Free The Crimson Skew by S. E. Grove

creature.”
    Calixta narrowed her eyes. “Very well. I accept your challenge. I submit to you that I will be the most irresistible raider ever to jingle-jangle a worn boot through the Territories.”
    â€œBravo!” cried her brother. “Bravely put!”
    Wren and Errol exchanged a brief smile.
    â€œThere are silver teeth here!” Sophia exclaimed, drawing open a small wooden box lined with velvet.
    â€œSeveral sets, my dear,” Maxine said. “You will have no trouble at all disappearing into your costumes.”
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    T HE AFTERNOON WAS spent assembling their disguises, and the early evening was spent enjoying more of Celia’s cooking. Sophia almost forgot that, beyond the walls of Maxine’s house, a suspicious city—and the League—was waiting for them.
    She was reminded of it as the evening drew to a close and the travelers rose to find their beds. Maxine approached with a gleam in her eye. “Sophia, dear, would you like me to tell your fortune?”
    â€œOh, you’ll frighten her out of her senses, Maxine,” Burr objected, before Sophia could reply.
    â€œNonsense,” Calixta protested. “Sophia frightens less easily than most pirates in the Indies.”
    â€œYou must not remember the first time Maxine told your fortune. You were so pale I thought you would faint. All the sun in Hispaniola would not have—”
    â€œRidiculous!” Calixta exclaimed. “Me? Frightened of fortune-telling? Besides, Sophia is well used to mysterious prognostications, thanks to those nonsensical Ausentinian maps.”
    Goldenrod and Errol looked meaningly at Sophia, and she gave them a slight smile. Unchecked, the pirates would make every decision for everyone. “I wouldn’t mind having my fortune told, Maxine,” Sophia said. “Though I don’t believe in the Fates.”
    â€œThis has nothing to do with the Fates,” Maxine told her. “It’s a much older power—you shall see.”
    â€œI’ll be awake, Sophia,” Goldenrod said gently. “Whenever you are done.”
    Sophia gave her a nod of thanks as Maxine led her out of the drawing room and toward the back of the house, near the kitchen. There, in a room that Sophia had not yet seen, Maxine began to light candles in the darkness. Slowly, the contours of the space appeared: a round table of smooth, white marble stood at the center of the room. Tall candles encircled the table, leaving only a narrow passage in and out. Dark drapes covered all the windows. An armoire—tall, of pale wood with scrollwork—stood closed, hunkering in the corner of the room.“Wait here for me a little while, Sophia,” Maxine said, disappearing by another door that led in the direction of the kitchen.
    As she stood by the table, Sophia listened to the sounds of the house. It had been a long time since she had been alone, and in silence. She heard Calixta and Burr still bantering somewhere down the corridor. She heard the quiet noises of Maxine in the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets. In the background, she heard the murmuring of the pigeons in the dovecote. And beyond all of this, she heard the distant noises of the city: cries and calls; the clatter of hooves on cobblestone; a sudden muffled burst of laughter. There was something else, too—a remote roar or rumble, like the wind or the ocean.
    Sophia closed her eyes. She lost track of time as she stood there, trying to place the strange sound. It was the clouds, she realized: the yellow clouds that sat upon the city and refused to yield rain. Even inside Maxine’s house, buttressed by the thick walls, the air felt dank, heavy, and somehow foreboding.
Why?
Sophia wondered. With her eyes closed, she explored the question, listening to the distant rumble as if trying to hear words within it.
    A nearer sound disturbed her thoughts, and Sophia opened her eyes, startled, to see Maxine