Squaring his shoulders, Daris settled his hands atop the pommel of his sword.
“I am ready.”
Chapter 37
COLINAS, RAVOS
The room was as gaudy and overdone as Terena had expected. She’d known the previous Duke Ravos all her life and the vain, materialistic duke was definitely a ‘more is more’ person. He’d only deigned to speak to her because of her position within the emperor’s court. But if you were not of noble blood, you were nothing.
As she searched through the duke’s personal chambers, Terena groaned at the amount of stupid shit one man can accumulate.
“Half this stuff is junk,” Croak said as he sniffed at something before setting it back down.
Terena laughed at the look of disgust on his face as he glanced around the room.
Cassandra was busy running her hands along a nightstand crusted with emeralds and rubies. It looked like it belonged in the throne room of one of the gandanas, the rulers of old Osta before the fall of the Olympians.
“Did you find something?”
Cassandra shook her head. Hands on her hips, she scowled at the nightstand as if it offended her. “No. When he showed it to me… well, he brought it from another room but hours later, he put it inside this drawer. But it’s not there. I thought perhaps there might be a false bottom or something but really, the man was not that clever.”
Croak snorted as he tossed another pillow onto the floor. Jumping on the bed, he sighed and stretched out, crossing his arms to cradle the back of his head. “Other than his face, why’d you sleep with him?”
“Croak!”
Orry giggled, exchanging a look with Migela as the mute assassin covered her mouth.
“He’s not wrong,” Cassandra muttered as she crouched to look beneath the nightstand. Giving up after a minute she pushed a lock of her blonde hair away from her face. “I don’t think it’s here.”
“We’ve not been looking long,” Terena said as she wandered around the perimeter of the room. Pausing in front of a group of vases, she picked up the smallest one, no bigger than her hand, and turned it over.
“Oh, Lady Terena, this wasn’t the room I… that is to say, this is the duke’s room. I told the other woman to inform you when she was in here earlier, but perhaps she did not relay our conversation. You see, Lord Hermes will be sleeping in here.”
Everyone looked over at the newcomer. The man was small, with a thick head of sandy hair that was artfully messy. Like many Heylisians, he wore his hair long to his shoulders, and was clean shaven, although Terena wondered if it was because he might not be able to grow a beard. Terena had forgotten his name.
“Of course he will,” Croak said with a chortle while he lounged on the bed.
“Perhaps I can find you another room if the former duchess’s rooms?—”
“No need,” Terena said as she rose from where she’d been looking. “I’m not staying here.”
“Who are you again?”
The man colored at Croak’s question, earning a chuckle from Cassandra.
“I am Miltos, steward to Duke Ravos.”
“Be a dear,” Cassandra said as the man wrung his hands. “Have someone bring up a hot bath for Lady Luca. She’ll need rose and seneca oils for the water, and if you do not have seneca, lavender will do.”
Terena opened her mouth to say she wasn’t planning on staying long enough for a bath but one pointed look from Cassandra and she shut her mouth and turned away.
The man, Miltos, shifted his brown eyes between the seer and the others, his hands twisting painfully in front of his long casta, a voluminous robe made of raw silk. It was much too long on him and the front of it was wrinkled, thanks to his constant tugging.
“I will see to it immediately,” he said after a long pause while the others went back to ransacking the rooms. It took him a moment longer to leave. As he retreated, Croak threw a pillow after him, to Cassandra’s amusement.
A loud roar from somewhere down below echoed up to them. Terena jerked upright, looking around as she narrowed her eyes in concentration. She rubbed at her chest, frowning. The ache was back. She’d had a few blessed hours without it, but it returned with a vengeance of a sudden.
“What the fuck was that?”
