Chapter 9
Pleas not Unheard
NINE YEARS AGO
Zaid attempted to keep up with his mother as she wound her way through the crowd. He could hardly see over the throngs of people, but he knew his mother could. That was her ability; she had the eyesight of a hawk, able to see hundreds of yards away with a crystalline clarity.
He just focused on the bright teal of her dress, trying not to lose his way. It had been almost a year since he had been tapped to be venari. If he had been picked on before, he was all but ostracized now. Some people recognized the changes in his tattoo as he walked through yet another plaza and shied away from him. Bounty hunters were known to be both dangerous and unlucky, apparently even before they started training.
When Savar had marked him nearly a year ago, he ha
