Page 22 of A Deception of Courts

“We have a matter of minutes beforeRafaelasends a vessel to collect us. Are you prepared?”

Rafaela, the name of the warrior who had offered her strange hammer to me.

I opened my mouth to reply before Seraphine cut in. “Still think it’s wise we tell them to drag their sorry arses to us. We shouldn’t be at their beck and call, unless they are paying of course.”

“Old habits die hard.” Althea rolled her eyes, not even trying to hide her disagreement.

“I can’t expect our people to welcome the humans aboard after what they’ve done.” My hair had grown considerably over the past weeks, so that when I shook my head, dark strands of black fell before my eyes. It was becoming second nature to run my fingers upward through my hair to lay it away from my face. “It would be best that we discuss matters on their own ground. We may not trust them, but we know their enemy is our enemy. That must count for something.”

“All the more reason for them to come here. Let them face us!” Seraphine added, leaning against the doorway to the cabin with her arms and legs crossed. “They should feel uncomfortable surrounded by the people they tried to slaughter! Three have died because of them. Forgive me, but breaking bread is not as exciting a thought to me as it is to you.”

“I didn’t realise that an Asp cares about anyone but their employer,” Althea added.

“My contract is not yet up,” Seraphine added, looking to me. “Until then, I care.”

“Three have died?” I repeated, allowing the number to settle over me.

Seraphine’s grimace was enough of a confirmation.

“At least,” Kayne said from where he sulked at the door. “It may take some time to make sense of the census, but so far, three are unaccounted for.”

I stepped forward, offering a hand toward the scroll that was gripped in Kayne’s fist. “Who?”

Jesibel? Was it her? From the chaos after leaving the Below I’d still not had the chance to find her.

Kayne didn’t hesitate to hold it out to me. “Before you ask, no, she is not on my list.”

My heart sank into the pit of my stomach just like the Cedarfall ship that Rafaela and her fellow assailants had destroyed.

“Are you sure?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off the roll of parchment now in my own hands. Dark ink scribbled across the yellowed parchment. Names, so many names, hand-scribed in wonky lines. It all blurred as my eyes traced over the mess of ink.

“Checked it over more than once,” Kayne replied. “Jesibel is not a name that has been given.”

Kayne’s efforts had been vital to our plan from the moment it was forged after our escape from Aldrick. Seraphine had no trouble trusting in him, like Duncan, either. It seemed only Althea and I still had difficulty in that department – although for Duncan’s sake I fought to keep my distrust to a simmer.

“I promised her,” I muttered, swallowing the lump that suddenly invaded my throat. “I said I would come back and I did. But if she is not here, then I failed.”

Althea stepped to my side and placed a hand on my shoulder. Her touch made the scar upon my chest twitch.

“This is beyond all of our control,” she said. “Like everything that is happening around us, we can only face forward and deal with it together.”

Despite her attempt to reassure me, Althea’s words didn’t have the desired effect. Instead, I clung to the painful feeling that failing stabbed me with. Duncan noticed, laying a gentle hand on me for comfort.

“Those from the prison who cared enough to speak with me said something about Aldrick visiting the prison days ago.” I was aware Kayne was speaking, but his words only tickled my consciousness. “They said he took a large group of captives with him. They never returned.”

Could she have been one of them? Out of all those fey, how had Jesibel been among those he chose?

“And this is the first we’ve heard about it?” Duncan spoke up, leaning forward in his chair. “Seraphine, our eyes and ears. It doesn’t seem like you to have something so important go unnoticed?”

I snapped my attention to the assassin. “If Seraphine knew, she would’ve said.”

“That’s right.” Seraphine held my stare. Her jaw tensed; her eyes burned with determination. She no longer leant against the doorframe but stood tall and narrow. Her entire body was tense as she faced me down. “Is that an accusation hidden behind your words, Duncan?”

“I don’t know, is it?” He glowered in return.

“Myinformants tell me the moment Aldrick so much as pisses. This, if you can find it in yourself to believe, is news to me.”

I searched the assassin’s face for a lie, but if she had one, she concealed it well. It made little sense that Seraphine would hide something from me. I was her sponsor, and that meant more than any bond to the Asps. With the price I paid for her aid, I knew she wouldn’t lie.

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