The Gold in the Dark

Chapter Thirteen

Wynna hadn't spoken loudly, but the whole room had been waiting to hear those words, and everyone swiveled to face her as one. "You—really?" stammered the guard holding the sketch, as if he hadn't expected anything to come of this whole exercise. "Come here, then, and give a statement to the sketch artist."

He beckoned Wynna forward. She cast a glance at Tia and Alindy, her face pale and slick with sweat, before following the guard toward the man and his son.

Mistress Oerfall addressed everyone else left in the dining hall. "If you have already seen the sketch, then make your way back to your rooms. If you think of anything later that may be relevant, let Master Maaj or myself know and we will help you convey that information to the city guard." The students began to funnel toward the exit.

Tia hesitated at the door, looking back at Wynna. She was deep in conversation with the man, and his son was—no, that couldn't be right. She squinted, hardly believing her eyes. The young boy was the one drawing the sketch, though he couldn't be any older than twelve.

A tap on her shoulder broke her staring. It was Alindy, face pale with worry. "Did you want to wait with me for Wynna to get back? Honestly I could use the company."

"Sure," Tia said, stealing one last look over her shoulder before following Alindy back to the dormitory.

~

The seventh hour bell chimed as Alindy opened the door to the room she shared with Wynna. It was supposed to be a double, but the room was almost as tiny as Tia's, so the two girls had bunked the beds for more space. The doors of the wardrobe in the corner were bursting open, revealing flashes of blue cotton and pink chiffon. So this was where they stored all those marvelous dresses.

There was only one chair, so Alindy sat down on the thin carpet in the middle of the room. "Thanks for keeping me company," she said, motioning for Tia to sit beside her. "I'd just rather not be alone, you know?"

"I get it," she said, settling down on the carpet beside Alindy. She hugged her knees tight to her chest. Had it really been just a few hours ago that she'd traipsed through the city, carefree, Wynna by her side, feeling like Haplyr was a present waiting to be unwrapped? And Annalise had been somewhere in that same excited crowd of students, perhaps joking with a friend or biting into her fried dough.

Her thoughts clearly in a similar place, Alindy said, "It could have been any one of us." She shuddered. "Poor Annalise. Not just to die, but like that... They say the killer only takes young women as his victims. He slashes the girls' bodies, and they're found with their clothes ripped away. It's horrid. She never deserved that... Nobody does."

Tia shivered and remembered the knife her mother had given to her before she'd left Fenlick. The lovely mint dress she'd worn to the dance hall hadn't had pockets, so she'd left the knife in her room. All those promises she'd made to her parents—and she hadn't even taken basic precautions.

"I'm sure they'll catch her killer soon," she said, though the words rung hollow. Did anybody even look at those posters?

They lapsed into uneasy quiet for a few minutes before Alindy reached for the desk drawer and fished out a worn deck of cards. "Do you want to play? Just to pass the time." Tia nodded her assent and Alindy dealt her a hand. A few minutes later Tia caught herself almost enjoying the game, like it hadn't been a girl's murder in cold blood that had led to playing cards before eighth hour sounded.

"I'm out," she said, splaying her cards on the carpet. "You win."

"I'm not much feeling like cards either," Alindy admitted, so they waited in silence, Alindy playing with a strand of hair that had escaped her braid and Tia picking at the already threadbare carpet. How much longer could it possibly take for Wynna to finish with the sketch artist?