Of Sea and Stone (Secrets of Itlantis) (14 page)

“Shut up,” she said. “This has nothing to do with the master. I’ll take care of this myself. I’m the doumeu here, not you.”

“Hey,” Tob said, standing from his place. “Maybe the steward should—”

“Shut up or you’ll be punished too,” Crakea growled.

The door opened again, and I saw the steward step inside. Hope leaped in my chest, but he only folded his arms and leaned against the wall. He brushed a hand down his jacket, as if to remind me that I’d spilled food on him and humiliated him before the master.

He was not going to help me.

This was all Nol’s doing; it had to be. I scanned the room but didn’t see him. How could he want me gone so badly that he was willing to go this far? Had he told Crakea to search my bunk?

“Listen,” I said. “You can’t do this. You can’t just accuse me of made-up charges and ship me off.”

“We can,” the steward said, bearing his teeth in a hideous imitation of a smile. “If I sign the order. I’m going to have you sent to Magmus tonight. You’ll be laboring in the steam factories by tomorrow, and the master won’t question my decision.”

Magmus. I’d never escape from that place.

Crakea slapped me, and my head whipped to the side. “Confess.”

I turned my head back to look at her. “You’re wrong. I didn’t steal the pryor.”

“Liar. It was under your bunk. You cannot deny that.” She hit me again, and tears sprang into my eyes.

Tob made a move for the door, but the steward spotted him and pushed him against the wall. He thrashed, trying to get free.

Crakea lifted her hand again. I shut my eyes.

“Stop!”

That was Merelus’s voice.

I opened my eyes.

The master stood in the doorway, his face clouded with fury as his eyes swept the room and landed on Crakea.

“What is going on?”

She lowered her hand slowly, her throat bobbing as she swallowed. “Master, I can explain—”

“How dare you administer punishment on another servant in this household without my knowledge?”

“We were only trying to discipline—”

“Discipline? This is a vendetta!” He whirled to glare at the steward, who released Tob and stepped away. “You. You are part of this too.”

“Master, you don’t understand. The girl is a thief.” She pulled the pryor out and held it aloft.

“I gave her that,” he said.

Eyes widened at his words. A few heads swiveled back in my direction, and mouths moved. I felt the shock reverberating through the room.

Someone else stepped into the room.

Nol.

He looked at Crakea with a satisfied smile and crossed his arms. Merelus dropped a hand on his shoulder.

“Nol told me everything. You’ve had it out for Aemi since you reported her to me for taking part in my daughter’s scheme to get out of schooling.”

Wait—it was Crakea who turned me in? Not Nol?

“Get out of here,” Merelus said. “All of you. And you two,” he said to Crakea and the steward, “pack your bags. I want you gone tonight.”

He wrenched the pryor from Crakea’s trembling hand and pointed at the door. She crept out, followed by the steward.

I sagged to my knees, trembling. Tob ran to my side, joined by Mella. They helped me to my feet as Merelus approached.

“Thanks for trying to help,” I whispered to Tob as he squeezed my hand. Part of his face was swelling. “I saw you try to run for assistance. Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Just a bruise. I’m just glad you’re all right.” He paused, following my gaze to the door where Nol waited like a sentry. “It seems that one doesn’t hate you as much as you feared, eh?”

I didn’t know what to think anymore.

“Come,” Merelus said as he reached me. “We need to speak.”

I followed him without another word.

“THEY SEEM TO have planned this—the confrontation, the consequences to you. The discovery of the pryor merely provided a convenient reason,” Merelus said as we stood in his study. He turned my face to the side, examining where Crakea had hit me. “Do you have any idea what the doumeu and my steward had against you?”

“Crakea said she believed I was trying to steal her position by befriending Lyssia,” I said. “She’s paranoid and delusional, and the steward has always disliked me. I imagine it wasn’t too hard for her to convince him to go along with it.”

The door opened, and Nol entered. My eyes dropped to the floor. He had helped me. I had been in trouble, and he’d run for Merelus. Why?

“They will be gone in the morning. Regardless,” Merelus said, “this incident has been a catalyst. I do not think I can continue to pretend you are merely a servant in this household, not when I have other plans for you.”

“Other plans?” My lips were dry as I spoke the words.

“I would like to take you on as an apprentice scholar,” he said. “If you’ll agree to it. I will pay your Indentured’s debt, and you can repay me later, when you are able. Thus you will enjoy the privileges of a free citizen now, as Nol will once I’ve done the same with him.”

“What has inspired this generosity?”

What I meant was,
what do you want from me
?

He sighed. “You are young, bright, and full of promise. When I look at you, I see the other daughter I could have had. I see myself. I don’t want to see you lose your future because of past mistakes. Many people get involved in crime or debt when they are young, and it ruins them. I think the true crime here would be allowing this to happen with you two.”

Crime, debt. Is this what they thought my past was? No wonder we were treated like prisoners.

I didn’t dwell on that, though, for a more pressing thought filled my mind.

If I were freed, then it would be that much easier to get to Verdus, and the surface.

“Yes,” I said. “I’ll do it.”

Merelus tipped his head to one side. “Are you certain? This means that you must devote yourself to studies.”

“Yes,” I said, nodding. “Of course.”

He smiled, pleased. “I’ll make the arrangements.”

~ ~ ~

Things were different after that.

With Crakea and the steward gone, the house was in turmoil, but it was a pleasant kind. Merelus took over most of the steward’s responsibilities, and he asked me to teach Lyssia some of my duties so she could pitch in. Everyone else covered a little extra too. Dinner was never quite on time, visitors came and went unannounced, and the floors were not as shiny as they had once been, but the air was easier to breathe without so much distain in it. My sessions with Merelus in his study were moved from once a week to every day, and he had other, even more unusual requests for me.

“I would like you to join us for dinner from now on,” he informed me. “You aren’t a servant anymore, not really. You’re my ward. You should be treated like it.

So, I began sitting at the table I’d once served. I missed my chats with Mella and Tob at mealtimes, though, and I often stole down to the servants’ dining room with extra pastries wrapped in a napkin. Some of the servants glared at me, resentful of my change in status, and others gaped with something akin to reverence. Tob and Mella, though, treated me the same as they always had.

“You’re a legend now,” Tob said, stuffing one of the cream tarts I’d brought into his mouth and talking around it. “Everyone talks about how Merelus fired his steward and his doumeu because they were mistreating you.”

“It’s true,” Mella confirmed when I looked at her for the true story. “He isn’t exaggerating this one.”

“I don’t exaggerate!” Tob protested. He reached for another cream tart. “By the way, these tarts are magnificent. They could be improved, of course, as they’re a little bland. But keep them coming. I need to do more research.”

“Research?” I said, amused.

He licked the ends of his fingers. “I’m a food scholar, studying the three D’s of food. And you like teaching people, don’t you? Well, teach me.”

“The three D’s?”

“Delectability, delightfulness, and danger. Right now, my hunch is that these tarts need more danger. I’m thinking a drop of venom from the scorpionfish to give them a little sting.”

I grimaced. “Remind me to never eat anything you cook once you’re a kill cook.”

“Shock cook!” Tob said. “No one gets killed. Except the fish.”

While Mella and Tob had taken my change in status in stride and with transparent enjoyment of the benefits that came with it, Nol continued to be infuriatingly difficult to decipher. It kept me thinking about him long after I wanted to, at night and when I woke up in the mornings. He was like an annoying bit of music I couldn’t get out of my head.

Sometimes, Merelus was busy with the matters his former steward would have taken care of, and that left Nol and me alone in the study. At first, those times were painfully awkward. We each stared resolutely at the books before us, Nol sneaking glances at me whenever he thought I wasn’t paying attention, me alternating between seething and wondering. I had ceased to understand him. First he had been cruel to me, then indifferent, then protective.

Finally, I could stand it no longer.

“Why?” I demanded, slamming my book shut and crossing my arms over it.

Nol stared at me. His eyes were dark and soft, and something about them pierced me in a way I’d never noticed before. I felt baffled and impatient.

“Why what?” he asked slowly, as if he understood my question but wanted more time to come up with a response.

“Why didn’t you turn me in to Merelus when I was impersonating Lyssia? I thought that was you, not Crakea. And why did you run for help when I was being attacked in the servants’ hall?”

He didn’t reply at first. He studied me, tracing my posture and face with his eyes, measuring his words.

“You are not,” he said finally, “my
least
favorite person, you know.”

It was a spectacularly unsatisfying answer. However, Merelus returned before I could say anything else, and I was left stewing over it long after our studies had finished.

~ ~ ~

Merelus announced that he wanted me to take one of the guest rooms near Lyssia.

“It makes no sense for you to stay in the servants’ quarters,” he said. “I’ve been remiss in leaving you there for so long. I apologize.”

The suite was luxurious compared to my former quarters, although it was modest if held to the standard of Lyssia’s rooms. A single round window looked out onto the ocean waters. A desk for study sat in one corner of the room, a bureau for clothing and personal things in another. The bed, large enough to fit two people comfortably, sat in the center of the room.

It was the nicest place I’d ever slept in, and I was incredibly proud of it.

The first knock at my door came after the dinner hour had passed and everyone was readying for bed. I opened it. Tob stood in the hall with Mella at his side. Their eyes widened as they looked past me into the suite.

“This is incredible!” Tob sputtered.

“Come in,” I said, stepping back to let them pass. They wandered inside, Tob exclaiming at everything, Mella looking appreciatively but saying nothing.

“Do you have any pastries?” Tob asked, opening one of my bureau drawers. “The cook told me he made crab cake tonight.”

I pulled a bundle from my pocket and handed it over. Tob jammed one in his mouth and groaned in ecstasy. “Becoming friends with you is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

Friends
.

I paused, caught by the word even as he and Mella continued to poke around my room. We were friends. I hadn’t realized it before, but it was true.

Warmth and fear mingled inside me. I thought of Kit, and my plans for escape to the surface. I looked at my friends, and regret seeped into my resolve. But it wasn’t strong enough to sway me.

When they finally headed for their quarters and the door had shut behind them, I flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling, painted blue like the ocean.

Friends.

Another knock came at the door. Surprised, I rolled off the bed and went to open it.

It was Lyssia.

“Aemi,” she wailed, collapsing into my arms in a fit of dramatic overacting. “I cannot go to the Festival of Lights with Cal!”

“Why not?”

“I cannot go alone.” She hesitated in an exaggerated way, and then jerked upright, as if she were just getting an idea. She was a terrible actor, but I pretended not to notice. “You should go too! It would be perfect. Please say yes!”

I stalled. “Am I even allowed to go?”

“Of course. All the Indentured do.” She paused, thinking. “And you’re not even a servant anymore. You’re a free citizen, remember?”

“Don’t I need an escort?”

She chewed her lip, thoughtful, and then she brightened. “You can go with Dahn. He doesn’t have anyone to escort since I’m going with Cal, and he’s a guest, so it’s only polite to find him someone. He’ll be forced to watch me and Cal together all evening, and maybe he’ll remember how he used to feel about me.” She sounded less enthusiastic about that than she had previously, and I wondered if the prospect was losing its luster for her. I hoped so. Cal seemed much nicer.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, please? You must say yes!”

Somehow, with another ten minutes of wheedling, she managed to talk me into agreeing to attend the Festival of Lights. Truthfully I didn’t mind so much, although the thought of accompanying Dahn to anything made me feel slightly anxious. I still didn’t know why he looked at me as though he knew too much about me, as though he wanted something, as though I should be afraid of him.

“It’s settled, then,” she said, once she’d extracted my agreement. “You can borrow something of mine to wear.”

“To wear?”

“Yes, silly. Everyone dresses up. It’s a festive occasion.” She paused. “That’s a marvelous clock on your wall.”

“Yes,” I said. “I like it. Please do not take it apart.”

With a whine of protest at the clock-dismantling restrictions I imposed, she left me to stew over what I’d agreed to.

The final knock on the door came as I was about to crawl into bed.

This time, it was Nol.