by Claire Luana
Callidus cast a glance sideways at Wren.
“I agree,” Wren said. “We need to be united.”
“Whiskey for you, for you, for you,” Pike said, handing each of them a glass filled with amber liquid. “For when you’re done tearing each other to shreds.”
Callidus let out a long-suffering sigh, taking a healthy swallow of the whiskey. He hissed. “Fine. We talk to Pike. Figure out our next move. Then we’ll tell you everything.”
“Promise?” Olivia asked.
Callidus rolled his eyes. “Yes, I promise. Do you want to pinky-swear on it? Or is the word of your guildmaster sufficient for you?”
“Your promise will suffice.” Olivia said, taking a sip from her own glass, her blue eyes still glittering dangerously.
“Now, should we move to the more important matters at hand?” Callidus asked.
Pike nodded. “Of course, dear Cally.”
“Don’t call me that.” Callidus pinched the bridge of his nose with long fingers.
“Very well. Would you like to share the bad news, or shall I?”
“Be my guest.”
“The Centese aren’t willing to help us.”
Wren’s stomach dropped into her feet as Pike continued. “The Centese are cautious. They haven’t maintained their sovereignty all these centuries by getting involved. The late King Imbris strong-armed them into that marriage by convincing them that joining Alesian and Centese strength might keep the Apricans at bay. Clearly, that has not panned out. While the princess managed to escape the Aprican attack, the Crown Prince was killed. They are not going to assist us unless things are going so well that we basically wouldn’t need them anymore.”
“I’m sorry.” Olivia held up a hand. “What exactly are we doing here?”
“Did you think this was a book club?” Pike asked. “This is a covert meeting of revolutionaries. We’re retaking Maradis.”
Olivia’s mouth formed a little O. “The three of you?”
“The four of us,” Wren said. “You wanted to know. You wanted to be included.”
“I wanted to understand. And I still don’t,” Olivia said.
Pike, Wren, and Callidus exchanged a look. No time like the present. It was Pike who went first. “Magic is real, child. Real enough to kill for, to conquer countries for. And Maradis is the most magical city in the whole damn world.”
Olivia let out a little bubble of a laugh, looking first from Callidus to Wren and back to Pike. No one said anything.
Her smile faltered. “What kind of magic?”
So they explained everything. The Gifting. Infused food. The binding wine. The Accords, King Imbris, the truth behind Kasper’s death and the Guild’s power. Emperor Evander and his twisted cuisinier, whose plans no one understood yet. And the infused bread that had taken hostage the minds of an entire city.
“But...magic bread? It’s so farfetched,” Olivia protested, her sweet face pale. She’d taken in the truth in stoic silence. Wren wished she could comfort her, knowing that the truth behind her granduncle’s death must have shaken loose difficult emotions. But there seemed to be a chasm between her and Olivia now. One she wasn’t sure they’d ever be able to bridge.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Pike agreed. “It seems like some sort of bastardized combination of Baker’s Guild and Vintner’s Guild power. Baker’s Guild, best we know it, has the power of love and fertility. Combined with the Vintner’s Guild power of lies...it’s like the love and the lie combined, sown in the minds of everyone who ate the bread.
“But thanks to you, Olivia, we know the infusion will wear off in approximately twenty-four hours,” Callidus said.
That was good. But Wren was thinking of how much Pike knew about the Guilds. About what each of their Gifts did. “What do the Spicer’s Guild infusions do?” Wren asked. “It can’t truly be the magic of death.”
“Can’t it? I have to keep some secrets,” Pike said.
“No, no, no.” Callidus held up a hand. “We need to stop acting alone. In silos. If we’re to take back Alesia, there can be no more secrets. It’s time for the truth.”
Pike heaved a sigh. “It is not the magic of death. Yes, we sell poison. But ours is the magic of time.”
“Time?” Callidus asked.
“Slowing it down, speeding it up, in powerful doses, even stopping time itself.”
Wren’s mind whirled. “So does the person stop? Or does the world around the person stop? Or do you go back in time? I’m so confused.”
“It depends on what spice you’re using. Just as I imagine your luck varies depending on the confection.”
A memory flared to mind—of Sable lying on Pike’s couch, her lifeblood seeping out, Hale curled over her pale form. “Could you...?” She trailed off, her voice whispering.
Pain flashed behind Pike’s eyes. “I know what you’re thinking. If I had been awake...maybe I could have...” He turned abruptly, striding across the cabin. He hung his head for a moment, his back to them. When he turned, his face was carefully blank. “We’ve bared all our secrets to Olivia. Now I think it’s time we talk resources. Even if we get help from the Falconers on the inside, and the people join us in a glorious revolution, we need men who know how to fight to go up against the Aprican legion.”
They looked around. “We can’t trust anyone in the city,” Wren said. “We have to assume they’ll be working against us.”
“Does Imbris have any followers?” Pike asked.
“I don’t know,” Wren said. “I still don’t know where to find him. I got a lead, but it only narrowed it down some. He could be in a number of places.”
“We have coin,” Callidus said. “Could we pay men from Centu to help?”
Pike rubbed his jaw. “Centese are great on sea, not great on land. We need someone who can go toe to toe with the Apricans in the streets. I might...know of someone.”
“Who?” Callidus asked.
“A mercenary. Last I heard, he was in Nova Navis. He’d have men, or be able to get them. If there’s gold in it, I think we could get him.”
Callidus’s thick brows drew together. “A mercenary? Can we trust him?”
“Don’t think we much have a choice,” Pike said.
“So should that be our first stop? See if we can get this fellow to join our cause?” Callidus asked.
“Unless you want to sit around here eating bonbons.” Pike retorted.
Callidus pursed his lips. “What’s this fellow’s name?”
Pike grinned. “They call him the Red Badger.”
Chapter 22
The journey to Nova Navis was supposed to take three days. And Olivia sure as hell wasn’t going leave Dash locked up alone in a tiny cabin for the whole time.
While she knew she wasn’t going to convince Pike and Callidus to let Dash out, there was no reason they shouldn’t let her in.
She gathered her nerve and knocked on the door of Pike’s chambers. She entered when she heard the muffled invitation.
“I’d like to be allowed in Dash’s cabin,” she said, her shoulders thrown back.
One of Pike’s eyebrows arched towards his hairline. “You want to be thrown in that little closet? There’s not much room in there.”
Olivia crossed her arms before her. “At least I’ll be with someone who hasn’t been lying to me my whole life. At this point, I trust him more than the lot of you.”
Pike snorted. “You realize we had no choice, don’t you? Revealing the Gifting was a treason punishable by death.”
Olivia faltered. She hadn’t realized that. “Well...they should have found a way. At least my granduncle. I lived in the Guild my whole life, with magic all around me, and he couldn’t even tell me?” He should have found a way.
“The road to the Piscator’s hallowed halls is cobbled with ‘should haves.’ If you want to keep a grudge, that’s your business. Ask for Saad, my first mate. He’ll show you into the cabin.”
Olivia nodded her thanks and
headed to the door. A gust of briny air swirled past her as she made her way back onto the broad deck of the Phoenix. In the brisk bright light of the day, her resolve faltered. Was this idea madness? Maybe they’d lied to her, but they were still the Confectioner’s Guild. They were the closest thing she had to family. And who was Dash? An Aprican soldier she’d known all of a few days. It had been madness to run off with him, but she had just been so angry. All her life she’d toed the line, done exactly what was expected of her, and where had she ended up? Kidnapped. Lied to. Alone in this world. Dash had seemed a way out. Something un-Olivia. And right now she was very tired of being Olivia.
Sailors scrambled around her as Olivia stood on the deck, her legs braced against the roll of the ship. She ducked under a boom, curling her fingers around the smooth varnished wood of the ship’s rail. She took a breath to center herself. She didn’t know if she could trust her judgment anymore. Her grandaunt had been like a mother to her—and she’d been a murderer. The girl she’d thought was her best friend was a liar. A magical liar. So what if she was wrong about Dash?
But…there was something about him. A sincerity that people didn’t always have. A kindness that was rare in powerful men who could take what they wanted without thought of what it cost others. Dash had been sweet and funny and genuine. And when he looked at her, a heat coiled within her that she had never experienced before. And so she needed to make a choice. The unknown of Dash or the known unknown of the Guild. She believed that Wren and Callidus and Thom would have told her if they could have. And she believed that she would forgive them in time. But she also believed that Dash was a good man. An ally. She believed that he just might care for her.
Olivia hissed in frustration, smoothing back her hair, trying to corral the strands whipping around her. Why couldn’t she have both? For all her life, it’d been loss after loss after heartache, yet she’d managed to cling to her optimism and positivity. She wasn’t inclined to let it go now. She wanted it all. She wanted her home back. She wanted love. She wanted to be the heroine and not just the servant.
A sailor hurried by and Olivia grabbed his arm. “Point me to the first mate?”
“You got ’im.” He was tall and lean and weathered, in the way that a length of rope might be after years of fading in the sun.
“Take me to the prisoner’s cabin.”
She trailed behind the first mate back down into the hold.
When the door opened, her heart trilled in her chest at the sight of Dash playing a game of solitaire. His quarters on the Phoenix were only slightly more luxurious than those on the Black Jasmine, but it seemed that Pike or his sailors had been kind enough to give him a stack of books and a deck of cards.
The door clicked behind Olivia with a jangle of keys.
“What’s going on?” Dash asked. “I thought—I don’t know what I thought.”
Olivia crossed the tiny cabin and sat next to him, closer than was strictly necessary. The heat of his thigh cut through the layers of her dress and set her heart racing. “I believe there’s something you need to know.”
Dash’s face grew blacker and blacker as Olivia explained the truth that she hardly believed herself. The Guilds’ magic. Real magic. And more importantly—the emperor. What he had done to Olivia. To Maradis.
Dash shook his head. “I don’t believe it.”
She paused. “You actually don’t believe it? Or…is that a rhetorical statement?”
He let out a shaky laugh. “I don’t know. There’s talk around the legion about Daemastra. Sometimes people would disappear.” He shook his head. “There were rumors, but...how do you believe something like that?”
Olivia nodded grimly. “I know exactly what you mean.”
Dash rubbed his beard in an unconscious motion. “What now?” he asked.
She shrugged. “We’re going to find a mercenary. They plan to try to take back the city.”
Dash’s eyes widened and he blew out a breath. “That’s a tall order.”
She nodded. “If you could take back Terrasia, wouldn’t you do it?”
“I don’t know.” Dash was still. “The leadership in Terrasia was corrupt too. It always seemed like exchanging one faceless tyrant for another.”
“I know what you mean,” Olivia said. “But it changes things to know that he’s taking people’s free will. Their very thoughts. Somehow it changes things.”
“I don’t know why you’re telling me all this. I’m the enemy.”
“That’s the thing,” Olivia said carefully. “I don’t feel that you are. I feel more kinship with you than with my own Guild right now.”
“They lied to you. It’s understandable that you feel betrayed.”
“Do you think, now that you know... Would you ever think about joining us?” she asked hopefully, trying to keep her voice nonchalant. You know, just betray your country, your oaths, your very life for a girl you’ve known for a few days and a country you’ve just arrived in. No big deal.
“What would you have me do?”
Olivia paused, her excitement growing. I would have you kiss me, she wanted to say. I would have you swear your loyalty to the Guild, and me, and profess your love with such vehemence that I cannot help but believe you. But instead she said, “Talk to Callidus and Pike. They could use a legionnaire on their side. Someone who knows the ways the Apricans think and the way they deploy their soldiers. Someone who knows their battle strategies and tactics. You could be instrumental in helping us take back the city and stopping Daemastra and the emperor.”
“And you ask me this for the city?” Dash asked carefully. “For Alesia?”
“Of course.” But his question. It sounded...loaded. She hesitated, feeling perched on the edge of a knife. She wanted it all. So she plunged ahead—caution be damned. “I would also have you aid us because I’ve enjoyed our time together. And I would wish to see you standing beside me on the bow of the ship rather than stuck in this cramped cabin. And perhaps, someday, back at the Guildhall. Or on Nysia Avenue, taking me to dinner.”
A smile quirked the corner of his mouth. “I should like to take you to dinner. And dessert and breakfast and lunch after that. And every day following.”
She hissed in a breath, her senses suddenly alive with his nearness. The melted chocolate of his eyes, the presence of him—sturdy and sure.
Dash’s hand came up slowly. He cupped her face, and in that moment, she felt more alive than she ever had before. She wanted to laugh with the stupidity of it. They’d just met.
His calloused thumb stroked along her cheek, leaving a trail of tingles in its wake. “I’d like very much to join you and your Guild. But mostly you. I think I might fight the Huntress herself for you.”
And then he kissed her.
The world seemed to rock beneath her and Olivia wasn’t sure if it was the movement of the boat or the fire in her heart. Kindled—come to life—at this man’s touch.
Wren felt unmoored, as if at any minute, a gust of wind might blow her away. Perhaps being back on land would ground her, bring her back to herself...but she doubted it. She tried to identify what it was that made her feel this way. Being away from Maradis? From the Guild? From Lucas? Maybe it was all of that, and none of it. Somewhere in all of it, she had lost her sense of herself, had flown too high, had thought she could change the fates of men and kingdoms. Who had she been kidding? She had only just barely ever been able to take care of herself, and she had done that by being small and unseen. Yet somehow, in all of it, she had become a person people looked to. For answers. It had been a heady feeling at first, the power, the excitement, but now it weighed on her. What if she made the wrong decision? What if more people died?
Wren dragged herself down the hallway she shared with Callidus and Thom. She knew she was due for the mother of all lectures from Callidus, but she wanted to check on Thom.
Callidus sat on a little stool by Thom’s bedside.
Thom was asleep, his eyes closed, a sheen of sweat on hi
s pale face.
“How’s he doing?” Wren asked, lingering in the doorway to their cabin.
Callidus’s head swiveled her way. “Pike’s sailor said that Thom’s likely suffering from pneumonia. He’s given him a tonic, but if it doesn’t work, we’ll need to get medicine in Nova Navis.”
“Pneumonia?” Wren closed her eyes against her worry. Master Oldrick had caught pneumonia several years back, and it had taken him a month of fevered nights, warm broth, and bedrest to recover. It wasn’t a gentle illness.
Thom let out a wracking cough and Callidus reached out, dabbing at his brow with a damp rag.
“Callidus,” she said softly.
Callidus wiped Thom’s brow again. “What?” he asked.
“I’m sorry,” she told him. “I’m sorry for running after Olivia and Dash. If I ruined our chances with the Centese…”—the words stuck in her throat like thick taffy—“I’ll never forgive myself.”
Callidus reached behind him and pulled out another little stool from beneath her berth. He patted it and she sank onto it gratefully.
“Wren,” he said. “There’s something I’ve learned. It took me many years, and some days I think I still haven’t learned it fully.” He turned to her, the blue of his eyes filled with something unexpected. Compassion. “You can’t control everything. You can plan, you can hope, you can pray, you can try. But sometimes in the end, it’s not enough. That doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m just a mortal. And a confectioner at that. And all I can do is all I can do.”
Wren let his words wash over her like a soothing balm. They brushed against a dam within her that she hadn’t known existed. A sob broke free from her lips. She clapped her hand over her mouth to hold it in, afraid to let that dam burst.
“What happened with Sable, with Hale, with Thom...none of it is your fault,” Callidus continued.
Wren nodded, fighting back tears. When she spoke her voice was thick. “It’s never enough. I’m tired of feeling like I’m not enough. I keep thinking if Sable were here, she would know what to do. Or Lucas. Or even Hale. The old Hale. They could have convinced the Centese to ally with us. Or have stopped the emperor from taking over Maradis.”