As for me…

I’ll just have to take on odd jobs until the annual guild fees are paid. I can run as a substitute in a group that needs five but is missing a member, or do rescue runs. We sure as shit can’t send Magpie into the tunnels. We’ve been in worse situations as business partners, Mags and I. And I hate to say it, because Mags is the one who gave me a chance all those years ago, but maybe it’s time for me to move on, too.

I immediately squash that thought. If I leave, Magpie has no one but Lark, and they certainly wouldn’t be a good influence on each other. I have to stay.

And then I think of the Conquest Moon and my frustration mounts. Why is it that bad luck has to come in a chain? Why can’t it be strung out between phases of pleasant monotony? As it is, all this bad luck is a cascade threatening to bury us.

“You can take both of us,” the tall woman says, her expression as stony as mine. “I’ve done a great deal of reading on fledgling classes. Teachers have taken on additional students in the past, but only five can be sent for testing. You can teach us all, and the best five will be tested at the end of the year, correct?”

“Are you spouting guild law at me?” I glare at her as mightily as I can, tired and annoyed. If it were any other person and any other situation, I might be amused at the woman’s bravado. As it is, I’m frustrated with Magpie and her reckless niece, and irritated that I’m being lectured by a stranger. “You want another guild law? How about the one where women can’t join the guild—”

“Oh, don’t start that again,” the woman snaps, interrupting.

“—without a chaperone’s permission?” I finish.

The woman’s jaw drops, and pink blooms on her cheeks.

I think I’ve finally silenced her. Maybe now I can go back to sleep.

“Are we done here?” I ask, my arms crossed over my chest. I eye the two newcomers and then turn to glare at Lark. “I don’t know what sort of drunken idea you’ve all gotten in your heads, but this isn’t happening. You can just—”

“How does one get a chaperone?” the woman in brown says suddenly.

“What?” I scowl in her direction.

She gestures at me with her hand, indicating that I should continue. “You said we need a chaperone to give us permission. Are there specifics on the chaperone? Does the chaperone need to produce a letter of some kind?”

They’re truly going to debate this? My glare deepens.

Lark speaks up. “Magpie’s my chaperone!”

The round-faced shorter woman points at the bossy tall one in brown. “She’s my chaperone.”

“Very well, then,” the tall one says, smoothing a hand down the front of her soaked bodice. She lifts her chin as if she’s the queen herself and gives me a steady look. “I’m the only one who needs a chaperone, then. May we speak privately, you and I?”

I should say no. I should absolutely say no. Something in her manner tells me that she thinks she has the upper hand, and though I’m curious, I also sense a very bad idea in the works. I hesitate, and then think of the spectacle she made of herself earlier in the guild hall. “No.”

She ignores me as if I haven’t spoken. Instead, her gaze goes to the open door of my quarters. “Is this your sitting room?” she asks, striding toward it. “We can talk in private there.”

And before I realize what she’s doing, she’s heading straight into my bedroom. Me, a minotaur.

A minotaur on the brink of the Conquest Moon. Is she…insane?

SIX ASPETH

My defiant saunter into the sitting room is going perfectly well until I run into the corner of a bed.

I’m not in a sitting room at all, but in the Taurian’s bedroom. Oh. Well, this is embarrassing. This is also what I get for not wearing my spectacles, but I didn’t want him to turn us away on the off chance that he thinks my vision is going to be a liability. Plus, he’d see me as a rich lady, and I can’t have that.

I’m far more talented than just a pair of blurry eyes would attest anyhow. I just need to have time for the guild to realize that.

So I act as if nothing is wrong. I pat the edge of the bed frame and confidently turn in the shadowy room. As if I always planned on confronting a half-naked Taurian right next to his bed…in private. Naturally. I clear my throat as he stalks toward me, a reddish-brown blur with a glint of gold at the nose. I wish I had my spectacles on, because I’m dying to see just what he looks like. If his chest is as hard and muscled as it seems, and if his nose truly looks like a bull’s nose or if it’s exaggerated by stories. His face is long and he’s got horns, but the shadows and my poor vision hide the rest from me.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asks in a low, deadly voice, moving to stand right in front of me, a handspan away.

And then I can see everything with clarity, because our noses are practically touching. I can see the golden, strangely human eyes. The long, blunted nose that ends in a golden ring. The horns that sweep up from a proud forehead. The sheer height of him as he towers over me. He is completely and utterly alien-looking, and I want to just stare and stare like the sheltered holder’s daughter I am.

I swallow hard. “I wished to speak to you in private.”

He quirks an eyebrow, and it is astonishing to me to realize that he in fact does have eyebrows. They’re slightly darker than the rest of his face…fur, but the expression is the same. He thinks I’m ridiculous.

It puts me on familiar territory. I square my shoulders and give him a challenging look. “I want us to come to some sort of agreement, you and I. You help Magpie teach her fledglings, yes? I wish to become one of those fledglings. I’m certain we can agree on terms. Just name them. Tell me your price.”

He eyes me up and down, his lower lip curling slightly. It somehow looks even more insulting on a Taurian, that expression. “You don’t have any coin.”

“You don’t know that.”

“If you did, you wouldn’t have walked here in the rain. You’d have taken a coach.” He reaches out and flicks one of my dripping, deflated puffed sleeves.

Oh. Well, he’s correct, but I don’t intend on letting that stop me. “I can find the funds—”

An angry howl erupts from the hallway. The Taurian immediately turns, pushing me behind him. “What in the gods’ name is that?”

I grimace. “That’s my cat. I’m afraid it’s past her feeding time and she’s quite angry about it.” Count on Squeaker to have terrible timing. “I have food for her, though. It shouldn’t be a problem and she won’t wake the other residents.”

He turns to give me an incredulous look. “You brought a cat…?”

“Well, yes. The pamphlets I read stated that students of the guild stay in their mentor’s nest—that’s their lodgings—for the duration of training. This is Magpie’s nest, is it not? It looks like guild housing—”

“I know what a nest is,” he interrupts, waving a hand at me. “You’re not going to be a student here.”

“Why not? Magpie is the greatest of her generation and a woman. Of course I want to learn from her.”

The Taurian stares at me. Hard. “Look. You seem determined, and while you’re getting on my last nerve, I am going to offer you a word of advice. You don’t want this nest. We’re a mess. Magpie’s not the right teacher, and that means everything falls to me. Taurians aren’t respected by the rest of the guild, and so if you’re looking to prove yourself, I’m not the right teacher for you. In addition, the class is going to fall to pieces in the next month. You’re better off looking elsewhere.”