“They were my grandmother’s! And no. We’ll not go through that again.” She grabbed the young boy, who looked like he was about to leap off the fourth step. “It’s only a two-day trip,” she said as she pulled him close and began running her fingers through his black curly hair, as though that would calm her. “We’ll make it through—Oh!” She put a hand over her mouth, then her heart. “I’m sorry, dear.” She looked at Elaina, who had slid down to the darker end of the bench. “I didn’t see you there. Did you hire them to take you to Solwhind as well?”
Before Elaina could even consider an answer, the hatch above opened again. This time, a girl around Elaina’s age entered. Then she turned and held her arms out. Another woman, wrinkled and gray, followed slowly, allowing the girl to lead her carefully down the steps.
Lilly turned to greet them as well, seeming to forget Elaina in the process, which suited Elaina just fine. It would do no good to attempt escape, not now, anyway. Setting foot back on Ashland’s soil would mean her immediate death. Lord Benedict would see to that. The best Elaina could hope for was to make it to her new destination, wherever that was, and pray another way of escape presented itself.
Before the ship left the harbor, they were joined by two young men, twin brothers who Elaina couldn’t have told apart if her life had depended on it. From what she could gather from the excited chatter, which mostly came from Lilly, and the occasional comment from one of the other six, everyone but Elaina had actually paid the captain of this ship to take them to Solwhind, civilian travel between the two sides of the bay having been outlawed by the king.
Lilly, her husband, Drake, and their son, Elton, were going to live with Drake’s brother, afraid the war would split the family up forever if they didn’t move soon. Aspen, the girl Elaina’s age, and her aged grandmother whom she called Gram, were going to live with Gram’s eldest son, Aspen’s uncle, so he could help care for her while Aspen found work. The two brothers didn’t give their reasons for traveling, but then, they didn’t really speak at all.
“What about you?” Lilly turned back to Elaina just when Elaina was hoping she would be forgotten in the corner where she’d placed herself. “You’re dressed rather well to be traveling like this. Couldn’t you have at least hired a,” she glanced around at their grimy surroundings, “a decent fisherman to take you?”
Elaina did her best to smile. She knew from all the time spent on her father’s ship that the less her enemy knew of her, the better. These people in the hold seemed harmless enough, but Elaina knew better than to trust anyone at first sight.
“We’re all going to the same place.” She looked around to find every pair of eyes on her. “I’ve never tried to travel through a civil war before.” She shrugged. “It seems this was the best I could do.”
Lilly sniffed and rolled her eyes, but Elaina gave a sigh of relief when the woman turned her efforts back to learning more about Aspen, who seemed just as reluctant as Elaina to divulge information. It wasn’t until the ship had set off and small suppers of hard bread and cheese had been handed down from above that Lilly stopped asking questions long enough to eat.
While they ate, Elaina puzzled over her new situation. These people certainly weren’t criminals, and none of them seemed to know what she had been charged with. But why had her change in ship taken place at all? Sending a convicted spy with intimate knowledge of the king’s plans into the heart of the enemy seemed irrational and unlikely. Even if Nicholas had believed the charges, which she was beginning to think more and more that he must have, it would be unlike him to take such a strategic gamble. She knew too much.
Elaina’s food tasted even staler than it had at first, and her chest began to physically ache. Tears threatened to spill down her cheeks as she recalled the ice in his eyes as he’d declared her guilt and punishment.
She had thought her heart hurt after he’d kissed Princess Monique. Now that pain seemed nothing but a whisper compared to the biting, clawing betrayal that threatened to consume her. All their talks and walks and teasing and scheming . . . Had it meant so little to him? She had believed at one point that despite his flirtatious ways, he had come to know her in a way no one had before, and she him. It seemed now that she had been mistaken about them both.
And as for Lydia? Elaina felt a wave of bitterness wash over her. Of all the ways to find revenge—
Elaina.
She wanted to sing with relief and shout in anger. Trying to look as though she were merely trying to see the sky, Elaina walked casually to the foot of the wooden steps and tried to peer up through the hatch holes. She couldn’t answer, not with so many people around. But oh, how she wanted to! Why couldn’t you be more specific? she wanted to yell. Why didn’t you just tell me to open my chest? Since she couldn’t talk back, however, she simply listened.
Don’t try to run, Elaina, they said. It’s all for a purpose. Someone needs you.
Elaina couldn’t see any possible purpose in being publicly humiliated and charged with the worst crime imaginable. She couldn’t see any purpose in her father being lost at sea or her mother being brutally murdered. And the stars had the audacity to tell her there was a purpose?
I may not be able to talk to them, she told the Maker silently, shaking as she prayed. But I can talk to you. She paused, the hurt and anger washing over her again. I don’t understand. I’ve done all I can to serve you and my kingdom. I’ve promoted peace and tried to prevent war. I’ve listened to everything you’ve said. But this? She grasped the edge of the step railing and squeezed it in an effort to keep herself from crying. What have I done to deserve this?
For a long time, all she could hear were the soft sounds of Lilly singing her son to sleep and the gentle slapping of the waves at the boat’s sides. But eventually, the stars spoke once again.
Take courage, Elaina. Someone needs you.
But in that moment, Elaina put her hands over her ears and sat down on the wooden steps, letting the sharp corners of her bracelet poke painfully into her cheek.
If anyone needed help right now . . . it was she.
* * *
“When can we leave the ship, Captain?” Drake asked, hefting his wife’s large sack up on his shoulder. “We’ve been docked for over an hour!”
The old captain spit on the floor before shaking his head. “I know you’re all anxious to disembark. But before you go, I have a gift for you. We’ll start with the ladies.”
Elaina tried to stay in the shadows as two burly sailors climbed down into the hold with bags hanging from their wrists. Each one began to pull something out of his bag. The objects they held gleamed, even in the poor light. One walked over to Aspen, but before Elaina could see what he was giving the girl, the other stepped right in front of her, blocking her view.
“Your wrist.” He held up a gold bracelet. The bracelets had bands nearly the width of two of Elaina’s fingers, and a purple gemstone in the middle, as large as a thumbprint.
Elaina put her hands behind her back. “No thank you.”
“Ah, but it’ll look so lovely on such a delicate wrist as yours.” Before Elaina could reply, he had grabbed her arm roughly and shoved the bracelet around her left wrist. She cried out and fought him, kicking and punching with her right hand, but the captain was at their side in a minute, holding her down as the guard took out a small key and locked the bracelet into place.
In less than a minute, the deed was done, and Elaina could not remove the bracelet no matter how hard she pulled and pushed and yanked. The other passengers put up fights as well. Drake had to be bound by hand and foot when he threw himself on the man attempting to put a bracelet on Lilly. The two brothers succeeded in knocking one of the sailors unconscious and breaking the arm of another before the crew was able to subdue them.
But in the end, they all wore the hateful bracelets. Lilly whimpered and her little boy cried. Aspen tried to comfort her grandmother, who was so distraught she began speaking gibberish. Elaina was very close to kicking a fe
w of the guards in the knees when all was said and done, for good measure if nothing else, but decided that helping the brothers sit upright off the floor would be a better course of action.
“My brother will hear of this!” Drake shouted, his deep voice reverberating off the wooden walls. “You’ll have the bailiffs down your throat in an instant! Your license to fish will be revoked entirely!”
“Well, that would be terrifying now,” the captain grinned down from the steps, “if the bailiffs were still here.” He disappeared through the hatch.
Most of the crew encircled the two brothers, who were beginning to stand once again. As soon as she was sure no one was looking in her direction, Elaina darted up the steps. She was nearly out of the hatch when a man she hadn’t seen caught her by the arm and jerked her back down the stairs, smacking her head on the railing in the process. Elaina reached up and felt a warm, wet trickle running down her face. When she pulled her fingers back, several drops of bright red blood covered them.
Before she could try to stop the bleeding, however, she was pulled to her feet. Her hands were bound with rope in front of her, and her heart sank when she saw which knot they had used. She wouldn’t be getting out of that binding until someone cut her loose.
Soon they were all gagged and bound in a row. Somehow, Lilly’s little boy ended up between Aspen and Elaina, and he sobbed for his mother through his dirty cloth gag. When none of the sailors responded to his cries, he began to thrash.
Elaina threw her tied arms around him and pulled him close. If he struggled with the ropes too much, they would begin to cut his wrists.
The boy fought her, but when one of the sailors walked by and raised a hand, he buried his curly little head in her stomach and began to whimper. Elaina did her best to comfort him silently, for she was gagged as well, but all too soon they were being yanked forward.
The journey up the stairs and out of the hold was full of falls and muffled cries, but eventually they reached the deck. And if Elaina could have gasped, she would have.
The city before her was definitely Solwhind, but Elaina had never seen it looking so dirty. A thick brown haze that had never been there before covered the rooftops. Waste and filth lined the streets, and the harbor smelled of rotten fish. None of the passersby merely strolled; they all skittered like frightened birds. This was not the Solwhind Elaina knew and loved.
“Down you go.” Elaina was shoved at the ramp so hard she nearly fell again. After turning to briefly glare at the short sailor who had shoved her, she started to walk. So did everyone else. Lilly hollered through her gag the entire time, something about her best dishes being left behind.
Two muscular men met them at the bottom. One led them at the front, and the other fell behind. Elaina’s feet longed to fly as soon as they hit solid ground, but she knew better. They were all tied together with the most secure knot known to sailors. Elaina was a fast runner. Drake, Aspen, and the two brothers might be as well. But they had a small child, an old woman, and Lilly, who might have been fast had she not been blubbering on about her dishes.
Dark began to fall upon the city as they took to the streets. Elaina considered lunging at the first person she saw to beg for help. But every time she met a passerby, he only lowered his head and hurried on.
Someone needs you.
Elaina’s ears perked up, but she immediately put her head down again and continued walking. She wasn’t in the mood to listen.
Someone needs you, the sky whispered again.
Elaina ignored them, focusing instead on memorizing their route from the harbor. After walking east for a few minutes, they turned left and went north into a well-to-do neighborhood. Soon, they were stopped before a thick wall, at least nine feet tall, and a grand gate covered in elegant vines. The man leading them produced a key and unlocked the gate.
The gates opened up to a large courtyard filled to the brim with every sort of flower, bush, and vine, though many looked overgrown and nearly dead in the weak yellow light of the street lanterns. Birdbaths were scattered around the patches of grass, and climbing ivy hung from all four walls surrounding the property, casting phantom-like shadows on the already claustrophobic walls.
Nothing was as impressive or as imposing, however, as the house.
Really, it was a manor. Though it lacked the grand respectability of Elaina’s house, which had been built hundreds of years before by her ancestors, this house was no smaller than Elaina’s, nor was it lacking in opulence, despite the small piece of land it had been stuck upon.
Before she could examine the house further, the doors opened and a brighter light spilled out onto the front walkway. A feminine silhouette, tall and thin, filled the door. Slowly and meticulously, it made its way along their line, stopping to examine each individual the way Elaina had seen cattle examined before auctions. Then it stopped before Elaina.
“Turn your head,” a woman said in a deep voice.
Elaina sent the woman her most hostile glare.
“I said turn.”
Elaina enunciated her answer very carefully around the gag. “No.”
“Hm,” was all the woman said before moving on to Lilly.
Finally, when the woman got to the end of the line, she turned to the ship’s captain, who Elaina realized must have followed them. Handing him what sounded like a coin purse, the woman nodded. “They will do.”
“My brother will know my family is missing!” Drake called from the front of the line. He had somehow managed to loosen his gag. “He will set out to find us! He lives right here in this city!”
The woman turned gracefully, and in the light emanating from the open door, floated along the overgrown stone path back to Drake.
“If your relatives care to double my contribution to the Order of the Dagger, I will be happy to turn you over to them. And before you tell me to beware of the bailiffs,” she said coolly, “know now that they are gone. All of them. They’ve either joined the Shadow, forfeited their titles, or fled the city. So,” she leaned in and ran one finger down Drake’s cheek, “the only ones who will hear you scream will be the servants of the Order. And as the Shadow is the one who so graciously allows me to invite people such as yourselves to experience my hospitality, I highly doubt either the Shadow or his followers will find any reason to help you.”
“What does she mean?” Lilly’s muffled whimper came from behind Elaina.
Elaina leaned back. “I think,” she said through her gag, “we’ve just been sold.”
31
Young and Strong
Elaina stood in line with the others in the kitchen, where they had been herded. A fire roared in the hearth, and there were several candles lit as well, so Elaina didn’t have to squint as much to make out the sharp, severe features of their new hostess. One of the guards began taking their gags off. As he went down the line, the thin woman stood back and began to speak.
“My name is Matilda Winters, but you may all refer to me as Madame or Lady Winters.”
Elaina kept her face straight, though she wanted to retort that she highly doubted Matilda Winters had been born with or ever married into such a title.
“I have brought you here because as you can see, my house is large, and recent . . . infelicities have disrupted my regular household staff. Thanks to the Shadow’s new laws, however, I have been lucky enough to have you all come to stay with me. As happy as I am to have you, though, I expect my home and its routines to remain uninterrupted. When I tell you to come, you will come. And when I give you a task, I expect it to be done to perfection.”
She paused and made eye contact with everyone, her gaze lingering on Elaina longer than any of the others. “And if any one of you feels the desire to try and run, Felix or Ivor here will make sure you come back. And I will make sure that you never feel the desire to ever run again.” She looked hard at Elaina. “Understood?”
A few of them nodded their heads, but Elaina held hers straight.
Matilda looked at her for a
moment longer before walking to the end of the line. “You.” She stood before Drake. “Name and age.”
He glanced down at his wife and son before grudgingly answering. “Drake Shofeld . . . Madame. Thirty-seven years.”
Matilda looked down the line to where he had glanced. A slow smile spread across her pinched face. “It seems I’ll be having little trouble with you, Drake.”
She moved on. “And you?”
There was no answer.
Matilda’s dark eyes went flat. “I expect to be answered when I ask you a question, old woman.”
“She cannot answer, ma’am.”
Matilda’s head snapped over to Aspen. “I do not recall speaking to you.”
“I . . . I’m very sorry, ma’am . . . Madame. My name is Aspen. But that’s my grandmother, you see. Gram. She doesn’t speak. Hasn’t in five years. But she does sew quite well.”
Matilda looked back at Gram. “Very well. But I won’t be taking on a charity case. It’s either work here or live on the streets for her.”
“Please, Madame! She won’t survive!” Aspen moved closer to her grandmother, despite her hands still being tied. Elaina wanted very much to step between Madame and the two women, but she knew that would probably only make matters worse for them.
“Then you’d better make sure you do enough work for both of you.”
“Of course, Madame!”
“Good.” Matilda moved down the line, stopping before the little boy. “Who are you?”
The boy shrank back toward Elaina.
“Answer him, boy,” Drake said in a tired voice.
“I would do as your father says,” Matilda added. “Now tell me your name.”
Still, the boy shook his head.
Matilda had reached her hand back, and Elaina was nearly ready to yank him behind her, when Lilly called,
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