Page 64 of Of Potions and Honey
“Not quite yet.” Mira went to stand beside her. “We still have to show people.”
“Right. That. And how do we do that?” Yoni tapped the glass. “March into their store and do it right there?”
“They’re not selling the water here,” Mira said. “Not yet, anyway. I thought about that though.”
“Do you have any ideas?”
“One.” Mira hesitated for a moment. “I’ve been… listening around, if you will.”
“Odd way to phrase ‘snooping’, but go on.”
Mira snorted. “I didn’t snoop, Harper did that for me, I just asked her about it.” She tugged on a loose thread on her sleeve. “The fair.”
“What about it?”
“Golden River have a stall.” Mira huffed. “Pride of place on the square, too. Harper says they’re not even selling, they’re planning some kind of reveal.”
Yoni’s eyes glinted. “You think that’s what they’re going to show people?”
“Rue said they’ve been selling the water in select stores as a test run. They do that to prepare for a full launch. When I still worked there, we had the pleasure of testing the market for those stupid bowls that never work.” Mira waved her hand. “The point is, that’s the only thing she knows they’re testing right now. So that has to be it.”
Yoni nodded slowly. “And the fair always has a lot of visitors. A lot of eyes and ears. If we can expose them there, they can’t pretend nothing happened.”
“That’s what I was thinking. Make it so obvious nobody can ignore it.”
“The fair is a little under two weeks away. Do you think that means they’ll be using a saturated batch for this reveal?”
“Hopefully.” Mira grimaced. “If not, then I’ll just have to ask Rue to keep sending me water to test until I get the right batch.”
“Let’s hope we won’t need that,” Yoni said dryly. She looked at the glass again. “So. That’s our plan, then. Now we wait.”
Mira chuckled. She’d done nothing but wait for the past month, but what else was there to do?
“Now we wait.”
Twenty-Seven
“Ow!”Mirawithdrewherhand from the box with the thumb tacks and stuck her finger in her mouth. “Stupid, useless…”
“Hey, don’t blame the pointy things, they’re just doing their job.”
Mira glared at Rue. “So am I.”
“Right. So stop sulking, we’re almost done.”
So they were. A stall in the square, right outsideMore by Moore, courtesy of Cassia and Eren. When Mira had asked, they’d been dubious at first, but when she’d drawn water from their well and shown them the results, they’d eventually agreed to swapping places with her. She’d come late signing up for the fair, so her spot was one of the smaller ones down a street. It was less than ideal, but with what they were trying to do, Mira wanted to take no chances. From this spot, she could see the Golden River stall, and she wanted to keep an eye on them as much as possible. Their setup was rather modest, which had been a surprise. Mostly information about their operations in the area, and a lot of bragging about all the good things theywere doing for the region, which was largely hot air packaged in the exact kind of say-nothing language someone at Golden River was paid a lot to produce on a daily basis. Although there was the back of their stall, hidden behind movable wooden walls and a large bit of yellow fabric, perfectly matched to the logo. Mira had a good idea what was under there, but she hadn’t been able to get close and take a look. She’d know soon enough though; the sign announced an ‘exciting reveal’ for the early afternoon, the busiest time of the fair according to Harper. Which was both good and terrifying. No matter what, there’d be no sweeping under the rug what would happen.
“Where do you want the sign?”
Mira turned to find Gemma holding up the painted slab of wood. It looked nice and rustic, just the style Mira loved for the shop. That was the case for most of the décor she’d put together, all flowers and bottles full of little twigs and leaves, strung up between two poles to frame the stall. Today, she found it hard to be enthusiastic about any of it. She’d woken up with bubbles in her stomach, and even now was feeling a little ill. So much was riding on this working, on catching Golden River in a way that would be impossible to ignore.
What if they failed miserably?
“Right side,” Mira finally said. “The basket goes on the left, so people don’t trip over it.”
While Gemma and Rue finished decorating, Mira set up her display. Which was something of a challenge, seeing as it was mostly bottles with different-coloured liquids inside. It took all her experience decorating displays at the emporium, but she made it work. The irony of it made her smile grimly. At least she’d finally be able to use that skill for something better.
“Right.” Hands on her hips, Rue took a step back. “Oh, this looks good. You’ll sell out in no time!”
