Araneae Nation: The Complete Collection

by Hailey Edwards

  I hoped it might help me understand him and his clan better.

  The detailed sketches of the Tower Square’s layout, well, those were an unexpected boon.

  “You’re no Mimetidae, either.” He lifted the braid hung over my shoulder. “I like blondes.”

  Jerking my hair from his grip made my scalp sting. “Where is Murdoch? Or Lleu?”

  “Murdoch is in a meeting with his paladin.” He rolled his shoulders. “Lleu’s in the kitchen.”

  I noticed how he spoke of both with easy familiarity. “Who are you?”

  “Manners,” he said with a grin. “I owned a few before coming to Cathis.”

  I was quick to point out, “Location does not affect one’s ability to be polite.”

  “Are you certain of that?” He scattered a few sheaves of thick paper across Murdoch’s desk.

  “Don’t touch his things.” I straightened the mess and slid the book out of his reach.

  The male tapped the end of my nose. “I will touch what I like, how I like, when I like.”

  I placed a hand on his chest. “Is that so?” He nodded that it was. I slid my hand lower, to his belt, where I closed my hand over a slim knife meant for eating. My brief fight with the clasp on top of the handle ended in time for me to slide the blade level with his crotch and apply pressure.

  His brow creased. “That’s a very dull knife.”

  “Then it’s well suited to its owner.” I tightened my grip. “Who are you? Why are you here?”

  “I am Bram of the Theridiidae.” He scowled. “I’m here because Murdoch ordered me to be.”

  “Bram.” A memory clicked into place. “You’re Lleu’s replacement.”

  “That was Murdoch’s intention.” He stared at the knife. “I’m reconsidering the assignment.”

  “You could have told me who you were when I asked the first time.” I lowered my weapon.

  “But where’s the fun in that?” He took a careful step back. “Besides, you need me.”

  “Hardly.” I could take care of myself.

  “You think not?” He leaned against Murdoch’s bureau. “Have you seen the grotto?”

  “No.” But now I had seen drawings of its layout, sprawling far below the Tower Square.

  “Then my warning carries less weight than I had hoped.” Bram opened a drawer I was quick to slam shut on his fingers. “That was uncalled for.” He sucked their tips. “Now, as I was saying, the grotto is a dank and filthy place I’ve spent much of the last two weeks patrolling. I would not recommend paying an extended visit. To avoid that fate, I will keep you on your best behavior.”

  “It sounds as if you’re hoping to use this assignment to avoid the grotto. In that case, you’re the one who needs me.” Perhaps Bram’s desire to avoid patrol might prove itself an asset to me.

  “There are three males Paladin Vaughn trusts to see to your care. One is with him now. One is in the kitchen and, last I heard, he’s forbidden to visit you alone. The third stands before you, grateful he wore leather riding pants today.” He eyed my hand and the knife. “If you manage to run me off, then Murdoch will be forced to place you where you won’t need constant attention.”

  “He wouldn’t do that to me.” He wouldn’t dare. Not so near Hishima’s arrival.

  “Tell me what he’s done to arouse your blind allegiance so that I might inspire it in others.”

  “He is kind even when he should be cruel.” I lifted Murdoch’s book and held it tight against my chest. “Even when he acts cold and heartless, there is restraint in his touch and in his words.”

  Bram tapped his bottom lip. “Restraint usually leaves fewer marks.”

  I touched the fading scab at the corner of my mouth. “It was earned.”

  Amusement glinted in his eyes. “Was the knife you buried in his back also earned?”

  “You should ask Lleu sometime.” While they gossiped, I could enjoy a moment of privacy.

  “I did ask him.” At my surprise, he chuckled. “When Murdoch said you had plied Lleu with your feminine wiles, I had high hopes. I asked Lleu about you. Although he leapt to defend your honor, he mentioned your obsession with the plague. Even in that, you and Murdoch are suited.”

  I ignored his jibe. “Murdoch is fulfilling a task set before him by his paladin.”

  “Do you think he has any hope of succeeding?” he asked frankly.

  Sudden dullness in his eyes, a flash of pain that echoed in my heart, quieted my smart reply.

  “If he looks hard enough, he’ll find what he’s after.” I added, “I would rather he didn’t.”

  His slow nod conveyed perfect understanding. “I heard Titania was struggling to recover.”

  Despair mantled my shoulders. “Rebuilding is hard when so few have heart for the work.”

  “In Siciia…” He averted his face. “I apologize. I forget myself sometimes.”

  Siciia, home of the disgraced Theridiidae. How miserable it must be to hurt for a clan others openly despised. His pain was stark in his face. I ventured, “To speak our hearts is to heal them.”

  “What of those with no heart left?” He still refused to hold my gaze. “How do they…?”

  “They survive.” My hand went to my chest. “They live for all those who have died.”

  “So much death.” His voice rasped. “Who can live that well for that many?”

  The faces of my loved ones blurred past my mind’s eye. Laughter, smiles, singing, dancing, that was how I remembered them. They had lived well. They had been loved and loved in return.

  “No one person can,” I told him. “We must each keep alive the sparks of our loved ones.”

  In my heart, those vestiges of my kin shimmered as fervent stars set in the glittering night sky.

  I was lucky in a way, I supposed, to have such memories to treasure. But as I was blessed, so was I cursed. The remembrance of my aunt’s sparkling eyes dulled to Maier’s milky-white orbs.

  Swallowing through a tight throat, I fought back the surge of other memories, worse memories.

  “Are you all right?”

  “Fine.” I rubbed my eyes. “I read for longer than I’m used to.”

  Bram made a thoughtful sound in the back of his throat.

  “Was there a reason you chose to announce yourself just now?” I edged around him, careful to remain out of reach. His knife’s hilt was worn smooth. It fit my hand well. I decided to keep it.

  He followed me, keeping an eye on his blade. “The Lady Isolde wishes to speak with you.”

  An audience with Isolde made me glad I held a knife. “Did she tell you why?”

  Hints of his wry humor crept back into his tone. “I am but her humble messenger.”

  “Where did she ask me to be brought?” Isolde’s chosen location would determine whether I asked Bram to locate Murdoch for me or if I dared to attempt the meeting with Bram at my back.

  “The garden.” He rolled his shoulders. “I tried to dissuade her but…”

  “I’ve met Isolde.” Once was enough for me. “She acts as though she is still maven here.”

  “An illusion her son affords her.” Bram sounded too sympathetic. “After her fall from grace, Isolde offered herself as an advisor to Mana. Regardless of the fact Mana is the niece of a maven, she was raised as a healer, not to rule, and she has a tender heart. Isolde is…not ruling alongside her son—Mana does have the final word in all clan matters—but Isolde retained certain privileges.”

  “Too many if you ask me.” Not that he had or he seemed to mind. “She’s very stubborn.”

  “So I’ve noticed.” His lips quirked. “It’s a trait she passed on to her son.”

  His criticism made me ask, “What brings you to Cathis? Are you sworn to the Mimetidae?”

  “Gods no.” He flashed a golden token at me. “Lourdes of the Araneidae is my patron.”

  “So you are far from home.” Erania was the northernmost city in the Araneae Nation. It was perhaps the one place safe from the plag
ue. For what could survive that barren land?

  “You could say that.” His wilted smile reminded me his true home, Siciia, was much closer.

  “Will you tell me how you came to be here?” And of the odd allies he had made.

  “If you return my knife.” He held out his hand. When I shook my head, he ordered, “Put it in your pocket at least. You can’t walk around with it out in the open. Surely you must realize that.”

  Surprised he intended to allow me to keep his blade, I did as he suggested. I pocketed it and sidled past him into the hall. I knew my way to the garden, but I dreaded going there. Why Isolde had chosen to meet in the one place Murdoch warned me against exploring, I could not imagine.

  “Well?” I prompted him. “You aren’t a herald or emissary. So what are you?”

  “If you find the answer, share it with me.” He looked at the coin he had not yet hidden. “I’m on loan from Maven Lourdes. I was part of a contingent sent from Erania to deliver her youngest sister to Beltania. Mana had been visiting her cousin, Rhys, the new Araneidae paladin, and she was meant to be escorted to Beltania as well.” His hand closed over the token. “We did as the maven asked. Her sister was given into the custody of the Salticidae maven, Sikyakookyang. We reunited Mana with her aunt, the maven. By all rights, we should have returned north afterward.”

  “Why didn’t you?” Most followed their orders exactly to the word and not a letter past.

  “We were told in Beltania that the plague had come to Cathis. Vaughn was, understandably, frantic to return home.” He shook his head. “Mana refused to let him go alone. She petitioned her aunt for permission to accompany him as a healer. Surprisingly, Maven Sikyakookyang agreed.”

  “I’m amazed Sikya let Mana out of her sight.” Let alone with Vaughn. “What then?”

  “I found myself in a quandary. Did I return to Erania knowing Maven Lourdes’s sister was safely where I had vowed to see her taken while the paladin’s favorite cousin had chosen not to stay where he had instructed? Did I dare face them and risk their displeasure, a thing I cannot afford, or did I brave the journey south with Mana, so that when I stood before my paladin, I had firsthand knowledge that Mana, who is as dear to Rhys as a sister, was, in fact, safely in Cathis?”

  “I would have done just as you have.” I frowned. “Paladin Rhys must have known that when Mana heard of the Mimetidae’s plight, she would follow her betrothed and aid his clansmen.”

  Bram flipped the coin once, catching it on his palm. “You would think so.” He shoved both hands in his pockets. “The thing is, when Vaughn and Mana left Erania, they were not promised.”

  My mouth opened on a gasp. “They bonded so soon?”

  “Their life threads were tied within days of our reaching Cathis.” He stared straight ahead. “I don’t know the particulars, but I’m sure Lleu does if you’d rather ask him than question Mana.”

  “That makes no sense.” None at all. “With Vaughn’s position as a future paladin and Mana’s calling as a spirit walker, their clans should have been in negotiations for months if they came to an understanding at all.” Even now, “I can’t fathom what his clan thought hers had of any value.”

  The Salticidae lived simply off their land. Their harvests were their riches. What had enticed a crafty maven such as Isolde to let her eldest son marry into a clan so opposite their own? What had Mana offered? Had Vaughn demanded they be allowed to wed? Did that mean he loved her?

  A hand on my shoulder stopped me before I wandered into the garden unaware. Isolde sat on a stone bench. Gone was her bold black hair. In its place was a more sedate silver to complement her age. When Isolde spotted me, she lifted a hand in greeting. I returned the gesture and glanced back at Bram, who was already retreating to a benched alcove. “Will you wait here for me then?”

  “I will.” His haunted expression told me what he saw through that arch. Death.

  He would have been here during the height of the plague and seen the worst of its carnage. I had accumulated so many questions from Bram, and the female I strode toward held all the answers.

  When she grinned so crookedly at me, I wondered what the information would cost me.

  Isolde elected not to rise and clasp my hands in greeting. Instead, she patted the bench, and it became clear I was unable to avoid sitting beside her. I sat gingerly, on the edge, angled her way.

  “You wanted to see me, Lady Isolde?” My formality made her lips flatten.

  “We’ve been over this.” She dusted her hands. “Call me Isolde plainly or nothing at all.”

  I bobbed my head, though she might have missed it, staring at the garden as she was.

  “You know what happened here.” She sounded certain of it.

  “I do.” I took my first good look at what had served as a mass grave.

  The grass was clipped short and neat around the farthest edges, but the rest of the lawn was a scuffed reminder of the somber purpose this garden had last served. Heavy pots were stacked with their contents spilling onto the ground. If there had once been flowers here, none remained. What was left of a milling stone path seemed lost amid the confusion of the torn lawn and bare dirt.

  “You feel it, don’t you?” She held out a wavering hand. “There’s something here.”

  Leaning forward, I inclined my head so my earring swung free. I listened and was rewarded with blessed silence. I exhaled through a burst of relief. “There’s nothing here,” I assured her.

  Lowering her arm, Isolde twisted on the bench until our knees bumped. “Is that right?”

  “Isn’t it?” Unsure what she expected from me, I played on her impatience for my answers.

  “Play games with me at your own risk.” She pointed at me. “Be aware I win at all costs.”

  “I sense the unease of the place,” I ventured. “It’s not uncommon after such tragic events.”

  That seemed to appease her. “Mana is cleansing the garden of negative energy.”

  “Murdoch said as much to me.” After sitting here, I understood why she felt moved to do so.

  “You and I are of a mind, I think.” She patted my knee. “I was once a maven-in-waiting. I too have had to make rash decisions to protect those who became my clan. Though I made mine years after becoming maven, after the rightful paladin had passed and I was left to rule alone.”

  I kept quiet. Rebelling against her son’s plans for me was one thing. Doing it to her face was another.

  “Ah, I recognize that look.” She cackled. “Gods know I wore it often enough in my youth.”

  “Paladin Vaughn seems certain that Hishima will want to wed me despite our differences.” I let her glimpse my fear. “If he comes, it won’t be desire for my wellbeing that brings him here.”

  “I know that. Vaughn does too.” The steel of her gray hair slipped into her expression. “You have no choice. I had none, either. I did my duty for the sake of my clan, and you will do yours.”

  “In return for your son’s aid, I will leave with Hishima and see that our pact is upheld.”

  “Good.” She patted my knee again. “Then we’re in agreement.”

  “It appears so.” My lack of enthusiasm earned me another amused look.

  “I won’t ask why you ran from him. It’s your business. It won’t help me to know, so you can keep that to yourself.” She bent down and hefted a satchel from the ground. “Now this, this we need to discuss.” She held my spade in her hand. “You made this my business when you dug into Mimetidae soil. My son sees the larger picture. An alliance with the Segestriidae gives us the two richest clans in the nation at our backs. He likes that. I like it too. But the problem is this. By seeing the big picture, he misses what’s right in front of him. Me? I think death is in the details.”

  The spade glinted as Isolde rolled the handle between her palms.

  “What are you going to do with that?” Dig me a grave among the souls left in her garden?

  “Give it back to you.” She kept the spade whirling. �
��No female should be left unarmed.”

  “Thank you.” Though I had no use for it now, I admit I was relieved to see it again.

  “Don’t thank me yet.” She drove the blade into the ground. “I expect answers for it.”

  With a final longing glance at the spade, I rose. “I’m not interested in such a trade.”

  “Pity you want to do things the hard way.” The gleam in her eyes belied her sentiment.

  Still seated, Isolde swept her leg hard under mine and shoved the center of my chest with her palms. I stumbled back, and she leapt at me, wild hair dancing joyfully around her head. Her teeth were bared in the same smile her son wore, but hers was edged with a crazed glee where his was colder, more calculating. When I hit the ground with her atop me, I gasped, stunned and panting.

  Reaching behind her, she dislodged my spade and held it to my throat. “Well?”

  I turned my head a fraction in the hopes of meeting Bram’s eyes, but he glanced aside.

  “What do you want?” I narrowed my eyes at him. I would remember this betrayal.

  “Keep that fire, girl.” Isolde eased up so the spade no longer cut into me. “You’ll need it.”

  “Lady Isolde…” I grated, “…please remove yourself from my person. I can’t breathe.”

  At once the blade was cold at my throat. “Now that was plain rude.”

  I almost laughed. “Assaulting a guest isn’t?”

  “Guest.” She snorted. “It’s a polite label for what we both know you really are.”

  Fury lent my voice a bitter edge. “Yet your son applied it, and he is your paladin, is he not?”

  “If you’re asking if I fear my son, then no, I don’t. It’s hard to fear your own child after you spend a few years wiping its arse.” She bent so our noses almost touched. “Don’t try and threaten me, girl. Unless you want to find yourself in chains upon Hishima’s arrival, you will cooperate.”

  Panic set my heart pumping. I dared not be at such a disadvantage when he arrived.

  I forced out, “Ask your questions.”

  She leaned back but kept pressure applied to my neck. “What brought you to Cathis?”

  I kept my tone civil. “I followed the plague here.”