Chapter 16: Blessed Keys

The officers’ hall smelled like roasted meat, cheap wine, and men who hadn’t bathed in a very long time.

Kai worked his way down the table pouring wine, which was hard with brand-new long legs tangled up in robes. Every officer at the table watched him as he passed, and while some of them looked at his face, most of them definitely did not.

[They all have increased heart rates. The captain included]

"Don’t count them," Kai whispered.

[I am incapable of not counting them]

Kai reached the captain’s end of the table and filled his cup. Up close, he was a big man with a scar running from his ear down to his chin, and he smelled like leather and onions.

"Captain Brekk," the captain said, smiling up at Kai. "Hallard Brekk, commander of the Ironwatch garrison. You must be new, Sister."

"Yes," Kai said.

"New to the area?" Brekk asked.

"I was only just ordained," Kai said, in the highest voice he could manage.

"Well, we don’t get many sisters visiting the fort," Brekk said. "Father Oswin doesn’t let many visitors into his chapel."

"I understand," Kai said, while silently wishing he could crawl down into the mines and die.

Brekk laughed and slapped the table.

"Pour for the other men and then come back to me," Brekk said. "You can tell me all about the city."

Kai worked his way down the table, pouring and smiling and nodding at everyone, and he quickly learned that the best thing about being invisible was that men would tell you anything at all when you were the one pouring their wine.

"I heard the barges came in from the south dock this morning," one of the officers said.

"The iron ones?" another officer asked.

"For the brood," the first officer said. "Forty of them, collared and ready to go. Lord Draven is coming to see them before they’re sent down the river."

"He’s coming here?" a third officer asked.

"At dusk tomorrow," the first officer said. "After he sees the brood, the barges leave at dawn. They’re sending one maw to every village between here and the coast."

Kai’s hands started to shake so badly that wine sloshed out of the jug and onto the table, but nobody noticed.

"What about the miners in the Black Seam?" one of the officers asked.

"I suppose they won’t need to eat anymore," the first officer said. "The brood has to be fed before it leaves."

The rest of the table chuckled, and Kai kept right on pouring and smiling, even though he felt sick to his stomach.

[Forty maws. One for every village. Every village will become Millbrook]

"Not if we stop them from leaving," Kai whispered.

[You have 14 minutes before your glamour fades]

Kai made his way back up to the head of the table, where Brekk had pushed his chair back and was patting his knee.

"Sit, Sister," Brekk said. "Tell me about the city."

Kai looked down at the knee, then up at Brekk, and then back down at the knee again.

[He may grab you too hard. If he does, your glamour could break]

"I know," Kai whispered.

[If you sit on that knee, I will document it]

"Please don’t," Kai whispered.

[I already have. As a possibility]

"I am a sister of the faith," Kai said with his sweetest smile. "I couldn’t."

"Then bless my wine," Brekk said, lifting his cup. "Maybe it’ll bring us some luck for tomorrow. Lord Draven is never satisfied."

Kai stared down at the cup. He could bless it, and even though he had no idea what it would actually do, at least it would get the captain’s attention off his knee.

He lifted his hand over the cup and spoke in the holiest voice he could muster.

"May the light shine upon you, Captain," Kai said, and then he whispered, "Minor Blessing."

A small ball of gold light shot off the tip of his finger and hovered right above the wine for one brief second. Then it dipped sharply downwards, flew right past the cup and the captain’s hand, and landed on the thick iron ring of keys hanging from his belt, and the keys began to glow.

The entire table went silent, and every man in the room stared at the keys on the captain’s belt, which were now shining bright gold.

[You missed]

"I know I missed," Kai whispered.

Brekk took the keys off his belt and stared at them with his mouth hanging open.

"Sister," Brekk said. "You blessed my keys."

"Well, I was trying to," Kai lied. "Yes. The keys. I was definitely trying to bless your keys."

"These are the keys to this entire fort," Brekk said, holding them up so everyone could see. "The gate. The armory. The lift down to the Black Seam. All of them blessed!"

The men started cheering and pounding the table, and a few of them even said it was a good sign for Lord Draven’s visit. Brekk hooked the keys back onto his belt with a huge smile on his face.

[Faith gained. New follower: Hallard Brekk. Faith: 2%. Status: Crush.]

"Oh no," Kai whispered.

[He now believes in you because you are beautiful and you blessed his keys]

"That doesn’t count," Kai whispered.

[It does. I do not make the rules. You have 4 minutes left]

"Excuse me, Captain," Kai said, as his stomach dropped. "I need to go pray."

Kai got out of the officers’ hall as fast as his long legs would carry him and ducked into the kitchen, where he slipped through the first door he saw. It turned out to be a small pantry, with sacks of flour stacked against the walls and sausages hanging from the ceiling, and he shut the door behind him.

[1 minute]

Kai leaned back against a shelf and closed his eyes, picturing the clerk again, skinny and dull with ink on his fingers and glasses on his nose. He focused on that image as hard as he possibly could, and he made very sure not to think about Elowen or anything white.

The glamour faded, and for one second, he was just Kai again, standing in a pantry with a sausage dangling next to his ear.

"Lesser Glamour," Kai whispered.

Warmth washed over his body, and when Kai opened his eyes and looked down, he saw robes, a veil, very long legs, and a very familiar pair of boobs.

"WHAT," Kai hissed.

[The spell may be remembering Sister Kaia. It may think this is what you look like now]

"Do spells learn?" Kai whispered.

[I do not know. You fail it so often that it may have learned from you]

The pantry door swung open, and the cook glared in at him, a large woman with flour caked all the way up her arms.

"Praying in my pantry, Sister?" the cook asked.

"The Mother hears us all," Kai said, pressing his hands together.

"Then she can hear you peel potatoes," the cook said, and she shoved a basket into his arms.

Kai didn’t get out of the kitchen until almost midnight. The inquisitor’s party had been given a small room with four bunks, one window, and a single candle, and when Kai opened the door, everyone was already inside. Mira sat on one of the bunks with her hood down, Dagna stood by the window, Garrick sat on the floor with his hammer, and Elowen sat on the bunk closest to the door with her sword across her lap.

All of them looked up at Kai, who was still very much a girl.

"You’re still a girl," Mira said.

"The spell remembers," Kai said. "I guess this is what I look like now."

"Did he touch you?" Mira asked.

"No," Kai said.

"Did he try?" Dagna asked.

"He wanted me to sit on his lap," Kai said.

Mira and Dagna both stood up at the same time.

"I’ll kill him," Dagna said.

"I’ll help," Mira said.

"Nobody is killing anybody," Kai said. "Sit down. I have news."

He told them about the barges and the forty young maws collared and ready to be sent to the villages, about Draven arriving at dusk, and about the miners who would be fed to the brood before it left. When he was finished, nobody said a word. Dagna had gone pale, and Mira was holding her hand again.

"Then we go tonight?" Dagna asked.

"We can’t," Garrick said. "The lift down to the Black Seam is in the middle of the fort, and it’s locked, and only the captain has the key."

"I know where the keys are," Kai said.

"Where?" Garrick asked.

Elowen looked up from the wall she had been staring at.

"There is a new light in the fort," Elowen said. "It has been there for a few hours now, a small circle of gold that moves around the officers’ hall. I can see it the same way I can see your hammer, Garrick."

Everyone turned to look at Kai.

"I was trying to bless the captain’s wine," Kai said. "I blessed his keys instead."

"Of course you did," Mira said.

"Which means Elowen can track those keys anywhere," Kai said. "Day or night."

Garrick stared at Kai for a second, and then he started to laugh, a deep, rumbling laugh that came all the way up from his belly.

"You missed," Garrick said.

"I know I missed," Kai said.

"And it worked anyway," Garrick said.

"He always does that," Mira said with a smile.

[Faith gained. Garrick Holt: +3%. Mira Vallen: +2%. Elowen Ashgrave: +2%.]

Elowen turned towards the stone wall as if she could see straight through it.

"The keys are moving," Elowen said. "Down the stairs, to the captain’s quarters. He is probably going to bed."

Kai looked over at Dagna, who was gripping her gaff hook so tightly that her knuckles had turned white.

"Well," Kai said. "I guess we’re stealing the keys from the man who thinks I’m a nun."

[Your chance of success is 3%]

"That’s the highest it’s ever been," Kai whispered.

[Yes. That is what worries me]