Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
I palm my hips and he grins cheekily.
“With lunch, I meant.”
“Of course you did,” I say drily, then gesture to the body. “What do we do with him?”
Bastion whistles and two men appear to deal with the issue. He turns back to me. “Shall we?”
Bastion is here, and Olyn is too. I can easily guess the travel arrangements. “I’m due to meet a young woman at a tavern.”
“Young woman?” He smiles. “Three is company, is it not?”
Bastion is a sharp shriek when he sees the ‘young woman’ at the private table. “You said you had plans,” he says, wagging his finger at her.
Olyn swats him away. “You said you weren’t out to find beauties.”
“He was in trouble. I couldn’t help it.” He delivers her a winsome smile and winks at me. “I’m a swashbuckler.”
“You need to be swashed in cold water! Out, out you go.”
Olyn shuts the door behind him and returns to the table. “Sorry. He’s always like this.”
“I know,” I say.
She picks up a cup of water and glances over it at me with a wobbling, how-could-you-know frown. I close the shutters overlooking the square and pull down my mask.
She yelps and water splashes coolly over my face.
I wipe it off, blinking, and she scurries around the table apologising and dabbing at my cheek with a napkin. “You—you—you—” she keeps shaking her head and prodding me with the napkin as if to make sure I’m real.
I chuckle and steer her forceful fingers away. “Sit, I’ll tell you everything. Then I have a favour to ask. . . .”
When I’ve asked, she simply stares at me. She drums her fingers on the table, opening her mouth to say something and snapping it shut.
I try again. “Will you join our team? As a woman. As yourself.”
She leans over the table and thumps it with a flat hand. When she resumes her seat, she holds up her water as if it’s wine and she’s making a toast. “I never thought I’d get such a chance, but this . . . without hiding? It’s a life-long dream. I’d risk my life for this opportunity.”
“You may be doing so.”
She slams her water back and stands.
She keeps her gaze steady on mine. “Let’s go.”
Mask back in place, I follow her across the square to the luminarium and the podium holding the registration book, where Megaera has been waiting. She takes Olyn in with crossed arms and approves. “I saw what she did in Kastoria. She has guts too.” Megaera looks at me. “And comes with . . .”
I follow her darting look to the stalls across the square and glimpse Bastion pretending to inspect the quality of a potato. “Added security.” I shiver, recalling the assassins. “We may need it.”
Olyn captures his attention and signals for him to be off, and Bastion immediately follows her orders. “Under it all, he’s fiercely loyal,” she murmurs. “Now, shall we?”
Skriniaris Evander isn’t here today, but someone else reluctantly hands us ink to add Olyn’s name to our team. We leave on a high and—
A snicker hits my nape. I turn to five faces—square jaws and long braids clasped at the ends with jade. The men, all our age, wear cloaks of the same burned-orange fabric, and have leather healing bags strapped to their waists.
“Why waste your time?” the middle one says, clearly the leader.
“Why waste your breath?” I retort. “Unless you fear we won’t fail?”
A hiss. “Put him in his place!” another urges.
The leader squares his shoulders. “This is a competition for worthy linea scholars. A team with no magic and two women? You’re making this contest into a joke.”
Megaera and Olyn step up on either side of me, folding their arms.
“Ah,” I say. “You’re afraid of being shown up by alchemy and female intellect?”
Team Orange turn red. “Back out while there’s still time, and you won’t leave the biggest laughingstock in the kingdoms. The regent might even give you face and send you home with the promise of a few months more peace at the border.”
“You think highly of your regent. But we think highly of another king, and for him, we stay to prove our worth.”
A scratchy laugh. “Aren’t you afraid of the shame? Your king might die of mortification.”
I smile calmly. “I will not let my king die.”
Team Orange takes a menacing step forward and Megaera steps out. “Show your competence in the contest.”
Her breezy confidence infuriates the leader and he gestures to his teammates. A blast of magic immediately hauls Megaera, Olyn and me off our feet and flips us upside down.
“Not so confident now, are you?” He pushes me by the shoulder so I swing hard, knocking into Olyn and Megaera, who stifle their yelps. I stare through my slipping mask and laugh.
Magic flashes, but whatever spell it is, it doesn’t land. It’s knocked away by a shot of sparkling silver.