought to herself over and over as she slipped into a crowd of people going the same way as her.
In front of her was a tall man with wearing an ashen brown tunic. Thea trailed her eyes down to where his pockets were. Like Eddie had done. She rushed past the man and managed to slip her hand inside his pocket where a cold object brushed her fingertips. She frowned, it didn’t feel like coins, but she took it anyway before bumping into the man on the purpose.
“Sorry, mister!” Thea said and scurried past the man.
She could hear him call out to her in angry bursts of shouts and insults. She smiled running through the crowds until she was out of the group of people and by another stand.
Thea pulled her hand away from her chest. She discovered that she was holding a dagger. Thea’s eyes widened at the jeweled encrusted dagger—the handle was a dark orange marble and had several golden swirl designs around its hilt. A golden circlet sat around the bottom and top half of the shiny steel blade.
She stared at it in awe for a moment, entrapped by the glistening of the jewels, but the loud background noises behind her pulled her out of her daze.
Thea tied the dagger with the ripped part of her pants and let it hang against her leg. She was glad that her shirt was long enough to cover it.
“Get your jewelry here!” a loud and boisterous voice shouted. Thea turned her head to see a heavy-set, middle-aged man with an uneven shave shouting into the crowd, a look of anger on his face. “It’s Imported all the way from The Twilight Vale of Audalis. Let your eyes feast themselves on the work of the Horian folk!”
The man’s loud booming voice compelled Thea to draw closer to the table and stare at the beautiful jewelry on display. A tiny silver chain held a sapphire and diamond necklace with a few small teal beads on each side of the pendant. Mesmerized, Thea reached out to touch it. The necklace reminded her of Dominya.
“What do you mean you don’t want anything, Dominya?” Thea asked her sister. They were tending to the crops as they pulled out the weeds from the ground. “Y-You have to get something for your nameday.”
“Well, we can’t afford anything that isn’t food or clothing, Thea,” Dominya smiled sweetly at her sister. “Besides, I’ll have another nameday. Knowing that you will never go hungry, is a gift to me.”
Thea frowned. “Oh . . . But if we could get a gift, what would you want? I mean, besides food and clothes.” Thea stopped picking weeds and looked at her sister.
Dominya sensed her sister’s starry eyes on her, she stopped pulling weeds and sighed with a lopsided grin and pressed her finger to her chin.
“Well, I guess if we could afford it . . . Maybe jewelry. Sapphire, maybe. That was our mother’s birthstone.”
The frown on Thea’s face turned into a huge smile, and she clapped her hands together, bouncing up and down.
“Then, that’s what I’ll get you! You’ll see, Dominya.”
Dominya continued to smile at her sister’s fantasy, not wanting to put a damper on her mood. She nodded in agreement. “Well, alright. But in the meantime, let’s get these weeds picked before it rains . . .”
“Hey!” The loud voice brought Thea out of her memory, and she stared up to see the glowering eyes of the man.
“Oh, uh...”
“Don’t you think about stealing from me, boy. I’ll have your hand cut off and have the Kingsland Guards toss your skinny ass in the dungeons!”
Thea jerked her hand back and licked her lips.
“I-I wasn’t trying to steal, sir. Honest!” Thea yelled. The man narrowed his eyes at her.
“Well, you’re one to threaten someone,” a younger, male voice, said. Thea turned her head; she saw a young man a foot taller to herself approach them.
He scrutinized the glittering jewels on display. “These are not from the Horian city, and I can report you for lying about their origins.” He told the vendor of the fake jewelry.
The young man wore an earthy, brown colored tunic with olive-green suede breeches. Thea looked up and down at his attire, realizing that there wasn’t a scratch or dirt on him. Even his shoes were free of dust.
For the first time, Thea became self-conscious about the dirty clothing she wore compared to the young man. She subconsciously brushed at her pants.
The man glowered at the young man.
“Who the hell are you? What gives you the right to talk about my wares as if you know something, boy?!”
The young man lifted his head, and his hair shifted from his eyes, revealing onyx-hued eyes.
He grinned.
“Well, for starters, I know that you know nothing about jewelry, and you’re just trying to make a couple of pounds,” he said. “But then again, so are most others, but to say that it’s from the Audalis? Well, that’s just disrespectful.”
“How about I show you disrespect by gutting your insides, you bastard, and then let the hogs eat your corpse,” the man snarled at him.
He didn’t flinch.
“Well, that’s just purely disgusting and not hygienic at all. But aren’t you curious to know how I know that you’re selling fake jewels? Well, for starters,” he said with a grin on his face. “Their sapphire is made of magic that gives off electricity and this hunk of rock would only be good enough for a paperweight.”
He picked up the sapphire necklace.
“Hey! Put that down, or I’ll call the Kingsland Guards!” the man yelled. Thea could see several people looking over at the table.
“Oh, do let them come. I’m sure the King would love to know that you’re stealing from his people so they can’t pay his taxes.”
“I can have you arrested for disturbing the peace!”
“So, you don’t mind if I drag this stone across the table then? Because if it were fake, it would leave a trail of chalky blue dust behind it,” the young man said as he held the necklace menacingly over the table. “Real Audalis jewelry does not fall apart. They can cut through even the toughest of silvers.”
The man’s eyes darted around. Thea turned around to see a small crowd of people starting to gather around the stall.
“Now, as I was saying,” the young man said, ignoring the crowd. “This stone you’re passing off as Audalis sapphire has a bit of yellow tarnish on the corner,
There were several whispers in the crowd speculating on if whether or not the jewelry was real. The vendor’s angry expression started to melt into worry.
“I could go on and on, but we’re starting to draw a crowd. The Horian people always place their signature marking, which no one can mimic, and as I look at this, there is no marking,” he gestured to where the mark should be.
The whispers in the crowd grew frustrated and irritated that the
man had tried to con them, while others applauded the young man.
“Well, I just saved you from buying what could have been a useless jewel,” He said, turning to Thea. She met his eyes, getting a better look at his tan complexion and chiseled nose; she assumed that he was around seventeen.
“You little runts!” the man yelled before Thea didn’t get a chance to respond to the boy. “You ruined my wares; I should have that boy arrested!”
The young man rolled his eyes and sighed. He looked at Thea, “Well, looks like we overstayed our welcome, you should probably come with me.”
Before Thea could say anything or even attempt to react, he grabbed her hand and pulled her through the crowd of pedestrians. Thea turned around and could see the massive man step from around his table. He shouted at them angrily as he yelled for the Kingsland Guards to assist him.
“Don’t look back,” the young man said, gripping her hand tightly. She turned back and focused on his dark brown curly locks that bounced as they ran.
“Why are you helping me?” Thea asked him. He turned and grinned at her.
“Guys have to stick together, right?”
Thea pressed her lips together and stiffly nodded, letting him lead her out of the marketplace.
Chapter Seven
After running for some time, Thea and the young man finally stopped to catch their breath in an alleyway. Thea took several deep breaths and rested her hands on her legs, as she peered up at him. She didn’t understand why he had saved her when he didn’t even know who she was. She was curious how he knew the difference between real and jewelry, especially ones made by the Horian.
“Are you alright?” he asked with a flash of his smile.
She slowly nodded.
The young man nodded and grinned. “That’s good . . . That’s good.” He rubbed the back of his head and looked down at the ground.
Thea cleared her throat.
“Why did you help me?” she asked. He stopped rubbing the back of his head and looked at her. “I mean, you could have just kept walking and never looked back. You knew so much about the Horian jewelry no one else did.”