A piercing scream shot through Nitya's head, breaking apart every other voice that had been shouting at her and almost causing her to fall. Then there was silence. And then, slowly, she started to hear the actual sounds of the marketplace. Whoever had screamed had silenced her head and vanquished her headache.
When a boy screamed, Nitya couldn't help but look up toward the voice. She immediately regret it. The yeller was far away, and she swore she hadn't even looked in his eyes, but her magic proved otherwise. His pleas for help, for his sister, for freedom were not ignorable. She could hear the sharpness of his pain and, in it, she heard her own past cries for freedom. Except his calls were more desperate and lonely than hers. He had someone he was fighting for, a reason to live. She never did. She still didn't.
Nitya pushed herself forward in the crowd, crying. She wanted to save the girl, to help her, to protect her sister. Why were they taking her sister? They had always been together, they deserved to be bought together.
The auctioneer started trying to sell for the boy. Nitya didn't hear any of it.
If only she could buy her sister back. Ka'lei wasn't crying out anymore, she realized. They must have done something to her, knocked her out or gagged her! If she could auction too, if she could just bid higher than the last man, she could have her sister back. What had he bid? Four gold, four silvers?
"Five gold!" shouted out Nitya, now at the front of the crowd.
Astonishment spread across the crowd. Then, after a brief moment of silence, the auctioneer shouted, "Five gold for the boy!" The magic broke at the word 'boy'. That girl—Ka'lei—wasn't her sister. And the girl wasn't being auctioned anymore anyway, the boy was. She had just bought a slave for no reason.
Even worse, she didn't have the money for it. Nitya knew how this worked. She couldn't just leave, they would send some men after her immediately. But she also couldn't pay, her purse had been stolen. Could she manage to connive them? What would she be able to offer to withdraw her bid? Her dress, surely, even her crown was worth more than enough. But people in this part of town liked hard gold, not something that they would hope they could trade off.
As the daunting realization set in that the only thing she might be able to sell was her body, Nitya took a step backward.
"Sold to the lady in purple!"
The man behind her gave her a nudge toward the stage. He wanted to see the next, less expensive option. As Nitya stumbled forward, the heard clinging to her side. Looking down at her right, she saw her purse. She had it the entire time.