Chapter 17

" E velyn, look out!" Archie's grip tightened on Evelyn's shoulder, his sharp nails piercing through the wool cloak and into her skin.

She snapped her head around in time to narrowly miss walking in front of a merchant's cart as it careened down the hillside, with shouting merchants and farmers in its wake as they tried to warn those in the errant cart's path.

Evelyn's heart leaped into her throat as she reared back, her boot slipping on the wet cobblestones.

Archie let out an alarmed hoot and took flight as she threw out an arm to catch herself on the corner of a shop.

The panicked merchants and farmers raced by, yelling apologies and further warnings in pursuit of the cart. A loud crash followed and Evelyn winced, peeking around the side of the shop to find the cart engulfed in a cloud of dust and debris where it had crashed into a second cart .

Archie's talons jabbed into her shoulder a second time as he retook his perch and glowered down at her. "What's gotten into you, Evelyn Rosewood? Where's your head?"

"Nothing. I just wasn't looking," she muttered, then twisted around to peek over her shoulder. The strange prickle at the back of her neck was still there, as it had been all morning as she'd gone through town, running errands.

"You just did it again! What are you looking at?"

Passersby on their way to help clear the wreckage turned to look in her direction. "Shh! Archie, keep it down."

"Not until you tell me what's going on," the owl replied, indignant, though he'd at least stopped rustling his wings in her ear.

"I feel like someone is following me," she said, this time resisting the urge to look back down the street. Instead, she walked a bit closer to the crowd gathered around the wrecked carts, waiting a moment to see if anyone was injured. When it was clear everyone involved was unharmed—but for the demolished carts, anyway—she continued across the road.

One of the farmers had asked her to deliver a sleeping draught to their cousin who lived inside the harbor's walls, and Evelyn had agreed. The man had recently taken a job working on the docks, and the hours began when the sun went down and ended when it rose again, leaving him in danger of falling asleep while his body adjusted to the new schedule. It was her last stop of the day, having already gone to purchase some food and other supplies from the shops. She'd also stopped at the post office and sent off her first batch of letters, including the one she'd written to Rona.

Archie went still and craned around to look for himself. " Whooo would follow you?"

"I don't know." Evelyn adjusted her hood as the owl ducked back inside it, dodging a fresh sprinkling of rain. The weather wasn't helping her growing sense of dread. She'd awoken to a gray sky, and it seemed intent on refusing to allow so much as a single ray of sunshine to peek through the dense clouds hanging low over the storm-tossed waves.

She still hadn't told Archie about the encounter with Jarvis after the night market.

Archie let out a grumpy hoot, his feathers ruffling once more. "I say we go back home and get warm by the fire."

"We will. Just as soon as I make this last delivery."

Archie burrowed deeper into the hood, and Evelyn protested as the owl's feet tangled with her curls.

In all the commotion, it wasn't until she reached the far end of the plaza that she felt the prickling sensation once more. Slowing her steps, she paused and pretended to admire a set of tapestries hanging in a shop's window. Her gaze cut to one side and she peeked past the edge of her hood and spun, quickly enough to catch a flash of blue-tinged skin and hulking shoulders bob out of sight, down a side street.

Archie sensed what she was doing, and poked his beak out from behind the hood. He must have seen the flash of blue, because he bellowed, "I've got him!" and vaulted from Evelyn's shoulder—taking more than a few strands of hair with him.

Wincing, she called after him, drawing the attention of several passersby.

She appreciated her familiar's devotion, but his small talons weren't much of a threat to anyone larger than a plump field mouse.

He ignored her, his wings beating furiously as he vanished around the corner in pursuit.

"By the Four, Archie!" Evelyn muttered, already hiking up the thick fabric of her cloak to bolt after him.

As she rounded the corner into the alleyway, she found Archie hovering over a cowering goblinkin man. "Don't hurt me!" he pleaded, his huge hands covering his face. "I promise, I'm a friend!"

Evelyn stopped short. "Lorcan?"

Dark eyes peeked out between thick fingers, each tipped with a pointed black nail. He did his best to be small, crouched against the stone wall of a granary, but given his size, he was fighting a losing battle.

"You know this man?" Archie asked.

"So do you!" Evelyn replied with a sigh. "You met him at Maeve's, the first time we went over for dinner."

"Oh." Archie came to rest more gently on Evelyn's shoulder. He clacked his beak. "Well, I certainly can't be expected to memorize every face I see, can I?"

Evelyn shifted her weight and braced one hand on her hip as she turned her attention to Lorcan. "Were you following me?"

Lorcan stood to his full height and awkwardly raked a hand over his singular plait, which hung midway down his broad back. He wore simple trousers and a leather jerkin with nothing underneath it, leaving his hard muscles on display. Evelyn didn't have a lot of medical experience with goblinkin, but in her studies had learned their body temperature ran far warmer than humankind, and they could tolerate the cold more easily. Summer was on its way soon, but the gray day felt more like early spring.

"Uh, just—just for a little while. But only because Maeve asked me to keep an eye on you. Well, Maeve and Trudy. In—in case you needed help today." Lorcan grimaced. "I was meant to keep out of sight. They didn't want you to find out I was keeping watch."

Despite herself, Evelyn's lips twitched into a smile as she looked up at him. "I mean no offense, Lorcan, but perhaps Maeve and the others should have considered sending someone a bit smaller in stature."

Lorcan gave a rueful nod as he peered down at her. "You're sure you're all right? Jarvis hasn't been around causing trouble for you today? "

"No. At least, not so far," Evelyn replied, though she flicked a glance toward the hustle and bustle of the main road just to be sure. Then, looking back at Lorcan, she frowned. "They really think he would do me harm? He's a healer, after all. Isn't there some sort of code against that?"

Lines appeared across Lorcan's forehead as his brows furrowed together. "I suppose you would know better than me."

Evelyn gave an absent nod as her thoughts drifted.

"Listen, would it be all right if I went with you the rest of the way? I told Maeve and Trudy I would, and I don't want to think about what they will do if they find out I abandoned my job."

"We're quite capable of taking care of ourselves," Archie replied, his feathers quivering as he came to rest on Evelyn's shoulder, seeking shelter under her hood.

Lorcan's face fell.

"It's fine," Evelyn interjected. "We wouldn't turn down your company. But promise me you won't go skulking around and following me in the future?"

Lorcan hesitated, and Evelyn narrowed her eyes slightly. "Right," he said, quickly nodding. "No more spying."

"Thank you." Evelyn reached into her pocket and found a scrap of parchment. She held it up to Lorcan. "Now that you're here, maybe you can help me find this address. I'm starting to wonder if I passed it already."

Lorcan took the parchment between two black claw-like nails and studied it with an almost scholarly reverence. "Oh, this isn't far. Here, I'll lead the way."

Archie hooted softly, but Evelyn poked his side with one fingertip and he went still and quiet. "Be nice," she said once Lorcan got a few paces ahead of them. "He's only trying to help."

"Sure, help you get flattened by a runaway cart," the owl scoffed.