by Leyton, Bisi
Getting up, she called out to the Mayor, “Wait, what’s your name?” She had to know.
“There is something seriously wrong with you,” Bruno said.
“Yeah, I’m crazy, but at least tell me what your name is?” She realized this had to sound pathetic. “Do it and I’ll do whatever you ask.”
“Charles Sylvester Davenport. You have serious problems and if you step out of this house you’ll wish you were in a coma like your mother,” Sir Charles informed her as he continued leaving.
“Sir Charles, there are people on their way to attack the island,” she said.
“And how do you know this?” The Mayor sighed in frustration as he turned to look at her.
“Garfield told me.”
“Garfield, the rat catcher? I thought he was still missing. When did he return?”
“The point is, the Dungeon people are heading this way. Just talk to him.” She pointed to the door leading to the corridor.
The Mayor scowled at her before heading in the direction of her room, followed by Bruno.
“You better not cause me any trouble, girl.” Quincy, who’d remained behind, warned.
Nodding, she stood in silence, convinced the man would snap her neck if she looked at him funny.
Moments later, Charles and Bruno returned.
“We’ll look into it. Quincy, everyone in this house is your responsibility,” Charles stated and left with Bruno.
Once the other men were gone, Quincy rummaged through the kitchen and took out a tin of biscuits her mother had made.
“Aren’t you going to wait outside?” she asked him.
Shaking the tin, he grinned. “No. You do have some good stuff.” Taking a bite of the biscuit, he mumbled, “It’s stale,” but he kept on eating. “Where are you going?” Quincy called as she turned to leave.
“I want to check on my friend.”
“Yeah, but you need to get back here and get me some real food or there will be trouble.”
Walking out, she ignored him and went to her bedroom where Garfield was resting.
“I take it things didn’t go well if you had to tell Charles,” Garfield commented as she entered.
Without a word, she sat on the bed next to him.
“What did he say?”
She updated Garfield on everything that had happened. From learning Bach was returning to Jarthan to what Alba and what Benet did to Yvette, ending with Quincy being in their kitchen.
“It’s a shame you didn’t have any bean vine with you. You can just poison them all,” Garfield said.
“My mum has cases of bean vine extract in the cellar, but I’m not going to poison anybody,” she responded categorically. “It’s hard enough curing the infected.”
“Not kill them, but make them sick.”
“And after that?”
“I don’t know,” Garfield admitted. “There really is nowhere to go.”
“I was thinking we can bribe the sea merchants to take us somewhere in exchange for food and medicine. They trade with other survivors, so they must know some safe places.”
“The sea merchants are pirates. They’ll probably take our stuff and strand us somewhere to face the infected and that’s only if they’re in a good mood. And right now I can’t run or fight.”
I know. “There’s no way we can leave now. We’ve got a few weeks until your leg heals, so we'll go then, if my mum isn’t awake.”
“What do you mean, I can’t come in?” They heard Amanda shriek at Quincy. “This is Wisteria’s house and you’re the one who doesn’t belong here.”
Walking into the kitchen, she saw Amanda arguing with Quincy. The man shoved Amanda out of the door and slammed it in her face.
“Quincy, why did you do that?” Wisteria protested as the girl banged on the door.
“You’re not on holiday, Wisteria.” Quincy turned back to her. “So, get back to your room and shut up.”
Leaving, she rushed to her room. Opening the window, she called out to Amanda who was heading back to the gate.
“I heard you and Yvette got into it again?” Amanda hurried over.
“She didn’t touch her,” Garfield explained.
“Garfield!” Amanda exclaimed.
“Shh!” Wisteria hissed.
“How the hell did you get back?” Amanda turned to her. “You went to get him?”
She nodded as she unlocked the cage of the window.
Amanda climbed in. “Yeah, I didn’t believe you could be brutal enough to hurt somebody like that.”
“Is she going to be okay?” Wisteria asked.
“She has a few broken bones, but she’s conscious. And she’s saying you did it.”
“Why would I attack her?”
“If it was Hailey, I’d say Steven,” Amanda said. “But I can’t understand why you'd do that to Yvette. So who did it?”
“Alba.”
“Bach’s girlfriend?” Amanda remarked.
“Don’t.” Wisteria scowled at the girl. “Don’t call her that.”
“I still don’t get why she’d attack Yvette,” Amanda continued.
“Wisteria,” Bach called from the corridor.
She hurried out to meet him as he stepped into the living room. She wanted to be happy to see him, but the heaviness of his betrayal was sinking in. He hated humans and he hated her. “What are you doing here? How did you get in here?” Now she understood why her mother planted so much bean vine. It kept the Family from breaking into her house. “Quincy will have a heart attack if he finds you in here.”
“Why would I care what that man thinks?” he asked coldly.
“Hey, Bach.” Amanda stepped out.
His icy look made the girl slip back into the room with Garfield.
“You can’t be here,” Wisteria told him. “There’s a guard from Town Hall in the kitchen. Quincy works—”
“I asked you to trust me and you could not,” he stated quietly.
“Trust you? You are going to Jarthan. After you brought the empirics here, you’re leaving to hook up with a girl.”
“I am sick of this. Is that why you almost killed her?”
“Those are lies.” She was stunned he was even concerned about Yvette or any other human. Surely, he wouldn’t believe the lies Alba had told him, but it was Alba and he trusted her. “I didn’t touch Yvette.”
“Yvette? What happened between you and the Terran was disturbing, but none of my concern.”
“So, this is about me not keeping a low profile?” Running her hands through her hair, she nodded. “Okay, I messed up.”
“You poisoned Alba,” he informed her.
“Are you out of your mind?” Her jaw dropped. “I poisoned Alba?”
“When she saw you with Yvette, she said you scratched her with strangle weed on your nails. I just need you to tell me it was an accident and that you did not realize you had the strangle weed in your nails.”
“Bach, what are you talking about?”
“She was barely conscious and barely alive when she staggered to my den—apartment. Right now Alba is regenerating and is doing everything in her power not to tell them what happened between you and her.”
“I didn’t touch that crazy witch. Alba’s a Famila; if I tried to touch her, she’d break me just like she did to Yvette. She probably scratched herself or got Benet to do it,” she maintained.
“She would not hurt you because she is trying to help me. And if she scratched herself, there would be burn marks on her fingers from the strangle weed on her skin.”
“Okay, then someone else did it to her.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know what her problem is; maybe she’s in love with you or she’s crazy?”
“No, she is our only ally among the empirics. The only one. You know she told the empirics she did not see who did it. She only told me because she is loyal. Does that sound like someone who is out to get you?”
“Get out,” she told him.
�
��Not until you promise me that all this paranoia will stop.”
“I said leave. We’re not on the same side.” She realized it was true as she said it. “You want to believe Alba because you need to make sure the empirics don’t find out who I am, but the only reason the empirics are here is because you brought them.”
“No, Felip was planning to destroy the Family.”
“Yes and now we’re paying the price for your internal war or whatever it is. This had nothing to do with us.”
“Of course it does. Felip tried to have the Red Phoenix kidnap you. Felip is working with the humans here against the Family.”
“And maybe we were right to work with him? Maybe Felip was protecting us from you. For all I know, he’s the good guy. From what I’ve seen of your people, we should be very afraid of them.”
“I am not like the rest.”
“I thought you were different, but I was being delusional. I was so caught up in my own happiness I didn’t realize who you were.”
“And that is why you attacked Alba, to defend your people?”
There was no point arguing with him about this or anything. “I asked you to leave.”
Grabbing her arm, he spun her around. “Why are you acting like this? Like—your mother.”
“I consider that a compliment because she was right.” Irate, she pulled herself free from him. “If I’d stayed away from you like she said, my life wouldn’t be this messed up. I was an idiot to let you in and destroy everything I care about.”
He was about to say something. Instead, he let go of her and stepped back. “You will stay away from Alba.”
“What is this?” Quincy appeared at the end of the hallway and scowled at Bach. “How did you get in here?”
“I mean it, Wisteria.” Bach marched out through the front door.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Barton Lake was the one place on the island Bach could go to think. Wandering up the bank, he stared at the water. He wasn’t expecting to fight with Lluc, hear that his father almost died, find out he’d been forced to pledge to Alba, and now deal with a hormonal and deeply troubled human teenager.
He was horrified when Benet told him Alba had been attacked and almost killed. The last Terran to succeed in killing a Famila had killed his mother. He couldn’t imagine that happening to someone so close to him again. Furious, he threw a rock into the water, causing a massive splash. What was wrong with Wisteria? He couldn’t comprehend why she had done what she did. She was human and humans were petty and small-minded. He wanted nothing to do with this anymore.
“You are looking as cheerful as ever,” Enric said.
Enric was supposed to have returned to Jarthan with Lluc, but had stayed behind when Alba got hurt. Curious, he didn’t look very worried, considering what had happened to her.
“I heard about Alba.” Enric chuckled.
“And you find this funny.”
“A Terran scratched her with strangle weed and she fainted. If Alba was not so panicked, I would find it funny.” Enric sighed and shook his head. “I almost feel sorry for the poor Terran who attacked her, because when Alba is done with her, there will be nothing left.”
“She told you who did it?” Bach asked.
“No, but considering she did not snap the beast’s neck, I am guessing it is your Terran.”
Bach didn’t answer.
“You told me the madness between you and that Terran was over.” Enric’s tone deepened.
“It is now.” As he spoke, a large pain shot through his chest. Then as if in release, it was followed by a strange numbness. “I was wrong to string your sister along the way I did.” Breaking the Mosroc was supposed to be extremely difficult at best and impossible at the worst. But after his fight with Wisteria, Bach felt as if the bond had been broken. Maybe the stories of the Mosroc being unbreakable were just stories. “I am returning to Jarthan. Once Alba is well enough to travel, I am done here.”
“You are finally ending your great walk?” Enric exhaled. “You have no idea how long I have wanted to hear that. Even if it was not my sister’s heart on the line, I am glad you finished.”
Bach nodded. He missed his home. “Alba will not be disappointed she was not able to complete her assignment here?”
“Her? I would not be surprised if she poisoned herself just get back home early. You and she were very similar in that account, until your Terran happened.”
“In what way?”
“You both loathed them. I mean, she really hates them, the way Didan does.”
“You are wrong. Alba respects the humans.”
Enric looked shocked. “What?” He burst out laughing.
“You are wrong, but I see that is why you told her about Wisteria.” Bach would’ve been angry, but now he was tired of fighting.
“Why would I tell her about your situation with the Terran? That would only make her upset. I hoped this thing would pass.” Enric shook his head.
“So, you are saying your sister does not know?”
“If she knew, your Terran would be dead at best. She had a Thayn once.”
“She could never have a Thayn.” Only the Ino caste, the highest caste within the Family, was supposed to renew Terrans and turn them into Thayns. Although Enric’s father was not from the Ino caste, he was granted the ability to create Thayns because he was the Lord of Jarthan, but his children couldn’t.
“Technically, he was my father’s Terran, but was told to serve me and her,” Enric continued. “But my point is, when Alba was fourteen, she broke both the man’s legs because she was bored. Natdo, or Donat, as Alba called him, was a good servant, and my mother was slightly irritated by the damage. Alba was never allowed near the Thayns after that.”
Bach tried to put together Enric’s version with Alba’s, but he found he couldn’t. Why did she lie to him? “So, why did you tell her about it?”
“She does not know about your Terran. I would never dream of letting my sister in on your secret. Do you know how humiliating that would be for her?”
“But she does know about Wisteria.” Bach frowned, worried about whom else Alba could’ve told and worse, who had told her.
“I cannot see how, unless Lluc told her.”
“Why? Lluc does not want anyone to know.”
“Are you certain she knows?”
“Yes, and she even seemed fine with it. She met Wisteria several times and protected her on different occasions.” And that gave Bach confidence Alba wasn’t going to hurt her.
“You used my sister to protect your Terran?” Angrily, Enric grabbed his neck. Being bigger and stronger, Enric easily threw him to the ground.
“She said she did not want to be my intended. It was her idea to help us. She came to me. I did not go and ask her.”
“Qwaynide.” Enric punched him in the stomach.
“I told you, it is over.” Bach jabbed him in the ribs and his friend fell back.
“I am glad about one thing. Alba will end your obsession with Terrans.” Enric swore and stomped away. “Because I know there is no way this side of Jarthan, Alba of the Third house will allow that Terran harlot you have been communing with to continue to pollute your mind. She will have the sense I lacked: to get rid of Wisteria.”
Bach got up. “Enric, I told you it is over with Wisteria. There is nothing left for Alba to do. It was just a childish crush.” He knew Enric was speaking out of anger.
“But you still dragged my sister onto this forsaken island.”
“No, no, no, she is an empiric and was sent here to do her duty.”
“Oh, she is an empiric, but she came here because she wanted to be with you. She lobbied my father endlessly until he got Didan to include her on this cohort and to be your intended. Do you think I would force my sister into a marriage with someone with your problems?”
“I did not know.”
“Of course not; your mind was contaminated with other things.” Enric stepped up to him.
“I am
leaving.” He wasn’t going to process anything right now. Wisteria had lied to him. Alba had lied to him, and it seemed no one was on his side.
“For your sake, I hope you are serious this time. You may be my best friend, but Alba is my sister and I will make you suffer if you hurt her again.”
“Do not threaten me, Enric. I told you the thing between me and the Terran was a phase. The phase has passed.”
*****
Wisteria easily distracted Quincy with a large plate of stew and a few shots of Irish cream. Soon, the burly man was fast asleep in the living room.
“And you’re certain this is a good idea?” Garfield sat on her bed, watching her pack her sword and a flashlight in her backpack.
“I checked Coles’s old notes. A sea merchant is arriving today. These are the Russian merchants, so they’re extremely suspicious and do not dock on the island. The only way I’m going to see them is if I swim or sail to their ship.”
“And if you drown?” Garfield asked.
“At least I would’ve died doing something.”
“And you’re sure they’ll listen to you? What will stop them from just taking you? No one will know you’re there and so no one will come looking for you.”
“I’m hoping I can get them to be practical.” She wrapped her backpack in a sheet of plastic to make it airtight. “We’ve got a lot of stuff on Smythe. I’ll just find out what they want. Once they tell me, I’ll have three weeks to get it together before the boat will pass back.”
The plan was shaky, especially since the Dungeon Dwellers could come at any time, but it was all she had and she wasn’t going to wait around while the Family or the Dungeon Dwellers attacked.
“Even if it works, what about everyone else? You can’t leave everyone here to suffer?”
“Garfield, if you have an idea, please tell me.” Turning to him, she put her hands on her hips, waiting for an answer.
He shook his head.
“We’ll have three weeks to think of something better, I hope.” Grabbing the backpack, she left.
Taking her bike, she rode back to the hole she’d used to sneak out and rescue Garfield.