7
UNREQUITED LOVE
It took three days for Chulla to find a caravan willing to take them to Valez’Mui, though neither Pasha nor Anna could figure out what the girl had offered in return. They waited a week to depart. Anna didn’t trust her. Chulla seemed too interested in helping them, and Anna found her habit of muttering to herself disconcerting. Anna was sure whatever the girl mouthed under her breath was in a language different than both her native tongue, that was so close to their own, and the trade language she’d been teaching them, but Pasha told her not to worry about it. He was growing close to Chulla, despite her young age, which only fed Anna’s distrust.
The caravan was massive. Nine hundred merchants and servants. Five ruling Artisans—a concept the siblings didn’t comprehend—e
