by Terah Edun
“Of course,” said Richard—not in the least put out.
In fact, he sounded anticipatory. Which made sense to Mae. Ever since his growth spurt, he had become like a walking bottomless pit. Which was the bane of all their relatives, male and female, who worked shifts in the kitchens. It meant they had to put in double the time slaving over the ovens, and as welcome as the heat had been during a bitter winter, it would be sweltering in the coming summer.
But no one said anything to dissuade them when they came in and asked for whatever remained of the hot porridge from this morning. It was the leftover bit scraped from the bottom of the pot bubbling over the fire with the occasional dash of milk poured in. The origins mattered not to Mae—Uncle Marcus had a special recipe that could make three-day-old porridge the most delicious meal you ever had, and as long as he had a pot going on over the fire, she was willing to eat from it. When he handed hers over, Mae sprinkled the bowl with a cupful of dried berries, just like she liked it, and Richard got as much jerky as he did porridge.
They scarfed what they could at the table like ravenous wolves while the kitchen worked around them, already preparing that night’s meal, and then they were on their way.
“Well, let’s get to it,” Mae said.
She was fueled up with energy and ready to rumble. Maybe Richard saw that spark of aggressiveness in her eyes, because he didn’t question her or get in her way this time. He just followed behind like an obedient lapdog as Mae, head held high, stormed down to her sister’s door and flung it open dramatically.
None of the rooms of the children were locked. Ostensibly, the justification was that they needed to get to them in case of an emergency—in Mae’s eyes, it was just so the adults could spy on their children as they pleased. In this case, it allowed for her to confront her sister with the element of surprise.
There was a flurry of motion in the room as she flung open the door but Ember was sitting in the open with nowhere to go.
Mae looked down at what Ember was desperately trying to hide, and Ember went as white as a sheet. She sat on the bed gripping the very tome Mae had been on the hunt for since she’d been forced to drop it in a dark hallway this morning.
It was open in Ember’s lap, and she had been paging through it like it was her personal diary.
“First you ratted me out to Father like some coward, didn’t even let me get a word in for my own self, and now you stole my book!” Mae said as she dove for the tome.
Ember jumped back on the bed, almost falling over in the process. She was shouting, “No, no,” as she managed to scramble on top of the thicker bedding to keep herself and the tome away from Mae. But Mae wasn’t listening. She jumped onto the bed with Ember and went straight for her sister.
“What are you doing?” Ember screeched. “Get out of my room.”
Ha! As if that would work on me, Mae thought. “Not without what’s mine!”
“It’s not yours,” Ember spat as she crab-walked across the bed, still trying to desperately stay out of Mae’s reach.
“I don’t know what it is or who it belongs to, but surely—” Richard started.
“It doesn’t matter!” Mae shouted.
“It’s grandmother’s!” Ember insisted. “She took this out of the private collection. I’d recognize dark magic anywhere, and only the elders have access to those texts.”
“Shut up and give it here!” Mae said. “That tome is mine.”
“It’s a grimoire, not a tome,” Ember said, shooting her a dark glance.
“It is not,” Mae hissed. “I found it. I name it.”
Ember rolled her eyes. “The dark castings inside say differently.”
“You think I care!” Mae said in a voice louder than she meant to.
“What’s going in there?” someone shouted from the hallway.
It sounded like someone passing by, but all three kids shouted back, “Nothing!” just in case.
Mae and Ember were frozen on the bed like rabbits, and when Mae over to Richard, even he looked wary.
When no one barged in to question them, Mae relaxed a bit.
“As I was trying to say,” Richard said. “Maybe you two should calm down.”
“Not a chance,” Mae snarled.
Then Ember made a move toward the exit, and Mae decided she wasn’t taking any chances.
“Shut the door, Richard!” Mae said as she finally managed to grab hold of the book.
This time, she wasn’t letting go.
Wisely, he did as she asked. “Get a hold of yourselves!”
He immediately had to duck a rather hefty object thrown at his head by Ember.
“You are the one who barged into my room!” Ember whisper-shouted—not quite caring who he was, just that he was on Mae’s side.
14
Richard backed up and took no part in the fray, though Mae did notice he was now leaning his heavy frame against the door, blocking anyone else’s exit.
Good, Mae thought as she tried to dodge an elbow to the eye.
Finally fed up, Mae snapped, “Why don’t you let go before we get into a real fight that you can’t win?”
That made Ember hesitate, and that was enough for Mae. She yanked the grimoire with all her might and tumbled off the bed.
Scrambling up, she crowed as she hoisted the grimoire up high. “Ah ha!”
“All right, you’ve got it,” a disgusted Ember said. “Now go.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” Mae said, clutching it tightly.
“Wait,” Richard said.
Both girls looked at him in disgust, as if he had any say in this matter.
Ember said, “I just want you two out of my room.”
Richard looked at her but still didn’t move.
“Okay, okay,” Mae said reluctantly. “Let’s go, Richard.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Ember said.
“Thank the gods,” Mae muttered. She didn’t really care if Ember heard. It was just low enough that her sibling could let it pass her by.
But Ember could be just as stubborn as Mae. She tossed her sister a bitter look and said, “I’m tired of fighting for you, Maeryn Darnes—if you want to ruin your life, be my guest.”
For a moment, Mae hovered in indecision; the hurt in her sister’s voice struck her more deeply than she would have thought. But she gathered her strength and walked toward Richard and the door. He stepped aside, and Mae put her hand on the knob.
Then a loud knock sounded, and Mae froze in shock.
They all did.
You could have heard a needle drop on the stone floor as they waited for another knock. None was forthcoming.
“What do we do?” whispered Ember.
Despite her unwillingness to stay in this room another minute, Mae took an uncertain step back. She didn’t want to risk anyone else seeing the grimoire in her hands. She desperately looked around the room for a place to hide it—or better yet, something to hide it with. Like most of the holding rooms, Ember’s bedroom, a luxury she was only afforded as the eldest daughter of the eldest daughter, was sparse.
If Mae had had her own room, she wouldn’t have been skulking in corridors while trying to study a stolen grimoire. It was one of the many unfair concepts about life in the holding. You were only as good as your birthright. In this case, it meant, with scarce lodgings and nearly three dozen inhabitants above the age of five, you take what you could get, and pride of place went to the oldest.
She had to admit, though, there wasn’t much to hide it here with.
“There’s nothing to put it under,” Mae complained.
The bed was nothing but a thin pallet on the floor where a heavy grimoire like this, which was wide as Mae’s torso, would obviously stick out. The single chair Ember had was made of pale beech and had open slats—nothing that would conceal. And she had no wardrobe or chest to toss anything into. Just her clothes neatly piled and folded on top of a blanket on the floor.
Thinking quickly, Mae looked back to the bed. If she could cover the grimoire with the blanket and put it behind the door, maybe they had a chance.
“Let me have that,” Mae said, taking a few steps back toward her sister.
Mae didn’t even have to explain what she wanted. Her eyes were pinned on the threadbare red and grey blankets Ember was sitting on top of.
“Oh, no,” Ember snarled as she grabbed the blankets in her hands, as if she would force Mae to yank them from her before giving them up.
Richard stepped in before they could come to blows this time. “Both of you stop it,” he said as they eyed each other and then the door.
“Hello?” came the same voice from the other side of the door.
They all jumped, including Mae, who felt she nearly had a heart attack.
Richard frowned and made a move to open the door. Mae frantically gestured for him to stop, and even Ember was shaking her head furiously. If they were caught with this grimoire, they’d all be punished.
“Is anyone in there?”
They didn’t say a word, but Mae had to stop Richard, and fast, from doing something stupid, like revealing them all unprepared.
Best for him to at least know what he’s potentially being caught with, Mae thought.
She carefully turned the heavy grimoire over against her chest. When the cover was facing him and the script of the text’s title was clearly displayed, his face went pale.
Now he knew.
The voice on the other side of the door continued as if she hadn’t noticed no one was answering.
“If you don’t open the door, I’ll be coming in anyway,” the woman announced.
“What for?” Mae called out—hoping the person thought she was Ember.
In a disgusted voice, the woman yelled back at her, “To pick up the laundry, now hurry it up!”
Figuring they had nothing to lose, and the woman wasn’t going away, Mae gestured at Ember impatiently. Her sister shot her a poisonous look, but it was her room—she had to deal with it.
Ember sidled up to the door as Mae backed away and eyed it anxiously.
Biting her lip, Ember eased it open a crack. Mae watched the interactions from just behind the doorjamb. She saw Ember smile nervously at someone, then she said, “I’m still going through all of my clean sets from earlier this week.”
“Even the towels?”
“Ahh,” Ember said inelegantly.
Mae kicked the door lightly to get Ember’s attention.
When her sister gave her an evil look out of the corner of her eye, still holding the door partially open, Mae jabbed her chin toward Richard, who was in the back of the room next to the bed on the floor.
Looking back, they both saw him hold up some soiled towels that were thrown in a lump on the floor.
Ember turned back to the door. “One second,” she said as she closed it.
Richard tossed the bundle of towels to her almost as soon as she turned around. She caught it, opened the door, and shoved it out into the hallway. “Thank you!”
Upon Ember closing the door, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
Mae waited to see what the person who had come to collect Ember’s dirty linen was going to do. They heard the person hesitate at the door, but then carry on. They were safe.
With a frustrated sigh, Mae walked toward the middle of room.
“Now what?” Ember demanded with a sour look.
“We wait a few minutes for them to go on down the hall, and we go our separate ways,” Mae said. She was more than ready to get on with it.
Ember decided to go back to the bed, Mae leaned against the door with a tired look, and Richard was eyeing them both from a corner.
“Before we go,” he said, “perhaps you can both explain why you have a dark text in hand.”
“How about we don’t?” Mae said. She had had enough of intervening relatives to last her a lifetime.
“Let’s just say if you don’t start explaining, I’ll be taking that grimoire to the nearest elder and sharing exactly where I found it.”
Ember obviously did not like the sound of that. “This has nothing to do with me!” she whined.
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law, Ember,” Mae said sweetly. “No use trying to back out now.”
“Why, you impudent little weasel,” Ember howled as she stood up from the bed.
“Enough!” snapped Richard. “Stop fighting and start talking.”
Ember and Mae glared at each other, neither willing to admit fault.
Finally, Ember rolled her eyes and said, “At least you can start with what it is and why you first obtained it?”
Mae grimaced and gripped the grimoire tightly. “Why should I?” she muttered, looking anywhere but at her two relatives.
“Because I’ll be in trouble regardless,” Ember explained. “And weirdly enough, I’d like to know why I’m being punished when it comes down to it.”
“Funny,” Richard said. “I thought you were in on it.”
“No, not a chance,” Ember said with a shudder. “I just saw her sneaking around in a hallway she had no business being in and went back for it.”
“You should have minded your own business!” said a sulking Mae.
“Well, what is it?” Richard asked while reaching out. “Because it looks like dark magic.”
“It’s not what you think,” Mae blurted out as she kept her back was against the wall and the tome clutched tightly in both hands.
She didn’t think Richard would try to take it from her, but after this day, she wouldn’t put anything past a relative. Even one as nice as him.
“Oh, hogwash,” called out Ember from where she sat cross-legged on the bed. The look on her face was furious. “You have a book with some strange text referencing aggrievement on the cover, and within its pages I saw incantations that would you make your hair stand on end. It should never been in the hands of a busybody like you.”
“I’m not a busybody,” snapped Mae.
Ember looked at Richard and said, “I just can’t get through to her. She’s like this all the time, obstinate and willful.”
“Hey! I’m still standing right here,” Mae grumbled.
“Then for once in your life listen to someone else,” Ember said.
“I do listen! When they merit attention,” Mae replied. “But this is none of your business.”
“Oh, and dark magic is suddenly your specialty?” Ember shot back.
Richard straightened and said, “You can bicker around this all day, Mae, but have you considered that whatever you picked this up for…it could be dangerous? For you and for the rest of the holding?”
“Of course!” Mae said. “But I snagged it to save the holding.”
“What do you mean?” he asked. “If you got this where we both think you got this, it’s nothing good. Certainly not in the hands of someone without magical talent.”
Mae stiffened. “I may not have much, but I’m still capable.”
“Of lighting a candle,” Ember said with a sniff. “Nothing along the level of what something from Grandmother’s collection would require.”
Richard added, “We all know every single grimoire in there is for defense techniques for the male elders to use against invaders.”
“Not all of them,” Mae replied with a stubborn tilt of her chin.
“Mae,” Richard said as he uncrossed his arms. “Hand it over.”
Realizing she was losing her high ground quickly, Mae said, “I need it.”
“For what?” Ember and Richard said together.
Sighing, Mae wiped the nervous sweat off her forehead, but she couldn’t avoid this conversation any longer.
“To save the girls,” she said softly as she looked down at the grimoire.
When she looked back up at them, they were looking at her with astonished expressions.
Ember’s astonishment quickly turned to a pained grimace. Mae’s stomach flipped as she waited for them
to say something, anything.
“You think you’re the only one who cares, Maeryn Darnes?” Ember asked quietly. Mae was shocked at the depth of emotion in her tone.
“No, of course not,” Mae said as looked between the two of them. “But I think I’m the only one willing to step out on the limb for a possibility.”
“Even if you were doing this for good reasons,” Ember whispered, “what that book contains, no man should have in his possession.”
“Good thing I’m not a man,” Mae quipped.
“Ugh, enough with the jokes, Mae,” Richard said.
“Yes,” said Ember. “If you want to take all of our lives in your hands, you’d better have a damned good grasp of what you’re getting into first.”
Mae shot them a hurt look. “I was doing the best I could with the knowledge I had,” she said. “You have to know, though—I’d never attempt something without being sure it was at least capable of curing them.”
“That’s all well and good,” Richard said. “But I’m a far better trained mage than you, Mae, and even I wouldn’t attempt to steal that book. Its aura is bad news.”
“Have you ever taken a chance on something?” Mae asked.
“Something that could backfire and negatively affect the entire holding?” Richard replied. “No.”
It was that no that rang in Mae’s ears as she thought about how she could get them to give her a chance, and she kept coming up empty each time.
15
The room was silent, and she had the attention of both occupants unreservedly, so she forged on.
“It was in a letter I came across,” Mae said hesitantly. “One of the older transcriptions of all the contents that Grandmother has in her collection. It was just sitting there out in the open…and I started to read it.”
She paused.
“And?” Ember asked.
“And,” Mae said with a hint of irritation, “I read it even though it went on for pages and pages, and you know just how much a chore that is for me.”
“Thank you,” Richard said.