Free Magic Can Be Murder by Vivian Vande Velde

never be able to dash to the door, open the latch, run into the courtyard, keep running around to the street, and lose him in a town she barely knew. She would have to do what he said: go calk to this man Galvin.
    Take your time,
she wished at Brinna. The last thing she needed was to have the real Brinna come home.
Tell EVERYBODY in the market EVERYTHING.
    Still, what kind of situation was she putting Brinna into? Once Nola escaped and Brinna came back, what then? She could just imagine these men of Lord Pendaran's saying to Brinna, "But the last time you were here you said..."
    But what could Nola do besides go along with this for now?
    The only way to get to the shop without going back outside was to go through Innis's room. Nola wasn't aware of balking until the soldier tightened his grip on her arm. She had no idea what to expect: Would che body still be there, lying in a pool of blood?
    It was, and it wasn't.
    Innis had been moved from the floor, but he was definitely still in the room. That had to be him on the bed, even though his body had been covered with a blanket. Nola hastily looked away and her gaze went to the floor, to the section that could be taken up—under which Innis had hidden his strongbox, and by which ie had died. Someone—most probably Brinna—had worked hard to clean up the blood. Innis's bedroom was the only one in the house that had a wood floor, and the disadvantage of wood over rushes or a rug was chat you couldn't just pick up what was soiled and replace it with fresh. The blood had soaked into the wood and seeped into the cracks, and even now there was a stain that could have been a residue of the blood itself or perhaps just a water spot where Brinna had soaked the floor while trying to get the blood up. Whether the stain was blood oc water, the smell of blood still hung in the heavy air.
    "Don't look," the soldier told her, which was good advice even if she was supposed to be the one who had cleaned up Innis's blood.
    They entered the silversmith's shop. Even though everybody looked up when the two of them entered the room, the soldier introduced her, sounding as though she was receiving an audience: "The maid, Brinna, is back."
    Pendaran's man Galvin smiled at her. Nobody, she thought, had ever been that pleased to see her when she looked like herself. "Hello," he said, immediately walking away from the other two men.
    Nola was totally aware of her appearance. Brinna was a very attractive young woman, and Nola was sure that accounted for the considerate actencion she was getting, first from the soldier, now from Galvin.
[fit was me,
she thought,
with hair as limp and straight as dead and dried grass, the other one would have said, "Came on, then, snap out of it," and this one wouldn't be so quick to smile at me.
    Well, maybe he would have. They had Innis's ledger op^n, and Nola guessed Galvin and Kirwyn and Alan had been in the middle of trying to take an inventory, to determine if any of che silver had been stolen. Even now Kirwyn and Alan continued to debate whether the woman's bracelet with the embossed cross was missing or if it had been sold or if Master Innis had melted it down and made it into another item. Spend long enough doing that, she had to admit, and Galvin would have been sincerely relieved to see anyone.
    "Well, it's about time," Kirwyn said to her. "Did you feel you had all day to loiter about the market, gossiping, keeping everyone waiting for you?" He made to step past Galvin.
    Without even turning to face him, Galvin put his hand up, a definite "Enough, and step no further" gesture.
    Kirwyn was used to more respect. He stopped, but scowled at Galvin's back.
    Nola realized she was clinging to the soldier's arm when Galvin said, very seriously, as one might to a child, "Truly, I very rarely bite."
    She forced herself to smile. But couldn't resist saying, "Nor do I. Usually."
    His smile almost broadened, but he fought it, perhaps thinking the situation too serious for