'If there was one place in this kingdom I wanted to stay out of,' Hajin thought, letting the back of his head rest against the seat, 'it was the royal palace.'
'Guards who want a reason, nobles who want a name, clerks who write down whatever you tell them,' he thought while the wheels rattled under the floor.
He had wanted to turn around somewhere back in the market district, though Princess Didi had refused to hear a word of it.
He shifted his elbow onto the armrest so he could see out the window, where the capital blurred past at the pace the horses had been given.
The squad of knights rode alongside in a loose column, so his eyes went over them once and settled on the tall one at the front.
A red handprint sat across the left cheek of the captain, still sharp at the edges where the fingers had landed.
'She slapped the soul out of him back there,' he thought, keeping his face still while the mark rode past the glass.
The captain had decided that reaching for a commoner made him brave, so Didi settled it with one hand before ordering both travelers into her carriage.
The memory almost got a laugh out of him, until the road put something under the wheels that threw his shoulder into the wall.
Juna sat beside him with her arms crossed tight, the tip of her tail beating against the seat faster with every mile.
She hated boxes with doors on them, though she had not said one word about it since the latch closed.
Didi leaned forward, her eyes moving over him without any hurry.
"You look malnourished," she said, settling back against the cushion with the verdict delivered.
He stopped watching the window, caught out by a diagnosis nobody had asked her for.
'That is one way to open a conversation,' he thought, looking down at his clothes before he brought his eyes back up to her.
"I prefer the term lean," he said, giving the seam of his sleeve a tug, "though cooking deer over a fire every night is not a balanced diet."
"Then eat something else," Didi said, with one brow going up.
"With what money," he said, watching a bakery slide past the window, "the guild pays by the core, and border cores come out the size of a thumbnail."
"He gives me the larger half," Juna said without opening her eyes, "so do not let him make it sound like a virtue."
"You eat more than I do," he said, turning his head to see whether the ears moved.
"I work harder," she said, and her eyes stayed shut.
Didi watched the exchange without moving, and something in her face filed it away for later.
"It is a miracle you have the energy to walk," Didi said, her fingers going still against her sleeve, "let alone to survive that thing in the forest."
"I told you at the cave," he said without turning from the window, "I did not fight it, I picked you up and ran while it looked away."
"Fighting it would have killed me," he continued, with the corner of the window frame under his thumb, "so I did the other thing."
"Nobody walks away from a thing that size," Didi said, and the tapping started up again, "least of all a man who tells me he has no talent."
"Then it was slow," he said, letting the window take his attention back, "I would rather be lucky than interesting."
She did not look convinced, though her chin came down in something that would pass for agreement.
The road under them started to climb, carrying the carriage up out of the market districts toward a wall he had only ever seen from the far side of the river.
'She still suspects me,' he thought, watching the rooftops drop away below the window.
'A talentless exile does not walk out of that forest,' he thought, 'though she gave her word about my name, so suspicion on its own costs me nothing.'
Juna opened one eye at the change in the slope, then shut it again.
"How much longer," she muttered, with her ears flat against her hair.
"We are nearly at the gates," Didi said, and for once there was nothing royal in it, "the smell is the tanneries, it stops after the wall."
"It does not stop," Juna said, and one ear turned toward the princess without the rest of her following it.
The wheels screeched under them until the carriage stopped moving.
"The palace gates, Your Highness," the captain called through the window, with none of the arrogance left in him.
Didi did not turn her head toward the sound.
"Straight to the throne room," Didi said, the warmth going out of her voice by the second word, "do not stop this carriage before the main courtyard."
"Understood," the captain said quickly, his armor knocking once as he bowed his head outside the glass.
Hajin watched the palace wall run past, closer than he had ever wanted to get to it.
'Get in, collect the reward, get back out,' he thought, taking his hand off the window ledge, 'because the sooner I am through those doors the better.'
The carriage stopped in the courtyard a few minutes later, the door pulled open by a guard who kept his eyes down.
Hajin got out first, then gave Juna a hand down that she ignored.
Didi came down after them, ignoring the arm the guard offered her.
Two rows of knights held the yard with no fewer than three Shards apiece, which put the poorest of them above anyone he had signed a contract beside.
He counted the exits without deciding to.
"Your Highness!" a young woman shouted from the top of the palace steps.
She came down at a run in a royal maid uniform, past the knights on the perimeter without a glance at any of them.
"Your Highness, are you safe?" the maid asked, stopping to check her arms, "you did not come back yesterday, and no messenger came from the detachment."
"The whole palace has been in a panic since the evening bell," she continued, her hands still moving as though something might be missing.
"I am fine, Elina," Didi said, letting the fussing run for two seconds before she pushed the hands down.
The maid stopped, and the breath she let out took her shoulders down with it.
Then her eyes moved past the princess to the two people waiting a few steps off.
She looked at the cheap clothes first, then at the wolf ears, and her nose went up on its own.
"And who are they?" the maid asked, the worry going out of her face fast, "did those two cause the delay?"
Instead of answering, Didi reached out, took the right cheek of the maid between two fingers, and pulled.
"Ow, ow, Your Highness," the maid said, leaning into the pull while she worked at the fingers without shoving them off.
"Be kind to my saviors, Elina," Didi said, with the grip not loosening at all, "since without him I would not be standing in this courtyard."
The fingers opened, so the maid turned toward Hajin while she rubbed the mark on her face.
Whatever had been in her face a moment ago had left it entirely.
"H-him?" she asked, still working the cheek while she looked him over a second time.
"Yes, him," Didi said, moving past her toward the steps, "now stop wasting my morning, where is my father?"
"His Majesty is in the throne room," Elina answered, bowing her head, "he cancelled the morning court the moment he heard you were missing."
"Good," Didi said, turning her head to find Hajin at the bottom of the steps, "follow me, both of you."
Elina moved half a step after her, wringing her hands.
"Your Highness, forgive me," the maid said, with her voice dropping under the noise of the yard, "it might not be the best hour for that."
"Why," Didi said, stopping on the step without turning around, "you told me he cancelled the session."
"He did," Elina said quickly, "but the head of the Flint family arrived for his royal summons about the new Gate assignment."
"His Majesty took the meeting to fill the wait," she added, with her head still down, "since the search parties have sent nothing back."
Hajin stopped where he was, one foot still hanging over the next step.
The head of the Flint family was his father, the man who had taken the name off him, left him in a border slum and promised consequences if he came back.
'You cannot be serious,' he thought, staring up at the doors at the top of the stairs, 'out of every day in the year, he is in the one room I have to enter.'
"Your heart just did something," Juna said at his elbow, with both ears turning toward him, "is there a problem in that room?"
"He will not know me," he said, getting his foot the rest of the way onto the step, "he stopped looking at me years ago."
"That is not an answer," Juna said, falling in at his shoulder.
'She is right,' he thought, taking the next step anyway, 'though the reward is behind those doors, so I am going through them.'