Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
The room erupts in laughter again. Even Raptor chuckles. I don’t. I don’t find any of this particularly funny.
“You haven’t earned that name, love,” another man calls out.
“Perhaps she’s having a case of the vapors,” yells another, and more laughter erupts from the room.
Rooster shakes his head again, both hands in the air to calm the onlookers. To most, he seems like a kindly, well-dressed leader, wearing finery that he’s earned through his years of service to the guild. That he has a gut now just speaks to his leadership, that he’s needed more for administration than actual ruin diving. “I understand your disappointment, my girl, but please understand. The guild’s work is of an extremely dangerous nature. Many of our members do not make it ten years before retiring, or worse. Every year we lose good men. Every year, we are forced to retrieve competent men from the tunnels because it’s too difficult.”
Raptor coughs loudly, his hooped earrings jingling. It’s a reminder—not that Rooster will realize it—that he’s not the one rescuing men from the tunnels. That duty always falls to the Taurians. I can’t count how many times I’ve been pulled from teaching duties or woken in the middle of the night to go on a retrieval party simply because some fool who barely passed his tests has decided that he can strike out on his own.
Taurians always clean up after the humans.
“It’s nothing against you,” Rooster continues. “It’s your gender. A woman in the mix will make it unsafe for the entire team. They won’t be able to focus with a woman around.”
She grabs her umbrella in the middle and taps the hooked end of it on Rooster’s coat like a teacher lecturing a child with her ruler. “You may write this down, Cock. My name is Sparrow. And you will hear from me again.” With one last nudge of her umbrella at him, she turns, her chin in the air, and storms out of the room, heading toward the doors again.
Both Raptor and I step aside to let her pass, and the laughter follows her out of the hall.
Raptor shoots me an amused look, as if to say that he approves of her spirit. “I like her.”
I don’t. All that enthusiasm has nowhere to go, just like with Magpie, and I’m tired of seeing people broken by the system, myself included. My hand aches and I flex it again. It’s a reminder that this very same system owns me until I’ve repaid my debt.
“It’s Rooster,” the man left on the floor yells after her with annoyance. He swipes at the wet spot left on his coat. “Rooster.”
FOUR
ASPETH
Icry all the way back to the inn.
I hate crying. It feels helpless and pathetic, and it should be reserved for dire times in one’s life. I cried over the death of my mother. I cried when I overheard my fiancé, Barnabus, speaking to one of his friends about me, complaining that he was being forced to marry an ugly spinster for her estate. I cried again when I found out that the estate is bankrupt and defenseless and the lives of every person at Honori Hold are in danger. That we could be conquered at any time, our people put to the sword.
I’ve done far too much crying lately.
But truly, what a pompous, arrogant little prick that Rooster fool is. If he’d known he was speaking with Aspeth Honori, Holder Honori’s sole heir, he would have kissed my hem and cooed that he would do anything for me in the hopes of getting Holder Honori’s commission…because he wouldn’t know we are penniless. He wouldn’t let me join the guild, of course, but at least he’d properly kiss my arse.
Instead, I had to swallow my pride and endure them all laughing at me because I’m a woman.
I knew it wasn’t common for women to join, but they made it sound like it’s forbidden. I know it’s not. Just because they don’t think a woman can do everything a man can doesn’t make them right. It makes them absolute cretins and I’m even more determined to prove them wrong.
I will find a teacher.
I will pass that guild test. I will find artifacts and replenish my family’s holdings and bring us back to greatness. And I will make sure that Rooster fool knows who I am.
My mouth screws up and I have to fight back a fresh onslaught of tears. I can handle this. I can. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. I knew that joining the guild would be fraught with complications, but I hadn’t anticipated that I’d be turned away the first day. I don’t know what to do. I’m not going to give up, but that doesn’t mean I know how to move forward.
I…need to hug my cat.
An hour later, I’ve returned to my rooms and am wearing a warm dressing gown, seated by the fire as I hold Squeaker tightly in my arms and let her lick my chin. “They were horrible, Gwenna. Just horrible.” I fight back another watery sniff. “I didn’t even get a chance to approach any of the guild members to speak my case. They don’t know—or care!—that I can read Old Prellian. All they care is that I have…I have…”