22. Rumors

We were ushered out of the throne room by guards and by Zinnia for whom Hinnom called.

I refused to look at the captain or his Procurers and did not even consciously follow Zinnia and her women, not thinking of the turns in the keep’s corridors or where they led.

We were again back in the long room that was a dormitory of sorts.

Zinnia and her women said they would return shortly.

I was sitting on a bed, my heart thudding in my chest, the women around me bursting into chatter, Mischa asking me why I had never said anything regarding earth magic, Catrin and Maureen exclaiming that I had to marry the Procurer captain, River telling her lover that the hall of the Shark King was spectacular whilst Quinn tried to shush her, Bronwyn and Eefa also upset by it all and wondering what their fates were.

“Quiet,”

snapped Helena, pallid, her hand on her lower back.

They all fell silent and looked at her.

She had not spoken out loud like that since before her attack in the mist.

Helena lowered herself to sit down next to me, her induced courses having made her start to shake.

“Agnes help me, this paste is a hell on its own,”

she sighed.

She put her left hand on my right shoulder and leaned into my right ear and said, only for me, “you will do what you have to do to survive.

And I know you can do it.”

“Thank you,”

I whispered, turning my face towards her.

“You will be strong, Edie Finch,”

she said, again, only for me.

Then she turned her ashen face towards the rest of them.

“Let Edie breathe.

This is a shock for all of us.

Now we know we are safe.

Our deaths are no longer imminent.”

“You’re right,”

said Mischa, Quinn and Catrin murmuring their agreement.

“What paste are you talking about?”

asked Maureen.

There was a pause and then Helena looked up at her daughter.

“To induce my courses.

So I did not quicken with a babe.

It will pass, girl.”

Maureen’s face crumpled and Mischa put her arms around her.

“So, you are magical though?”

asked Catrin, eyes widened at me.

I opened my mouth to explain that I had no idea what the man named Cian meant when he said that, but Helena lifted her hand.

“Catrin, we have to let Edie breathe.

She is bearing a great burden for all of us.”

“How is marrying a man a burden?”

challenged Eefa.

“And we will all have kitchen work while she gets to lay about some temple.”

“That’s enough,”

her grandmother warned.

The dormitory door opened and Zinnia stepped back inside.

“We will soon go to market to outfit all of you for your new lives in Tintar.

I am speaking with Captain Angler about your accommodations.”

Was he outside this dormitory right now, my soon-to-be husband?

Zinnia continued speaking.

“You will sleep in this dormitory tonight and we will bring you dinner later after the market.

Which one of you is Helena?”

Helena, using my shoulder as a support, stood up from the bed. “I am.”

“Sergeant Thatcher wants to speak with you in the hall.”

“Helena”

I said, alert and sitting up straighter.

“It is alright,”

she admonished me.

“I am certain I will return soon.”

Our eyes followed her as she stepped into the hall and closed the door behind her, her gait stilted, her figure bent.

“Zinnia,”

I said, turning to the grave-looking woman in her black and leather.

“I am already married.

Ten winters estranged, but I left a man in Perpatane.”

She held out her capable hands in a resigned manner.

“If the Shark King says you are without prior bonds, you are a free woman.

If his highness says you are to marry the captain, you will marry the captain.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked.

“Midday.

Tomorrow,”

she answered.

“I will make sure you have a serviceable wedding dress.

Now we need to outfit all nine of you for the four seasons of Tintar.”

“I can marry him in anything,”

I scoffed.

“It is not a love match.”

“But that is what is being said,”

advised Zinnia, her face thoughtful.

“It is?”

asked Mischa in disbelief.

“Rumors are flying in the keep,”

the sensible woman said.

“Rumors that the captain took one look at the Lady Edie and could not bear to cut her down.

Or her companions.

The priestess deception is a secondary rumor.

The first is that Alric Angler is enraptured by an Ecclestonian.”

“I am no lady, madam,”

I said ruefully.

“If the Shark King refers to you as lady, then so must I.”

The door creaked open and Helena stepped inside.

“Please wait here,”

Zinnia said, raising her voice to us all.

“I need to speak with the captain about funds and then we will visit the city for all of your needs.”

I pushed myself off the bed and strode towards Helena’s side, Mischa and Maureen behind me, the others falling back into chatter.

“What did the bald one want?”

Mischa asked.

Helena lifted her shoulders.

“He gave me coin.”

She held up a small pouch.

“He said it was all he had on him right now, but he wanted me to be able to buy anything that I needed and that he could get me more tomorrow if I asked.”

“I don’t trust him,”

said Mischa, shaking her head.

“Or any of these Tintarians.”

“Sh, Mischa.”

I flapped a hand at her.

“What else did he say?”

“That Alric was allotting as much as he could to each woman, but the sergeant was worried that I may need—”

Helena stopped.

“That I may need something more for what happened.

I told him I didn’t but he insisted.

And now,”

she said, holding up the pouch, “we have this.”

“Can we use it to buy some lightleaf?”

asked Mischa.

“Or fragrances?”

“You want to smoke and laugh while you smell good?” I asked.

“Don’t pretend you have not smoked many a pipe with me, Edie,”

Mischa groaned.

“At least fragrance oils.

We’ve been smelling like animals for weeks.”

Helena shook her head.

“You can make the decision.”

She handed the pouch to me.

“I am going to request I stay behind.

To sleep.

My bleed is heavy.”

Maureen leaned into her mother, eyes wet.

“I do not like the idea of you staying behind on your own,” I said.

“I agree,”

added Mischa.

“You cannot manage it?”

“We’re about to be walking around.

This is a large city.

I can barely stand,”

Helena said, her head resting against her daughter.

“Keep an eye on Maureen,”

she said, looking from me to Mischa.

Zinnia agreed that Helena should stay in the dormitory and rest.

She and three of her women herded the remaining eight of us through yet more rock corridors and back outside the bluffs, into the spring sunlight that shed its rays over the sprawl of Pikestully.

Sets of stone steps led up to each individual building built into the bluffs.

We found the closest set and made our way down.

As we walked through the bustling streets, we paired off, Mischa and Maureen linked arm in arm, Bronwyn and Eefa, Quinn and River.

I sidled up to Catrin, her delicate beauty exposing her puzzlement and fear.

“I did not know about any magic,”

I said, placing a hand under her elbow.

She looked up at me.

“Really? You had no inkling of any kind of… powers?”

“If I had them, would we be here? I would have drawn down the doors of that Agnes temple on their heads.”

Catrin smiled.

Then a crease appeared between her brows.

“What occupation will I be given? I— I am ashamed.

I have never labored.

I have no skill or trade.”

I squeezed her elbow.

“We will figure something out.

Do not fret just yet.

Perhaps I can convince my new husband not to relegate us all to the kitchens.”

“Their king is demented,”

she said, voice lowered.

“Perhaps he will not make you marry the captain.

He seems to swing from emotion to emotion.

Maybe he will forget this.”

She hesitated.

“Are you upset …about the marriage?”

I looked down the sloping street we walked, taking in stall after stall of merchants, the doors of shops flung open, Tintarians walking up and down the street, in and out of the businesses.

It was not unlike an Ecclestonian marketplace, but it was livelier, citizens haggling, bickering, shouting and laughing, minstrels with harps, dulcimers, mandolins and fiddles on every street corner.

The sea’s brine floated over the city.

Fishmongers hollered their stock’s prices over the crush of people.

The pungent smell of fresh fish was foreign to me, but the cooking fish, over open fires, stuffed with garlic and shallots, was mouthwatering.

I sighed, “I suppose I should be more upset than I am.

Though I do not think him … an unworthy man.

He is not vile.

But this is not a true marriage, Catrin.

This is a discipline his king knows, for some reason, will be as a millstone around his neck.

But am I upset? I do not know.

We are alive.

Maybe that is enough.”

“Edie,”

came Quinn’s voice behind us.

She and River drew in step with us.

“We just spoke to Zinnia.

The captain—”

she hesitated, eyes on my face at the mention of him.

“The captain has allotted an equal amount of coin for each of us.

Zinnia says it is rather generous.

But there are no extraneous funds.

And River needs medicine.”

“For my seizures,”

River added.

“Can you ask the captain, before I have my own income, to perhaps front the coin for the medicine and then I can—”

“There is no need,”

I answered.

I decided I would avoid as much interaction with my betrothed as I could, especially interaction that put us further in his debt.

“I think I may have a solution.

Keep your eyes peeled for an apothecary.”

Quinn looked confused and River grateful.

When we entered an enormous tailor’s shop, stocked with hundreds of bolts of cloth, a dozen workers hunched over worktables, Mischa pulled me away from Catrin.

“What were Quinn and River asking you about?”

“River needs medicine for her seizures.

We will have to earn our own wages and pay for our own lightleaf and oils,”

I answered, my mouth pulled to one side.

“If that is alright with you.”

“I am not a selfish ass, Edie,”

said Mischa, then softened.

“I am sorry.

Of course, I want River to have her herbs or whatever it is.

I just—”

she stopped herself and exhaled.

“I just want to stop feeling.

I have been feeling everything for weeks.

I want a little numbness.”

“So do I.”