by Barb Hendee
Fear and despair washed through me.
“What do we do?” I asked.
Cooper clucked to the mules. “Get back there as fast as possible.”
·····
The return journey was a blur and at the same time seemed to take forever. Traveling upriver was slower, as the barge had to be pulled against the current by mules. Even without making stops along the way for business, Cooper had said it would take at least three days to reach Pudúrlatsat.
We didn’t speak much. My mind was too busy grappling for the best way to stop Coraline. And I feared that I would arrive too late.
When we finally pulled in at the docks of Pudúrlatsat past dusk of the third day, I was at a loss while watching Cooper tie us off. It felt wrong to simply thank him and walk away after all he’d done. But I had a bad feeling he’d want to come to the manor with me, and he couldn’t. How would I ever explain his company?
He reached a hand out to me. “The barge is secure. You can step off.”
I didn’t move, and as usual, I said the wrong thing. “I’ll make sure you are paid the five silver pennies you gave that stable boy.”
His jaw twitched. “Is that a dismissal?”
Both his hired men shifted to the other side of the barge, trying to look busy. Without knowing why, I suddenly felt miserable.
“Of course not. I just… I wanted you to know you’ll be paid back.” I took a step toward him. “I have to get to the manor and find out what’s happened. It will look odd if you come with me.”
Dropping his hand, he glanced away, though all the tension faded from his face. “I know.”
“I can’t offer you enough thanks for everything. You are a true friend, and I don’t have many.”
He didn’t look at me. “I got you back here as fast as I could. Go and find out what’s happened.”
He was making this easier than I expected, and I was grateful. “Stay here tonight,” I told him. “I’ll come tomorrow to tell you everything.”
With that, I stepped past him, left the river behind, and hurried into the village. A part of me wanted to look back, but I didn’t.
Quickening my pace, I reached the village’s midway point, illuminated with tripod braziers, and turned inland. As I trotted beyond the village’s bounds, the roadside trees thickened, and it grew harder to see.
The land rolled slightly but wasn’t sharply hilled. Soon, I reached the wooden bridge with railings that spanned a stream running over a rocky bed. Though the bridge was small, it was sturdy and wide enough for two horses to cross abreast. Once across, I headed onward and my destination appeared after two more curves in the road.
While the manor wasn’t considered a proper keep, the square building was two stories of fortified stone. This far from the borderlands, there was no need for more. A large barn with a peaked shake roof sat off to one side with a smaller barracks built up against it. The latter was where our scant number of guards lived and slept. A low stone wall encircled the grounds, and the road curved by a side path leading up to its large iron gate, which was always open.
I hurried through the gate and courtyard to the front doors, wondering what I would find inside. As I opened and entered those front doors, voices drifted from the hall.
I wished I had time to go upstairs and change, but I knew I couldn’t. I had to find out what had transpired in my absence, so I walked down the passage to the archway of the main hall.
When I reached it, I froze. It was suppertime, and three people sat at the long oak table: Stefan, Coraline, and Luciano Jovanovich.
My first thought was fear of why Jovanovich was here.
My second was relief that Stefan still lived, and I wasn’t too late.
Jovanovich faced my direction, and I took in his sly handsome face, his sleek dark hair, and his goatee. He smiled at the sight of me.
“Ah, the pretty housekeeper. I wondered where you’d gotten off to.”
Coraline’s back was to me, but she turned her head as she answered. “She’s been in Kéonsk purchasing supplies.”
Her lovely hair was pinned up tonight, and she wore a gown of purple velvet.
Still frozen in place, I wondered if Stefan would shout at me or give me away. I hoped Beatrice had somehow convinced him to play along. Thankfully, he kept silent, but I took a good look at him.
His face was gray, and his eyes were ringed with blackish, purple circles. He looked ill and almost lost at his own table, as if afraid to speak.
Ignoring both Jovanovich and Coraline, I spoke directly to Stefan. “My lord, I brought back the new cloak you had tailored. I know you were anxious to see it. It’s in the courtyard with all the crates. If it doesn’t suit you, I can send it back on the returning barge.”
His expression blanked at first, as if he hadn’t understood me. Of course I was lying, but I expected him to at least pick up on the fact that I wished to see him alone. After brief hesitation, his eyes cleared as he rose, and a hint of the Stefan I knew appeared to return.
“Yes, thank you. I’ll inspect it now.”
“During dinner?” Jovanovich asked in mild surprise.
“Yes,” Stefan repeated. “As Elena says, it will need to be returned if it’s not suitable.”
I swallowed back any sigh of relief as he came toward me. Neither Coraline nor Jovanovich appeared to find anything amiss. I turned and started down the passage as Stefan fell in beside me. We both remained silent as we reached the front doors.
He opened them, and we stepped outside into the courtyard. I hadn’t realized I’d been holding my breath until he closed them behind us. Then I grabbed his hand.
“Come with me,” I whispered urgently. “We need to run!”
For once, he didn’t question or argue. He let me pull him across the courtyard, through the gate, down the road and across the bridge. He seemed as eager as I to flee the manor.
When we reached the village outskirts, I drew him through the trees to the shore of the river.
Alone there, I felt we could finally talk.
“She’s trying to drive you mad,” I said, “or at least to make you look mad, and then she’s going to murder you.”
In the darkness, he leaned closer, and moonlight caught in his eyes. “Am I not going mad?” he rasped.
“No, you are not.”
“But… no one else sees the ghosts.”
I wondered if Coraline had found a way to counter my instruction about James sleeping in his room.
As quickly as I could, I told him everything from the moment Cooper and I had left the Jovanovich stable in Enêmûsk and gone to see Marta at the Iron Boar. I watched a myriad of emotions cross his face from shock to disbelief… to anger.
“A widow?” he repeated “descended from a traveling band of Móndyalítko? And they’ve only been wealthy merchants for a few years?”
“Only after driving Coraline’s husband mad with visions of ghosts… and he drowned when no one was watching.”
Stefan’s breathing was harsh now. I knew this was a lot for him to take in, but he should have investigated much deeper before marrying Coraline for her money.
Suddenly, he appeared lost again.
I knew he must be exhausted and, only now, awakening from a nightmare.
“Elena… what should I do?” he asked.
“You’re not going back to the manor… not yet at least. I don’t know what she’s capable of, so we’re going to hide you in the village tonight. Tomorrow, the guards will be searching for you, and I’ll try to catch James and a few others I know to be loyal. We can plan from there.”
He gripped my hand. “I’ll sleep in the village?” he repeated, as if I’d thrown him a lifeline, and he closed his eyes. “No ghost will come tonight?”
“No ghost.”
I was glad for his agreement, but I wanted to impress the seriousness of the situation.
“I’ll find a safe place,” I added, “and many of the villagers would gladly put us up. But you mu
st stay hidden until I’ve arranged help from your guards. So long as you’re alive, the vassalage is still yours.”
It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all I had. Unfortunately, I never had the chance to put any of it into practice.
A silky male voice spoke from the trees. “How correct you are, my dear. So long as he lives, the vassalage is his.”
I couldn’t help gasping as Jovanovich stepped from the trees.
Stefan’s hand instinctively dropped to his hip, but he never wore his sword at dinner.
Jovanovich’s smile was cold as he spoke to me. “How thoughtful of you to bring him to the river… among the trees… in such a private place. I had been wondering how to manage that myself.”
“I’d have managed, Father,” said a second voice beyond him, and Coraline emerged into view.
In the darkness, her pale skin glowed as moonlight struck it through the leaves and branches overhead.
Stefan’s whole body tensed at the sight of her. “Deceiver!”
She laughed. “You took long enough to realize that.”
His harsh breaths grew deeper, but he held his place, watching them both.
I wondered if he could take Jovanovich with no weapon and only one hand. I’d have to handle Coraline, so I drew her attention.
“What trick did you use?” I asked. “Did you feed him some herb to addle his wits and whisper horrible visions in his ear?”
For the first time, she appeared genuinely surprised, and then she laughed again. “Feed him herbs? I thought you were the clever soul in that house.” Stepping forward, she lifted both arms. “I have no need of herbs to addle his mind.”
Before I could speak again, she closed her eyes and raised her arms even higher.
“By the old way and the power of the mists,” she murmured, as if speaking a poem, “I summon you from the gray between.”
I stood beside Stefan with no idea what to do as the air beside us shimmered as if a sweltering heat filled the dark.
Stefan saw it and his eyes widened. “No!”
A transparent form appeared… a large man in a tabard with a red gash across his throat and a bloody hole in chest.
Stefan stumbled backward.
“Don’t be afraid,” I cried. “I see it too.”
He stopped.
Jovanovich hadn’t moved and was still smiling his cold smile.
The soldier ghost turned toward Coraline, and the hatred on his face was even more startling than his visage. He rushed toward her, but with her eyes closed, she murmured something else, something I couldn’t make out. The ghost came to a sudden halt and slowly turned back toward Stefan and me.
Coraline’s mouth moved, but it was the ghost who spoke in a hollow, unrecognizable voice.
“And now I see you,” it said.
Fear choked me. Somehow, Coraline could call spirits from the other side and take over their incorporeal form, even to seeing through their eyes. That was how she’d tortured Stefan. She’d called and possessed ghosts one by one and then passed through the wall of his room when he was alone.
She must have done the same to her young husband, Nathaniel, and then she had…
The ghastly figure rushed forward, this time under Coraline’s control, and smashed into Stefan, vanishing inside him. His face contorted in pain. One of his feet shifted back toward the river, though he appeared to struggle in holding his place.
“Coraline, stop it!” I shouted.
Stefan’s body twisted around as his other foot slid toward the river’s edge. She was inside him, forcing him toward the water. Without knowing how to get the ghost she controlled out of Stefan, I quickly crouched and clawed the ground in the dark until I found a stone.
I charged Coraline, ready to break her head open. She couldn’t control a ghost if she was dead.
Something blurred between us.
I felt a sharp crack across my face.
Stumbling back, I managed to stay on my feet, and Jovanovich stood in my way.
Stefan was almost to the river’s edge.
“Make her stop!” I shouted at Jovanovich.
My cheek stung where he’d struck me. Then something glinted in the moonlight. I dropped my eyes to see a dagger in his other hand.
“Sorry, my dear. I had looked forward to you serving as my housekeeper, but we can’t have any witnesses.”
As he charged, I tried to swing with the rock. He caught my wrist, jerked me around, and held my back up against his chest. I saw the glint coming and realized both Stefan and I were going to die this night.
I hadn’t saved him. I hadn’t saved Beatrice or Maisy or the people of Pudúrlatsat.
The blade never touched me.
I felt Jovanovich jerk away from behind me, but whatever had caused that knocked me forward. When I fell to my knees, I scrambled away and turned. At first, I couldn’t see what was happening.
Cooper stood a few paces away as he shoved Jovanovich off of himself and took a hard swing. I heard the crack as his fist connected with the slender man’s jaw, and then he grabbed Jovanovich’s dagger hand, twisted it, and drove the blade through his opponent’s throat.
The movements were all so fast and sudden.
Jovanovich gagged once as he toppled, and when his back hit the earth, he lay there with his eyes locked open.
“No!” a hollow voice wailed.
Coraline’s eyes widened in horror. “Father!” she screamed, running toward him.
I had no pity for her, and spun to go after Stefan, but I didn’t take a step.
He stood facing all that had happened instead of the river. A transparent, colorful form tore out of his body, and the soldier ghost reappeared. It glared toward Coraline in hatred, but she didn’t see it from where she crouched beside Jovanovich.
“Father!”
Free from her control, the ghost rushed at her, and smashed into her, and vanished.
She screamed again, lurching awkwardly to her feet, and she had less resistance than Stefan. In an instant, she stumbled while gagging, and then she sped into a tripping run for the river’s edge.
I heard the splash as Stephan spun to look. Without thinking, I started after her on my hands and knees.
“Don’t!” someone barked behind me. I was lifted to my feet and held in a tight grasp. “She’s gone.”
I looked back to find Cooper behind me. When he finally loosened his hold, we went more carefully to the river’s edge and looked into the current.
I saw nothing but the flowing water shimmering with moonlight. Coraline was gone. Then I heard Stefan choking, and when I turned, he sank to his knees.
Cooper hurried to kneel beside him.
“My lord,” he said more gently than I would have expected. “It’s over. Let us take you home.”
·····
Upon returning to the manor, I left Cooper in the main hall as Guardsman James helped me take Stefan upstairs. Not long after, with the help of Beatrice and James, I tucked Stefan into his bed.
Stefan hadn’t spoken during the return, but as I pulled away to let him rest, he grabbed my hand.
“I won’t forget, Elena,” he said. “I won’t ever forget what you did tonight… what you did for me.”
I nodded.
But he would forget. He would soon forget, just as he had before. Looking into his eyes, I felt nothing for him, nothing for a man I had once loved more than my own life.
“Sleep now,” I said. “I’ll leave James and Beatrice to watch over you.
I glanced at Beatrice, and she nodded. I knew she’d stay with him, but it was still good to have her as my friend, always ready to help.
So tired, I could barely make it down the stairs, I went back to the main hall and found Cooper waiting by the fire. He turned to watch me approach, and I had no idea what to say to him.
He’d gone against my wishes and followed me tonight. He’d probably hidden outside the manor and trailed Stefan and me to the river. But how could I fault him, for
if he hadn’t…
This night would have turned out quite differently.
“Thank you, again,” I said simply. “I seem to be forever thanking you.”
With the firelight behind him, his skin glowed with warmth. I liked his sturdy arms and his broad face and his short, dark hair. I liked the honesty in his eyes.
“What are you going to do now?” he asked.
The question caught me off guard, but one thing I knew for certain. “I don’t belong here anymore.”
“Where will you go?”
I wished he would stop asking questions. “To the village for now. I’m sure I can stay with old Appicotta while I seek a new position. Some greater or lesser house might need a housekeeper.”
His right hand trembled slightly, and he blurted out. “You could come with me,”
“With you?”
Rapidly, he reached into his pocket and took out a small ring, holding it in his palm. It was polished silver with a light blue gem. He held it out.
“I’ve been carrying this around for days,” he said. “It was my grandmother’s, left to me. I offer myself, my business, my world in a life on the river. I love you. There is no one for me but you. There never has been.”
I stared at him, unable to say anything. My gaze dropped again to the ring, to what it represented, at what he was offering.
I love you.
In the past, many people had thought me a fool. I realized that I would be a fool if I refused Cooper’s offer… refused him.
“Will you?” he asked. “Will you come with me, tonight?”
Slowly, I nodded.
He exhaled suddenly and sagged as if he’d been holding up a barge with that one hand instead of the ring
“Let me go up and tell Beatrice,” I said. “I owe her that.”
He closed his eyes briefly. “Of course.”
Watching the relief on his face, I pictured our coming years together on river, with him selling goods and me keeping the accounts, and the both of us drifting on the current from place to place. I would finally be home.
“Cooper,” I said.
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
