Page 39 of By the Horns
“No, I’m going to change and write a letter to my mother.” I want to carefully fold my dress and bodice so they don’t wrinkle, and I’ll need to change if I plan on lounging on my bunk and writing.
He nods and retreats, and I head for the dorm sleeping quarters.
I’m not surprised to see they’re empty. The sun hasn’t even set yet, so there’s plenty of day left. Hemmen’s probably at the library, and Arrod is, well, doing whatever it is Arrod does on weekends. Kipp’s bed is madebut his shell is gone, and I suspect he’s in the kitchen if he’s in the house at all. Privacy is hard to find, and I decide not to waste it.
With quick motions, I flick open the laces at the front of my bodice and give myself room to breathe deep. My breasts bounce as they’re freed from their cage, and I scratch at the skin underneath the thick material. I sling my pack from its spot on the bedpost to the center of my bed. I have two changes of uniform, my traveling dress, and a nightgown, and I’m not sure what’s best to wear at the end of the day. It feels silly to wear a uniform, but my traveling dress is equally uncomfortable, and yet I don’t want to get into my nightgown so early. It feels like it’d be an invitation, and one I’m not inclined to extend if Raptor already has a woman.
I ponder for a moment longer, and then pull open my bag to get a uniform after all. It’s not as if I have a ton of choices. Perhaps when I start making artificer money, I can afford a lounging sort of dress. Until then—
I stare down at the strange item in my bag. What the mucking hell is that? It looks like…a tube of some kind but decorated with what look like Prellian glyphs. As I stare down at it, uncomprehending, the glyphs begin to glow and shimmer golden.
Quickly, I shut my bag again and take a step backward. Then another. I run into the side of Raptor’s bed, and it hits the backs of my knees. I flop onto it, staring at my bag in horror.
How do I have a working artifact? How is that possible?
It’s in my bag, so someone clearly placed it there while I was gone. They wanted me to have it…or they want me to get into trouble. Do they know I’m a mancer and they’re going to blackmail me in some way?
I…don’t know what to do.
Do I hide it and pretend like it’s been mine all along? Any artifact is worth a small fortune, even one that doesn’t work. I’m penniless, but I can’t sell something like this. I don’t have the right contacts, and I don’t want to anyhow. I want to be in the guild. I don’t understand why this artifact is here. Is someone trying to get me kicked out for stealing? Do they know that I was flunked last year because of stealing? Aspeth tried to take the blame for it, but I know my name was tossed around as well.
Or is that what whoever put it in my bag expects me to do? Do theywant me to hold on to it, and the guild enforcers will search the dorm tomorrow and find me guilty? Is this a setup?
Where do I hide it? Who do I turn it in to?
Before I can figure out what to do, the doors to the dorm room open and Raptor steps inside. His gaze drops to my cleavage, spilling out of my loosened bodice. “If that isn’t the prettiest sight I’ve seen all day. I’m flattered, but I’m also taken.”
Seventeen
Raptor
The gods aretorturing me. Somehow, I’ve fallen out of favor with Old Garesh, and now he’s getting back at me by putting a gorgeous, curvy little human wench into my bed. Gwenna’s tits are practically falling out of her loosened bodice, and they’re big and juicy and heaving, her cleavage deep enough to sink my muzzle into, and I’m so mucking tempted.
So mucking tempted.
I’ve never been the type to lust after a woman and not follow up. Thanks to the god’s hand ever-present upon me, I’ve always been highly sexual. But all of that was before Sarya. Sarya, Sarya, Sarya. I’m resenting her absence. Does she notwantto be found by me? Is she avoiding me? Have I been assuming things between us all this time? Was I just another client to her?
I run a hand down my face, frustrated. I can’t afford to be so easily distracted by a pretty fledgling. Forcing myself to look away from her (magnificent) tits, I focus on her face…and realize just how pale it is. “You all right?”
“No, I don’t think I am,” she says in a faint voice.
“What’s wrong?” I gesture at the doors behind me. “Should I get a healer?”
Gwenna wrings her hands. “No healer. Don’t bother anyone. I…Can I trust you, Raptor?”
My senses go on alert. All the lust I’ve been struggling with goes cold. Here it is, then. The information I’ve been sent here to seek out. Mentally I’m already composing a letter to send to Rooster and Hawk right after this. But I keep a smile on my face to reassure her even as every part of my spirit grows hard and tired. “Aye, you can.”
With a trembling finger, she points at the bag on her bed.
I open it and gaze down at the tube inside. It’s Old Prellian, and the glyphs immediately start to glow the moment the item is exposed to light. It’s either a carrying case of some kind, or a telescoping spyglass. Whatever it is, it’s valuable beyond imagination. And it’s in a fledgling’s hands.
Precisely where it doesn’t belong.
I’m immediately disappointed. I don’t know why—I’m here to find the thief, after all. I should be overjoyed that we can give up this farce of me being a fledgling.
But the fact that it’s sweet, sassy little Gwenna doesn’t sit right with me. She doesn’t seem like the monster who’s been responsible for all the atrocities that have been happening. It’s one thing to steal, and it’s another to murder your accomplices. “You stole this?”
“What? No! It’s not mine,” she immediately hisses, a look of outrage on her face. “Someone put it in my bag while we were out!”
