I timidly knocked on the door, hoping I had knocked loud enough to be heard at all. After a few seconds the door swung open, and a middle-aged woman with brown hair eyed me suspiciously.
“Who are you?” she asked. Straight to the point, then. What do I say? That I’m the person who stole the Elementorium, so I’m looking for her son in the hope that he won’t turn me in?
“I’m Claire, the bearer of the Elementorium,” I said, smiling.
“Oh, I thought they said the new bearer was a man.”
“Nope, I’m definitely not a man.” Smooth, Claire. “I was just looking for Jayden, I hoped he might be able to help me track down the thief who took the Elementorium.” Lying was not my forte, but I think I was believable enough. I had been stealing my lunches for the past week; lying should come fairly easily after that.
Mrs. Cortez’s expression changed immediately; softening and making room for a slight smile, even. “Jayden isn’t here, he moved to Arden over a year ago. I’m sure he’ll help you, though, bless his soul.” Wow, quite the change.
“Do you have his address in Arden, Mrs. Cortez?” I asked sweetly.
“Of course. Please, come inside, I’ve just made a hot pot of tea.” I followed her inside, where she seated me at a nicely furnished front room. The outside of the house had been rather plain, but the inside was lavishly furnished with new-looking furniture. One of the perks of being a bearer, I suppose. The Rein council paid you handsomely, in addition to donations from the rich and famous from various cities. Jackson was probably raking in the cash back at home, even without the Elementorium.
Mrs. Cortez returned to the front room with a silver teapot and tiny silver teacups. I idly wondered how much money Jayden made, and how much he sent back to his parents.
“Thank you,” I said as she poured a cup of tea for me. “You have a lovely home, Mrs. Cortez.”
“Oh please, call me Lila, dear.”
“If you don’t mind me saying, your house looked so ordinary from the outside, I didn’t expect it to be quite so… rich inside.” Lila flushed, smiling to cover her embarrassment.
“Jayden is very generous with sharing his bearer settlements. We have plans to renovate the outside of the house soon,” She added. I looked down into my teacup, pondering the transparent brown liquid. I had never had tea before, it was a luxury my family couldn’t afford. I took a sip from the silver cup, immediately wanting to spit the drink back into the cup. It was so bitter! How do people drink that stuff?
“Have you lived here for very long?” I asked, still choking down my sip of tea.
“We moved here when I was pregnant with Jayden. We only ever wanted one child, and wanted to give him the best opportunities we could.”
“Why move here instead of Rune? He would have had a chance at the Elementorium there, a chance he had some control over.”
“Well, Jayden would have been three years too old, and we didn’t want the break the law of course,” she replied dismissively. Great, a thief in the house of the most perfect family in all of Kiso. I suddenly felt the burning need to get away from the house and Mrs. Perfect Lila Cortez.
“Thank you for the tea, Lila, but I really should be going now. I have plans for tonight.”
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“Oh, of course!” Lila pulled out a pen and paper from the drawer of the stand next to her, scribbling on it before handing it to me. “That’s Jayden’s address in Arden. I hope he can help you find that rotten thief,” she said as I hustled out the door. Yes, I get it, you don’t like people who break the law.
I took a deep breath once I was outside, feeling as though it was the first time I could breathe freely in the past hour. I made my way to the park Kyle had pointed out earlier, happy to have the distraction from Mrs. Perfect and her house. It was hard to believe there were people living with so much money, while kids were starving on the streets.
The park was a refreshing sight buried amongst the houses that were nearly copies of each other. There were several planted trees and bushes, blooming with lots of colorful flowers. I saw Kyle sitting behind a bench, pulling up grass and twisting it between his hands.
“There you are!” He exclaimed when he saw me, jumping up to hug me. “So, how did it go? Did you find Jayden?”
“Yes and no, he’s apparently moved to Arden. She gave me his address, though. I’ll probably head out tonight,” I replied.
“Oh, we know a carriage that makes trips to Arden every other day. It should leave at sunset tonight.”
“We?” I looked around. We were alone in the park, other than a young couple who were walking the trail that twisted through the greenery.
“The gang and I. They wanted to meet you, remember?” Kyle lifted his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly, startling the couple. Five young kids seemed to materialize out of trees and from behind bushes, walking cautiously toward us. There were two boys who looked to the roughly the same age as Kyle, a girl who looked like she might be fifteen, and a young girl and boy who looked like twins, no more than eight years old.
“Guys, this is the girl I was telling you about, the thief,” Kyle said to the group, stressing the word thief. The kids’ eyes lit up, even the fifteen-year-old. The twin girl’s face split into an enormous smile, and she ran to me, hugging my waist.
“Oh miss, I’m so happy to see you!”
“Julie, stop it. She hasn’t even told us her name,” the fifteen-year-old said, folding her arms over her chest. I started to say my name, but Kyle interrupted before I had a chance to speak.
“She doesn’t have to tell us her name, Heather. What if the officials come asking questions? We can’t know who she is, or she might get caught.” Huh, smart kid. I hadn’t even thought about that, I just wanted this group of homeless kids to trust me. Julie clung tighter to me and Heather looked away, while the other three seemed to be in shock.
“Can we see it, miss?” one of the boys Kyle’s age asked. I glanced out of the corner of my eye and saw the couple walk behind a tree, hiding us from their sight. I smiled at the kids and crouched down, pulling Julie off of me. Slowly I tugged the Elementorium out from under my shirt, cupping the circular charm in my hands. It had a silver color, with intricate swirls that wrapped around four tiny gemstones. There was a red diamond shaped stone, a green square stone, a teardrop blue stone, and finally a circular clear stone. The kids gaped in awe, and Heather even leaned in to see the Elementorium a bit closer. I saw the couple step out from behind the tree, and quickly slipped the necklace back to its hiding place under my shirt.
“We should get going, it’s going to be sunset soon,” Kyle said to me. I looked up and saw the sun touching the treetops. Suddenly I felt an attachment to these kids—I didn’t want to leave them. They were the first people I had been honest with since I ran away from home, and it felt good to be around them. I felt tears threaten to fill my eyes, forcing me to quickly close my eyes, pushing the tears away. Without warning, the sky started to rain, falling softly onto us.
“Yeah, let’s go,” I said. Kyle led me through the city, stopping in the marketplace. It was quiet now, with only a few stands still open. Outside of one shop, a middle-aged man was loading crates into a horse-drawn cart with a large lantern fastened to the front.
“This is it,” Kyle said, pointing at the cart. We waited until he loaded the last crate and went inside the shop. “Get in, and be sure to stay quiet,” the young boy cautioned me as I climbed into the back of the carriage. There was just enough space behind the crates for me to sit, and for once I was glad that I was as small as I am.
“Thank you, Kyle. For everything.”
“No miss, thank you. We’ll see you next time you’re in Kiso!” he whispered with a grin. The shopkeeper came outside again, turning to lock up the shop. When I looked back to where Kyle was, he was already gone. A moment later we were moving, the cart traveling down the marketplace road. As we drove away, I caught sight of Kyle waving to me from one of the stands. I waved back, smiling. It had felt good to talk to someone I could be honest with, even if he was a homeless twelve-year-old.