The Diminished

by Kaitlyn Sage Patterson

  I did my best to tamp down my surging temper, but when a hand squeezed my bottom, I whipped my head around and spat, “Excuse the piss out of me! Where exactly do you think you get off, you—”

  Hamlin strode across the room. “Excuse us for a moment.” He yanked me out of the room by the elbow. “Control your temper, girl. It would be a grave mistake to insult the people who will determine your quality of life for the next ten years. A contract like this is nearly impossible to get out of once signed. We can play that last off as a charming show of sass, but do not—I repeat, do not—offer these people insult. Do you understand me? If you behave nicely and manage to gain their favor, your life will be comfortable. If you do not, well, Dzallie protect you, for I won’t be able to.”

  When we reentered the parlor, I managed a fair approximation of an apology to the woman who’d taken a handful of my ass, Constance. Luckily, she laughed it off. I spoke briefly to Luccan, who seemed more interested in the Whipplestons’ wine collection than in hiring me, and sat on the couch between Mehitabel and Phineas.

  “I do hate these virtue names that we have, don’t you, child?” Constance tittered. “I keep hoping they’ll go out of style, but they seem to be here to stay. Tell me, do you have any talents or training at a craft?”

  “Well, ma’am,” I said, “I used to dive for pearls, and I’m quite good at cheating at cards.” Quill’d told me that Phineas and his brother were known throughout Ilor for the days-long gambling parties they threw. I winked at Phineas.

  Constance and Phineas burst into laughter, but Mehitabel’s expression grew sour. Perfect.

  “It’s true.” I turned to see Quill coming through the door. He smiled at me before turning to Phineas. “She took more than thirty ovstri from me on the journey here. I didn’t even know she understood brag until I’d lost more than half my purse. She’s a canny one, though I can’t attest to her skills as a diver.”

  “Ah, Quill, you’re back. Let’s get down to the meat of it, shall we?” Constance suggested.

  Phineas nodded, and Mehitabel said, “Yes, let’s. Our time is valuable.”

  Hamlin seemed to have disappeared with Luccan. Everyone in the room looked to Constance, who said, “We’ve all come here because we’re interested in hiring one of the diminished. We all have our own reasons, which, I assume, we would rather not divulge. But I assume we all need to know about her history.”

  Mehitabel piped up. “And, of course, her devotional practices.”

  They all nodded, and I tried not to twitch. This was all very strange and very personal. More personal than they knew. Quill gave me an encouraging smile.

  Phineas said, “I’ll start. Have you ever committed a violent act against another person or an animal?”

  I furrowed my brows and debated how to answer for a moment. “I’ve thrown a punch or two, but never unless I was hit first,” I admitted. “As for the other, I’d never hurt a beast.” I thought of what Mehitabel had said earlier about how much Phineas loved riding. “I love all animals, especially horses.”

  “No need to get defensive, child. You must understand why we have to ask,” Constance said. “Now, have you ever stolen anything?”

  I bit the inside of my cheek. “Nothing I didn’t need more than the person I stole it from, ma’am. I’ve done a bit of pickpocketing, lifted a few loaves of bread, a few pieces of fruit. Nothing substantial.” A blush crept over my face. It wasn’t an outright lie. I just happened to see my pearls as my property, where the temple saw them as theirs. I glanced up, guarding my expression, but for the barest hint of a smile. Quill’d said she was paranoid. I wanted her to feel a tinge of worry that I might make off with her jewels. Just enough to stay her hand.

  Mehitabel cleared her throat. “Are you faithful?”

  I thought of the hundreds of hours I’d spent at adulations in the haven hall in Penby, the years I’d scrubbed the flagstones in front of the temple’s altars and the thousands of times the anchorites had implored me to find solace in prayer. If the women who raised me could have given me one thing, it would have been faith, but the stories about the gods and goddesses had always seemed like that—stories.

  I decided to give an honest answer. “I was raised in the temple in Penby and schooled by the anchorites, but theirs was never my calling.”

  Let them chew on that, I thought to Pru. I had to be bright red now, like one of the strange talking birds in the trees outside.

  Quill clapped his hands onto his knees. “I think that’ll do it. Vi, if you’ll retire? Ladies, gentlemen, this way.” He ushered them toward the study, glancing at me over his shoulder. That may not’ve gone as he’d expected it, but I crossed my fingers, hoping my answers would push the folks who’d make bids for my employ to do as I wished.

  * * *

  I paced my room for more than an hour and a half before Quill burst in, grinning. He swept me up in his arms and twirled me around in a circle. But when he set me down and leaned in close, I pulled away, anxious.

  “Well?” I asked.

  “We did it, Vi!” he declared with a laugh. “Phineas and Constance did their best to outbid each other. They were practically foaming at the mouth to get you.”

  “So, who is it?” I asked, heart beating in my throat.

  “You’ll go with Phineas—Master Laroche—to Plumleen Hall in New Branisford. You get to be with your friends, Vi. And it’s only a half day’s ride south of here. He agreed to eight hundred ovstri a year for your salary.” I sucked in a shocked breath as Quill continued excitedly. “Even less our ten percent, that’s a fortune for you! Better still, Luccan has agreed to an exclusive shipping contract for our wine. You’ve just secured a future for Mal and me.”

  Quill put a gentle hand on my cheek, pulled me into his arms and kissed me. And for a moment, the whole world melted away. Everything was sparks and light and the warm comfort of his arms around me. All I knew was his lips on mine, his arms around me and the insatiable need to kiss him back.

  When we finally, reluctantly pulled apart, I slumped on the edge of the bed. It was like the wind had been knocked out of me. I’d done it. I’d actually managed to pull it off. Eight hundred ovstri a year. I couldn’t imagine that kind of money, much less someone having that sum to throw away on a servant.

  I took a deep breath, my heart racing. In a few short hours, I would see Sawny again. Excitement ran through me like a bolt of lightning, leaving shocks of nervous joy in its wake. I couldn’t wait to see the look on Lily’s face when she saw me.

  I wasn’t blind to the risk I was taking. I’d heard the rumors of unrest, the stories of contract workers horribly mistreated. I knew that I’d sold ten years of my life away—ten years of being trotted out at parties and gawked over, being Phineas Laroche’s most recent badge of bravery. But I’d done it for the simple possibility of a bit of happiness, a little more time with my best friend, and I couldn’t bring myself to regret it.

  “I’ve heard nothing but good things about him, Vi,” Quill said, kneeling before me. “We never would have done business with him otherwise.” He tucked a curl behind my ear, suddenly solemn. “I’m sorry, but Phineas wants to leave at once. Can you ride? We’ll lend you a horse for the journey—gods, we’ll give you a horse!”

  I scoffed. “Of course I can’t ride, numbskull. What, you think the Suzerain bought me a pretty white pony when I was a girl? The closest I’ve been to a horse is the back of a tatty cart. I can walk, thanks.” I couldn’t help the acid on my tongue, despite everything he’d done for me. Despite everything I felt for him.

  Quill and I stared at one another for a tense moment, and he burst into laughter.

  “But you told them that you loved...” He trailed off, grinning. “I’ll see about a gentle horse for you, then. Maybe find something a bit more practical to wear?” As I moved to my trunk, glad for a reason to shed the dress and its layers of bi
llowing fabric, Quill said, “I know that you made this decision with open eyes, Vi, but there’re some practical things you ought to know. It’s not getting any easier for contract workers, and every one of the laws favor the wealthy. Mal and I’ll do whatever we can for you if aught goes wrong, but it’ll be to your advantage to try to gain favor with Phineas and his wife. The more they like you, the easier your life will be.”

  I grimaced. “I’ll do my honest best, but the truth is I’m about as likable as a nest of rats in the bedsheets.”

  “Vi, please. I’m trying to look out for you.” He cupped my cheek in his hand. “I care about you. You’re wonderful.”

  I rolled my eyes, but didn’t pull away from him.

  “Well, you’re wonderful when you aren’t attacking folks with the sharp side of your tongue and rolling your eyes at them.”

  I bit my lip, trying not to blush. Having cleared the first, impossible hurdle—having found a way to Sawny—I was suddenly overwhelmed. I needed time, a quiet moment to collect my wits. “Can’t we wait for a minute? I haven’t packed. I haven’t said goodbye to anyone.”

  Quill arched one of his eyebrows, raising it nearly to his hairline. “No reason to pack everything now. Just take what you’ll need for a few days. We’ll send your trunk along sometime this week. I’ll send Mal up for a goodbye if I can find him.”

  “What about you?” I asked.

  “What about me?”

  “Are we going to say our goodbyes downstairs in front of your uncle and Master Laroche and everyone?”

  A smile, like a ray of sun breaking through rain clouds, passed over Quill’s face, and he folded me into his arms. I shouldn’t have let him, should have pushed him away, but nothing in my life had ever been quite so wonderful as letting Quill hold me tight to his chest. I let myself savor the moment, knowing that I would be stuck at Plumleen Hall for the next ten years, and this would likely be the end of our brief, blissful romance.

  Quill kissed me, one hand tracing the line of my jaw, the other around my waist. He laid a row of feather-light kisses down my throat and across my clavicle. When he was done, and I was nothing but ocean spray and the unrelenting warmth of an Ilorian sun, he took my face in both his hands and fixed me with his golden stare.

  “There’s no need for us to ever say goodbye. We’ve only just begun to explore this thing between us. We have all the time in the world.”

  Just then, Noona strode into the room, carrying a pair of heavy leather saddlebags. I sprang back from Quill, blushing. There were a thousand questions on the tip of my tongue, and while I desperately wanted to believe that this wasn’t goodbye, I knew better. Even if Quill wanted to labor under the illusion that we could maintain this thing between us, I had to be realistic.

  “I packed some food for you.” Noona set the bags down by my steamer trunk and shooed Quill away to envelop me in a hug. “You be well, Vi. Tell the boys if you need anything. I wrote down our address here, as well as the new office. Remember what I said. Be kind to those around you, hear?”

  “Thank you,” I said, tears welling in my eyes.

  “You’re welcome,” she said. “Phineas told me to say he was leaving in half an hour, and you with him. Best hurry.”

  Quill said, “I’ll go see if I can’t find my brother,” and ducked out of the room with a playful wink at me.

  My chest was tight, and I couldn’t catch a breath. Noona flew into action. She helped me strip off the filmy pink dress, and I pulled on the light cotton shirt and pair of trousers. When I had dressed, I knelt in front of my trunk, digging around for my pouch of pearls. I slipped the cord over my head and tucked it into my shirt while Noona’s back was turned. I exchanged my thin sandals for soft leather boots and stuffed the sandals and a few changes of clothing into the saddlebags. Noona folded all the diaphanous layers of my pink dress into a bundle and tucked it in on top.

  “That’s all that will fit. Everything else will have to be sent along. Now, you take care of yourself, hear me?”

  I nodded and hugged her one last time. As I trudged down the stairs, weighed down by the saddlebags, I felt a wave of sadness wash over me. I had so badly wanted to say goodbye to Mal. He’d become a friend, and a dear one at that. His laugh lit me up, and I didn’t want to go the rest of my life without hearing it again. I hated that he wasn’t here to see me off.

  Phineas was waiting in the foyer with Hamlin and Quill. There was a large, iron-banded chest that had not been there when I went up, and my new employer was tapping a riding crop against his boot.

  “Well, Vi, Quill here tells me that you don’t know how to ride. No time like the present to learn, eh? The wife and I are great riders. In the stable morning, noon and night. You will be, too, soon enough.” Phineas’s accent carried the lilting music of the Ilor colonies, but none of its relaxed pace. He clipped many of his words short, racing for the next one.

  “I’m to be a stable hand, then?” I asked with a mischievous smile. “I think you may’ve overpaid a bit, sir.”

  The Whipplestons cast sidelong looks at Phineas. I watched, too, trying to gauge his reaction. Phineas studied me for half a moment, then chuckled.

  “I’d be a fool if that were the case, my dear. No, no, no. Your contract is a surprise for my wife. She...” He paused, pursing his lips. “Well, you’ll see. Come along, then.”

  His wife. That piece of the puzzle fell on me like a stone block. His amalgam wife. Shit. I’d entirely forgotten about her. I wondered if everything I’d been told about the amalgam was true. I certainly hope not, Pru, I thought, shuddering.

  Hamlin took my bags from me and clapped me on the back. “Be well. My nephews have spoken quite highly of you. I wish you all the best in your new home.”

  He and Phineas led the way outside. Quill pulled my arm through his as we walked out onto the porch. On the front lawn, a big, gold-colored horse was being led in great prancing circles by a stable hand. Phineas strode across the lawn, took the reins from the girl and whispered to the horse before swinging into the saddle. Hamlin threw my saddlebags across the broad back of a dull brown horse, who stood patiently while he fastened them.

  “That’s Beetle,” Quill said. “Uncle Hamlin bought her when he first started trade in Williford. She’s old as sin, but gentle and patient. Don’t pull on her mouth, keep your weight in your heels, and you’ll be fine. Beetle will take good care of you.”

  Quill hoisted me into the saddle, and Beetle snorted and shifted below me. I grabbed her mane in panic. Quill laughed and Hamlin handed me the reins, patting my leg reassuringly.

  “We’ll go slow until you get your bearings. Remember, heels down,” Phineas said. He loomed over me on his elegant gold horse. “We’ll be home before supper.”

  He nodded to the Whipplestons and started off across the lawn. Beetle jolted into action, swaying beneath me like the ocean beneath a ship. My heart raced, and I twisted in the saddle, calling to Quill. He jogged to catch up.

  “Tell Mal goodbye for me. Please. And take care of yourselves.” Tears washed down my cheeks. “I’m going to miss you.”

  Quill reached up and squeezed my hand. “We won’t be far, and I promise—we’ll check on you soon.”

  Phineas turned onto the main thoroughfare, and as Beetle followed, I looked back over my shoulder at Quill, waving now from the wide porch. I blew him one last kiss before Beetle’s plodding steps took me away.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  BO

  The delectable smell of roasted meat and unfamiliar spices drifted out of the inn’s kitchen, quelling most of my reservations. Swinton ambled in after me and gestured to a table. Grateful for the breeze generated by the fans overhead, I set down my bags and took a seat. Swinton reappeared a moment later carrying two big, green spheres. A stout woman in the odd sleeveless style of dress that seemed to be popular here followed him, smiling broadly.

>   Swinton handed me one of the rough orbs—it was surprisingly heavy and appeared to be some sort of fruit—and set the other on the table.

  “Auntie Kelladra, this is Mister...” He coughed and gave me a pointed look.

  I put the fruit down beside Swinton’s, rose and bowed politely over the woman’s extended hand. “Bo. Bo Abernathy. A pleasure, madam.”

  “Would you look at the manners on this one!” She pulled out a chair and sat, gesturing for us to do the same. “So, Mister Abernathy. What can I do for you?”

  As she spoke, Kelladra stabbed the tops of the fruits on the table with a queer, triangular knife. She handed one to me and the other to Swinton, along with thin, metal tubes.

  “Thank you, madam. I need a room for the night and the name of the nearest livery, if you please.”

  “Drink up,” Swinton said. He’d put the tube into the fruit.

  I followed suit and sucked briefly on the metal tube. Cool, salty-sweet liquid filled my mouth like moonwater. “What is this?”

  Swinton and Kelladra laughed, deep belly laughs, and she said, “Coconut. Better than water in this heat. Now, as for the room, you can share for ten ovstri, or have one to yourself for twenty. A bath is two tvilling, and meals are the same. As for the livery, well, Tueber must be smiling on you. I run carriages from my stable out back. Where’re you headed?”

  “I’m not entirely sure yet. I’m looking for someone, and I haven’t yet learned where she’s landed.”

  “No trouble there. My Swinton’s got his ear to the ground. I’m sure he’d be happy to help you find what you’re looking for. His day rate as a guide is—what, ten ovstri? Any idea where you might start?”

  I stared at my shoes, completely at a loss. “I do need to get to Southill at some point.”

  “You want a carriage? That’ll be...” She considered for a moment, counting on her fingers. “Four ovstri, plus ten tvilling for food. Less if you can find folks to share with you.”