Page 9 of By the Horns (Royal Artifactual Guild #2)

Five

Gwenna

Swansday, One Day Before Recruitment Day

Dere Ma,

Tomorrow is the big day. Please say a prayer to the gods that I was accepted as a flegling.

The men here that are artificers are all full of themselves, and it’s hard for a woman.

Evin Aspeth, who had a lot of knowledge about artifacts, isn’t taken seriously.

I hope I can pass this year. I don’t think I can do another year as a repeeter.

We don’t work for money. We work for room and bord and to pay off our debts for flunking.

If we’re good, maybe we will get picked to be a flegling next time.

I am sending along a few coins I’ve managed to make through odd jobs. Buy yourself new shoes—I no yours are always worn out.

Love, Gwenna

The nerves are starting already, and recruitment day isn’t until tomorrow.

I’ve finished my work for the day, and I can either sit in the nestmaid quarters on my bunk with the other women who work for the guild and have them ask me why I want to be an artificer, or I can get out for the night.

Lark and Mereden are heading to the King’s Onion, our favorite nearby tavern, and suggested we get together for drinks before the big day.

I think getting drunk sounds like the right call.

Hopefully I can get drunk enough to pass out so I don’t have to stay up all night thinking about what tomorrow will bring.

With my black repeater sash slung over my shoulder like a brand, I make my way through Sparkanos Square at the center of Vastwarren’s heart and ignore the men who catcall and make rude noises as I march past. They can give a repeater shit, but the moment I have a fledgling sash they’ll leave me alone.

Actually, they won’t. But it’s a step closer to respectability, and I’m used to men making arses out of themselves and me ignoring their efforts to get under my skirts.

The tavern doors open to the smell of beer and sweat, and the overbearing scent of raw onions.

I wrinkle my nose as I enter, waving to Naiah behind the bar.

Her expression brightens when she sees me, and she points at the back of the crowded room, knowing just who I headed here for.

Sure enough, I spot the dark, curly hair of Mereden next to Lark’s bright blond, tangled hair.

As I approach, I spot their repeater uniforms…

and Lark’s foot propped up on a chair beside a large leaf-green slitherskin with a patched-up shell house strapped to his back.

Kipp is here, too. “Well, isn’t this a treat?

” I call out as I approach, delighted. “All we need is Aspeth and we’d have our Five from last year back together. ”

Mereden gets up to hug me, the warm vanilla scent of her skin comforting.

She’s been working in the guild kitchens and smells like pies and fresh bread every day.

“There you are,” she exclaims, hugging me tight as if we haven’t seen each other for months instead of just a few days. “I was about to come after you.”

“I had to work late,” I tell them cheerfully. “You know what Mistress Umala is like.”

She and Lark groan obligingly. They do, in fact, know what Mistress Umala is like.

“Where’s Aspe—er, Sparrow?” I ask, looking around for my friend. “Did I miss her?”

“Research project running late,” Mereden says, settling on the far side of the table next to Lark again. She sets her hand atop the table and their fingers immediately intertwine. “She said she’d be by later.”

Aspeth says that a lot. It rarely happens, though. If a project runs late, it means she’s lost in her research and won’t look up until her husband, Hawk, comes to drag her to bed. I’d be annoyed except Aspeth is living the life she’s always dreamed of, so I’m happy for her.

Glancing down, I offer a fist for Kipp to bump, as slitherskins don’t like prolonged touching of humans, and he taps my knuckles with his knife, which means he’s feeling overstimulated enough that even a brief touch will be too much.

Lark doesn’t get up to greet me, and her foot remains propped up in what I assumed was my chair.

Now that I’m closer, I can see the linen bandages turning her foot into what looks like nothing more than a gigantic beige sausage. “What the muck happened here?”

“Tripped on a cobblestone,” Lark says with a grimace. “I wish I could say it was something more exciting, like a runaway horse, but no. I was carrying a crate across the courtyard for Master Grackle and my foot caught. You should have heard the snap.”

My jaw drops. “Today?”

“Today. Rotten timing, isn’t it?” Lark looks annoyed, but not devastated.

I thump into the only empty chair left. I’m the one who’s devastated.

If Lark’s foot is broken, then that means she can’t become a fledgling, not this year.

All the masters will be selecting their fledglings tomorrow.

“Rather convenient timing,” I finally manage to say, “what with it being Master Grackle and all.”

Master Grackle is well-known amongst all the women who are employed by the guild for just how dismissive he is. I’d rather have a lech for a teacher than deal with one who treats me as if I’ve got no brain in my skull.

“It’s just the fact that I was hurrying,” Lark reassures me. “Wasn’t as if he tripped me or anything.”

“But recruitment day is tomorrow.” I’m whining about the obvious.

“I know. Guess that means I’m mucking stalls for another year.”

“Not with that foot,” Mereden replies tartly, leaning over to brush a lock of stray hair off Lark’s forehead. “Until it heals, I’ll put in a word for you with the healers. You’ll probably have to sterilize tools over a pot of water all day, but you can do it seated.”

Funnily enough, neither of them seems devastated about Lark’s broken foot. “You’re both taking this rather well.”

They exchange a look. Mereden is the first one to speak. “We thought we might try for a baby instead. Join the guild later.”

Kipp raps his knuckles on the table with approval.

I don’t want to ask which one of them is going to get pregnant and how. That’s not my business. Mereden and Lark are happy together and have been a couple for a year now. They married last month. Of course they’d want to grow their family. “So neither of you is going to recruitment day?”

Lark gestures at her foot with a shrug.

Mereden just gives me a calm look. “One of the healers at the clinic is leaving to work in a hold, so there’s an apprenticing spot open. I have to get the rest of my repeater debt waived, but since I’ve got holder blood, they’re being lenient. And you know how I love healing.”

“You’re good at it,” I agree, my words faint. I’m trying not to be disappointed, but it’s hard. When Naiah brings over tankards of the house ale, I grab mine and immediately swig it, ignoring the garnish of onion on the side. “I just…I thought we’d all do it together.”

“Cheer up,” Lark says. “Maybe you’ll fail.”

“That’s not a thing to be cheerful over!”

“But then we’d all be together. Unless there’s a baby, of course.” And she lifts her and Mereden’s joined hands to her mouth and kisses her wife’s hand. Mereden just looks radiant with happiness.

I glance over at Kipp.

He looks at me and shrugs.

“Are you going for recruitment, I hope?”

Kipp nods.

The tension in my shoulders eases a little. “That’s something, at least. I won’t be alone.”

He pats the table in front of me as if to reassure me that no, he’ll be there.

“I don’t know why you’re so worried,” Mereden says in her calm, low voice. “You’ll do just fine. You know Hawk will take you both on right away.”

I don’t disagree with her, but I have my doubts.

Mereden’s from a noble family, and Lark has always made her own path.

I’ve been a servant all my life, invisible and unimportant.

The least valuable of people. I could be completely overlooked simply because I don’t know how to carry myself as anything but a lady’s maid or a scullery wench.

It’s my worst nightmare.

But I’d forgotten that Master Hawk will need another Five to teach as well.

Hawk, who’s Aspe—er, Sparrow’s husband. Hawk, who was the assistant to Master Magpie last year.

Hawk would definitely take me on as fledgling once more, because Sparrow would never let him hear the end of it otherwise. He’d take Kipp, too.

“I’m still nervous,” I confess to my friends as I pick up my beer again. “I don’t want to empty chamber pots for the rest of my days. You won’t abandon me, will you, Kipp?”

He thumps his chest with his small fist and gives me a nod.

It’s reassuring, even if I’d rather be there with the other women as well. A former maid and a slitherskin, looking to rejoin the ranks of the guild’s students. Who could possibly turn that away?

The thought makes my stomach churn, and I drain my beer, then hold my finger up to call the barmaid over for another.

The Royal Artifactual Guild is big on pomp and ceremony.

Every year, recruitment day is held in the Great Hall, or so Sparrow has told me a dozen times before.

All the masters are present, and throughout the day they’ll speak to and interview potential students before selecting the five they’ll be teaching for the next year.

There are always more student hopefuls than there are masters, so the competition is fierce.

I didn’t go last year, but Aspeth went by herself and was completely humiliated in the center of the room by Head Guild Master Rooster.

I’ve decided I’ll avoid him entirely, check in with Hawk, and quickly escape back out. I don’t want anyone to give him—or me—guff simply because I’m a female. There’s a lot of dick-swinging in the guild, unfortunately.