Breakfast took too long to finish, and the air deflated out of Sasha's lungs when Rannok took the girl and left. She slid her hands across her face for a moment before returning to the stove. Rosa eyed her with a sideways glance. Sasha hoped for directions without the lecture she could feel brewing. Rosa barely knew her, but Sasha could already tell she was one of those people who liked to shove their nose where it didn't belong.

"He talks too much, doesn't he?" 

Rosa didn't look up as she fetched a couple baskets from inside the drawers. Sasha bit back her disappointment and shrugged. "Usually not enough, actually." 

At least, not enough about anything that mattered. She still remembered his stiff shoulders and hard gaze and sharp words when he'd ridden away from her, as fast as he could toward that town they shouldn't have gone to. Rosa shoved a basket into Sasha's hands, and her fingers automatically closed around the handle.

"You can do better than that," Rosa said. The corners of her mouth curved downward into a frown, and she shook her head. "Much better."

Sasha's shoulders sank, and she locked her eyes on a spot on the wall far ahead as heat rose into her face. She remembered being small and scared and standing in the kitchen over a broken dish. Her mother's voice floated into her head. You know you can do better. Don't be so clumsy. Come before your father sees.

Her face flushed hotter, and a shaky feeling rose in her throat. Her father wasn't here. There wasn't anyone here that could hurt her. Sometimes it was hard to remember that, still. 

"Are you all right? You look like I'd told you that your favorite puppy had been run over in the street."

Sasha blinked and shifted her gaze to Rosa. Her eyebrows were arched in something like concern, though it felt more mocking than that. Sasha shook her head, then nodded. "Yes, I'm fine. Just--"

"Thinking," Rosa replied. The woman reached out and held the door open. "It's a bad thing to do too much, you know. Will drive you crazy if you let it."

Sasha nodded again, then followed Rosa out into the road. The kitchen's back door opened straight into the main street. The surface was lined with gravel, instead of cobbles like there were in Horizon, and towering trees flanked either side. The family's flag flapped in the breeze by the main entrance. Sasha couldn't help but wonder just how much money these people actually had.

"We need to pick up some vegetables for Pirya's dinner before the market fills up and things get picked over," Rosa said, as if she hadn't noticed that Sasha wasn't speaking. She reminded Sasha of a bird as she floated down the roadway, light on her feet, a little bit of a smile in her eyes. "The woman is terribly picky."

"Mm," Sasha said, because she didn't have anything to add to the discussion. She could feel the woman's eyes on her, hot and questioning. Her silent judgment burned into Sasha's skin. She was stupid for coming here. She was stupid for trying to rescue him when he'd rejected her. She could do better. It was enough to make her wish the crow was there for company instead.

They passed in silence for a few moments as the houses grew smaller and less ostentatious. Eventually the buildings lining the road shifted from houses to storefronts, until finally they shifted to market stalls. 

Rosa tugged her toward one of the rows of food vendors. Somehow Sasha had expected more people and more bustling, but the only other people perusing were a few other girls dressed in maid's clothes. The man taking care of the stall barely even glanced at them as Rosa dusted off a string of onions and placed themin Sasha's basket.

"You don't talk much at all, do you?" Rosa said, patting Sasha on the shoulder. 

Sasha flinched, then shrugged again. "I don't have a lot to say."

"I very much doubt that," Rosa replied. She shifted the basket to her other hand and kicked a loose stone farther down the street. "You just think I'm intimidating. You think no matter what you say it's going to be wrong."

Sasha opened her mouth, eyes going straight to the woman's face. Her mouth had twisted into a foxlike smile. "I know your type. Haven't been away from home very long, have you?"

Sasha shook her head. "No. About two years."

Rosa paused, slender fingers brushing her dark hair back out of her face and into the bun she wore on top of her head. "Well. That explains a lot." 

Sasha waited for clarification, but there was none before Rosa started walking again. Her scalp prickled with apprehension. This woman didn't know anything about her.

"I left home on my own," she said, trying to keep the irritation out of her voice." She shoved her loose hand in her pocket and shifted the basket in her palms. "Rannok had nothing to do with it."

"Oh," Rosa replied. "Well, I didn't actually care how you met that stupid boy, but it's up to you if you want to defend him." The woman lifted her chin and smiled. "You remind me of a story I read as a girl, the woman kept bitching about how annoying the man was. I didn't like it very much. Not a very sensible way to show affection, you know?"

Heat crept back up Sasha's neck. She took a big step away from Rosa, toward one of the other stalls, mostly so she could avoid the woman looking back at her. "That's a lot coming from a prostitute."

Sasha's hands darted down to the vegetables. She picked up something green and stalky that smelled like grass as she turned it over in her hands. She couldn't imagine it would be good to eat, but it at least kept her busy enough that she didn't have to look at Rosa.

The woman's laughter filled the air like cackling birds. It made the hairs on Sasha's neck stand up. "I remember my first. Hurt when he left me for some rich woman in a pretty dress. It stops stinging after too long. Do you even know what you're supposed to be getting?"

Sasha's mouth pressed into a thin line.

"I didn't think so." Rosa took the basket from her hands and set it down on the table before placing a few stalks of the leafy green vegetables inside. "Look, I'm just teasing. It's your business."

"Then why did you ask?" Sasha responded, eyes drifting up toward Rosa's face. She could feel the heat still lingering in her cheeks, the embarrassment. She glanced around the market stalls as if expecting that someone might have heard them. That they might have noticed she was broken and started whispering. Eyes of people she couldn't even see bored into her shoulder.

"Curiosity," Rosa said. She picked up a few more things off the table. "I wanted to see what you were made of. If you're curious, I came to the barrier islands because I was bored and stayed there because I was young and liked getting in trouble. It got me a lot of attention."

Sasha didn't say anything as Rosa handed the basket back to her. It was heavy in her hands, a symbol of the people that hired her and how much they had. Sasha hated it. She hated that there was nothing she could do other than wait and figure out how they could escape. 

She hated that Rosa was right, except not in the way she thought. It wasn't her that could do better. She closed her eyes for a moment while Rosa handed off a few coins to the cashier, who had his nose stuffed in a paper. He didn't spare a glance in their direction as they left.

"Come on," Rosa said after a long moment. She pulled on Sasha's arm again and led her back out into the street.