by Amy Ewing
“They will be arriving on tomorrow’s train. I didn’t have time to vet them properly—I hope they will be sufficient.”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine.” I bite my lip. “Lucien, the people at the meeting tonight . . . they were frightened of me.”
“Did you show them your power?” he asks.
“Yes.”
There is a pause.
“They simply do not understand you,” he says.
“They loved Ash,” I say with a grin. Ash makes a face and I can practically hear Lucien rolling his eyes.
“Yes, I’m sure they did.”
“He’s going to help train them, you know. To fight.”
Raven raises an eyebrow at Ash, and he shrugs.
“That’s . . . fantastic.” Lucien’s sarcasm is palpable.
“I’d like to go to more meetings,” I say. “I want to know the people I’m fighting with.”
“You can discuss that with Sil,” Lucien says. “But for now, remember your purpose. Train the other surrogates.”
The arcana drops into my palm.
“So,” Raven says to Ash, “you’re going to be the new major general of the Black Key’s army?”
He laughs. “I’m glad I can finally do something.”
“You know how to fight.”
“Yes.”
“Can you teach me, too?”
“I . . .” Ash frowns and glances at me.
“Raven,” I say. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
She levels me with her glare. “I want to be strong. I want my body to feel strong again.”
It’s her decision. After all she’s been through, she’s earned it. “All right,” I say. Then I let out a huge yawn.
“We all better get some sleep,” Ash says. “Especially since it seems we’re getting some new additions tomorrow.”
As Raven heads upstairs to bed, and Ash and I make our way out to the barn, I can’t help hoping that whoever comes tomorrow will be as bold as Sienna, kind as Lily, and smart as Raven.
We’ll show all the people in this city.
Surrogates are not just silly girls, to be bought and sold and treated like pets or furniture.
We are a force to be reckoned with.
Twenty-Seven
SIL AND I FETCH THE CRATES FROM BARTLETT STATION the next day at noon.
The two girls could not look more different from each other. I stare down at them as Ash pries the lids off the crates.
One is very tall, with pale skin and long blond hair. Her legs are cramped in the small space. The other is tiny and dark with a mop of brown curls.
We carry them to Raven’s room and lay them out on the twin beds.
“I remember her,” Sienna says, pointing to the small girl. “I saw her at the Longest Night ball.”
“Was she nice?” I ask.
“I didn’t talk to her.”
I clench my teeth but say nothing.
Sienna and Raven wait downstairs—I felt it better for the new girls to see one face at a time. Plus, Sienna isn’t the best welcoming committee.
The blonde is the first to wake up. After the unpleasant effect of Lucien’s serum has passed, I hand her a glass of water. She gulps it down and looks up at me.
“You!” she exclaims. “I remember you. You played cello at the Exetor’s Ball.” She looks around the room. “I’m not in the Jewel anymore, am I?”
“No,” I say.
And just like that, she bursts into tears.
“Oh, thank you,” she says, clutching my sweater. “Thank you, thank you . . .”
Her name is Indi. I take her downstairs to meet Raven, Sienna, and Sil. It’s immediately apparent that Indi has one of the sunniest dispositions I’ve ever encountered—friendlier even than Lily. They look similar, too, with the same blond hair and big blue eyes, but Indi is much taller, taller than Raven. And her skin sags on her bones, dark circles under her eyes.
“It was awful there,” Indi says, as Sil puts a mug of tea in front of her. “My mistress would shut me in a closet sometimes when she had company over. Oh, this is lovely,” she says, taking a sip of tea. “She’d forget about me and I’d be left there for a whole day. She was young, just married, and she was more interested in pleasing her husband. I heard her tell someone she only bought a surrogate to see what the Auction was like. I started to worry . . . I mean . . . the Electress’s surrogate died and then there was one girl I went to Westgate with and I saw her a few times, at the Longest Night ball and a couple of other parties and then she was gone.” She looks around the room, taking in the handwoven rugs, the homemade furniture, the cast-iron stove. “I like this house,” she says. “It’s very comfortable, isn’t it?”
“It is,” I say. “I’d better go back upstairs before the other girl wakes up.” I look to Raven. “Can you fill her in?”
“We’ve got this,” she says.
Indi is still chattering away as I head back upstairs.
It takes the little brunette another half hour before she wakes. Her reaction is the same as Indi’s—violent response to the serum, greedily drinking the water, and then bursting into tears.
Unlike Indi, her tears aren’t joyful.
I manage to get her name—Olive—before she starts shouting.
“Where am I? Where is my mistress? Take me back! I want to go back the Jewel.” Olive’s green eyes are glassy under her thick brown curls. “How could you do this to me?”
Before I have a chance to say anything, she runs out the door and down the stairs. I follow her and she stops short at the sight of the four women sitting around the dining room table.
“I remember you,” she says to Sienna. “You broke the rules. You drank champagne when you weren’t supposed to. I saw you at the Exetor’s Ball.” She turns to me, as if I had suddenly become her ally. “I told my mistress and she was pleased, yes she was; she knew I would never do that to her. Be obedient and be rewarded, that’s what she always said.” Olive claps her hands to her chest. “Oh, my poor mistress, what will she do without me?”
“She’ll survive,” Sienna snaps. “And so will you.”
Indi shoots her a look. She gets up and puts her arm around Olive.
“It will be all right,” Indi says. “I think they’re trying to help us.”
“I want to help my mistress,” Olive says with a giant sniff.
“You don’t have a mistress anymore,” I say gently.
“Yes I do, she’s the Lady of the Stream and she needs me!”
She collapses into sobs on Indi’s arm.
“We need to show her. Let’s get this over with,” Sienna says. “Maybe when she goes to the cliff she’ll understand.”
“I’ve never been on a cliff before,” Indi says, stroking Olive’s hair and glancing around as if it might be hidden under the sofa or behind the loom.
“I want to go back to the Jewel,” Olive moans.
I’m surprised by Olive’s reaction, and her complaints are unsettling. I’d never imagined any surrogate who’d spent any time in the Jewel actually defending the royalty. “You’re right, we should show them now,” I say to Sienna. “Raven?”
Raven is hunched over, holding her head in her hands.
“What’s wrong?” I say, hurrying to her side.
“She’s been twisted up,” she says, speaking to her feet. “Not the way I was but . . . she believes their lies. She loves them. It hurts.”
I put my hand on her knee. “We can wait. You don’t have to take us there now. It’s all right.”
Raven’s head whips up. “Of course I can take you there. It’s better there anyway.” She rubs her temple. “I wish she’d stop crying.”
We take Olive and Indi outside to the pond. The chill from last night has lifted; the sun is dazzling in a cloudless blue sky. It’s almost warm.
Ash is running laps around the field—he’s not wearing a shirt, and his back muscles ripple as he runs.
“Who’s that?” Olive asks, h
er tears stopping for the first time.
“He’s someone you’ll meet later,” I say. Indi’s eyes are glued to Ash’s retreating form.
“Let’s do it by the pond,” Sienna suggests.
“Where are you taking me?” Olive asks. I keep a tight hold on her hand and am glad that Indi seems to have the same idea.
“What a charming house,” Indi says, looking back at the White Rose. “And the air here . . . it’s so clear. Clean.” She takes a deep breath.
We stand in a circle at the edge of the pond. Raven takes Indi’s other hand as I take Sienna’s. Olive tugs against me.
“What is she going to do?” she asks.
“We’re going to show you who you really are,” I say.
“So stop trying to fight it,” Raven adds. “Because you can’t.”
She closes her eyes. Sienna and I do the same.
I hear a faint shriek from Olive as the cliff pulls us to it.
This time, the trees on the cliff are caught in a windstorm, their branches shaking and creaking as the wind howls. Dry brown leaves fly in the air around us. I’ve never felt this space so charged. I see Olive and Indi, on the far side of the spiral statue, and they have that same look on their faces that Sienna did when she first saw the ocean, a mixture of awe and reverence.
We stay here for a few minutes, letting the power of this place soak in. When we return, Olive and Indi look down and see flowers—dark green and lemon yellow—around them.
“What was that place?” Indi asks, bending down to stroke her flowers. Even as they wilt under her touch, new ones bloom.
“What did you do to me?” Olive asks, stepping backward. “I feel . . .” She clutches her chest. The trail of green flowers follows her. “I don’t . . .”
The arcana begins to buzz in the knot in my hair.
“I’ll be right back,” I say to Raven and Sienna. “Stay with them.”
I run back to the house, ripping the arcana out.
“Lucien?”
“It’s me,” Garnet says. “I need to talk to you.” His tone is urgent, like it was the night I first heard him on the arcana. “There’s something I thought you’d want to know. My mother received a delivery late last night.”
“What was it?”
“A surrogate.”
My heart plummets. “How could she have gotten another surrogate? The Auction hasn’t happened yet.”
“I don’t know. I saw a girl arrive. She was handcuffed and blindfolded. And Dr. Blythe came to the palace this morning.” He sighs.
“Does Lucien know?”
“I’ve been trying to get in touch with him. I expect he’s fairly busy, now that the Auction date has been moved.”
“So you heard about that, too.”
“Yes. It’s like a bloodbath here. Hardly any of the surrogates from last year’s Auction are left alive. Everyone knows the Electress wants her daughter to rule. The Auction has been moved up, making it more likely she’ll have one. So any surrogate who is pregnant with a girl is essentially useless.”
“They’re killing their own surrogates?”
“Yes,” Garnet says grimly. “And you’re not safe if you’re a surrogate carrying a boy, either, because you can bet some rival House is going to try to take you out.”
I shudder. “This is going to be harder than we thought.”
“It was always going to be hard,” he says. “I’ve never . . . it’s like . . .” He lets out a growl of frustration. “I see them all now. The surrogates. I never noticed them before. Except now I see her, in every one of them.” I know he’s talking about Raven. “I see you in them, too,” he adds quickly. “They’re all people now, frightened girls who are paraded around on leashes and locked up in medical rooms. It’s disgusting.”
I press a hand to my mouth, a smile spreading beneath my fingers. It’s incredible how much he’s changed since the first time I saw him, drunk in the Duchess’s dining room.
“How is everything at the White Rose?” he asks. “The last time I talked to Lucien he said he was sending you some new recruits.”
“I think one of them is going to be . . . difficult.”
“I’ve got to go,” Garnet says suddenly. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything else about this new surrogate. Mother’s keeping her under tight lock and key. And tell Raven I said hello. Sorry I couldn’t talk to her today.”
“I’ll tell her,” I say. “And take care of yourself.”
“I always do.”
The arcana drops into my hand.
Twenty-Eight
ASH LEAVES FOR HIS FIRST TRAINING SESSION TONIGHT.
Raven goes with him.
I like the idea of Raven fighting even less than the idea of Ochre, but Ash makes a good point.
“She wants to be able to defend herself,” he says. “After all that she’s been through, I think she deserves that.” He kisses me lightly. “Do you honestly think I’d ever let anything happen to her?”
After dinner, Indi, Olive, and I go walking on the grounds. I’m hoping Olive will feel her connection to the elements more strongly. She can connect with Air and Water, but she doesn’t seem to have any interest in them.
“I want to sit by the pond for a while,” Indi says as we pass by the body of water. Indi, as it turns out, can only connect with Water.
I nod, and Olive and I continue to the forest. I remember that first night I came here. How Lucien told me to trust my instincts and how foolish I felt. I don’t feel foolish anymore.
We walk in silence until Olive says, “I want to go back to the Jewel.”
“You can’t,” I say. My mind is racing. There must be some way to get Olive on our side. “I was born in the South Quarter of the Marsh. You are from the East Quarter, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” she says.
“I have a younger brother and sister,” I say. “Do you have any siblings?”
“Six older brothers, and one younger sister.”
“Would you want your sister to be diagnosed? Taken from your home and sold?”
She shrugs. “My family would get some money, if she was.”
“They stop paying once you’re dead,” I say.
“My mistress wouldn’t kill me,” she says. “She needs me. And now she thinks I’m dead.”
“She’ll buy another surrogate,” I say. “Does that seem right to you?”
Olive hesitates, and I see a way in. She doesn’t want to be replaced.
“They’ve moved the Auction up. She could be getting a new surrogate in a few months.” Olive’s mouth puckers. Her eyebrows scrunch together, forming a dark line across her forehead. “No, my mistress—”
“Your mistress wants a child and she’ll do anything she can to get one. We’ve got to stop the Auction,” I say.
I can see her processing this, the crease between her eyebrows deepening “Stop the Auction,” she says.
It’s not exactly how I’d like to convince her, but my choices are limited at the moment. We don’t have the time.
“And then I can be with my mistress,” Olive says.
I don’t answer. My heart is heavy in my chest. I don’t like manipulating her like this, but what choice do I have?
We continue our walk and head back to the house, passing Indi, who is sitting by the pond, her face a mask of calm. Little white-tipped waves ripple out from beneath her palm.
I’m about to sit beside her when the arcana begins to buzz.
“Excuse me for a second,” I mutter, hurrying into the house.
Sienna is in the kitchen doing the dishes. Sil sits in the rocking chair by the fire, sipping a whiskey. I yank the arcana out of my hair.
“Hello?” I say.
“Something’s happened,” Lucien says.
Sil sits up and puts down her drink.
“There has been . . . an arrangement. An engagement is about to be announced.”
“I don’t see how that’s relevant,” I say. “Who cares about a royal eng
agement?”
“It is between the Duchess of the Lake’s daughter and the Exetor’s son.”
I stare at the arcana. “The Duchess doesn’t have a daughter.”
“I don’t know how she did it,” Lucien says, and it feels like he’s talking to himself. “How she managed to convince him or threaten him or . . . no one knows what happened to end the Duchess and the Exetor’s engagement—and believe me, the Electress has had me try very hard to find out. But whatever the cause, the Duchess must have something over him. Something very big. The Electress is furious, of course.”
“But, Lucien,” I say again, “I don’t understand. The Duchess doesn’t have a daughter.”
“Garnet told you about the surrogate?”
“The one she stole? Yes.”
“No one knew you were gone. The Duchess claimed she was keeping you sequestered after the alleged rape. So she replaced you, quickly and quietly. I can’t find any records of any surrogate vanishing from a holding facility. And all the royal surrogates—well, the ones who are still alive—are accounted for.”
“So where did this surrogate come from?”
“I don’t know. But the Duchess has done something that hasn’t ever happened in the history of the Auction. She has bartered an engagement before the child is born.”
“So . . . her surrogate is pregnant?”
“It would appear so.”
“But she only got her yesterday!”
“The Jewel is seething,” Lucien says. “Many of the royals feel this is unfair. Many are angry with the Duchess. And now that the Auction date has been moved, Houses are lashing out at rival Houses’ surrogates worse than ever. Old alliances are being broken. Ladies-in-waiting are feeling the strain, and it’s worse for the lower servants, the footmen and the maids.”
“Well, that’s good for us, isn’t it?” I say. “Those are the people we need on our side.”
“We don’t need them dying,” he says.
“Of course not. That’s not what I meant.”
Suddenly, Ash bursts through the front door, Raven on his heels.
“Violet,” he says, panting.
I leave the arcana hovering in the air, my immediate thought that Raven has been injured. But she steps aside to reveal another figure I hadn’t noticed at first.