“We might be able to get word to them, if we’re quick enough,” said Da. “Unless you have some magical way of doing it?” he added, turning to Sylvester.
“I am sorry,” he said. “I know no such spell that will work without many hearts to power it. Although I might be able to speed the horses, if you can persuade messengers to ride out.”
Da looked at him narrowly. “I can’t help wondering why you’re helping my Foss,” he said. “Seeing as how you’re one of the magic-workers yourself and should be out hunting hearts with the rest of them.”
“I have come to realize,” said Sylvester laboriously, “that our presence in the world—mine and my sisters’—makes it worse, not better. Foss has shown me how dangerous we are to people like you.”
“I’m surprised you care,” commented Da. “I would have thought you were above such things.” He shot me a quick look.
“I had questioned it for a while,” admitted Sylvester. “But I knew nothing except what my father and sisters taught me. Having Foss in my House was ... enlightening.”
“Yes, she’s not afraid of speaking her mind. I know,” agreed Da, still looking at me. “Well, seems like the best thing to do would be to gather everyone in the square and go from there. We’ll have to ring the fire bell to get them all out.”
“You’ll have to do it after we’ve gone,” I said. “We have something else to do, and we have to do it before the king awakens and can find us.”
“And are you going to tell me what it is?” said Da shrewdly.
I hesitated. “I don’t want you to worry overmuch.”
“Nonsense,” said Da. “I’ve been worrying about you since the moment you were born, and I’ll worry until I leave this earth. Probably after that, too, if I’m able.”
“We’ve heard that there’s someone who can help us,” I told him. “Some kind of magic-worker or healer, who can fix the hearts and perhaps even give them back to those who are missing theirs. The ones who are still alive, that is. If we can find this person and bring them back, it might stop the king from harvesting all the villages.” I shook my head.
“Da, if he has his way, he might kill half the people in the kingdom. More. He doesn’t care. He knows more children will be born to replace them, eventually, and I don’t think he cares how long it takes.”
“Hold on a minute,” said Da. “What king would be willing to kill that many of his own people? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Because he doesn’t let us hear about it, Da. I don’t know why we’ve never questioned the right of the magic-workers to come out and steal our lives away, but we never have. I never have. It was just the way things were, and we were grateful for their protection, and the health of our crops and livestock, and we just let them do it. Until now.”
We stared at each other for a moment, and I saw the same realization dawn on Da’s face, as it had on mine.
All this time, we had lived under King Darius’s rule without questioning his right to take pieces of our hearts as he saw fit, and we had counted it little more than an inconvenience in exchange for our safety. It seemed so stupid, now, as if we were little more than the unintelligent sheep the magic-workers believed us to be.
“And where is this person you need to find?”
“Outside of the kingdom,” I said. “We will leave tonight and hope to be back before too long. If we can offer the king a way to repair the hearts he has, we might be able to stop him from taking the hundreds he needs. And we can save those who have been taken already and still survive.”
“Like you?” asked Da. It was the first time he had asked me directly about my heart. “Foss,” he took my hands, “tell me straight. How are you? What has happened to you? Are you going to be all right?”
“I’m fine, Da.” I swallowed. “I was just snagged, is all. Sylvester didn’t mean to take me. He had his spell ready for harvesting, and I got caught up on the tail of it by accident.”
Sylvester looked embarrassed, as he probably should.
“Then you can let her go?” said Da, turning to the sorcerer.
“He hasn’t quite figured out how yet,” I said. “But he will. Or perhaps the person we’re looking for will know a way.”
Da sighed and rubbed his hand across his face, looking very tired. “And you say he didn’t mean to take you?”
“He says he didn’t, and I’m inclined to believe him,” I said, meeting Sylvester’s eyes for a moment. Was I imagining it, or did he look surprised? I didn’t tell Da about the piece of my heart that Clarissa had taken, which was still sloshing about in its jar in my pocket as we spoke.
“Let me at least have a little time with you, before you leave,” said Da. Sylvester took the hint and unfolded his long legs.
“I will check on the horses,” he said, which of course didn’t need checking on at all, but I suppose he was trying to be polite. He hadn’t had much practice. He toddled off outside, and with Cornelius asleep on the hearthrug, Da and I settled ourselves in our same old shabby, comfortable armchairs before the fire.
“Foss ... I never told you the old stories,” he said. “You had enough to worry about. But there are tales—true or not—about these harvests, from many years ago. Whole towns full of Davs, with the hearts sucked out of them.”
I leaned forward to grasp his hands, desperate to reassure him and take that old, old look from his face. “Da, it’s all right. I was just being dramatic. Even if I did lose my whole heart, it wouldn’t be that bad. You don’t die. Like Dav, like you said.”
