Total pages in book: 179
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169943 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 850(@200wpm)___ 680(@250wpm)___ 566(@300wpm)
“It sounds like a dream,” Aspeth breathes, and then pauses. “Wait, you said others are going to arrive? What others?”
Archivist Kestrel shakes his hands in the air with excitement. “Why, all the others, dear lady! Ever since that day in the artifact training room, word of your skills and knowledge has spread around Vastwarren. Every black-market merchant is going to be looking for ways to pay you to assist them, and every forger is going to want you. That’s why I had to come here in the middle of the night. I had to get here before you agree to work for any of them. I would love to work alongside you, lady. I truly mean that.”
Her lips part, and Aspeth’s soft expression is gorgeous to see. It makes me ache, because now I want this for her. “I…I would stay here with Hawk, yes? I’m not going to leave my husband’s side.”
“Of course. It’s a short walk from here to the archives. You will sleep in his bed every night, unlike a guild explorer.” Then he colors red, as if he realizes what he’s just said. “I mean…”
“She knows what you mean,” I say dryly. “Well, Aspeth?”
Her eyes wide, she nods. “Yes, of course. I would love to.”
“Splendid!” The archivist races forward and hugs Aspeth, then skitters away again. “I’m sorry! That wasn’t well done of me! I’m just excited! You should see the things we have in the archives that are waiting to be deciphered and recorded. There are so many who can’t read Old Prellian quite as well as me and I don’t trust their interpretations, and I could truly use another set of hands and—” He gives a full-body shiver. “This is so very exciting!” He bounces toward the door, then pauses and scrambles back toward the desk. “Could I retrieve the sistral…? It’s the best fake I have.”
“Oh, of course.” She helps him box it back up.
When he clutches the box again, he beams at her once more. “I will return in the morning with the official guild contracts. You won’t accept anyone else, will you? I’ll insist that your salary be the equivalent of any man’s.”
“I won’t disappoint you,” she promises him.
“Then I will return at dawn!”
With that, the excitable archivist races back out into the night, leaving me amused and Aspeth dazed.
“Congratulations, little bird,” I say to my wife. “It’s not quite guild work but—”
“It’s better,” she blurts out, pressing her hands to her mouth. “Oh, I don’t mean that. It’s just…I think I’m vastly more suited for studying and analyzing than sleeping in tunnels and prying rings off the dead. I’ve felt so very guilty about everything in the crypt, Hawk. I don’t think I could do it, even if I wanted to.”
“Well, now it’s decided. You’ll work in the archives by day and come home to my bed every night,” I tease.
She lets out another girlish squeal and then flings herself into my arms again. “Oh, Hawk! This is wonderful! I shall need new spectacles! Two pairs, at least! And more books! And—”
Her giddy delight fills me with joy. “And save it for the morning, sweetheart. There’s time enough. For now, you need to relax. It’s been a long day.”
“The longest,” she agrees, sagging against me. Then she pauses. “Do you suppose his name really is Kestrel? Is he like Lark and named after a bird?”
I snort. “No, the archivists take bird names as well.” I lift her chin and kiss her on the mouth, and I think I’m getting better at this with practice. “You can be Sparrow after all.”
“Your Sparrow!” she cries triumphantly. Then she pauses. “Don’t hawks hunt sparrows?”
“They devour them.”
Heat flares in her gaze. “Sounds lovely.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” And I lock the door behind me, then carry my wife back to our quarters. The future will have a lot of changes—there’s an archivist to be inducted into her work, and a guild master who’s going to need fledglings. There are repeaters—Gwenna, Kipp, and the others—to get settled.
There’s a Taurian ring ceremony that needs to happen.
But all of that can wait until the morning.
Tonight—and every night thereafter—Sparrow is mine.