by Terah Edun
She didn’t hear him protesting their approach or trying to talk them out of what they were about to do. He might be cocky, but Mae hadn’t gotten the feeling he was stupid.
Mae hoped that didn’t mean someone had already grabbed him. It wouldn’t take much to sneak down a side hallway and behind him. Mae looked over her shoulder, only to discover that the sneaking-off part had been all him. In between her deciding to go after Ember again and coming to the realization that she needed to deal with her relatives first, he had somehow disappeared down the opposite corridor when she wasn’t looking. Which was good on one hand—"out of sight, out of mind,” after all, was a local proverb.
On the other hand, it left her alone facing the music.
“I knew I should have left when I had the chance.”
Still, she didn’t wholly regret her decision to stand up for him. Because from the look on her relatives’ faces, if she didn’t intervene, they would still track him down and make him regret putting hands on her. Thinking it would be better that the other foreigners he had traveled with didn’t get the wrong impression, namely a mob bent on vigilante justice tracking them down with no warning, Mae sighed and decided to calm them down before anyone had some bright ideas.
Turning around, Mae held up both arms in a call for quiet. With a cheery smile plastered on her face, she walked toward them. “It’s all right, everyone…just a minor disagreement.”
Unhappy voices swelled. As if, by acknowledging their presence, Mae had unleashed a tidal wave of discontent.
There were eight individuals surrounding her in a half-circle before she realized it, and more pressing beyond them.
“Are you all right?” said one person as another grabbed her wrist.
As she held the captive arm in a tight grip, the ancient relative that Mae barely recognized yelled, “Of course she’s not. Look at these bruises.”
Yanking her wrist back, Mae flashed as harsh a glare as she dared against an elder and said, “It wasn’t like that. And I’d thank you to let me speak.”
Still, no one listened to a word she said.
Mae felt pushed and prodded, tossed and turned, in every direction. Finally, when a thin man had poked her in the side for the second time, she physically put her foot down.
Yelling to be heard over the throng, Mae announced, “Everyone, I am fine. My battles are my own, and perhaps this time…I was wrong to confront him as I did.”
There were murmurs of discontent. They still didn’t believe her.
Then a woman pushed through the crowd. Younger than the last, but still old enough to be Mae’s grandmother. Mae recognized her as a cousin to her own grandmother. This one took no nonsense, and if she started in on Mae, there would be no coming back from the pile-on.
Mae’s stomach flipped as the new interloper began to speak. But to her surprise, she quickly proved she was on Mae’s side.
“If the girl says it was her fault, then I’m inclined to believe what came out of her mouth,” the interloper said.
“But Gesina, she’s obviously confused,” complained the one who had grabbed Mae’s arm.
“When has this one ever been silent about anything?” Gesina replied. “We all know if Mae has something to say, she’ll say it.”
There were grumbles all around, but it was clear as day that everyone agreed. If Mae could have been swallowed up by the floor at that moment, she would have chosen it. They basically all seemed to agree with the fact that she was a loud-mouthed troublemaker…and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
But that was neither here nor there at the moment. She caught Gesina’s eye, watched the older relation give her an obvious wink, and Mae was grateful to see someone, for once, taking her side. No questions asked.
Gesina leaned down and whispered in Mae’s ear, “They’ll settle down. Just mingle a bit. Then you can run off to wherever it was you were going before, and they can go back to whatever they were doing before, with the added bonus of some hot gossip to enjoy.”
Mae stifled a giggle, but she did as Gesina asked. She could already see the tide turning in her favor. That didn’t mean it was over, but the mob that had been growing was now peeling off. So Mae did her part to speed up the dispersal and began to make her way through the crowd of relatives. She assured those who needed to be assured, smiled at some, and nodded at others. She didn’t blame them for their reactions. They had only been there to protect her. Never mind that that was exactly what she didn’t want. But she would endure it, because they were family, and that was what family did.
Finally, the mezzanine was empty of all but a stubborn few. Finally feeling less like a beetle in a bottle, Mae turned with a smile toward the next person who stopped her with her a light touch on her arm.
“Are you all right, dear?” asked Great-Aunt Camilla.
“Yes, yes,” Mae said in a more relaxed voice. “Just…a minor disagreement.”
Aunt Camilla nodded. “I’ll leave you to it, as will all the rest.” She gave a firm eye to the remaining bunch.
Thankfully Mae smiled at her great-aunt. The woman was tiny but fierce and she liked her all the more for it as to a person, the rest of the Darnes family obediently ducked their heads and shuffled off. Which was all Mae needed. When the hall had emptied of all but one other person, Mae turned a wary gaze on him.
She couldn’t force him out of her way, and he stood at the entrance to the junior family halls. The halls she needed entrance to. His arms were crossed and a stubborn expression was on his face.
“You’ve been getting into a lot of trouble lately,” her cousin Richard said.
He was only two years older than her, so she didn’t have to give him the respect she did a true elder. Mae sauntered up and gave him stubborn look of her own.
“Some,” she admitted.
“A lot.”
Mae didn’t know what to say to that. So she tried to sidestep him, but he moved in front of her. She knew this could be a problem, even more so than her eavesdropping, boisterous aunts and uncles. Richard was quiet, but once he got stuck on something, dislodging him was like shaking off a patch of wet mud, which had soaked into her clothes. Almost impossible. Add to that he had at least thirty pounds on her, and she wasn’t seeing how to get him out of her way. Especially if he had been caught by Great-Aunt Camilla’s withering gaze and still hadn’t budged.
“All I want is to look after you, Mae—that’s all. The others, too.”
Mae didn’t want to argue with him. In fact, there was distinct urge to hug him for caring, and so she stepped up and did just that. Surprise radiated through his body, perhaps because they weren’t close at all. They were family but that didn’t mean they were friends.
Knowing that, Mae actually felt a bit misty-eyed seeing him step forward even if it was to get her way. Still he responded to her hug with a quick clasp of his arms around her back.
Moving back, Mae gave him a nod and said, “You know I’m fine, right?”
“I know you think you are fine,” he replied.
“I know I know I’m fine because I am fine,” Mae said. “I just met someone new and decided to spontaneously have a heated intellectual discussion—as one does. You know how much I love to argue.”
That brought a grin to Richard’s face. Mae was renowned in the family for her love of discussions on her favorite topics, which included magic, hereditary gifts or lack of them, and the rights of a girl to do what she wanted, even if family tradition said she shouldn’t. No one could outlast her when she got heated on the subject.
“That is so,” Richard said.
“Speaking of arguments,” Mae said, “what’s the deal with these new visitors? Who are they?”
“You don’t know?” Richard asked.
“No,” Mae said with a shrug. “You know no one tells me anything.”
Mae wasn’t exactly being forthright. She knew that the marks on the foreigners’ steeds were of their next-door neighbors, the Algardians, but that co
uld mean anything. They could have traded for the horses with other travelers on the road or bought them while going through the ports of kingdom of Nardes’ archenemies. Anything was possible these days.
“So,” Mae prompted curiously.
To her surprise, her cousin looked nervous. He grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her into an alcove to talk.
“You’re making me wonder if this is bigger than I first thought,” Mae said.
He licked his lips and said in a low whisper, “It depends on what you thought.”
Mae raised an eyebrow. “Well, they could have come to take the most eligible descendant’s hand in marriage, but that really isn’t—”
She stopped as Richard’s face went white as a sheet.
“You’ve got to be joking.”
“No, no—well, maybe,” Richard said.
“Well, which is it?” Mae demanded.
“No one knows,” Richard said, furtively looking around the now-empty mezzanine.
Mae didn’t know who he was looking for. The place was empty. But she let him gather his nerves and speak.
Finally, Richard continued, “From what I heard, they brought four horses and only three riders.”
“And?” Mae said, spreading her arms. That wasn’t enough to convince her of anything. Except maybe that the travelers had come prepared to switch off horses when need be.
“And a diplomatic treaty. They’ve been in the offices all day with several elders,” he said.
“How do you know?”
“I saw them walk up there with parchment in hand and a chest with enough gold in it that it took two people to carry,” Richard replied. “That’s enough money to change anyone’s mind about anything”
Well, that sounded a bit more concerning. Mae bit her lip as she thought.
“That doesn’t mean it’s a betrothal,” she said. “They could be here to trade.”
It wasn’t unknown for one of the holding kin to be betrothed to someone else living in a different holding, but usually there was some forewarning. Not one of the holding children of marriageable age had spoken up, and Mae had heard nothing from her parents.
“Think, Mae—they aren’t here to trade,” Richard said.
Mae planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “How would you know that?”
“It’s the beginning of spring, we’ve got no crops ready to harvest, and our dropped lambs are for meat and shearing, not trade.”
Mae was trying to ignore the nervous twisting in her gut that told her he was right. It had been there all day, ever since she’d woken up with the lightest itch over her collarbone.
Now it was like bees were whirling in her stomach and fire was licking along her throat.
Neither was a good sign, and both had her wondering if she had a touch of clairvoyance after all. It ran in the family…along the male lines, of course. But there was a first time for everything, and Mae couldn’t help feeling that the dread that was building inside her was about a darkness coming.
Or maybe it’s already here, Mae thought bleakly.
13
There could only be one reason her gut was telling her that darkness was coming.
Mae was no clairvoyant, like her only living great-grandfather. She couldn’t see the future, and she didn’t have premonitions, but this—her gut—she could trust. It never steered her wrong, and that trust in her self-confidence was something that had been instilled in her since very young.
The problem was that her gut was saying her life would get worse before it would get better, and the only thing she could think of that was going wrong in her life was the illness plaguing her youngest siblings. Everything else, from small squabbles to the monotony of day-to-day life, was immaterial. So to think that she was somehow being warned, if even just by instinct—or even more incredibly, due to the tiny amount of magic she possessed—well, that was scary.
More than scary, it made her sick to her stomach to think of the girls dying soon.
Very soon.
Mae’s mouth curled into a scream that she refused to let out.
She couldn’t. She had no proof, and they’d just lock her up in a separate sickroom until she calmed down.
Taking a deep breath, she realized she didn’t want to be calm—she wanted to take action.
She asked Richard point-blank, “Whatever the foreigners are here for…you think it’s bad?”
She trusted her gut, but she trusted his more. Usually.
He hesitated. “I don’t know,” he said. “But I fear we’re about to find out.”
She nodded. That, at least, was the truth. She didn’t know how long it had been since the foreigners had walked through the holding gates, but her family’s code prevented them from staying for more than three nights. They weren’t blood, and the Darnes hearth was only open in generosity for so long.
“Well, hopefully they go back from whence they came in peace and without their offerings,” Mae said bitterly.
“If that’s all they were seeking out, promised hands in marriage and a token or two. Maybe.”
He didn’t sound very convinced. Problem was—neither was she. They needed to know more about these foreigners. But the two she had met had been as closed up as the rare sea clams the holding had received in trade a time or two. Getting the mission from them would be a difficult task. But that didn’t mean Mae thought it was impossible.
Then it occurred to her. What if they hadn’t come to take, but to give?
“What if they’ve come for something else?” Mae asked.
Richard shrugged. “Like what?”
“Maybe they have something they can give us,” she said.
“A tiny holding with nothing of value except for the numerous children we bear,” he said. “Not likely. Not unless you know something I don’t.”
“I don’t.”
But that left the only alternative being the betrothal ceremony, and Mae knew that none of the younger kin her age were much interested in that. It would mean venturing too far away from their family. Mae in particular felt that nothing could be better than hearth and home, even when you argued with your pack of relatives on a weekly—sometimes daily—basis.
“They are certainly turning this holding upside down with their secrecy, though,” Richard said.
“Precisely,” Mae said. “What are they hiding?”
“I believe that’s something we’re all concerned about,” Richard said, stroking his “beard.”
Mae just barely managed to hold back a giggle at the sight. He meant it to look deep and pensive, but he was barely older than her, and the few wisps he held were a scraggly patch more than anything impressive.
“Fine,” Mae said. “Another oddity to worry about at a later time.”
“Right.”
Eyeing him askance, Mae wondered if they had conversed enough that she could now walk away without insulting his feelings.
Thinking it was better to try when they seemed on good terms, Mae said, “We should see what we can find out about these outsiders discreetly, then maybe confer in the evening.”
“Of course,” Richard said, as if he was still deep in thought and not paying her the least bit of mind.
Thinking this was her chance, Mae began to sidle away.
When she’d made it few steps, she said, “Well, I’ve got to run.”
She turned it to hightail it out of there, but instead of saying goodbye, he lashed out with a hand faster than a red-tailed hawk in a deep dive.
“Ah, Richard, I really need to be on my way,” Mae said in a high-pitched whine as she tried to wiggle out of his grip.
“And I will be going with you, so lead the way,” he said pleasantly as he gestured ahead of her.
Mae decided to be a little more upfront about it. She jerked her arm as a clear signal that he needed to let her go.
He did. Then he stepped directly in front of her and glowered down at her from an impressive height.
“You’re no
t going. I’m a busy girl,” she said through clenched teeth.
“As long as that foreigner maniac thinks he can put his hands on you, cousin, I’ll be by your side like glue,” Richard said firmly.
Mae gaped at him. “Is everyone here blind?” she said. “I attacked him.”
Richard didn’t even blink.
Mae waited, and he apparently took that as her silent acquiescence.
“Good, glad we got that settled,” Richard said with a grin and a firm slap of her shoulder.
“Any chance you’d be willing to wait here briefly? You’ll be between me and danger the whole time,” she said with just the slightest hint of sarcasm.
“Nope,” he said.
“Just for a few minutes,” Mae said. “I’m only going into the family corridors.”
“Not a chance.”
“Well—”
“Let’s go,” he said, pushing her toward the one place she did not want to go.
“It’s just that I wouldn’t want to get you tied up in my mess,” Mae said.
He didn’t respond.
If her day could get worse…it just had.
But as he insisted, they went off in search of the sister who had the tome, and maybe the answers Mae was looking for. Maybe she could convince her notoriously nosey and hierarchal family that the youngest blunderer in their history was actually right…for once.
It didn’t take long for Mae to reach the corridors that held her rooms and all of those of the youngest generation. They were housed in collective groups, the kiddies with their caregivers—usually parents, but also an older woman who acted as a night nurse on occasion, the middle group of teens off together, and the singletons in towers separated by gender on the other side.
Mae and Ember’s rooms were closest to the connecting passageways that led directly to their parents’ corridors and, beyond that, the kitchens. Which meant delightful smells wafted down the hallways with the slightest breeze.
She was quickly reminded that she hadn’t eaten all day, except for some pilfered scones and tea in the morning.
“Mind if we get some lunch on the way?” Mae asked.
She was truly famished, and, well, if she was going to reveal she’d stolen a tome from their grandmother and have a fight with her sister for the second time that morning, she at least could not do so on an empty stomach.
