"Is everything OK?" he asked, concern in his voice.
Noelle sighed and gestured to the talking crowd around them.
He turned and faced the people. "What?"
"Can't you hear the whispering? It's all about Syney."
"Oh, yes, it is," Gabe said, appearing on the other side of Noelle. "It's all in their heads too. Not too nice either."
"How can you tell the difference between this talking and the usual?" Hunter asked, looked at Noelle.
"It's all in the hushness of it. They're usually talking about Syney, but now it's quieter—as if they shouldn't be talking about it. That means it's gossip," she said, placing lids on the plates.
"What's the gossip?" Hunter asked.
"I'm not sure. She didn't say, but she was shaken up about it."
Hunter looked at Gabe, who shrugged. "I don't spread gossip."
Noelle rolled her eyes and turned. She saw a few familiar people, most of whom had stopped talking to her once she had become Syney's handmaiden. She wasn't sure why they had, but she wasn't too concerned. She was used to being on her own. She saw Lacey, a handmaiden for a Crystallianna royal, and smiled and waved.
Lacey slowly walked over. "Hey, Noelle. How have you been?" she asked, eyeing the two men flanking Noelle.
"Good, good. Listen—I really don't like the gossip thing, but this seems big. What happened?"
"It's...your princess actually." Lacey got closer to Noelle and relaxed a little. "She totally laid out for Prince Brian, and out in the garden no less. Didn't take her for an exhibitionist. I also heard she tried to get it on with a few more royals. It's like she's auditioning royals for her pairing. Then I heard she's already going to the monthly service with Prince Brian. She's shaping up to be the palace slut."
Hunter gave a low growl and stood at attention.
Lacey cowered back. "It's just what everyone is saying," she said, before quickly scurrying away.
"This is bad," Noelle said with a sigh.
"Not the reputation she wanted," Hunter said softly. "Damn, I should have steered her away from the royals."
"You forget she is a royal." Gabe swiped a small piece of fruit off a shelf and popped it into his mouth.
"Not their kind," Noelle said, shaking her head. "Help me carry these?"
Hunter nodded and picked up one of the trays.
They all headed toward Syney's room in silence. A few doors away, Noelle stopped and sighed. "She needs to get out of the palace, if only for a night. She needs the time away."
Both men turned to her.
"I agree," Gabe said. "But where?"
Noelle shrugged. "I don't know. I just know that I would want to get out of here, at least for a little bit."
Hunter nodded. "Maybe tomorrow. Out to the Great Lake."
Noelle sighed and nodded. "Yeah, maybe." She walked forward and knocked on Syney's door. She pushed it open once she heard a "Come in" from the other side.
Syney was sitting low on one of the couches, her feet up on the table in front of her. She smiled when she saw Noelle, but it fell once Hunter and Gabe came in. "Oh, yay. The gang's all here."
Gabe hopped onto the couch and put an arm around Syney. "I heard a nasty rumor about you—a few actually."
Syney groaned, and Hunter slapped him on the back of the head. "What? It's not like she doesn't know," Gabe said, throwing Syney a smile.
Gabe still made Noelle nervous, if only for his unique abilities, but she was really getting used to having him around. He and Syney had a weird relationship, almost like brother and sister. But Noelle felt an odd attraction to Gabe. He was like the bad boy you couldn't help want to reform.
Noelle sat down across from the two while Hunter stalked over to the doorway to the balcony.
"How much did you hear?" Syney grumbled.
"Enough," Noelle said, patting Syney's knee.
"All sorts of slutty stuff. Did you do all of the royals at the same time?" Gabe asked.
"Eww, no. I did not!"
"Hmmm, but there's an unspoken question coming from the bruting side of the room." Gabe gestured toward Hunter, who turned to stare outside as he shook his head. "Is any of it true?"
Syney rolled her eyes. "No. I did not sleep with any royal or anyone in this godforsaken place! And I'm not going to any religious thing with anyone. I don't want to get paired with any of these assholes. I don't even want to be in this damn Village anymore. There is..." She paused to wipe some tears from her eyes. "There is no good in this place. It's all lies and secrets and gossip. You three—and maybe Helen and Cass and Leaf—are the only people worth my damn time."
Noelle sat back and let Syney finish her tirade. She was upset and didn't really mean it. Although maybe she did. Noelle wasn't a huge fan of the palace either, but this was the only good place for a young woman her age to be.
"Can I leave?" Syney asked, looking up at Hunter's back.
He turned around and shook his head.
"Why not? It's my own free will to want to leave."
"But you can't," Noelle said, leaning forward. The Village and everyone needed Syney. "I know you've probably heard this a dozen times, but you're the best thing that has happened to this place. Did you notice those purple flowers over by the biggest fountain in the garden?"
Syney nodded.
"Those are Clematis. They haven't bloomed in the Village, or in the whole Realm, for generations. They started again the day you came to the palace." Noelle paused. "Your being here is already making a difference. Princess Helen and Cass—they never talked to anyone. They sat with their mother at dinner and kept to themselves. Now they're always around—in the library, out in the garden, in the lower dining hall. And Commander Leaf never spoke to any Magic User, and now he says hi to me every time I see him. You're changing things; you just don't know it."
Silence filled the room as both Syney and Gabe stared at Noelle.
Finally Syney sat up. "I get it. I do. But I have to think about me. And I can't stay here. For my own mental health. I can't spend every day playing mental chess with Mellisandrianna and putting up with people—my own people—who talk to me just to get something from me. I'm tired of it."
Noelle sighed and leaned back into her chair. It was no use. Syney had made up her mind, and as Noelle was figuring out, once her mind was made up, it took a lot more than talk to change it.
"Do you have a skirt or something?" Hunter asked Syney.
They all turned to him with questioning looks.
He turned pink a little but rolled his eyes. "I'm taking you out of the palace for a while. But you can't...wear pants."
"Outside of the walls?" Syney asked.
"No, just out of the palace."
"You should go," Noelle said. "Out of these walls for a bit. It might do you good."
Syney sighed. "Why bother?"
Hunter moved to squat down in front of her. "You want to see the good in this place, right? Then let me show you."
Syney looked at him for a moment before getting up and pulling a long brown leather skirt out of a drawer and heading into the bathroom.
"Where are you going?" Gabe asked, as he pulled the lid off one of the plates of food and shoved some into his mouth.
"I thought Vampires drank blood," Hunter said, eyeing him.
Gabe smiled. "We do. But we eat food as well. It's more of an indulgence. Where are you going?"
Hunter ignored the question a second time as Syney came out wearing the skirt. "You'll need a cloak as well," he said.
Syney nodded and pulled one out of the closet. "OK, let's go see the good in this place."
Hunter nodded and led the way out of the room.
Gabe turned his attention back to Noelle. "Guess it's just us for dinner."
"Guess so," Noelle said, biting into her food.
"That was a nice speech you made. Do you really believe it?" he asked.
Noelle glanced up at him then back at her food. "Can't you just read my mind and find out?" she asked nervou
sly. This is what she wanted to know. She wanted to know since they had met, but she was too scared to know the answer, or to pique his interest in why she wanted to know. She dared a look up at him.
He was staring at her, his golden eyes narrowed. A smile snaked its way onto his lips, but he stayed silent and continued to eat.
That wasn't the way she wanted this conversation to go, but she needed to know what he could actually sense or read off her. And now she would have to ask again. Not that she minded spending time with him—but on the other hand, she almost feared it. She glanced at the door and wondered whether she should have gone with Hunter and Syney. Maybe she needed some time away from the palace and Gabe.
Rose
It was a good night for the Cucurbita Festival. It wasn't a festival that was still widely celebrated, but on the outskirts of the Village—the wall towns, as they were called—farming was still the main source of food and money, which made festivals still the main form of social gathering for the Lycin living there. There weren't many Magic Users out in the wall towns, and those that were there tended to keep to themselves. Rose had lived there for many years since her mate had died and had raised her only son. She kept to herself once there but soon found that family really was where your home was and discovered all of the amazing people in Ragin, her wall town. She had been worried about raising her son alone but didn't have to worry once she settled down. Now, for the Cucurbita Festival, her small three-roomed house was filled with adoptive sons and daughters, friends who were as close as brothers and sisters, and elders who slowly had taken the place of her fallen parents. There were around thirty of them, setting up a few long tables and preparing food. These were the days she loved during the year, the ones that made her life a little less lonely and painful. Here she didn't have a dead husband or a son away from home. On these days she had a house full of family.
Rose surveyed everything in her kitchen. All the food was cooking—almost done actually. Several young girls were running from pot to pot, checking on the stove and cauldron, and chatting loudly with one another. It was nice to have the young blood running the kitchen. Rose was getting old. Even though only a few gray hairs had weaved their way into her red hair and she could still chase a loose pullum down the dirt roads, she felt the years finally bearing down on her joints and muscles. But she couldn't slow down yet; she still had a lot of years to live.
"I heard she tried to take the throne, but the queen rejected her claim," one of the girls said, stirring some potatoes in a large copper pot.
"The queen can't do that! The Chosen One is meant to rule," replied another one, who was stirring the boiling cauldron.
"Well, I heard she doesn't even want to be queen, and that she's making a lot of waves, being raised human and all," another said, as she pulled four pullum out of the oven.
They were silly girls who really knew nothing, Rose thought with a laugh. The wall towns were the last to get any word of the royals or their happenings. And usually by time they heard anything, it was so jumbled that there was barely any truth to any of it.
On the other side of the room, the men were sitting at the tables, getting drunk on vinum, as they usually did on festival nights. On any other night, they were calm and gentle husbands and sons, but on festival nights they became loud and rowdy. But it was OK, as long as they returned to their regular selves the next day. This was how festivals usually went. The women worked while the men drank, and then after dinner, they all danced. That was Rose's favorite part, the dancing. Ocean, her husband, had been a great dancer. That was how he had won her over. They had been paired young while they were both training for the Royal Guard and had spent little time together. Rose believed in divine pairings and had embraced it when she had found out, but she was nervous at the same time. And then, while they celebrated the seven pairings made that day, he had pulled her into the center of a room, much like the one where she stood now, and danced with her. It was the Early Morning dance, which always had been her favorite. Ocean knew every move and had stared at her with his deep-brown eyes the whole time. Rose fell in love right there and offered a silent prayer up to Cupid every night for having brought them together. Soon after, Ocean began his protection duty, one for which he had been chosen many years before, and then years later Rose became pregnant. She left the Royal Guard after that, per the rules, and made a home for her family. She never regretted a day of it.
"Now, now, girls. Less chatting and more preparing," Rose said with a clap of her hands.
The girls laughed, knowing there was no force behind her words.
"It's going to be a great festival, Rose. Don't you worry," Floral, one of the older women, said, smiling. "How are you holding up?"
Rose returned her smile. "I'm fine. I've been without him for a while, you know."
"Hmm. All mothers say they're fine when their son leaves, but it's usually the festivals when the missing comes out."
Rose sighed. She did miss her son, but she knew he was doing great things. "I really will be fine. I have so many children today."
Floral laughed. "Too many if you ask me."
"Food's ready!" one of the girls yelled.
Everyone gathered around the tables, taking seats with their families. Rose sat at the head of one of the tables, since she was the host. She had set a place next to her, on the off-chance that her son could get away, but she didn't have much hope. They were about to say the festival prayer when there was a knock on the door. Rose got up and headed over to open it. She nearly collapsed when she saw her son standing outside. She put her hand to her chest and cried out.
He smiled down to her and let her pull him down into a hug.
"Oh, my goodness. What are you doing here?" she asked, stepping back.
"You think I would miss a Cucurbita Festival? You know it was always my favorite."
"Oh, of course." She glanced inside. The others were still at the tables, talking among themselves. They would be so surprised to see him. "Well, no waiting out here. Come on, come on."
"Wait...I...um,"
Rose noticed his companion for the first time. "Oh, Fern? Is Fern back?"
"No...um. Mom, this is Syney...Andrews."
The girl pulled her hood down to reveal a face Rose thought was long dead. But it wasn't her. It couldn't be.
"Syney, this is my mother, Rose of House Redfern."
The girl smiled genuinely and reached out her hand. "It's so nice to meet you."
Rose stared at her for a moment, her heart still trapped in her throat, before taking her hand. "You too." She paused. "Oh, you are going to cause a stir."
"Oh, jeez. If I'm intruding, we can leave."
"Over my dead body," Rose said, feeling her normal self return. She put on a huge smile. "You never turn anyone away from Cucurbita Festival!" She moved to the side and ushered the two inside. "Everyone, we have some special guests. Lily, set another place, quick."
"Hunter's not so special," laughed one of the younger men, Lake, a longtime friend of Hunter's. He got up and greeted his friend with a large hug and a pat on the back. "It's been too long, friend."
"Only a few weeks."
"Four-and-a-half weeks," Rose said quietly.
Hunter looked at his mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "But I'm here now."
She nodded. "And the special one would be here. Come, girl. They don't bite, not like this anyway." Rose pulled Syney forward. "This is Syney of House Vilori."
The entire room fell silent. All of the girls' mouths dropped open, and the men all stiffened to attention. Even the old wolves knew what having a royal around meant.
Syney gave a wave. "Hi, everyone."
Rose laughed heartily. "You'd think she was naked standing here! She's just a girl here for the festival, so wipe those looks off your faces and welcome our guest!"
Then everyone started talking all at once. Rose led Syney over to the place next to her, as questions about dresses came from the girls and big welcomes came from
the men. Syney handled the attention well. She was obviously a royal through and through, Rose thought. Hunter took a seat next to Syney and sent her a small smile. Rose's breath hitched a little at that, but she pushed it aside and smiled. She had her son, and that was all she needed right now.
Cass
Finding a time to go through the secured texts was hard. Cass tried to go during the day, right after her mother had approved, but Beastial, the keeper of the library, kept lurking about and tried to even sit with her in the glassed-in room to see what she was doing. Taking the texts out of the room was impossible. Not only were they spelled to stay on the shelf, but they also had another spell to keep them in the room. So she was stuck sitting in the small room at the tiny wooden table. There was no way she was going to put up with Beastial as well. So she had started coming into the library at night—not that it was open at that time of day, but that didn't stop her. On that first day, she had found the spell to unlock any door and memorized it. But she couldn't go in every night. She didn't want to get too comfortable sneaking in; if she did, she wouldn't be on edge anymore, and being on edge made her careful. Since reading the secured books, she had learned a few things not taught to the Magic Users. There were hundreds of spells in the books. Most didn't work when she tried them, but some, like the lock spell, worked like a charm. She successfully had changed her hair color to blond and then back, and the color of her nails to black, and gotten rid of two blemishes on her face. They had been fun to do, but Cass really wanted more.
She also had found out more about her line's history. Each line had a book dedicated to it. The end of each book held a family tree, while the beginning spoke about the line's beginnings and any abilities related to that particular line. It turned out her special gift used to be a trademark of the Crystalliannas. And she learned how it actually worked. It was similar to a Vampire's compulsion. Cass wasn't simply telling people what to do out loud; she was also telling them in their heads—inside the decision center of their brains, to be exact. This ability also hadn't been in her line since before the Great War. She found this curious and even scanned a few of the other history books. The major powers of the Magic Users had been dying out long before the Great Divide and War. No one gave an opinion as to why, not even a hint of speculation. It was odd. Cass assumed they would have researched the losses, maybe even do some tests, but there was nothing. There was also very little on the Great War itself. In the books the war happened—again without any explanation—and just never ended.
Discovery: Altera Realm Trilogy Page 17
