Archipelago

The love of my dreams put down the Thousand Islands dressing, and set the oven to preheat before sitting down. “Gale first called it the Island of a Thousand Churches. Guess who talked him down?”

Charlotte put down her pen and hummed. “Following the formula of the ’City of a Hundred Steeples’. Let me guess: in this case, the archipelago is not geographical, but ideological.”

“No metagaming!” Selene groaned. “Sarah, no more hints for Simone.”

Hortus touched her shoulder. “Wrong names, Selene.”

“Fine. Roslyn, no more hints for Charlotte.” She shook off Hortus’s hand, and folded her arms. “Enjoy yourself, Hortus.”