Page 13 of The Last One
Jadon shakes his head and looks back at Narder and Johny. “Everyone’s exhausted, which means tempers are running high. But let’s just take a breath and apologize—”
“Apologize?” I interrupt. “She stole my belongings.” I don’t care how handsome he is, he’s not convincing me that I’m wrong nor will I allow him to calm us all down without fixing the problem.
“Fine.” Olivia takes a deep breath, then slowly releases it, just like her brother did. “I apologize…Forest…Girl. I didn’t mean for you to suffer.”
“I still need my belongings,” I say, holding firm.
“What about Freyney’s cart and those broken vials?” Narder asks Jadon, ignoring me.
Oh. Yeah. That. I did knock over a few things before vaulting into the air and landing on top of a thief.
“And what about the public disturbance she’s caused?” Johny asks. “Everybody—especially you—should be celebrating. Cuz we finally captured one of theirs! And you couldn’t have missed that she’s standing here naked.”
Jadon makes a strangled noise in his throat, and by the way his mouth tenses, he already knows he’s about to stumble over every word he wants to say. So, he just says, “Hmm.”
Yeah, he noticed.
“We need those medicines,” Narder continues. “Are you willing to pay for that?”
“Pay?”Jadon barks, able to speak now. “Absolutely not! I don’t have money to pay Freyney, of all people.”
“Then she’ll work off her debts,” Narder says.
“What?”I shout. “I’m the one who’s owed a debt—a debt of my belongings.”
“Where’s she supposed to stay while she’s working off her debts?” the jailer growls, ignoring me again. “There’s no place for her to lodge. Not for her kind, at least.” He pauses, then holds up a filthy finger. “Hey!I got an idea! She can stay in my lovely penal accommodations here.” He leers at me. “Orshe can choose to roost in my cottage.”
“Bed’s big enough for two,” Johny says, elbowing him, “now that Marget’s dead.”
I shiver as I glare at both men. “I’d rather sleep with dead Marget.”
Olivia flings out her arms. “She’ll board with us.”
Jadon and I both startle. He says, “No, she won’t,” at the same time I say, “No, I won’t.”
“There’s room in our barn,” Olivia says, nodding. “Good. Lovely. It’s settled.” She eyes Jadon, then turns back to me, beaming.“It’s settled,”I hear her think.“Now please shut up.”
The guard points at Jadon. “You’ll make sure she pays Freyney all that he’s owed? If I’m just eyeballin’…twelve geld will make it right.”
“Twelve?” Olivia repeats, not taking her own advice and shutting up. “Aestard killed his father last week and had to pay only three geld.”
“His father was a blasphemous jackass and deserved to have his neck slit,” Johny spits. “Anyway, six geld for Freyney and six geld for the town disturbance. She’s disrupted market day, and now the wanderweavers may get the wrong idea—that we tolerate thieving, mudscraping Dashmala, that our people run around naked, tipping over carts and causing havoc. And if they stop comin’ here, we won’t get any fresh veg orgoodwine or anything else we need to survive. Six geld to Freyney, six geld to me. Don’t make me increase it to seven apiece.”
“But why is her price so high?” Olivia asks.
“Olivia,” Jadon snaps.
Johny bends until he’s face-to-face with the thief. “It’s the price she owes. And if she runs off, it’s gonna be the priceyouowe, and she’ll bring all of ’em back here, so I suggest keeping an eye on her. Otherwise, Narder and I will come looking for you to pay up.”
“We still haven’t addressed the fact that she took my belongings,” I snarl. “When are you going to finehertwelve geld—?”
Johny spins toward me, one of his swords held high.
I duck and prepare to be struck.
“Don’t.” Jadon doesn’t shout, but the guard jumps back and immediately freezes as though Jadon had.
My heart pounds in my head. I can’t feel anything else because I’m numb.
