Scavenger Girl: Season of Toridia

by Jennifer Arntson

  “Maybe you should write things down after you’ve done them. Hide the list in your pocket, somewhere you’ll be sure to find it later in the day. A spirit wouldn’t have your handwriting or be able to touch you without you being made aware of it.”

  He picked up the laundry basket. “Maybe. But we’re still going to run out of food, regardless.”

  “Point taken.” I stood and led him out of the basement.

  Calish was wandering the house with a cup of tea when I met him in the front room. “There you are,” he said, kissing me on the cheek. While still close, he whispered in my ear, “You, me, and Marsh need to talk.”

  He was right; I wanted to tell him about Jeorge and Noran. I pulled away from him and nodded. “I’ll make a plate, and we can go check on him together.”

  “I’ll go freshen up my tea, then,” he agreed. “Oh, good morning, Graken.”

  “Good morning, sir.” He had sorted himself up since I’d seen him last. “Do we have a plan for the day?” His waist jerked back as a child darted between them.

  “I’ll be sure to consult with you as soon as I wake up a bit.” Calish toasted his officer. “You should eat something.”

  “Already have, sir.”

  “Wonderful.” Calish headed toward the kitchen. “Then have some tea!”

  I loaded two plates of food for Marsh. Calish topped off his cup, preparing a second for our brother. Jeorge searched to find the owners of each article of clothing, despite the children’s lack of participation. They didn’t seem too interested in changing into their clothes. Lucky for us, Jeorge looked like he would be busy for quite some time.

  “Good morning, sleepyhead,” I sang, opening the door to Marsh’s room.

  “Go away,” he grumbled.

  “We brought you breakfast,” I tempted him as Calish closed the door behind us.

  Marsh rolled over. “You should have started out with that information.” He slowly pushed himself up and propped his back up against the headboard of the bed. Somehow, he looked worse today than yesterday. “How are the little people?”

  I placed a plate on his lap. “Better than you.” I sat at the foot of the bed. “You look terrible.”

  “Good, because I feel terrible.”

  Calish pulled a chair from the corner of the bedroom and sat in it to see both of us. “While I would like to know how all the children downstairs came to spend the night with us, I’d like you two to start at the beginning and tell me exactly what happened yesterday.” He folded one leg over the other and blew the steam off the drink suddenly capturing his attention. “And don’t try to cover anything up. I know you two too well, and obviously, whatever you’ve done is going to create a lot of work for me. Don’t make my job any more difficult than you already have, all right?” He eyed us as he sipped his tea.

  Marsh and I glanced at each other quickly. “I’m not sure where to begin,” I confessed.

  Calish lowered his cup. “Why don’t you start by telling me why you left the house in the first place.”

  Since Marsh’s face was all busted up, it took him longer to eat than normal which assigned me to do most of the talking. I told Calish about Noran charming the servants to spy on others and the subsequent discussion I’d had with Jeorge about the houses being haunted.

  “If we’d have known Jeorge was an unwilling participant, we probably would have stayed here.”

  “Well, we kinda thought that might be the case but thought it would have been too simple of an explanation,” Marsh mumbled.

  “So, you just walked right out the front gate?” Calish asked.

  “No,” I confessed and told him about the fire.

  “You two did that? You could have burnt down the entire neighborhood, the valley, and the hillside!”

  “Don’t be so dramatic,” Marsh said with his mouth full. “It doesn’t suit you.”

  Calish fell back in his chair, obviously frustrated by our actions. “Go on.”

  “Tell him about the door,” Marsh nodded.

  “What door?” Calish asked.

  “There’s a secret exit into the field behind the neighborhood. It’s at a trailhead leading to the center of the Woodsmen’s territory,” I said.

  “And it’s well used,” Marsh added.

  Suddenly Calish set his cup on the night table so as not to be distracted.

  “We stayed hidden,” I reported. “When we realized where we were, we went off the trail to avoid being seen. It wasn’t until we saw the children that things went bad.”

  Calish’s jaw fell open, and his eyebrows jumped into his hairline. “Are these the children from the wood’s edge?”

  Marsh swallowed his food and glared the best he could with a distorted and swollen face. “You knew about them?”

  “Are you kidding? Everybody knows about them.”

  Marsh flung his plate against the wall and sprang out of bed. “You knew about them?” he bellowed.

  “Marsh!” I stepped between the two of them, and he swept me to the side. Unprepared, I fell onto the bed, landing on my wounded arm.

  I wailed, and Calish tried to push past our brother to come to me. Marsh grabbed him by the back of his shirt and threw him back into his chair. He towered over Calish. “Give me one good reason not to put my fist through your face right now,” he demanded, but Calish said nothing. “We don’t leave children like that! This is not how we were raised!”

  “Marsh, please,” I begged, trying to push through the pain burning along the outer surface of my arm.

  “He knew about them and left them there to rot!” He spit in Calish’s face. “Congratulations, my Lord. You’re officially your grandfather’s kin through and through.”

  “Marsh—” Calish wiped the spit from his face.

  “I don’t want to hear it.” Marsh went to the window and flung open the curtains overlooking the shanty town. “We did what you should have done.”

  “It’s not that simple.” Calish stood. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “We can discuss that later.” Those words made Marsh even more angry, but Calish ignored him. “What happened after you cut them loose?”

  As I explained how we and the children were captured, Calish got too antsy to stay put and paced back and forth across the room.

  “Someone recognized me, and they got scared.”

  He stopped. “Scared? The Woodsmen?”

  “Yeah, the guy said he didn’t want to lose a hand, whatever that meant. He knew I was Reinick’s granddaughter.”

  “Wait”—Calish shook his head—“that’s how he referred to you, ‘Reinick’s granddaughter,’ not as my wife?”

  “Why? Is that important?”

  “Just keep going with your story.” Calish’s pacing resumed.

  “We stayed there until a man named Kash came to see us.”

  He spun to face me, a horrified expression laying claim to his face. “Kash?” he clarified. “Are you sure it was Kash?”

  “I, um, that’s what he said.”

  Calish ran his hands through his hair but didn’t push them through. He stood with his hands buried in his curls.

  “What’s the matter?” I stammered.

  He dropped his arms. “Kash is the most feared man I’ve ever heard about. Nobody who sees him lives to tell about it. He is the head of the Woodsmen, his inner circle is relatively small, and each of his followers thinks of him like some sort of god. According to Reinick, he’s been trouble since the day he was born, constantly slipping out of the Authority’s custody. Since the disaster, he’s become damn near unstoppable. He’s compiling an army, although I don’t know how he recruits. Unlike the Authority, he doesn’t have deserters.” He rubbed his face. “Nobody even whispers his name.” Calish’s eyes squinted into narrow slits. “I wonder why he spared you.”

  “She wasn’t spared, you damn fool!” Marsh corrected him. “Somehow they know each other; he let her go to settle some old debt.”

  “Una, you know him?”

/>   “I don’t know how,” I replied defensively.

  “Couldn’t you search him, or whatever you do?” he yelled.

  “Hey! Don’t you dare yell at her!” Marsh headed toward him.

  “Stop! Both of you! Someone will hear us!”

  They heeded my warning and stepped back from each other.

  “To answer your question, no, I couldn’t. He never touched me, well, not until the end.” I unwrapped the bandage over my shoulder. “When he did, it was to give me this.” I dropped the dressing.

  Calish wrapped his arms around his gut, like someone sucker punched him. His legs gave way, and he collapsed into the chair.

  “After all the other burns, I just couldn’t focus on anything.”

  “He branded you,” Calish whispered as if he heard nothing else I’d said. He folded himself at the waist as sobs crept up his throat. His little curl fell against his forehead, but he didn’t try to push it back.

  He always brushes it back.

  Marsh bobbed his head. “She paid with her flesh! One mark for each one of those kids. The kids you left there to die!”

  “No, Marsh.” Calish’s dry voice cracked. “He gave her his mark, that one on top.”

  “Yeah, he mentioned something about other people couldn’t kill her,” Marsh said as if an expert on the subject.

  “That’s one of the perks, I guess.” Calish gnawed at the bend of his thumb.

  I remembered the nurse’s reaction when she saw it. “What does it mean?”

  Calish held his breath. “You have been claimed.”

  “What?” Marsh and I said in unison.

  “But I’m married to you.”

  Calish buried his face in his hands, wiping away the tears when they came. “It’s a technicality. They don’t follow any laws; they conduct themselves above and outside the law. A law we cannot enforce,” he scoffed. “The Woodsmen will protect you as if you were Kash himself. If anyone touches you, if anyone angers you, even a little bit, they’ll be dead before dawn. Even me.”

  Silence fell heavy in the room.

  After a moment, Calish stood, his focus at the edges of the room. “I need some air.”

  “Wait.” I reached for him, but he put his hand out to stop me. He gave me one look, a combination of anguish and despair.

  It can’t be this bad; it just can’t.

  Pressing his lips together, he took hold of the door and opened it gently. He paused to give us one final instruction but didn’t look at us directly. “Don’t leave this room, either of you. If you do, you will be removed from my house and not allowed to return.”

  His voice was different. He was authoritative and in no way wavering in his threat. Calish had never spoken to us with such a definitive tone. His words crushed my heart and left me defenseless. The door closed behind him. The room grew smaller, the world grew bigger, and suddenly I’d lost my way.

  What have I done?

  Did the mark really have that kind of power against the Citizens and the Authority? Would only Kash and his tribe accept me?

  Why can’t I remember who he is?

  “Una”—Marsh took my hand—“he didn’t mean it.”

  “You’re wrong, Marsh. He meant every word,” I said, choking back my tears.

  Marsh knelt in front of me and pulled me into his brotherly arms. “It’s going to be all right. He’ll figure this thing out. Calish is the cool, calculated one. He’s smart. He went from a Scab to the damn Junior Lord of the Authority, for gods’ sake.” He laughed as best as his broken ribs would allow. “If he can do that, he can do anything.”

  I patted his chest, and he pulled away. I knew he was only trying to help, but I knew how badly I messed things up. So did he. No pep talk in the world would make me feel optimistic about my situation. Unable to sit still, I looked out the window to the shanty town along the main road, caressing my pregnant belly.

  I should have stayed home like Calish planned.

  In the driveway below, I watched Calish step away from the house, walking aimlessly toward the gate. He stopped and put his hands on his hips, tilted his face up to the sun, and took a meditative sigh. Something caught his attention, so he turned. Graken jogged out to him, and the two men said a few words to each other.

  “What?” Graken shouted, quickly hushed by Calish. Graken glanced back at the house and slicked his hair back slowly. He grabbed Calish’s shoulder and said something to him. When he didn’t respond, Graken shook him and made sure his words were heard. Calish wiped tears from his cheek just before the guard put his arm around my husband’s shoulders and led him out of view.

  Not knowing when they would return, I lay down on Marsh’s bed and curled up with one of the many pillows complementing the ensemble. I knew I wouldn’t fall asleep; still, I would not leave this room until Calish returned. If that was the only thing I could do, I would do it happily out of obedience to him.

  I just hoped he would return to me.

  Chapter 23

  Marsh, who was gazing out the window, warned me when Graken and Calish were headed back. As such, I wasn’t surprised when they entered the room together. We had been confined for so long, Calish felt it necessary to bring us some dried fruit and tea. What I needed was use of the washroom across the hall. While my husband bade me permission to relieve myself, his pass was temporary, and he expected me back as soon as I finished.

  My bladder hurt after emptying it. Pregnant women should not be deprived of a toilet.

  Next time, I’ll make sure Calish makes me wait in our bedroom as punishment.

  At the sink, I stared at my reflection in the mirror. Anu was not there, or at least she didn’t make herself known. Maybe she knew I didn’t wish to see her and kept herself hidden. My pain felt too great to share. My eyes drifted from my shoulder-length hair to my extended belly before they stopped at the bandages I poorly rewrapped on my arm. Unbuttoning my shirt, I let it fall off my shoulders and onto the floor. My body, broken and full, stood as a testament of strength and not only my will to survive, but the glorious ability to create and sustain the life of another. I touched the scars from the wolf above my clavicle. The depression his teeth left in my skin never faded. At the time, it was the most painful thing I’d known.

  I’d come to learn there were two types of pain: the pain of the flesh and the pain of the spirit. No one should ever be forced to endure enough to know the difference. Marsh knew it. That’s what made us tighter than family; our bond went beyond blood. Calish didn’t understand. He couldn’t. Though he loved me as much as he did, I couldn’t expect him to know why we felt those children were worth the cost—why they were worth the mark. As much as I wished he’d do more than sympathize with me, I would never want him to suffer the consequences necessary to learn it.

  I crouched down to collect my shirt, watching myself in the mirror as I put it back on, careful to not disturb the bandages on my arm.

  I am not the girl I used to be.

  I had changed. My body had changed, my mind had changed, and, more importantly, my perspective had changed. No longer a scared little girl, I had transformed into a woman of principles. I would not allow the fear of the flesh to corrupt them. What I had done, however, did not sacrifice skin and spirit alone. I feared I had sacrificed the only thing worth living for.

  Love.

  A knock on the washroom door interrupted my thoughts. “Una?” Calish’s voice made my heart leap.

  I finished fastening my buttons. “I’m almost finished.” I practiced my most apologetic smile and reached for the door. When I opened it, the hall was empty except for Graken who stood in the threshold of the guest room.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “I didn’t know you were waiting for me.” I slipped past him, taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

  Calish started the conversation by confessing he told Graken everything. When I offered to show the mark, he declined. Unlike the nurse, his demeanor didn’t change. He had never been particularly
kind to me, nor had he been unnecessarily rude either, at least not yet. Perhaps Calish acted prematurely and the mark didn’t hold the power he assumed it did.

  Graken rubbed his finger across the cleft in his square chin as he concentrated his attention on my features. His silence put me more on edge than anything. My father was a novice compared to the guard’s mastery of intimidation. Did he not realize we were on the same side?

  Well, kind of.

  The way he inhaled should have been a warning. His shoulders broadened, his nostrils flared, and his eyes turned cold. We could have been the only people in the room. Thankfully we were not. I waited, wishing I could become small, not that I didn’t already feel insignificant staring up at his commanding frame.

  And then it began.

  Graken had years of experience in interrogation—or as he called it “investigation.” His questions came fast and twisted my words around on themselves. Sometimes he didn’t let me finish a thought before he hurled another pointed question at me. I didn’t understand how the questions were related. One minute, he asked me about Alux, then he accused me of being something called a Whiteman. He demanded to know where I learned about thistle’s nutritional properties then why I wouldn’t tell him who attacked the guard in the laundry during Talium. His voice grew more gruff with every question and accusation. He drilled me on Kash, his territory, how I knew him, and what I did to earn his favor, then he accused me of treachery.

  “I don’t know what I did!” I screamed loud enough to shut him up.

  Graken took a sip of water, but his eyes never left mine. “You said he told you it had something to do with Talium.” He slammed the glass on the nightstand. “What happened during Talium?”

  I gave up and sobbed. “I already told you.”

  “She was taken from us and put under the watchful eye of the almighty Authority, remember?” Marsh scoffed.

  Graken warned him to keep quiet and took a more demanding tone with me. “I suggest you start telling me something useful, or I’ll be forced to make you remember.”

  “What does that mean?” I cried.

  Calish stood with his back against the closed door and his hands in his pockets as his Chief of Security continued to tear into me. He was relentless. Graken obviously took it personally that all this happened under his watch. He lost his patience with me, and I lost my composure. I’d never been questioned so violently. Marsh tried to come to my defense, earning nothing but threats of being removed or hogtied. I did my best to answer his questions, as trivial as they may seem. My efforts were far less than acceptable by his standards.