After almost two years in Osfrid’s capital, I was skeptical, but I didn’t let that show as I stood up. The priest had finished and was strolling near our side. “Thank you,” I whispered. “This means everything to me.”

   Cedric tapped his pocket. “So does this.”

   “Don’t come out right after me,” I warned. “Wait a while.”

   “I know, I know. You’re not giving me credit again.”

   I walked out of the cathedral, squinting at the bright afternoon light. The noise of midday Osfro was crushing after the sanctuary’s stillness. Before me, the city whirled with life. Wagons and horses clattered down the cobblestone street, and vendors pitched their wares. Pedestrians packed the spaces in between, some headed toward a specific destination while others begged for food and work. Blocky stone buildings loomed over everything, their gloomy solidity a testament to Osfro’s history.

   Osfro is an old city, I thought. A city set in its ways. There’s no opportunity for me here. Lonzo knew that when he sailed to Adoria. When he left me behind.

   The cathedral doors creaked open, and I stared in surprise as Cedric emerged. “You were supposed to wait,” I chastised.

   “I forgot to tell you when we’re leaving for the manor.” He placed a jaunty brown hat atop his auburn hair and tried to block out the sun with his hand. “In four days. Wait at the border of the Sirminican and Bridge districts—by the market. My father and I’ll pick you up around the first bell.”

   “Are you sure your father won’t mind me?”

   “Not his choice. He let me recruit two girls. I’ve picked them—sort of. I have to finish the other’s paperwork.” Cedric sounded unconcerned. Seeing as he’d adopted a religion that often led to death and imprisonment, a father’s anger was probably minor by comparison.

   “Recruit? Are you leading this girl into a sinful life?”

   Cedric and I both spun around at the crotchety voice. The monk of Vaiel was still there, leaning against the arch and clutching a leather-bound copy of A Testament of Angels. The shadows had obscured him. Panic shot through me, and then I relaxed as I replayed our brief conversation. We’d said nothing about an outlawed heresy. Cedric and I faced no danger in discussing the Glittering Court.

   “No, Brother,” said Cedric politely. The monks weren’t church leaders like the priests of Uros, but they were treated with the same respect, venerated for their complete immersion into study of the faith. “Quite the opposite, actually. She’s joining the Glittering Court.”

   Even though I couldn’t see the monk’s face, instinct told me he was staring at me—and scowling. “The Glittering Court? Is that what you call your sordid operation? I may be removed from the world, but I know its ways. Men ‘recruit’ Sirminican girls all the time, taking advantage of their downtrodden situation and forcing them into despicable deeds. I saw you earlier, girl. I saw the watch interrogating you.”

   “We were only chatting. I haven’t done anything wrong. And the Glittering Court is very respectable.” I tried for calmness and humility. The last thing we needed was for him to draw the city watch’s attention back to me. “I’m going to take etiquette classes and then find a husband in Adoria next year.”

   “And not just any husband,” Cedric boasted. “She’ll meet only the richest, most elite bachelors of the city. Men who’ve made their fortunes in the New World want equally elevated wives—and my family’s business supplies them.” He’d used those exact same words when we met. I wondered if the salesman in him couldn’t help it.

   A beat of silence followed as the monk contemplated this. Then: “Which city?”

   “Cape Triumph. In Denham Colony.” Cedric kept smiling, but the shift in his posture betrayed his nervousness. I didn’t blame him, with that list in his pocket. Church officials wanted to make an example of native Osfridian converts. Hangings had become common.

   When the monk still didn’t respond, I crossed my arms and fixed my gaze on his shadowed face. I hoped I was meeting his eyes. “Good Brother, I appreciate your concern. And you’re right—desperate girls with no other options do turn to desperate means. But I’m not one of those girls.”

   “Not desperate?” he asked, voice unexpectedly wry for a holy man.

   “Not without options. If I don’t see any, then I make my own. And no one forces me into anything.” My words came out with a bit more fire than I’d intended.

   “I can believe that. I’d pity anyone who tried.” I could’ve sworn he was smiling in the depths of that hood. “Good luck to you, miss.” He opened the cathedral door and disappeared inside.

   Cedric exhaled. “That could have gone a lot worse. I think he must’ve liked you.”

   “They don’t like anything except their studies.”

   “He couldn’t take his eyes off you,” he teased.

   “You couldn’t even see his eyes! Now go memorize what I gave you. Don’t forget to burn it.”

   Cedric answered with a nod and began descending the great stone steps. “See you in four days.”

   I stayed where I was and looked down upon the city I’d be leaving behind. I’d come here to escape war, but I felt no loyalty. Learning to be a polished lady in some country manor was a delay in getting to Lonzo, but I was human. I wanted to sleep in a clean bed, instead of on a floor crowded with other refugees. I wanted three meals a day again. I wanted to be around books again.

   “Four days.” I felt my lips creep into a smile. “Four days, and my new life begins.”

CHAPTER 2

   I’D MEANT IT WHEN I TOLD CEDRIC I’D BE ON GOOD behavior. I wanted to be on good behavior. This opportunity meant too much for both me and Lonzo—I couldn’t afford to lose it. And despite all the violence and danger I’d seen in my life, discord wasn’t something I relished. I actually longed for order. For peace.