Daughter of Lies and Ruin

by Jo Spurrier

  I ducked my head, but this time I managed to stop myself from apologising. ‘Could it be the same one who brought the griffins here? Another prank?’ I spat the last word. The way she’d talked of the beasts earlier hadn’t sat well with me. The folly of putting a horse on a balcony was one thing, but it was another when folk lost the animals that were their livelihood to a winged lion swooping down from the skies. I understood why the lads who’d brought the griffin down had gone to so much effort, and taken so much risk.

  ‘No prank,’ Aleida said.

  ‘So, what? There’s an evil witch out here somewhere?’

  ‘Don’t go jumping to conclusions,’ Aleida said. ‘You don’t know why he was turned. Maybe they had a good reason.’

  ‘A good reason? To send him to be gelded and broken to serve as a beast of burden?’ I gave her a sidelong glance. ‘Wouldn’t it be easier to just . . .’

  ‘Kill him?’

  ‘Well, yeah.’

  ‘Oh, undoubtedly.’ She didn’t go on, leaving me to fill in the rest of the thought myself. I almost asked her what would be bad enough to decide that killing him was too easy, too simple, but I decided against it. I didn’t want to know. Instead, I said, ‘Could you do that?’

  ‘Turn someone into an animal?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  Aleida shrugged. ‘If I wanted it badly enough, I could probably find a way. Someone with a talent for beast magic could do it more easily.’

  ‘But you’re good at beast magic, aren’t you? You’re good at borrowing, you fixed up Maggie’s knees, and beasts listen to you when you tell them not to wander off.’

  ‘Yes, that’s beast magic, but I don’t have a talent for it. Look, every witch has two or three talents, things they’re good at without half trying. Potions are one of mine, and I expect working with crystals will be one of yours. But a witch who sticks only to her talents will be pretty useless, and lacking talent in an area is no excuse not to get good at it.’

  I nodded. ‘All right. But you can undo it, right? You can turn him back?’

  She gave a brief, humourless smile. ‘Maybe. Depends. Put it out of your head for now, Dee. We’ve other matters to attend to first.’

  By the time we neared the abbey, I’d caught my breath and was feeling mostly normal once again. The shining gates stood wide open, but nonetheless they were very imposing, made of stout beams and bound with bronze. Why on earth do they need gates like this? I thought, but I didn’t ask the question aloud. My mistress had very little patience for what she considered stupid questions, which amounted to anything I could reasonably figure out myself. The Haven was a place for women who needed shelter — presumably, those they needed shelter from would sometimes come looking for them. I wondered if they also had some way of signalling the fort, if they needed more defences than the gate and walls could provide.

  Aleida guided Maggie through the gates, our wagon’s roof nearly scraping against the stone.

  Inside the walls was beautiful, even — my mind dredged up a word I’d first learned from the almanac, years ago, when I’d made one of my little sisters sit and read it out to me to keep her out of mischief — idyllic. It was full of greenery, with one side taken up by a huge garden with fruit trees growing in tight formation against the sun-drenched walls. Women and girls in wide-brimmed hats were tending rows upon rows of vegetables and herbs, with chickens and small children fossicking between them. To the other side was a pleasure-garden with rosebushes and neatly trimmed hedges, and even a patch of grass. Scattered through that garden were more folk, reading or spinning or sewing in the sunlight, including a little cluster in the shade of a tree, apparently taking a lesson from an older woman in a nun’s habit.

  But the sight that most caught my eye was a girl about my age, wearing skirts in a deep red hue and with blonde hair in a braid hanging over one shoulder. In her hands she held a bare-bladed sword, and she moved with fluid grace through a pattern of moves, some kind of training sequence, it seemed, first to one side and then the other.

  I realised I was staring at her, and hastily looked away, though I kept watching from the corner of my eye. The girl had seen us, too, though she finished her set of moves before unhurriedly sheathing her sword.

  A nun had noticed our arrival and came striding over from the garden, wiping her hands on her apron, while Aleida slipped gingerly from the footboard to the ground. She’d found her staff from inside the wagon while I’d been busy with Maggie, and she leaned heavily upon it to keep her balance.

  ‘Well now,’ said the nun, and though her clothes and boots were clearly country-quality and working class, her voice and her accent were anything but. It wasn’t quite a city accent, either, though. I remembered what Aleida had said about nuns, and realised this woman was probably noble-born.

  Once she was within a dozen feet of us, she stopped dead in her tracks, and her eyes narrowed as she looked my teacher up and down. I saw her eyes take in the wand at Aleida’s belt and the dagger at her opposite hip. She’d cast a charm on them, so most folk didn’t even notice them unless they had a touch of power. Like this woman clearly did. ‘Well,’ the nun said again. ‘I was about to say, you don’t look like the usual sort of waif who turns up on our threshold.’

  Aleida gave her a cool smile, and kept both hands on the staff. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I don’t suppose I do.’

  The nun drew herself up straight. She was a tall woman, and solid, her face and hands deeply lined. ‘What business do you have here, Mistress . . . ?’

  Aleida looked around. There was another nun coming towards us from the abbey’s western wing, I noticed, and the one giving the lesson in the garden had passed her book to another lass and was heading our way too. The lass with the sword was standing with her arms crossed, watching the whole affair, but she was looking quite baffled by what was going on.

  Aleida turned back to the nun. ‘Perhaps we could just leave it as “Mistress”, for the moment,’ she said. ‘But I promise I don’t mean any harm.’

  The nun gave her a measuring look, while the other two hurried to her side. ‘Mother Ellendene,’ one of them said, breathlessly, but the nun raised her hand to silence her. ‘Will you swear it?’ she said to Aleida.

  ‘By the Lord and Lady, I swear I mean no harm to you and yours,’ Aleida said.

  ‘Then what brings you here?’ one of the other sisters demanded, a tiny woman barely five feet tall. Behind them, the girl with the sword inched closer, but there was something odd about her posture.

  After a moment I realised what it was. There was nothing defensive about the way she held herself, nothing protective towards the three aged women who’d come to meet my mistress. There was curiosity, yes, but aside from that she seemed . . . neutral.

  One of the nuns glanced back to see her, too, and then shifted her position slightly as though to keep her in view as well as us. At that shift in attention, the girl stopped her approach, though she was unashamedly listening in.

  ‘I’ve heard about this place,’ Aleida said. ‘I’ve heard you’re doing a fine thing. I just wanted to see it for myself. And if I like what I see, perhaps make a contribution to your efforts.’

  ‘A contribution?’ the small nun said. ‘What sort of contribution?’

  Aleida raised a sardonic eyebrow and glanced back at our wagon. ‘Well, in my experience a nice pile of gold is always welcome.’

  The small nun started to say something, but Mother Ellendene laid a calloused hand on her shoulder. ‘Hush, Sister Lodova. She’s telling the truth, she means no harm.’

  ‘She’s a witch,’ Sister Lodova hissed.

  ‘I know, my dear. I’ve met a few in my time. But magic isn’t forbidden anymore, you know that as well as I do.’

  ‘But that’s not all.’ The small sister leaned close, whispering something to the mother superior. I caught just a hint of the words, but that hint was enough. She’s cursed.

  ‘It’s true,’ Aleida said with a shrug. ‘But that has noth
ing to do with why I’m here.’

  Mother Ellendene lifted her chin.

  ‘Mother Superior!’ the little nun hissed again.

  ‘Hush, sister! Haven’t we sworn to take in any woman who stands in need of shelter?’

  Aleida straightened at that, frowning. ‘I didn’t come here to buy any favours.’

  ‘Good,’ Mother Ellendene said. ‘Because that sort of thing can’t be bought with gold. Many other things can, though, which would make a great difference to the lives of our girls. Why don’t you come inside, mistress. Come to my solar for a nice cup of tea and, as you say, see the place for yourself.’

  The mother superior summoned a young lass to show me to the stables with Maggie and the wagon. I followed the shy young girl around the courtyard to the stable at the rear, which was deserted as far as I could see, empty but for an old wagon tucked in one corner. Aleida disappeared with the nuns after telling me to come find her once Maggie was settled in. At the stable, the girl vanished as well, leaving me quite alone. The place was eerie without the noise and warmth of horses and workers and dogs, the stalls all swept clean and the windows shuttered. But then I thought of the scorn my mistress would heap on me for admitting such a thing. No, no, Dee, she’d say. You’ve got it all backwards. You’re a witch, if anything about the situation is eerie and unsettling, it ought to be you.

  Still, Aleida had looked a little disconcerted herself, surprised that they’d so easily seen the curse she carried. Normally nothing ruffled her feathers, and part of me was curious to see what else they could read from her. Another part was rather worried as to how she’d react.

  ‘Nice rig you’ve got there,’ a voice said behind me, and I just about jumped out of my skin with surprise.

  Leaning against the arched entrance to the stable was the girl from the garden, with her sword at her side and her long blonde braid over her shoulder. Her face was tanned, and the way she stood, with a thumb hooked into her sword-belt, would have earned me a clip ’round the ear back at Burswood Farm. I could just hear Ma’s voice in my ear. You look like a boy, Elodie, slouching like that. What will people think?

  ‘You’re not here to stay, surely, with a set-up like that,’ the lass said, nodding at Maggie and the wagon.

  ‘Probably not,’ I said, trying to shove Ma’s voice from my mind. ‘My mistress doesn’t like to be beholden to other folk.’

  ‘Someone after my own heart, then,’ the girl said with a cool smile. ‘So what does bring you here, if you’re not another waif and stray, seeking the Lord and Lady’s protection?’

  I gave a shrug. ‘It’s my mistress’s business,’ I said. ‘Not for me to say.’

  She grimaced, looking chagrined. ‘Apologies, I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just . . . you and your mistress are the most interesting thing I’ve seen in weeks.’

  I set about unhitching the traces again, and put out some grain for Maggie.

  ‘Do you need a hand at all?’ she said.

  ‘I need water for the mare, could you show me to the well?’

  ‘Sure, come with me. But are you sure it’s safe to leave your wagon back there? A few of the girls here have some light fingers, I’ll tell you.’

  ‘It’ll be fine,’ I said with confidence. ‘No one can get in without me or Aleida to open the door. I’m Dee, by the way.’

  The girl clapped a hand to her forehead. ‘Oh Lord and Lady, I’m such a savage, that’s what Da always calls me. I’m Kara.’

  She offered me her hand to shake, just like a man would, and with a laugh I took it. ‘Pleased to meet you.’

  ‘Likewise,’ she said, and as she guided me back out into the courtyard I noticed her watching me from the corner of her eye.

  ‘What?’ I said.

  ‘I heard what the nuns said, about your mistress. Is it true?’

  ‘Is what true?’ I said, playing dumb.

  She gave me a mock scowl. ‘Is she really a witch?’

  I bit the inside of my cheek. I wasn’t supposed to tell people . . . but she’d heard enough that there wasn’t any point denying it. ‘Would you believe me if I said otherwise?’

  She eyed me up and down. ‘Huh. And what about you? Are you a witch too?’

  I felt the weight of the belt on my hips, and the wand against my thigh. Aleida would say something tart, like No, the wand’s just for decoration. But I couldn’t bring myself to do the same. ‘Not really,’ I said. ‘Not yet. I’m just learning.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, and raised her face to the sky with a wistful look. ‘It’s got to be nice, though. I mean, you may be just an apprentice now, but one day, you’ll be free to do whatever you want, go wherever you want. Free as a bird.’ The longing in her voice made me remember how I’d felt, months ago, leaving home to head towards the mountains and Black Oak Cottage, not that I’d had any idea what lay in wait for me.

  ‘So why are you here?’ I said. ‘You don’t look like you need this place, either.’

  She gave a bitter sigh and stopped, arms folded across her chest. ‘You’re right. I don’t. We’ve got our own place, up in the hills; me and my da. He has to go away for work a lot, so he gave me this sword and taught me how to use it. I’m not like these other poor girls, getting beaten up by their husbands or running away from their pimps in the big cities.’

  ‘So why are you here?’ I said again.

  Kara looked up at me from under furrowed brows, her eyes green against her sun-browned skin. ‘Something’s happened to my da,’ she said. ‘He goes away for work, see, but he should have been back a while ago. It happens sometimes, he gets another job right after the first one finishes, but he usually sends me word. I came to town for a few supplies and asked around to see if anyone had heard of him . . . well, Lord Belmont’s wretched busybody of a castellan caught wind of it and decided it’s not right for a young lass to be living out in the woods by herself. Never mind the fact that I’ve been bloody well looking after myself since I was twelve, or that my da’s missing and no one’s heard of him in months, no. Next thing I knew, that brown-nosing son of a bitch was dragging me through the gates here and yelling for madame bloody superior. I’ve been told to stay here and let the menfolk handle it, or else.’

  ‘Oh, Lord and Lady,’ I said. ‘And what about your da?’

  ‘They don’t care,’ she said, voice dripping with bitterness. ‘He’s a caravan guard, you see. To folk like that, he’s worth nothing. But he’s all I have in the world.’

  I bit my lip, thinking of the father I barely remembered, thinking of my ma. If she was lost, wouldn’t I do everything I could to find her? ‘Let me talk to my mistress,’ I said. ‘Maybe we can help.’

  I was tense with anger at Kara’s plight when I found my way to the mother superior’s solar. What I saw when I reached it did nothing to soothe my temper.

  Aleida was lounging on a cushioned couch with a delicate porcelain cup in one hand. The mother superior sat opposite, and if she wasn’t exactly lounging she did look entirely comfortable and at home — more so than the other two sisters, who sat perched rather stiffly side by side. The room was quite lovely, a wide space with huge doors that stood open in the fine day, looking onto the pleasure garden.

  ‘Oh, there you are, Dee,’ Aleida said, and patted the cushion beside her, beckoning me to sit. ‘I was wondering where you’d got to.’

  ‘Beg your pardon,’ I said. ‘I got caught up talking with one of the girls.’ The cushions were made of plum-coloured velvet, but the pile of the cloth had worn away, leaving them threadbare and tattered. Part of me hesitated to park my behind on this rich-looking furniture, but my teacher had told me to sit, so sit I did.

  Aleida waved her cup in my direction. ‘Tea, Dee?’

  There was a teapot and a spare cup waiting on a tray on the little table between the couches. As soon as I picked up the cup I regretted it. The porcelain seemed as thin as eggshell, and I immediately worried that I’d crush it in my work-roughened hands.

  ‘So wher
e were we?’ Mother Ellendene said. ‘Ah yes, as I was saying, Belly is an old friend of mine, and after our troubles with that pillock of an archbishop, he offered us the abbey.’

  ‘Belly?’ Aleida said.

  ‘Lord Belmont,’ Sister Lodova said with a reproving glance at the mother superior.

  ‘Yes, Belly,’ Mother Ellendene said. ‘We were childhood friends, you see, he was fostered with my family when we were little. Lovely chap, salt of the earth. Fortunately, the Lord and Lady have bestowed upon us a circle of friends like no other, and we were able to get ourselves set up out here, where we have far more opportunities for the lasses to get back on their feet and learn a trade while they figure out what to do next.’

  ‘It must make it harder for folks to make it to your gates, though.’

  ‘It does, unfortunately, but Lord Belmont has aided us in that respect too, as have Lady Morewind and her new husband. Thanks to them, any merchant or traveller who helps one of our ladies along their way can receive a bounty or tax concession for their service.’

  ‘They still have to brave the bandits, though,’ Aleida said.

  ‘Unfortunately,’ said Mother Ellendene with a grimace. ‘Though I understand Belly has plans to do something about them, very soon. I’ll admit I pray daily for his success; those dogs have fair terrorised some of our girls.’

  ‘Can I ask a question?’ I said. The two sisters perched together like hens on a roost gave me a startled look. Aleida rolled her head my way with a look that seemed to wonder what had taken me so long.

  ‘Of course you may, child,’ Mother Ellendene said.

  ‘What if one of the women wishes to leave?’

  She cocked her head to study me. ‘When one of our ladies is ready to leave we have a working-bee to set her up for her new life, rather like a trousseau for a lass getting married — clothing and shoes for herself and her children, bedding and household goods — or money to buy them if she’s travelling to somewhere else. Since we’ve settled here in Belmont the village women have taken to joining us in the work.’