The Ritual by H. Anthe Davis, Erica Dakin

as the full truth.
    Almost. There was still the issue of Zashter’s attitude, which bounced from friendly camaraderie through thinly-veiled impatience to sneering mockery, and that still was something I could not reconcile myself with, even if the friendliness had begun to pervade. Also, dealing with him would be a lot less complicated if he couldn’t fluster me simply by looking at me.
    A wagon rattled past, so close that I had to lurch away, barely rescuing my feet from its steel-rimmed wheels. I watched it draw up by a small door in the wall around the duke’s residence and cocked my head. I sauntered further along the road and pretended to inspect the wares offered up for sale by some grubby farmers too poor to be able to afford a stall in the town market.
    The wagon began unloading crate upon crate of exotic fruit, their sweet smells wafting along the street and making me salivate. As I watched, a second cart drew up behind the first one, this one filled with sacks of flour, sugar and several padded egg-boxes. When my gaze slid past Shani she raised a questioning eyebrow at me, and I gave her a tiny nod.
    She tugged at her tunic, pulling the fabric a little tighter around her curves, and opened up the laces at the top a bit more before sashaying over to the driver of the second cart, who was waiting for the first one to finish with an impatient look on his face. As soon as he spotted my sister his expression changed, and I bit my lip not to laugh when he sucked in his gut.
    “What’s she doing?” Mior whispered, pretending to bump into me. He steadied me with a hand on my shoulder, and I thought I saw annoyance in his eyes.
    “Gathering information, let her be,” I whispered back, moving on before he could ask any more questions and give away that we were here together.
    I pondered over his expression as I pretended further interest in a pitiful heap of shrivelled potatoes. Was he annoyed at Shani flirting with someone else? If so, then why didn’t he take her up on her quite obvious invitations? I glanced over at him and saw him leaning against a building with arms crossed, shoulders hunched and his gaze fixed on Shani with a sullen expression.
    I moved on to a turnip farmer and squeezed a few of his turnips before I dared to check on my sister again. By this point the driver had stepped down and was casually leaning against a wheel to talk to her, and Shani was in full airhead flirty mode, with arms clasped behind her back and bouncing lightly on her heels with her breasts shoved forward. The carter’s eyes drifted between her face and her assets, and I grinned to myself. When she got going, Shani was impossible to resist.
    Except by Mior, of course. I glanced to him again and saw that Zashter was speaking to him. His posture was stiff and he had placed himself squarely in front of M ior, blocking his view of Shani. It looked like he was giving his brother a telling-off, because Mior looked even more sullen than before. As I watched him he pushed away from the wall and brushed past Zashter, nearly unbalancing him, and stalked off back towards the town wall. Zashter rolled his eyes and followed, and I quickly went back to haggling with the turnip vendor.
    It was nearly a quarter-measure later before Shani managed to extricate herself, walking away with that same bouncy, happy-go-lucky step, and I waited ten heartbeats before following her. As soon as I was out of sight of the carters and farmers I caught up with her and gave her a questioning look.
    “Let’s find the boys,” she said quietly. “Saves me from having to repeat myself.”
    “Might not be that easy,” I replied. “It looked like they were having an argument, and Mior stomped off.”
    “Oh?”
    “He didn’t seem happy that you were flirting with that carter.”
    She blushed and a grin formed on her face. “Really?”
    “Well, I don’t know for sure of course, but he looked pretty put out.”
    Her face fell again. “If that’s the