by Becky James
Rose gently pushed open the door to her daughter’s chamber. “Evyn, dear, I know what he said to you.”
“Do you? Really?”
“He told us. And I bet that hurt, sweetheart—”
“It was the truth. At least he was being honest. The rest of them were just lying to my face all the time.” She scowled at the floor.
The vice-like grip on my head started up again. I touched my forehead. She had taken my words into herself, into her heart. The words and thoughts of your soul companion were precious and powerful; they could lift you up or tear you down. The thoughts that I had been having about her had struck her deeply when I voiced them. These wounds were as deep and debilitating as a sword thrust to a vital organ, and I had torn into several at once.
I took a deep breath. I had only one chance to fix this. “Lady Evyn—”
“Oh, bugger off!” she yelled, slamming the door shut against both of us.
“Well,” Rose said. “That went well.”
Chapter 5
There were no servants in this household. Instead, Rose herself showed me to a downstairs room lined with cupboards and tiles, a sink and several large white rectangles that hummed like the koan of a Rushia reliquary. Cheery coloured crockery lined the walls and hung on hooks. Taking a mug down, Rose opened a jar and pulled out a small linen sack with a fine powder inside. She took a metal conical pot to the water faucet, popped its lid off and filled it, then placed it back down. Somehow it began heating on its own and I relaxed a little; at last, some magic. But as the sun faded, Rose touched a small rectangle in the wall, and lights flared up as though glowstones had been revealed. I stared at the transparent glowstone shaped as a twisting pipe embedded in a yellow basket, which was suspended at my eye level in this low house.
“Better not stare at that for too long. Probably doesn’t do your eyes a lot of good.” Rose poured the hot water into the mug and sat down at the small, round table. I carefully lifted one of the chairs to inspect it, unsure whether it could take my weight, and decided to err on the safe side and continue to stand. Rose offered me no refreshment, and I did not ask for any. She stared into her mug as though the bag inside would reveal the answer to getting her daughter to come out to parlay with us.
She looked up at me. “Why have you suddenly had a change of heart?”
Shifting my stance, I replied, “I beg your pardon, Lady Rose?”
“You laid into my daughter, calling her… all sorts. You seemed to know exactly the places she felt the most insecure and attacked them directly. You collapsed. And then you come running up saying you’re sorry.” She tapped her spoon to her lips, watching me.
“I had made judgements based on my prejudices, things that weren’t true—”
She shrugged one shoulder. “But everything you said came from a place of truth for you and for her. That’s why it hit her so hard.”
“Shard said she is tenacious. Shard said she would help me focus on what was important, not what everyone else was thinking. Sylvia said she paid no mind to the whims of court. She inspired a new fashion.”
Rose’s tapping stopped. “These are other people’s opinions again.” She mouthed “Fashion?”
“Culottes. They are practical, apparently. And yes, I’m aware of that. I wanted… want, I mean… another chance. I did not open myself to receiving your daughter as she was. I was too enamoured with the fantasy I had built for myself over the long years alone to accept anything different.”
Rose took a small sip, making a slurping noise. “I was so careful when I told her about Oberrot. I delayed it for a long time. I needed her to be old enough to understand and accept the risks of going. I couldn’t take her when she was too young to understand what being Earthian meant in that world.”
Coldness spread to my limbs. Is that where we were? Is that what she was?
She continued, “I had to balance my lives, making sure my daughter was safe here while being with my soul. Of course, our lifestyles are more lavish over there, but no one is going to bleed us to death over here. What would you choose, I wonder?”
I swallowed hard. “I don’t know,” I croaked. “Earthian? You – she – Earthians?”
Rose nodded slowly. “Indeed. Any mage or mancer would kill for our blood. And worse, torture us for the knowledge of how to get here, for unlimited Earthian blood.”
She sounded so calm! I started to pace.
“It’s a risk I lived with for many years, but I wanted her to be old enough to understand that risk, that responsibility, as well.
“Of course, that came at the cost of keeping her apart from her soul.”
I stayed silent, coming to a halt and staring the chair back directly in front of me. They were Earthians. That’s why they seemed to shun Oberrotian society for so long. Mages and mancers would be clamouring for their blood, even the MasterMage herself! Not all the Regulars and all of Special Forces would be able to keep them at bay. I swallowed.
One thing at a time. I had to apologise and make amends to Evyn. Then I could think about how on Oberrot I would keep her safe if she ever returned.
“I watched you grow up as well,” Rose added. “Don’t think I hadn’t put two and two together for myself. You seemed to be doing well. Thriving, even. It seems at your age most boys are concerned with superficial things – number of fights won, the amount of weight you can lift – but I suppose I had higher expectations of you. That’s not fair to impose on a child, but you are rapidly turning into a man now, a difficult time for everybody.” Rose had started staring past me, the way Evyn did sometimes.
Her blue eyes focused on me again. “I’ll give you a tip. Don’t lie. Don’t try to flip so far in the other direction that you’re forcing it. Evyn will see through you, and you’ll lose any credibility with her. The one advantage you have is that she believes you. Do not lose that, or you will lose your opportunity.”
I saluted, tapping my chest firmly. Rose stood up with a sigh and washed out her mug, returning it to the hook. “I’ll get some food on.”
She prepared something that came out of a box from one of the white rectangular humming units. Swirls of cold air curled as she pulled it free of the icy heart. The box was large and flat, and out of it slid an equally flat circle. She used a knife to pierce a membrane that she peeled off and put into a different type of box, and then she placed the circle on a tray into yet another humming box, this one low to the ground and black.
I cleared my throat but did not venture to ask. She did not seem inclined to speak to me. She sat at the table leafing through a book filled mostly with pictures – bright vibrant colours that raced past at break-neck speed, all different and none seeming to allude to any of the others. A very varied artist’s portfolio with no consistent style across any of the images.
Slowly, a pleasant smell infiltrated the room. My stomach welcomed it, although I could not tell what it was. Rose looked up at another circle mounted on the wall, this one with numbers around the edge and arrows pointing out from its heart. She stood up with a stretch. “I’m going to see if Evyn will come down for dinner, although that’s highly unlikely. I suggest you stay here. When it gets to half past, take the pizza out.” My eyes widened at the esoteric instructions but I saluted. Rose shook her head and made her way back up the stairs. As her steps faded, I tried to find any clues as to what she meant. Half past? Half? Take the what out?
She probably meant the circle she had put into the humming black box. I pulled its door open and a blast of heat hit me. It was as fierce as a furnace inside. The circle had browned from its original pale yellow, the topside facing me bubbling. It looked fiendishly hot.
Now I had to figure out what she meant by half. Halve this thing? I gritted my teeth and flexed my hands.
It was painful, but I managed to snatch the tray out. Tearing the object in half would be easy if I did not count its temperature, but the bubbling top did not tear evenly. It scorched my skin where it fell on me, and I bit my tongue. I looked for som
ething to put it on, but I had each half balanced on the palm of each hand that would slide if I moved. The pain increased to unbearable, but I mastered it and shoved it down. I saw the box that Rose had extracted it from and put the two uneven halves on top of it gratefully. I made myself inspect the damage dispassionately, palms red with some blisters already.
“As expected, she’s not coming down, but I’ll take her something – what did you do, what happened?”
Curling my hands into fists, I saluted. “I extracted this food and it is halved,” I reported. I tried to hide how much my hands hurt.
“You numpty. Oven gloves were just there! Did you pick it up with your bare hands?” Rose grabbed my wrist and gasped. “Put those under the running cold water right away!” Pulling me over to the sink, she turned some levers so a bright rush of water roared out of the faucet. She bit her knuckle as I immersed my hands, fresh agony stabbing at me but then easing slightly. “I have some cream somewhere, it acts like lyneal, just stay under the flow of the water. Argh!” She pulled a wicker basket from the top of the white humming rectangles and rummaged out a tube. “Give me your hands. I’ll rub some of this on them. And in future ask if you don’t understand something!”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied. A curl of shame tangled my stomach. I had inconvenienced her and now she had to minister to me like some kind of healer, a lowly position for the soul of the king.
“And sit down, you’re filling my kitchen to bursting and making me feel small.” She pulled out the chair. I sat carefully, holding my weight on my thighs and letting the chair take it in increments, waiting for it to crack underneath me. It did no such thing and proved sturdier than it looked.
Rose made exasperated noises over the pizza, cutting it with a special circular blade so it took the lines of a wheel spoke. She put these onto plates, placing one on the table in front of me. “Right. There you go. I’m going to take this up to Evyn.” She padded up the stairs again. I eyed my serving, remembering how much the bubbling top had stung. It no longer bubbled, but I was still wary of it. I was able to pick up the edges of it with the less burnt tips of my fingers and took a careful bite.
By the time Rose came back, I had an empty plate. She grunted. “You’re going to eat us out of house and home, I can tell.” She slid more onto my plate.
“This is good. You are an excellent cook,” I thanked her as I picked up my second slice.
Rose laughed at that.
Once we had eaten, she said, “I don’t know what to do with you now. I hadn’t thought further ahead than finding my daughter safe and sound. You can sleep on the sofa. Do you need anything?”
“I have my pack. I can sleep outside.”
Rose’s lips quirked. “It’s going to rain tonight. And it’s not as warm as Oberrot here. You would find it somewhat unpleasant. The sofa isn’t comfortable, but it’s better than the garden.”
“Thank you.” I saluted again. “I know I don’t warrant the concern you are giving me.” I flexed my sore hands.
She gave me a considering look. I had a thought that I wanted to show well; I found myself straightening my shoulders and spine. “Now you sound like my daughter,” she said quietly.
Rose was correct in that the sofa she lent me was not the most comfortable place I had ever slept, but I had done training expeditions and it was more tolerable than the shales of Skien or the baking deserts of Rush. She showed me into a room with only one window that overlooked the path up the garden. The most intolerable thing was the ceiling height; I had to keep my head lowered or twisted to stop my scalp scraping against the ridges decorating it.
The room itself seemed to be for storage. Shelves lined the walls with another rectangular box on a low table, this one set so its flat surface was upright as a soldier at attention. It had a solid red light in one corner that did not react to my approach and Rose did not seem concerned about it. The shelves were filled in every manner with books. Spines marched across horizontally, but there were also towers packed vertically, and some books laid across their comrade’s shoulders like the fallen being carried to safety. The table on which the red-light box stood had more shelves within, these ones filled with uniform thin spines; uniform in size and shape and texture but the colours were all different and eye-dazzlingly bright. A rug on the floor held secrets of the scenes it had seen; parts were worn through, there were a few stains of bright paint and even, when I ducked to inspect it, a small drawing in long-lasting ink.
“Evyn did that when she was small and didn’t know any better,” Rose remarked with a smile. “I had to make a big fuss so she wouldn’t do it again, but I never had the heart to wash it off. It’s a duck, by the way.”
Rose set out a blanket on the sofa and departed for the evening. When I lay on it lengthways, my legs jutted out into mid-air and the sides were too steep on my neck, but by moving the softer furnishings I managed to make it palatable. I kept watch at the window for a time, monitoring the path. I saw no people. I heard more buzzing things passing, but they were infrequent and always hid behind the thick foliage so I couldn’t see what manner of beast they were. It was still and quiet outside.
Darkness gathered, and I watched the sun of another world set.
Eventually I turned in and lay awake for a time staring at the ceiling. According to my understanding of the orientation of the abode, Evyn was above what Rose had called the kitchen where I had had the pizza. I stared off in that direction, wondering if she slept or if she thought of me at all.
I swallowed around a sharp lump in my throat. How was I going to try to start again? How could I convince her to forget the last few days and to begin afresh, with new eyes and a new heart? No, I had to live with the initial impressions I had burnt into her; rejecting her, ignoring her, belittling her to her face and to others, bullying her, disparaging her, and finally insulting her gravely. In response, either she or her soul had the right to demand satisfaction from me, and I was her soul. I was meant to be her champion, her most staunch and steadfast supporter, to encourage and cheer her.
What would I feel towards the person who had done as much to me, let alone if that person was supposed to be my fiercest ally?
The door to the room opened. I silently moved my legs into my chest, out of the way. A shape stole into the room and moved without ceremony to the shelves. They were not even attempting stealth. I held my breath.
“Bugger,” Evyn muttered. My heart leapt in my chest. She moved back to the door and touched the magic panel; light flooded on from overhead. “Yeeeaaargh!” Evyn screamed.
“Good evening,” I tried, rubbing my eyes.
“I didn’t know you were in here! You scared me half to death… What are you still doing here?”
“I am here to apologise, to make amends if I can—”
“Forget it. Not interested. You’ve said your piece and it came through loud and clear, thank you very much. What’s the real reason you’re here?”
“Just and only that. I say ‘only’ but I mean—”
“Gough put you up to this? Aha, I see. I’m not interested in playing games and being laughed at. Mum sold it as a lovely luxury holiday but—” She stopped herself. “I don’t know why I’m even talking to you, you’re going to use this against me somehow. And that.” She bit her lip. Her eyes looked sore, red and swollen. “I came in here for a book, I’m going to take it and go. Hope you have a nice life back on Oberrot.”
Striding over to the bookshelf Evyn scanned it quickly, snatching at a title and withdrawing. I stood up to appeal to her, but forgot the low ceiling, cracking my head yet again. “Argh! Damn and blast,” I swore. She slipped out of the door, closing it firmly behind her.
I put my hand to the doorknob. Should I give chase? Or give her space? I turned the handle. “Evyn, wait, please—” Footsteps thudded up the staircase and back into her room.
I sank to the bottom step with a sigh, my forearms on my knees, pressing my hands together.
Chapter 6
I did manage to sleep, but fitfully and in patches. In the morning, Rose put the magical pot on to boil – she called it a kettle – and showed me how she steeped the small bags.
“Take that up to Evyn, please. Be careful. It’s hot.” She tapped my hand. My palms were pink with burns and wrapping them around the mug hurt them, but I endured it. I knew Evyn would not want to see me and I knew Rose was aware of that as well, but we also knew that I had to keep trying. Rose felt that being sincere would win her daughter around; I was sincere about wanting to talk to her, and I would wait until she was ready to do so.
I knocked on her door. “Go away,” I heard.
“There’s tea here,” I said. “I’m not sure what ails you, but your mother made it. From the black bags.” I closed my eyes, listening hard. I heard no movement. “I’ll leave it out here for you.” In truth, the heat had reawakened my burns to stinging agony. I put the mug down carefully with not a drop spilt and made a noise of going down the stairs. Then I turned and crept back up, being careful to distribute my weight evenly to prevent creaks from giving me away.
The tea was left outside for thirty or so heartbeats before the door opened. Evyn stooped to pick it up. Her face was calm and composed, but she looked tired and drawn. Closing her eyes, she took a small sip.
“Careful, it’s hot,” I said.
She spat it out in shock. “Where do you get off, hiding round corners?” Glaring at me, she wiped her chin. “Go away! Go back to your own world! No one’s asking you to hang around skulking in my stairwell!”
“You are correct, no one asked me. I volunteered.”
She scowled, moving down the hall. “Trying to make up for eavesdropping? Forget it. I don’t care what you’re hoping to achieve here. Go get your gold merit badges somewhere else. I’m going to the bathroom, and don’t you dare try to follow me in there!”
I held up my hands. “That’s fine. I’ll be downstairs.”