At least, that was my instant impression of him. I immediately recoiled, sucking in my breath. His face had been mutilated. He had no nose and no ears. He looked like he had been made to pay a horrific tithe. He turned and took my measure, black eyes raking me caustically from head to toe with the gaze of someone who makes short work of assessing people. I felt summarized and quickly dismissed. He was old enough to be Sid’s father, with gray in his closely cut black hair. His skin was far darker than mine, a rich brown. If Sid looked foreign, he looked more so: his cheekbones broad, his mouth very full, his liquid black eyes rimmed with green paint.

But most startling were his mutilations. The scar tissue was old, a lighter shade than the rest of his skin. I couldn’t help staring. His mouth curled into a hard smile.

“Nirrim.” Sid’s grip on her glass slackened, her expression relieved yet still apprehensive.

The man spoke to her in a cool, amused, slightly mocking tone.

“Yes.” Sid frowned at him. “She is.”

“What is going on?” I said. “What did he say? Who is he?”

“A family friend.”

“Why is he here?”

“His ship docked in your city’s harbor today.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

Hesitantly, she said, “I know.”

I cut a glance at him. “Is he … safe?”

“Me?” he said in my tongue, his accent heavy. He laughed. “No.”

I flinched in surprise. I had assumed he didn’t know my language. I was growing angry at Sid for her silence. I said, “You are making me feel as though I know nothing.”

In a slow, droll tone with the edge of command, the man spoke to Sid in the language they shared. She snapped at him. He shrugged.

Sid glanced at me but wouldn’t hold my gaze. “Earlier, he asked if you were my lover. Now he says I owe you my honesty. Nirrim, there is something I need to explain.”

“Swiftly, Princess,” the man said to her in Herrath.

“Princess?” I echoed, sounding exactly like the stupid ithya bird Raven had claimed I was. “Princess?”

Sid closed her eyes, her brow furrowed in frustration and anger, and said something to the man that sounded like a terrible plea, a grieved accusation. Finally she told him, “Just go. Leave me, please.”

I was flooded with relief, which made me realize how afraid I had been that sending him away was something she wasn’t able to do, and that he was here to take her away.

“You have had your fun.” He said the words to Sid, but they were meant for me to understand. “Now it’s time to come home.” With a scant glance at me, he left.

“What did he mean, princess?” I asked. “Was he teasing you? Was that a joke?”

Miserably, she shook her head.

“Who are you?”