Chapter Five, One Year Later

Dara

Three months later found most of us bustling around with unusual excitement. Today was the day Marcus was set to take his Journeyman's tests, and we were all thrilled for him. Most of us, anyway.

Vorthos declined to take part in the collection to buy pastry and a bottle of good wine to congratulate Marcus when he passed, and seemed even more tense about the subject than usual. Instead of making his usual scathing remarks about him, he simply glared around the room and clenched his hand around his quill whenever the subject came up.

The rest of us tried to ignore him, having enough trouble concentrating on our usual exercises as it was. The tests were conducted in the Masters' dining room, and several of us contrived reasons to be near there at different times of the day– but beyond the closed door, none of us saw or heard anything worth reporting to the group.

There was still no sign of Marcus as we gathered for dinner, but that wasn't all that unusual as the tests could sometimes take all day. Especially if the apprentice was trying for an unusually difficult set of illuminations to pass that part of the trial, which would be typical for Marcus. He always wanted to do that extra bit to put himself forward.

I noticed Kuri had gone to special lengths to make herself beautiful, with a new gown, and with her hair swept up in a particularly attractive way.

"Kailyn did my hair for me," she beamed, when I asked her about it.

I smiled, glad to see her look so happy– she was nearly glowing. I tamped down the fear that went with being happy for her, the worry that Marcus would someday settle down with a wife, and Kuri (and the rest of his admirers) would be left in the cold.

After dinner passed without him, we began to grow a bit concerned. Kailyn, ever the impatient one, said it first. "Where in the world is he, anyway? I'd think he'd be done by now! Unless... well, I can't imagine he failed, can you?"

Dorcas and I looked uncomfortably at each other. Yes, that was a possible answer, but it seemed so unlikely since Marcus had always been so gifted.

Kuri, for her part, was furious. "Kailyn, how could you possibly say such an ugly thing? Unless you're jealous of his talent, of course!"

She began to sputter an indignant reply, but was startled into silence when Vorthos' glass snapped in two in his hand.

"I'll tell you where your precious Marcus is, Kuri. He's a cheat and a thief, and the Masters finally found out the work he's been showing them isn't his own!"

We all gasped at him, wide-eyed, as he plowed on. "They turned him out this afternoon. He's gone. Finished. And I, for one, am glad to see the last of him."

There was a resounding crash as Kuri picked up her plate and heaved it at him. "You shut up, you vile, vile thing! You hate him, you've always hated him!"

"Because I know the truth about him, you silly chit! I've known all along!"

"But if you knew, why not come forward?" Francis asked reasonably.

His face twisted. "Who would possibly believe me? You? Master Vandry? Even Master Thalia was besotted with him, you all were. Nobody would want to hear such terrible truths about their favorite apprentice. Even if he was lying to everyone from the moment he stepped foot in the door."

Kuri started sobbing and screaming at him to stop.

Francis rose and faced him. "Vorthos, that's really quite enough. None of us knows what happened, and really, what you're saying is very unlikely."

"Unfortunately, it's also true," said a voice from the door. Everyone stared in shock as Master Vandry walked in, looking weary beyond measure.

"Marcus Fletcher was indeed found guilty of turning in the work of another, and of theft. We released him from his contract this afternoon. I'm sorry, I didn't want any of you to find out this way."

"But... how in the world did he get away with it?" Francis sputtered.

Vandry sighed. "He paid one of the Journeymen to do his work for him, something he was only able to afford because he has apparently been thieving since childhood. This is a double blow. We had to let the Journeyman go as well."

Gods, I thought. Not just Marcus, but someone else? Someone lost not only their career, but their very name over this! For if Marcus hadn't been discovered, he would have been renamed Marcus Scrivner, in honor of his craft. He'd blackened the name of the whole Guild over this.

"Why?" I asked hollowly. "Why would he do this?"

Master Vandry hung his head. "Because his father is a very ambitious man, Dara. I can't blame him for wanting to give his son a better future than his own trade provided, but he sold Marcus' contract into a craft he had no talent at, and no calling for. I remember when he first came to us, his letters seemed so poorly shaped. When Master Thalia and I fretted him over it, he began to improve markedly. We simply thought it the result of hard work."

I glanced over and noticed that Kuri had gone whiter and whiter as Master Vandry spoke. Suddenly, she backed away from the table, tipping over her stool in the process. "No... no... this can't be true! It can't!"

Master Vandry started toward her. "I'm very sorry, child."

She shook her head violently. "No! You don't understand! I..." she broke off and ran from the room, sobs echoing loudly off the walls.

Kailyn frowned delicately. "Good grief, I always told that girl nothing good would come of this infatuation with Marcus!"

Dorcas and I both glared at her. I pushed back my stool. "I need to go look after her," I said to Master Vandry, and he nodded back.

I found Kuri curled in a ball in the far corner of the dormitory, the guttering light from a single candle throwing mad shapes across her tear-streaked face.

"Kuri," I said softly, kneeling next to her. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

She shook her head. "I should have known. I should have known it could never last. But he said he loved me! He told me he'd marry me!"

She turned her face away from me and started crying again, her shoulders shaking with grief.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "I'll help you get past this, we all will. There are other men, better men. You'll see!"

She wiped her face with her sleeve, glaring bitterly at me. "You don't see, Dara. It's too late for that! Much, much too late!"

I winced. How could I have been so naive? Of course he did more than just smile at her, he slept with her. I felt like a fool.

"Kuri... it's not too late. No one has to know."

"It doesn't matter!" she cried, biting off the words.

"In a few months, everyone will know!" "In a few..." I stopped, suddenly understanding. He hadn't just taken her maidenhood, he'd gotten her pregnant. And now she was left with a baby with no family and no future.

"Gods, Kuri, I..." I stammered, utterly at a loss for words.

"Now you see. No, it's all right, you don't need to say anything. What can you say anyway? Perfect little Dara, you'd never risk your future on love!"

I stared at her like I'd been slapped. Love? But we were too young to know love, weren't we? I now understood why Kuri had always been both so close and so distant, for she lived a whole different life when she was away from the rest of us. So many things made sense now, including why the quality of her work had fallen off so much.

"Kuri, there are ways to fix this," I said finally. "There have to be. I said before that I'd help you, that I want to help you. I know you think I'm naive, but I am your friend."

I passed her a cloth and she wiped her face, finally looking at me carefully. "You really mean that?"

I nodded solemnly. "I do. I swear by Formate, I will help you find a way out of this."

She bit her lip. "Thank you. Really. I know I said awful things, but... thank you. I don't know what else to do."

I thought for a moment. "Well, I'll need to go down and make up something to tell the others. And you need to get some rest. I'll tell Dorcas the shock of it has made you unwell, and she can make up a cup of chamomile tea for you."

She nodded and grabbed my hand. "Whatever you do, don't let Kailyn find out. If she does, she'll tell the Masters, I know she will!"

"I won't. And I think I know someone who can help."

"Who? Not any of the others, you can't tell them!"

"I have a friend who is a Cartographer's apprentice. She's very worldly, I think she can help."

"Thank you, Dara. You're right, I think I do need to be alone right now." She pulled herself to her feet and wobbled unsteadily toward her bed. I offered to help, but she just shook her head.

I took a breath and prepared to face the others.

Thankfully, they had tried their best to stop thinking about it, now that the truth was out. Master Vandry insisted that the pastry not go to waste, and drew out the others by talking about each apprentice's work, in turn. It would take a long time before we were able to deal with this, both collectively and individually, but for the moment, Marcus was carefully forgotten.

Dorcas looked up as I walked back in. "How is Kuri?"

"She's not feeling well. You know how much she admired Marcus, this is just hitting her really hard."

Dorcas, to my relief, nodded and asked if she would like a tisane to help her relax.

Kailyn simply muttered something to the effect that Kuri would get over it eventually, and Kuri's original outburst seemed to have unnerved the men enough that they were willing to let Dorcas and I handle her.

I let Master Vandry talk to me about illumination, and hand me a piece of the pastry, but even my favorite craft had lost its luster for the moment, and the pastry tasted wooden in my mouth.

I could hardly wait for the day to end so that I could see Cantalen in the morning. Cantalen knew nearly as much as Vorthos, she had to know something that would help!

~~*~~

I rapped hard on the back door of the Cartographer's Guild. Surely Cantalen would know what to do, know some solution that would allow Kuri to salvage her dignity and her reputation.

The door opened with a swift jerk, and the sharp nose and doughty cheeks of their cook peeped out. "Yes? Oh, Dara Trader. What will you be wanting now?"

Now? I'd gone looking for Cantalen a couple of times in the past, but I never meant to bother them– and I never before had this sort of urgency!.

"I need to speak to Cantalen, ma'am. If it's not an inconvenient time," I added hastily.

"And if it is?"

I tried not to glare. "It's a bit of an urgent matter, I'm afraid. I don't want to pull her from her lessons, but I really do need to speak with her."

She opened the door and beckoned me inside with a regal sweep of her arm. Their kitchen was warm, with bunches of herbs hung about the rafters, and on the whole a good deal larger than ours as scribes may be more numerous, but mapmaking was a much more profitable enterprise.

She fetched me a cup of tea, peering at me down her nose as she put the steaming mug on the table. "What is this about, so I may tell the Masters?"

"It's... private." I mumbled.

She frowned. "Yes, I suspected it would be. Wait there, I will see what I can do."

I heard her mutter something about "silly girls, what have they got up to this time?" as she bustled off down the hallway.

But whatever disapproval the cook showed me, she was able to fetch Cantalen readily enough. I guessed from the mix of curiosity and concern written on my friend's face that she'd been told it was important.

"What's the matter, Dara? You look pale as winter!"

I looked around the kitchen. "We need to talk... umm... not here."

The cook tapped her toe and glared at me. "Go ahead, for Aes' sake. If it was important enough for me to bother an apprentice at her work, it's worth me sparing you a few moments of privacy."

"Thank you! Really!" I gushed, surprised.

"Well, so long as you don't keep her all day. We do conduct business in this hall, you know."

And we didn't? I glared at her retreating form, biting off the automatic defense of my own Guild.

Cantalen watched, amused, before looking back at me. "Well?"

"I'm sorry, really, I didn't mean to cause such a fuss. It's just... I don't know what to do."

"Slow down, drink your tea, tell me what happened? It can't be as bad as all that! Is it Master Thalia?"

"No, it's not about me, it's Kuri. She's... well, she's pregnant."

Cantalen looked at me strangely as I told her who I was there about, which shouldn't have surprised me, since I'd been rather close-mouthed about Kuri ever since Cantalen and I had met. It was far easier to complain about an enemy than to describe the on-again, off-again nature of my friendship with Kuri.

"She's one of your fellow apprentices, right? Well, it's sad, but it does happen. I suppose the lucky father-to-be will marry her?"

I winced. "Not likely! See, that's the problem. I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Marcus Fletcher was thrown out of the Guild yesterday, for cheating and stealing! And he's the father."

Her eyes widened. "Marcus Fletcher, that's the good-looking one with red hair, the older apprentice that I always see out and about?"

I nodded.

"Good grief! Well, yes, that would explain it."

"Explain... what?"

"That Fletcher, why he always seems to have so much coin on him. Several of the apprentices here have diced and wagered with him, they're always remarking about how much ready money he usually has. That would account for it, wouldn't it."

I nodded sadly. "I should have seen it, we all noticed the same thing. Vorthos knew, but he didn't speak for fear he wouldn't be believed."

She smiled. "Vorthos? You know, I keep hearing you mention him. Why is that?"

I colored. "Certainly not for the reason you're implying! He just seems to know everything about everyone, that's all. But about Kuri..."

She coughed, but not before I saw her grin. I was trying not to be cross with her– I was genuinely worried about Kuri, and I certainly didn't have designs on Vorthos! The idea was just too ridiculous! Honestly, I adored Cantalen's sense of adventure, but sometimes it gave her the strangest darned notions.

"I can see the girl's predicament, and I do feel for her. If she could just end the pregnancy, she could go on with her apprenticeship with no one the wiser. Otherwise, she's ruined."

"Yes, precisely! Is there anything you know of, someone who could help?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You're talking about magical help, aren't you?"

I lowered my head. "Yes, I'd thought it was possible, but the only one I could ask was Vorthos, and if I tell him, the whole darn Guild will know."

I waited while she mulled it over.

"I have heard tell of such things," she said finally. "It's a Shaper skill, reshaping the womb so the child finds no succor there, and passes cleanly out of the woman's body. But I know it's normally done in an emergency, when the mother is dying. It happened to my mother's cousin-- she nearly died, they had to find a Mage. But to do otherwise is against Aes. And if they did..."

She broke off, looking at my suddenly-hopeful face, shaking her head at me. "And if they did, Dara, it wouldn't come cheap."

"Well, I'll have to hope I can find someone who will, then." I said stubbornly.

"And if you can, who will pay? She doesn't have that kind of money on her, does she?"

"No, she doesn't. But I know someone who does." I muttered.

She read my angry glare. "You aren't thinking what I think you are... tell me you're not going to go to that thief and ask him to pay for it!"

"What else? He's got the money, and he owes her!"

She shook her head. "It's too dangerous! Besides, you barely know this girl!"

I was quiet. "I know her better than that, Cantalen. And I need to do something for her. Someone should have seen this coming. I should have seen this coming. I thought she simply had a crush on him, that she was just fearful that someone else would catch his attention. I didn't know she already had, not that way!"

She opened her mouth, then closed it again. "I'll go with you."

"What? No! Cantalen, you said yourself, it's too dangerous!"

Her jaw set. "All the more reason not to go alone. Besides, if I help you with this, maybe next time you'll trust me enough to tell me what's really going on."

I sat back in the chair, blinking. It wasn't a matter of trust, just... I would never have known how to describe Kuri, and my friendship with her. I didn't know where to even start.

"Never mind, it's too late to start now. Past is past," she said sharply. "I'll meet you outside tonight. I trust you can find a way out?"

I just nodded mutely, and watched her walk out of the room. I drained my cup and let myself out. My eyes were beginning to well up, and I felt I'd already given the cook enough to gossip about for one day, without having to add a fight with my best friend to the list.

~~*~~

Getting out was tougher than I thought it would be. Of the girls, only Kailyn seemed fast asleep. I inched out slowly, swearing that Dorcas woke up and looked right at me at least twice. But if she did, she chose not to challenge me, and I carefully stepped out of the dormitory and down the stairs. I fumbled for an excuse to use if Master Thalia caught me, but to my eternal relief, I heard no sounds of footsteps as I passed her door.

Cantalen was pacing in the courtyard, hyped up on the excitement of what we were about to do. "Dara," she whispered, "it took you long enough!"

"That's because your Master sleeps like a rock," I whispered back, feeling as though we might as well be yelling for as quiet as we weren't being.

"Come on!" she said, heading for the gate leading out– which generations of sneaking apprentices had kept carefully oiled.

"Do you know where we're going?" I asked, once we were clear of both Guildhalls.

She nodded. "I talked to Gregor, one of the Journeymen who often went out dicing with Marcus. They usually went to the pubs that guildsmen favor, but I don't think Marcus is going to be seen in one of those again after today! But there was this one really dodgy place Marcus took him one night, said he found himself lucky to get back with his clothes intact, let alone his purse!"

I looked at her doubtfully. "And you think we should go there?"

She shook her head. "Dara, it was your idea! Besides, you said we should go on adventures, so think of this as an adventure."

Two women in a seedy part of town with an armed escort, that's an adventure, I thought. This is foolishness. Still, she was right, it was my idea, and I did want to help Kuri.

I sighed. If I said any of that, she'd think me a frightened little girl. The fact that I felt like one notwithstanding. Instead, I asked her if she knew how to get there.

"Gregor gave me a pretty good idea, though I've never been that far west before."

Cantalen started out confidently enough, dodging and weaving through streets that were at first familiar but became increasingly foreign as we moved further west. Well-ordered cobblestones gave way to rutted avenues of mud and filth barely visible in the guttering torchlight. The streets themselves got ever narrower, and the farther we penetrated into the warren of streets and alleys, the more I noticed the pervasive stench of the river. Buildings here were made of wood, except for the odd falling-down hulk of stone from an earlier era. I felt eyes on us from those buildings, and clutched my cloak tighter around my shoulders.

"Don't," whispered Cantalen from between clenched teeth. "They'll sense your fear."

"I suspect they also sense we have fairly decent clothes, Cantalen. That's probably a lot easier to see than the fear."

"They fit together quite nicely, actually," she said grimly, leading me to wonder exactly how she came by so much experience of areas girls of good family normally feared to go.

It was my idea, I kept reminding myself, annoyed at both my fear and the fact that being afraid made me lash out at Cantalen. I should be on my knees thanking Aes for her, if I'd gone alone I'd quite possibly be dead by now. What in the world was I thinking?

Suddenly, a hand reached out of the shadows and closed on my arm. I screamed, only earning myself a hand over my mouth.

"Dara!" Cantalen whirled, only belatedly realizing I wasn't right behind her.

The man tried to pull me closer, while trying to rummage for my purse at the same time. "Lovely girls, what marvelous luck that the Gods brought you here to me!"

I gagged from the stench of rotted fish clinging to his hand, and did the first thing that popped into my mind– I opened my mouth wide and bit him as hard as I could.

"Filthy whore!" he screamed, instinctively letting go of me to clutch at his injured hand.

Cantalen wasted no time. "Run!" she screamed, grabbing me by the hand and pulling me after her.

We ran, and I thanked Aes for the luck of being in one of the drier passages as we struggled to escape him, for our shoes wouldn't have lasted ten seconds on mud. We careened blindly through a maze of alleyways, and if Cantalen had known where we were going before, now we were hopelessly lost.

By the fourth alley, I was pretty sure we'd lost him, but we kept running just to be sure. Finally, we tumbled out into a wider street, and Cantalen jerked to a stop, trying to get her bearings.

The buildings were all dark, save the larger one on the corner. Weak light spilled out the doorway, illuminating a grimy sign which swayed and creaked in the wind. I did a double-take at the sign, which depicted a curved sword arched over a spur.

"Cantalen, didn't you say the pub was called the Sword and Spur?"

"Yes, that's what Gregor said," she muttered absently, looking back toward the alley. "Dara, I'm afraid we're lost."

I poked her on the shoulder. "Actually, that greasy git did us a favor!"

She looked back in confusion and I pointed at the pub. "Well, I'll be damned!"

I grinned. "Not if I can help it!"

Our excitement faded quickly as we walked toward the pub. Mydry may have taken care to make sure I wasn't overwhelmed by the very idea of a pub, but he'd never taken me to one like this. There were a few knots of people clustered outside the doors, and several smiled at us in a decidedly predatory manner as we walked past.

As I got closer, I realized to my shock that several of them were children. They were dressed in ragged clothing, and their faces held the same knowing, sneering smile as the adults around them. One of them, a frighteningly beautiful little boy with dirty blond hair and brilliant blue eyes, made a snatch at my waist as we passed.

I dodged out of his way and followed Cantalen inside. We ignored the leers and jeering laughter of the men just inside the door and scanned the room for Marcus.

At first there was no sign of him, and my heart sank. We'd gone through all that to get here, and we probably would lose our purses– or worse– when we tried to leave. I didn't want to believe that it had been for nothing. Which was exactly when I noticed a gleam of red hair on a particularly unkempt figure nearly draped over a table in the back of the room.

"He's here!" I yelled, grabbing Cantalen and cutting through the crowd.

Marcus looked up blearily as we walked up to the table, showing absolutely no sign of recognizing me. He looked even worse than I could have imagined. Both his clothes and his face were liberally streaked with mud, and he had a livid bruise around his left eye. His hair was matted around his face, and he reeked of cheap ale.

"Marcus, wake up," I said sharply.

He stared at us blankly. "Whaa you want?"

"Marcus!" I pounded the table with my fist. "We came all the way here to find you, and I am damned well not going back empty handed!"

He blinked as his eyes suddenly began to focus. "Dara? What the hell you doing here?"

"We're here to ask you to account for what you did to Kuri!" I said sharply.

"Don't know what you're talking about," he mumbled.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, and you're going to take responsibility for it."

He looked at us warily. "Who's your friend?"

"I'm Cantalen, apprenticed to the Cartographer's Guild, and don't change the subject," she interjected irritably.

"What subject? Kuri is a pretty girl, but she never meant anything to me. Besides, as you have probably heard by now, the Guild bounced me out, so what do you want from me?"

"A little honour? Although they say there's no honour among thieves," I added.

He bristled. "Look, I was only with Kuri a couple of times. She was way too young, but she was so damn persistent! I never asked her to go get pregnant..."

"You knew!" I stared at him open-mouthed. "You knew all along! She was telling the truth when she said you'd offered to marry her! You didn't mean it, of course?"

He shrugged. "I didn't really think about it."

"You're going to think about it now, right enough!" said Cantalen.

He folded his arms and glared at both of us. "Like I just said, I don't know what you expect me to do about it. I don't have a future to offer her anymore, remember?"

I just shook my head. "We're not asking for your future, Marcus. Just the ability for Kuri to have one. All that takes is money, and you never had a problem in that department, did you?"

"Pay to get rid of her little problem? I don't think so."

"I'd reconsider that if I were you. I'm guessing that Master Vandry didn't have the heart to turn you over to the Watch for theft. I think Cantalen and I could find it within ourselves to do it for him."

He swore under his breath and glared at me. "I never figured you for blackmail, Dara. You always seemed like such an uptight, self-righteous little thing. I guess you've grown up more than I thought."

He held up a hand as Cantalen started to protest. "No, save your breath, little apprentice. Just tell me how much you want."

She snorted. "And here I've been told for so long that you always dined out on your charm. Can't say I see it, myself. That would be 30 ducats that we're looking for, by the way."

"Thirty! What the hell for?"

"A Shaper," I said softly.

"A Shaper. You're both crazier than I thought."

That was too much for Cantalen. "Look, dammit, are you going to pay, or not?"

"I..." he stopped and glared daggers at us. "Oh, what the hell. I can see my expenses will be going down now that I don't have to keep up this charade anymore."

He reached for his waist and tossed his purse at us. "I've already had three people try to take the thing tonight, weren't for my friend Remo over there helping me fight them off," he stopped and nodded to a stocky man in a leather jerkin by the door.

"Take it. Remo will see you home, since the last thing I want is for the pair of you get robbed and have you back in here tomorrow trying to fleece me again."

I opened my mouth to respond and shut it again. I wasn't sure if I was finally seeing the real Marcus after all, or if ale and bitterness were covering for emotions I could better understand. Either way, we'd gotten what we came for, that's all that really mattered. I scooped up the purse and turned my back on him.

We were, as Marcus promised, unmolested on our trip home– which turned out to be a much faster trip than the journey over here. Marcus' friend Remo didn't speak, but I finally let curiosity get the better of me.

"Why did you let your friend be bothered out of his last coin by a pair of girls?"

He shot me a sharp look. "I've known Marcus for a long time, way before his pa ever got the stupid idea of selling his contract to the Scribes. He loves women, and they love him, no harm in that. But I wasn't any more for letting him ruin some girl's future than you were. Better he keep some measure of his honour than end the day with nothing at all left."

I just nodded, thinking that a good friend was just as important as one's honour. I hoped Marcus had sense enough to realize it.

~~*~~

I could hardly concentrate on my chores and lessons the next day, and by lunchtime my wrists were stinging fiercely from repeated slaps from Master Thalia's birch rod. The afternoon wasn't any easier, just less painful. When it finally came time for dinner, I nearly upset my ink bottle all over the table in my haste to get out the door.

Cantalen had agreed to take Marcus' money to the Shaper she'd heard about during midday break, and I'd held off telling Kuri anything about our adventures last night until I heard something definite.

But Cantalen wasn't there when I went out to look for her, and I waited as long as I could without missing dinner and drawing way too much attention to myself. I snuck out again after cleanup, but the courtyard was empty.

Just as I was turning to go back in, I saw the glimmer of torchlight moving quickly toward the gate. I hastened over to open it, and Cantalen rushed in, trying to catch her breath.

"I couldn't find her at first, it took me half the afternoon and 15 silvers just to get her address out of someone at Market."

"But you did find her?"

"I found her, but the news isn't good, Dara."

My heart sunk. "Not good how? She wouldn't do it?"

"Not for thirty ducats."

"Oh, no. How much did she want?"

"Forty-five," Cantalen said with palpable disgust.

"Forty-five? Gods. There's no way..."

She nodded. "Five extra, ten even, and we could find a way. But who has fifteen?"

I rubbed my face tiredly and turned back toward the door. "I'll tell her."

She put her hand on my shoulder. "You tried. That's something."

"I know, and thank you. I just wish we had better news for Kuri."

Kuri took it far more calmly than I would ever have imagined. Like Cantalen, she thanked me and told me I tried. The only part that really seemed to bother her was the fact that we'd gone to Marcus for money.

"You shouldn't have done that," she'd said hollowly.

But that was before I told her how much he'd contributed. I left out his attitude and the comments he made about her, of course, along with the fact that we threatened him. She was surprised and pleased that he'd be willing to help her, although there was a wariness about her at the end that made me wonder if she guessed how it had actually happened after all.

I started to walk away, a bit baffled how she'd been completely in pieces the night we all found out about Marcus and she was so pulled-together now. Although I'd always been told that tragedy makes an adult out of a person.

"Kuri? Dara?"

I turned at the voice, seeing Dorcas hesitantly approaching.

"There is another way, and it won't be as dear."

"Another way?" I echoed stupidly, not wanting to confirm any rumors that Dorcas may have heard. Had the rest of the Guild found out Kuri's secret anyway?

"I know, Dara," she said calmly. "I've known all along. You do notice certain things, being in a roomful of girls. If you've been raised in a family of Landwrights, anyway. Kuri has missed at least two cycles now."

Kuri just nodded and started crying silently.

Dorcas just looked around, palpably uncomfortable. "I'll go, if you'd prefer. I didn't want to upset you."

"No, please stay," I said, focusing on what she said and hoping Kuri wouldn't mind. "You said there was another way?"

She perched her large body on the end of Kuri's bed. "There are herbs," she started, hesitating. "And I know an herbwife who is willing. She helped a couple of friends of my sister."

"How..." Kuri started to speak, and her voice broke on a sob.

I started to hand her a handkerchief, but she waved me off. "How much does she ask?" she managed finally.

"About fifteen."

I raised an eyebrow. "Fifteen? That's half what Marcus gave. You could use it to buy supplies when you pass your Journeyman's tests!"

She looked considerably less excited, somehow. "I could, I suppose..."

"Kuri, it's not a guarantee," Dorcas commented. "Going to a Shaper is a lot safer, too. The herbs are very dangerous. They could render you sterile. It's rare, but it has happened."

"Thank you, Dorcas. I'll take the risk," she said with what dignity she could still muster.

~~*~~

Dorcas led us out on the weekend break, telling Master Thalia we were going to market to look at books, and she just snorted, knowing none of the three of us could afford any.

The route she took seemed oddly familiar after my journey the other night with Cantalen, but she veered off somewhere and we ended up very close to the river.

"Somehow I expected her to be closer to the country," I mused aloud.

Dorcas laughed. "It's not the sort of thing you want out, that you're killing your unborn child, Dara. Even if it is common enough, it's still a sin against Aes to end the Aessence of something you created with Her help. Farm girls see this herb wife just because she does tend mostly to City folk."

After that I just kept quiet. Better to let them think me foolish and naive than to open my mouth again and continue to remove any lingering doubts!

Dorcas led me to a small, squat wooden building within the outer edges of the warehouse district, where storehouses began to give way to tall, narrow tenements housing the workers. The woman's sign had a bottle and a bunch of plants, over the sigil of Contado, the Landwright.

She knocked once, and opened the door on a thin, spidery voice from within. We entered into a cramped, low-ceilinged room with bunches over herbs drying from the rafters and creating only a narrow aisle in which to walk.

A frail, slender, seemingly ancient woman walked out, leaning on a staff. She had brilliant long white hair bound back in a ribbon, and her eyes were rheumy with cataracts– no doubt another reason young women felt safe in going to her. She could only identify them by scent and voice.

Still, she recognized Dorcas easily enough, which lent truth to the old notion that if one lost a sense, the others would grow stronger to compensate.

"Your voice has changed a lot, of course, but it's still very much like Elisha's," she said to Dorcas, probably referring to her elder sister.

"Elisha is married now, with three children," she responded. I guessed Elisha was probably a Farmer, since the news that Dorcas was with the Scribe's Guild seemed to surprise the old woman.

"It has been some time since I've seen anyone willing to bring me news of the country. These city folk are very different, much faster about everything."

"Don't young women still come to you? For... help?" Dorcas asked somewhat feebly, looking at us confused.

"Ah. That would be why you are here," she said, all trace of kindness gone from her voice.

"Not for me, Old Mother! For a friend." Dorcas said, aghast.

Kuri suddenly looked very pale, and clutched at my arm. "Do you want to leave?" I asked softly.

She shook her head. "No, it's fine. My name is Kuri Scrivner, Old Mother. It is I who needs your help. I was foolish, and allowed myself to be deceived by a boy in our Guild, a boy who was expelled for cheating and stealing."

She tried to keep her voice steady, but it failed her toward the end.

The herb wife merely shook her head. "And you didn't see the cheating and the stealing? You must have been foolish indeed."

"Now there's no call to insult her, Old Mother!" Dorcas interjected. "The boy was unaccountably charming. He had a lot of people fooled who should have known better."

"Charming?" She laughed, an odd, strangely rich sound. "I remember boys who were charming, although that must seem an eternity ago to you girls. Very well, I will help you, Kuri Scrivner. No doubt Dorcas remembers my fee?"

"Fifteen ducats," Dorcas said promptly. "I remember very well, it seemed like a fortune to Melsha when she had to save for it."

"The herbs aren't easy to come by, especially not near Estrelline. I don't ask for more than I require, young lady."

Kuri stepped between them and placed the purse in the herb wife's papery hand. "What do I need to do?"

"Just sit down," she said crossly, pointing at a stool at the foot of a long table. "I'm brewing an infusion of herbs, not using a Landwright's magic, for Aes' sake!"

Kuri sat down and rubbed her hands together as we all watched the old woman bustle around setting a kettle on the fire and collecting handfuls of herbs out of old jars that she seemed to know by touch and memory.

Kuri looked at us as the herb wife began grinding the herbs together with a mortar and pestle. "I... thank you, both. Just thank you."

I looked at Dorcas uncertainly. "You're welcome, Kuri. You're a friend and a Guildswoman, if we can help you we will. You know that," Dorcas said.

"I know," she said, and stared intently at the surface of the table until the infusion was finished.

"Right, then" said the old woman, placing a steaming cup in front of Kuri. A bit of it sloshed over the side, and Kuri pulled her hands back as if she were stung.

The herb wife didn't seem to notice. "You'll want to give it a moment to cool, or you'll burn your tongue. Dorcas has no doubt told you that herbs aren't a perfect science, and that there's some risk involved?"

Kuri nodded, and we waited in silence for the cup to cool.

"Drink up, then" the old woman said several moments later, making everyone but Dorcas jump.

Kuri took the cup in her hands and stared at it, watching tiny bits of herb swirl in the water.

"You don't want to wait too long," she said crossly, her sightless eyes staring at Kuri. "The herbs are most potent if they don't soak forever."

"Give her a moment, Old Mother," Dorcas said softly. "It's not a small thing."

"No," Kuri said, setting down the cup. "It's not a small thing at all. In fact, I can't do it."

"You don't think I wasted herbs for nothing, did you, child?"

"No, Old Mother. I wouldn't dream of asking for my payment back. But I can't go through with it. It's wrong. I think I knew that, but I guess I needed to go this far just to be sure."

The old woman nodded sagely and withdrew the cup, pouring the contents out the window.

"But..." I said lamely as I watched the tea spill out of the cup. "Kuri, are you sure?"

"I'm sure," she said, and I was surprised at the sudden steel in her voice. "I'll go to my mother. She will be very angry with me, but it's still better this way."

Dorcas and I just nodded as Kuri rose and took the old herb wife's hands within hers. "Thank you. I'm sorry you had to use your herbs, but you helped me make the right decision."

"I don't mind, child. Not really. The best coin, after all, is wisdom. Aes' blessings on you and your baby."

As we followed Kuri outside, I touched her on the shoulder. "That was very brave, Kuri. Better than I could do."

She smiled. "Perhaps now, but I sense that will change someday. I had to earn it– when the time is right, you will too. We do what we need to."

Whatever she had been for the two years I'd known her, she had the better of it now, even if I didn't envy her the trip back to her family's home.

Kuri told Master Thalia that night, and her contract was destroyed the next morning. She came back two days later to get her things, and by then the word was out in the Guild. Both Dorcas and I had a care, but Master Thalia was so irritated to lose another apprentice that she was probably freer with her tongue than she could have been.

In the end, she'd judged her mother right. The day Kuri returned to pack, she quickly told us what happened while one of her brothers waited for her downstairs. Her family had been duly furious, her father calling for Marcus' head– although I had little doubt that Marcus had probably vanished to the four winds by now. He had to know that while Master Vandry had been kind in letting him go, someone from his previous life would turn him in sooner or later.

Her father had then turned his rage on Kuri, but her mother's good sense prevailed. Kuri was only ruined in Estrelline, she'd learned enough at the Guild already to get by writing the meager letters needed in the country. She would stay at her family's home and have her child, and then she would be sent to live with her aunt in the country, with the story that she was a seaman's widow.

"It's not what I wanted for myself, but it's better than I might have expected. Besides, the country is lovely, and I could someday marry a farmer with a kindness toward a once-wayward girl. I'll be all right."

I hugged her and slipped the purse with the extra fifteen ducats into her sleeve, telling her to buy something for the baby when it was born.

Dorcas and Francis and I toasted her before she left, and Master Vandry gave her a small bundle of writing supplies. He winked at her as he put them in her hands. "The Guild wouldn't approve, but writing is in your blood. Someday you'll be wanting these. For all that happened, you were a damned fine apprentice, Kuri. Don't give up on it."

She wiped her eyes and thanked him, and to my complete astonishment, I saw Vorthos slip something to her as she was walking out, when he thought none of us were watching.

"What was that?" I hissed in his ear, sidling up next to him.

He started, and glared at me. "Well, I couldn't let that great lout leave her penniless, even if she does have her family's help!"

His face relaxed into its usual sneer, and he strode off for the stairs, leaving me staring and shaking my head after him.

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