I grinned. “I read about these. Come here.”
We walked over to the ice chest and I grasped the handle. “Put your hand inside,” I told him, opening it.
He stuck his hand inside and his eyes grew wide.
“Keeps food cold so it doesn’t go bad. It’s run by the electricity crystal.”
I then walked over to the sink and flipped on the spigot. Fresh, clean water gushed out, and my father actually yelped in surprise.
“Running water!” I shouted. “Come on, I’ll bet they have flushing toilets too.”
I ran down the hall, passing two nice bedrooms with raised beds stacked with plush blankets and pillows, and then found the bathroom. It was the cleanest thing I’d ever seen. Small white tiles all over the floor and walls, and a privacy curtain that wrapped around a clawfoot tub.
Against the far wall was a shiny, white porcelain toilet. I’d read about them in books that Sorrel had left behind.
“What is it?” Dad asked again, clearly in shock and overwhelmed.
How did I put this delicately?
“It’s a chamber pot but…it sucks the…waste out and takes it underground where the earth can clean it out.”
His eyes grew so wide that he looked like a startled owl. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
Reaching out, I grabbed the flush lever and tried to lift it up. Nothing happened. Then I pushed it down and a roaring water funnel was sucked into the toilet hole, making my father and I both jump backward.
“We shouldn’t get used to this,” he said. I knew exactly what he meant. I’d been thinking it too. So much of our time was spent fetching water, cleaning out the latrine, and making candles from beeswax. This could make us lazy, make us forget how to do those things.
“I’m scared,” I said, all of the emotions from the past day coming at me all at once.
Hipsie was in jail. I’d turned a guard’s steel sword to ash. I was some evil offshoot of Marissa Bane, whoever that was, and now we were forced to live here, and I had to attend magic school.
My father reached out carefully and grasped my covered elbows, staying away from my hair or any exposed skin. “I’m scared too. And that’s okay. It’s okay to feel what we are feeling, but we still need to be smart about all of this. That Clarke man made it seem like if we didn’t do everything they said, you would…be in danger.”
I swallowed hard and nodded. “So, we…do as they say?” I asked him.
My father might not be able to read, but he was smart. He’d gotten us out of many pitfalls over the years: the pox rash spreading through the village, the potato blight, the spring floods, and a dozen other things. If he said I needed to go to that school and do as they said, I would do it.
“For now. Yes. I don’t have magic to protect you, and if we run, they will find us.” His words sent chills up my arms and my lower lip quivered.
I hated that he was now in danger because of me.
“It’s okay if you regret taking me in when I was little,” I croaked. “This is a lot and I’m almost of age, so if you just want to go back to Isa and—”
“Don’t ever say that again!” he shouted.
I jumped in surprise. He never shouted.
“You’re my daughter and I’ve never regretted a single moment with you.” He reached for me as if to pull me into a hug and then thought better of it.
“Look at me,” he commanded.
I had been staring at the floor and now I met his gaze.
He looked…ashamed. Why did he look that way? “There’s something I never told you, but you’re old enough now. Come, let’s sit.” He walked out of the bathroom, and I followed him. Stepping back into the sitting room, we sat across from each other on the sofa.
My heart pounded wildly in my chest as my father nervously cleared his throat.
“After I lost my wife…there didn’t seem much reason to live. I tried to go on, to be happy, to find meaning, but life in Isa is hard, and being alone makes it harder. There was no joy. No one needed me,” he said, and I had to blink back tears that were threatening to spill over. Hipsie told me once that my father and his wife were soulmates. That she wasn’t sure he would make it after the wet lung took her.
