EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (44 page)

‘Klawdia’s back?’ Mother asked, her tone strained. ‘Yes, I suppose she would be of help.’

‘Do you know her?’ Jemely asked.

‘Not very well. We’ll pay her for her time, though. It won’t be a problem,’ Mother said, but I couldn’t help feeling there was something else to what she knew about the Klawdia woman.

‘Then I’ll ask her today. I have chores to do now. Excuse me.’

‘Thank you, Jemely!’ I called.

‘Told you I’d make it up to you. He’ll grow up big. Figured he’d fight off anyone who ever tried to hurt you.’

I was excited. With Butter by my side, I’d be safe. Protected. I no longer disliked Jemely. In fact, I liked her more than ever. Butter was the most perfect gift I could have ever wished for.

Mother kissed me on the forehead. ‘I love seeing you so happy.’

‘Thank you so much for letting me keep him.’

‘You best look after him then,’ Mother said.

‘Oh, I will, Mama. But how did you get up to my room?’

‘Jemely helped pull me up the stairs, and my arms are getting stronger. I can move my weight around pretty well now. Adenine, I’m sorry about last night. I know it’s hard to trust me when there are things I know that you don’t.’

There was pain in her voice, and I knew I was doing it again, hurting her, and I felt guilty. The ‘one day’ she always talked about seemed like it was never coming, and I had begun to resent her for keeping the secrets because I kept none from her. But I owed her, and if she hurt me, then I deserved it

‘I can wait.’ But I was lying, because at that moment, I decided I was going to try find out the truth.

‘I love you, Adenine. Don’t forget that.’

My heart seemed to stop in my chest. She rarely said she loved me directly, and I knew I was supposed to feel grateful. But her loving words were empty to me, and they passed by me in search of a more worthy recipient because I had been the reason for Father’s and Uncle Garrad’s deaths. Why would she lie to me? I was sure she wouldn’t love me anymore, and even if she did, I didn’t deserve it. So why did she tell me that?

‘Do you love me, Adenine?’ she asked.

That made more sense. She needed
my
love; that was why she had lied to me. I felt relieved. ‘Yes, Mama.’

‘Good. Come down for breakfast soon and bring Butterb… I mean, Butter.’

I agreed, and she left, making a lot of noise getting back down the stairs. She groaned and strained, and I resisted asking her if she wanted assistance.

Delighted with my new puppy, I snuck in a few minutes of playing and patting before breakfast. His breath was hot, and he constantly licked my neck and face. Every time his wet tongue ran over my cheek, it was a shock, a gooey, smelly shock. Even though I didn’t know whether I loved Mother or not, I definitely loved Butter.

Chapter XIII

M
OTHER
AND
I
MADE
PREPARATIONS
to open the shop. Mother ‘ummed’ and ‘ahhed’ over Mystoria’s inventory of items while I kept Butter from jumping up onto Mother’s lap. Our anticipation fuelled Butter’s already excitable nature, and eventually I had to lock him upstairs. Mother said we were low on incense, perfumes, and jewellery, but we had enough silk cloth, pre-made garments, and exotic shoes with bells and jewels on them to last us another month.

Some furniture needed to be sold immediately as Mother’s wheelchair was constantly snagging and catching on it. We had carved wooden boxes for storing clothes, wall mirrors with metal frames of different designs and shapes, and statues of animals and people from other lands. Mother told me that one of the statues was of a woman from Ruxdor with red hair and blue eyes.

I’d heard of that before. But in stories, witches always had black or golden hair. ‘Are they witches?’

Mother laughed. ‘People look different in lots of ways. The southern Bivinia people have white hair, whiter than an old man’s, and their skin is like milk. People are silly and make up rumours that red hair means a person is a witch. But it’s just prejudice. You remember the story I told you about the Queens of the north? We hate the Ruxdor people because they helped the rebel Queens take over our beloved northern city once it was weakened by the Death Plague.’

‘I know. Mrs. Moferbury told me. How many people died in the plague, Mama?’

‘Too many,’ she said darkly. ‘Off to it. We have work to do.’

My curiosity distracted me from our duties. Travelling outside of Borrelia would be both terrifying and exhilarating. The different smells and sound. The different languages. The more I heard of the outside world, the more I wanted to see it. But first, I wanted to help Mother run Mystoria and fulfil my promise to Father that I would take care of her. I knew he’d be proud seeing us work together, and one day, we’d take the same trips he and Mother used to take to Old Bow. Mother might feel useless, but she wasn’t, just as I wasn’t. I would find a way to convince her of that.

At seven o’clock that morning, Mother hung out our shop sign. Mystoria was open for business for the first time in two weeks, and I was excited about the coming day. Jemely would return at noon with pumpkin soup to celebrate. She’d also promised to inform the town crier that we were opening again. Mother was happy, determined, and proud. She hugged me constantly throughout the day, and I had never felt closer to her.

We passed our time by talking about the tricks of merchant trade. She said that in order to make a profit, we had to price an item higher than it was worth to give room for bartering. We practiced bartering, and Mother laughed at how terrible at it I was.

‘We aren’t charity, Adenine. You don’t sell at the price you bought it for. You sell higher.’

After a few more tries, it made a little more sense, but I still thought the whole idea was silly and wondered why everyone didn’t agree to pay what the items were really worth.

Thankfully, Mother said I wouldn’t have to do any of the bartering and that she’d take care of that part. ‘Bartering is in your blood. You’ll get it eventually.’

By mid-morning, we had made a cross-shaped path for Mother to wheel about, I helped her by moving, stacking, and fetching items, cleaning shelves, making food and drink, and keeping her company.

‘This is strange,’ Mother said with a touch of concern in her voice.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘No one has come in yet.’

I attuned my hearing to outside the shop. There was plenty of commotion in the street. It was as if our shop was invisible to the rest of the town. ‘It’s still early,’ I said.

Mother rubbed my arm. ‘You’re sweet, but most people shop early morning, even before the cock crows on some mornings.’ She sighed.

I upturned a bucket and sat.

And we waited.

And waited.

The town crier made a special morning announcement for us.

‘Here we go,’ Mother said. ‘Perhaps the townspeople didn’t realise we were back in business.’

More hours passed.

Mother said, ‘I will go to the door and encourage people to come in.’

Her chair squeaked, and then she yanked open the front door. It blew back with a bang, and the village-square sounds flooded the room.

‘Greetings, Merelda, how goes the fan I sold you last month?’

‘Good,’ a woman replied.

Mother greeted many more people, but no one seemed to have time to stop and talk. After another hour, a lady, heavyset, judging from the loud placement of her feet, entered the store.

‘Welcome, Vobka,’ Mother said.

‘Good day, Capacia. I’ve not seen you these three months. Been visiting my grandson in Juxon City. He’s so grown up now. He apprentices with the king’s smithy.’ The lady sounded elderly.

‘Oh, how wonderful for you. He’s always been a polite lad.’

‘Indeed. His mother was more of a cock than a clucky hen, and I raised him myself almost entirely. Now he prospers, thanks to me. I’m looking for some green silk, something special. I’m to make a dress.’

‘Lovely,’ Mother exclaimed. ‘Adenine, will you fetch me some green silk?’ Earlier, we had sorted the cloth materials according to the colours of the rainbow. Red would be on my right, then yellow, and then green.

‘Yes, Capacia.’

But before I could walk off, the lady said, ‘Adenine? The forest girl?’ There was distinct horror in her tone.

‘Yes. Unfortunately, she got lost the other night,’ Mother said. She’d handled gossip before, and acting calm and rational in the face of drama was a merchant’s job.

‘I see. Oh, silly me.’ The lady laughed nervously. ‘I’ve made a fuss over nothing.
Silk!
I’ve no need for
silk
, it is far too much for my trivial little house visit. I’ll wear one of my usual dresses. Good day.’ Her shoes scuffed against the ground as she left.

‘I can’t believe it!’ Mother exclaimed. ‘She seemed put off by you, Adenine, but why?’

A better question was why was Mother confused? The things people had said about me when I was blind and wandering on the streets the first time showed me I was unwanted in Borrelia. Maybe they knew of my sickness. After all, they’d called me ‘diseased.’ But that was because I was blind, not because of the illness that used to reside inside of me. I didn’t want to think of what other rumours floated among the gossipmongers.

‘Mama, no one likes me.’

‘Nonsense. What could they have against you? They don’t even know you.’

‘Remember when I went to get Varago for you that day? People were… whispering, saying I was a child-whore, they seemed to know about my… affliction.’

‘It’s impossible, Adenine. Forget those silly people. They don’t know anything. Trust me. They’re putting their noses into things they don’t understand. You’re perfect. Lots of people lose their sight or get lost in forests. Who are they to judge?’ Mother harrumphed, slamming the front door and briskly wheeling her chair back to me.

Perfect? I wasn’t perfect. Why did she keep saying untruths? Perhaps I should have gone back to the attic, back to my room. Mother would make sales, and I would have Butter to keep me company. Everything would be back to normal.
That
would be perfect.

Mother tugged on my sleeve. ‘Fetch us some spiced wine. I need to think.’

Upstairs, I checked in on Butter. He licked my hand and buried his soft snout into my neck. I breathed in his puppy smell and used a ladle to fill two cups with wine. I managed to clear all sixteen steps without spilling a drop.

‘Thank you,’ Mother said distantly as I passed her one of the cups.

I sipped, and the liquid warmed my belly, adding to the comfort Butter had given me.

The front door burst open, and I jumped. My wine splashed on the floor.

‘Phew, lugging water and clothes all that way. May as well be a pack-mule.’ Jemely gave a yawn. ‘What’s wrong with you two?’

‘No sales,’ Mother said.

‘Really? Yours used to be the most popular shop in town. What happened?’

‘Don’t know. One lady spooked when she found out who Adenine was.’

‘Why?’ Jemely asked.

‘I don’t know, Jemely,’ Mother said impatiently.

I wiped my foot over where I thought the wine had spilled, trying to hide the evidence. Mother was in a bad mood, and I didn’t want to upset her further.

‘I’ll go see what I can find out,’ Jemely declared and left.

Jemely had gone from whining housemaid to family friend. I was lucky that Mother had somebody to help her—someone headstrong and tenacious, someone completely the opposite to me. My efforts at trying to converse with Mother failed, so I was grateful when the shop door banged open again.

‘No good, stupid, ridiculous…’ Jemely muttered.

‘What is it?’

‘The boys who chased Adenine in the forest spread rumours that she’d got some catching disease. They’re saying she met with witches in the forest and the witches cursed her for being blind.’

‘What a horrible thing to say!’ Mother cried.

I knew I was cursed in some way, but I hadn’t met any witches. And they were right. I did have a terrible disease. Well, I used to have one. But why hadn’t anyone caught it from me? And why had Mother seemed to forget that I’d had it?

‘Worse. They’re saying your family is cursed and that the reason your husband killed his brother is because you were…’ Jemely trailed off.

‘Go on.’

‘Well, that you and your brother-in-law were… layin’ together.’ Jemely whispered the last part.

I didn’t understand what laying-together meant. I had lain in the bed with Mother every night for the last week, and that didn’t seem wrong or bad. But maybe people knew what my uncle was like, and maybe they thought he had attacked her as he’d attacked me.

‘Let’s hope these rumours don’t hold strong. A woman can be put in the stocks for such things,’ Mother said.

‘They can’t do that, Capacia, because it ain’t true! And besides, they wouldn’t put a cripple in the stocks would they?’ Jemely gulped. ‘Oh Capacia, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…’

Mother laughed. ‘I
am
a cripple. You only speak the truth.’

The door opened. ‘Store looks good,’ Varago said. ‘Nice to see the light coming in, and everything freshly dusted and the floor swept. Looks far less dreary in here. How goes the money making? Hm, I don’t see anyone here. Have they all come and bought it all?’ He chuckled.

‘Varago!’ Jemely snapped.

‘What now?’

‘Haven’t you spoken to anyone today?’ Jemely asked.

‘No, I had a deep wound on a young boy this morning. I just finished and needed some fresh air. Thought I’d visit my friends.’

‘Seems we need
more
friends. We’ve sold nothing,’ Mother said.

‘Intolerable. This store is an icon in Borrelia. Always popular, always busy. I thought people would have been flocking here after the town crier yelled out the announcement earlier,’ he said.

‘There’s a rumour,’ Jemely said softly as if she believed that merely talking about it would strengthen the truth of it.

‘Oh?’

Jemely relayed the story in full.

‘Oh, come now, rumours don’t last long. People will be back here in no time. They’ll be desperate for your exotic wares. The women can’t resist your sparkly knickknacks.’