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stopped me. Something in his face, in his being, called out to the kin in mine and drew me to him.
    “Little sister, what is your name?” His eyes crinkled at the corners. The words flew from his lips in the language of my people, sweet and smooth like dripping honey.
    “I am Tera.” I bowed my head, since I was addressing an elder.
    “Talmir is my name. By the spirits, I both laugh and cry at the sight of you.”
    I understood what he meant as I felt the same—happy to find one of my own, sad for he shared my sorry fate. I had so much to ask him, so much to tell. Two people standing together were ten times stronger than one. Hope filled my heart with warmth for the first time since I left our shores.
    “Talmir—”
    I fell silent as Kumra walked through the doors.
    “Here.” Talmir snatched a small sweetcake from the table and handed it to me behind his back. “Come back when you can.”
    I nodded my thanks, then ran out through the back with my buckets before Kumra could stop me.
    I passed by servants singing as they worked. Two older women made a bawdy joke about men, and the rest broke out laughing. Strange they were, living in servitude like this, yet happy when their masters weren’t watching.
    Among my people, serenity and composure were the most valued traits. The Kadar, even their servants, seemed to live without restraint. They fought hard and laughed hard and danced hard, as if having no control at all over their emotions. At times they seemed like undisciplined children to me.
    I did return to Talmir many times. I learned he had been kidnapped on the streets of Tezgin by mercenaries who did not understand that all Shahala could not heal. After they realized Talmir could not help them, they beat him and sold him to a slave trader who in turn sold him to the House of Tahar.
    “My mother had come to these lands some time ago,” I told him one day. “Her name was Chalee. Have you met her?”
    His eyebrows rose. “Chalee of Sheharree?”
    I nodded.
    “I heard of her fame.”
    “She came to heal the High Lord, and then she died. Do you know where her body is resting?”
    “The High Lord lives in the fortress city of Karamur. You would have to inquire that way.”
    Karamur . I tasted the name, which meant eagles’ nest in Kadar. I had no idea how far or which way the fortress city lay. My shoulders slumped. “I would wish to recite the Last Blessing over her grave.” 
    “Say it from afar,” Talmir advised. “If ever the chance comes for you to escape, flee straight for our Shahala lands. Forget about the fortress city.”
    He would not escape with me, but he would help. He had a wife now—almost a wife, except for the nights when a warrior came to their shared pallet and Talmir had to wait outside under the stars. He had children, a girl and a boy.
    “Avoid going inland. There are more towns like this there, all the way to the desert,” he said one time as we huddled in the corner of the kitchen. “Do not go straight to the harbor, either. You will not be able to sneak onto a ship. They will look for you there.”
    I nodded, excitement like a chatty little creek rushing in my veins.
    “Go to the hills. The rocks will hide your tracks.”
    The hills. My heart beat faster. I knew the plants that grew in the hills. They would feed and shelter me. 
    “The hills follow the coastline all the way to the next port town.” He kept an eye on the door, always on guard. “As long as your hair is not shorn, you can pretend to be a free woman. That will save you on the streets, but we have to think of something for booking passage on a ship. Concubines do not travel. Maybe a merchant’s wife.”
    “Or a traveling healer.” My mother had traveled like that to the Kadar to help their High Lord. “I will need a length of cloth that could serve as the healer’s veil.”
    “Fine cloth like that is difficult to find.”
    The laundry was closely guarded by those who received the chore. One small tear,