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“We didn’t scare you off?” Lieutenant Katarina asked. Looking only a little younger than Lucy, perhaps early twenties, the lieutenant had Lucy’s own inky black hair. The lieutenant, however, had slicked hers back under a Knight’s midnight blue cap.
“Not entirely.” Lucy gave her a smile as she stopped her cart by the kitchen door at the back of the abbey.
The lieutenant didn’t betray any amusement. Lucy had already noticed that the Knights didn’t smile or laugh. Still, she had the sense that she hadn’t offended the lieutenant. And she made herself focus on that rather than on the massive grey stones of the abbey compound. It might be Baker and Company’s second delivery to the Abbey of Azure, but Lucy still found the place intimidating.
“I didn’t expect to see you again,” Lucy said as cheerily as she could while hopping out of the cart. “I thought you said you rotated duties each week.”
“We normally do,” the lieutenant began gathering an armful of boxes, “but I asked for extra assignments in the kitchen.”
They carried bakery boxes into the kitchen. Lucy’s eyes watered at the intensifying scent of woodsmoke in her nostrils, and she guessed the lieutenant was using her “way with earth,” as Liam would call it, to lighten their load. When they’d stacked the boxes in one of the pantries, the lieutenant followed Lucy back out to the cart to gather more boxes.
“Why did you ask for the extra kitchen assignments?” Lucy asked, making conversation as they strode back inside.
“Because I had an idea.” The lieutenant didn’t elaborate as they walked past bins of fresh produce stacked under the windows, along a row of ovens giving off heat, and behind the line of Knights slicing celery and onions at the massive wooden table in the center of the room. Lucy once again noticed the collection of knives at the end of the table working all by themselves. This time they peeled potatoes. By themselves. Lucy shook her head. And knowing from before that a pungent, smokey air would linger about those knives, she held her breath.
The lieutenant finally set her boxes on the floor and straightened. “I thought you might be willing to spend some days here in the abbey kitchen teaching us about pastry.”
Lucy finished stacking her own boxes and straightened, too. She only stared at the woman, stunned by the invitation.
“I have my supervisor’s approval to ask,” the lieutenant added. “Do you … think you’re even interested?”
Beyond the pantry door, several of the Knights glanced up from the table to watch for Lucy’s reaction. Even two of the knives that had been slicing potatoes all by themselves paused from their work.
“Um …,” Lucy tried to think through the offer, but she felt almost dizzy with the stench of lemon and woodsmoke in her nostrils. She knew she didn’t want to spend time with a bunch of Knights, but then she thought of Liam’s search and wondered. Could she help find the hidden library? Not that she thought she could find something everyone else had missed. That would be silly. But still.
“We’d pay Baker and Company well, of course,” the lieutenant added. “And we’d work with you on whatever schedule you needed.” The other woman’s dark eyes held Lucy’s, waiting.
Lucy bit her lip. Why would an old collection of books be hidden anywhere near a kitchen? They wouldn’t, of course. And Lucy likely wouldn’t have access to look anywhere else. But … what if she could gain access to a few other places, as well?
“What would your goal be?” she asked, stalling as she thought through the possibilities. “Would you be training a team of people to bake regularly for the abbey?”
“Yes. We’d still place special orders with Baker and Company, of course. You wouldn’t lose our business. But our regular meals would be,” the lieutenant hesitated, “a little better.”
Lucy couldn’t help it. She laughed as she pictured Liam’s face when he’d told her once about the quality of the abbey’s rectory fare. Liam, at least, thought it was terrible. “I am interested,” she admitted, speaking slowly as a plan began to form in her mind, “but I’d say that my baking isn’t any better than my relationship with the people I serve.” It didn’t surprise Lucy to see the other woman’s brows furrowing, and she took the opportunity it presented. “I think that’s part of why a small café like ours does so well—we know our customers, and they know us. If I were to be helpful to you,” and here she took a breath, praying to the Maker that she wasn’t about to do something stupid, “I’d want to know a little more about this community, about who the people are that you’re serving day in and day out and what their lives look like.”
The lieutenant’s shoulders had straightened as Lucy went on. She was nodding. Her stoic Knight’s expression actually lit with a tiny bit of eagerness.
Lucy paused and bit her bottom lip. How much could she ask for? “Would it be possible for me to have a tour of different parts of your abbey each time I visit? And,” she added with sudden inspiration, “your library, too? I’d love to see what kind of collection you have around foodways, cookbooks, anything about your culinary culture.” Seeing the other woman frown, Lucy held her breath. Had she asked for too much?
“I have no idea if we have books about food,” the lieutenant said. “But there’ll be plenty of librarians to help you look.”
“That’s wonderful!” Lucy couldn’t wait to tell Liam. Then she frowned, wondering why she even cared about Liam. The books were the important thing. Someone needed to find them. If she could help someone like Liam find them, then things would go that much better for everyone. That was all. “I’ll need to check with Baker and Company about specifics. Maybe you could contact us with a proposal? The café may need to hire some extra help for while I’m gone, so we’d need to know your budget.”
“Of course. Of course.” The lieutenant was nodding. “My supervisor will be in touch soon.”
“And,” Lucy added, “on the nicer days, could we throw open the kitchen windows? I … um … I must be allergic to something in your walls because I don’t breathe as well in here.” Lucy had never claimed allergies before, but then, she’d never before found herself in a building that reeked of power like this one.
The Knight’s eyebrows shot up. “Of course. Are you alright?”
“Yes. I only … might need some fresh air sometimes.”
“Of course.” She seemed to study Lucy’s breathing, as if looking for distress. She found none, of course. “Do you feel well enough to visit the library today, or would you rather wait until another time?”
“Today would be lovely.”
“I’ll find you an escort.”
Lucy followed the lieutenant out into the kitchen and across the length of the room. Several sets of eyes glanced up from the table again, following her progress from underneath the deep blue of the Knights’ caps.
“Is my cart alright left out there?” Lucy whispered behind the lieutenant.
“It’s fine.”
And that was how, only a few moments later, Lucy found herself hurrying along a shining grey length of marble floor as she tried to keep up with a young man in midnight blue trousers and a matching jacket. She hoped the sword at his belt was “ceremonial” but knew it might not be.
“This is the library wing,” the young Knight was saying. “It’s the most recent addition to the abbey. It and the refectory wing. But that was almost one hundred years ago now.”
Lucy had never thought to consider one hundred years ago “recent.” “Is there only one library in the abbey?” she asked with an effort at innocence. “Or is this the academic collection only? My interest is in lifeways, cookbooks, food culture—things like that.”
The Knight’s steps slowed, and he half-turned toward her. “This is the only library, but I don’t know about cookbooks.” His wrinkled nose suggested she’d asked something ridiculous. “I guess that’s a question for the librarians.”
“Of course,” she agreed, not caring how ridiculous she sounded. She hadn’t had very long to prepare a story, and this one had apparently been good enough to get her a library tour. Besides, what was so ridiculous about valuing cookbooks?
While the Knight’s gaze turned forward again, Lucy’s attention wandered. The wall to her left was an undifferentiated stretch of stone blocks, broken only by recesses holding wooden doors. The right side of the corridor was not a wall, at all, but a waist-high railing punctuated with columns. The walkway formed a quadrangle around an inner courtyard. Luckily, Lucy hadn’t removed her cloak. They as good as strolled outdoors, and though the sun shone, the winter air still felt crisp.
“Is this what you call the ‘cloisters’?” she asked. She’d heard the term though not seen anything like it before.
“Yes. Our life is organized around the Courtyard of Contemplation.” The Knight pointed to the courtyard in the middle of the quadrangle and then offered nothing further. Something in his demeanor didn’t invite any more questions. Eventually, she stopped before another recess in the stone wall. It held a door larger than any they’d passed before. “The library,” he said. When she nodded, he turned and marched back in the direction they’d come from.
Surprised, Lucy watched him go, his faint pine musk disappearing after him. Had she just been left unsupervised in the Abbey of Azure?
Lucy turned to the recess where the door stood propped open. Inside, a warm-lit entry area showed her a Knight sitting at a desk. The woman didn’t even glance up at Lucy. If Lucy had wanted, she could have walked away and wandered through the abbey. Granted, she’d have drawn attention anywhere she went in her grey cloak and mostly unbound hair. She’d tied her favorite cherry red bandana around her head to keep the inky curls out of her face. Nothing about her said, “Knight.”
As Lucy’s gaze drifted out to the courtyard, she considered possibilities. Then she decided she would have no better opportunity to explore the library. So, she went inside.
» TO BE CONTINUED »
CAKE AND PEWTER: A NOVELETTE. Copyright © 2026 by Callie J. Smith
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, visit www.calliejsmith.net.
Cake and Pewter first appeared in Forever Yours: A Dragon Soul Press Anthology
(Dragon Soul Press, 2026)