Free Aurelia by Anne Osterlund Page B

side slowed her to a walk. Her earlier flight had cost her. she should not be running. For that matter, she should not be hiding and skulking in disguise. she was the future ruler of this city. she should be free to stroll its streets whenever she wanted. Aurelia kicked a broken stone into the gutter and watched it skid over the holes of a grate before plummeting into the sewer below.
    Where to now? Not the palace. Not that gilt prison of her stepmother's with its tapestry barriers and filigree locks. The wharf seemed the ideal refuge, its port filled with ships headed for exotic lands such as the Outer realms. To think, if she stowed away in one of those creaking hulls, she could set foot in a foreign country. The lure of the water pulled like a hook lodged in the tissue of her chest. Her steps quickened, and she lifted her head.
    Away. she must get away from the suffocation of her life, the pressure to marry, and the people she could not rely upon. every time she thought she could trust someone--
    Aurelia brushed back the thought and the hurt that came with it. she must escape.

    robert wanted to leap after her, tell her she was not going to win by leaving. but the truth bound him in the alley. Clearly, she knew he had been keeping information from her, and whatever she knew was a long way from the whole truth. If I stop her, what can I tell her? He had been ordered not to inform her of the assassination plot. Ordered by the king. The king!
    Her anger didn't bother him, but the hurt he had seen in her face did. That same look had gripped him in the tent earlier. He was unsure whether he could . . . whether he should . . . curse it! suddenly he did not know anything.
    Then a chill crackled through his body. While he had been standing still, thinking about his reaction to the argument, she had slipped off among the city streets alone--alone in a city she had nearly been killed in the night before.
    He rushed to the end of the alley. Vacant walls and shuffling strangers met his gaze. searching at random would be foolish. He had no idea where to look, and she did not want to be found, at least not by him. Hoping she was disguised as well as she believed, he plunged back into the fairgrounds, aiming for Fielding's tent.
    The horseman was waiting for him, or rather he was still in his tent, talking with a restless bay stallion. Horizon snorted as robert's head slipped under the heavy canvas flap. drew straightened to his full height. "When I invited you in here, lad, I did not know I was signing up to watch over a horse."
    robert shrugged. "my apologies." He knew his hopes of being overlooked by this man were shredded. Aurelia trusted drew. That much was clear; and based on the information the horseman had shared about the stallion, there was little chance drew could be involved in the assassination plot. robert resolved to open up as much as necessary if it would help him find the princess.
    keeping a hand wrapped around Horizon's reins, Fielding sat down, kicked his feet up on the white box, and gestured for robert to take the other chair. "We have a discussion to resume. Thus far I've been doing all the talking, a point I failed to notice until you took off."
    determined not to waste time, robert said, "I need to know where Aurelia might go in the city. she may be in danger."
    "That girl?" Fielding scoffed. "If she ever was in danger, all she'd have to do would be to announce her real identity. Folks in the city would rather see her on the throne than her father. Without her as his heir, the king would have lost his hold on their loyalty years ago. she stole the people's hearts at the age of three when she threw herself on her brother's coffin at the state funeral. besides, she can blend in with anyone."
    robert filed away drew's comments, wondering how many enemies Aurelia had made in her unintended quest for popularity. "you're saying she does this often, coming into the city in disguise?"
    drew laughed. "she knows the veins