She was so deep in these thoughts that she had not noticed the man standing across the courtyard from her, watching her in the growing twilight gloom, until he began to move toward her.

“You are thinking,” said Talibo, the merchant’s nephew. His curly hair was wet, combed close against his head, and he wore a robe so clean and white it seemed to glow in the garden shadows. “What do you think about, lady?”

She tried to suppress her anger. How was he to know she wished to be alone with her thoughts? “Matters of my family.”

“Ah, yes. Families are very important. All the wise men say this.” He put his hand to his chin in a gesture so transparently meant to look like a wise man’s pondering that Briony actually giggled. His eyes widened, then narrowed. “Why do you laugh?”

“Sorry. I thought of something funny, that’s all. What brings you to the garden? I will be happy to let you walk in peace—I should go join the other women for the evening meal.”

He looked at her for a moment with something like defiance. “You do not want to go. Not truly.”

“What?”

“You do not want to go. I know this. I saw you look at me.”

She shook her head. He was using words, simple words in her own language, but he was not making any sense to her at all. “What do you mean, Tal?”

“Do not call me that. That is a name for a child. I am Talibo dan-Mozan. You watch me. I see you watch me.”

“Watch you…?”

“A woman does not look at a man so unless she is interested in him. No woman makes such shameful eyes at a man if she does not want him.”

Briony did not know whether to laugh again or to shout at him. He was mad! “You…you don’t know what you’re talking about. You were staring at me. You have been staring at me since I came here.”

“You are a handsome woman, for an Eioni.” He shrugged. “A girl, really. But still, not bad to the eye.”

“How dare you? How dare you talk to me like…like I was a serving wench!”

“You are only a woman and you have no husband to protect you. You cannot make eyes at men, you know.” He said this with the calm certainty of someone describing the weather. “Other men would take advantage of you.” He stepped forward, trying to pull her toward him, first her hands, then—when she slapped his fingers away—moving even closer to put his arms around her.

Zoria, save me! She was so astonished she almost could not fight. He was going to try to kiss her! A small, sane part of her was glad she had left her knives behind, because at this moment she would happily have stabbed him through the heart.

She fought him off, but it was difficult: he was pushing blindly forward, as though determined on something he knew might be painful but needed to be done, and her own knees were weak with surprise and even fear. She was terrified and did not entirely know why. He was a boy, and Shaso and the others were only a few paces away—one shout and they would come to her aid.