Midnight's Song (16 page)

“Elissa, the mail has come!” She told
me, her soft but stern demeanor glowing in the growing warmth of
March. I admired her knowledge and dedication, though sometimes I
couldn’t understand what would cause her to choose this life. She
looked to me softly, as if she was all-knowing. “You come out here
every day. Why?”

I let out a sigh. Of all people, I
wondered if she would ever be able to understand.

“I just…feel as if I’ve left something
here unfinished. But I can’t quite understand what.”

Sister Marie-Katherine looked to me
discerningly. “Is it love? I may be a nun, but I do know about
love.”

“Actually…I’m still not quite sure.” I
exhaled deeply. All of this had been coming at me at once. There
was the matter of my name…of the encounter…and of Monica’s theory.
My mind was still whirling, and I’m sure that the Sister could see
that. She fell silent, posing no further.

“Well then, let’s go inside and see
what has come for you. Lady Wren is rather excited.”

That was my first clue that this must
have had something to do with suitors. Why else would Wren or
anyone else in this house get worked up? I would find that my
suspicions were right. And somehow, I would find that this Winston
Everen wasn’t quite just a clever conjuring after all.

“Oh, Elissa my dear!” Wren exclaimed
when I met her in the foyer, squealing and pulling me into her
embrace. “You’ve had so many letters come for you today! There are
suitors writing you from as far as the Southern
Country!”

Really? What planet
was I on now? The ball had been nearly a month ago – and I
apparently hadn’t even been there long enough to be considered an
attendee. Honestly, I had only noticed snobby, stuck up aristocrats
who had barely paid any attention to me after they had announced my
name. Where were these “suitors?” Apparently, they
did
take notice of me
for the short time I was present – because Wren handed me five
letters from single young men claiming to have been there. In
complete astonishment, I tore open one and began reading it to
myself:

Dearest Devereaux
Family,

I write to send my cordial
greetings to you all, especially to your new ward Celeste. She is a
quite intriguing young woman and I applaud your work with her. My
family will not be vacationing in your part of the country until
our summer holiday; but when we do, I wish to visit with your
family, especially with Lady Celeste.

Yours truly,

Winston Everen

Duke of the Northern
Coast

I finished reading the letter and
handed it to Wren in astonishment. Wren came into equal shock and
handed it to Beeti. Beeti froze, and Stella snatched the letter
from her lifeless hands. When she so much as glanced at it; Stella
stepped to the side, silent and apparently fuming.

“Mother,” she sourly asked Beeti while
she jealously held the letter. “Did any letters come for me?” Beeti
shot her back a stark, irritated look.

“No, daughter. I’m afraid
not.”

Stella continued to
fume. It was a terrible feeling for her, I’m sure. What it would
later cause – I had
no idea
that Stella was capable of. Yet at the moment, I
couldn’t contemplate this. I opened up two more of the letters and
passed them around. They all said the same thing – that some
wealthy man had taken notice of me, and wished to visit with me.
Though, none of them stood out to me as much as Winston Everen’s
letter.

I honestly can’t
tell you what the look on my face must have been at that moment. I
couldn’t decide whether I was astonished that Winston Everen
actually
hadn’t
been a mere figment of my story – or if I was floored that I
had just found out I had somehow attracted the
duke
of my
part of the country. How could I have forgotten the Everens?
They owned the fishing company that my Papa worked
for!

The one that we almost starved because
of.

My mind suddenly whirled back to that
thought, and none of the suitors mattered anymore. Well, truthfully
– none of them actually mattered to me more than perhaps an inch to
begin with. I searched the stack of letters and suddenly saw one
with a much more familiar address. It was Una’s. Before I had the
chance to crack it open, I stopped myself. All of the women in the
room had their eyes on me, looking as if they were waiting for me
to grant them either life or death.

“…Elissa…” Wren softly started. “Will
you see them? Will you court these suitors?”

Finding myself in an
emotional bind, I bit my lower lip. I didn’t care to get married
yet. It would mean I would be confined to this life
permanently,
and there
was no way around that. But then again, it was only courting. I
knew that underneath it all it would only be a part of the healthy
looking Devereaux façade that they wanted me to maintain for them.
If anyone was going to get married in this house, I was sure that
they
weren’t
going to allow it to be me.

“I…I don’t know. I must go,” I meekly
told them, rushing to my room with the midwife’s letter and
literally throwing all of the others away.

I locked myself in the room, throwing
myself on the bed and cradling the letter in my hands. But…as hard
as I tried, I simply couldn’t find it in myself to open it. Perhaps
it was that I had a sense that the words were already dark; or
maybe it was just my reluctance to remember the still-present pain
that I had tried to leave behind. After what felt like an eternity
of trying, I decided to leave it beside my bed – the inside
untouched and the envelope unopened. The object sat there untouched
for quite some time. In fact, I ended up making my mind up about
the suitors before I even did about the envelope!

“I have decided…” I
told my family that night at dinner, “I will begin doing as you
wish and accepting suitors. But, I will accept
no
marriage proposals. Not until I’m
in my permanent caste.”

The entire family
nearly erupted into applauds at the news. Exactly why I came to
that decision, I still don’t know; but at least it was something to
do. Perhaps I could even have a little bit of fun with it. There
was also a small glimmer of me…one that hoped that perhaps there
was a small chance…that one of these suitors would turn out to be
my shrouded mystery man from the party. All of the family rejoiced
except for silent, sour-faced Stella and her mother, Beeti. Though,
Beeti simply sat silently. Stella, on the other hand;
fumed
with jealousy. It
was a jealousy sharp enough to cause her to come up with a rather
sinister plan.

“That is wonderful!”
Grandmamma chimed up, letting out a cough mid-sentence. “I
told
you that Sister
Marie-Katherine would sharpen Elissa like no other! We must give
her more lessons – then she will be ready to begin
courting!”

They did just that.
My lessons became more frequent, and they now begun priming me even
more than they had previously. Strangely, as I went along with what
they wanted – the more “ready” they suggested I had become. The
Magistrate’s meeting with me had now been given a date. My lessons
had been planned in a tight schedule that would allow for my
presentation to take place on the 21st of November; just over a
month after my 17
^th
birthday. I continued my lessons that month,
constantly wondering about the mysterious person that I had met. I
hoped that he was one of the suitors.

I devised a plan,
coming up with specific questions and tactics to use on these
suitors to see if they were the one that I was dying to find. I
didn’t necessarily want love from any of this. I was simply a
detective, eager to solve the mystery. All the while, I still
couldn’t help but notice an eerie, looming presence. It felt as if
I was constantly being
watched.

I kept it to myself, of
course. Things had begun heating up in the realm even more than I
had bargained for. It would heat to a boil and finally spill over
one morning in mid-March.

“Elissa, milady!”
Emily called at my door. “You must come downstairs. The Magistrate
is doing a mandatory emergency broadcast! All of the servants and
the family are
required
to listen!”

I followed her into the
hallway and covered my bedclothes with a satin robe. When I entered
the den, I found a cluster of high-ranking servants tending to
family members as we all gathered around the large, grey radio atop
the fireplace. Beeti asked for a show of hands.

“Everyone here?” She
asked. We all nodded, and she motioned for her personal servant to
press a large button that had been inscribed with the word:
on.

As soon as it had been
pressed, the box rocked the room with its screeching. When the
radio came into focus – I suppose that’s what you’d call it – music
played steadily over the airwaves. The Imperial Anthem played, and
we all sat in silence waiting for the Magistrate to come on. I felt
as though my ears would bleed at the very sound of his
hatred.

“Men and women of the
realm,” he began. It seemed that even the beating of our hearts
fell quiet. Goosebumps formed on my arms as the evil man spoke. The
entire time, I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that once the
last leaf of the autumn had fallen, I would have to meet this
man.

“Our land is still
in great drought. Conspiracy is abundant. Many of you are exposed
on a daily basis to the primeval stories of the heathen castes.
Sorcery has become more prevalent among them. Traitors live in
every corner of our world. They exist even among the aristocracy.
It’s time to root them
out.”

Emily and I
exchanged worried glances. No one else of Devereaux blood shared my
worries. Emily stood in the far corner, nervously clutching her
fists. What the Magistrate would say next would come as a great
shock. All of the tales the world had once dismissed would become
somehow, in large part,
believed.

“It has long been
rumored that the Great War was not
caused
by the evil deeds of our sinful ancestors. It is well known that
any talk of ‘supernatural beings’ that ‘roamed with us’ are
bold-faced lies. They are as evil as the witchcraft threatening to
destroy our homes!
”

What must he have
feared?
He had never once acknowledged it
– and now he was…defending himself against it? The next words
caused me to jump up in shock.

“This is dangerous
to our people. Our fight must intensify – and that is why I
announce to you all today that the crime of sorcery is being given
a new punishment. Guilty parties will be sentenced to
death.
” My chest became
heavy and tight. This fear was all of ours, and it was being
realized as he spoke.

“To win this war, there
will be 25 offending districts that will be put under surveillance.
14 that will fall under the title of Complete Restriction until
further notice. I will list these districts for the sake of public
awareness.”

I felt a lump grow in my
throat – unsure whether it was of anger or fear. I knew what
Complete Restriction meant. Nothing came into the land, and nothing
came out of it. The unfit were not cared for under Complete
Restriction. The mentally unfit were said to be treated the very
worst…as they were thought totally useless. I held my breath as he
recited the names.

“Territories under surveillance: The
Western Highlands, St. Harris Sound, Port Mayberry, the National
Inlands (Central), Brie, London…”

The list went on.

“…York, Brimington, Abbot
Island…”

I prayed that they were only under
surveillance; but it wouldn’t account for much. If it was on that
list…the status could change at any time. He went on, the list
torturously long. I feared that he would reach the end, and my
island would be the first one under complete restriction. But the
next name caused me to cringe.

“
The St. Marie-Katherine Isles.”

“No!” I stood up in
complete despair. My face paled, my lip quivering. I wasn’t going
to stay for the rest. I couldn’t bear it.

“Elissa, please come sit
back down!” Wren called behind me, “it’s mandatory!”

Although I had maneuvered
far past the den, I could still hear the radio clearly. There was
no place I could escape from it.

“Denver, Elion,
Corbel
…”
the
voice echoed through the walls.

I maneuvered through the
twisting servants’ halls until I reached my room. I took my key and
twisted it in the lock. In less than a single heartbeat, I leapt
onto my bed, reached onto the side table and ripped open the
envelope.

I forgot about all of the
other things that had concerned me. I had let go of my fascination
with my “mystery.” I forgot about my many suitors. All I could
think about was my dad.