House of Blood and Bone

by Kimberley J. Ward

  Hunter and Orm were somewhere inside, most likely milling around the bar waiting for their tankards to be refilled. They were in a good mood this evening. Probably due to another successful day at work, selling and distributing tax-free whisky. Who would have thought that doing something illegal would bring those two so much joy? As it was, Nessa couldn’t share in their triumph. Not then. Not today. She had too much on her mind.

  A mixture of guilt and excitement swirled around inside her. On one hand, Nessa felt like she was deceiving her friends, lying to them with every word that came out of her mouth. On the other, she felt that she had no choice. Not anymore. She was tired of waiting, tired of having to rely on other people, people whose trustworthiness she was constantly questioning. Were their intentions pure? Would they keep their promises to her? The unease that always sat in the pit of her stomach had grown too much. She could remain idle no longer. Orm and Hunter, even Pharawynn, constantly stepped around the issues at hand, keeping her in the dark no matter how she phrased her questions or how many times she asked them. They’d skirt around the issues, always finding another subject to talk about, another excuse to delay things. There was always another distraction lined up.

  No more.

  Nessa was taking things into her own hands. Finally. Whatever was being hidden from her, kept from her, was going to be uncovered. There would be no more secrets or lies. The truth would come out, and all would be revealed. There would be no more shared glances between Hunter and Orm, or furtive whispers between them. There would be no more of Aoife retreating when the subject of her forgotten memories surfaced or if Nessa dared suggest that something was being kept from her. Pharawynn said that she wasn’t ready. Nessa felt differently. There couldn’t be that much of a difference between calling upon one of the lesser dæmons and one of the high lords. Nessa had learned enough by now, surely? She knew what she needed to do, what needed to be done. What was the point of waiting any longer?

  So there Nessa was, standing in the mouth of an alley, nervous in taking the first step in regaining her memories and discovering who she really was. Nessa just wished she wouldn’t have to wait too much longer. It was bitterly cold outside, and her dress did little to ward it away. The sky was clear, no clouds strayed in front of the bright stars or the full moon, and the air held the frigidness of impending frost.

  She shifted from foot to foot, trying to get the circulation back into her toes, and peered down the gloomy street once again.

  “Come on,” Nessa muttered impatiently, her breath a white haze in front of her face. It reminded her of the sinister mist that would often appear on nights such as this. “Where are you?”

  “I’m right here, miss,” a small voice squeaked from behind her. “Just like I said I would be.”

  Nessa jumped and clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle her squeal of shock. “Astrid!” she gasped, spinning around to face the small figure standing in the gloom. “What in the Nine Devils do you think you’re doing?”

  The girl smiled. “Sneaking.”

  “Well, don’t sneak around me. Near enough scared me half to death.” Nessa’s heart still thundered in her chest, and her breathing was a little ragged even as she tried to calm herself.

  “That wasn’t my intention, miss.” Astrid smirked. “Although it’s nice to know that I’m able to sneak up on someone such as you.”

  “Someone like me?”

  “A sorcerer,” Astrid said in a hushed whisper, although there was no one nearby to overhear.

  “A sorcerer?” Nessa laughed. “What makes you think I’m a sorcerer?”

  “Well, since you’re a lady an’ all, I suppose the correct term would be a ‘sorceress’.” Astrid’s little nose scrunched up in thought. “I reckon you’re a sorceress because of several curious things.”

  Nessa was intrigued. A part of her rather enjoyed being mistaken for a sorceress. “Oh?”

  “Yeah,” Astrid said, getting excited over the prospect of being right. “You see, I know that you work with Mistress Pharawynn. Not in the shop like her other assistant, but downstairs where all the magic happens. Seeing as I’ve just been down there, I know that that’s no normal shop basement. Then there’s the things you had me steal.”

  “Borrow,” Nessa corrected quickly. “I had you borrow them. When I’m finished with them, I fully intend on returning them. Preferably before Pharawynn notices.”

  “Then there’s the things you had me borrow,” Astrid amended, amused. “Ain’t no normal person interested in that stuff unless they can actually do something with it.”

  “Maybe I’m just a curious soul who wanted a closer look at them without Pharawynn’s discerning gaze upon me?”

  “Perhaps,” Astrid’s eyes were bright in the moonlight, wide and knowing. “But if that was true, then why send me?”

  “Why indeed?”

  “Because you don’t want the mistress to trace things back to you, should she notice.”

  “Mmm.” Nessa was surprised, pleasantly so, at Astrid’s keen mind. She had known that the girl was smart. After all, that’s why she had given the task to her, but she was only just beginning to realise how astute the young girl really was.

  “And then there’s this.” Astrid held up her hand. Twinkling just as bright as its owner's eyes, as bright as the watchful stars above, was a fine gemstone ring. Nessa recognised it immediately. It had been hers to start with, something that had marked an important milestone for her: her first summoning, when she had called upon a spirit to infuse the tiniest amount of magic within the gem. Nessa had gifted it to Astrid the day after being attacked in the mist by the shadow monster. That was the day when Nessa had started to question Pharawynn’s true motives for helping her.

  “What about it?” Nessa asked, struggling to keep the smile from her face.

  “Whenever I wear it, I seem to gain a smidgen of extra luck.”

  “Extra luck?”

  Astrid nodded, her short hair bouncing around her small face. “I take pride in the fact that I’m a little bit lucky anyway. What with being born a girl and being papa’s favourite, and with being able to fill in for my brother without anyone noticing. You know, things like that.”

  “Right.”

  “Ever since you gave me this ring, though, I’ve had a bit more luck. I haven’t had a chance to test it out fully, what with being busy with work and the tasks you give me, but I’ve noticed that I’ve been extra lucky.” Astrid frowned delicately. “At least, I think it can be called luck, for that seems to fit best.”

  “Luck seems to be as good a term as any,” Nessa murmured thoughtfully, impressed. The magic residing inside the ring was indeed luck, but only a drop, little more than a hint. Its effects should have been subtle, hardly noticeable. Astrid shouldn’t have been able to perceive a change in herself whilst wearing the ring. The magic required for that was beyond the ring’s capability. Only a bead of magic could be infused in such a small gem.

  Nessa felt a touch of frustration bubble up. If only she knew more about magic, then she would surely have the answer as to whether or not the ring was acting as it should. Even with a tutor, there were gaps in her knowledge.

  “I’ve always been swift on my feet,” Astrid continued, oblivious to Nessa’s turmoil. “But lately it seems that even if I’m running late on an errand, I still get there in plenty of time. And yesterday, I fell over when I was playing with my brother. Both of us swear that we heard my wrist snap. Once the shock wore off, though, it was perfectly fine. Not even bruised”

  “How very fortunate,” Nessa murmured, watching with disturbed bemusement as Astrid held up the wrist in question, rolling it in demonstration to show that it was, in fact, perfectly fine. The ring shouldn’t be able to prevent that sort of trauma.

  “Oh, and when I was in Mistress Pharawynn’s place, the ring worked its luck once again.”

  Nessa didn’t like the sound of that. “Please tell me nothing bad happened.”

  “Of cou
rse nothing bad happened,” Astrid laughed, holding up and wiggling the digit that played host to the ring. “Extra luck, remember.”

  Nessa managed to stop herself from sighing in exasperation. Just.

  “Of course,” she murmured.

  “Anyway, it went down like this,” Astrid continued. “I waited until it was past dark and got into the shop perfectly, just as you said I would, ‘cause the spare key was where you said it would be, and no one was about. At least that’s what I thought.”

  Nessa closed her eyes in despair.

  “Anyway, I found the pendant you asked for. Which, I would just like to add, wasn’t very easy ‘cause most of them all kinda looked the same to me. Then I made my way downstairs to the basement.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “It was all dark, and I thought that no one was down there. You know, ‘cause there were only a couple of lamps alight and everything was really quiet. Plus, it’s fairly late.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “Well, after being taken aback by all the things down there, I set about collecting all the pieces on that list you gave me. I crept around all stealthy like, ‘cause I was kinda feeling all secretive and spy-like. I was also kinda enjoying myself.”

  “Okay.”

  “I got everything on that list fairly quickly. The most important thing was the only thing left to find.”

  “The book?” Nessa bit her lip. Of course, Pharawynn would hide the book somewhere. After all, that’s what she did at the end of Nessa’s lessons. Once Nessa had finished studying a particular passage, Pharawynn would quickly snatch it from her, tucking it away somewhere secret when she thought Nessa wasn’t looking. It was always in a different place, but Nessa had noticed where she had put it a couple of times and had made a note of it. Most often the book was somewhere obvious, hidden in plain sight, tucked between others on the shelves or sat on a table with things strategically placed on and around it, camouflaging it.

  “The book,” Astrid confirmed. “I looked everywhere you told me to, but there was no sign of it. I was about to give up when the ring worked its magic again. I heard something that made me pause.”

  “And what was that?”

  “A little snore.”

  Nessa blinked, wondering if Astrid was just fooling around, messing with her. “A snore?”

  “Yeah, you know, it’s when someone’s asleep and they—”

  “I know what a snore is,” Nessa said. Hunter and Orm had educated her well on the subject of human foghorns. “It’s just that if you heard someone snoring, then that means…”

  “That someone was there?” Astrid chuckled. “Oh yeah. None other than Mistress Pharawynn herself.”

  “What in the Nine Devils was she doing down there?” Nessa questioned, incredulous, her stomach lurching. “She has an apartment above the shop.”

  Astrid shrugged. “Probably reading, by the looks of things. At least, she was reading before she fell asleep. I’d overlooked her because she was in the far corner, curled up on a settee that was facing away from most of the room. Anyway, I had a quick peek to make sure that she was completely out of it—which she was. And lo and behold, she had the book right there in her arms.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Fear not, miss.” Astrid said, mistaking Nessa’s growing sense of dread for worry of a failed mission. “I got all the bits you wanted. Although it wasn’t the easiest of extractions.”

  “Oh no.” Nessa groaned. “Please tell me that you didn’t take the whole book. The entire point was that she didn’t notice anything misplaced or missing.”

  “I didn’t take the whole book,” Astrid muttered, her youthful tone caught between indignation and amusement.

  “But?”

  “But knowing that she was there, that she could wake any moment, I kinda didn’t so much copy the pages like you asked but rather just ripped them out.”

  Nessa winced. “Ripped them out?”

  Astrid scuffed her boot against the ground. “Yeah.”

  “Ah.”

  “In all honesty, the book was in a terrible state. A couple more ripped pages are hardly likely to be noticed anytime soon.”

  With a shuddering breath, Nessa said, “I expect you’re right.” The book was old and tattered, she reasoned with herself. Unless Pharawynn wanted those specific pages, another loose or missing page would be easily overlooked.

  “Other than that, did everything else go smoothly?” Nessa asked, forcing herself to relax.

  “Yep. Once I got everything on your list, I left. I even locked the door behind me and put the spare key back in its little hidey-hole.”

  “Excellent.” Nessa smiled. “You didn’t take anything else when you were there, did you? A ring or a brooch for your troubles?”

  “No, miss. I’d never do that.” Astrid was sincere. “I leave the stealing to my second brother. He can’t keep his hands off other people’s stuff. Drives papa crazy. Papa’s given up trying to beat some common decency into him, often saying ‘no sense, no feeling’. That must be true ‘cause when papa did tan my brother’s hide, he didn’t so much as flinch.”

  “Oh.” Ahh…

  “I did have a quick look around the shop,” Astrid confessed. “Not the second room. That kinda gave me the heebie-jeebies, what with the carved skulls, the talismans and the tarot cards. But I did have a quick peek at the pretty jewellery. I just had to, you know? All those twinkling gems. They just lure you in. I just had to look. I didn’t touch, though. I don’t want there to be any more reason for Mistress Pharawynn to curse me if she were ever to find out that I was there.”

  “She won’t find out about you,” Nessa assured her. “Not with your newfound stealth skills.”

  Astrid grinned.

  Nessa slipped a hand into the pocket of her dress and fished around for the small coins that had gathered in a corner, and handed them over to the eagerly awaiting girl.

  “It’s not much,” Nessa said. “But it’s all I have at the moment…”

  “Worry not, miss,” Astrid rushed to say, her clever fingers curling around the shiny disks. “I don’t do it for the money. I told you that. And I mean it.”

  “Then why do it?” Nessa asked quietly. “Why do any of it for me?”

  “Well…” Astrid frowned. “Well, I guess there’s a couple of reasons.”

  “Oh?”

  “First off, I guess I just want to. It’s fun and kinda exciting. And…and I feel like I’m making a difference somehow. I know I might not be. Even if I were, I imagine that it would only be a teeny-tiny amount. But…but that’s kinda how I feel about all of this. I feel like I matter and that I’m making a difference. I really like that feeling.”

  “You are making a difference,” Nessa told her softly. “At least, you are to me.”

  “That there is another reason,” Astrid gave Nessa a small, shy smile. “I like you, miss. I know that might sound silly and be a wee bit strange considering that I only met you a couple of weeks ago, but I really like you. You’re pretty and kind and thoughtful. You don’t treat me like I’m just a little girl.”

  Nessa looked at Astrid, at her mop of roughly cut hair that half-hid her delicate features, at the boyish hand-me-downs she wore when not in her courier’s uniform. “You don’t like being treated like a little girl?”

  Astrid shrugged a skinny shoulder. “Being a girl is fine, I suppose. I’m okay with being a girl. I just don’t like the limitations placed upon me by society. I want to have the choice of being something more than just a wife and a mother. I want to make my own way in the world if I want to, without a man having to be involved. I don’t want to be a childless widow before I can own property or such. I want to be able to choose.”

  Nessa placed a hand on Astrid’s shoulder. “I’m sure you’re not as limited as you think. There are successful women out there, women who own their own businesses and manage their own land.”

  “Yeah, but how many of them inherited those things only when there
were no male heirs to be found? How many of those businesses revolve around feminine things like sewing and such?”

  Nessa sighed, knowing that what Astrid spoke of was the bitterest of truths. Women seldom made their own way in the world without a fight. Whilst possible, it was rare and hard, and their paths were paved with difficulties and disapproval.

  “I’m not even supposed to be a courier, for goodness sake,” Astrid continued, “just because I’m a girl. But I’ve proven that I’m capable of delivering letters as well as any boy.”

  “Perfectly capable.”

  “Surely that implies that I’m good at other things too.”

  “I’d imagine so.”

  “So, isn’t it unfair that I may never be given the chance to find that out all ‘cause of some stupid rules?”

  “It’s very unfair,” Nessa agreed. “Maybe things will change, though, and you’ll be free to do whatever you want. After all, there has to be a first for everything. Who’s to say that you won’t be the one to pave the way? You don’t strike me as someone who obeys the rules. You’re someone who makes new ones.”

  Astrid nodded eagerly. “I do like to do my own kinda thing. And I’m very good at ordering people about. I’ve found that out recently.”

  Nessa grew amused as she spied a mischievous glint enter Astrid’s eyes. “Oh really?”

  “Yep,” Astrid smirked. “My elder brother, Rox, tried to take over leadership of the gang the other day. I swiftly corrected him in the errors of his conniving ways.”

  Nessa laughed. “Poor Rox.” She had met him once last week. Rox was older than Astrid by a little less than a year and looked like he could have been her twin, all fine-featured and thin, looking younger and more innocent than he had any right to.

  “He brooded for a couple of hours, but I swiftly got him to fall back into line.”