Beneath the Veil Read online

  Back in Daelyn's chambers, I helped him dispose of his ruined clothes and ran a hot bath for him before I tended to myself. By then I could barely think, barely move. I paused to look out the window but could see nothing. I could only imagine the forest and the mountains beyond, and the travelers who made their way there while I'd returned to warmth and safety.

  I sent up a blessing for them to the Invisible Mother, and I wept for the boy because he had been unable to do it for himself.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  I didn't expect to rise in time for my fight lesson that morning, but the sixchime found me wide-eyed in my bed. I moved my stiff body from beneath the covers, thought about trying to sleep some more, then decided against it. I'd slept little enough already, tossing and turning with vivid and nasty dreams. I didn't wish to continue on that path.

  Instead, I bathed and dressed, and went to the kitchen for food though my belly felt shriveled and useless. I choked on the soft bread, gulped down some water, and refused the eggs the fat cook tried to offer me. The cook himself wore a frown instead of his usual plump-cheeked grin, and though I didn't wish to ask for awful news, I did anyway.

  "Hadn't you heard? Some of Lord Rosten's men went missing last night. He's on a rampage this morning, sure enough, because they didn't report to the barracks."

  "Deserters?" I asked, as though I had no knowledge of the night's events.

  "Oh, no." Cook shook his head so fiercely his white cap slid over one eye. He pushed it back and left a smudge of flour on his red face. "More follies went missing last night. The men of their houses reported it this morning. Rosten already had his men out combing the streets looking for them, and for the men who didn't show up last night. He thinks someone killed them."

  "How can he be sure they're dead?"

  Cook whinnied. "Laddie, they'd better hope they're dead. If they deserted or just didn't show up, what Rosten will do to them is far worse than a cold earthen bed."

  They didn't sleep in the earth, but under the frigid water. I didn't tell him that. I gulped the rest of my water and held out my cup for more, but the pitcher was empty.

  "Water froze last night," Cook said as he hollered at the kitchen folly to fetch some more water from the well. "We're in for a harsh winter, lad."

  I left without a further drink, but didn't go to the fight field. The sky had turned so gray overhead the sun looked like naught more than a pale disk behind the clouds. The wind whipped around me, and I pulled my hood up around my face.

  The streets were busy despite the weather, and as I walked along Regent Square I stopped to grab one of the newspapers a small lad was selling on the stoop of one of the shops. I gave him the only coin I had in my purse, a gold regent, which would have bought me a hundred papers, had I wanted. The boy's eyes lit up, but I didn't stop to hear his thanks.

  The news had been printed on soft, cheap paper that fell apart in my hands when the first wet snowflakes hit the pages. Normally advertisements and stories on the latest fashions filled the columns. Today the entire front page was a letter from Rosten to the city, telling of his plans to "eradicate this menace."

  I threw the paper to the ground and watched it disintegrate as the snow fell. I lifted my face to the sky and let the beauty of the white flakes calm me as best they could. All around me, little boys laughed and threw handfuls of snow at each other while men did their errands and the women moved in pairs about their business.

  Two of them moved down the walk toward me, and I expected them to duck past as all follies did, heads down and silent. Lost in my own thoughts, I ignored them, until the shorter of the pair moved in front of me. Startled, for her behavior would have warranted a trip to the House of the Book if I'd been a different person, I stepped aside to let her pass.

  Deliberately, she countered and stepped in front of me again. "My lord."

  I looked around quickly, to be certain she hadn't been overheard, then grabbed her by the arm and marched her toward the small alley between the cheroot shop and the cobbler's store. "What are you doing?"

  A flash of brown eyes caught me from the slit in her kedalya. "I have to talk to you."

  "Galya?"

  She hissed and pulled me further into the shadows. The other folly, still silent, moved behind to pen me in. Galya stepped up closer to whisper in my ear.

  "Your mother, Aeris."

  I remembered my vow of the night before. "What of her?"

  Galya's fingers dug into my arm just below the elbow. "You should go to her."

  "How do you know this?" I had to force my voice to remain low and calm. I took a deep breath. "Do you know my mother?"

  "I've never met her, no. But if there's something that needs knowing, we follies know it." She tugged my arm. "When I got the message she was trying to reach you, I knew I'd have to be the one to tell you. Come on."

  I didn't understand what she meant by message, but I understood her bravery. She could approach me because she knew me, knew how I'd react. A woman who didn't know me would have been too scared to address me. Still, Galya had taken a risk. If any man had seen her stepping up to me...

  "Come on," she repeated with another tug on my arm. "Before it's too late."

  That stopped me again. "Too late? What's wrong?"

  She gave an impatient sigh and spun to face me, her eyes glittering. "She's sick, Aeris. Probably dying. Now you'd better hurry to get to her before she goes."

  Dying? A fist squeezed my heart. I hurried after Galya and her unnamed companion as they wove through the narrow alley. I had thought I well-knew the way back to the house I'd spent most of my life in, but Galya and her friend took me through streets and alleys I'd never known. I didn't pass another man on the way, though follies in groups of three and four congregated on stoops and sat in windows.

  "What is this street called?" I asked her as we passed the back wall of a brick building.

  "It doesn't have a name," Galya said. "This is Folly Town. Back doors and back streets."

  She spoke in a normal tone of voice, clearly unafraid of being overheard, though she didn't remove the kedalya.

  "Folly Town?"

  The bright sparkle of her laughter drifted back to me. "There's a lot you don't know."

  That was true enough, but I didn't have time to ask her more questions because I recognized the high fence, topped with dried joba melons, surrounding my uncle's small square patch of back yard.

  I'd never noticed the gate in the fence, but Galya motioned for me to go through it. "She's in her quarters."

  I waited a minute before I went through. "Galya. Thank you."

  She nodded. "Hurry, now."

  I slipped through the narrow gate and hurried to the back door of the house. I'd never ventured into this section of the house before, the kitchen and folly quarters. The hall was dark enough I had to stop and blink my eyes before I could see. The smells of cooking and soap scented the air. I heard a baby cry and the laughter of a small child. One my uncle's girl children peeked at me from an open doorway, her hair a tumble of dark curls around her shoulders. She couldn't have been more than two, since her hair was still long and her face uncovered. She smiled. I smiled back.

  "Whist," came Myrna's voice. "Linda, get inside here!"

  The old woman caught sight of me and her hands clutched spasmodically on the girl's shoulders. "My lord!"

  "I'm here to see my mother," I told her, not caring if my use of the affectionate term shocked her. "Where is she?"

  Myrna pointed across the hall to a closed door. "In there."

  I pushed it open. The stench of illness assailed me, and I coughed. The hall had been dim, but this room was even darker, lit only by a single, cheap candle in a wall sconce. A sagging bed, piled with blankets, was the only furniture.

  "Mother?"

  She groaned, and the blankets shifted. "Aeris?"

  I knelt by the side of the bed, found her cold hand and pressed it to my cheek. "Mother, what's wrong? What happened?"

&nbs