by G. Bailey
“Was my mother alright with you today?” Everly asks me around a bite of the apple.
“Same stuff, another day,” I say and go back to my window. The view of the town is slightly different from here. It’s sundown now, the two moons slowly appearing in the sky. The sky is lit up different shades of orange, with little bits of pink wiped across it. I want to say it’s my favourite part of the day, but it’s not. I prefer the night, when the bright stars come out.
“I have an idea,” Everly suddenly says, and I glance back her. Everly’s ideas are rarely safe and always involve sneaking me out of here. She doesn’t believe I have to hide, and she doesn’t realise how many people have been killed because they saw me. When we were seven, she came up with the idea to climb the nearest wall and see the sea at night. We did and a couple saw us. They told people around the town the next day about seeing two strange girls. My father killed them for that, even if they didn’t see, or know about, my mark. I found out because Miss Drone shouted at my father, and I heard the whole thing. They were close friends of Miss Drone’s. It didn’t matter in the end, because my father simply offered to kill her and Everly if she wanted to say anything. I’m glad Miss Drone walked away.
“I am not leaving the house and putting that stuff on,” I say, pulling my thoughts back to Everly and her foolish ideas. My father brought me some thick paste that covers my mark and blends in with my skin. I use it sometimes when I leave the house at night to go into the gardens. There isn’t a lot of it, so I have to be careful in case there’s a time when I will actually need it.
“You are, because we are going to a party,” Everly says with a massive smile on her face.
“A party? Have you gone mad?” I ask her, and she shakes her head, her curls flying everywhere. Everly’s hair is out of control most the time–like her personality.
“No, I have not. We will go tomorrow night,” she says and takes a last bite of the apple.
“What if it rains? That stuff isn’t waterproof,” I tell her, and she chuckles.
“It doesn’t rain anymore. You know that,” she says, and I know she’s right. I’m being silly to think it might rain. There hasn’t been any rain for four months now, and there isn’t a dark cloud to be seen in the sky. The farmers are now using sea water to feed the plants, and it’s killing them slowly. The lack of rain has also caused our water supplies to get low. My father says we need a few storms soon or something drastic will have to be done. I dread to know what that might be.
“It might,” I shrug a shoulder, not meeting her eyes.
“If so, the whole village would be staring at the sky, not you, Cass. Plus, we will go at night, so no one will see you,” she says with a grin. I mentally sigh and look over at her. I know she won’t give up, and it’s only one night.
“I don’t know–” I get out, and she cuts me off with a wave of her hand.
“You will, and you can meet some people. Maybe some men,” she winks, and I laugh. If only meeting a man would be the worst thing that could happen to me, but I know it is not in my future. Any man would take one look at my mark and run the other way, as fast as they could if they were smart. I’m guessing if I had children, they would be changed like me, but it’s only a guess. I would never risk having children or falling in love. The result would only be death, as death chases me for my mark.
“No, I don’t think so, Ev. I'll live with your stories of handsome strangers and what I read in my books,” I say, and she laughs loudly.
“Reading is not the same as living, Cass, and you need to live,” she says and throws the apple core into a bin as I think over her words. Who knows how long it could be until my father goes away again?
It’s only one night and one party. I can talk to some people and have enough memories to keep me going for a while. It’s difficult to be locked in this house all the time, talking to only three people, and having only the stars for company at night. I’m eighteen and tired of living a life being hidden. One night would help that, just one night.
A night to give me something to dream about other than the stars.
4
Cassandra
“All done,” Everly pulls her hand back with the sponge and hands me a little mirror. My hair is half up, with two feathers at the ends of two little plaits on each side of my head. My mark is covered up, and instead, Everly has drawn a red line on my lips like hers. It’s apparently the fashion, and everyone does it. I wouldn’t know, but I trust her.
“Thank you, Ev,” I say, and she nods at me with a cheeky grin. She looks lovely in her lacy dress; it’s a little like mine and fits her well. Her dress is black, whereas mine is a light-blue. My father bought it for me. He said my mother had one like it, and he just wanted to get me a gift. The blue dress is full of stitched holes, and it dips a little low on my chest. I put a silver necklace on that had belonged to my mother. It has three upside-down triangles along the chain, and it’s funny how the shapes look similar to my mark. I run my fingers across the necklace, and I wonder how my mother would have treated me if she were still here. Would she have encouraged me leaving the house? Or would she have kept me hidden?
“Let’s go,” Everly says as she takes my hand and we walk through the empty house. Every single one of the rooms we walk through is crowded with things that have been here for years. We pass through the front room, and I can’t help but look around. I look at the two loungers and the big, old paintings on the wall. The painting is of farmers in the fields, an everyday scene, but it’s beautifully painted. My father doesn’t know who painted it; he said it’s just always been in the house since he was a child. I glance across the room, knowing that it is the cleanest one out of all the rooms in the house. The dust is still thick in here, and there are still piles of books on the floor, but at least you can see the floor. The house is hard to stay in and every day I think, if only my father would let me clean it out and throw some things away. Everly pulls the door to the entrance hall open, and we walk out of the dusty room.
Everly swings the front door open. It bangs against the wall, and she laughs with me. She is far too excited for this night. I take a deep breath when we get outside, enjoying the clean air. The outside smells like grass, and the warm air flitters around my dress. I look up at the familiar stars, how they shine a certain light over the dark night and surround the large moon. Leaving the house means I see all the stars from a different angle. She pulls my arm, which is hooked in hers, snapping my attention back to her. We walk down to the side of the house and towards the stables to get our horses.
“Come on,” Everly shouts as she gets on her horse. I go to the other horse tied up next to her. She is my father’s horse, but he isn’t using her tonight. I named her Sea, for her bright, sea-coloured eyes, and because she didn’t have a name from my father. Sea huffs at me as I stroke her head and grab the reins. After I pull myself on top of her, Everly rides off with a laugh. I follow, and we ride away from my father’s house. I’m glad I learned how to ride a horse by riding up and down the stables at night for years. I force myself not to look back at the large house. I know if I look back, the guilt of what I’m doing will get to me. This is a big risk, and my father could suffer if people found out about me. They would kill me or hand me over to the king. I’m not sure which one would be worse, but I have always imagined it’s being given to the king. My father speaks little of his visits with him, but Everly tells me things. Like how the council members take their daughters or wives to the king, and how many do not return. She says the people know the king kills them for sport, but there isn’t anything that can be done about it. In a way, my mark may have saved me from my father taking me to see the king.
I slow Sea down when we get to the metal gates, which are wide open. The gates are usually locked, and I don’t even want to ask how Everly managed to get them open. I’m just going to assume she stole her mother’s key and is going to put it back before she notices. We leave the gates open as we leave. No one usuall
y comes up here, so it should be safe. No one is mad enough to break into one of the council houses. The council members are not known for being kind. They are known for killing entire families for just stealing extra food.
My father says it’s because they have such little food that they must keep the population low. It’s disgusting, and if he really felt bad about it at all, he wouldn’t eat the large amount of food that he does.
We ride down the uneven, stone road. The horse’s shoes clicking against the stone is the only sound that can be heard, other than the quiet wind in the trees. When we hit the start of town and the row of houses, Everly slows down, and I copy her speed. The houses are small, with brown bricks and thatched roofs. Some have wooden doors, but many just have fabric hanging over the hole where the door should be. There are people huddled by the doors in the street, thick blankets thrown over them, and their empty eyes meet mine. I have to look away, as I can’t help them. I wish I could. I click my horse’s reins to move forward and stop next to Everly. She smiles at me and then looks forward as we cross a few people. I hold my breath, wondering if they will say something about my mark before I remember it’s covered up with the face paste.
The people don’t even glance our way, and I let go of the breath I was holding. Everly says more and more travellers are turning up these days, so no one bats an eye at a stranger moving down the streets. It’s just hard to believe until you see it. I’ve spent so much of my life hidden, I don’t know how to just act normal. I’m surprised to see that most people have horses as we ride past them. I know they are the only way to travel the island, and that we breed them, but my father says they are dying. The horses don’t have enough fresh food anymore, because the grass is dying from the lack of rain.
Everly turns down a smaller road, which leads further out of the main row of houses. The house we stop at is near the walls that have the Green Sea on the other side. You can even hear the sea in the wind, as it whistles and blows. The Green Sea is dead, full of poison. It has an awful, thick fog over it, making it impossible to see much through it. I’ve only seen it once, when I snuck out of the house with Everly. The Middle Sea is on the other side of the island, and Everly said the water is a deep-blue. She says it’s cold, but people still swim in it sometimes.
I get off my horse and walk her over to the line of other horses that are tied up. Everly ties her brown horse next to mine while I wait. There’s water in front of them, so they’ll be happy for a little while. I take Everly’s arm as we walk up to the small wooden house. The house has seen better days, and the thatched roof is nearly falling off. The front door is wide open, and the sound of someone playing music is in the background. I try not to stare at the couple in the small room we come in to. It’s only them in here, and they are all over each other. Their mouths are glued together, and they’re pulling each other’s clothes off. They’re both wearing work clothes like Everly wears. That kind of passion is something I’ve never seen before, only heard of, and it shocks me enough that I quickly look away as Everly pulls me through another door. The door leads outside again, and I can see the person playing the music sitting on some planks of wood. The man is playing some kind of flute, the sound is nice, and the tune is louder than I would expect from such a small instrument. There are twenty or more people standing around or dancing while they smile. It makes me smile, because it’s so normal. I’m at a normal party, with normal people.
“Come on, live a little, Cass,” Everly whispers in my ear, and I grin at her. We make our way over, and Everly grabs both my hands. She swings with me in circles, and I laugh. A few people join in our dance, and she stops to link my arm with hers and spin us around in circles. We stop after a while, and I walk over to a gate, while I watch the people as Everly talks to them. A few people glance at me, but my breath catches when I meet the gaze of a pair of sea-blue eyes.
The eyes belong to a handsome man’s face. My eyes travel over him, seeing his strong jawline is covered with a small, brown beard that matches his messy brown hair. The man is tall, taller than most of the men here, and his skin is tanned like he’s in the sun a lot. I don’t move as he walks over to me, looking me over closely until he stops right in front of me. He tilts his head to the side.
“Where do they hide pretty girls like you?” he asks with a big smile spreading across his lips. He has on slightly different clothes than most of the people here, as he is wearing brown trousers and a dark black coat.
“Your first sentence to me was a compliment and a question. You’re good at this, aren’t you?” I ask him, my voice sarcastic, and he laughs.
“Good at what, pretty girl?” he asks, taking another step closer. I don’t know where my braveness comes from as I flirt back with him. Maybe it’s from all the romance books I’ve read.
“You don’t need me to answer that, pretty boy,” I say and earn a deep laugh from him. The man moves the final step closer, our bodies inches apart, and I turn my head up to meet his blue eyes that look so much brighter up close. We both are still as we stare at each other. I’m so close to him that I can tell that he smells like water. How strange.
“Dante, we have to go,” a man shouts from the house, and Dante steps away from me. I take a deep breath as I watch him walk away, back towards the house. He glances back as he opens the back door, our eyes meet again, and he smiles before he walks out.
I watch the party for a while, but no one else tries to talk to me. I spot Everly chatting to a man about her age. His hand is on her arm, and she’s smiling widely up at him. This must be the man she’s been telling me about, the one she likes. Everly told me she met a man at work, a man who makes her smile and laugh. He is very handsome, so I can see why.
“Oh, by the seas, I’m sorry,” some women says when she bumps into me as I watch Everly, and then I feel wet stuff all over my face. I wipe my eyes and glance at the slim woman with grey hair in front of me, holding a bucket of water. Her eyes widen as she looks at me, not at my eyes but my forehead. I don’t need to hear her next words to know the water she just splashed all over me has made the mark appear.
“A changed one,” she says in a horrified whisper and backs away. She bumps into someone, and they both fall to the ground. I have never seen this reaction before, as no one has seen me this close up. Seen my mark. It makes all the times my father warned me not to leave the house seem more real.
“A changed one!” she screams, and lots of eyes turn to me. The fear in them is daunting, and I don’t have a choice as I turn to run to the house.
“Get her!” a man shouts behind me. I don’t look back as I open the door and run through the house. I run to my horse, hearing footsteps behind me, but decide I can’t use the horse. She’s tied up, and they will get me before I can get her loose. I run across the street instead and into a long alley where several people are wrapped up in blankets on the floor. I ignore their pleas for food as I run past, hoping I can send Everly food to give to them if I survive this. I stop when I see a door slightly open, and I slip inside, shutting the door. I turn, thankful that the house is empty, and wait until I can’t hear the people following me anymore.
I slide out of the house, going back down the alley I ran up, and a hand grabs my arm pulling me into a small wall alcove. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see Everly’s blonde hair, just before she pulls an old blanket over our heads. Seconds later, we hear footsteps running past us, the shouts of people screaming about finding the changed one. They will search the whole city for me, and I’ll be lucky if we even make it back to my house.
“I’m sorry, Cass,” Everly mumbles quietly as she takes my hand in hers. I hold back the anger I feel at the people’s reaction to me. They hunt me for something they don’t understand and for a power I do not have.
“It’s not your fault I was born like this, Ev,” I say, and she wraps an arm around me. This is no one’s fault. No one who is alive, anyway. The changed one who destroyed the world in the first place is said to have died thir
ty years ago. We don’t even know his name; only the king knows that, because it’s said he was the one to kill him.
If only that man hadn’t destroyed so much with his gifts, and if only people knew that we don’t have these powers. Maybe the Sea God took them away when the changed one destroyed everything. If there is even a god, like my books say there is. A god of the sea, who was the first changed one. Although, it’s only rumours, like everything else in my life.
The mark will always ruin my life.
5
Cassandra
“At least we got back.” Everly laughs a little as we shut the door behind us. The trip back home was not easy, but pretending to be starving makes people look the other way. Thank the seas that Everly found that old blanket. It might have just saved my life.
“They’ll search the whole island for me, Ev,” I say as I pace the entrance hall by the stairs. Everly lights a candle in a lantern and puts it on the side before leaning against the wall. I can’t think of how we’re going to get out of this. I guess I could hide in here, but chances are, the people won’t stop until they search every house. My father won’t be able to keep me hidden, and he isn’t here to help me. If he rode back to his house now, it would look odd.
“Your father won’t let them find you,” she says.
“He isn’t here, Ev!” I shout, and she flinches, a reminder that even my friend is scared of me. I don’t have any powers, none that can destroy the world like everyone thinks I can. I stop and stare at her as she looks away. I shouldn’t have shouted at her, I know that, but I’m too nervous right now. It’s not her life on the line right now. With the king so close, they will keep me alive and tortured until he arrives. There have only been two changed ones born on this island. Both were boys and were killed straight away.
