House of the Raven (The Eldrystone #1)

17. CHAPTER 17

17

VALERIA

“I thought a seat in the council would be the answer, but the fae want what we cannot give them. This is Castella, not Tirnanog. My people come first.”

Rey Simón Plumanegra (Casa Plumanegra) - King of Castella - 11 AV

“ A repeat customer?” El Gran Místico responds in the tone of a question.

Esmeralda doesn’t look convinced.

“A half-blood?” The charlatan tries again.

Anger rises in me. It’s not his secret to share with others. I glare at him, but he seems oblivious.

“And why does she need to rest here?” she asks, narrowing her green eyes, which make a striking combination with her ebony hair. They are the same shade as El Gran Místico’s. I wonder if he’s her father.

My chest continues to heave at a faster pace than normal, making it evident that I’m exhausted, but can she guess why? Has she pieced together that I’m the one the guards are pursuing? What if she decides to turn me in hoping to claim a reward? Perhaps I made a horrible mistake. What reckless, impulsive notion led me here? I should have stayed with Jago .

My brain, like a rabbit constantly giving birth to ill-advised ideas, concocts yet another brilliant scheme: spill my secrets. Well, most of them, at least. Without a moment’s consideration, my mouth is already in motion.

“I’m hiding from Don Justo Medrano’s guards,” I say. “I’ve been sent here to marry him against my will, but I want nothing to do with him. I’ve never met the man. I arrived only yesterday, and although he’s currently absent from his villa, I’ve heard enough about him to want no part in it.” The words come out fast and sharp, like daggers slicing a sparring dummy. It appears my tongue is equally swift and cutting.

They both fix me with quizzical expressions, their eyebrows arching in unison. Their eyes briefly meet, conveying an unspoken question: Do you believe her?

I wait for their judgment, not daring to blink. El Gran Místico is the first one to settle on a decision, and from his expression, it’s a positive one. Esmeralda takes a little longer, but in the end, the belated sympathy in her eyes means more to me than his faster acceptance.

“If you’ve heard what we have about that mongrel, I don’t blame you.” She inclines her head toward my wrist. “Want me to take a look at that?”

I nod.

Esmeralda kneels in front of me and gingerly gathers my wrist in her hands. She moves it this way and that. I wince.

“I don’t think it’s broken,” she says. “Badly sprained, but not broken.”

“That’s good,” I say lamely.

“I’ll get some strips and wrap it.”

“I thank you deeply.” I bow my head.

Esmeralda narrows her eyes as she examines my hair closely. I sit back, wondering if that damn white strip has become visible, and whether or not she’ll immediately associate the streak with Princess Valeria Plumanegra, but it shouldn’t be. I applied enough dark paste this morning to last a week .

“What’s your name?” she asks.

I don’t hesitate when I give her the fake name I’ve always used when exploring Castellina. “Catalina.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Catalina.” The inflection she puts on the name lets me know she doesn’t believe that’s my real name.

I glance toward El Gran Místico, who looks amused, as if he not only suspects but knows more than Esmeralda does.

“Don’t trust anyone, Valeria ,” Father’s voice echoes inside my head. He would have me think that everyone, aware that I’m a princess, would seek to use me for their nefarious purposes.

“ Surely, there are good people in the realm ,” I would answer him, thinking that he was only trying to scare me into obedience.

But maybe he wasn’t so wrong. The veilfallen tried to kidnap me. What if these people try to do the same? Holding the reins of my distrust in check, I decide to hold my judgment. I will be careful, of course, will watch all their movements closely, and will use what I learn to form my own opinions.

A couple of hours later, I sit inside the wagon alone. Esmeralda wrapped my hand tightly, and it feels much better this way. She thinks it will be fine in a few days, and so do I. They left me here, telling me not to worry, that I was safe in the wagon. Remembering Bastien’s earlier lack of interest in searching for me here, I grow more confident in the assumption that the wagon is protected by some sort of spell. At some point, I drift off, lulled by the silence.

When the door opens, I startle and jump to my feet, but it’s only Esmeralda. As the door closes behind her, I’m surprised to see that it’s dark outside. A sudden apprehension stabs me right in the chest. I would like to know that Jago got away from Bastien. Except I don’t believe he did, so really what I need to know is that he’s unharmed.

“Have you… heard anything?” I ask, gesturing toward the door .

“There are a few guards still looking for you. There is a particularly grumpy one that seems relentless. He has come around three or four times already.”

My breath catches. Somehow I know she’s referring to Bastien, which means he must have caught up with Jago. Is my cousin back in Don Justo’s villa? Is Don Justo? My stomach flips. I can only imagine the complexity of that situation. The overreaching man demanding where his supposed bride-to-be is, and Emerito attempting to find a diplomatic way to explain it all. They wouldn’t hurt Jago, would they? If I could get a message to him.

“How come he hasn’t tried to look for me here?” I ask.

“I think you already know why.” Esmeralda’s green eyes twinkle.

“Are you also… fae?” No matter from what angle I look at her, I haven’t caught a glimpse of pointy ears, but I have to ask.

“Only a fourth. I don’t have magic, in case you’re itching to know. My great-grandpa on my ma’s side was full-blooded, but he had no magic to pass down. He traded hides.”

So many people in Castella have mixed blood, and so many hide it as if it were a stain to be removed. I wonder if it’s the same in Tirnanog, if those with even the slightest hint of human blood are seen as less?

“What about El Gran Místico?” I ask.

Esmeralda laughs. “You don’t have to call him that. He’ll get a big head.” She considers, then adds, “A bigger head, I mean. Call him Gaspar. That’s his proper name. Anyway, he’s also a fourth fae and has a good bit of magic for protective stuff and sneaky stuff too.”

“Sneaky stuff?”

She points at the table with the tarot cards and crystal ball.

“I see. Is he your father?”

“Gods, no. What made you think that?”

“You have the same eyes.”

She shrugs. “The color is common in our troop. ”

“I’ve never been able to see through someone’s glamour before,” I say.

“His glamouring magic isn’t strong. Some people with the blood can see through it.”

Esmeralda appears entirely comfortable sharing this information with me, even though we’re strangers. It’s as though there’s an unspoken trust simply because we share a common ancestry. For the first time, I’m able to openly admit this one aspect of myself I’ve always concealed, and it’s liberating.

“So yea, you’re safe as a mole deep in its lair here,” Esmeralda says. “Gaspar and I are wondering, what’s your plan?”

“Plan?” I feel as lost as a mole outside its lair.

“Yea, what are you going to do from here? ‘Cause you can’t stay inside this wagon forever. Gaspar needs it for his work.”

Oh, they want me to leave. Of course, what did I expect?

“I… I’ll go.” I start moving toward the door.

“No, ni?a.” She touches my arm briefly, and I stop. “We’re not kicking you out. We want to help you, but we have to know how.”

As I breathe out in relief, a warm feeling spreads over my chest. These people know nothing about me, and they’re willing to help me.

“That or they want to exchange you for a hefty bag of gold,” Father’s voice comes to my head in that eerie echo I would like to get rid of. That isn’t the side of him I want to remember.

I think about it for a moment. How can they help me? There are a lot of things I can think of, like getting me in touch with Jago, so I can leave this town with him. That would be the perfect outcome, but I know it’s not the most likely one. If I go back anywhere near that villa, I could get captured again. And getting these people involved in something like that could bring them terrible trouble. No, I can’t do that. They’re already taking a risk. I need to make it as easy as possible for them to lend me a hand. So with that in mind, I settle on what to say.

“Um, I assume your troop will be leaving Alsur at some point, right? ”

She nods. “Yea, we don’t stay for too long in any one place. Means trouble to linger for the likes of us. Matter of fact, we’re leaving tomorrow. This is the end of our loop, then we’ll be headed back to Castellina.”

My heart leaps. “Castellina?” I repeat dumbly.

“Yea, you know the place?” The question seems sincere, which means she has no idea who I am, even if she suspects my name isn’t Catalina.

“I’ve been once,” I lie. “It would be a great place to hide from… all of this.”

“That, it would.” She throws her hands out. “It’s easy then. You ride with us back to Castellina.”

“Do you think that’s possible? No one will mind?”

“No, it’s fine. There’s always room for one more. You’ll have to pull your weight though.”

“I have no problem doing that. I’ll do anything that needs to be done.”

“Excellent.” She hooks her thumb toward the door. “I have to get back. You stay hidden, and I’ll get you some food. Also…” Her emerald eyes scan me up and down. “You need a disguise.”

“Oh, great idea!”

She winks, and something tells me this is like a game to her. But it isn’t a game at all. Gods! Maybe I should leave here on my own. Maybe I should steal a horse and ride as hard as I can back to Castellina. But that would mean leaving the protection of Gaspar’s spell, the only thing that has kept Bastien from finding me.

I feel torn inside.

“Don’t worry, ni?a. Everything will be all right,” Esmeralda assures me.

That is how the next day, I find myself dressed in a colorful flowing skirt and a ruffled bodice, sitting in the back of a carriage, watching Alsur fade in the distance. Cuervo follows us discreetly. He has always been wary of strangers, and after what Bastien did to him, even more so, it appears .

Esmeralda says they will be stopping in two different places before reaching Castellina, two towns they skipped on their way south. She says they visited four others on the way here, leaving only two for the last leg of the journey since they’re tired and ready to get back to Castellina for an extended stay.

“Business is better there,” she says as she swings her feet and chews on a long piece of hay. “There are more people, and they have more coin to spend. Some of them outright waste it… their gold, I mean. I don’t mind taking it when they’re so loose with it. We have mouths to feed.”

There are a total of fourteen people in her troop, four growing children among them, so I understand what she means. I feel embarrassed to see how little they own, how all their possessions fit in three measly wagons. They are forced to go from town to town performing and selling jewelry, fans, and other things they make.

“And if they don’t make enough, they steal,” Father’s voice once more.

I shake my head, trying to remember if he ever taught me anything positive about our people. If this is how he felt about everyone, was he really a good king to them? I rub my temple.

“You all right?” Esmeralda asks.

“Oh, I’m fine, just a little headache.”

“Don’t blame you. That must’ve been an ordeal. I hate to say it, but your family… they’re awful. Why would they try to marry you off to that bastardo?”

“Um, they think… it’s the only way to protect their interests.”

She huffs. “Well, that’s selfish. What about your interests? What do you want?”

I get a bit defensive about her comment, and feel I have to speak up for my family. “They all have made sacrifices. I guess they figure it’s my turn.”

Esmeralda makes a sound in the back of her throat but says nothing else. She just chews on her piece of hay as the sun rises, and the path behind us stretches and stretches, leaving Alsur, and the province of Aldalous behind. I don’t think I would feel too bad if I never returned.