2 — Dragon-Courted

I took my leave of the office and headed for the gates of the academy. I had few goodbyes to make. I’d not made many friends in the Soul Seekers Academy, and those I had were eventually turned by Tanlith Guifoyle. Not even having ended a war between sorcerers that could have consumed all of Dragonmaw and lands beyond had freed me from the petty bullying of idle, small-minded highborn. At least these posh upper city brats weren’t as hard as the street gangs that terrorized my younger years. A black eye and swollen lip would have been the least of it.

Tanlith Guifoyle waited without, giving me a smug grin over a reading. He already knew what had transpired.

“You never belonged here,” he said.

I had no answer. He was probably right. High and wide as these halls were, I found them more stifling than the claustrophobic alleys and warrens of the middle city. Despite how much the highborn tried to white-wash the grime and soot stains, it was merely a thin veneer of civility. The towers and avenues of the upper city were every bit as cruel as the narrow alleys and nights full of knives in the lower parts of Dragonmaw. It only served to disguise the fact that the only thing separating the upper city from the rest of us was lots and lots of silver.

Tanlith followed me out, continuing to taunt me as he spun his deck. He was trying to bait me. I fingered the stolen book and the bloody cards under my robes. He was trying to bait me into attacking him again—now that I was no longer protected by the guild. Truth told, I was half-tempted to indulge him. But he’d already thrashed me once, today. I wasn’t keen to give him a second opportunity. I felt a weight lift as I realized I would no longer be mired in the petty school rivalries that seemed to fester within these ancient elven walls. He soon lost interest.

I left the school with little more than the deck, the knife, and the clothes on my back, and looked at the open city before me. The Seeker’s Guild sat on a bluff in the northeast corner of the city, looking to the west over the bay. Sun glittered on the sea, and lit the masts and drawn sails of hundreds of ships in the port with its light through the sungate. The sudden sense of freedom was astounding—no classes, no exams, no expectations. For the first time, I was free from all obligation. I let my feet point where they may, and set off through the streets, hood up against the sun.

My stomach growled.

I halted for a moment. I was also penniless.

That’s not a great combination in a city already looking to swallow you up. Barely mid morning, I’d soon be sitting down for the luncheon with the other novices, had I not flunked out of the guild. Couldn’t Master Hedwin have waited until after my next meal? I looked about. The businesses in the upper city catered to the upper crust of the city’s highborn and merchant classes. Hells, Upper Crust was even the name of the sign hanging above a bakery catering to the wealthier students outside the guild academy. A bakery I’d never be able to afford. I had a book and a letter opener I could sell, but not here. Not in the upper city. I’d lose a hand, or worse.

The upper city catered only to the well-to-do of Dragonmaw. A good portion of that fantasy was pretending the rest of us didn’t exist. I’d managed only on the graces of a guild interested in my magical potential that had, thus far, proved reluctant to manifest. If I wanted a chance of finding anything in my price range (and, to think of it, if I wanted enough coin to have a price range), I had to make my way down to the docks. The only sure-fire way to get some copper clips in my pocket was hard, filthy, detestable labor. Moving freight, gutting fish, or—

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“Are you a seeker?”

I shook myself out of my idle thoughts. “What?”

The man before me was best described as a dangerous fop. Very fashionable, this one, in doublet, blouse, and slippers with a long leather jacket trimmed with red patterns and a house crest I didn’t recognize. But he also had a rapier buckled to his belt, and the hilt looked burnished with practice. I had to be careful, here. He wrung his hands. “It’s just, you’ve got the robe and you’re holding the deck. I was just headed to the guild. I need a reading, please.”

“A reading?”

“Of the wills. You are a seeker, are you not?” he asked. He gestured to my robes.

I looked over his head. Skein, inverted. Trapped, lack of alternatives.

The guild came down harshly on unlicensed wills readers, especially ones that styled themselves seekers. A highborn wouldn’t take kindly to being swindled, either. He would be well within his rights to gut me on the spot, leaving me little more than a corpse and a red stain to be whitewashed with the rest of the unpalatable grime. I glanced down toward the bay. Freight was at least honest. And safe.

Silver coins flashed. “I have money,”

My stomach growled again. “One of the best,” I said, turning away from the docks and brandishing my deck. I gestured off to the alley, away from prying eyes and out of sight of the few soldiers that patrolled the upper city in the wake of Bethane’s decimation. “This way.”

The suit of knaves thrummed in my hand. I missed a step. What had that been?

The fop glanced back. “I haven’t got all day, you know!”

“Coming, sir!” I said. I pushed into the alley behind him and flipped over an empty barrel for a table and sat on an upturned bucket. I undid the ribbon on my deck and began shuffling. “I can do one card, three cards, or five cards,” I said.

The fop put two silver cunnings on the top of the barrel.

“One card it is.”

Two more silver cunnings joined it.

“Three cards it is.”

I cleared my throat and infused my will on the deck as I added as much pomp as I thought possible without cracking. “What’s your conundrum, my good man?”

“My business partner and I, I fear we may have overextended our capital when we commissioned a cargo voyage to Azurenon. The Spirit of Contention. Can you tell me when they’ll arrive?”

I shook my head. “The wills don’t tell the future. They only reveal the truth in the present. Seekers interpret them to offer guidance, or call on them in times of need.”

The fop nodded along. He’d sat on the cobbles, and his knees were up by his square chin. “Can you tell me how they fare, then? The sailors?”

I infused my will on the deck. Probably at the bottom of the ruddy ocean, I thought to myself. The seas between the Bastard’s navel and his pointy socks were notoriously dangerous—especially in summer. You didn’t need to be a fortune teller to know that. Growing up in the downs had put me in company with many sailors.

I shuffled and cut the deck. The fop watched the levitating cards, mystified as they rearranged themselves and settled back on the barrel. Then I swiped my fingers, and willed three cards from the top, praying they wouldn’t fly off. Miraculously, they didn’t! I was so busy marveling that I’d managed to call a proper reading that I forgot to look at the cards until the fop prompted me.

Three of knaves, the wall of storms inverted, and the gambler, inverted. The three of knaves was a card that suggested the captain had spun a falsehood, while the wall of storms inverted suggested the captain hadn’t got far from his own troubles. And the gambler? Well, I doubted the captain would be making it to Azurenon, or land, again, for that matter.

The fop looked at me across the cards, expectantly. I’ve spent so much time around other acolytes, it took me a moment to realize he had no idea what his reading meant.

“They’re doing great!” I assured him.

He tipped me another cunning before he left.

That had been... profitable. And easier than I’d expected. The robes went a long way towards the appearance of legitimacy.

As I collected the cards, my fingers brushed the three of knaves. as they did, I locked up, seizing as a jolt of lightning felt as though it had forced its way up my arms. I hissed steam and looked down. I’d just bonded with the three of knaves. My first new card in over a year. My connection to the wills grew ever so slightly stronger.

I couldn’t believe it. On the day I get kicked out. The very same day.

Apparently, this whole time, all I had to do to bond with more cards was cheat.