Fortune's Fool (Eterean Empire Book 1) by Angela Boord

Author:Angela Boord [Boord, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Impossible Books
Published: 2019-06-24T22:00:00+00:00

In the morning, Mikelo wakes with red-rimmed eyes, watery bowels, and a bad case of the shakes. He can’t spend more than a few minutes away from the chamber pot, and Arsenault makes him drink water. He throws up the shot I give him for health. By the time we get around to negotiating about the dress, serving girls are clattering about in the hallway outside with breakfast dishes.

Mikelo doesn’t want to go along with my plan. Predictably.

“It’s a ruse, Mikelo, not forever. They’re going to be looking for a Prinze guard and a young gavaro, and instead, we’ll leave through the women’s dining room underneath the bathhouse as two kitchen girls.”

“And what about Andris?”

Andris—Arsenault—shrugs. “The girls won’t think it strange if I say I’ve taken a Qalfan job. I know some Qalfans. The robes will make it easier later on.”

I shoot him a sharp glance, remembering what Razi told me about men wearing Qalfan robes to hide. “Do you often take Qalfan jobs?”

“No. But I’ve experience on the caravans and the girls know that.”

“How do you remember—”

“There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Jon helped me fill in the gaps.” He touches the gray silk folded over the back of a chair, seeming to concentrate on his thumb smoothing out a wrinkle. “At least for that part of my life.”

I’ll wager he did, I think, but I bite my lip to stop the words coming out.

“Why can’t I just robe as a Qalfan down in the baths?” Mikelo asks.

“Because if I go out as a woman, we won’t be able to walk out the same door,” I say. “Unless you want me to pretend I’m your whore.”

Mikelo looks at me in defiance. “Well, why not?”

I lean back on the sideboard, crossing my arms and my ankles. “Are you paying me a compliment?”

His face turns brick red. “No! I mean, I—”

“The other girls will notice a new courtesan. They’d stop us in a heartbeat to find out who I was. And that would lead them to find out who you were.”

“Couldn’t Andris just…bribe somebody to let us out? I mean, if the girls know him…”

I stare at him, unable for a moment to accept that he has suggested what he’s just suggested. Maybe there’s more to Mikelo than I thought.

Arsenault is leaning against the wall with his shoulder, his ankles crossed like mine in that easy gavaro stance. But his eyes, underlined by the violent purple bruise, do not look easy. He straightens up against the wall. “I’d rather not. If it’s all the same to you.”

Who is this man?

What happened to him in those years I was gone?

“No,” I say. I try to keep my voice on a level, but I’m not sure how well I manage. “You’re going to put on a dress, because it’s just a piece of clothing.”

“I don’t look anything like a girl.”

I take his chin in my hand. “Well, you’ve got that pretty Prinze mouth. And those eyelashes and cheekbones.”

Mikelo jerks away from me, glaring.

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