“Dead. Shortly after you disappeared.”
Riselda scanned her face. If she heard the unintended accusation in Lux’s tone, however, she ignored it, dragging her close once again. “Oh, Lucena. I’m so sorry. That sister of mine… She was always too trusting.” She craned her neck back, a head taller than Lux, eyes bright. “You’re living here? In my home?”
Well, to be fair, she hadn’t thought Riselda would ever return. “I couldn’t go back. Not after they died there.”
“I understand.” Riselda surveyed the cozy room, its bright furnishings and crackling fire. “You have kept it up well, I must say. It’s much better than what I had expected to return to.”
Lux found the opening she was looking for. “Returning from where, Riselda? What happened to you? Where did you go?” She squinted into the beckoning darkness at her aunt’s back.
Eyes once flooded with emotion, shuttered. “So far away, Lucena, it may as well have been another world.” Dropping her arms to her sides, she ignored Lux’s parted lips and walked about her long-abandoned home. Wrapping her fingers around the lamp perched on the kitchen table, she entered the workroom.
Lux followed close behind, questions spilling from her mouth like seeds. If evenonewould root and be answered— “You’ve been outside Ghadra all this time? But Malgorm is in ruin. Has it improved? How did you survive? How did youleave?Will that tunnel take me beneath the marshes?”
Or beneath the trees?
An extended perusal of the walls, and Riselda spun toward her. “You’re Ghadra’s Healer now?”
It was almost a physical blow. Not asprout. “I—no. I never did have the gift for it as you thought.” She paused, but Riselda’s expression urged her to continue. “I’m Ghadra’s Necromancer.”
Lux was sure her aunt’s eyes would pop like little liquid-filled balloons. “Anecromancer?I cannot… Lucena.” Riselda scanned her length. “This is astonishing. I’ve never met another with this brilliance. Are you adept?”
“Yes. It requires a lot of my strength, but yes, I think I’ve mastered it over the years.”
“Years,” Riselda breathed. “I cannot believe it.” Her eyes left hers and studied the swaying plants along the counter—andThe Risenpropped before them. “I’d forgotten about this.” Riselda walked toward the book now, and Lux held back from acting upon the possessive shock bolting through her. It did belong to Riselda, after all. With careful fingers, her aunt thumbed through its pages, pausing now and then with a secretive smirk.
“Did you know I attempted this? Several times. Never on a human body of course.” Riselda’s smile faded to a grimace of regret as she let the book fall closed. “It didn’t call to me, not the way healing did. You should be proud to possess such a gift, Lucena. But I find myself wondering, what does Ghadra’s sweet mayor think of your ability? I’d have assumed you to be whisked away to a seat permanently at his side.”
“He tried, but I couldn’t endure the sort of people he surrounds himself with. I managed a handful of months before I snuck away. And Irefuseto set foot in that festering nest ever again.”
Riselda found amusement in her words and laughed deeply, the beautiful sound echoing about the room. Lux regarded her, how lovely she was, and how she appeared just as Lux had remembered. “Oh, what a sharp tongue you’ve grown. I adore it.” Riselda rested one generous hip upon the smooth table, running her fingers along the surface. “I’ve a few things to drag up from the tunnel. Would you mind helping me much?”
Chapter six
The newly discovered trapdoor,as well as the carefully crafted tunnel beneath, were hidden once again. Lux straightened upon releasing the rug.
Her aunt stood busy at the table, laying out the bags of belongings and sacks of goods she’d dragged with her. Lux wondered how far she’d carried it all. Her curiosity as to where and what her aunt had been doing all these years rose with every item drawn out, but Riselda was an iron lockbox. By this point, Lux wasn’t sure therewasa key.
Riselda caught her eye on more than one occasion, but she’d only smiled. Food, coins, and clothing gave way to corked vials and pots with fused lids. A long, bone knife was drawn next, followed by a coal-black axe Lux couldn’t believe hadn’t torn the worn bag to bits.
“Saints above, Riselda. Were you lost to the wilderness for a time?” Lux threaded the words with good-natured humor,curating her language, but truly, she wanted to know what need for anaxecould her aunt have had.
Riselda smiled, patting the weapon fondly. “You’d be surprised.” Then flicking her gaze to Lux, she frowned. “You look exhausted, with the biggest purple circles under your eyes. I’ve kept you up. Take the bedroom, I’ll sleep in the chair tonight. We will figure everything else out in the morning.”
“If you’re sure…”
“Of course, Lucena. Good night.”
Turning her back on Lux, Riselda inspected a vial beneath the lamplight. It was a polite dismissal as far as dismissals went, and it left Lux feeling her true age for the first time in years. She wasn’t sure she liked it.
An intense guilt clawed at her. Had she not fallen asleep to this exact wish now materialized before her? Dreamt of family? Of anyone to care for her at all? She should be sobbing with joy, relieved to no longer trudge through this life alone.
Lux worked away the frown shadowing her face. With a final sweeping glance over her aunt’s bent form, she left the room. Her bones ached, and she yawned. Shewasexhausted.
Swinging the door to her bedroom inward, she turned up the lamp on the bedside table, sending the darkness skittering from her side. The room was small. Enough for a bed, a small writing desk, and her wardrobe.
She shucked her skirt, thinking on how two people would live in such a cramped space. Unless Riselda expected her to leave? She couldn’t necessarily blame her. Though it didn’t stop the sharpness from entering her chest at the thought of never waking again in the place she’d called home for nearly a decade. Sharp despair—and grinding frustration. The vague responses she’d received from her aunt bothered her endlessly. Did Lux, as her niece and only living family, not deserve answers? Riselda might be resourceful, but she was not Ghadra’s Navigator. Shecould never have managed the marshes and come out its other side alive without that brilliance; it was a warning made fact by the bodies lost and rarely found. Not to mention the dire consequences of entering the forest on its opposite end—those bodies were never recovered.
Ghadra was sequestered from the remainder of Malgorm. A land of chaos and crime her parents always said.Be grateful you were born to be where you are. And she had been. Until they’d left her here alone.
