ONE

Ruby and Isla did not know exactly what to do with themselves after they ate the food Galen brought them. Before they could clean up the meal and go in search of a kitchen to wash dishes, Argos appeared and took the tray away himself.

“It’s a fine day,” he prompted them gently. “You might wish to explore the garden.”

Exploring was the only thing they could think to do while waiting for instructions from their aunt or cousin. Ruby reached for her sister’s hand and pulled her away from the large sitting room. In their ramble through the main level of the house, this time they stopped to admire the finery that seemed to be in such abundance. In the downstairs hall, there were rich blue vases filled with flowers, paintings of oceans and islands, and decorative candle sconces. When they came into what appeared to be a library, Isla gasped and ran to admire a wall full of bookshelves. Ruby’s eyes, though, were immediately drawn to the piano on a raised platform in front of the bay windows. Reverently, Ruby placed her hand on the fine black lid of the instrument, closed now. She had seen pianos before but had never touched one. She had never been near enough to one to be tempted to touch it. The battered brown piano that stood in the old church in the village was the only one Ruby had ever heard.

“Isla, look,” she prompted in a hushed whisper. “It’s beautiful.”

Isla turned almost reluctantly away from the books she seemed to be scanning with hungry eyes. She squeaked, “Don’t touch it!” when she saw Ruby’s hand caressing the instrument. Ruby’s hand snapped back to her side.

“It’s beautiful,” Ruby repeated, not allowing the reproachful look in her sister’s eyes to dampen her spirits.

Isla gave a nod, and her gaze traveled across the instrument. “It looks like the one in the Governor’s house,” she murmured. Ruby did not know, because unlike Isla, she had never gone to the Governor’s house to deliver or collect clothing for mother’s laundering business.

“Did you ever play it?” Ruby asked, though she was certain she knew the answer was no.

Isla’s face looked skeptical, and she sighed on the answer, “No. Of course not. I only ever saw it through the picture window in the front of the house. I heard Joyly playing one time, though. It was magical.”

Ruby glanced momentarily at the pristine white keys, but Isla’s growl warned her against touching them. Ruby sighed, but then heard a laugh from behind them. Both girls spun around to find a young woman in the doorway. She was obviously related to Vara and Chloris; she had the same dark hair and vibrant eyes. She also had the same indecent attraction to immodest clothing. She wore a white, flowing sheer blouse and a pair of tiny, tight lace shorts. Unlike Vara, she did not wear any form of undergarment to cover her breasts. Ruby blushed when she realized the other woman was entirely on display.

Isla, too, colored, but she was able to compose herself better.

“How do you do?” she asked, managing to somehow keep her eyes fixed on the other young woman’s face.

The girl laughed again and bounded into the room in the same flowing gait Chloris used. Except, this girl was sprier. She sauntered past Ruby and Isla and seated herself at the piano with practiced ease.

“You’re meant to touch it, silly girls,” she scolded them in a gay tone. And at once her fingers landed on the keys and began to play a melody. In the rapture of the music, Ruby forgot to be embarrassed. She sat down on the piano bench beside the newcomer and watched in fascination as the woman’s fingers made magic.

When she finished, she looked aside and smiled at Ruby. Then her grin flitted to Isla.

“You must be Ruby and Eye-luh. Vara told me you might be showing up one of these days.”

Ruby nodded, but said, “My sister’s name is Isla. But I’m Ruby, yes.” She would have said more, but a sharp look in Isla’s eye silenced her. The young woman saw it and grinned.

“I’m called Lia of Vara. You don’t have to be nervous around me.”

“You’re our cousin, too? Like Chloris?” Ruby asked, deliberately ignoring the concerned look in Isla’s eyes that was probably meant to warn her not to be too curious and chatty. But Lia did not seem to mind the questions.

“Uh… No. I’m her apprentice, so I’m learning her trade.” Lia studied Ruby’s face for a long moment, then grinned again. “I am related to you. Vara is my grandmother. I am the daughter of Odelle of Capitol—Vara’s second daughter.”

As Ruby tried to wrap her mind around the confusing relationships, Isla asked, “How many children does Vara have?”

Before Lia could answer, Ruby interrupted with, “How old are you?” She had been trying to do the math, but she could not seem to make sense of how Vara’s family fit together. Isla, though, gasped in horror at Ruby’s question, and hissed her name in shock. Coloring to her hairline, Ruby retreated from the bench and backed up to stand beside her sister.

“You can’t go around asking women how old they are,” Isla hissed at her once Ruby stood next to her. Ruby folded her hands in front of her and stared fixedly at the carpet on the floor. However, Lia was not offended by the rude question. In fact, she laughed again, a tinkling sound that was every bit as musical as a touch on the piano keys.

“Don’t be so silly, Isla! You may ask me whatever you wish.” Deliberately grasping Ruby’s hand, attempting unsuccessfully to recapture her gaze, Lia stated, “I’ll be twenty next week.” Then, giving her attention back to Isla, she said, “Vara has four daughters: Nerina, Odelle, Mira, and Chloris. Although, I think it would be unkind not to include Yalene of Capitol in the list, as she loves Vara well enough to be her own daughter. She apprenticed under Vara, and then purchased the temple next door when she graduated to her own trade. She always comes to family dinners, so I think of her as my auntie as much as any of the others.”

Companionably, Lia slid an arm around Isla’s shoulders and steered her around toward the exit. She pulled Ruby along by the hand. Ruby went willingly enough when she saw Isla not putting up any fight.

“Now, you mustn’t let my youth confuse you,” Lia went on as she steered them away down the hall. “I was very young when I began attending Classes, and I just finished a few months ago. For a few years, Odelle had been hinting at me to take up my apprenticeship with Vara when I finished. And since I think she’s the best at what she does, I begged her, and she accepted me. I wasn’t sure she would. She thought I was very young to be beginning an apprenticeship, even though she was the same age when she started.”

It was a confusing jumble of ideas for Ruby, who understood little of what the older girl said. Ruby could not even figure out how she was related to Lia, though she tried over and over again to remember what a cousin’s children should be called.

“Have you been shown to your rooms?” Lia asked as she directed them onto the front porch.

“Yes, thank you,” Isla answered, and gently pried herself out of the other girl’s grip.

“Good,” Lia replied with a wide smile. “I knew Vara put in countless hours getting them ready for you, though she was nervous all the while that the rooms would not suit your tastes.” Then, as if it had just occurred to her. “If they don’t, I know she will be happy to get you new things. She wants you to be comfortable.”

Ruby shot Isla a wide-eyed look of excitement. Vara had spent hours preparing rooms for them? It did not seem likely that she would kick them out into the street if she had been eagerly anticipating their arrival.

She spoke before she could talk herself out of it. “We were not at all sure Aunt Vara would accept us when we came.”

Isla’s eyes tried to burn holes into the side of Ruby’s face, but Lia only laughed at Ruby’s words. “Not accept you? Of course, she will accept you! She’s happy to have you home at last. You have no idea how much she worried and waited for you since we got the letter last month saying you were coming. She sent Chloris to the docks every time there was a ship expected, in case you were on it. She is delighted to have you here.”

The fluttering wings of hope began to stir in Ruby’s stomach. She met Lia’s eye again, to be certain she was telling the truth. Lia’s smile and nod seemed to encourage Ruby’s hope.

“You’re going to be so happy here,” Lia promised her. Ruby gave a relieved sigh and reached for Isla’s hand, hoping to pass along some of her excitement and hope to her more pragmatic sister.

TWO

Lia led them onto the front porch before relinquishing Ruby’s hand. She pointed toward the rounded street in front of the temple.

“This is Zoltar Circle,” she explained as she gestured around at the gardens and walls and street. “Vara purchased this plot when she was just a very young woman, and then a few years later, her sister built a temple next door.” She pointed toward the navy blue, gray, and white temple to the right, with its massive wrap-around porch and large vertical windows. “That’s the temple of Cynthia of Capitol—Vara’s sister.” Gesturing right of Cynthia’s house, Lia motioned toward a temple which was slightly smaller, but with a bolder red-stone foundation and wider windows. “When Nerina finished her apprenticeship, Vara purchased that lot and helped her build a temple of her own. Then, just to be sure she would not have to put up with unwanted neighbors, Vara went ahead and bought the rest of the lots on the circle. They went to Yalene when she finished her apprenticeship.” She gestured at the green and gray temple directly left of Vara’s—a large one with sharply peaked roofs and dormer windows on the top level. Lia’s hand at last gestured toward the temple on the end of the circle, on the corner lot. “Then, Odelle—my mother—finished her own trade and asked Vara for the right to purchase the final lot from her. Odelle apprenticed to a medical trade, so was not a part of the family business, but Vara wanted her children close, so she said yes. Odelle then built her temple and so now the entire circle belongs to Vara’s family.”

Isla nodded along respectfully. Ruby was fascinated enough to ask questions. “What about her other kids? What about Chloris? Where is her t-temple?” She stumbled on the word, and shot Lia a questioning glance.

Lia gave a nod. “Temple.” Then she smiled widely. “Well, there are a lot of family jokes about that. Chloris, in fact, should get a move on with her education and training. If she finishes her training hours, she could move away from Vara’s temple and start her own trade. But she won’t do it. She teases that it’s just because there’s nowhere for her to fit on the street. But we know that’s not really true, because Vara has offered to purchase Ashbury Row—the street beyond, to house the rest of her family as they come of age. I think Chloris just is not ready to grow up and leave home. And there’s no shame in that, really. As long as she stays with Vara, she does not have to worry about all the intricacies of managing a trade and a temple.”

Isla’s eyes took on a strangely distant quality, though she continued to nod along as if she was paying attention. Ruby watched her nervously, but asked Lia, “Where will you live, once you…grow up?”

Lia gave a little shrug. “Close, I imagine. Vara will want to keep the trade secrets close. But I have quite a few years ahead of me before I have to start thinking about a temple of my own.”

With a soft clearing of her throat, Isla spoke up. “Will you get married?”

Ruby smiled at the question. She and Isla had spent their childhood asking their mother to tell about her marriage to their father. And they had dreamed of marriage themselves, for when they were older.

A look of confusion crossed over Lia’s face as she turned to meet Isla’s gaze. “Will I…what?” Her confusion shocked Ruby’s smile off her face.

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Isla answered steadily, “Get married. Will you get married when you are sufficiently grown? So you don’t have to do everything all by yourself?” The distant quality in her eyes had flamed forward into a burst of passion. Ruby knew what it was. She had seen it before when the coroner claimed he would not be able to bury their mother without some extra coin. He claimed that entering the house wherein a person died of sickness and disease would cost extra for the danger it posed to himself. Isla was furious, but her anger did not explode, as Ruby’s always did. Hers tended to sharpen her gaze and strengthen her words. When Isla was passionate about something, she spoke with assertive ease, though her tone never slid into disrespect.

Lia still looked confused. “I’m not sure I understand.”

Isla’s chin came up a bit. She spoke slowly, but with a crisp edge to her words, as though she was expecting trouble. Like when she had insisted the coroner do his job without extra pay, or she insisted she would do it herself and then let everyone know he tried to swindle a couple of friendless, innocent orphans out of their last few precious coins.

“Where are your men? If you don’t wed them, and you don’t need them to own a home, or do a job… If you don’t need them to care for you and be your other half, what do you do with them?”

Lia’s face lost its brightness, though none of its kindness. She sat down on the porch railing and gave Isla a long, studying look.

“You’re from the Mainland, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Ruby answered, though Isla replied, “No. We lived in Louvel, a little village in the northern part of the Foreland.” Then, sharply to Ruby, she corrected, “Foreland is not the Mainland as outsiders know it. Mainland is the continent across the Bitter Ocean from Foreland—west from Louvel.” She turned her attention back to Lia. “But you haven’t answered my question. Where are your men? Are they all servants?”

Ruby blinked in surprise again. She had not even thought of it, but Isla was right. She had not seen any men in the house or in the yards who were not working. While the little girls and the women seemed to bathe, and eat, and lounge, and play, the men were the only ones working.

“No,” Lia answered gently. Ruby felt a sense of relief at that pronouncement, until Lia went on. “They’re slaves.”

A cloud of something dangerous crossed Isla’s eyes, and Ruby herself was alarmed at Lia’s casual assertion that all the men were slaves. But Chloris’ voice overtook them from the doorway.

“Your mother never told you?” her voice was cooler than it had been before, more like Vara’s. “She never explained your divine nature, or a slave’s rights? I suppose I’m not actually surprised, at that. She did run away from home with a slave, and I don’t suppose she could have treated him as he deserved, or she would have brought him back home long ago.”

Isla turned her face away from Chloris and Lia, grasping her sister’s gaze in her own. “This…” she whispered in a sharp tone, “…is the other shoe.”

THREE

Ruby felt a sinking feeling at the tightness of her sister’s voice, and the darkness in her expression.

Without another word to either of the older women, Isla grasped Ruby’s hand and pulled her toward the temple door. Chloris made way for them, though when Ruby searched her face for some indication that this was a misunderstanding or a mistake, there was nothing in her eyes except hardness. Ruby let herself be dragged along, looking back once as the pretty little street with its lovely tiny gardens disappeared from view. Lia’s concerned face was the last image she had before being swept away, back into the temple and up the stairs.

“Isla,” Ruby whispered when her sister pulled her into her own room and shut the door. “Isla, what are you going to do?”

Isla did not answer at once. She strode into her room-sized closet and wrenched her tiny suitcase from the top of a shelf. Ruby’s knees gave out, and she sat down hard on the bed.

“Isla!” she whispered again, more urgently this time.

Still, her sister did not answer. She searched the closet for a few moments, somewhat frantically, as if expecting to find the clothing she had already sent out to be cleaned. Not out, Ruby realized in shock. She now understood what Vara meant when she had said “That is his task.” There was no need to send laundry away to be cleaned when there was a slave in the house to clean the laundry.

“Where will we go?” Ruby asked her sister insistently. Panic began to rise in her chest again, as it had so many months ago when the Louvel city elders came to inform them that they would need to be cared for by a relative or go into the orphanage.

“I don’t know,” Isla burst out, breaking her silence at last. Her gaze tackled Ruby from across the large room. “I don’t know, Ruby, but we can’t stay here. We can’t live in a house where men are all treated as slaves. It’s not right! We can’t do it.”

Ruby felt panic rising. She scooted forward on the bed, perching herself on the edge in her insistence to be seen. “Think about this, Isla! Aunt Vara accepted us. She wants us here. If we go back to Louvel—or anywhere else!—they are going to make us go to an orphanage. We will be packed into tiny, pest-ridden beds and forced into service. We will be kicked out into the streets with nothing when you come of age.” Ruby’s hand slid lovingly over the silk bedspread, and she whispered, “It’s clean here, and they want us.”

Her sister’s quick steps got her across the room in a couple heartbeats. She yanked Ruby off the silk bedding, pulling her onto her feet.

“Ruby! Did you not hear what they said? Mother used to be here, and she ran away. Why do you think she did that?” Isla shook Ruby slightly, eyes widening as if she too was only coming now to the realization she was forcing on Ruby. “Did you hear what she said? About father? She said mother ran away from here with a slave. They treated father like a slave, Ruby. We can’t stay here!”

Ruby’s eyes stung with tears. “Where will we go? We haven’t enough money for fare on a ship!” The idea of boarding another ship was too much. Her tears spilled down her cheeks in a cascade. “What will we do, if we don’t stay here?”

Shaking her own head back and forth a few times, Isla admitted, “I don’t know, but we can’t wait around to decide that. We need to leave now.”

Ruby wailed, “All of our clothes are in the laundry!”

Isla hissed, “Stop bawling! We will figure it out. Go get your suitcase.”

Ruby sobbed, “Maybe we should just…” But the stern look in Isla’s eyes made her think better of her words. She gave a hopeless cry and jerked away from her sister, yanking the door open in despair. She crossed the hall into her own room and went in search of her suitcase. Like Isla’s, it had been shoved into the recesses of her closet. With a sigh of confusion and sadness, she tugged several strange garments from hangers and out of drawers, and shoved them into her suitcase. The things did not technically belong to her, and she did not know how to wear them, but she could not walk out of this house with nothing in her suitcase. She sealed the case, then looked around at her room with a heavy heart. For a few moments, it had all been hers: the giant canopy bed and the bathtub inside the room, and the wide, open windows, and the cushions and paintings. For a little while only, Ruby had been a princess.

Isla appeared at her door and reminded her with one stern look that they were not princesses. They were going back to being beggars. Isla’s open hand beckoned Ruby and, with one final glance around the pretty room, she clasped her sister’s hand.

They stole down the steps and across the entryway. As they approached the open front door, though, Vara stepped into their path. She looked much fiercer in the doorway, backlit with the evening sun, wild dark hair in a mane around her head, eyes burning with uncompromising authority.

“You’re not leaving,” she informed them in an austere tone that reminded Ruby of her mother when she brought home notes from school detailing misbehavior.

“We are,” Isla answered, though how she managed to respond so assertively, Ruby might never know. “It was a mistake to come here.”

Vara shook her head once, and answered, “No.” The word made Ruby’s insides clench. She felt like a naughty little girl with a hand in the honey pot.

“Yes,” Isla replied, her tone still strong despite their aunt’s insistence. “We need to leave. If our mother wanted us to come to e’Silea, she would have told us about it. She would have told us about you. She wanted us to take over her business in Louvel. We should have insisted they allow us. I’m old enough and wise enough to handle it, and…” Her voice trailed away as Vara stepped over the threshold and lifted a hand to someone behind them. She snapped her fingers, and pointed at the suitcase in Isla’s hand.

“Take that,” she ordered.

Argos stepped up beside Isla and grasped the suitcase. Surprised, Isla let it go before she could understand what was happening.

“And that one,” Vara added, nodding toward Ruby’s. With a stern brow raised at Ruby, she ordered her, “Drop it.”

Ruby swallowed and, under her aunt’s stern eye, she squatted to place the case on the tiles. Argos whisked it away while Ruby was still entranced by Vara’s stare. Vara gave a tiny, approving nod at her before jerking her head around to address her slave.

“Those can feed the trash fire; the girls won’t be needing them.”

Isla managed to find her voice again. “You can’t keep us here against our will, Aunt Vara. If we would rather risk our chances in an orphanage, we have that right. I don’t expect you to pay our fare back to Foreland, but you will not stop us going.”

Vara raised both brows now, and kicked the door shut behind her.

“I can and will keep you here. By e’Silean law, you belong to me. And in e’Silea, there are no orphanages, and no ships that would accept fare off minors without consent of a temple keeper. While you do have rights, risking your chances in foreign lands is not one of them. You will stay here with me, as wards of my temple, and you will have the right to be children. You will have the right to be daughters of the Goddess. You will eat at least three square meals each day, receive the best healthcare and education e’Silea can offer you, and be the pampered little girls you ought always to have been.”

Isla’s breath was coming forward in sharp gasps now. “You can’t—”

“I can,” Vara interrupted unapologetically. “And I will. Ava belonged to me. She stole you from me. If you think for one moment I am going to relinquish you when I have you back…” She shook her head, as if there was no end of her sentence to satisfy her. “I’m not. I love my family. You are my family, and you belong with me.”

Ruby’s confusion receded slightly in favor of her aunt’s words. Hope started once again to flutter its feeble wings inside her.

“Now, come here, Ruby.”

The tone of command made Ruby’s stomach sink again. She feared punishment for trying to run away, and indeed, when she tried to step obediently toward her aunt, Isla held more tightly to her hand. Vara, though, gestured gently.

“Let me help you with that,” she said in a softer tone. “Come here.”

Ruby obeyed, and Isla was forced to relinquish her. Vara tapped Ruby gently on the underside of her chin once, then reached for the hem of the gray blouse. She tugged the silk belt off of her, then pulled the blouse up over her head and off her body too. Ruby reached up to pull up the front of the dress, which Isla had rigged to stay up using a couple of tied straps. Ruby swallowed down her concerns about modesty when Vara chuckled at her.

“You silly girl,” she chided gently. “The dress is a complete outfit. Turn round.”

Ruby obeyed at once, turning her back on Vara, and meeting Isla’s wide-eyed gaze. Vara untied and tightened the straps, tugging the dress up so Ruby’s knees and half her thighs were uncovered. Vara tied the straps more snugly around the back of her neck. The result was a much more comfortable fit of the dress, although the amount of exposed skin made Ruby’s cheeks flush.

“There you are,” Vara told her, spinning her back around by the shoulders to face her. “Much better. It fits you well.” She fingered the front of the straps, straightening them with a quick movement. Then she met Ruby’s eye and smiled at her kindly. “You’re a very pretty girl. You have no reason to hide yourself under all those layers.” She leaned forward and placed a kiss on Ruby’s forehead.

Ruby could feel Isla watching, could sense her disapproval, but was desperate to ask anyway.

“Why do you want us here, Aunt Vara? Most people don’t like to get saddled with extra mouths to feed. Do you really want us here?”

Vara cocked her head to the side, black hair cascading around her shoulders as she looked intently into Ruby’s eyes. Then, she opened her arms and tugged Ruby into an embrace. Ruby felt herself pulled against the woman’s bosom, tucked in against the warmth as she had been when Mother had hugged her. Enveloped by affection.

“I want you here,” Vara promised her. “I want you here so much, I will not let anything pull you away from me. Nothing. This is your home now, and a couple extra mouths to feed is a blessing and a pleasure.” She kissed her on top of the head as she gave her an especially hard squeeze. When she relinquished Ruby, the young girl stepped away reluctantly. And Aunt Vara gave her a sharp swat across the bottom. “Don’t you let your sister try and steal you away from me again. Do you understand me?”

Blushing to her hairline, Ruby gave a vigorous nod. Vara, though, had turned her attention on Isla.

“Come here,” she ordered the older girl. When Isla did not immediately obey, Vara raised a stern brow at her. “Come here, Isla. I do not expect you to understand or trust me yet, as we are only just getting acquainted, but I do expect you to obey me. Everyone under my roof obeys me because I am the keeper of this temple. Come here.”

Isla gave a shuddering breath and stepped obediently toward Aunt Vara. Ruby let out a relieved sigh that her sister had not put up any stronger fight. The tone of Vara’s voice when she scolded Isla was too eerily similar to their mother’s.

As soon as she was in front of Vara, the older woman tugged at the dress she wore. “This is backwards.” Without waiting for her to submit herself to manhandling, Vara spun Isla around and unbelted the dress. She tugged it up and off of her before Isla could more than cry out in horrified shock. She unclasped the bra Isla had on and then tugged the dress back over her head. Isla was drawing huge, gulping breaths when her head again appeared in the top of the dress. The bra fell to the floor as Vara maneuvered the dress on Isla’s slim frame. Ruby’s eyes widened in shock when she saw why Isla had put this dress on backwards before. She must have assumed a dress whose most distinguishing feature was a deep plunge could not intend that plunge to be in the front. But it was. The plunging neckline exposed the sloping inner sides of Isla’s breasts, and exposed her nearly to her belly button. The cloth Isla had used as a belt to cinch the dress close to her, Vara wound into a cord and looped through several delicate loops. The cord was not meant as a belt at all, but as a decoration to enhance the curves of the body. It wrapped around, cutting across the plunging neckline a couple times, although not succeeding in hiding anything, and ending in a knot on Isla’s right hip.

Vara smiled in satisfaction at the garment, but Isla was clearly appalled.

“I… I can’t,” she tried to argue.

Vara only kissed her on the head and said, “You’re a lovely girl too.” She kicked the bra aside, where it was immediately snatched up by the waiting Galen. Without waiting for an order, he turned and jogged below stairs. Isla watched him go with real pain on her face.

“Dinner,” Vara told both girls, and nodded toward the dining room. When Isla only continued to stare after Galen, Vara put a hand on the small of her back and pushed her toward the dining room. She grasped Ruby’s arm as well and ushered them both ahead of her into the room. “Let’s eat.”