Page 48

The weeping ink and these hectic lines... one could never prepare for the final goodbye. I look at River, the bags under his eyes. It must have been a tough few days. “Wait while I respond.”

River hovers uncertainly in the doorway of my workroom while I write my condolences. “I’m to remain in the capital after delivering his letter. He’s expecting to arrive soon; he hopes you’ll meet him at the morning market the day after tomorrow.”

After so long. “I’ll be there.” Nervously, I open the box holding the dried iqi husk Silvius gifted me and tuck the letter alongside the dozen others he’s sent over the months.

Akilah arrives with a steaming bowl of soup before I even have a chance to ask her to get some. I usher the exhausted boy into a chair; he takes the time to savour the soup and I check him over surreptitiously. He seems to have grown, in body and demeanour—Silvius takes good care of him.

I make sure he has enough energy for the journey to his ever-changing lodgings, spell him a little extra to speed him on his way, and promise to visit tomorrow.

“So,” Akilah murmurs over the rim of her teacup. “Silvius is coming back.”

It doesn’t feel right that my stomach hops, but it does. Wildly. The market, the day after tomorrow. I dart my gaze out to the neat rows of herbs in the vitaliary courtyard.Stop being so happy. He’ll be grieving.“Let’s think about something else.”

She checks no one else is in earshot and pulls a folded notice, ripped from the market noticeboard, from her pocket. “The examination begins soon. First, a test of theoretical complex magic, then presentation of an innovative spell, and on the last day, the locked-room mystery patient.” She bites her lip. “How’s the innovative one going?”

I duck inside and come back with a small box. I open it towards her. Inside sit two glittering blue balls on a bed of wadded cloth.

She clasps it, drawing it to her nose. “This is what you’ve been secretly working on for months?”

“Figuring out how to capsulise it was”—I recall the Mistress-Dog-Quin incident—“troublesome.”

She sets the box on the table, the sparkle blinding in the sun.

“I call it ‘Poison Halting Miracle’. It should stop even the fiercest poison in its tracks, and clashes with very few other treatments.”

“Is one of these for...”

I nod.

“Why make it portable?” she asks.

“Megaera’s going through her own grief. She’s angry.”

“Maybe she’d forgive you if you treated her father in person?”

“Maybe she wouldn’t allow it at all.”

Akilah looks unconvinced, but I haven’t told her about the times Megaera has passed me in the streets. How she walked away without acknowledging me, eyes dead cold. I’m just another person who has abandoned her. “I’ll get someone to deliver it to the manor.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Better not send someone from the Amuletos household. She may not accept it.”

“So... we hire someone?”

I shake my head. “It’s too valuable.” I shut the box and inspiration hits with its snap. “River. I can trust him with it.”

Akilah hums and takes another look at the glittering balls. “Do they have to be round?”

“Easier to swallow.”

She shuffles closer to me on the bench. “What about our bigger problem? How will you enter the examination without being recognised? Your daily disguises are fine for walking through town, but interacting, talking, looking eye-to-eye...”

We need something more substantial. It’s a problem that’s been on my mind for a while. “How about we take a page out of Maskios’s handbook?”

“Hide our faces?”

“With magic masks that we also won’t let anyone take off. We’ll be just as composed,” I say sourly, and then quickly smile. “But let’s not infuriate anyone.”