Sin Eater's Daughter 2 - The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury Page B

hidden. People might overreact.”
    I swallow, my skin heating, and the two of us fall silent. I lower my head and look at him subtly through my lashes, trying to reconcile the man I’ve known for the last three moons with the one before me now. He’s absolutely not what I expected him to be and it makes me feel embarrassed. I look up to see him watching me closely in return, as though I’ve caused the new dynamic in the room, not him.
    “What are you thinking?” His words startle me.
    “I just… You’re not how I imagined you.”
    He reddens and says “Oh” in a way that makes me blush too.
    “What’s the black stuff for, around your eyes?” I ask hurriedly, trying to brush past the odd moment.
    “It helps keep them shadowed. In case anyone came close enough to peer up there.”
    I feel my skin heating again. “Of course.” We lapse back into an awkward silence, him toying with the fingers of his gloves, me looking anywhere but at him.
    “What about your family?” I ask him. “Are they… Do they look like you? I just… It’d be good to know, in case I bump into anyone else like – I mean – with your colouring.”
    He looks down into his lap, his hands fidgeting before he speaks, his voice measured. “Well, my father’s dead. He had an accident while working.” There’s the briefest of pauses between his words, and I feel my eyes widen with the realization that we share this common sadness. “My mother lives with a group of women near the East Mountains. I lived with her, until recently. Then I came here.”
    “From Lormere?”
    “Yes.” He looks away, and then back at me. “I left before the Sleeping Prince arrived.” I hear an edge to his voice.
    “You don’t have a Lormerian accent.”
    “If I had it might have saved you thinking I was that … thing.” He looks at me sharply and then looks away.
    “You don’t get to be cross with me, Silas. It’s not fair. You know it isn’t.”
    He nods.
    “Is your mother safe, in Lormere?” I ask after a moment.
    “Yes, she’s fine. They all are. Thankfully the temple they live in is remote, and well hidden.”
    “She lives in a temple? Is she … Has she taken orders?” He blinks and then nods hesitantly, and Kirin’s terrible words about what the Sleeping Prince is doing to the holy people come back to me. “Oh Gods, Silas. You have to get her out of there.”
    “She … can’t leave yet.” He looks down at his hands. “She’s fine, though. The person I met earlier was a messenger from her.”
    “Silas, this is serious. If he – if the Sleeping Prince finds them, he’ll… He shows no mercy.”
    “She’s bound to the temple, Errin. She can’t leave.” I open my mouth to speak but he interrupts. “I know, Errin. Believe me, I know what he’s doing there. But … she has a job to do. There are things that need to be moved from the temple before he has chance to destroy it. It’s important.”
    “Things? Things that are more important than her life?”
    “She would say so, yes. Records. History.”
    I shake my head. I know it’s common in Lormere for widows to join convents, but he has to understand the danger of it now. This is his mother, for the love of the Oak. Nothing in the temple can be worth what the Sleeping Prince will do to them if he finds them.
    “Silas—”
    “It’s why I’m here. This is my link in the chain. I’m helping her get the artefacts and documents over the border while we still can.”
    “Are you out of your mind?” I say. “Are all of you insane? What if you were caught skulking around? What if someone saw you without the cloak? They would think exactly what I did. No artefacts are worth this – the risk is too great – can’t you see that?”
    “It’s less risky for me to be here than it would have been to stay there. Trust me.” He bites his lip as soon as the words have left his mouth, and looks away again.
    And I realize that all of my doubt in him has gone. That he has my