Two’s head cocked toward me. So she hadn’t been spying on us like I’d been on her.
Amethyst nodded. We were sharing half our hands then. If only I could see their faces.
“I’ve always wanted to see the Carnival of Cheats again.” Ruby leaned toward Two, voice low and measured. “But three members down must have left them scrambling for new acts. Well, at least they knew you were leaving soon.”
Two stiffened. “We had apprentices ready to step into our roles. We won’t be missed.”
“You must be looking forward to court, Twenty-Three.” Emerald raised her glass to me. “You’ve robbed half of them and all their merchants and business partners.”
“Only have to learn their names now.” I didn’t drink the wine. No accounting for what they’d do since I missed the second-round test.
The door opened and Five’s heels clicked behind me. Whenever he stopped to bow, he snapped his boots together. Light from the pins on his chest flickered around the wall opposite of me. He’d commanded people before, and now he was auditioning to kill them.
“And Five makes three.” Ruby waved to the chair across from him and next to me. “We were discussing fashion and murder. Join in.”
Five sat stiff and rigid. He crossed his right ankle over his left knee, wearing thick woolen pants made for far colder lands, and took up all my space. I stretched my legs out till our knees touched. He jerked away.
Typical.
“It’s rare that officers respond to our invitations.” Amethyst nodded to Five, dress slipping off her shoulder to reveal a deep scar gouged over her heart. She had to have been a soldier. They’d scars like that to spare. “Their training is typically antithetical to ours.”
I’d never wondered what officers were taught. If he was really Fernando de Lukan and Dimas knew it, Nicolas del Contes definitely knew. Why’d they invite him?
“I thought my talents were better suited elsewhere.” Five’s voice was rough tonight. Dark circles ringed his eyes, and his gaze focused solely on Ruby. “And your invitation suggested the same.”
“I doubt the invitation suggested much,” said Ruby. “We were mostly impressed with your ability to stay alive. It’s rare anyone survives an attack from Lord del Weylin. Not even our dear departed Opal did. The rest of your history was less than satisfactory.”
Five stiffened.
Weylin—he was surely one of my secret names. He would never have stationed soldiers in Nacea—too far, too foreign, and too odd—but he’d have supported a withdrawal of troops to save Erlend lives. He hated anything farther south than his borders.
His lands were a maze of icy mountain passes and avalanche traps. He was the last major holdout against Igna and Our Queen, and attacking him was impossible. Our Queen could only keep the border well guarded with soldiers and wait for news. No idea how he kept his army and lands supplied, but he did it.
Drafted everyone he could probably, whether they wanted to fight or not, and kept the rest indentured.
I’d have to ask Maud and Elise for any palace rumors.
“I do wonder,” Ruby said as he leaned across the table, elbows on the top and chin on his hands, “did you meet Lord del Weylin?”
Five shook his head.
Ruby dropped a metal pin on the table. Five’s hand flew to his chest pocket, fumbling down the front.
“Pity,” Ruby said. “You should’ve told him your real name, Lord Fernando de Lex. He probably would have seen you then.”
I gripped the table edge. Emerald tapped her glass, empty face fixed on me. Five wasn’t just a noble and an officer—he was the youngest son of one of Erlend’s oldest families. A family nipped at the bud during the war. His oldest brother had been the head mage of Erlend and the first Rodolfo da Abreu had killed. Rodolfo had taken the mages’ hands, stripping the runed skin from its bones to make sure no one would ever hold the secrets to shadow creation again. A necessary violence.
A bloody, painful violence that Fernando de Lex no doubt remembered.
I glanced at Five, a writhing mix of rage and recognition shaking down my arms. He’d have been six when his brother was slaughtered—old enough to remember and about the same age I’d been when his brother’s shadows had flayed Nacea. His parents had died in the war, and he’d vanished. We were both the last of our names.
But my fallen family hadn’t ever murdered children.
Fernando de Lukan. The officer who’d killed his valet, survived an attack from Weylin, and ended up invited here under that false identity.
Had he rebuilt himself or returned for darker purposes?
“Do you have a problem with me?” Five shifted in his chair, shoulders back and chin up. “With my old name?”
“That’s your question?” Ruby huffed. “Not how I know your real name?”
“At least one of you met my brother,” Five said. “We looked very much alike.”
The Left Hand exchanged a series of shoulder-shrugged looks. Emerald plucked his name tag from the table. It was almost sad. His brother was taken by forbidden magic and revenge, and all he had left were pieces. If the rumors were true though, he’d been killing long before he got here, and his brother had created the shadows.
Even if Five were executing some half-thought-out scheme of vengeance, he wasn’t avenging someone worth it.
And it wasn’t like he could take revenge on a dead man.
“I was mostly interested in how you were the only survivor. Your escape from Weylin’s lands is unprecedented.” Emerald gestured toward the door. “But let’s eat.”
The color-collared servants slid into the room, arms weighed down with trays—tureens full of steaming black bean stew with balls of cornmeal speckled with green chilies bobbing between mutton slices; peppery shrimp and hominy soup with stewed tomatoes; and little bowls of pickled green tomatoes, braised mustard greens, and corn fritters no bigger than my little finger. I folded my hands in my lap.
Lady, if they’d poisoned this feast, I’d punch them for wasting food.
“Tuck in.” Emerald brandished her spoon toward the place settings. The meal placed in front of her was identical to Amethyst’s and Ruby’s plates, but their sleight of hand wouldn’t work here. How lonely it was living behind their masks.
I’d rarely been without one since running with Grell, and now I’d found the one profession where I’d be trapped behind a mask forever.
“It’s safe,” Amethyst said. “Dinner isn’t the test.”
I grabbed a bit of everything but the chili-braised chicken feet.
At least the bones in Five’s room were sentimental, but I couldn’t shake them from my head.
“As of right now, your only goal is to find the name on this paper, kill no one but this person without implicating the Left Hand, and bring Our Queen proof of your kill.” Ruby fanned out three slips of paper like gambling cards and offered them to us. “No harming their guards, no killing civilians, and no letting anyone know you killed your target.”