by Andra Leigh
“It’s the story of the Witch and the first Wolf,” Jinx agreed, “Just on a larger scale.”
“And done on purpose,” Eliscity added. “At least the Witch didn’t know she’d be creating a whole new species when she turned that wolf into a man.”
“Or so the story goes,” Jinx said ominously. “I guess we can take comfort in the fact that one day they’ll run out of blood to use in their Bloodings.”
“Three hundred years and they haven’t run out yet,” she grimaced. “And they’ll always have the Borns.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “Even if they have to breed them themselves.”
That made Eliscity freeze. He was right. She’d never thought about it before, but provided the Clinic had one person with a lineage, they could always make more. And they would. Despite the Extinction Law and everything the humans had fought for in the War, they wouldn’t just let the last remnants of the Bloods die out. Rylock had been taught to fear the Bloods, yet the Reigner and his doctors played with the last breeds of them like they were something they could find a way to control. And perhaps they were. The doctors had created an entirely new allegiance the day they’d started their Bloodings and Bornings; neither pure Bloods, nor completely human, but somewhere in between. One day they would find a way to sway that allegiance to their own. That would be the day the humans would really win the War for good.
●
Eliscity was staring at her feet. They weren’t particularly interesting feet. Neither were her hands, wringing on her lap, that her eyes flickered over to every now and then. So far this memory wasn’t shaping up to be an exciting one.
After a few more minutes of watching her feet shift and tap nervously on the dull grey stone she was about ready to try pinching herself awake.
Then it started.
A horrific noise. It snapped through the air, not touching her, but her past self flinched nonetheless. Her eyes blurred with hot, vicious tears she didn’t understand the meaning of. The sound continued lashing across the space, but she never looked up. Never unclasped her white-knuckled hands. Never let the tears spill.
When the unexplained cracks coursing through the air stopped, she waited.
Bang.
Her whole body shot up as a door to her left crashed open and Drae burst out, pulling his coat on. Seeing her he pulled up short.
“Why are – Is everything okay?” His face turned concerned in an instant.
She didn’t answer. A knot of emotion in her throat told her she couldn’t answer. Her eyes lingered on the final adjustments of his coat, the careful way he settled it onto his body.
Drae seemed to understand. “Come on, I’ll walk you home,” he said kindly and walked past her, out into the darkening day.
She trotted after him, through the courtyards of what seemed to be a school. One that had emptied of students for the day.
“Will you wait?” she called after him, as his pace quickened. He paused briefly then fell into step with her. “Why did you do that for me?”
A line deepened between his eyebrows as he frowned at her. “I wasn’t going to let you take the blame for something you didn’t do.”
“It wasn’t your fault either,” she argued. “You didn’t deserve to take the punishment.”
They left the school behind, veering off down a road where the evening breeze chilled her.
“Fault has nothing to do with it. Even if you were to blame I still would have said it was me. And anyway, I wasn’t about to rat out Ivoe.”
“Ivoe let all the frogs out of their crate?” She sighed, “Oh, of course he did.”
“Actually he only let the mice go. We think the mice let the frogs out by gnawing through the lid of the crate.” Drae was shrugging out of his jacket carefully. “Out of all his pranks, it’s one of the less destructive ones I could have taken ownership of.” As he moved to hand the jacket over, Eliscity felt her entire past-self freeze. She knew it wasn’t because of the gesture or the cold, but rather because without the jacket she could see thin lines of blood seeping through the back of Drae’s white button up shirt. He’d been whipped. That had been the horrific noise snapping through the air. It had been the punishment he had saved her from. A punishment he had saved someone called Ivoe from too, apparently. Drae moved forward after a moment, as if realising she couldn’t move and slung it around her shoulders, pulling the collar in at the base of her throat.
Tilting his head, his vivid green eyes pierced hers and he smiled gently. “Why are you trying so hard not to like me?”
Eliscity had been wondering the same thing. It was such a confusing thing; reliving her actions without any context or reason for them. Not for the first time, she wished she knew what had been going through her mind at this stage of her life.
She was still looking into Drae’s eyes. She felt her shoulders slump as she answered, “Because I could like you.”
Drae frowned. “And?”
A jittery laugh escaped her lips. “And that terrifies me. I like my heart intact.”
“So do I.”
“Exactly,” she said, as if that should explain everything and turned back to their path.
They walked side by side again, so close their arms brushed together with each second step.
“Is it that you’re afraid you’ll like me,” Drae asked after a few steps, “or afraid you may love me?”
She didn’t say anything, the butterflies in her stomach taking flight to spread out over her skin. She was silent for so long that Eliscity wondered whether she had ever answered. Drae seemed unperturbed by the quiet.
Looking over to him, she finally asked, “What’s your meaning of love, Drae?”
Drae’s chest rose with a slow, pondering intake of breath. She could see he was intent on answering the question to the best of his ability.
“I think… the meaning of love is finding someone you have no interest in letting win a game of cards.”
There was no joke in his tone. That was his serious answer.
“That’s a terrible definition, Drae,” she heard herself laugh.
He smiled with her. “Why, because it’s not romantic? Love can’t be romantic all the time, ‘City. But it can be real. And to me being able to get lost in a game with someone and not want to just let them win for the sake of politeness or to reach an ending sounds like a good relationship to me. Like one that would endure.”
“I’m not talking about relationships. Relationships aren’t always based on love.”
“They should be,” Drae shrugged.
She slowed briefly – as if thinking – then shook her head once and quickened her pace. She recognised her family home in the distance and knew that was where she was heading. Drae didn’t match her stride this time, letting her put a small distance between them.
“Are you walking away because you didn’t like my answer?” he called.
“No, I’m –” sighing, she stopped short and turned back to him. “I’m walking away because I liked your answer.”
“Oh good, as long as it’s something sensible like that,” Drae grinned.
She felt herself fighting not to smile back at him.
A small series of yaps cut between them and suddenly Chief was there, a tiny bundle of energy.
“Sit, Chief.”
The puppy, despite its young age, happily obeyed his master’s order, though couldn’t quite control his tail which shook his entire body.
“I wish you hadn’t called him that,” she muttered.
“Mischief is no name for a man, dog or not.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know,” Drae said, closing the small gap between them and taking her hand. “Come on. Home.”
Eyes fixed on where their hands joined she allowed for him to tug her in the direction of their houses. This time with a boisterous puppy bounding and careening around them.
As they neared the break in the road, where they would have to separate, Eliscity felt herself pu
ll at Drae’s arm, urging him to follow her.
“Have you forgotten that I’m attached to that limb?” he joked.
“No. I also haven’t forgotten about your back. We have all the ingredients needed to soothe it.”
“Admit it,” she heard a smile in his voice, “you care for me.”
“Yes,” she said. Coming to a stop, she looked up into his emerald eyes, they were full of light. Lifting up onto her tiptoes she leant forward and gave him a light kiss on the lips. Settling back on her heels she sighed, “And I sense that’s going to break my heart.”
Eliscity woke suddenly, the sound of running water close to her head. She was in the water tunnels where she and Jinx had camped down to sleep. Jinx was still asleep, head lolling on his arm. The glowing crystal sat on their satchels, illuminating their small campsite in the long tunnel.
Shifting onto her side she reached into the gentle moving stream of water and splashed her face.
She knew she ended up with Drae. She knew she had been happy with him, she felt it within her skin in the memories they spent together. But knowing this wasn’t enough to stop the nervous roll of her stomach and ache over her heart at the thought she might never have allowed herself to love him. Sometimes when she relived her memories she felt like she was intruding on another’s life, watching through their eyes as she was shown things she couldn’t imagine having. A family. A home. But she never felt that way when she remembered her time with Drae. Every moment she spent with him was hers. She knew they had been real, she could feel it. They were familiar. It didn’t matter that she was different now, older and changed, Drae was still part of who she was. The Clinic had stolen her memories, but they had never succeeded in taking him away completely. He’d always been there, as a mirage, reaching out to her.
“You alright?” Jinx yawned behind her.
She quickly scrubbed her face once more and turned back to their make-shift sleeping quarters. “Yeah. Vivid dream,” she offered as an explanation for her state.
“You’re dreaming your memories now, right?” Jinx asked, not looking at her. They rarely discussed the subject of her regressions as his stance on the matter was clear.
“Mhm,” she mumbled, not wanting to say more and incite an argument.
“How’s that all going?” He was tense, packing up his satchel. “There’s a guy, right?”
“Drae.”
“Drae,” he repeated, the name sounding dry and lifeless coming from him. She didn’t like it. It was as if he was declaring his aversion for the man he had never met. They had never talked about the kiss. She didn’t know what it had meant to him, he had snapped back to his normal self so quickly, as if he had simply forgotten it had happened. And to her, it had never happened. She had no recollection of kissing Jinx, only her hallucination of Drae. Always Drae. No matter what, he was never far away from her, even if they were only memories.
“There’s also a family,” she added, preferring not to talk about Drae with him. “Parents, sisters… we lived on a farm by some woods. I guess they may still live there. There was this oak tree in the middle of the woods with a small lake in a clear–” she cut off her reminiscing as she realised Jinx was paying her little attention. “How far is our exit?”
“Um, another few tunnels, I believe.” Jinx squinted into the darkness.
Once they had had something to eat and slung their satchels over their shoulders they set off, following the twists of the tunnels for twenty minutes then climbed up into the dungeons of one of Seltley’s Universities, not far from the border of Trelyes City.
The University was overwhelming. The floors were marble, shined to perfection. Wide halls and sweeping staircases were lined with large portraits of scholars and professors hanging high on the walls. It was a relief to step out into the busy city streets.
Jinx said they would be on foot above ground for the day, so Eliscity settled into a steady, comfortable pace, doing her best not to bump into people. The heat of the dry Cityel the cities had been built on was dampened by the close lake, turning the air heavy and sticky. The manors, estates and universities in the Northern Cities may be lush and rich, but outside of their walls everything was dirtier than she had expected it to be. The grimy store fronts and broken panes could have belonged to the Southern Cities had the stores themselves not been filled with fresh foods and finely stitched clothes. Since she and Jinx didn’t look to be a threat as they moved through the streets, they had an undisturbed journey into Trelyes City, the guard’s eyes skimming over them unimportantly.
The Falling Inn was a quaint wooden structure in the middle of Trelyes with an eating house on the street level and slatted shutters lining the second landing. It wasn’t rowdy like the tavern they had passed a few minutes before, but it was easily just as full. Eliscity knew without asking that the delectable aromas wafting out of the kitchen were to thank for that.
Rather than scoot around the back of the Inn and make an illegal trade in the shadows with a dodgy looking man, Jinx confidently held one of the swinging doors to the eating house open for her and followed her inside.
The last of the day’s light still touched most of the room and candles had already been lit in preparation of the night. Almost all of the tables were occupied, laden with plates piled with steaming food and gravy.
A thirty-something dark haired man looked up as they entered, grinning from behind a long serving counter as he spotted Jinx.
“There goes my good reputation for today,” the man laughed as they approached him.
The kitchen was built open behind the counter and she could see vegetables roasting over coals and skewered hides of meat suspended above firepits. It made her mouth water.
“You expect me to believe you made it all the way to the afternoon without sullying your reputation?” Jinx said, approaching the man. “That I just can’t believe.”
The man laughed, clasping hands with Jinx briefly. “I’ll have you know there are times when I go to bed having spent the entire day making sales and trades that were all able to be written into my ledger of accounts.”
Flicking his eyes toward Eliscity he asked, “Who’s this, then?”
Eliscity tensed, wondering if it was okay that Jinx had brought her along on an illegal deal or if he was the type who didn’t take kindly to surprises. She may have expected someone more suspicious and shady than the man standing in front of her, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t become dangerous.
“This is E,” Jinx said.
She refrained from snorting at the new nickname. Since it was a preferable name to Angel, she didn’t argue.
“E, this is Miq.”
Miq offered her his hand, saying, “Nice to meet you, E is it?”
Eliscity took his hand, giving an amused shrug. “He likes nicknames.”
“Oh I know.” Miq’s eyes sparkled with laughter. “I only wish he’d make them more interesting. I mean, J… the rest of the alphabet waiting back home?”
“And a few numbers,” Eliscity nodded solemnly, deciding she liked the man.
Jinx folded his arms across his chest. “Hilarious,” he drawled.
“What do you expect, J?” He turned to Eliscity, lowering his voice to a mock whisper. “You’re the first other letter of the alphabet he’s ever brought here. I was beginning to think he didn’t have any friends.”
Leaning in, she matched his tone. “He doesn’t.”
Jinx shook his head. “I’m never taking you anywhere again.”
“This is why you have no friends,” Eliscity sighed as Miq audibly tsked and waggled his finger at him.
A woman with a baby swaddled to her chest slid behind the counter and approached them. Her hair was pulled into a wild bun, a few loose strands framing her sharp cheekbones and kind mouth.
“J, so good to see you, Hon,” she smiled, wrapping an arm around Miq’s waist. “Here for a trade?”
Oh right, Eliscity thought to herself, they were here to make an illegal deal. Jok
ing with the man they were making that deal with was the last thing she had expected to happen.
“That’s the plan. The moment your husband here is done with his mockery, that is.”
Miq pressed a kiss to his wife’s nose, looking at her with so much adoration in his eyes, Eliscity felt like she should look away and give them some privacy.
“If he’s going to sully my good reputation for the day, I am going to indulge in some mockery,” Miq said. “E, this is my wife, Maiva. Beautiful, this is E. If you have any further mockery to add for J’s clever talent at nicknames, now’s the perfect time to jump in.”
Maiva pinched Miq playfully on the cheek before covering his mouth with her hand. “Nice to meet you, E. So lovely to see someone with J for once.”
“Shusnadneafren,” Miq mumbled through his gag, light shining in his eyes.
Eliscity smiled at the interaction. Everything the couple did was adorable, love shining in their eyes. It made her heart hurt to remember what Jinx had said. Maiva was sick. She wouldn’t have known it from looking at her. While she was thin with some weary lines on her face, she was also smiling with a sleeping baby nestled into her.
“Was that more mockery?” she asked her husband.
Miq nodded proudly.
“Well, once the mockery and deals are out of the way, I’ll dish you up some supper. Do you like wild fowl, E?”
Eliscity nodded. “I can only assume so.” While she couldn’t remember ever eating wild fowl, if the smells coming from the kitchen were any indication, she liked it a lot.
“You know I never pass up a Falling Inn meal, Maiva,” Jinx said. “E’s meals on the other hand… Ow, what? You’ve made multiple letters of the alphabet throw up!”
She couldn’t argue with that, but it didn’t stop her aiming another elbow at his ribs.
Maiva laughed. “Don’t worry, E. We all have to be awful at something or there’d be no balance. Me? Can’t dance to save my life – oh is that right is it?” she addressed the baby who had just started to cry against her. Excusing herself she disappeared up the stairs at the side of the counter.