I sat at the head of the table and tried not to fidget.
The entire day was a blur. We got home and went to bed. Except I couldn’t sleep. I kept turning over and over until I finally gave up. Nothing could happen until Will returned, safe and sound, from the wharf. All I could do was wait.
Just after lunch I sent Kaiden, in his clean clothes and with his hair brushed, to check on Will, and he came back and reported that everything seemed to be normal. The barrel swap had gone unnoticed.
It was almost dinnertime now. Will would be back any minute. One by one, everybody trickled into the kitchen, until all of us were packed in there, eyeing the stolen barrel sitting on a tarp on the floor.
Come on. How long . . .
As if on cue, Reynald loomed in the doorway and stepped into the kitchen. Behind him Will staggered in and tossed some coins on the table.
“What took you so long?” Lute demanded.
“I had to settle up,” Will growled. “I told them I’d had enough excitement and dawn-to-dusk days. Honest work takes a lot out of a person. You should try it.”
Lute looked at the coins. “Doesn’t pay that much though, does it? I’ll stick with soldiering, thanks.”
“Oh, when do you plan to start?” Will dropped into a chair and turned to Gort. “Next time, it’s his turn.”
I looked at Gort, too. “We’ll need something to bust the barrel open.”
Gort stood up. “I have just the thing.”
Shana slid a big plate of food and a tankard of ale in front of Will and put a platter of triangular pastries on the table, perfectly golden brown and smelling of delicious fruit and freshly baked bread. Clover distributed cups and tea.
“Don’t we get ale?” Lute asked.
Shana stopped and looked at him.
Lute raised his hands. “Fine, fine.”
Gort returned to the kitchen carrying a large war maul. It looked like an oversized hammer.
“Now?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
Gort leaned the maul against the wall next to the barrel and sat down. Everyone was here, finally.
I was so nervous, my hands trembled. This was it. Either I was Maggie the Undying who could predict the future, or I was a delusional woman who had no idea what she was doing. Everything was riding on this, and I’d run across enough inconsistencies to realize that nothing the books talked about was guaranteed. I could’ve hedged my bets and opened the barrel privately, but I needed the full power of that reveal. I needed to shock them. Go big or go home.
If only.
I took a deep breath. “I asked you to do all of this and didn’t explain why. You trusted me. I appreciate that trust more than I can express.”
Reynald’s face was like a stone wall. No emotion at all. I had a vision of the empty barrel and him getting up from the table and walking away.
“Reynald told you that I know other people’s secrets. I do. I also know some of the future.”
Will raised his eyebrows. Lute gave me a skeptical look. Shana glanced at Gort. Her face saidWhat did you get me into?
So far this was going awesome.
“So is that like visions?” Will asked.
“Not exactly. I know a version of the future. In that version Hreban rises to power and the kingdom burns. I’m trying to stop it. If anyone finds out about me, I will be in danger. This knowledge is valuable, and someone like Sauven, Everard, or Hreban would kill to possess it.”
The skepticism was so thick, you could cut it with a knife.
