A Merric's Tale

by Margs Murray

  “Oh, really! You want to get into it!” I said, and I spun towards the group intending to tell them all off. My eyes locked on Manon, and I saw a fear in hers like she was scared of me or my reaction. I wondered if she’d get into trouble if I didn’t at least hear Dryden through.

  “Fine.” I huffed and took my seat. “Go right ahead.”

  “Good,” Dryden said. “This is good. It is time you knew. These men are some of your Barton detail.”

  “What do you mean by part of my Barton detail? Were there more than you three?”

  Rudolf poured a glass of water and handed it to Manon, who was still pale. Manon gave him a whisper of a smile.

  “There were hundreds,” Dryden replied.

  “Hundreds?” I couldn’t believe it. “Of guards in Barton?”

  Enzo left the room.

  “We had twenty-eight safe homes in Barton.”

  “Twenty-eight?” My mind raced down streets and dirt roads. There weren’t many homes in Barton. “That has to be a third of the houses.”

  The men nodded. Mr. Wilbur said, “There were many men in town. The Merrics stationed us in Barton the longest.”

  “They stationed us at the school to keep a closer detail in case there was another Galvantry attack,” Mr. Hincho said.

  I swallowed. “There was an attack?”

  All three nodded. “Many.”

  “On me? No, I would have known.”

  “No, you wouldn’t.” Mr. Naugle scoffed. “We did our job, and you had a normal and healthy childhood.”

  Mr. Hincho sat forward. “We thwarted events before they ever occurred.”

  I crossed my arms and sat back. I didn’t believe it. “When?”

  Mr. Wilbur shrugged his shoulders. “A small army of Galvantry men showed up to your graduation.”

  “Nothing happened at graduation.” Annoyance filled my voice.

  Mr. Hincho smiled. “We did our jobs, and you were none the wiser.”

  “You should have seen Old Naugle here. He took down five men at once.” Mr. Hincho slapped his friend on the back.

  Five men? Naugle? As big as he was, my imagination struggled to picture Naugle taking out a group of men. “You did?”

  “Yes, the teaching jobs were covers.”

  “But you were so good at them.” All three men had been class-act teachers.

  Mr. Wilbur laughed. “We were a mess in the beginning. We had to hire tutors to teach us.”

  Enzo returned with servants pushing trays of desserts and a pot of tea and coffee. They came to me first, and I grabbed a dessert without looking and put it on a dish and placed it in my lap.

  Dryden removed his hat and helped himself to a small plate of pink and yellow cookies. “Your uncle has always known how important you are to this world and how much this world will need you. There have been men placed in Barton since before you were born. Men are still in place to protect your grandmother and parents. Your parents have no idea, but your grandmother knew.”

  “Of course, she knew, and it would have been nice for me to know it too,” I said, and I pointed to the three men.

  Hincho shook his head. “I know you’re angry, but Wavy, how could we tell you? You have any idea how crazy we would have sounded to you.”

  I shook my head even though he was right.

  Wilbur took a cup of tea and added, “Knowing your world, I wouldn’t have believed us.”

  He was right. I wouldn’t have believed them, but now— “Are my parents in danger?”

  Dryden swallowed down a cookie and answered, “Your parents’ home is more fortified than any other location in your world.”

  “Sasha?” I hadn’t even considered her. “Wait, is she even really my friend or does she work here too?”

  “She’s a civilian and as blind to all this as your parents. Your classmates are under surveillance, and security around Sasha is nearly as high as your parents. Barton is more secure than Boston. That is why Wilbur, Hincho, and Naugle have arrived.”

  “Well, if Barton is safer, I’ll go home, thank you.”

  “You would put them in more danger by going home.” Rudolf spoke up.

  “But you said home was safer.”

  Dryden nodded. “You are an untrained Merric, and an untrained Merric is a prime target.”

  “I don’t know what you mean by untrained.” I had no clue. “And I’m a Wilson.”

  Dryden nodded. “Untrained in the art of… combat.”

  “Well, then, my mom is also untrained, right? She would be an easy target. And Grandma is hardly in any shape for a fight.”

  The wait staff wheeled the cart of food out of the room.

  Dryden shook his head. “Your mother is fine. It is you the Galvantry wants. They believe you, Waverly, will be a formidable, impressive person soon.”

  Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. “Not if I go home. I won’t be trained, and I can get my normal life back.”

  They looked at me and then at each other like I was out of the loop. They knew things they weren’t sharing.

  “What?” No one answered. “What is it now?” My ex-teachers shook their heads. “Great, so you’re going to keep your secrets under your hat.”

  Manon spoke up. “Waverly—“

  “What? Talk—any of you—feel free to let me in on what you are all thinking.”

  Hincho shook his head. “We can’t, Wavy. We would if we could, but—”

  “But you can’t, is that right?”

  “If we told you the truth, you’d think we were making it up,” Wilbur said. He opened his palms and shrugged.

  “Oh, I might believe anything at this point,” I said, and stood up from my chair, my dessert falling from my lap to the floor. I grabbed a tissue from a table and kneeled to clean it up. Within seconds, a maid took over.

  Frustrated, I balled my fists. “Are you people just spying on me? Is that it?” I paused. With that many people watching me, they’d witnessed so many embarrassing moments. I turned on the three traitors. “Since you apparently observed my entire childhood, what did you tell these people?”

  “Oh,” Mr. Hincho said, catching on to what I meant. “We mainly watched around you to make sure you weren’t in danger.”

  “I’m guessing there were cameras too. Are they on me right now?” I searched the ceiling for cameras.

  “Yes. They were strategically placed around Barton.”

  Manon stood to join me. “They only wanted your safety. No Merric is ever without security.”

  “These three men have been tailing you since kindergarten,” Dryden responded with pride in his voice. “It’s a record for time spent in the secondary earth.”

  “Primary, and I was five!” I said.

  Mr. Wilbur smiled. “You were the cutest little girl with those curls.”

  “Those chubby cheeks,” Naugle added.

  “No, you don’t.” I’d heard enough. “You don’t get to act like the fun uncles again. Don’t pretend you cared.”

  “Oh, Waverly, we cared. It’d be impossible to be that close and not care about you and your family,” Hincho explained.

  I was close to crying, and I refused to do it. I took a deep, angry breath. “Later.”

  I left the room, and Manon followed. “Wait! Please don’t be upset.”

  I rushed down the hall. “You work here. I didn’t get a choice. Bollard had men watching me, and I didn’t have warning or anything.”

  “This isn’t my job. I’m here for you. No pay.” Manon ran to catch up. “I understand.”

  “I don’t think you do. I just found out the Merrics spied on my whole life and that my family is in danger from some terrorist organization. I mean, how can I trust that my family or Sasha are safe?”

  “Waverly, please.” Manon sprinted out and stopped before me. “You’re looking at this the wrong way. Did you not have a good childhood? You have been in grave danger your whole life. Not knowing this is a gift. Bollie only ever wanted what was best fo
r you. The Merrics have protected you your whole life. They’ve watched out for and given you a great opportunity. Bollard didn’t send men to spy on you. He sent them to make sure you had a future. There has never been a Merric that hasn’t needed protection.”

  “But I didn’t know, and I should have. My life was in danger. People should know when they are being threatened. My parents should know.”

  “I do not know your parents, but I know mine,” Manon said, and she placed her hand on my shoulder. “I know my parents wouldn’t have let me out of the house if they knew people were after me. They’d have called the police and people would say they were crazy. Worse yet, they could’ve run from their safety zone to escape the enemy and straight into danger. Would your parents act differently than mine?”

  She was right. My parents would have high-tailed it out of Barton, but I was too irritated to admit Manon had a point.

  “Look, Manon, go have your dessert with them then, and you can all discuss how wrong I am for feeling betrayed, okay? I’m going to bed.” I walked around her.

  Manon’s voice trembled as she called from behind me. “Please don’t be mad at me! Forgive me and Enzo and Rudolf. You wanted to speak with Dryden, and he thought you should know.”

  “Forgive you?” This made me stop, and I turned to see Manon on the floor. “You did nothing, and neither did Enzo. I’m not mad at him or you. I’m just mad, okay. I’m going to bed. Good night.”

  Chapter 15

  Where Aspens Fall and Other Tales of Woe

  Fed up with all things Merric, I had had enough of the half-truths and deceptions. Not telling us about the danger we were in was a lie by omission. Not telling the truth about Grandma, even though Bollard understood perfectly well she had the Tennabris, was a lie. Bollard telling me he wanted me to get to know him was barely even half true. He wanted me to know who the family was because I might be powerful? No one had bothered to even tell me what that power was.

  I wanted to go home but couldn’t even if Bollard would let me because I was stuck. If I went back, no one would believe Grandma was suffering from the incurable Tennabris. At least in this world, the disease had a name and experts, but even then, I didn’t know the first thing I could do to help.

  Grandma believed I would find a cure for the disease. I was her only hope, and it wasn’t just because of the fortuneteller or my quest to find the necklace and the words. I was her only hope because I was the only person in our world who knew the truth.

  The more I stayed in my room though, the more frustrated I became. I had had enough with thinking about things and not understanding. I was done. I needed to escape, to get my mind off everything, but the room was void of anything entertaining or not related to the Merrics.

  I kicked off my stupid heels and shimmied out of my fancy dress. I threw on the only comfortable clothes in my closet, a pair of PJs, my lovely white house robe, and a pair of heavenly slippers, and I took a walk to the library.

  Books shelves lined the twenty-foot-high walls. Each shelf overflowed with materials. Rolling ladders leaned against the walls. I read the spines of the books. Some I recognized: Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson, E.E. Cummings, JK Rowling, Shakespeare. But others were foreign: Marcel Glackslow, Jack Livingston, and Cherry Fina Theremin. The most curious book was a collection of poems by Abraham Lincoln. I settled on reading the poems of the greatest president when the toe of my slipper nudged something on the floor. The corner of a book peeked out from underneath a bookshelf. I picked it up. Where Aspens Fall and Other Tales of Woe. I flipped through it. The book appeared to be a book of fairy tales or fables.

  I wanted an easy read, a short story with a happy ending.

  I snuggled onto a pea-green sofa before the large fireplace with Where Aspens Fall and Other Tales of Woe. I opened the cover and read by the light of the embers. On the first page was a handwritten inscription: There’s only one way through the vipers. They signed the book Love, TC.

  There’s only one way through the vipers was an odd phrase, but I supposed it was a line from the book.

  The first story told about a forest locked in an endless winter. A cardinal became convinced he could bring the spring if he faced a blizzard straight on and without seeking shelter. The bird flew into the storm, and the poor thing froze to death. The snow ended and spring finally arrived. A maiden found his dead body and picked him up and hugged him. I was thinking the story would end with her kissing him and the bird would turn into a prince, or hey, at least bring it back to life, but oh no. The girl took him home and plucked all his feathers and used them to decorate a hat. True, everyone loved the hat, but come on, what kind of ending was that?

  The next tale was about a duck who believed she had one great purpose in life and all she needed to do was figure it out. A girl on an adventure, so immediately I liked her. She paddled every river, flew every mountain. She traveled the world, searching for her purpose. One day she was flying to visit her favorite lake when a hunter shot her with an arrow. The hunter ate the duck for dinner.

  At that point, I threw the book across the room.

  I opened Lincoln's poems. Mid-way through the first poem, The Lament, the door opened.

  “She is so mad. We are all in trouble. She… she is so mad and so untrained. You’ve seen what happens when a Merric gets angry.” I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Manon.

  I supposed she was with Enzo because they were friends, but the voice that replied was not Enzo. “Can’t you tell she isn’t like them? She is fine, darling.”

  Darling? I only half recognized the voice, and it wasn’t my uncle. Carefully, slowly, silently, I turned and looked over the back of the lounger. Rudolf was holding Manon to him while she cried.

  “Her guards love her. I’ve never heard any guards speak so favorably of a Merric. They would gladly die for the girl. You saw them; they weren’t even the least bit afraid of her anger. Even after she stormed out, they wanted to talk to her. They weren’t worried she was angry; they were more like… I don’t know, like they missed her.” A knot formed in my belly. My teachers—no, bodyguards—really cared for me. They must have. Rudolf didn’t know I was sitting there.

  “So they say.” Manon’s voice was muffled as she spoke into Rudolf’s coat. “But her anger? You sensed it too?”

  Sensed my anger? I wondered. What was she talking about?

  “No.” Rudolf laughed. “I felt nothing. She reacted like a normal person. I think you’re sensitive to it because of what happened between you, Claudette, and Bollard.”

  “Wouldn’t you be too?” Manon asked. “I hate this world, living like this. I hate having to be here. I never should‘ve agreed to come.”

  I wanted very much to know what they were talking about, and I wondered what had transpired between Manon and my family.

  “Manon.”

  “If Bollard ever found out, he’d— “

  “Don’t think of it,” Rudolf said.

  Manon hiccupped, her tears flowing. “How can I not? We are in so much danger.”

  The way she said danger made the hairs on my arms stick up on end.

  Rudolf wasn’t hearing it. “No matter what happens, I will never regret this.” In the background, I heard Rudolf pull Manon into a kiss. The kiss lasted for a few awkward minutes before Rudolf mentioned moving on to more private quarters. Thankfully, Manon agreed.

  I gave them a while before I stood up and even longer before I left. The last thing Manon needed was to know I knew she was having a secret affair with Rudolf. I had always assumed that Manon was there under orders from my uncle, forced to be my friend. Manon was there for Rudolf, and after all my uncle had put me through that summer, I liked that Manon was actively defying him. Plus, Manon and Rudolf were pretty together. They looked like they should be a couple.

  She’d be devastated—no, terrified—if she knew I knew. Although she shouldn’t. I had more loyalty to both Rudolf and Manon than my uncle. I’d keep their secrets. But the w
ay Manon said danger, she meant real, honest danger, like my uncle might try to hurt them, like sending the Libratiers to break Rudolf’s kneecap or worse.

  Chapter 16

  Duchess Claudette Rebecca Overton Merric, Duchess of Georgia, Duchess of Alabama, Lady of Oklahoma.

  “Well, how do you know this is not the necklace?” Manon held a nearly exact match to my grandmother’s ring. She added, “No one would be the wiser.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s not a match.”

  Three hundred necklaces adorned the small drawing-room table. All of them striking, all of them lavish, and all of them wrong.

  “How can you tell? They look exactly alike. You would look lovely in any of these.”

  I hadn’t explained the exact reason why I wanted the necklace to anyone, and if Manon thought I was merely seeking a pretty necklace, I wasn’t about to tell her otherwise.

  “I realize. They’re all gorgeous. It’s just… I don’t feel like the one I’m looking for is here.”

  Manon held up an enormous emerald necklace. “But you don’t know,” she said. “Besides, this one is perfect; it brings out the gray of your eyes, and it goes so well with the violet of your gown. Money is no object. If you kept all the necklaces, your uncle would not mind.”

  It had been three days since the library incident, and in those three days Manon and I had looked at close to a thousand necklaces and all were a bit off.

  “It’s not that. I have a gut feeling that the necklace isn’t here.” Manon raised her eyebrows, and I continued. “I know it’s stupid. It’s kind of like a bride trying on a wedding gown or something. Like, when it’s right, I’ll know.”

  “They are all beautiful.” Manon yawned. “Pardon me. I did not sleep well last night.”

  I looked away quickly before we locked eyes. No need to worry her about my knowledge of her relationship with Rudolf.

  On the other hand, it was easy to forgive Manon. She was kind of my only friend. Besides, I was hoping that perhaps she’d tell me what had happened between her and Claudette, but so far she hadn’t volunteered, and I hadn’t asked.