Page 51 of Sharpest Court

“Did she use dullroot?”

“No.”

“Then you had a choice.”

“Come on, Osana,” Lye murmured, oddly gentle. “It wasn’t as if she stood still and invited the Hunter to use her as a target.”

Osana just looked away, emotion simmering behind her frustration.

“How did she get past the Ansoran borders?” Dashiel asked.

“Illegal crews, smuggling vessels.” Lye ticked off the options with his fingers, his tone suggesting he had broad knowledge on the subject. “With the military treaty expiring, Banarrat’s naval forces have slackened.”

“Had she been tracking you?”

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Keil shook his head. “We were careful.”

“And she looked surprised to see me,” I said. “She ran when she realized I wasn’t alone.”

Goren sheathed his sword, scowling. “So a Hunter travels to Ansora and happens to bump into you while you’re running errands? Nobody can attract that much trouble. Even you.”

Though he was right, I couldn’t shake Mara’s startled expression from my mind.

“I think the Hunter was searching for Alissa.” Keil crossed his arms and leaned back against one of the steel beams. “She just hadn’t expected you in the flesh.”

I frowned, not understanding.

Keil hesitated. Then he sighed and said, “We were at the Talon Inn.”

The group blinked with surprise.

“What were you doing in the Coal Quarter?” Goren asked, this time addressing Lye.

Keil opened his mouth to interject when Lye said smoothly, “Getting lunch. The inn’s tavern does the best smoked sausages on the continent, and we wanted to give our guest the full Ansoran experience.”

Goren’s expression remained flat. “And you needed your knives for that?”

“How else were we to cut the sausages? Isn’t that right, Lockpicker?” As Lye winked at me, I saw the words he couldn’t say aloud. That regardless of how much—or how little—I told him about my reasons for meeting Calytrix, he would have my back.

Despite my throbbing headache, I felt a burst of gratitude for this man who had always treated me as a friend.

“So you think the Hunter was targeting the identity records,” Dashiel said, steering them away from conflict.

“What identity records?” I asked.

“If a person in Ansora wants to create a new identity,” Keil explained, “they go to Talon Inn. It’s a front for a forgery office.” He shifted, brows furrowing. “The Hunter must’ve known that. And she must’ve assumed that’s where you would go.”

I shuddered, that old sensation reopening inside me like a scurvy wound: the hair-raising fear of being Hunted.

Then Lye’s earlier words drifted back to me. The thieves have been targeting specific places: documents offices, clinics, even private homes.

“There were targeted thefts in the area,” I said in realization. “Do you think they’re connected to Mara? That she’s been trying to track me?” Because although I couldn’t account for the break-ins at the private homes, I could explain the clinics: Mara would’ve known that I was injured. After all, Briar had been the one to launch the arrow.

“It’s possible.” Lye rubbed the back of his neck. “I can reach out to my contacts in the Coal Quarter.”