I shuffled around for the ledger while the men stared at her, Tanner stiff and awkward and Roy vaguely amused.
“You’ll be with us for Yule then,” I said as I flicked through the pages. “How lovely!”
She clicked her tongue. “Hardly by choice now, is it?”
My first response was no more than an inward wince at the stinging words, but when I realised I had no idea what she was talking about I returned her frown.Not by choice?Tanner was nodding in a gruff, understanding sort of way, and I raised a brow at him.
“Sure where’s she going to go, love? They’ve closed the roads,” said Tanner.
“The Kingsmen? Why in the world would they do that?”
“Because Stormsby’s been locked down,” he said slowly, as though this was something I’d surely known and forgotten.
“What?”
“It’s been the talk of the village for days.”
Good gods, when was the last time I’d leftThe Mage and Rose? I shook my head, ignoring Madame Bracken’s rolling eyes in my peripheral.
“But why?”
“Order of the King.” He shrugged. “It’s been weeks, and they’re no closer to finding the creature, even after interviewing every last soul in Stormsby.”
“They’ve interviewed… everyone?”
“Aye, and not a hint of magic to be found.”
I swallowed my discomfort but it curdled in my stomach, harsh and sour as it was. What did it mean, that I had not been interviewed? I had little time to dwell on it when Madame Bracken scoffed so hard I almost worried for her throat.
“They’re hardly trying, if you ask me,” she said, gesturing broadly at Fischer’s large, unmoving body atop the little table. “How are they going to hunt their Serpent when they’re up at all hours fighting and roaring and singing? Eating all the potatoes and strewing their mess across the dining hall. Unwashed and reeking, andrude. Six boys I’ve reared, fourteen grandsons too, and Ineverstood for this nonsense. And nor. Should. You!”
She punctuated the last three words with three sharp stabs of her finger on the countertop, and Tanner flinched with every stab. I met her stare evenly, not quite sure what it was she wanted me to say or do. I settled for my defaulthere to helpsmile.
“I do apologise, Madame Bracken, and I understand your frustration.”
I did. More than I could reasonably let on while still maintaining any semblance of professionalism. I swallowed all the bitter complaints I wanted to sling back at her, the instinct to bitch and revel in our shared distaste. It was not without effort that I hitched my faltering smile back in place. “But I’m afraid there’s little I can do. They’re here by the King’s will and –”
“And it’s His Majesty’swillthat that they behave like animals, is it?”
I almost said:Perhaps it is. I stole a quick glance at the menand found them both drinking deeply with their eyes averted, plainly quelling the same thought. For all we’d heard of the young King,he was entirely his father’s son – worse, even. Proud and selfish and fearful of all that he didn’t understand. Wasn’t that why his men were here, after all? To hunt some poor soul whose only crime was being born with magic deemed above some arbitrary threshold? An uncomfortable squirm stole my breath for a moment, as though my magic had curled around my lungs for comfort.
Madame Bracken apparently took my gasp for one of reproach, and rolled her eyes at me.
“Oh, don’t be so soft, girl. Put your foot down, or you’ll end up with their bootprints on your back.”
And with that, she reached into her cloak, pulled out a few coins and plonked them down on top of my open ledger before shuffling back to the inn. When the door swung shut behind her an uncomfortable silence settled in her wake, broken only by Fischer’s soft, wet snores.
???
I had an endless list of chores, yet I kept finding myself staring at nothing, teeth worrying at my lip. Madame Bracken had gotten into my head, and I could not focus. Because I couldn’t stop wondering why I was the only person they hadn’t interviewed, and whether it had something to do with what happened the other day – what the Captain saw. Because I kept asking myself if it was that he knew what I was; the wrong kind of creature, an entirely different hunt.
But mostly because she was right.
I might have indulged in the occasional scowl, threatened Fischer’s extremities a few times, and pressed the Captain into the vaguest promise of re-housing some of his menat some point, after Yule. But when it came down to it, I’d been so focused on keeping my distance from the Kingsmen – from the Captain – that I’d let them away with treating my home likea boarding school. What had Iactuallydone to stand up for my family’s one and only legacy? For Sorcha?
For my Flame?
At times, I’d shoved it down so violently I was almost afraid it would snuff out completely. My magic had become skitterish and unpredictable; it had withdrawn further than I’d ever imagined possible, but flared as though preparing to lunge clean through my bones whenever Captain Caelan got too close. Now, at the raucous laughter spilling from the dining hall where the two platoons were sharing lunch, it had slipped away into the dark space I’d carved for it. Hiding like a frightened beast, leaving my chest cold and hollow.
