Page 24 of Lore of the Wilds

Lore wanted to bite back that this was a monumental task he had assigned her. He’d said it himself when they’d met! Instead, she said, “I haven’t found any books of note. Children’s books,novels, countless mundane ledgers of kitchen supply orders from a thousand years ago, scientific texts—”

He latched on to an idea. “Scientific texts? Anything to do with astronomy?”

Lore frowned. “Astronomy? What is that?”

She didn’t think it was possible, but Steward Vinelake’s face managed to pull itself into an even more condescending expression. “Don’t you have schooling where you are from? I’m shocked you can even read.”

Lore let the insults roll off her back like water. She couldn’t give a single fuck what this shit stain thought of her. She raised her chin and held her tongue. She wouldn’t answer him if all he was going to do was insult her instead of explaining what it was that he needed. All she had to do today was more of the same she’d been doing. She could stand out here all day, what did she care if she delayed more cleaning and organizing?

Asher answered, his voice soft as he spoke to her. “Astronomy is the science of the night sky. The tracking of the stars and so forth.” His tone was kind but his expression as he looked at the steward was filled with an open distain that Lore herself wished she could wear.

Lore had been mapping the stars since her eighth year of life. Almost everyone from Duskmere knew that the answers to their lineage, the truth of their history, would be answered by searching the skies. It was throughZiara, their sacred skyglass, that the elders communed with the gods and goddesses. The sky was where they sought answers to their most important questions: the truth of their lineage, their stolen history. Lore probably knew more about the skies above them than he. The steward was too busy looking down on everyone to look up and marvel.

Lore couldn’t keep the annoyance from her tone. “I’ve found a few maps of the stars, but they’re outdated of course—the nightsky doesn’t match our own—so I categorized and shelved them. I’ll collect them and have the boys bring them to you right away.”

“Good. And look harder, maybe I wasn’t clear with you, but my master has some specific texts in mind that he wants. I must implore you to broaden your search and bring anything to us that has to do with magic—or astronomy.”

“I’ll narrow my search.”You big cow.

He turned to leave, but tossed over his shoulder as he shuffled away, his long robes trailing behind him, “Next week is the equinox. Be sure to stay clear of the festival—we will have lords and ladies on the castle grounds to celebrate. I don’t want them disobliged by your presence.”

Lore clenched her jaw. The longer she was here the harder it was to bite her tongue. Fuck him for wanting her to hide. For implying that her very existence was loathsome. She was proud of who she was, ofwhatshe was. With every snide, insulting comment, Lore’s fear was being replaced by rage. One of these days she was going to haul back and punch one of these fae assholes right in the jaw and nobody would be able to fault her for it.

The moment the steward’s big head was out of sight, Lore let off a string of expletives.

Asher raised an eyebrow, shocked, and then broke out into a fit of laughter. Lore was about to give him the finger when she erupted into laughter, too. She bent over, placing her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath.

“Breathe, Lore. It will be all right,” Asher said, his own shoulders shaking with mirth.

“I bet you didn’t know a lady could curse like that, huh?” Lore peeked at him, even while wiping a tear from her eye. Laughing too hard always made her eyes water.

Asher looked around, that eyebrow of his arching up in mock surprise.

“I don’t see any ladies here. Just a little mouse with a shockingly filthy mouth.”

Lore scowled. “You’re just jealous because you have the manners of a grandma. You wish you could curse like me.”

“If I’m assigned to you much longer, I don’t see how I’ll possibly manage to keep my decorum.”

“Courtesies are overrated. That’s why I don’t bother with them.” Lore headed farther into the corridor, Asher in step beside her.

“I’m curious, what kind of bookshaveyou found in the library? I’ve seen you reading.”

Lore looked at him sharply, but his expression was playful. “Nothing of what the steward or that high and mighty Lord Syrelle are looking for. Honestly, though, I did find a book yesterday that was hard to put down. It was my favorite type of story.”

“And what’s that?”

The two were standing in front of the library’s entrance now. Lore hesitated, wondering if she should be truthful. She could make a quip about a bit of romance being all she needed to please her, which wouldn’t exactly be a lie. She searched his eyes, biting her lip, and decided to tell Asher the truth. “My favorite stories are the ones I can escape into. The ones where I can leave behind this bleak existence and be somebody else, even if just for a little while. Someone braver than me. Someone with the power to change their circumstances.”

“I know that feeling well. That wanting to be someone else. Somewhere else.” Asher’s words had the ring of truth to them. What in his life would he wish to change. His low station? His position? There was so little that she knew about him. If she had more time, maybe she could learn about him. She opened her mouth to ask when Tarun and Libb came racing around the corner, howling and skipping as they ran.

“Lore, Lore, we have a present for you!”

“A present for me? What could it possibly be?”

Tarun and Libb smiled at each other, their youthful glow filling Lore with warmth. Libb, no longer the shy youngling she’d met on her second day here, pulled a wrapped parcel from behind his back and thrust it into Lore’s hands.

She opened it and withdrew a garland strung with dried apples, pinecones, and bright yellow leaves from a walnut tree.

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