Chapter Twenty-One The Lady on the Hunt #2
“Didn’t he always? I heard Key got his throat cut and his body thrown in the abyss for striking down the king.
Gossip says he wanted to stop the king from dallying with that Lady Rahela.
They say Key was jealous. No doubt he was, but whatever else he is, Key’s a Cauldron boy.
Those of the Cauldron follow their desires.
Those of the Cauldron kill anyone who tries force when there is no desire.
If Key intervened for your lady, he thought she wanted him to. He believed she didn’t want the king.”
So far, Forge Strike was right. Rae hadn’t wanted the king.
So far, and no further.
Emer knew little of the Cauldron, but she knew human nature. The king was no different from anyone else. He thought what he wanted was the only important thing. It didn’t matter what anyone else wanted.
Now Key was the Emperor, marrying Lady Rae. Now Key was the one with the power to make his desires into reality.
Did it matter what Rae wanted?
Emer feared, then and now, it did not.
“You expect me to believe women don’t get tumbled against their will here in the liberty, with no laws to punish rapists?”
The area of the city known as the Cauldron was a liberty, a place where the laws of the land simply did not apply.
The wretches of the Cauldron were so vile that the rest of the city had given up on them following orders and ordinances.
No guards patrolled the Cauldron, no soldiers kept the peace.
Within the confines of the Cauldron, chaos reigned.
And Forge claimed Emer’s lady would be safe with a Cauldron boy?
Emer sneered. Forge shrugged one muscular shoulder.
“If there’s anywhere women are safe, I don’t know the place.
If there’s any world where anyone’s safe, I can’t imagine it.
Up there, merchants know they can roll peasants, lords know they can roll maids, and the king knew he could roll anyone.
The law protects them, not us. The Cauldron’s a dangerous place, no doubt.
But down here, if you wrong another, no laws will stop them taking revenge.
Nobody here is ever allowed to feel safe putting the hurt on someone else.
I was born in the lawless gutters, but I saw the worst sins when I stayed near the palace with the pinsmith.
I watched people rich and powerful enough to feel safe always.
That type think they can set snarling dogs on the world, and nobody will ever dare bite back.
Biting’s something that happens to other people, they think. Those idiots.”
“Are they idiots? They don’t need to consider pain they’ll never feel.”
Forge laughed. “The king was the highest in the land. He got bit in the end, didn’t he?”
Emer imagined ghouls ripping Octavian limb from limb, and shuddered.
Forge finished her bitter drink with relish. “In the Cauldron, we know the teeth are waiting for everyone.”
She rose from her breakfast plates, on which she’d left no crumbs. Emer thought she would head to her forge, but instead she rolled a horseshoe nail about the table and continued.
“Another thing about the Cauldron. There’s no marriage in the Cauldron, since marriage is all bound up in law.
The monarch and his ministers say a piece of paper proves a man is married to a woman.
It’s legal for a woman’s father and her family to hand a woman over to a man like a parcel of fish in the marketplace.
The woman doesn’t even need to say yes. Even noble ladies are expected to obey. ”
Usually the woman did say yes, if her father or her master arranged a marriage. You said yes, thank you, because nobody wanted to say no, and know for certain that your no wouldn’t matter.
Emer’s lip curled. “If you’re a noble lady these days, it seems you’re expected to risk your life in the new Queen’s Trials everyone’s talking about.”
Forge nodded. “If you live under rule of law, there’s no escaping the rules.
I’d rather size horseshoes for highwaymen, or use orichal casts and mechanisms to make skeleton keys and card-trick traps, than live helpless.
Living in the Cauldron means nobody has power over me greater than I can bear.
Living in the Cauldron means if I had a sweetheart, no law could take her from me.
If I called her my lady wife, she would be just as much my wife as the lady of the man next door is his. ”
Which was to say, nobody was anyone’s wife. There were no papers involved to prove the marriage legal, and laws should keep people safe. That was why the Cauldron was so dangerous.
Surely even in the Cauldron, two women couldn’t declare they were wives. Forge talked about having a lady wife, but what would Forge be called? If there were no words for something, surely it couldn’t be done.
“What if your sweetheart wanted to be your lady husband?” Emer asked curiously.
Forge’s mouth quirked. “I’m sure we could work something out. Here’s something most of those fancy specialist blacksmiths don’t tell you – you can hammer a horseshoe to fit all sizes.”
Emer didn’t have a chance to respond. The light sound of Lia’s footsteps on the stairs cut off the conversation.
Lady Lia’s voice rang out like a bell. “Good morning.”
Forge rolled her eyes. “It’s practically afternoon.”
“Emer tossed and turned all night,” said Lia.
They had done nothing in Forge’s bed except fail to sleep.
Emer’s cheeks burned all the same. “I beg your pardon, my lady.”
She felt reprimanded, but when she pushed Lia’s plate across the table towards her, Lia’s fingertips brushed Emer’s wrist. The touch was light. When Emer glanced at her in surprise, Lia’s gaze was sweet. “I wasn’t scolding you, I was concerned. Were you dreaming of that man you had to kill?”
You had to. But had she?
“Of him,” Emer said reluctantly. “Of picking up my axe in the Court of Air and Grace to kill ghouls. Of wearing a silk dress, and having bloody hands.”
Lia hesitated. “You didn’t wield an axe in the Court of Air and Grace. That was a sword.”
Emer stacked her plate atop Forge’s and turned away. She didn’t like the thoughtful expression on Lia’s face, or the sympathetic one on Forge’s. “I haven’t been wearing silk dresses either, my lady. Dreams don’t need to make sense.”
In dreams, things went differently than they did in reality. In dreams, impossible futures seemed like memories. The only consistent thing about Emer’s dreams was they were dark.
Later, Lia had the neighbours over for tea. Lia had everyone on Sharp Elbow Lane charmed already.
The main subject of conversation was the same as in the markets. Everyone spoke of how the Emperor must defeat the raiders, and discussed whether the new Queen’s Trials would produce a true queen.
“That’s what the Emperor needs,” declared the old lady from down the way. “All any wild man requires is good woman.”
The whole street regarded this woman as an authority on the court, since fifty years ago she had served within palace walls as wet nurse to the current Duke of Valerius after his mother and first wet nurse died.
Despite all the bloody stories about the old duke, apparently he had been a lovely baby.
If Forge’s neighbours were so impressed by breasts once in proximity to the aristocracy, Emer could only imagine them swooning over the truth about the aristocrat in their midst.
“I’m sure you’re right,” Lia assured the old woman. “With luck, nobody in Eyam will ever hear from Lady Rahela again.”
The neighbours gone and the gossip done, Emer ventured a comment. “Are we going to try and aid Lady Rae in the Trials? You still haven’t told me what you’re planning.”
Lia only smiled. “Everyone has secrets. Wait and see.”
Emer thought Lia meant Emer should wait, and Lia would reveal her own secrets. But Lia intended to reveal someone else’s.
That night, long past the hour when light died behind the crowded rooftops of the Cauldron, Lia reached for Emer under the cover of sheets and night.
Emer flinched as if her soft hand were red-hot iron.
“Don’t go to sleep yet,” murmured Lia. “Wait up a little with me. Stay very quiet.”
Emer wasn’t sure what would happen. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to happen.
What she didn’t expect was the sound of their own front door, gently closing.
Emer turned to look at Lia. The light of the cracked moon shone on Lia’s face, making her look like a broken porcelain doll that hadn’t yet fallen to pieces.
Blue eyes turning moon-silver, Lia put a finger to her pale lips and tugged at Emer’s hand.
Together, they rose from the bed, and peered out the window at Forge, cloaked and hooded, hurrying down the street.
“I wonder, where could she be going?” Lia whispered.
“Probably one of those taverns where ladies pursue each other,” Emer snapped.
She felt a brief bitter satisfaction in seeing Lia’s eyes widen. Yes, my lady, I know about that. You thought I still knew nothing at all.
Lia said only, “On a work night? Taverns don’t stay open that late, even in the Cauldron. Do you know how often Forge creeps out at night?”
Emer hadn’t known Forge was creeping out at night, or that Lia was lying in wait to watch her go. Emer slept at night, so she could keep house during the day.
She always felt like the only fool in this house.
Lia watched her, Lia’s eyes tranquil moonlit pools. “There are two choices in life. You get deceived by other people, or you find out the secrets of others and own their power.”
“What are you suggesting?”
Lia said, “Did you hear the neighbours talking about what happens tomorrow night? The winner of the first round of the Queen’s Trials rides through Themesvar in a triumphant procession. The whole city will turn out to see her.”
“And who will she be?’ Emer wondered.
Women used to die in the old Queen’s Trials. Lady Rae could die tomorrow. Rae had protected Lia. Now everyone in Themesvar wanted Rae dead. Didn’t Lia want to help her?
Emer watched Lia waft serenely about the dark room.
Every move she makes, she’s jerking the strings for her own little play, Forge’s voice said in her mind.
Then Emer recalled the sight of Forge stealing out of the house in the night, looking warily over her shoulder lest she be followed.
Lia was right, too. Forge had her secrets.
People were like stories. You couldn’t believe in them.
Lia smiled, seeming unconcerned about her stepsister. “Let’s see which lady wins the first round. Then let’s use the cover of the night and the crowd to follow Forge Strike, and see where she’s sneaking off to.”