Jonas’s Adam’s apple bobs slightly before he answers us. ‘She got pregnant … without Etta’s blessing.’
The shock is so acute that I feel almost winded by it.
‘You have to be joking.’ Benny’s expression is as aghast as mine. ‘You can’t be serious? Stripped for accidentally getting knocked up?’
People aren’tmeantto get pregnant before they’re married and blessed by one of Etta’s priestesses – after all, she is the Goddess of Life – but I’ve known dozens of children born out of wedlock in the slums, and none of them have been stripped. Not that most of them have much magic to strip. More and more children in the slums are being born with barely any magic at all. I suspect that – as with most things – the noble children get the majority.
‘Was it just because she was a member of Korvane’s court when it happened?’ I ask in bemusement.
‘That’s the reason that was given,’ Jonas replies, yet I can hear the ‘but’ teetering at the end of his words.
‘But …’ I prod him.
Jonas looks around as if he’s afraid of being overheard. Fair. Assuming there’s someone else with Loch’s skill around, there’s a good chance of it. Jonas must reach the same conclusion as he presses his lips together and mutters, ‘Later.’
I’m desperate to know the details, not to mention where the sister is now, as there’s a chance that she and Kay could be of comfort to each other while Estel and I are facing the trials. I’m about to suggest we head to one of the antechambers around us so we can speak freely, when a young man walks towards us.
‘Brother!’ He embraces Jonas tightly before stepping back with a wide grin. ‘I worried I wouldn’t get to see you.’
‘Brother?’ Surprise hitches in my voice. The boy looks about fifteen, which means that he would have been born before I was stripped. Yet Jonas’s mother died several years before, and as far as I’m aware, Artur never remarried.
‘William.’ Jonas smiles at his sibling. ‘I’m surprised to see you. I didn’t think Father would allow you to come.’
‘Well, he’s not here.’ William winks. ‘Had to do something important, apparently. But there’s no chance I’m missing the inauguration.’
‘Your father remarried?’ I blurt. ‘You never said.’
Jonas combs his fingers through the length of his beard as his eyes skim over mine and across to the rest of the group. ‘William is my father’s ward.’
‘But I’ve been with him so long that we’re as good as kin,’ William quickly adds. ‘I know Jonas better than my own family in Rowell. In fact, I doubt I would even recognise them if one of my cousins from the city were here at this very ball.’
‘If they’re from Rowell, you’re probably better off not knowing them,’ Llinos mutters to me and we share a smile.
‘So how come you ended up here? With Jonas?’ Benny asks. ‘It’s a long way from Rowell.’
‘Indeed.’ William nods. ‘My mother sent me here after my father passed away, when I was about three or four. She knew Artur from their youth and believed I would have a better education here than if I’d stayed up north.’
‘And you’ve stayed here all this time?’ I query.Even when my mother was so sick she could barely remember our names, she’d never have sent us away. But maybe that was because she’d already lost Florian. After his death, she clung to Kay and me harder than ever before.
‘My mother died when I was nine,’ William tells me. ‘Killed in a battle with the Issen. I have an aunt in Rowell, but it was seen as best that I stayed here.’ He shrugs, trying to portray a nonchalant air that I don’t believe. ‘It is my home now.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ I say, meaning it. Kay was only twelve when our mother died, and it was two years later that we lost our father, too. At least she has memories of them, even if so many of them are tarnished by sickness. If William only has memories of his parents up to the age of four, I doubt there is much, if anything, he can genuinely recall.
Thoughts of Kay make my stomach churn with worry. It’s not even been a full day apart and I feel half mad with the need to see her, to know she is well. We’ve never been apart for longer than a night, and it’s clear this separation will be more torturous than I feared.
‘Where is Father?’ Jonas asks, echoing what I’d asked him upon my arrival. ‘Why is he not here?’
William lifts a shoulder. ‘Dunno. Said he hoped to be back for tonight, but I guess that’s not the case. I don’t think he’s gone far though.’
I hope his task is to find a home for my sister, someone to take care of her in one of the inner rings, but I daren’t voice the hope aloud, lest I curse it with my breath.
‘Worked out who you’ve got to kill to win this thing?’ William asks Jonas, that childish grin back on his face.
‘Hopefully no one,’ Jonas replies with a frown. ‘That’s not the purpose of the Retterheld.’
William rolls his eyes. ‘No, but you know some people are going to want to kill you just because, right?’
‘Sure sounds like you’re from Rowell,’ Benny mutters, and the rest of us can’t help but chuckle, regardless of how macabre it may be. Before William can rebut, a hush drifts across the room, prickling my skin. The musicians stop playing, and a moment later, the entire hall is eerily silent.
