"They are always here, m-m-my Lady. They are part of Deliverance Day."
"The group that wants to free slaves?" Lord Carrull had told her about them.
"They buy and free as many slaves as they can afford. Many overlords w-w-want the slaves to be freed. I'm not sure how we can free them, though. If we had to pay the slaves wages, our economy would crumble."
"Better that slave families are ripped apart than that the overlord economy should suffer," Repentance muttered.
"Next to the Hall of Justice, is the Hall of Records," Skoch said. "And the short building, there is the Ministry of Education."
Repentance noted the different style of the buildings on the circle. They were shorter and fatter than the buildings in the neighborhoods by the slave market and palace. And the carvings in their faces looked somehow fiercer—less refined.
"This building is the Military Command." Skoch pointed a building just to the left of them. "And this one—" he indicated the building before them "—is the old palace. Now a museum."
"And there's the Fin and Feather," Tigen said, pointing to a low building next to the museum. "The best eatery in all of Harthill."
Gaylor, Baeler, and Rrow, ran up the stairs and into the museum ahead of the rest.
Repentance looked back at the Deliverance Day group before she went in. There were overlords who didn't hate her. That gave her hope.
The museum was dark and cold, with its threadbare lavacloth carpets and suncloths. The rooms were not nearly as comfortable as those of the newer palace. But the worst part, for Repentance, were the gruesome carvings in every wall of bloody battles of old. She averted her eyes and concentrated instead on the furniture or the dinnerware as Skoch carried on about the importance of this king and that king in the shaping of the present-day Harthill.
After going through all the bed chambers upstairs, and considering how hard life was back before the overlords had lavacloth in abundance, they entered a great room and found one entire wall given to the destruction of a lowborn village. Gaylor, who had gotten there first, stood before the picture chortling. Repentance turned away in disgust.
"Are you feeling ill, my Lady?" Skoch asked.
"I need the relief room."
"Do you recall the one we passed downstairs in the main hallway when we came in?"
She nodded.
"We'll be right behind you. We have only two more rooms up here."
After washing her face, she felt better, but she had no desire to see more of the dark, old palace. She stepped out on the wide porch to suck down some fresh air.
Across the circle, the Deliverance Day people were crowded around an open skim wagon loaded with chignets of potatoes. Repentance strained to see better. The driver looked a lot like Calamity, but she couldn't be sure at such a distance.
"This tongue of mine," quoth the fool, "will take me to the swingman, if it doesn't learn to be still."
"Then you must teach it to be still," the wise man replied.
"Alas, alas, then swing I must, for my tongue refuses to attend lessons. Of an afternoon it can always be found down at the pub, a lapping and a flapping, all fast and free."
~from The Fool and the Wiseman, by Lord Kawklin
Chapter 22
Repentance wandered down the steps in front of the museum and headed across the circle toward the Hall of Justice.
As she neared the potato wagon, she saw that Calamity was indeed sitting in the driver's seat. He was talking with the Deliverance Day people.
Sober walked around from the back of the wagon, balancing a chignet of potatoes on his shoulder as if it were a small basket of berries. His black hair gleamed blue in the midday mountain sunlight.
He looked up and gaped. Then set his chignet of potatoes down on the seat next to Calamity and walked toward her. "Repentance, you're the last person I expected to see here." His soft flannel buttoning scarf was wrapped loosely around his neck and Repentance had to force down the urge to reach out and touch it.
He'd offered that scarf to her once and she'd turned it down. She'd had a good reason for turning it down. She was sure of it. But as he stood next to her in the sunshine and crisp mountain air, she couldn't remember what that reason was.
"Are you not well?" he asked, leaning forward to look into her face.
"I'm fine. Just surprised to see you. The tutor brought us to the museum. Why are you here?"
"We deliver potatoes to the Fin and Feather," he pointed to the eatery. "And you? Why are you not in the museum with the porcupine tutor?"
She laughed. "The tutor I can tolerate. The young prince Gaylor is another matter."
"You always did have a hard time making friends." He winked. Then his expression grew serious. "Except for Comfort. You always got along with your sister."
"How would you know that?"
"I've known you since you were born, Repentance. How would I not know that about you?"
"But I don't know anything about you. You didn't even go to school with us."
He put his arm around her shoulder and walked her back toward the benches in front of the Hall of Justice. "I did go to school with you for a couple of years. I still remember your first day." His face softened as he spoke. "You burst into class, a muddy little girl with a possum under her arm. You'd caught him on the way to school. And that smile. It lit up the swamp like a thousand torches."
She had a smile? He was confusing her with some other muddy little girl. She was not much for smiles.
Sober sat on a bench and patted the spot beside him. "Sit with me."
"Don't you have to work?"
"Calamity's busy. He'll let me know when we have to go."
"Why is he talking to those people? Aren't they ones that help slaves escape?"
"They buy slaves. They don't break the law. They buy slaves and set them free."
"Is Calamity hoping they'll buy him?"
Sober looked at the old man and smiled. "He'd never leave the Mistress. He's not talking to the Deliverance Day people. He's talking to the mistress. See her there? She walks with them, holding her sign once a week."
Repentance frowned. "But she owns slaves. How can she protest?"
"She pays us. She lets us work off our debt. Then, if we want, we can leave."
Praise Providence! How wonderful for Sober.
A carriage edged around Calamity's potato wagon, slowly.
Repentance sat next to Sober. "So you remember me from school? Why don't I remember you?"
"We remember what's important to us. No one was important to you but Comfort."
She remembered many things besides Comfort. She remembered the other kids whispering about her. Calling her cursed. She remembered that they teased her because she was different. She remembered that she never fit in.
She watched the skim carriage turn in the circle and head back their direction, and wondered if a rich overlord was in the carriage and if he might come back and yell at the Deliverance Day people. But there were carriages coming and going regularly and they mostly seemed to ignore the crowd in front of the Hall of Justice.
"When you were in your sixth year you lost that smile of yours," Sober said. "The overlords took your brother and you changed. You didn't play with the other kids anymore. You hung onto Comfort like she was your only friend in the world. And when you were in your eighth year, I left school. There's no reason you should remember me."
"Then how do you know so much about me, if you left school when I was so young?"
"I kept an eye on you as the years went on."
"Sober," Calamity called. "We're late for our rounds. You should have had this chignet over to the Fin and Feather long afore now."
Sober rose and turned to give Repentance a bow.
She couldn't believe that she hadn't seen how handsome he was before. Surely she should remember something about him from school. But there was nothing.
He remembered her, though.
You remember what is important to you, he'
d said.
He met her gaze and she tried a smile on him. Maybe it wasn't as bright as a thousand torches. Maybe it was more like the small, flickering stub of a candle. But it was a start.
And he smiled back.
Repentance wandered back toward the museum and sat on the bench in front, thinking about Sober, trying to remember what he looked like back when she'd first gone to school. Skoch and the young princes finally came out.
"I'm sorry we took so long," Skoch said. "The boys wanted to go out on the roof, and when we went out, the door locked behind us."
"And guess what we saw from up there?" Gaylor asked. "We saw you talking to the Deliverance Dogs."
She ignored him, keeping her eyes on the ground. He always got tired of taunting her when she didn't respond.
"You're better?" Skoch asked.
"The fresh air has done me much good, thanks," she said softly.
"We'll see the Hall of Justice, next."
Skoch had barely gotten the words out when a skim carriage pulled to in front of them. Favor, the palace footman, jumped out and approached them. "The king bids you to return to the palace," he said.
"The king is back?" Repentance asked.
"Just now arrived," Favor answered.
"We are having a tour of the Hall of Justice," Baylor said. "They have old swing frames in there. And," he gave Repentance a horrid grin, "they have the axe that Fawlin the Dragon Slayer used to cut off his lowborn button mate's head."
"And after we see all of that," Gaylor added, "we are going for lunch to the Fin and Feather."
"I'm told to bring you straight back," Favor said.
The princes continued to protest, but Favor was unbending. The king had given orders. Finally Gaylor and Baeler gave up their complaints and climbed into the carriage.
Repentance got in behind them, glad to be heading back to the palace. She had no desire to see The Dragon Slayer's bloody axe. Besides, she was anxious to see the king. She wasn't sure how much she'd tell him, but she was sure of one thing: having the king home would save her from having to go out to any feasts with the prince. As they swished out of the circle, Repentance looked back at Calamity and Sober's potato cart, which stood in front of the Fin and Feather. She wasn't even sorry to miss out on lunch at the famous eatery. Sober would be delivering vegetables up at the palace in a couple of hours, and she wanted to be there.
They pulled to at the palace steps and Favor opened the door.
"We made good time, thank Providence. The king is that upset. He'd likely blame me for loitering if anyone had slowed us down today."
"Ups-s-set?" Skoch stuttered. "What is he upset about? We didn't go without authority. It was the prince himself who suggested the trip and procured the money from the M-m-ministry of Education."
Repentance stared at Skoch, aghast. If the prince had arranged the trip—
Generosity flew out the front door, wringing her hands. "You're back. I'm to take you to the king."
"What's wrong? Favor said the king was upset."
Giving her a pitiful look, Generosity whispered, "My Lady, he is very angry about something, I know not what. When Provocation told me to fetch you she told me your tongue could ... your tongue could melt the palace as easily as dragon breath." Her words drowned out the happiness Repentance had been feeling under the glow of Sober's smile. The maid might as well have dumped a bucket of mud into her heart.
"Provocation said that if you lived through this one she'd know for sure you were a blessed one under protection of Providence, for none but he can save you now."
"That's what Provocation knows," Repentance said as she followed Generosity down the hall. She'd done nothing but dodge the prince and mind her own business for two horrible weeks. And for that she was in some kind of trouble. "There are no blessed ones among the lowborns. Providence hasn't bothered himself with us for two hundred and fifty years."
Generosity gasped. "I'm sure you're wrong, my Lady."
She wasn't wrong. She was always in trouble simply for having the misfortune of being lowborn. She hadn't even seen the king, but she'd done something to offend him.
Surely it was some kind of mistake.
Or the prince was up to something.
"Did you call him a name, my Lady? Did you say anything to him?"
"I've done nothing, I tell you. I haven't seen him in two weeks."
"Lower your voice, my Lady." Generosity went pale. She pulled at Repentance's arm trying to slow her down.
Repentance shook her away.
"It's here," Generosity said, motioning toward a closed door. "The king's personal library is here."
Repentance reached for the door handle.
"I'll pray for you, my Lady," Generosity said.
"If it helps you, Generosity, pray as you wish." She opened the door and strode in.
Provocation stood in front of the king's desk, looking at some parchment. The king leaned over to peer around her. Then, looking up, he nodded to dismiss her.
Provocation brushed by Repentance on her way out, throwing her a look of disgust.
The king waited, his face livid. As soon as the door swished shut he spoke. "Must I kill you? Will you force me to hang you on the frame?"
"What have I done?"
"As if you don't know." He coughed a couple of times. "Who else have you told? How many of my enemies have you sold information to?" He coughed several more times.
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
He took a flask from his drawer and took a healthy swig. "I saved you, Repentance. I saved you out of pity. And this is the way you repay me? You tell my enemies that I am sick. Too weak to take a concubine. Coughing all the time."
She hadn't told his enemies. "I've told no one."
Only Sober.
Sober!
"There! Your face tells the truth that your mouth will not admit."
But surely Sober wouldn't have told anyone.
"I've nothing to admit to."
"You lie. No one knew that you were my concubine in name only except for you, Repentance. I never told anyone."
"Neither did I tell!"
"Word of your treachery reached me down at the healing house. If you told no one then why is half the palace laughing over the fact that I am too old and sick to take a concubine?"
"I never—"
"Provocation heard it. The tutor told her. My footmen heard it. One of them passed it to the milkmaids, no doubt, who tattled it to Cook. She may have hushed it up at table but not before the stable hands caught hold of it. In one day the whole palace knew. Three days later all Harthill was aware, for the story made its way to the city market to be bartered back and forth with the broccoli and the beads."
Sober!
"The thing that makes me angriest is that I treated you so kindly. I gave you so much. You had the queen's bedchamber. I have paid for a wardrobe full of rich clothing. Above all, you had honor. You were being educated beside my own flesh and blood."
She hung her head.
"I don't believe you told anyone because you wanted to harm me. I believe you did it because you are stupid and impetuous."
She was both of those and selfish besides. She'd told Sober because she wanted him to like her. She'd been ashamed and she'd wanted Sober to know that she wasn't really a concubine. And that had been more important than keeping her word to the king and securing his trust so that she might save Comfort and her little brothers when they landed on the slave dock.
"I am stupid and impetuous, my Lord," she said.
"A king must command respect from his subjects or all is lost. You've treated me like your pet potentate. You dance around the palace as if you own it."
"I'm sorry."
"But that doesn't do away with the damage you've done. Had you been working instead of meeting with boyfriends, and shaming me in public—oh no, don't give me that shocked look—I've heard about your fondness for stable boys and farmers. Had you been working, you would not be i
n this trouble. Your blood won't be on my hands. Your own disobedience has brought this to pass. You've had many chances and you've proven to be obstinate."
So that was it. He would kill her and do it with a clear conscience. She had broken the rules and that justified him in his own sight. Well, if she was going to die …. She stood up tall and gave him the sternest look she could muster with her chin trembling as it was. "You may think you can kill me and not bear guilt, but Providence will decide between us."
He sighed heavily, an exhausted old man. "Providence has already decided, Repentance. He raised me up as king and He made you my slave."
He was right. Providence had picked favorites two hundred and fifty years earlier.
The king continued. "I stupidly thought I could defy the order Providence has set. I thought I could lift you out of slavery and educate you and make something out of you. But apparently you aren't able to be reasonable and to appreciate the good I've given you. You turn, like a wild animal, and bite me."
She cringed. In the end she was no more than an animal to him. To the slaves at the palace she was a lady and to the overlords she was a yak. When Providence created her, he was having a joke on the world. "So you might as well kill me as you would kill a hog that gored one of the stable boys."
"Quit goading me, or I just might do that. Who did you tell? Your maid? How did you get involved with the Deliverance Day group?"
"I don't know anything about Deliverance Day."
"I was in the Village Circle not one hour ago and I saw you with them in front of the Hall of Justice."
"I was there with Skoch and the young princes. I wasn't—"
He slammed his hand on his desk. "Who introduced you to them? Who do you give your information to?" he shouted.
She couldn't hand Sober over. "My Lord, I told no one."
"You are standing firm on that patch of ground, then?"
"I am."
He laughed—not a happy laugh. "Is it to be forever this way, Repentance? Will you always speak when I order you to silence and remain silent when I bid you speak?"
"I cannot tell you what you want to hear." He was so mad at her he was about ready to kill her. And he liked her. A little, anyway. He cared nothing for Sober. If she gave him Sober, he would likely not hold himself back.
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