A weight lifted off my shoulders the second we stepped into Rhyl. Now that we were back in a city, I didn't feel like I had to babysit Will and Elody as much.

“It's already late, we should go ahead and find a place to stay,” Elody said.

I nodded, but my mind was elsewhere. “It doesn't take three of us to find an inn. I think I'll buy some supplies and meet up with you guys.”

“Should we split up?” Will asked.

“Those men won't be here,” I assured him. “You guys go ahead, I’ll catch up to you.”

Elody looked at Will and gave him a reassuring look. She called to me as they walked away, “Don’t be long.”

I squeezed my lips together as I walked away to keep from snapping back a comment. Me not be long? I was the only resourceful one out of all of us, the only one who had any sense of how to travel. If I was somewhere longer than expected, it was probably because I needed to be.

I kept my eyes peeled as I walked through the streets. Rhyl was one of the smaller cities, maybe a mile or two wide, a street cut through the entire city. I'd only been there once; but if getting information for nosy Chasey had taught me anything, it was where and how to look for the right places to get information. And right now, I wanted information on the group stopping caravans. After passing a bunch of refined trinket shops, I finally found a grimy smoke and drink shop.

When I walked through the door, a bell attached to the top tried to chime, but it sounded like after one note it broke. No one batted an eye in my direction, so I perused down the elbow—high isles of smokable herbs.

I stayed in the shop for about twenty minutes, and only one questionable character walked into the shop.

He wore oversized shirt and pants, and a large hat that flopped down over his eyes. His tattered shoes used to be close toed, but now his toes stuck out the front. Questionable, but not either of the guys I was looking for.

With only one suspicious-looking person walking in, I figured this wasn't the place to look for information. So, to not seem too suspicious, I purchased a small bag of basil and left the shop. Just as I set one foot out the shop, black moppy hair caught my eye. I doubled back, pressing myself into the doorway. I didn't have to peek around to make sure I was right about what I'd seen. I remembered his voice.

“I’m sure they came here. Logically this is the place they’d come to.”

“And you’re sure that girl’s necklace was a crystal?” I recognized that as Burn Face’s voice. “I don’t want to waste my time.”

“Absolutely sure,” Mop Hair replied.

My muscles hurt from how much I clenched them to keep myself hidden in the doorway.

A crystal? I tried to remember her necklace, but with as many times as I'd looked at Elody in the past few days, I couldn't conjure an image of her necklace.

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“We find them, and we get that necklace,” Mop Hair said. “We kill them if we have to.” He continued talking, but his voice grew softer and I realized he was walking away.

I peeked around the doorway to make sure, and I saw their three backs walking away from the shop. I waited a few minutes before dashing out from the shop’s doorway. I had to find Elody and Will before they did. As I scampered through the streets, keeping an eye out for the three muggers, I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be buying supplies. I stopped at a few places, making my purchases as quick as possible.

When I ran into the last shop, I ran smack dab into Elody and Will who were exiting.

“Hey Milena,” Elody said, smiling. “We were just about to come looking for you.”

“No need, I’m right here,” I said. I looked around, uncomfortable with us standing so open outside the doorway. “Did you guys find a place to stay?”

“Yeah, it's a street over,” Elody replied.

“We should go there.” I was doing my best to keep the urgency out of my voice. “I'm kind of tired. Having a place to rest would be nice.”

Elody glanced at Will. “Sure, let's go then.” She led the way. “We only got one room with one bed, so they brought in a cot for Will to sleep on. You're okay with sharing a bed again, right Milena?”

“Yeah, that's fine,” I replied. Elody tried to ask me more questions about various things, but I only mumbled responses, mainly because I was barely listening to her as I shifted my eyes as we walked. If those goons had somehow found us, there was no way I was letting them surprise attack us. By the time we reached the inn, Elody wasn't trying to make conversation with me—that or I'd completely made her voice background noise. I followed her and Will past the man sitting at a small table just inside the door and down a hallway. I expected us to get to stairs, but before we came to any, Elody stopped at a room and took a key from her pocket.

“It's on the ground floor?” I asked.

Elody nodded as she worked to unlock the door.

Easy access for those thugs. I just hoped there wasn't a window then.

Sure enough of course, on the wall opposite the door, a window. Or in our case, a door for those thugs to come in during the night.

In one motion, without stopping in between, I put my knapsack on the bed, then walked over to the window, peeking around the curtain to see outside.

“Milena, is something wrong?”

“What?” My hair slapped me in the face as I turned to face her.

“You seem a little on edge,” Elody said slowly. “Did something happen while you were looking around?”

I sighed. “Alright fine. I didn't want to alarm you, but while I was out, I saw the three men from the wagon.”

“What?” Will exclaimed.

“Should we get out of town?” Elody asked.

“No, those men would definitely recognize us,” I replied. “We should just stay put for now.”

“Stay put? In the same city they're in?” Will asked. “What if they saw you? They could be on their way here to kill us right now!”

“They didn't see me,” I said. “We are fine if we just stay here. But we need to figure out exactly what’s going on.” I looked at Elody. “You, start talking. What's so special about your necklace? Is it expensive? Trillian’s Gold?”

“Not that I know of,” she replied, fiddling with it now that I’d mentioned it. “My mother gave it to me. I doubt she'd have something so expensive as Trillian’s Gold. Or even anything so expensive it's worth stealing.”

I looked at Will. “Any idea?”

Will shook his head, and really, I hadn't expected anything from him.

“But,” Elody added. I turned to her and she cleared her throat. “When we were looking for a place to stay, I came across this woman who noticed my necklace. She asked me how I could be so bold to wear it. I didn’t know what she was talking about, and she believed me that I had no idea. She told me if I wanted answers, I could come see her.” She looked at Will and me. “Maybe we should go talk to her?”

“Can we trust her?” I asked.

Elody crossed her arms. “An old woman? She’s probably a sage or something.”

That sounded ridiculous, but the truth was she was our only speck of light into this situation. I sighed, giving in to the idea of trusting someone outside of our group. I just hoped we weren't wrong.