66. Harlow
HARLOW
L ight returns to Lunameade the way you wake from dreaming—one small crack of sunshine, and then all at once, the world is lit anew.
The remnants of Dark Star Festival still adorn the businesses around the square and the homes and apartments that line the streets leading away from the Blood Well.
Golden star garlands hang over the roads.
Burned-down candle nubs form abstract sculptures at the bottom of the luminary jars that line the streets.
Sleepy people clean up loose streamers and empty bottles from the ground.
A gust of wind ruffles my hair and dress.
I pull my cloak tighter to brace against the chill.
Dark Star Festival is the turning point of winter.
The days will get lighter from here on out, but we’re approaching the coldest part of the season.
It’s the most difficult time to distribute resources in Lunameade, but with Kellan in charge, I’m confident he will be able to manage it.
I pause a few steps behind my brother, so I won’t distract him from his work.
Kellan watches the guards place a cover over the well.
It looks more like an altar than a barrier.
Several more men place the seven statues of the Divine atop the new cover.
Their white marble gleams in the morning sun.
Several women and their children stand off to the side, pointing and chatting animatedly as they adjust armfuls of flowers.
Once the guards finish securing the statues and the cover, they step away.
Immediately, the women and children rush in and place flowers around the feet of the Divine.
“It’s a good idea,” I say quietly.
Kellan doesn’t turn to look at me. “It’s not forever. In a month or two, we will need to go back to doing blessings. We’ll also need to bless some older children who were never taken to the well.”
“How?” I ask.
“Their parents hid them. Father’s secret of killing the children blessed by Vardek was not so well-kept in some circles,” he says.
“There are women who had their babies at home and never registered them in the city birth records for fear of which Divine would bless them. Most of them come from family lines that have historically received Vardek’s blessing.
We all know that they could end up blessed by any of the Divine, but they thought it better safe than sorry.
Better to have a living, unblessed child. ”
“Do you really think you can manage the wall and the other high houses without our father or Able?” I ask.
Finally, my brother turns to face me. He looks changed in a way that’s hard to pinpoint.
It’s as if he’s been made lighter by our father’s death, but heavier by the burden of responsibility that’s fallen on him.
When he smiles, his eyes light up, and it reminds me so much of Aidia that it’s hard to breathe.
“I think the high houses are committed and relieved to have a different Carrenwell to deal with, but I’m not foolish enough to think it will be easy or that there won’t still be people coming for me. I’m counting on our siblings to help me hold on for now.” He glances at the gathering crowd.
“How did you hide those children with holy fire from our father?” I ask.
Kellan gives a shrug and a mischievous smile, as if he’s a child getting away with hiding sweets, instead of a grown man who has been hiding magically blessed children under our father’s nose for years.
“I marked them all as blessed by Elvodeen. In the dim well light, I could pretend it was an honest mistake. But I kept a running list, and I could go to visit the families once the gifts showed up to ensure they knew how to hide it while still learning to use it. You know how it is in Lunameade. Every spare bit of space is used. When you can’t work at ground level, you have to go up.
We used the roof of the birth center in the Northeast Quadrant.
Plenty of space and all the guards avoid it like they’re afraid they’ll catch something. ”
“Smart. How many are there?” I ask.
“Four in their twenties. About six more in their teens. And ten too young to fully come into their magic yet. I think we can get the older ones on rotation for a quadrant each. Doing a quadrant requires way less magic. I’m cautiously optimistic that this will be a better way.”
I cast a glance south. I can’t see South Hold from here, but I can feel it lurking, its presence ominous and constant. “And Able?”
Kellan leans closer and lowers his voice. “He’s chained up in the Cove. I want to see if not going in the well for a while will bring him back. He hasn’t been himself in a very long time.”
“How do you know this isn’t himself?”
Kellan sighs and places his hands on my shoulders.
“You’re not prone to trust, Low, but this is something you’ll have to trust me on.
You’re hardly the only sibling who had to survive our father.
Think long and hard about what you know about how he treated these Vardek-blessed children who weren’t even a threat yet.
If Able can’t come back, you can have the task of putting him out of his misery if you really want.
I’ll even make the soup so you only have to bring the poison.
But for now, let’s wait and see what happens. ”
I’m angry, but I can’t argue. Kellan isn’t that much older than me, but he has always had access to more information.
“I would never have let them marry you off to Rafe. It wouldn’t have come to that,” he says softly.
“But you let them send me off with Henry,” I say.
“You always wanted to leave. And I met Henry when we were younger. I showed him and his sister around the festival one year. So I knew him.”
I cross my arms. “Not well.”
Kellan sighs. “I knew enough. It’s the job of anyone with Polm’s blessing to take the measure of a man quickly. Henry is not a man who would hurt his wife.”
“He hurt me plenty. ”
Kellan’s eyebrows shoot up. “Your heart or your ego?”
I look back at the Divine statues over the Blood Well.
“Don’t be proud, Low.” He throws an arm around my shoulder and leans his cheek against the top of my head.
“I saw his extra blessing on Descent night. I didn’t know before that.
When they came to town before, they hid their auras with rings.
I couldn’t tell what his magic was. But at that party, I saw the purple, and then I saw the orange when he was convincing the crowd to go along with the rumors about Rafe.
It’s a credit to him and his commitment to the greater good that he went along with it. Imagine lying to protect Rafe.”
I grimace.
“Exactly.”
Kellan squeezes my shoulder and nods toward the edge of the square, where Henry stands waiting.
“I made him walk with me in the garden and I told him what you’d been through because I know you and I know you wouldn’t be forthcoming.
You deserve to be understood, and the reason I wasn’t worried about him having Polm’s blessing was because I knew he wouldn’t use it to hurt you.
” He kisses the top of my head. “Now stop sulking over your bruised pride and go talk to your husband. His brooding is bringing down the celebratory mood.”
Henry leaves me no choice or time to escape. He’s already walking over to us.
“I was coming to retrieve my wife,” he says.
I frown. “And if she’s unwilling to be retrieved?”
Henry’s wicked grin sends a shiver through me. “I do love the chase.” He gestures down the road. “How much of a head start do you want?”
Just the thought of it sends a flood of heat through my body.
Kellan looks from Henry to me. “Not sure what’s going on here, but I’m confident I don’t want to know.” He kisses my cheek. “Let it go, Low. And come to dinner tonight. Both of you.”
Henry watches Kellan go to greet the crowd before turning his attention back to me. He holds out his arm, and I reluctantly take it.
I let him lead me through the crowd of people gathered to see the new Blood Well cover.
I can understand their fascination. While the well has always been guarded, it’s never been covered like this for anything other than festivals, and it’s clearly bringing up a lot of feelings from the people who have been bleeding for our power all these years .
A steady stream of revelers wanders by us, everyone on their way to celebrate the return of daylight as well as this new way of life in Lunameade.
Children run by us, ribbons held above their heads, streaming behind them in blurs of color.
Couples kiss and laugh as they share bites of berry cakes from a nearby bakery.
Everything seems so astonishingly normal.
When we finally break free from the heaviest crush of the crowd, I expect Henry to start apologizing, but he just continues silently leading me down the street.
His silence is disconcerting. I watch him out of the corner of my eye.
“Like what you see, wife?”
“You look terrible,” I say.
He very much does not. He looks rugged and handsome and like he needs a haircut, but I don’t want him to get it because I like being able to grab a handful of those waves while he?—
I snap my gaze away. The last thing I need to be thinking about now is Henry’s lying mouth.
“We’ve agreed to share everything the fort knows about the Breeders with your brother and to help track nests of them so that we can try to cull the population,” he says.
“I’m hopeful that we might be able to get to a place where trade is possible again and it’s not so dangerous to pass between Lunameade and Mountain Haven. ”
I nod. It’s exciting to think about the possibilities this could open up.
If the lack of blood tithes makes the Drained weaker, or perhaps just tamer, there’s no telling how different the future could be from the past. I’m not usually one for hope, but it’s thrilling to consider not just escaping the city walls, but the freedom to explore more of the world beyond the Drained Wood.