Court of Crimson

Court of Crimson

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Cress

My stomach rumbled again as I quietly shut the door to the Abbess’ office. That was a big fat waste of my time. I took a quick peek behind me and once I was secure that the coast was clear that way, I turned and headed for the kitchen. Maybe I’d be able to hoard a few extra days of rationings for the journey I’d have before me at the very least. Mmmmm … I loved bread.

Upon my first step down into the room that smells of the fresh baked slices of God heaven, I knew that plan was going to be dashed all to hell. “Aha! I knew you were bound to come searching for food after this morning.” Sister Madeline’s proud scoffing sounded far more like an enraged baker’s wife than a kind nun. I froze with my foot on the stone floor and blinked like a deer caught at the wrong end of someone’s bow and arrow just before the arrow was released. Sister Madeline came huffing and puffing around the corner and snatched up my wrist before I had a chance to escape. “I’m taking you to Mother Collette as soon as service ends,” she hissed, tightening her grip as her dull brown eyes narrowed on my face. “You’ll get what’s coming to you—first for your insolence this morning then for sneaking in here and trying to steal food.”

“I—I—” There was no use in trying to deny it. Her wickedly sharp nails bit into the flesh of my wrist, tightening until I was sure she would break the skin.

“I caught you, little thief,” she hissed into my face, spittle flying from her dry, cracked lips and hitting me in the face as she towered over me in her dark nun garb, “and I’ll make sure you’re punished this time.”

My lips turned down as she hauled me out of the kitchen, dragging me behind her. There was no doubt in my mind she would. Sister Madeline was perhaps the most violent nun I’d ever met, and I couldn’t count the number of times she’d been all too happy to wallop me on my ass or across my knuckles for even the smallest transgression. Though there was nothing in my hands to proclaim me caught red-handed, missing evening service was good enough for a serious ass whipping.

Letting out a breath, I cursed myself for not being more observant. I must have missed her returning to the kitchen while I was in the Abbess’ office. At the very least, though, she hadn’t caught me there. I didn’t want to think what would’ve happened had I been caught trying to pilfer money rather than an extra loaf of bread.

* * *

Hours and one burning backside later, I crawled onto my cot next to Nellie’s well after evening service had ended and released a deep groan. My belly continued to cramp with its emptiness, but that was the least of my concerns. I laid out on my stomach to avoid any more touching of my back and ass. Mother Catherine hadn’t gone easy. She never did. I buried my face into the stiff, straw pillow in front of me and forced back the scream of frustration.

“Hey,” Nellie’s soft voice reached my ears, “are you awake?”

I lifted my head and blew a strand of white-blonde hair out of my eyes. “What do you think?” I grumbled.

After a beat, she replied, “You’re right, that was a dumb question.”

When she didn’t say anything more and the silence began to beat at me harder than Mother Catherine’s thrashing, I groaned again and looked her way. Nellie had her thin sheet pulled up over her tiny frame. Her small fingers tightened around the edge of the blanket, her knuckles white with strain. “What?” I asked.

“I know you don’t like it here,” she whispered, “but do you think you could try to get along with everything. I don’t want … I don’t want them to throw you out.”

“Throw me out?” I scoffed. “Nel, my birthday’s in two days. As soon as I hit the big two-one, I’m out of here.”

“What?” Nellie sat up abruptly, squeaking out the word, and somewhere in the room, one of the other girls grumbled in their sleep.

I blew out a breath. “What did you think would happen?” I asked. “Twenty-one is when you leave. Doesn’t matter what I do.”

“But I-I thought you were gonna take the vows,” she said. “I’m going to take them.”

I snorted. “Why the hell would I do that?” I asked. That was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. “Listen, Nel,” I slowly pushed myself up from the bed and edged over onto my side so I could see her better, “I was dropped here at three months old. I’ve lived in Amnestia all my life, and for me, this place is a prison. I don’t fit in and I never have. Like Sister Madeline always says, I’m too wild a creature to ever belong with civilized people.” And if wild was code for fun, then I didn’t mind being wild. Sister Madeline was as staid as an old cow.

“She was upset when she said that,” Nellie defended.

I chuckled as I raised one brow. “She’s upset with me a lot then. She hates me.”

“Only because you provoke her,” Nellie snapped, squeezing her blanket in her fists. One of the girls, who wasn’t yet asleep, shushed us from several rows down. Nellie winced and laid back down, pulling her sheet up to her chin. “If you didn’t provoke the sisters so much, everything would be fine.”

“Whether I provoke them or not, Nel, I just don’t belong here. Besides … there’s something I have to find.”

“What is it?” she asked, turning her head curiously.

I pressed my lips together and rolled back onto my front, folding my arms under my head. “Just … something,” I hedged. I didn’t want to tell her that just like the rest of the orphans here, I wanted to find out where I came from. Deep down, it was more than a desire—it was a need. I had to find out why I’d been left here twenty-one years ago.

Nellie watched me for a moment more before shaking her head. “It’s dangerous out there. You don’t know it because you’ve never left the abbey before—or well, not past the village—but there are things out in the wild—creatures of magic and lore. I’ve seen them with my own eyes.”

My eyes snapped to the side. “What? Really? Why haven’t you ever said anything? What were they like?” I asked, edging closer to her excitedly. I’d only heard brief mentions of the creatures the King and his knights fought with on the southern battlefields. Never before had I heard of anyone who’d actually seen them. “What did you see?”

Nellie’s eyes found the ceiling overhead and she stared at it unblinkingly. “My parents were doctors,” she whispered. “Did I ever tell you that?”

I shook my head, frowning. What did that have to do with Fae? I thought. “Uh … no?”

“They were,” she nodded as if affirming that fact. “They were doctors on one of the battlefields in the southern quarter. And because we didn’t have any other family, they took me with them. I helped bring bandages and take care of the men who…” She drifted off, her breath catching as her fingers tightened even further on the sheets tugged up to her chest. “We weren’t in the middle of the action—that’s why they thought it would be okay—but we were on the edge. The soldiers should’ve known better. The creatures they were fighting—I saw one. It was big, as big as a dragon but without the scales. It had wings of the finest feathers like a shower of autumn leaves. And riding upon it was something far more magnificent.”

I sat up and scooted as close to the corner of my bed as I could. “What was it?”

“It was a Faerie,” she whispered, her voice catching and lowering as if just the word itself might make one appear out of thin air.

“A Faerie,” I repeated the word, letting the syllables dangle on my tongue. It felt like such a strange word on my lips, and yet at the same time, it felt familiar.

“They’re otherworldly,” she confessed. “Beautiful and savage. It was that Faerie and whatever the creature it rode upon that destroyed the entire human base my parents lived in. It only took one. The magic he possessed—it was so strong and it rained down in a wave of fire. I’d been running a message to someone else,” she said. “I was spared. But sometimes I wonder what would have happened had I been in the camp with everyone else. Would I have felt pain? Did my parents…?”

Her eyes were foggy, clouded over by the images of her past and guilt ate away at my insides, curdling like spoiled milk in my stomach. I shouldn’t have pushed her to relay the memories. They were obviously painful and terrifying for her.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me anything else,” I promised. “That’s enough.”

Nellie sucked in a shaky breath and turned to look at me. “When you leave, no matter what you do,” she said, “don’t go south. They’re dangerous. Faeries may look like fallen Gods, but they’re much worse. They’re death incarnate and they destroy everything they touch.”

I nodded and despite the pain in my back and ass, I reached over and patted her hand. “Okay,” I said. “It’ll be okay. You’re safe here.”

She closed her eyes and turned away, but not before I saw the single crystalline tear that slid from her closed eye down her cheek. To Nellie—and others like her—Faeries meant danger. It was what we humans feared. It was what our King and his knights battled against. But me … I felt something else—something that had gotten me into trouble far more often than not.

Curiosity.

end of excerpt