"You know this ruffian?" Cassandra blurted out.
In retrospect, given the revelations of the last twenty-four hours, she realized she probably should have known.
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
"He ran into you on purpose, didn't he." It wasn't even a question. "He passed it to you when he ran into you so he could let that guy search him, and you beat him up to draw suspicion away from yourself."
"You almost messed the whole thing up when you tried to defend me," Aadhira said with a dry voice and a sparkle in her eye. "At least Mona knows to get out of the way when she sees him coming."
Cassandra tried to come up with a response, but couldn't think of anything. She settled for sitting back down, closing her eyes, and cradling her forehead on her hand.
"She looks tired," Mona said. "I guess it has been a long day for all of us, at that. Perhaps we should head back early tonight?"
Cassandra opened one eye in time to see Aadhira shrug. "I don't have any particular plans," she said.
The dragonborn street boy was stuffing his mouth with food, but took a quick break to say, "Then I guess you aren't interested in what I heard two rooms over."
Cassandra rocked her head side to side, and after a moment Mona started saying, "Well…." as if she was about to let the boy down easily.
Even Aadhira lacked enthusiasm when she replied, but it did include an invitation to go on.
"They're about to invite people in for a game of Tides," he told them between bites.
Silence met the pronouncement, and Cassandra opened an eye again to see Aadhira rolling hers.
"Just tell us what you want to tell us," she said.
"One of them had a treasure map on their stakes."
Aadhira's face froze. "Moonshine," she said.
"No," Vilim shot back, "Five Sisters. They were talking about it when I poked my head in."
Aadhira narrowed her eyes. The closest of the Five Sisters mountains was the peak currently known as Lucine, two days to the north; the farthest, unofficially renamed in her own honor fourteen years ago, was just over another day to its northeast.
There was no way she would be allowed to be gone from the city for that long. Even if–
"Even if it were real, there's no way somebody hasn't followed it at some point," she said.
Vilim shrugged. "You could always ask the guy," he replied.
Aadhira frowned. "Maybe later. Did you at least catch the buy-in?"
"Fifty gold?"
"Fifty? I thought you said it was high stakes."
Vilim hefted the belt pouch quizzically.
"Yeah, you only took sixty-three there," Aadhira said. "Point taken."
Cassandra opened her eye again. "Isn't that enough?" She thought for a second, then added, "When did you get a chance to count it, anyway?
"Wait, why are you all looking at me like that?"
Mona turned in her seat to face her. "Fifty gets us a seat to watch somebody else take the map," she explained. "One seat. If we actually want the map ourselves, we're gonna need – what, two seats? Three?"
"I'd prefer three," Aadhira agreed. "Three and a play."
"What are you thinking?" Vilim asked. "And where are we going to get the difference?"
"We could ditch the dresses," Mona suggested, making no move to follow up on her suggestion.
"Nah," Aadhira replied. "Too cheap, not enough liquidity. Besides, you're gonna need yours. Did you bring any jewelry with you?"
"To the full moon?" Mona replied.
"Good point."
Cassandra lifted her head fully off the table this time. "You're princesses. Shouldn't you have money?"
"You look tired," Aadhira told her. "Really tired. You gonna be okay?"
Cassandra waved her hand noncommittally in the air. "I'm sorry, Highness. It's been a long day."
"Uh-huh. Well, first, to answer your question, no, we shouldn't have money. The kingdom has money, and it stays in the economy and treasury where it belongs. We only ever bring with us as much money as we need for food and whatnot."
"Shopping," Mona put in.
"Shopping," Aadhira repeated with a roll of her eyes. "The point is, we wouldn't have even taken a private room if your brother hadn't insisted."
"Secondly – Wait." She turned back to her sister. "Mona. Were you planning to do some shopping tonight?"
"Planning?" Mona replied as she delved her hand somewhere inside her skirts. "Planning is such a… deliberate word." She held out her hand, a small pouch dangling from it. "But you never know what you might find when you're out and about.
"Thirty."
"Thirty. Great." Aadhira took the pouch. "That almost gets us a second seat. Do you know how to play Tides, Cassandra?"
"Tides?" the halfcat replied, head returning to the table. "I… I know the basics. Never been particularly…."
"That's okay. Do you think you can stay awake enough to make some sort of play when it's your turn?"
"What? I… I'm not gonna… make any… I mean, I don't know if I'll do any… good…"
"It doesn't have to be good plays," Aadhira said. "Just a play of any legal sort, enough to stay in the game."
There was a long pause, long enough that Aadhira began to wonder if they finally had lost her to the night; but at long last she pushed one hand forward, thumb raised.
"Looks like we have our receiver," Aadhira said. She pointed at Mona. "Spoiled rich girl."
"What do you mean, spoiled?" Mona asked haughtily, sitting up straight and raising her nose. "If my daddy were here, he'd have you strung up for impugning my honor."
"Yeah, that's the attitude that probably had your servant there up since the middle of the night last night."
Mona sniffed arrogantly.
"Meanwhile, Vilim – I mean, sorry, Jimi – you'd think I knew my own brother's name."
"Yeah, well, you're always messing things up, aren't you, Frida?" Vilim – "Jimi" – shot back.
"I can only fix things so far after you're through fouling them up," Aadhira – "Frida" – replied with a thumbs up.
"Now we just need to figure out where we're going to get the extra fifty-seven gold for the buy-in."
"Isn't this about the point where you tell us how much you have in your stash?" Vilim asked.
"Oh, I've got plenty stashed to cover us all," Aadhira replied. "Over in the mud district."
Vilim frowned. "Well, you didn't think this through very well, dear sister, did you?"
"I've never had much need to have a stash among the shops," Aadhira replied absently. "Like we told Cass, I'm always a princess if we need to buy something. Of course, now that she's here, I'm gonna have to put a stash–"
Aadhira froze, mouth half-open, eyes darting back and forth.
After several seconds she shrugged and muttered, "It just might work."
She pointed at Vilim. "Master Demarin. Impressions."
Cassandra stirred as Vilim responded. "Um. Friendly. Can be lazy, but hardworking when necessary. Smarter than he lets on. You know. Halfcat."
"Trustworthy?"
Vilim shrugged, an uncomfortable look on his face. "He's an innkeeper. A street rat like me would never be in a position to find out how fast he can be trusted.
"For what it's worth, I've never heard of him watering down his drinks."
"Shouldn't you be asking me about my own brother?" Cassandra asked.
"You were going to be next," Aadhira reassured her. "It's good to get multiple views on someone before you trust them with anything too big."
"Too big?" Cassandra asked. Vilim, on the other hand, sat down with a troubled look on his face.
"Will Esteban keep his word once given? How is he at keeping secrets?"
"Secrets?" Cassandra pondered this for a moment. "I… I guess he's pretty good with secrets. He never told anyone about–" eyes widening, she stopped herself, and raised her head long enough to give it a good shake.
"Yeah, he'll keep his word."
Aadhira stepped over to the wall and opened a panel. Inside was a pull cord similar to the one next to the head of the table that summoned inn staff.
"Last question," she said. "How do you feel about work-life balance?"
"Work-life… what?"
"If I pull this cord, we'll be setting up a base here. You're gonna be seeing us most nights, whether you're on the clock or not. There will be hijinks. Palace life might not intrude on your daily life, but you might start wishing you could get rid of us."
The fatigue clouding Cassandra's mind receded. It would be back, she knew, but for the moment she had enough clarity to appreciate what was being asked of her, even if she didn't understand the details.
The truth was, despite having traveled extensively in her twenty-seven years, Cassandra had done a lot more seeing and learning, and not a whole lot of doing in her travels. Being around the girls had fanned a spark in her that she had forgotten existed.
"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" she asked.
Three heads nodded solemnly back at her.
"Then let's make sure it's worth the regret."