The exam room was a tiny chamber. It opened off the Great Reading Room, where long tables stood under the swooping arched ceiling, providing incongruous grandeur for a room mostly used for looking up esoteric tax law. The exam room was not grand at all. If Kiri had not been escorted here by the round-faced examiner, she would have been sure she was in the wrong place. There was only one table, its top old and chipped, and instead of chairs it was surrounded by a small collection of upturned crates. What looked like a broken loom stood in one corner, taking up nearly a third of the chamber. Someone else was already there, dark head bent over parchment, busily scribbling away. Kiri saw to her surprise that it was a woman when she glanced up and nodded as Kiri entered. It was silly to be surprised, Kiri supposed, being a woman herself. She was beginning to get the idea that things were different here in Laed than in the country. She might not stand out as a young woman on her own as much as she had thought.
Pulling back her wandering thoughts, Kiri nodded back, but the other woman was already bent back over her work. Carefully, wary of splinters, Kiri took a seat on the most promising-looking crate and spread out her own parchment.
The exam was not too difficult. As long as they were not expected to know every single thing on it, Kiri thought she would most likely pass. There were a few questions she had been completely unable to answer and had to leave blank because she just didn’t know the terminology. But nearly all of the questions were actually easy. She filled it out confidently. When she was done with what she knew she went back and tried to study out one of the mystery questions. She had no idea where the examiner had gone and didn’t want to wander around the reading room carrying her test. Peeking under her eyelashes, she saw that the other woman had also stopped writing.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Kiri whispered.
The dark-haired woman set down her pen and looked up at Kiri.
“I suppose we wait,” she said. “The examiner should be back soon.”
Kiri bit her lip. “I suppose so.” She set her pen down as well. “I’m Shaela, by the way. From Highfalls.”
The other woman’s eyebrows shot up and buried themselves in her waves of dark hair. “Really? Out past Westfall Valley?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound rude. I thought it was nothing but sheep out there.”
“You’re not far off,” Kiri said. “But someone’s got to count them.”
“Indeed. I am Yensa Highsmith of Belir.” Her thin and perfectly manicured hand tossed her hair back over her shoulder.
“Nice to meet you,” Kiri said. “But you’re not a smith any more than I’m a shepherd.”
“No, that would be my father,” Yensa said. “Or my brother...or my other brother.”
“But you decided to learn bookkeeping?” Kiri said. “Same reason as me? Failure to find a husband?”
“Oh no, I’m married,” Yensa said. “We moved here when the king bought two of Cole’s studs and insisted he move here to take charge of his stock. One doesn’t argue with the king, so of course I had to find something to do here in Laed. So that’s why I’m entering the Academy in the middle of the term. What about you?”
Kiri looked down at her hands. The real reason wouldn’t work. She couldn’t very well explain why she had left Westfall in such a hurry. “Just bad planning, I guess.”
Yensa opened her mouth, but Kiri was saved having to explain herself further when the door creaked noisily open. She twisted around to look. It was the same friendly, harmless-looking examiner who had brought her here, and now he was smiling broadly.
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“Well, ladies, all finished I hope.” He held out his hands. Kiri and Yensa handed him their parchments and followed his smiling gesture out into the great reading room.
Yensa stretched her arms and arched her back in a way that would have been considered a little rude in Westfall. Even Mala wouldn’t have done it. “I’m hungry,” she said. “I know a wonderful place to eat near here. Want to come along?”
Kiri didn’t have anything better to do, so she nodded. But she couldn’t help how her chest tightened with anxiety at the thought that she might be making a friend here. On the one hand, she wanted to, on the other, getting away from connections had been the reason she came here. People she loved-or even just liked-would be vulnerable to the people she would inevitably anger as the Firebrand. She didn’t want to trade one potential hostage for another. Yensa, noticing Kiri hadn’t followed her, cleared her throat. “This way. Don’t worry, I don’t bite.”
So Kiri forced a smile and trailed after her.
“You listening, boy?” Tan’s gruff demand lifted Garon’s head as he bent over the stacked crates he was carefully balancing on the creaky cart. Tan was the boss, so when he spoke it was important to show you were paying attention.
“Watch the order,” Garon repeated back to him. “If you need to fix it, fix it here. You don’t want to have to unload everything at every stop.”
Tan grunted. “Well, that’s the last one, there,” he said. “Here’s your orders.”
Garon took the smudged stack of papers and quickly leafed through them. He didn’t know where most of these places were, but he knew better than to ask Tan. He had only been working for the warehouse master for two days, but he already knew Tan didn’t like questions. He couldn’t afford to lose this job. The only reason he’d gotten it was that Tan was the brother of the deck master on the ship Garon had worked on the river. He had a feeling employers were not as desperate for workers here as in Westfall. He’d seen the street folk begging when he went looking for lodging. They weren’t all drunk, blind or crippled like the beggars in Westfall Valley.
Luckily Garon recognized the name of the first place on the list. He’d seen the sign that morning. If he was charming and polite enough perhaps the proprietor there would be willing to point him on his way to the next place. Garon checked his order again and stuffed it into his pocket. The White Elk was not too far away, and when he’d walked past in the morning it had smelled amazing. Maybe he’d grab a bite while he was there. On the job or not, he had to eat sometime.
The cart proved to be difficult to manage; the crates did not lock together and wanted very much to slide over one another and unbalance the entire stack. Garon had to keep pushing them back into place while keeping a careful eye on the traffic around him. The streets were shared with wagons, sedan chairs, pedestrians, riders of horses and mules, and other people pushing and pulling carts like Garons. The whole road was so crowded that the whole thing seemed constantly on the edge of disaster. The trick was to get out of the way of anyone or anything that had the potential to knock you down or kill you, because you could be sure they weren’t looking out for you. In fact, if you cut it close they would yell at you. Garon hadn’t been bothered by the hustle and bustle when walking on his own, but the cart added another dimension that made the distance to The White Elk seem longer than it had before.
He steered the cart down the narrow alley beside the eatery. In his experience, deliveries came in the back door. Garon fished the papers back out of his pocket and separated the right one out before shoving the rest back in at the same time as he rapped on the door with the knuckles of his other hand.
A flour-covered man topped with a wild shock of white hair yanked the door open. “Ah!” He pulled the paper out of Garon’s hand, a white cloud flying off him as he moved. “Very good! Bring it in.” He stepped back, leaving the door open. Garon brushed the flour off his arm and carried the topmost crate into the noisy kitchen. He followed the gesture of an equally white-haired but much cleaner woman and set the crate down.
“I don’t suppose I could trouble you for some food.” he said.
“If you got the coin,” she answered. “I have pocket pies for busy men like you.”
The pocket pie was delicious. Garon was eating the last bite of it as he turned back out of the alley onto the main road. He almost choked on it at the sound of a familiar voice behind him. He whirled around but saw only a dark-haired woman talking as she walked into The White Elk. It wasn’t Kiri--of course not. She wouldn’t be that easy to find.