Knight of the Wolf

5: The Full Moon Observed

The three of them—and the fourth spectator being the patrol worker—stared at her in astonishment.

Elan turned to the guard and said, "Shouldn't you be working?"

The guard fidgeted, a guilty smile on her lips. "Yes, but this is more interesting."

"You're going with who?" Dev interrupted, turning back to Zoyla.

"You, of course," she said.

Dev laughed once, and then again with more vigor. When she recovered, Zoyla was scowling at her. She scrounged up some of her sanity to say, "Wait, why?"

Zoyla floundered with her hands for a moment as she wheezed. "To... avenge the princess, of course," she said, strained, and offered a grimace Dev suspected was supposed to be a smile.

Dev opened her mouth, closed it, and decided one attempt was enough. She snatched her papers from Elan, waved it at them all, and said, "I'm leaving."

"Take care!" Elan said.

Zoyla slapped her own papers into the guard's hand, saying, "Not without me! Hurry up with that."

"Yes, ma'am," the guard said, and indeed, hurried along with Zoyla's identification.

Dev shook her head as she passed under the gate and marched along. Beyond the city walls was an immediate, dense city of travelers and businesses intended to capture the eager eyes of newcomers. In other worlds and words: a tourist trap.

Dev shrugged past the street sellers with their sugary candies and fools gold, but all the glamour wasn't enough to dissuade Zoyla from catching up to her several minutes later. Dev spied her in the crowd by accident, and cursed under her breath when she did.

The moment Zoyla bumped up against her shoulder on a crowded side-street, Dev said, "Are you certain you aren't just haunting me to ensure I'm punished for my transgressions?"

"It wasn't your fault," Zoyla said, which struck Dev as rude.

"It—!" Dev started, but the setting was too loud to have a conversation any lower than a screaming match.

She nodded for Zoyla to follow her, and the two of them slipped onto the road that would take them east along the circumference of the imperial city's wall.

Whether or not Zoyla noticed this was unknown, as she was far more interested in studying Dev's face. "It wasn't," she repeated.

"You only say that because—"

"Because I was there," Zoyla stressed, "and you're just a child."

The last time Dev considered herself a child was the day she left for the imperial city—for good.

Zoyla lectured her from the North Gate to the East, only losing pace when Dev wasn't paying attention and kicked into a brisk speed walk. Her spiraling thoughts would come to a crashing halt each time Zoyla chastised her for daydreaming.

Dev twitched in annoyance each time. Her heart hadn't stopped beating itself ragged against her ribcage since they left the city, and it was only a matter of time until her grief caught up to where she left it with Elan and Valor. But there Zoyla was, perhaps one of the closest people to the princess, and she was hardly phased!

Dev whipped around as Zoyla was saying, "—shouldn't have given up all of your belongings—"

"I regret to inform you that your opinion doesn't matter to me."

Zoyla staggered back on her heel. After an hour of nonstop walking, she was startled to hear Dev's voice.

Despite the purpose with which Dev walked, she was struggling to breathe even then. Her chest was constricted by the vice around her heart, and if she loosened it, she'd cry.