Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134898 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 674(@200wpm)___ 540(@250wpm)___ 450(@300wpm)
The nestmaid nods and grabs her heavy pack from its hook by the door. Gwenna quickly sweeps the half-chopped onions and veg into a bowl, clearing the counter. She tidies up the kitchen, not looking at me, until we hear Marta leaving, with the side door shutting behind her.
Gwenna wipes down the counter. “His books were missing. They weren’t in the alley. Did you notice that?”
“I noticed that you keep lying to me,” I point out.
She stiffens, her shoulders going back.
“First the artifact, and now Hemmen’s death.” I stride toward her, putting a hand on the counter that she keeps on wiping even though it’s clean. “I’m tired of the games. I want to know who you’re working with.”
“I’m not—”
“You keep distracting me during crucial moments,” I growl. I’m just as furious at myself as I am at her. “Tell me one good reason why I shouldn’t turn you over to the guild right now and let them prosecute you as the mastermind behind all of this.”
She jerks in surprise, staring up at me. “I’m what?”
“The thief. A murderer. Take your pick. That’s three repeaters who have been murdered now, and an artifact found in your bag. And one in the caverns, along with another body. All of these coincidences keep adding up, and I can only fall for a pair of pretty eyes so many times.”
Her mouth drops open.
“Who’s your contact?” I press, sensing she’s caught off guard. “You’re not working alone. Who’s doing the dirty work?”
“What dirty work?” She shakes her head.
“Murdering—”
“Murdering?!” She gasps, shocked. “Me?! Are you insane?”
“No, but apparently you are.” I lean in close, determined not to be fooled by her false outrage. “Your crew is using students to steal artifacts and then murdering them when they’re no longer of any use. We’ve been keeping tabs on you for a while now. The more you work with us, the easier it’ll be. Right now, though, things are looking very grim for you.”
She shakes her head again, more vigorously this time. “No—you’ve got it all wrong. I’m no thief.”
Another lie. “Then prove to me I’m wrong. Produce the real thief. Are you just passing information on to them? Are they holding something over you and forcing you to work with them?”
“I’m not working with anyone. And I don’t know anything about any of this!”
“Yet you were targeted in the books, remember? Gwenna is a thief. And an item was found in your bag. And now Hemmen’s books are gone. All of this is happening right on your doorstep, and it’s obvious you have a secret you’re keeping. You’re a good liar, but you’re not that good.”
Good enough that she’s had me fooled for quite some time, though. I’m fighting back the ache of betrayal, but I want to shout at the unfairness of it all. To think that I was so mucking delighted and relieved to find out that Gwenna and Sarya were the same person all along. That all my problems had been solved. What a joke.
I grab her chin and force her to look up at me. “Tell me your secret.”
Her eyes fill with tears, and her entire body shakes. “I can’t. I’ll be killed if anyone finds out.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. I fight the surge of triumph I feel, because it’s paired with the despairing realization that Gwenna has lied to me all along. “Finds out what?”
She closes her eyes, and then opens them again, resolve on her face. “That…I’m a mancer.”
Forty
Raptor
You’re a what?”
“I’m a mancer.” Gwenna immediately bursts into tears. “A necromancer. But I don’t want to be! I’m not even trying!”
I don’t think I’ve ever been as baffled as I am now. I was expecting some big confession, some admission that she’d been blackmailed by an old lover or maybe an old coworker into doing nefarious things. Hearing that she thinks she’s a mancer is beyond comprehension. “What do you mean, you’re a mancer? How can you be a mancer?”
She pulls away and wrings her hands, an agitated expression on her face as she paces back and forth in front of me. “It started when we came here to Vastwarren. The first time I went in the tunnels, I picked up a dowsing rod. You know they’re not supposed to actually work, right? That it’s just some silly joke that some masters play on their students? Except this one worked, and it led me right to a dead man holding an artifact. I thought I had done something right. That I’d somehow managed to find an artifact. And then I stole that one and gave it to Aspeth, but that’s the only thing I’ve stolen, I swear.”
I grunt, because I’ve heard the story of this one. Aspeth had one half of a link-ring pair in her possession, and Magpie’s students had found the companion to it. The pairing was considered a Greater Artifact find and was confiscated by the guild and sold off.