Chapter Nine

 

 

Jer walked into his father’s home and thumped the black ring box in front of Av. “You’re an idiot. Half the staff now knows Aren’s missing because you didn’t bring the rings with you. Think ahead next time.”

“I was distracted,” Av said.

“By what?” he asked, turning when Av motioned.

Anue stood in the hall leading to the bedrooms. The girl was just beginning to mature, her rank not yet obvious, but obviously there. No, that wasn’t true. Anue hid herself the way Aren did. While Anue’s construct had more detail to it, Jer recognized the deception for what it was. Spending time around Aren made it easier to pick out those who used coastal tricks.

Seeing how Van wove his together made it almost impossible to miss Anue.

The girl was quiet, demure. Jer couldn’t recall if those two words meant the same thing. He could detect in Anue an innocence Aren had lacked.

Anue had been too young to remember one of her rank being burned at the stake for speaking to Aren. She had learned from her sister’s mistakes and behaved in a different fashion, avoiding the brunt of her mother’s anger. Anue and Aren, Aren and Anue, the sisters were two different sides of the same coin.

“Para made a stupid choice, naming you Anue,” Jer said.

“It means second chance,” Anue said quietly. “Even as a child my sister was considered unhappy. Mother’s blood believes in using the same letter for all the same gender.”

“But lords meeting you will link you to Aren, will think you take after her,” Jer said, turning to his father for some sort of support.

Ervam shrugged. “Anue, why don’t you go play outside and let the adults speak?”

The girl left without putting on boots for outside. Jer jabbed a finger after her and looked to his father once more. The trainer sighed heavily, shook his head very slowly, and motioned to the chair beside Av. Jer sat as he was bid, trying to judge the mood at the table.

“What’s bothering you?” Av asked, reaching for the ring box.

“A normal amount of items,” he said.

“Good, because normally when you start questioning something as banal as the name of a child, that means you’re about ready to start shouting about spirits and beasties of myth,” his father said.

“Telm did something that worried me,” Jer said quickly. “It’s stupid. Aren, Anue, both girls, who will share looks as they get older, both of the same rank. Both names are four letters long. Why don’t we talk up shortening Anue’s name to An?”

“She will stab a person who orders her about,” Av said, sliding his ring onto his left ring finger. “Went into a rage because she thought we would be stupid enough to pair her with Mie.”

“Rage as in…” Jer trailed off and stared at Av as his brother gave him an exasperated look. “The rage of her rank? She’s too young to rage, perhaps it was a tantrum.”

“A silent one?” Ervam asked. “Which did not involve stomping her feet, holding her breath, throwing things, or making a face? She seems to be developing in that area a bit earlier than we might expect. I’ve plans to make my way to the village in the next few days to pick up other supplies that a young woman might need.”

“That might require one of us to have a conversation with her,” Av said to the table. “Aren isn’t very…” Jer watched his brother struggle for a polite word, “knowledgeable.”

“Father has the most experience,” Jer offered.

“I’m also going to ask the healer to have a discussion with Anue,” Ervam growled. “She’s hesitant about males touching her. If the healer can come speak with Anue, we might be able to arrange a reason for an inspection. We should have had Aren inspected before your brother tossed her into a bed.”

“She was,” Jer and Av said at the same time.

Jer adjusted in his chair, considered moving away from his brother. Having this discussion in front of a warrior who had claimed the one the conversation was about, was uncomfortable. If Av could keep control of his emotions, all would be well. If Av couldn’t keep control, one or both of them would end up hurt.

“When she was stabbed,” Jer said to their father. “Possibly when she had consumption as well. The healer never mentioned anything to us about an altered state.”

“Had Av claimed her by this time?” Ervam asked as a trainer, not as their father.

While Jer had to think hard, Av answered quickly, “No, it was shortly after the incident that I had the papers done up.”

“Which means the healer wouldn’t have alerted the two of you to Aren’s state besides the wound you brought her in for,” Ervam said. “It’s none of your damned business if a lady at court happens to have a pre-existing condition. That is between her and the healer. The only time the healer will divulge that information is if her life is in danger because of the condition. Even then, she wouldn’t go to the master, or to the mate of the throne. She would find someone appropriate.”

“Report it to the steward and the head of house to see the lady’s habits and assign someone who would pair well with her,” Jer said. “It wouldn’t be made public knowledge because of the unknown nature and how our rank likes to stab anyone around those who may have what you’re politely calling a pre-existing condition.”

“That healer still work at the palace?” Av asked Jer.

He sounded haggard. Barely holding on. The desire to protect a loved one was amplified in a warrior. Av would take it as a personal failing, even if the damage had been done before he had met Aren.

“She is, though there’s no promising,” Jer started.

Av cut Jer off with, “She said her speciality was midwifery. Those healers know all about abuse. In the smaller villages a woman goes to a midwife if she’s being abused by her mate, not the healer.”

“How do you know that?” Ervam asked.

“I had to visit the refugees last fall to deal with a mate,” Av said. “The midwife explained it to me. It was either I do it, or the healer was going to. I’d rather not remind them that someone in their midst is capable of rending them tendon from muscle. Could we please change the conversation now?”

“Mie suspects,” Ervam said. “He’s bonded with her, though I suspect it is as a brother, not as a possible future lover. He sees Aren as a brother would, therefore he sees Anue as his sister.”

“Don’t touch Anue,” Jer said to himself. “Got it.”

“Don’t touch Aren,” Av growled at him.

“Until we sort this out, I won’t,” Jer said.

“Aren didn’t appear to be damaged like that, but if one daughter is, typically another is as well,” their father said to Av. “Breathe.”

“Brother?” Av asked.

Ervam shook his head. “More likely the brother’s tutor. There’s always an outside man to come in to teach a boy about honour and tradition. If the brother was doing it, Aren would have noticed. Queens are remarkably able to pick out the darkness in their siblings. Anue might have been able to hide the damage, but her brother wouldn’t.”

“Unless he’s a queen as well,” Jer snorted, trying not to laugh. “I cannot believe that stick of a woman had two queens.”

“She could have seen something,” Av said suddenly. “Anue knows how to use her magic. Mie knows how to see things he shouldn’t be able to, so it’s not too far off to think that someone older than Mie, who has been studying magic, might also know how to see things she’s not present for.”

This information, even though it was coming from Av, made the man relax. Jer frowned at their father, who could only quirk an eyebrow in response.

“I’m still going to arrange for the healer to look Anue over,” Ervam said to Av. “Do you know why?”

“If there are two possibilities, you need to accept both as true until one or the other is proved as impossible,” Av said with a nod. “For my own sanity, given the fact that we’re all here in this small home until spring, I’m going to ignore the other option unless it’s proven to be true.”

“Speaking of possibilities that need to be believed as true…” Jer said.

He waited until the other two turned to him. He needed to make absolutely certain that their attention was on him, that they didn’t mishear.

“Telm did something in the northwest. She also actually owns that amulet she’s been telling us about for so long. It’s red, almost like a ruby. Says it’s not. Kind of stared off for a bit and when I asked what she had done, she said that we all do stupid things sometimes,” Jer said quickly, leaning forward. “Now, when I first became mate to the throne, Father, you gave me specific orders not to upset Telm for fear she would cause me a great deal of damage.”

“Rumour,” Ervam said quietly. “Why do you believe she caused trouble in the northwest?”

“That’s where Aren’s headed,” Jer said, holding up a hand to stop Av from speaking. “We don’t know where in the northwest she’s headed. It’s a big area. Unless Father knows something, we’re right where we were before. Except now we have one general direction.”

There was a moment of silence as Ervam thought. Long and hard, the trainer frowned at the table.

“Red stone, you said?” their father asked finally.

“Unless there’s another magical stone that we need to be concerned about, I don’t see the reason for the question,” Jer said.

“There are several magical stones,” was the growled response. “But when I first came to palace lands, came ahead of your mother and you two, to set up a home, I stayed at an inn where the bard was singing about vengeance wearing a stone of blood and darkness. The victims struggled and nearly broke the curse, causing the stone to crack.”

Jer’s mouth fell open. “Did I say that the stone was cracked?”

“Is it?” Ervam asked.

“It is, yes—I thought that was how the amulet worked. The cracks almost seem to make a pattern or shape,” Jer said.

Ervam put a hand over his mouth and stared at Jer. Av looked between the pair. When the silence continued, Jer stood, scraping his chair across the floor in a manner that he knew irritated his father. Hoping to draw some other reaction out of the trainer.

“Perhaps this is a conversation for after the children are in bed,” Av said carefully, standing.

Av motioned sharply to Jer and left the house. Jer followed only because he didn’t want Av coming back to question why he hadn’t been obedient. Outside on the porch, Av drew in a sharp breath through clenched teeth.

“Give him time,” Av murmured. “He’s probably in there asking himself if Telm is capable of whatever atrocities he’s linked to the red stone. She inherited it from her mother, that’s what she’s always said, correct? That’s all we’ve ever been told about Telm’s mother. It’s not her fault her mother caused harm to the world.”

“But Telm is the sort who would carry the burden as her own,” Jer said, relaxing for the first time in days. “Telm of course isn’t capable of an act of darkness.”

“No, of course not. A bit of violence, certainly, but not darkness. Aren’s probably headed that way because the throne wants to relieve Telm of the burden she carries that her mother brought into the world.”