“How fascinating!” she said with more enthusiasm than was necessary. “You sound like quite the adventurer.”
He supposed it was true.
Chapter 41
“This is disgusting!” said Astrid to Yukiko. “Look what they did to her!”
“I see it,” said Yukiko. She saw the wounds and old scars and also that the two young women were identical in appearance.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Astrid asked the girl. “Can you write it down? Are you trapped here?”
The girl shook her head, but Yukiko saw that Astrid was peppering her with too many questions and she was too flustered to answer. Then, she picked up the sound of footsteps. Astrid and the servant girl hadn’t heard them yet.
“She’s coming back,” said Yukiko.
“Find us later,” said Astrid, and the girl rushed out of the room.
By the time Bogdana stepped through the door, Yukiko was sitting beside Astrid, both of them eating lemon cake.
“He will be back tomorrow,” Bogdana said.
Yukiko watched Astrid hesitate, and then look her mother in the eye. “When tomorrow?”
“In the afternoon.”
“I think we’d like to stay until then.”
“Would you?” Bogdana looked surprised. “I’m not sure if he’ll have an official summons for you. Even if he doesn’t, they can summon you in other ways. Leaving here won’t change that.”
“I’m starting to understand that,” said Astrid. “If this is my home, my family, then I’d like to get to know it better.”
“I’m so glad,” said Bogdana, smiling and clasping her hands together. “I’ll arrange some rooms to be made up.”
“One room,” said Yukiko.
“If you wish. I will have some clothing brought up.” Bogdana looked pointedly at Astrid’s clothes. She still wore the gold and red silk outfit with her purse slung across her body and the two socks tied to her sash. The outfit was filthy, wrinkled and wasn’t the freshest thing Yukiko had ever smelled.
Before supper, Yukiko and Astrid were shown to their room. As they passed through the corridors behind a hooded servant, Yukiko smelled and looked for the servant girl. She could not find her. Astrid closed the door to their room, a spacious round chamber at the top of one of the front towers. The view stretched all the way to the sea. A plush four-poster bed with piles of deep purple pillows stood at the center, and there was a smaller bed, also covered in purple pillows, for Yukiko. A pile of soft cushions cluttered a nearby chair. What was it with the fey and pillows? Yukiko’s own people were not so obsessed with luxury.
In a tiny adjoining room waited a tub full of steaming water, a wash basin and a jug.
“We’re going to get her out,” said Astrid.
“Impossible,” said Yukiko. “She belongs to them. Did you see the chain around her neck? Remember how that slaugh bound Santiago to him with a silver chain? It’s the same.”
“So we cut the chain.”
“It’s not just a chain. It’s a bond, an unbreakable bond.”
“Unbreakable?” said Astrid. “But Santiago broke it.”
“The slaugh broke it when he changed his mind about having Coyote tied to him.”
“So we get Bogdana to change her mind about the girl. We get her to give her up as a servant.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
“I was hoping you’d have an idea. You’re the clever fox, remember?”
She was not nearly as clever as she wished she could be. She had worked her way out of sticky situations numerous times, certainly, but freeing a girl enslaved to the Unseelie was madness.
Astrid dug through the armoire, pulling out dresses, trousers and tops made of cotton, silk and other fine fabrics. The girl settled on a pomegranate red cotton dress. She took it into the adjoining room and took a bath, leaving the door ajar.
“Tell me about the Unseelie. About the court and the Wild Hunt,” Astrid called from the tub.
Yukiko sat next to the door, her back to the bathing girl. “Imagine the most corrupt human royal court with intrigues, murder, entrapment, lies and brutality, all beneath a façade of civility and refinement, and you have it. Don’t get involved. Not that you could. Even if the king and queen summoned you, they would never ask a girl who was raised in the human world to be part of their court. You’re too … uncivilized.”
“If that’s their idea of civilized, then I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Now, the Wild Hunt, that’s something else. I’ve never seen them myself, but I had some Irish customers back in San Francisco. They’d drink and talk and tell tales their grandfathers told them. When the west wind blew off the ocean, they’d talk about the Wild Hunt. Some said that the slaugh were the souls of the restless dead, souls not welcome either in heaven or hell.”
“They seemed hellish to me,” said Astrid.
“The Wild Hunt flew, filling the skies, like a flock of birds, coming from the west. They would try to find the dying and claim their souls. So people would cover their west-facing windows. That pigeon slaugh that got into the park wanted to have my baby Kitsune, thinking he could ride it in the Wild Hunt.”
“Kitsune can fly?”
Yukiko laughed. “No, but the slaugh could manage it somehow.”
“Okay, so the court is evil. The Wild Hunt is no picnic. And my mother is worse than my—I mean my real mother is worse than my human one. I’m still not seeing a whole lot of difference between the Seelie and the Unseelie. They’re both terrible.”
“They both have codes that they live by. The Seelie code is the opposite of the Unseelie, or so they claim. Seelie, as hard as it may be to believe, have a code of honor. The Seelie would believe in sacrificing themselves for others, while the Unseelie code is one of selfishness. Of course, they call it self-preservation, but for them, no sacrifice is too great if it achieves one’s ends. The Seelie will always repay a debt, but the Unseelie may or may not, as convenient to them. Notice that the Seelie may have caged us, but they did not torture us or starve us. They caught me fairly, according to their own rules, but they did not mistreat me by beatings or starvation. They did the same with you. And never forget this: The Seelie believe in order and honor. The Unseelie love chaos and domination.”
Astrid did not answer, though Yukiko heard the soft splashes of water that indicated that she was still bathing. She jumped up on the windowsill and looked out over the hills, Luna Park in the distance and the sea beyond that. The water had a bluish cast, more of an indigo color, perhaps reflecting some of the purple of the sky.
She thought of the poor servant girl, gambled away by a father who probably couldn’t even remember doing it. Gambled. Human children could be gambled. But this girl was not a child. She was a slave, free and clear, and an adult. Bogdana could lose her by gambling, but she would only agree to any sort of game if Yukiko put up something of similar value. That would mean either herself or Astrid. And Bogdana would be wise enough not to play a game of chance that Yukiko could influence with her magic, which meant that she would be risking Astrid or her own freedom. There had to be another way, but she couldn’t think of it.
“Yukiko?” Astrid called. “When I let the slaugh through near my house, it stacked stones in a circle near my window. And another time it burned a circle into our lawn.”
Yukiko thought about it. “I’m not familiar with the ways of the slaugh, but my guess is that making stacks with the stones was an attempt to get you to make another doorway, perhaps to get the slaugh home.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you know about fairy rings, made of mushrooms?”
“Yes, I’ve heard of those,” said Astrid. “If a human goes to dance in a circle with the fairies, they might never return.”
“Precisely. It’s a kind of Doorway. I think the stones and the burned grass might have been the slaugh version of circles, attempts to get home.”
Astrid didn’t say anything, and Yukiko wondered if she felt bad for the slaugh, trapped in a strange world without its kin.
Astrid left the owl bell in their room so Yukiko would not have to use her power to conceal it. After a supper of spiced chickpea patties in dill sauce, greens with pine nuts and a dessert of bluebell custard, Yukiko and Astrid chatted with Bogdana, toured the library and finally, were able to head upstairs to go to bed. They did not sleep, of course, but sat up, talking and waiting for the servant girl to come. Astrid told Yukiko everything about what had happened to her in Seelie from being held in a house in Malibu, escaping, meeting the sea woman, whom she called a mermaid, and visiting her cave. The oddest thing was the bell, which the sea woman claimed to have had for over fifty years.
It made Yukiko think of Elliot. She had seen him decades before, in San Francisco. He clearly had not recognized her, which meant that either he was an amnesiac who aged backwards or that he really had not yet met her. And then here was an object which appeared earlier than it should have. Odd.
The bedroom door opened and the servant girl slipped in, silent as a shadow, and closed the door behind her. She had a quiet, sneaking way of moving, almost blending into the room. It wasn’t simply a physical quality. She seemed less there, smaller in spirit, as if she took up less space than other people.
The girl pulled her hood back herself, which pleased Yukiko. She liked that the girl, tortured and mutilated as she was, was brave enough to look them in the eye.
Yukiko watched from the windowsill as Astrid pulled out her sketch pad and tried to get the girl to write, but she could not. She stood with her hands folded and no way to communicate other than nodding or shaking her head. Through asking yes or no questions, they discovered that she could not read, she did not know how old she was or how to get out of the Unseelie world. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry and worked in the gardens. She also had no name.
“But what do they call you?” Astrid asked.
The girl shook her head.
“Do you want a name?”
The girl shrugged and Yukiko considered. What good was a name to someone who barely had any existence? Her life was a series of tasks, not one of affection or having any sort of identity or belonging. If she didn’t understand how relationships between people worked, she wouldn’t understand that she would need a name. Perhaps they had a word they used to summon her, but she couldn’t write it down.
Astrid took her duplicate’s hands. “We’re going to be leaving soon, but I am going to get you free and take you back to the human world where you’ll be safe. Your mother lives there. Your real mother. And we have a cousin. Well, I guess he’s really your cousin.” Astrid got a pained look.
Yukiko said, “He’s still your cousin. You were adopted, just unknowingly.”
“I suppose.”
“And you humans make all sorts of families. The accident of your birth does not interfere with it. You haven’t lost your family, only added a member to it. A sister.”
The servant girl lifted her chin and made a little grunt.
“Is it all right that I call you my sister?” asked Astrid.
She nodded, eyes wide and tapped her chest.
“You’re my sister, yes,” said Astrid.
The girl looked frustrated and shook her head, then tapped her chest. Then she made a little hand sign and Yukiko understood.
“She wants you to call her Sister,” said Yukiko. “Like a name.”
“How do you know that?”
“I can speak any language, and interpret most forms of communication.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
“She wasn’t signing before,” said Yukiko. “I didn’t know she could. I’m not a mind reader.” She looked at the girl. “Can you sign other things?”
She did and Yukiko translated.
“Kitchen. Food. No. Yes. Cook.”
The girl pointed to herself.
“Sister,” said Yukiko.
The girl was elated. She signed a few other things, but they quickly discovered that her vocabulary was limited. There simply weren’t signs for many of the things Yukiko wanted to ask her about.
A clock chimed and Sister moved toward the door.
“Do you have to go?” asked Yukiko.
Sister nodded.
Astrid said, “I’m going to speak to Bogdana and see if I can get her to free you.”
The girl gave a hopeless little shrug.
“I will. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll find another way to get you out of here.”
Yukiko didn’t know of any way to accomplish that, but maybe Astrid would be able to make a Door to swallow up Bogdana, thereby freeing the girl. Sister left, and Astrid flopped onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling. She stayed that way for a long time. Eventually Yukiko curled up on the cushions of the smaller bed and went to sleep.
The next day was filled with a tour of the garden and Bogdana showing Astrid records of their family history. Yukiko sat on the library rug, waiting for Astrid to be finished. She understood the appeal of family and genealogy, but she also understood that one could be alone in the world, without relations, and still find contentment.
She listened to Astrid ask her mother about Sister and what had happened to her. Bogdana said that the girl had been disobedient, had spoken out of turn, and like other servants, had been kept under control by whatever means were necessary. The girl was troublesome. Each scar was a remnant of an act of Sister’s defiance, and Yukiko felt a hot anger as well as a deepening admiration for Sister. What little acts of independence had she engaged in to bring on the punishments? To fight and continue to fight in the face of injustice and hopelessness when the only result was pain made Yukiko proud that she was a friend of humankind. They were not all cowardly and easily manipulated.
Astrid was remarkably calm throughout the discussion, though there was a certain tightness to her voice and posture. Yukiko had to admire her self-control. To become angry and demand Sister’s freedom would accomplish nothing.
“I was told that the baby died and I was put in her place,” said Astrid.
“More Seelie lies,” said Bogdana. “I have not lied to you. The child was of no consequence. Oh, I took her in, and I even tried to love her. She was like a pet. But blood will out. And you, my daughter, have bested the Seelie and learned to open Doors to your homeworld without assistance. You are intelligent and resourceful.”
Yukiko watched Astrid pause and compose her thoughts. She knew what the girl was thinking. Sister might be intelligent and resourceful as well, but being tortured and mutilated tended to put a damper on expressions of either trait.
“If she is nothing, then give her to me,” said Astrid. “As a gift. A maidservant.”
“You would keep a slave?” said Bogdana, skeptical. “No, I think you would free her.”
“And why not?”
“Because, it would be a waste. Like tossing good food into the rubbish heap.”
“If she cannot be freed, then at least let me visit with her. Let her come and see us off at the mirror house.”
“I don’t understand your attachment to the girl,” said Bogdana. “She is only a human.”
“I happen to be attached to a few humans in my world. So what’s one more?”
“You like her that much?” Bogdana said. There was a calculating look about her, though Yukiko wasn’t sure Astrid would catch it.
“Yes.”
“Then you may come visit her as often as you like.”
Ah, and there it was. An inducement for Astrid to return to the Unseelie world. A hook. It was more subtle th
an the Seelie’s overt imprisonment. But a subtle hook was a hook all the same. But why? Did Bogdana want to see more of her daughter and fear that she would not return to Unseelie except when forced? Could Bogdana truly love her? It seemed so unlikely, but Yukiko had to admit to the possibility.
An hour later, three ponies were brought to the front door and Astrid, wearing pale green pants and a matching blouse, mounted one. Bogdana took the lead and Sister took the last pony. Well, at least Bogdana wouldn’t force the girl to walk. She must be currying Astrid’s favor. Yukiko jumped up onto the rump of Astrid’s pony.
“Where is the bell?” she whispered once they were on their way down the hill and Bogdana was about ten yards ahead. Astrid had her purse with her, but Yukiko could not detect the bell’s metallic scent.
“It’s fine,” whispered Astrid.
“What are you up to?” asked Yukiko.
“It’ll be fine. I’m a Door, remember?”
“You can’t steal the girl. The moment she goes through the door, the chain will tighten and strangle her.”
“I’m not going to steal her.”
Yukiko tried to get Astrid to reveal what her idea was, but the trail reached the bottom of the hill. A few moments later, they were almost nose to tail with Bogdana’s pony and could not speak without her hearing. They rode on to Luna Park, gave their ponies to the stable groom and entered the park. Sister trailed behind, and Yukiko slowed to walk beside her. She had never been fond of anyone having to walk a few steps behind anyone else. It was another symptom of her modernity, she supposed.
Astrid and Bogdana talked together, and both of them seemed animated and intense. When they arrived at the mirror house, Bogdana spoke to the person who was running the attraction and the four of them entered, Astrid at the front.
Yukiko followed Sister, who had the ends of her sleeves balled up in her fists as they went through the maze. Yukiko smelled the fear and frustration pouring off of her.
The Time Corps Chronicles (Complete Series) Page 83
