Page 40 of An Honored Vow

Dynara shook her head. “Keera darling, meet the lovely Crison Clairbelle. She is somehow more stubborn and cross than you’ve ever been.”

Mistress Augustine held out her hand, but it was no longer bent and spotted. Dynara’s introduction shattered the glamour, blowing the illusion away like mist in the wind to reveal a much younger-looking and much more beautiful woman underneath. She had a full pout and feline eyes that held a rage behind them.

I spied the faint stitches along her ears as her black hair fell from her face. Not a woman at all. But a Halfling.

I smirked and shook her hand.

“Keera Waateyith’thir,” I said. My full name felt foreign on my lips. I’d never introduced myself with it before.

Crison didn’t hide her study of me. She let her eyes trail up my body from my bare feet to the mud-caked braid. “Traded your hood for your name, I see.” She raised a thick brow at the state of my dress. “I’m starting to think Nara oversold the luxuries of the Faeland.”

I huffed a laugh. “Always better to blend than hide.” I turned to Dynara. Our voices echoed throughout the house, but I couldn’t hear any other voices besides ours. “Speaking of hiding. Where have you hidden them?”

Dynara pulled a thick gold chain from her pocket and locked it around her neck. “Who, dear?” She adjusted the amber stone between her breasts; it was the size of a child’s fist.

I blinked. “The courtesans. Gerarda and Elaran are at the safe house. They’ll ferry the Halflings to Pirmiith and Feron at the portal as soon as the fire—”

“Portal?” Crison’s rounded ears twitched.

I ignored her. “I thought you would have the courtesans here …”

“The party can’t be a distraction if there are none of us at the party todistract.” Dynara nodded at the wall, not at the large portrait of Mistress Augustine and her scraggly cat, but at the house at the top of the hill in that direction.

The House of Harvest.

I rubbed my brow. “How many courtesans are going to be joining us tonight?”

“All of them.” Dynara crossed her arms.

“How many is that?”

“Two hundred.” Crison’s lip curled. “Why does she get to come in here and question all our planning?” She sniffed loudly.

“Because I can do this.” My fist burst into flames.

Crison merely shrugged. “Nothing I haven’t done with a candle and a bottle of mead.”

Dynara shook her head and walked down the hall. “Come, Keera, you need to dress,” she called down to me.

Crison raced to the stairs to climb them first. I followed her into Dynara’s chambers, the vein in my forehead pulsing.

Dynara pointed at the tub of steaming water. “Get in and hurry. It will take ages for us to wash that dirt from your hair.”

“Us?” Crison cocked her jaw to the side and leaned against the window.

Dynara ignored her. “The carriage will be here in just over an hour.”

I shook my head, partly because I didn’t want to disrobe in front of Crison and partly because I wanted to understand how Dynara thought we were going to ferry two hundred courtesans out of the House of Harvest without anyone noticing. “The plan was to get the courtesans out of the city not into the center of it.”

“No, that was theendof the plan,” Dynara replied, almost bored.

Crison shouldered me as she walked past and opened an armoire. It was full of vials and jewelry that concealed dangerous weapons. “First we host a party of our own.” She looked at Dynara, disgusted. “You said you trusted her with your life, but it doesn’t seem like she pays the same respect to you.” She lifted her chin, eyes narrowing in my direction.

My jaw pulsed. “I trust Dynara with my life.” I turned to my friend. “But you may have overestimated my abilities.”

Dynara shook a few drops of cedar essence into the tub. She leaned toward me and sniffed then poured in half the bottle. “Keera, you told me you needed Kairn and you had no doubt I could do it. Trust me in this too. Every Halfling will make it out of that house but first they have to ensure the lords do not.”

Crison grinned and chucked a piece of parchment at me. It was thick and folded along the middle to create the perfect invitation. I’d read the top lines when Dynara had first sent her courier. Now the last two caught my attention.

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