by Amy Miles
Sinking to the ground, my fingers traced over four thick marks that were etched into the ground…claw marks.
The beast. The thing I had heard…pieces of memories were coming back.
My breath began to quicken.
“Come on, Devlin, remember.” My fists pounded against the side of my head, trying to dislodge the key that would unravel this knot. And then it did.
It was real. Last night something evil had attacked Seamus…nearly tore his shoulder off. Taryn had shoved me down. She’d told me to keep my head down. After that, I couldn’t remember much more. My head throbbed as I tried to recall the rest. I knew there was more to the night, but I couldn’t seem to pull it from my memory.
What had happened to them all? Where were they now?
I sank down onto my knees, searching my mind for the answers.
My eyes darted to the trees. Had they gone into the woods for cover? It was the only logical place to go.
Standing, I took one look back at the ruins behind me and made my way into the woods to find them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
TARYN
O NLY A DAY HAD passed since the attack on the docks, but you’d never know it by looking out my window. Instead of guards stationed on street corners in full armor, I saw soldiers tying banners and streamers onto lamp posts. Confetti carried on the breeze. The royal trumpets sounded, announcing that the gates to the castle had been opened.
Up and down my street, mothers primped their daughters for the royal ball instead of barring their doors. It was sickening how easily the king had shifted the people’s attentions away.
I cringed as strands of hair were brutally ripped from my scalp. “Ease up, will ya? I doubt the prince fancies bald women.”
“Mind your tongue, young lady.” Ma gave my wet hair one final rub with the cloth before releasing me.
I had already endured nearly three hours of her preparations so far and I was well beyond my breaking point. My da was smart and buggered off the first chance he got when Ma started fussing.
Looking into the warped mirror in front of me, I grimaced at the mop of blond tangles that would leave me with an even bigger headache once I’d managed to comb all of them free.
“Finish up and don’t ya be dawdling.” Ma rushed out of my room to see to my sisters’ preparations while I sank back into my chair and stared at myself in the mirror.
A swatch of hair lay across my eye, partially concealing the Lorcan scars. I was no longer alone in carrying the marks since the attack on the docks, but I still heard the whispers about me whenever I passed people on the streets. The rumours about my bravery in aiding the reapers had spread far and wide. The pariah had suddenly become the hero.
I knew the king had to be seething over that one. Overnight I’d not only become untouchable, but he’d also been made to look like a fool. The only way to save face was to redirect the gossip and so…the royal ball had to go on. And Da insisted that I show my face...and not make a scene.
“What is the matter with ya?” Ma bustled back into my room, her hands fluttering anxiously at her sides as she approached. Her lips pressed into thin lines of frustration. When she lifted her finger to wag it at me, I knew I was about to endure another scolding for the day. That would make my fourth since breakfast.
“Do ya not see the sky? Night has already begun to fall and here ya are standing about.” She barely allowed me a second to protest before she leapt back in. “The ball is startin’ soon and ya still look like a drowned rat. If only the gods had seen fit to give me a son!”
I stuck out my tongue when she turned to peel back the curtain of my makeshift closet. My room was tiny. Good thing I didn’t have the voracious love of fashion that Tris and my sisters shared because there would be no room to store anything. Instead of ribbons and purses lining the pegs on my walls, I had worn satchels useful for my trips to the Bannow Sea.
“Here we are.” My mother’s eyes misted over as she held out my dress. It was simple, yet elegant. It was also the exact colour of my eyes. She brushed her hand over the thin shoulder straps and frowned. “We’ll have to work at covering your scars.”
“You’ll be doing no such thing. If ya want me to go then I’m going as me.”
She spluttered and the dress dragged along the ground. “You canna possibly think I will allow you to walk around the streets flaunting those hideous marks.”
That was a low blow and though it didn’t shock me that Ma would say it, it still hurt.
“They are a part of me, whether ya like it or not.”
Her face blotched red at my defiant tone. “How dare you!”
She ground her back teeth as heavy footsteps headed our way.
“What’s going on in here? The neighbours are sure to hear this racket down the street.”
At the mention of the neighbours, Ma glanced towards the windows. The shutters were drawn but sound easily travelled when your walls were shared among a row of homes. “Taryn insists on baring her scars at the ball.”
My da glanced towards me. Though Ma may not see it from her angle, I saw his wink. “I should think so.”
“What?” Ma stepped back as if he’d just taken a swing at her. “You’re not serious!”
“Of course I am.” Da moved into the room to rest his hands on her shoulders. “You canna protect her forever. Besides, the prince has already seen them, isn’t that so, Taryn?”
I grinned. “That he has.”
Ma’s face scrunched up as she looked towards the hall. “But what of Iona and Kyna? They won’t stand a chance of being noticed if she’s around!”
I snorted and crossed my arms over my chest. “Nice to know ya care about my good standing with the people now.”
When Ma’s face turned the colour of a ripe beet, Da stepped between us. “The whole city is talkin’ about our Taryn. Thanks to your rumour mongering she’s become a legend. Seeing her face and other scars won’t be a shock to anyone.”
“But they are horrid.” Ma pouted, wringing her hands.
Da’s grip tightened on her. “Nothin’ about our daughter is horrid.”
She glanced up at him and noticed the tension in his face. Her own complexion paled at the fire in his eyes. “Fine. If you’re wanting to ruin any chance she has of finding a suitor tonight then by all means. I know you’ve been conspiring against me.”
Without another word, Ma flung the dress at me and left.
“Was she always this mental?” I asked when the door slammed shut.
“No.” Da’s shoulder drooped. “Things have been hard ever since I returned from the Wall all those years ago.”
“Aye. I know that, Da, but that gives her no right to be so foul.” I glared at the closed door.
In truth, I couldn’t actually remember a time when my ma was overly kind to me. I had never been what she wanted. I guess I was too much like my da. After Da’s injuries fighting at the Wall left him unfit to be a royal guard, shame fell on our family. A shame my ma could never accept. Since then she had taken it upon herself to elevate our family back to its rightful place through hopes of a good marriage for me. But I wanted no part in that.
Da placed a hand on my shoulder. “Try to grin and bear it tonight. I know ya hate it but think of your sisters. Let them dance and make memories. Show up. Smile. Be the hero people think ya are in front of the king and maybe this will smooth over in time.”
I tried to smile and reassure him as he left, but I didn’t have it in me. I was still exhausted from dragging Devlin’s friend all the way through the veil. Not to mention fighting with Tris over her having to take him home with her. My home was out of the question since I was likely being watched. The only thing that soothed her insult at not being present at the ball was that she would be playing nurse with a guy she considered to be gorgeous. At least the guy was unconscious enough not to see her peeking under his shirt, which she did several times on the ferry ride home.
I threw my balled up towel at the mir
ror. “It’s all just a bleeding waste of time.”
Tris had only a basic medicinal supply at her house. It would be enough to keep Seamus alive, but it wouldn’t heal him. He needed a trained healer with access to herbs far more potent that I could get at a local shop.
Staring at myself in the mirror, I tapped my fingers against the wooden dresser as a plan formed in my mind. “I wonder…”
I turned and looked at my dress with a new vision. Perhaps I could get the prince’s attention again and find a way to ask him for help. He was a soldier who knew far more than he let on. I saw the pain in his eyes at the dock when he spoke of his lost men. If I could lean on that side of him, maybe I could get him to see reason.
“I’m selling my soul for a human. That’s rich.” I buried my head in my hands.
It wasn’t just any human, though. It was someone Devlin cared about. I knew I had to do this, if only to help ease his pain. Devlin couldn’t lose two people he cared deeply about. He was already so close to breaking.
What my sisters imagined to be a night of splendor and romance would be nothing more than a sickening show of extravagance. I didn’t want to go to the castle and dine on a meal that probably cost an entire month’s wage for my parents. I didn’t get along with pompous people who thought better of themselves than they really were. But what choice did I have? A man’s life was at stake and he wouldn’t be the last.
An incessant banging on my door finally got me up and moving. I slipped the teal silk over my head, marveling at how cool it was against my skin, easing the humidity that clung to the city after yesterday’s storm. Tris should have been the one going tonight instead of me. She would have been a vision of beauty in her pale ivory dress and could have at least enjoyed her time spent inside the castle walls.
For the first time today I wished she were here. She would have found a way to help make me laugh, probably by reminding me that looking like a sour puss wasn’t an attractive quality. As soon as I considered just how eagerly she would have leapt at the opportunity to do a makeover on me, I was grateful she was on the other side of town.
I glanced at the array of powders laid out on my table and turned away. I had no need for primping.
“It does need a little something…” I chewed on my lower lip and looked through the pile of ribbons that Ma borrowed from my sisters’ stash. Selecting a slip of silver, I began plaiting my hair back so that the scars over my eye were not only easily seen, but highlighted.
Next to the eye powder I found teardrop earrings. I scrunched up my nose at them and put them on, only out of love for my da. I knew the long hours he had to work to be able to afford such finery. A matching necklace sat heavy in the hollow of my neck.
After slipping on my silver slippers, I was finally ready to endure a night of pure hell.
My sisters were already outside when I emerged from the house, each of them decked out in identical ankle-length dresses of pale blue and lavender. Their hair was coiled in blond ringlets about their faces and with Ma’s expert hand with makeup, they could almost pass as being seventeen.
“What took ya so long?” Kyna complained in a nasal voice as she fluffed her hair.
“I told ya Ma should have let her stay home. She always ruins everything,” Iona added, whispering loud enough to be sure I heard.
“You wouldn’t be going at all without me, so how about ya try something new and show a bit of gratitude for the first time in your lives.”
Iona and Kyna glared openly at me but said nothing. I took that as a win. At least their silence would be better than their endless prattle. If they started in again about how dreamy Prince Aed was, I might have to shove them in the castle fountain and laugh as their makeup washed away.
My sisters’ heels clacked against the uneven stone as they turned and marched towards the castle. My home stood in the shadow of the queen’s hanging garden. Aed’s bedroom was probably only a stone’s throw away, a fact that I’d been mercilessly hounded with by my sisters since his return.
I followed behind them, near enough for my presence to be known, but not close enough to get a headache from their squealing excitement.
Eimear was built in the middle of rolling lands that gave way into the pastures to the south and rose to the peaks of the mountains to the north. The hill we climbed to reach the castle would be a good workout on a normal day. Wearing heels made it an obstacle course.
Already I could hear the chatter from behind the castle wall. Hundreds of voices rose and fell like the tides, each one pitched high with anticipation. It didn’t take long before we came to a halt at the end of a very long, winding line.
My sisters waved to their schoolmates several groups ahead. Iona glanced back at me, her eagerness plainly written across her face.
“Go on then, but if ya get into any trouble I’m telling Da.”
I knew not to threaten them with telling Ma. They had that woman wrapped so tightly around their fingers they’d never see the back of a hand for the rest of their days. Da was different. He didn’t cave to their tears.
Iona grabbed Kyna’s hand and together they rushed forward, erupting into a fit of giggles when they reached their friends.
“Look at them,” I grumbled to myself. “It’s revolting.”
“I’m sorry. Were ya speaking to me?” an elderly woman asked and I shied away from her. She smelt like moth balls.
The line to enter the castle grounds took ages to maneuver. By the time I passed under the fluttering of the royal banner that draped over the entry arch, my healing calf was screaming abuse at me. The herbal paste I applied earlier would keep much of the pain at bay, but more time was needed for a full healing.
Twinkling white candle lights wound through the trees, illuminating the deep bow of the limbs. Flickering lanterns lined the stone path that curved around past the circle entry and straight up the steps of the castle. Crimson and silver banners waved from the turrets of the castle, each boasting the royal knot symbol that had been Eimear’s crest for thousands of years. Soft music drifted from within, barely heard over the din of voices. If I listened closely, I could pick out the hypnotic strumming of a harp and lyre.
“That harp is going to put everyone to sleep.” As I walked past a guard at the door, I’d swear I saw him smirk.
People crowded in around me, vying for the best position in line as we approached the entry hall. I couldn’t stand the press of sweaty bodies against me, hemming me in. I wanted to be free to run at a moment’s notice. I promised I’d come, not that I’d stay. That was Ma’s downfall. The instant I finished pleading my case with the prince I had every intention of racing for the nearest exit.
Beyond the marble entry, towering pillars drew my gaze into the largest room I’d ever seen. Steps led directly down onto a vast floor where couples twirled gracefully in time with the music. Women adorned in every colour of the rainbow, shifting about the room, peering around for the arrival of the prince, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Morrigan, Queen of Eimear, was a vision in crimson perched on the edge of her seat at the far end of the hall. Her flaming hair spilled over creamy shoulders. The slit of her dress rose much higher than would be deemed decent on any other woman.
I paused in line and found myself noticing the stark difference between Queen Morrigan and her husband as I glanced at the gilded painting on my right. King Baylor was nearly thirty years her senior, with peppered hair and beard. Deep lines cut along his eyes and brow, the stress of ruling the Netherworld evident in how drawn his face looked.
Tris once told me the tale of how this ill-matched pair began. Morrigan had been chosen as Baylor’s betrothed long before Baylor seized the throne for himself. In fact, it was her dowry that had helped to fund the coup.
Morrigan had barely been my age when she was chosen for Baylor. Tris told me she came from an elite family in Finbar, just beyond our shores where her beauty had been legendary, but her family’s wealth even more so.
I stared
hard at the regal couple sitting upon the raised platform. They were clothed in splendor, draped in precious jewels, some of which must have been mined from the human world instead of our own.
“I would never marry a man I didn’t love.” I looked away from the unhappy couple.
Craning my neck to look up at the crystal chandeliers, I noticed they cast rainbows onto the dance floor. Wide molding, rich with gold inlay, connected the vaulted ceiling with the wallpapered walls. Everywhere I looked, I saw gobs of money wasted.
“Disgusting,” I muttered under my breath.
A woman beside me huffed indignantly. “Ungrateful wretch. You don’t even deserve to be here.”
“At least I’m not a gold digger looking to hide a few of those fancy golden forks in my bag,” I shot back.
The woman gasped and placed a hand against her perfect golden coif. Her fingers looked shrunken and her veins easily seen under her tissue paper thin skin. “Of all the impudent things to say.”
“At yet, we both know I’m right. I’ll just go whisper a little something to that guard over there…”
“Well, I never.” The woman gathered her skirts and stormed off. I held my stomach as I laughed at how easy it had been to annoy her. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be so horrible after all.
As I shuffled along, I felt as if I were being watched. Not by those nearest to me, although I had caught on to more than one demeaning glance, but from somewhere above. I glanced at the balcony, hidden by shadow beyond the lit candle sconces, and noticed something no one else had yet: Prince Aed stood watching the ballroom.
I stared openly back up at him, daring him to be the first to look away. A slow smile tugged at his lips and he dipped his head in my direction before turning to acknowledge a guard who stepped forward to speak to him. When he turned back I had already ducked behind a column. I watched him search for me for a moment and then he disappeared from sight.