Chapter 1: No Cheating CHAPTER 1 NO CHEATING Rosebud marched through the twisting alley, looking for the dirty liar who''d called her a cheater. He was around here somewhere. Josef, the blacksmith''s son, always played dice in the mornings after his father started work. Rosebud knew that because she beat him three days ago, fair and square. No one would accuse her of cheating and get away with it. Two black braids bounced on her back as she passed rows of half-timbered buildings, their pointed roofs like jagged teeth glistening in the morning sun. A few villagers were out and about. The scent of autumn rye rolls filled her nostrils when she marched past the baker''s doorway.
Nearby, a three-legged dog slept on mossy cobblestones. Yet no dice game in sight. I''ll find you. She shrugged her patchwork wool cloak behind her shoulders so that she could pump her arms and walk faster. The faster she could walk, the faster she could restore her good name. She knew every corner of the village, and every path around it. There was no place he could hide. "Slow down, Rosy!" said a taller, broad-shouldered girl, lagging behind while clutching her stomach.
"My breakfast doesn''t like all this running around right after eating--ugh, that was really excellent cheese. I don''t want it coming back up all over the stones. Definitely would taste worse the second time. What a waste that would be. I think I feel sick. Rosy! Why do you always have to be so hotheaded?" The queasy girl was Wilda. Her freckled skin was the warm shade of turning leaves, and her brown hair was coiled into two neat buns at the base of her neck. Being twelve, Wilda was the same age as Rosebud, and was her best friend in the entire kingdom of Rin.
"I''m sorry," Rosebud said, "but if we don''t catch him around here, the next dice game on Tuesdays is where? Butcher''s Stump?" Rosebud said. "Your breakfast won''t like hiking all the way out there." Wilda groaned. "We left our fishing poles by the river with Wryclaw. I''m not hiking across town then all-l-l the way back to the river. Josef isn''t worth it." "But my honor is!" Rosebud said over her shoulder without looking back. "And he''s not going to take away the one thing in the village I love doing.
" Fishing was a lazy pleasure. Chores were chores. But Rinboozle Dice was Rosebud''s obsession. Everyone in the village played it--in the alleys, at tavern tables, in front of hearths. "Okay, I get it," Wilda said, "but it''s not just Josef. It''s his father, too. He talks to other villagers, and a few agree with him. They say if we steal from Otto, we''ll steal from anyone.
" "Ridiculous." "Maybe they''re right. We''re bandits, Rosy. How much honor do we have anymore?" Rosebud swung around to face her friend, skirts and cloak whirling. "You know we''re only taking back what rightfully belongs to our village. We''re helping our own people." "Of course I know that," Wilda said. "But tell it to Elder Walter.
He says we''re just gonna get the village burned a second time." Rosebud snorted a short laugh. "There isn''t enough left of it to burn." Two years ago, the village of Bramble stood proudly at the edge of the Nowhere Wood, population 223 souls. There were prettier villages in Rin, and ones that weren''t sitting next to the entrance of an enchanted forest that the entire kingdom feared--that definitely brought property values down. But Bramble had one thing in its favor: it had been admired across the kingdom for its prized mothberry bushes. The pale white berries would glow at night on thorny silver bushes that attracted translucent moths at night. The bushes grew exclusively around their small settlement--and the fruit was so delicious, the queen would request buckets be brought to Rin Castle.
The village of Bramble would hold mothberry pie contests and festivals. They made mothberry wine, vinegar, jam, and cake. The mothberry was their pride and joy. But an evil man named Otto the Torch burned their berry bushes down when he swept through the kingdom with his army of Firebrands. The fire raids changed everything. Overnight, Bramble went from 223 souls to seventy-eight. One of the souls who died in the fires was Rosebud''s father. "Shh! Listen," Rosebud said as she cocked her head.
They both heard a dog barking and someone arguing. Then, in the opposite direction, the sounds of boyish laughter echoed off the wattle-and-daub buildings that lined the narrow backstreets. Rosebud grinned at her friend. "Slugs always leave a trail--found him! Let''s go!" The girls took off running and rounded a dingy alley corner into a patch of sunlight, where they stumbled upon three skinny boys hunched over a game of carved wooden dice near the back door of the village tavern, the Silver Thorn. There crouched Manny and Luj. and the boy who was spreading lies about her, the blacksmith''s son Josef, with his mean, blue eyes that spied everything around town. Those eyes flicked to hers and narrowed. "Heard you were talking dung about me again," Rosebud said, hands on hips as the other boys looked up from the cobbled stones and cowered at the sight of her.
But not Josef. He pushed a lock of fair hair out of his sharp eyes and gave Rosebud a cool look. "You cheated at Rinboozle Dice. That''s truth, not dung." "Woof!" Wilda said from Rosebud''s side, waving the air in front of her nose. "Have you been eating dung? Your breath smells ripe, JoJo. I''m really going to lose my breakfast if you keep flapping your lips." For a moment, Josef looked rattled.
But he soon turned his attention back to Rosebud and whispered, "Cheat." Hot anger spiked in the center of Rosebud''s chest. "You take that back!" she demanded. "I''ve never cheated at dice in my life. Not once!" The boy shook his head and pointed an accusing finger at both girls. "The two of youse are crooks. My papa says everyone who stands against the Firebrands will end up in the Pits." The Pits were not a not a nice place.
Years ago, they were just ugly craters in the ground a few miles outside the village, but when Otto the Torch swept through the kingdom with his Firebrand army, the Pits started burning and hadn''t stopped. People said he still threw his enemies in there. No one wanted to find out if that was really true. Wilda crossed her arms. "The Firebrands are evil. Everyone knows your father is building weapons for their army. Which makes him a traitor to the queen." "?''The hand that holds the clock-tower key rules the kingdom,''?" he said, quoting a common phrase among the people of Rin.
Starfall Astronomical Clock and its crystal tower stood outside Rin Castle, but everyone across the land knew its beauty. Before the fire raids, its shimmering light could be seen for miles, even in Bramble. The Firebrands took the clock-tower key by force, and they shut it down. Took away its beautiful, magical light. Like they took everything away from the people of Rin. "Otto is our leader now," Josef said matter-of-factly. "The queen might as well be dead, rotting in the castle dungeons. That''s what happens to cheaters.
" He never would''ve said that before the fire raids, when Queen Gisela was on the throne. But Rosebud knew as well as she knew her own name that Otto the Torch was a bad man, that standing up to him was the right thing to do. She also knew that she Had. Not. Cheated. At. Dice. Fine.
Time to get serious. Rosebud rested the heels of her palms on two throwing axes that were sheathed on a belt around the waist of her skirts. "You know who these belonged to?" A hush fell over the alley. "My father died, standing up to Firebrands," Rosebud continued. "You gonna call one of the queen''s noble knights a crook too? Go on. I dare you." Josef''s face became rigid with resentment while his friends cautioned him in whispers. "Don''t do this.
You know what happened to Luj''s nose." Luj had tripped over his own boots and fallen face-forward into a rock. But Rosebud didn''t mind that all the kids around the village assumed she had been the one who had clobbered him. Josef shook his blond head. "Tell me, Rosebud. How does the daughter of a noble knight end up a common criminal? Do you think Sir Herman would be ashamed of you?" Well, that wasn''t a good thing to say to someone who was ready to beat you to a pulp. "RIP, JoJo," Wilda murmured, wincing. Rosebud had nothing left in this world but her honor--which was by extension her father''s honor, handed down to her like a sacred right.
She would not give it up for anything. And she would not let mean, lying Josef take it away without a fight. Voices rose inside the tavern, drawing their attention. It was too early for many customers--definitely too early for anything rowdy. So when shutters on a back window flung open and the dishwasher Fye leaned over the alleyway, blond curls disheveled and apron askew, they were all a little surprised. Fye''s urgent gaze jumped around until it landed on Rosebud''s. "There you are! Firebrand tax collectors are hasslin'' Dame Hette. They''re taking our coin.
We need your help." Rosebud''s heart thudded against her ribs. All she wanted to do was pummel Josef''s face. But she knew in her heart that Dame Hette was t.