Page 30 of Embrace the Serpent

If I had to explain why I followed him into the tent, it probably had to do with temporary madness. Or maybe it was theplease.He didn’t assume that he could force me, even though he was much larger and had all the might of the Serpent King behind him.

The tent was dark compared to outside, and as my eyes adjusted, big heavy shapes seemed to sidle sideways and dark little things seemed to leap and scurry into dark little corners. Rane ignited a lamp, and the light washed over a decadent lounge of a room, the floor covered in silken carpets and low divans. A wall of cabinets and trunks sealed the rest of the tent from view.

“What was that?” I asked.

“What was what?” Rane asked innocently.

“The...” tent rearranging itself? That sounded ridiculous. “Never mind.”

He waved a hand and the rug under our feet shimmered and turned blue, reweaving itself into a pattern like the ripples on a lake, strewn with lotus. “You mean that?”

I’d jumped onto a divan, and now, embarrassed, I toed the rug, checking that it would hold my weight before stepping down. Grimney popped his head out of my pocket, and I pushed him back down. No knowing what Rane could do to him.

There were voices coming from the other side of the tent.

I shot a glance at the tent flap we’d come through, but it had sealed up like it had never existed. I wetted my lips and pretendedRane’s display of power—the magic of the divine peoplesright in front of me—was perfectly normal. “That’s a nice trick.”

“Don’t be so alarmed. It’s an illusion.”

“Can all the huntsmen do that?”

“Just me. We all have specialties, but I’m something of a special case. That’s why he relies on me for... important things.” He leaned in. “So. Will you take the job?”

“What is it, exactly?” My head filled with remembered stories of the divine peoples and their hatred for jewelsmiths. “It’s a real jewelsmithing job, right?” And not, perhaps, a plot to ritually sacrifice a smith as some kind of revenge?

He read some of my fear, for he smiled. “Yes. I promise you that. But I can say little more. Not here in the city. I can only tell you once we’re inside the Serpent Kingdom.”

“Why not?”

“In case you change your mind—or in case the djinn gets hold of you.”

Goose pimples rose on my skin. “The djinn?”

“Lady Incarnadine.” His mouth twisted like he was about to do something difficult. “This may be hard to believe—”

“No. I believe you.” My mother’s words rang in my head.

He exhaled like the wind in his sails had been let out. “Well, wonderful.”

“What about payment?”

He spread his arms. “The Serpent King will give you pick of any of the riches of his kingdom if you do this job.”

Fanciful, but I knew enough about running a shop to go afterspecifics. “I want a shop of my own, somewhere far from here.”

“That’s difficult. You know there are no jewelsmiths outside this city?”

I frowned. I vaguely remembered Galen mentioning that. With the danger of Mirandel and Lady Incarnadine... “Can you cast an illusion on me? Change me into someone else?”

“Well, temporarily, sure, but a permanent illusion is rather delicate work—”

“That’s what I want. A new identity. And a shop in the city. And enough money to keep me afloat for the first year.”

Rane’s full lips were pressed into a line. “Anything else? Maybe my firstborn?”

“What?”

“Never mind.” He ran both hands through his hair. “Fine. I can do that. Are we agreed?”

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