“This doesn't seem so hard,” Anders continued. “Bet I could do what you do no problem, Kit.”
“It’s a wonder the Right Hand said I was needed here, then, if you could have filled in.” I tried to keep my tone from creeping into irritation.
He laughed and dropped the hammer on the anvil with a clatter, then moved toward the bellows. “I was needed more in the mill.”
I barely managed to head him off before he could pump more air into the firepot and make the flames flare up. He remained undeterred, moving to the rack of tools awaiting repair and picking up a set of dull wool shears.
I was so focused on keeping an eye on him that I almost didn’t hear Reimond behind me asking Penny about his carving. When Penny took the other two men to the far corner to show off his work, the tension in my shoulders eased. The farther he was from careless Anders, the better.
While they talked quietly, bent over the worktable together, Anders bragged about how quickly he could strip a tree and touted his record for the most trees felled in a single shift. He was halfway through rearranging my hammers and tongs when something outside the open doorway caught his attention.
“Otis!” he called, leaning much too close to my ear to be speaking so loudly. “Come meet the other new initiates!”
A glance over found a portly young man and a willowy young woman who looked too alike not to be related passing by outside. They shared the same slim, sharp nose,pointed chin, and thin lips, and were pale all around: milky skin, white-blond hair, ice blue eyes. The only color to be seen was in their rosy cheeks which only got redder as they stepped under the canopy and into the range of the heat from the forge.
Anders stepped up beside me and gestured to the pair. “Otis and Isla.” Turning to face them, he motioned behind us. “That’s Penny, and this”—he slapped my back hard enough that it rocked me forward— “is Kit Koesters.”
Isla gave a curt nod while Otis studied me with narrowed eyes.
“These two think they’re too smart to slum with the rest of us,” Anders said, bending in again as if he was telling me a secret yet still speaking at full volume. “Spend all their time in the apothecary.”
“Is Harlan Volkur still the resident herbalist?” I asked, trying to ignore the intensity of Otis’s scrutiny.
Isla dipped her head. “We’re his apprentices.”
“He’s told me a lot about you,” Otis said. “Vaughn Koesters’ son. The youngest person to ever begin their Oaths.”
Anders scoffed. “And he’ll be the oldest to finish them at this rate.”
Otis didn't seem to notice the interruption as he continued, his eyes boring into me. “Brought in more bodies—livinganddead—than most men who had been at it twice as long as you. Devout as the best of them until the day you disappeared.”
A quick glance at the far end of the shop assured me that Penny was too involved in showing Reimond and Thoma his sketchbook to be paying attention to our conversation. He didn’t need to know how prolific a graverobber I’d been as a teenager, especially not with how fresh the hurt was of having his father’s body taken.
I suspected it would all come out eventually, but on my terms.
Turning back to Otis, I masked my alarm at how much he seemed to know that he shouldn’t. Considering how many of my secrets Harlan was privy to, I couldn’t help but worry what other skeletons he’d managed to dig up from my past.
“I’m surprised Harlan told you about me at all,” I said. “He never liked me.”
Otis grunted, and his lips curled in a sinister smirk. “I find that if you ask the right questions, you learn all kinds of interesting things.”
A chill that had nothing to do with the cool autumn air crept over my skin.
Isla snagged her brother's hand, and he finally broke eye contact.
“We need to be getting back. Harlan doesn’t like to be kept waiting,” she said, then added, “It was good to meet you, Kit.”
“Likewise,” I replied.
They ducked through the doorway and disappeared into the crowd milling about the streets.
I’d been uneasy when Anders arrived, but now I was practically vibrating with tension. There was far too much I wanted to keep hidden that Harlan could bring to light, and it didn’t bode well that he’d given in to Otis’s questions already. Though, my father’s old friend wasn’t exactly a paragon of secrecy; he was weak-willed and easily manipulated by anyone who knew which soft places to dig into.
There was too much nervous energy crackling through me to be still, so I returned to the forge and the abandoned hoe blade. Anders followed, reaching for my hammer again. I snagged it before he could and dropped it into the front pocket of my apron, out of his reach.
I hadn’t even gotten the blade back into the coals before Rosie rapped her knuckles against the doorframe, drawing everyone’s attention. Despite the full house, she didn’t have eyes for anyone but Penny as she flashed him a warm smile.
“Are you busy?” she asked, brushing her braids behind her shoulder. “I can come back later.”
