by Morgan Rice
They went down into the village, following Vincente. At first glance, it might have seemed like just a normal village, but as she looked closer, Emeline could see the differences. She could see the runes and spell marks worked into the stone and wood of the buildings, could feel the pressure of dozens of people with a talent for magic in the same space.
“It’s so quiet here,” Cora said.
It might have seemed quiet to her, but to Emeline, the air was alive with chatter as people communicated mind to mind. It seemed to be as common as talking aloud here, perhaps more so.
There were other things too. She had already seen what the healer, Tabor, could do, but there were those who were using other talents. One boy seemed to be playing a game of cup and ball without touching it. A man was sparking lights in glass jars, but there seemed to be no kindling involved. There was even a smith working without fire, the metal seeming to respond to his touch like a living thing.
“We all have our gifts,” Vincente said. “We have collected knowledge, so that we can help those with power to express them as much as they can.”
“You’d have liked our friend Sophia,” Cora said. “She seemed to have all kinds of powers.”
“Truly powerful individuals are rare,” Vincente said. “The ones who seem strongest are often the most limited.”
“And yet you manage to summon a mist that spreads for miles around,” Emeline pointed out. She knew that took more than a limited stock of power. Far more.
“We do that together,” Vincente said. “If you stay, you will probably contribute to it, Emeline.”
He gestured to the circle at the heart of the village, where figures sat on stone seats. Emeline could feel the crackle of power there, even if it seemed that they were doing nothing more strenuous than staring. As she watched, one of them rose, looking exhausted, and another villager moved in to take their place.
Emeline hadn’t thought of that. The most powerful of them got their power by channeling energy from other places. She’d heard of witches stealing people’s lives away, while Sophia seemed to gain power from the land itself. That even made sense, given who she was. This, though… this was a whole village of those with power channeling it together to become more than the sum of their parts. How much power would they be able to generate like that?
“Look, Cora,” she said, pointing. “They’re protecting the whole village.”
Cora stared at it. “That’s… can anyone do that?”
“Anyone with a spark of power,” Vincente said. “If someone normal were to do it, either nothing would happen, or…”
“Or?” Emeline asked.
“Their life would be sucked out. It is not safe to try.”
Emeline could see Cora’s discomfort at that, but it didn’t seem to last. She was too busy looking around at the village as if trying to understand how it all worked.
“Come,” Vincente said. “There’s an empty house this way.”
He led the way to a stone-walled cottage that wasn’t very big, but still seemed more than big enough for the two of them. Its door creaked as Vincente opened it, but Emeline guessed that could be fixed. If she could learn to guide a boat or a wagon, she could learn to fix a door.
“What will we do here?” Cora asked.
Vincente smiled at that. “You’ll live. Our farms bring in enough food, and we share it with anyone who helps work in the village. People contribute whatever they’re suited to contribute. Those who can work metal or wood do it to build or to sell. Those who can fight work to protect the village, or hunt. We find a use for any talent.”
“I’ve spent my life applying makeup to nobles while they prepare for parties,” Cora said.
Vincente shrugged. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find something. And there are celebrations here too. You’ll find a way to fit in.”
“And what if we wanted to leave?” Cora asked.
Emeline looked around. “Why would anyone want to leave? You don’t want to, do you?”
She did the unthinkable then, and delved into her friend’s mind without asking. She could feel the doubts there, but also the hope that this would be all right. Cora wanted to be able to stay. She just didn’t want to feel like a caged animal. She didn’t want to be trapped again. Emeline could understand that, but even so, she relaxed. Cora was going to stay.
“I don’t,” Cora said, “but… I need to know that this isn’t all some trick, or some prison. I need to know that I’m not indentured again in all but name.”
“You aren’t,” Vincente said. “We hope that you will stay, but if you choose to leave, we only ask that you keep our secrets. Those secrets protect Stonehome, more than the mist, more than our warriors. Now, I shall leave you to settle in. When you are ready, come to the roundhouse at the heart of the village. Flora runs the eating hall there, and there will be food for both of you.”
He left, which meant that Emeline and Cora were able to look around their new home.
“It’s small,” Emeline said. “I know you used to live in a palace.”
“I used to live in whatever corner of a palace I could find to sleep in,” Cora pointed out. “Compared to a store cupboard or an empty niche, this is huge. It will need work though.”
“We can work,” Emeline said, already looking around to see the possibilities. “We crossed half of the kingdom. We can make a cottage better to live in.”
“Do you think Kate or Sophia will ever come here?” Cora asked.
Emeline had been asking herself almost the same question. “I think Sophia is going to be busy in Ishjemme,” she said. “With luck, she actually found her family.”
“And you found yours, kind of,” Cora said.
That was true. The people out there might not have truly been her kin, but they felt like it. They had experienced the same hatred out in the world, the same need to hide. And now, they were there for one another. It was as close to a definition of family as Emeline had found.
It made Cora family too. Emeline didn’t want her to forget that.
Emeline hugged her. “This can be a family for both of us, I think. It’s a place we can both be free. It’s a place where we can both be safe.”
“I like the idea of being safe,” Cora said.
“I like the idea of not having to walk across the kingdom hunting for this place anymore,” Emeline replied. She’d had enough of being on the road by now. She looked up. “We have a roof.”
After so long on the road, even that seemed like a luxury.
“We have a roof,” Cora agreed. “And a family.”
It felt strange to be able to say it after so long. It was enough. More than enough.
CHAPTER FOUR
Dowager Queen Mary of the House of Flamberg sat in her receiving rooms and struggled to contain the fury that threatened to consume her. Fury at the embarrassment of the last day or so, fury at the way her body was betraying her, leaving her to cough blood into a lace handkerchief even now. Above all, fury at sons who would not do as they were told.
“Prince Rupert, your majesty,” a servant announced, as her eldest son flounced into the receiving chamber, looking for all the world as though he expected praise for all that he had done.
“Congratulating me on my victory, Mother?” Rupert said.
The Dowager adopted her iciest tone. It was the only thing keeping her from shouting right then. “It is customary to bow.”
That, at least, was enough to stop Rupert in his tracks, staring at her with a mixture of shock and anger before he essayed a brief bow. Good, let him remember that she still ruled here. He seemed to have forgotten it thoroughly enough in the past days.
“So, you want me to congratulate you, do you?” the Dowager asked.
“I won!” Rupert insisted. “I pushed back the invasion. I saved the kingdom.”
He made it sound as if he were a knight riding back from some great quest in the old days. Well, days like that were long past.
“By following your ow
n reckless plan rather than the one that was agreed,” the Dowager said.
“It worked!”
The Dowager made an effort to contain her temper, at least for now. It was growing harder by the second, though.
“And you believe that the strategy I chose would not have worked?” she demanded. “You think that they would not have broken against our defenses? You think I should be proud of the slaughter you inflicted?”
“A slaughter of enemies, and of those who would not fight them,” Rupert countered. “Do you think I haven’t heard the stories of the things you’ve done, Mother? Of the killings of the nobles who supported the Danses? Of your agreement to let the Masked Goddess’s church kill any they deemed evil?”
She would not let her son compare those things. She would not go over the hard necessities of the past with a boy who had been no more than a babe in arms for even the most recent of them.
“Those were different,” she said. “We had no better options.”
“We had no better options here,” Rupert snapped.
“We had an option that didn’t involve the slaughter of our people,” the Dowager replied, with just as much heat in her tone. “That didn’t involve the destruction of some of the kingdom’s most valuable farmland. You pushed the New Army back, but our plan could have crushed it.”
“Sebastian’s plan was a foolish one, as you would have seen if you weren’t so blind to his faults.”
Which brought the Dowager to the second reason for her anger. The greater one, and the one that she’d been holding back only because she didn’t trust herself not to explode with it.
“Where is your brother, Rupert?” she asked.
He tried for innocence. He should have realized by now that it didn’t work with her.
“How would I know, Mother?”
“Rupert, Sebastian was last seen at the docks, trying to grab a ship to Ishjemme. You arrived personally to grab him. Do you think I don’t have spies?”
She watched him trying to work out what to say next. He’d done this ever since he was a boy, trying to find the form of words that would let him cheat the world into the shape he wanted.
“Sebastian is in a safe place,” Rupert said.
“Meaning that you have imprisoned him, your own brother. You have no right to do that, Rupert.” A coughing fit took some of the punch from her words. She ignored the fresh blood.
“I’d have thought you’d be happy, Mother,” he said. “He was, after all, trying to flee the kingdom after running out of the marriage you arranged.”
That was true, but it didn’t change anything. “If I wanted Sebastian stopped, I would have ordered it,” she said. “You will release him at once.”
“As you say, Mother,” Rupert said, and again the Dowager had the feeling that he was anything but sincere.
“Rupert, let me be clear about this. Your actions today have placed all of us in great danger. Ordering the army around as you will? Imprisoning the heir to the throne without authority? What do you think that will look like to the Assembly of Nobles?”
“Damn them!” Rupert said, the words bursting out. “I have enough of them for this.”
“You can’t afford to damn them,” the Dowager said. “The civil wars taught us that. We must work with them. And the fact that you talk as if you own a faction of them worries me, Rupert. You need to learn your place.”
She could see his anger now, no longer disguised as it had been.
“My place is as your heir,” he said.
“Sebastian’s place is as my heir,” the Dowager shot back. “Yours… the mountain lands require a governor to limit their raids southward. Perhaps life among the shepherds and the farmers will teach you humility. Or perhaps not, and at least you will be far enough away from here for me to forget my anger with you.”
“You can’t—”
“I can,” the Dowager snapped back. “And just for arguing, it will not be the mountain lands, and you will not be a governor. You will go to the Near Colonies, where you will act as an assistant to my envoy there. He will provide regular reports on you, and you will not return until I deem you ready.”
“Mother…” Rupert began.
The Dowager fixed him in place with a look. She could still do that, even if her body was crumbling.
“Speak again, and you will be a clerk in the Far Colonies,” she snapped. “Now get out, and I expect to see Sebastian here by the end of the day. He is my heir, Rupert. Do not forget that.”
“Trust me, Mother,” Rupert said as he left. “I have not.”
The Dowager waited until he was gone, then snapped her fingers at the nearest servant.
“There is still one more annoyance to be dealt with. Bring me Milady d’Angelica, then leave.”
***
Angelica was still wearing her wedding dress when the guard came to her, summoning her to speak with the queen. He gave her no time to change, but merely escorted her briskly to her receiving chambers.
To Angelica, the old woman looked worn paper thin. Perhaps she would die soon. Just the thought of that had Angelica hoping that Sebastian would be found quickly, and made to go through with the wedding. There was too much at stake for it not to happen, in spite of the betrayal she currently felt at him running away.
She bobbed into a curtsey, then knelt as she felt the weight of the Dowager’s gaze upon her. The old woman rose from her seat unsteadily, only emphasizing the difference in their positions.
“Explain to me,” the Dowager said, “why I am not currently congratulating you on your wedding to my son.”
Angelica dared to look up at her. “Sebastian ran. How was I to know that he would run?”
“Because you are not supposed to be stupid,” the Dowager retorted.
Angelica felt a thrill of anger at that. This old woman loved playing games with her, seeing how far she could push. Soon, though, she would be in a position where she didn’t need the old woman’s approval.
“I took every step I could,” Angelica said. “I seduced Sebastian.”
“Not thoroughly enough!” the Dowager shouted, stepping forward to slap Angelica.
Angelica half rose, then felt strong hands pushing her down again. The guard had remained standing behind her, just a reminder of how helpless she was here. For the first time there, Angelica felt afraid.
“If you had seduced my son completely, he wouldn’t have been trying to get away from here, to Ishjemme,” the Dowager said, in a calmer tone. “What is in Ishjemme, Angelica?”
Angelica swallowed, answering out of reflex. “Sophia is.”
That did nothing but stoke the other woman’s anger.
“So my son was doing exactly what I told you to stop him from doing,” the Dowager said. “I told you that the whole point of your continued existence was to prevent him from marrying that girl.”
“You didn’t tell me that she was the oldest daughter of the Danses,” Angelica said, “or that they’re claiming her as the rightful ruler of this kingdom.”
This time, Angelica held firm for the Dowager’s slap. She would be strong. She would find a way out of this. She would find a way to put that old woman on her knees before this was done.
“I am the rightful ruler of this kingdom,” the Dowager said. “And my son will be after me. But if he marries her, that brings their kind in through the back door. It returns the kingdom to what it was, a place ruled by magic.”
That was one thing Angelica could agree with her on. She had no love for those who could look into minds. If the Dowager could have seen into hers, no doubt she would have stabbed her simply as an act of self-preservation.
“I’m intrigued as to how you know all this,” the Dowager said.
“I have a spy in Ishjemme,” Angelica said, determined to show her usefulness. If she could show that she was still useful, this could still turn out to her advantage. “A noble there. I have been in contact with him for some time.”
“So, you collude with
a foreign power?” the Dowager asked. “With a family that has no love for me?”
“Not that,” Angelica said. “I seek information. And… I may have already solved the problem with Sophia.”
The Dowager didn’t respond to that, merely left a gap into which Angelica felt she had to pour words before it claimed her.
“Endi has sent an assassin to kill her,” Angelica said. “And I have hired one of my own should that fail. Even if he should reach there, Sebastian won’t find Sophia waiting for him.”
“He will not reach there,” the Dowager said. “Rupert has imprisoned him.”
“Imprisoned him?” Angelica said. “You must—”
“Do not tell me what I must do!”
The Dowager looked down at her, and now Angelica felt true terror.
“You have been a snake from the start,” the Dowager said. “You tried to force my son into marriage by trickery. You sought to advance yourself at the expense of my family. You are a woman who hires assassins and spies, who kills those who stand against her. While I thought you might keep my son from his deluded attachment to this girl, I could stomach that. No more.”
“It is no worse than you have done,” Angelica insisted. She knew as soon as she said it that it was the wrong thing to say.
A nod from the Dowager, and the guard’s hands were dragging Angelica roughly to her feet.
“I have only ever acted as I needed to in order to preserve my family,” the Dowager said. “Every death, every compromise, was so that my sons would not be killed by someone else eager to seize power. Someone like you. You act only for yourself, and you will die for it.”
“No,” Angelica said, as if that one word had the power to stop it. “Please, I can make this right.”
“You’ve had your chances,” the Dowager said. “If my son will not marry you willingly, I’ll not force him to bed down with a spider like you.”
“The Assembly of Nobles… my family…”
“Oh, I probably can’t truly have you wearing the mask of lead for your actions,” the Dowager said, “but there are other ways. Your fiancé has just abandoned you. Your queen has just spoken to you harshly. In retrospect, I should have seen how upset you were, how fragile…”
