Our Lady of the Islands (38 page)
Read Our Lady of the Islands Online
Authors: Shannon Page,Jay Lake
And what had come of poor Maronne?
Please let her have escaped somehow,
she thought, then shook her head. There would be no answers until they reached Home again, if then.
She sat up and scrubbed the worst dirt from her limbs, then filled her hands with the soft, scented soap and washed her hair. Some of the dark dye left it, staining the water. Arian hoped enough dye had remained to keep up her disguise. Well, if some of her pale hair leached through, perhaps people would just take it for gray.
After rinsing her hair, she reached over the copper basin’s side to open the little tap that drained it, admiring Haron’s work. She’d have hired him to make any number of things for her, if she were still Factora-Consort. She grimaced, hearing her own thought. “Don’t
you
give up yet either, Arian,” she murmured to herself, standing to use the towel Maleen had provided. She didn’t know how this would end yet, after all — or what had happened since those first rumors had been generated. “If your arms are tied,” she told herself, “that still leaves your feet.”
When she had donned Maleen’s pretty shift, a bit too tight for her, and a bit too short, but far better than what she had come in, she stepped into the plain but sturdy sandals Maleen had left as well, and went back into the house to tell Sian her turn had come.
She found Sian sitting at a table spread with food, gorging herself in a state of indecent bliss. With a faint groan of desire, Arian sat down immediately to follow her example. Maleen and Haron sat across from them, watching in bemusement, and nibbling at the corners of their feast. Biri had been put to bed, it seemed, while Arouf stood off by himself, leaning against the wall and scowling at Sian’s back.
“
Pino
must not feed you very well,” Arouf muttered, half swallowing the remark.
Everyone seemed to freeze, then went back to eating as if he hadn’t spoken. Arian could make little sense of the oblique reference. Pino, she vaguely recalled, was one of two men Ennias had told her about. Sian’s imprisoned friends. She had forgotten all about them, and worried for them too now, hoping they weren’t still buried underneath the smoldering wreckage of the Census Hall. “The bath was lovely,” she said to Maleen. “And this dress is perfect. Thank you so much. I have no way to repay you now, but just as soon as —”
Maleen waved her words off like annoying insects. “It’s old, and of no use to me.” She smiled at her mother again. “This time. Thank you for accompanying my mother here. You owe us nothing.”
“You will stay with us tonight, of course,” Haron added. “Or longer if you need to, while some of this dust settles.”
“Oh!” said Arian. “Has Sian not told you? We must both be going. Very soon, in fact.”
“Both?” Maleen asked, giving her mother a startled look.
Sian looked just as startled, turning to Arian with panic in her eyes.
Oh no!
thought Arian. They’d planned to tell Sian’s daughter that they were rushing back to Little Loom Eyot to deal with Arouf. But here he was now, so … She should have thought.
“Why must you leave, Mother?” Maleen asked.
“I … Freda is expected … elsewhere on Malençon.” She glanced at Arian, still clearly at a loss. “I promised I would accompany her. She’s done the same for me, after all.”
Genius
, Arian thought, washed in relief.
The woman is a genius on her feet.
“Oh, surely not,” Haron said to Arian. “It’s almost full dark out there now. That’s no time to be wandering — even with a friend — given everything that’s happening. You must stay here until morning, at least.”
“Thank you, but … You’ve been so much more than kind already. And my … friends must already be quite frantic, wondering where I am. I cannot just leave them that way all night.”
“Where on the island are they?” asked Maleen.
“Not far,” said Sian. “I, uh, was hoping you might lend us your boat, actually.” Haron and Maleen both looked startled. “Her friends are just across the bay,” Sian pressed on. “And … well, I thought sailing there would be much safer than walking. Just as you were saying, Haron.”
Maleen and Haron exchanged a look. Then Haron said, “Well, then I will sail you there.”
“Oh, no need!” said Arian. “I’m … quite an experienced sailor myself, actually. You’ve already gone to so much trouble. We can manage fine.”
“Can’t
Captain Reikos
take you there?” Arouf growled from his corner. “Or is he the one you’re really going to see, Sian?”
“
Father!
” Maleen snapped. “If I hear one more word of that nonsense —
one
—
more —
it will be you sailing home in the dark tonight. You hear me? We are all extremely tired of this.”
Sian stood up, stone-faced, and set down her napkin. “I am going to take my bath now. We can decide what makes most sense when I get back.” She gave Arian a look that clearly meant,
I will decide how to handle this, and you will play along
. Which was fine with Arian. Sian was clearly better at this sort of improvisation — lately, anyway.
With a final warning glare at her father, Maleen got up and left the room behind her mother, presumably to help her reset the bath. For a while afterwards, no one spoke, or looked at anybody else. Arian and Haron ate, while Arouf went out the front door, whether to cool off, or to sail home as Maleen had suggested, Arian couldn’t guess. What an unpleasant man. His mention of the other fellow they had left in Escotte’s dungeon left her worrying for them again, but equally puzzled. What did
he
have against these friends of Sian’s? And, what had she been doing with them when Ennias had captured her? It had not occurred to Arian to wonder before.
“Thank you for the lovely meal, Haron,” she said, wiping her mouth lightly and pushing back her chair. “I think I will go see if there is any help I can provide Maleen and Sian.” It had just occurred to her that she and Sian might have a minute to talk privately, if they could convince Maleen to come rejoin her husband.
Haron nodded as she stood. “You’re very welcome, Freda. I’m sorry about Maleen’s father. These times have been hard on everyone. I’m sure you understand.”
“Oh yes.” She offered him a reassuring smile. “Any marriage has its ups and downs. I’m sure you know that, just as I do, from experience.”
He smiled gratefully as she turned to go.
In the yard, Arian found Sian toweling off as Maleen stood by with her new dress.
“Your father has gone out to … cool himself, I assume,” Arian told Maleen. “I hope it wasn’t rude of me to leave your husband at the table all alone, but …”
“Why don’t you go to him, dear,” Sian told Maleen, rubbing the towel through her long hair. She reached out to take the dress from her daughter. “He might appreciate a private moment with you before your father comes back in.”
Maleen nodded and left them as Sian pulled on the dress.
“If necessary,
Freda
can go on alone tonight,” Arian said, as soon as she was gone. “There may be no point in dragging you into further danger anyway, until I’ve been to see what’s left to save.”
“And then what?” Sian asked. “You’ll come all the way back here for me? Don’t be ridiculous. Perhaps we should just tell them that —”
She fell silent as some new ruckus bloomed inside. They both looked toward the house as voices there grew louder. Men’s voices, not all of them familiar.
“Now what?” Sian said, stepping quickly into her new sandals and rushing toward the house.
Arian followed, wondering if Biri’s
looters
had arrived at last — and whether she and Sian would be more help or hindrance if they went inside now.
As they reached the door, Arian heard one of the unfamiliar voices speak Sian’s name. She looked at Sian in alarm, fearing something worse than looters now, only to find the other woman wide-eyed and open-mouthed in … not fear, exactly.
“No, no. Please. I am just a longtime friend of your mother’s,” said the unfamiliar voice, more loudly, “with some cause to be concerned for her.”
“
Reikos!
” Sian gasped, rushing inside.
Arian ran after her, relieved to think the man had escaped somehow, hoping this meant Maronne might have as well. But how had he known to find Sian here?
When they reached the front room, Sian rushed past Maleen and Haron and threw herself into the arms of a pale, compact, lightly bearded man covered in even more soot and grime than they had been that afternoon. Behind him stood a much younger man, watching their embrace with … very mixed emotions, it appeared. Arian glanced quickly at the others to find Haron looking troubled, Maleen gaping in confusion, and Arouf glaring almost happily at everyone around him.
“Have I not been telling you all afternoon, Maleen?” Arouf cried. “And now here’s your mother’s mob of lovers, come to save her from her cuckolded husband!”
What was going on here? Arian looked back at Sian and her friend. They weren’t kissing, exactly … But that was no
sisterly
embrace Sian was giving him. A second glance around told her that no one else seemed much fooled either. And that grimy boy behind the captain … She recognized the look in his eyes too, or she was not a woman.
Oh dear
, Arian thought. Might Sian have been less than entirely forthcoming with her, about the full nature of Arouf’s complaint?
“Oh, Konstantin, thank all the gods you’re safe!” Sian wept into his shoulder as they clung to one another. She leaned back to look into his pale eyes. “But how did you escape?”
“It is … a complicated story,” he said, looking askance at those around them.
“Mother, who is this man?” Maleen asked quietly.
Remembering suddenly where she was and who was watching, Sian jerked free of Reikos, and turned to face her daughter. “I’m so sorry. Where are my manners? Please allow me to introduce my friend and business associate, Captain Konstantin Reikos of Lost Port.” Only then did she truly register Pino’s presence behind Reikos. “And Pino!” she cried, going to hug him too. “Whom you all know, I think,” she added quickly. “Oh, dear Pino, I am just … so relieved to see you both alive!”
“Why shouldn’t Pino be alive?” asked Haron, looking at her strangely.
Oh dear
, she thought. What a fool she was being suddenly.
“Why should he be
allowed
to
live
, you mean,” growled Arouf before Sian could think of what to say. “You wretched little scoundrel! I fed and housed you! I trusted you with my wife’s safety all these years! This
foreign seaman
, I might understand, but
you!
How could you betray my trust this way?”
As Pino backed away, round-eyed with fright, Sian whirled at Arouf in disbelief. “How dare you speak to him like that? If this is still about the night I was beaten, I believe I told you he was not —”
“This is about
all
your nights together!” Arouf bellowed. “Not just that one.”
“Father —” Maleen said uncertainly.
“No!” he snapped at her. “I’m tired of being scolded just for speaking the truth. Here’s the proof — before your eyes now. Don’t you
Father
me, girl.”
“What is wrong with you?” Sian gasped.
“Wrong with
me
?” Arouf glared at her. “Nothing’s wrong with
me
, Sian. I’m not the one who’s run off with some teenage boy!”
“Run off with … With
Pino?
” Sian wasn’t sure whether to laugh at him or scream. “
That
is what you think? You are truly mad!”
“I’m not just mad; I’m furious!” Arouf launched himself from the wall with balled fists, shoving Sian aside to get at Pino in the doorway. But Reikos snaked a hand out to grab Arouf around the arm before he got there, at which point Sian’s husband turned with murder in his eyes to head-butt Reikos in the chest, while she shrieked and jumped out of the way.
“Stop it! Now!” yelled Haron, lunging forward to knock both men through the doorway into Pino, who went tumbling backward with them, out onto the moonlit landing. Haron moved to fill the doorjamb, followed by Sian, who peered past him. “I’ll have no brawling here! If you can’t behave like men instead of children, you can leave now.” He glared down at Arouf. “Your grandchildren are asleep in here, old man. I don’t know or care what may have happened elsewhere, but you
will
respect my home and family, or you will not be welcomed here again.”
Arouf looked … not sorry, Sian thought. But cornered, anyway. And possibly embarrassed. As she was feeling too now. She sensed Arian’s arrival just behind herself and Haron, and turned to find her looking out between them onto the landing as well.
Pino scrambled to his feet and backed away from both the other men. “Domni Monde, I have had nothing …
nothing
to do …
that way
, with Domina Kattë,” he stammered, clearly as shocked as Sian was that her husband could have imagined such a thing.
Arouf stared daggers at him for a time before his fierce expression faltered, and uncertainty began to register instead.
Hopeful that this madness might be done at last, Sian allowed herself an impatient huff, which just reignited Arouf’s ire. He turned to glare at Reikos next. “I am
possibly
mistaken about my runaway employee,” he said a bit more quietly. “But I don’t think I am mistaken about you.”
“I am a shipper and importer, Domni Monde,” Reikos said with icy calm. “A business associate of your wife’s — and of
yours
, actually, for many years now — as you’d have known, if you had ever come to Alizar Main to negotiate with me yourself.”
Sian watched them, careful to keep anything at all out of her face.
“My wife seems awfully fond of her
business associates
tonight,” said Arouf, straining to imitate the captain’s calm now, it seemed.
“And again, if you and I had seen more of each other all these years,” Reikos answered, “we might have become such good friends ourselves by now.”
Her husband shook his head and turned away. “You are a
snake
,” he murmured.
“Arouf,” Sian said, feeling responsible for this spectacle. “This is not the time or place. We’ll work these things out at home.”
He turned to her in mock astonishment. “Oh. You’re finally coming home, then?”
Sian glanced back at Arian, wincing at the knowing expression on her face. She had not wished to tell her about the captain, or about the rest of Arouf’s marital complaint. Now she wished she had. She looked back at Maleen and Haron as well, seeing very clearly that it was too late to have handled this more wisely with anyone.
“I’m sorry, husband. Truly,” she said quietly. “I cannot come home just yet. I have … unfinished business I must tend to.”
He gazed at her, without any sign of the new outburst she’d been braced for. He just emitted a tiny
humph
. “You don’t care at all what a fool you’re making of me, do you,” he said softly. “You never have.”
That wasn’t fair. “Whatever you’ve assumed, Arouf, I have not been off dallying with lovers all this time — or at all! I have been running for my life, imprisoned, tortured —”
“You’re still clinging to that story?” he cut her off crossly, then jerked a thumb at Reikos. “With him standing here in front of us?”
“She’s telling you the truth,” said Pino. “The Census Taker had us all imprisoned!”
Sian heard Arian’s soft gasp behind her in the doorway, and shook her head at the boy as slightly as she could and still have hope he’d notice.
“The
Census Taker?
” Arouf’s brows climbed in comic parody of shock. “My dear wife’s lofty cousin? Has he gone to war with
all
his family members now?” Arouf turned back to Sian. “I thought you’d been arrested by the Justiciary. Let’s get our stories straight now, shall we? Which one was it?”
Sian had no idea what to say. Arian had gone still as porcelain. Even Pino looked around uncomfortably, seeming to realize that perhaps he’d said something wrong. Reikos had seemed turned to stone for some time now, while Haron and her daughter just wore sad, confused expressions. With Reikos and Pino here … What a disaster.
“Cat got all your tongues?” Arouf glanced almost happily around. His eyes fell on Arian, and lingered. “And where do you fit into all of this, Freda?
Truthfully
, I mean. Do my wife’s appetites these days run even more broadly than I had supposed?”
Arian’s lips parted in offended astonishment.
“That’s enough!” Sian shouted. “You’re acting like a pig, Arouf!”
“You’re acting like a whore!” he shouted back.
Haron moved to shut the door, but Sian stopped him. “There will be no more hitting here,” she told him quietly. “But it is long past time Arouf and I spoke truth to one another. It cannot wait, apparently, and I am tired of waiting anyway.” She’d done quite a bit of thinking since she and Arian had talked back in the tunnels. Whatever mistakes she’d made with her husband, he had not just been some passive object on which she had acted. He’d had as much power as she to see that things were going wrong, and try to fix it. He just hadn’t tried.
“Well, this should be entertaining,” Arouf said, folding his arms across his chest. “Which new
truth
will you tell us now, I wonder?”
“The truth about why we are finished,” Sian said, feeling all her insides fall into her knees. “And about when our marriage really ended.”
Her husband’s face went very still. Maleen gasped, and put a hand across her mouth, her eyes wide and reddening. Haron looked back at his wife, then set his jaw and left the doorway to go take her hand.
“I did not leave you for any lover, Arouf,” Sian said, slamming her heart shut to drown the frantic voices there all begging her to stop. “I never wanted to. It is you who have abandoned me. Many years ago, I think.”
“What are you talking about?” He was still angry, but quiet now. “I’ve been right there making dinner for you every time you’ve bothered to come home from that townhouse you’re so fond of. I’ve spent every day for years right there at the looms and dye works that provide our livelihood. I spend more time in any single month with all the people we employ than you’ve done in the past three years. I’m the one who’s been at
home
the whole time you were
gone
! What have
I
abandoned?”
“Me,” she said. “You have abandoned
me
to handle the whole frightening world for you, while you hide at home, puttering around the kitchen, and tinkering with machines
I’ve hired
people to maintain, enjoying your sleepy little home day after day without ever having to look up at all the paper I must wade through, reading ’til my eyes burn late each night, writing ’til my fingers knot. Or all the scheming people I must chase and charm and wheedle for concessions while you cook stew at home; the hiring, the management of supply and distribution, licenses and fees. You never have to leave your snug cocoon, Arouf — not even to come see your grandchildren. Not that I’ve been much better at that, anyway.” She looked back at Maleen, wondering if that would be too broken now to fix as well. “You’re right, Arouf. That’s where I always find you, safe and sound
,
whenever I come back from all the precarious uncertainties and punishing expectations
you
have abdicated to your
absent wife
.”
“I thought you
enjoyed
your work!” he protested.
“I thought you appreciated my help,” she replied.
“If you’ve been so overwhelmed, why didn’t you just ask my help?”
“Two weeks ago I begged for help! I told you I had been assaulted and … and changed into something frightening! I
proved
it to you, by healing Bela! All you did was clutch your precious
business
— the business
I
was out there trying to build when this was done to me — and call me a wicked, irresponsible threat to your cocoon!” She swiped away tears. “And told me you were
no part
of
my
troublesome family, of course,” she added quietly. “I begged your help, and you just cast me straight into the sea. It’s been my job all these years to protect you from trouble, hasn’t it? Not to ask for help.”
“Did you ever love me?” he asked, just above a whisper, looking only hurt, not sorry or concerned.
“We loved each other once, I think.” She thought again about that picnic lunch atop their new island, many years before, and tears leaked out once again. “But we went to sleep somewhere along the way. I … don’t blame just you for that. Maybe I left you … too little, when I agreed to go out and manage the world for us. Maybe I just
managed
you instead of paying attention to what was really best for
us
. But, Arouf, you were as capable as I of speaking up if you weren’t satisfied — of struggling after answers.
I
did not force you from my bed, or from my life. You could have done something to try fixing all this too. Long ago.” She shrugged miserably. “You don’t though. You don’t want to. You just keep sleeping, hiding, expecting
me
to fix what’s wrong with
us
. Alone.”
She saw something moving, finally, there behind his eyes. “So … you’re just going to leave me now?” He seemed genuinely astonished. “I’m sorry if … if the complaint I filed caused you trouble.” He looked at Haron, Pino, even Reikos, as if expecting them to take his side. Then his eyes wandered back to hers. “I just thought they’d bring you home.”
“I hoped once … that you would come after me.”
“I have. I’m here, aren’t I? Come home,” he pled.
“I will,” she said, “when I have finished dealing with the trouble I’ve been handed.”
“And when will that be?” he asked. “I need you there. The business …”
She closed her eyes. For just a minute, she had thought … had hoped … “You can hire someone to take care of that.” She dared look, finally, at Reikos, who was gazing back at her with all the sadness in his sea-blue eyes that she had hoped for from Arouf. “We have the money to buy you a business manager, Arouf.” She wished she dared go to Reikos right this minute and let him hold her as she cried into his shoulder once more. “We left each other long ago. We sleep alone now. We live separate lives.” She looked back sadly at her onetime husband. “You make a very tasty stew. But I’ve eaten many lovely dinners with a lot of people I have never married, and will never love. I’m sorry.”
Arouf looked down at the dark landing, seeming as bewildered as a child. Had he really thought she would just be bullied back in line, and come home to resume their long, sad, farce?
If you even wanted to wake up
… she thought. But no. He didn’t. Even now. His expression became stony as he turned to walk slowly down the front stairs and into the yard. “If you’ve decided to divorce me, then you’ll have to file the papers by yourself. I’m not going to do it. This wasn’t my idea.”