“Keep to the alleys. They’ll find you too easily in these parts. Your best bet is to hide in plain sight,” the boardinghouse keeper said as she rushed them down the stairs. She took them to the back door near her kitchen, where the guardsmen wouldn’t see them leave.

“Thank you,” Eti said, breathless, her voice ringing out, tinny and insignificant. Those two words were too small to contain her gratitude.

“It is my duty.” The boardinghouse keeper’s expression changed as she took Eti’s hand. Instead of shaking it, she bowed low and pressed it to her forehead, a sign of respect for a much older woman. “I pray for your family, Dayang. May the gods keep you safe,” she said in a hushed voice. Then she opened the door and hurried them into the alleyway. “I can hear them coming. You must go.”

They fled from the outlying districts. The streets in this part of Mariit were no longer strange to her. The renewed sense of urgency sharpened her senses. She kept pace with Ariel the best she could, the sandals she’d bought at the market slapping against the uneven cobblestones. They rushed past shaded alleys and winding canals. They didn’t let up until they reached the heart of the city. Eti realized she recognized the quiet street they were walking down. They were edging dangerously close to the places in Mariit she knew well. If they crossed the nearest canal and continued a few paces north, they’d find themselves in front of the goldsmiths’ guildhall, where she’d spent many an afternoon.

They ought to take extra heed there. Eti opened her mouth to whisper a warning to Ariel when he grabbed her arm and whisked her behind an unattended set of crates. They were stacked up into a teetering pile across the street from what looked like a respectable inn. It was one of the better-maintained buildings in Mariit, with clean windows and an ornate giltwood door swinging on its hinges.

As they stalled outside, Ariel fumbled in his pockets for matches and a pipe, another trinket the previous boarder had left behind. He needed an excuse for stopping so suddenly. Eti understood the moment she heard heavy boots marching down the street. She kept her head down as Ariel struck a match against the sole of his shoe. With trembling fingers, he lowered the flame to the cracked pipe bowl. Eti watched in silence, her blood pounding a desperate rhythm in her ears. They’d miscalculated the Kulaws’ resources. Imeria had sent her guardsmen after Eti, and no district was safe; the Kulaws wouldn’t leave a single stone in Mariit unturned.