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diseases caught in the crib, lost sisters for causes they didn t understand,
and lost daughters to the wet and cold and hardship of following the drum. It
was a slow and steady grind. Many think it is taking them uphill when it is
only wearing them down.
Unless a sister makes it to officer grade, yes, the army eats families.
Grandmother Tea recognized that her Mother Elder had made a desperate gamble
to better their lot, and lost she grabbed for a coin tossed in the air and
missed. If she had caught the coin, her sisters and daughters would have
praised her. Instead they cursed her name and spit on her memory.
So Grandmother Tea made a bargain. She needed an opportunity, that golden
moment, where playing loose and wild and reckless, like her Mother Elder had,
gave her the slimmest chance to win. She pledged that if her mother gave her
the opportunity, just set the coin flying into the air, even if she didn t
catch it, they d honor her memory.
Raven shook her head. And she got a shining coin? Jerin nodded. The day she
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was caught while thieving by Wellsbury. She convinced the general that trained
thieves would make excellent spies. That led to being knighted and given the
farm, and kidnapping Grandpa. Our family hasn t been poor and starving since
then.
Eldest was still awake when he came into their cabin. He should have known
that she wouldn t sleep until he was safe in the room. She sat cross-legged on
her bed, cleaning her revolvers.
Be sure to secure the door, she said without looking up. The shutter on the
cabin window was already latched and a piece of lumber wedged in the frame to
reinforce the shutter.
Jerin locked the door and then propped the cabin s chair under the door
handle. He wondered how much of his conversation with Captain Tern Eldest had
heard. He felt vaguely guilty about talking to someone outside the family
about his fears but none of his sisters could have answered his questions
about nobility. What Captain Tern told him, however, hadn t settled his fears.
He changed into his sleeping shirt, and then sat on his bed, chin on his
knees.
Eldest eyed him, reloading her revolvers without looking. What s wrong,
Jerin?
I m worried, he whispered. What if we don t get more than two thousand for
me? What are we going to do?
Don t worry. She spun the cylinder on each gun, double-checking she had a
full load. If things come to worse, we could sell futures on Doric s brother
price.
Futures? Jerin asked.
Like grain futures. Eldest slid her pistols into their holster, hanging from
her headboard. A lot of farmers sell their crops in the summer at a set price
before the harvest. It helps them tide money over, but it s risky. Basically,
it s a loan, and you put your farm up as collateral on the loan. People that
don t look at it as a loan usually lose the family farm.
Jerin picked nervously at his sheets. What if the market price of your crops
goes higher than the set price?
That s what the women that bought your crop are hoping for, Eldest said.
You don t see the profit;
they do. That s why the Whistlers don t sell futures. We don t work to make
other people rich.
Why don t you use my brother s price? Jerin asked.
Eldest smiled, and hugged him suddenly. Because I want a husband, silly, not
the money.
Three days later they arrived at Mayfair. The city seemed to go on forever,
stunning even his sisters into silence. Eldest took firm hold of his arm with
her left hand, keeping her right free to draw a gun, and didn t let go.
Stay here. Raven went down the canted stage to the crowded landing. The
ship s calliope started up, drowning out all normal levels of conversation
with bright loud music. Jerin watched the captain s broad back as she pushed
through the milling crowds. Partway to the cobbled street, an odd thing
happened. A
woman in a wide-brimmed hat coming down the street glanced at Raven as they
passed each other. The stranger started as if recognizing the captain, then
ducked her face away. Raven, intent on the wagon, seemed not to notice.
Did you see that? Jerin shouted at Eldest, standing beside him, as he kept
watch on the mystery woman. The woman had turned to watch Raven s retreating
back, and Jerin had a momentary stab of fear for the captain.
What?
The woman. Did you see her? Jerin pointed at the only figure that seemed to
be standing still in the crowd.
I can t hear what you re saying, Jerin! Who do you see?
He took his eyes away only for a moment, to turn and shout into Eldesfs ear.
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That woman is acting oddly.
Which one?
He glanced back, and found her gone. She s gone now.
Eldest scanned the crowd. Was she armed?
He shook his head, and shouted back, I don t know!
Here comes Raven! Eldest pointed out the captain.
Raven waded back through the crowd, signaling that they were to join her.
Eldest took his arm above the elbow to escort him down the stage. Raven met
them at the foot.
I ve got a hackney hired, Raven shouted to Eldest. Take Jerin over and I ll
bring the luggage.
Eldest nodded, not bothering to shout back. Eldest turned, apparently spotted
Corelle and Summer, and flashed hand signals for them to get the gear and
follow.
We ll get your stuff loaded and go straight up to the palace, Raven told
Jerin, pointing.
Jerin gasped. The city ran back to sandstone cliffs, which leaped skyward in
walls of rich tan. Crowning the bluffs, with windows glistening like diamonds,
sat an immense building. It was an architectural sprawl of turrets and wings,
gables and dormers, slate roofs and copper cladding, gray stone veiled with
ivy, and windows hundreds and thousands of mullioned windows. Too huge, too
impressive, too noble to be anything but the royal palace.
I ve never seen anything so big, Jerin breathed.
His words fell in a moment of silence as the calliope paused between songs.
It s where you ll be living for for the next few weeks. Raven said, then
patted him on the shoulder.
Go on to the hackney. You can gawk through the window.
He and Eldest pushed their way through the crowd to the closed carriage. While
he climbed into the hackney. Eldest waited outside for Summer and Corelle to
catch up. He scooted across the battered horsehair-stuffed seat to stare up at
the palace. Ren and Odelia s home. He remembered Ren, standing in the
Whistlers kitchen, watching him cook. How poor and lowborn he must have
seemed to her.
He was aware of someone staring at him, and he looked down.
The young woman with the wide-brimmed hat stood before him, shielded from
Eldest and the others by the hackney. She looked at him with neither envy nor
the open speculation that he had grown used to during the trip, that T wish I
had him or Can I get him without being caught? She seemed, instead, stunned
by some surprising news.
Jerin gazed at her, wondering why she sought him out, what was so surprising
about himself. He could find nothing familiar about her face, no hint that he
might have known her long ago. True, the silvery line of a scar ran from the
corner of her left eye down the line of her chin to the edge of her mouth. The
skin lay smooth; the healing had been perfect despite the fact she had nearly
lost her left eye with the wound.
The scar, thus, did not disfigure her beyond recognition.
In fact, he would not say it disfigured her at all. At one time, her face had
been a harvested field under a winter sky: barren of good features, containing
no bad. Plain. Neither beautiful nor ugly. It had existed.
The scar gave her plainness character, like a thick choker, or a large bold
earring. It spoke to Jerin of strength and determination.
The woman had tensed when their gazes met. a look like fear going through her
eyes. He had thought
Raven might be the cause for her alarm, but then the woman didn t glance to
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