From the Ashes [Guilded Kingdoms: Book 1][Book sample; rest in KU]

Chapter 4

Lael expertly wove her way through the crowded night-market the same as she did most every night. Tonight though, it felt different. There was a sense of excitement and an eagerness she'd not felt before. It was a strange and wonderful feeling that had Lael about ready to burst from giddiness. It was almost intoxicating and it had her so focused on reaching her intended destination quickly that, once it was within view, Lael forgot to be mindful of her surroundings and darted across the street, stepping right in front of one of the roving street vendors.

She gave a little cry when she crashed into the man pulling his market stall behind him who cried out for his wares as his cart threatened to upturn from the impact.

Not much damage was done to the street seller though, apart from fright of a teetering cart, but Lael found herself ricocheting off of him and about to fall under the wheels of another on-coming vendor's cart. With the ground rapidly approaching, Lael closed her eyes and braced herself for the hard impact, hoping she'd be able to roll out of the way in time. Only the impact never came and Lael felt something much softer break her fall and then roll them both as Lael had planned to do.

Lael opened her eyes to be met with a pair of hazel ones staring back at her from a young man with dirty blond hair and a boyish grin. She saw the same spark of mirth in his eyes that he'd worn the night before when they'd exchanged false names.

"We have got to stop meeting like this," huffed Renard cheekily from below her, slightly winded from taking the brunt of the fall. "That's twice now I've saved your life in the span of just two nights."

Lael rolled her eyes and, despite herself, tried to bite down the smile she could feeling tugging at the corner of her lips. "It was hardly that dire."

"Nonsense! A drop like the one last night could kill a person depending on how they landed. You all but admitted so yourself at the time," his grin undiminished.

He was right, of course, and Lael knew it, but she was not about to tell him that. Something told her that, were she to give it, he would enjoy her admission far too much. Besides, she was rather enjoying tormenting him by withholding it as he tried to pull one from her; she wasn't going to make it at all easy for him.

Instead, all she gave him was a small, nonchalant shrug and the faintest of smirks before rolling off of him and standing up to brush herself off. As she sauntered off, Lael couldn't help but count the seconds that passed before she heard him scrambling to his feet and calling after her.

One...

Two...

Three...

"Hey!"

Lael grinned when, as expected, she heard the scrabbling and stomping of feet as he raced to catch up with her.

"Surely today's rescue has earned at least some small boon of thanks? If not a real name, perhaps why you come here?" Renard asked as he fell into pace beside her.

"I would think that would be obvious," Lael answered, turning into the alleyway that ran beside her nightly perch. "I come here to draw."

"Yes, but why?" he pressed, continuing to follow. "There are other, much safer, places to draw than on the rooftops of buildings in the dead of night."

She almost faltered at the question, but pushed on as always. Readying for her climb up to said rooftop, Lael repositioned her satchel and began her ascent. And, when she spoke, her voice was brusque and all hint of her earlier playfulness was gone. It was replaced instead by the harsh coldness of iron that broached an unwavering hardness. "Not for me."

For a brief moment, all Lael could feel was the bitterness of that truth. For anyone else, there would be other places much better suited for artistic pursuits than where she went each night, but Lael was not 'anyone else' and, for her, this was the safest place. Not physically, of course, but it was the only place she could go where she knew Nelissa would not even think to look for her.