The Blackthorn Key

But that was a promise he couldn’t keep. And now everything else was falling apart, too.

My shoulder burned with the sting of a dozen hornets. Tom was probably getting it even worse from his father. I’d never be allowed to see him again. And now I didn’t have anywhere to stay. I thought about throwing myself on the mercy of the Guild, but I might not even have that option. If Grand Master Thorpe didn’t believe my story, I’d be all alone—no home, no food, and no friends, left to fend for myself against the Cult of the Archangel.

I wouldn’t have thought anything could be scarier. But if Lord Ashcombe really was looking for me, my crumbling life had got even worse.

I felt sick.

? ? ?

The man with the slate-gray eyes let me into Apothecaries’ Hall again. He looked annoyed that I’d returned. “Come on, then,” he said, waving me past him impatiently.

I stepped inside cautiously, irritating him further. “Is Stubb—uh, Master Stubb here?” I said.

The man barred the door behind me and walked away. “Hasn’t been here all day.” I was relieved, although the fact that the man knew whom I was talking about meant Stubb was a regular. He could still show up any minute. I prayed this meeting wouldn’t take too long to start.

I crossed the courtyard, planning to return to the clerk’s office on the main floor where Oswyn had told me to wait this morning. An apprentice with long dark hair lounged on the main steps to the upper levels, tossing a small dagger into the air and catching it clumsily. I watched, half cringing, sure that any minute, fingers would go flying.

The dagger thrower looked to be about sixteen. He noticed me watching him while the knife was in midair. The dagger missed his fingers and bounced off his blue apron, right in a spot you don’t want daggers to go. Flustered, he stood.

“Who are you?” he said.

“I’m here to speak to Grand Master Thorpe,” I said. “Master Colthurst told me to return at four o’clock for a meeting.”

The apprentice looked back at the windows. “Oh. All right. You can wait in Master Colthurst’s office, then.”

“I don’t know where that is.”

He slid his dagger into his belt. “I’ll show you.”

The stone steps in the courtyard led to burnished cherry floors inside. I hadn’t been up here since three years ago, when I’d gone to the Great Hall to take my entrance test. The same finely woven tapestries hung from the walls, just as they had back then. On one side was the blue shield of the Apothecaries’ Guild. On the other, a man gathered herbs while a unicorn looked on. The light of heaven shone down on him through parted clouds.

The apprentice led me past the landing that went to the Great Hall and up to the third floor. As we climbed the stairs, I had a vague impression that I’d seen the boy before. I wondered if he’d been here when I’d taken my entrance exam. He was probably too old to have tested with me, but he could have been assigned to the Hall at the time.

“Are you Master Colthurst’s apprentice?” I asked him.

“Me? No.” He flicked his hair from his face and walked me down a long hallway with chestnut paneling. At the end, we reached a simple door with the key still in the keyhole. The apprentice knocked on the door and listened for a moment. When no reply came, he opened it.