Brian McClellan - The Girl of Hrusch Avenue

"Sure," Vlora said.

Taniel came around again three days later, accompanied by another boy. The other boy had long, reddish-brown hair and was a little taller and broader of shoulder than Taniel. Vlora saw them coming from her hiding spot above Hrusch Avenue and went down to meet them.

"This is my brother, Borbador," Taniel introduced the other boy. "You can call him Bo. He's a good fighter. He'll help us if the Bulldog Twins come around."

Bo extended a hand, and Vlora shook it. It seemed like a very grown-up thing to do.

"I haven't seen them for a couple days," Vlora said. "I think they're scared after the licks they got."

Taniel's somber face suddenly lit with a grin. "My dad taught my how to fight. He says never to start a fight if you know you can't win."

"But you do anyways," Bo said.

Taniel sniffed and shot Bo a look. "Bo's not really my brother. He's my best friend, but he does live with us. Bo was from the orphanage. He's a street kid, like you, even though he doesn't live on the street any more."

"Oh," Vlora said, feeling her cheeks turn red. "I'm not a street girl."

"You're not?"

"My parents were…" she stopped, remembering how the other children always called her "Little Highness" when she told them her parents had been nobles. "My parents are dead. I live at a school for girls, but I ran away."

Taniel nodded seriously. "Governesses and teachers are all the same," he said. "I don't like governesses. We have a new one every couple of weeks." He shared an unreadable glance with Bo. "Why did you run away?"

Vlora was about to explain when she spotted someone over Taniel's shoulder. "Quick," she said, "over here."

They ducked into the nearest alley and Taniel peered out into the street curiously. "Is it the Bulldog Twins?"

"No," Vlora said, "It's a noble." She held out her arm for Taniel to see the long gash running the length of it. It still throbbed whenever she moved her arm and it was only now starting to heal. "He did this to me when I scared his horse." The very thought of it made her angry.

"Which one?" Bo asked.

Vlora pointed to a man on horseback in the middle of the thoroughfare. She wouldn't forget his pockmarked face.

He was riding a different horse from last time and he wore a white uniform jacket with gold epaulettes. A sword hung at his side. His shoulders were wide, and his blonde hair was tucked back beneath a white and gold bicorn.

"That's Baron Fendamere," Taniel said.

"You know him?"

"I've seen him before. My dad knows him."

"Is your dad a noble?" Vlora looked Taniel up and down. He didn't seem like a nobles' son. Nobles' sons didn't wander around the city by themselves.

"No, he's a powder mage. He doesn't like nobles."

Vlora didn't know what a powder mage was. Before she could ask, Taniel went on.

"Dad says there's nobody crueler in the Adran nobility than Baron Fendamere. See that sword at his hip? Dad says he's a hab… hab…"

"Habitual," Bo prompted.

"Habitual duelist. He'll fight anyone he can. Dad says that on campaign in Gurla, the baron would kill women and children for sport."

Vlora spotted a steaming pile of horse dung on the cobbles nearby.

"Want to throw shit at him?"

The boys agreed, and they each gathered up a handful of manure and slowly stalked Fendamere down the street as he rode along at a slow canter.

Vlora ducked behind a pair of barrels and turned to her accomplices. "Ready?" she asked.

The two boys nodded, and they stepped out from behind their cover and each of them aimed and threw. Bo's shot missed, while Taniel's slapped into the baron's white uniform jacket and Vlora's smacked wetly against the back of the baron's neck.

The baron whirled, a roar on his lips, but Taniel was already sprinting down the street. Vlora followed hard on his heals, Bo taking up the rear.

"Can you climb?" Vlora asked between breaths. Not waiting for an answer, she swerved down an alley. "This way!"

She shimmied up her drain pipe to the roof above Hrusch Avenue. Taniel and Bo followed her up.

They lay low for some time, watching the baron rage in the street below, kicking over powder barrels and display stands, cursing those damned gutter rats. He looked everywhere for them, enlisting the help of several shop apprentices, before finally giving up and heading off.

Bo slipped away not long after, saying something about an older girl he meant to see.

When Bo had gone, Vlora led Taniel to her spot above the alley where the gunsmiths test-fired their muskets. The alley was empty, but the residual smell of gunpowder made Vlora feel happy.

They threw pieces of broken clay shingles off the rooftop, listening to them clatter in the alley below.

Vlora remembered what Taniel had said earlier about his father. "What's a powder mage?" she asked.

"You don't know?" Taniel pulled his arm back and threw a piece of shingle across the alley, where it hit the slanting roof of the opposite building and rolled back down, catching in a gutter.

"Of course I do," she said. "I was only joking."

"Oh."

She waited a few moments, then felt guilty for the lie. "I don't, really. I just didn't want you to think I was stupid."

"Well," Taniel said, "Everyone should know what a powder mage is."

Vlora looked down at her hands. He did think she was stupid, didn't he?

"I mean, so I'll tell you," Taniel went on. "A powder mage is a man who can manipulate gunpowder with the force of his mind," Taniel said. "He can breathe it and taste it and it makes him stronger and faster than regular men. A powder mage can shoot bullets over great distances, miles even!" Taniel leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. "Powder mages can even kill Privileged sorcerers."

Vlora had been enjoying his story until then. She turned away and folded her arms.

"What?" Taniel asked.

"You do think I'm stupid."

"I don't."

"You do. Nobody can kill Privileged sorcerers."

"Powder mages can. They have."

"It's not true."

"They can! I swear it."

"How do you know?"

"Because my father is one, and he has killed Privileged before. And someday, I'm going to be a powder mage."

Vlora still didn't believe it. Privileged sorcerers were the most powerful people in the Nine. They could level cities with the flick of their fingers. Who could possibly kill one of them? She tried to imagine what it would be like to kill someone as powerful as a Privileged when a sudden thought sparked in her mind like flint striking steel.

She leaned close to Taniel. "Can a woman be a powder mage?" she asked in a whisper.

"Sure. My mom was a powder mage, too. When she was… alive."

Vlora tried to contain her excitement. She shifted closer to the edge of the roof so that her feet dangled over. "I'm going to be a powder mage."

"You can't," Taniel said.

"Why not? I thought you said women could be powder mages."

"Some women can. Only people with the talent can be a powder mage. Dad says it's very rare."

Vlora sniffed. "I want to be a powder mage."

"Sorry."

They sat in silence for some time before Taniel got to his feet. "I should get home. I've got school in the morning."

"Thanks for throwing shit at the baron with me," Vlora said.

Taniel smiled at her. "Let's do it again soon."

Amory caught up to Vlora the next week.

Vlora was in Bakerstown. She'd found a twenty krana coin in the street and planned on buying a hot pie to share with Taniel and Bo. The coin clutched in one hand, she had her face pressed up against a baker's front window, peering in at all the delicacies.

Someone grabbed her by the ear and jerked her backwards. Vlora felt a thrill of fear run through her. Had the Bulldog Twins caught up to her? Or maybe the cruel baron?