Most were simple places where one could change from leathers into something more appropriate, say, for meeting one’s secret suitor for dinner. A few contained hidden entrances into a Family’s home, the place where we lived, where we dined together and slept and were tutored as children. Our literal home. If a Family found another’s Family home, there would be trouble.
Generations ago there had been twelve Families. Two of the three lost Families had been destroyed when another Family discovered their home. The current king, as a disciple of Safraella, had no authority over the Families and their relationships with one another. When he’d become king, he’d sworn an oath to remain unbiased in matters of the nine Families. If a Family wanted to war with another, the king could not intervene unless their feuding endangered people outside of the nine Families, the common.
All the Families were adversaries, of course, but some more than others. And sometimes it seemed the Da Vias and Saldanas were feuding the hardest, though maybe that was because we shared a territory.
I tossed my dirty leathers into a cupboard reserved for my things. My brothers Rafeo and Matteo also had cupboards in this shop, along with our cousin Jesep. We were the only active Saldana clippers, though my mother and father would take a job if needed.
Since the plague, Mother often reminded me of my duty as a Saldana woman, to swell our ranks with as many children as possible.
I slid into a red velvet gown with a low bodice fastened along the ribs instead of the back for the type of self-dressing I often had to accomplish. My dirty-blond hair fit snugly into a silk snood, netting it away from my face, and a pair of flat lambskin ankle boots finished my attire. Nothing too fancy, since it was only dinner with Val. And because the Saldanas couldn’t afford better at this time.
I slipped a dagger into my boot and secured a knife to my thigh. A clipper never went unarmed, even for dinner. I hung my mask and weapons carefully in my cupboard, then patted my chest, feeling the comforting weight of the key to enter our home around my neck. I never took it off.
I lifted my skirts and raced through alleys and backstreets, taking the shortest way to Fabricio’s. Shops lined the streets—a locked flower stand, a bakery, and an alchemist’s stand, his beak-shaped plague mask hung outside to show he was closed for the night. Ravenna was a night city, more than any other city in Lovero, but only the entertainment and refreshment establishments stayed open. The other businesses waited for the sun to rise to save on the cost of oil.
A salty breeze from the sea carried with it the sweet scent of the lantern oil used to light the streets. I inhaled and smiled. Ravenna was the most beautiful of Lovero’s cities, and its life soaked into my skin and muscles. I reveled in running through its streets. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world.
Fabricio’s appeared before me, lanterns flickering. My breath eased in my throat, and I strolled casually to the front door. The restaurant pressed against the crumbling city walls. The walls had once been used to keep the ghosts out, but with Safraella the patron goddess of Lovero, the ghosts couldn’t enter Loveran borders, even though the walls were cracked and collapsed. Ghosts could not cross onto holy ground, and now all of the country was considered holy. Before that, the ghosts would haunt the streets at night, stealing bodies and forcing people to hide in their homes. Now the ghosts just haunted the dead plains.
A small crowd of people waited at the entrance. A pinch-faced woman on the arm of a man dressed in colored silks too gaudy for the season glanced at my dress and sniffed.
Val dropped from Fabricio’s roof to land beside me. The woman shrieked.
He wore black velvet with gold brocade visible through slashes on his sleeves. An elegantly stitched gray leather vest matched his knee-high boots. Diamonds winked in his ears, and a ruby ring flashed on his left pinkie. Val didn’t purposely flaunt the Da Via wealth, but it was hard to ignore.
He scanned the crowd, including me.
I blinked slowly and nodded to him. A silent boast that said, I beat you here.
He nodded back, politely. As expected.
And though his eyes sparkled like his diamonds and a smile twitched at the corner of my mouth, no one would guess we were together. Which was how it needed to be. No one could know about us.
My breath caught in my throat as Val strode past the crowd to the doorman. The secrecy sent a thrill straight through the tips of my fingers.
“Ah, Master Da Via.” The doorman bowed deeply. “How wonderful of you to think of us on this lovely night.”
“My usual table, please,” he said.
The doorman bowed once more. “Come, come, I will seat you immediately.”
Val and the doorman disappeared inside. When the doorman returned, I stepped up next, earning a glower from the pinch-faced woman.
“Mistress Saldana, you grace us with your presence.”
I glanced over my shoulder, and the woman’s glower turned into surprise as she recognized my name. When our eyes met, she dropped her gaze. I smirked. Where was her haughty attitude now?