Chapter 33 – Neve
NEVE
Sweat poured off Caelo’s brow as he finished applying Freyia’s glamour. As the sole vampire on our team, she’d required a more thorough glamour than the rest of us. Usually, that would be a minor task, but Caelo had already altered me, Vale, and himself since we could not freely travel the streets.
The Crown wanted me in chains, Vale and I were married, and Caelo was a knight, a Clawsguard, and Vale’s dearest friend.
So we glamoured ourselves and had borrowed the plainest clothing possible from the rebels before leaving Valrun.
Out of everyone who had lived in Avaldenn, Luccan alone got to wear his usual clothing, and because it would be best if the leprechauns recognized him, he also bore no glamour. Bac and Tanziel, a nymph with blue hair down to her knees, would also walk the streets of Avaldenn undisguised.
I’d only met the nymph last night, and quickly realized that even though Tanziel’s powers allowed her to see events and share them with others later, she was only present to watch us.
A recorder, the nymph called herself. It was an intriguing talent, though we would have done better with a stronger sword in our party instead.
But my sister doesn’t trust me, so we get a recorder of events rather than another competent fighter.
I hoped Bac would make up for the skills that Tanziel lacked, but that remained to be seen.
“Everyone is armed, right?” Luccan asked.
We’d decided to carry at least four daggers each, all of them hidden in our cloaks and boots. Freyia and Bac also had throwing stars.
While one could walk into a coinary with a sword or mace or bows and arrows, those weapons would grab notice. Potentially, the leprechauns would ask us to check them. If we said no, they would monitor us far more thoroughly, and we wished to get in and out quickly and undetected.
“I think that’s enough of a disguise. Does she look fae enough to the rest of you?” Caelo stepped back from Freyia.
I examined the vampire. “It works. None of us looks like ourselves enough to alert a normal citizen.” For the time being, we vanished our wings.
Our hair and eye colors appeared changed and the most prominent parts of our faces altered.
My new dark hair, brown eyes, and larger nose would trick even those in Avaldenn who’d known me best, like Saga and Sayyida.
Luccan led us up the stairs to the main living area of his house. I looked around for servants.
“I released them when my brothers and I left town.” Luccan handed us the cloaks his servants wore outside when on errands for him.
These cloaks bore the signet of the ice spider in red and black and told shop keepers that the servants could charge to Luccan’s accounts or pick up items for the younger Lord Riis.
“I didn’t want anyone here if the king came calling with questions. ”
“Ah,” I said. The Riis brothers and the spymaster always danced two steps ahead of others.
Outside, familiar frigid winds gusted off the Shivering Sea. I shuddered as we passed through the gates of Luccan’s manor and on to the bustling street of Lordling Lane. There was much I missed about Avaldenn, but the harsh wind was not one of those things.
Vale and I flanked Luccan but took care to walk a half step behind him. The others fell in line behind us, just as a servant on an outing to help their lord would do.
“The coinary used by the noble houses is close,” Luccan said.
He spoke loud enough for those around us to hear, and likely for the benefit of Bac, Freyia, Tanziel, and me.
As this coinary was one where all the wealthiest fae in the capital kept their money and precious items, it would be well known to those who had grown up in the city. “A few streets down.”
“All the better for fancy lordlings to spend their coin,” Tanziel muttered as she scanned the opulent street with a frown.
Like most rebels, Tanziel didn’t trust us yet, but maybe it was more than that. A harboring of resentment. Once I’d done the same to the wealthy, though I doubted she’d appreciate it if I said as much.
Despite my past, the rebels saw me as only one thing: A royal threat to their leader. While few of the rebels were pleasant to us, and many acted polite enough, that did not mean the majority liked us.
“Are you recording?” I asked.
“I have been since we left Lord Riis’s home. He requested I not record inside, and Thyra agreed to that, so I didn’t. But everything else will be documented.”
“Good.” I wanted Thyra to see that we worked for her cause. Working to make things better for the small folk of Winter’s Realm.
If the Fr?r Crown does anything at all.
The unknowns about the Fr?r Crown remained a point of annoyance for me. In all the research Arie, Duran, Clem, and Anna had done, nothing of note had been discovered. Most people merely saw the Fr?r Crown as a sign of legitimacy for the ruler of the realm.
I hoped it was more than that and had to assume Thyra knew what she was doing—even if she wouldn’t divulge that information.
Maybe she would if we found the Fr?r Crown.
At the very least, Thyra having a Hallow might incline her to return Sassa’s Blade to me.
Then, on equal footing, we could go after the Ice Scepter.
We neared the end of Lordling Lane when I heard a voice that snapped me out of my troubled musings.
“Calie, shouldn’t we stop by the dressmaker? My gown might be ready early.”
“And what would you wear it for? Thanks to that whore of a Falk, the Courting Festival had all but ended!”
I swallowed as Calpurnia Vagle and the tall, blonde Adila Ithamai came into view through the thick crowds. Judging by their rosy cheeks, I guessed that they’d left one of the taverns known for serving only high-end wines from far-off locales.
“Skies!” Calpurnia pointed at our group, lips parted in shock. “Luccan Riis, is that you?”
Vale glanced across Luccan at me. “Hood up.”
I did as he said, and he too covered his face as much as possible. Glamour or no—Calpurnia was Vale’s cousin on his mother’s side. Observant and clever too. She might see someone with the same gait as Vale, someone the same size and height, and suspect something.
And if she suspected I was with him, then Calpurnia would have me thrown into a cell faster than I could blink.
“Hello, Calpurnia,” Luccan said as the noble lady stopped before him. He bowed. She curtsied. I refrained from rolling my eyes at the performance of it all when so much was on the line. “Out and about today, I see?”
“I am! But I heard that you left Avaldenn?” She did not spare anyone wearing the servants’ cloaks a glance.
“Interesting story. I just left my manor.”
“Oh,” she sounded as if she did not quite believe him. “A miscommunication, I guess. Although, I suppose there’s little reason to be at Frostveil now.” She gestured to the rest of us without looking at us.
“Why are so many of your servants with you?”
“I’m going to the coinary, and they are helping me carry out items.” Luccan twisted the truth and made a show of looking at the clock in the distance. “In fact, the coinary closes soon, so I’d better be on my way.”
Calpurnia’s lips pursed slightly. “I’ll let you go then.”
“Until next time,” Luccan said.
As we moved around Calpurnia and Adila, I made a point of looking away, hoping not to draw attention, but fate was against me, for I’d nearly passed by Calpurnia when I tripped on a chunk of ice. I toppled to the side, right at her feet.
“By the dead gods,” Calpurnia muttered.
Someone more forgiving would have assumed she was saying it out of concern, but I detected a tone of derision in her voice.
“Apologies, my lady.” I spoke in a deeper tone than normal as I rose, hoping to carry on. But I could not stop her from staring at me, making my heart rate ratchet up. Her eyebrows pinched together, and I felt the air pulse. She was staring for too long. Did she suspect?
She shook her head. “I thought you were someone I knew.” And with that, she left.
I took my place by Luccan again, face flaming. No one said anything as Luccan veered us to the mouth of a side street. We paused, and I heard Luccan let out a long breath.
“That was close,” Vale whispered the words I was sure at least half of us had been thinking. Those who had experienced the vicious side of Calpurnia. “Sorry I didn’t catch you. I worried about her seeing me and that distracted me.”
“A valid concern.” I wasn’t mad at all. I’d rather eat a face full of snow than have Calpurnia out us because she detected Vale or me. “Please tell me we’ll get there soon.”
“It’s there.” Luccan nodded down the side street, an uneasy expression on his face. “Everyone ready?”
We affirmed that we were, and once again, he took the lead for the coinary.
“We’re really safe, right?” I whispered, unable to let go of that worry and needing to get it off my chest before entering the coinary. “You don’t think Calpurnia suspected anything?”
“I think so,” Luccan replied without so much as a glance back at me.
No one was on the side street, but you never knew who might watch from the apartments and shops above.
“Much has happened since the time my brothers and I left court, so Calpurnia being mistaken is not odd. As we’re not the highest born males, she—and others like the king—probably cares much less of our whereabouts. Still, we should be quick.”
If Luccan’s face was key to getting us to the more protected parts of the coinary, Bac’s powers of persuasion would be the part that got us in and out without issue.