One

          Ruby and her elder sister Isla stood side-by-side at the passenger railing on the port side of the ship, watching the brilliant green island grow larger to their view. They were not the only two passengers enjoying the welcoming sight of land. Ruby and Isla had been at sea for nearly eight months, including the two-week stay at Atpost, where they had been forced to locate a new ship to take them the last leg of the journey. Ruby felt an immense surge of relief to be looking at their destination at last.

            Eight months ago, when their drunken uncle Rupert had rushed them onto the boat and into their private cabin, Ruby had scarcely gotten the chance to say goodbye to her home. From a porthole, she caught a tiny glimpse of a dock as their ship pulled out of harbor. That little glimpse of land was all she saw for months. She had dreamed of it over and over in her violently sea-sick first months at sea. Sea-sickness was long behind her now, but the sight of land still filled her with a sense of relief and excitement.

            “I can’t wait,” she breathed for the hundredth time, squeezing the railing.

            Isla glanced sternly at her and shushed her. “Remember what Uncle Rupert told us.”

            Ruby remembered. When he dropped them off in their cabin, his goodbye was as cold as his affection for them.

          “Walk small and keep yer heads down. Ain’t nothin’ wrong with bein’ an orphan as long as you do it quiet-like.” It was the most words he said to them at once since their mother died a week before. Uncle Rupert was some sort of distant relative—or perhaps just a friend—of their deceased father’s. He was their only known relation, and so had been contacted to serve as their guardian until some other family could be procured. They lived with him in his tiny smoke-filled dock-side apartment for a total of two days before he came home and told them to pack up. They got very little information out of him except that they had an aunt waiting to receive them in e’Silea. But his final admonition that they keep their heads down and stay out of the way had not been very heartening.

            “I remember,” Ruby replied, exasperated but obediently lowering her voice. “I know our aunt may not have had adequate warning of our arrival and may not be pleased to be taking on her sister’s two children. I know I must be very quiet, obedient, and must restrain my impulses.” They had talked this to death for months. “But I am excited. That’s real land, Isla. Real land.” Being off this ship was a dream!

            Isla gave her a tight smile—the only kind of smile she had been able to muster since mother’s illness began months and months ago. Isla had always been somewhat of a serious girl. Of the two of them, she was more practical and thoughtful. Ruby was the wilder of the two—boisterous and animated as mother had always been. Ruby supposed Isla must have been more like their father, though she never knew him.

            “It will be nice to sleep without fear of being pitched from our bunks,” Isla agreed, looking at the green mountains and tan beaches with hungry eyes.

            Ruby watched her sister for too long before turning her gaze toward land once more. She often stared at the older girl, hoping to find their mother in her features. But neither of them looked like their mother. They were both blond, with long straight hair, gray-blue eyes, sharp noses and chins, and fair skin. Mother had been dark—black hair, brown eyes, and softness everywhere. Isla and Ruby were all corners and edges. Mother had been curves. Once in a while, though, Isla’s eyes took on a haunted quality that sometimes reminded Ruby of her mother. She dreaded seeing her sister carrying such heavy emotion, but she missed mother with enough passion to once in a while wish for the haunted look to appear.

            It did. As Isla turned away and glanced around the deck of the ship, her eyes took on a haunted, grownup expression.

          The two girls had kept very much to themselves on this voyage, but this ship was different from the last. Strange levels of different that Ruby and Isla had only mentioned in hushed whispers at night. There were no male sailors. Women with filthy vocabularies and incredible strength pulled line, shouted orders, and climbed in the rigging. In fact, the only men who seemed to be present on the ship either cooked in the galleys, or followed women passengers around silently. Ruby spent so little time around men, she hardly knew what to think, but the sailors on the first six months of this voyage seemed more like Uncle Rupert than the men here. Her school master back home in Louvel had also been unlike both these men and the sailors. He was well-spoken, but swift with discipline. She could not imagine him on this ship, or on the previous one.

            “I hardly know what to expect,” Isla whispered to herself.

            Ruby did not care. Certainly, she hoped they would be well-received and given proper care, but she knew that she and Isla could care for themselves if they needed. They had been doing the job since mother got sick. Ruby did not care where they ended up as long as they were on solid ground again.

            Above their heads, from a perch in the rigging, one of the sailors started singing. Isla and Ruby exchanged troubled glances. The sailors on both ships had been fond of singing, but their choice of chanteys always burned Ruby’s ears and made her blush. The female and male sailors were similar in that. But this time, as more and more sailors took up the tune, Ruby realized it was not filled with filthy language and filthier images. This song was some sort of tribute. Even many of the passengers took up the tune, belting out their anthem with rigorous dignity. Ruby turned her eyes toward the oncoming land, her heart burning with possibilities. This would be their new home. Soon maybe she would be singing the words as well, with as much heartfelt passion as the sailors and passengers all over the ship.

            Isla reached for her hand, but her eyes were no less concerned than before. The possibility of happiness was so remote in her mind that the song haunted her rather than comforted her as it did Ruby.

            Together, they watched the mountains loom overhead, the beaches spread out in both directions, and the dock grow in length and size.

Two

          The dock was crawling with activity, as was the ship as it glided into port. Ruby watched in surprise as she saw that much of the activity on the dock was dozens of waving, excited people. They shouted, but their shouts were drowned by the sea, the ships creaking timbers, and the shouts of the people on the ship waving down.

            “There may not be anyone here,” Isla reminded Ruby softly. Ruby ignored her. They had already talked about this. Their Aunt Vara might not even be expecting them. She might not come to collect them at all, and then they would have to contact the local ministry of family affairs and report their problem. This day could turn out to be another horrid day of flux, where they did not know what would become of them or where they even would sleep at night.

              Ruby knew that possibly none of the waving greeters on the dock were there for her and her sister, but she waved anyhow. They seemed welcoming, even if they were welcoming others.

            An eternity passed before docking was complete, and then another eternity while the passengers began unloading. Isla did not move toward the gangplank even when everyone else did. She waited, looking up at the mountains as if expecting them to reach down and snatch her away.

            “Come on,” Ruby insisted.

          Isla shook her head. “No,” she whispered in response. She shifted her pack on her shoulder. “We’re not in a hurry like the others. They have a family to see. We are already with our family.”

            It was a sensible explanation, but Ruby sighed. Isla was not excited, so she was in no hurry. Even if she had been, though, Ruby realized, they might not have gotten off the ship any faster. People moved slowly down the gangplank, and there were over a hundred passengers off-loading.

            Isla did not move toward the exit until the crowd thinned significantly, and even then, she moved slowly. The crowd on the dock was also thinning, and Ruby felt a flutter of nerves. There may be no one there, she reminded herself. Isla’s plan to offload last was sensible, since they did not know who they were looking for, and the people who would be looking for them would not recognize them either. But it was hard to be patient as the minutes passed by slowly.

            Finally, they reached the head of the line, facing a young woman with a collection of wet pages on an equally wet clipboard. The passenger manifest. “You two must be Eye-luh and Ruby.” Isla blinked in confusion, but Ruby scowled.

            “It’s IS-luh, and Ruby. Isla and Ruby,” Ruby corrected the woman. Was she crazy?

            The woman shrugged like she did not care and marked the manifest with a pencil. At the same time Isla sent Ruby a warning glare. It did not matter how the random stranger pronounced her name. But it did matter to Ruby.

            “Aight,” the woman slurred, jerking her head toward the plank. “You’re free to go.”

            “Thank you,” Isla remembered her manners. Ruby said nothing, but politely managed not to roll her eyes. She marched down the plank first. It wobbled under her feet a little, and even more so when Isla climbed aboard as well. Ruby found herself inching along, staring hard at the choppy water beside the ship and the dock. If she fell in, the water would churn her to death between the two forces.

          When she got to the bottom, she looked up and watched Isla’s descent. The girl looked like she had been walking on bouncy planks all her life. She managed it with a straight spine and a serene look straight ahead of her. She hardly glanced at the water below her at all.

            Isla grabbed her hand, though, when she reached the bottom, and turned away from the ship. Ruby’s heart began to pound as she remembered there might be no one here. She, like her sister, scanned the people on the dock for someone who looked like they might be looking for someone they did not know. Most of the people on the dock were doing purposeful work: carrying items, walking briskly one way or another, chatting and hugging other passengers who had gotten off the ship already. No one seemed to be out of place or waiting at all.

            “Well,” Isla said on a quiet sigh. “We were not sure anyone knew we were coming.”

            But just then, some reunited passengers moved away down the dock, and a line of sight opened to a woman leaning against one of the dock posts chewing on a thumbnail. This was undoubtedly a relative of their mother’s. She had the same curved body, the same dark hair and eyes.

            “Look,” Ruby told her sister, nodding discreetly toward the woman. Isla turned her head and let out another sigh, this one somewhat relieved, but she did not move closer.

            The woman caught sight of them. For a moment, she only stared at them from where she leaned, then she glanced up the gangplank toward the ship. For a moment only, she looked as if she were still waiting, but then she smiled and unfolded from her lean. She strode toward them with purpose.

            She was dressed unlike anyone from Louvel. She wore a dress that was much too short to be respectable, and was mostly sheer. Ruby tried not to look too closely, but she was fairly certain the woman’s body was on display. The strangest part of the outfit, though, was the fact that she wore trousers with her dress, as if she were a man! But these were unlike any trousers Ruby had ever seen a man wear. They were thin, and hugged the legs tightly, and ended somewhere short of her ankle. In Ruby’s opinion, the fit, the cloth, and the bright colors were a hideous combination. The only part that Ruby could immediately approve of, and envy, were the sandals on her feet. In this painful humidity, Ruby would have done anything to pull off her woolen stockings and button-shoes.

            “Hi,” the woman said with a warm smile. She stopped directly in front of them. “Are you Eye-luh and Ruby?”

            “It’s Isla, actually,” Isla corrected gently.

          The woman narrowed dark eyes at her, but continued to smile. “Unusual name.”

          Isla’s name was not unusual in Louvel, but perhaps e’Silea had different names, since it had different standards of dress, and strange, slow speech.

          “Yes, ma’am,” Isla agreed politely. “You must be Aunt Vara.”

            The woman laughed aloud, and shook her head in amusement. “Oh, no,” she contradicted. “No, I’m not. I’m her daughter, Chloris.” She chuckled some more. “But thanks for thinking I’m such a grownup!”

            She was a grownup! This woman could easily have been near the same age as their mother, if not a little older. Yet she laughed as if it was the most ridiculous assumption in the world! Ruby hardly knew how to respond, but when she opened her mouth to speak, Isla stepped down hard on her toe. Fortunately, the button shoes protected her feet, but Ruby bit back her retort.

            “I’m sorry if I offended you,” Isla said, forever polite. “We know virtually nothing about Aunt Vara, and you look similar to my mother.” Isla’s eyes clouded for a moment in remembrance, and the woman’s smile softened.

            “Yes. We always did look alike. We were often mistaken for sisters.”

            Ruby frowned. Chloris spoke as though she had known mother, but then had the audacity to laugh that they thought she might be their aunt. She was confusing.

            “You knew mother?” Isla asked, jumping onto the possibility of happy memories.

            Chloris grinned. “We were born the same month. We grew up in the same temple. She was my best friend for years and years.”

          Ruby’s understanding of linear families became jumbled in her mind as she tried to figure out how her cousin could have been raised alongside her mother. Isla also seemed baffled by the idea, but she answered with a polite, “Oh.”

          Chloris reached out a strong arm and tugged Ruby’s pack off her shoulders. She took Isla’s as well, and carried them with ease. Marching down the dock, she said, “Come on, then! Let’s go introduce you two to ‘Aunt Vara,’” she paused to give a little chuckle, “and see what she plans to do with the two of you.”

Three

          Let’s introduce you two to “Aunt Vara” and see what she plans to do with you.

          The words were foreboding, and Ruby reached out for her sister’s hand. Isla’s spine straightened. It was no secret that orphans were often rejected by their relations and left to fend for themselves. They could do it, if they had to, but it made Ruby’s stomach tie up in knots. They were nearly out of the few coins Uncle Rupert gave them for their journey; they could not make it far without food to feed themselves.

          They stepped from the dock onto a cobble road marked with a decorative carved stone sign that said “Mainway.” Ruby fingered the stone as she passed it, and found it smoothed from hundreds of fingers over the years. Isla hissed at her not to touch anything, and they followed closely behind their cousin.

          The Mainway road curved up the beach and sauntered into the trees. The trees were different than the trees back home in Louvel. These were tall and narrow, bending back and forth all the way up, with tufts of green fronds stuck out of the top. There were flowering bushes, smaller trees, and ferns and plants everywhere Ruby looked. It hardly seemed wild to her, but there was too much of it to be a manicured garden. 

          Once through a section of trees, the road curved around a bend, and Ruby found herself staring up a great white road carved straight into a mountainside. The road seemed to be one long ramp, with occasional sets of stairs, and it ended in front of a massive white palace cut from the mountain itself. Another mountain, pure green and lovely broken only by a series of cascading waterfalls, rose up behind the palace. Against that backdrop, the white of the building stood out and owned the view of this side of the entire island.

          Below the palace, as far as Ruby could see, was city. It was the largest, most beautiful city she had ever seen. From one end of the island, to the other, cobble roads crisscrossed, and houses and businesses bunched together like flowers everywhere. One section of the city—the section directly below the palace on down the mountain, looked especially dominated by businesses, interspersed with steepled churches, vine-covered restaurants, and elaborate towers and outdoor theatres. But, at the heart of the city, nestled in the center between streets of large, ornate houses, and decorated shops and businesses, sat a piece of land that could only be described as a garden. It went on for miles of rivers, fountains, grassy knolls and long fields, trees, flowers, bridges, and gazebos.

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          So shocked by the expanse of the city, the beauty of its buildings and gardens, the majesty of the white palace, Ruby stopped dead on the path and stared for too long. Fortunately, Isla did not notice she was dallying, because she was also stunned by the scene. Chloris got several yards ahead of them before realizing they were not following her. She smiled jovially and went back to retrieve them.

          “It’s a beauty, isn’t it? Nothing like it in the world!” She nodded her head down the road. “Come on. It’s beautiful at every vantage.” She kept walking, and the girls quietly followed.

          It turned out to be a good thing Isla had Ruby’s hand; she kept getting distracted by flowers the size of her head, and crowing birds with colorful foliage, that her step continually halted, and Isla was forced to drag her along. She did not scold her, though, because she too was entranced by the loveliness of the place.

          Isla stopped abruptly once, eyes riveted on a couple of girls chasing one another in the park. Ruby turned to see what had caught her eye, and found herself recoil in shock. One of the girls was naked! Not naked, Ruby realized after a moment; she had on a pair of lacy white panties, but that was all! The other child was scarcely better-dressed: she wore a sheer tunic tied with a belt of flowers.

          Chloris was forced to call back for them again, but she followed their gaze and found the source of their discomfort. “Running wild,” she commented with a little smile. “Never a dull moment in the e’Shea Titania.”

          Ruby looked at her cousin in confusion. “The what-what?”

          Chloris pointed to a sign on an archway over a white-stone path leading into the park. The words: e’Shea Titania were wrought into the iron of the archway that was now covered in vines and flowers. “The eh-SHAY Tie-TANE-ee-uh. It’s the public garden.”

          “The children are naked,” Isla corrected her on the source of their discomfort.

          Chloris seemed surprised by that observation, and she turned to look after the squealing little girls. “Not completely,” she replied.

          Isla’s eyes widened. “Is it common practice not to cover your bodies in e’Silea?”

          Chloris studied her thoughtfully for a moment, a cloud of some kind appearing in her eyes. “We don’t cover up beautiful things.”

          She turned and walked on without another word. The sisters shared alarmed glances but hurried after her.

          Once past the miles of garden, Chloris turned off the Mainway, onto a street whose first row of cobbles declared it Ashbury Row. The houses here towered three and four stories, with elaborate gardens, walkways, and large windows facing the street. More nearly naked little girls played in yards protected by stone or metal fences, and here and there men and women sat or worked in the yards. Halfway down Ashbury Row, Chloris turned them down another street. It turned out to be a circle of five houses, each more impressive than the last. Children laughed and squealed, ran and tagged each other on the cobbles of the road as much as in the yards here. The yards did not seem to be as restrictive. Their walls were all short enough to step over. The children scrambled over them with ease.

          The house where Chloris led them was the one at the center of the circle. It was made of white and cream stones, with dark caulking between. The windows of the entire three stories were open, and sheer curtains pulled in and out with the breeze. It had a short front yard, with green grass, flowering plants, and several trees. The walkway led through the fenceless yard, up to a set of double wooden doors carved with vines and flowers. One door stood open, and a small mountain of sandals could be seen piled up inside the doorway.

          “Vara!” Chloris called as soon as she stepped into the house. She dropped the bags on the floor and pushed them against the wall with her foot. “Vara of Capitol, I come bearing gifts!”

          “You call your mother by name?” Ruby asked, trying hard not to sound accusing. She had tried calling her own mother by name long ago, and was firmly told that she would call her “Mother” forever.

          Chloris smiled, as if that answered Ruby’s question, and Isla shot her a withering look to remind her to be quiet. Keep yer head down, that look seemed to say. Ruby ducked her head and let out a breath of frustration.

          The entryway was a clean space decorated by mirrors and paintings. It led out into several rooms. One room appeared to be some kind of lounge or parlor, with red upholstered furnishings, glass tables, and more artwork. Another room, at the back of the house, was mostly windows, with a long table and a multitude of chairs. To their left, there was a stone stairwell curving up to an upper level of the house. They could see the railing that stretched up all the way, and marched across the house under the vaulted ceilings and bright skylights. Ruby was breathless. Aunt Vara was wealthy: that was the only explanation for all the nice things.

          Chloris smiled at their awe and said, “Welcome to Vara’s temple. It’s the nicest on the street.” Temple must have been the e’Silean word for house. Although, to Ruby the word house scarcely seemed glamorous enough to describe this place.

          A sound from above them turned their heads upward, toward a woman walking down the stairs. Isla’s breath caught in her throat, and Ruby knew why. This woman could easily have been their mother’s twin. She had the same soft curves, the same dark eyes, the same waving curls. Her hand glided down the railing the same way Mother’s would have. Her soft step on the stairs whispered memories of their mother.

          Yet, there were differences. This woman was older, by many years, judging by the wrinkles at the edge of her eyes and mouth. Her hair was sprinkled with gray, and her eyes carried a weight of age. Her blue clothing, like Chloris’s, was heavy-weight sheer, but she wore a highly impractical black panty and bra underneath. Mother would never have left her bedroom in her underclothes.

          “Why are you shouting, Chloris?” the woman said in a voice deep, like mother’s had been, but with an unfamiliar hint of sternness. “I saw you coming up the street.”

          Chloris did not seem to be unsettled by the woman’s sternness. “Yes, ma’am.” She stepped aside and presented Isla and Ruby with the sweep of an arm. “I bring you your newest wards, safe and sound from the most recent ship.”

          The woman’s gaze swept over to the girls, and Ruby found herself holding her breath under the scrutiny. Isla’s spine somehow straightened even farther, and she held her chin high. She wanted to be as appealing as possible to their new family. On the ship, she told Ruby they must both attempt to be as appealing as possible, so they would not end up in some filthy orphanage. But Ruby did not know how to look appealing to this woman; she was certain they had different standards of appeal. For instance, it would never occur to Ruby to waltz around the house in her underwear.

          The woman narrowed her eyes, “Your names?”

          Ruby glanced at Isla, but when the older girl seemed tongue-tied, Ruby spoke up, “I’m Ruby McKnight. This is my elder sister Isla. Are you Aunt Vara?”

          She shook her head, and Ruby was alarmed until the woman said, “Vara of Capitol.”

          “But you are our mother’s sister?” Isla sounded almost suspicious, though the softness and politeness of her tone probably masked it from strangers.

          Vara descended to stand in front of them. She was nearly a foot taller than Isla, so both girls were forced to look up to meet her dark-eyed gaze.

          “Yes,” Vara drawled. “I was your mother’s sister.”

          Isla seemed to find her courage. The speech she rehearsed in their cabin for months now came forward. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Aunt Vara. We are—”

          Vara interrupted her practiced speech. “Vara of Capitol,” she corrected. “You will call me Vara from now on.” She glanced at Chloris with a look of question in her eyes. “They look nothing like Ava.” Her tone was unreadable, but Ruby thought they were being insulted.

          “We look like our father,” Ruby insisted. Isla drew a sharp breath, but the two women did not seem to notice that Ruby’s tone was sharp.

          “Intriguing that he would have the dominant genes,” Chloris replied to her mother’s words. The woman’s return smile was not friendly, like a person who grinned when someone fell down in the muddy street. But before Ruby could be more hot-headed and say something to get them kicked out on the street, Vara’s gaze returned to them.

          “How old are you?”

          Isla squeezed her sister’s arm and did the talking, “Ruby is fourteen. I am sixteen, but I’ll be seventeen in a matter of months. If you agree to take us in, it need only be for a short time. I know a little about dress-making…” she stumbled on that, probably because she knew nothing about making the kind of dresses Vara and Chloris wore. “…and soon I think I can procure a wage enough to care for myself and for Ruby until she is old enough to find work.” She held up a reassuring hand. “We are good, hard workers, and we won’t make trouble.”

          Chloris looked puzzled. Vara appeared to be hiding her amusement. Ruby looked back and forth between them and then she scowled.

          “We are hard workers!” she snapped. “We have been taking care of mother, and keeping up with the laundry business for months without any help. If not for the laws of the country that state we have to be under family or city care until Isla is eighteen, we would still be there now! You’re no happier to have us than we are to be here!”

          Isla groaned and her eyes slid closed. Once Ruby’s mouth stopped, her face flushed, and she jerked her hands up to cover her cheeks. She had always had a temper, but she practiced and practiced walking small all the way to e’Silea. Now, not even an hour on land, and she had blown their chance of being accepted and cared for. Her stomach plunged and the flames of anxiety began licking up her throat. Whatever would they do to care for themselves until Isla was old enough to work? Would they end up in a wretched orphanage after all? Her stomach clenched and unclenched. She was furious with herself for losing her temper.

          But Vara laughed, and this time it was warm instead of cruel. Chloris laughed, too, a twinkling sound that filled the entire entryway up to the top of its vaulted ceilings.

          “She certainly acts like Ava,” Chloris crowed, patting Ruby gently on the shoulder blade. “Better watch that temper of yours, Love. It landed me and your mother is all manner of difficulty growing up.”

          Vara touched Ruby’s face with a gentle hand, then smoothed Isla’s hair with the other. “Oh, you poor girls! How long have you been cooped up at sea trying to hold your tongues?” She leaned forward and planted a kiss on Ruby’s forehead, then repeated the gesture for Isla’s head. Isla stared at her in confusion, but Ruby allowed herself to be engulfed by it. The last time she was kissed was mother, the day she died. Vara’s kiss was similar.

          “You must be scorched,” Vara said, backing away and looking their clothes up and down. “And exhausted. And probably hungry.” She pinched Ruby’s chin. “Little wonder, with the swill they serve at sea. Let’s get you settled in, huh? And then we can discuss how you’re…” she turned her warm eyes on Isla, “not going to ‘make trouble.’”

          Isla colored slightly, since Ruby already disgraced those words. Ruby blushed some more, too, but Vara seemed only to be amused by it. “Come.”

Four

          Vara snapped her fingers at a man standing in the doorway to the dining room. He wore only a pair of navy blue shorts with white stitching—as lightly dressed as everyone else Ruby had seen. He stepped out and picked up their bags, smiling at the girls kindly but saying nothing.

          “That’s Argos,” Vara introduced once the man was walking away up the stairs.

          “Is he our uncle?” Ruby wanted to know.

          Vara spun back to look sharply at Ruby. Isla’s eyes widened at the sternness, and her arms protectively wrapped around Ruby from behind. They both held their breath under the scrutiny. Vara saw their embrace and her face softened. Her voice was gentle when she explained, “No. He’s no relation to you. You will call him Argos.”

          Isla glanced down at Ruby with concern in her eyes, but Ruby didn’t know how comfort her. She gave her sister’s arms a pat and pulled away. But she was confused about why Aunt Vara had been so affected by her question.

          They followed behind their aunt as she led them up the stairs toward the bedrooms. Ruby did not allow herself to get distracted this time, even though everywhere she looked was something interesting to see: statues and sculptures on marble platforms, vases full of flowers, bright-colored paintings on the walls.

          When they walked down a hall with portraits, Vara halted and presented a portrait on the wall. The girl in the painting looked to be about Ruby’s age. She grinned ahead, with flowers surrounding her, and a silken dress draping to the floor.

          “That’s your mother,” Vara said gently. She looked longingly at the child smiling out of the painting. “She was such a beautiful girl.”

          Ruby stared at the painting, too, and could see her mother shining out of the child’s eyes. The painting beside it was nearly an exact match, but the child in it was obviously Chloris.

          Isla looked up at Vara thoughtfully. “Were you close with our mother?”

          Vara stared at the picture for far too long before she turned to smile softly at the Isla. “I raised her. My own mother died in the week after delivering Ava, so I inherited her. And now…” she stroked Isla’s cheek. “I have inherited you.” Isla froze under her aunt’s touch, but was too polite to pull away even though she was uncomfortable. Vara’s eyes took on a distant look—a troubled look that pulled Ruby’s heart tight. When Vara whispered, “I expect to be more successful with you,” it was to herself rather than the girls.

          She pivoted on her heel and continued down the hall as though she had never been distracted by the portrait on the wall. But Ruby was puzzled.

          “Why did Mother leave here?”

          Mother had never mentioned e’Silea, Aunt Vara, Chloris, or anything about her life before adulthood. Ruby never thought about it before, but she realized it was a bit strange she never talked about her childhood.

          Vara stepped against the doorframe of an open door and studied Ruby emotionlessly. “Why do you ask?”

          Ruby nibbled on her lower lip. She did not know why she asked. She believed this was her mother’s sister. She did not doubt that story, but she also found it strange that her mother had an entire life she had never mentioned. A life of wealth, where people did not wear enough clothing, and childhood portraits hung on the walls. Ruby lifted one shoulder in a shrug. But Vara continued to look at her, expectant, and Ruby found herself floundering for an answer.

          “Because…well, she never mentioned you…” a fierce look from Isla made her shrug again. Isla did not want to hurt their feelings, but it was true what Ruby said. “And until Uncle Rupert told us we had an aunt in e’Silea, we never knew we had relatives. We never heard of a place called e’Silea. So… Mother must have left at some point, and I guess I wondered why. You speak of her with the same sadness in your eyes as she sometimes had when she looked at the necklace Father gave her.”

          Nervousness wafted from Isla, and her chest even heaved, as if afraid at any minute Vara would snarl hateful words at them and kick them out into the street. But Ruby was not ashamed of her question. It seemed perfectly reasonable to her.

          Vara studied her silently for another moment, then smiled. Instead of answering, she motioned into the room against which she lounged. “This will be your room, Ruby. It overlooks the rear garden but has no balcony. Isla,” she nodded to the door across the hall. “That will be your room. It has a balcony, but it overlooks the street. Some of my daughters found they could climb down the trellises to get to the ground. They began using that as a mode of entrance and exit to the temple, but I will just warn you that it is my expectation for everyone to use the door.”

          Isla’s face crumpled into confusion, and Ruby wondered if she was as mystified by why people would climb trellises when they could much more easily go through doors. But Isla’s expression had different roots. “Aunt Vara?”

          Vara corrected her immediately, “Vara of Capitol.”

          Isla’s face flushed, embarrassed at having been corrected. While she stumbled over her words, she still seemed intent on asking her question, “Ruby and I need not have separate rooms. We have always shared a room together. In fact, we have always shared a bed in Mother’s room.”

          The sternness returned in Vara’s eyes for a moment, the same swift sternness that was there when Ruby asked if Argos was their uncle. It was difficult to understand why Isla’s attempt to be accommodating could be taken offensively. But, like last time, Vara’s gaze softened, and her words were gentle, “That won’t be necessary. You will now each have a room and a bed of your own. Come,” and she beckoned them into Ruby’s room. Again, Isla exchanged concerned looks with her sister, but Ruby only shrugged again and followed their aunt into the bedroom.

          One look at this room made Ruby’s eyes pop. It was easily large enough to fit their entire Louvel house inside, possibly with room to spare. The bed was three times the size of the bed she shared with Isla all their life. A canopy of pink and mint-green sheers hung over the top of the bed. The bed itself was covered with embroidered pillows and a comforter in geometric pink and green designs. Some large pillows in the same colors adorned one corner of the room—easily large enough to be used as chairs. Another corner of the room held a white desk and chair, and two shelves with a handful of books. There was an entire wall of windows with sheer curtains blowing in the breeze, and heavier drapes pulled away and tied with pink ribbons. A white dresser stood between an open closet door and a door to the toilet. Ruby was astonished! Throw in a stove, and she could feasibly live in this room without any need for the remainder of the house.

          “If the colors are not to your taste, we will redecorate,” Vara offered. Ruby stared up at her aunt in shock.

          “It’s beautiful as it is,” Isla whispered. Ruby was not certain if the words were meant as a thank you for her aunt, or as a warning that Ruby not be greedy. Ruby would never dream of asking for new things. It was impossible to imagine another color being lovelier than what was already here.

          Vara put a hand on Ruby’s arm and guided her out of the doorway as Argos stepped into the room. He held Ruby’s pack, but when she reached for it, he ignored her and walked it to the bed. When he lifted the leather straps of the pack and began pulling clothes out onto the bed, Ruby gave a strangled cry, “I can do that!” Most of her clothes were filthy after the hasty washes they had been given on the ships. She had outgrown nearly everything. The idea of this man sorting through her dirty laundry made her blush. Isla was also blushing, and Ruby knew why. She was wondering if he had already done this service for her clothes.

          “Nonsense,” Vara said dismissively of Ruby’s outburst. “It’s his responsibility.” But she must have noticed the mortified look on both girl’s faces, because she called, “Argos, stop. Get the trunks from the attic and bring them down to the workroom.” When she turned back to the girls, it was as if the man ceased to exist. He murmured something under his breath and then walked out. Vara said, “We’ll go through some of our clothes and see what we can make work for you until I can order you a wardrobe of your own.”

          Isla’s eyes widened again. “That’s not necessary. I have some coin…” she fumbled at the pocket of her dress, where she had sewn the money pocket. “I can afford some cloth and I will make Ruby and me some dresses. You need not…”

          Isla’s words died when she saw the sharpness was back in Vara’s eyes. She looked at them thoughtfully in the uncomfortable silence, then shook her head as if arguing with herself. “There are many things we need to talk about, but not right now. Right now, you will get settled in and rested. I’ll have someone make something to eat.” She moved gracefully toward the door, but at the last moment turned back and met Isla’s eye. “You will no longer be making dresses. If you would like to design them, that will be fine, as a study of the art of clothing design. But you will not be providing for your own worldly needs any longer. From now on, that will be my task. You are children. You will no longer carry the burden of adult responsibilities.”

          Isla looked in their aunt’s eyes for a long time before giving an awkward nod. The woman swept her gaze over to Ruby then. She nodded too. Though she was confused about the implications of her words, she was eager enough to be cherished and cared-for that she felt no desire to argue.

          Vara smiled again, and all the warmth returned to the room. “If you would like to sort through your own belonging, that’s fine. Anything that must be laundered can be placed in a pile by the door. Anything that is either too big or too small for you can be placed at the foot of your bed. I will have someone come collect it all.”

          Isla suggested, “We can launder our own clothes,” but it was spoken in a hushed way, as if afraid of the reaction. But all Vara said was, “No. Leave it and I will have it collected.”

          Vara ran her finger along the edge of the doorframe. With a brief frown, she examined some dust on her fingertip. Then she smiled up at the girls. “When you’re hungry, come down. The food will be ready in a few minutes, and I do not permit food in the bedrooms.” She paused to stroke each of their faces. A gentle caress across Isla’s cheek, and then Ruby’s. “I know it all seems confusing right now, but soon you will relax and grow comfortable here.” She stepped out of the room, but called back, “This is your new home.”

          Isla’s hand, cool and clammy, grasped Ruby’s and squeezed hard. But the words New Home danced in Ruby’s ears for a long time after her aunt had walked away.