Sands of Memory

by Melissa McShane

  Alcander’s eyebrows went up. “You’re not thinking of suing me, are you? Because I can’t believe you have grounds for that.”

  “No. I want you to overturn an unjust law.” She summed up the Deluccos’ situation, not giving him the opportunity to interject irrelevancies, and ended with, “We need a way to keep Cressida and her children out of his clutches permanently. They can only hide in Beneddo for so long.”

  “You don’t ask for trifles, do you?” Alcander said. His eyes were distant, focused on something not in that room. “I don’t know, Sienne. We’re talking about weakening the legal protections of a patriarch. There are plenty of judges who benefit from those protections and won’t want to see them removed.”

  “But it’s unfair. Perrin lost his marriage and his children just because he decided to worship a different avatar. Now Cressida is in the same position. Isn’t that, I don’t know, like saying some avatars are better than others?”

  “That’s the line of reasoning that occurred to me. The problem isn’t that the heads of families have power, it’s that they have too much power. Maybe it’s valid that they can annul marriages—”

  “I’ll never believe that!”

  “I said ‘maybe.’ They at least ought to have to show a better reason than changing one’s faith.” Alcander focused on Sienne. “I think it’s possible. And I have a professor who will see it as a challenge.” He grinned. “I might even turn it into a thesis.”

  Sienne hugged her brother. “Thank you. Perrin thanks you too.”

  “I can’t imagine how hard it would be to lose your family. Though this won’t restore his marriage. Is that something he wants?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t tell. I think he still loves his wife, but they hurt each other badly. It’s going to take more than a change in the law to fix what’s broken between them.”

  “Well, it starts with changing the law. The rest is up to him.”

  They walked back up the stairs and met their father coming down. “Sienne,” Papa said, embracing her. “Your mother put your surprising proposition to me.”

  “And?”

  “We shouldn’t interfere in another family’s dispute,” Papa said. “On the other hand, I don’t believe children should be separated from their parents, no matter the legal right of a patriarch to do so. And, not to be proud, but I am duke of Beneddo and far more powerful than some upstart nobody with more money than sense.”

  Sienne threw her arms around her father again. “I’m so glad.”

  “We’ll be leaving in two hours. Will you bring them to us, or use magic to take them directly to Beneddo?”

  “I thought about taking them directly to Beneddo for safety, but that leaves them at loose ends in the city while you’re on the road. Will you mind accommodating them in your caravan? They’ll have money to pay their way.”

  “Nonsense. They’ll be our guests. Our financial situation is not as precarious as it once was, since the Lanzanos chose not to ask for the marriage settlement back. I don’t suppose you know anything about that?”

  “Ah…I might have blackmailed Rance just a tiny bit.”

  “Say no more. At any rate, we’re happy to host them for as long as it takes.” Papa kissed her forehead. “Bring them here in two hours. I have to say I feel energized at the idea of helping someone escape an unjust situation. And Liliana will be thrilled to have her friend join us. Anything that keeps Liliana occupied on the road…” He exchanged knowing glances with Alcander, who grimaced.

  “I’ll be back, then. Is Felice still here? I wanted to ask where she’ll be living.”

  “She left already. I can’t say I’m thrilled to have her gone, but she seems happy enough, and I wouldn’t stand in the way of that.” Papa smiled. “In the way of any of my children’s happiness.”

  Sienne thought about jaunting back home, realized she would need all her reserves to bring the Deluccos to her parents’ mansion, and trudged back through the streets, cursing yet again her lack of transport, which would convey several people at once. Back at Master Tersus’s house, she went looking for Alaric and found him in their bedroom, packing his clothes into a large canvas bag. “Did they agree?” he said.

  “They did. I’ll tell Cressida. I was thinking I should ferry them directly to my parents’ mansion, in case Master Delucco has men out searching the streets for them. He has to know they’re missing by now.”

  “Dianthe went out to buy them clothes for the trip. They really did leave with nothing. I think Perrin is grateful for our last salvage expedition, because he’s got more than enough money to care for their needs.”

  Sienne put her arms around his waist. “Can you imagine being forcibly separated like that? Somebody else dictating whether you can be with the one you love?”

  “That nearly happened to us only three days ago. Of course I can imagine it.”

  “That’s true. I’ve been trying to forget.”

  Alaric sat on the bed and drew her onto his lap. “It won’t happen again, sweetlove. And if we’re lucky, we’ll give Perrin a second chance.”

  “If he wants it. I’m not sure how he feels.”

  “Then you’re not watching closely enough. He looks at Cressida like she’s water in the desert.”

  Sienne kissed him. “You mean, like this?”

  “I mean exactly like this.”

  She rested her head on his shoulder, and they sat like that for a while. It was painful to remember she’d nearly lost Alaric, nearly lost all her friends and the life she loved so much, thanks to Rafellish inheritance law and the whim of the king. She closed her eyes and breathed out a silent prayer of thanks to every avatar there was.

  Far away, she heard the back door open and shut. “That’ll be Dianthe,” Alaric said, helping Sienne stand. “Let’s tell everyone the news.”

  Delphine and Noel sat at the long kitchen table, eating soup under Leofus’s watchful eye. Cressida sat beside them, her bowl untouched. “It’s going to be all right,” Sienne said. “They’ll take you.”

  Cressida closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “It is most generous of them. I hope you told them we will provide for ourselves.”

  “You can tell them, but my parents insist you’re their guests. They won’t take a centus from you.”

  Cressida smiled. “It’s not as if it’s our money. Perrin has been generous as well. I am not accustomed to receiving charity, only to giving it.”

  “Nothing wrong with that,” Dianthe said, setting down a bulging sack. “Nightclothes, a change of dress for each of you, assorted toiletries. I think I guessed right on the sizes, but maybe Sienne could fit them more closely to you.”

  “I should conserve my resources,” Sienne said. “I’ll need to ferry all three of you to my parents’ house, to keep you off the streets and out of sight. But once you’re with the Verannus horde, you’ll be safe. My parents won’t let Master Delucco take you.”

  “Thank you,” Cressida said. “I owe you everything.” She spoke to Sienne, but she was looking at Perrin, who stood silent in the corner. Despite what Alaric had said, Sienne couldn’t see a trace of love or longing in his face. Without a word, he left the kitchen, brushing past Kalanath, who looked startled at his abruptness.

  “Are we going to visit Liliana?” Delphine asked into the sudden silence. “I like Liliana.”

  “You like her brother Giles,” Noel said in a sing-song, teasing tone of voice.

  “I do not!”

  “Delphine. Noel. That’s enough,” Cressida said. She rose from the table. “Behave yourselves. I need…” Without finishing her sentence, she left the room, turning left to follow Perrin. Sienne wished desperately she had some excuse for following them. She knew eavesdropping was wrong, but that had never stopped her before.

  Alaric cleared his throat. “We should eat. And then we need to make a decision.”

  “About what?” Dianthe asked, taking a seat next to Delphine.

  “About whether we’re going to
Beneddo, too.”

  “Should we?” Kalanath asked. “If they are safe with Sienne’s family…but if something goes wrong, and we are not there, it is bad.”

  “We can’t go,” Dianthe said. “We need to draw attention away from Cressida.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better if all of us disappeared?” Sienne said. “I don’t mind drawing Master Delucco’s attention if we have to, but that doesn’t mean I want him breathing down my neck. He’s vindictive enough he might take out his wrath on us, and then we’d have to fight his minions, and somebody would end up in jail. I don’t like the chance that it might be us.”

  “If we disappear, we cede control of the search to him,” Dianthe said. “Not having any leads to pursue, he’ll follow up on every possibility, and that includes Sienne and Beneddo. Which means he could fall into the truth by accident. If we stay here, or go elsewhere but leave a trail, we’ll control where he searches. Especially if we can make him believe we either have Cressida, or know where she and the children went.”

  “That sounds like you again wish us to go to Omeira,” Kalanath said.

  “It seems the best option, yes. He’ll likely believe Perrin is trying to—” Dianthe glanced at the children, who were listening avidly. “That is, leaving the country will make the ploy more believable.”

  “Isn’t Papa coming with us?” Delphine asked.

  “It’s not safe for him to do so,” Alaric said. “Not safe for you, that is.”

  “But I want to go with him! Why can’t we go to Omeira with you?”

  “That is not safe either,” Kalanath said. “We go to the desert. We do not take children.”

  Delphine threw her spoon into her empty bowl, making it rattle. “It’s not fair!”

  “No, it isn’t,” Dianthe. “It’s just the way things are.”

  Sienne said, “Someday—” and closed her mouth, trapping the rest of her words. She had no business promising these children they’d one day have an intact family again, much as she longed to.

  Perrin and Cressida remained in the sitting room almost until it was time for Sienne to take them to join her family. She helped entertain the children with minor magics, wishing she knew what kept their parents occupied. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if they were making things right, resolving their differences, maybe kissing until they couldn’t breathe? But when they finally returned to the kitchen, they didn’t look like two people in love. “Children,” Cressida said, “say goodbye to your father.”

  Both children ran to him, Delphine in tears. “We can go with you, can’t we?” Delphine said. “We’ll be good. We won’t be any trouble.”

  Perrin looked at Alaric. “Go where?”

  “Omeira. Dianthe will explain later.”

  “Delphine, my sweet, you must go with your mother,” Perrin said. “She needs your help to look out for Noel.”

  “I can look out for myself!” Noel declared. “I’m six now!”

  “And you will both need to take care of your mother,” Perrin said, deflecting this handily. “Promise me you’ll obey her, and…I will see you again soon, in Beneddo.”

  He exchanged looks with Cressida, whose face was expressionless. “I will contact you as we discussed,” Perrin said. “The duke and duchess will protect you until I return, and then…we will make further plans once we know whether Alcander Verannus has been successful.”

  “I mean no offense, Sienne, but I am leery of entrusting my future to a boy who is not even a law-speaker yet,” Cressida said.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Sienne said. “We won’t let Master Delucco take the children, whatever it takes.”

  Dianthe made a pained face, but said nothing. Sienne extended a hand to Cressida. “Come with me, and I’ll introduce you to my parents.”

  It took nearly ten minutes to transport the three Deluccos to where the Verannus horde, as Sienne called it, waited outside the mansion. Most of this was the delay Noel caused when he realized his father would not be coming with them to see them off. Finally Alaric persuaded Noel to take Sienne’s hand, and she cast ferry once more. Cressida waited with Mother and Papa at the front door, sweating in the afternoon sun. She took Noel’s hand and bowed low to Sienne. “Tell your friends I am in their debt,” she said. “As I am your parents’.”

  “It’s our pleasure,” Papa said. “And now I think we should be on the road. Mistress Delucco?” He gestured toward the carriage at the head of the line.

  “We’ll join you in Beneddo when this job is over,” Sienne said, hugging her parents one at a time. “Good luck.”

  She waved the carriages out of sight, then began the long walk back home. She felt dizzy and a little sick the way she always did when she pushed the limits of her resources. If she’d known she’d have to ferry three people today, she wouldn’t have jaunted to and from the university. Well, there was no sense dwelling on should-have-done when it was in the past.

  It was interesting, though, how her ability to do magic had grown the more practice she got. Only a little over a year ago, she’d been a fugitive from her family, desperately looking for work, with barely a dozen spells in her spellbook and the ability to cast only a handful of them before reaching her limit. She recalled the first challenge to her magic after becoming a scrapper, tricking another scrapper team so hers could retrieve a stolen artifact. What had taken about half her reserves then would barely tap them now. And there was no reason to think she’d reached the limits of her power. It was a cheering thought.

  She kept a careful eye out for anyone who might be following her. What they didn’t need, at this point, was for her to be snatched by Master Delucco’s thugs when she was in no condition to defend herself. But the throngs filling Fioretti’s golden streets were as indifferent to her as they always were. It was one of the nice things about living in a big city; people tended to mind their own business. It could be an unpleasant thing as well, if you were being attacked and needed someone to run to your rescue, but in general Sienne was satisfied to pass unnoticed.

  She turned the corner onto Master Tersus’s street and climbed the shallow incline to his back door. “I’m back,” she called out.

  “Sienne,” Dianthe said. “Everything went well, right?”

  Sienne entered the kitchen, where her friends were seated around the table. Bags filled the space between the table and the windows. “Of course. Are we ready to go?”

  “Just waiting for the wagon to drive us to the port,” Alaric said. “Sit. You look like you pushed yourself too hard.”

  Sienne sat next to him and leaned against his shoulder. “A little. I’ll be fine. Just don’t anybody need a spell cast in the next several hours.”

  “This is intolerable,” Perrin said, shoving abruptly back from the table. “I cannot bear it. My father cannot be allowed to continue in this madness.”

  “Perrin,” Alaric said, “we’ve been through this. There’s nothing you can do.”

  “I have two good fists,” Perrin said. “I can beat him senseless. How dare he treat my children like his property? And hurt Cressida? It is unjust, and more, it is wrong.”

  “We’re doing what we can,” Dianthe said. “The only way is to change the law. Beating Master Delucco is just a temporary pleasure, and it will get you thrown in jail. How can you help Cressida if you’re locked up?”

  “It seems I am incapable of helping her when I am free.” Perrin bowed his head so his hair was a dark curtain across his face. “I could do nothing for her but hand her a purse and bid her farewell. It is hardly the act of a husband.”

  Sienne almost pointed out that he wasn’t Cressida’s husband anymore, but Alaric’s heavy hand on her knee silenced her before she could be stupid out loud. Alaric said, “Is that what you care about? Looking like a hero?”

  “Of course not. I simply…” Perrin’s voice trailed off. “I should have gone with her. Anything might happen.”

  “Going with her would only draw attention to her,” Dianthe said. “Perrin, thi
s is the best way.”

  “I think she knows how you feel,” Kalanath said.

  Perrin looked up. “And how is that?” he asked, dangerously calm.

  Kalanath didn’t flinch. “You do not stop loving just because you cannot be together,” he said. “My mother taught me that. I think she is right. I hope it is true.”

  Perrin closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath. “Averran help me,” he said quietly, “it is true.”

  “Then the way to show that love is by leading your father away from them,” Sienne said. “We’ll go to Omeira, be decoys, and find the lost city of Ma’tzehar. And when we return from Omeira, we’ll go to Beneddo and Alcander will have a solution for you.” She didn’t dare say and then you and Cressida can be together, but she held the words in her heart and hoped they could become true.

  “Very well,” Perrin said. “You speak the truth. But I hope my father’s minions attack us, because I would dearly love to bloody my fists on their faces.”

  “I hope it doesn’t come to that,” Alaric said. He rose, and shouldered three of the bags. “Let’s wait for the wagon outside. I feel the need for fresh air.”

  Sienne lifted her own bag, felt the room spin around her, and was relieved of the bag by Kalanath. “Do not become sick,” he said, “because it is an ill omen for the trip if you do.”

  “You haven’t had any dreams about it, have you?”

  “None. But the journey has not yet begun. There is time still.” Kalanath looked grim. “I hope it does not happen.”

  “I hope so, too.” It wasn’t entirely true. Kalanath was prone to prophetic dreams, and Sienne welcomed anything that might help them find the lost city. But she knew how they disturbed him, and in that respect, she didn’t want that for her friend.

  She followed him outside and down to the corner where the others waited. Regardless of what Kalanath had said, she couldn’t help feeling that this, now, was the start of a journey that would take them to places far stranger than any they’d seen before. So long as it also gained them their goal, she was willing to go just about anywhere.