by Claire Luana
“That was fast,” Dash muttered.
A tall, dark man stalked into the room. Shining black boots came to his knees over black trousers, a sword belt slung low on a hip. Above those, he wore a purple velvet coat with silver embroidery and epaulets. Dark eyes narrowed over a knowing smirk framed by a goatee.
“Come,” the woman barked, motioning at the man.
Wren let out a laugh of delight.
The man was Pike.
Chapter 21
“You!” Wren said.
“You,” Pike replied. His voice was low.
Pike was the judge? “How...? What...? Never mind. Just get us out of here.”
Pike hooked his fingers through his belt loops and strolled closer. “When I heard a pack of wild Alesians were running about destroying half the city, I should have known you’d be responsible.”
Wren wanted to protest but held her tongue. “Will you please release us?”
Pike squinted through the bars, examining them. “Perhaps I should just leave you in here and sail away to a land of fine food and beautiful women.”
“I’m hoping there’s a ‘but’ in that sentence,” Dash muttered.
“But...I might want to go back to Maradis at some point. And old Cally says you’re the only one who can find Imbris. So I guess I’ll let you out.”
Wren slumped in relief.
“Although...” Pike stroked his goatee. “I could just leave you here, gather things together, and then come back for you when I’m ready for Imbris. You won’t be able to cause trouble in the meantime and I’ll know just where to find you.”
“Pike.” Wren leaned her forehead against the bars, swallowing her pride. “Please. I promise I won’t cause any trouble.”
Pike examined them. His face looked weathered and he had a smattering of gray hairs at his temples. Either Wren hadn’t noticed before, or they were new. But that wasn’t the change that struck her. Beneath his veneer of danger, Pike had been playful, even kind. But that levity was gone. A different Pike stood before her. It seemed the ripples of Sable’s death stretched even to Centu.
He shook his head. “All right, I’ll let you out, but you three don’t even bat an eyelash unless Callidus or I say so. Agreed?”
The three in the cell muttered their agreement.
Pike turned to the fierce little woman and spoke to her in Centese. After an exchange of rapid, heated words, the woman relented and stormed to their door, unlocking it.
“She didn’t seem very inclined to release us,” Wren said as she came out of the cell.
“I told her you were mental invalids who couldn’t be legally held accountable for your actions.”
Wren pressed her lips together, hiding a smile. “It’s blooming good to see you, Pike.”
Outside the guard station, the sun had slipped over the horizon, leaving the velvety blue of twilight. Lanterns were being lit across the stretch of docks, yellow oil lanterns on tall poles, and colorful paper lanterns stretched across walkways, a thousand glowing lights like colorful jelly beans. It reminded Wren of the lantern parade for All Hallows’ Eve in Maradis, and she felt a twinge of longing. Would she ever see Maradis again?
“Rizio’s crew has transferred your cargo and possessions to my ship, the Phoenix. Callidus and Thom should be there,” Pike said. Two of his sailors were leaning against the wall and pushed off when they sighted Pike. Wren didn’t think Dash would try anything stupid, but she was glad that they had more manpower just in case.
Wren nodded. “Now are you going to tell me how the heck you came to be judge in the middle of a foreign country?”
Pike shrugged. “I’m not. Money buys justice in Centu. I’ll be adding it to Callidus’s tab.”
Wren blanched. Great. Callidus would just love that.
The Phoenix was a sleek three-masted ship painted in orange and black. The masthead was a lifelike bird in flight, its beak cawing in triumph. Wren was struck by a sort of kinship for the mythical bird. She prayed their Guild could find a way to rise from its ashes. Their city too.
“Callidus will be waiting in my quarters,” Pike said as they ducked below deck. “Aprican, what’s your name? Dash?” Pike paused before another door. “You’ll be in here.”
“Locked up I assume?” Dash asked, grimacing.
“Until we decide what to do with you,” Pike said.
Olivia’s face blackened, and she opened her mouth to speak.
“Take it up with Cally,” Pike said. “Not my call.”
She closed her mouth and crossed her arms over her chest in a way that signaled that she would very much be taking it up with Callidus.
Callidus was in Pike’s captain’s quarters, a black cloud hanging above his head.
“Drinks? I’ll get drinks,” Pike said, quickly spinning and heading towards a sideboard built into the ship’s wooden walls as Callidus approached them.
“You!” His voice was hushed with rage. “Can you imagine my mortification as Pike and I were meeting with the Centese delegation, then they get called away to deal with a group of runaway foreigners in the city? And it’s you!”
“I didn’t want them to escape,” Wren said lamely, her cheeks heating. What a disaster of an afternoon.
“Well, at least you got that right. Why did you bring her?”
“The pastry wore off,” Wren said. “Olivia’s back to normal.”
“And yet you ran?” Callidus turned his wrath on Olivia. “What were you thinking?”
Olivia tilted her chin up in a haughty angle, looking him straight in the eye. “I am the Guildmistress of the Confectioner’ Guild. I am a free woman. You have no right to detain me. If I wanted to leave, I was free to leave.”
Wren had to admit she was impressed. Though she did notice Olivia’s hands shaking in the folds of her skirt.
“All grown up, are we? Olivia, you need to trust us. We took you from the Guildhall for your own good. It wasn’t safe there.”
“That makes no sense. Dash said he was just there to watch and keep us safe. If you want my cooperation, it’s time you told me the truth. About what the hell is going on. Your little secret enclave,” Olivia said, motioning towards them.
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 t
his 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.”