The Blood King's Love

Fifteen

"Excuse me sir, would you be interested in buying this golden pendant?"

"Groceries! Fresh groceries!"

"Velvet scarves for your wives! Only sixty rupees a piece!"

I'm in awe of the spectacle around me. The ruckus, the beautiful garments on display, the rich-looking merchants arguing about the fairness of a price--Theo has led me right into a bazaar I've only read about in novels. Never in my life have I seen so many colors, so many people, so many things in one place. Eseq had such markets but in a much smaller, less exciting scale. 

I fight the urge to stop and admire everything around me, but every time I start to drift off Theo tugs on my sleeve. I have to remember how much danger I'm in. I secure the scarf around my face tighter and avoid any eye contact these shop owners are trying to give me. Instead I force myself to keep my head down, watching Theo's feet as he leads me in and out of every street. The boy himself wears a scarf to cover up his face, and while I don't understand why, I figure he just wants to look the same as me. 

He leads me into a store of fresh fruits and vegetables, and he tells me I can get anything I want. At first I only get a few liters of water and some basic foods, but looking around at my options, my mouth gets watery. There's a box of starfruit and dragonfruit, things I never could've dreamed of back in Eseq. Theo sees me eyeing it and drops a handful into a shopping bag. "I told you, get whatever you want," he whispers. I smile, pinching his cheek, and get a few more things before leaving the store. 

"Be careful!" We walk back into the street as he starts to scold me. "You can't be too girly."

I frown, as if to say How am I being girly?

"Pinching cheeks and frolicking around a grocery shop is very girly!" 

I roll my eyes and ruffle his hair, but secretly I take what he says into account. My disguise is pretty proficient--I've already seen several people walk by with long clothing covering their body and face (yes, they're wearing jewelry and walking next to a camel and a servant, but that's beside the point)--but apparently I still walk like a woman, and I need to do everything to divert eyes away from me. 

We buy a few more things and walk for a little while longer until Theo stops to turn to me. "There's a...a book place around the corner. Let's go."

At first I want to tell him not to worry about it, since we've gotten basically everything I need, but then I remember how incredibly boring it is at the tree house, so we turn our heels in unison and I oblige to follow him. 

The "book place" he mentions turns out to be a library on the least busy corner in the entire bazaar, which is both a little disappointing but mostly exciting for me; as soon as I walk into that library and the smell of manila pages and wooden book shelves overwhelms my senses, I almost jump with exhilaration. This is the biggest library I've ever seen. From head to toe, covered in books in all shapes and sizes--so many books, in fact, that someone had to build a shelf into the wall and the floor to hold everything. 

I check to see if there's no people around, and when there aren't, I drop my bag of groceries into the hands of a bored-looking Theo and go head-first into the aisle in front of me. It's a section on Art History, which is already great, since I'm not that well versed on the subject. There's even a couple manifestos and Valon propaganda pamphlets about how the country revolutionized the history of architecture. That's actually a common trend I see in every aisle in this place--whether it's about a famous war, or a religion, or even in fiction, these books portray Valon like it's better than heaven. Obviously I see through the bullshit, but it's intriguing enough for me to tuck a couple under my arm as I continue exploring.