Page 13 of Sleep No More

“And I insisted,” said August. “We missed the party. I wanted to scavenge for cake. We thought we had hours before anyone would be home, and there was nothing to eat but bread and cheese.”

“Nothing sufficient for a pair of growing girls,” Father agreed. “Very well, then. If you must make mischief, best it were made in this direction. Your uncle will not see you come to harm, even if he will see fit to speak to you of distant shores without the presence of your parents.”

“Both girls have passed their majority, and have the right to make decisions for themselves,” said Uncle Sylvester. Father gave him a blank look. “It’s true! If they want to travel to Dreamer’s Glass, they can choose to do so.”

“And why should they choose such?”

“As I was saying when you decided to interrupt us, Duchess Zhou has requested the presence of a member of my immediate bloodline. Meaning one of the two of us, or one of the girls.”

I wasn’t sure how that could possibly work. Faerie considered me my father’s child in every way that mattered, but he hadn’t sired me; there was nothing of his bloodline in my veins. August, meanwhile . . . he was her father in truth as well as custom, but all four of us knew Mother had pulled even the echo of the Daoine Sidhe out of her firstborn child before August had even exited her womb. He had no current part in the body of either one of us. Unless Uncle Sylvester married or lay with a human, the Torquill bloodline was at an end.

From the complicated look on his face, Father knew that, even as he knew that saying it would be a terrible betrayal of Faerie custom and could endanger us all. Smoothing his expression, he looked coolly at Uncle Sylvester and said, “Then you should go.”

“I can’t. The Duchy needs me. I may be a figurehead, but I’m their figurehead, and my absence this close to Moving Day would raise more questions than my staff would like to answer.”

“Then I—”

“Is the Rose of Winter in such a generous mood that she would let her favorite dogsbody leave with so little notice right before a night of parties she intends to grace with her glorious presence? Some of which may feature her liege, the Queen of the Mists, while others may involve her mother?”

Father looked away.

“I thought not. And your wife is not of our bloodline. That leaves your girls. Either would do, although the timing of the request means our options are more open than they would be during most of the year.”

I frowned, curious. “What do you mean, Uncle?”

“Only that Moving Day is in two days.” He smiled, showing teeth that could use a good scrubbing. “A growing girl must chafe at being sealed in a tower for no crime of her own. I know your father and I chafed when we were boys and our parents were overprotective.”

“Don’t,” cautioned Father.

Uncle Sylvester ignored him. “But right now, with the changelings of the Kingdom free to move about as they will, immune to being claimed by the nobles whose lands they pass through, you could go to Dreamer’s Glass. Sir Etienne could take you that far, quite easily so, and you could meet with Duchess Zhou before returning here to tell me what she needed so dearly that she would summon a member of my own family to accomplish it.”

“Duchess Zhou is Shyi Shuai,” said August. “They manipulate luck.”

“Unfashionable, yes, but not Seers,” said Uncle Sylvester. “It’s very likely that she tried to bend the luck around some project of hers and found it would succeed if she had a Torquill present, but fail without one.”

“Descendants of Maeve,” said August. “How did they miss the purges?” She glanced to Father. “I would have expected the Summer Queen to have declared their tinkering with fate to be a step too close to prophecy, and had them removed.”

“When you can twist luck to your own ends, is it such a stretch to assume you might twist it such that you’d be overlooked when something terrible was happening to people like but not exactly like yourself?” asked Uncle Sylvester.

“Surely you didn’t mean to imply that a descendant line of the Traitor Queen could be more powerful than the Fair Titania,” said Father, his own voice a warning.

“Not at all. Just that they might have been beneath her notice. Left to live because they didn’t matter.” He shrugged. “Diplomatically, it’s a good thing for me to answer when a nearby regent calls for aid, and she’s asked for something small enough. She says her request is of the utmost urgency, and so I would like to send someone before Moving Day. Because she’s willing to accept any member of the family, I’d prefer to send her October. Give the girl an adventure when it’s safe to do so, perhaps frighten her into another few decades of good behavior before she grows old enough and Torquill enough to get restless and start wondering why the burden of her birth should fall upon her own shoulders.”

Father sighed, shoulders sagging. “You know Amy will have my head for this.”

“Yes, but she’ll grow you a new one, and you said she wasn’t expected back from Silences until midway through the month. October will be long gone and back again before Amy is an issue.”

“It’s October’s choice. Even this close to Moving Day, there may be those who want to take advantage of the fact that assaulting a changeling is no violation of the Law.” Father looked to me, expression earnest. “Well, my sweet girl? What say you?”

I bit my lip. “August needs my help in the tower, preparing for Moving Day,” I said.

“I can send a few members of my household to assist her,” said Uncle Sylvester. “She need not be alone in your father’s absence.”

“I think it might be good for me to handle some of the duties myself. To see what it’s like,” said August. “I can’t be sheltered from reality forever, Father.”

“No, I suppose you can’t. But the choice is still your sister’s. We’ll not force her one way or the other,” said Father. “I won’t forbid it, however badly I want to keep you both safe. I won’t command it, either, because that would be cruel and a father should never be cruel to his children. He should love them, and protect them when he can, and support them when he can’t.”

“Then this time, I’d like you to support me,” I said, slowly. “I think I’d like to go to Dreamer’s Glass. To meet with the Duchess, and see why she needs a Torquill so badly that she’d accept the least among us. Mother won’t be happy when she hears, but if the choice is mine, I’d like to go.”