by Terah Edun
“I would love to tell them about the winter festivals in Algardis,” Donna Marie assured. “I think they’ll find it delightful and one day when the wake up maybe even interested in seeing the ice carving performances themselves.”
“Oh yes,” Mae’s stepmothers said as she practically lit up in joy.
Anything that took her mind off the possibility of her children dying and on to the beautiful future they would have as young adults did that for her. That had been the case for as long as Mae’s siblings had been sick. It was so hard to tell the reactions of the caring mother from the woman who had just days before been standing over those same children’s beds and syphoning energy off them.
As they walked out the door, Donna Marie waved at Mae to join them.
Not wanting to interfere in her stepmother’s joy and certainly not wanting to get into another argument so soon, Mae shook her head in denial.
The foreign woman shrugged as if to say ‘your loss’ and went her way.
Mae stayed behind watching them disappear into the sunlight. So engrossed in her own world that she jumped in startlement when Rivan appeared out nowhere by her side.
As if normal people materialized like ghosts on a regular basis, he said in a matter of fact tone, “Sometimes even the most competent of us need a shoulder to lean on.”
“Are you talking about your mistress or my stepmother?” Mae asked in a conflicted voice.
Rivan smiled and shrugged.
Still conflicted, Mae turned away for a moment. She could see why having someone just be normal, ask her normal questions, and present normal, reasonable responses would make her stepmother feel more at ease. For a moment sympathy washed through Mae for her stepmother. It couldn’t be easy having a daughter who challenged everything you said. Ember, and up until their illness, the younger siblings, had been perfect models of what a young Darnes woman should be. Mae had never really enjoyed that conformity though she had done her best to live up to its standards in her daily public life. What she did in private, like steal grimoires from her grandmother’s private sanctum, well that was for no one else to know about but her.
Well, now me, Ember and Richard, Mae thought with a snort. Those nosy busybodies just can’t stay out of my business.
And now that they were in her business as it were, they were in danger. Mae still didn’t know where Richard even was. What had those heretic freaks in her family done with him. Thinking about that she felt some shame that she hadn’t asked after him as soon as she arrived back home. But there was so very much going on and it would look suspicious if she went to the guards at the gate wondering where a cousin she barely spoke to was. What if her great-aunt had specifically instructed those guards at the gate, or even spies, the horror, to keep an eye out for anyone searching for him? That would be one way for them to find who else had intruded on their ritual, namely Mae and Ember. So staying silent and secretive so far had been her best play.
But that silence couldn’t last forever.
She still needed to find out if those lost pages for the incantation were salvageable.
She couldn’t do that with her stepmother watching her every move and even though she had some sympathy for the hard work she did, she feared the worst in regards to her dear stepmother’s intentions. Mae had no proof of the dark ceremony’s intent, nothing except Ember’s words. But what she did know was that aside from that one instance, her stepmother had been by her siblings’ side night-and-day, praying, washing their bodies, tending to their muscles and their limp limbs, and doing everything she could short of waking them herself to make sure they survived into the next week. So Mae would give her the benefit of the doubt. If only because that sort of constant presence took a toll on a person. Mae couldn’t imagine being so caring constantly only to strip her charge of their own life forces on a whim. Her stepmother’s emotional fragileness was also a clue to how much she cared. Even though she had had Mae’s father by her side the whole time, maybe she needed a female shoulder to bear the weight even more. Mae regretted not having been that shoulder to ease her stepmother’s pain but that couldn’t be her.
She looked over at Donna Marie and her stepmother in irritation.
“They’re bonding, let them be,” Rivan said quietly.
“Yes, but how is this going to help us?” Mae asked.
Rivan shrugged, “Sooner or later your stepmother will get bored. Donna Marie will slip off and we’ll get started. She’s good at taking opportune times to get away.”
Too good, Mae thought to herself but she didn’t voice that speculation aloud.
But as the two women walked out alone into the attached gardens, she waved at the two men to come with her. With begrudging looks they did. Rivan stayed behind. Leaving Mae alone in her thoughts to trail fingers over empty cold beds and wishing she was outside for a bit herself.
After she left, it wasn’t even five minutes later that a head peeked around the corner of the door looking for someone or something.
It was one of the guards and he immediately zeroed in on her.
“Yes?” Mae asked respectfully, she didn’t want to make enemies out of a Cross Guard warrior and what’s more…he’d earned her admiration for his handling of the heifer. He hadn’t panicked and he’d been brave running toward the danger of the bellows in the hallway when he hadn’t known what it was yet.
“Your stepmother asked that I inform you that your relative is on his way to start his shift in the sickroom.”
“Oh?” Mae asked unimpressed. “Okay got it.”
“And,” the guard added in a gruff tone. “You’re to let him know what happened in here with the broken furniture and inform him that she has taken the children outside for sunshine therapy. They’ll be back within the hour.”
He paused then and waited but Mae didn’t say anything.
“Those were her exact words and that I was not to forget it,” the guard said.
“You’ve done well,” Mae said as she rubbed her head and tried to will away a brewing headache.
The guard nodded sharply and immediately reverse-faced to head back out into the garden, presumably to stand attendance near Donna Marie’s side.
“Wait!” Mae called out unnecessarily loud as he took a step outside.
He turned back to look at her politely.
Dryly Mae asked, “Did she happen to mention which relative it was that’s coming?”
“Does it matter?” Mae heard Rivan ask.
She turned to see him lying with his feet up on the sickbed platform. It was quite disconcerting to see as several of her relatives had died in those very spots. One replacing the other year after year. Some far too young.
Mae immediately snapped “Get down, those aren’t lounge beds.”
“Says you,” Rivan replied with a snort. “They’re perfectly comfortable for my back. I prefer a firm cushion.”
“Try the floor then,” Mae replied heatedly as she picked up an errant wooden chair leg that had missed being collected into the pile and threw it at him.
“Ouch!” yelped Rivan as he sat up and shot her a hurt look. “Was that really necessary?”
“Yes,” Maeryn Darnes said resolutely as she turned away from him only to see the back of the guard leaving.
“Hey, you, I didn’t get an answer!” she called out in frustration.
Apparently not interested in hearing them argue the guard was already turning the corner around into the garden when he yelled, “Richard will be!”
16
Mae couldn’t believe her luck.
She almost passed out in happiness.
First, that Richard was alive and second, that he was free.
But what could that possibly mean? She thought to herself frantically. Why would they free him?
None of the possible answers were good ones.
Just as she had convinced herself of the worst, that it wasn’t really Richard at all but he’d been replaced by some dark magic that could replicate human
skin, she heard a knock on the door.
Knowing it was him, replaced version or not, Mae turned around with some excitement in her voice as she said, “Richard, thank god…!”
Her words trailed off in confusion. It wasn’t Richard after all. Instead into the room strode her father.
“Mae,” her father said startled.
“Father,” Mae said with a slightly nervous smile.
They stood staring at each other for a moment before both rushed forward for a traditional father-daughter hug.
As she was folded into his arms, Mae was reminded of all the pleasant things about her childhood. She had always had a home and warmth, but he was more than just basic necessities. Her father was all her favorite things. He was sugar fry bread and warm apples and a secret hot toddy sip on holiday nights. Her father was everything to her and for moment, buried in his arms, she felt everything else fall away.
If only for a moment the world stopping spinning and she was back to being normal Maeryn Darnes.
As for her father, his experience holding her was all-around less pleasant.
“Mae,” her father coughed as she hugged him tightly.
“Yes, father?” Mae asked brightly, wondering what he could do beyond just exist that would brighten her day even more.
“What is in your hair?” her father said as she stepped back and he held her at arm’s length firmly.
“Uh,” Mae responded as she deflating like a kicked puppy as she remembered just how gross she must look at the moment.
She actually didn’t know the answer to his question though. It could be any number of things from tree sap to mud to ashes to cow spittle depending on the consistency. She had after all been exposed to all of those in the past day-and-night and despite her great-aunt making a firm request, had yet to take a bath, let alone wash her hair.
“That sir is tree sap,” a voice said from behind them. Interrupting the solitude that had descended around them for a few blessed moments. “Came from our explorations of your land this morning.”
“And who is this?” her father asked softly as his expression took on a stern look and he physically turned Mae around with her hands to face this new stranger.
“Uh,” Mae said unintelligently as she turned to see Rivan still sitting on the sickroom platform. At least he had the presence of mind to sit up and get his feet off the platform but it didn’t really look better now than it had a few minutes ago.
Quickly Rivan kicked off the platform, landed on his feet and trotted over to hold out his hand with a respectful smile.
“Rivan sir,” he said confidently. “I’m traveling with Mistress Donna Marie.”
“Ah,” her father said with recognition in his voice. “The boy from the foreign lands.”
“Yes, sir,” Rivan replied.
Mae eyed him speculatively. For a young man who didn’t seem to care about much, he sure was being on his best behavior for her father.
She knew she would have to ponder than later as she turned to her father and said, “Father, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”
He looked down at her with a wary look in his eyes. Mae’s father knew that just about the only time she came to him with something was when she was forced to, otherwise Mae was a very independent-minded girl.
Sometimes too independent, she laughed to herself ruefully in her mind.
Despite his potential reticence, her father said, “What is that my sweet?”
Rubbing her shoulders lightly as he waited for her to respond. Her father was usually patient and meanwhile Mae’s mind was racing as she wondered where to begin.
Rivan behind them began to shuffle through the debris clutter off to the side.
He popped up with a slightly proud note in his voice as he said, “This handle is still pretty good. Can I take it?”
Mae glared at him. So much for him being on his best behavior.
He was acting like an incorrigible puppy desperate for attention.
Snippily Mae responded, “Yes, now please go outside.”
Rivan gave her an unamused look but he pocketed his handle and off he went.
Turning back to her father Mae read confusion on his face as he immediately asked her, “What happened to this room Mae? So much of the furniture is missing?”
Well, what a great time for him to notice, she thought sarcastically.
It wasn’t really. But until Rivan had brought it up it was easy to miss the debris that had been swept into a neat pile in the corner anyway.
“Well, there was a bit of an altercation,” Mae said with slight guilt. Even though she hadn’t had anything to do with the menacing heifer being released to rampage throughout the house it was rather embarrassing to relate the incident to her father who was expecting her to be a better daughter and that included staying out of confrontations.
“Another one?” her father asked sharply as he stepped back and folded his arms crossly. “I thought we agreed on no more fights Mae.”
Mae heard a person who should have walked out the door snorting with laughter behind her.
She didn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her feathers ruffled.
Instead Mae rushed to say, “It wasn’t me this time! I mean I was there but I didn’t start it.”
“Did you finish it?” her father asked wryly. He knew exactly how her mind worked.
“I contributed to the conclusion, yes,” Mae said a touch wounded.
He was blaming her and he didn’t even know what happened!
Her father sighed, “Oh Maeryn what am I going to do with you? Why couldn’t you be just a little more like your sisters? Any of them at this point would do.”
“I told you this wasn’t my fight!” Mae complained. “Even stepmother will back me up on this.”
Her father stiffened at her mention of her other parent.
Alarmed her father said, “What? Your stepmother was here? Is she alright? Where are your siblings, were they harmed?”
“Yes, yes, and no,” Mae quickly explained. “The children weren’t even in the room.”
“Then where is your stepmother?” he asked as he looked around the room in sudden concern as if just noticing she wasn’t around. “And where are my extra children?”
Mae grimaced. She could tell from the high concern in his voice that she wasn’t going to get anything through to him until he confirmed they were alright himself.
With a long-suffering sigh, Mae said, “They’re out in the garden getting some fresh air.”
Her father was moving before she had even finished her sentence.
She wanted to catch his tunic before he got two steps away, to call after him and cry ‘Wait!’, to beg him to stay and talk to her, she had so much to say, but she didn’t do any of things. Because he had his priorities and right now, that was to ensure the immediate welfare of his children. Despite everything she’d found out in the past week, she didn’t have anything definitive to give him. Nothing more than rumors and suppositions, not even proof that her stepmother was acting out of malice instead of love. So she let him go as she was determined to move on with or without his blessing.
Either she would come back with an answer and a cure or she wouldn’t but no one could say she hadn’t tried her best.
Her father paused just before he walked out the door. The early noon light cast his face in shadow as he turned back to Mae and said with almost a plea in his voice, “You’re alright, right?”
His voice begged her to say that she was and Mae couldn’t do anything but reassure him that this was the case. She couldn’t burden him with more than he already was facing. It would be wrong to do.
Before she could change her mind, she nodded solemnly and said, “Of course Father.”
He paused in the early noon light, his face shrouded in light as he looked up at her and for a moment, she saw the anguish clear in his eyes, battling with a rage that he couldn’t do something himself. Then he shaded his eyes and put a false smile o
n his face.
“Good,” her father said with a relieved smile. “Then we’ll talk more later Maeryn.”
He was already turning away and didn’t see the small wave of her hand as he slipped out into the garden to check on his youngest daughters.
“Of course father,” Maeryn said to his retreating back although she doubted that he heard her.
As always, his priorities were on the youngest and sickest of the Darnes clan. As it should be, she knew. But then why did she feel so miserable in the room empty of anyone else but a stranger who had watched her humiliation play out like it was a tableau in the village square?
Mae whirled around determined to take her frustration out on someone and in this case Rivan was the lucky recipient.
He should have left when he had the chance, she thought with a rueful smirk.
“Alright before you say anything I only interfered because I thought you were going to make a big mistake,” Rivan complained.
“A mistake?” Mae asked. “About what?”
He paced in front of her as he said, “Oh, I don’t know. Trusting him. Telling him your secret.”
“He’s my father!” Mae shouted in a voice louder than she intended.
Her emotions spilled over in her shout as she fought the internal doubts that were voicing the same concerns Rivan was. What if her father approved of the dark ritual? Worse what if he was in on it. She hadn’t recognized everyone there. But didn’t mean anything. They could have been masking their true faces somehow or substitutes for the real ritual later.
Rivan gave her a dark smile. “So? He’s family. That doesn’t mean anything believe me. I couldn’t trust my natal begetter from birth.
Who refers to their parents that way? Mae wondered briefly, dismayed.
She didn’t like it when Rivan brought up his background. He rarely had anything to nice to say, if at all.
Still she focused on the point at hand.
“You don’t understand. Maybe your father didn’t care,” Mae said in a harsh tone. “But mine always has. I have to trust him! There’s no one else.”
“No one else?” Rivan snapped. “You’re surrounded by people fighting to accomplish your insane casting ritual on a hope and a prayer. That’s a lot of effort for people who you say don’t care.”
