danger, but her legs would not hold her up anymore.
The footsteps ceased. Wess looked up, clenching her fingers around the handle of
her knife. ‘
‘Frejojan,’ Lythande said softly, from ten paces away, ‘sister, you led me quite
a chase.’ She glanced after the two men. ‘And not only me, it seems.’
‘I never fought a person before,’ Wess said shakily. ‘Not a real fight. Only
practice. No one ever got hurt.’ She touched the side other head. The shallow
scrape bled freely. She thought about its stopping, and the flow gradually
ceased.
Lythande sat on his heels beside her. ‘Let me see.’ He probed the cut gently. ‘1
thought it was bleeding, but it’s stopped. What happened?’
‘I don’t know. Did you follow me? Did they? I thought I was eluding one person.’
‘I was the only one following you,’ Lythande said. ‘They must have come back to
bother Quartz again.’
‘You know about that?’
‘The whole city knows, child. Or anyway, the whole Maze. Bauchle will not soon
live it down. The worst of it is he will never understand what it is that
happened, or why.’
‘No more will I,’ Wess said. She looked up at Lythande. ‘How can you live here?’
she cried.
Lythande drew back, frowning. ‘I do not live here. But that is not really what
you are asking. We cannot speak so freely on the public street.’ He glanced
away, hesitated, and turned back. ‘Will you come with me? I haven’t much time,
but I can fix your cut, and we can talk safely.’
‘All right,’ Wess said. She sheathed her knife and pushed herself to her feet,
wincing at the sharp pain in her side. Lythande grasped her elbow, steadying