Perhaps the only other perk to having nightmares, besides late night tea or warm milk with Sister Zinnia, was the night. At the compound she had free reign of the bathhouse, could sneak a snack from the dark and still Big House, or could read into the early hours of the morning without fear of being discovered. At Robert’s, there was a secretive night world.
From the window in her room she looked over Bell st, and had a view of the docks, where people would come and go at the oddest hours. People would board ships in the dead of night, carry boxes while looking over their shoulders, stray cats and dogs would sprint from shadow to shadow, and she’d even seen a hooded figure follow someone.
What surprised her the most was seeing the familiar knitted hat and sweater clad outline of Finn amongst these people.
She had woken up panicked and out of breath from a dream where a streaking Angelonia chased her through dark corridors, rusted chains around her ankles slowing her down until the blood-soaked sister was upon her. The features of nightmare Angelonia were all wrong, the usual glowing skin and high cheekbones of the girl she had spent years resenting, were sunken in and unnaturally pale. The louder the screamed the faster the blood streamed down her throat, until it mixed with the dirt on the ground and created a haunting red mud.
Throwing on one of the oversized sweaters and slightly cracking the window, to chase away the stench of blood and dirt that caked her nose, she assumed her perch at the top of her bed. She had been following the antics of a seagull trying to peck at a bag of peanuts someone had dropped on the ground, when she first saw him. Finn had his head down, almost like he was trying to hide his face from onlookers, as he walked quickly towards the house from the docks.
I wonder what he’s up to? She’d have her answer soon, for she watched him sneak back into the house the next three mornings in a row.
On the fourth night she followed him.
Armed with the thickest pair of dark pants, layered shirts, a trusty sweater that came down to the middle of her thighs, her coat, and her precious shoes, she was ready to snoop. The moment the night air bit at her exposed cheeks she mentally cursed herself for not grabbing one of the scarves that hung on the many hooks near the front door. She knew from her night watches that Finn always came from the docks so that's where she headed.
To Davina the docks were funny looking. If someone were to round the corner and have no idea of the docks' presence, it looked like the Redwell sat on the edge of the world. The busy streets of Redwell suddenly ended, as if they refused to cross some imaginary line, or had a peace treaty with the Sea. Only a few circular wood beams separated them from the cold and unforgiving waters below. If it weren't for the few lamps on boats that bobbed up and down on the water and a cluster of lights off to the side, the darkness would have swallowed her whole.
Now came the part she was dreading. Suspecting that Finn was somewhere amongst those lights to her left, she would have to climb down onto the rickety looking wooden platform suspended just above the water. There were metal ladders spread out every few yards, allowing people to descend onto the dock, but to Davina it looked like a death trap.
Trying to ignore her shaking hands as they wrapped around the frigid metal, she concluded that dangling herself over old wood, practically asking the sea to sweep her away, was perhaps the stupidest thing she’d done in her whole life. And she’d done some pretty stupid things. Memories of setting the chickens loose in the community, and hiding all of the veils were personal favorites. She replayed them while attempting to dissociate from the idea of slipping off the damp metal and drowning.
She mouthed a prayer of gratitude towards Soldeus when her shoes touched the wood planks before she realized what she had done. She blinked slowly, stunned at the action, and walked towards the light. Determined to forget the large portion of her life that had been an outright lie, she was surprised at the brief second of comfort praying had brought her. She chalked it up to habit, she had spent her entire life praying and working, so perhaps returning to her old ways in a moment of stress or fear would be calming and normal. Right?
As she got nearer the lights in the distance turned out to be torches. The cold air carried angry voices and jeers towards her numb ears, and their intensity made her determined feet falter. It was starting to make sense why this group chose the docks to meet up. The loud slams of the water against the nearby rocks, cliffside, and boats helped drown out their heated words. There appeared to be thirty people in the group and though most of their backs were to her she was quickly glad for her choice in dark clothing. Blending in enough to join the edge of the group, she realized they were listening to an animated man who stood in the center.
Clutched in the man’s hand was a crumpled piece of paper. It was the red crest illuminated in the flickering torchlight that told her it was one of the white flyers she had seen plastered across the town the other day. The flyers she had yet to read. What could possibly be written on there to make these people so angry? She’d soon have her answer.
How the man’s penetrating voice managed to carry across the sea of angry people around him, she wasn’t sure.
“Is it not enough that they take our money? Now those royals, dare ask us for more?”
Davina didn’t like how he spat out the word royals, as if it were a foul or dirty thing. In her mind the Royal Six had been the reason for Nescio’s continued survival and success in the world, but that kernel of doubt twitched in her stomach. Everything she grew up knowing as fact, had been lies. So what did she really know? Maybe this angry man was right to speak about the royal families in the way that he did.
The man raised his fist with the crumpled paper higher and the crowd around Davina stirred, growing more agitated. “Now those bastards on their hill ask for our sons, our brothers, your husbands. What will be left?” He paused dramatically between words letting his power over the crowd grow. A woman to her right cried out at the word “son” and clutched at the front of her coat as if it were keeping her together. Older men raised their torches, spit leaving their mouths as they shouted in agreement. What had she walked into?
Something running across the top of her foot made her jump back in fear, nerves wound tight by the hostility in the air. Looking down she saw that same red crest staring up at her from the wooden floor.
Scooping it up, she made sure the crowd around her was still absorbed in the man’s impassioned speech before reading. The paper was titled “Royal Communications” and beneath it were only a handful of sentences.
Royal Communications
All able bodied males residing in Bridlo county, between the ages of 20 and 30, are hereby required to report to the Registrar in accordance with the Service Act of X251. All men shall report to the Office of Nescio Defense on or before January 1, X252. Failure to comply with the stated requirements above will result in consequences.
Issued by the Crowns of Nescio
Davina read the page twice. Why would the royal family need “able bodied males”? There hadn’t been war in centuries. Right? She knew there was a Nescio navy, she’d often seen the men clad in the red uniforms sail by as she stood behind the walls of the shrine. But they just helped regulate trade and disputes between ships, or at least that was what she had been told. Ominous page in hand and the words of angry townspeople ringing in her ears, it was hard not to feel as though another lie had been uncovered.
The shattering of glass and a far away high pitched scream stopped her from her spiral of pity. Footsteps thundered in the distance and the man’s voice stopped mid-tangent. People began to peel away from the group. A few people slowly backed toward the darkened dock, but others panicked and sprinted towards the ladders when the sound of approaching feet grew louder. Soon the whole group dispensed in a flurry of wide eyes, yelps of pain from careless shoving, smoke from extinguished torches, and scattered chaos.
Finding herself cast into the soul- sucking darkness of the night, Davina tried to follow the crowd around her. She wasn’t too anxious to meet whoever was attached to those footsteps that managed to strike fear into such an angry crowd.
She was so preoccupied with trying to keep up with the dark outline of the person ahead of her and trying to furiously climb up a rusted ladder that she didn’t notice the silhouette following her.
⟴
Finn hadn’t expected the Royal Guard to show up. He’d come to the last few meetings mostly out of loyalty to Mac and a nagging curiosity to see how they were being run. Sure, he’d sacrifice hours of precious sleep to stand in the cold, listened to people scream for hours in end, slipped on that fuckin ladder too many times, went to bed smelling of dead fish...why do I still go?
He also hadn’t expected to spot her curly hair in the crowd.
He had done a double take when he saw the cinnamon colored halo around her face. How-? His mind couldn’t seem to grasp the idea of a person like her being in a place like this.
He kept his eye on her, observing how she watched that idiot spew nonsense for ten minutes, how she took in the crowd around her, and seemed to...listen. He even studied her face as she read that stupid flyer. Even in the dark he noticed her brown knit together and her head tilt slightly to the side in confusion.
Then the damn guards came. He told himself the reason he was miffed was because the guards broke up the meeting ten minutes before it’s scheduled end and would now have to be rescheduled to tomorrow. There goes his night off. Perhaps the real reason why he was so angry at those redcoats was for interrupting his all-you-can-eat eye buffet. How could he go back to ignoring her during the day after this? If only I knew who she really was.
⟴
She’d made it! Managing to clamber up one of the metal ladders without falling onto the person below her, she hoisted herself onto the street and let a wave of pride wash over her. That moment was short lived, as the rather portly man behind her plowed into her shoulder in his hasty scramble to get away from the docks.
She hadn’t realized how dirty the street was before. Her palms stung, reminding her of the time she had been stung by two bees when she was six. The red bump burned and swelled, the pain gradually fading into a persistent itch.
An older woman slowed to help her up then dashed down the street, she didn’t look back. The palms of her hands were littered in shallow cuts, beads of red already gathering in a few of them. Jogging towards the direction of Bell st, she balled up her fists letting her icy fingers cool her burning palms.
Wondering how she would explain her hands to Robert in the morning, she didn’t see the pair of hands reaching out towards her from the darkened alley between two shops. A hand clapped around her mouth before she could utter a scream and into the alley she went.
“Sush,” a deep voice whispered, “it's me.” Her mind registered that her back was gleeful to be against a warm chest and out of the wind’s path before it clicked that it was Finn’s chest.
Batting his hand away she spun, sputtering and at a loss for words. Thankfully he brought his hand up to his mouth and made a shh motion, gesturing to the mouth of the alley, now she had a moment to collect her thoughts. A shiver went down her spine craving the source of heat it had known only a moment ago. Following his gaze towards the street she had been walking down moments ago, Davina’s eyes widened as she saw four men in red jackets march past their alley.
“Are those-?”
“Royal Guards? Yes.” His whispered voice so close to her ear did nothing to stop her back’s shivering.
At his failure to elaborate, she prodded on. “Why? I mean, why are they here? I thought they wouldn't leave the royal grounds unless there was an emergency.”
Finn looked down at her then quickly snapped his eyes towards the street. Having never been this close to her before he was unprepared for the overwhelming scent of lavender and mint that seemed to come off her skin in waves. He had smelled traces of the scent around Bobby’s but with the amount of dried flowers and herbs that man had in the house he didn’t think twice about it. He also hadn’t expected to see those big hazel eyes staring up at him. Is she trying to give me a heart attack?
Clearing his throat he took a deep breath, trying to clear his head of the flower and mint fog that had filled it, before explaining, “they’re not supposed to. That’s why everyone is so spooked.”
“Guess that explains all of the running,” she whispered through a yawn.
He grabbed her wrist and started leading her towards the street, “come on, they should be gone by now.” He didn’t miss her quiet hiss as his fingers grazed her palm. They stopped walking and he turned back towards her, an obvious what’s wrong written across his face.
Holding up the hand whose wrist wasn’t in his grasp she sheepishly muttered “I tripped”.
An expression crossed his face that she couldn’t read as he took both her hands into his and examined them. Rotating them lightly side to side, trying to catch what little of the street light he could, he dropped her hands after a few moments. “Welp, Bobby’s gonna have my ass,” he muttered darkly. “I’m supposed to always return you back to the house undamaged.” Pursing his lips he chuckled, “there goes my five star rating.”
Davina tried to ignore how her dumb little heart danced in her chest at their contact, and tried not to feel too hurt by how those green eyes of his never held her gaze for more than a three seconds. “Who said we were telling Robert?” she said coyly. Where the stars did that come from? Seeing his brows raise in surprise she continued, before this stolen confidence left her, “what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
That got a laugh out of him, which seemed to surprise even Finn. She liked his laugh, it was a cross between a chuckle and a snort, and she would kiss the shadow man himself if it meant she could hear it again. Her heart sank when he shook himself and that guarded expression she’d gotten used to over the past few days returned to his face, replacing the humor that had been there only seconds before.
Then came the question she was hoping he’d forgotten about, “what are you doin’ out here? You could have seriously gotten hurt?”
She took a small step back, offended that her sore palms didn’t count as a “serious injury”, and bristled at the chiding tone in his voice. “What were you doing out here?” Nice one D, real smooth.
“I was out for a walk.” That emotionless hollow inflection had crept back into his voice, “wasn’t aware it was illegal.”
“To the same place every night this week?” She flinched at her own words, she hadn’t meant to shout them, nor did they sound so accusatory and creepy in her head.
Eyes squinted in anger he bent down, closing the gap between them and stared straight into her wide regretful eyes. “I don’t know what you think you saw, but forget it.” She tried hard to maintain his glare even when his voice dipped dangerously low as he said “and never follow me again.”
Davina didn’t say anything.
Finn stood to his full height, turned his back to her and walked out of the alley.
⟴
The walk home reminded her too much of…well, home. Davina walked side by side with someone she lived with, someone who had no problem with lying to her. The silence between them, heavy with unanswered questions and overthinking, only broke when they reached 1229 Bell st and Finn muttered “wash your hands. You don’t want those to get infected,” his eyes darted to her hands. With that he silently climbed the steps and left her in the darkened sitting room.
Climbing the wooden steps towards her bedroom Davina realized two things. First, something was going on in Nescio and although she had no idea what that was, she was going to find out one way or another. Second, Finn was a part of that something, she was sure of it. The persona he was showing them was one he wanted them to see. His feet didn’t make a sound going up the old staircase, and on that first day in the kitchen she hadn’t heard him walk up behind her. Hadn't even heard him breathe. All those times she heard him clomp down the stairs, walk into things, or shuffle sleepily through the house were all acts.
Closing her eyes as the first signs of light stretched across the sky, Davina added find out who Finn is to the top of her to-do list.
In the room next door, a boy with his mother’s green eyes and too many secrets thought the same about her.
204Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡriUTfjsbfN
