A Million Roads to Nowhere

The Man in the Marketplace

Patrick is woken by Lena bursting into his room in a frenzy.

"Look!" she shrieks. "Look at my eyes."

Patrick looks and his stomach turns as if he's eaten something that's gone bad. The whites of her eyes are golden, the brown poking through, wild and scared.

"Am I going to go blind?" she asks.

"I don't know," he says, but he knows the gold will spread, if the faery was to be believed.

Cursed to become a statue of gold, Patrick recalls.

Patrick wraps his arms around her and she allows herself to be held, just this once. She rests her head on his shoulder, her dark hair tickling his chin.

"I'm going to go out and memorize the forest in case I never get to see it again," she tells him, gripping his hand.

"All right," is all he says because what else can he say?

Lena leaves him for the forest and Patrick feels a little guilty. Perhaps he should tell her what the faery told him. Would she believe him? Would it matter?

To take his mind off his worries, Patrick leaves for the market with a basket of eggs. He'll sell them and go home to give the money to his mother, money that will be used for his and Lena's wedding, which is rapidly approaching.

Just as he sets his items on the scale, he's pulled aside by a man with auburn hair tied back into a ponytail with a velvet ribbon. The man is dressed in finery, clothes which Patrick hasn't seen before. He wonders if all the rich people are passing through Vertbank, if there is something going on that he's unaware of.

"Can I help you, sir?" Patrick asks warily. "I need to sell those eggs."

"I'll pay you double you'd get for them if I can only talk to you for a moment," the man says and Patrick is immediately suspicious.

"All right," he says, confused.

He wants to shrug the man's arm off from around his shoulders but he doesn't want to come off as rude.

"Splendid! I believe you know some information that would be helpful to me," the man says, leading Patrick down the cobbled path.

Patrick is not keen to tell this man anything, not that he knows anything, but he's getting double the money for the eggs, so he sees no reason not to appease him.

"I don't know what I would know that would be of use, sir."

The man does not seem taken aback in the slightest. "Oh, but you do," he says as if anticipating Patrick's response. "Here, allow me to introduce myself first. My name is Alistair of the Verthollow." Patrick's eyes widen; the man is a lord. "I am looking for a woman that goes by the name of Jaide Farthing. I was told that ten days ago, you and your friend found a pendant in which you gave to her. Do you have any idea where this woman might have taken the pendant?"

Nonplussed, Patrick is rendered speechless. Not only did this man know who to find, he knew what had happened in the forest.

"Jaide, yes, I gave her the pendant. Is she some sort of criminal?" Patrick worries.

Patrick does not want to be involved with the law.

Alistair laughs. "Oh, she is no criminal, but the woman she works for is the greatest criminal of our time. I need to get that pendant back from her. Do you know where she went?"