The Wish Granter (Ravenspire #2)(12)
Ari searched her face, but there was no animosity. No calculation. Just curiosity, a trait Ari could appreciate. Lady Tassi had impressed Ari as someone who’d remained above the speculation and unrest regarding Thad’s kingship. She hoped that meant the woman would be willing to speak frankly with Ari. Deciding honesty would be the quickest way to the answers she sought, she said, “I invited you to lunch with me because I have questions about the fae, and I figured since you live close to them, you might have answers.”
Lady Tassi dabbed her lips with a napkin. “We live close enough to have a few dealings with them each year. Is the king interested in developing a trade treaty with the fae courts in Llorenyae?”
“Possibly,” Ari said as she brushed extra sugar off a persimmon cookie. “Our concern is the fae who can do dangerous magic. Not little magic, like the stories of the fae who can grow flowers or change the weather, but powerful fae. The creatures in children’s myths, such as the Wish Granter or the Warrior of the Winter Court.”
“All of them can do magic.” Lady Tassi reached for her glass of cherry cider. “But of course the older ones or those born with special abilities have much more power.”
How much power did Teague have? Could every fae shut a door with the snap of its fingers?
“Well, then how do we keep the palace safe in case a member of the fae courts decides to use magic against us?” Ari leaned forward, eager for the answer, but when Lady Tassi gave her a quizzical look, the princess grabbed a skewer of honey-roasted peaches as if that had been her goal all along.
Until she figured out the exact details of Thad’s dealings with Teague, she couldn’t let anyone suspect the king was tangled up with one of the fae. Especially if someone connected the rise in crime in Kosim Thalas to the king’s strange reluctance to send the city guard to patrol its busiest streets.
“For safety measures, we put iron fences around our estates and keep iron weapons handy, and we keep some bloodflower poison handy. The combination is enough to weaken or even kill most fae, though of course we aren’t trying to kill anyone we’re in business with.” Lady Tassi nodded a greeting at a passing nobleman while Ari’s mind latched onto these new pieces of information.
She couldn’t put up an iron fence without attracting attention, both from Teague and from the citizens of Kosim Thalas, and she didn’t want to advertise the fact that they were trying to keep out a member of the fae. Iron weapons and bloodflower poison, however, she could manage.
Thad was hiring a slew of new employees that afternoon to replace those who’d decided they no longer wished to work at the palace in the service of their new king. Most of the staff who’d left had been old enough to retire anyway, and Thad had settled a decent pension on all of them, no questions asked.
Once Thad had a new weapons master in charge of maintaining the armory, she could gather some iron scraps from the smithy and commission some weapons. And she could make some sort of excuse for going to the merchant district in Kosim Thalas without Mama Eleni—that woman’s watchful eye would make asking her favorite spice merchant about poison absolutely impossible unless Ari wanted to explain herself to the woman who now saw her as a girl in need of a mother’s guiding hand.
As Lady Tassi and the other representatives returned to their seats and Thad entered the room to finish the last nine items on the docket, Ari turned to a fresh sheet of parchment and began making a short list of things she needed.
Iron.
Bloodflower poison.
An excuse that Mama Eleni would accept.
Maybe a book or two on the fae so that she could learn more about how they worked and how to deal with them.
And, of course, a new weapons master capable of turning her iron into dangerous weapons.
Ari stared at her list, thoughts racing, and let the rest of the discussion slip past her. She had a starting point now. And by the time she cornered Thad and made him tell her the whole truth, she’d be well on her way to being able to protect her brother.
FIVE
THE SUN WAS just beginning to set when Sebastian Vaughn finished delivering freight to the shipyard for the merchant who’d hired him for the day. The thick, metal-studded cudgel he’d strapped inside his coat rested heavily against his chest, a reassuring weight as he faced east and began his weekly trip back to the home he’d left behind once his father had been transferred to the kingdom of Balavata and his brother Parrish’s body had been laid to rest.
When Sebastian reached the city proper with its narrow streets and its canals snaking through the busiest sections, he stopped at the first dock he saw and paid a ferryman to row him to the market closest to east Kosim Thalas. It was an indulgence he rarely wasted coin on, but it was nearly dark, and he didn’t want to be on the streets any longer than he had to.
Besides, he had some thinking to do.
He leaned against the side of the faded green boat, relishing the quiet swoosh of the water as the ferryman’s oars dipped and pulled, and considered what he’d learned at the waterfront. The new king was hiring—some said as many as forty-nine positions were available at the palace—and one of those positions was that of weapons master. Sebastian didn’t have much in the way of credentials. He’d been working any job he could find, but he’d had no steady employer. No one would hire a boy from east Kosim Thalas on a permanent basis.