AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Brandon was left standing there, the leather cord curled in his hand, the night heavy around his shoulders. The ground shifting beneath his feet. The world completely remade. He could not explain it, but he knew that during one simple conversation, he had irreversibly shifted his allegiance. Perhaps Villette couldn’t be trusted. Perhaps her every word was a lie. Perhaps the high divine—whose role as head of the temple mandated that Brandon be loyal to him above all others—perhaps the high divine had a very good reason for keeping Villette locked away, separated from friends and family and any kind of reasonable life. But Brandon was on her side now. If she needed him and he could help her, he would contravene his professional oaths, he would risk his nascent career, and do so gladly.
It seemed impossible that he would not come to regret it.
It seemed impossible to make any other choice.
Chapter Eleven:
Jayla
Within her first week as Madeleine’s personal guard, Jayla had drawn a host of conclusions.
The woman lived an entirely frivolous life, filled with nothing but luncheons, dinners, shopping excursions, and outings with friends. Jayla had accompanied her to private houses, open-air markets, fine dining establishments, and one concert hall, and never did anyone do anything except eat, talk, buy, or dance. It was hard to have much respect for such a meaningless existence, though Jayla certainly respected the amount of money it represented. Someone, somewhere, must be dealing with merchants or meeting with bankers or overseeing profitable farmland, because otherwise this lifestyle could not be sustained.
She had quickly learned that that someone was Madeleine’s father, Alastair Alayne—who, it turned out, enjoyed not only wealth but political power. He was a cold and taciturn man whose presence always set the tone, even the temperature, for the rest of the household. When he was home, even if he was locked in his office where no one saw him, every servant moved soundlessly through the halls and Madeleine mostly confined herself to the colorful rooms on the second story. When he was gone, the sun shone more brightly through the skylights in the high ceiling. The servants called to each other across the atrium. Madeleine laughed.
Jayla had had almost no dealings with the man. He had interviewed her for fifteen minutes, inspected her bracelets for authenticity, and outlined the terms of the job before hiring her on the spot. Since then, she had passed him in the halls maybe ten times, and never exchanged a word with him, which suited Jayla just fine.
Madeleine never said she was afraid of him—never acted nervous or cowed when he entered the house or called her in to dinner—but it was clear she wasn’t close to her father. It was also clear that, despite the superficiality of her life, Madeleine was a kind soul with a sunny temperament. She greeted everyone with a cheerful word, maintained excellent relations with the entire staff, and had more friends than Jayla would have believed any one person could manage.
Madeleine had been the one to welcome them when Jayla presented herself at the Alayne house, Aussen in tow. Jayla had been trying hard not to gawk at the graceful archways, the colorful columns, the sheer grand elegance of the place, when Madeleine stepped into the atrium.
“Here you are! I’m so glad, because I’ve got an appointment in an hour and I was hoping you could accompany me,” Madeleine said. She bent down to look into the little girl’s eyes. “And you must be Aussen.”
Aussen pressed up against Jayla and stared at Madeleine without making a sound. The child had been overwhelmed by the color, noise, size, and motion of the city. Ever since they had arrived, she had to seemed to shrink in on herself, growing timid and silent. As they took the noisy chugger from their rented rooms to the Alayne property, Aussen had gripped Jayla’s hand and stared around her apprehesively. Jayla had started to wonder if it had been a mistake after all to sign up for this job.
“I think I mentioned that she doesn’t speak many words of Cordish, though she seems to understand them,” Jayla explained.
“You did,” Madeleine replied, still leaning over to watch Aussen. Then she produced a few slow, uncertain syllables that Jayla didn’t recognize.
Aussen’s face lit with a smile and she answered in a torrent of words. Madeleine laughed, threw her hands out, and straightened up, shaking her head. She said something else, and Aussen stopped talking, but the little girl was still smiling.
“What did you say?” Jayla demanded.
“Our cook speaks a little Zessin, so I asked her how to say ‘welcome to your new home,’” Madeleine said. “I wasn’t sure I got it exactly right, but Aussen seemed to understand me.”
“She definitely did. Your cook speaks Zessin? Maybe she can help me communicate with Aussen a little better.”
“I’m sure she’d be happy to. Now let me show you your quarters.”
They had been given a room on the third floor, small but well-kept, with two narrow beds, a single chest of drawers, and even a window. Jayla had held posts where eight people might be crammed into a space this size, so she was pleased and grateful at the accommodations.
“Aussen can be trusted to stay here by herself and not get in trouble when I’m busy with you,” Jayla said.
“Good, although she might go mad if she’s cooped up here alone all day,” Madeleine answered. “The cook said she’d be willing to train her if Aussen was willing to work. The housekeeper, too.”
“Then maybe I can take her down to meet with them when we get back from your outing,” Jayla said, making it clear that she knew her foremost duty was to her employer.
Madeleine answered, “This ought to work out splendidly.”
And it had, really. The cook was a brisk, friendly woman named Norrah who seemed ready to handle any crisis with ease. Her Zessin vocabulary was limited, but far better than Jayla’s, and she immediately was able to find out a few critical details about Aussen’s life.
“The woman she’d been traveling with—the one who died—was a neighbor. She doesn’t know where they were supposed to go once they arrived in Corcannon, but she knows her mother is supposed to arrive in two or three months. She’s eight years old. Also, she thinks you’re really nice.”
Jayla was surprised into a laugh. “I wouldn’t have expected that. All she’s seen me do is brawl and worry.”
“Well,” said Norrah, “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s seen a lot of brawling and worrying in her time.”
The other servants were a little less friendly than Norrah, but that didn’t bother Jayla. Her goal was always to maintain cool, professional relations with the people around her. That made it easier to get along, while she was there; made it easier to go, when she wanted to leave.
