by S. K Munt
‘Stay, Larkin,’ Karol whispered softly, leaning behind Kohl to address me and causing my nostrils to flare for his heady, absolutely masculine scent of musk, incense and sunlight. ‘You’ll be fine.’
I began to tremble. Anyone who’d ever said those words to me had been proven wrong after! I turned to look at him to get a reading on his face, but saw that the duchess was staring at me with an indecipherable but steady focus, and goose bumps ran down my arms. I did NOT feel fine.
‘Did you enjoy your statue, Larkin?’ she asked, and anyone in the immediate vicinity quieted.
I smiled tightly and clasped my hands together, leaning them against my chest. ‘There is no girl in Arcadia, luckier than I, so thank you, your highness.’ I included King Elijah in on my smile. ‘And to you, your majesty.’
‘I tend to agree,’ the duchess said, but the king reached over and playfully tugged on one of my piggy tails.
‘Look at you,’ he said, his hands curled around the golden vines of his armrests. ‘So grown up since the last time she saw you…’ his face tightened on his smile, and my stomach lurched. She? She WHO?
There was a stirring at the other end of the room then and I turned to look with everyone else, feeling my pulse thumping in my temples. A woman was being led into the room with her wrists bound together by green vines, and I was so relieved that it wasn’t my mother or sister or Martya that I almost slid down the marble step as my fever broke into a proper sweat. I didn’t know the woman at all, but she was middle-aged and wearing the white A-line dress with the blue denim Peter Pan collar that most of the women in her caste wore to official services, but her hair was out and in brown shambles, and her eyes looked so red that for a moment, I feared that she was a dark Nephilim.
‘Your majesty…’ the words fell to pieces as she voiced them and fell to her knees in tandem, but Coaxley whispered something to her and pulled her back to her feet as Shep turned to take her in as well. ‘Shepherd-’
‘Abbey-Linn Culkin?’ Shep asked, his voice soft, but his eyes harder than I’d ever seen them before.
‘Yes…’ she gasped, bowing her head to cry harder. ‘Please… you have to hear me out!’
‘That is precisely our intention,’ Shep said, and he turned to look at us all. I read the question in his eyes and settled, trying to keep my emotions off my face and around me, I saw other people do the same. There was no gavel and no cry of ‘order,’ and there had never been need of one before. People in Arcadia did not speak out of turn unless they were important or incredibly arrogant- like Martya and I. And now that I was the only one out of the two of us still standing, I intended to curtail my tongue.
‘Is her accuser here?’ King Elijah asked, and another woman stepped forward from behind Coaxley, fisting a chef’s hat in her hands and looking nervous.
‘Yes, your highness,’ she said. ‘I am Tera, and I witnessed the crime.’
All of the attention moved to her and I heard Abbey-Linn cry harder as soon as the word ‘crime’ had been uttered. ‘Good. Then please, tell us all what you believe you saw Mrs Culkin do.’
Tera looked down at her hat, and I wondered if anyone else in the room was impressed to see how pretty and young the chef was, with her delicate features and haircut trendily short like a blade above her shoulders. She had to be married to be a citizen of Arcadia, or merely an apprentice. Either way, seeing a female chef in such a stylish uniform was an exciting thing to behold! Those positions almost always went to men!
‘It was Saturday night, sire, and I was here as a caterer for your ball,’ Tera said in a low voice, keeping her eyes on her hat. ‘After the explosion, we were evacuated and so, I took a moment to retreat to the garden and to have a, um…’
‘You were smoking?’ Elijah asked, his voice kind, and a few people exchanged incredulous looks. A woman who smoked tobacco?! She must have earned a LOT of money to afford that! ‘Do not be afraid to state it, Miss Marron.
‘Yes your highness. I only do it in times of stress, and I was quite shaken up by the fire so I moved away from the main house-’
‘To light a smaller fire of your own?’ the duchess joked and to my horror, a snort escaped my nose. The duchess looked at me and for the briefest moment, I felt some sort of connection to her as well as an appreciation for her comic timing, but then Tera kept talking, the duchess looked away and the moment was gone. I lowered my head and fiddled with the edge of the king’s robe, and he caught me tapping one of the fake rubies and smiled a strange smile. Embarrassed, I turned back ahead and cupped my hands in my knees.
‘I suppose, your highness. Anyway, I moved to the fence down near the service gates at the front of the property, and that was when I saw her-’
‘Mrs Culkin?’
‘Yes.’ Tera tucked a strand of her blue-black hair behind her ear but it was too silken and short and immediately dropped forward. ‘She was on the public access path to the Tidal Fall, but she was straining as though to reach over the fence, and though I was at an odd angle, I was able to see her through one of the side gates. I thought that she was some drunken party guest up to something silly, so I raced up to warn her that the fence she was almost touching was electrified, and that was when I saw the-’ Tera swallowed. ‘The baby. She was trying to throw it over the fence.’
There was a moment of shocked but hushed exclamations, and I brought a hand up to cover my mouth.
‘Over Eden’s fence?’ Shep asked quietly. ‘Or the perimeter one?’
‘The perimeter one and into the Wildwoods...’
The room began to hum like a hive of angry bees but I couldn’t even squeak for my disgust. The accused woman started to weep openly then, and stole our focus once more.
‘I wasn’t going to hurt her!’ she cried. ‘I just needed to get her back to her father! I couldn’t raise her here! No one could know!’
‘That is an eight foot, electrified fence!’ King Elijah snapped as the admission of guilt damned the woman, and I felt Kohén take my hand in both of his and squeeze it as I closed my eyes and tried to hold in a wail. I could picture it all so easily! There were several sections in Eden’s perimeter fence where gaps were allowed in the stone, but fortified with wrought iron poles. They were electrified for security purposes, and allowed the people inside a glimpse out at the walkway and Wildwoods behind it, and the people outside a chance to see a member of the royal family in the rolling rear lawn while they made their way down to the Tidal fall viewing platform. That track was always busy and it wasn’t rare to see someone peering in as they ambled by at all- but only during the day. It would take a brave soul indeed to venture up that perilous corridor at night, especially given how the banished like to huddle there and spit on people who passed. The fact that the woman, Abbey-Linn had been there at all was damning enough, but with a baby?
‘It was a dark night on that side of the castle, Miss Marron,’ Shep said quietly. ‘And you were in quite a state. Can you be certain that you saw what you are claiming to have seen?’
‘Do you think that’s a point that is not already clear?’ a young man across from us scoffed. ‘The woman accused has already admitted as much!’
‘She will be heard in a moment, young Artisan,’ Shep said, not taking his eyes off Tera. ‘It is important, and only fair, that I double check every fact.’
‘Yes, Shepherd,’ Tera said in an even voice. ‘I wish I had been mistaken, but the infant was wailing and as I approached, I heard the woman fighting with another, who was trying to talk her out of it. ‘He can’t be trusted to look after your child!’ the other woman said, and I do not doubt it. ‘The Wildwoods are no place for an innocent child, Abbey-Linn, think!’ Tera smoothed the blue collar of her high-necked blouse and said softly. ‘The woman with her got the baby out of her hands, and I screamed to alert a guard, but they ran away, fighting, before one could come.’
‘So you gave Prince Karol the woman’s name, as you had heard it cried?’ King Elijah asked.
‘Yes,
sire. And the best description I could.’
‘And did you see a man on the other side of the fence waiting to catch the baby and claim fatherhood?’ King Elijah went on. ‘Or do you believe that she was allowing it to free fall in the hopes that it would be collected?’
‘I saw no one on the Wildwoods side of the fence,’ Tera said. ‘If the baby had made it over, only the ground would have broken the poor thing’s fall.’
I groaned and Kohén wrapped his arm around me. Grateful, I sunk my head onto his shoulder and then sighed in relief when beside me, Kohl took the hand that his brother had let go of.
That could have been me...
‘Is there a chance you could be mistaken about that fact?’ Shep asked. ‘And please think carefully, for your answer may make this accusation one of attempted murder, rather than child smuggling.’
‘I could be mistaken,’ Tera said quietly. ‘But I am ninety-eight percent sure that there was no one there. It only took me ten seconds to get down to where they had been standing and though I could hear the women’s feet on the pavement, I did not hear so much as a branch breaking in the Wildwoods.’
Abbey-Linn began to cry harder, and when she fell forward, the freckled redheaded Nephilim boy behind her frowned and suddenly, the binds were gone so that she could catch herself instead of landing flat on her face. Her hands slapped the marble floor, and before the sound had even finished echoing, the vine bonds reappeared on her ankles, impressing me. This guy would be able to grow a pumpkin like NO ONE’s business! I exchanged a look of shock with Kelia across the room from me, who was looking right at me and appeared as astounded as I was while wiping tears out of her eyes.
We could have been dropped in dirt, and now we fight over satin and gold...
‘Thank you,’ Shep said to Tera, and then turned to the woman on the floor. ‘Mrs Culkin, do you have a different excuse for your behaviour? Or are you ready to admit that you were trying to get rid of a child last Saturday night? We already know that you have two, and that your Joined spouse has decided not to speak for you today, or to attend this judgement.’
‘Well… there’s the proof…’ Kohén muttered, and I was inclined to agree. An unsupportive spouse was a bad omen indeed.
‘This isn’t fair!’ the woman slapped the ground. ‘I let him see his whores! I make one mistake- ONCE- with someone who swore that they would marry me when my time was up, and I pay dearly for what my spouse can do WITHOUT seeking my permission!’
‘You had the right to access a male Companion as well,’ Shep said wearily. ‘Someone who you could legally go to- someone who would be sterile, and yet you chose to go behind your spouse’s back and Arcadian laws instead, and look at what that’s led you to do, Miss Marron!’
‘It wasn’t like that!’ The woman looked up. ‘I didn’t cheat on my spouse with another man! I am not attracted to men, Shepherd, but women! I asked my spouse’s permission to have an affair with one, and he consented! This baby could have been his and he thought so too, or he would have kicked me out instead of helping me conceal the state I was in for nine months!’
‘Oh, what rot!’ one of the guards snapped, and I jumped for I’d never heard any of them speak so loudly before. ‘You were overheard saying that you had to get the baby back to its father! And then you yourself said that to us! Now… what? It’s an immaculate conception?’ He turned to the king and said. ‘This woman is insane, your highness. I’d suggest that you have Chronly add extra binds!’
Ahh… so the Nephilim boy had a name. I scrutinised him idly, wondering what else he could do, besides binding people and blinding them with the perfect symmetry of his face against his scarlet hair.
‘It wasn’t a man! Not at first! I… I don’t know what happened but…’ Abbey-Linn began to cry, as we all gawked at her. ‘I don’t deserve this… I don’t…’
‘Neither did your child. I must say- as horrified and perplexed as I am by this story, Mrs Culkin, I am grateful that we have the Government-run adoption process in place to lift it from such appalling circumstances.’ I stiffened as everyone else murmured in agreement and understood that THIS was what Karol wanted me to see; a bad mother. A ‘worse’ circumstance than mine. I kept my eyes trained on the woman and silently cursed her for being such a selfish, crazy idiot for she wasn’t helping our nation get a queen with behaviour like this! Were we supposed to believe that one fruit-loop was the reason why I was being traded for sex? Were they forgetting the part where THEY had made this stupid two-child only law?!
But you’re still fighting over gold and favour...
‘I’m certain that I understand this scenario perfectly,’ the king turned to Shep. ‘So are you sure that we must speak with this other witness…?’
The Shepherd nodded. ‘She came forward of her own violation sir, so we must.’
‘Very well.’ Elijah glanced at Coaxley and said, sighing: ‘Bring in the accused’s witness, please.’
Another buzz went through the room, and just when I was wondering what kind of unfeeling idiot could think to speak for a woman who had tried to throw a day-old baby over a fence and to its doom, I saw the worst mother imaginable to me walk in the door and steal the oxygen from the room by doing it.
Mine.
4.
Oh… my…
Kohén’s hand tightened around my waist, practically pulling me onto his lap and I tried to slap him off when he for one second, came between me and the view of Sapphire Whittaker entering the throne room, faded so that the name ‘Quartz’ would have suited her better.
‘I’m sorry…’ Kohén whispered, and all at once I understood that he’d known in advance.
Eleven years had passed since I’d seen my mother last and yet she wore those years like thirty. Her hair was streaked with grey, her complexion was dry and lined and her gait had lost all of its pride and strength. She had her eyes lowered to the floor and as though fate were guiding her, when they lifted they landed on me and her face twisted into an expression of horror and disbelief that hit me like a kick to the stomach.
Yes mother, it’s me draped over two princes. Are you proud?
I couldn’t breathe or move- I could only stare at the bedraggled woman who was prodded forth gently by Coaxley, who then looked up with an expression of empathy that made me burn for the betrayal. They all knew who she was! They’d all been expecting her! And not ONE of them had warned me! I tried to get to my feet but my legs wouldn’t work and though Shep reached for her hand to turn her to face him, my mother did not take her eyes off me and tears drizzled down her papery cheeks. Instinctively, I knew those tears weren’t for me, but the ones that welled in my eyes were most certainly for loss of what I’d never truly had.
‘Larkin..?’ Kohl’s voice sounded far away and he twisted his fingers around mine as though testing for life. ‘Are you okay?’
My throat was on fire. ‘No.’
‘Okay.’ He squeezed my fingers again. ‘I’m here.’
‘And where is that, exactly?’ I asked bitterly. ‘Everyone seems to know but me, and it feels like Hell.’
‘Sapphire Whittaker, is it?’ Shep asked my mother, but she did not respond vocally- only with a nod of her head. She did not take her eyes off my face. I stiffened- what was she looking at, or for? What did she know of me now?
‘And you’ve come forward today to bear witness on Mrs Culkin’s behalf?’ Shepherd asked, and everybody made agitated sounds.
My mother nodded again, wet her lips and still looking at me said: ‘Yes,’ and I flinched on the inside. I did not know her voice anymore either!
‘And what can you tell us that would be considered a suitable defence? After all- I’m right in assuming that you’re the one who talked her out of throwing the infant over the fence last Saturday night, yes?’
My mother finally faced Shep. ‘She wasn’t throwing the baby- she was passing him to the baby’s father.’ She swallowed. ‘I told her not to.’
Everyone started to murmu
r over that, and my mind spun. Was my mother a liar? I didn’t even know! Oh, I wished everyone would stop looking to me as though confirmation of her words would be written on my face, because I was as confused as they!
‘The other witness said that there was no one there,’ Shep said, his voice still low and calm. ‘Are you saying that she is lying, or mistaken?’
‘He… he mistakes people on purpose…’ my mother muttered, mostly to the crook of her arms. ‘He’s… duplicitous.’
‘Who is, Mrs Whittaker?’
‘The baby’s father.’
‘And who would that be?’
‘I don’t know!’ my mother erupted. ‘I’ve seen him many times, but I don’t know his name! But he’s always there, haunting that fence- I see him every time that I stray near to it! He’s waiting for women to go walking alone, and for children. I… I know it sounds crazy but I am not the only one who’s seen him! He has solicited me, and once, my eldest son had to stop him from trying to take Larkin!’
‘Oh my God!’ I got to my feet, jolted into action by adrenaline. ‘The Banished man?’
Everyone in the room turned to stare at my mother and me was the first. Finally, her face flushed with blood and animation. ‘You remember that? You and Finch-’
‘We were playing ball, and I went too close to the fence!’ I cried, turning to Shepherd. ‘There was a man there who told me that he was magical! A Nephilim with banished glyphs on his arm!’ The hum became a din. ‘He said that if I touched his fingers through the fence, I would not be harmed for he was powerful enough to survive the current, and I almost did! Try I mean, not...’
