Anais of Brightshire Page 5

  Chapter 5

  Back in my room, I slid my leather satchel over my shoulder, and stared at the room that had been my home for the last three years. It was hard to believe that it was over. I hoped I could find Gil in the market. Maybe he would let me work for him. I liked trading. I sighed deeply. Or perhaps I could offer to apprentice for one of the shop merchants. I wished I hadn’t spent so much of my money on the manuscript. But, of course, if it weren’t for the manuscript I wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.

  “Anais, what are you doing?” Thellium asked from the doorway.

  “I’m leaving. I’ve been expelled. I’m not a scull anymore.” I sighed, looking up at him.

  “Ah. I was afraid of that. Cedric told me what happened. He feared you might suffer from your adventure last night.”

  “It was hardly an adventure.”

  “I know. I’m sorry you had to see your friend that way. Death is terrible, especially when it happens to someone so young, and especially when brought on by violence.”

  I nodded; it was indeed terrible.

  “You don’t need to leave, you could stay. I could use an apprentice.”

  “I can’t be your apprentice. I mean don’t scribes have to be from noble families, and you said yourself you had to go to a school to be a scribe.”

  “Normally, yes. But, exceptions can be made. And I’m currently in a position to make an exception. The truth is, you’ve been very helpful to me, and you already know how to read. That’ll save me time. Also, Cedric seemed very concerned at the idea of you being expelled. We wouldn‘t want to upset him.”

  “Why should he care?” I tightened my jaw. I didn’t know what to think of Cedric. His actions were so bizarre. He should never have followed me. I wasn’t sure if he had been trying to help me or hurt me.

  “He’s a good boy, and it doesn’t surprise me that he wouldn’t want you to suffer because of him.”

  “It wasn’t his fault.”

  “Perhaps.” Thellium appeared unconvinced. “But my offer is still a good one. Will you stay and be my apprentice?”

  I smiled, biting my lower lip gently. This could be good. This could be what I needed. I let out a long breath. “Yes. I mean ... what would I have to do?”

  “We’ll work that out. Why don’t you take a few days off before you officially report to me? After what you just went through, you probably need a little time to recover, and I need to travel to Barriershire briefly before we start your training.” Thellium looked around my room. “Hmm, I’ll talk to someone about having you moved out of these quarters - somewhere closer to my rooms perhaps. We’ll talk to Mistress Laurey about it. I suppose we have to do that anyway, the Gorgon can’t be left in the dark about anything after all.”

  “The Gorgon?”

  “Oh my apologies.” Thellium blushed. “Cedric and Mediera rub off on me sometimes in the worst of ways,” he muttered. Who is Mediera? I wondered.

  I couldn’t help from keeping a small smile from slipping onto my face as I waited for Thellium to finish explaining to Mistress Laurey about my upgrade in position.

  After he was finished, he left me there alone with Mistress Laurey. As she perched herself on the tip of her chair, she indicated for me to sit down.

  “So, it looks like we have a little rearrangement to take care of.” Her lips twitched.

  I hoped she wasn’t angry. It was hard to tell what Mistress Laurey was thinking. Her features seemed perpetually pinched.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “There is a vacant bedchamber next to Thellium’s room, the yellow room. You know it, I imagine. You will join the household for meals; I believe you are already know the schedule. There are four benches near the outer rim of the dining hall. You may sit at one of those, but no other. Thellium eats with the family, but you will not. Let’s hope your apprenticeship lasts.”

  When I entered the yellow room, and thumped onto the soft bedding, a huge smile broke onto my face. This room was heaven. I had been in the room before, but never, ever did I imagine it would be mine. A small fireplace in the corner provided a dry heat in the evenings. The oddly yellow colored stone walls were bare, but there was no mold, and the room actually smelled good. The mid-morning light filtered onto the face of a small wooden desk and a wooden chair.

  I moved to an opening carved out of the wall. I could see the garden. Rows and rows of herbs outlined patches of lilies and orchids. It was beautiful. I wondered if Cedric had a similar view from his room. I couldn’t see the area I had used the night before. I wondered again exactly how much Cedric had seen. Maybe I would never find out. Maybe I would never speak to him again. Maybe it didn’t matter.

  There was a small pile of clothing on the bed consisting of several pairs of loose black trousers and starched white cotton blouses. I was happily surprised that I wouldn’t be required to wear skirts. I would have to remember to thank Thellium for his thoughtfulness.

  At supper that evening, I sat next to a young man who was an apprentice painter visiting with his master, and a quiet woman who wore a white headdress that completely covered her hair and a full black gown - she was a sister of mercy. I couldn’t believe it. I had never seen a sister of mercy before, and I couldn’t keep myself from stealing glances at her over my porridge and bread.

  By my fifth day in my new position, Thellium had still not returned. I had spent my days sleeping, eating and worrying. As an apprentice, I could also go to the baths to bathe anytime I liked, and I spent more time than I should have scrubbing myself until I was cleaner than I had ever been before.

  “Did you know her?”

  I looked up, confused.

  “Know who?”

  The sister of mercy was speaking to me as our dishes were cleared from supper. “The unfortunate young woman who died. I heard she worked here. I thought you might know her. I’d like to attend her burial, we could go together.”

  “Why?”

  The sister smiled. “You seem troubled, dear. Perhaps you are in need of some time to make peace with the girl’s death. The burial ceremony can be very reassuring, and you shouldn’t have to go alone. It’s my mission to offer support to anyone in need. And you appear to be in need.”

  It bothered me that I was exhibiting weakness. But the woman’s expression was so guileless and kind that I felt myself warming to the idea.

  Tall blue grass swayed in the wind, masking the smaller headstones, as the sister and I watched a gravedigger bury the small wooden box that held Kirsten’s body. We were the only attendees, and I felt suddenly guilty that I had never made an attempt to know the dead girl, that I had let our early problems taint my view of her.

  When dawn broke the next morning, I walked up the main stairs to Thellium’s room to begin my career as his apprentice; I had received a note the evening before that he had returned. It was strange for me to walk along the main stairs, and not via the servant’s corridors so, even though I knew I wasn’t breaking any rules, I tread quietly. Thellium’s door swung open in response to my knock.

  “Come in, come in.” He smiled at me, and then pointed toward the worktable that was covered with feathers of beige, grey and white. “I would like you to cut and pluck goose feathers for me today, I’ll show you how to prepare one, and then you can continue while I go to the north tower to lecture Thomas and Cedric.”

  “You tutor Cedric?”

  “And his elder brother, Thomas. They have a tutor who teaches military protocol and estate management, but I do spend some time with them as well. A few hours a week I teach them languages, history, and mathematics, though mostly I think Lord Seve hopes I will provide them with a taste of western culture.”

  “You’re from the west? Over the mountains?” I knew so little about him. I couldn’t fathom knowing someone who had traveled so far.

  “Yes, I grew up just outside Courtshire. Oh and of course, attended the
academy for scribes in Courtshire.”

  “Oh.” I imagined I could never become a master scribe. Not if it meant traveling so far.

  “Thellium, did you come here just to tutor them?”

  “No. Brightshire always has a scribe in residence. We record all of the significant events that occur in the house, and send our reports to Courtshire to be kept in the library. We take five year shifts. My tenure will be completed in two years, and then another scribe will come to take my place.”

  Would he take me with him when he left? I couldn’t work up the courage to ask.

  Thellium gave me a small hard leather case that contained a small steel knife, a narrow file, a long curved steel needle, and a pair of steel tweezers. He showed me how to extract the meat from within the shafts of the feathers with the needle, how to cut a crescent shape out of the tip of the shaft with the sharpened knife, how to pluck each hair out of the feather, and how to clean and dry the plucked feather shafts. After these processing steps, the feathers became quills, and Thellium explained that the narrow tubular shape would suck ink up into the shaft after it was dipped into an inkwell.

  In Thellium’s absence, I constructed quills, my fingers growing numb from the tight grip I held on the knife. When Thellium returned, he wasn’t alone.

  “C’mon Thell, I’ll bring her back in one piece, I promise. How much trouble can we get into in the middle of the day?” Cedric asked as he walked through the door, following Thellium’s entrance.

  “If she wants to go, I suppose it will be okay.” Thellium sighed and turned to me. “How many quills did you finish?”

  “Seven.” I answered. “They are drying on the line near the fire.”

  “Good, good. Do you want to go running off with young Cedric?” He raised a fine eyebrow.

  “Yes.” I smiled, despite myself.

  “Return after supper then. I want to show you how to treat parchment today, and if you end up in town, pick up three or four limes for me, and a jug of thick cream.” Thellium handed me two silvers.

  “Okay.” I agreed accustomed to Thellium’s odd requests.

  “Well Old Thell didn’t waste any time, he put you right to work.”

  “Old Thell?”

  “That’s what we call him.”

  “He’s not that old.” I followed Cedric down the stairs.

  “He acts like he’s old.”

  I rolled my eyes and asked, “Where’re we going?”

  “You’ll see.”

  “Did you get in trouble for getting caught out of the house after curfew?”

  “Yep, that’s why it took me so long to come looking for you. My father wasn’t pleased, but like most of his rants, this too passed. I was confined to my room for the past week. I could only come out for meals.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be, it was nice to be involved in something important. Sometimes I feel like my whole life consists of useless activities aimed at keeping me busy and out of the way.”

  “I would think that being Lord Seve’s son, everything you did would be important. How could you have any idea what it feels like to be useless?”

  “I might be Lord Seve’s son, but I am not blooded.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “My father’s first wife was a noble by blood; when my father married my mother she was just a commoner. Thomas and Clara are nobility by blood - with a commoner for a mother, I’m little better then a bye-blow. I will inherit nothing - neither title nor property. So you see, I don’t really have any real resources. I’m of no consequence to the line of succession for the lordship of Brightshire. Don’t feel bad for me though, my family likes me well enough, and I’m going to be a soldier. If I was blooded they would never let me do that.”

  It seemed so easy for Cedric to blurt out his whole life to me. Had I ever been so carefree? I didn't think so. “Cedric, you said that you saw me in the garden. What exactly did you see?”

  “Just a girl - you - sitting in the garden in the middle of the night.”

  “That’s all you saw?”

  “Yes, why, was there something else I could’ve seen?”

  “No,” I faltered. “I was just curious.”

  Cedric brought me to the stables. I had never had the opportunity to visit them; they were about a half-mile south of the Great House, away from the market.

  “Have you ever ridden a horse?” Cedric asked.

  “No, I don’t know how to ride.”

  “Do you want to learn?”

  I grinned. “You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m definitely serious.”

  “Yes. Yes. Yes.” I replied, and then considered how odd his actions were. “Why are you being so nice to me?”

  “I just am.” Cedric sighed. “Don’t ask so many questions.”

  The stable consisted of hundreds of box stalls, most occupied with a sleek bodied horse. I forgot about being skeptical. “I want to ride.”

  The stable master helped us, and I considered asking after Addie, but decided against it.

  We rode the horses into town, so that I could pick up the supplies that Thellium had requested. Cedric picked out a small sweet-natured mare, a grey that Cedric’s father had imported from the west, for me to ride. He said I needed to warm up on an animal that wouldn’t be inclined to throw me, and would offer a steady gait. She was a lovely horse. I stroked her soft and silky mane, and felt content. It took no time at all for me to feel comfortable.

  As we sped along the path, I could see sunlight sparkle across the green leaves of the trees and the blades of grass. It was a perfect cloudless day. I was glad I wasn’t a lady of importance who had to protect her skin from the sun, had to wear endless petticoats, and had to be chaperoned at all times. I felt so free.

  Back in Thellium’s rooms later that evening, he instructed me in how to concoct a thin paste made of cream, butter, flour and lime juice. The paste’s function was to treat parchment, to make it smooth and white. We stretched out dried animal hides, tightly onto hooks and painted thin layers of the paste onto the surfaces. Thellium said that after twenty-four hours we could rinse off the paste with water and dry the hides into parchment.

  “Thellium, what really happened to Kirsten?” I asked, breaking the silence.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I saw her body. It was like my mother’s stories. Did a fury kill her?”

  Thellium looked hard at me. “I don’t know. But, I think so, yes.”

  “Then you believe in them?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Have you ever seen one?” My eyes widened, and my breath tightened.

  “Yes.”

  “Where? Do you think they are really here, in the city?”

  “I saw one once in Barriershire, he was a prisoner of sorts.”

  “Are they responsible for the recent deaths?”

  “I don’t really know.”

  “Was the one you saw very dangerous?”

  “Yes. Very much so.”

  “If they are so strong, will they destroy us all? How do we stop them? How do we stay safe?”

  “It’s true that they are stronger than men, but they are also impulsive creatures. Men can out-think them. In hand-to-hand combat a man will often lose to a fury, however they have weaknesses. I’m sure you heard the myth that they fear daylight.”

  “Don’t they?”

  “They are nocturnal, but daylight does not kill them. That notion is just a fairy tale -so don’t depend on it. They are cruel creatures, they brutally murder and eat any human they cross, but they rose in mass once before and our armies drove them into the Southlands, and if we must, I am certain our armies can do it again.”

  “That doesn’t make us safe now. Brightshire borders the Southlands, and the Seven Shires armies are all the way in Courtshire - they’re not here to protect us now. If the furies are rising...” I said.

  “Yo
u have to have faith.”

  Faith? How could he be so naive?

  “What did it look like? The one you saw in Barriershire?”

  Thellium sighed. “It had the shape of a man, but its skin was that of an amphibian - a blackish blue color. Its ears were elongated, and its teeth razor sharp. And what I found most intriguing was that the joints in its elbows and knees could turn in either direction. It was a fascinating creature to behold. It seemed to breathe out fear; the crowds would become dizzy with nervousness and discontent just by watching it.”

  That didn’t sound like the boy I saw so many years ago. Maybe, the boy was just a boy.

  “Why were there crowds?”

  “He was held at the Arena, they fought him against prisoners and outlaws. The Arena is an unfortunate addition to our culture. I’ve never agreed with it as a form of entertainment. Men should not enjoy such things.”

  “Couldn’t mages fight the furies with magic?”

  “No.” Thellium answered abruptly. “Magic will only make things worse.”

  I didn’t understand how Thellium could be so cavalier about our lives. My life mattered to me. For all of her flaws, Kirsten’s life mattered to me. What was wrong with him?

  “I think I should go to bed,” I said.

  “That’s fine, I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.”

  “Of course,” I whispered.

  I didn’t sleep well that night; I was plagued with uncertainty. Our world – our lives were so fragile.

  Later that week, as Cedric and I sat eating bread and cheese under a willow tree in the gardens, I confided my concerns to him. I hoped that maybe he would have the answers that Thellium withheld from me.

  “Don’t hate Old Thell. He isn’t the only person who argues that magic should stay illegal.”

  “But if the furies are such a threat, shouldn’t we use whatever power we have available to stop them?”

  “I don’t know, Anais. My father agrees with Thellium, he always commands his ambassador to vote against removing the ban on magic. There is much contention about it in Courtshire. My father says that if the mages regain their position, our family will lose the small amount of power we have.”

  “Your father, your father. I don’t care what your father thinks, what do you think, Cedric?”

  “It’s not my place to have or express an opinion about it, and it certainly isn’t yours.”

  He was right, in a way. I should be more careful.

  “I’m sorry, Cedric.”

  “Don’t be sorry. Let’s just forget it and enjoy the day, it’s pointless to worry so much. There is nothing we can do about it.”

  “I ... I’m going back to my room. I don’t feel well.”

  “Okay, but Anais, please don’t be mad at me, okay?”

  “I’m not.”

  Back in my room, I put the book, the scarf and the brass ring into a sack, and took them into the woods. I sat in my circle of salt and placed my bloodied hands into the warm earth. I tried the spell to levitate the ring, but my head hurt, and my nose bled. I turned to the scarf next, but regardless of how hard I tried, I couldn’t lift it either. I closed my eyes, and cried. My power was gone; I could feel that it had left me, I felt so empty. How could I protect myself now?