The Day Human King (10 page)

“I’d have ended up here anyway,” Mara added, “but this lug thought he was being all chivalrous by calling out that he loved me. He thought if I was disowned I could join his family. That was not the case when the elite found out.”

“And so you have to live here?” Devin asked. It was on the outskirts of the village and run down, but he didn’t see why it was bad off. They were free of the elite.

“Yes, and we are not allow to participate in functions of the village,” Mara added. She shrugged. “It’s not too bad. We’ve had to learn how to become self-sufficient, but everyone around here helps you learn.”

The young man raised his eyebrows. “Not too bad?”

Mara tried to shush him. “Colin, not now.”

Colin turned to Devin. “Enjoy your life with the elite sidhe, because with them, even as a slave, you still will have more than we do. We are not allowed to participate is the nice way of saying we are cut off. While the village works with cooperation from everyone together, we are not part of the everyone.” Mara looked shocked at his words. It was obvious Colin was hitting on a subject not spoken out loud.

“What do you mean part of
the everyone
?” Devin asked. Colin was passionate, and Devin was sure he would answer, even with Mara’s panicked look. Devin kind of liked Colin. He wasn’t beating around the bush or lying. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to say what he had, but Devin needed to hear the truth.

“I don’t know how much you’ve seen or been told, but the way the village works is that each person has a job. We work together to survive. The butcher provides meat to all while the baker provides bread. Either your ability gives you a position to help the community, or you apprentice at a job that’s the best fit. We work together to survive. When you live out here, there is nothing. You no longer get meat from the butcher. You can’t apprentice. We have to survive on the skills we have, and trust me, fruit as a diet got old two days after moving here.”

Mara was still looking around like some unknown, invisible sidhe would hear his words. Devin had the feeling that the castoffs were not allowed to complain. Why would it matter? They were already outcasts from society.

“So how do you survive?” Devin asked quietly. It was obvious that the conversation was making Mara worry.

“If we are lucky, we can sell our abilities to the elite sidhe. Good thing they like their fruit ripened just perfect,” Colin replied.

“So they pay you for it?” Devin asked. The sidhe didn’t seem like a money society.

“They give us supplies in return for maybe a quarter of the value of our services,” Colin replied. They were cheated by the elite. Not a surprise.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” Devin said.

“Fair? The elite don’t know what fair even means,” Colin huffed. Mara quickly covered his mouth.

“Hush now. No more talk of this,” Mara scolded both Colin and Devin. “If they hear you complaining, they won’t take your fruit.”

Devin nodded. He didn’t want his questions to keep Mara and Colin from getting the supplies they needed. Colin didn’t look like he had said enough, but with Mara’s begging, he stopped. Their life was harder than Devin expected, and it was due to the elite having unnecessary rules. Why couldn’t someone from one family marry another? What was the harm in that? Where was the harm in love?

Devin looked around the camp one more time. He could feel the anxiety of the people around him. They either feared what Colin had said, or they feared Devin. Maybe they thought Devin would go tell the elite. He had no way to calm them. He knew that as much as he wanted to see more, he was sure that he needed to let the people be for now. There would always be more time to learn about the castoffs, especially when they were not as anxious.

Devin wandered back to the palace and hoped to find Nessa sleeping. He needed a bit of rest too as the morning sun rose. It wasn’t normal that Devin craved sleep, but he felt it now. Devin stopped as he turned at the end of the hallway leading to Nessa’s quarters. She stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips. She wasn’t asleep after all, and she wasn’t happy to see him.

Devin was surprised
that
Nessa actually let him back into the room, but he wasn’t about to mention it to her. He already knew—from peeking in her mind—that she’d been mad at him for maybe five minutes after he had left, and then released her magic to let him in. He wasn’t there waiting as she expected, and when she couldn’t leave the room to find him, she became angry again. He was forgiven for a moment, but was not there for it. Now she was back to being mad. Devin couldn’t help but smile. He had a feeling his whole life with Nessa would be like that.

Nessa ignored Devin as she’d gotten ready for bed. Even though she went to sleep without a single word to him, she’d forgiven him enough to let him sleep in the bed beside her and not on the couch.

Devin listened as Nessa slept peacefully. It turned out that she wasn’t comfortable with having him gone after all. Watching her sleep, he couldn’t help but think that she had no idea how beautiful she was with her dark curls. He reached forward and wrapped one around his finger.

She had been very sheltered from the sidhe life. He was sure that she knew nothing of the castoffs, or even much about the common sidhe in general. It would break her heart to know that there was a whole part of her village that lived on the bare essentials. She had too much compassion to let it stay as it was, but he didn’t want to witness how much it would hurt her when she eventually found out. Devin needed to change the life for the common sidhe and the castoffs to something Nessa could live with.

Slowly, Devin leaned forward and kissed her forehead. He hadn’t slept much, maybe a few hours before he had woken again, but he wanted to go back out into the village. It would be early for the sidhe, but fine for him. He needed to find a way to help the castoffs.

Nessa’s eyes cracked open when the bed shifted. “Where are you going now?”

“Just for a run,” Devin replied, which was kind of true.

Nessa nodded as she closed her eyes again. She wasn’t mad at him any longer, or at least she didn’t stay mad while sleeping. Smiling, Devin stood up. He going to have to ask her to marry him soon, as there was no way he could take any of the other sidhe who were coming to the village coronation eyeing her over. That might just be enough to make him loose his cool. She would be his with all of the ups and downs that followed.

“Come back soon,” Nessa said sleepily as Devin opened the door to their bedroom.

“Always,” Devin replied. He could never leave her for long.

Devin made his way back out of the palace and into the streets. He’d intended to go talk to the castoffs again, but when he saw Old Man Winters pulling his cart in the fading sunlight—which most night humans avoided—Devin hurried over to the old man and took the cart from him.

“Young day human.” The old man chuckled. “Is rescuing an old man your new pastime?”

“Horse still not well?” Devin asked in reply. He did want to see the castoffs, but he needed to help the older man first.

“I think she is better, but I’m giving her one more day off,” the man replied with a shrug, as if pulling a cart full of milk wasn’t a problem for his old body.

Devin nodded, strolling alongside the older man. This time, as they moved through the town, they stopped at the houses on the other side of the street. Devin waited each time as the old man limped over and took the pitcher from the resident. Less people stared at Devin and more just went on with their lives. He had been an oddity his first time through the village, but now he was not and for that he was thankful.

As they reached the last house, and Devin helped Old Man Winters pull the empty jugs of milk back toward the barn, Devin realized that there were still two jugs filled with milk. He was sure that they were done, but there was milk left.

“Do you always have this much left?” Devin asked. He didn’t see any homes that they had missed.

“Sometimes,” Winters replied as he shooed two cows away from the door to the barn.

“What do you do with it?” Devin asked. It wasn’t like they had refrigerated storage in their natural world.

“We try to use what we can, but mostly we give back to the animals around the farm. The cows are doing very well right now, and I’ve had more than enough to feed everyone in town for months,” he replied. When he pulled on the door, the cows finally moved. The old man hobbled over to the tanks of milk and took them down.

“Would I be able to take some to others that need it?” Devin asked.

“As in others that are not visited?” the older man asked with a wink. He knew immediately what Devin planned to do with the milk.

“I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Devin replied.  Devin was unsure about the laws and what would be enough to get one thrown in with the castoffs, but truly didn’t want to cause waves for the old man. Plus, he wasn’t
actually
asking the old man to help him.

The old man held up a hand to keep Devin from talking more.

“If you’d like to borrow a cart, and maybe find another use for that milk, I’m heading inside for a quick nap before I get to my chores. I’ll have no clue what you are up to.” He grinned at Devin, giving him the distinct feeling the old man knew exactly what he wanted to do, and was giving himself plausible deniability. “Not all of us think there should be people who are just thrown away. That isn’t our way, it is the elite way. We are not elite, yet somehow they feel like they have the right to impose their rules on us. I wish I could help all that live here, but that’s too risky. Without me, there would be no one to tend the farm. I have no family of my own, and have never been assigned an apprentice. When I die, so does my farm.”

Devin nodded, and waved to the old man as he walked back into his home. He waited a moment—to make sure that the old man was completely uninvolved in what he was about to do—and then he put the milk back to the cart. He wasn’t going to stand by and shun the castoffs for being who they were. Devin saw nothing wrong in them.

Pulling the milk cart through town, Devin noted that it was strange to see the people waking and starting their day. His other two walks were at dawn when the night humans were heading off to bed. Now it was dusk and the world was coming to life. Old Man Winters wasn’t the only one out doing chores and delivering food. Devin watched as several other carts joined him on the road. They were all going about their day. No one seemed to even pay attention to him while they went about their tasks. For the first time in a long time, Devin felt like he fit in again … even though this was a night human world. This was a life he could live. The sidhe were different than where he was brought up. They seemed even more normal than the dearg-dul that Devin was raised beside. This was truly becoming his home now, he fit in here.

Devin made it to the edge of the village and the castoff area before anyone even looked at him. A few curious sidhe on the border stared, but none stopped him as he left the village for the overgrown pathway that was the castoff road. Pulling the cart got harder, but he managed to get it to the castoff camp without too much difficulty. Devin stopped first at Mara and Colin’s house. Colin was outside with Mara, kissing her good-bye for the day.

“Day human, you couldn’t stay away?” Colin called to Devin.

Devin balanced his cart. “I decided to take a walk and found some leftover milk. I thought everyone around here could use some.”

Mara looked shocked, but Colin grinned. Devin could already tell he was winning Colin over. Mara still seemed to be caught in the sidhe world rules. It was a good thing she had Colin to keep her alive and learning how to do things without the other sidhe.

“The Maise and Connor families both have young children. I’m sure they could use some milk,” Colin replied, pointing further into the makeshift town.

“Well, there is quite a lot left. How many people live here?” Devin asked. He hadn’t thought before how much it would take to feed everyone, just that even one person was better to feed than none.

“Right now we are at eighty-two, twenty-five families,” Mara whispered. She didn’t seem as okay with the idea, even if she looked like she secretly wanted it. Devin was unsure what they even had to eat in the camp, but it was pretty clear that milk was a rarity.

Devin glanced back at the two jugs of milk that were almost full. He had watched Old Man Winters deliver milk to all of the sidhe in town. It wasn’t hard to calculate. There was more than enough for twenty-five families.

“I’ll start with the houses on the right, and make my way back around. There should be enough for everyone,” Devin replied.

“You really shouldn’t,” Mara said, finding her voice a little more. “You’ll get in trouble. No one is supposed to share with us. It’s against the rules.”

“Good thing I’m no one, then,” Devin replied, trying to reassure the young sidhe woman.

He knew where her fear came from, but in reality, who was going to tell Devin no? While he understood order and rules, he also understood that the clans were just being vindictive toward these people. He didn’t need to follow the rules if they were ridiculous. Colin nodded to Devin as he made his way down the uneven pathway.

Devin stopped at the first hovel. It wasn’t much more than a few branches leaned against a tree with long grass hastily thrown upon it. It wouldn’t keep out much of the weather, and Devin was sure it leaked in the rain. Two young faces peered out from the cracks of the branch walls.

“Ma’am,” Devin called to the woman working the garden outside the home. The castoffs seemed to all have a garden to tend, which was probably their main food source. “I brought some milk.”

The sidhe looked startled that she was being spoken to. She was even more shocked when she stood and noticed that Devin wasn’t a sidhe. After deciding he was safe, she wiped her hands on her dress and cautiously approached him.

“Sidhe of the village are not allowed to share,” she told Devin. She obviously had the same fear as Mara.

“Then it’s a good thing I’m not a sidhe,” Devin replied. He smiled, and saw that would be enough to win her over. Being a day human in that moment was probably the best cover. He could plead ignorance, and the rules technically didn’t apply to him since he wasn’t one of them.