But would any preserved book tell how it might be fixed?
Lux knew her brilliance was rare. Her parents, Riselda, the mayor, even this collector—they all told her so. But rare did not mean singular. Rare did not mean she wasalone.Suddenly, this meeting felt fated rather than only lucky. An unfamiliar but blessed shift.
“You’re quiet. Have I made you uncomfortable?”
Lux glanced up from her stew. She hesitated. Aside from the mountain trader, she’d told no one of where she’d come from. She’d wanted neither the questions nor the judgement. But shedidwant the reactions.
His, in particular.
“You’ve missed Ghadra,” she said.
“Ghadra.”
Her eyes tracked his carefully. She said nothing else.
Corvin grasped his chin. He huffed a laugh. Lux could pick out nothing but shock in his expression. “You cannot be from there.”
She lifted the spoon to her lips.
“Blessed Saints.” His forearms retracted as he sat straight. “This explains the lack of library. I’ve never met a soul out of that city.”
Either he was very accustomed to acting, she was very poor at reading, or these collectors were not whom she sought. Not a drop of nerves seemed to alter him at her admission.
Lux wished she could claim the same. “I’m not surprised,” she said.
And she wasn’t. Ghadra was a secluded place, nearly never welcoming visitors. Those few who came never left. But perhaps now that its mad mayor was dead and a new order to be set, it could be different.
She hoped it would be different.
“I’ll admit I tried to go there once.”
“You did?Why?”
Corvin laughed outright. “Following a lead on a rare manuscript. But I couldn’t manage the road. The marshes were impossible.”
Lux swallowed at the idea of this man combing their city in search of his treasure. Of his gloved hands pawing through Riselda’s dusty alcove filled with books and loose pages. “They were impossible.”
She reached for a roll, but he took the bread from beneath her hand. Lathering it with butter, he held it out to her. “Were?”
Lux bit at her cheek but accepted his offering; butter oozed onto her fingers.
“Ghadra’s under a new mayor.”It must be by now.“I know one of the first changes was marking the marsh road.”
Corvin wiped crumbs from his glove. “That’s news I haven’t heard yet.”
She could tell he was interested, but she was in no headspace to elaborate on what happened behind that city’s walls. She moved from the subject entirely.
“Do you live at Mothlock, then?”
“I do, along with the rest of my society. It’s near here actually.”
Her curiosity piqued. “How far?”
“Once you’re out of Ravenwood, it’s a half day’s ride south. Why?” he asked, a tilt to his head. “Thinking of joining our cause?”
Lux’s brow furrowed before she finally acknowledged the butter spilt over her hand and bit into the bread. “I didn’t think—”
Her attention snagged on the staircase. Or rather the person descending it. With that dismal stare, he looked entirely too familiar.
