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)
“I thought you said they’d rounded everyone up!”
“Everyone that they knew of! The drop workers! This is different! You’re certain it’s the nestmaids?”
“Positive.” I think of how sick I’d felt when I’d gotten to M in the alphabet and Hemmen had indicated yes. It all made sense. “No one notices a nestmaid coming or going. They’re always on the fringes, listening. They work closely with repeaters. And they have access to every single guild building.”
He curses again, his hooves slamming on the floor as he races out of the room.
I slip my legs over the side of the bed, wincing as every muscle screams in protest. Something tells me that I’m going to be needed very soon.
I wonder what Rooster thinks of my abilities now that he’s had a chance to sleep on it. Is he going to find my ability to speak with the dead monstrous? Or is he going to see the potential uses it has for the guild?
Gods, I hope it’s the latter. I’ve never had to persuade others to my side before, but now it seems that it’s a skill I need to learn.
* * *
Just as I’d suspected, Marta and Mistress Umala are quickly rounded up, and I’m retrieved from the clinic and brought to the guild headquarters with an escort. Raptor and I are given fresh uniforms, and even though I ache all over and want to sleep for a week, I try to look strong and unbothered as we wait in Rooster’s office for the two women to be brought in. There are a half dozen guild masters and guild enforcers crammed in with us. Raptor remains at my side, snarling at anyone who stands too close to me.
And, okay. I kind of like that he’s hovering. I’m still feeling anxious over the whole mancer situation.
Marta is brought in first by the enforcers. Before anyone can ask her a question, she weeps, crumbling before the stern faces in front of her. “I just wanted money to send home to my mother. I didn’t know anything about people being killed!”
“Give us names, and we could be lenient,” Rooster demands.
Marta quickly spills, naming Mistress Umala as well as three other maids I’ve met and worked with before. I’m saddened to hear that, because I thought they were nice women. All young and poor, all wanting to work hard enough to make a better life for themselves.
“And your group targeted Gwenna? At Mistress Umala’s instruction?” Raptor demands.
Marta looks up from her hands, and the expression she shoots me is puzzled and somewhat apologetic. “It wasn’t personal. It’s just…she’s a woman. Women don’t become artificers.”
It’s the same sort of thing every man here has said before, but hearing it come from another woman—another woman in the same situation I’ve been in in the past—stings. “That’s not for you to decide.”
“And will you show us the tunnels you were using to funnel the artifacts out of the guild treasury?” Rooster continues to write notes on a piece of parchment as Marta weeps.
“I—I never handled anything,” Marta stammers, twisting her hands. “I just sent notes and connected people.”
“And tried to frame me,” I point out. “With Hemmen’s help.”
“It wasn’t personal,” Marta says again. “Why won’t you understand that?”
“Because it feels personal to me,” I mutter, but quiet down when Raptor puts a calming hand on my arm.
Marta’s questioning continues for a while longer, but it becomes evident that she’s been used more for spying and passing notes along than for actual stealing. Rooster says he’ll consider her sentence, and then she’s taken away to the guild’s jail to await her fate.
Mistress Umala is brought in next, and she’s less than helpful. She stares down her nose at everyone, sneering every time she’s asked a question. She responds to nothing, her composure unruffled as the guild masters lob question after question at her. Who is working with you? What exactly have you stolen? How were the artifacts transported? How did you know what to steal?
“I know nothing” is all she says, tone haughty. “Do with me what you must.”
“We intend to,” Rooster says bluntly, and Umala is taken away.
The day grows long, and we remain clustered in Rooster’s office, the air overly warm and stuffy. The maids Marta named are interviewed, and all point the finger at Mistress Umala and one of the repeaters who works at the drop site and has for years. Several of the drop site repeaters are interviewed, and all of them indicate the same people. They’re eager to name names, but when it comes time to discuss the logistics, no one will offer up specifics. I can see Rooster growing frustrated as he demands information on the tunnels used and gets nothing in response.
After what seems like the hundredth interview, Rooster rolls up the parchment he’s been writing on and shakes his head. “The rest will have to wait until morning. I want extra guards on all the prisoners. We’ll let them sleep on cold floors and give them gruel to eat and see if they feel like admitting more in the morning.”