Chapter 119

As we walked the streets of Cheapside it became clear that Desi's place was one of the few that emerged from the transition of power unscathed. I saw crushed flower beds and splintered fences, but they were the most benign signs of what had happened. Some houses were little more than smoking ruins, others licked by smoke and more than that. People were led or carried from houses, but to go where?

"This way, Lady—" the lad said.

"Just Raven," she told him. "And you are Keith, yes? Your father is John, who works at the inn across town."

"Right." The boy paled in the face of her encyclopaedic knowledge. "So in here, Raven."

He forced open a door that appeared to have been swollen by the damp, the paint having peeled off it a long time ago. Once that was shoved open, he called out, "Ma? Ma? I've returned with the sister…" He glanced back at us. "With the Raven."

"The Raven?" The sound of the mother's voice sounded strained, something confirmed when she emerged. Hair hung in strings around her face, her mouth pinched as she looked us up and down. "Sister Selene." She dropped a quick curtsey. "I mean no offence, but are you here on your father's business or the Temple's?"

"Neither, Mollie," Selene said, moving forward and taking the woman's hands from where she was wringing her apron. "I am here because I wish to be. My father is dead."

"Dead…" Mollie's eyes studied the other woman's closely. "Dead? So your brother…" Selene shook her head. "No… You?"

"I deposed my father and assumed his mantle," Selene replied. Mollie went to pull away, but she held tight. "But that is not why I am here."

"Mollie…" a voice groaned from somewhere deeper in the house. "Mollie!"

"Come through, please," Mollie said, her brow creasing. "See what you can do. John is hurting terribly."

"Of course."

I was left to trail along behind them, ending up in a room where a man lay on the bed, writhing in pain.

"Sister… Sister…" John tried to reach for Selene and failed, pain causing him to spasm all over. "I need your help. My leg…"

"Is broken." Selene moved closer and I saw now the strange angle his calf was set on. "I need some stout sticks and some clean rags, long ones like strips from a sheet."

"You heard the lady… the Raven," Mollie said to Keith. "The sheets at the bottom of the press. Bring them and then cut down some sizeable sticks from the tree in the yard."

"I'm going to need to set the leg," Selene told John, her hands starting to rise.

"No, no, no…!" He tried to move but failed to get anywhere. "You can't. I can't…"

She pulled out a tiny bottle, popping the stopper and placing it before his nose, watching him suck in a deep breath, right before his eyes rolled back in his head. Selene waited until the moment he went limp then placed her hands gently on either side of the break before jerking the bone back into place. His scream had every hair on my head standing on end as it echoed through the room.

"Here, Ma!" Keith thrust the cloth and sticks at his mother, rushing over to check on his father's state.

"Another sniff," Selene said, as if asking about the weather.

"No…" John said weakly. "No…"

"You must let the lady heal you," Mollie said, sinking down by his side and taking his hand. "All will be well, my love, I promise."

He nodded feverishly, then turned his attention to Selene, reaching over as far as he dared to breathe deeply from the bottle. It seemed to still him long enough for her and Keith to lash the branches to his leg, forming a primitive splint.

"Keep him quiet and still for as long as you can," Selene advised Mollie as we moved towards the door. "He'll need a wash, to be kept as clean as possible."

"I'll send Keith down to the well for water," she said.

"No need." She placed a hand on Mollie's shoulders. "I'll send one of my people around to bring water up to the house."

The woman transformed then, her back going ramrod straight as her lips thinned.

"I appreciate your assistance, Raven, but I can't allow my family to be indebted to The Guild."

"It won't be." Selene looked back at their house. "I know how my father ran things. He'd have you signing Keith's life over to him before he'd even look at John's legs. Hell…" She shook her head. "He'd be just as likely to break John's leg to ensure he could get Keith signed up to a lifetime of servitude to our organisation. But I…" She stared down at Mollie. "I am not my father. I will have one of my people help you because it is needed. If when Keith is grown, he chooses to sign with The Guild for a limited contract, well, I'll be happy to accept him into our number."

That seemed to appease the woman. She nodded and gave Selene her thanks before we started to walk back down the road.

I wished I could say that John's situation was an anomaly, but it wasn't. From what Bill was saying, the people were hurting before Magnus' death, but they'd also been hurt because of it. People were massing around one large building, black robed sisters ushering the wounded in.

"You have everything you need, Sister?" Selene asked the nearest woman.

"More bandages wouldn't go astray and some more pain-ease, but we're surviving, Raven," she replied, then looked past Selene to me. "Oh, Your Highness!"

"Your Majesty," Selene corrected mildly. I blinked and so did the sister. "You might want to look at your marriage contract, Jessalyn. I'm fairly sure there's a clause in there that makes you regent of all of Khean upon the death of your husband."

"Husband?" I shook my head. "I have four mates, but no ceremonies have been held."

"So you weren't married to Magnus before the grand nave, in the central cathedral?"

How had Silas thought he'd have a chance of becoming Raven? I thought as her cool gaze met mine. Nothing got past Selene, nothing.

"I was," I replied between gritted teeth.

"Then it's past time I get you home…" Her focus shifted to the sky that was slowly turning purple and orange. "Queen Regent."