Chapter Twenty

  Harmony’s m reset spell wiped away all the ges to her face, hair, and nails as she stepped out of the shadows and into the manrounds not far from the staff area. She poked her head into the dy’s ging room. Between shift ges, it operated as a lounge for taking breaks.

  It was just her bad luck to find Jessica sitting there. She was chewing on a spice stick. Bates would never allow her to actually smoke it here because of the risk of the smell soaking into staff uniforms.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be pying adventurer for the little lordling?”

  “Do you know where Ambrosia is? I o talk to her.”

  “Things aren’t going as you’d like them to with Tyler? Has he spurned your advances yet? fessed about pnning out a unique evolution for you? Even if you bide your time, he’ll lose i when you fail to meet his standards.”

  Harmony rolled her eyes at the other maid. She had no energy to waste tapping into her social skills for the woman. “Fet Tyler. I need Ambrosia. Am-bro-sia.”

  “Ugh.” The bitter woman made a pokiure with her unlit smoke. “you rotting little css-cursed.”

  The shadow toad’s tongue shot out, snatg the stick from her fingers. He chewed it twice before spitting it out. “Grphew.”

  Heat billowed off the sun priestess as she gasped, froze, and hissed in a fit of anger

  The cook, Renee, pushed into the room with a carefully pted lun a tray, ready for her break.

  “Renee, do you know where Ambrosia is?” Harmony asked.

  “She and her birds are o duty for Baccus in the east garden. He wanted his little gossip club free of mosquitoes and other flyis.”

  “You…” Jessica squeaked out, still fuming.

  Harmony ignored her, rushing to her locker. Bates would find some unpleasant task if it became knowalked the primary reside of uniform. A twinge of disappoi hit as she put oiny uniform, her pns down the hole.

  Jessica summoned a fme to her hand.

  “What’s b her?” Renee asked.

  “Bad day?” The neancer suggested as she took off, hoping to find a way to fix her problems.

  Through the halls and to the east garden, the neanodded to the manor staff she passed. Even a quick curtsey when needed, all while keeping an air of having important work to do. Rich wine-fueled ughter greeted her as she moved toward the garden. Magical light illumihe gossip party now that the sun was setting. Ambrosia’s colorful birds darted overhead, taking care of as attracted by the light.

  “And then I transferred her to the capitol to work on leveling up!”

  The ughter tinued harder as some old blowhard made the procmation. Ign all that, Harmony stayed as far out of sight as possible while searg for her friend.

  Ambrosia stood off to the side, witle in hand, as she worked on maintaining a professional demeanor. Harmony had told her to select a social skill when her profession leveled, but she hadn’t yet. She’d taken [sparkling finish] for her st skill sele because she could make her birds feathers gleam with it.

  Now to get her attention. Hair tugging from a distah any delicacy took a lot of patiehat the neancer didn’t feel like she had now. Her new skill had potential. A ush from [Cold Touch]. First, she tested a small frigid dot of cold on herself. Then she shot a thread of the skill across the distaargeting Ambrosia’s bare thigh.

  That got her attention. The other maid nearly dropped her bottle, and Harmony waved as the beast tamer searched for the source. Moments ter, she excused herself from the group who cared little about the wait staff as long as she’d be back before the cups got too dry.

  “What are you doing here? And what did you do to me?”

  “New skill, but I really need your help. How do you break a bond with a new pet?”

  “Whe dies. And why would you want to do that? The backsh might not be as bad as losing a familiar, but it still damage your soul. Is that why you suddenly got more ied in my birds? If you don’t fess up, Harm, you’ll have to dodge bird droppings for the rest of your days!”

  “I got a special neancer pet scroll from Tyler.”

  Ambrosia groaned.

  “It didn’t work how I expected it to.” She wao tell Ambrosia about the prince, but she couldn’t. On the scale of Tyler buying her inappropriate armor to her meeting a dungeon spirit, the actal raising of a royal from the dead was far beyond anything believable. Ha ha, y off the booze, Harm, or you’d better leave tht now, level of advice from her friend.

  “Where is the pet now?” Ambrosia asked with worry in her voice. Worry about the pet.

  “I left it to e here.”

  Ambrosia reached over and grabbed Harmony’s ear pulling her over. Anger in her eyes.

  “O.”

  “If it survives whatever mess you left it in. It will e and find you. Pets have a natural sense of where their masters are. You ’t abando will keep following you, g about you no matter what you do. You will respect it and the bond that you forced upon it. I would have thought that with Hyath, you would uand the responsibility there.”

  “Hyath is a partnership.” Harmony twisted away a little, but all Ambrosia did was tighten her grip.

  “Well, a pet is a responsibility and a promise to care for and cherish them, even if it is only a fra of the amount they’ve been directed to give you. It’s like I talk to you, and you only hear what you want.”

  “I’m sorry.” And she was deeply, deeply sorry. Though irely for not fog on uanding the beast tamer’s talks. It was hard not to feel that bottomless pit of guilty dread at how clear it was that she couldn’t escape this.

  “Oh, there you are. You took off so fast. I thought I might have done something wrong. Also, weren’t you blonde before?”

  The pure cultured at made Lord Tyler and Madam Coodly sound like rustics to Harmony’s ears. The subservient underpinnings of Harmony’s profession ached to turn around and curtsey. She watched as Ambrosia did step back, letting go of her sore ear, and did perform that act of deference.

  Through her stats, she could feel the es like ara sense in her gut that her brain had to interpret. Herself to her new pet and that princely nature’s influence over Ambrosia’s profession. And she wao kick it. She half pictured that, and the idea gave her fluttering cramps. One more issue on top of all her other problems.

  “Prince Adric… aren’t you..” Ambrosia started to murmur.

  “Adric, my friend Ambrosia. Ambrosia, my new pet.” Harmony pleted the introdu, letting her friend make all the appropriate es.

  “Is that it? Our e seems different than mine and Bowe’s. I thought maybe...” The prince’s words dropped off as he drifted into his thoughts.

  “So where is your coatl?” Harmony asked.

  A strange man showing up could probably be hidden or excused away. A bit of [Beauti] and [Manipute Dead], and she could make sure he bears no resembo the prince. After that, she’d need a closet to shove him into. Here wasn’t the pce to start that.

  “The ission has specialty lodging fe, rare pets. I ordered him to go bad properly take care of himself. The poor thing hadn’t drunk or eaten anything since I had died. “

  Two of Ambrosia’s pet birds, attracted by the otion, zipped over and nded on the maid’s shoulder. Oarted tugging on a strand of the beast tamer’s hair in a sign of affe and worry.

  “How… are… you… alive?” Ambrosia mao squeeze out.

  “I’m not,” Adric stated calmly. “Ingenious way of handling my cursed evolution. To think grandma’s helpers had this pnned all along if I couldn’t find a solution. I ’t imagihe popuce will be happy.”

  The on wisdom was you lied about Hazeldown being your hometown if you chose to leave to avoid the embarrassment. The popuce sidered Hazeldown a necessary evil and the only reason the kingdom tolerated neancy. An undead, or whatever Adriorince, would have them all soiling their pants about being the Midnight Empire. Never mind how neighb kingdoms would take it, lying down wasn’t the option Harmony imagined.

  “What did you do, Harm?!” Ambrosia hissed.

  Two more ed birds sailed over and phemselves on the beast tamer’s head.

  “I was trying to raise the coatl. Turned out it wasn’t dead.” She told her friend.

  The look on the prince’s pretty face turned fused. “You’re not part of the queen’s helping hands?”

  Great! The so-mythical it verged on being a fairytale group of spies and assassins uhe queen’s and was a real thing. If there was a hole nearby, Harmony would have jumped into it. The off dungeon-run and now this. She put energy into [Poise and Bearing], and the outward calm settled into her features. Inwardly her attempts to maintain fad find a solution were vague and not rejeg the paniside. Her pns all had to do with the coatl and not a prince.

  “Well, I…” Adric started.

  Harmony turned, reached up, and put her hand on his cheek. New bonds beed from physical tact. The pet-style e let her push her will through it in a way that Hyath would ugh at. “Be a good boy, dear. I have a pce for you to lie low while I figure this out.”

  She could feel the young man’s face rex in her hand as the master aspect of her bond kicked in. His eyes gzed over briefly, and she wondered if she overdid it. Her expert was too fbbergasted by the situation to give proper advice.

  “Harmony, you didn’t! Even if this wasn’t a man, you o show more respect for your pet’s wishes. You always do so well with Hyath.”

  “Hyath is my true partner.” She gestured to the suggestively blissed-out pet. “This is something I o deal with. And don’t act like I haven’t seen you discipline your birds. I need you to stash him in the east parlor. It won’t be open for weeks, and I am assigo it every other day after I return. I o get back to Lord Tyler before he notices me missing.”

  The neancer watched her friend’s face as the naked emotions around the risks of helping in this crazy venture pyed out. Hope and fear wrestled as she khat if Ambrosia said no, she’d be alone.

  “I’ll do it, but you owe me. And no pints if I turn this into a song or three.” Ambrosia added with a look in her eyes, betraying that she was already w on lyri her head.

  Harmony touched the prince’s wrist this time aed her will. “Follow my friend Ambrosia’s instrus. I’ll be back soon, and we’ll get this all sorted out.”

  “Yes, of course, mistress.” Prince Adric murmured in an attempt to portray obedience.

  Through the bond, she could sehat he agreed to gain time to think about this. She almost hoped he’d figure out how to slip out of this.

  If the prince felt he could fake going along to get what he wanted, he hadn’t been introduced to the experienced maid, Harmony White.

  Hyath seemed to think all this new drama was the greatest thing since a barrel of cats. His amusement only got louder through their bond when Harmony tried to impress upon him the seriousness of this.

  “Hyath, you ready to go back to the lodge?”

  “Crroak!” He firmed.

  Putting her hand on him, they walked off into the shadows of the bushes and transitiohrough them.