Kingdom of thieves

Kingdom of thieves - part 7

Narla met Kris and Gen outside of the den before first light.

She couldn't look at him without seeing Lian's bruised and broken face, so she kept her head lowered and mumbled a hello. 

Kris brought out a lump of dark red material. 

"Put this on" he said handing it to her. "it will make you less...conspicuous" 

Narla pulled the cloak around her shoulders and pulled the hood over her head, the material was soft and light, she glanced at Kris, it must have cost a lot of gold. 

He nodded when she was ready and turned to Gen. 

"Thank you Gen, you wont be needed from here on, I'm sure Narla can handle anyone who might come along" 

Narla glanced at him, surprised, being a body guard was every snatchers dream, to never have to snatch again, and keep the back of your employer, she felt a smile creep across her face, but it was immediately stopped by the memory of Kris's emotionless face as he ordered her to murder an unressisting human being in cold blood. 

Gen made a soft growling sound in his throat and fixed her with a piercing stare that told her if Kris was hurt in anyway she was in for a load of pain, after several seconds of meaningful glaring he turned and stomped back into the den. Kris shook his head and started walking. 

Narla skulked along slightly behind Kris, the cloak hid her worn and dirty cloths completely but it also made her stand out alongside Kris's smart shirt, trousers, leather boots and dark jacket, the only strange thing about his attire was the long sword and knife belt at his side. Narla had her won knife belt with an array of throwing knives, but she kept her palm knife in her hand under the cloak, just in case there happened to be any early risers around. 

Kris led her up the main streets and threw the alleys that lead to the trade roots, which cut threw the districts connecting them together and allowing traders to access all levels of the city. Narla had never been to one of the trade roots and despite her sour mood she was very excited. 

The sun came up as they were walking and had fully risen by the time the sound of the trade roots could be heard, Kris smiled encouragingly to Narla and led her around the corner.

She squinted against the sudden brightness of coming out of the shadows of the high buildings and gasped. What astounded her the most was the colour. Market stalls lined the sides of the roots, each housed massive amounts of foods, spices, herbs, fabrics and animals of all colours, shapes and sizes. The people were colourful as well, Narla had never known that there could be so many different coloured coats and cloaks, even peoples skins were different colours, Narla herself was quite dark skinned as were most ghetto dwellers, that added with always being in the sun meant the poorer folk were instantly recognisable and distinguished from the rich who were extremely pale from lack of sun and only breeding amongst themselves, but it seemed that there weren't only Sayntians congregated here.

There were skin tones so dark and some men so tall even Narla had to crane her neck to look at their faces and there were people so small she had to mind where she put her feet for fear of stepping on them. The dark skinned people surprised her the most, the reason she was looked upon with loathing and hatred by all those better off than she was, was because of her dark ghetto skin, hair and eyes. All those with lighter features were automatically better.

There had been a scandal once when a Dwell was born, by some divine fluke, with light skin and hair and eyes and his parents, seizing the opportunity,  left him on the doorstep of a wealthy merchant, who without thinking twice took her in and she lived for many years completely accepted by the people as the daughter of a merchant. That was until Kris, following the rumor, found her and brought her 'home'.