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pout, sounding very much like a child.
    He nodded with all the sincerity he could show.
    “Will there... be food? And beds?”
    Hope tweaked the corner of his mouth into a small smile. He stood and stretched a hand to her, which, after one false start, she took gingerly. He then offered a hand to Eloryn.
    Looking defeated, Eloryn brought herself up to her feet with the wall as her aid, ignoring Roen’s hand. “Memory, I don’t… I don’t want to go with him.”
    Roen put on his most charming, pleading look for Memory, who at least acknowledged his presence. He didn’t know how she fitted into this situation, but if she could help persuade Eloryn to come with him, that was what mattered right now. No girl he’d ever known had been able to say no to that look.
    “We need rest. We’re a mess, Lory. I don’t think either of us knows what we’re doing. We might as well have had flashing lights on our heads out there. If he can help us get away from here then I vote we go with him.” Memory’s voice became a little kinder. “If he was going to rat us out, he had his chance before. He’s helped us twice already. That has to count for something.”
    Eloryn gave the faintest nod.
    Roen dug Eloryn’s bag out of the debris pile where it had fallen and walked back to her.
    “My name is Roen. Here.” He did not pass the bag to her this time. Instead, he draped the large satchel by its strap over her shoulder and across her torso. His hand brushed her waist while he adjusted the strap and pressed the bag to her side. “Wear it like this. Keep it always close to your body.” Letting the bag go, he stood the barest space away from her. “You should take more care of your belongings, and try not to be so tempting with thieves about.”
    “Oh, come on,” said Memory. “You’re going to make her faint again.”
     

     
    Memory walked beside Eloryn, following more than a few steps behind Roen. He led them through a system of tunnels under the town. Tunnels and caves were almost all Memory knew of life so far. Maybe that was why she didn’t feel the discomfort that being down here seemed to bring out in the other two. Maybe she was just too tired. No, she was definitely too tired. She felt like a visitor in her own body. It kept moving along of its own accord. She barely felt the ache anymore.
    Earlier while they walked around the market, Memory had fished through all her pockets, trying to find out something about herself. Lots of things came to her naturally – words, actions, general knowledge - but still not a single memory of herself or her past had come back. She felt like she was learning everything from scratch again. I don’t even know what I look like.
    Her heart had sunk when she found a crumbled mess of multi-colored metal and plastic in her back pocket. She guessed it might have been a phone, before it was crushed some time during their hazardous journey the night before. Maybe earlier. When she asked Eloryn if she had a phone she could use, Eloryn looked at her as if she spoke a foreign language. Not that she knew any numbers or names of people to call anyway. But still, everything felt so strange. Magic. No phones. The fancy clothing everyone wore. Maybe she’d gotten lost at a LARP convention. Maybe she was just more messed up in the head than she thought.
    That is entirely likely , she thought, glumly. She second guessed the reality of everything she’d seen so far. Dragons, moving trees and trolls were hard to believe after all. Even that beast man in the forest. She’d thought at first he was just another of the scary chasing men, but when he took hold of her, he threw her to safety, relatively anyway. She thought she saw recognition of some kind in his wild blue eyes, but in the riot of confusion that formed her first moments of consciousness she couldn’t be sure of anything, not even his existence. How could she ever find him again anyway? She somehow doubted he’d have a phone number, even