I kept my breathing shallow and even, not moving a muscle as Tayka’s eyes brushed over my huddled form under the blankets. Andria was making it difficult to pretend to be asleep with her racket. She was grumbling, hopping around on one foot, and attempting to get the other through the leg of her pants.
There wasn’t much space in the room, which was almost entirely occupied by six beds, trucks at the foot of each, and a desk. So, when Andria bumped into my bedframe, and I didn’t stir, the farce was up.
After waking up before sunrise every day for weeks to bake flatbread, collect eggs, chop vegetables, and brew tea, I was tired. It was different to the chores I was used to at the cottage or abbey, but they weren’t the worst part. The customers were the real drain on the soul, incessant in their demands for more food and drink in less time.
Tayka nudged my back with the tip of her shoe. “Move it.”
I gave up, throwing my blankets off and shuffling towards the trunk with my uniform. Maisie intercepted and grabbed my shoulders, steering me towards the lavatory instead. She had a half-finished braid between her teeth and eyed my hair to urge me to dismantle the bird's nest that had formed overnight.
The five of us had been given a room to share at the Marchland Inn with access to a single laboratory. It was still better than the makeshift facilities I had at the cottage, but it had its own horrors. Andria wove past us to grab a blouse she’d left on the floor and ducked back out, almost taking the only brush before noticing my more pressing need.
Darine and Ulia kept out of the way by staying on their beds, making the walkway less crowded. Darine was reading as she would be for the rest of the day, still waiting for the healer to contact us. Similarly, Ulia was trying to go back to sleep since she couldn’t leave the inn because she was barred from the town.
Maisie sat me in front of the mirror and placed the brush in my outstretched hand. She skipped away, her uniform devoid of wrinkles and finished tying together her hair. She and Ulia were the most affected by our move outside the city, though in the opposite manner.
Ulia was more irritable than usual from being cooped up inside, while Maisie enjoyed every moment in the kitchen and serving guests. I was indifferent and starting to get used to yet another drastic change in my daily life. Andria was plodding along, more focused on our goals than the rest of us combined. Tayka leaned against the wall beside the door, arms crossed and eyes closed, trying to catch up on the sleep she missed from keeping us in order.
The elders had already sent a runner to check how much longer we’d be thrice, and she didn’t want to be drawn back to the abbey with us. They’d found Zara's remains a while ago, but besides that, there wasn’t anything else they wanted to discuss about him other than his replacement.
We already had a few candidates we were discussing—not whether they were suitable, but how long we should delay so we didn’t have to go back so soon.
I left the harder-to-corral curls in my hair, debating whether or not to cut it all off again, and went to change.
We trailed down the stairs from the third floor, careful not to wake the guests we were walking past. We didn’t need to talk once in the kitchen and broke off to our different workstations to prepare breakfast. My knife work with the vegetables was improving, but I was nowhere near the other girls who gave me the easier tasks out of pity.
And to stop me from holding everyone up. I was used to cooking for two, not twenty.
My customer interactions were surprisingly good compared to the other girls, especially considering I often forgot to smile. They struggled to conceal their contempt for anyone they assumed to be a mage from their clothing and gear. The forced smiles were well practised, but only Maisie was genuinely happy to be amongst them.
I unhooked the teapot dangling above the fire and decanted it into crystal jugs with bags of dried leaves that didn’t match the rest of the inn’s aesthetics. They had been taken from inside the city and sold out here far cheaper than they ever should have been elsewhere in the kingdom. The settlement was overflowing with items I would sooner find in the palace than an inn in Drasda.
Maisie was already at the front of the house, caring for the few people who wandered in earlier than the rest. These were mainly looters and knights who wanted something quick to eat before patrolling or an excursion into the city.
A regular group of four was getting their order taken by Maisie as I set the crystal jug down and started bringing out cups from behind the counter.
My heart tightened at the sight, yet unlike when I first laid eyes on them, I didn’t drop what I was carrying.
A large shield rested against the wall near the group's table, accompanied by a spear, longbow, and shortsword. They belonged to the group that had fought in the auction house against Evie, the cat-sìth, but now with a replacement for Aisling, the dead elf mage.
They’d been coming here most mornings, probably due to the preferential treatment since Maisie and Andria both wanted to recruit them to replace Zara in the coven’s plans.
Nickolas, the centaur, sat with his legs folded underneath him in place of where a table should have been but was moved to accommodate his size. I tried not to stare as the person who took up more space than Polem pinched a teacup’s handle and gently brought it to his lips. Petrick sat at the head of the table in his chainmail and steel plating, flanked by the spear user Dyana and another woman.
I glanced over while pouring another cup for the centaur, waiting for the new woman to brush her straw-coloured hair back and reveal her ears. It didn’t matter if she was, but I was still curious if they chose to recruit another Elvish person to be their mage.
Despite presumably staying behind Petrick and Dyana, she still wore chainmail that didn’t appear to be made of steel but rather interwoven fibres. Even Nickolas had chainlinks peaking out from underneath a thick gambison that lay over his rear. Their weapons and armour were well suited to fighting with ghouls and already had the markings to show their worth.
I’d taken a look at one of the many stores selling just that, but couldn’t afford anything substantial and couldn’t imagine lugging it all around. Most of it was designed to be shrunk or used by mages who knew how to strengthen their bodies to handle the weight. So, I stuck to relying on my claws and the gauntlet stashed upstairs.
After fake pouring the same cup of tea four times, there weren’t any more tasks I could pretend to do behind the counter. I retreated into the kitchen to stir a few pots and poke flatbread to see if it was ready.
The guilt of Aisling’s death had latched onto me again after seeing the group for the first time since. However, it was easier to let go than before. The thought of that night still made me pause and sent a shiver down my spine, but it no longer had a hold on me.
Andria handed me a plate of steaming mushrooms that Nickolas had ordered down to the exact spices we should use. I spread my fingers under the plate and picked up a water pitcher on my way out.
A few mages had entered, and I sighed, pushing my hip into the door. I had my mana crystal in my pocket, but it was a dangerous game pretending to be a witch and mage in the company of both. A few mages had brought up my mana, and I’d brushed it off quickly by saying it was too small a reserve to cast. They pitied that enough to not continue with the conversation or bring it up again.
Always worrying about it was still bothersome, so I didn’t like serving them. With everyone else busy, it was up to chance whether Maisie or I would take their orders.
I let the door swing close behind me and froze, dropping the water pitcher. It thudded off the floor and rolled to the side, spilling its contents. The plate of mushrooms had tipped to the side as I reeled. A few fell to the floor, landing in the growing puddle of water. I managed to keep the plate steady to save the rest, and I knelt on the ground behind the counter to avoid all the heads turning my way.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“Seriously, Patela?” Maisie said from across the room. “Again?”
“Sorry,” I said, too worried to feel embarrassed, lifting the plate above my head to push it onto the counter. “Mushrooms… I’ll go get a mop for the water.”
“At least she saved your plate this time,” Petrick said, laughing with his group.
I stayed low to the ground to avoid the knights seeing me as I ducked back into the kitchen. Maisie stomped over to the plate, sighing and apologising for my clumsiness. The Remnant Knights chuckled at a joke I couldn’t hear, but I could still pick out a hair-raising voice from amongst them.
Captain Tometh was at the forefront of the group, in the same red and white regalia I’d seen him in outside Ulasa. I didn’t know if I had been memorable, but I wasn’t taking that chance for even a moment. There couldn’t have been too many times he rode across the kingdom to root out a coven, so I doubted he had forgotten about me.
I practically crawled into the kitchen to the stunned silence of Andria, mid-chop into a skinned animal's leg.
“Drop something again?” she asked.
“No—yes. Someone in there knows I’m a…”
Andria’s eyebrows climbed as she absorbed my explanation. She put down the knife and wiped her hands across the leather apron tied around her waist. “Did they recognise you?”
I shook my head, standing up and pulling at the soaked bottom of my pants. “Maybe?”
Andria looked around, but no one was listening to us over their conversation and noisy workstations. The elder was resting in her office as usual, so there was no one to go to for help. I didn’t need to be told what to do; I wasn’t going back in there again till the knights had all left.
“Go out the back in case they saw you. Take whatever cloak fits.”
I would have gone upstairs to wait, but leaving wasn’t a bad idea. I undid the ties of my apron and hung it over a nearby stool. “You’ll need to bring a mop with you. There's a lot of water behind the counter.”
Andria rolled her eyes and waved me off, glancing towards the door. She couldn’t tell that the mages were still in the same position, not caring for the clumsy girl. I was confident they hadn’t seen me, but I still wanted to leave and getting out of catering for the upcoming crowd wasn’t a bad outcome.
“Don’t cause more trouble. Go to the market or something.”
I wove through the kitchen and to the back door, taking down a smaller wool-lined cloak from a hanger. I pulled up the hood, which was not uncommon with the light snowfall, and left through the back garden. The herbs planted there were for use in the kitchen but in quantities that we couldn’t hope to get through. Like most orders that came into the inn, the leftovers were sent back to the abbey for their cooking or certain alchemy mixtures.
The small garden had a stone wall to continue the settlement's defensive nature. I undid the latch on the reinforced door and exited onto a narrow side street, letting the latch fall back in place.
I added my footsteps to a thin layer of fresh snow from the night before, stepping over discarded pallets and rubbish to the nearest intersection with the main thoroughfare.
A covered wagon laden with artefacts from the capital rumbled past on its way to a city that would value them more. It had come from the town's market sector, a large courtyard encased in iron fences. Despite Andria’s advice and my lack of concern about being followed, I didn’t feel like walking into a large cage.
I thought about following the wagon or asking for a ride to whichever city they were off to. Only my new attachment to the gauntlet still hidden upstairs stopped me. I couldn’t even pretend I was helping anymore by staffing an inn and wasn’t enthusiastic about going back into the capital to find more trouble.
The cart passed, and I made no effort to follow. I half expected half wished I’d see Yis, Annalise or even Faraya’s face beneath the hoods of some of the riders that passed with it. It would have been delusional to think they’d come to get me while in the capital, but out here, it was easier to hope.
Despite that desire, I wasn’t doing this for them anymore. I was in the centre of something that had started back in Tamil. While I didn’t know everything, I was confident I knew more about it than anyone else, and I wanted to know more.
I wanted to know what the Ambuya was up to, why so much Dragon’s breath was being made, why Zara was here for the crown and what they had to do with the Opera house attack. There were so many questions I didn’t think I would ever get answers to, but if I left, that would be the end.
I leaned against the wall out of the way of foot traffic, where I could see the inn’s entrance. Cloaked figures with swords sticking out or bows hooked over their shoulder streamed in, eager to beat the rush and get into the capital. It would have caused alarm in any other city, but here it was entirely normal.
Nikolas exited the inn, ducking to avoid the doorframe, and was followed by the rest of his team. They all carried bundles wrapped in wax paper, placing them into knapsacks while walking. They didn’t eat much at the table when they had an excursion to go on and didn’t want to waste time and be stuck behind other looters.
He wasn’t the only centaur in the city, but there weren’t many. Nicholas turned heads along the street and parted crowds, his team following in his wake. I pushed off the wall to follow them but let my back fall back against the stone. It would have been interesting to see what being a looter was like, but I had a more reckless target in mind.
Tometh and his entourage left the inn holding a sack that felt like gold and silver, and I panicked slightly as they turned my way.
They marched past without a glance, and I left some space before following them. Reporting the elders to them had crossed my mind, yet I didn’t like either party in this situation. While sicking the knights on the elders could solve a lot of problems, I wasn’t about to have my friends chased around by a bunch of zealots.
The crowd parted just as widely for the knights as they had the centaur. We were heading deeper into the settlement down streets I hadn’t yet explored. I told myself this was simply to know where to avoid going in the town. The captain stopped to enter more establishments, exiting with more containers of coin he’d hand off to his subordinates.
Threads of a scheme came together in my mind and almost always dead-ended, sometimes with horrifying consequences. Contacting Jeremy’s team back in Drasda was the best of them, so I continued my pursuit.
One of the group glanced back at me for a moment, and I worried I was being too obvious in following them. I walked past the next building they entered and stopped at a stall to wait for them to pass again. The owner wasn’t too happy I left without buying anything, but it was less suspicious than stopping every time they did.
I was careful not to let my gaze linger on them too long, unsure how other people perceived being watched.
They entered a cafe, where there was a commotion before Tometh exited with significantly less coinage in the sack than from other places. I’d thought this was simply tax collection that I’d heard people complain about so much, but I doubted violence was supposed to be involved in that.
I had expected the knights to be on the front lines, stationed in the watchtowers and capital walls. Not in settlements, going door to door to collect payment. The looters and the incentive of treasure seemed to have taken over their duties to protect.
We carried on deeper into the town, past less protected buildings with the glass displays I was used to. One building stood out, a tall structure made entirely of marble blocks from the outer wall with protruding turrets on each corner. It was surrounded by a metal fence patrolled by knights in the same red and white.
I stopped at the turn, not daring to get any closer since there were few people not in uniform walking down the street. The group walked up to the guardhouse near the only entrance and the gate swung open after a short discussion.
An enchantment flowed like a wave through the steel fencing, promising a lightning strike to whoever touched the bars at the wrong time. The interval between the enchantment going the full way around the perimeter and back didn’t seem long enough for someone to climb over, especially a non-mage. The air above was wrapped in a thin bubble of mana that didn’t have any orders attached to it.
I found what I was looking for connected at the top of the turrets: a large golden disk meant to catch the pulses of mana and translate them. I stood far back and watched the patrols' movements, trying to find a way inside that didn’t involve lightning and unknown enchantments.
The problem was that if I got inside, I didn’t know how to use the system to contact Jeremy. I hit my head back into the wall I was leaning against, worried they wouldn't do anything even if I did contact him.
I found a nearby eatery to sit at where I could still see the guardhouse and surrounding grounds of the knights' bastion. I wondered if following the team of looters may have been a better opportunity. After the witches left for the interior, they would need a new tunnel system to the outside, and I could sell the information of where the current one was…
I rested my chin on my palm, frowning at the idea of the witches moving to the interior and leaving behind the inn set to continue operating. It still made little sense.
Perhaps breaking into the elder’s study would be an easier and more illuminating endeavour.