5. Aurelia
Chapter 5
The next afternoon, just outside the work shed, I glanced up to find Xarion sauntering toward me. He swung his long arms with a boyish grin spread across his freckled face. Once close, he leaned against a post in the fence by the work shed. The sun highlighted streaks of blond in his otherwise light brown hair.
“What’s up, Red?” He squinted into the sun.
I used my forearm to wipe the sweat away from my face, tempering my annoyance at today’s work being interrupted.
He was about the same age as me—twenty-seven—and had been the closest thing to a friend I’d ever had. His dad had taken off when he was a baby, and his mom hadn’t been overly interested in his upbringing. From twelve to seventeen, we’d hung out almost every day, at first running through the trees or playing ball in the village square, and then experiencing all our intimate firsts together.
Nothing was forever, though. My life had always been proof of that. When he’d started to hang out with his male friends more often, his interest in me quickly waned. Fraternizing with me subjected him to a life of ridicule. Thankfully, by that age, I was already hardened to the emotional backlash of being cast aside or chased away.
He only occasionally stopped by work now, sharing a little gossip and venting about his life. It was a nice distraction from an often mundane existence. It always had been. After the meeting with Granny last night, today just happened to be bad timing.
I quirked an eyebrow at him. “Red? Have you gone blind? My hair is black, not red.” I smashed some Twilight Thistle with a pestle.
“It’s not all black.”
I rolled my eyes. “Black with streaks of gray, then, okay? Let’s all take a moment to notice my premature aging.”
“It’s white, and it’s not premature aging or you wouldn’t have had it when you first got here.”
Premature aging sounded better than extreme trauma. Truth was, I’d developed one streak at a time, each highlighting some terrible event from my past. Since I’d met Granny, I hadn’t developed any new streaks. I’d take rules and punishments over my past any day.
“Sure, white, why not?” I said with a shrug. “Not red, though, like Nadia’s. Who everyone calls Red...”
“But Nadia didn’t get a fancy red cloak from Granny and you did.”
I squinted up at him. “Who’s been talking?”
“Joss, who heard from Alexander.”
Alexander, Granny’s chief muscle. The guy had a mean streak ten miles wide and he didn’t care who he took it out on. He liked the feel of bones breaking under his fists. He’d said as much when he’d broken a couple of my ribs. With a smile.
“Not wise, passing around Alexander’s gossip,” I said noncommittally, going back to my work.
“So Granny didn’t get you a lavish gift?”
“It’s just a cloak,” I deflected.
“It’s a velvet cloak with silk lining and it cost her a fortune. Alexander was there when she bought it. She’s gotta keep her prized drug maker warm in the cold.”
“Cute,” I murmured, emptying the fine powder into a bowl and adding more thistle into my mortar.
His smile slipped a bit. “Does it bother you, what the village does now?”
“How many times are you going to ask me this question?” I worked the thistle.
“I don’t know. At least once more, probably.” He grinned at me, but his expression faded quickly. “It’s just... it seems like things are getting more serious.”
I paused in my work.
I hadn’t been joking; it really wasn’t wise to pass on anything Alexander said. He sampled the product, but he was smart about it when he did; he made sure Granny wouldn’t know. Sometimes, when he was in the midst of a journey, he talked. Often it was about trivial matters, like the women he bedded on the Outside, or how nice his horse was—something the village wasn’t afforded. Sometimes, though, he talked about the business. About Granny’s strategies and how things were going. On those occasions, once he’d sobered up, he’d realized he’d made a grave mistake. Granny prized him for his discretion, or so I’d heard. On the Outside, he was her most trusted helper. If she knew he’d loosened his lips when in the village, she’d be furious. To stop that from happening, he silenced those he’d told—almost always with his fists.
I scraped my teeth over my bottom lip. If it wasn’t for last night and my misgivings, I would’ve avoided this whole conversation. As it was...
“What’d you hear?” I finally asked.
He licked his lips, glancing behind him. “It’s just . . . Well . . .” He hesitated.
“Tell me,” I pushed.
He took a deep breath. “Apparently Granny has got the blessing of the king and queen.”
I shook my head. “What does that mean? Blessing for what?”
“To sell it, what else? Right out in the open.” He grimaced. “Not front and center, mind. Her booths have to be in the way back corner of the royal market in a shaded stall, but everyone knows where she is. She has a guard and everything, and the line is a mile long.”
“Wait, wait.” I held out my hand, trying to process this information. “No, selling unlawful products in the royal market, the main kingdom market, is absurd. That can’t be right.”
His eyes widened, nodding. “That’s what Alexander said.”
I frowned at him before going back to my work. “When Alexander is in the middle of a journey, he fabricates.”
I had no idea if that was true, but given what Xarion was saying, it must be.
He pushed closer to the gate. “He wasn’t even that far along. Jennece was fondling him, how he likes, and he was just underway on the journey. He was letting it all spill out. He said that Granny got in to see the king and queen—she’d made special contacts or something—and for a sack of gold, a sack, they’d let her sell in the market. In the corner, I mean. Like way in the far corner.”
I stopped working again to level him with a look.
“Xarion, be reasonable. This product is against the law of the land. The law that the king and queen uphold. There is no way they’d let it be sold to common folk in the main market.”
“They’re not doing it for everyone. None of our competitors are getting this sort of perk.”
“Which tells you that this is all false. They wouldn’t give us special perks and not the others.”
“Yes they would. For enough gold.”
“They have their own gold. They’re the king and queen, Xarion. They have all the gold in the world. What would they need with the few bits Granny has to offer?” I shook my head, dismissing all of this. “There’s just no way. I mean...” I stopped again, my mind whirling. “A person exploring our product needs to take some care. It’s not lethal, but it is habit forming. They need to know what they are getting into. Stalking the shadows and hunting down the seller means the buyer has to have heard about the product from word of mouth and gotten a caution in the process. There’s an element of danger in that, both finding the seller and exploring the product. They’d know the whole experience came with a certain risk. Selling in the main market, where there are children and random people stopping by to have a gawk...” I shook my head adamantly. “That just can’t be. He’s leaving out some details. He must be.”
“Well... I don’t know.” Xarion shifted his stance, more confident now. “But he did say that they’re packing the product up real nice now.”
“They’ve been doing that for years.”
“Even nicer, though.”
I rolled my eyes. “A nicer package and a bit of gold isn’t going to make the king and queen suddenly decide that our unlawful product is totally fine for common people. That doesn’t make sense. He probably just wanted to impress you all and keep Jennece’s hands on him. I wouldn’t put my faith in what he has to say, and I definitely wouldn’t keep passing it along. As far as how I feel about all this, I sleep just fine at night, as always. We’re giving people the option of escaping their lives for a while. We’re not forcing it on anyone and there are no lasting effects. Meanwhile, the village is no longer poor and the children are safe and getting an education—everyone wins.”
He watched me work for a silent moment, thinking that over.
“It’s not like we’re the only ones doing it, either,” he finally said.
“Granny says we have steep competition, but our product has gotten so much better we’re now beating out the others.”
“Right. And we’re not even outlawed anymore.”
I sighed heavily. “Sure, fine, yeah. If you want to believe that, great.”
His boyish grin worked its way back. “You just don’t like him.”
“Who, Alexander? No, I don’t. That’s not why?—“
“And it isn’t our product. It’s your product, Red.”
I gave him a flat stare at the name. “I just make it. I don’t grow the ingredients.”
“You create it, refine it?—“
“Okay, okay.” I grappled with a grin and waved him off. “Stop. You’re going to give me an ego.”
“I heard Alexander was busy this morning,” he said. “I heard he paid Razorfang a visit.”
I slowed in working the thistle. I’d figured that had been the case when I’d shown up this morning and he hadn’t been here. He didn’t miss days... unless he physically couldn’t get out of bed.
“How bad?” I asked softly.
“I don’t know the specifics, but Granny wasn’t there to supervise, so ...”
Shit.
I straightened up, squinting into the sun. That wasn’t good news. It meant Alexander had been let off his leash. The rules then were simple: don’t kill or permanently maim. Everything else goes. Granny must’ve been pissed.
There was nothing for it, though. Raz got out of hand. He must’ve known this would happen when he chose the product over delivering Granny’s pack. He’d been down this road a time or two before—he was willingly playing with fire, and this time he’d gotten burned.
I braced my hands on my lower back and bent back, stretching it out. “Raz needs to lay off the product.”
“Yeah, I heard Alexander had to pull him out of your supply room this morning. Razorfang made a big mess of the place. Broke a bunch of stuff.”
What in the hell had he taken to render him that out of it? He’d never stayed there the whole night before. He must’ve mixed products, because even a double dose wouldn’t have made him that bad.
I poured the powder into a bowl before crossing to the water pump to wash my hands.
Xarion walked with me, stepping behind the pump to work the handle. “Granny isn’t going to be thrilled that you knew Razorfang was sampling and you didn’t mention it.”
I didn’t have to. She’d known.
“Let me handle Granny. You should stay out of it.”
“Or maybe you won’t get in trouble, since you’re the favorite around here.”
“If I’m the favorite, it’s because I work hard and do more than wander around with my thumb up my ass spreading rumors. Maybe you should try to be useful for a change. You might get a fancy cloak all your own.”
He snickered. “Nah, I’m good.” He stepped back from the pump. “I don’t think I’d like her watching my every move and controlling my every step.”
“I don’t know why not. That’s what your mate does.”
“Har, har,” he said, dogging my heels as I turned for the creek. “Just think, you could’ve been my mate.” He snapped. “Wait, no, that was the real Red. You, I wouldn’t touch again for all the gold in the world.”
“Is that why you tried to feel me up at the dance last winter? How’re your balls, by the way?”
He crinkled his nose at me in jest. He’d been drunk that time, lamenting about peer pressure and not mating me instead of his woman. Then he’d apparently thought he should try to rekindle old flames. I’d reacted without thinking.
I let myself out of the gate and closed it behind me, keeping him on the other side.
“Wait, you didn’t hear the really juicy stuff,” he said.
I sighed and stopped, my back still to him. If I didn’t listen and get it over with, he’d follow me to the creek, chattering. I needed to get a bunch of work done. Granny was leaving in a few days and I still had a lot of product to finish up.
“Go on,” I said.
“Well, apparently Granny is trading our product for prices higher than ever. She shows up at the markets like royalty. She hardly deals with the dangerous people anymore. Alexander was pissed that he has to keep it professional all the time now.”
I walked slowly away, cocking my head a little. That also had to be preposterous but... Alexander’s reaction to it rang true. Given he was the one telling the story, though...
“Anything else?” I asked, stopping.
He hesitated, his body tense and his expression unsure. “Do you ever wish you could live on the Outside? Get out of here? I know we have everything provided for us, and we shouldn’t complain, but... don’t you find it a little restricting?”
“No,” I said, walking again, and it was the truth. Despite my wobble yesterday, I definitely didn’t find this place restricting. I found it comforting. I knew who didn’t want me within ten feet and who would tolerate me in their space. I knew who would sneak into my cottage for a little sexual relief and who would bash my head in if I so much as hinted at wanting to get intimate. Most importantly, I knew Granny wouldn’t let anyone run me out or hurt me too badly. Here, I knew what tomorrow promised. My world was largely predictable. I took solace in that.
After a fast-paced workday, I’d gotten back to my cottage just after sundown. After chopping up meat and vegetables and throwing a stew together, I was just about to sit down and wait for it to be ready when a knock sounded at my door.
Frowning, I checked the contents of the pot, set to hang over an open flame. After stirring it, I crossed to the door and pulled it open.
A brawny man stood on my stoop, his weight leaned back onto his heels and his thick arms crossed over his chest. Alexander. His dirty blond beard reached down past his neck and his light brown hair was kept shaggy. Granny didn’t much care about appearances of those in her employ and no one in their right mind was going to say boo to this character. All you had to do was look into his slightly manic eyes to know you had other places you’d rather be.
A thrill of fear zipped through me. It was not good news when this guy made house calls. Raz had learned that just this morning.
In the past, Granny had never let Alexander off the leash when dealing with me. I was more fragile than everyone else and didn’t heal as quickly. Plus, I had work to do and didn’t have a replacement. She’d always been on hand to ensure my punishments didn’t get too extreme.
She hadn’t shown up today.
Xarion had clearly told him I’d been listening to the gossip, and Alexander had come to ensure my silence.