My gaze narrowed in on the glint of steel in my mother’s hand. She had pulled my hunting knife from my pack! My eyes widened, my mouth going slack, but then I quickly fixed my face so that Regina wouldn’t see.
What the Maker was Mother intending to do with that? Stab the sniffers? My mom hadn’t killed a thing a day in her life, never even swatted a fly. This whole situation had turned her mad.
I stumbled forward, and without seeing me the sniffer reached out and laid a hand on my shoulder.
My heart pounded so hard in my chest I could feel it in my ears.
Another hand landed on my other shoulder, and I looked up to see the second sniffer.
As if they were one being, they both inhaled at the same time, tipping their heads back as if to devour my scent.
I flinched, feeling like my entire soul lay bare in that moment. Something, some magic caressed me then, slithering over my skin and worming into my chest. My breathing became ragged and they both smiled at the same time.
“Sandalwood,” the one on the left said.
“Neem,” said the one on the right.
“Blood,” they both said together.
“And a whole lot of magic,” the one on the left said with nostrils flared.
Hades.
“Enough to bear the king a child?” Regina’s hopeful voice came from behind me, and I steeled myself.
They both shrugged at the same time. “More than this girl.” They flicked their head to Kendal and spoke in unison as if sharing one mind. “But not as much as the girl from Grim Hollow.”
I sagged in relief. There was a girl in Grim Hollow with more magic than both Kendal and I. Thank the Maker.
“Well, bring them both anyway,” Regina told them and I went rigid under their grip. “They’ll need to be properly tested, and in the end it’s the king’s decision who he chooses.”
Bring them both where?
Kendal and I? To Jade City?
Their hands fell away from me and I slunk over to stand with Kendal, wanting to get away from the sniffers’ flared nostrils.
My gaze went to my mother, who was watching the sniffers coldly, and I observed her put the hunting knife back into my pack.
Relief rushed through me.
“Would the families of the two chosen girls please come up to the front to speak to me?” Regina called out loudly. “Everyone else may leave.”
No one moved. It seemed they didn’t want the show to end. “Out!” Regina bellowed, and that got everyone to shake out of their trance. Funnels of people headed for the doors as Kendal’s mother and father warily stepped closer to Regina. I watched as my mother shouldered my heavy pack and followed them to stand before the leader of the Royal Guard.
The sniffers started to shuffle out of the room, but halfway through the space they stopped and both turned over their shoulder to look at me. Inhaling again, one of them actually moaned, and then they left.
“Creepy,” Kendal whispered, but I found that I wasn’t fully in agreement. It was creepy, but they also fascinated me. The way they walked, with no canes, it was almost as if they could sense the chairs and people in their way and moved to avoid them. If anything creeped me out, it was their sheer power, which I simultaneously respected.
Regina pulled out a piece of parchment and faced Kendal and I. “Have you both started your monthly bleeding cycles?” she asked flatly.
My eyes widened at the direction of her questioning. She gave me an apologetic look and I nodded. Kendal’s cheeks burned as she looked at her father, who cleared his throat, but she nodded as well. Talking about the monthly bleeding in front of men wasn’t done in Cinder Village. We kept that private among women only.
Regina seemed to pick up on that and muttered an apology to Kendal.
“Have either of you ever been pregnant before?” she asked us, and we both shook our heads in unison.
I didn’t know how they did things in Jade City, but here the young women kept their purity until marriage. Sure, some of the girls bedded the men in secret but it wasn’t spoken about or aspired to. If a rumor spread about your purity being taken before marriage, no respectable man would have you.
She checked something off on the parchment and then asked our full names. After writing them down, she faced our parents.
“Kendal and Arwen will be taken by the protection of the Drayken Elite Royal Guard into Jade City to live until the king makes his choice for his next wife—” Kendal squealed in excitement and Regina paused. “For each moon that they are away, you will be paid five hundred jade coins.”
Kendal’s mother and father gasped in shock, but my mother stayed quiet, her eyes narrowing at Regina.
“And what if I don’t want to sell my daughter to the king?” my mother asked boldly.
I went rigid. A look of shock crossed Regina’s face. “Ma’am, no one said anything about selling them. You will be fairly compensated for their temporary absence—”
“I can’t eat jade coins. My daughter is a hunter, and without her we don’t have food and neither does a small percentage of this town,” my mother said with venom in her voice.
What she said was partly true. I had become a prominent hunter in the village, and what meat we didn’t eat, we sold or bartered to others, but after the cougarin I caught today we would have food for at least two moons. The jade coins would be good for other things, and she could barter them for food with the neighboring townspeople of Gypsy Rock if need be.
Regina nodded to my mother. “If you would let me finish what I have to say, you will find that the compensation package also includes meat, dried fruits, yeasted bread, and chocolates, delivered every fortnight.”
“Chocolate?” Kendal’s mother perked up.
My mother fell silent. There was nothing else left to argue about without looking suspicious.
“Your daughters will be treated as highborns, with a maid staff and private quarters in Jade Castle,” Regina went on, and I could see the defeat fall over my mother’s face.
“Because we do not wish to bring them away from their culture and the comforts of home, they may each bring one maidservant from their home city if desired,” Regina said, and I perked up. I met my mother’s gaze and wondered if Adaline was too young to bring. Probably. She still needed to be sung to sleep at night by our mother. My mom shook her head slightly as if reading my mind, and I nodded.
I’d go alone, then. It was better that way. Maidservants weren’t a thing in Cinder Village, so I doubted Kendal would bring anyone either.
“In the event of a marriage proposal, a new compensation package will be presented to you at that time. If you agree, please sign here, and know that you are doing the entire kingdom a great service.” She pulled two smaller parchments from her satchel.
I expected her to hand them to our parents, but she handed them to us, each with a pen.
Kendal went beet red as she held the pen and I knew why. She had never learned to read. As a seamstress, she really had no need for it. I only learned because I’d started out with an apprenticeship with the town scribe until my father’s death, when a year of crop blight on Mother’s potatoes forced me into hunting so that we could survive.
I pointed to the part that said Sign Here and Kendal took her pen and drew a large X.
I looked at Regina for a split second and found that she watched me curiously.
What happened if I didn’t sign? Would it bring shame to Cinder Village? To my family? Would the king march in here himself and throw me over his saddle and take me by force? It didn’t feel like I had much of a choice. If I fought this, they might take me anyway but then refuse the offer of jade coins and food, and then where would I be?
I purposely didn’t look at my mother. I didn’t want to see her urgency for me to refuse.
I scanned the document to find that it said everything Regina had promised and it was signed by the king himself.
Five hundred jade coins.
I quickly did the math. We needed about fifteen jade coins per moon to get by. Five hundred meant that my mother and Adaline would have a full belly in a warm house for the next three winters. It meant so many things for our life. And the contract said five hundred jade coins per moon cycle. It didn’t say only one moon cycle. So I’d go there and I’d watch the king woo this Grim Hollow girl, all the while collecting my jade coins and yeasted breads. Then I’d come back fat and rich.
I grasped the pen and scribbled my name before I could convince myself to back out. My script was awful. I’d never practiced as much as the others in my scribe class, but my name was still legible on the line.
Arwen Novakson.
“Great. We should get going. We’d like to hit Gypsy Rock by nightfall.” Regina took the contracts from us and slipped them into her pouch. “Pack whatever you like. I’ll have the porter load the wagons.”
“It’s May Day! Can’t we have the dinner feast with them?” my mother asked, the disappointment apparent in her voice.
Regina sighed and faced my mother. “I’m really sorry, ma’am. We’ve been on the road for an entire moon. Traveled from Grim Hollow all the way up here. This is a matter of the crown, and cannot wait.”
With that, she clapped her hands as if to hurry us, and I strode across the room to my mother. When I reached her, she turned around and walked out, giving me her back. A pang of sadness and rejection rushed through me, and I trailed behind her.
“Follow them, Nox,” Regina told a fellow Drayken who was standing by the front door.
She didn’t trust me and I didn’t blame her. I’d tried to avoid this whole thing with a fake hunting trip, and my mother was being cagey and strange.
We didn’t speak the entire walk to our hut, and when we reached the door my mother asked Nox to wait outside, which he obliged.
When she finally walked back into my room and faced me, my gut tightened at the tears that ran down her face.
“I failed to protect you,” she said.
“What? No.” I rushed forward to console her. “Mother, I’m fine. There is some more powerful girl in Grim Hollow. He’ll marry her and forget about me and we’ll have five hundred jade coins!”
My mother shook her head. “What if your power grows each day? What if by the time your magic is tested you are more powerful than the Grim Hollow girl?”
“Then I’ll run away,” I murmured.
My mother looked at me disapprovingly. “He’s the dragon king of Embergate. There is nowhere you could go that he could not follow.”
Chills ran the length of my spine at her declaration.
My mother stepped forward, placing her hands on my shoulders. “If it looks like your power is discovered, and it’s clear that you might have a magic that is greater than even he contains—”
“Mother, that’s not possible!” She’d gone mad and was paranoid. Now I was really scared.
She leaned closer to me, her grip on my shoulders tightening. “Listen to me, Arwen. If it appears to go that way, that your magic might be a threat to him somehow, then you make him fall in love with you so he won’t kill you. Understand?”
Kill me? Kill me because my power would be greater than his? Wasn’t that what he wanted? Maybe not. Maybe he wanted a woman with just enough power to give him an heir but not too much? Like Regina said, a man doesn’t want a woman stronger than him. Maybe that’s what had happened to the woman who’d birthed me.
For the first time since this whole thing started, I was genuinely terrified.
“How? How do I make him love me?”
Red colored my mother’s cheeks. “Your body can do certain things that a man craves. Make him think of that every time you are in the room, but don’t give it to him until you’re married.”
Now it was my turn for my cheeks to go red. She meant bed him.
Kendal had told me all about that. She’d learned everything from her aunt who worked in Gypsy Rock, was only two winters older than us and… uninhibited.
“Oh. Okay,” I muttered with embarrassment.
Marry him? Was she serious?
“If it comes down to it, you be the strong queen he wants and give him many heirs, but make sure he adores you so that when you’re done having children for him he doesn’t kill you.”
My mother’s counsel was harsh. He wouldn’t do that, would he? What decent man would?
All I’d heard of King Valdren was of how kind he was to his people, how much he cared for his late wife, Queen Amelia. He saw her through every loss of child—everyone loved him. He was kind… right?
Kind enough to wait outside the gates of Cinder Village? Kind enough to call his guard on me and pull his blade? Kind enough to remarry quickly simply for an heir?
These thoughts scared me, so I shook my head to dislodge them.
Tears welled in my eyes. “Adaline… should I go and say goodbye?”
But my mother shook her head. “She’ll be too distraught and make a scene. Leave her a note and send her a gift with the first food shipment.”
I nodded, walking to our shared nightstand, and pulled out a torn scrap of paper and a pen. I’d taught Adaline and my mother to read and write during my two-year apprenticeship with the scribe.
DEAREST ADALINE,
I love you more than all of the jade stone in Jade Mountain. Take care of Mother. I’ll send a gift from Jade City.
P.S. DON’T BE A BRAT.
LOVE, Arwen
I HATED LEAVING her like this, especially after our tiff this morning, but Mother was right. She would throw a huge fit and I didn’t want to leave the village crying.
“Ma’am…” The guard’s voice carried into the house and my mother groaned.
“You come in and take our daughters and give us five minutes to pack them up and see them off!” she yelled back at him. He said nothing in response.
“Mother, be kind,” I told her.
I knew she was flustered, but now I worried if she’d made trouble for me in Jade City. If Regina and now Nox thought my mother unkind, they might make life hard for me.
My mother and I grabbed the trunk at the end of my bed which held the winter furs and started to pull them out and put in more practical items. Jade City was near the ocean; it didn’t snow there. I started to pack my things and my mother slipped out of the room. “Be right back.”
When she returned, she was holding the most magnificent leather armor I’d ever seen.
“Mother!”
She grinned. “Kendal and I have been working on it all year. It was supposed to be for your birthday. These are all of the pelts you’ve killed. Each one put food on our table.”
She laid it on the bed and I sat there, stunned. It was shiny, well-oiled bronze leather that had been stitched together piece by piece. Each piece from a different animal. I recognized the darker muskrat hide. Mother and Kendal had placed it in the center of the corseted chest, and then Kendal had carved swirls and flowers into it, which she was known for. The shoulder spaulders were such a delicate filigree that I couldn’t help but reach out and touch it.
“I… can’t accept this. It will get stolen or I’ll ruin it. It’s too nice.” It was nicer than the Royal Guard uniforms. More detailed in artwork and embellishments.
“Hogwash, you’re in the running to be queen. You’ll wear it well,” my mother said.
I grinned. “You’re right. Should I wear it now?”
My mother nodded and I slipped out of my tunic and trousers and she helped me into the skintight hunting suit. There were leather cuffs that buttoned on, and a matching waistbelt with a purse for jade coins. The left armpit pinched a little but I said nothing because Mother was staring at me with tears of happiness in her eyes. Kendal could help me loosen that left seam a little in Jade City.
“It’s perfect,” I told her and did a spin.
She nodded, holding her throat as she showed more emotion in the last few hours than the entirety of my life.
“I… I know today has been a lot and I hope you still feel… like my daughter,” she whimpered.
The fact that she would think anything different tore my heart in two. It was not uncommon when a mother died in labor that an aunt or female friend took the baby in as their own. The child was loved and happy and was none the wiser. That’s the same as what had happened here, except this woman had been a stranger and my mother did a kind thing. “I’ll always feel like your daughter.” I could barely speak through my emotions.
“Arwen?” Regina’s voice called from the doorway and my mother flinched.
“You can’t even stay the night?” she asked me. “You have to run back to Jade City right away?”
I reached out and grasped her hands. “It sounds like they’ve been all over the realm and this is their last stop. They must also be eager to get back to their families.”
My mother nodded and pulled me in for one last hug. I cherished the moment. This was a genuine hug between me and my mother, who I now knew didn’t birth me and yet I loved her no less. After we pulled away, she clasped my trunk and then stepped outside the room.
“Porter!” she called through the house in a snotty Jade City accent that had me snickering.
Seconds later, a man appeared wearing a long traveling cloak and took my trunk on his back like it was made of air.
Magic?
He was short and skinny so it had to be. This display of magic was typical of dragon-folk who lived in Jade City and were very powerful.
I followed my mom to the doorway, where Regina stood beside Nox, the other member of the Royal Guard. A quick glance at their chest plates confirmed my suspicion. Nearly all of the guards here were not just Royal Guardsmen, they were Drayken. The king had brought his most elite team with him to search for a wife.
The question was why? His own people wouldn’t hurt him. Was the skirmish with the Nightfall queen at the border bigger than I realized?
“I’ll see you off here. I don’t fancy crying in front of the whole town,” my mother said with barely restrained emotion.
I nodded, giving her a last hug, and then with trepidation stepped out the door of my childhood home. Looking over my shoulder, I frowned at the boiling pot of stew.
After a week’s worth of hunting, I didn’t even get a bowl of Mother’s cougarin stew. This Jade City castle chef better be the best damn food artisan in the realm, because I was hungry.
