Page 66 of A Vow of Wrath and Ruin

“Couldn’t we have just done that from the get-go?” Baylis asked. Her voice dripped with a condescension I’d not heard before. Was this a development from her time with Gideon?

I eyed my sister suspiciously. The Baylis I knew would have never wanted me to invade someone’s private thoughts, or perhaps she would have. My memories were just as cloudy as hers. Guilt and shame bit at my heart like two dogs pulling on a rope.

“Four years ago, I would have done it and not thought twice about it, but I am not that person anymore.”

She nodded with indifference.

“Now, we need to find someone named Conrad Teeling. Tharan said the Harbor Master would know where to find him.”

We headed to a large brick building where a massive gold clock kept time. Our boots clacked on black and white marble floors as we entered.

“Hello,” I said to a human woman wearing reading spectacles with her silver hair tied neatly in a tight bun.

“Hello, how may I help you?”

“I need to speak to the Harbor Master. I’m looking for a man named Conrad Teeling.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, my dear. The Harbor Master has left for a meeting at the governor’s residence. He won’t be back until tomorrow.”

I sighed, my shoulders slumping. “Can we make an appointment for tomorrow?”

She gave a little chuckle. “Oh no, the Harbor Master is booked for the next month. But I can pencil you in for the spring.”

“Ah, no, thank you. We need something a little sooner than that.”

“Suit yourself.” She returned to her work.

I resisted groaning. Could one thing, just one thing, go the way I had hoped?

“But…” the woman piped up.

“Yes?”

“If you want to find Conrad, I’d look at the Kissing Guppy.”

I stared blankly at her.

“Down the path to the left after you exit.”

“Thanks.”

We headed down the steep path where the water lapped against an old wooden shack. Seaweed snaked its way around a rickety dock, and algae floated aimlessly in the water. A sign twisting on rusted hooks readThe Kissing Guppy.

“And I thought the Rusted Bucket was bad,” Amolie said.

The inside was just as bleak as the outside. Light trickled in through green glass windows, casting everything in a verdant hue. The smell of sour ale and vomit wafted through the air. Men sat slumped over water-logged tables and in benches engraved with slurs of every kind.

A merman with long white hair, a pointed nose, and tattoos covering his bare chest nodded to us as we entered. For the second time in one day, I felt the pull of my past. It was in placeslike this I learned how to read people—how to manipulate them without breaking their mind.

“Can I help you ladies?” the barman asked, raking his eyes over us.

“We’re looking for Conrad Teeling.”

He leaned over the bar, narrowing his blue eyes at me. “And wha’ would you be wantin’ with Conrad?”

“The Alder King has need of his services.”

“And yet, he sent three ladies to do his job…”

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