Chapter 26 Toran
Toran
Toran found Genna sitting at a table, a thick blanket wrapped around her shoulders.
The same girl who had admitted them into the brawlhouse sat on the stool to Genna’s right—Suri, he presumed.
She had dark hair and a face that spoke of such familiarity he wondered if he’d encountered her prior to the brawlhouse or if he was simply mistaking her for another girl.
Nes stood on Genna’s other side, a bowl of something thick and creamy in her hands.
No one spotted him at the bottom of the stairs.
The table in front of Genna and Suri was laid out with a full breakfast: scrambled eggs and buttered toast and orange slices and doughnuts.
He watched Nes set down the bowl, then kick out a stool, one hand already claiming the pot of coffee and the other her favorite doughnut.
The pastry was in her mouth before she bothered to sit.
His eyes followed her as she poured herself some coffee, then filled the empty cup at the place setting next to hers, too.
For all their flirting and teasing this morning, seeing Nes like this, at ease, made new feelings creep out of his chest. They slid up his collarbone, wrapping around his shoulders like an embrace.
He owed both Nes and Suri his life. He wanted to thank them.
Eyes downcast, Genna pushed her food around her plate. “I should thank you.”
“Yes, thank you,” he said. “We owe you both our lives.”
Nes whirled at the sound of his voice. Though her clothes were dark, black pants loose around her thighs and brown shirt tight across her chest, there was no dimming the brightness in her eyes as she looked him over.
She absentmindedly brought the doughnut to her mouth and took a bite around her smirk.
He felt color flash across his cheeks, brief but sure.
He glanced at Suri. There was the slightest of smirks beneath her bright green eyes as well.
He shifted his focus to Genna as he took the empty seat next to Nes. She pushed the cup of coffee she’d poured toward him. He grabbed four orange slices and a doughnut before saying, “Explain how you ended up in the Witch’s Well.”
Genna took a large bite of toast and chewed.
He picked up a knife and began slicing his doughnut into quarters. “While in the water,” he said, the knife smooth and precise, “you said you’d made a deal with someone.”
Genna reached across the table for the water pitcher.
He set the knife down. “You said you’d been betrayed.”
Genna’s hand shook around the pitcher’s handle.
“Tell us who put forth your name.”
The pitcher toppled, splashing water across the table. No one moved to clean it up.
On either side of her plate, Genna’s hands clenched. “Captain Fell.”
He shouldn’t have been surprised. He picked up the pitcher, placing it upright. “Anything you say remains between us.”
Genna’s gaze was wary as she considered them. But he only peeled back the rind and took a bite of his orange while Nes shoved a piece of doughnut from his plate in her mouth. Suri was silent.
“I—” Genna cut off. She started again, “I have the best stats out of everyone.” She raised her chin, her eyes on him. “Even compared to the Crown. If it were me you had to fight in the Crown Duel, you would lose.”
He didn’t deny it.
“I am the best the King’s Guard has seen in over a decade, and yet no one wanted me in their legion because they’re afraid I could be the Witch.
Never mind that I’m a whole year older than the Witch should be.
” Genna gritted her teeth and turned to Nes.
“Did you know guards don’t get full pay unless they’re part of a legion? ”
Nes stopped chewing. The orange in Toran’s mouth turned leaden.
Genna snorted. “We’re still expected to pick up shifts, but until a captain claims us, we get less than a gadot an hour. Ridiculous, right?”
The restriction was meant to enforce the notion that no one—no matter how skilled—could stand on their own. It was why there were legions in the first place and why the King always had his Crown at his side. But right now, Toran had to agree with Genna.
Nes swallowed her doughnut. “Sounds to me like it would make anyone a little desperate.”
“That’s a good word for it. Seeing as I had no other choice.”
He shifted in his seat. “What do you mean?”
Genna sighed. “As a Brother in the monastery, my father has devoted his life to the Goddess, Nephele. He is a procurer of knowledge. He’s the one who taught me to love languages. But for all the research he does, he never brings home money.
“My mother kept us afloat. She had a flower shop on the border of the Gash and the Ditch. My mother’s business thrived, so although my father didn’t provide for us, we were comfortable.”
Genna poked at the eggs on her plate. Nes didn’t touch the ones on hers. Both had grown cold.
“And then came the carriage accident. Some idiot lost control of his horse, and the buggy slammed right into my mother’s shop.
Destroyed the whole place. We learned after that my father had been taking money from my mother—a small amount each week—to donate to the monastery.
Had the accident not happened, I doubt we would have noticed.
But when my mother went into her savings, she only had half of what she thought she did.
What she did have wasn’t enough to rebuild. ”
“What did you do?” Suri asked.
“My mother tried to find a job. But no one would hire her. Something about her being bad luck—as if she’d caused the accident.” Genna shook her head. “So I joined the Guard, not knowing it would be next to impossible to get paid for my work.”
Toran ran a hand through his hair. “It’s not right. You serve Orlonea. The least the King could do is compensate you for your service.” He looked up at Genna. “How have you managed to keep your family afloat? It’s been three years since you joined.”
Genna narrowed her eyes. “You speak of this to anyone, and I will gut you. I don’t care how important you are.”
Nes grinned. “Don’t worry. If he so much as opens his mouth, I’ll shut it. I have plenty of ways to do so.”
Genna glanced between them. On top of the table, her hands clenched into fists again. “One night, I went to the Ditch, pretending to be a guard on duty. Everyone in the Ditch is doing something illegal, so I thought I’d make a few arrests, impress a captain, and finally get into a legion.”
“That’s not how it worked out, was it?”
“Not exactly. I caught this guy using magic. He had a flask full of the diluted stuff. I confiscated his flask, then fled the Ditch.” She took a shaky breath. “That night, I locked myself in my room and consumed magic.”
Toran’s stomach churned. He shifted his gaze to Nes, to the flask on her hip.
“They’d forced us to consume magic in training.
Any woman who wants to join the Guard has to.
They record our reactions, but we aren’t allowed to know them.
They knock us out before the reaction takes over so we can’t know what happens,” Genna explained.
“I’d heard of people magically growing flowers out of their skin, and I thought that would be enough.
If I could produce flowers from nothing, then my mother could sell enough to rebuild. ”
“Is that how you reacted?” Nes asked, and Toran knew she was recalling Kile Pinyak.
“When I consume magic, I—” Genna inhaled deeply. She exhaled and said, “I create money.”
He blinked. “You…what?”
Genna swallowed. “With magic, my body expels gadots.”
“Actual coins?” Nes asked. “Identical to the real ones?”
Genna’s hand disappeared beneath the table. When it reemerged, there was a single gadot in her palm. “Here.” She dropped the coin into Nes’s outstretched hand. “Can you tell the difference?”
He watched Nes examine the coin. She ran her fingers over the surface and around the rim. She held it out for him to inspect. Taking it, he studied the etchings on the gadot, noting no imperfections.
“It smells,” Nes told him.
Genna leaned forward. “Smells? Of what?”
He glanced between the three women. Nes’s secret was not his to tell.
“Of magic,” Nes said. Lifting her shirt, she unhooked her flask and set it on the table. “Recognize this?”
Genna’s eyes widened. “That looks just like—”
“The flask you stole.”
“So you…?”
Nes took the flask back, hiding it under her shirt. “I can smell magic,” she said by way of an answer.
Toran slid the coin across the table to Genna. “But we’re not here to talk about Nes. She wasn’t the one thrown down the Witch’s Well. How did Fell find out?”
Genna rubbed her thumb over the surface of the coin. “Captain Fell caught me consuming magic.”
“And he wrote you up as a suspected Witch? Threw you down the well?”
“No.” Genna pocketed the gadot. “He found out a year ago.”
Like dense fog, silence permeated the room. It slithered around the spokes of their stools and crept up the table legs. He felt raw with it. Stripped down as what Genna was saying became clear.
“He used you.”
Nes’s gaze snapped to him, but he kept his eyes on Genna.
“Threatened you,” he continued. “Told you he’d turn you in if you didn’t give him your money.”
Genna’s nod was almost indiscernible. “For months, I gave him the money I produced, and in exchange, he began including me in legion tasks. I wasn’t a member of his legion, but he always told me if I continued to please him, I might find myself a part of it.”
“What changed? If this has been going on for a year, why turn you in now?”
“Because of you.”
Toran stiffened.
“Captain Fell found out I helped you. He threw me in the castle dungeon, then brought me diluted magic and forced me to consume it. I made coins for him for three days straight. And when he was satisfied with his money, he turned me in. I was brought to the well the next day.”
Beside him, Nes’s rage felt like rushing rapids. He slid his hand over to rest on her thigh.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I knew Fell was…but I never thought he’d—”
“Use an innocent girl then throw her in a dumpstreet for the scavengers?” Nes spat.
“I’m not innocent,” Genna whispered.