cold, and his dark curls sprang out from beneath a knit cap.
“What are you doing here?” I immediately wished I could take the question back. It sounded too accusatory, too brusque. “How is your father?” I tried again, softening. I’d forgotten to ask at the ball.
“The same, I fear. I actually came to Astrea for some supplies. Roots and herbs. There’s a healer down the road who says they’ll help.”
“Is it true if you catch scarlet fever, you bleed out of your eyes? That’s why they call it scarlet, right?” Honor asked, leaning across the table in ghoulish glee.
“Honor!” I exclaimed, mortified.
Cassius seemed unfazed. He bent in close to her. “Even worse!” He straightened, catching my frown as they giggled. “I had a bit of lunch here and was on my way out when I saw these lovely ladies struggling to be seated. I thought I might step in and offer my assistance.”
“They couldn’t see us over the counter,” Mercy explained.
“That’s very kind of you.”
“The pleasure has been all mine. I had no idea how delightful a— What is this I’m drinking?”
“Caramel cider!” Verity chimed in.
“How delightful a caramel cider could be. You look in need of one yourself,” he offered, pulling out a coin.
“Oh, can I order it?” Mercy asked, snatching at the money before he agreed. “Please?”
“Me too!” Honor jumped in. “They let you sit in the big stools while you wait.”
“And me!” Verity cried, not to be outdone.
They skipped off in utter delight at being allowed to perform such a very grown-up task.
“How are you?” he asked once the girls were out of earshot. “There’s a weariness here,” he said, gesturing around my eyes.
I brushed aside his concern. “Nothing a good night’s sleep won’t solve. And you? How is your father, really?”
“Not good.” Cassius offered me a half smile. “It will be a blessing when it’s over.” He bit his lip. “That came out wrong.”
I remembered Ava’s last few hours, her gasps for air, her cries for release. “No, I understand what you mean. My sister…”
He nodded in my silence. “Your younger sisters are thoroughly charming. The little one—Verity?—she looks quite a lot like you.”
“They didn’t talk your ear off, did they?”
“Not a bit. I enjoyed the company. The past few weeks have been a rather friendless existence.”
I murmured something about relating, then paused. It wasn’t exactly as though he’d been stuck on Selkirk the entire time. He had gone to Pelage. To the ball. “I hope not all of them have been without pleasure.”
When he smiled, his eyes danced, flickering shades of deep blue. “Of course not.”
“I wasn’t sure if I’d get to see you after…I hoped we’d run into each other again.”
“Did you?” Cassius bit back a pleased smile.
Without the sparkling bit of mask to hide behind, my words felt too bold, too brazen, but I remembered what he’d said at the ball. Regret was the darkest nightmare of all. “I really did.”
His smile turned to a full grin. “I’m glad to hear it.”
My cheeks burned with pleasure, and I looked away from him, feeling too shy to meet his eyes.
On the wall behind him was a large tapestry of Arcannia. Each section was woven with a different-colored thread.
I pointed to it. “Where’s your home?”
He turned to study the map. “A little bit here, a little bit there. I’ve lived just about everywhere.”
“A sailor?” I guessed.
“Something like that.”
“Which was your favorite?”
He shifted his chair closer to mine, offering us both a better view of the tapestry. “I liked them all, I suppose.” He gestured to a bold yellow swatch in the middle of the kingdom. “That’s Lambent. I was there for a bit in my childhood. Have you ever been?” I shook my head. “It’s a long, hot desert, with hills of sand as far as the eye can see. The sun beats down, drying everything out.”
“How do people live like that? So thoroughly cut off from water?”
“There are oasis springs here and there. And there are great beasts called camels, with giant humps and ungainly legs. They walk like this.” He used his fingers to pantomime a four-legged creature walking across the table. “They carry the People of the Light, worshippers of Vaipany, across the sands.” He pointed to a mountain range, sewn in stitches jagged and blood red. “When I was eight, we spent a brief time in the Cardanian Mountains.”
My breath sucked in. “That’s where the Tricksters are, isn’t it?”
Cassius nodded. “And the god of unholy bargains, Viscardi.”
I winced.