Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead)

by Ashford, Cathy

  “What did you tell her?”

  “Um, I might have mentioned that you were in love with her…”

  “Lolitha!” A silence, then, “What did she say?”

  “Um, I don’t really remember. I think I fainted straight after.”

  “Oh sweet Lilbecz…” Charlie groaned and hid his face in his hands.

  “Er, sorry Charlie. Hey, at least now she knows! And she didn’t seem to mind, you should have seen her on Jaseth’s birthday!”

  Charlie made a face, remembering. “That was… Hmm, I thought she was just being friendly. Was she really jealous?”

  Lolitha laughed. “You should have seen her face when you introduced Odette. She was furious!”

  With all the excitement the followed Lux’ rather spectacular arrival, I had forgotten about Anna’s coldness towards the Journeyman.

  “Oh hell, am I an idiot?”

  “Yes!” Lolitha and I chorused, then grinned at each other.

  “Hey, at least she doesn’t know you’ve got a painting of her!”

  “You’ve got a painting of Anna? Where?”

  I grinned at Lolitha. “In his room. It’s an Ashlu.”

  “An Ashlu!” she squeaked. “Ooh, can I see?”

  Charlie protested but Lolitha and I grabbed an arm each and towed him to the door. He muttered furiously the whole way. “Bloodkin interfering in my love life, they don’t teach you about that in the Enclaves.” But Lolitha and I could do nothing but giggle as we led him down the stairs.

  During December there was a palpable excitement in the air as the city readied itself for the arrival of the Royal Party. The rains had dissipated, leaving the days clear, but cold and frosty. In the mornings when we walked to the Academy the sun had barely risen, and it was almost dark by the time we made our way home in the evenings.

  Small groups of staff began arriving in the city from Fortesta, to ready the castle for occupation by the Queen and her Advisor and the rest of the government. From my room in the Hall I could see them, tiny figures crossing the bridge. After three years of only minimal upkeep, the royal staff had less than a month to restore the castle to a habitable condition suitable for the elected leader of our country. The Queen was due to arrive just after Yule, on the last day of the year.

  Out in the streets, the city guards were making their presence felt, even in the Quarter, which was wholly unusual. Anna, too, was busier than normal, and the private lounge was off-limits to the rest of us most nights we went down to the Shivering Thistle. Though whatever extra security she was organising I could only guess at.

  There were a few incidents that marred the festive atmosphere. A woman’s body was found in a back street down in the Docks, her throat slit, her male companion vanished. It was assumed in the papers that he was the one who had murdered her, and had gone into hiding. But the details of the attack were uncomfortably familiar.

  Then Odette went missing.

  Ever since Lolitha had revealed the reason for Anna’s dislike of the younger woman, Charlie had been polite, friendly even, but had kept her at arm’s length.

  On a free day she had gone shopping with an old friend of hers from the Enclave – a Mingle who had been a student at the Academy a few classes ago and who was finishing up her Solastry study at the Temple. They had been seen together in the Quarter shopping for new, festive robes at Myn Tardiallah’s, and had popped in to Fiona’s to stock up on White, but no matter who the city guards questioned, no one knew where they had gone after that.

  Myn Eve was concerned when Odette didn’t return for dinner that night, but decided that she must have gone to eat and maybe stay the night with her friend. But when she didn’t return the next day, Eve went to the guards.

  Charlie, naturally, was frantic as the days passed and there was still no sign of Odette. He went to see Anna at her apartment to beg for her assistance, which had been promised readily, but she didn’t seem to hold out much hope. He even took me with him to see Jeetz at his home on the hill.

  In my months in Lille I had never been up to where the rich and powerful elite of the city made their homes. A small diversion of the Jael River had been dug around the base of the hills, where they rose up from the flat ground that housed most of the city, and this canal fed the steam engines, powered by Journeymen, that ran the gondolas. We took a cable car up to one of the levels. Here, narrow streets clung to the side of the hills, providing access to each tier of mansions. Graceful stone bridges arched over the gullies and we crossed two of them before Charlie led me through a gate and into a courtyard framed by bare winter trees. Jeetz’ house was enormous, a great, three-level mansion with arched windows and stone columns. We knocked on the door and to my surprise it was Lux who opened it. She had bound her hair in a tight bun and a thick headband swept her fringe off her face. She was wearing a stained old apron over her robe, and we had apparently interrupted her in the middle of the task of polishing the floor.

  “Oh, it’s you two. What a pleasant surprise!” Though the sharp-toothed grin she gave us was anything but pleasant. “Jeetz! You’ve got visitors!” she yelled over her shoulder, and let us follow her inside.

  Inside was a vast reception area, tiled in gleaming white marble. Jeetz’ mother had certainly built herself something of an empire from the start the people of Жanờ had given her. Jeetz appeared at the top of a grand staircase, wearing a dapper, navy blue robe with matching paisley kerchief, his long hair flowing behind him as he walked down to meet us.

  “Lux, is that any way to greet visitors?” he growled at her, mock-serious. “Honestly, I thought us Mingles should stick together, but this one will put me in the grave, I’m sure of it.” He was rewarded by Lux poking her tongue out at him. “Off you go, girly. Go see if mother needs anything.”

  “Aye, aye sir!” Lux scuttled away, through a door to the side of the stairs.

  “Please, come sit with me in the library, it’s much more comfortable.” Jeetz led us upstairs and down a corridor to his library. The walls were lined with bookcases, each stuffed to maximum capacity with a vast number of books. A fire burned in the grate and above it hung a large portrait. It was of an older woman, picked out in exquisite detail, her hair bright white and her skin creased, but tanned. She had a sharp, hawk-like nose and a fierce expression. I noted the signature – Ashlu, of course it had to be, but a commission of this size would have cost so much money it made my head swim.

  Jeetz bade us sit in upright armchairs around a small table, and he poured three glasses of wine from a delicate crystal carafe.

  “Now, by the look on your face, Ϛaioћ, I gather you are not here to talk about the weather, hmm?”

  Charlie nodded and filled Jeetz in on the details surrounding Odette’s disappearance.

  “So she was with a Mingle girl, yes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Ahh.”

  “Ahh?”

  Jeetz scratched his head for a second and took a sip of his wine. “I have heard… rumours.”

  “Rumours?” Charlie was almost bursting with impatience.

  “Yes. Rumours of young Mingles, male and female, going missing unexpectedly. Most have been put down to the flightiness of the young, and Mingle youths tend to be… wilful.” He grimaced. “And due to the nature of our birth, many don’t seem to care much about us.” This he said with a trace of bitterness. “Oh, it was alright for me, being first generation I had to be brought up in an Enclave, but second and third generation Mingles – those with less than one quarter Nea’thi blood – can survive childhood Outside. I understand that they can suffer some mistreatment in some areas.”

  “But shouldn’t they be going to the Academies?” I broke in.

  Jeetz frowned. “Well, they should be, but as I said, young Mingles can and do refuse to go. It’s illegal, of course, but what can you do?”

  “So Mingles have been disappearing and nobody cares?” I was horrified.

  Jeetz shrugged. “Pretty much. Now I’m not sure if
there’s any link between these disappearances and the troubles your Aӣấ has been having but—”

  “What troubles?” Charlie was instantly alert. “She hasn’t told me anything!”

  “Hmm, well it’s a bad business she’s in. Very bad indeed.” He shook his head in disapproval. “My sources indicate that there is some sort of… rival organisation, more than willing to take on the contracts she refuses. It appears that this organisation has even less in the way of morality and respect for life than Aӣấ. But that’s Humans for you, they’ll do anything for money. No offense, Jaseth.”

  “Er, none taken.”

  “So is Aӣấ in danger?” Charlie asked desperately.

  Jeetz gave him a wry smile. “I thought we were here to talk about this Odette girl? Ah well, no, I’m sure she’s not in any personal danger, she’s more than capable of looking after herself, but…”

  “Yes?” Charlie almost yelled at him.

  “Well, those whose contracts have been refused by our friend Lya Myn tend not to be overly pleased about it. And the families of the contracts that the other organisation freely accepts are even less so. Do you understand? Perhaps with the Queen’s imminent arrival the increased presence of the city guards will deter some of this activity, but you know how useless the guards are.” He gave a mirthless laugh. “Or perhaps it will go the other way and the presence of the Royal Party will act as some sort of catalyst, but for what I have no idea.” Jeetz toyed with his wine glass and sat back in his chair.

  “Now like I said, I’m not sure yet whether this has anything to do with your missing Journeyman. If Mingles are in fact being abducted, rather than just taking off, then this Odette could well be fine. They, if there even is a “they”, seem to have no interest in full-blooded Nea’thi.”

  “So… What can we do?” asked Charlie bleakly.

  Jeetz sighed. “I’m afraid, my dear boy, that at this point there is probably nothing you, or anyone else, could possibly do.”

  Charlie was very quiet on the gondola ride down the hill and for days after our visit to Jeetz. Everyone in the Hall was on edge, the other two Journeymen especially, who refused to leave the Hall at all. Any excitement we had felt about the arrival of the Queen was dampened by worry. Sallagh tried to cheer me up, hypothesising that Odette had just gone travelling, as Journeymen were wont to do, but I knew – I just knew – that something terrible had happened to her.

  Three days before Yule, as curiously brownish skies promised the first of the winter snows, a crowd of fishermen pulled Odette’s body from the lake.

  thought Charlie would go to pieces, but he was curiously calm. He insisted on helping Myn Eve, who was wracked with terrible guilt about the fate of one of her charges, organise a memorial service at the Temple before a carriage was ordered to take Odette’s remains back to Жanờ.

  It was a solemn group that met at the Shivering Thistle after the service. Anna had dismissed any business she had for the afternoon and invited us all up to the private lounge for a sort of wake. Snow had indeed begun to fall outside and as we hurried from the Temple, my arm around Sallagh, the tears almost froze on her face. O’Malley sent up pitchers of warm mulled wine, and Fiona had blended up a special mixture of White, Red and Blue moss to help us relax and grieve for the pretty Journeyman who we had barely got the chance to know.

  Yule was a festive occasion. Traditionally, people stayed up until midnight the night before, eating and drinking and celebrating, but this Yule’s eve had nothing festive about it at all. My friends from the Hall began drifting home in groups late that night, but Charlie seemed unwilling to go, and I was unwilling to leave without him.

  He had been so awfully strong. While the women had spent the past two days weeping, and the men had been coping in silence, it had been Charlie who had dealt with the Temple and organised the carriage for Odette’s body and helped Myn Eve compose the letter to her family.

  I must have fallen asleep by the fire, for when I opened my eyes everyone had gone, and the sounds from the bar were the muted noises of the end of the night.

  I heard quiet weeping and turned my head to see Charlie, curled up beside Anna, his face buried in her shoulder as she cradled his head and stroked his hair gently. Before I could pretend to be still asleep, Anna noticed me and sat up slightly. Charlie sniffed, wiped his eyes on his sleeve and looked over.

  “Oh, hey Jas, you fell asleep and we didn’t want to wake you.”

  Ugh, I felt groggy and sat up with a struggle. “What’s the time?”

  “Late. Past three I guess. Come on, let’s get you two to bed.” Anna rose and helped Charlie off the couch. He clung to her hand as she led us downstairs, nodding at O’Malley, propped up on the bar.

  “It’s too late for you to go back to the Hall, come stay at my place.”

  I could think of no argument as we left the tavern and walked the short distance to her apartment, her guards following at a discreet distance. There were still muted sounds of revelry drifting down from other apartments in the Quarter, curiously alien, but the frozen streets were empty, the glowbes sending ghostly tendrils of light through the snow.

  Beside the entrance to Fiona’s shop she stared at a door, which unlocked with a click. She pushed her way in, barely glancing at the guard seated just inside. Leading us up the stairs to the top floor she used Hầұeӣ to unlock the door that led to her apartment.

  At any other time I would have been impressed by the gorgeous, panoramic view of the city and lake, swirling and dusted with snow like icing sugar, but now it just made me feel lonely. Charlie had not let go of Anna’s hand the entire time and now I wished more than anything that I had Sallagh with me.

  Anna pulled the heavy curtains and quickly lit the fire, settling Charlie and me in front of it and tucking blankets around us. She ducked out to another room and returned with glasses and brandy that she poured for the three of us. She had a small pouch of Fiona’s special blend, and filled an elegant hookah on a low table. She sparked the moss and replaced the lid, handing us a hose each.

  The cold outside had woken me up like a slap to the face, but here, snuggled in a blanket, with the fire and brandy warming my body and the moss stilling my mind, I was very quickly sleepy again. We sat in silence for some time. Charlie finished his brandy and Anna poured him another.

  “How did she die?”

  I glanced with surprise at Charlie. He was the one who had organised with the Temple morgue for the transportation of Odette’s body, I assumed he would have been told if Odette had died any other way than drowning.

  “Her throat was slit,” Anna said flatly. A horrible sensation crawled up my spine. Charlie just nodded and stared into his drink. We were quiet again for a few minutes until Charlie finished his second brandy.

  “So they’re taking Mingles.” It was more a statement than a question, and Anna hesitated for a moment.

  “Yes.”

  “Not Nea’thi.”

  “No.”

  “Not Nea’thi-Bloods.”

  “No.”

  “Just Mingles.”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?” Charlie whispered, his voice hoarse and ragged.

  “I don’t know.”

  He sobbed once, quietly. Oh sweet Lilbecz, poor, poor Charlie.

  Anna rose. “Come on Jaseth, I’ll show you to your bed, yes?”

  “Mm, yes please.” I stood and followed her, a bit wobbly, into a small side room with a single bed, generously covered in fur rugs.

  “There you go. Sleep well, Jaseth.”

  “Anna?”

  “Yes?”

  “You will look after him, won’t you?”

  She flashed me a ghost of a smile. “Of course, dear. Don’t worry about him.”

  I was worried, but when I pulled off my robe and crawled into bed, I had barely laid my head on the pillow before I was asleep.

  The next day it was almost mid-afternoon before I woke. I could hear the sounds of Charlie and Anna talkin
g quietly in Nea’thi outside my room. Heaving myself out of bed, I pulled on my robes and straightened the blankets before going out to find them. They turned out to be in the kitchen, cooking up bacon and eggs for our breakfast.

  “Ah, here he is! Sleep well, Jas?”

  “Yeah, thanks Charlie. How are you?”

  “Oh, you know. As well as can be expected, I suppose.”

  After we had eaten, Charlie and I left Anna’s and made our way back to the Hall. The skies had cleared, and the remnants of snow glittered on the stonework of the Quarter. As we were leaving, Anna had kissed Charlie on the cheek, and grasped my hand in hers.

  “If there’s anything you need, Jaseth, anything at all, please come to me.” I had promised and we departed.

  The streets were busy with Yuletide revellers, hurrying to or back from the Temple. This normal activity seemed to me to belong to a different world, a world where Mingles weren’t being abducted, and pretty young Journeymen didn’t have their throats slit before being dumped in the lake.

  Street vendors had set up stalls on intersections selling roasted meats, mulled wine, and slices of Yule Log, a chocolate confection of rolled sponge. These we passed as if in a bubble. I thought about the goodbye kiss Anna had given Charlie. Maybe something good had come of the day before. I needed there to have been something good, so I asked him.

  “Did you and Anna, you know…?”

  “Hmm?” He was miles away. “Oh, what? No, no, nothing happened, really. We just, um, snuggled.”

  Snuggled. Well, I suppose that was good.

  We arrived at the Hall the same time the others were coming back from the Temple. Sallagh, hollow-eyed and a bit weepy gave a little gasp when she saw me.

  “Sweet Lilbecz, Jaseth!” She ran to me and threw her arms around my neck. “I thought something had happened to you!” she cried as I stroked her hair.

  “We stayed at Anna’s last night.”

  “Anna’s?” She pulled back, instantly suspicious. I stiffened, a bit annoyed. Why shouldn’t I have stayed at Anna’s?