Chapter 18
Audra couldn’t remove the timepiece, though she’d tried last night and again this morning.
Twyla had clasped it around her wrist so easily, and yet nothing she tried, not even the sturdy letter opener she’d found in her desk, would cause the clasp to open.
Now, she had angry red hatch marks across her wrist from where the letter opener had slipped, skating across her skin in painful rows.
Luckily, the letter opener was dull, or she would be a bloodied mess right now.
She fiddled with the golden chain one last time before dropping the blasted thing as if she’d been singed.
The timepiece hung loosely on her wrist, twinkling prettily in the early morning light.
Heaving a frustrated sigh, she surveyed the dining hall.
It looked different in the blue-tinted dawn light filtering through the tall, arched windows, casting deep shadows over the hundreds of initiates milling around, clutching mugs of coffee or tea, as they waited in line to serve themselves food under the watchful eyes of veiled priestesses.
Audra sat at a large round table, clutching her own mug of tea, alone, aside from a pale initiate with wispy hair and a pointed chin.
The girl resembled a squirrel, not in the way she looked—she was pretty in an unassuming way—but in the nervous, fidgety energy she emitted.
Like at any moment, someone was going to find the stash of acorns she’d been collecting and steal them all.
The clatter of a tray dropped upon the tile floor made Audra jump. Her nerves were frayed. She felt sick with them.
She shoved the bowl away and closed her eyes, wishing she were back home.
With her eyes closed, the jangle of dishes and murmured conversations almost sounded like the tap hall at Fernwell Inn.
She could nearly pretend it was the busy season, and that’s why it was so noisy …
and any minute now, Mother or Father would be coming down the stairs with gossip over a patron or a list of supplies to fetch at the market …
“Did you bring your books with you, or must you retrieve them before class?”
Audra opened her eyes to find the pretty squirrel staring at her. Her nails had been gnawed to the quick, the skin raw and red. It looked painful.
“I have them; I didn’t want to risk being late.” And punished. A stack of three books wrapped in a leather cord sat beside Audra on the bench—every book she would need for today’s lessons.
The woman grinned. “I had the same thought. You’re Arcane Guild as well, right? I saw you leave your room this morning. I’m two rooms down from you.”
“Yes … Arcane.” Audra hadn’t seen anyone in the hallway when she slipped out of her dorm room. Wilder had still been asleep; Audra didn’t want to bother her, so she’d pulled her uniform on in the dark and hurried to the washroom. She was glad to see that it was empty at that hour.
It worried her that she’d been oblivious to another person in the hallway.
“Can you believe our good fortune?” the woman asked around a mouthful of food.
“Good fortune?” Audra asked, startled.
Good fortune, where?
She looked around the dining hall, as if this good fortune could be found.
But it was elusive. She did see, however, that there was a man sobbing into his cup of tea.
Another initiate, a girl with a shaved head, stared vacant-eyed at their timepiece, no doubt feeling just as imprisoned by the beautiful shackle as Audra.
What about this was fortunate?
“Yes. I would’ve been indebted to Madam until I was gray-haired.”
“Madam?” Could all Audra do was repeat what this girl said, but in question form?
“Oh, right … It’s been so long since I’ve not been surrounded by other Nightlys …” The initiate sat up, fiddling with her hair so the waves fell in just a way that concealed half her face. “When I was thirteen, my father sold me to a brothel.”
Audra tried to keep her features still, not show her shock at what the woman admitted so casually, as though she’d been sent off to stay with cousins the next town over.
The woman smiled at Audra’s struggle to conceal her astonishment. She shrugged a thin shoulder. “Too many mouths to feed, not enough lice-filled beds in our apartment, you know? I thought my entire life would be Madam’s switch, debt, and rough hands—are you going to eat that?”
That was young to enter a brothel. Too young. Fiera had been eighteen and even then … Audra’s heart cracked in two.
“I—no, not hungry.”
“Mind if I …?”
Audra pushed her bowl forward. “It’s yours if you want it.”
“Thanks!” A sheepish grin as she replaced her empty bowl with Audra’s cold cinnamon oatmeal. “I know I could return to the buffet for more, but why, when there is a perfectly delicious bowl right here? Oh, good, you got more slices of apple than I.”
“I’m happy to share. They made me get a bowl, but I knew my nerves wouldn’t allow me to eat.”
“Oh, and I’m sure my blabbing didn’t help.” She uttered a sudden groan. “I haven’t even introduced myself, and I’ve already told you sordid details from my life.”
“Life’s too short and unpredictable to wait until we’ve swapped names before we begin swapping stories,” said Audra, smiling.
“Well, I’m Lottie Nafre, and don’t think I haven’t noticed that you didn’t decide to start your day by oversharing with a stranger over breakfast.”
“Audra Evers. The day is young yet, stick around, and I’m sure I’ll let something slip.”
Lottie slurped down a bite. “Nervous to start classes?”
“Something like that.” Audra fiddled with her timepiece. “I’ve never been to a formal school before … I despise that I don’t know what to expect.”
“I haven’t either. Eran City has loads of them, but when you’re destined to make a living on your back, there isn’t any reason to pay to learn arithmetic.
Not that my father could afford the tuition anyway.
And even if he could, he wouldn’t have paid for any of us to go.
And obviously, university was out of the picture. ”
Audra gnawed on her lip. “Wasn’t it against the law to sell you to a brothel?
Was he ever held accountable? Jailed?” And why wasn’t Lottie removed from that environment?
Salt Hollow had plenty of brothels, but laws were strictly enforced; every person who chose that profession had to be an adult—and it had to be just that, a choice.
Fiera’s mom, Eilissa, wasn’t in any debt that forced her to remain either.
Sure, a portion of her earnings went to her madam, but it was low—a reasonable fee to Madam plus rent for room, board, and protection.
And Fiera had been raised in the children’s hall, where they were safe and loved.
She’d practically had thirty parents growing up.
“It probably broke a dozen laws—but in the slums of lower Eran, fathers may do whatever they wish with their progeny—what’s one more unwashed urchin added to a brothel when it’s the City Watch who frequent them the most?”
Audra clenched her jaw. How despicable that Lottie had been forced into that profession, and so young.
That the Watch—an organization that was supposed to protect children like Lottie, had been the very ones exploiting her tragedy.
How awful that their current circumstances were an improvement and that she had nobody back home to miss.
“That is so much, too much, to deal with and so young.” To think that, for some, this was an improvement upon their lives.
Her own anguish so overwhelmed her, she hadn’t thought that some would embrace this.
Audra was glad that Lottie was free of her situation—she only hoped this experience would be a positive one for her.
The old gods knew she was owed happiness.
But being conscripted into a war college—forced to learn to fight for a foreign queen and go to classes with the threat of death hanging over your grade didn’t exactly scream “safe” or “joy.” “I truly hope that things only get better for you from here.”
Lottie shrugged again and popped the tip of a finger into her mouth, chewing on the skin. “It’s behind me now. All of it is.”
Audra nodded. “Yes, it is.”
“What’s got you nervous? Did you not go to school either?” Lottie inquired.
“Our village is small—schooling was taught at home by our parents, and the closest university was three days’ ride away.”
She hadn’t technically gone to school, but Audra’s mother had once been wealthy, and in Aisha’s former life, she’d been taught by expensive in-home tutors. Despite the inn’s demanding schedule, she’d provided Audra with a better education than most in Salt Hollow.
The clatter of wood against wood made Audra startle as Wilder slammed a bowl onto the table.
Audra hadn’t been this jumpy since she was a kid still afraid of the dark.
But there was something about this castle that had her on edge—and not just the priestesses or the rules.
It was Holyvere’s grounds. The shadows in the corners were too dark …
the rooms, even this one, too cold, despite the roaring fires.
At least Wilder was here now. Audra would have given her a few more minutes to arrive before she’d gone searching for her.
Wilder, however, stabbed a spoon into her bowl of oatmeal, the motion quick and angry.
“The godsdamned priestesses made me get tea. I tried to tell them I don’t drink the stuff. They just shook their veils at me and shoved the damn mug in my hand.”
“I have a theory they can’t—or don’t—eat or drink, so maybe they enjoy watching us do it,” Lottie said through a mouthful of Audra’s oatmeal.
Wilder shuddered before shoving the steaming mug away. “If that’s so, I won’t give them the satisfaction.”
“Give it to Callum. He’ll consume anything,” Cersha said as she settled in the chair beside Lottie. She plopped her own bowl of oatmeal down too forcefully. Her spoon flew out, landing on the table.
“It’s true, I will,” Callum said around a mouthful of snowberries before he’d even sat fully in his chair.
They were here!