Suthe had expected that staying holed up in a building for days on end would be boring. But perhaps she just hadn't realized how frustrating the boredom would be. There was nothing to do but either practice her meditation and the few self-defense moves Nem Koel had taught her, watch Ulsper's combat exercises, or eat. She looked forward to Nem Koel's visits the most, as the trainee brought not only delicious Andilirish food but news of the outside world as well.

Nem Koel was also someone else to talk to besides Ulsper. Otherwise, Suthe felt she would go mad soon if she weren't able to go outside and interact with society like a normal person. It had been a week, and there was still no word from General Seolosu Yenh or any updates on the hidden swords. The only news from Montmyth had been a raid of a caravan in the lands east of Crestdune, where as many as forty suspected druiths had been arrested and taken to the capital in Isendorn.

And that was another frustration. There was still no formal announcement about why Suthe's government had suddenly taken such a strong interest in rounding up her kind. If it really did have to do with the newfound proof that the Twin Blades actually existed, there was no telling when she'd be able to return home. Would she ever be able to see her mother again?

Suthe stared up at the ceiling, gaze running across one of the beams as her worries piled on top of each other. It was late, and she should have been sleeping, but she still wasn't used to sharing a room with someone else, let alone a rogue Sylterran spy. A male spy.

At least he didn't snore.

Suthe's gaze darted to the far corner of the room, where the dark shape of Ulsper lay, chest slowly rising and falling in slumber. At least one of them could sleep easy.

Suthe huffed out a breath and turned on her side, forcing her eyes to close. But sleep refused to come. Instead, her memory replayed the day that she had run from home, chased by soldiers as others were dragged out of their homes, kicking and screaming. What had happened to her mother after she left? Had she been arrested too?

Outside the room, something clanged against what sounded like one of the long wooden tables in the main area of the building. Suthe froze, eyes shooting back open. Seconds passed, and then there was a bit of scuffling before things grew quiet again.

She sat up, heart pounding. Was it Saer Lon? She hadn't seen the tradeswoman in days. What would she be doing up in the middle of the night?

Ulsper's still sleeping, so everything should be all right, she reasoned. He's trained to wake up if there's any real danger, isn't he?

Her reasoning didn't ease her anxiety. Truth be told, Suthe would have preferred a palm-sized ambush beetle guarding the room, rolled up on top of the doorjamb and waiting to jump down on any intruders. The spy, in comparison, was still too mysterious and unpredictable for Suthe to be able to fully trust him yet.

Nem Koel's warning of the clockwork soldiers echoed in Suthe's memory, as did flickering images of her terrible dream her first night in Andilir. The sound just now had been a bit too metallic to be dismissed so easily—but surely the clockwork soldiers only patrolled the streets outside?

With a sigh, Suthe stood and stepped off the sleeping platform. Her fatigued imagination was going wild, and she wouldn't be able to have peace of mind until she found out for herself.

It's probably just a rat that knocked something on the floor, anyway, she figured. But just in case...

Suthe tiptoed to the door and cracked it open. Dim candlelight glowed from the far end of the building, near the shelf with the porcelain bottles.

Suthe gulped. A rat wouldn't have a candle.

Hesitantly, she stuck a bare foot outside the room, setting it down carefully on the cold wood floor so as not to make any noise. Her progress was going well, until she shifted her weight to move her other foot, and a floorboard creaked.

Suthe froze with a wince, ears straining for any sound behind her to let her know that Ulsper had woken up.

Silence.

Suthe slowly continued towards the light, mentally cursing along the way at any floorboard that complained beneath her weight as though she were a mammoth Crevvanese dune bird and not just some girl from Montmyth. Finally, Suthe made it out from the hallway behind the stairs and was able to take a better look at what was going on.

Oddly enough, there was no one standing by the candle, Suthe realized. The main area of the building was empty, but the flame flickered away, set on the fourth-highest shelf of porcelain bottles.

Suthe squinted closer at one of the red paper labels, but soon gave up at trying to read the complicated letters of the Shun Dwo alphabet. Ulsper had been adamant that she not sample the drinks, but she couldn't deny her curiosity about a drink so prized that selling it could save an empty building like this one from debt collectors.

With a last look around to confirm that no one was watching, Suthe picked up the bottle nearest the candle and pulled out the porcelain stopper. She could at least get a whiff, to see whether it was wine or some sort of hard liquor.

Suthe brought the bottle to her nose, then frowned. If it was alcohol, why didn't it smell like it? In fact, there was hardly any smell at all. Was it even alcohol to begin with? Or was Saer Lon selling the drinks, as they were known in Montmyth, 'with loose teeth'?

In a moment of impulse, Suthe tilted the bottle and took a swig. If Saer Lon was skimping on the alcohol in her drinks, it wouldn't hurt to have a taste. But what Suthe tasted instead made her look back at the bottle again in surprise.

"It's just water," she muttered aloud, brows furrowing in confusion. Water with a hint of lemon, perhaps, but still just plain water all the same. Why would Ulsper have told her the drinks were illegal?

Suthe took another gulp, just to make sure.

It still tasted the same, though the slight taste of lemon did make it seem more refreshing than just flavorless water, at least. As Suthe inspected the other jars to see if perhaps there was some difference between the bottles and she had just happened to choose some sort of decoy, she took another sip.  Each taste seemed more delicious than the last, but there was still no hint of alcohol in the beverage.

Then she heard voices. Not in her head, thankfully, but as they were coming from right outside the front door and coming her way, Suthe might have preferred if the drink had made her hallucinate instead.

The voices were growing louder, murmuring sentences of Shun Dwo that Suthe had no hope of understanding. She needed to hide now, or they'd find her!

So why was she still standing, frozen in horror and waiting for the door to open?

A hand suddenly clamped over her mouth and pulled her backwards. Suthe started to scream, and instinctively thrashed backwards before she recognized the voice at her ear.

"Stay silent, would you?" Ulsper muttered, his warm breath grazing along her jawline as he held her still against him.

Suthe relaxed and nodded, and Ulsper withdrew his hand, instead taking the bottle from hers and giving it a swirl to test its weight. He let out a disbelieving breath when he felt how light it was.

"Suthe, you—"

The doorknob at the front door turned, and Suthe suddenly found herself yanked behind the closest wooden pillar supporting the balcony that went around the second floor. Foreign words flowed and jabbed through the air in alternating measures, and Suthe frowned as she tried to make sense of the strange sounds.

Shadows flickered on the wall behind them. Four—no, five, people. Two female voices whispered against the backdrop of other muttered male voices. What was going on?

Suthe peeked around the pillar, just in time to catch a small group standing in front of the shelf of bottles. She scarcely had enough time to recognize Saer Lon as one of the two women before Ulsper yanked her back again.

"Smugglers," he breathed in her ear, somehow understanding her unspoken question. "Not a word."

Suthe nodded, but the action made her head spin, and she gripped more tightly to the pillar in front of them. She frowned at the sensation. Why, it almost felt as though she were...

She glanced down to the porcelain bottle still in Ulsper's grip, gleaming pearl-like in the shadows beneath the second-floor balcony. No, it had definitely been water she had tasted. But then why did she suddenly feel so giddy?

Suthe shook her head at her confusion, and would have fallen off-balance had it not been for Ulsper's grip on her upper arm keeping her in place. What in the world was that drink she had consumed? Her heart thudded in her chest as the smugglers with Saer Lon began moving the bottles on the shelf, clinking the porcelain together. Behind her, Suthe felt Ulsper shift to get a view from around the pillar.

She wanted to ask what was going on, but was afraid any sound would give them away. Questioningly, she looked up to Ulsper, willing him to give her a hint, at least. As though feeling her gaze on him, he glanced down at her for a moment, though only to give a brief shake of the head when their eyes met. His message was still the same, and sounded almost as loudly in her mind as though he had spoken it aloud.

Not a word.

Suthe sucked in a breath, suddenly realizing she had been holding it for a while. As long as they stayed hidden, they would be fine. There was no need to worry. And yet, a horrible question still sounded in her mind, twisting worry deeper into her heart.

What will happen if they discover us?

Ulsper's head turned back to her, a frown creasing his brow. Suthe gripped the pillar tighter at his expression. Was it something the smugglers were saying? Were they in trouble?

Ulsper opened his mouth to say something—too slow. There was a yell of outrage from the middle of the room, and Suthe instinctively poked her head around the pillar to see what was going on. One of the men was pointing at a spot on the shelf next to the candle—the empty spot where Suthe had taken one of the bottles from. They had noticed its absence, it seemed, and were now arguing with Saer Lon, who was vehemently shaking her head and raising her hands in supplication.

A shift behind Suthe carried a faint trace of cedar, and she turned her head only to find Ulsper almost nose-to-nose with her.

"Stay here, and don't say a word," he muttered, hazel-brown eyes boring into hers. There was a small ring of gold around each of his irises, and, fascinated, Suthe was temporarily distracted.

"Suthe."

She gave a start and blinked, then nodded furiously. There was definitely something wrong with her. Not drunk—she couldn't be—but something similar. Why else would she suddenly be obsessing over the color of a man's irises when they were in danger of being discovered?

A danger, Suthe soon learned, that Ulsper promptly walked right into. Without another word, he took a swig from the bottle in his hands and rounded the pillar, stepping out and into clear view of the smugglers before Suthe could pull him back.

All arguing immediately ceased, and Suthe could only cringe from behind the pillar, listening as Ulsper's footsteps slowly made their way further into the center of the room.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Wowww it's been forever and a day but I finally got this chapter finished, good riddance.  You know those parts of the story you just spend forever on to the point you end up hating them?  Thank you, writer's block...  Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who's been commenting and voting, especially TheDeadlyDoge, Thomas-LF, and Dragonrat703--you all really helped give me that motivational push I needed to finally spit this chapter out.  So thank you, thank you, thank you!!!