3
The victory drums heard from a distant ballcourt ceased as I hurried down dim streets too unimportant to warrant street lighting. The smoke of cook fires coated the air. Merchants and artisans were closing up shop. The last transport wagons and carts shared the roadways with people making their leisurely way home from work, the market, or the batey game. No volley of shots disturbed the night, so presumably the prince had moved on before trouble started.
Still hidden, I crept into the compound belonging to the household of my husband’s trusted friend, Kofi. Vai’s sister Kayleigh was busy in the big open-air kitchen, laughing with other young women as they helped with the cooking, supervised by Kofi’s mother and aunts. Wheels scraped behind me. I stepped out of the way as the household menfolk entered, pushing empty carts. Kofi was at the end of the line, a tall, broad-shouldered young man with scarred cheeks and his shoulder-length black hair in locks. Falling in beside him, I tweaked the hem of the sleeveless singlet he wore.
“Kofi, it’s Cat,” I whispered. “I’m in trouble. Meet me in the back.”
He startled, eyes going wide, but without a word he helped the other men sweep out the carts and store them for the night. Then he grabbed a lantern and beckoned to Kayleigh. She looked surprised but excused herself to his mother. I walked behind them as they made their way to the back courtyard and entered a shed for broken axles and wheels not yet repaired.
When I unwrapped the shadows, Kofi jumped back in alarm. Kayleigh chuckled. My secret ways did not trouble her, for she had grown up in a hunters’ village and with a grandmother who was a wise woman with strong magic.
He frowned, glancing at Kayleigh as his shoulders tensed. “I tell yee, Cat, yee shall not ever do that in front of any but them who know yee well. It don’ seem natural.”
“My apologies.” I kissed Kayleigh on the cheek and Kofi likewise. “I’ve been accused of the murder of Queen Anacaona by Prince Caonabo. He came to the boardinghouse and arrested me himself. Once we were away from Aunty’s, I fled.”
“Whsst!” Kofi rubbed his forehead. “Now yee’s a fugitive, Cat. It make yee look guilty of the crime.”
“How can I be sure the Assembly won’t hand me over to the Taino?”
Kofi rested a big hand on my shoulder. “Cat, every Expeditioner shall call the cacica’s death an act of war, and yee a soldier fighting against the Taino in defense of Expedition.”
“That will scarcely help me if I’m brought to trial and everyone believes I killed her!”
“I don’ have the authority to let yee seek refuge here. I must ask permission of the elders of the house.” He shifted broken wheels off an overturned wagon bed so we could sit. “Wait here.”
As he stepped outside, I said, “I told Uncle Joe to send Rory here. I don’t want the Taino to take him into custody. Because he’s the one who killed the cacica.”
“I don’ see it that way.” The lamplight made his scars shine, a reminder that he had endured torture in the cells of Expedition’s Warden Hall for being a radical and revolutionary agitator. Few things intimidated him now. “’Tis true yee made the suggestion and yee brother struck the blow, but ’twas the maku spirit lord, the one yee call master and sire, who had the power to command it done. Seem to me the spirit lord is therefore the killer.”
He walked off, taking the lamp to light his way. In the darkness, Kayleigh took my hand. She was a sturdy, big-boned young woman, not more than seventeen, who looked like her older brother if not nearly as striking. We had not always gotten along, but I was very glad to have her next to me tonight. “What do you mean to do, Cat?”
“I have to get to Europa. I just have to figure out how to get there, for I’ve no money for a berth on a ship taking passage over the Atlantic. I’ve already been warned off trying to walk into the spirit world here in the islands. An
She snickered. “That must have startled you.”
Heat burned in my cheeks, for I had kissed the opia quite passionately before I realized he was the spirit of a dead ancestor, wearing Vai’s face. Being dead, opia could wear any face they wished. “Yes, it was quite disconcerting. He’s the one who explained why the Taino spirits are so angry at me.”
“Why is that? For it seems to me that here in the Antilles, living people and their dead ancestors are not often hostile toward each other. But perhaps the spirit people here wish to protect the spirit lords of Europa, who might be in some manner their cousins.”
“Quite the contrary. Long ago, Taino fire mages wove a protective spirit fence around their islands to keep out the Wild Hunt and any other spirit visitors from other parts of the spirit world.”
Kayleigh nodded. This casual talk of the spirit world seemed perfectly normal to her. “I suppose that spirit lords protect their territory just like princes and mages do in the mortal world.”
“So it seems. Anyway, I was able to cut a gate in the spirit fence. The Wild Hunt rode through the gap I made. My sire would never have been able to reach the cacica if not for me.”
“It’s not as if you did it on purpose! You were just trying to save your cousin’s life, for it was her the Wild Hunt wanted to kill.”
“Yes, but the cacica died regardless.”
“You’ll need to sail to Europa, then. If we can’t get the bank to open Vai’s account to you, you shall have the money Vai settled on me when I married.”
“I can’t take your dowry.”
“Of course you can! It’s mine to give, because Vai settled the funds on me according to Expedition law, which follows Taino law in giving women title to households and the family purse. Which do you think I would rather have? The money, or my brother? You have to go to Europa. The hunters of our village can help you rescue Vai out of the spirit world. Shh!”
Lantern light shimmered, illuminating carts lined up against the back wall: The family’s business was local transport. Kofi shepherded his mother, his aunts, and the eldest men into the dusty shed. I received their blessing, which they gave by each one touching a hand to my hair. His mother offered me a cup of juice. After hearing my tale, they agreed that I might stay for one night. As for my brother, however, they were not so sure, for they had never met him and wished to know more about his character and manners.
One of Kofi’s brothers appeared, escorting Rory and Lucretia. I smiled to see them safe, until I noticed the inappropriately intimate manner in which their fingers were intertwined.
“Rory,” I murmured, “did I not tell you to stay away from her?”
Rory released Luce’s hand. He sauntered right past me to greet the older women, his smile as bright as the lanterns. With his lithe young man’s body well clad in one of Vai’s fashionable dash jackets and his long black hair pulled back in a braid, he surely delighted the eye. The men watched in astonishment but I knew what was coming. He offered chastely generous kisses to the women’s cheeks and tender pats to their work-worn hands.
“My apologies. I mean no offense by charging into your territory without an invitation. But I must obey my sister. You understand how it is with a sister who speaks a bit sharply to one even though she is the younger and ought, I should suppose, to look up to her older brother. Please, let me thank you. Your hospitality honors and humbles me. The food smells so good. I’m sure I’ve never smelled better.” He had routed two already and turned to the remaining skeptic. “That fabric is beautifully dyed, and looks very well with your complexion, Aunty.”
A cavalry charge at close quarters could not have demolished their resistance more devastatingly. He turned his charm on the old men, drawing them out with irresistible questions about their proud and memorable youth.
I went over to Luce, grasping her wrist. “Luce. He’s a tomcat.”
She lifted her chin. Because I treated Luce as a little sister, I often forgot that, at sixteen, she was old enough to marry. “I know me own mind, Cat! I’s old enough to do as I wish.”
“Be sure that he makes a habit of charming women of all ages and dispositions. And men, too.” I glanced over my shoulder. Rory was now seated between two of the women, chatting easily with all six of the elders about how things had been different in the old days. His easy lounging grace made the overturned wagon bed seem like
