Alfonse led us back toward the center of town to his home a couple blocks off the main square. The houses here were larger than the ones where I’d found Eletria—some even looked to have four or more rooms.
A Hume woman emerged from inside the house as we approached. “Come inside, dears, there you go.”
“My wife, Henrietta.” Alfonse introduced us to her in turn, though she already knew Eletria by sight. “She’ll see to your wound, Draeza,” Alfonse said, slipping away from their front room to the kitchen behind it.
I marveled at the size of my surroundings. An entire room for sitting or receiving guests without a bedroll in sight. Beyond it, an archway where Alfonse had just slipped away to put the kettle over the fire, and a third room besides, where I glimpsed a large, off-the-floor bed.
Hume truly are curious.
“You poor dears,” Henrietta soothed as she helped me unwrap my shawls and fold down the top of my waist-skirt. She glanced uneasily toward her husband’s back in the kitchen at the removal of my final shawl, the one the worst caked with blood. Underneath, I wore a traditional Lifkin garment, a corset-like chest covering tied with beaded strings. There was nothing unusual in our culture with having one’s stomach and shoulders exposed, but I knew such things were considered more scandalous among the Hume.
“We’ll need to clean that wound,” Henrietta remarked to herself, a shadow crossing her brow as she peered at the gash along my side. She shouted instructions to Alfonse of what to bring her from the kitchen stores and rose herself to prepare a calming tea for Eletria.
I had encountered a healing spell while pursuing my studies with Aveela, but I didn’t want to risk performing it now in case another attack occurred. There is only so much life energy one has available for casting magic without pulling from the energy of spirit.
From my readings, with enough practice I should be able to cast the choking shadows spell using the spirit-energy around me. Both of my parents had been gifted in the Lifkin arcane arts, a magic Iredella and I had inherited from them.
After today, I planned to find the time to practice, even if I frightened members of my clan.
My nose tingled at the herbs she’d selected for Eletria. Peppermint leaf, raspberry, ginger root and—I sniffed again—elm. To these she added a pinch of dandelion and chamomile.
I’d spent enough time with Mirdal while he was fulfilling requests to recognize the combination. “Eletria, are you—”
My cousin nodded, sniffling. “A couple months along now. I was going to tell Parrith, but—”
My chest tightened. It was exactly like Bansaerin was always saying, one of the dangers of Hume who viewed family differently than we did.
“He’ll return soon, dear, I’m sure of it,” Henrietta added as she returned. She rubbed her hand across Eletria’s back and added hot water from the round, squat pitcher Alfonse had just brought over. Steam poured from its narrow spout.
At this reassurance, Eletria broke down into tears and covered her face with her hands.
Henrietta’s mouth thinned and she shook her head at me, nodding toward Alfonse who hovered in the kitchen doorway. He would explain more once we were out of Eletria’s hearing.
The older Hume woman knelt on the floor beside me and asked me to lean back in the plush chair she’d instructed me to sit upon when I arrived. I had avoided as much of the fabric as possible for fear of staining it with blood and dust.
“My husband tells me you’re the new junior spiritspeaker,” Henrietta said as she dipped a towel in a bowl of steaming hot water and pressed it against my side. Alfonse was preparing a second tea for the three of us, spiced leaves with a splash of whiskey.
I winced at the press of the cloth. The water loosened some of the dried blood from my side. It would all have to be removed before Henrietta could cleanse the wound.
She spoke softly as she worked, telling us how much Alfonse enjoyed his visits to our clan and how important his work with the chief was to him.
“You talk as though I’m not standing right here,” Alfonse teased as he crossed over to his wife’s side, a dark bottle filled with clear liquid in hand.
“Both my uncle and the chief appreciate all you do for us,” I said, smiling at Alfonse, though it was quickly replaced with a wince as Henrietta applied a clean towel that she’d dipped in the alcohol.
“The burn will pass shortly, love,” she said. “Drink your tea. It will help.” She nodded to my cup and then glanced at Eletria. “You as well.”
Alfonse had been working closely with the chief for seven-odd years or more, ensuring peaceable relations between the Hume of Shakerton and our clan. He had arranged for jobs among the Hume for our people as farmers and shepherds, though these positions had been less prevalent of late. Bansaerin had been very against this practice as it led to pairings like my cousin’s and Parrith’s which he found best to be avoided.
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My heart still weighed heavily for Eletria. Where was her Hume and why had he left her?
Before we left, Henrietta prepared a few sachets of tea for Eletria and placed them inside a canvas pouch for her to take home with her. It was the sort of thing my aunt would have done had Eletria remained home with our clan.
Alfonse promised to see us out and traveled with us to escort Eletria safely home. She and Parrith had a small receiving room and a narrow second room with a bit of floorspace beside the off-the-floor bed. Eletria brightened a little upon returning home. She proudly showed me the two pots and pan of her kitchen and the four clay plates Parrith had bought for her at the autumn festival the year before.
I hugged her before we parted. “Be careful,” I urged.
She caught my hand. “You’ll tell them for me, won’t you?”
I squeezed her hand back. It should have been a moment of celebration, Eletria telling Aunt and Uncle about her baby. “I will.”
Once I found out from Alfonse where Parrith had gone, I’d determine whether it would be best to see if she could be returned to the clan. From experience I knew how difficult it was to be an outsider among one’s own people, but the life available to her as a Lifkin woman, alone with a half-Hume baby was not one I wanted to think about. There were special brothels all over the kingdom that took in pretty young Lifkin like Eletria, but I wanted something better for my cousin.
“Now can you tell me?” I begged Alfonse the moment Eletria had bid us farewell and shut her door.
Alfonse nodded gravely. “We lost a shepherd to the forest. He’d gone in after a sheep, but that was two, perhaps three days ago now. A close friend of Parrith’s. Your cousin’s partner went in looking for him before midday yesterday and hasn’t returned.”
I shook my head. The Hume’s sheep seemed to cause no shortage of problems for them. Shakerton’s proximity to the forest was troubling for such nervous creatures, but they refused to raise ibex like we did. I’d noted the barrenness of the fields on my way into town, those I could see from the road. Had it been a year since the Order had sent one of their heralds to bless the crops and allow the fields to grow?
And for Eletria, I would have wished a more competent Hume, one who would know to leave the forest to its own working once truenight arrived.
“It’s the third such disappearance in the past mooncycle,” Alfonse continued. “Matters here were already troubled and unless something drastic changes, I don’t anticipate their improvement.” He led me back toward the center of town and promised to show me where I might pursue my errands.
“If you wouldn’t object, I should like to accompany you back this afternoon. See if I can find any sign of Parrith or Orvald, his shepherd companion.” A shadow crossed over his face. “There is a matter I must speak with your chief and elders about as well.”
Having company for facing whatever it was Gwinny and I had run from this morning brought a sense of ease I hadn’t realized I’d needed. “I would appreciate that, thank you.”
“And once I return on the morrow, I’ll keep an eye on your cousin until Parrith emerges from the forest.” The side of his mouth twitched at this reassurance and the knot in my stomach tightened. He didn’t think Parrith was coming back. “We’ll meet at the stables in a few hours and ride to your clan together.”
I thanked Alfonse again as we reached the main thoroughfare of Shakerton and he pointed me to the Shop of Young Gregory as Aveela called it. The faded sign above the narrow doorway read Fyne Parchments and Quills.
A bell jingled against the door as I eased it open. The shop had one of the darkest interiors I’d ever encountered. Only three flickering candles shone, cast about the corners of the narrow room with walls so close I could very nearly touch both sides at once.
“Hello?” I called. “Anyone here?”
“Err, whattsit?” A low, hoarse voice sounded from the back of the shop. A stooped, ancient Hume eased his way forward and into the candlelight. The puffs of white hair along the sides of his head looked like he was wearing two tiny clouds on either side of his head.
“Gregory?” He didn’t respond the first time so I risked rudeness and shouted the name.
“Yes, yes, can I help you?”
“Aveela sent me,” I yelled so he could hear me. “She needs loose parchment, five hundred sheets, and ink.” I would go as hoarse as Gregory if I tried to explain about Aveela’s talkative spirit who had inspired my trip.
Be careful he doesn’t gouge you on price, Aveela had told me.
Ever so slowly, Gregory gathered the materials. Once I understood where he kept his stores, I assisted him, piling four bound sets of parchment paper and three bottles of ink while he attended to the first set. “Five gold.” Gregory exhaled the words, speaking as slowly as he moved.
Sometimes I forgot about how truly ancient Aveela was.
“Aveela thought it would be four,” I shouted back. The difference between four and five seemed slight enough, but I didn’t want to risk falling into the trap she’d warned me about in case there was as much meaning in the Hume’s shiny coins as they seemed to believe.
Gregory chewed his gums for a moment. “Aveela. Yes, yes, I remember. Thirty-odd years ago, was it? She traveled here—” He hemmed and hawed, trying to remember the details that were older than I was. “Prices go up over time, even for dear friends.”
I bit my lower lip, sensing there was more to the story between ‘Young’ Gregory and Aveela than my teacher had owned to me, but nothing about Gregory’s manner said he was trying to cheat me out of Aveela’s coin and, well, one of mine as she’d only given me the four gold she had.
This was what gold was for though, wasn’t it? Exchanging with friends for aid? We had a much simpler system in our clan which ensured everyone was taken care of and their contributions to the whole recognized, but like Aveela had taught me, I was trying to be open-minded to Hume culture. Perhaps I would understand the strange custom of the coins in time.
“Do you need help getting the crate to your horse?” I had helped Gregory pack the pages into a narrow wooden box that would allow me to safely transport the pages and glass bottle back even if the weather turned, but each of the sheafs of parchment seemed a burden to him, and I was certain he couldn’t lift all five of them and the ink besides.
“No, I’m sure I can manage.”
Crate in hand, I slipped out of the shop, door jingling behind me. I balanced the wooden box on my hip and couldn’t help but feel like one of the figures in the records I so cherished—a traveler on an adventure, acquiring the materials they needed to complete their quest. Granted, their quests tended to be more exciting than acquiring parchment and lavender oil, but I wasn’t going to complain. If all went well, I might even have time to stop at the tavern before I left!
Taverns figured prominently in my readings, and I had yet to step inside one. We had no need of such a place, but the ancient Lifkin had kept them, particularly in the cities and the islas. I had to know what they were like.
