“Vada, come,” he said sharply. He turned without waiting and strode off through the crowds with no idea where he was going. Tents in bright colors dotted the landscape alongside pens of animals, little brick houses with thatched roofs, and grocer stalls boasting baskets filled with all sorts of fruits and vegetables—ripe peaches, dark purple plums, and some sort of orange fruit with spiky blue leaves were nestled among shiny cucumbers, red tomatoes, and thick bunches of carrots. He finally stopped between a fruit seller and a butcher shop and Vada clapped him on the shoulder.

“Well done,” she said. “That was getting dicey, no?”

“Yeah,” Leo said.

“Well, now we know you can pass yourself off as a Byrne.”

Leo didn’t find any comfort in that. “What if she tells the Misarros about us?”

“The Misarros would not wish to be messing about with a Byrne,” Vada reassured him. “Unless the world has gone truly mad. Come, we need to get you clothes. And something to eat; I’m starving.”

She bought them each a pear and Leo felt his anxiety ease slightly as he sank his teeth into its sweet flesh, letting the juice dribble down his chin. It had been fifteen days of salted pork, stale bread, and hard cheese. He was fairly certain this pear was the best thing he had ever tasted.

“We should bring one back for Sera,” he said through another mouthful.

Vada raised an eyebrow.

Leo’s face went hot. “I only meant . . . just because she doesn’t eat meat,” he stammered.

“Yes. I am sure that is what you were meaning,” she said with a sly smile.

They made their way past a silversmith, urns and platters and spoons reflecting the late afternoon sun, then ducked down an alley that led to a little square ringed with stalls in various shades of umber and maroon whose vendors only seemed to sell rugs. They skirted a woman on stilts dressed in flowing robes of brilliant green juggling four striped balls, then pushed through a band of musicians playing a cheery tune on fiddles and pipes and drums. Misarros seemed to be around every corner, but Vada always found some path to avoid them. Leo kept his head down until they had turned a corner and he was nearly blinded by a stunning array of jewelry.

“How big is this market?” he wondered.

“Very big,” Vada said. “There is a famous story that a wealthy woman from one of the northern islands came to see its splendors and was lost for twelve days. When they found her, she was skin and bones and nibbling on a dead rat.”