Chapter Twenty-Seven – At the Inn

  Dinner that night was in the inn. The bottom floor was a vast room with two fire places burning lust rocks. Squad 23 sat on one end while Pinch and her fae sat at the other. The place was full, and while there were goblins working in the kitchen, all the servers were fae, though these fairies were far more pleasant than the ones Gray was normally used to. For one, they weren’t trying to bash his brins in with a magical sword.

  The roasted bird was good, juicy and flavorful, but the root vegetables were even better, spiced and crispy. The sweetness of the mulled wine matched the meal perfectly.

  Midj kept frowning, though. “Sure, you get goblin cooks out there in the kitchen, but how many of my folk have you seen outside of the kitchen? Not many. Papa said that’s how it is in most of the Belly, well, except for Gluttony Town. Maybe that’s why Gorgonzola chose Pit City for his restaurant. Things are different there.”

  “We’re glad to have you,” Gray said.

  Settie sniffed. “Things are better in Greed City because the dwarves aren’t interested in much more than profit. With the fae, their culture is a bit more rigid. It had to be. They have a history of trouble, but we should probably have this conversation in a better place. I have secured a field for us to practice on across town, near the Gates to Gluttony Town. And Gray, tonight, Bonwin Breezelock, the woman who runs this inn has agreed to look at your core. Would you have time?”

  “After what I saw today? We can’t afford not to. Do we have a team to scrimmage?”

  “Not yet,” Settie said. “I’m trying to keep our activities here a secret. We’ll train in the morning and then attend the Briarblood Chaotica matches at night. and I asked about the dead fae player. The resurrectionist was unable to save him. There can be too much damage to the physical body that the physical form cannot keep the core filled with mana. It’s a pity.

  They ate more, but the entire time, Pinch kept looking aver at their table. It got so bad that eventually, Tillwick Duskdrop eventually laid a hand on Pinch’s arm and had a long conversation with her, and then both of them shot glances at Gray.

  After dinner, Settie escorted most of their squad to their rooms. She’d gotten three for their stay in Lust City. Of course, Settie would have a room for herself. Midj, Tomi, and Ames would stay in one room while Rynn and Gray would stay in the other.

  Rynn had already gone upstairs when Tomi pulled Gray over to a bookshelf near a window. Outside, the rain was falling in cold sheets, but with the twin fireplaces, the inn was comfortable. Now that dinner had been served, the drinks were flowing.

  The cat girl was beside herself with excitement, and Gray knew that meant only one thing. “I’m assuming you found a history book.”

  Tomi snorted. “You know me too well. It’s not the best quality, and the sketches are terrible, but it’s a picture book summarizing A Song of Scale of Ash. Maybe, since you’re going to be talking to the fae who runs this place, you can see if I can borrow it. I don’t know the rules here. Maybe it’s for everyone, but then, maybe not.”

  “I’ll ask her,” Gray promised. “What do you mean picture book?”

  Tomi looked sheepish. “Well, illustrated summary is more to the point. But look.”

  She pulled it off the shelf and thumbed through the pages until it showed a woman in a dress on a balcony overlooking a vast city of towers. Dragons flitted through the air, landing on other balconies. It looked like something out of a fairy tale.

  The woman in the dress had black hair, inked so it looked like darkness itself. Everything else was sketched in shades of gray.

  “Who does that look like?” Tomi asked.

  Gray laughed a little. “Settie is not Princess Cassandra. She says she’s a thousand years old, but I think she just likes how it sounds. It keeps her separate from us. No, it’s a nice fantasy, though, the idea that our sponsor is someone who destroyed Malchutt.”

  “Please,” the cat girl hissed. “Don’t say his name, especially not where we live. I don’t think the Troublemaker would have any trouble breaking through the captain’s wards, even if she is Cassandra.”

  “She’s not. I assure you.”

  Tomi had gone off to bed and Gray had drifted to the fire to warm his hands and look at the flames flickering across the lust rocks. He had to laugh at Tomi and her theories. Then again, with her obsession with history, talking to one of its players would be the ultimate dream come true.

  Pinch and her squad were at the bar, drinking, but it seemed to be a sullen affair. Gray had seen funeral parties that were more festive. Every so often, Duskdrop would chuckle, but it was a sad, cruel sound.

  Settie came out of a back room with a smiling fae woman, hair colored purple. To see a fae woman smile put a bad feeling in Gray’s belly. Given his experiences with Pinch and her squad, it probably wasn’t that surprising.

  Settie started the introductions. “Grayson Fade, this is Bonnwin Breezelock—"

  She was cut off by the smiling fae. “Bonny, please. It is something for you to have caught the eye of Captain Sevanya. My granddaughter was on her squad thirty years ago.”

  That was when Gray noticed that Bonny wasn’t as young as she first seemed. She probably used the purple dye to hide the white.

  “Pleased to meet you, Bonny,” Gray said. “I hope you can help me.”

  Bonny’s hazel eyes glittered. “Well, let’s cross our fingers. We can take you in the back. I don’t do as much core work as I did in my youth, though I was with the royal family for a time, in part, thanks to how well my granddaughter did on her kill squad, thanks to the captain.”

  “How did you come to run an inn?” Gray asked.

  Bonny motioned him to follow her. “That is a long story. Suffice to say, fae politics didn’t make me happy, and I swore to myself, from an early age, that I would do whatever it took to make myself happy.”

  Gray thought to ask if that was her core oath, but he knew that would be very rude. And she had just basically told him what her core oath was without saying it.

  She took his silence in stride. “My parents ran the inn. My brother took over, but he doesn’t like people. You can be a very stupid person, bad at money, inept t managing people and still run a successful inn as long as you like people. So I took over. I’m very happy. My brother is not. Part of liking people is being able to tolerate them when they aren’t thinking clearly. My brother will come around It’s only been ten years.”

  Gray found himself in a storage room where crates of apples were stacked on a table. Bags of flour and sugar filled shelves around him as well as jars of oil.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Bonny pointed. “If you could clear the table, Mr. Fade, I would appreciate it. Of course, you should strip naked and then get on the table. It shouldn’t be too cold.”

  He put the boxes on the floor and then stripped off his shirt and dropped his pants.

  Settie stood with her arms crossed, watching.

  Bonny snapped her fingers. “Drop your underclothes. Don’t worry, I’m fully bonded. Better yet, my husband and I are very happy.”

  Gray glanced over at Settie who only smirked at him. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen him naked thousands of times. She’d taken care of him for a year while his heart mended.

  He stripped out of his underclothes and got on the table. The air was cool, and he wasn’t comfortable. Of course, he was doing meridian work and that meant those fucking needles. He steeled himself for more pain.

  Bonny went and touched his toes. “Try channeling mana into her feet.”

  He took a deep breath, felt the energy in his core, and tried to move down his leg. Of course, nothing happened.

  Eventually the needles did come out, and he was able to move the mana to the pain. All the while, Settie went into great detail about Gray’s past and how he’d grown up in the Null Breaks.

  Bonny touched his chest and belly. “His core is massive, and the mana he produces is extraordinary. You did well to find him, Captain.”

  “He can give us mana if we are within ten feet of him. Why can he do that but can’t use his own meridians? It doesn’t make sense.”

  Bonny smiled. “It makes perfect sense. He found your core when he was learning about his own. He was focused on you and his friends and not himself. That is the secret to happiness. There is a part of me that will never be satisfied. Always wanting. Always dissatisfied. Always disappointed in this world and the people in it. That was why my brother failed at this business. He was self-centered. I think about others and how I might help them. Along the way, I enjoy every one of my minutes, for in the end, I will only have so many. Not all of us can be as long-lived as the dragons.”

  “I would trade happiness for years,” Settie said. “But it doesn’t matter. Gray’s great hope is to master himself, so he can be happy. Isn’t that right, my precious Gray?”

  “I never thought of it that way. Happiness is not my goal.” He was surprised to hear himself say that.

  “Then what is your goal?” the captain asked.

  “Peace of mind. I want to be the same whether I win or lose. I don’t want to be a slave to my thoughts because they are just thoughts.”

  “He’s wise,” Bonny said and stepped back. “So he’ll get over his disappointment. Given his history, I don’t see his meridians fixing themselves. For everyone with a core, the meridians grow with the core. He had the meridians but no mana. When you ignited his core—”

  “No,” Settie shot back. “I did not ignite his core. I gave him his core. He is from the Null Breaks. They don’t have magic.”

  “Maybe not,” Bonny conceded. “I will not argue with you, Captain Sevanya. You will believe what you want to believe. All I’m saying is that his prognosis is not good. I have some manafied redbush tea that has helped some fae who broke their core oath. It is an ancient recipe for those who stayed in the Belly during the Fellfae Schism.”

  It made Gray think of Tomi. “And what is the Fellfae Schism?”

  Bonny lifted a finger. “Let me go and get the tea for you. I want to see what happens when you drink it.”

  Gray was left alone with Settie.

  She wasn’t going to be able to let go of what Bonny had said. “I gave you your core. Yes, you had something, but it wouldn’t hold mana. It was me. I did it. I gave you magic.”

  Gray shrugged. “I don’t care. You repaired my heart. That you did do. And you took me to this whole other world, where I have friends, a wife, a home, and very, very good food. I owe you everything, Captain. Everything.”

  The pair stared into each other’s eyes for a long time.

  Gray threw caution to the wind. “Are you Princess Cassandra?”

  Settie threw back her head and laughed. “Now that is the worst question you’ve ever asked me, and we both know how much I loathe questions. Yes, precious Gray, I am the same dragon that fell in love with the Troublemaker. I gazed on his face. Bonny will come back and spread vicious lies about him, but remember, Malchutt was beautiful, charming, and powerful, more powerful than you could ever imagine.”

  Gray didn’t know if Settie was the princess or not, but the way she spoke of him, he knew for a fact that she’d met Malchutt.

  Bonny returned with a tray. “Now, you don’t want to drink the tea at the same time you eat your ironbites. I’m assuming you are doing three a day.”

  “I am—”

  “He is.” Settie said at the same time.

  Bonny smiled. “I don’t know if you are more like an old, bonded couple or mother and son. It’s none of my business. Spread out the tea and the ironbites so each dose are about two hours apart. Some of the fae with burned-out cores do one does in the middle of the night. It said it gives them very strange dreams, but they felt some stirrings in their core and their meridians…enough for small spells, at any rate. I don’t know what it will do for you. But have some to get started.”

  Gray took a sip. It tasted bitter with a cloying, earthy after taste, like he’d just eaten dirt. He couldn’t help but make a face.

  “It’s powerful medicine. The taste is one thing. The pain might be something else. I added a bit of petal milk to it just in case. It’s another reason why fae drink it before bedtime and in the middle of the night. It might dull your mind a bit.”

  Gray felt the world tip on its side, and he smiled. “Yes, I feel it. No pain but definitely pleasure. I feel the gods smiling on me.”

  Settie scowled. “That will not do during the day. We have training. I will need you to fix some doses without the petal milk, please.”

  “As you wish.” Bonny turned her attention to Gray. “Feeling anything?”

  He closed his eyes and made a fist. He could feel something happening, a tingling in his fingers. It was the might that Rynn and his squad mates had but it was something.

  “I think so,” he said and sipped more. He didn’t care about the dirty taste of the hot tea. It was making him giddy, and it was even better than the manafied wine he’d had with Settie at Gorgonzola’s Counter.

  “Tell me about the Fellfae Schism.” He nearly laughed, thinking about Settie having met the demon king who had caused so much trouble throughout Midmere’s history.

  “Well,” Bonny started, “the Troublemaker thought he’d have no trouble recruiting fae soldiers for his demonic army, and yes, there were a fair amount of fae in the Thistle Mire that answered his call. He offered them freedom from their core oaths, and many regretted theirs. It’s a powerful thing to make such a decision and at such a young age. We do it when the dawning of childhood is over and the call of men and women can be heard. It is a time of powerful change and a time of decisions. Maybe we should wait. There has been talk of waiting.”

  Gray sipped more tea. He was forgetting about trying to channel mana to his fists. He was lost in Bonny’s story. She was a lot like Quinnly in some ways, completely different in other ways.

  “But some of the fae didn’t want to join the Fellfae, that’s what we called those fae who joined the Cambrosia League. They fled from the Thistle Mire and went to the Freckle Islands up north, to preserve their core oaths and their good sense. Nothing good came from dealing with the Troublemaker. And you can mark my words on that.”

  Gray cast a drunken glance at Settie, but she was silent, her face expressionless.

  He closed his eyes. “Pinch comes from the Freckle Islands. But she isn’t that old. She probably never danced in the pale moonlight with Malchutt.”

  Bonny gave him a friendly punch on the leg. “Let’s not say his name. But no, Pamalee Thornpinch’s family left a schism far more recent. I don’ have the whole story, but someone in her family broke their core oath and became a husk. They lost everything in the Thistle Mire and had to move. I don’t know how old Pinch was when that happened, but I suppose something like that happens in your family, it can…it can leave a mark. I heard her squad came in second on First Field’s Culling Day. This just might be a way for her to win her spot on a kill squad right here in Lust City. It was what her family was trying to do before their disgrace and exile. Now I have said too much.”

  Gray finished the tea and couldn’t keep his eyes open. It had been a long day. He thought of Settie, dancing with Malchutt, and crying. He hated to think of Settie crying. He tried to open his eyes. He had to ask about the book. But he couldn’t ask Bonny if Settie could be Princess Cassandra. Instead, he began muttering. “The Fall of Alastria. The book. The sketch. She had black hair. Could we borrow it from your shelf? It’s dog-eared. You wouldn’t miss it. What did call the fall of Alastria?”

  “Angels,” Bonny said. “Fucking angels.”

  And then Gray fell asleep. That petal’s milk was powerful. He didn’t know about the book, all he knew was Settie was helping him walk into the main room of the inn. There, Ames and Pinch were talking.

  Why was Ames talking to their enemy? Gray wasn’t going to be moved by some sad story about her family. Neither would Ames, he didn’t think. She had the saddest story of all, and besides, she hated Pinch.

  Settie smelled so good. And that kiss had been so good. It was a shame it would never happen again.

  Ames left Pinch and walked to them. “She and her squad agreed to scrimmage us. Maybe the ice won’t become fire. Maybe it will be washed away in a river of blood.”

  Settie wasn’t happy. Not one bit.

  But Gray didn’t care. He was feeling too good. Yes, this petal milk was dangerous stuff if it could make him feel that good.

  He started laughing and couldn’t stop.

  Well, Ames had found them a squad so they could practice Chaotica.

  He was looking forward to seeing more of Pinch’s blood on the ground.

  As it turned out, there would be a lot of blood the next day but none of it would come from Pinch.