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)
He takes it from me, shrugging. “I don’t really like barley. I can eat other stuff.”
“I’m sure if we ask Marta to make two soups next week, she can,” I soothe, making myself another plate. Arrod looks at me hopefully as I do, and biting back a sigh, I toss a little bit of everything on the plate and then hand it over to him. I’m starting to feel like their mother.
I pick up an empty plate for myself and glance over at Raptor. He has the entire soup tureen in front of him and uses the ladle as a spoon. I fix myself a few bites of food and then sit down at the table to eat with the others. All is quiet, the only sounds those of Raptor ladling soup and Hemmen chewing noisily.
“Thank you,” I say to the others after a long moment. “For today. I’m not sure why I’ve been targeted, but it’s disturbing.”
“If you get booted, we all do,” Arrod reminds me, stacking his cheese and meat into his bread as a makeshift sandwich. “We’re protecting ourselves, too.”
“Who’s doing it?” Hemmen asks. “Is it a former lover who wants you gone?”
“You assume I know who it is,” I say, indignant. “I’ve no idea.”
“It’s some stranger, then? You didn’t flirt with someone?” Hemmen continues.
“Now I’m a tease?” I arch my brows. “All because I’m a woman?”
“Gwenna didn’t do anything,” Raptor says. “They’re targeting her because it’s easy to discredit a woman. No one wants her to succeed as it is.”
“Thanks for that,” I comment, the bitter feeling rising in my stomach. Maybe I’ll go spend time with Lark and Mereden this weekend or help Sparrow with her projects. I could use some time with women to relax.
“We want you to succeed,” Raptor continues, shrugging his big shoulders. “Even if you’re a thief, it’s in our best interests for you to pass regardless.”
He thinks I’m a thief anyhow? That hurts. I keep my voice flat as I respond. “Thanks.”
“It’s not personal. It’s just business,” Arrod says. “We all want to pass.”
“I do, too! I just…I don’t understand.” I spread my hands, frustrated. “If I was a thief, why would I go to so much effort to steal artifacts when I can make money by turning them in to the guild?”
Raptor clears his throat. “It’s not the same amount of money.”
“It’s not?” I’m surprised by this.
He chuckles, shaking his head as he ladles another huge swallow of soup. “Gods, no.”
“Exactly how much?” My brows draw together, and I try to imagine vast amounts of coin. As a maid, I know all too well how much cheap things cost. I know the price of a loaf of bread, or how much it’ll cost to get a new pair of shoes. I know the price of an apron, or a night’s stay at an inn. I don’t know how much a fancy-pants mirror costs, or a glowing necklace. “I thought all artificers were rich.”
Raptor chokes on his soup, coughing as it goes down the wrong pipe.
“Artificers are paid a small standard wage established by the guild,” Hemmen says. “With a healthy bonus for every artifact turned in.”
“A very small standard wage,” Arrod agrees. “A pittance, really.”
“That pittance is four times as much as what I made as a maid,” I point out. “You lot don’t know how good you have it.”
They stare at me. Kipp turns to the others and gestures at me, then makes a cutting motion and shakes his head.
“Aye, I don’t think she’s a thief.” Arrod chuckles. “Not if she thinks the guild artificers are swimming in coin.”
Raptor just squints at me as if he’s noticing me for the first time.
I’m determined not to feel foolish at their reactions. It’s not my fault they don’t appreciate the difference between making one gold crown a year versus four. They’ve never bought three-day-old stale bread at the market just to make their pennies stretch because Ma needed a warm cloak for her morning walks to the hold’s kitchens. “This is all beside the point. Someone’s lying about me because they want me out of here. How do we find who it is?”
“It could be someone sitting at this table,” Raptor drawls.
Startled, I look at Arrod and Hemmen. It never occurred to me that it might be one of them. Kipp wouldn’t sell me out, because I know him too well. We were fledglings together last year, and I know how crushed he was when we were removed and thrust into the repeater ranks. He was even more hurt than Lark and Mereden, who also took it badly. I trust him.
I trust Raptor, too, strangely enough. He didn’t say anything about the strange artifact that was planted in my bag. Still hasn’t said anything about it, even now. That leaves Arrod and Hemmen. Arrod is smart but lazy. Hemmen is bookish and even lazier, but he’s also repeated four years in a row. Does he want to make it five? If so, why?