Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
“By Hannai’s tits I will,” Gwenna declares, indignant. “That’s a terrible name.”
“Then you choose.” I shrug. “We’re assuming new identities starting today. I can’t very well go around declaring myself as Lady Aspeth Honori, heiress to Honori Hold. That’s just asking to get kidnapped and held for ransom.”
And my father can’t pay the ransom. At all. He can’t even pay for his knights. I can only imagine the chaos that would ensue if our neighboring holds knew just how stretched thin Honori Hold truly is. A hold is considered only as strong as the land it protects, and Honori is the oldest holder family. We’re thought to be strong with artifacts—undefeatable. If the truth came out, my family’s hold would be overtaken by our enemies, our lands annexed to theirs, and our entire family would be executed. And while I’m beyond frustrated with Father for gambling away our last working artifacts, the people who live on Honori lands are blameless. They don’t deserve whatever terrible fate is on its way for the hold.
It’s the lord holder’s responsibility to protect their people, and since my father cannot, it falls to me.
So no, I have to do this. When Father left for court to visit his mistress, the courtesan Liatta, I knew I had to act. I slunk out of the hold in the middle of the night, carrying a few bags with my possessions, and left a note to the staff explaining that I would be visiting my grandmother in the eastern hills.
In the meantime, I’ll become an artificer myself, find an absolute hoard of artifacts, and replenish the Honori holdings.
Aspeth Honori was left behind on the dusty roads to Vastwarren City.
Sparrow is who I am now.
Gwenna rents a luggage cart with a penny, dragging it after her. We load up the cart—or rather, she does while I juggle my cat. Then all of our gear is loaded and there’s no reason to wait any longer.
“Come along, Chickadee,” I say brightly. “The guild recruitment meeting isn’t until the morning. Shall we find lodgings?”
“Not ‘Chickadee,’ ” Gwenna protests, her hands going to her hips. “That sounds incredibly dumb.”
“Then pick a bird. What’s your favorite bird?”
“To eat? Turkey.”
“Mmm, I don’t think calling yourself ‘Turkey’ is a good idea, though I doubt it’s taken.” I purse my lips, thinking, and adjust my heavy cat in my arms. Good gods, she’s shedding like a dandelion all over my dark traveling dress. I try to put Squeaker back into her satchel but she howls with anger and digs her nails into my arm, so I sigh and heft her onto my hip like a fat orange baby. “What about ‘Blue Jay’? ‘Robin’? ‘Wren’?”
“How about I stay Gwenna for now?” She gives me an irritated look and picks up the handle to the luggage cart. “Guild first, bird name later. Lead the way, Lady Sparrow.”
“Just Sparrow,” I tell her brightly, and then breathe deep.
It’s a mistake. Vastwarren City has a peculiar smell to it. It’s a smell like a compost pile, along with unwashed bodies and a variety of other undelicious stinks. There’s a cloud of smog hanging over the city, no doubt due to several thousand hearths working all at once. I cough, juggling my heavy cat, and then wish I hadn’t laced my corset so tight this morning. “By the Lady. There’s a real stench to this place.”
“Smells like I rubbed the back of my ear,” Gwenna agrees.
“That’s disgusting.” I pinch my nose shut with one hand, juggling Squeaker with the other. She’s not wrong, though. There’s a distinct, unwashed scent to everything that I’ve never experienced before. Honori Hold is austere and lightly populated and above all else, clean. Vastwarren City looked a little run-down from afar, but I had resolved to withhold judgment until I stood in its streets.
Now I’m standing there and, well…it’s bad.
It’s crowded. That’s one of the first things I notice. Gwenna wrestles with the luggage cart while people flow around us in the street, giving us dirty looks for not moving with the foot traffic. I hug Squeaker a little closer, because if she runs away, I’ll never find her again in this crowd. Not that this is a problem—the only thing Squeaker runs to is her food bowl. Vastwarren City is dirty, too. There’s a layer of grime in the cobbled streets and there are potholes everywhere. The buildings—two and three stories tall—all look as if they’re sagging and weather-beaten, and I don’t see a single bit of greenery. Everything is gray and brown and drab and dirty and crowded. Rising above the clutter of buildings is a large wall around the heart of the city. Behind it, I see spires and tall, arching roofs.
That’s where the guild will be. I just have to get through the rest of Vastwarren first.