There was no answer. Maybe she was gone like they’d said.
Finn knocked again, staring at the card while waiting.
What might the crown mean?
Finn believed it was the king, but he’d already helped the king. Maybe Finn was supposed to ensure Bellut faced his own sentencing. With Bellut’s service to the viscount, along with Meyer’s feelings about vengeance, that proved difficult.
Though he thought he knew what the card represented, there was a possibility he was wrong.
What else might the hegen want with a crown? Perhaps it was the gold of the crown that was significant. Maybe they wanted the king’s wealth? The palace held the king’s jewels, so it could be that, though the hegen had wanted to stop the attack. Maybe there was another crown Finn needed to find, though in his service to Verendal, it would be difficult for him to leave and search for this other crown.
Finn felt like he’d been standing in the doorway waiting on her for far too long. There hadn’t been any others coming along the street, but he wouldn’t expect that to be the case for much longer. If Kezia and the others returned, maybe he could have them get word to Esmerelda that he’d tried to find her.
It was time to head back. He’d had a little free time in the evening—Meyer often gave him stretches of freedom for him to explore on his own—but that didn’t mean he could abandon his studies. Though he might have been promoted to apprentice, there remained a considerable amount that he needed to learn. He didn’t know if he would ever reach the depth of knowledge Meyer possessed, but that was the expectation of him. As he turned to make his way back, someone called his name.
“Finn Jagger.”
Finn turned to see Esmerelda coming down the street. She was tall, with raven black hair and full lips, and wearing a simple bright yellow gown. Finn found himself staring. She was lovely.
Esmerelda was also dangerous.
“I heard you came looking for me,” she said.
Finn flicked his gaze past her, though didn’t see anyone else. Kezia and the other two hegen had gone the opposite direction. Hadn’t they?
“I thought it was time I had answers about this.” He pulled the card from his pocket and offered it to Esmerelda.
She eyed it for a moment before lifting her gaze to him, as if sizing him up in the process. It was strange—and oddly seductive. “That is for you alone, Finn Jagger.”
He flipped the card over, curious whether it had changed. He didn’t think that it had, but when it came to Esmerelda and the way that she could use her magic, he didn’t know. “What does the crown mean?”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
He looked around the street before turning back to her. “The crown. What does it mean?”
She smiled slightly. “Is it not obvious to you?”
“I thought maybe it had to do with the king—”
“From what I understand, you sentenced the King.”
“Not him. The king. King Porman.”
“I’m afraid I don’t know him.”
She toyed with him. The soft amusement in her eyes suggested how much she enjoyed it. “Were you telling me that I’d have to do something to the king? Now that I’m apprenticed to Master Meyer, I serve the king.”
“I am well aware of the service required of you, Finn Jagger.”
She kept saying his name as if repeating it bound him to her. Which he had to wonder if it might. What if that was the way her magic worked?
“What do you want me to do?”
Esmerelda tilted her head to the left before motioning to the door. “Why don’t you come in and we can discuss?”
“Will I have to serve you more?”
“Not everything has a cost, Finn Jagger,” she said softly.
She reached her door and stepped off to the side. Finn debated whether to go in or whether he should return to the city. There were other errands he had to run and more that he needed to study, but this was the reason that he’d come.
Finn glanced over to her for a moment. “If you have other things you need to be doing, I don’t need to intrude.”
She smiled at him, the light catching off her full lips. “I have nothing more I need to be doing other than speaking to you, Finn Jagger.”
He stepped into her home and swept his gaze around it. Last time he was there, he had noticed shelves containing strange items, including the bowl that had been stolen during one of the jobs he had been a part of. An Alainsith bowl, as far as he knew. He used the opportunity to look around the inside of her home for any other magical artifacts she might have, but other than shelves filled with books, a few ceramic sculptures, and a couple paintings, he didn’t see anything unusual. Even the books weren’t necessarily out of place. It was more the bindings that caught his attention, thick spines that carried silver and gold inlay, along with lettering that he couldn’t read.
Esmerelda brushed past him, glancing up at him. “May I offer you a drink? Perhaps a mug of tea?”
“That would be fine,” he said.
Everything with the hegen incurred a cost, though he had no idea what costs he might incur by simply accepting a mug of tea from her. Maybe none. Besides, he did have questions for her.
She made her way to the kitchen, where she set a teapot on her cookstove and turned back to him, clasping her hands in front of her. “I expected to see you before now,” she said.
“Because of the card?”
She hesitated before answering, and Finn tried reading the expression on her face but found it more difficult than he expected. If there was one thing he had learned from Master Meyer, it was how to read people.
“Perhaps because of the card.”
“Meyer knows you tried to keep Bellut and his crew from gathering the Alainsith bowls.” Finn couldn’t remember how to say the name she’d called them, the word too foreign to stick with him.
She turned back to the kitchen, stirring together several different powders before tapping them into the teapot. “I’m not concerned about whether you would share with Master Meyer. He and I have known each other long enough, I do not fear him learning of what’s asked of you.”
“Did you force him to claim me?” Meyer, like Oscar, had owed a debt. Finn didn’t know what he owed, though.
“Force him?”
“Is that why he exerted his right?”
After what she had told Finn about the connection she shared with Master Meyer, he had started to wonder. What if the hegen were the only reason that he still lived? It would tie him to them far more than what he had believed.
“Henry Meyer makes his own choices, Finn Jagger. Much like you make your own choices.”
“You have tried to guide things, though.”
She shrugged. “I will not deny that I have interest in seeing my people succeed in the city. We have struggled in other places, so we would like to have an opportunity here we cannot have in others.” She tipped her head to Finn. “Don’t you have the same interest? That is why you came to me the first place, is it not?”
“That was about my family, not my people.”
“My people are my family, Finn Jagger.”
She grabbed a mug from a cupboard and poured some of the steaming liquid into it before taking a scoop full of powder and stirring it into the steaming water. When she was done, she handed the mug to Finn. He took it carefully, holding onto it, then waited while she poured another for herself. Only when Esmerelda took a drink did he take his own.
She smiled at him. “I thought the two of us might get to know each other better, especially now that you are an apprentice executioner. It is an important role within the city.” She motioned to a faded wooden table. Streaks of color remained in the solidly constructed surface. Finn took a seat, setting the mug on the table in front of him, waiting for her to sit across from him. “Have you come to understand the responsibilities required of you?”
“I don’t know all that will be required of me,” Finn admitted. “To be
honest, when I first apprenticed with Master Meyer, I thought most of it would be hanging and torturing people.”
“And it’s not.”
Finn shook his head. “Most of it is studying and healing and preparing,” he said.
“Does that disappoint you?”
It was almost as if she were interrogating him, which considering he had come to her place, maybe she was. “It’s not a disappointment. It’s an adjustment in thinking.”
“How do you feel about the work asked of you?”
“Surprisingly better than I thought,” he said.
“Surprisingly?”
“I enjoy the healing side,” he said.
“I imagine he has you studying with an apothecary, perhaps even one of the surgeons.”
“He tells me I need to spend more time with the apothecary Wella.”
Esmerelda lifted her tea, inhaling deeply and smiling. “You would do well to listen to her. Any advice she offers should be heeded.”
“You know her?”
“Oh, yes. I know her.”
“All of the medicines are complicated.” Learning the names of each one she carried, along with their purpose, wasn’t the most difficult thing. What was more complicated for Finn had been learning how to mix them and compound them. He hadn’t spent enough time with the apothecary to master that, though he had come to appreciate the knowledge and skills she possessed.
“You may relax and drink, Finn Jagger. It is not unsafe for you.”
Finn regarded the tea for a moment before lifting it and taking a deep breath, much like Esmerelda had. The steaming tea helped clear his mind, and as he breathed it in, he found his thoughts starting to clarify. He took another sip. It had a bit of a minty flavor to it, though it was not unpleasant.
“What is this?”
“That is tea.”
He shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. What did you mix together?”
“That would be a secret of the hegen. Perhaps if you joined the people, you might learn.”
“Someone could join the hegen? I thought you had to be born to it.”
“Did you have to be born to your role as an executioner?”
“That was sort of forced on me.”
Esmerelda smiled. “Perhaps the same could be said about the hegen for you one day.”
He had the sense she said it as a joke, but there was something unsettling about it as well.
“That’s not really why I am here.”
“You are here to have me explain the card to you. Unfortunately, I cannot.”
“You cannot, or you will not?”
Esmerelda sipped at her tea, watching him.
“I see,” he said.
“You look for answers where none are necessary. Time will reveal what must be done, Finn Jagger. Much like the cards reveal their intentions in time.”
“The last card you gave me didn’t reveal anything.”
“The last card? What is it you think was asked of you?”
There had been a picture of a bloody hand on the last card, and Finn had thought she had wanted him to somehow betray his friend Oscar, but that wasn’t what she’d wanted of him. Oscar had served the hegen as well. “I just want to ensure that you aren’t going to ask anything of me that will be too onerous. I’ve done what you needed so far.”
She smiled tightly. “So far? I’m afraid I didn’t realize I demanded so much from you.”
“That’s not it; it’s just that—”
“You don’t need to fear, Finn Jagger.” She held out her hand, resting it on the table. He reached into his pocket again, pulling out the crown card and sliding it across the table to her. Esmerelda took it, flipping it several times, and the crown began to shift, the face of the card turning blank. “Is that better?” She slid the card back to him.
Now that it was blank, Finn wasn’t sure if it was any better. It might’ve been safer for him to have the crown card rather than a blank card. At least with the crown, he had an idea of what might be asked of him.
“If that means you’re taking back what’s asked of me, I suppose it would be better.”
“This is not a sentence such as you have served, Finn Jagger.”
“What is it?”
“I would think it would be something of a friendship.” She smiled, leaning forward and taking another sip of her drink. “We didn’t have much of a relationship with your predecessor. I have been hopeful that you wouldn’t reject the opportunity to develop a relationship with the people.”
“The same relationship Master Meyer has with you?”
Maybe he could turn this, and learn a few things from her, regardless of how much she might try to keep from him. Esmerelda was difficult to know, and skilled at turning the conversation in her favor. It was easy to wonder just how difficult questioning her under a formal interrogation might be.
“I would never presume to have the same relationship with you as Henry Meyer has with us.”
“What is his relationship with you?”
“That is a question you should ask of Henry Meyer.”
“Why didn’t you have any relationship with my predecessor?”
Master Meyer rarely spoke of the Lion, the apprentice who had served before Finn, though Finn wondered if that was because he knew how he’d tormented Finn, or whether it was simply because Master Meyer himself had never had much of a relationship with him. As far as Finn had learned, that had been forced by the Executioner Court.
“He came to the city as a journeyman, assigned by the Executioner Court since Master Meyer had not claimed an apprentice. I don’t know the details, so that is something you will have to ask Henry Meyer about, but I did know he was displeased to work with him.”
“That’s what he’s told me, as well.”
“I am surprised,” Esmerelda said. “He’s usually too professional to speak poorly about someone he’s asked to work with.”
“He didn’t say it outright,” Finn said. “It was more how he alluded to it.”
Esmerelda regarded him while taking another drink. “I see. You gleaned that from conversation with him. You’re picking up on your responsibilities quite quickly. I imagine Henry Meyer is pleased with that.”
“I’m doing my best to learn what’s asked of me.”
“Have you given any thought to leaving the city?”
“Why would I leave the city?”
“I believe you had contemplated it before.”
Finn froze. How much of him did she really know? He had considered running, but that was when he still had a sentence lingering over his head. He no longer did, and no longer had a reason to run. More than that, now his mother and sister were with Master Meyer.
Could that be what she attempted to get at? That he might not have the same fear of what would happen to him, but he still had to worry about what would happen to his mother and sister were he to leave?
“I contemplated it before, when I didn’t know what I wanted.”
“Do you know that now?”
It was a seemingly simple question, but it was one that didn’t have any easy answer. What did he want?
The answer that came to him surprised him.
“I want Bellut to face sentencing for what he did,” he said.
“Sentencing or vengeance?”
That she would ask the same question as Meyer left a chill working through him. How much had they shared about him?
He chose his words carefully. “Sentencing. I want him to face the king’s justice.”
She smiled at him and glanced down at the table.
The card shimmered, and once again a gold crown appeared on the surface.
Chapter Four
The streets of the Reval section were quiet, though that wasn’t uncommon. They weren’t in one of the more expensive sections of the city, but having the master executioner live in this section meant there was a bit less activity than in some places. Streetlights provided enough light for him to make his way tow
ard Meyer’s home, but when he had a feeling that someone was following him, Finn ducked back into a nearby alley.
Old habits were hard to move past, even if his skill in them had faded.
He had sentenced the King, but there were others from the old crew he still hadn’t dealt with. Finn didn’t worry about Rock—he didn’t know if they were still friends, but doubted Rock would do anything to him—but he did worry about Wolf. There was a darkness within him, along with a craftiness the King hadn’t had. The King might have run the crew, but the Wolf was the one to have organized much of the planning. As far as Finn knew, Wolf was the one to have coordinated with the Client.
But both Wolf and Rock had been banished from the city. It was for the best.
When convinced there wasn’t anyone following him, Finn started back along the street. It was dark, and a full moon threatened to peek out from the clouds. Distant thunder rumbled, though there hadn’t been any rain yet. The air had turned colder, and it wouldn’t be long before the first snowflakes began to fall. For the first time in years, he didn’t have to worry about having enough heat when winter came.
Wind whispered along the street, much colder now that the sun had gone down. Another rumble of thunder rolled from the east, a promise of a coming storm. At least he had a place he could go and safety he would know.
When he reached Meyer’s home, he glanced along the street again. There remained the strange sensation that he’d been followed, though he hadn’t seen anyone along the street after him. Ever since his time in the hegen section, he’d felt like there was something there. He was jumpy. That was it. Finn could imagine Oscar teasing him about it, the old thief wanting to taunt him for how quickly he let himself get spooked these days, though Finn hadn’t had the chance to visit with Oscar in a long time. Ever since the job had failed and he’d confronted Esmerelda about what she’d wanted of him, he hadn’t seen Oscar.
Could it be Oscar?
It had troubled Finn that Oscar would suddenly have disappeared from his life. Though he might have left the crew and moved off to something different, losing Oscar felt like losing his father all over again.
Nothing else moved in the growing night, and he stepped through the gate to Meyer’s home, hurried up the path through the small garden, and reached the door. Master Meyer had a large and solidly made home, typical for this section of the city. Finn had initially felt as if the home should belong to some wealthy merchant rather than the executioner, though he had changed his opinion after learning just how often Meyer would treat injuries in the evenings.
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