Page 2 of Witchsea

He reaches for the glass bottles on the side. The medicine will bring his temperature down and make sure he doesn’t throw up the food he has eaten. It costs a lot, but the healer trades with me. The only issue is, I have nothing left to trade anymore. All my mother’s and father’s clothes, their curtains and tapestries, their silver jewelry and even their hut have been sold for Rowe’s medicine. I now pay rent on my home, which is costly too. I touch my hair…I can cut it all off to sell as soon as it’s a little longer, according to one of the merchants I spoke with. My long, thick, wavy black hair that thankfully grows like I’m not always hungry.

“I love you too.” Rowe’s small voice brings me back to the world. I have to keep fighting because I love him. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep him alive. I put my boots back on and head straight out, sealing the door shut behind me. The icy wind threatens to push me into the even colder sea as I head down the walkway to the ruined, more damaged hut five doors down. I try not to bang on the door too hard in case it falls right off.

Eloise opens it a second later and pops her head out of the gap. Her graying red hair bounces with the movement. Snowflakes pretty much dance within her hair at all times, and now is no different. She always seems to have them, whether she’s indoors or not. Her temper is exactly the same as her hair color, and she frowns at the sight of me. “Come in if you have to.”

“I always feel so welcome in your home, Lou,” I quip as I step into the cold hut and she softly shuts the door behind us. It’s worse in here than I thought, and it’s too cold. The fire must keep going out, as it’s not lit. We’re not exactly friends, but Eloise and my mother were friends, and my mother used to trust her. But I wouldn’t say she’s a good person. In fact, I know her morality is worse than mine. I might be a thief, but Eloise is known to cheat at coin games for a living and kill when she is caught.

She sits down in a broken chair by the door and frowns. “Still sticking to your insane plan, Miriam Vale?”

I drop the heavy bag of gold onto her lap. Her eyes widen and she opens the bag to begin counting. I almost want to snatch it back. I’ve worked overtime, cleaned and scrubbed a hundred houses throughout the night for the gold in there. I’ve done risky thieving work to make up that gold. “There’s enough there for three months. You feed Rowe, you look after him like he is your son, and you move in with him until I return. When I’m back, I’ll give you twice that amount.” Irritated, I tap my foot as she counts, and when she is done, she finally looks at me. “Three months, my brother alive and fed and given medicine for the fevers. Understood?”

She clicks her tongue. “You might not like me, but I would have done it for free, stupid girl. I loved your mother and swore to her that I’d watch over you both.” I’m not stupid enough to leave my brother with anyone without paying them first. The only person I fully trust in this world and the next will be me. “And where are you going for three months? You’ve not even told me that.”

I can’t tell her the truth because she will not let me do it. “To get a cure for him.”

She huffs and leans back in the seat. “Your brother’s not going to live. I’ve seen a hundred kids like him, born with one disease or another down here. The sea is their only way out, and they always go into it in a sinking box. They always said that living past seven was gonna be a miracle for him. He’s eight now. He turns nine soon.” In three months, he turns nine. That healer said he is strong, and he might get to his early teens at this rate. “He is a kind boy and whatever you’re about to do that is likely dangerous and stupid…just don’t. Live instead. Find someone, find a life. You’re twenty now and you haven’t lived yet.”

“He is my brother.” I leave that statement between us because it doesn’t need explaining. “I will fight for his life until my own is gone. He is a child, and he deserves a chance to live too. You promised me you’d look after him. You owe me, Lou.”

Her eyes cloud and I know I’ve won this. It still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. Lou would have starved years ago if it weren’t for me. She got into debt and her other home was taken. She was brutally injured and thrown into the sea. I dived in for her, took her home, and cared for her. No one else even stopped their walk down the walkways, even when she was screaming for help.

“I will care for him. Three months, three years. Whatever I am given. This world is harsh, and the sick don’t survive. You sure you want to spend three months away from him, knowing that you could come back and he’ll be gone no matter what I do?”

My heart plummets. I have thought of that. I have thought of a million things that could go wrong starting from tomorrow, but I know doing nothing is worse. I will end up watching him die, and I’ll be powerless to save him. “I have to do this. The last promise I said to my father was that I’d keep him safe. I just need you to look after him while I’m gone.”

I’ll be back. I’ll always come back for him. Her eyes soften and it doesn’t suit her. I wasn’t sure Lou could feel pity until now. “Your parents always had a thing about promises and words. Alright. Just don’t do, well, anything reckless, Miriam. You’ll end up in the sea if you do.”

My recklessness has kept me and my brother alive through the years. If I didn’t teach myself how to be a thief and how to be unseen in a crowd, we would have starved by now. “Don’t start caring about me now, Lou. I’ll be gone tomorrow and I’ll tell him before I leave that you’re moving in for a while to care for him. He likes you. It will be fine.” I glance around the hut. “And gods be damned, it’s warmer at ours.” I pull the door open, look back just once, right into her blue eyes. “If you abandon him and he dies, I’ll know. I promise to every one of our eight gods above us in the skies and below us in the ground that I’ll kill you. Do you understand?”

She rises to her feet and walks right up to me. She cups my cheek. “You’re not a killer, Miriam. You don’t have it in you to take a life. But I vow it to Amaterasu that I will not betray you and I will do as you asked.”

I hate that she is right. “Goodbye, Lou. May Lunaria keep you safe.”

It’s a forty-five-minute walk through the Stilts until I get to the high wall that surrounds the inner city. I look up and a chill skitters down my spine. I never look up, and the reason why is shining brightly among the gray clouds. On top of the massive black stone walls are lanterns made of bones, holding a sphere of glass with a glowing yellow soul trapped inside. There are twenty thousand of them lining this wall, all around the inner city, and they are a constant warning. Fifty years ago there was a rebellion, and forty-nine years ago, the king slaughtered all of them for it. In punishment, he locked each one of their souls inside these lanterns to watch the city forever. It disgusts me and I know Ixchel must wish for his souls back, but even the gods do not interfere with our immortal king.

There are two newer lights, and I can’t look at them. I haven’t looked for years. I keep moving, not daring to stop in this part of the city where getting stabbed for a single gold coin is not unheard of. There are two guards standing in the middle, checking people who are coming in and out. I join the line, my hands freezing as I try to warm them up.

When I get to the gate, I slip out my black card, marking my job within the city and the household who employs me. The guards, clad in their heavy armor, barely even look at it before letting me through. Immediately, it smells better. I always notice it when I step out of the Stilts and into the city. Gone is the damp, wet smell, replaced by the salty perfumed air from the tall blue flowers that grow everywhere, even through the cold. They line the pathways, which are perfect, not a stone out of place as I walk in the crowd through the market and shops to the housing district to the west.

Each of the housing districts sits in a perfect formation, all joined around the castle, which is so tall it leaves the west part of town in its shade. The houses all look the same except for the colors of the doors, which are painted to show which god the inhabitants worship. Red for Ixchel, blue for Khorash, black for Amaterasu. Those are the popular gods. They have temples everywhere, but Lunaria and Arash are not worshipped nearly as much. My mother loved to tell me that worshipping any of them won’t change the fate of the people born to the Stilts. But she prayed anyway.

There’s a tall, brick, bell tower right in the entrance courtyard to the west district, and I breathe a sigh of relief when its clock shows I’ve got five minutes to get to the house. I’m early for once. I use the back alleys so no one sees me, and it’s preferred we do that. The nobles and the wealthy don’t mind us being here, but us being unseen is what they love. We clean, cook and do whatever the hell they want for coin, and we’re permitted into the city in the daytime only to do just that. If we are caught here after dark…we don’t leave alive.

The towering townhouse with big arched red windows and a matching red door is the house I’ve spent the most of my life locked within. My mother worked here, and because of the mistress’s affection for her, she gave me her work. I don’t use the front door. Poor mortals like me are not meant to go near the front door unless it is to scrub it clean. I slip through the side entrance, tying my hair up as I go inside, and the warmth of the house that is never cold greets me. The kitchen is busy preparing breakfast for the house, and the brilliant cook, Doll, smiles as I shut the door.

“Skin and bones, and always in a hurry,” Doll greets, throwing a towel over her shoulder and patting her hands clean of flour. The kitchen smells so, so good, and my mouth waters.

I roll my eyes at her. “I’m fine, Doll. Smells good in here today.”

“No, you’re not fine.” She quietly steps over, and she quickly hands me the smallest bit of fresh bread that I instantly shove into my mouth before anyone sees. She’s not allowed to give me food, and she could be fired. Worse, she could be killed for her kindness. People are killed for a lot less every single day in Azurestone. But she always feeds me. Always slips me something small enough that I can quickly eat it without being seen, several times throughout the day, and I appreciate every scrap that she ever gives me. The sad truth is, she is the best cook in the city, but she lives in the Stilts too, and she is just as thin as I am. She nods to the door that leads to the main part of the house. “He’s waiting for you, as usual.”

Her warning makes me pause as I lean down to pick up a bucket filled with cloths. I’ve got to polish the twenty-odd statues of legendary and exotic creatures that line the drawing room today before scrubbing every inch of this house for the next six hours. The last thing I needed was him here. “I thought he was still away.”

Her wise mud-brown eyes find mine. “He’s back, but it will be because of tomorrow. Everyone is said to be traveling back for a chance to get the map.” She huffs. “Just what we need, another noble gaining a treasure map to find a wish when there are thousands of us that would use that wish to change things for the better.”

Traitor’s words. Words that, if anyone other than us heard, would send her to the king. The king, who has magic, when no one else in the world does.

I wink at her, even when my stomach drops. I’m not one of those thousands. I’m a selfish person who will use the wish to save just one. My little brother. Does she know that I intend to go? No, of course she doesn’t. No one does. I want to hug her goodbye, but I don’t. Nothing can be different about today, and there will be thousands of eyes watching across the city. “Maybe Qamar will side with us for once.”