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)
Kipp raps his knuckles on the table with approval.
I don’t want to ask which one of them is going to get pregnant and how. That’s not my business. Mereden and Lark are happy together and have been a couple for a year now. They married last month. Of course they’d want to grow their family. “So neither of you is going to recruitment day?”
Lark gestures at her foot with a shrug.
Mereden just gives me a calm look. “One of the healers at the clinic is leaving to work in a hold, so there’s an apprenticing spot open. I have to get the rest of my repeater debt waived, but since I’ve got holder blood, they’re being lenient. And you know how I love healing.”
“You’re good at it,” I agree, my words faint. I’m trying not to be disappointed, but it’s hard. When Naiah brings over tankards of the house ale, I grab mine and immediately swig it, ignoring the garnish of onion on the side. “I just…I thought we’d all do it together.”
“Cheer up,” Lark says. “Maybe you’ll fail.”
“That’s not a thing to be cheerful over!”
“But then we’d all be together. Unless there’s a baby, of course.” And she lifts her and Mereden’s joined hands to her mouth and kisses her wife’s hand. Mereden just looks radiant with happiness.
I glance over at Kipp.
He looks at me and shrugs.
“Are you going for recruitment, I hope?”
Kipp nods.
The tension in my shoulders eases a little. “That’s something, at least. I won’t be alone.”
He pats the table in front of me as if to reassure me that no, he’ll be there.
“I don’t know why you’re so worried,” Mereden says in her calm, low voice. “You’ll do just fine. You know Hawk will take you both on right away.”
I don’t disagree with her, but I have my doubts. Mereden’s from a noble family, and Lark has always made her own path. I’ve been a servant all my life, invisible and unimportant. The least valuable of people. I could be completely overlooked simply because I don’t know how to carry myself as anything but a lady’s maid or a scullery wench.
It’s my worst nightmare.
But I’d forgotten that Master Hawk will need another Five to teach as well. Hawk, who’s Aspe—er, Sparrow’s husband. Hawk, who was the assistant to Master Magpie last year. Hawk would definitely take me on as fledgling once more, because Sparrow would never let him hear the end of it otherwise. He’d take Kipp, too.
“I’m still nervous,” I confess to my friends as I pick up my beer again. “I don’t want to empty chamber pots for the rest of my days. You won’t abandon me, will you, Kipp?”
He thumps his chest with his small fist and gives me a nod.
It’s reassuring, even if I’d rather be there with the other women as well. A former maid and a slitherskin, looking to rejoin the ranks of the guild’s students. Who could possibly turn that away?
The thought makes my stomach churn, and I drain my beer, then hold my finger up to call the barmaid over for another.
* * *
The Royal Artifactual Guild is big on pomp and ceremony. Every year, recruitment day is held in the Great Hall, or so Sparrow has told me a dozen times before. All the masters are present, and throughout the day they’ll speak to and interview potential students before selecting the five they’ll be teaching for the next year. There are always more student hopefuls than there are masters, so the competition is fierce. I didn’t go last year, but Aspeth went by herself and was completely humiliated in the center of the room by Head Guild Master Rooster.
I’ve decided I’ll avoid him entirely, check in with Hawk, and quickly escape back out. I don’t want anyone to give him—or me—guff simply because I’m a female. There’s a lot of dick-swinging in the guild, unfortunately.
I pack my bag and make my bed in the nestmaid quarters for hopefully the last time, tucking the coverlets in tight. One of the other maids, Jelessa, eyes me with a look of curious disgust, as if I’m a giant spider that’s suddenly crawled across the floor. “You know if you give up the whole ‘repeater’ thing, they’ll hire you. A maid can earn a decent living, and meals and a bed are paid for.”
“I want to become a fledgling.” It wasn’t my dream as much as it was Sparrow’s, but I’ve been tempted by the thought of coin. Of never making another bed or emptying a chamber pot ever again. It’s a gilded dream, that thought, but I’m going to chase it anyhow. “I could have been a maid back home.”
“Aye, you could have,” Jelessa says. She doesn’t understand me at all, but she hugs me anyhow and gives me a firm pat on the back. “Good luck to you. You’re a hard worker. If they can see past the skirts, they’ll take you for certain.”