by Kaylin Lee
Everything was malnourished and wrong, but the worst of it was his body’s immune system. It was weak nearly to the point of worthlessness, leaving him almost defenseless.
I steadily increased the magic pumping into his body, closing my eyes as I envisioned the warm flow strengthening his blood, organs, and muscles. Then I healed the many scars a lifetime of infections had left in the rest of his body by enhancing the natural defense proper nutrition would have given him.
When I released his shoulders, Stefan sighed happily and opened his eyes. “That was amazing.” His voice was clear as a bell, without any hint of roughness, and his eyes were bright and alert. “Thanks, Alba.” He peered up at me. “Will you stay with us forever?”
Chapter 15
“Whoa, there!” Damian put an arm around Stefan’s shoulders and pulled him away from me. “Let’s do the formal introductions before we ask for an eternal commitment, kid.”
“Formal introductions! Where are we, the royal palace?” The next eldest brother rolled his eyes. “I’ll start.” He pointed a bony finger at the oldest boy. “That’s Damian. He’s the second oldest, and the most near-sighted. Practically blind without those spectacles, if we’re allowed to be honest in formal introductions. He’s jealous that you’re a real healer mage. He’s read every book in the Hollow, so he thinks he’s the smartest of all of us.”
Damian released Stefan and jabbed the boy who’d spoken with a quick punch in the upper arm. “It’s not as though there is much competition for that particular title.” He glanced at me sheepishly. “And I’m not jealous of you. Just … admiring. I’m sort of the healer in the Hollow. I do my best, but I wish I had your talent.”
I smiled. “It’s nice to formally meet you, Damian. Thank you for taking care of me the past two days.”
“Of course.” He cleared his throat. “And this beanpole is Anton. He’s the third oldest, the snarkiest, and the laziest by far, but we keep him around because he can make a stew out of just about anything. Old boots, tree bark, beetles of all sizes …”
Anton scowled and shoved his over-long, black hair out of his face. “I’m not lazy, brother. I’m tired. There’s a difference.” He narrowed his green eyes. “And just wait until you see what’s going in your dinner tonight.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Anton.” I smiled kindly. The last thing I wanted was to be eating a retaliatory beetle stew for dinner. “Would you like me to help?”
He wrinkled his brow. “Help? With what?”
I held out my hand and let a little swirl of gold sparkles appear in my palm. “Give me your hand.”
Anton studied me for a moment.
I kept still under his scrutiny, my lips fixed in a smile. From the bare bit of peach fuzz on his upper lip, I guessed Anton to be two or three years younger than me, but the resignation in his gaze made him seem decades older.
“Might as well.” He put his palm in mine.
I sent magic through his body, confirming my initial diagnosis. The young man was starving. His grip tightened as I increased the flood of magic, nourishing his wasted body from the inside out. It wasn’t enough to make him feel like he’d eaten, but at least now he’d have energy. When his body would accept no more magic, I stopped.
“I’ve just given you the nourishment you’d get from a week’s worth of healthy, generous meals. You should have more energy for the next few days. But …” I pulled him a bit closer and lowered my voice. “You’re too tall to be so thin, and I’ve no doubt you’re growing taller every day at this age. You need to eat more, Anton. A lot more.”
“No kidding,” he said gruffly, avoiding my eyes. “Thanks, Alba.” He pulled out of my grip. “I feel better already,” he said to his brothers. “I guess Asylian healers can even cure laziness, Damian. You sure have a lot to learn from her.”
“Me next!” The more outgoing of the twins bounded forward as Anton stepped away from me. “But I don’t need healing. I feel amazing! Just lucky, I guess. I’m Anders, and that’s Basil.” He beckoned his brother forward but didn’t seem to mind when Basil only surrendered a single step in my direction. “We’re twins. I’m ten minutes older, so that makes me the fourth oldest, right?” He beamed. “I’m the best hunter in the Hollow. One day, I’m going to bring home a cougar for dinner. No—a bear!”
Basil pursed his lips. “Well,” he mumbled, “there aren’t really … I mean, you haven’t …”
“I just bag squirrels, mostly,” Anders continued, unfazed. “Once, I got ten squirrels in a single day!”
His twin cocked his head. “Actually, it was … Um, wasn’t it more like seven?”
“But it was almost ten! I nearly got three more.” Anders squared his shoulders. “Ten would have been a Hollow record.”
Basil shuffled a little closer. “Yes, but …”
“But not lately.” Anders shrugged. “I know. There’s no game left in the Hollow anymore. One day though—”
“Enough, enough.” Anton gave his head an exasperated shake, though his eyes crinkled as he glanced at me. “These are the twins. We can’t take them anywhere, as you can see. Anders is the loud one, and surprisingly enough, he’s a decent hunter.” Anders puffed out his chest. “And Basil is the quiet one.” Basil crossed his arms. “He’s a tinkerer. Kid’ll make anything you need out of old junk, twigs, and various … uh … city stuff.”
I smiled at Basil, hoping to soften him like I had the others. “City stuff?”
Basil scowled. “I thought we weren’t supposed to talk about that stuff,” he mumbled.
“Don’t worry about it.” Damian shifted uncomfortably. “Alba, you’ve met Stefan, of course, and Drew, the youngest. So there you have it. The brothers Remes.”
“And who’s your seventh?” I couldn’t resist. “Damian, you’re the second oldest, right? Who’s the oldest?”
“Don’t worry about Sidon.” Anton’s voice was sour. “He doesn’t live here anymore.”
“He had to go out and slay monsters,” Drew said excitedly. “Slay monsters and rogues of all kinds. He’ll come home when he’s done.”
“Sure he will, kid.” Anton shook his head and hunched his shoulders as he busied himself at the old stove. “Sure he will.”
Stefan went to a wooden bunk and sat down, opening a thick book on his lap.
Basil and Anders joined him at the bunks, and Drew went to pester Anton as he bustled in front of the stove.
Damian turned to me. “We don’t often get company, as you can probably imagine. But we’re happy to share what we have with you, Alba. Stay here as long as you like.”
My stomach let out a growl so wolf-like, I thought it might howl next. I pressed a hand over my belly. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere until you feed me. So … what’s for dinner? Not beetle stew, I hope?”
“I have a feeling it’s going to be the same thing we eat every night. Root vegetable stew thickened with victus. It tastes like lumpy, salty clay.” Damian shrugged. “But we’re all still alive, aren’t we?”
~
“This tastes like tears and disappointment.” Anton lifted his spoon, took a halfhearted swallow, and grimaced. “It really does.”
Damian made a show of scraping the bowl and eating the last of his stew. Then he patted his belly. “It’s not that bad. It’s filling.”
Anton pointed his spoon at me from across the table. A dollop of victus hung motionless from the spoon, too thick and sticky to fall to the table. “She agrees with me.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I do?”
“You’re the only one of this bunch who knows what civilization tastes like.” He scooped up a larger chunk of the mixture and waved it over his bowl. “This so-called stew, on the other hand … tears and disappointment. Right?”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Um …”
“Be honest!” He looked so earnest, I forced myself to silence the giggle. “Right?”
“Right,” I mumbled.
“See?” He waved his spoon at his
older brother.
Damian nudged me good-naturedly. “C’mon, Alba, you’re not helping! We need our cook happy. I’d rather eat vegetable-victus stew than straight victus, wouldn’t you?”
I took another bite of the stew. “There’s nothing wrong with eating victus for dinner,” I said when I’d managed to swallow the thick mouthful. “I ate almost nothing but victus for the first thirteen years of my life. Besides, Anton, you’ve made it taste better than anything we ever managed back at home in Asylia. The added vegetables and spices definitely help.”
Anton flushed slightly and sat a little straighter. “Well, I—”
“But you lived in the city.” Basil frowned suspiciously, speaking up for the first time since we’d sat down at their scuffed, wooden table for dinner. “Didn’t you have lots of food there?”
“Not during the plague. The city gates were shut for eleven years. Only Procus families could afford real food.”
Basil nodded slowly and poked his spoon into his soup, which was so thick, it held the spoon upright. After a moment, he looked up at me again. “Then why did you eat victus for thirteen years, rather than eleven?”
I stilled. All six boys were watching me closely, like Basil had just discovered a flaw in my story. What did they think, that I’d lied my way into the cave in order to steal their delicious victus?
“I was kept hidden until I was thirteen.” My hands grew clammy. I usually avoided this topic of conversation, but it didn’t look like I had much choice now. “My mother was a fugitive, and because of that, so were my twin sister and I. The three of us lived in the upper room of a bakery in Asylia and could never, ever leave. If we did, my mother’s enemies would be able to track us back to her. When the city gates opened after the plague, my stepsister Ella did her best to provide real food for us, but we still ate victus as often as we could to lessen the burden for her.”
The cave was silent for a moment as they seemed to mull over my story.
“What happened when you were thirteen?” Damian laid his spoon down beside his bowl.
We’re taking you to a special place, the gravelly-voiced tracker had said as he whipped the fomecoach around and away from the rest of the guards. Don’t worry. As long as your mother cooperates, you’ll survive the night.
“My sister and I were kidnapped to lure our mother out of hiding.” The flat tone of my words made me want to cover my ears.
Drew’s eyes widened. “And then what happened?”
Rapunzel, kill her. My head pounded. I rubbed my temples. My stepsister Ella’s helpless whimpers. Mom reaching for Ella’s throat, the movement slow and mechanical, controlled by her True Name. There was a reason I avoided thinking about these memories. Weslan’s blood pooling on the warehouse floor by my bare feet, his unconscious form too far away for me to heal. Red-masked bodies crumpling lifelessly, dropping around me like puppets without strings.
“Mom rescued us.” There. That was what mattered, wasn’t it? Mom had rescued us. Dad had found us. And we’d all lived happily ever after.
Except Bri.
And except me.
Basil lowered his brows in a frown. “Did she get caught?”
I nodded. “But Prince Estevan pardoned her right afterward, so it was fine in the end. We’ve lived freely in Asylia’s Mage Division ever since. Freely, for the most part.”
“Oh.” Basil picked up his spoon and resumed eating, while the other brothers fell silent.
“So, have you always lived here in the Hollow?” I asked brightly. It was well past time to change the subject.
“This isn’t the Hollow.” Stefan looked up from his bowl.
“Then what’s the Hollow?”
“It’s a mining valley further up the mountain,” Damian said, gesturing with his spoon. “That’s where everyone else around here lives. But not us.”
“A mining valley.” Something one of the brothers had said earlier had me frowning. “Do you work in the mine there?”
“All of us but Drew,” Anders said proudly. “He’s too young.”
You’re all too young, I wanted to say. “Why don’t you live in the Hollow too?”
“Not safe,” Basil whispered under his breath. He carved his spoon along the side of his bowl, scraping off the last of his thick, gray stew.
“Why not?”
Damian frowned down at his bowl. “The mine’s operators. They control the Hollow. The dwellings, the food, the fuel … everything. Si— We thought we’d be safer outside the Hollow, even though we work in the mine. No one in the Hollow knows exactly where we live, and we plan on keeping it that way.”
We keep it hidden, Drew had said when he first showed me the tunnel into the cave. I nodded slowly. “So you haven’t always lived here?”
“No. Not always.”
I looked from Damian to Anton. “Then where did you live before?”
The boys were silent.
Why would no one meet my eyes? I kept smiling, like I hadn’t realized they were refusing to answer the question. And why did you move here? And when? And why is it apparently a secret?
“We moved around a lot,” Anton finally said. “Different places around the Gold Hills.” He jerked his chin to Damian. “We should get to bed. Seems like the mine bell rings earlier every day.”
Damian’s shoulders were oddly tense, but at Anton’s words, they relaxed slightly. “You’re right.” He gestured to the twins. “Clean up dinner.”
Anders opened his mouth, but Damian handed him a stack of bowls. “It’s your turn. No arguing. Just get it done.” He turned to me, his scolding frown softening. “Come on, Alba. You can sleep in Si’s bed. It’s not as though he needs it.”
“Si? He’s your eldest brother, right? The one who isn’t here?”
Damian nodded.
“He won’t mind if I sleep in his bed?”
Damian looked away. “It’s been almost a year since we saw him last. Trust me, you’re welcome to his bunk. Anyway, we’d rather have you around here than him.”
~
Drew showed me to a covered tunnel entrance different than the one we’d entered from. “You can wash up in there. There’s a river that runs through the nearest cave. It’s cold.” He peered at me and wrinkled his little brow. “Be sure not to fall on the rocks. It’s slippery, and the water moves fast.”
“Noted.” I wouldn’t be falling into another river if I could help it.
I crawled through the tunnel and clung to the wall when it opened into a cave the size of a small room, lit by a luminous lantern fixed to the edge of the tunnel’s opening. The deafening sound of rushing water echoed off the rocks.
The water was ice-cold but refreshing. I did my best copy of my evening ablutions at home, although without any mage-craft beauty serums, it was a sadly futile effort.
When I returned to the main cave, the overhead luminous was off, and the boys were nearly all in their bunks. Anton snored noisily as I hung the towel Drew had given me from the edge of my—Si’s—bunk. The eldest brother’s spot turned out to be the lower bunk on the far-right side of the other bunks.
Damian waved sleepily from a bunk near mine. “Ready for bed?”
I curled up under the thin blanket. The bunk was stiff and uncomfortable, but it was far better than the base of a tree or the cave floor where I’d spent the past two nights. “Ready. Goodnight, Damian. Thank you for everything.”
He flicked off the lantern beside his bunk. “’Night, Alba. I’m glad you’re here.”
I’d only been asleep for a few hours when something woke me. I opened my eyes, but the cave was pitch black. I held my breath. What had disturbed my sleep?
I shifted and adjusted the blanket. All six boys were snoring at once. It was surprising I’d been able to sleep at all in such a racket. I rolled to my side and pulled the blanket over my exposed ear. The snores quieted slightly. Perhaps if I managed to hold the blanket in place, I’d be able to fall back asleep.
Thump.
I ripped the blanket away from my ear.
Thump. THUMP.
A male voice muttered something. He sounded agitated. Was it one of the brothers or someone else? Could someone have found the hidden tunnel entrance?
“Damian,” I whispered. My heartbeat thudded.
Damian stirred, rustling his blankets, but a moment later, he resumed snoring louder than before.
Thump, thump, thump.
I sat up in the bunk and punched what I hoped was the boy’s arm. “Damian!”
“Alba?” His voice was sleepy and hoarse. “What’s wrong?”
“Someone is coming through the tunnel!”
Chapter 16
THUMP.
The man in the tunnel growled angrily. The sound was far louder now. He was almost to the cave, but his slow progress and constant thumps made me wonder if he was bringing something heavy with him.
Damian and Anton stood in front of the entrance, their crossbows ready.
Behind them, Anders held his own crossbow and Basil lifted the luminous lantern, turned just bright enough to give the brothers enough light to face the interloper.
Drew and Stefan stood on either side of me near the bunks. They’d been deprived of their miniature crossbows by Anton, who claimed they’d just shoot him by accident. Instead, Stefan held his thick book in his hands as though ready to bash someone over the head with it at any moment, and Drew gripped my hand like he thought I might run away.
“I knew there were monsters out there.” His quiet whisper was the only noise in the cave.
I tightened my grip on his hand. “Hush, Drew,” I whispered back. “Your brothers will protect us.”
In my free hand, I let a small swirl of gold sparkles begin to pool. The boys I’d healed before dinner hadn’t come close to draining the magic I’d stored up after two days of sleep. I gauged the distance between where we stood and the tunnel entrance. It was just a bit further than the parlor door from the kitchen table back home. If I used as much power as I could, I could knock the man against the side of the cave before he had a chance to hurt anyone.