by Chanda Hahn
I watched Maeve’s dark shape fly away until nothing more than a speck remained, and then I searched the skies for a dove, hoping, praying. I couldn’t believe how much I wanted to get an invitation, but at the same time, the thought terrified me. What if I failed at my spells and mess everything up like I normally did and upset Mother? Get a hold of yourself, Eden. I mentally chastised. You are a powerful sorceress. You don’t care what anyone thinks. Except, deep down, I did.
Dinner was silent except for the sound of spoons scraping across the bottom of our ceramic bowls filled with beef and barley soup and a side of homemade bread. Mother was extremely harsh tonight, and a tenseness hung in the air. Normally dinner would be filled with idle chatter, laughter, and delicious talks of curses and maladies. Everyone was anxiously watching the skies, windows, and doors for the invitation.
Aura accidently slurped her soup and was immediately set upon by a disapproving glare from Mother. “Ladies don’t slurp.”
Aura’s cheeks flushed. “Yes, Mother.”
My bowl sat untouched, my appetite nonexistent. I couldn’t help but glance over to Rosalie’s chair and wondered how she was faring. If she was in trouble, she would send word, but I couldn’t understand why she chose to go away and not come back to live with us. Her empty chair was a memorial, a reminder that one by one, each of us would eventually set out on our own adventures. Maeve’s chair was empty, but that wasn’t anything unusual because we were used to her flighty ways, much like her aviary persona.
A crash came from the front room as the door flew open and slammed against the wall. A large raven flew into the dining room with something white in its claws. It did one swoop around the kitchen before dropping its prize on the long wooden table. A flash of light and feathers blinded us as the bird shifted back into my sister.
Maeve moved over to her empty chair and filled her bowl with soup, not even mentioning the white, feathered carcass lying in the middle of the table like an obscure centerpiece.
Mother Eville only raised her eyebrows and muttered, “You’re late, dear.”
Maeve’s face glowed. “I had to pick up something.” She reached past the dead dove and grabbed a roll. I couldn’t peel my eyes away from the crooked neck of the dove and the rolled-up tube with the royal seal tied to its leg. “It seems that our royal messenger dove got a bit lost. So, I had to show him the way.”
“How lost?” I asked pointedly at Maeve.
“Uh, quite lost.” Her cheeks finally started to blush when confronted with what she had just done. She shoved her roll into her mouth and took a bite, refusing to meet my gaze.
I tried to control the shaking of my hand as I reached across the table and gently untied the leather strap to release the cylindrical leather tube. I opened it and slid the rolled-up parchment into my hand. I could see golden script across the invitation, and I couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement. This was a chance for all of us to leave, to go out into the world and prove our worth to our mother. But more than that, it was just exciting to be invited to the ball. My hand stopped shaking long enough for me to read the family name across the envelope.
“It’s addressed to the daughters of Beauchamp,” I tried to not let the disappointment show. Seven heads turned to look toward Maeve for an explanation.
Maeve slammed her half-eaten roll down on her plate, scattering her silverware across the table. “Okay, fine. I flew to the palace and snuck into the secretary’s office and looked at the guest list. The house of Eville wasn’t on the list. So, I—” She waved her finger in the air. “—spelled our name on it, just as the secretary was finishing up the last batch of invitations. When he saw our name, he swore. I watched as he crossed our name out. They weren’t going to send us one.” She pouted.
One by one, my sisters’ heads or shoulders dropped as our mother’s curse followed us. Unwanted. Unloved. Forgotten. I was angry. Shouldn’t we count? Are we not good enough? Just because we’re orphans doesn’t mean we don’t deserve the same privileges as everyone else.
Maeve’s eyes flashed, and her face took on an angry sneer. “So, I followed the royal dove and tried to force it to come to our house, and when it wouldn’t, well….” She trailed off and waved her delicate hand at the dove’s carcass.
She had killed a royal dove and stolen another family’s invitation and didn’t feel the least bit remorseful—and at the moment, I didn’t either.
“Well, well, well, Maeve. You’ve outdone yourself.” Mother pushed back her chair and came over, taking the invitation from me and reading it for herself. I was the only one close enough to see her hand tremble slightly in anger. She waved her hand over the parchment, and the Beauchamp name was replaced with a name I did not recognize. Her red lipstick shone brightly against the candlelight as she looked us over one by one. “As much as I would love to send all of you, I can send only one.”
“I’ll go, Mother.” Rhea jumped up in excitement.
“No, let me go,” Meri said, her eyes flashing green. “I’ll sing them to sleep, and they’ll never wake up.”
I would not want to be in their shoes if they ever went up against an angry muse. I looked around, noticing I wasn’t the only one not making eye contact with Mother.
Honor stared at the far wall. Her hand clenched around her butter knife. I may joke that I was the worst when it came to weaving spells, but that wasn’t necessarily true. Honor, poor quiet Honor, didn’t have the gift. She was the most normal of all of us. Yes, her training wasn’t like ours. She would disappear with Lorn on long trips north where she would be trained by the elves. Mother and Lorn never told us what she was being trained in and for. Most of the year, Honor didn’t live with us. It just happened that she was back for the next three weeks. I knew that Mother wouldn’t send Honor.
My mouth went dry under Mother’s scrutiny, and I reached for the glass goblet and tried to wet my throat. For a moment, I felt a bit sorry for the royal family if either Meri or Maeve was sent.
“No, it must be Eden,” Mother’s said sternly.
I put the cup down with more force than was necessary, and it thunked loudly on the table. “Mother?” My voice came out a squeak.
“It is time, my darling. There can be no one else but you. This is your story.”
I felt my sister’s heated glare from across the room, and I tried to not look at her. Literally, I could feel the heat from Maeve’s anger scorch my skin, and I started to sweat. Why was I chosen? I wasn’t the strongest. My magic was unreliable. I jumped up from my chair and smoothed the wrinkles on my black dress. “Are you sure, Mother, that you wouldn’t want to send someone else?”
“No, Eden. It’s time. Time for you to go home.”
Home? She must be mistaken. This was home. I never wished for more. I wasn’t adventurous like my other sisters. I didn’t want to leave.
“I’m giving you the chance to learn what happened to your parents.”
“My parents? You said they died from the plague when I was little.”
She shook her head. “No, Eden. I only told you that to keep you from learning the truth too soon. You were born right here in Candor. It is your right.”
The air was sucked from the room, and I struggled to breathe. My lungs burned as the room began to spin. Then Aura’s calming touch washed over me as she gently grasped my hand, steadying me as she did. The air came back. My lungs filled, and I breathed again.
I was confused. Distraught.
Lies. My life was a lie. My hands began to shake, and Aura weaved her fingers gently through mine and squeezed. She was reading my emotions, and I could feel her gentle warning to me.
“Breathe, Eden,” she whispered. I squeezed her hand back and took a deep breath.
My mother was still talking during the shifting of my world, and I had not heard what she was saying. I turned to give her my full attention, and she slowly came back into focus.
“I’m giving you the chance to learn of your past and choose your future.”<
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I still couldn’t understand what she was asking me to do. Go to the capital and avenge my parents?
“What does this have to do with the royal ball?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
I shook my head.
“Your mother’s life was cut short by the king of Candor in an attempt to stop you from ever being born. To stop you from attending this ball. To stop the prophecy from coming true.”
My sisters looked up at me, and I read the shock and emotion written across their faces. Only Honor wouldn’t make eye contact with me. Aura’s eyes were glassy with unshed tears. Maeve’s face was filled with disdain. Meri was nodding in encouragement. “Go,” she mouthed to me.
“As you wish, Mother.”
“Don’t disappoint me, dear.” She handed me the invitation, and I curtsied.
“Let the stars guide me,” I whispered our prayer and hoped beyond hope that I wouldn’t fail her.
Chapter Three
“She’s quite mad at you, you know,” Meri said, and I didn’t need to ask whom she was referring too. It was my younger sister Maeve. The fact that she was angry at me for no reason actually made my own temper rise.
“I didn’t have a choice. I don’t want to be the one sent out for this assignment. She shouldn’t be mad at me; she should be mad at Mother. I’d gladly trade her places.” I opened my trunk at the foot of my bed. It was going to be easy to choose what to bring, when everything I owned fit in the little carrying case. Except the windchimes. I didn’t dare bring it in case it broke.
Meri lay on my bed and swung her head over the side so she was looking at me upside down, her legs pedaling in the air comically.
“True, but she can’t take her anger out on Mother, only you.” Meri turned her green eyes up at me and blinked innocently.
I knew deep down she was probably enjoying the drama that was unfolding because of this. So many girls locked away in a tower spelled trouble and quite a few catfights. We hardly ever left the tower and, in doing so, had caused quite a few rumors. We were seven girls who desperately wanted to explore the world and carve their own mark into it, one delicious scream at a time. I glanced back to the empty bed. No, six.
“What would you have me do?” I hissed angrily as I shoved my only good day dress into my satchel. “Not go? Refuse Mother and gain her wrath? I need to find out what happened to my parents.”
Meri smiled sweetly. “Don’t be silly, Eden. I’m only warning you, so you can check your clothes for a delay trap. I’m pretty sure I saw Maeve sneak in here earlier when you were in the kitchen.”
I let out a disgruntled sigh and pulled everything back out of my carrying case and looked at the bag carefully, feeling along the seams with not only my fingers but sight. I almost missed it, but my fingers tingled and burned when they ran across a small loose button. I picked up the button and tossed it into a flower vase. The heat from the button instantly evaporated all of the water, and the daisy inside withered and died instantly.
“Looks like she wanted you to have a very smoky arrival,” Meri chuckled.
I fished the button back out of the vase and mumbled a few words to contain the spell. Having a fire charm, even one cursed by my sister, may have its use in the future. “Thanks for the warning.” I finished packing and said my goodbyes to my sisters. Aura seemed the most excited to see me off. To them, I was going on a grand adventure. It was more of a quest than an adventure.
Meri waited in the queue till last. She handed me a small object wrapped in cloth. “Open it in the transport,” she whispered in my ear. I nodded, giving her hand a quick squeeze.
Mother didn’t hug me, and I never expected her to. Her face was serious, her lips pressed into a firm line. She handed me the stolen invitation. She waved one finger in the air over my heart. It wasn’t a symbol that I knew, but she drew it with ease. “In case you lose your nerve,” she said grimly.
My heart plummeted; there wasn’t any way to go back now. I wasn’t sure what she did, but I had a feeling that it spelled trouble. I nodded but kept my eyes down. “Why am I going? Why did you choose me?”
Mother Eville’s face filled with displeasure. “It is about revenge, my darling, Eden. Your revenge this time. Not mine.”
“I—” I began, but she cut me off.
“Yes, you came to me in the middle of the night, that part is true. But I knew both your parents, and they deserve justice for what was done to them. Justice only you can provide.”
“I don’t understand.” I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach.
“This is your chance to set to right what has been wrong for the last twenty-one years.”
“How can I do that?” I whispered.
“Get close to the prince, and the one who destroyed your family will find you.”
“I can’t. I’m not…. I don’t even know their names.”
“You just need to have bravado.”
“I’m not brave.”
Mother grasped my shoulders and looked into my eyes. “I know this seems confusing since your path has been foretold. All will work out in the end.”
“I don’t know. I just—”
“Eden, you’ve always struggled with confidence and doubt. So, I will spell it out for you.” I winced at how obvious my shortcomings were to my mother. She grabbed my cheeks in one hand and said very slowly for effect, “Get the shoes, get the guy, and get revenge.” Then she gave me a soft pat on my cheek.
“Shoes?” When did shoes come into this equation? I looked down at my brown traveling boots, then back up at Mother, who loved to be cryptic and had probably spent all night coming up with that mantra to help me, but she was gone. A trail of purple smoke was all that was left after she apparated—another sign of just how powerful of a sorceress she was. It was a taunt.
Turning my back, I headed out the front gate and crossed over the bridge, making sure to stop and toss a coin into the water to appease the beasts that slept beneath the bridge and guarded our tower from unwanted visitors. Even though our tower was in the center of the seven kingdoms, we weren’t in the center of any towns or cities. Everyone gave us our much-needed space, or they feared waking up with a tail.
It was a half mile walk before I came to a main road just as a passing caravan of wagons came through. I spotted a transport, a carriage driver whose sole job was to travel between the kingdoms. His carriage was empty, and he didn’t have any of the kingdom’s banners on display, which meant he wasn’t currently hired for transport. I waved him down, and the driver pulled out of the caravan to the side of the road.
His team of horses were not normal horses but part fae. The size of their hooves and the excess undercoat that covered their bodies bespoke their heritage. They were a hardy breed able to travel long distances without water or stops. As I passed the horses, I could see the slight shimmer along their coat. The driver tied my trunk to the back and asked where I was going.
“To the capital city of Thressia,” I answered, grinning as I stepped into the carriage.
The driver closed the door and looked up at my tower in the distance. His carefree smile dropped, and his brows creased with worry. “You didn’t see anyone from that old tower, did you?”
I was shocked and a bit appalled. I leaned forward, placing my elbow on the window ledge. Lying easily, I said, “No, I didn’t. Why?”
“I hear that they’re witches,” he whispered, as if telling me a secret. “They’ll cast a spell on you and steal your children in the night.” He unwrapped the banner for Thressia and hung it on my door, signaling other travelers that he was available for more fares.
“Really,” I breathed out, pretending to be interested but holding back my finger from spinning a spell in anger.
“I heard they ensnare men and eat their hearts so that they stay young.” He had finished and wiped his hands on his pants as he leaned close to the open window.
“Who? Who said they eat hearts?” I cried in outrage at the lies.
“To cross paths with one of them evil sisters is to cross paths with the devil himself.” He made a cross motion over his heart, and I couldn’t take another insult, and there was no way I was going to be stuck in this carriage the whole ride listening to his libels.
I touched my finger to his mouth, shushing him before drawing a sigil over his top lip. His mouth gaped open in surprise, and he tried to speak, but nothing came forth. His face turned red, and he started to yell but, again, nothing.
“No, you’re wrong. A spurned woman is far worse than the devil. Maybe less talking for the rest of our ride? What say you? Then I’ll gladly reverse the spell once I’ve reached my destination.”
The driver nodded and quickly clambered into the upper seat, grabbing the reins. I knocked the sideboard for his attention, and he swung back, fear in his eyes. Secretly, I drank in that fear. Fear meant power, and I loved power.
“By the way, we’re not evil. We’re Eville.” My smile was slow and cruel, and it made him shiver in his boots. He bobbed his head and snapped his whip. We were off.
Leaning back against the soft cushioned bench, I watched our tower fade into the distance. I opened up the wrapped package from my sister. It was a compact mirror—silver, circular, and small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. Perfect for keeping in touch in case of an emergency. I put it into my drawstring purse for safekeeping.
I had been to many of the outlying towns in Candor, but never the capital city of Thressia. I had heard about the progressive and colorful kingdom and seen it through the mirror, but this was the first time I’d gotten to go there. After traveling to Florin and stopping a war, I was not as eager to head into the unknown. Maeve could not be contained and frequently went farther beyond the confines of our town, even though it was against our mother’s wishes.