by R. Moses
Chapter Twenty Three
The Lord looked at the polished surface of his desk. “This manor is full of art, furniture, jewelry. Sell some of it.”
“The other Lords will see your goods at auction. Rumors are starting to spread already of your financial difficulties, my Lord. This will add fuel to the flame.”
“Indeed it will.” Her father sounded tired and defeated. Old. “If I do not stop this habit, I will lose the estate if the King deems me unfit to rule. What then, Gernan? Where does a Lord with no estate go?”
His steward remained silent. Lords who had lost their estates could go down many paths, each one worse than the last, each causing a different kind of humiliation.
After a while, Gernan asked, “What shall I tell Lady Brahm? She will notice the goods leaving the estate.”
“I will deal with my wife.”
“As you say, my Lord.” The relief in Gernan's voice was impossible for him to hide.
Lord Brahm changed subjects abruptly. “How are the twins?”
Kara stopped breathing. This was it...
“Their mother reports they are vigorous, bawling loudly and often.”
“Good. Keep Esha secluded in the cottage for a few more weeks. Send her word that I will visit her tonight to see my girls. And reassure her that Lady Brahm nor Anna will disturb her.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
“Why is it that I am plagued with girls, Gernan? Why not one healthy male heir?”
Gernan remained silent.
Kara's knees almost gave out on her, and she leaned on the thin wall for support. Her mother had twin girls, Lord Brahm's children. He was keeping her tucked away safely in the little cottage by the informal gardens.
She had two more sisters. How much was this going to cost her?
Almost as if he had heard her, Gernan asked, “Are you still considering setting Esha free if Kara returns?”
“She will never do it. She would have to buy all three freedom. What is the current market price for two babes and a young female?”
Gernan pressed his lips and thought. “I believe around two thousand gold coins.”
“Her returning with that much coin is a moot point.” He shrugged. “She would never earn that in two decades.”
“If anyone can do it, Kara can. If you do not mind me saying so, my Lord.”
“I do not mind you saying so.” Her father sat back. “She's gone out into the world, for good or ill I cannot say. She will survive, though. She's got the Brahm strength in her. She often reminds me more of my mother than her own.” He left the rest unsaid, that he himself did not display the powerful personality that had made their house a strong one in the past.
The talk dwindled to small household matters then the steward excused himself. Kara hesitated. What should she do? Should she present herself to her mother and father tonight, maybe pull out what she had right now and bargain hard? Or should she go back to the carnival and think? She was torn between the two choices. She had been afraid her mother was being tormented by Anna and Lady Brahm's small cruelties, but if she was tucked away in the cottage she should be safe.
I will go back and think, she decided after a few minutes. I don't have the amount he wants anymore, and I can't just free mother. She would never leave the babes here.
She had one last minor thing to do. She crept through the bones of the house and entered the library after checking it was empty, glad she no longer needed a candle since her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. She scanned the rows of books quickly and found the one she was looking for. She placed it in her satchel and rearranged the other books to hide the gap. This was the book that had a few passages on fae lore and she would look over it later, in the safety of her tent.
She slipped back through the passageways in a numb haze, down the stairs, down the ladder, through the tunnel while she asked herself the same question over and over again. Where in the Goddess' green earth was she going to find another thousand gold coins? Could Lyla find more jewels? Could Kara borrow the money from someone? With her newly elevated earnings, maybe she could work the debt off in a few years...
It was insane, utterly insane. How could she overcome this obstacle? Even if she did free them, Hither did not allow children to travel with the carnival. Could she convince him to make an exception?
She groaned thinking of these added complications as she exited the spring house and closed the door behind her. She hurried back to the carnival in the fading twilight, ignoring the mutterings and stares cast her way as she entered the circle of tents, and ducked in her own to find Lyla and Icari sitting across from each other, a squat candle between them, a dingy set of cards spread out. They looked up in unison and smiled. She returned the smiles weakly and sat on her cot to draw off her boots, her heavy satchel thumping down as she shrugged out of it. She winced at the smell of her feet.
Icari asked, “Are you well?”
“Well enough. Let me rinse off and I will tell you about my new problems.”
She went to the back and closed the canvas flap. She was covered in dust and sweat, so she dug through her pile of tunics and sniffed. One stunk less than the others, so that was just going to have to do. She rinsed off as best as she could then shrugged into the dingy tunic.
She came back out, feeling a little better. Lyla said softly, “I got you a bowl of stew.”
“Thanks.” Kara dropped down beside her and accepted the proffered bowl. She was starving, and ate every last bit. She set the bowl aside. “What game are you two playing?”
Icari said, “Hangman's Noose. Lyla just learned and she has won three times now.”
“It is similar to a game I once played as a child,” Lyla said. Her brow furrowed. “I cannot recall what we named it.”
Kara asked, “Mind if I play?”
“Of course not. Let me reshuffle the cards.” Icari swept them together and divided them back out. Kara took her hand and cleared her throat. “Lyla?”
“Yes?”
“Is there any way you could find more jewels around here? Or coins?”
Lyla gave her a look teeming with sorrow. “Did your father change the price of freedom?”
“Not exactly. It would appear that I have twin babes to free as well.”
Icari sucked his breath in sharply. “But babes-”
“Cannot travel with the carnival, even if I pay their way. I know. I'm trying to get through one problem at a time right now.”
Lyla set her cards face down and stood up. “I will search for jewels. But I will not take any that are owned.”
Kara said, “I wouldn't ask you to steal. Well, except for that time I wanted to know if you were interested in pickpocketing.”
Lyla smiled and turned towards the exit.
“Wait!” Icari said. “It is dark out. Many dangers lurk. Let us go with you.”
Lyla looked at him over her slim shoulder. “The creatures of the night know better than to attack me. And nothing from the mists is nearby. I would sense it.”
She walked out and they shared a glum look. Kara said, “It's not only animals that are a threat out there.”
An awkward silence fell, then Kara remembered the book. She said, “I found a book about the fae.”
His eyes brightened as she pulled it out. It must have been close to a thousand years old, with a cracking spine and several pages falling out. She bit her cheek as he caught the pages before they hit the ground. She was going to have to be more careful if she wanted to return the book intact.
She put it down as gently as she could and said, “If the dates Lyla gave us are accurate, this was written hundreds of years after the fae went into their sleep. So the fae were ancient history even then. Most of this is based on legends. And this is probably a copy of a copy of the original book.”
He whispered, “Nevertheless, it will be fascinating to find out more about her. What is the name of the book?”
“The Peoples of the World and Their Ways.” She ignor
ed the breathy way he said it would be fascinating to find out more about Lyla as she flipped the pages aside. The smell of the book conjured up images of Quinton and her in the library, her full of a thousand questions, him full of endless patience. He had likely been dismissed as Anna was too old for tutoring by sixteen. Kara wondered absently where he was in the wide world. She had admired his scholarly mind, and despite his frail health he had been her most outspoken champion when her father had declared her spurned before the entire estate. No one had ever stood up for her with such vigor, not even her own mother...
“Found it!” she exclaimed as the tip of her finger slid down the bumpy page. She squinted and sighed. “I will read it out loud. Hold on.”
The writing was spidery and cramped, the ink faded. She mouthed the words for a few minutes until she was confident she was reading it right. She began:
Concerning The Fae and Their Origins
Little is known of these people, other than they disappeared four centuries ago. The most famous fae was a female name Lavida, who was openly King Peter IV's lady of pleasure, ever at his side and ever at court. Rumors are that she bore him four and ten children, secreted about the kingdom so that Queen Ryenna would not harm the children. Lavida was most unusual. The fae rarely crept out of their forest homes to meddle with the affairs of man. No one knows why they disappeared, though there are rumors, which this humble author hesitates to write as he finds rumors odious and bothersome. The most oft-repeated tale of the disappearance of the fae goes thusly:
Queen Ryenna was so wroth with King Peter over his open affair with Lavida that she had the court mage, Carion (later to be caught out as a dark mage and exiled) coax horrors from the mists that could hunt down and destroy the fae, including the half-fae children of the King. These horrors roamed the entire world, terrorizing humans once they had devoured or chased the fae away. Rumor further speculates that this was when the divide between the mists and the lands of man began to weaken as Carion did his job too well in opening the way for the summoned horrors. I hesitate to write the name of the horrors Carion called even now, for they are said to still be with us, feeding off man since the fae are gone, reluctant to step back into the foul mists. But I will write it so that you, dear reader, will be informed. The mortal enemy of the fae are incubi, those beautiful creatures that would seduce and then kill. Fae usually find them irresistible once they have set eyes on the incubi, as do many humans.
Most fae are presumed dead, but this author hopes the rumors are false, that they still haunt their leafy homes away from the sight of man. And that is all this author knows of the fae, if they ever existed at all.
Kara finished reading and said softly, “Wow. This is even more useless than I thought. It really does sound like a bunch of rumors.”
Icari nodded slowly. “There are stories of the incubi in my kingdom, that they roam still.”
“I've never heard of them.” She hesitated, then asked, “Do you miss your kingdom?”
Icari looked away. “I will let you rest. You seem exhausted. I thank you for finding this book.” He rose, still training his eyes away. “Good night.”
He left without waiting for her to say 'good night' back. She was alone suddenly, feeling like a fool for leaving that 'p.s.' on her note about kissing. Icari must have never liked her, she had misunderstood something somewhere, and now he was avoiding her like everyone else.
She went and curled up on her cot, worry gnawing at her insides. Her problems chased each other around and around in her head as she clenched herself tightly. She dozed off.
A light touch on her shoulder jerked her awake. The candle had burnt out and all she could see was Lyla's dim outline.
She sat up. “Did you find anything?”
Lyla put something cold and damp into her hand, then went over to light the candle. It revived with an indignant hiss. Kara looked down at a rotting pouch on her palm. She asked weakly, “Was this from another corpse?”
“Yes. There are quite a few in the woods. Only this one had anything of value upon him.”
Kara crawled to the floor, trying to ignore the faint whiff of carrion hanging onto the pouch. She spilled the contents out onto the floor. Ten gold coins, four silver coins, and a few bronzes. A small fortune to a peasant. Next to nothing when compared to the worth of two healthy babes.
She blinked hard and whispered, “Thank you so much.”
Lyla sat across from her. She said, “There is only one way to get more without stealing.”
“What way?” Kara leaned forward, desperate.
“The graveyard by the church. There are many jewels there.”
Kara let a dry laugh slip out. “Grave robbing is definitely stealing.” She went still as she assessed the possibility. Taking goods from an unburied traveler was one thing. Stealing from a grave sanctioned by a priest was a whole other situation.
Could she bring herself to rob graves? How low would she go for her mother and her two siblings? Would she risk damnation of her immortal soul to see her heart's desire?