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over by the entrance to an alley beckoning her on no time to calculate she ran as fast as she could in that direction

youll need something better than that to wear

theyd ducked and turned their way down street after street pursued at first by the baying of the crowd but then as the streets began to get darker and smaller and the roofs were closed in by nothing but the buzzing of flies and occasional glances from the darkened windows above them

now they sat in a little square far away from the waterside panting and catching their breath with the aid of some water from the deep cold well

telas clothes were indeed in a state shed lost a sleeve and part of the side of her tunic in the scuffle and the unwieldy garment threatened to come off at any moment revealing all her companion with a cloak and band around her hair could at least claim to be covered im sabra by the way she continued holding out a hand in greeting

tela took the hand im tela thanks for thanks for saving me back there

oh thats okay i know those men they make a disturbance and while everyone in the crowd is watching the show the rest of the gang picks their pockets they have some little children trained for that ive seen it lots of times

what would have happened to me if you hadnt come along

oh they would have called the guard and had you taken to prison it was only when he saw you were a girl disguised as a boy that he really got interested though i guess they started thinking about ransoms and rewards

tela shuddered she could see her escape had been even narrower than shed realised her companion lithe and blonde perhaps a couple of years younger than she was looked back at her good humouredly so are you going to tell me

tell you what

who you are what youre doing out here when you clearly dont know your way around just how bad the trouble is youre in