EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (55 page)

‘What about parents?’

‘Yes, even parents. Although they are only paid if the child is under fourteen. Otherwise, she is already the property of the Meglina Queens, thanks to King Erageo, and the parents are paid nothing.’

I hugged my legs closer, trying to suppress the queasy feeling that rose in my stomach. I thought about Butter lying in the sun behind me. His fur would be glistening like icicles falling between trees in the light of dawn. The picture was easy to imagine. I turned my head to listen to him and smiled when he snored faintly.

‘Most of my assignments involved delivering healer children to men from across the sea who made deals with the Queens. My first assignment in Senya was in Avo, where I stole twin healer girls. They were worth thousands of gold to the man who bought them.’

‘When did you meet Mother?’

‘On my third assignment in Senya. I was to check on old healer bloodlines. There are four in Borrelia. As I said before, it’s rare for a healer girl to be born outside of Meligna now. Most of the bloodlines have gone to live there. It’s a beautiful city that guarantees health and prosperity. When I came here the first time, none of the other families had healer children, but your mother was with child. Months later when she birthed you, Capacia and your doctor, Varago, declared you dead. I returned on your first birthing day. I leaned up against the wall of your house, and I heard a baby crying. It was you.’

‘If Mother has the bloodline, then why isn’t she a healer?’

Klawdia picked up my bowl and took it back to the pot of stew. She scraped the leftover contents back in, lowered the pot lid, and sat back down at the table. She resumed tapping her fingers for a while and then stopped. ‘A healer can only be born if the bloodline is in the mother. It can skip generations and die out unexpectedly. The Queens are trying to calculate how to get more healer girls born.’

‘Why?’

‘Imagine what it would be like if all women had the healer gift. They wouldn’t get sick, and would be able to control men through healing.’ She sniffed. ‘On the night of your birth, I snuck into your house. Seeing you changed everything. I loved my son, but stealing a child so young… it was too much. Your mother found me. She begged me, kissed my feet, promised me the world, if only I would leave you be. Let you live. She gave me two hundred fifty gold, her life’s savings, to keep you a secret. I took the money and left.’

Mother had stopped Klawdia, but Klawdia had never intended to take me away. I wiped the sleeve of my dress across my face. I began to sob. It was all too much to hear at once. My sobs turned to violent gasps as more emotion surfaced.

Klawdia continued, ‘I told Queen Toxiv—the worst of the four ruler queens—that you were dead. She saw through my story and threatened to throw me into prison. Desperately, I offered her the two hundred fifty gold your mother had given me. I asked her to allow my son and I to go back to Ruxdor. Even though my father would never accept me back, I would not let him harm his blood descendent. The offer of money only angered Queen Toxiv further. She said that the price of my son’s freedom was to kill my father. Instead, I plotted Queen Toxiv’s death.’

‘Weren’t you scared?’

‘No. I had nothing to lose. But I failed anyway. Queen Toxiv was smart. She sent a letter to my father, warning him that I was going to kill him. So Father sent the next heir, Skelkra, Nallael’s father, my father’s right-hand man, to capture me.’

‘You fell with child from your father’s most loyal fighter?’

Klawdia sighed. ‘It’s complicated,
and
it gets worse. Skelkra is now the chief. Later, I realised that Skelkra had only wanted to secure our bond so he could rule with me. Skelkra found me in Meligna and took me to the border between Senya and Ruxdor. I told him about Nallael, but he did not care.

‘It was then I knew I was being taken back to Vilseek, my home city, to be executed. As Skelkra slept, I escaped by the cover of heavy snow. I went west towards the Mountain Pass. I travelled south in the harshest of weather. Eventually, I found the northeast road of Senya. It took me south to the town of Ayo through the Senya Mountain Pass, which is nearly as dangerous as the Death Peaks in Ruxdor. At Ayo, I met with a soldier’s camp. They arrested me and took me to Juxon City. Again, I was barely alive when I arrived. King Erageo allowed me an audience. I told the king everything. He thanked me and promised me protection and citizenship in Senya. After a year in Juxon City, I moved to Borrelia, the closest town to Nallael.’

I released a breath I’d been holding. Klawdia’s story was incredible. She had survived the harshest of elements twice, once with her son, then on her own after being captured by her son’s father.

Butter whimpered in the corner. I rose from my seat, using the time as an excuse to digest her story. Her story was part of my life. How intertwined we were. I crouched next to my protector’s injured body. Butter had fought for me, just as Klawdia had fought for her son. That meant he loved me, and in return, I would never stop loving him.

‘If King Erageo knows everything, then why doesn’t he do anything to stop it?’

‘It’s simple. The Queens are more powerful than he is. The Wicked King ruined his son’s empire. Now that Skelkra reigns, he has the backing of thousands of savages, my people. Most of the Juxon City soldiers were wiped out by the plague. The healers were able to heal any of
their
wounded soldiers; it gave them the upper hand. Their power has made the Meligna citizens loyal.’

‘Loyal because of respect or fear?’

‘Hm, fear, of course. Do not underestimate the power of fear. Fear can control even the bravest of spirits, no?’

Yes
. Fear had controlled every aspect of my life. It had controlled my mother
and
my father and so they kept the truth to themselves. My knees failed me, and I grappled for a nearby chair to keep standing. Tears streamed down my face.

‘Harden your heart. It will only get worse. Sit,’ Klawdia ordered, but that strengthened my determination to keep standing. Who was she to tell me what to do?

‘Why are you here now? Why do you care about me?’ I asked.

‘Adenine—’

Her pitying tone set my blood on fire. ‘Don’t patronise me! Why are you helping me? Do you want the money? I’m three weeks from my birthday. Just a child. Quick, sell me now and make your coin.’ I reached for a safe thought, something to steady myself, but there was nothing, and my hate and confusion grew.

‘I…’ She hesitated.

‘See, I knew it,’ I spat. ‘You can’t tell me the truth now, can you?’

When Klawdia didn’t answer, my fear grew. She wasn’t there to help me or she’d say so. I thought about Butter, injured and alone in the corner. I would be strong for him as he’d been for me. I went to him again. ‘How do I know I can trust you now? My own parents lied to me,’ I said over my shoulder as I stroked Butter’s ears.

‘I am the only one who has told you the truth.’

People always asked for my trust. They always claimed to have the truth. I was so tired of the lies. Every time someone had told me to trust them, it was because
they
were lying to
me
. ‘I’m going,’ I said.

‘You’re hysterical. You should not make decisions in your state. Please stay.’

I reached down and petted Butter. How I wished he was all right. How I wished Klawdia had killed the man who’d hurt him. ‘Sorry,’ I said into Butter’s warm ear. We hadn’t left each other’s sides in many months, and I knew he’d pine for me, as I would for him.

Klawdia stood and walked towards me. Then, her breath was on my face and her body blocked any possible exit. ‘Listen to me, Adenine,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Be smart. Right now you’re ruled by your every feeling. Your passions will put you in danger of losing everything you love. You must think.’

‘And be as cold as you?’ I asked.

‘If need be, yes. If you want Capacia to take you seriously in this matter, you need to be calm.’

‘My own mother blinded me. Why should I care what she thinks of me now?’

Klawdia took a step back and snorted. And then it made sense. Klawdia didn’t care about Mother or me. She had her own interests, and there was only one that made sense.

‘I can’t believe it. You’re helping
her
aren’t you? How much did Mama pay you this time? Another two hundred gold? Is that what a heartless warrior asks?’

‘She paid me nothing.’ She walked back to her kitchen and resumed her chair.

Sparing no time, I found my walking stick and left.

I didn’t stroll back to town. I stalked. My anger swelled and grew like an infested boil. Why? Because Klawdia was following me. She probably thought she was being stealthy by staying out of sight and slinking between the trees and bushes behind me. How she underestimated me. But then I wondered if I had underestimated her. Her advice had been useful; her information sound. I stopped to listen. I felt stupid when her rhythmic, confident footsteps indicated that she was walking normally. No hiding
or
slinking. That only made me angrier.

I quickened my pace. One part of me felt silly to make her walk behind me. But my anger wrapped me in a bitter blanket of self-righteousness. I imagined her snickering as I tripped on rocks and collided with trees. I missed Butter’s guidance. Would she laugh at my clumsiness? If she could lie to me, then she could mock me behind my back. I stuck my nose in the air, deciding I didn’t care.

The afternoon had lost all warmth. The town was noisy as it prepared for nightfall, and its racket was like a guiding star. It gave me direction, and I managed to feel proud about finding my own way. Then, my toe caught on an exposed root, and I fell to the ground.

‘You all right, miss?’ a stranger said.

‘I’m fine.’ I got to my feet, keeping my face down as I brushed dirt off my dress.

As I neared the town, I wondered where I would go first. I knew Mother waited for me and would be anxiously wheeling her chair around Mystoria. That made me happy. Everything she had done had been for my own good, but it didn’t remove the sting of her dishonesty.

I thought about the tragic day Father died. He must have known he’d be hung for murder. He’d wanted a way to protect me when he was gone. That was why he’d had my eyes stitched. Something became clear. Mother had suspected that, being an accomplice to murder, she’d be hung too. Motherless and fatherless. I would have been sent to Juxon City, and then Meligna. But being blind, I might have lived a normal life in Senya.
Oh, Mama
,
I didn’t know.
I felt guilty for all the bad things I’d been thinking about her.

So many people fighting for me. Did Jemely know I was a healer? Did Mother and Varago force her to keep my secret, too?

After asking several people for directions, I was brought to Varago’s front door. I stood there for a moment, my hand shaking on the latch. I deserved answers. I deserved his honesty. I tried to enter; the door was locked. I raised my leg and drove my heel into the middle of the door. Nothing. I repeated the action closer to the lock. With a snap, the door swung inwards.

‘What? What’s the meaning of bursting in like this, Adenine?’ Varago said.

‘Halt! Halt!’ voices shouted behind me, and hands grabbed at my arms. I tried to pull away, but the hands gripped tighter.

‘No, things are well. I know her,’ Varago assured the men.

‘Are you certain?’ a soldier asked.

‘Yes. Yes. I’m sure.’ And hands pulled me into the house.

I stood there shaking. I didn’t know what to think.

‘What possessed you to do this? I live next to the council building. Do you want to be put in the stocks?’

‘Cut this thread off of my eyes,’ I hissed, angrier than ever.

‘Pardon?’

‘I said, get this rubbish off of my eyes! I want to see.’

‘Now, Adenine—’

‘Do it!’ I raised my walking stick into the air, trying to look threatening, when all I felt was childish. But I didn’t care. I needed him to make everything right. ‘Now!’

‘I see,’ he said. ‘One moment.’

He left me there. Wild and angry, I was barely able to make out a conversation in the back room.

‘… sorry… emergency… tomorrow…’ Varago said.

‘… already paid!’ a woman replied.

They moved towards the door.

‘Sorry. Goodbye,’ Varago said.

‘All right, there’s no need to shove,’ the woman snapped.

As her footsteps moved past me, I realised it was too late to lower my walking stick. Instead, I stood there, holding it high in the air. The lady stopped, harrumphed, then kept walking. I was tempted to hit her. It would have made me feel better, at least for a minute. Lucky for her, she didn’t stop again, and her footsteps soon crunched on the stones outside. I felt around for the door and closed it, but it didn’t close as the latch dangled from the bolt.

‘Forget that. The smithy can fix it, now can’t he? Come here, girl. You look positively shaken.’ Varago placed a hand on my shoulder.

I spun around, and my walking stick connected with his face.
Crack!
‘Don’t touch me,’ I hissed, but inside, I regretted the incident, especially when I heard his laboured breathing. I listened for a groan of pain, and when I heard none, I said, ‘Varago?’