by A. L. Tyler
Howard’s cell phone started buzzing again, and Howard answered it. “Greg, please tell me…Huh. You’re kidding, right? An American would be better, but…okay. Sure.” Howard grabbed a notepad and a pen and started writing something down. “You’re sure the birth records and the marriage licenses are on the books, in case they check? …Okay. Thanks for your help.”
Howard closed the phone, set it down, and continued to write for a moment. He silenced Lena as she was about to speak by raising one finger as he picked his phone back up and dialed a number. “Hello. Yes, is this the Croft residence? …May I please speak to Jim Croft?” He paused for a moment, tapping his pen on the desk. “Jim, this is Howard Collins. This is an emergency situation, and I need to know the whereabouts of the Alarid boy. His father says he’s with you.” Howard’s eyes met Lena’s for a moment, then he quickly glanced away again. “I see. I understand. If you could please get back to me as soon as possible, then? Of course. Goodbye.”
He hung up the phone. Lena couldn’t contain herself. “Alarid? Like the Alarids?”
“Mrs. Alarid and Mrs. Corbett are sisters. Most of the older families here are interrelated somehow, but I’m a bit surprised that they would have sent their heir off to live with the Crofts…They’re applying for Council membership this year, and if I remember correctly, the Croft’s ancestors used to be the Alarid’s servants.” Howard thought for a moment, and then shrugged. “I guess it’s not that surprising.”
“Political favor to assure getting in, maybe?”
“More like must be.” Howard’s phone buzzed again. He answered it. “No, not here. New York. I’ll wire the money to his parents immediately, and they can send it on from there…”
Howard gave all the details, and then hung up. He sighed, looking exhausted. “Well, I guess that’s it, if you want to go.”
Lena held up her hand. “So…wait, Alexis Alarid is Griffin’s cousin? She’s never said anything…”
Howard shook his head. “Historically speaking, the Silenti have never put a great deal of importance on the mother’s heritage because all the representation, until very recently, was done through the male line. I doubt she knows she’s related to Griffin, or if she does, that she cares. I doubt she even knows that she has an older brother, to be frank. The only reason we know now is because we asked and Master Alarid was kind enough to tell—he didn’t have to, but there’s usually huge political returns for doing this kind of stuff. Especially since it’s Griffin we’re talking about.”
They stared at each other for a moment. Howard finally broke the spell. “I’ll see you at dinner, then?”
“Guess so. Good luck with all of this.”
Lena left and prepared for Mrs. Corbett’s dinner; she hoped Griffin wouldn’t be kept long in New York, as the woman was becoming more finicky than ever. She had stopped requesting fixed food and instead asked for things that she herself could make her own sandwiches with. She wouldn’t drink from cups anymore, instead preferring unopened sealed beverages. Darius was becoming more of a handful, and while he wasn’t mobile yet, Lena was sure he would figure out how to crawl any day, and Mrs. Corbett had warned her that when that happened, he would need constant supervision. Part of the problem seemed to be that he was bored with his toys and Mrs. Corbett was too paranoid to let Lena bring in any new ones. While Lena felt slightly bad that Griffin was in a jail somewhere, she harbored a small grudge that he had managed to delay his return.
The next two weeks came and went, and still no Griffin. Howard informed Lena that Griffin had to make a court appearance, which had been scheduled for the day before the first Council meeting. Master Daray was almost as furious as Lena with the whole situation.
With the arrival of more house servants with the other families, and the fact that they kept wandering unknowingly into her room to try to change the bed linens and clean the bathroom, Mrs. Corbett had gone from eccentric to near hysterical. She had stopped eating food that was “easily tampered with” and would only eat unpeeled fresh fruits and sealed store-bought goods. While it certainly cut down on the time required to prepare her meals, Lena was having a hard time justifying to Mrs. Ralston the fact that Mrs. Corbett required a fresh box of cereal to open every morning because she thought her old servants were sneaking into her room at night to poison the box from the previous day.
Lena’s time was at a premium. It seemed Mrs. Corbett was mere hours from losing the last cards in her deck, and Lena didn’t feel right leaving her alone with the baby for long periods of time. She was doing Howard’s paperwork and playing all the social games she could to keep favor in the Council. In addition, she was spending as much time as possible with the kitchen staff in the evenings to keep her sanity and her sense of humor alive.
The Masons hadn’t arrived until three days before the first Council because of a scheduling conflict with Greg’s job. Because there were only tents left, and Lena’s concern for Darius’s health was reaching a crescendo, she offered to let the entire family use her room for the duration of the Council and she moved herself up to sleep on a cot in Mrs. Corbett’s room. Mrs. Corbett was not happy with the arrangement, forcing Lena to lie and say it had been Griffin’s idea and it would only be until he got back—at that point, the rules regarding Lena needing to stay off the upper floors would kick back in, anyways. She wasn’t sure where she would be sleeping at that point, but there was a new baby in the Mason family, and they needed her room more than she did.
The first dinner and the dance went as they usually did, and that night Lena got to sit through her first Council. Because she couldn’t hear the public thought speak used by Representatives addressing the Council, Howard had to quietly translate for her. Most of the first meeting was a summary of everything that was going to be covered during that Council term, part of it was ceremonial, and it lasted until well past midnight. The first order of business for the next morning was dealing with Griffin’s arrest; Lena wasn’t sure if he would even be back in time.
After the Council, Lena found her way down to the kitchen, where she met up with Devin, Tab, Pete, and a few other staff members. She could hear them all the way from the bottom of the stairs in the living room. They were sitting around the table laughing raucously and playing some sort of card game.
Devin caught her out of the corner of his eye. “Lena!”
“Lena!” The rest of the table looked up and echoed Devin’s yell. Tab gave up his chair next to Devin so that Lena could sit and pulled a stool up between Pete and a staff member Lena didn’t recognize around the other side of the table. He was tall, lanky, blond, and perhaps in his early twenties; he gave Lena a small nod as she took her place at the table.
Devin threw an arm around her shoulders and started pointing around the table. “Lena, I think you remember Jen and Phil from last year, and the new guy’s Rollin, but we all call him The Captain here. Thinks he’s a revolutionary. This is Lena Collins, a friend.”
Rollin’s stern expression never changed through the introductions. He carefully put down his hand of cards. “So, you’re Daray’s last stand. I must say, you don’t live up to the stories.” The table went silent, and after realizing his faux-pas, Rollin started speaking again. “It’s just that there’s these…stories, that’s all. Where I come from, you’re a living legend for the life you’ve led. You’re a politician, right? The only human-raised politician on the Council?”
Lena gave Devin a hesitant sideways glance. For someone who she didn’t know, he knew a lot about her; there were a few human-born Silenti on the Council, but to her knowledge she was the only human-raised one. There weren’t many people who willingly or consciously made that distinction. She smiled, trying to bring back the airy atmosphere that had existed before she came into the room. “I guess so.”
“Tell me then, do you have any desire to help our cause? The rest of the human-born Silenti?”
Rollin was trying to stare her down. She turned to face him and held his gaze. “Absolutely.
I believe everyone has a right to be fairly represented, and I hope someday—“
“Someday. You see now, that’s the problem. Are we some sort of hobby to you? From what I’ve heard, you come and go here as you please, just like the rest of them. You have your fun and then you go back up to your rich life, and you don’t give a damn what happens to us in between. You claim you care, but this house was built by slave labor and you still live in it. You have access to enough money to change the lives of every person at this table, but you don’t do it. You eat the food we cook, wear the clothes we wash, and sleep in the beds we make. Seems to me you enjoy this system more than anyone else at this table. You’re just like the rest of them, asking our friendship on the promise of a ‘someday.’”
Lena stared at him for a moment. “That’s not true!” She stammered. “There’s work being done on your behalf…”
“No?!” Rollin shot up from his seat, almost toppling Tab from his stool in the process. “Let me ask you this, then. You just came from the Council briefing?”
Lena nodded.
“Was there any mention at all about the fifty-two people who were put out of their home last spring when the Corbett household was dissolved on a whim? Did anyone ask, or even care, what happened to us and where we went? Because I can tell you that most of us are starving with nowhere to go and no past. Some of them can’t even get government aid from this country because we don’t have birth records to prove citizenship. We’re starving in the streets, and it’ll be a cold day in hell when the Council decides to do a damn thing about it! You claim you’re like us, but I’d bet my life that that particular fate is something you’ve never had to worry about.”
Lena stared at him. He stared back. The tension was so thick Lena thought she could feel the air pulsing around her, but then she realized it was her own heartbeat. Rollin looked like he was ready to jump across the table and attack her for everything that she represented in his eyes. And then a new voice joined the fray.
“Lena, what the hell are you doing down here? What’s going on?” Lena looked over at the laundry room door. Griffin had just come in through the side entrance, and she hated to admit that she was happy to see him. A second man, about Griffin’s height and weight, with dark hair and Griffin’s nose, was standing just behind him looking bewildered. They were both wearing long coats, suggesting the weather was starting to turn again. Griffin and Rollin had locked eyes.
“I want you out of this house.” Griffin said. His tone was serious, and his eyes were filled with a pointed hatred as he stared at Rollin.
Lena didn’t know why, but she felt compelled to speak on Rollin’s behalf. “It’s okay, Griffin, you don’t need to—“
“Shut up, Lena, you don’t know anything about this. Get out. I want you gone by tomorrow morning.” He didn’t blink. Neither did Rollin. After a tense few seconds, Rollin left the room, roughly pushing past Griffin. Lena heard him go into the servants’ quarters, and then he left through the side entrance, slamming the door as he went. Griffin turned to Lena. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I’m not leaving.” Lena stayed in her chair. She wasn’t afraid of him—Rollin’s point was starting to hit home. She wasn’t like them at all; she didn’t have to leave when Griffin told her to. Had her mother been anyone else, though, she would have followed his orders like anyone else.
“We have a meeting tomorrow morning.” Griffin said coolly.
“So?” Lena met his gaze. She suddenly realized that Devin still had his arm around her shoulders. She hoped Griffin could tell how disgusted she was with what had just transpired.
Griffin stared at Lena for a moment longer, and then decided to move on. He was too tired to deal with her now. He looked over at Pete. “Show my guest to the Alarid’s room; they’ll be expecting him.”
Pete got up and walked silently from the room, and the dark haired man followed him without a word. Griffin threw Lena another annoyed look before stalking out; Lena dreaded the conversation they would inevitably be having the next day. Everyone remaining in the room was completely silent.
“I’m sorry.” Lena murmured.
“I think I’ll call it a night.” Tab avoided Lena’s gaze and went back to the servants’ quarters.
There was another minute of silence. Devin finally looked over at Lena. “I don’t know what he was talking about. That was pretty damn legendary, if you ask me.”
There was an audible sigh of relief, but no one was laughing. Phil looked over at Devin. “So, are we still playing?”
“Sure.” Devin collected the cards from around the table and shuffled them. As he dealt the cards out, he looked over at Lena. “Have you ever played poker before?”
“Yeah.”
They played a few rounds before Lena found her way up to the fourth floor. She alerted Mrs. Corbett to her presence, as she had done every night to be sure she wasn’t mistaken for a servant and attacked, and collapsed into her cot. She didn’t sleep well that night.
“You can have your mother back now.” Lena had waited outside the Council hall on the fifth floor to talk to Griffin. They were expected to be seated inside, ready to begin, in ten minutes—this way she wouldn’t get pulled into any long lectures about how she was supposed to be acting. She was bleary from the fight the night before, but found herself surprisingly alert given how little sleep she’d gotten.
“How’s she doing?” Griffin was looking about as tired as Lena felt.
“They’re okay. I mean, your mom is crazy, there’s no way of sugar-coating that fact, but the kid looks like he’ll be crawling any day now.”
“Healthy?” Griffin asked.
“How am I supposed to know?” Lena rolled her eyes. “She won’t take him to a doctor and I don’t have a clue.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He walked away and took his place next to Master Daray in the Council hall. Lena followed him in and her place next to Howard. All four of them were sitting toward the front of the room that day because Daray, Howard, and Griffin were going to have to speak about how and why Griffin had ended up incarcerated in New York.
A moderator called the meeting to order and asked Griffin to explain what had happened. His testimony was backed up by Howard and Daray, and his cousin, Nicolas Alarid. Nicolas was going to be giving his exposition for Council approval at the end of the present Council term. Things appeared to be going well until someone asked Griffin what he had been so desperate to get into the country, and he replied that Daray had sent him to India to collect some Silenti relics from an archaeologist there. Howard’s translation of the events suddenly stopped. People were standing up, yelling, and through the commotion the moderator finally got everyone to calm down.
Lena leaned over and whispered. “What’s happening?”
Howard glanced over at her before fixing his eyes on Griffin and the moderator at the front of the room. They’re upset because he doesn’t know what he was bringing back. Master Astley is now making the point that Daray was put under house arrest to prevent his further dabbling in dangerous Silenti artifacts—he could have found the portal, for all anyone knew, and Griffin would have brought it back to him without ever knowing. It’s a grave transgression if those relics are found to be anything but ordinary.
Griffin was excused back to his seat, and Daray was called to speak.
Howard started his commentary again. He’s saying the relics were just collector’s pieces, nothing special, and that they were so insignificant he didn’t even think the Council would care. He could have had them delivered, but as Griffin was going anyways, he thought it would be easier and safer to have them picked up. Howard gazed around behind him. Okay, Master Astley is saying that as Griffin is a member of the Daray house, and he’s proved himself not trustworthy, he should have the same restrictions placed on him that you, your mother, and your grandfather have…Master Perry is saying that it’s a stupid idea, as the only reason we have such restrictions is for your own safety and to prevent Da
ray from actively seeking and opening the portal. He’s making the point that any person here could try to find the portal and bring it here, Griffin is no exception…Master Astley is getting very upset, Master Alarid is asking why we even bother with such a trivial issue, he’s out of prison now and the relics look fairly innocuous.
Displayed at the front of the room, they did look innocuous. There was a small wood chest, maybe only twelve inches long, a large book, and a shard of a mirror. Lena wasn’t sure how they had managed to get them back from customs, but she was willing to bet the government didn’t know they were missing.
Master Mason is siding with Master Astley, as if this habit is allowed to continue, it allows Daray a means of searching for the portal without Council knowledge. There was a loud sound from the back of the room, and several people spun around in shock. Master Alarid had slammed his fist down on the desk. Okay, Master Alarid is now making the point that the portal belongs to Daray anyways, as it had belonged to his ancestors, and he finds it ridiculous that the Council has restricted religious belief and practice so definitely. Master Astley is…using expletives, and is generally unhappy with Master Alarid’s position, because the Council has not restricted religious practice. It has restricted the use of possible unknown biological weaponry…
And the use of the word ‘weaponry’ started a whole new debate. Lena looked around her and saw people rolling their eyes and sighing heavily. Apparently this debate had happened a few times before. It went on until lunch break was announced by the moderator, and everyone filed down to the dining room, where the debate continued.
“I can’t believe this. I can’t believe we’re wasting time on this again.” Greg Mason sat down next to Lena and Howard. “Can’t we just, for once, know the issues, sit down, and take a vote on whether or not we think punishment or restrictions are in order?”
