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“Probably the best one yet,” he said with a chuckle. “We’ll have to take some of it to the appraiser in the morning, but we got more gold, so I can’t complain.”
Noel exchanged glances with Grey, his heart hammering in his chest with each detail of their looted treasure. This group might just be their ticket out.
* * *
“Wait!” Noel jogged after the looters while Grey threw up his hood and hung back. Every step he took away from him felt like a step of abandonment and betrayal, but the crew turned around. “I work for a guy in Woodhurst, and he’s interested in artifacts anyone might’ve found from faerie ruins.”
Their leader perked up, grinning with a motion for him to follow. “Then step right up and take a look. We have quite a few artifacts you can peruse through back at our storehouse.” He jabbed a thumb behind him.
Noel hesitated, glancing back at Grey, who rocked on his heels under an awning with his head down. He cleared his throat. “I also have an associate my boss sent with me. Would it be okay if…” He trailed off, earning a shrug so he could omit the details. So, he waved him over, and Grey ducked his head to hide the collar.
“Let’s go then,” the guy said, rounding up the group. He clapped Noel on the back, spouting off some impossible journey through the wilderness, filled with wolves, bears, and vengeful fair folk—all warded off with their magic and iron.
But all Noel could think about was the possible treasure they collected. Guilt pulsed through him as they climbed the steps to their little boxcar, which happened to be a few boxcars deep with side doors slid open when he stepped inside. Their austromancer put on a kettle while the halomancer leader and a macharomancer brought them all the way to the back, where they threw back a curtain to a set of locked trunks.
Each one snapped open, and the leader set out each unique piece on the rickety side table. Grey gingerly lifted up a wooden box, engraved with an intricate tree emblem, and removed the lid with a frown. “It’s empty.”
The leader shrugged. “Sorry. There was gold inside, so we sold it off. The box is an older piece no one’s wanted to take yet.”
He replaced the lid and set it down as both he and Noel reached for one of the others. Grey went for a delicate-looking tea-cup-sized bowl with hand-painted flowers decorating it while Noel retrieved a thin, leathery case. He bent it slightly and slid its contents free, finding a small, green-tinted blade tucked inside.
“Pretty nice, huh?” the macharomancer said, elbowing him. “It’s not iron, but it’s quite a beauty.”
Something suitable for the fair folk to use in the Wild Hunt…
“How much?” Noel said, unable to catch himself.
“Well, well—” A chuckle slipped from the halomancer as he strode over to stand between Noel and Grey at the table. He plucked the blade from his grip, turning it over a couple times. “I think the appraiser said this was worth a thousand, right?”
Noel’s stomach dropped. “A thousand?”
“Yep. Sound fair?”
Based on the wide-eyed look Grey shot him, they likely didn’t have more than a hundred pieces between them. “It’s… a little out of our price range,” Noel said.
Grey held up the bowl for him. “What about this?”
“Six hundred.”
He put it down, his gloved hands hovering over another piece before recoiling. Noel took a step back and turned to the halomancer with an apologetic smile. “We might need to discuss it a bit with our employer first. He can be a little frugal, so we’ll talk it over and get back to you if that’s all right?”
“Of course,” he said, beaming. “Just keep in mind these won’t be around forever.”
“Oh, trust me, we’re well aware,” Noel said, his smile pained as he grabbed Grey’s arm and guided him out.
The kettle’s whistle pierced his ears as he jogged down the steps, and Grey’s shoulder bumped against his on the gravel pathway.
“Well, shit.”
13
GREY
When Noel shut the door to their inn room, Grey rubbed his arms and scanned over the room’s recycled, falling apart and threadbare furniture. The bed’s sheets and blankets were snagged, the night table was propped up by a door wedge, the pillows were flat, and the windows were taped up.
And they were back to one bed. A single-person bed.
Noel’s soles scraped the rug next to him. “Here I thought we’d at least get a full-sized bed with how expensive the room was…”
