On This Unworthy Scaffold, Heidi Heilig [best books to read for success .txt] 📗

been disguised as a boy, to conform to the Aquitan’s limiting sense of decorum. Now the Aquitans are on the run, and diamonds glint in her ears.

I wonder how long it will be before the city gleams like it used to.

CHEEKY glares at her.

CHEEKY: Well, it’s my first time, so let me enjoy it.

TIA (teasing): I bet you say that to all the cities.

LEO grins back at them.

LEO: This is a rebel foray, not your vaudeville act!

AKRA: As long as it’s not a tragedy. Where are we landing?

CAMREON: Le Livre—the inn near the dock. The proprietor is friendly to the rebellion.

TIA: And his daughter is friendly to out-of-work singers.

CHEEKY turns, wide-eyed, to stare at TIA.

CHEEKY: I knew there was a reason you insisted on coming back!

TIA: I’m a lover, not a fighter.

AKRA leans forward to point at the fort on the horizon.

AKRA: If the armée has even one lookout, you won’t get a choice in the matter. The moonlight is behind us.

CAMREON: That’s why we’re coming by water. Lift your packs.

As the dragon approaches the harbor, CAM coaxes her down until her claws ruffle the waves. LEO raises his violin high, and CHEEKY grits her teeth in a silent shriek as the creature sinks into the water of the bay.

Half submerged, the dragon slips past the docks, the rebels clinging to her spine. They pass close to the fort, but if there are lookouts, they are watching for a ship, not a sea serpent. The crocodiles that make their home in the brackish bay scatter before the larger reptile. But when the dragon reaches the moon bridge at the top of the harbor, she stops, lifting her head from the water: a net of heavy chain sits just below the water line.

Curious, the beast presses her bony nose into the water gate, but CAMREON stops her as the chain rattles, loud in the night.

CAMREON: Shhh.

TIA (whispering): Would Jetta’s blood open the lock?

LEO: Don’t waste it. The inn is close. We can walk from here.

Nudging the dragon toward the reedy bank, CAMREON climbs lightly up her neck to the muddy shore. AKRA and LEO follow, reaching back to help the girls. They wring water from the edges of their sarongs as the dragon nestles happily into the silt.

CHEEKY: I’m soaking wet.

TIA: What’s new?

CAMREON: Shh!

The streets are eerily quiet, even for the late hour. No drunks stumble through the alleys, no secret trysts happen in the shadows. No one collects trash or treasure from the gutters—there aren’t even any soldiers on patrol as the rebels make their way to the inn.

Le Livre is a low-slung plantation-style building, surrounded by a lush garden thick with palms and dripping with orchids. In better days, the shutters would be open, and a lamp was always lit at the door. But now the light has gone out, and the garden is overgrown. CAM ducks under the overhanging vines, pushing back the rain hood of his coat as he makes his way to the back door.

TIA: It’s strange to see the lamp dark.

CAMREON: They’re likely short on space with all the refugees in town, but Siris has always made room for rebels at Le Livre.

CHEEKY: We know Tia will be fine with sharing a bed.

TIA: Shh!

TIA hangs back from the door, suddenly nervous.

She’ll hear you.

CHEEKY’s eyes go even wider.

CHEEKY: She doesn’t know?

CAMREON: Quiet, or you’re both sleeping on the riverbank.

Raising his hand, CAM knocks at the door. Once, twice. He waits, frowning, then knocks again. No answer. He glances back at LEO, who shrugs one shoulder.

LEO: It’s not like Siris to not have someone awake in the kitchen.

CAMREON hesitates, then raises his hand once more. Before he can knock yet again, the door opens at last. But it is not SIRIS standing inside.

Instead, a woman frowns at him—a little older than the rebels, but quite a bit richer, judging from the fine fabric of the robe she’s wearing. Her long brown hair and wide eyes give away her mixed parentage. This is ELLISIA, though CAM doesn’t know it yet.

ELLISIA: If you’re looking for rooms, there are none.

CHEEKY shoots TIA a mischievous glance.

CHEEKY: She’s rude. I like her already.

ELLISIA overhears—as CHEEKY has meant her to. She narrows her eyes.

ELLISIA: If you’re looking for work, come back tomorrow.

TIA hisses to CHEEKY.

TIA: That isn’t her!

ELLISIA tries to shut the door, but CAM puts his foot between it and the jamb.

CAMREON: We’re looking for Siris, actually.

ELLISIA: He isn’t here. And you’re getting water on his floor.

She looks pointedly at CAMREON’s foot, then leans on the door, trying to close it. But LEO steps into the light spilling through the crack.

LEO: Ellisia?

She frowns, looking up in surprise.

ELLISIA: Leo? What are you doing here?

Looking back toward the street, she pulls the door open.

Come in. Quickly.

Chapter Six

I wake with applause roaring in my ears, only to find my cheek pressed against the cold metal of the avion. It takes me a moment to recognize the smell in the wind on my face: the briny scent of the sea. It was not the roar of applause I’d heard, but the rolling waves of the ocean.

I take a deep breath through my nose, then put a hand over my aching ribs. The painkiller I’d taken before getting into the avion is wearing off. We had left the plantation just after sunset, heavy with provisions raided from the Audrinnes’ larder. I had wanted to help Theodora pack, but she insisted that I first change out of my sarong, stiff with blood. Wrestling into a dress from Madame’s closet had left me sweating, and so I had ignored Theodora’s I-told-you-so look and let her load the avion herself.

She had used the opportunity to take control of the flying machine; as Camreon had said, there was plenty of blood lying around. Now Theodora guides the bird easily over the landscape. I glance past the wings, trying to get a sense of where we are . . . there, to the right. The open water of