I watch as the diminutive half-blood in question, the door-greeter named Tecca, awkwardly swings her wooden sword at the body of a woman facing away from her. When she makes contact, the woman stiffens, turns, and cuffs Tecca on the side of the head with a fist.
Tecca bares her fangs, the dhampir’s pale flesh seeming to darken in a way that gives the half-bloods the “grayskin” name. She’s just about to charge the older woman again, or bite her, when Jinneth’s voice rings out. “Tecca! Are you listening? Practice with Sister Aleth. Look. She’s waiting for you.”
Sister Aleth is a big-talking little girl. In fact, she and Tecca are both around fourteen summers, but Aleth likes to jab at her Sisters.
Tecca approaches her with bloodlust in her eyes, a cruel smile splayed on her dollish face.
Aleth whimpers. She’s a human, whereas Tecca is not, and I can already see this isn’t going to end well.
“But . . . she’s dangerous,” Aleth croaks. “She’ll hurt me, Mother Jinneth.”
Mother Jinneth?I think, shaking my head.
Standing in the frame of the large room, I cross my arms and continue watching. A warm body shuffles up next to me. Iron Sister Keffa sighs, slurping soup from a wooden bowl in her hand.
“Looks like you’ve been usurped,” I mutter. My eyes dart at the chaotic room and flailing girls. “They’re already calling her ‘Mother.’”
“Aye. I heard.” Keffa’s voice is resigned.
“I liked it better when you had the girls quietly reading and studying.”
“So did I.”
“You can’t do anything to stop her bloodthirsty conquest?”
“Tecca, no! Don’t bite your Sister!” Jinneth screeches, standing from her chair. “Don’t make me come over there!”
Keffa winces. “Any suggestions how to rein her in?”
I unfold my arms and clap the older woman lightly on the shoulder. “Afraid not, Iron Sister. You’re on your own here.”
I turn to leave the room, making it three steps before Keffa’s voice stops me. “The things we do for love, eh, Lady Lock?”
A smile flashes over my shoulder. “Quite true, Iron Sister. Quite true. If you’ll excuse me, I have some love of my own to hunt down.”
Her lips curl with a mischievous look, wrinkles forming near her mouth. “I’m sorry for what I said last night, Madame Lock. About you not rescuing Jinneth had I told you who you’d be finding.”
“No, you were right, Keffa. I’m happy my mother’s back with us. Back with you.”
“Go find your love, Sister.”
I hesitate. Despite the Iron Sister’s obvious tiredness and caution about what to do in this newfound terrain, there’s a glow in her face with my mother’s return.
It makes rescuing my mad mother all worth it.
As night falls, I head to a nearby river for a much-needed bath. I’m there for an hour, lazily soaking naked in the stream where I used to “walk” with my imaginary friend Jinneth.
Once I’m clean, I throw my clothes on and travel north, past the Chained Sisters’ house. I’m alone, and I know I shouldn’t be,but I’m hoping Skar was right when he said we have some time before Alacine strikes again.
I march cautiously, on edge once I reach the main North Pass that slithers down the face of the mountain to the valley floor below. It was this very path where two assassins once tried to kill me, and would have succeeded had Vallan not shown up out of the darkness like an oversized phantom and taken care of them.
I take the wide, gravelly road for an hour before diverting to one of the less-traveled paths that spiderwebs out from the main artery. Eventually I see the gentle smoke of the North Mines.
The clinking of hammers and sharp scent of burning metals reaches my nose before I can see the silver mines slanted across the mountainside. From my bird’s-eye vantage, there are small specks of people running around, moving to and from their tents, the silver cave in the side of the peaks, the spiraling ladder down into the black hole, and the oval-shaped refinery building in the distance.
I smile as I make my way down, reaching somewhat level ground and letting out a deep breath. My heart’s been racing ever since I left the Chained Sisters, not from fear of being attacked but because I don’t know what I’ll do when I see my vampire alone for the first time in months.
Would be nice to have Friend Jinneth right about now, cheering me on, rather than Mother Jinneth.
