35. A Case of Mistaken Identity
A Case of Mistaken Identity
“ W e’re going to Traders Bay, we’re going to Traders Baaaaaaay!”
Mila sat on her stool by the bench and watched with a big smile as Tarett seized a squealing Tess by the wrists and spun her around the kitchen.
“Finally,” Marie said with a quiet, happy sigh from beside Mila, ladling her porridge and hot rhubarb stew into her mouth. “I’ve always wanted to see it. And I’m excited to finally meet the candidates.”
Mila was surprised and grateful that Culis had arranged this short-notice trip for them to meet those competing for the contracts, giving the demons the chance to “sift between the bastards” as he’d referred to it. She was about to reply to Marie when the door to the kitchen banged open and Philomena marched in brusquely.
“Well?” she demanded of them with a smile. “Are you all ready? We’re leaving in the next half an hour. ”
“Argh!” Tess cried out as Tarett accidentally released his grip on her wrists in his excitement and flung her unceremoniously into a sack of flour.
“I’m sorry!” he gasped in mortification, running to help her.
“Get your demonic hides out of my kitchen,” the cook bellowed, but could not completely hide his grin.
“To Traders Bay!” Tarett crowed as he helped Tess brush flour from her face.
Mila was so distracted with overseeing their departure that she completely missed the arrival of Frank Culis’s carriage at the manor.
She didn’t remain ignorant of it for long.
The aura of fear and unease that shadowed the serving members of the household exclusively when Frank was in the vicinity was notification enough that he had arrived. As soon as she sensed it, she made the decision to eat lunch in the stables, remaining there with the horses and enjoying their easy energy while she tried to plan her pitch to Culis.
When mid-afternoon hit, her plotting was disrupted by a commotion outside the stable. She heard raised voices, and distinctly made out Culis’s sharp words of anger and another man replying in frustration. A few minutes later, she heard a horse being led in and unsaddled in the stall beside her.
The rider muttered and grumbled as he tended to his animal. “Not even my fault.”
She stood up and peered over the divider. It was Baird.
She felt a thrill of excitement to see him. She liked Baird, but if he had returned, then it probably meant that Natalee was back, too, and Mila was both eager to finally face the woman and tell her about her new plan .
“Hello, Baird,” she said cheerily. “Do you mind toning down the growls over there? The horses and I were having a very pleasant morning before you brought in your thundercloud.”
Baird looked startled to see her but couldn’t bring himself to even chuckle. His face was black with fury.
“I couldn’t have done anything differently,” he said bitterly, as though he expected her to already know why he was upset. “When it comes down to the letter of the law, I am a man of the Artor Trading Company, and Frank is the head, not Christopher.”
“What are you talking about?” Mila asked, worried now.
“When Frank flags us down, flapping a Divine command in my face, and commands me to hand her over, what else am I supposed to do?”
“Hand who over?” she demanded, but she already knew.
Natalee.
“The worst part is that the plan was working. She was enjoying the journey,” Baird said with genuine frustration. “I think she would have come around. She even used her powers one night to help me out of an uncomfortable situation on Malahawk Island with one of the local priestesses–”
“How did he find you?” Mila interrupted. “How did he even know she was with you?”
“Spies,” was all Baird said, as he rubbed his eyes with both hands.
Mila absorbed this information for a moment. “What does he want with her?”
“He’s acting on orders the God-King gave directly to the Artor Trading Company.”
Horror shot through her. Why was Midas now suddenly getting involved? By all accounts, he’d been ambivalent about the demon trade, supportive even .
“I figure it’s all come from the mind of Jezebel,” Baird said to her unasked question. “But I don’t know why they wanted Natalee specifically.”
“I need to find out what’s going on.” Mila left Baird and returned to the house, knowing it was probably inevitable that by doing so she’d have to face Frank Culis. But her fury did wonders for reducing her fear.
She found father and son in Culis’s study when she burst in without ceremony. Frank whirled around at the intrusion, dagger half unsheathed, but when he saw it was her, he put it back.
Mila felt slighted by the action. If he thought she wasn’t angry enough to hurt him, he was sorely misguided.
“What’s going on?” she demanded.
“Ah. Here she is.” Frank shot an angry look at his son. “The one I was probably supposed to seize.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mila,” Culis tried to regain control of the room, “please go.”
“Tell me what has happened,” she said through gritted teeth.
“My, how you allow them to address you, Christopher! When I have my own demon, rest assured, their manners will be – ”
“I will be dead before I ever see a demon sold to you,” Mila hissed.
“Now listen here – ”
“ Enough! ” Culis’s command silenced them both. “Mila, you may stay, but sit down. Frank, shut up.”
For once, Mila and Frank were equally appalled, but in the end, they had no choice but to obey him.
“Now,” Culis began once everyone was seated. “Mila. You’re not going to like what has happened, but it’s done now, and it was commanded by the God-King himself. The Artor Trading Company could not have refused. ”
“What has happened? Tell me,” she demanded.
“The Dusk Ball approaches, and Midas demanded one of my demons as the official sacrifice for the event. In fact, the demand was very specific. He wanted the female demon who was currently on board a ship coming from Malahawk.”
“Why her?” Mila asked quietly, letting this information wash over her.
“I suspect it’s because,” he said with a heavy sigh, “when Baird took Natalee from the manor to the ship, she used her power to look like you.”
Mila’s heart nearly stopped. “She what? ”
“She was frightened. She didn’t know what we were going to do to her. Perhaps she thought that we were taking her away to kill her and that we’d hesitate if she looked like you? I don’t exactly know. But, as it happened, one of the spies must have seen her, and passed word to the palace about her destination… your destination.”
“It was meant to be me then,” she said, ice in her veins. This was Jezebel’s punishment for her. “This order from Midas, it’s come from Jezebel. She wanted it to be me…but she never learned my name. So, she couldn’t ask for me specifically.”
“Probably,” Culis’s father interjected, his hands interlinked behind his head as he leaned back in his chair and surveyed her in a way that made her shudder.
“What is this ball?” she asked Culis, ignoring Frank.
“The Dusk Ball. For one night a year, on the princess’s birthday, her select few are permitted to dance and celebrate, but it comes at the cost of a life in sacrifice,” Culis explained.
Mila felt as though she’d been punched in the stomach. “That’s the most…hypocritical, appalling thing I’ve ever heard. ”
“Abbott would agree with you, but Midas himself oversees it, so there’s little the High Priest can do,” Culis said.
Mila barely heard him. For the rest of Artor, the prohibition against dancing and revelry had transformed many traditional celebrations into sombre events. Harvest festivals across the country were quiet affairs, where dancing had been replaced with much praying and chanting under the glow of elaborate lanterns. Village weddings were observed as long-winded Church services, which often included self-flagellation for the marital couple.
And yet, here in Jeralusah, the holiest place in the entire country, in just a few days, the God-King himself would be presiding over a ball where the elites would dance and celebrate Jezebel’s birth, and the sacrifice demanded as payment for the evening of ‘sin’ would not come from amongst their ilk, but from a demon, from Natalee .
Mila was sickened.
“And…I assume your name is on the guest list,” she accused. “When is it?”
“I have to go,” Culis confirmed softly. “My absence would not be excusable. It’s five days from now.”
Five days? That was nothing. No time at all, and certainly not enough time to go to the Highlands and acquire the rubane she’d need to test her theory…and maybe save Natalee.
“Let it be me instead then,” she said simply. “Set Natalee free, and I’ll take her place as the sacrifice.”
As the words left her mouth, her heart went cold with fear, but something else shifted within her. She was exhausted of being so fearful all the time, sick of looking in the mirror and seeing a coward. She knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if Natalee was sacrificed in her place and this time she was determined that she would not let fear stop her from doing the right thing .
Culis seemed to think over what she offered, consider it, and then said, “No.”
“Why not?” she demanded. “It’s me Jezebel wants anyway. She’s consumed with jealousy, and this won’t end until I’m dead. Send me instead, Culis, I beg you.”
Again, he surveyed her with his piercing eyes for a long moment and then brusquely turned back to his papers. “I don’t know if you realise exactly how much I paid to buy you from Jezebel, but it was an astronomical sum. I obtained Natalee for free. This makes far more economic sense.”
“Please don’t do this." Her heart was in her mouth. "You know she doesn’t deserve this fate. She’s only here at all because of your pride. Don’t punish her for that.”
He continued firmly, as if she hadn’t spoken. “I’m comfortable with following the order to the letter and giving them the demon they requested.”
“Even you,” she hissed, her breath heaving as her temper rose, “even you, surely , can see how wrong this is.”
“Do not argue any further with me, Mila. This is my decision.”
Desperate, she tried another angle. “This is not just a decision to toss a log of wood onto a fire. This is a life you are sacrificing. I know that means something to you…you are among the very few humans who have ever treated us with civility. Even kindness. You’re curious, creative, progressive, intelligent…”
“Is she trying to flirt with you, Christopher?” Frank cut her off with a hearty laugh. “How pitiful.”
“Culis, please,” Mila pleaded with him.
“Stop – ”
“Christopher – ”
“Enough, Mila!” His sharp, angry tone shook the room. “No more of this. I’ll remind you that your life is not your own; it is mine. I own you, and you are mine to do with as I see fit. And, in this instance, I do not see fit to rectify the princess’s mistake!”
Mila stared at him, feeling though she’d been slapped.
Culis stared back at her without expression. His coldness brought tears to her eyes.
I own you. You are mine to do with as I see fit.
Fury rose inside her like a wave. She was furious at him, and furious with herself for feeling so betrayed.
“I…I didn’t think it was actually possible to still be disappointed in you,” she finally said, the words emerging through gritted teeth. “I think, at some point over the past few weeks, you had me convinced that you were not like this.”
“Oh, is this a lovers’ spat?” Frank leaned forward onto his elbows in an enthralled display. “How intriguing .”
“No,” Mila and Culis barked simultaneously, and Frank’s eyes glistened.
“I’m leaving,” Mila spat at them both with disgust. “This room reeks of rotten souls.”
Frank Culis’s laugh followed her out into the hallway as she slammed the door on them both.