by JA Andrews
On the third afternoon spent in long, lonely study, a raven returned with a tiny scroll written in the twins’ hand, containing no more information about Naj and his swords than she already knew. The Shield had been searching the Wellstone but had found nothing significant.
The post script on the letter caught at her chest.
All is well here, if a little lonely in your absence. Rett is mournful but has taken to breakfasting with us, and we do our best to cheer him. He says he will be well when “his Sini” returns. We hear great things of you, dear one, which brings us no surprise, but a great deal of pride.
Because you would ask: five pages left.
We are in no great discomfort and speak of you often.
If you find court to be lonesome, remember that once even we were strangers to you, and you are undoubtedly surrounded by future friends.
She dropped the scroll onto the messy library table, glancing around the small room she’d commandeered. She was surrounded by nothing but books.
Which, all things considered, might be better than the friends she would find here.
She closed her eyes. Five pages left. They’d finish in a week at the most. And there was no way she’d be back at the Stronghold for…maybe months.
She dropped her head into her hands and let the tears that were filling her eyes fall.
That evening, Douglon showed up at court with the little copper elf, Avina. Every single person in the palace was in a tizzy over the elfling, and Avina hated all of them. After she tried to bite the Duchess of Marshwell, Douglon kept her isolated. The queen had given them a room that opened into a private garden that held two large oaks, and Avina was content climbing their branches.
“Rass wanted to come with me,” Douglon explained to them, “but the elves got nervous at the idea. She wasn’t thrilled with staying but she agreed if I promised to keep her appraised of the situation. A dwarven messenger is supposed to meet her at the edge of the Greenwood every third day.
Will raised an eyebrow. “Do you think they really will?”
“They’d better,” Douglon grumbled. “Last I looked it was treason to disobey a direct order from the High Dwarf.”
Will grinned at Sini. “He’s drunk with power.”
Avina was overjoyed to see Sini, who became her primary caretaker whenever Douglon had to attend councils. She was taller than Sini’s waist now, with coppery red hair that hung past her shoulders and darker copper skin. She prattled incessantly about trees and leaves and sunlight and grass and missing Rass and how she was sure the other elves were terribly lonesome without her. After so many days of isolation, Sini was perfectly happy to listen.
The next morning, Sini had to endure a breakfast attended by the queen, Madeleine, Roan’s father, and a taciturn Roan himself. The Duke of Greentree was his usual overbearing self, lecturing Sini on how the Keepers should have already responded to Queen Saren’s orders to come to Queenstown. Madeleine chimed in her support whenever there was a break. Saren didn’t contribute to the conversation; instead she flipped through a thick stack of papers with a worried crease in her brow.
Sini, not given a moment to speak, looked to Roan for some support, but aside from one faintly apologetic look, he stared fixedly at his plate and said nothing.
She excused herself as quickly as possible and stormed back to her room, unsure of whether she was more furious at the Duke or his spineless son.
It was yet another gloomy day and her room was all shadows and chills. She threw herself down in front of the fire and flung a piece of wood onto it, sending up a huge cloud of embers.
“Have you ever…” a voice said from behind her and she spun to see Pest at her balcony door. “Thought of what you would say to you mother if you found her?”
“Pest!” Sini pressed her hand to her pounding chest. “You scared me to death! Why are you in my room? And why didn’t you use the normal door?”
“Sorry to startle you.” He came over to hold his hands out near the fire. “I came with a proposal for you, but Roan did not approve of it and told his guards not to let me near your room.” The little man, who was dressed in a grey guards’ uniform that matched his grey hair, grinned. “I thought I’d find my own way in and ask you anyway.”
“Good,” Sini snapped, sitting back down. “Because Roan has absolutely no say over me.”
Pest laughed. “But he does have some over me. I was informed that I was not to speak to you, and my deployment was moved up to this afternoon when the second battalion heads south.”
“He’s shipping you off to war?”
“Everyone’s being shipped off to war. Before I left, though, I thought you deserved to hear what I had to say.” He nodded to the door leading to her balcony. “I apologize for letting in a bit of the cold when I let myself in.”
Sini waved away his apology. “Roan’s been insufferable. He’ll be furious about this.”
“I know.” Pest gave her a wicked grin. “But I thought you should know, I’ve found your mother.”
She stiffened, and a ripple of disquiet rolled through her gut. “In the Lees?”
“No, near the market square.”
The square. Sini couldn’t imagine her mother in such a clean neighborhood.
“Would you like to see her?”
Sini watched the flames crawl around the edges of the logs. “I don’t know.”
He waited for her to say more, then nodded. “I’ll write you directions so you can find her whenever you are ready.” He started for her desk.
Her breath caught in her throat. “Wait. I…would like to see her…I think.”
He considered her for a moment, as though trying to decide if she mean it. “Roan will disapprove of you leaving the palace.”
“Well Roan can tighten up his stiff little uniform and deal with it.”
Pest laughed and jerked his head toward the balcony. After only a moment’s hesitation, she pulled on the thickest Keeper’s robe in her wardrobe and followed him outside. He helped her over the ledge and down the short drop into the garden. They rounded the edge of the Keeper’s wing and passed two guards who did nothing more than nod at Pest. A quick jaunt through an enormous kitchen found them weaving through a courtyard full of carts delivering vegetables.
Sini’s trepidation grew as they walked. Did she want to see her family? What would she say to them? What would they want from her? “How did you find them?”
“Not a lot of people leave the Lees. Those who do find their new neighbors to be distrustful. It makes it hard to become a part of their new neighborhood, but it also makes them easy to find.”
The rain had stopped, but the air was chilly, and the cobblestones held enough puddles that her feet were soon soaked through. Pest turned up his collar and hunched into his own thick cloak. She drew the Keeper’s robe tighter around herself.
She glanced down at the dark fabric. “Should I be wearing this? Have you seen any unrest in the city toward Keepers?”
He shook his head. “Not yet. And there are enough black robes in the city that no one will notice yours.”
“Not yet? You think it will come, though?”
“If the Keepers can’t stave it off, yes. Those sorts of rumors get a life of their own.”
Sini pulled the robe tighter and hurried after him. Pest turned down a wide avenue with neat cobblestones and well-kept shops. The way was crowded with people shopping or hurrying home. The noise and the activity and the bright merchandise in the shop windows distracted her until Pest turned into a smaller street that wound among more modest shops. Her gaze scanned each sign, looking for a seamstress shop. Pest finally drew up at a corner and pointed across the street.
A solid, plain grey building stood shoulder to shoulder with the shops around it. The sign with a painted needle and thread was nailed above a dark, thin door. The building was two stories tall, the windows on the top floor dingier than the ones at ground level.
“A woman lives there with two boys.
She came from the Lees eight years ago, and the shop across the street”—he motioned toward an equally plain shop with an equally rough sign depicting scissors and what must be a piece of fabric—“tries to steal her business by telling everyone that she sold her daughter into slavery so she could buy this shop.”
Sini’s stomach clenched. “Have you seen her?”
Pest shook his head.
“And my father…?”
“There’s no man living there.”
A light brightened the window for a moment, then faded, and Sini shrank back, wrapping the black robe tighter, trying to block out the chill of the afternoon. She felt suddenly conspicuous to be dressed as a Keeper.
She stood awkwardly, wanting to go in, but reluctant to start. The street was so foreign. This wasn’t the Lees, where she’d felt ready to see her mother. Here there were no old memories, no way to gauge how much she’d changed against the backdrop of her childhood. All she could picture was the way her mother had let Vahe take her. Was that the face she was about to see?
“Have you ever forgiven someone who’s done something terrible to you?” she asked Pest quietly.
“No.” He answered flatly. “But I’m certain you’re a better person than me.” When she didn’t answer, he continued, “There’s a difference between forgiving your mother and meeting her again. Perhaps you can go not for her, but for your brothers.”
The boys’ small, always-wary faces came to her mind. The thought of them being left without her for so long wrung her heart. “Yes, maybe I can meet her for their sakes.”
Pest nodded. “I would do anything for my sister.”
Roan’s suspicions about Pest’s uncle came to mind, and the hardness in Pest’s face did nothing to belie the idea that he might have killed the man.
“Will you…” she almost asked if Pest would come with her, just to have a person she knew alongside her. But she the fear of what her mother might be like made her reluctant to have any witnesses. “Will you wait for me here?”
Pest looked unhappy at the idea, but nodded.
She took a deep breath and stepped forward.
“Sini.” He set his hand on her arm to stop her. His face was conflicted, and he opened his mouth twice before actually speaking. “Sometimes, people from our past are…worse than we remember them.”
Her stomach clenched in apprehension at the words.
“Sometimes they’re someone you should stand against.” He dropped his hand. “Not someone you should try to save.”
At the earnestness in his voice, she nodded, although the idea of wanting to save her mother felt off.
“Just remember who you are.” He turned his gaze back to the shop front. “And you’ll be fine.”
She wasn’t sure what sort of response that deserved, but she managed a “Thank you.” Before she lost her courage, she crossed the street.
The door to the shop squeaked open and she stepped into a small, dim room. A wide hall led to the back where warm firelight glowed out of a doorway. Sini took a deep breath and smoothed the Keeper’s robe. She toyed with her ring as she walked down the hallway, rubbing her fingertips over the tiny garnet, wondering what it should feel like to remember who she was.
“Hello?” she called.
A response she couldn’t quite make out answered, and with a last bracing breath, she stepped into the doorway.
Instead of her mother, a man stood near the small fireplace.
His hair was shorter than she’d ever seen it, his face clean-shaven.
“Hello little sister,” Lukas said with a wide smile.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Lukas stood next to the mantle like a lord deigning to step into squalor. In sharp contrast to the serviceable, plain room around him, he wore a cloak of dark, red fabric rich enough to rival anyone at court. He turned toward her and a dozen of trails of light followed him. From rings, necklaces, glitters of gems sewn into his cloak. There was even a mist of green light trailing from his shoes.
Her immediate reaction to all the burning stones was one of disgust. He trailed vitalle like a Roven Torch. Her hand tightened on her own ring, the idea of making more of them suddenly repellant.
He watched her speechlessness, amused, waiting for her to find her voice.
“Lukas?” She took a step forward. Her mind scrambling to make sense of this. “How are you here? In my mother’s shop—”
The room around them was mostly empty. Heavy dust covered the surface of the long table and the meager bits of fabric crumpled on the floor next to it. The clarity of the truth hit her with a surprising amount of dismay.
“This isn’t my mother’s shop.”
Lukas let out a laugh. “Of course not. How do you track down a woman from the Lees who’s too stupid to save her family, even when she’s handed a fortune?”
Sini pulled back at the harshness of the words, her mind scrambling to catch up to the situation.
Lukas stood right in front of her. Lukas! A part of her wanted to rush forward and hug him, but she couldn’t reconcile this man with her foster brother. He looked so wealthy, and his voice was…different.
“Put your mother out of your mind, Sini. She’s not worth a thought. She sold you.” He took a step closer, his voice taking on a fanatical edge. He flung his hand toward a tiny window. “She’s what’s wrong with this world, Sini. She cares for nothing but herself. She’s probably sold both your brothers by now,”—Sini flinched—“and with any luck, killed the sorry excuse for a man who was your father.”
Sini opened her mouth, wanting to defend her parents, but her brain offered no clear thoughts. Lukas crossed the final two steps and set his hands on Sini’s shoulders, looking into her face with a wild intensity.
“But you and I can fix the world, Sini.”
He was so changed, so gaunt and pale. His motions were twitchy, his eyes sunken in, his skin thin. His gaze dropped to her shoulders and he snatched his hands off her Keeper’s robe as though it might bite him. His expression darkened. “Pest said you didn’t wear the black.”
Pest.
Her emotions caught up to the situation with a sharp jab of betrayal. That lying, sneaking traitor.
“What else did Pest tell you?” she demanded.
Lukas laughed again, and it was not the laugh she remembered. “Don’t blame him. His sister is currently a guest at one of the homes I keep here.”
The complexity of that answer snagged on one, shocking fact. “You have homes in Queenstown?”
“Only a few. Until my armies move through, it’s not safe to have more. Pest has been helping me in exchange for a level of care his sister has never received. She has trouble walking, you see. Some injury from her childhood. I believe that man would do anything for her. Aside from his weakness for his sister, though, he’s been an ideal mercenary.” His face sobered and he studied Sini. “Until the point where he was reluctant to bring you to me.” His smile was calculating. “I forgot how winsome you can be. Even to a man as rough as Pest.”
Lukas stepped forward and Sini shrank away from him. His smile faltered for a moment before he walked past her and closed the door. “More surprising, I didn’t think it possible that Pest could earn your trust.” His tone was almost friendly. As though they hadn’t been parted for four years. As though he wasn’t threatening an entire country.
“Hired?” Sini backed up until against the table, her emotions finally settled into something concrete. Anger. “By threatening his sister?”
Lukas frowned. “I didn’t threaten her, I took excellent care of her. Yes, I hired Pest and he took the work willingly.”
A truth struck her. “Pest was the intruder at the palace. That’s how he could move through without anyone noticing.”
“He did a fine job of getting me information. The best of which was that you had arrived. That’s why I was shocked when I told Pest to bring you here and he refused. The only thing that would convince him was the chance to take his sister from the good
care she’s receiving and leave Queenstown, which is hardly in her best interest.” He frowned, focusing on Sini. “Take off that ridiculous black robe and let’s talk.”
The command raised a flare of indignation. “No.”
His smile evaporated. “I’ve waited too long and worked too hard to let them keep you—” He clenched his jaw and made a visible effort to stay calm. “Let’s start this over, Sini. I came here to get you, and it has not been easy.”
“To get me?”
“I tried to come back for you on the Sweep,” he stepped closer, “after Will and his cohorts ran me out. I couldn’t leave you or Rett with the Roven. When I found you two gone, I assumed that the Keepers had taken you against your will. That somehow they’d discovered how much power you had and wanted it for themselves.” His expression hardened. “Imagine my surprise when I heard rumors of a new female Keeper.”
“The Keepers are not what you think.”
Lukas’s jaw clenched. “Still, everything I heard was that you weren’t really one of them. That you didn’t wear the black.” He plucked at the sleeve of her robe. “That they kept you captive in the Stronghold and never let you out.”
“They didn’t—”
“Stop!” he yelled over her. He scrubbed his hands over his face. “It doesn’t matter,” he continued in a tightly controlled voice. “Whatever they have over you, you can throw it off now. I’m taking you and Rett. We leave tonight.”
Sini stared at him, stunned.
“Sini, I have worked very hard, for a very long time to get you free. I have a castle.” He laughed again and the unhinged sound felt like a stab into her chest. “A castle! I have a room for you so big you’ll get lost in it! I have gold. More gold than entire countries. You can have anything you want. Finer dresses than this”—he motioned to her green dress—“a cloak in any color, in any fabric you want. You want a crown? I’ll make you a crown. You can have books and pets and jewelry. Anything you want.” He motioned to his own clothing and toward an ornate pack that lay against the side of the mantle. “Just as I have anything I want.”