Maud hugged Helen tighter. There were no perfect options.
She wanted to fix it. If she could wave a magic wand and streamline the
galaxy for the sake of her daughter, she would do it in a heartbeat.
“It doesn’t have to be here or the inn,” she said. “We can try living
somewhere else.”
Helen’s personal unit chirped. She poked at it with her finger. “Ymanie
says there are baby birds on the Tower 12.”
Maud sighed. At the end, Helen was just five years old. “Would you like
to go and see baby birds?”
“Yes!” Helen jumped off the wall onto the balcony.
“Go ahead. No heroics, Helen. No touching the birds, no climbing up
dangerous high places, and no—”
“Yes, mommy!”
Maud closed her mouth and watched her daughter sprint inside and to
the door.
Right now, baby birds fixed all of Helen’s problems. But she wouldn’t be
five forever.
What do I do? What’s the right thing here?
In this moment, Maud would’ve given ten years of her life to be able to
call mom.
She went inside. Her personal unit glowed. Great. A high priority
message, ten minutes ago. At least it didn’t sit there for too long.
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Maud touched the screen. Lady Ilemina’s face appeared.
“Lady Maud,” Arland’s mother said. “Do join me for lunch.”
Chapter 10 Part 1
June 1, 2018 by Ilona 834 Comments
Lady Ilemina had decided to take her lunch in the Small Garden. Small,
Maud decided, as she walked down the stone path, was relative.
The Small Garden occupied roughly four acres atop a tiny mesa that
thrust out of the living rock of the mountain. There were several such
mesas on the grounds and the castle simply grew around them,
incorporating them into its structure. Some supported towers, others
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provided space for utility areas or other parks. Her personal unit
informed her that there was a larger garden, imaginatively titled the
Large Garden, almost twice the size of the small one, also the High
Garden, the Low Garden, the Silver Garden, the River Garden… She
stopped reading after that.
Vampires loved nature, but where on Earth a garden meant a carefully
cultivated space, organized, planned, and often offering a variety of
plants from all over the place, a vampire garden was basically a chunk of
preserved wilderness. It was a carefully tended wilderness, pruned,
managed, and well loved, but every plant in it was natural to the
area. The vampire gardeners planted extra flowers and encouraged
picturesque shrubs and native herbs, but it would never occur to them
to transplant flowers from one continent to another. If they saw a
Chinese butterfly bush in a British garden among the native daisies and
marigolds, they would’ve pulled it out as a weed.
The exception was the vala trees. The Holy Anocracy brought them to
every planet it colonized.
The garden around Maud showcased the best this biozone had to
offer. Tall trees with narrow turquoise leaves and pale bark rose on both
sides of the path. Their roots lay partially exposed and knotted together
as if someone had taken cypress knees and decided to try their hand at
macramé. Under the roots, delicate lavender and blue flowers bloomed
in clusters, with five petals each and a spray of long stamens. The flowers
glowed slightly, their leaves shimmering with a nacre sheen. A frilly
shrub, emerald green, its leaves tinged with brighter green, crowded
around the roots. Between the trees, where more sun penetrated
through the canopy, more flowers bloomed. Tall stems supported
narrow blossoms, shaped like rose-colored champagne flutes stuffed to
the brim with a wealth of white petals. Translucent blossoms, as big as
her head, spread their tissue thin petals, each petal a faint blue marked
with a bright red vein running through it middle and meeting in the
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flower’s glowing golden center. Long spikes, shivering with yellow
tendrils, dripped glittering pollen on to their neighbors’ leaves. The air
smelled of spice and sweet perfumes.
Dina would have a field day here.
The path ended in a large circle. A stream ran in a ring, sectioning off the
center of the path into a round island. A single vala tree grew in the
circle, not one of the massive thousand-year old giants, but a more
recent planting. Its trunk was barely four feet wide. It spread its dark
branches bearing blood red leaves over the water of the stream and the
small stone table with two chairs, one empty and the other occupied by
Lady Ilemina.
Here we go. Maud walked across the stone bridge. The older woman
looked at her.
“So you’ve made it after all. Excellent.”
Maud bowed and took her seat. A plate was already set in front of her.
A large platter held an assortment of fried foods and an assortment of
meats and fruit on small skewers. Finger foods. A tall glass pitcher
offered green wine.
Ilemina leaned back in her chair, sitting sideways, one long leg over the
other, her left arm resting in the table. Up close, the resemblance
between her and Arland was unmistakable. Same hair, same
determined look in the blue eyes, same stubborn angle of the jaw. A
lunch with a krahr.
“Your face was thoughtful as you walked the path,” Ilemina asked.
How much to say? “I was thinking about my sister.”
“Oh?”
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“When the three of us, my brother, my sister, and I, were growing up in
our parents’ inn, each of us was responsible for a specific area of the inn,
in addition to our general chores. Dina’s was gardens. She would love it
here.”
“What was yours?”
“Stables.”
“I would’ve never guessed. You have no mount or pet.”
“There weren’t many opportunities for pets during Karhari.”
“And before that?” Ilemina asked.
She had to set some boundaries. “Before that is in the past.”
“My brother told me of your findings.” Ilemina picked up a pitcher and
filled their glasses.
Maud lifted the glass to her lips and took a small sip of wine. The older
woman was watching her carefully.
“We’ve suspected Kozor and Serak of collaborating with the pirates, but
to stoop to piracy themselves is base.”
“It’s not unheard of,” Maud pointed out and wished she had bitten her
tongue.
“You’re right. But the houses of the Holy Anocracy never preyed on each
other without a declaration of war.” Ilemina took a swallow of her
wine. “It’s a hefty accusation. I need proof.”
“I understand,” Maud said.
They sipped their wine. The pressure was mounting inside Maud with
every passing second.
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“You didn’t ask me here to talk about Kozor,” Maud said.
“You’re not very good with silences,” Ilemina said. “Something to work
on.”
Maud reached out, took a skewer of small yellow berries, and slid one
into her mo
uth.
“What are your intentions toward my son?” Ilemina asked.
Maud considered the question. What the hell were her intentions?
She settled on honesty. “I don’t know.”
“What’s there to know?” Ilemina fixed her with her stare. “You have
feelings for him. You followed him across the void. He has feelings for
you. What’s the hold up?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“But it is. You’re both adults. I saw the way you look at him when you
forget to guard your face.”
What?
“He asked you to marry him. You said no. What are you waiting
for? What is it you want? Wealth? Power? Marry him and you’ll have
both.”
She thought Maud was a gold digger. A familiar irritation dug at Maud,
like a burr under her foot. “I don’t need Arland to earn a living. I’m the
daughter of Innkeepers. I speak a dozen languages. I’m at home at any
trade hub. If I wish, I can return to my sister’s inn at any time.”
bazaar, if she wanted to take jobs, they would be plentiful, and the pay
would be great.
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A small triumphant light sparked in Ilemina’s eyes. “And yet here you
are. Subjecting yourself to the humiliation of being a human in a vampire
house and bearing a blank crest.”
Maud almost bit her tongue.
“Clearly, a strong bond pulled you across space.”
Maud said nothing.
“Do you love my son? Ilemina asked.
“Yes.” The answer came with surprising ease.
Ilemina stared at her. “Then do something about it.”
Maud opened her mouth and clicked it shut.
“It’s a problem that has a straightforward solution. There is no need to
make a hissot out of it.”
Fantastic. Her might be mother in law just compared her feelings to a
mating ball of wriggling snakes.
“It’s not just me,” Maud said quietly.
Ilemina leaned forward. “Do you honestly think your child would fare
better on Earth? She has killed, Maud. She has fangs. That’s a vampire
child if I ever saw one. We can do something with her. Humans can do
nothing. You will have to hide her for the rest of her life. Can you do that
to your daughter?”
“What do you want from me?” Maud growled.
“I want to get to the bottom of this. So stop pretending to be an idiot and
tell me what’s holding you back, because my son is miserable and I’m
tired of watching the two of you.”
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“I’ve been on the planet for three days!”
“Three days is plenty. What is it you want, Maud of the Innkeepers?”
“I want Helen to be happy.”
Ilemina sighed and drank her wine. “My parents had no use for me when
I was growing up. Their House was a war house. There was always a war
they were fighting or preparing to fight. They didn’t notice me until I
grew enough to be useful. I exerted myself to my fullest, I excelled, I
volunteered for every action, just to get a crumb of their attention. When
I met my future husband, I was a marshal of their house. I talked to
Arland’s father for less than an hour, and I knew I would walk away with
him if he asked. For the very first time in my life someone saw me as I
was.”
Ilemina smiled. “I did walk away with him and then I fought a war against
my parents’ house when they tried to punish me for finding happiness. It
was the ultimate act of selfishness on their part. So when my daughter
was born, I swore that I wouldn’t be my mother. I paid attention to my
child. I was involved in every aspect of her life. I nurtured her, supported
her, encouraged her. I trained her. So did my husband. Some might say
that my husband and I had neglected our own union for the sake of our
daughter and they wouldn’t be wrong.”
Ilemina paused, tracing the rim of her glass with her finger. “When my
daughter was twenty-two years old, she met a knight and fell in love. He
was everything I could ever wish for in a son-in-law. My heart broke
anyway, but I didn’t want to stand in her way. She married him. She lives
halfway across the Galaxy and visits once every year or two. Arland was
ten years old when she left. He barely knows her. I have grandchildren
I almost never see.”
Maud had no idea what to say, so she stayed silent.
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“Children leave,” Ilemina told her. “It is the greatest tragedy of
motherhood that if you have done everything right, if you have raised
them in confidence and independence, they will pick up and leave you. It
is as it’s meant to be. One day Helen will leave.”
Anxiety pierced Maud. She swallowed, trying to keep it under wraps.
“If you try to hold and restrain her, you will be committing an irreparable
sin. We shouldn’t hobble our young. We do not cut their claws. One day
it will be just you, Maud.”
“I understand,” Maud murmured. Thinking about it hurt.
“Where do you see yourself when that day comes?” Ilemina asked.
She knew where she wanted to be but getting there was so complicated.
“So I’ll ask again. What is it you’re afraid of? Are you trying to out-
your birth. If my son had wanted a vampire, he has a veritable crowd of
women with ancient bloodlines falling all over themselves to love him.
Are you ashamed of being a human? Do you hate your species?”
Maud raised her head. “I have no desire to pretend I’m a vampire.”
“Then what is it?” Ilemina raised her voice.
Something inside Maud snapped like a thin glass rod breaking.
“House Ervan threw me away. They threw my daughter away like we
were old rags. We had no value to them outside of my husband. They
didn’t fight to keep us. They wanted to be rid of us. All this time we lived
among them and they lied to my face. I can’t take that chance again. I
won’t. I can’t invest into building another new life and have it be ripped
away from me. I don’t want to be here. I don’t trust you. If I had my way,
I would spend my whole life never stepping a foot onto a Holy Anocracy
planet, but I can’t let him go. I’ve tried. So I decided to fight for him. I
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have to ensure that you will never turn on me. I don’t want Arland to
marry an outsider, who is barely tolerated. I want him to marry someone
who is valued by his House. Someone who is indispensable. I want that
marriage to be seen as a win for House Krahr, so my daughter will have
a place here not because of your son, but because of me.”
She’d said too much. Where did it even come from? She had no idea
that’s what she wanted until the words came out of her.
Screw it. She said and she fucking meant it. Every damn word.
Silence lay between them. A light breeze stirred the vala trees.
Ilemina arched her eyebrows and took a sip of her wine. “Now
that? That, I understand.”
Chapter 10 Part 2
June 9, 2018 by Ilona 1,154 Comments
Sorry, the scene turned out to be longer than planned and took more
time.
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Maud marched across the bridge, fuming. She’d let Ilemina get under
her skin. It was a strategic error. Understanding your opponent was the
most important advantage one could have in a conflict. Numbers,
strengths, and luck mattered, but if you knew how your opponent
thought, you could predict her strategy and prepare.
She’d given Arland’s mother enough ammunition to manipulate her.
Stupid. So stupid.
What the hell was she thinking? Baring her soul to a damn vampire.
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The memory of kneeling before Stangiva and begging for Helen’s life,
stabbed her, hot and sharp. If only she could get her hands on that bitch,
she would’ve snapped her former mother-in-law’s neck. And to think
she spent years trying to mold herself into a perfect vampire wife for the
sake of Melizard, and his mother, and their whole damn House. She’s
twisted herself into a pretzel to become exceptional in every way, all so
she could be paraded before the visitors with an unspoken context of
“Look what an exemplary House we are. We have taken a human and
shaped her into a vampire. Listen to her recite the ancient sagas. Watch
her perform for your amusement.”
And she, she was the idiot who had willingly put on that bridle and
dragged the cart forward. For what? For love?
She laughed at herself, and the sound came out sharp and brittle.
Love. How could she have been so young and stupid?
Ugh. Rage coursed through her. Maud wanted desperately to punch
something.
A sharp chittering sound made her turn. She’d come to a T-shaped
junction. On her right another bridge branched from the first at a perfect
right angle. The end of the bridge led onto another garden
plateau. Trees and shrubs obscured her view, but Maud was absolutely
sure what she just heard. A high pitched, short bark of a lees in backed
into a corner.
She turned and jogged down the bridge into the garden. Nuan Cee’s Clan
were invited guests of the Krahr. No harm could come to them on
Krahr’s watch.
Voices carried from up ahead. She couldn’t quite make them out, but