Snatching my hand away, I forced myself to bypass temptation. Three doors down, I found what I had been looking for. This knob I turned without hesitation. Knocking was too much sound for this quiet space. Opening the door slowly, I spied poor omens.
The bed was made, the room tidy, though it was neither of those things that gave me pause. It was the very faint dust covering items such as a hairbrush, a perfume bottle, items that should have been used hours ago. The air had gone stale like the shop I had visited. Inspection of the closet proved nothing. It was stuffed to bursting with garments. If there were clothes missing, it would take a keener eye than mine to spot them. The entire room held an air of expectation, as if its owner might return and give it life at a moment’s notice. That absence of her essence confirmed my suspicions.
Pascale of the Araneidae, the maven’s sister, my mark, the female whose death ensured Maisy’s life, wasn’t here. By the look of things, she hadn’t been in some time.
My ears started ringing and the room spun until I braced a palm against the wall.
Just because Pascale wasn’t in her room didn’t mean she wasn’t in the nest. I could still do my job. I could still save my daughter. I just had to be smart about this. Pascale wasn’t here so…
Holding cell it is, then. Checking her rooms was simple. I wanted the slight possibility she was being held there eliminated first. Now came the hard parts, locating the cells and checking them.
Convicted criminals were beheaded by the mercenary guards or left outside the city’s walls to freeze.
Both options were harsh. Even though Pascale had helped kill her parents, I doubt either had been her fate.
Tempted as I was to rifle through her things for clues, I had a better source of information, and the sooner I cornered him, the sooner I could persuade him to tell me what had happened to Pascale.
Quick as I could, I made my way back to the heart of the nest, following the browsers, taking in the sights, searching every vendor’s face for Armand. Voices pitched low in conversation lured me to the stall where the bodies were packed tightest. Over coifed heads and bared shoulders, I glimpsed him. All his customers were female, each lovelier than the last, each tittering behind their hands, and that burning in my gut?
It was not jealousy.
It was irritation.
Keen annoyance even.
Times had definitely changed. Araneidae females packed the hall. I could barely breathe for the perfume. Wedging myself between Armand’s eager admirers, I pried my way to the head of the crowd gathered outside his stall.
I found him sitting behind a table strewn with bits of precious stones and spools of gold thread. His head was bent, his brow furrowed and lips pressed tight. Lost in his work, he appeared oblivious to the chattering females at my elbows.
I was drawn a step forward, curious as to what had so completely absorbed his attention.
“The shop is closed today,” said the female beside me.
Sure enough, a sign had been stuck to the front of the glass case displaying his jewelry.
“I don’t understand.” I frowned. “If the shop is closed, then why are you all here?”
“We didn’t know until a few moments ago. He rarely opens until the afternoon, but I heard from a friend he’s been in there all morning.” She bent her head close to mine. “Bethesda said he told her it was a special commission, but we all know he doesn’t take those. I can’t imagine who it’s for. He has been unattached for some time now. It’s been the cause of much speculation.”
“I can imagine.” I tilted my head. “Did you come looking for something specific?”
“Yes.” She bit her lip in Armand’s direction. “I did.”
One last glance around this spectacle decided for me.
“I suppose I’ll have to come back another time.” I patted her arm. “Enjoy your day.”
I spun on my heel and headed for the exit. I had seen enough. More than enough. Was this what Lourdes had wanted to show me? Was that why she was so insistent I visit him? He had a line of females waiting for him to notice them. What did it matter if I was at the head of it?
“Nicolette.”
I cringed as Armand’s voice echoed through the suddenly quiet hall.
“Wait.”
As I slowed my steps, I became aware that every female’s attention was now firmly centered on me. The one standing nearest me pursed her lips so hard her rosy mouth puckered like a suckerfish.
Armand took my hand and brought it to his lips. “Lourdes said you might stop by.”
I slid my fingers from his grasp. “You closed your shop on the off chance I might come?”
It wasn’t as if he couldn’t afford to indulge in a day off, but that he dismissed his adoring customers without comment surprised me.
“You said yourself you won’t be here long, so I have to make the most of every opportunity.”
“I don’t want to pull you away from your work.” Or attract even more attention to myself.
“The thing about work is that it’s always there.” He grinned. “Close your eyes.”
“I don’t think that’s—”
He pressed a finger to my lips. “Humor me.”
My skin stung from the daggered gazes the females flung at me, but I did as he asked.
A collective gasp rose around us. My eyes popped open as Armand reached behind my neck.
I grasped his forearms, digging my fingernails into his shirt. “What are you doing?”
I was seconds from locking my grip and tossing him onto the ground, but our audience made me hesitate.
“You shouldn’t have peeked,” he chastised as a cool weight hit my skin.
When his arm lowered, a weight hung around my neck. It was an oval made of lapis with thin bands of oranges, yellows, blues, reds and greens. The setting, to no one’s surprise, was gold. The chain, though, was pearlescent and strung with flattened gold beads.
He tapped the stone with his pointer. “It suits you.”
“Is that what I think it is?” The string was his silk—Araneidae silk—and I couldn’t afford it.
“If I say it is, you won’t accept the gift.” He traced the chain across my collarbone. “If I say that it isn’t, then our relationship will be founded on a lie. Those have a habit of corroding everything built upon them. Keep the necklace. Lapis suits you.” His smile heated. “No one else could do it justice.”
I unfastened the clasp. “We don’t have a relationship.”
“I beg to differ.” He caught the necklace when I tossed it. “Friendship is a sort of relationship.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “Who said we were friends?”
Armand shoved the pendant into his pocket. “I brought you breakfast in bed.”
“I wasn’t in bed,” I reminded him.
“No, you weren’t, and I was very disappointed.”
“You knew my sister was in my room.” I frowned. “What did you hope to accomplish?”
“In the interest of self-preservation, I’ll keep those plans to myself.” He added, “For now.”
“Ah. I see.” I gestured to our surroundings. “Care to talk somewhere more private?”
He gestured back the way I had come. “I thought you’d never ask.”
We exited to much grumbling from Armand’s gawkers. A female near the end of his line waited until I was almost beside her before dropping a basket of fruit on my foot and causing me to stumble.
Armand slammed into me, and we tumbled against the wall to catch our balance.
My back was flush to the tunnel, and Armand’s weight kept me pinned there.
“Oh dear,” the female cried. “Are you both all right?”
I glared into her smug little eyes and shoved at Armand.
Whatever she saw in my face sent her scurrying off without her basket or her fruit.
He ignored her and leaned into me. “I’m feeling better all the time.”
“You can move.” I pushed his chest again
. “We’re in no danger of falling now.”
His eyes were locked on my mouth. “Speak for yourself.”
I tensed when his head lowered. “This isn’t happening.”
He nuzzled my cheek. “I assure you it is.”
Breathless, I gasped when his teeth slid over my jaw. He was too close, his touch too familiar.
I had to break his spell. I blinked dazedly up at him.
Drawing back, he cupped my face in his hands. “Did you hit your head when we fell?”
I touched the side of my head. “Yes?”
“Gods damn it all. We lost our physician several months ago. My brother Henri is seeing to the needs of the nest in the meantime. If you’re willing to be seen by a herbologist, I can take you to—”
“That’s all right,” I was quick to assure him. “I brought white willow bark tea I can brew.”
I kept a full store of herbs for all occasions. A female traveling alone couldn’t afford not to.
“Here, hold still.” He wrapped his arm around my waist. “Let me help you to your room.”
“If it’s all the same to you,” I said, leaning into him, “I’d rather get something to eat.”
He traced the waist of my skirt. “Are you asking me to dine with you?”
“I’m saying half my headache is hunger.” I popped his hand. “Sweet rolls only last for so long.”
“Careful there.” He caught my elbow and tucked me against his side. “I’ll play nice, I swear.”
I gasped at the strength of his hold. “No offense, but something tells me you’re a liar.”
“None taken.” He grinned. “Something tells me you might be right.”
While Armand shepherded me, I marveled that he remained so unchanged. His devious sense of humor was intact, and his sensuality still made females swoon. Leaving Erania had carved my life into an unrecognizable shape. Yet the passage of time had only honed those most attractive traits in him, though he wasted them on me.
He led me to a cushioned seating area in the nest’s heart. “Can I trust you to wait for me?”
I weighed how close I had come to letting him kiss me against how much I needed information.
The cost of one might be too steep for the other.
“I’ll be here.” I sank onto the bench and settled in to wait.
He hesitated, clearly undecided whether he could believe me. Trust issues, we had them.
“Go on.” I shooed him. “Keep me waiting much longer and I might decide that a nap trumps food.”
Seeming to decide I was serious about staying put, he headed off to secure us a hot meal.
While I was waiting, turning questions over in my mind, I loosed a silken thread from my fingertip. I had lost Tiah’s tether in the snow on our way here. It would take no time for me to weave a new one, and the repetition calmed me.
Once I had made a few strands the same length, I began to braid them together. After I had three such strands, I braided those again until I had a thin tether that was intricate in design and functional. Though my father had been Araneidae, I took after my Salticidae mother. If I had been able to produce the Araneidae’s unbreakable silk, my life could have been a fairy tale. Though I would never know, the brittle image lingered. What if I had wed Armand and raised Maisy with every advantage?
I wouldn’t be here now with a little glass vial stuffed down my shirt. That much was certain.
But my silk was as common as my origins. I could never perform the tasks required of the heir’s wife. The Araneidae were renowned artisans who loved inventing new uses for their remarkable silk, but their wealth came not from baubles but from their ability to weave their unbreakable silk into impenetrable armor. In turn, that armor was sold to mercenary clans at prices that boggled my mind.
In hindsight, I understood that if Lourdes had been poisoned alongside her parents, Armand and his wife would have had to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining the spinners, something only a female could do. Without Armand wed to an Araneidae female, one receptive to the hormone that he secreted, one that she could then apply to the spinnerets of the spinners, their production would have dropped perilously low. Orders would have backlogged until their pristine reputation grew tarnished.
“How do you feel about lepus?”
Armand’s voice startled me. I said the first thing that came to mind. “They’re very soft.”
“They’re also delicious.” He offered me a paper cone. “Go on. Try it.”
I picked at the fried dough cushioning the lepus. “Since when are flatbreads served in Erania?”
“Since Lourdes’s marriage, our ties to the Salticidae clan are stronger than ever. We’ve acquired a new clan member by marriage. A cousin of mine married a girl from Beltania just three weeks ago. She grew bored quickly, so Henri gave her a garden plot inside his laboratory and Jérôme bought her a stall to sell her Salticidae delicacies.” He dropped to the bench. “I don’t think you ever said last night. Have you been to Erania before?”
I choked on my wrap. “Why do you ask?”
He patted my back. “You asked since when have we had flatbread here, not how long has it been here.” When the worst of my coughing fit subsided, he admitted, “I forgot our drinks. I worried—”
I laughed, or tried to. “That I would be gone when you arrived?”
He shrugged. “Can you honestly say the thought of slipping away didn’t cross your mind?”
“Honestly, the answer isn’t polite. I would rather plea relationship rule number one: tell no lies.”
His lips twitched. “So you admit it?”
I found myself smiling back at him. “What?”
“We’re in a relationship.”
“No.” I started coughing again. “That isn’t what I meant at all.”
Pushing to his feet, he pointed at me. “Don’t move. I’ll pick up our tea and be right back.”
I kept my head down, prolonging the fit. I waved him on and gave him a two-minute head start. By the time I glanced up, he was gone. Having lost my appetite, I covered the wrap and stuffed it in my bag in case I was hungry later. I had done as promised. If Lourdes asked, I could say with a clear conscience that I had seen Armand. Extracting information from him wasn’t working as well as I had hoped. It was too difficult forming cohesive thought around him. Perhaps I ought to begin with an obvious target, one more familiar with the nest’s underbelly.
Servants might not be privy to council meetings, but in my experience they kept their fingers on the nest’s pulse. If there was juicy gossip to be had, then they would know the tenderest bits of it.
Hurrying to my room, I hoped I hadn’t been gone so long I missed my prime opportunity.
A guilty twinge made me regret leaving Armand without as much as a wave goodbye.
More than anything, that flash of longing to stay with him told me vanishing was the right decision.
I had a job to do. When it was done, Armand would hate me.
Pity since we were getting along so well.
Chapter 3
Lost in thought, I bumped into someone at the start of the hallway leading to my room. I reached out to steady her, noted her simple but immaculate gold livery and thanked the gods for providence.
This girl might be just the font of information I was looking for, if I could coax her into sharing her observations with me.
I kept my hand on her shoulder and cast her a dazzling smile. “You wouldn’t think this far belowground I could have my head stuck in the clouds.” I moved to block her exit. “I couldn’t help but notice your colors. Were you coming from my room by any chance?”
“If you’re Lady Nicolette, and I don’t see who else you could be, then yes.” Her face got redder. “I meant to say, yes, miss.” Any darker and her face would be purple. “It’s just— You’re so— And I—”
“What’s your name?”
Her gaze darted past me, down the hall. “H-Holly,” she stammered.
“How long have
you worn Araneidae colors, Holly?”
“Three weeks,” she said miserably. “My father is one of the Mimetidae guards. There’s only me and him. He didn’t want to leave me in Cathis all alone, so he saved up the coin to have me sent for. He said it wasn’t right for a girl my age to be on her own. Fifteen is plenty old enough if you ask me.”
I held my tongue. In six years Maisy would be her age. I was saving my argument for then.
“I picked up a bite to eat while I was at the market. Would you mind keeping me company? My sister usually takes her meals with me, but she’s out, and there’s plenty to share if you enjoy lepus.” Three weeks wasn’t long, but I needed information and she seemed eager for a sympathetic ear. “It would mean a great deal to me if you stayed.”
“Might as well.” She sighed. “Told Da this wouldn’t last long, it’s too bloody complicated.”
While I led her into my room, I patted her arm. “I understand, believe me.”
I guided her to a chair and poured us each a drink before sitting and halving the wrap with her.
“People here are so nice, at least to your face.” She took a bite. “I don’t like it. It’s strange.”
“Are thing so different in Cathis?” I was genuinely curious. I had never worked up the nerve to go.
“The Araneidae are soft.” She snorted. “They wouldn’t last five minutes where I come from.”
I agreed with her there. “What brought your father here?”
Her eyes darted toward the door. Leaning forward, she whispered, “The old maven and paladin, they died sudden-like. Next thing we know Maven Isolde, our old maven, was gathering all the best guards for a special detail. Da was chosen, of course, and he wrote to me once he was stationed here and realized he wasn’t returning to Cathis any time soon, if ever. See, one of Isolde’s sons, Rhys, he married Maven Lourdes, though I guess she wasn’t the maven then. Her clan was too weak to protect itself, so she asked us for help.” Her shoulders went back. “All the guards in Erania are Mimetidae.”
“Huh.” I sounded thoughtful. “Did they ever discover what killed the maven and paladin?”
“Poison,” she said with a sneer. “It’s the coward’s way.”
Araneae Nation: The Complete Collection Page 86
