Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Releasing me, he held up the note and backed away. He was off to deliver Kirwan’s instructions to the steward. That was it for me and Meliora. Our fate would be sealed.
I let him go, penning in all the things I wanted to scream. Honor and loyalty to family. Kirwan did not understand these things, but I did. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“Shoua.” A woman twenty years my senior and draped in a sheer, crimson dress—her best—tugged me into the center of the crowd. “What are you doing here?” she repeated.
“I had no choice, aya.” Elder. “It was either me or Meliora.”
“Kirwan,” Myrna hissed, lips peeling back from her teeth.
I didn’t need to confirm or deny, my mother’s friends knew what he’d put us through these last sixteen years better than anyone.
I wished I was surprised to see so many women from my part of town here, but who but us would need the money so badly that we’d face faeriken.
“Olene would never let him get away with this,” said Nashwa. She was younger than Mama, but you wouldn’t know it by the touch of wrinkles on her temples and gray weaving through her reddish locks. “What did he do to her?”
“He didn’t have to do anything because she doesn’t know, and you must promise not to tell her. She thinks I’ve taken a position as a housekeeper in the Dawnbreaker household.”
“She must know,” Myrna cried. “Faywen, do you understand why we’re the only ones in this room? Why a dozen more women were here but changed their minds and left too fast to remember their slippers? The faeriken—”
“I know,” I cut in, fighting the band constricting my throat. “And that is exactly why I am here. I won’t stand for Meliora to be here in my place. Please. Don’t tell her. The first time Kirwan hurt me, she refused him and we went hungry. Kirwan spread through Lyrica that he’d ruin any man who touched her, and she didn’t see a single coin for months.
“Now that the sickness has taken her, and we have Jac, Gisela, and Savia, I can’t risk that happening again. It’s better that she believes I’m a housekeeper. I—I can start making real money now,” I said, forcing the words past the lump in my throat. “And she won’t hurt for it.”
Myrna stroked my cheek. “You won’t keep a secret like this for long. You can’t. When it’s discovered, she’ll hurt twice as much for all the days she didn’t know.”
“I—”
Myrna’s gaze flicked up. Her eyes hardened. “Get behind me.”
“What? Why—?”
Myrna shoved me behind. I swallowed a cry as Mama’s friends kept tugging and pushing, dragging me back until I was pressed against the wall and they formed a blockade in front of me.
The door creaked open, inviting a welcome rush of fresh air, and a bobbing golden crown. Rising on tiptoe, I strained to see who came inside.
“Good morning, ayas.” A deep, pleasing voice, and it met with a thick silence. “Forgive me for interrupting but Cook got a bit overambitious in her preparations for tonight’s alnihaya feast.”
Alnihaya. For seven days and seven nights before a noblewoman marries, there are feasts, parties, and celebrations in honor of her last days as a maiden. Princess Emiana’s alnihaya had spread through all of Lyrica, inviting those who believed in this marriage to celebrate in the streets.
“Saffron pudding, roasted duck, and shaela bread.” Over their shoulders, I saw servants come in carrying trays, tables, and two more benches for us to sit. “Please, enjoy.”
No one moved.
Confused, I tried to push between them. Duck and saffron pudding? I could become the highest-paid war wife in Lyrica and saffron pudding would still be a luxury. What was going on? Why weren’t they descending on the food?
“I hear from the steward that there’s a new addition to your ranks.”
What? Could he be talking about me?
“There you are.”
I jerked, locking on with twin emerald jewels. Their owner smiled and his whole face lit up, knocking the breath out of me.
It wasn’t that I’d never seen a handsome boy before. I’d simply never met one who wasn’t sneering and throwing dirt at me.
This didn’t look to be his intention—smiling wider until a slight crook bent his lips and dimpled his cheeks. Hair shaved all the way around, he left only the top of his head be, and braided it in one long whip hanging past his shoulders.
“You’re quite young. Even more commendable that you’d decided to do your duty for the king and Lyrica. Please,” he said, sweeping out his hand. “Come and enjoy. I’d like to hear your story while we eat.”
I tried again to get through and the women crowded in tighter around me.
“There’s been a mistake,” Myrna said. I could barely make out the hem of her sleeve. “She isn’t here to do her duty. She’s leaving.”