An Illusion of Thieves [Chimera] by Cate Glass

Author:Cate Glass [Glass, Cate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781250311009
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2019-05-20T18:30:00+00:00

* * *

I remained at the center of the bridge until the dark figures at either end had vanished. Even then my feet would not move, as if I could avoid choosing a course of action as long as I remained there. Beneath me, the dark water flowed inevitably seaward. Fortune, events, and necessity were drawing me forward with the same inexorable power.

I should have shoved the little vixen off the bridge when I had the chance.

My fingers knotted about the bridge parapet as if it were her scrawny neck. The very thought of acquiescing to her scheme gnawed at my soul.

Yet the Shadow Lord himself had taught me of balancing justice and judgment, crime and responsibility. You could not avoid the difficult things, the awful things. You had to think harder, search deeper, find the twisting path around them to make the world better than when you started.

A single clang of sonorous bronze marked the first hour of the new day. As the shivering tone faded, leaving only the surge of the river below to weave the silence, my rage hardened to a certain determination. Neither Boscetti nor Fermi nor even wicked, foolish Gilliette must be allowed to reap triumph from their devious doings.

Rodrigo di Fermi could not be allowed to undercut Sandro’s relationship with the lord of Riccia. Boscetti could not be allowed to grow rich from the road to Cantagna’s misery. Gilliette could not be allowed to think she could dally with il Padroné’s honor—and all the lives dependent on it—without consequence. And like the cream atop a pile of succulent strawberries to finish this conspiratorial banquet, the grand duc of Riccia must receive the Antigonean bronze for his birthday, courtesy of il Padroné.

Events move ever forward, yet a single rock could change a river’s course. If I could accomplish such an unimaginably lunatic thing as returning a stolen item to such a well-guarded fortress as Palazzo Fermi, then perhaps I could find a rock to toss into the stream that would change how Fermi’s scheme played out. I had nine years’ schooling in intrigue from the Shadow Lord himself. I had a little magic. And I had a brother who could walk through walls. Surely I could come up with a plan.

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