Page 4 of Knightfall
I responded to her glare by putting my thumb and forefinger together in a circle, in the hand sign we’d agreed upon years ago, so she could identify me.
Cerena’s eyes widened but she turned to the group. “One moment. My … cousin needs a room for the evening. Let me just get her tucked away and we can continue.”
Cerena hurried me down the hall and up some rickety stairs. “You have the worst timing.”
“I’ll be out of your hair quickly.”
She rolled her eyes. “That group down there are lower nobles. Your appearance here is going to cause chatter.”
“Then I’ll take to the woods for a bit. No problem.” I shrugged.
Cerena rolled her eyes and opened the door to her bedroom. I shut it behind her as she opened the trunk where she kept her most potent spells. The spelled disguises that I desperately needed. “How many this time?”
“How many do you have?”
“Three prepared and I got a little creative with them. You know how you asked me to see about animal transformations. I worked that out. But …” she trailed off and held out her hand.
I sighed. I slipped my hand into my bag. The coins I had made at Kylee’s wouldn’t buy one disguise, let alone three. But with three … I’d be good for nearly a year. My hand clenched around a necklace. It’d be a dead giveaway, but I had to have those spells. “I need to trade this time.”
“Trade?” her lips curled back. “You know I don’t do trades.”
“I know you’re sick of fertility spells.” I jerk my head toward the stairs. “Let me guess, they want a girl.”
Cerena snorted. “Of course, they do.” The birth ratio in our country had been five men to one woman since the curse a thousand years ago. Every family group sought daughters like they sought gold. Because daughters would be worth gold, when sold to the right husband group.
She tucked the spell bottles into her pocket.
I pulled out the necklace. I let the rubies catch the moonlight. Let the diamonds wink at her.
Cerena’s eyes widened. “Where’d you get that?”
“The palace—”
“They’ll string me up if I’m found—”
“Melt it down. Sell the stones separately. It wasn’t the queen’s. It wasn’t stolen.”
“How—”
Bang.Bang. Bang.
I glanced over my shoulder. The front door downstairs creaked under someone’s vicious pounding. I had a good idea whose.
Cerena’s eyes turned back to mine and narrowed. She eyed me up and down. “Who’s after you? And why?”
I stepped up to her and placed the necklace in her hand. I heard a crash that could only have been the crash of the front door slamming open and hitting the wall. The family group’s exclamations drifted up through the wooden floor slats.
“Please,” I begged her.
“Who’s after you?”
“The palace spy master.”
She handed me one bottle.
“Why?”
I glared at her as footsteps pounded on the stairs. “Because I refuse to take the throne.”
