A Song for Orphans

by Morgan Rice

  Sophia? she sent, hoping that she could at least have that small crumb of contact. Maybe she could find out where her sister was now, and join up with her once more. For that, though, Kate needed an answer.

  Sophia?

  There was only silence in response. Again, it felt as though whatever small flame of hope Kate was able to summon within her ended up doused by the world. Although, out here, it might just as easily be doused by the weather. Rain was already starting to soak through her clothing, and it showed no sign of letting up anytime soon.

  Kate made for one of the solitary trees, on the basis that at least it might keep her dry until she was able to work out which way she actually wanted to go. Even the tree turned out to be further than Kate hoped, forcing her to squelch her way through the boggy ground toward it as the rain continued to fall.

  At least the tree provided a dry space beneath its branches, and was large enough that it was almost like sitting beneath the roof of a tent. It was an open-sided one though, and Kate huddled down into the twists and hollows at the base of the trunk, trying to keep out the wind while she waited for the weather to break. With nothing to do but sit and watch, Kate felt her eyelids fluttering closed.

  Now, she was in a space that was anything but empty. Trees pressed in on all sides, and they were familiar ones, because Kate had run through them plenty of times in practice. They seemed more vibrant than they did in the waking world, though, rising to impossible heights so that they should have shut out the light. There was light, though, coming from glass jars that seemed to hold fireflies in the hundreds.

  “What do you want, Siobhan?” Kate called out. She knew that she wouldn’t dream of this place if there weren’t a reason for it, but there was no good reason. She and the woman of the fountain were done. She’d repaid her debt.

  There was no answer, but Kate knew the way to the fountain, even in this altered version of the wood. Her feet walked the path to it as surely as they might have in waking, while Kate watched for any sign of life in the forest. She didn’t see any animals there larger than a squirrel or a small bird, but even so, she had the feeling of predatory eyes upon her, the sense of how alone she was at the heart of it all. Every step felt like an effort, and somehow, Kate knew that if she stepped off the path, something would attack her.

  So she stepped off it, and found herself standing in the space where the fountain sat.

  “You can be very contrary sometimes,” Siobhan said, but she didn’t sound displeased by it. Her fingers were trailing in the fountain, which was whole and flowing with water in the way it only seemed to be in these moments.

  “You thought I’d be too scared?” Kate countered.

  Siobhan shook her head. “Fear has never been the problem for you, has it? Anger, now… your anger has left you alone, without friends, without your sister. How does that feel, Kate?”

  Kate glared back at her, willing her not to be there. “Are you in my dreams just to taunt me, Siobhan?”

  She tried to work out the best way to wake up, screwing up her face with the effort of trying to bring herself back to consciousness. Nothing happened, however much she tried, and she could see Siobhan looking over with amusement.

  “Your reaction is always to fight, Kate,” she said. “But you need to consider where it has brought you. You have no one now.”

  It was uncomfortably close to what Kate had been thinking, back on the heath land. The truth was that she did have no one. Even when it came to her sister, there was only silence.

  “I can handle being alone,” Kate said.

  “But is that what you want?” Siobhan asked. She looked down at the fountain’s water, then back at Kate. “I asked you that once, remember? I asked you what you wanted. Well, now I’m asking again. What do you want in your life, Kate?”

  Kate paused, looking around. “This is some kind of trap,” she said. “You’re trying to get me to make another deal with you.”

  “Why should I?” Siobhan asked. “You are my apprentice. I don’t need any deal beyond that.”

  Kate set her jaw. She wouldn’t let anyone simply claim her like that. She would never let anyone own her, the way the House of the Unclaimed had tried to own her.

  “You’re still fighting the world, Kate,” Siobhan said, “but you’re doing it blindly, without a hint of a real aim. What do you want? What purpose does your life have?”

  A few weeks ago, Kate might have answered revenge, had answered that way when Siobhan asked her before. And what had that led to? To the destruction of an orphanage, the deaths of the nuns who had tormented her… and then more. It had led to the battles against the Master of Crows’ New Army, to her learning of the threats that faced the kingdom.

  What did she want now, knowing the consequences that might result?

  “I don’t know,” Kate admitted. “I thought I did, but now… I don’t know.”

  “Pick up that flower,” Siobhan said, gesturing to where a lily grew on the water of the fountain, broad petals spreading across the water amidst lily pads.

  Suspecting a trick of some kind, Kate moved forward cautiously, cupping her hand under the lily and lifting it from the fountain. She held it there, watching the icy white of its petals as if expecting them to strike at her.

  “On the beach, when you summoned the mist,” Siobhan said. “You showed me that you have access to more power than I hoped.” There was a flicker of something there that might have been concern. “You managed it without my teaching, so imagine what you could do with it.”

  “Such as?” Kate said. She should have said that she wasn’t interested, but the truth was that the things she’d learned from Siobhan had made her strong. They’d made it so that no one could control her again.

  Siobhan laid a hand on her arm, her other hand trailing in the water of the fountain. Kate felt something shift in the world then, and it took a moment to make sense of it. It was only when she saw the corona of energy around the flower that she started to understand.

  “Now, watch what happens when you draw that energy from it,” Siobhan said.

  Kate had the sense of something being pulled through her then, the glow around the flower diminishing as Siobhan pulled it through her. Kate had a sense of that energy joining her own, before it was pulled through her, down into the depths of the fountain. Even as she felt that, she saw the flower wither, then crumble, turning into dust.

  “Imagine being able to do that to your enemies,” Siobhan said.

  The power there was impressive. It was also frightening enough that Kate pulled back, looking at Siobhan in the fear that it might happen to her next.

  “Don’t worry, Kate,” Siobhan said. “I wouldn’t do that to you. But there is a way you can learn if you like. Just a taste of the power you might gain if you continue your journey as my apprentice.”

  “You want me to learn new ways of killing the people you want dead, don’t you?” Kate asked.

  “Perhaps,” Siobhan said. “Aren’t you interested in learning more about what you can do, then?”

  The truth, though, was that Kate was interested. Not because of the prospect of a new way to destroy, but because she’d had the sense of more inside her ever since she’d summoned the power to raise the mist on the beach.

  “What would I have to do?” Kate asked.

  Siobhan gestured to the fountain, its surface rippled and changed, showing mountains that seemed familiar in their outlines, because Kate had been staring at them as she fell asleep. The image moved closer, and Kate saw a path through them, culminating in a low stone hut roofed with turfs.

  “There is a man who lives in the mountains,” Siobhan said. “A man who showed me this skill. Your presence there provides an opportunity for you to learn from him.”

  “And what price will he exact from me for it?” Kate shot back. “Will he demand that I become his apprentice? Do some unnamed favor for him?”

  Siobhan shrugged. “Perhaps, but there are ways to make the price less
onerous.”

  Her hand dipped into the fountain, and it came up with a roughly circular object that seemed to have been pieced together from twigs, feathers, twine, and fallen leaves. Kate had a sense of power coming from it, and found herself wondering what it was.

  “It’s a map, of sorts,” Siobhan said. “A collection of choices. A helping hand. Now go, Kate, and if you choose to do this, we will meet again. Wake.”

  Kate woke, gasping with the strength of the dream, so that it took a moment or two for her to come back to herself. She pushed back against the bark of the tree, trying to feel the solidity of it, and remind herself that this was real, not the dream. The dream was no more than a set of fading images in her mind.

  Kate stood, looking around for the object that Siobhan had pressed into her hand, half expecting it to have somehow transferred from dream into reality. There was nothing there, though, just the image of it lingering after the dream, the twists of its feathers and twine still perfect in her memory, even as the rest of the dream started to fade.

  “Just a dream,” Kate told herself, but she knew that it wasn’t. At least, maybe she hoped that it wasn’t, and what had she been thinking about hope before she slept? Going after some hut in the mountains would be a foolish thing to do on the strength of it. Maybe it would be even more foolish if it turned out to be real.

  She stood, looking around. The rain had stopped for now, the blue of the sky suggesting that it might stay that way for at least a little while. Around her, the heather hung with water droplets, the landscape leading up to those mountains.

  All she had to do to see the path that led up into it was close her eyes. She could see the route that lay ahead, and maybe it was all a dream, but if that was all it was, she would find out soon enough.

  Had she decided, then? The decision seemed almost to have come upon her without Kate realizing, but the truth was, what else was she going to do? She didn’t know for certain where Sophia was, and she had no place left in Ashton or with the mercenaries.

  That just left the path ahead, and the prospect of more power at the end of it. Kate could feel the need for that power inside her, as if the demonstration in the dream had roused a kind of hunger. It wasn’t so much for the possibility of better ways to destroy things, as for the chance to go further with the gifts that lay inside her. Kate wanted to understand more of who she was, what she was, and to do that she needed to learn more.

  Put that way, there was only one choice for her. She turned until the images of the mountains lined up with the ones she could see when she shut her eyes. Then she started to walk.

  CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

  Sophia couldn’t believe she’d finally reached the point where she was going to have to leave her friends behind. Yet here they were, standing at a spot where the road branched, ready to do exactly that. She hesitated, not wanting the moment to pass.

  Something between a fishing village and a small town sat in the distance, the coast visible now as a ribbon of blue. The other road swung onto what looked like relatively flat ground by the standards of Monthys, and both Emeline and Cora looked at it longingly.

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” Sophia asked. The truth was that she’d gotten used to traveling with her friends. Traveling on alone held a hint of fear she hadn’t expected.

  Emeline shook her head. “I want to find Stonehome. I’ve put it off long enough. I have to do this.”

  Sophia could understand that. She moved forward to hug the other girl.

  “What about you, Cora?” she asked.

  “I don’t think I’d do well in the ice,” Cora said.

  Sophia hugged her too. “I guessed not. I’ll miss you both. Will you be all right heading… where are you heading?”

  “The rumors aren’t clear,” Emeline said. “I—”

  The vision hit Sophia so sharply it hurt. She was looking down on a wide plain, dotted with standing stones. She saw clusters of stone houses, low to the ground so that they wouldn’t be seen, and hidden gorges that held the promise of more. Her vision took her higher, and higher, and in that moment she knew where she was looking.

  “The moors of the southwest,” she said. “It’s there.”

  Emeline stared at her. “You’re sure?”

  Sophia nodded. “I… I saw it.”

  She saw Emeline’s eyes widen slightly at that. “You really are everything the gardener said, aren’t you?”

  Sophia spread her hands. “I don’t know about that. I mean, you can talk mind to mind.”

  “And you can do a lot more than that,” Emeline said. “Even I can see the difference.” She paused. “If I hadn’t traveled with you, I might never have known where it was.”

  “We might never have known,” Cora said. She hugged Sophia again. “Thank you.”

  “Will you both be all right?” Sophia asked. “It’s a long way, and there’s no cart now.”

  Emeline shrugged. “So we walk, and we pick up what we can on the way. McCallum was generous, too.” She hefted a burlap sack slung across her shoulder. “It feels as though I have enough food to cross a dozen kingdoms.”

  Despite her confidence, Sophia found herself worrying for them. It was a long walk to where they were going and now they didn’t even have the cart to carry them. They’d already found out about the dangers on the road. Two young women traveling alone would be in danger at every step.

  Yet the truth was that she couldn’t do more than hope they would be safe.

  “Promise you’ll come find us in Stonehome eventually?” Cora asked.

  “I promise,” Sophia said, although the truth was that she had no way of knowing what would happen to her in Ishjemme, or after that. All she could do was try.

  She watched her friends walking away, waving for as long as she could before she turned to Sienne, ruffling the forest cat’s fur.

  “It looks like it’s just you and me,” Sophia said, feeling Sienne press against her hand.

  They turned toward the fishing village and started walking.

  ***

  When Sophia reached the village, it was larger than she had thought it would be, but also emptier. There were plenty of buildings huddled in the sheltered bay that housed it, but many of them looked empty, and Sophia found herself remembering what McCallum had said about people leaving once her parents were no longer there to protect them.

  She could see boats there, though, and they looked like sturdy things, broad and twin-masted, designed for deepwater fishing or journeys across the sea to trade. That sight gave Sophia hope that McCallum had been right, and she would be able to find passage to Ishjemme there.

  She walked down into the village and headed for an inn with the sign of a leaping fish outside. Sophia guessed that captains on shore might be there, and at the very least, it would be a good place to find out who to ask.

  Inside, the place fell silent in a way that had become more familiar the further north she’d gone. In a village like this, she might be one of the first outsiders they’d seen for a while, or at least, the first who’d come in overland.

  What she caught of their thoughts said that it might be more than that, though.

  Is she? She looks like them… no, I’m being stupid.

  Strange, I must have drunk too much.

  Maybe some kind of cousin…

  It hadn’t occurred to Sophia that in a village so close to the estate, people might recognize her for who she was. They weren’t certain, of course, because even the ones old enough to have seen her parents wouldn’t make the connection perfectly.

  She walked over to the innkeeper, hoping that this would be a friendlier place when it came to strangers than the last inn she’d been to. Sienne’s presence beside her was a comforting one, although Sophia could feel the fear coming from some of the people there.

  “I’m looking for passage to Ishjemme,” she said. “Do you know of any captains who are heading that way?”

  The man shrugged and nodded to
a man with a curling red beard and hair spiked almost at random. “Borkar trades with them.”

  Sophia thanked him and walked over to the trader.

  “You’re Borkar?” she asked.

  “And you’re looking to get to Ishjemme,” Borkar said, his accent thick with the notes of the mountain lands. “I heard. Can you pay?”

  Sophia still had the money that she’d taken from the brothers who had tried to rob her and the others on the way to Monthys, and with whom she’d gambled to get her money back. She nodded, then set out a couple of Royals on the table, hearing the clink of them as she set them down.

  “I can pay.” She had no idea what the going rate was for such a journey. She hoped that it would be enough.

  “And is yon beastie dangerous?” he asked, nodding to Sienne.

  “Very,” Sophia said. “But only to people who try to hurt me.”

  “Fair enough,” the captain said. “My ship is the one with the seahorse figurehead. We sail in two hours. If you’re not there, we sail anyway.”

  It was enough time for Sophia to eat a little bread and cheese, tucked away in a corner of the inn where she could see out the windows. She was still doing so when she saw the riders enter the village. Her initial reaction on seeing the uniforms of the royal regiment was a rising sense of excitement, because she wanted to believe that Sebastian had come for her with a full escort, ready to be with her, his family finally happy to accept her.

  She wanted to believe that. She wanted to hope that Sebastian had somehow gotten her message, even though he couldn’t have in so short a time, or that he had perhaps been following behind her all this time, hoping to be with her. She hoped for it, wanted him there with her in a way she’d hoped for little else.

  Then she saw Rupert dismounting from a horse, and she knew that this was anything but the joyful reunion she was hoping for. Even Sienne growled at the sight of him, although that might have been a response to the visceral combination of anger and fear that rose in Sophia at the sight of the prince there. A part of her wanted to go up to Rupert and rip him to shreds, but there were far too many men with him for that. She might succeed in killing him, but she would die horribly for it.