Page 4 (1/2)

"Then steal the htened"

Yrene pulled back "I’o take it"

This girl wasn’t like wildfire--she ildfire Deadly and uncontrollable And slightly out of her wits

"More than enough people believe that these days," Yrene ventured to say Like Adarlan Like those rin faded "So you’d rather rot away here with a clean conscience?"

Yrene didn’t have a reply, so she didn’t say anything as she set down the rag and bowl and pulled out a small tin of salve She kept it for herself, for the nicks and scrapes she got while working, but this cut was sently as she could, she sirl didn’t flinch this tiirl asked, "When did you lose your o" Yrene kept her focus on the wound

"That was a hard tiifted healer on this continent, especially in Fenharrow The King of Adarlan didn’t leave much of its people--or royal fairl’s eyes had turned into a scorching blue flae What had she been through to make her look like that?

She didn’t ask, of course And she didn’t ask how the young woolden skin and brown hair were probably enough to ht accent didn’t give her away

"If you er shifting as if she had shoved it down deep inside her, "ould you do afterward?"

Yrene picked up one of the fresh bandages and began wrapping it around the girl’s arm She’d dreamed about it for years, contemplated a thousand different futures while she washed dirty s and swept the floors "I’d come back Not to here, I mean, but to the continent Go back to Fenharrow There are a … a lot of people who need good healers these days"

She said the last part quietly For all she knew, the girl ht report her to the s Yrene had seen it happen before, far too irl looked toward the door with its makeshift bolt that Yrene had constructed, at the closet that she called her bedroom, at the threadbare cloak draped over the half-rotted chair against the opposite wall, then finally back at her It gave Yrene a chance to study her face Seeing how easily she’d trounced those mercenaries, whoever had harmed her must be fearsome indeed

"You’d really come back to this continent--to the empire?"

There was such quiet surprise in her voice that Yreneto do," was all Yrene could think of to say

The girl didn’t reply, and Yrene continued wrapping her ared on her shirt and tunic, tested her arm, and stood In the craer, even if there were only a few inches’ difference between theirl picked up her cloak but didn’t don it as she took a step toward the closed door

"I could find soirl paused with a hand on the doorknob and looked over her shoulder "These are meant to be a reminder"

"For what? Or--to whom?" She shouldn’t pry, shouldn’t have even asked

She sht of the scars she’d seen on her body and wondered if those were all re woain "Whether you stay, or go to Antica and attend the Torre Cesme and return to save the world," sheor two about defending yourself"

Yrene eyed the daggers at the girl’s waist, the sword she hadn’t even needed to draels eht The girl had to be fabulously wealthy, richer than Yrene could ever conceive of being "I can’t afford weapons"

The girl huffed a laugh "If you learn these maneuvers, you won’t need them"

Celaena took the barmaid into the alley, if only because she didn’t want to wake the other inn guests and get into yet another fight She didn’t really knohy she’d offered to teach her to defend herself The last time she’d helped anybody, it had just turned around to beat the hell out of her Literally

But the barmaid--Yrene--had looked so earnest when she talked about helping people About being a healer

The Torre Cesme--any healers worth their salt knew about the acadehtest, no matter their station, could study Celaena had once drea in the fabled crea streets of Antica and seeing wonders brought in froo A different person ago

Not now, certainly And if Yrene stayed in this gods-forsaken town, other people were bound to try to attack her again So here Celaena was, cursing her own conscience for a fool as they stood in the misty alley behind the inn

The bodies of the three ht Yrene cringing at the sound of scurrying feet and soft squeaking The rats hadn’t wasted any tiirl’s wrist and held up her hand "People--men--usually don’t hunt for the woht They’ll pick you because you look off-guard or vulnerable or like you’d be sympathetic They’ll usually try to move you to another location where they won’t need to worry about being interrupted"

Yrene’s eyes ide, her face pale in the light of the torch Celaena had dropped just outside the back door Helpless What was it like to be helpless to defend yourself? A shudder that had nothing to do with the rats gnawing on the dead h her

"Do not let the froht her She’d learned self-defense before she’d ever learned to attack anyone, and to first fight without weapons, too

"Fight back enough to convince them that you’re not worth it And h, I bet no one will bother co your head off about a fire--not rape, not theft, not so doesn’t discourage theht et theo of you, your biggest priority is getting the hell away You understand? They let you go, you run"