Chapters (51)
- Title Page
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- PROLOGUE
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- EPILOGUE
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- Also by Adrienne Young
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
Auster seemed to be deciding how much he would tell me. “He’s my uncle. We’re not exactly on good terms,” Auster added. “When I left Bastian, I left the Roths. And no one leaves the Roths.”
“And Ezra?”
When he could see I wasn’t going to give up, Auster sighed. “He wasn’t born into the family. Henrik found him working for a smith when we were just kids. He took him in because he was talented. Henrik got him the best training there was, and by the time we were fourteen or fifteen, he was making the best silver pieces in Bastian. But Henrik couldn’t sell them.”
“Why not?”
“For years, the Roth family was the single largest producer of fake gems from the Unnamed Sea to the Narrows. The trade had made them rich, but it also cost them any chance they had at getting a merchant’s ring from the Gem Guild. It’s illegal for anyone to do business with them.”
That hadn’t stopped Holland from giving Henrik a commission, and I understood why. The sketches Ezra had shown Holland looked like something out of a myth. Only someone truly gifted would be able to cast a piece like that.
“So he’s using Ezra to get a ring.”
Auster nodded. “That’s what he wants, but he’s never going to get it. The Roths’ reputation is known at every port in the Unnamed Sea. No one’s ever going to trust Henrik, much less give him their business.”
“Holland did.”
“But she’ll never tell anyone who made it. Ezra will never get the credit for whatever she commissioned. Neither will Henrik.”
If Auster was right, then Henrik was a man trying to legitimize himself.
I tapped my fingers on the table. “Do you think they’d help us?”
“They don’t help anyone. They help themselves.”
“Unless there’s something in it for them.” I thought aloud. I leaned back into the booth, thinking. I didn’t know exactly what Holland had planned for the Narrows, but West had been right about her. She couldn’t be trusted. And I had a feeling that she was waiting to make her move. “Will you take us to him?” I asked.
Auster looked as if he couldn’t believe what I’d just said. “You don’t want to get tangled up with them, Fable. I’m serious.”
“Will you do it or not?”
Auster met my eyes for a long moment before he shook his head, letting out a heavy breath. “Paj isn’t going to like this.”
TWENTY-FOUR
“Crazy bastards.” Paj had been cursing from the moment we left the harbor, and it had taken all of Auster’s will to ignore him as we walked into Lower Vale.
When I asked Auster to take us to the Roths, I hadn’t expected him to agree.