Chapter 21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
AUDREY
I’ve considered our position. How would you feel about casting a Mindslock on any potential future mages who get access to the Glow secrets? —in a letter from High Magelord, Bearer of All, Gautier the First, to the First Guidelord, Luis
La’Angi City
She wouldn’t tell me why she wouldn’t go after the children. I didn’t push. Isolde wasn’t the sort of person you could encourage to open up.
I walked through a big block of apartments with Ettie.
Every now and then she’d take her walking stick and whack a sagging wall or soft segment of floor, grunting in disgust. “I’m glad whichever bastard owned this is fertilizing the orchard,” she said, by the end.
“You’d do better to knock it down and start over. ”
Looking up at it from the street, though, made me worried. There were more houses crowding close on all sides. Most of them were now mine.
I didn’t have time to level every less-than-ideal building. But I also couldn’t put people into something that could come down on top of them.
“I need someone who’s spent time building,” I told Ettie. “Do you know anyone?”
She sucked on her teeth, thinking about it. “Could do. Depends if he’s alive.”
That she didn’t know whether he was alive or dead meant he wasn’t local. “Where does he hail?”
“Ange’s Pass.” She rapped her walking stick on the ground. “He does the maintenance there. There’s plenty of it, I hear.”
It was another point of good news. Yasmine was heading my way from Ange’s Pass in just a few weeks to help review the orchard around the tourney grounds and help me figure out how I could best expand it to allow for the glut of people I was anticipating would be brought to La’Angi for the faire.
I wasn’t above seeing if Ettie’s fixer might want a holiday.
“Know anyone else?” I asked her. “I don’t like the look of that.”
“People’ve been living in it. Or they were.”
But what damage might’ve happened over the winter months while it sat empty? Had the disrepair been so extensive, or could the damp and cold, going unchecked, have had a serious impact? I didn’t know. I did know I didn’t want anyone to live in those conditions.
We were raising the expectations, not lowering them, after all.
I spent a few more hours touring the housing options. None of them looked great. But if I didn’t step in and make those homes publicly accessible, I’d still need to deal with those issues. They shouldn’t have been allowed to get to that point.
“Can you remind me I need to review laws around building safety?” I asked Isolde as we veered toward the docks.
She considered it. “I might recall that.”
“I’ll accept that.” I pretended to ignore the two bored guards who followed behind us. “How long do you think these buildings can stand empty before they take real damage from the damp?”
“On the docks?” she glanced around. “Not long. Nothing down here stays dry.” The crew of the Ally saw us, and she sighed as shouts rippled through the people who looked to be loading supplies. “You’re staying on solid ground, aren’t you, my lady?” It wasn’t a question.
“Sure.” I lifted a hand to the rapidly approaching captain, glancing towards the nearby inn. “I might duck in here out of the weather,” I told the two guards. “Could I get you two to watch the door?”
The Captain, hearing this, looped their hands into their belt and strolled along beside me. “Ports this quiet are eerie,” Elnyta said, glancing around. “Can’t wait for this place to liven up a little.”
“Agreed.” I opened the door. It stuck, swollen from the damp.
During that moment I was back in the orchard, looking for the innkeep who’d maintained the tavern on the main road south as long as I could recall.
Then the door gave way. The tavern smelt musty, but not of death.
Tension I hadn’t noticed I held eased from my muscles.
Isolde came inside with us, moving through the dark. With her in the shadows, I had naught to fear.
“Nice place you’ve got here, princess,” the Captain drawled.
A moment later, Isolde lit the light and set the lamp down. “I’m checking the neighboring buildings,” she told me. “You’ve got a half-hour.”
The Captain’s brows rose. “If you’re planning on killing me, it might take you a little longer’n that,” they told me, resting a hip against the table. “Shame. You’ve got such nice hands.”
“My hands can do a lot of things other than killing you.” I realized I’d walked into their attempt to flirt and felt the discomfort to my core, but tried to disguise it by pulling out the map.
My response was in kind, wasn’t it? I hadn’t intended for the extra meaning, but they didn’t know I’d been thinking of stamping official documents.
I didn’t dare look at them. “We’ll mark this one up. I’m going to send some of the watch.”
Elnyta snorted. “Those boys? Think any half-wild, all-scared kid is going to go with them?”
“I can’t ask you to go back. There’s no coin in it.”
“Too important to go yourself, princess?” they asked, their tone conversational as they went behind the bar.
I followed along. Out of the pool of light I could see where the slivers of daylight shone through the shutters and around poorly fitted doors, but the shadows were deep.
“Right now, I think I might be.” It was a strange thought, and not one that sat comfortably.
They made a thoughtful noise. Bottles chimed. “You thought you could get someone else earlier. And asked if we’d do it.”
“That was earlier.” I hadn’t been thinking. I couldn’t afford to pay for empty vessels to rescue children.
I hated it. But I also had children in this city whose futures were uncertain.
“I’m grateful for the wheat,” I told Elnyta.
They made a happy noise and straightened, stoppered jug in their hand.
The cups they found were of the same make as the jug.
The siren on their hand gleamed as they upturned two.
“So, if I brought you a half-dozen children, or some refugees from the plague,” they said, conversationally, “You’d feed them, house them, keep them away from the watch and the mills? ”
“I can’t pay you.”
“Bet you can,” they said, pouring us both a cup. “If it was a higher priority.”
I blew out the breath caught in my lungs. “You’re right.” I hated it, but it was true.
They shrugged, nudging the cup toward me. “Well, I’m doing another run along the coastline, anyway. Got a noble lady who wants information and grains.”
“And fruit,” I reminded them. I’d written it down. They’d tucked it into their belt. Were they pretending to have forgotten?
“And fruit,” Elnyta said, a smile tugging at their mouth.
I was being teased. In the low light, the ink stained on the skin of their neck and cheekbones merged with the shadows, making patterns over their features that danced.
I wondered how warm their skin would be, and whether they’d taste like salt.
“If I find any folks who want to journey to La’Angi, now I know they’ll have somewhere to go. ”
I took the cup. It was cheap cider, but it had more class than I did just then, in an abandoned inn that stank of piss, trying to exploit a generous captain to assist children I didn’t have a budget to transport. “I’d be grateful.”
“Mm. Say that again, princess.” They placed one hand on the bar, the corner of their mouth kicked up and the shadows in their hazel eyes full of promise.
There was a heavy beat in my veins that I hadn’t felt in over a moon. I took a sip of the cider. It had almost as much vinegar as Isolde. I shook my head, setting it down, and Elnyta laughed at my reaction.
Mayhap I was used to finer things, but I didn’t plan to change my ways that much.
I wore their laughter but rejected the kick of anxiety that tried to cling to me as I came around the bar.
Their smile stayed tucked up in the corner of their full lips, the mirth sparkling in their eyes, as I moved into their space.
I didn’t stop until they had to tilt their head a little to look up at me. Their smile deepened.
“I’d be grateful,” I told them, keeping my words quiet.
“The gratitude of the duchess-to-be,” Elnyta breathed in admiration. “That’s probably worth coin to some folks.”
“What’s it worth to you?” I asked them, genuinely curious.
“An excuse to see you again,” they told me, shamelessly.
Outside, the crew was still working noisily. Inside, in our own little shadowy pocket, we had all the time in the world. I reached out, ignoring the urge to hide, and touched my thumb to the corner of their lips.
The softness only met my skin for a moment before they’d turned their head and sent heat rushing through me, taking the tip of my thumb into their mouth and sucking firmly.
“Our agreements are complex,” I told them. Somehow my voice still worked. “I’ll need to see you every time you’re in port, Captain.”
“Shame things can’t be simpler,” they agreed, hand going to my waist. “Imagine how much time we could save.”
“Commercial licensing is an important topic,” I disagreed, encouraging them closer, eager to feel the softness, the resilience, of their body. “It deserves time.”
They hummed in agreement, leaning into me. Their weight felt glorious. My mouth was dry. “You talk big game.”
I wrapped my hand around the nape of their neck and found their lips with mine.
They didn’t taste like salt, but like vinegar and apples. Their hands fisted in my back, locking me in close. Their tongue was in my mouth, pillaging, and I met them, reveling in the heat that swept through me, the crackling anticipation under my skin.
They made a noise in the back of their throat, something hungry. I pressed them back against the bench, feeling them soften even more in my hold, feeling their hands start to cling. When I came up from air they were panting, but the grin was still on their mouth.
I wanted that mouth to be slack. Shocked. I wanted their eyes to be unfocused and their body pliant.
“You ought to come tour the Ally,” they said, the words warm against my damp lips.
The thought of climbing aboard that ship… “What would I find there?”
“Whatever it takes to make you happy,” they promised. They weren’t laughing while they spoke. It felt like a promise. “Whatever size, whatever hole, for however long it takes. I’m adjustable, princess.”
There was no way that offer should’ve had me wanting to curl up under the bar and laugh until I was sick. I bit my lip, resting my forehead against theirs.
“Finally shut you up,” they said, the grin back. “Now I know what it takes.”
“Do you?” I asked, just to draw it out, to drink it in.
“To shut you up, yeah.” Elnyta raised up and nipped at my lip. “Once you’re quiet, then I’ll learn what noises you make.”
There was no way I should get on that ship. “I should go.” I didn’t want to, though, and I didn’t move.
“On my ship,” they agreed, their hands firming on my waist. “I agree. I’ve some villagers who need you to rescue them. Sounds like something the brave lady of La’Angi would do on a quiet spring day.”
It did. It really did. I put it all aside and moved back in for a second and last kiss, feeling the way their tongue moved while their hands gripped my ass.
“I’m glad you sailed into my city,” I told them, while they were still breathless.
“Say it again,” they said, their eyes lowering to half-mast.
I moved in close until my lips brushed their ear.
They smelled like salt and copper. “I’m glad you sailed into my city,” I said, and felt a shiver go up their spine.
Anticipation coiled low in my belly. “I’m glad you tried to trick me so I could sit so close to you.
I’m glad you came and visited me this morning. ”
“Your dress was unlaced,” they said. “You were still warm from bed, weren’t you?”
“Come find out, next time.” I scraped my teeth against their lobe. “Thanking you, Captain.”
They drew in air, shaking their head. “You’re well come, m’lady. Any time at all.”
I felt a measure taller as I walked out of that inn, heat coursing through my veins and the taste of Elnyta on my tongue.