Shadowborn

by Joseph DeVeau

  “I never said I came straight here,” Aeryn stated firmly. “I had some business to take care of first.”

  “Business” Merek shrugged. “As did I.” He moved toward the house, motioning her to follow. “Come on. That smoke,” he pointed to a thin plume of gray-black smoke rising from a chimney at the top of the roof, “means the cooks just fired up the ovens for the morning. Take the room across the hall from mine. I’ll send for Melanie’s girls to draw you a bath before you go to sleep.”

  Aeryn felt positively giddy at the thought of a hot bath. “Jynx will need one as well,” she said.

  “Of course. I couldn’t have a blood-soaked draven living in my storeroom.”

  “Storeroom?”

  “Yes, storeroom,” Merek said. “In anticipation of your eventual return, I had the storeroom converted into a kennel for Jynx. It’s actually quite nice if I may say so myself. I used it as an excuse to get rid of a lot of old junk cluttering up the place. Reeve was actually excited too.” Merek frowned. “At least until I told him who it was for.” He reached out and ruffled Jynx’s head, then promptly pulled his hand back, stiffed and promptly it off on a canvas bundle slung beneath his armpit. “Some of the stuff I found. . . Well, let’s just say it made that old, rotting carriage look pristine. And that thing lasted all of, what, two days on the road?”

  “One,” Aeryn corrected. “The axle broke just as we stopped the first evening out of Maerilin.”

  “Well there you go,” Merek said. “You know the way, right?” Aeryn nodded that she did. “Good. See to Jynx. I’ll have Reeve send for water and food and see to preparing your rooms.”

  The storeroom Merek had had cleared out for Jynx was far more spacious, comfortable and private than anything Aeryn had ever called home. It was strange to think that a draven was better off than thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of Maerilin’s citizens. She cleaned up the draven with a pail of water, brought out by a servant who had also brought a platter of yesterday’s meat, then left him curled up, snoring, and headed for her rooms.

  Once inside, Aeryn wasted no time in stripping down and settling into a spacious claw-footed copper tub. Had the steaming water in it not reddened her cheeks, the thought of how much she had been looking forward to a bath would have done it for her. After soaking for far too long, and nearly falling asleep and drowning a good dozen times in the process, she forced herself out. It was harder to do than she would have imagined.

  A glance at the water while she toweled down showed it surprisingly deep red. Hopefully the servant that emptied it assumed it was her time of the month. Merek might accept her late night activities—even if he did not know the particulars—but she highly doubted any rumors it spawned would be in her favor. Now that she was back in Maerilin, she did not intend to give Lady Mareen any more ammunition to use against her then she already had.

  Used to sleeping on one hard packed, scratchy dirt and grass bed after another for the past week, lying down on the featherbed was absolute bliss. The only problem was that one of Melanie’s girls—of course it had to be Annette, the stiffly prim and proper elder girl—had to ruin it by hovering above the blankets Aeryn had pulled up over her head.

  “What do you want?” Aeryn croaked.

  “Pardon, my lady, but breakfast—“

  “What about it?”

  “It’s served, my lady,” Annette said.

  Aeryn pulled down the covers and gave the girl a glare. It did not take books on baking to know that it took more than a few minutes from firing up the ovens to having a fully prepared meal for a Lord and all his servants. Only, without the blankets in the way, the scent of freshly baked bread hit her nostrils.

  “If it not up to your satisfaction I can have the kitchens make you something else.” Annette moved to gather up the trays as if preparing to do just that.

  “Curtains,” Aeryn stuttered. It could not be that late could it?

  “What?”

  “Curtains,” Aeryn repeated. “Open the curtains.” Sunlight streamed in as they were pulled back and hit her eyes like a hammer. She held up a hand to block the rays.

  Annette moved to draw them closed.

  “No,” Aeryn said. Featherbeds and baths may be making her soft, but she would be damned if she would lounge about all day like some pompous Lady. She had done enough of that while recovering at Merek’s estate. She threw the covers off and sat up too fast. She had to lower her swimming head to her lap.

  “My lady, drink this.” Annette forced a cup into Aeryn’s hands.

  Aeryn sniffed it. Wine. She handed it back. What kind of person drank wine in the morning? “My head hurts; do you have any water?”

  Annette stared open-mouthed at Aeryn like she had blasphemed against Nameless. Apparently drinking water, unless directed by a boney old healer out in the country, was not a proper thing for a Lady—whether or not she actually was a Lady—to do.

  “Tea, then?” Aeryn asked.

  The girl nodded and walked stiffly away. She returned a few minutes later with a steaming cup. “Try this, my lady. Valerian is good for pain.”

  Reluctantly rising the rest of the way out of bed, Aeryn moved over to start in on the trays of food. “Annette?”

  “Yes, my lady?”

  “Two things.”

  The girl paused as she made the bed, laid out clothes, and went about a dozen other tasks only someone with a lifetime of experience serving nobles would have known to do.

  “One, my name is Aeryn, not ‘my lady,’” she paused just long enough to let the weight of the words soak in. “Two, stop whatever it is you’re doing; you’re making me dizzy.”

  “But my lady, I—“

  Aeryn crunched up her face in her best approximation of a peeved Lady.

  “Yes, my lad—I mean—yes, Aeryn.”

  Aeryn let out a sigh as Annette slowed and came to a stop. The girl could buzz about to her heart’s content after Aeryn woke up and her head stopped swimming from the lack of sleep. Only, now Annette just stood there staring at her like a statue awaiting orders. Aeryn fidgeted in her seat under the unblinking eyes.

  “Why are you just standing there?” Aeryn asked between bits of food and sips of tea.

  “I’m doing as you ordered, Mistress,” Annette said. Like a storm cloud passing in front of the sun, the girl’s eyes darkened for a moment.

  “Are you hungry?”

  Annette narrowed her brows as though suspecting a trap. Fast as a hummingbird, her eyes darted down to the freshly baked bread in Aeryn’s outstretched hand and back up again.

  “No, my lady, I’ve already broken my fast for the day.”

  “Oh, please. With how much work I’ve seen you do in the ten minutes I’ve been awake you could eat all this,” Aeryn swept her arm across the table, “and still be hungry. Now why don’t you take a seat with me and put some meat on those bones of yours.” Gods! That last part sounded uncomfortably close to something Mareen would say.

  “No, my lady, I couldn’t—“

  “You call me that one more time and I’ll have your hide.” Aeryn brandished the cutlery as if she meant to do exactly that. She did not give a damn if the title was proper or not, if the girl called her a Lady one more time, she would lose it. “Now come over here, sit down,” Aeryn kicked out a chair with her foot, “and eat.” She finished by shoving a plate over and heaping it with food.

  Even though Annette sat and ate with fervor, she still somehow managed to sulk with every bite.

  “There,” she said after polishing off every last bit of food on the trays, now if I may?” Without waiting for an answer, she rose and picked up where she had left off minutes ago: laying out clothing. “If my lady would stand, I will have my lady dressed and ready in no time.”

  So the girl thought Aeryn was kidding? Mimicking Jynx when squaring off against another a wolf, she let out a feral growl from the back of her throat.

  Clothing in hand, Annette froze and looked over, aghast.

&nbs
p; Aeryn added a barred teeth smile and winked, knowing full well how crazy she would look. “My name,” she said, fondling the hilt of her knife, “is Aeryn.”

  Annette nodded ever so slowly. She did not break her gaze, not for a moment. “Yes, Aeryn.”

  “Good. Now that that is cleared up, sit down.”

  The girl hastily sat on the edge of the bed. “Now what?”

  “Stay. Oh, and be quiet.” Aeryn could not help but laugh. It was like she was addressing an unruly dog.

  With Annette seated and quiet, Aeryn dropped the growl and happily went to work. She got a kind of perverse satisfaction watching Annette form one horrified look after another as she stripped to her small clothes and dressed herself—this was one time she did not mind putting on fine wools and silks—finished making the bed, stacked the dirty dishes and tidied the room.

  “There. All done. Now you can get up,” Aeryn said when she could not think of another thing to do. Annette immediately moved to pick up the tray of dishes. Aeryn stopped the girl short. “I’ve got that.”

  “There is no way you can carry all that,” Annette protested. “I’ve had years of practice and I bet you haven’t had a single minute. Besides, I bet you don’t even know where the kitchen is.”

  Aeryn frowned at the dishes. It did look like it would be a tricky balancing act. The girl was right about one thing: living on the streets, she had never so much as touched a silver platter gilded with black enameled scrollwork. Annette’s words sank in and Aeryn’s frown flipped over. The girl had addressed her as an equal, and not some lofty Lady. Strange that that should be a cause for excitement.

  “I’ll let you help me on one condition,” Aeryn said.

  “Name it.”

  “That you promise to come visit Jynx with me afterword.”

  “Jynx? But isn’t that the vicious, bloodthirsty draven living out in the storeroom?”

  Who did Annette hear that from? Aeryn wondered. Her money was on Reeve.

  “Jynx is not vicious,” Aeryn said, a bit too sharply. Not unless you were Jins, Hal, Brys, Mic, a wolf, soldier, Shade, Voice, or anyone really, other than the people she herself liked and got along with. But Annette did not need to know that.

  Annette let out a little squeak.

  Aeryn raised an eyebrow. “What do you say? He is really sweet once you get to know him. He gets oh so lonely all by himself.”

  Annette exhaled and picked up the tray and nearly all the dishes, leaving only the teapot for Aeryn to carry. “He better not bite me.”

  “He won’t,” Aeryn said. “At least not unless you call me ‘my lady’ again.”

  Annette gulped and slowed, as though buying time to search for a way out of her promise.

  As it turned out, Jynx and Annette got along beautifully. It had been touch and go for a second when the draven bounded up and Annette had screamed, prompting Jynx to show his fangs with a snarl. Leaping between the two with a shout for each had solved that problem quickly enough. Jynx then promptly set to licking Annette’s face with vigor while the girl squirmed beneath his fur, all the while giggling as if she was four years old.

  Before long, Annette jumped off and spewed out a rapid string of words to the effect of being late, having wasted too much time already, and there not being enough time remaining time to finish tonight’s preparations. She was gone in seconds, running off as though Reeve himself were barking orders and holding a switch.

  Aeryn did not blame Annette. Doubtless do the same were their positions reversed. But it did leave her all alone except for Jynx. That would not have bothered her at all once, as she would have hours of work ahead of her just to survive another day on the streets. Now, however. . .

  Aeryn did not know what Ladies did all day, but sure as the sky was blue, she would not return to her study and pick up a book or fret about her appearance in front of a mirror.

  That was how, despite her earlier promise to the contrary, Aeryn found herself curled up and asleep next to Jynx.

  The creaking of wheels and axles woke her a few hours later. Aeryn poked her head out of the door and watched a carriage, filled with a richly dressed older man and woman, roll by. Not giving them another thought, she set off towards the house in search of food to sate her rumbling stomach. The very first servant she encountered squealed and ran off fast as a hare through a thicket with a wolf on its heels.

  What was that all about? Aeryn wondered, working her way into the house. She found out a moment later as Melanie bustled up with the very same servant, her jaw dropping in relief when she saw Aeryn.

  “Aeryn! There you are. I was worried about you,” Melanie exclaimed in a rush. Frowning, she pulled a few strands of hay from Aeryn’s hair and handed it to the servant at her side.

  “Worried?” Aeryn raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

  “Oh my yes, dear. I’ve been trying to find you for hours. Where were you?”

  Aeryn rotated to point at the storeroom that lay some hundred feet beyond the house walls. “I was out in the storeroom with Jynx and Annette.”

  “With Annette, you say?” Melanie raised an eyebrow. She rounded on the servant, her face a storm cloud. “Go find my daughter. Tell her I wish to see her at once.” The way her voice pitched up at the end left no doubt as to the stout woman’s intentions.

  “Yes, ma’am.” The servant ran off every bit as fast as she had done before.

  Melanie turned back, wrapped an arm about Aeryn’s shoulders and strode down the halls with purpose. “You poor thing. You shouldn’t feel you have to sneak off to some dingy storeroom take a nap. Though I understand why you did.” Melanie’s face darkened, making the earlier storm cloud seem a light mist in comparison. “If I live to be a hundred, I’ll never forgive Merek for turning you out in the middle of the road like that. The nerve of that man! There are some things that simply are not done, no matter the circumstance.”

  Aeryn felt as though she had to offer an explanation. Merek had not pushed her out of the carriage; she had decided to leave. Doubtless, the woman thought it was some kind of lovers’ quarrel. She opened her mouth to correct the misunderstanding. At the sight of the stern, motherly figure standing before her, she ended up saying, “I’m not sleeping with him. Merek, I mean.”

  “Oh I know,” Melanie said.

  “What? How? After what Mareen said, everyone else thinks I am.”

  Melanie laughed. “Do you honestly think I raised five daughters, two of whom are off and married, two more of whom are no doubt daydreaming about men as we speak, without being able to tell when they’re being bedded? The fifth is too stiff for her own good, but still. I run the house. I think I can tell when someone has used a bed for something other than sleeping. As for the Lords and Ladies, do you really care what they think? Half the time they are just posturing for one another, and the other half the time they are to embroiled in their own schemes to care. Why I could count on one hand the number of times a Lord or Lady has actually gotten their own hands dirty.”

  “I thought that Reeve was in charge,” Aeryn said.

  Melanie laughed, a big, rumbling sound from her belly. “Just like with the Lords and Ladies, there is a vast difference between talking and doing. Something I think you understand. After all, your cycle did come early—and twice—this month,” she said with a knowing wink.

  Aeryn went pale. Melanie knew the blood in the tub had not been hers! What else did the woman know? She had to think of an excuse, and fast. “I—“

  “No more talk. No come along now, we’ve wasted enough time already,” Melanie said, leading Aeryn away. “Can’t have you looking like,” Melanie frowned, “well, like you’ve slept in a hayloft with a draven, now can we?”

  Skin soft and rosy red from her second bath in two days, Aeryn stepped from the water just as Annette walked in. The girl held a gown of black and red silk, so simple Aeryn was absolutely sure she would be able to Drift while wearing it, yet at the same time, so ornate she knew that by stepping into it she would
be never again be branded as a street urchin. The layers of paint Melanie and her girls applied to Aeryn’s face made her feel like a Lady.

  “You look—“ Melanie said, stepping back to admire Aeryn.

  “—amazing,” Annette finished for her mother.

  Melanie gave Annette a cold stare that promised words to come, but went on cheerily for the time being. “My daughter is right. You look amazing. Go on, give us a little twirl.”

  Aeryn spun in place. “I feel like a fool,” she said. She did not have the slightest idea how to behave wearing a dress like this. Other than what she had seen Mareen and Alys do. The former primarily involved eating, scheming, and spending gold. As for the latter— Aeryn sighed. She would never fill out a dress like Alys. Her chest was too flat, her butt too flat, her cheeks. . .too flat. To make matters worse, years on the streets with little to eat had made everything else about her hard angles of skin, muscle, and bone, instead of soft, luscious curves.

  “Nonsense,” Melanie said, shooing her other daughters back to work cleaning out the tub, scrubbing the powders and paints from the floor, and gathering Aeryn’s previous clothing. “You’re already late, so you better get moving. But not too fast mind you,” she added hastily, “I hear being fashionably late is in right now. And you don’t want to seem over eager with this crowd. Now off with you.”

  Before Aeryn could form a protest, she was shooed from the room where another waiting servant directed her down the hall. She cringed as Melanie’s sharp voice, directed at Annette for letting Aeryn hideaway the afternoon, cut through the wall.

  A few winding twists later and she walked between a towering set of wood doors worked in masterful scrolls. All conversation in the room ceased. Twenty sets of eyes swiveled and took her in from head to toe. A ripple of whispers spread out from her in an arc like the blooming flowers carved into the doors at her side.

  Of all the growing conversations, Aeryn heard one in particular. Left to her own merits by the servant that had escorted her, she swiftly walked in the opposite direction of that voice. She had no desire to sour the evening by speaking with Lady Mareen.