Kyra edged closer, and several children broke away from the game, shouting her name. She smiled and squeezed a few shoulders as they gathered around. “I’ve got someone new for you,” she said, finally turning to acknowledge the griffin boy. “Show him how things work.”

“We’ve seen him around,” said a girl with knobby arms and tangled black hair. “He didn’t want to talk to us.”

“Now he will.” Kyra gave him a push toward the others before turning back to the black-haired girl. “You come looking for me, Idalee?”

“Where were you last night?”

“Working.” She paused for a moment, reminded of James’s mysterious behavior. “Why’d you come to The Drunken Dog?” In many ways, the area around The Drunken Dog was safer than Idalee’s usual haunts, but Kyra worried about her wandering away from her friends.

“Lettie’s sick again.”

Kyra frowned. Idalee’s younger sister was constantly ill. “Take me to her?”

As the girl pulled her down a side street, Kyra couldn’t help noticing how Idalee had matured since their first meeting. Two years ago, Kyra had been in the neighborhood when she heard shouting. She ran up just in time to see a skinny girl charge an older boy headfirst, knocking him down and pounding at him with remarkable ferocity. The other children were in an uproar, and Kyra picked up more than a few bruises pulling the two apart. It took some work to sort things out, but eventually she pieced together that one of the older boys had tried to take Lettie’s supper. Despite the tongue-lashing that Kyra delivered to all involved, she couldn’t help but admire Idalee’s spirit, and tiny Lettie reminded Kyra of her own childhood in the streets. While Kyra would never admit to having favorites, she found herself spending more and more time helping these two.

Idalee led her to a dead end, where several boards had been placed in a crude lean-to. It was too small for both Idalee and Kyra to fit comfortably, so Kyra pushed aside the cloth covering its opening and peered inside. Someone shivered underneath a pile of blankets. “Lettie?”

The form shifted and a small, round face turned toward her. The child’s normally large eyes were half closed, and Kyra could tell from Lettie’s raspy breathing that something wasn’t right. Every time the child took a breath, she winced. Kyra put her hand on Lettie’s forehead. It was warm to the touch.

“Can she walk?” Kyra asked Idalee.

“A bit, but you’ve got to go slow, and she coughs if you walk too fast.”

“Well, I can’t carry her all the way,” Kyra muttered. She thought for a moment. “Why don’t I take Lettie back with me? I’ll bring her to a healer tomorrow.”