Chapter Thirty
THIRTY
ASPETH
To my credit, I don’t give in to the tears threatening to spill out of my eyes. I manage to keep it together, composed, even though my pussy is so sensitive I can feel my folds sliding against each other as I walk and sending tingling little waves of sensation through my body. My spectacles are smeary and I’m sure I’m a mess, but I don’t care. I just need to get away from Hawk for a while.
His words hurt me. Painfully so. More than the words, the timing of it. To be so vulnerable to him and for him to look up at me with those intense eyes and demand to know if I’m a spy? I’ve never felt so angry and exposed…and used.
I hadn’t had an ulterior motive in touching him, other than simply wanting to touch him. In being relieved that my secret was out. It felt like one less thing to worry about, and instead, it’s going to be thrown in my face.
I can’t even blame him. I’d probably be suspicious of me, too. I have lied. It’s just…I wouldn’t bring it up when my fingers were deep inside another person’s private parts. That feels like a violation of an unspoken rule.
Sniffing back tears, I head for the kitchen. Squeaker will have finished eating, and if nothing else, I can hug my cat and feel sorry for myself for a while before heading back to bed. Hopefully when I return, Hawk will be asleep and I won’t have to talk to him.
When I get to the kitchen, I’m surprised to see Gwenna. There’s a candle on the far end of the table, providing a flickering light. Squeaker is sprawled on the near end, purring and content, while Gwenna rubs her fingers through the soft white fur on her abdomen. The cat’s so fat she looks like a loaf of bread with legs, but I find that charming. “She’s letting you pet her belly?” I ask, trying to keep my voice light. “She never lets me do that.”
“I never go below the rib cage,” Gwenna replies. “She doesn’t mind that. Any lower and I’ll get a claw dug into my arm.” She continues to rub the cat and looks over at me. “What are you doing up?”
“What are you doing up?”
“Can’t sleep.”
That’s an easy excuse. “Me, either.”
“Yes, but you look like absolute hell,” Gwenna points out. “I see you’re wearing your spectacles again, too. And you’ve got something on them.”
I do? I pull them off and to my horror, there’s a splash of semen on the edge of one lens. Hastily, I rub it off with a corner of my blouse and move to sit next to my friend. “I have a headache and thought I’d wear them. It’s been a long day.”
“I’ll fucking say.” She watches me as I tidy my spectacles and then hook them over my nose. Once I do, she gives me a worried look. “I did something bad, Aspeth.”
Oh no, what now? “What is it? What’s wrong?”
Wordless, she takes something from her pocket and slides it across the table to me.
It’s a ring. Encrusted with dirt and grime from centuries, but obviously a ring. There’s a huge ruby cabochon in the center of an ornate setting, and around the setting are Prellian glyphs. Automatically, I lift it to my eyes and start to translate despite the low light.
For my wife. Proof that we are stronger together.
Sweet, but as I turn the ring over, I see etching on the inside of the thick band. I move closer to the candle, reading.
Your half of the power is the word. Say “tlanntra” when you wish to activate.
“It’s an artifact,” I whisper. “With a word of power.”
“What’s it do?”
“It doesn’t say. I could research, but I don’t have my tomes and I doubt they’d let me use the library openly.” I turn the ring over in my hand and then look over at her. “Did you put this on?”
“Fuck no! I know better than that.” She shakes her head violently. “I don’t think you should, either.”
“I’m not going to.” I turn it over in my hands and note that all the writing is on one side, and the other side is perfectly smooth and flat…as if it was joined with something else.
Your half of the power…
After a moment, I realize just what it is, and a giddy flare of excitement surges through me. “It’s a link-ring. Prellian couples would have them made to show the strength of an alliance. Each ring doesn’t work properly on its own but together they’re very powerful.”
“Oh. Fancy.”
I stare at her in shock, curling my fingers around the ring. Part of me wants to hand it back to her because it’s hers, and part of me wants to steal it away because if I get both rings, this could be the answer Honori Hold needs. “Gwenna! How in all the gods’ names did you get this?”
She offers me a weak smile. “I stole it from the dead guy.”
“You what ?”
Gwenna flinches and gets to her feet. Squeaker immediately rolls onto her stomach and trots away, likely heading back to my room. I remain seated, the ring pulsing warm with power, and Gwenna paces in the kitchen. She wrings her hands. “Every maid knows how to steal. Not that I would, of course. But it’s helpful to know things sometimes. You pick up bits. You learn that when you’re a maid, people know you’re there but no one’s really watching you. You’re invisible in a strange sort of way and that makes it easy to lift things, especially when your employer doesn’t pay you. You figure out a way to get paid anyhow.”
I’m stunned. All I can say is “Oh.”
She hastily raises her hands. “I’ve never stolen from you, Aspeth. Don’t worry about that. But maids talk. We share tips and advice. And if some noble carelessly tosses something away, we grab it for ourselves. Your lot never misses it.” Her arms cross over her chest, her posture defensive. “I know you think I’m the worst—”
“I don’t, I swear I don’t—”
“But you’ve always been good to me and made sure I was taken care of.”
“Gwenna—”
She paces frantically back and forth. “And when I saw his bag and there was something shiny in it, my instincts kicked in.” She grimaces. “I know it’s wrong to steal but he’s dead, right? And this could be a matter of life and death for you, so why not take it? But I guess this is the same as me stealing from the guild, and that’s a bad thing. I probably should have left it, but I didn’t, and I’ll understand if you want to turn me over to Magpie or Hawk. Actually, if you have to turn me in, can we make it Magpie? I think she might be nicer than Hawk. Or she might not even say anything and trade it for a case of ale. I just…I don’t want to go back to changing bedpans and getting tea trays, Aspeth. I want to do something with my life—”
“Gwenna.” I set the ring down, get to my feet, and grab her by the shoulders before she can pace a hole into the floorboards. “I’m not going to say anything. Just…thank you. It’s kind of you to think of me.”
“You’re my friend,” she says, blinking at me. “You brought me with you when you could have left me behind and unemployed. You’re helping me start a new life. Of course I’d look out for you.”
Tears threaten again, because I’m so used to having to look out for everyone else at the hold that it feels strange to have someone watching over me. “You’re my best friend, Gwenna.”
She laughs, and sounds as tearful as I am. “I thought that was Squeaker.”
“We won’t tell her the truth.”
“She’s a cat. As long as she gets food, I don’t think she much cares.”
I bite back a hysterical giggle and look over at the ring on the table. It’s a chance. It could be just what I need to save everyone. “Can I hug you?”
“Can I stop you?” she grumbles, but submits to my quick, happy squeeze.
I hold her tight, because she’s truly proven herself to be the best of friends. When I release her, my gaze automatically is drawn back to the ring. “I wonder what it does.”
“No idea, but it must have been important enough that someone was tomb robbing to get it, right? They said the body was old, and he wasn’t wearing a guild uniform. Just some old, crappy armor. What else could it be but a tomb robber of some kind?”
She has a good point. It hadn’t occurred to me that it would be a tomb robber. Those were common before the guild took over the ruins and established a stranglehold on the artifacts coming out of Old Prell. “Did you see another ring?”
“If he had both, do you think he’d have died there? Or do you think he was still looking for the mate to the ring when he got attacked by ratlings?”
“Or he didn’t know what he had.” I chew on my lip, thinking. “What if the guild has the other ring?”
“Then they’ll be looking for this one.”
She’s right. They’ll pull Drop Thirteen apart looking for a mate to another ring. The fact that they haven’t yet tells me that they aren’t aware of any artifacts in the area. Right now Magpie is just quarreling with them over sending us back because of paperwork. As far as I know, the guild still isn’t interested in the drop itself. “We have to go back,” I tell her. “Before they find anything. And we have to find the mate. If what these rings do together is powerful…it could help my father.”
“I hate that we’d find something so amazing and it has to go to your father, who’s just going to gamble it away.”
I wince, because she’s not wrong. Father is terrible with money. If he’s not spending it on lavish trips to far-flung parties, he’s spending it on his courtesan lover, Liatta. He couldn’t care less about Honori, other than the fact that it is his and therefore it should always be his. “Once he knows Barnabus is angling for his lands, perhaps it’ll wake him up. He thinks he’s safe and that no one cares what he does. That because he’s a holder he’s automatically protected.”
“He’s an idiot,” Gwenna replies tartly. “You must take after your mother.”
I manage a small smile at that, because I can’t remember my mother. I move back to the table and scoop up the ring, then hold it out to her. “You found it. You should keep it for now.”
She puts her hands up, shaking her head. “No. I got it for you. You keep it. I don’t know anything about Old Prell anyhow. It’s safer with you than with me.”
Maybe. I don’t know. I examine the ring again, looking for any symbols I might have missed, and then tuck it into my neckline, lodging it between my corseted breasts. It feels like a pebble stuck in my clothing, but that’s not a bad thing. I’ll notice if it slips. I reach out and take her hand, squeezing it. “Thank you, Gwenna.”
“I did it for you,” she says, squeezing my hand back. “I didn’t want something like that going to Barnabus. He’s a prick.”
“He is,” I agree, my mind racing. “You think we can convince Magpie to take us back down to the drop? Tomorrow?”
She shrugs. “She’s waiting for guild permission, right? It might be slow in coming, what with her drinking and all.”
Gods, she’s right. Magpie is a mess and everyone will know about it after what happened. I wince. Something tells me she’s not going back anytime soon, and our Five can’t go without a teacher.
As if she can read my mind, Gwenna asks, “What about Hawk?”
I think about Hawk. And his fingers. And his horrid questions. Are you a spy? “Hawk and I are not on speaking terms at the moment.”
“Already? But we just got back.”
“It’s been a very fraught evening.”
“Do you…want to talk about it?”
Do I? I consider this for a long moment, and then my shyness takes over. I can’t imagine having to explain to Gwenna how Hawk had his fingers deep inside me, rubbing a spot in my body that made me want to fly apart—and then demanded to know if I was a spy. That I was feeling used because I’d sucked his cock just moments earlier and I thought we were in a better place than that. “Just trust me when I say if I approach him with a stolen ring, he won’t help us. He’ll probably turn us all over to the guild and get us sent home. He knows who I really am.”
“He does? Shit.” She paces back and forth, agitated. “So what do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.” I feel defeated. “Avoid him and hope he doesn’t turn us in?” It doesn’t seem like Hawk to turn me over, but he was also rather upset.
Gwenna grimaces. “He’s definitely not much of a rule breaker. I don’t suppose we know anyone in the guild who would be willing to help us?”
I stare at her. “You…you’re kidding, right? This guild? The one that mocks us for being women? That thinks we shouldn’t be allowed to go into the tunnels because we don’t have penises? This same guild?”
“You’re right. Stupid question.”
Not stupid—we’re just low on options. “Do you think Lark might know someone we can trust?”
“More than her aunt ?”
Again with the impeccable logic. I purse my lips, pressing a hand to the ring in my dress. “I don’t think we have a choice. We need to speak to Magpie and get her on our side. I know we stole from the guild but what if we offer her a cut?”
It’s a risk, but what are our choices? The drop inside the walled-off area is completely controlled by the guild, with passes required and security at all times. Unless we bribe our way in, I don’t see an option. And we don’t have money.
There’s another way to bribe, of course, but I don’t even want to consider it. One single Taurian in my bed is enough trouble as it is. “Let’s talk to the others in the morning first, see how they feel about helping us. Then we can approach Magpie.”
I fish the ring out of my corset and hold it back out to her. “I feel bad keeping this when you found it.”
Gwenna shakes her head. “You hold on to it.”
“Are you sure?”
She pushes it away from her physically, her expression determined. “If I get caught with that thing, I’m a thief. If you get caught with it, you’re a holder’s daughter who’s being mischievous. Do you see the difference?”
I do. I tuck it back into my clothes and hate that she’s right.