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A small knock sounded at the door, and I rushed to open it, finding Wrena in a muslin dress the color of butter that made her tan skin look radiant, her long chocolate hair loose. I realized her eyes were the same deep brown as mine, concern creasing the corners. “Can you talk?”
“Of course.I apologize for my appearance. I had been dismissed from duties and I–”
I grabbed her hand, cutting her off and dragging her to my bed. I didn’t care what she was wearing. “I’m going to die.”
“Why would you say such a thing?” But she knew. She knew exactly why I would say it.
“I need you to tell me everything you know about Initiation,” I urged her. “I know so little. I haven’t been told much of anything.”
She pulled back a bit, a puzzled look on her face. “I don’t believe you’re supposed to know. I don’t believe anyone is.” I shook my head, my brows furrowed, urging her on. She straightened, smoothing her dress across her lap. “Whatdoyou know?”
“All I knew about Initiation was that it existed and that those who failed were killed or cast out. Until my mother wed Castemont, that was it. I know now that at some point I will be walking across the room, curtsying, and raising my wrist. Marita was forbidden to tell me the reasons. And that I am not allowed to defend myself from whatever pain they choose to inflict.” The look that flashed across Wrena’s face made nausea set in. “It’s what the daughters of all the Low Royals must do to enter the Royal Court and the marriage market. And if I fail…” I gave her a grave look.
Wrena nodded slowly, her face frozen with concern. “That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
She nodded, swallowing hard. “I don’t know much, only what rumors circulated in Maplenook and what the other handmaidens say, so I’m not sure how accurate it is…”
“Tell me.” How did rumors make it to Maplenook when I hadn’t even heard them in Inkwell?
“I don’t know if this is the truth. I don’t want to give you the wrong information and send you unprepared.”
“I’m already wildly unprepared.Tell me.”
Her eyes pinned me in place and I could tell she was searching for words. “If rumors are to be believed, this is the twenty-fourth year the tradition has taken place. No one is sure exactly why it started, but the seven brothers of the Board of Blood were established to conduct the ceremony.”
“How?”
“I was told that they just…appeared one day. King Umfray announced that they were to begin an Initiation process for young ladies entering the Royal Court. And that was it. No one is sure why Eserene does it, but–”
“Why Eserene does it? Isn’t it for the same reason all the other cities do it?”
Wrena furrowed her brow in question. “The other cities?” She stared at me another second, assessing. “Initiation is an Eserenian tradition. It isn’t practiced anywhere else.” Another emotion washed over her face, but I couldn’t place it. Fear? Paranoia? “Forgive me, Petra, but I’m not sure if you’re supposed to have this knowledge. I know I’m not.”
I hadn’t been able to spend any time with the other Initiates, hadn’t been able to ask them of their expectations, their experiences, and their anxieties. “I need you to tell me, Wrena.”
Tense contemplation contorted her face, the torturous battle between right and wrong visible in her eyes. She took a deep breath. “I don’t know if it’s because you’re so new here, because you grew up in the slums, or because you’re not supposed to know — Saints knowthe helpisn’t supposed to know this — but I will tell you.”
“I won’t tell a soul what I know. And I won’t tell them it came from you.”
Another look of uneasiness across her face, then a slow nod. “Around the time that Kauvras started gaining traction in the north, King Umfray became worried at the weak state of his Royal Court. He was worried his brother would try to claim the throne. It had been ninety-five years since the War of Kings. The soldiers who fought were long dead, and the war was a distant memory that lived outside the walls of Eserene. The Royal Court grew soft — marriages lost significance as the daughters of Low Royals married laborers and sailors, albeit for love. Some of the men bounced from brothel to brothel, siring mountains of bastards and never taking wives at all. Noblemen and women divorced and remarried and muddied the Royal bloodline. The Royal Court was more a formality than an authority.
“When news of Kauvras’ latest campaign reached King Umfray, the old man immediately took action. He cut the rot out at the root, having every lovestruck daughter, every debauched son, every disgraced Lord and Lady and Baron and Baroness cut down by his guards.” My eyes were wide. Never,everhad I heard of this. Was I not told for a reason? Did Inkwell prefer to move on from the insult of its royal connections being slaughtered just for associating with the slums? This was but a year before my birth. Lord Castemont lived through it — survived it. “You never knew?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
Wrena nodded, continuing. “I heard that the city reeled for a bit. They were scarred from the carnage that had occurred in the streets. A year later, on the Night of the Holy Stone of Blood Saints, it is said that a group of brothers appeared at the city gates, requesting an audience with King Umfray. The Board of Blood.” The Night of the Holy Stone of Blood Saints happened only once every three hundred years, when the moon passed in front of the sun, making the moon look like it’s made of obsidian and casting the land in a darkness heavier than the night.
The night I was born.
I said nothing, keeping my face still. “No one had ever heard of these men. I’ve been told that Umfray had been praying to Onera, Saint of Miracles, and the moment his head guard told him of the mysterious visitors, he sprinted toward the gates, sure that Onera had granted him his miracle. The Board of Blood made a show of telling him that the Benevolent Saints had sent them to cure the city of its decay, to build a Royal Court so strong that no rebel cult stood a chance of penetrating it. He accepted their offer immediately without question.
“So they established an order, a structure. The sons and daughters of Lords and Barons would marry, produce as many offspring as possible, and restore the former glory of the court. The boys would start training as warriors from an early age, the weak and unworthy…” she paused. “...weeding themselves out.” My stomach turned, and I had to remind myself to breathe. I wasn’t sure when I had begun holding my breath in the first place. “And the girls would be raised as proper ladies, gaining an education and the skills to take care of a family, and strong enough to produce offspring that would uphold the Royal lineage.”
“And Initiation would stamp out the weak and unworthy.” I said, a sick understanding sweeping through my bones.
Wrena nodded. “That’s what I’ve been told, but I don’t know if it’s true.”
