Glamour of Midnight Read online

  “You’re lucky you have no sight,” she announced from her seat. “Mirrors are the most horrific things in the world. They can’t lie. They show the ravages of time, scars that won’t fade, and the fact that no matter what you do, you’re one day closer to death.”

  The bottles on her vanity rattled as she applied her creams, powders, and perfumes. From the whispers I’d heard in town, she didn’t need them. If Vivica was known for anything other than being the best harlot in Ironton, it was for her strange and unusual beauty.

  “Did you collect your alms today?” she asked.

  My spine straightened. I hated to take the charity, but couldn’t refuse the iron the Governor gave the damaged. It was never enough for one person, let alone two, but Iric and I needed every sliver and chunk we could get. “Iric’s taking me on the way to the Reveal.”

  “You don’t have to struggle like you do,” Vivica purred. All sound from her direction stopped. “Your hair’s long and straight. We could add some oil to make it shine. We could paint your lips and add rouge to your cheeks. You’d be able to afford new dresses after a week or so. The men of the Slopes would beat down your door. They can’t resist anything different than their Sloper wives, and you are certainly different, Karis.”

  “I don’t want to be a harlot.”

  My heart raced at the memory of hands grabbing at me. What happened next was the stuff of nightmares. But what I did to them...

  The seat creaked when she stood. Whispers of fabric came from her direction as she changed into another dress. “Iric can’t take care of you forever,” she scolded. “He’s a young man with needs. Soon, he’ll want a wife. He’ll fall in love with some young woman and settle down with her. Children will come. What will you do when he leaves you for them? Because eventually it’ll happen.”

  “I’ll take care of myself.”

  She let loose a throaty laugh. “You’re a woman now. A young woman, but still a woman. And yet you require constant watching. How will you make a living if not by lying on your back? Will you go to the mines with Duncan? I suppose it is dark in there, which is no hardship for you. But the Governor won’t pay you to swing a pickaxe at a wall when you can’t see what you’re trying to unearth. You can’t be a runner or a Border Gray. Maybe Mage, Root, or Dusty could teach you how to pick pockets...” she mused.

  She knew exactly where to cut me. She was well aware of the guilt I carried. Iric shouldn’t have to take care of me. Every time a girl had been interested in him, he’d either pushed her away or else she decided to leave when it was clear he wouldn’t choose her over caring for me. I was a wedge, separating him from what his life could be. Too many times I’d heard the pain in his voice when he told me not to worry about it, and that the girl wasn’t the right one after all. But there wouldn’t be a right one if I continued to stand at his side instead of leaving room for someone he could love.

  And maybe I would have to pick pockets one day. Maybe I could learn a trade. One time, a Sloper threw away spun wool and wooden needles. Iric brought them to me and I taught myself how to knit – not that I sold any of the shawls I made. No one would buy from a Changeling, even though I wasn’t one.

  A Changeling, according to superstition or legend, was a faery child. The fae would come in the night and take a human’s baby, exchanging it with one of their own. But if the Slopes believed the wall truly held the fae out of our city and kept them in Faery, that theory was blown to bits.

  It didn’t matter who argued it or how many times; their minds were made up. To them, I was something they couldn’t explain, and anything without an explanation was suspicious and potentially dangerous.

  Maybe doing something away from people would be better. Working in the gardens near the perimeter might be something I could ask about. They could let me work alone if it bothered other gardeners to work alongside me.

  But one thing I was sure about: I would never be like Vivica.

  She let out a sigh and I did, too.

  Where was Iric? I grabbed my elbows and kept my face pointing towards the door. The scent of sewage was better than her cheap perfume. If she was almost ready, that meant the Sloper paying for her company would be here soon.

  Grabbing my staff, I was about to make my way down the steps when a familiar voice called out. “K? Sorry I’m late. That took longer than expected.”

  I could hear his smile and feel the sunshine on my face, bright and hot. The rain was gone, chased away by the sun itself. The earth exhaled steam from its surface. Its dampness soaked into my clothes, hair, and skin. Iric’s steps were fast as he jogged toward me and up the steps. He leaned in. “Be right back.”

  Speaking now from inside her home, “Hello, Mother.”

  “Set the iron on the table,” was her flat response. Her first concern was iron. Always iron. My stomach churned. Her fee for watching me for the last hour was likely more than an hour of his wages. Pieces of metal meeting wood echoed from farther in the house, and then the low tones of the conversation they had and thought I couldn’t hear.

  That was the thing about being blind. My other senses more than made up for the deficiency ten-fold.

  So, I could hear when he thanked her for letting me stay with her. When she observed how pathetic it was that a grown woman needed a babysitter. When he told her that he could find another person to help, someone who would take his iron and not complain. And when she chuckled as if she couldn’t possibly care less, and because she knew no one else would allow me to step foot inside their homes.

  My fingers constricted on the smooth wood of my staff. I held it out in front of me, tapping the top step and making my way down three to the soft mud in front of them.

  “Karis?” Iric called out. “Wait.”

  I wasn’t waiting. I wasn’t spending one more second in that woman’s toxic presence today. I should’ve left after he did. Then he wouldn’t have owed her anything, and I wouldn’t have had to listen to her nonsense.

  Knocking my staff back and forth across the ground, I strode away from that place, into the streets flowing with steaming sewage and into the incessant tinkling of the bells. My head began to throb from the stench and sound. I wondered if it was as loud in the Slopes as it was in the Trenches.

  Were the Slopers as frightened as those who lived closest to the wall? If a fae somehow tore through it, the beast would devour us first, fill its belly, and leave. Why expend energy going up into the mountains when so many morsels could be found in the Trenches?

  Quick footsteps came from behind me. “Hey,” Iric greeted, tapping my shoulder as he fell into step beside me.

  “I’m not setting foot back in her house.”

  “Okay,” he agreed gently.

  “I’m not.”

  He blew out a quick breath. “That bad, huh?”

  “Worse.”

  “It’s my fault. I should have known.”

  “It’s nobody’s fault but hers.” I sighed. “We should hurry, before they close for the Reveal.” I just hoped the Governor gave me enough iron to replace what Iric just lost.

  3

  KARIS

  We waited in line together, Iric telling me when to move forward and how many steps to take. He was my eyes, but still allowed me a measure of independence.

  People walked past us as we waited, making their way to the amphitheater hewn from a rock cliff after one of the old mine’s shafts caved in, burying an entire work team beneath the rubble. Iric’s older brother Roane was among the dead.

  I’d always wondered whether the Governor had done it on purpose as an excuse to make room for the great stadium. He used it often enough. According to him, it was a monument to those hard-working men who’d lost their lives to try to make ours safer, and that we would be dishonoring their memories by not utilizing the space the accident had fortuitously provided.

  I wasn’t sure exactly how many people lived in Ironton, but the structure offered ample seating for all with room to spare. The Slopers got the b
est seats. The entire bottom half of the amphitheater was reserved for them, even though the Trenches had four times the population.

  Iric, ever the optimist, would say we should enjoy the brief reversal of our stations in life. For once, we could be high up and enjoy the thinner air the Slopers claimed was cleaner and better.

  We would sit at the very top, where Iric’s friends teased that we’d get nose bleeds. But it was easier that way. The fewer people around us, the easier it was for him to relay what was happening without our conversation annoying the people around us, and the freer Iric could speak about what he saw down below.

  The scents of sweat and iron swirled through the air on the light breeze as the line steadily moved forward. The Governor’s staff was eager to attend the Midsummer Reveal, and were more than generous and three times faster than they normally were. Before I knew it, it was my turn, and with more than a handful of scrap iron, the pocket on my skirt was soon straining to contain it and I was struggling to contain my smile.

  Iric nudged me as we walked away and joined the throng. “That’s twice as much as usual!”

  “I know,” I boasted, flashing a grin in his direction.

  “Take my arm. It’s getting crowded. You’ll knock into someone with your staff.”

  I reached my left hand out and found his right forearm. He steered me toward the farthest row of steps and we made our way up, up, and up until we were at the top row and out of the Trenches, even if only for a short time.

  It was refreshing, not because of the air, but because the tinkling of the bells wasn’t so infernally loud here. The chatter of the people below us was muffled, and as I sat on the hewn bench, the feel of the sun-warmed stone under my skirts comforted me.

  “Incoming...” Iric warned a second before I was tackled. His three youngest brothers knocked me backward, but I held tight to them.

  Root or Mage, I wasn’t sure which, grabbed my staff and pretended to battle his brother with it on the ledge behind us. “Take turns,” I warned them, eliciting a groan from Root. He loved to be the aggressor and hated being on the defensive.

  The quietest and youngest of Vivica’s children, Dusty, settled next to me. I wrapped an arm around his shoulders and he gave me as big a hug as he would while his brothers were close. “How have you been?” I asked him quietly.

  “Mage was caught stealing in the market today,” he admitted, scooting slightly closer to me.

  I released a long exhale and pressed my eyes closed.

  “We got away,” he added. But there was a time Mage hadn’t been able to escape the guards. He’d lost one of his hands as punishment. And since it was cut off as the result of a crime, he wasn’t eligible to receive alms. The boys were half-starved. If I moved my hand on Dusty’s back, I could count the knobs of his spine and feel the bow of each of his ribs. If Mage was caught again…

  “Tell you what,” I entreated with a smile. “I have some extra iron. This should help.” Fishing some iron out of my pocket, I let it fall into his hands, trusting that they were there and ready to catch the offering. “Don’t. Steal.” Emphasizing the words was pointless, but I did it anyway. The three would steal again. Children weren’t being used in the mines as often now. The Slopers found child labor distasteful, even though they could do simple chores. Of course, if they hadn’t been born to Vivica, they’d probably be fine. Iric and I helped them as much as we could, but it wasn’t enough.

  “Thank you, Karis,” Dusty muttered. I pulled him into my side as the Midsummer Reveal began.

  The rock amplified the Governor’s voice. “Citizens of Ironton,” he began. “We have been given a new opportunity to thrive once more. The fae have bestowed the gift of fae sight upon one of our people. It is a rare, but important ability to be able to see through the smoke and into the realm of the fae.”

  He prattled on about past citizens who had been gifted the ability only to be gobbled up once they set foot across the wall. “If I were the one gifted with the sight, I’d be pissin’ my pants right about now,” Mage swore. “All those monsters, ready for a meal made of man.”

  He was right.

  The boys quietly agreed with him.

  “I heard that only one of the Retrievers have ever made it back alive with the smoke in the last fifty years. That’s why it’s so thin now,” Mage continued.

  “Only one?” Dusty asked from my right.

  At my left, Iric’s arm brushed mine as he leaned forward. The Governor, with great fanfare announced, “I give you our Retriever, our very salvation: Trava of the Slopes!”

  “What’s happening? What does she look like?” I asked Iric.

  He leaned in, and above the wild applause and whistling, described the girl. “She’s no older than we are, thin, with red hair braided tightly and wearing a new leather suit of armor. That won’t stop the fae from sinking their teeth into her, though.” He released an angry breath. “The Governor is waving to the people. Her parents are standing behind her, wearing proud smiles, and everyone is clapping and cheering. But the girl? She looks terrified.” He snorted in disgust. “If she has the gift of faery sight, then so do I.”

  “What about the smoke?” Root asked Iric.

  “I can guarantee you she won’t make it far enough into Faery to find it.”

  “What’ll happen to us if she doesn’t?” asked Mage.

  “When the smoke grows thin, the beasts come in.” A line from a nursery rhyme. That was his answer. Despite the humidity and heat of the evening, a shiver of dread crawled up my spine.

  “It’s time for us to go,” Mage declared, calling for his brothers to join him. The people were about to file out of the amphitheater. Some would head to the wall to watch as Trava the Terrified stepped through the smoke and into Faery. Most would pray for, but not expect her return. The entire scene would be a morbid mix of farewell and well wishes.

  Mage, Root, and Dusty would seize the opportunity, and any iron they could pluck from the pockets of Ironton’s people tonight, all gathered together in one place. A good haul would feed them for weeks.

  Iric nudged me when I opened my mouth. “Be careful,” he admonished the trio. They did inherit one thing from their mother. Their feet were quiet. I barely heard them leave us. When they had gone, he turned to me and added, “We should go. We’re at watch tower thirty-four.”

  It was one of the more secluded towers, past the gardens and fields. It was also my favorite—the farthest from the bells.

  Taking Iric’s arm, he guided me until we were out of the crowd, stopping at the edge of the Trench market to buy dinner for us both: freshly cooked fish, corn on the cob, and bread. “I’ve got water,” he stated as he came back to where I stood. But he stopped his approach, becoming eerily quiet before saying, “Why...?”

  “What is it?” The hair on my arms stood on end.

  “There’s a woman, in a house just beyond the market. She’s staring at you.”

  “Who is she?”

  He hesitated. “If the boys are to be believed, she’s the only Retriever to have made it back to Ironton alive in the last twenty years. I thought she was a myth. I’ve never seen her outside before.”

  “Maybe she’s a ghost,” I teased.

  He gave a slight laugh.

  “Why wouldn’t the Governor send her back? Even if she only acts as a guide. If she knows how to get the smoke and survive the fae, why not have her help?”

  His voice grew quiet. “That’s a good question.” He blew out a tense breath. “She went back inside.”

  We made our way to the watch tower and ate our dinners in silence.

  “Once a person is given the sight, do they ever lose it?” I asked as the crickets sang all around us.

  Iric took a drink from his canteen. “I don’t imagine the fae would give it to a person for a limited time. I think it would be a lifelong gift.”

  “Or curse.”

  “Or curse, depending on how you looked at it,” he agreed. “I wonder what the woma
n who made it back sees now that she’s home. And I wonder what she saw beyond the wall.”

  The wall was just that, a divider; but made of smoke and magic, it allowed humans to pass through while keeping the fae from entering our town. According to Iric, it was less a wall and more a dome with a hole in the top to let the sunlight and rain in.

  My theory was that the top of the dome still held smoke, but was thinner. Some of the fae could fly, according to the histories. Something had to be keeping them outside.

  “How thin is the wall? Can you see out?” I asked.

  “The smoke is thinning in places, but not enough to see through. I can’t see out. Never have been able to. Sometimes I wonder if there’s really anything out there to see.” He took another drink.

  “You don’t think there are monsters on the other side?”

  “There’re monsters everywhere, K. A wall of smoke doesn’t keep them from living among us.” I knew what he was referring to, but pinched my lips together. He threw our gnawed corn cobs out the watchtower window. “If you’re asking whether I believe the fae are real, I know they were at one time. I just don’t know if they still exist. And I don’t know if they’re all monsters like people say.”

  “Did you know her?” I asked curiously. “Trava of the Slopes, I mean. The girl with the sight?”

  “I make runs for her family.”

  He did know her. I wasn’t sure if he liked her, but I could tell her leaving bothered him. He was exhausted and laid down on the floor of the tower to nap, but it took forever for him to relax. When his breathing became slow and even, I listened for any unusual sounds. His commander knew he was a runner, but didn’t know the extent of his work within the Slopes. If he found out, Iric would risk dismissal. The Border Grays were charged with either peacekeeping or guarding the wall. Iric had chosen the latter to retain his runner job during the daylight hours.

  But a Border Gray had to be alert during their watch, or so the commander would say. Iric’s friends respected him. They hadn’t told anyone that he took me with him, and no one knew he napped at night. Not that it would matter. We’d been doing this for years and nothing had ever broken through the wall.