“You are naïve, daughter, if you think they are contemplating anything less than labors or death,” Cat asserted staunchly, her eyes haunted. “Effie has been allowed to be as she is because her name gift, though a travesty, is sacred. But how long did you think she would be allowed to carry on, wielding power over men so?”
Deliverance had no answer to this. She understood Effie’s difference as fundamentally as she understood her own. But she knew Effie’s differences were on parade in front of the village, whereas hers and her mother’s were tucked away out of sight and out of mind. They would go the whole winter sometimes without seeing another soul. Effie, however, plied her trade and gift right in the epicenter of the island. She was at the center of the fire fed by human interaction. Though Deliverance and her mother were on the outskirts of that fire, they could still be burned.
At the end of their conversation that night, Cat forbade Deliverance to venture away from their part of the island until she could conjure a solution to Effie’s problem. “Stay here, girl. I must think on this,” Cat issued her edict. “People will hate that which is different. Unfortunately, daughter, now is not the time to draw their ire upon us for also being so,” she added before the discussion was closed, for the night was aging and they both were numb with weariness.
***
It was several days before Deliverance could stand the waiting no longer. Her mother had made discreet inquiries at the village each day as to Effie’s status, but so far no movement had been made as to a verdict or sentencing. So late on the fourth night, Deliverance silently slid out of the bed she shared with her mother, careful not to wake her. As Deliverance tiptoed to the door, however, the formerly slumbering form called out in a crackled, sleepy tone, “Where are you going, daughter?”
Fades. Deliverance had never lied to her mother beyond the childish years of tall tales and excuses for ripped hems and skinned knees. But tonight, when she said, “Just out to deliver the water,” she did for the first time. She was not going to pee, but to abscond with one of the fleeter of foot ponies. She had to see Effie.
Deliverance paused at the door, as if frozen in place by her deceit. But the lump that was her mother’s form in the warm, indented bed merely said, “Alright.”
Deliverance breathed out a sigh of relief the moment she made it out the door, pausing only to roust her favorite pony, Torrent, a little black mare with a large attitude. The pony was quick but slow to tire and blended in with the night. Deliverance wrapped a dark cloak over her own shoulders and took off across the island.
The fingernail moon had faded into a New Moon, leaving precious little light to reveal Deliverance and Torrents as they trotted along. The night enveloped them in her velvety embrace.
Torrent did well lightly picking her steps despite the dark of the night. Deliverance made good time to the edge of the forest, where she alighted from her pony and left her tied under cover of the trees. The gaol was not far from here. Deliverance thanked the gods it was not directly in the center of town. She only had to steal by a few outbuildings and a couple window-darkened residences before she came upon the shanty that served as a gaol on the island. It was not much more than a lean-to, as there was not much use on Nar for a gaol. Penances or labors were sentenced quickly, leaving a place to hold prisoners only a temporary necessity. The lean-to was covered and one side of it was timber bars looking out toward the forest.
Effie was huddled with her arms clasped around her knees in the outside corner of the gaol, but sprang to her feet when she spied Deliverance making her way to her.
“Deliverance, what are ye doing here? Are ye daft!?” Effie hissed, looking around in case they were to be caught.
“I had to come see you. To at least try to provide some comfort. What you did…it was brave. And it was just,” Deliverance said, clasping her friend’s hands through the bars.
“God’s teeth, it was stupid none the less. I think I only traumatized the poor boy more,” Effie replied, shaking her head in anger at herself.
“Maybe so, but at least the village will keep a closer watch on Tobin,” Deliverance said, searching for the spot of bright sun in the dismal situation.
“Aye. Let’s hope for that then. The damn chicken-lickers have not yet given me a sentence. It is right chaos every time the Reeve tries to hold court. I cannot decide if this is a good omen or poor,” Effie said, blowing out an exasperated sigh. She was not one to be kept in a cage. Her crimson locks looked like flames about to burn their way out into the freedom of the night air.
“Perhaps my mother can threaten to withhold remedies if they do not give ye penance,” Deliverance said.
“Deliverance, I love ye, but you and your mother need to stay as far from this situation as possible. You will only get yourselves caught in this Fade-loving mess. Besides…penance? For what? Damn male-driven cockamamy. I have wronged no one,” Effie declared defiantly, the clear blue in her eyes shining with a dangerous gleam. She was itching for a fight, Deliverance could tell.
“I know that. I’m so sorry, Effie,” Deliverance replied, feeling a wave of melancholy rush over her at her ineptitude to aid her friend in her hour of need.
“Just… if I do not get a chance to see you again—” Effie started, but Deliverance balked. “No, no, I am not giving up hope. I just know it may not turn out well for me. I just wanted you to know, I never did anything with that pie-faced Amity.”
“Oh, Effie. I know,” said Deliverance. “It was just the Abbot trying to save his hide.”
“There’s only one I’ve ever loved, and it’s never been her,” Effie declared fiercely, locking eyes with Deliverance. Then, suddenly Effie’s hands snaked through the bars and caught Deliverance’s face, pulling her close. Effie gently, but fervently, pressed her lips to Deliverance’s for but a moment, and then released her.
Deliverance’s mind spun. She tried not to appear shocked. The idea that Effie might love her had never occurred to her outside the bounds of friendship. Whenever Deliverance had the rare thought of carnal love, it was vaguely male, but having not real form or function. Even at twenty-three she hadn’t given love in that capacity, and much less marriage any real thought. It had always been her and her mother. Effie’s lips felt foreign and out of place, but she was desperate to not hurt her friend by revealing how jarring the experience was for her. Perhaps if she had more time to adjust? Briefly, she wondered what it would be like if Effie used her magic gift—what it would feel like for that green light to flick across her fingers as it must when she took a lover and used her gift.
“It is alright, Deliverance,” said Effie softly, her eyes full of understanding. “I know ye. I know ye aren’t the same as me in that. I just wanted ye to know…to know someone loves ye…that I loved ye. Just in case I do not get the chance to tell ye again.”
What was it Cat used to say about unrequited love? “Thy self thou gavest, thy own worth then not knowing, Or me to whom thou gav’st it else mistaking; So thy great gift, upon misprision growing, Comes home again, on better judgment making.”
Later, when Deliverance had the chance to ponder, she would wonder if there were more like Effie on Nar. After all, the women and the men were all but segregated. Who would one fall in love with, but those with whom one spent the most of their lives? For Effie, the m
en were but fodder for her magic, a means to an end, and sometimes obstacles to be transformed instead into tools. Deliverance alone was her solace, her friend and confidante. Although Deliverance did not necessarily feel sexual love toward Effie, why should she not love her? What an honor it was that Effie had the courage to tell her, to bestow such a gift upon her. Deliverance would not get the chance to relate this sentiment to Effie, however.
“LOOK THERE! WE CAUGHT HER IN THE ACT!” A screeching yelp rang out in the darkness. Voices descended around them, closing in.
“It weren’t Amity at all!”
“It were that strange, giftless Deliverance girl!”
“Cat’s daughter!”
“It isn’t right, them living out there by themselves all isolated. They become unnatural that way, being self-sufficient. Look at the abhorrence it spawns.”
Effie’s eyes flashed to Deliverance’s in panic. “Go! Run!” she hissed, flinging herself back against the lean-to, as if by breaking physical contact, she could force Deliverance to react faster. Deliverance, despite her growing fear, locked eyes with her only friend for just a moment longer before dashing off into the night.
She collided with her mother at a full sprint near the tree line. The bobbing torchlights in the village were just now converging upon the gaol. One of their ponies, the sorrel, was tied next to Torrent and Cat made an oomph sound as Deliverance barreled into her.
“God’s teeth, girl! Can you not heed instructions one whit?” Her mother cursed, collected herself and pulling her daughter back toward the ponies. They both lithely swung onto their ponies’ backs and cantered deeper into the forest. They could not afford for one of the ponies to falter and break a leg in the darkness, but they dared not go too slowly either.
“I had to see Effie!” Deliverance protested as the thicket pulled at the edges of her cloak and leaves and the horse’s mane whipped her face.
“Ye had to do nothing, daughter. You wanted to. And now you are forcing my hand. Those men are not going to stop until they have their satisfaction. For men, all too often, that is either total submission or blood. I cannot see them being satisfied at any charade of submission we might play nor us bearing it.”
“What will we do?” Deliverance cried, the impossibility of escape in the tiny island weighing more heavily by the moment on her shoulders. As they rounded the last bend to their homestead, her mother did not slow, however, and kept heading toward their beach cove. Far off in the distance, the baying of the hunt master’s bloodhounds could be heard, sending a shattering chill down Deliverance’s spine. There would be no outfoxing those noses, and they only had a small lead on the long legs of those voracious hounds.
At the top of the ridge, her mother alighted from the sorrel, swinging her legs in an arc over the pony’s neck. She beckoned for Deliverance to follow her down to the water. “Hurry!” she said. The climb down to the pebbly beach was steep, but both women knew it in their sleep. Once upon the beach, the sliver of moon was more than enough illumination. It bent its silvery beams off the round stones creating a lattice like crocheted lace upon the shores.
“Come, daughter! Quick! We haven’t much time!” Cat bid her daughter urgently.
Her mother did not stop at the beach but led her along it past the tall crags that marked the end of the cove. In the towers of rock there lay an almost indiscernible passage through the rock spires. Beyond them lay a smaller alcove, mostly encased in a cave whose depths were not visible. Cat flicked her flingers and a greenish spark gave rise to a flame on a torch. She must be certain they would not be found down here if she were risking the light, Deliverance thought. But for how long could they hide? Would they not eventually be found? Was it not inevitable? And then what? The thought of being caged like Effie…like an animal…made Deliverance’s soul howl like the banshee spirits. The light from the torch showed the cavernous alcove to be relatively deep, twisting under the mountain into which their home was built on the other side. Perhaps they could sustain themselves a while here?
“Help me, daughter!” Cat commanded, rushing into the alcove around the first bend. Inquisitive, and heart still pounding from their harried flight, Deliverance followed. Past the bend lay a curious hulking shape, like a hollowed-out rind of a melon. Upon closer inspection, Deliverance saw it was made of wood. What an oddity! Could it be a shield of some kind?
Cat started dragging the shape with a thickly twined rope, one of the many attached to the object. She gestured for Deliverance to help her, and so she took up a hold alongside her mother, dragging the hulking weight across the sand. Her mother did not stop at the water’s edge, but kept tugging the large shape into the surf. Oddly enough the object began not to sink, but to float.
“What in the Fades are you doing, Mother?” Deliverance demanded, hands burning from the exertion of dragging the thing and the ropes, which left little indentations in her palms.
“Get in the boat, Deliverance!” her mother ordered. What in Hunter’s name could she be on about?
“Boat? What is a boat?” Deliverance asked…although surely she meant this large wooden melon. Her mother wanted her to mount it like a horse?
“This!! Daft girl!” Her mother all but screamed, gesturing for her to climb inside. She tossed a canvas bag inside the “boat” and held out her hand to boost Deliverance in. Surely it would sink! But she trusted her mother, as enigmatic as she was, and so she took her hand and allowed herself to be hoisted like a sack of grain into the “boat.”
Miraculously, it did not sink. It merely bobbed and remained afloat.
“Listen to me, Deliverance. You need to find Lord Asher…Doctor Asher. He can be found at the University of Oxdale. Find him!” Cat instructed urgently.
“Who? What?” Deliverance cried, an uncertain panic welling in her chest. Her mother ignored her for a second, rooting around in the sack, which appeared to be full of waterskins and dried provisions, and came up with a circular object. She fiddled with it, glancing skyward for a moment, then handed it to her daughter. Then she found a small metal box and flipped a clasp on its surface. It began to make a curious blinking light. Satisfied, Cat tucked the box away again and returned her focus to the round object.
“Keep this arrow here pointed at this mark. The prevailing winds should take you straight to land. When you find land, find Doctor Asher,” Cat said, clasping the circular object into Deliverance’s shaking hands.
“Don’t be silly! Are you not coming with me!?” Deliverance cried. The panic was an animal clawing up her throat to escape.
“I cannot, daughter. I have to see to this mess here. Doctor Asher will know how to help.” Cat pointed at the bobbing torchlights appearing on the ridgeline. “Go! You haven’t time, daughter. May the God of Horizons show you the way. I love you, Deliverance.”
With that, Cat pulled one of the ropes and a large sheet of canvas spread overtop the “boat,” held aloft by the unwieldy tall pole sticking out from its almost middle, like a spoke in a broken wagon wheel. Deliverance hoped it was supposed to look that way. The God of Horizons whispered, and a wind caught the canvas sheet, and to Deliverance’s dismay it whisked her out into the open water more quickly than she could have imagined. The canvas sheet was like an oiled parchment bird’s wing, cupping the air and pulling
it under its folds. The melon rind slid through the lapping waters like a knife through soft cheese. Her mother’s form grew smaller on the beach and the ominous torches made their way down the path to the sand.
“No!!!” Deliverance wailed, holding her arms out toward her mother, who was already out of reach. She looked down toward the water, but it was dark and deep and she knew she was already too far out to swim back to shore. But she couldn’t leave her mother! What in the Fades would she do when the torches found her?
What in the Fades would Deliverance do now that the great sea was engulfing her little floating melon? No one had ever left the island, to her knowledge. Was it not suicide out here in the salty unknown? And what of her mother’s cryptic instructions? Surely, she would not…and yet that must be what she had done. Catalyst had sent her only daughter, encapsulated in this foreign and improbable object called a boat, into the great Outside.
CHAPTER 5
Deliverance
Much to Deliverance’s surprise and relief, the rind-boat stayed afloat even when the waves of the sea rocked her skyward, only to pull her wrenchingly back down. It was as if she was a riding a bucking pony in a slowed state of time. As the night drew on, Deliverance caught herself dozing and awoke with a start as the bruise of dawn crept upon the horizon. The God of Horizons dawned a new mask once more, shedding the velvet of night and pulling on the promise of sky’s quickening.
A squirting growl in Deliverance’s stomach prodded her to rummage through the sack of goods her mother had hastily slung into the vessel. In it she found several waterskins, dried fruits and meats, and the curious box her mother had fiddled with before casting her out to sea. Its blinking eye continued to wink at her, like a mirror flashing in the sunlight. As she gnawed on a stringy piece of venison jerky, she fiddled with the curious box. Its lines were curiously smooth—finer workmanship than their blacksmith generally was able. She wondered what magic fueled the firelight in the box to continue its curious flashing pattern.
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