Chapter 5
This is the last chapter of Act 1. I know, you didn’t realize there were acts, right? Well, there are, and Act 2 opens in Wil’s point of view. She turned out funnier than I thought.
Before reading, remember that this is a completely unedited version of The Din—please be gentle. Total word count: 19,151
The carriage was too blue. It was the first thing she noticed. The Brimbury family shown proudly on the outside, and judging by how blue that was, too, it was a safe bet that the house wouldn’t be much better.
Inside, Jack looked nervous. He had been outside before, of course, but never to another home, especially that of a duke. He was used to the way things were with the Wilkes—he was best friends with the family’s daughter, his father was shagging the mistress (who was actually his mother), and things were lax. But in a new place, he’d have to watch every step, impress the family, and he wasn’t sure he could do that. He felt like he was just a servant-boy.
Wil, on the other hand, didn’t care about any of that. Were they going anywhere else, she might’ve noticed that yes, she was outside, and the day was warm, the trees were tall and magnificent, the sun shone through the open window and the breeze was sweet and soft like a light meringue. No, instead, she was too busy broiling over her destination.
Her itchy travelling coat didn’t much improve her mood. She shifted angrily, crossing her arms, glaring at the inside of the carriage.
Finally, Jack spoke. “What do you suppose it’s like at the Brimbury home?” he asked.
“Boring,” Wil muttered. “And full of dead animals.”
The ride was blissfully short, though Wil honestly wished it had lasted longer, or maybe never stopped at all. She was truly not looking forward to this adventure.
When the door opened, she was surprised to see the Duke Charlagne himself, offering his hand with a smile. “Miss Wilkes, it is truly an honor. Welcome to my home.”
She didn’t even bother to fake a smile, ignoring his hand and jumping down herself.
Jack peeked his head out with a smile and used the Duke to get down, much to his surprise. “Hello, there. I’m, er, ‘Miss Wilkes’’ attendant during her stay here.”
The Duke raised an eyebrow warily. “Well then, I guess we ought to prepare a room for you?”
Wil nudged Jack with a smile. “You must be a bit too warm. You’re looking rather flushed.”
Jack chuckled nervously, which only made him blush more. “It’s nothing.”
Duke Charlagne nodded and extended an arm to Wil. “Shall we go then?”
Wil was pleasantly surprised by the underwhelming amounts of the color blue inside. The stairs were a faded grey-blue, but nothing so overpowering as the carriage. She was also glad at the lack of animal heads plastered on the walls, which were instead filled with family portraits. She had always been somewhat disappointed by the lack of paintings in her home. At least the pictures of her ancestors would give her something to look at while she ignored her lessons.
Duke Charlagne caught her staring and smiled. “Ah, the many generations of my family. Some prestigious, and some…well, some were less than worthy of the title.”
“Like this one?” She’d found a young face among the older ones, a small blond boy with a surly frown. The plaque beneath the frame dubbed him “Adam of Brimbury.”
He came up beside her and placed his arms behind his back. “Yes, like him. That’s my uncle, who is, I’m afraid, now deceased.”
Wil frowned. “Adam. That’s such a common name. Surely your family wouldn’t name one of their own as such? You all seem to like more…ostentatious names.”
The Duke, instead of being offended as Wil had no doubt intended, chuckled. “His mother married into the family. Her previous husband had died, and she brought Uncle Adam with her. No one much remembers him. Though it was long before my time, I’m told he disappeared shortly after this portrait was painted, in fact.”
Wil shrugged. Disappearances were commonplace for her. She shrugged and walked off, untying her hat.
“I’d like to see my room, if I could,” she said. “And if possible, I’d like Jack’s room near mine.”
Duke Charlagne nodded, looking slightly disappointed that his statement hadn’t been received with the same shock he thought it would. He called to a servant, who arrived hunched over and withered, but she took Wil’s hand and showed her to her room.
Wil gasped as she entered. It was as though someone had set the room up specifically for her. There was a massive desk positioned at the window, the sunset framed perfectly in its view. Several ink bottles were lined up on the desktop, with fine quills bundled together lying beside it. She gravitated to it, hand to her mouth.
“Who…excuse me,” she said, turning to the servant, “but who did this?”
“The young master had some help, but it was he wot done it,” she croaked.
Wil nodded and sat on the bed. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad here.
She sat in her room for a few hours, playing with her new materials here and there. Jack came in and leaned on the doorframe, smiling, then clearing his throat and knocking lightly on the wall.
“Getting settled in nicely, then?”
Wil turned, her face bright and smiling for the first time since she’d last been made to leave the world of the Missing. “Oh, it’s absolutely wonderful, Jack. Someone gave Charlagne some help, and he got me all these little things—“
He smirked and laughed. “Aye, they’re nice. Wonder who knew you well enough to tell him that?”
She nodded a second, then paused and looked at him. “You didn’t!”
He chuckled, nodding. “I knew you wouldn’t look forward to it, so I thought I’d do something to help.”
Jumping from her chair, she ran at him and threw her arms around his neck. “Oh, you fantastic creature, you! How did you ever get to telling him what to do?”
“Your mother. Well, I got my father to ask your mother—er, our mother to lend me a carriage out to the Brimbury residence. From there, it was still a simple task of finding the fellow and informing him that this sort of thing would endear you to him.”
Wil laughed and pushed him playfully. “Oh, you did not!”
Jack smiled. “I did, I did, and he’s not as stupid as you thought. As you can plainly see, he followed my advice to the letter.”
Still smiling, she sat down. “This place just might not be so bad after all.”
The shadow-world was almost empty. Neesha walked along a black street. She wasn’t quite sure it was the right street; at the moment, they all looked the same.
But then she figured it must be the right street, because there was her house, and just ahead was the master’s dwelling (for it couldn’t be called a house by any means), and weren’t they farther apart before?
She cast this aside and kept walking. There wasn’t much beneath her feet anymore. Just about everyone had been lost somewhere in the Melt, and the rest were holed up with the master, biding their time. She’d be in such trouble for this.
She opened the door, receiving glares from some folks, pitying smiles from the rest. She took a breath and weaved through them all, until she got to his room.
“You wanted to see me?” she asked quietly. Maybe he wouldn’t notice her—
“Yes, Neesha. Come in.”
Bollocks.
She walked forward tentatively. The amounts of detail were leaving the room, just getting up, taking their suitcases, and walking out. She watched a few tiles come up off the floor, chat a moment, then exit. That wasn’t a good sign. The tiles were fairly tolerant. They usually stayed the longest.
“As you can see,” he tall cloak said, “we are losing her.”
“It’s not my fault!” she said desperately. “The problem is in her world, I can’t—”
“Someone told her she had to go back when she was more than ready to stay,” he said, his smile somehow widening. It looked like the bottom half of his face might fall off at any time. “Neesha, I’m simply wondering, what motivation might you have had to do that?”
Neesha frowned. “I—that is to say, she—”
“I can understand why you might have some sort of feelings for her,” he said, gliding slowly down the steps and closer to her. “But Neesha, you know how important this is, how important she is. She’ll be fine, I assure you. No harm will come to her. In fact, we’ll be doing her some good. Don’t fret about what will happen.” Long, long fingers, not so much white as gray, found their way out of the cloak and grabbed Neesha by the cheeks. He was no longer smiling.
“Just get her back.”
Wil was enjoying herself with the Brimbury family. Duke Charlagne had a sister and two brothers, all of whom were just as polite and eager to make her feel at home as the Duke himself. It turned out that their parents had died just a few short years before, leaving the estate and title to Charlagne, who took the responsibility gravely. He tried to raise his younger siblings as best he could, but admittedly had help from the servants. The little ones were a delight to Wil, who had limited experience with children and found their boundless enthusiasm to be adorable. Some of the servants told Jack that, while they loved the children as dearly as their own, the respite was something of a relief.
A few weeks passed. It was hard to adjust to life without using weekly parties to gauge the time, but Wil managed. She’d learned to ride horseback, though not particularly well, and today was going to showcase her talent in fencing.
Duke Charlagne had no idea that Wil had been training to fence since the age of seven. Fencing was a sport domineered by the male, so to his mind, this would be a learning experience. He simply didn’t know who would be doing the learning.
Once suited up, each were handed a rapier and bowed to one another. The Duke smiled behind his mesh mask, noting how cute girls looked in the stark white uniform.
“Now, this is where we—agh!”
While he’d been trying to speak, Wil had come forward and tagged him right on the chest. She backed off and lifted her mask, smiling as well.
“Best keep the chit-chat for after I’ve won, eh?”
The Duke nodded. She’d just gotten lucky.
Another round started. He came at her a bit slower than he would most opponents, and didn’t seem to see her when she ran at him, tagging right where his nose would have been were the mask not on. He shook his head and resumed his position. She was a very lucky girl.
Rounds three and four were similar. It was at this point that the Duke thought there must be something wrong with him. He’d never been bested, least of all by a girl. He decided that he would stop fiddling around and fight as though she weren’t just a girl.
Half an hour later, Duke Charlagne was covered with small bruises from being struck by Wil, who had always gotten her frustrations out best in the form of perfectly executed jabs and parries. The Duke made a mental note never to doubt a woman’s talents again.
Wil chose to ignore him for the rest of the day. She’d promise the children she’d play with them anyway, and besides, it didn’t look like she was leaving anytime soon.
They were waiting outside in the hall as she exited, all bouncing and joyful as children are wont. The twins, Eloise and Lowell, were only six, and Thaddeus was ten, but their enthusiasm lifted Wil’s spirits like nothing she’d even seen. Many of her evenings were now spent in the garden watching them play, though she often joined in when no one was looking.
Eloise took her hand, smiling. She was learning not to lift her dress, but the arm curled under her lacy garb was purely habit. “Wil, come on, we’ve got a game out on the terrace. You’ll join us, won’t you?”
She smiled as Lowell wrapped his tiny arms around her legs. “Please, Wil, you have to come. It just won’t be as much fun without you.”
Thaddeus was the more logical of the three, but even he joined in the begging. “We’ll even have the maid bring ‘round some tea. It’d mean so much to us.”
She laughed and picked up the twins. “All right, I guess I can pop out for a bit. Let’s go!”
During all this, Jack had been picking up some new tips in the kitchen. He realy only knew how to cook the things the Wilkes family liked, and it appeared that the Brimbury family had a much more distinctive palate. He missed his time with Wil, of course, but when he did get to see her, she seemed very happy, much more so than she had at home. He hoped the nonsense with that other world had slipped her mind. Were it not for his feeling, he wouldn’t care, but something sinister was going on there. Best she keep her nose out of that sort of thing.
On the terrace the children had gotten a short table set up, and the maids had brought tea and cookies and set them on its top.
The boys groaned and looked at Eloise. “Oh, we said we wouldn’t have a tea party. Those are so boring. Wil’s gonna leave if we have another tea party.”
“Oh, they aren’t too bad, so long as you know how to spice them up,” she said, smiling. She knew this wasn’t the sort of thing widely accepted in high society, but she had to plant the seed somewhere.
She sat down with the children, Lowell in her lap as Eloise had gotten up to pour the tea, and smiled. “We can tell stories.”
Thaddeus frowned. “But we don’t know any.”
Wil laughed. “Oh, everyone knows stories! Thaddeus, you read books, don’t you?”
He nodded. “Yes, but—”
“Now think of your favorite adventure. Just think on it, don’t talk. You can close your eyes if it helps. Now, make it yours.”
Thaddeus opened one eye, frowning further. “But it’s not mine. It belongs to Sir Thornton Stanningfield, the author.”
“Ah, yes, but you can change it, can’t you? Change little bits and pieces and tell it to us like it’s all yours. Then, you don’t just know the story, you’ve made your own!”
He nodded and closed his eyes again. “There was once…an octopus.”
Shortly after the story-telling session, one of the maids came to tell them it was time for dinner. Duke Charlagne chose a seat near Wil and tried to look as proper as he could. A maid had dressed him nicely for the occasion, his private butler had told him what to say and just how to say it, and his siblings had cheered him on.
When she entered, Wil looked around with more than some confusion. The long dining table was empty except for the Duke, whereas most nights, it was filled with the servants, who were more like family anyway. Duke Charlagne smiled and walked over to her, taking her hand and leading her to her seat.
“Ah, Duke…where is everyone?” She asked. She had a terrible feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“They’ll all be here shortly, but I wanted to see your privately for a moment first.”
That did not bode well.
She nodded and smiled uneasily. “Oh dear.” She sat down, biting her lip rather furiously for the first time in weeks. The Duke pulled her chair out to face her and knelt before her.
With a smile, he took her hand. “Annabeth Wilkes, you have brought a joy to these halls that has been absent for far too many years. Those children haven’t been this happy since the death of our parents, and I must confess, I’ve rather enjoyed your company as well.” He took a breath, chuckling nervously. “It may be presumptuous of me, but I would ask that you stay, and possibly think on one day becoming my wife. What say you?”
She blinked. There was little else she could so, let alone say.
She instead settled for standing slowly, patting his head, then running full speed out of the dining hall.
From the kitchen entrance, a few heads poked through the open doorway, eyes all curious and hopeful. The Duke could only shrug.
Wil didn’t stop running until she got to her room. She locked the door and leaned against it while catching her breath, then dashed across the room, gathering her things on the way.
As she was busy stuffing her skirts and petticoats into her suitcase, someone knocked on the door.
“Go away!” she cried. Her lips had started to bleed.
“Wil, it’s me!” Jack said. “Let me in!”
She stopped and debated, but gave in and threw the door open. She’d seen better days. Her hair was a mess, flying wildly about her face, and she appeared to have been pulling at her clothes something fierce. Jack came in and closed the door before giving her a hug.
“Calm down, calm down, it’s not all that bad—”
“Not all that bad?” she said, voice high and starting to crack. “I was just asked to marry a perfectly nice boy, and all I could do was pat his head? I couldn’t even think of a good reason why not!”
“I could think of one—”
“That’s not funny!” she screamed. “Jack, haven’t you ever gotten tired of being the odd one out?”
“Not really.” He sat on the bed and patted the seat next to him. “Think. It only ever feels wrong because you think it’s not going to be accepted, right?”
She sat awkwardly, nodding. “I guess.”
He took her hand and smiled. “You are you. You happen to be less than interested in the coarser sex. In my opinion, that’s a damn good reason not to marry some silly Duke, even if he is perfectly handsome.”
She giggled a little and sighed. “He is a nice boy, and I do like him, but…I don’t think I could ever marry him.”
Jack wiggled his eyebrows. “You leave that to me.”
She laughed and wiped at her tears. “Thank you. I still think we need to leave, though.”
“Agreed.” He hopped to his feet and held out his hand. “Ready to get going?”
She took the proffered hand and smiled. “Quite.”
They found it surprisingly easy to sneak out without being seen. It would take quite a while, but they would have to make the journey back on foot. Wil didn’t have the heart to steal a horse from the man whose proposal she’d just turned down.
They stole through the trees that surrounded the Brimbury Manor, hoping that no one would think to follow them there. But even beside that, Wil had grown to love the woods. The smell of leaves both fresh and dead, the cool breeze against her skin, the thrill that utterly pervaded her senses all wonderfully sweet and ripe in the light of the half moon had captured her heart and mind like nothing before it. Just being there amongst the tall pines made her heart race, her blood cool and quick like mercury, filled her and let her just be.
But Jack was pulling her steadily along, leaving no time to just sit and enjoy the woody air. She kept seeing things out of the corner of her eye, but for some reason, none of it frightened her. It only seemed to make her want to run off and find out what exactly it all was, but Jack’s hand in hers was a powerful anchor.
The night kept growing darker, and after only a few short hours, they couldn’t even see their noses. After the dark had fallen and certain beasties had begun to howl, Jack had fallen behind and let Wil lead, preferring to cling to her arm than pretend to be brave.
As they proceeded, an idea struck Wil. “Jack?”
Jack struggled for breath, the fear having stricken it from his lungs. “Y-Yes?”
“How do we know we’ve gone the right direction?”
“…we, uh…we don’t.”
“Damn your eyes!” she shouted, smacking his arm. “We might be going the wrong way! We might’ve been doing it for hours!”
“I’m sorry!” he whined. “Not like you’d have known better anyway.”
Wil rolled her eyes and groaned. “All right. Let’s just try to find the road. Maybe we can find the way to somewhere.”
They searched for any signs of life, but their luck had seemingly run out. They were dirty and hungry and tired, and for two people that had lived their lives in luxury, this state was absolutely unbearable.
“Jack, I think I’ve just about given up,” Wil whined. “Think they’ll find us if we yell loud enough?”
“I’m too tired to yell,” he said, laying his head in her lap. “We’ll have to die here, I suppose.”
“That’s unpleasant.”
“No more so than dying back at the Manse.”
She nodded. “Well, yes.”
They sat in silence for a while, their stomachs grumbling and heads throbbing. They even started to hear voices, but knew it was only the wolves come hungering for their bones.
But then Wil started to recognize them, one in particular. She jumped up, accidentally knocking Jack’s head against a tree, then running off to the sounds.
She looked around incredulously for a moment, doubt creeping up around her. Maybe she’d been imagining things. She may have started to really go mad out here. Or maybe there were beasts that mimicked the sound of what you wanted most—
“Wil!”
She spun and smiled, resisting the urge to cry with relief. “I never thought you’d find me.”
Neesha came forward, hood down, and extended her arms, into which Wil eagerly ran. They wrapped their arms tenderly around one another, and Neesha pressed her cheek to Wil’s hair. She’d never meant to love her, but in her presence now, she recalled the ache that had persisted in her absence and could not deny the feeling that had brought her here.
She enjoyed the embrace, but knew she had something more important to do. She pried her off and looked in her eyes. “Wil, listen. I have to warn you. Something is going to happen. After this, I can’t take you there anymore, I can’t see you anymore, I just—it’s not safe, especially not for you, okay?”
“What?” Wil clasped her hands together in front of her face, biting her lip. She seemed to be doing that a lot again. “Neesha, what are you talking about? What’s going to happen? No, wait, I don’t care. I have to see you!”
Neesha narrowed her eyes, standing straighter and turning from her just slightly. “Oh? Then why haven’t I seen you these past weeks?”
“I was sent away,” Wil pleaded, taking her hands in hers. “I was sent away, and had I not met you, I would have welcomed the change, but—”
“I knew you were sent away,” she said coldly. “We can see most everything from our realm. You cared a little at first, you did. But then you let them swallow you up, and you didn’t think about me anymore. I know, Wil.”
She hated it, it made her feel like her horrible sister and her horrible mother, but she gave one shuddery sob and covered her face with her hands. “That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” Neesha said. Oh yes. All that business of missing her—ha, missing—it had only made her forget about the betrayal. “Wil, there is so much you don’t understand!” she shouted, throwing her hands in the air. “I know. There isn’t any point in lying to me, I know! You liked us while we could give you something, that’s it, and when I could save you here, now, you cared again. But back there, in that house, with those little children you like so much, and that fool that’s so interested in you, you don’t give a bleeding thought to us!” Us. She really meant her, because the others didn’t care for Wil nearly as much, but she’d never admit that, not now, not out loud.
Wil wrapped her arms around herself. “Neesha, I—oh, you’re terrible.” She started to laugh ever so slightly, palm pressed to her head. “Can you blame me? I met you all of, what, three times? I lived with them for weeks on end. And yes, I enjoyed their company, even Duke Charlagne’s, but did your scrying see that I never—” She stopped short. She wanted to say it, but the admittance meant she was even more bizarre than her mother had first determined.
Neesha looked at her, frowning. “That you never what?”
Wil stared a moment before straightening up and continuing. “He proposed to me tonight, you know. I might’ve said yes, too, and could have had a perfectly lovely life there. I could have taken care of the children, been a good wife, and Charlagne wasn’t all that bad himself, especially considering my immediate thoughts on him. I said no because of you.”
She’d meant to hurt Neesha, but the shadow only gave a cruel smile. “We both know you’d have rejected him and run away whether I existed or not. You’re fooling only yourself.” She pulled her hood back up. “I ought never to have come here.”
Wil inhaled as though she’d never let the breath go, then started to laugh, walking away, her hair hiding her crying. “Fine, leave it you’re going to! Jack and I need to rest if we’re ever to make it home. We don’t need you.”
Neesha watched her leave and almost stopped her, but a rather thick wall of pride simply wouldn’t allow it. She pulled her hand back and disappeared wordlessly between the trees.
All the while, Wil wandered, weeping slowly and soundlessly until she found Jack again. He still laid on the ground, unconscious, and sniffling softly, she stooped beside him.
“Jack? Jack, you must wake up.” Something wasn’t right. She pulled his head into her lap and brushed her fingers over the swell on his forehead. “Oh, dear, I knocked you pretty hard, there, didn’t I? Come on, up!” She sat him up against a tree and lightly touched his cheek. “Jack? I can’t lose you too, please, wake up!”
Aside from the breeze in the trees and the soft rustling of the branches, there was no movement or sound around them.
Wil covered her mouth and pressed her forehead to his shoulder, sobbing. “Oh, Jack, what have I done?” she whispered frantically, eyes wide.
She was too distracted to see a shadow stretch over the canopy of leaves, and a pale hand reach down and touch Jack’s forehead. He stirred; it was gone as quickly as it came.
“Wil…?”
She jumped and looked at him, a sudden smile lighting her face. She cupped his cheeks, laughing a bit manically. “J-Jack? Oh, thank goodness you’re alive!”
He coughed as she threw her arms around him. There was a warm trickle going down his face, but when he touched the crown of his head, there was only a sore spot, no wound, nothing. Odd.
“Yeah, I’m fine, just bumped my noggin. What are you carryin’ on for, anyhow?”
She laughed again and squeezed him tightly. “I was so scared you were gone. Jack, I—I don’t know what I would’ve done. You’ve always been the one that’s there for me. You’re the one I rely on for everything. You do so much for me, and I—”
“Hush,” he said quietly. “S’what I’m here for. You keep me out of trouble with your m—ahem, our mum. Bein’ around for you is the least I can do.”
She kissed his cheeks, grateful for his presence. “Thank you, darling boy. You can’t go dying on me.”
He nodded and kissed her back. “I’ll keep that in mind next time you go about knocking me around.”
The morning came swift and cold and unforgiving as the two woke up on the forest floor. They were covered in several substances, the nature of which they cared not to know, and now a layer of leaves coated them as well. Wil found her suitcase, but thought it best to wait until they were home to change.
They never got that far. They started on walking, hoping to find something, anything that would lead them to civilization. Wil’s hair, normally voluminous once out of its tie, was dank and matted down from the morning’s dew, and Jack’s nice white shirt held no trace of its original color. Wil had started breathing through her mouth to keep their own foul stenches from offending her nostrils.
They had made no sort of progress by the afternoon, but it didn’t matter. That was when they heard the dogs. The sound came from no particular direction. Howls, barks, shouts from men.
“Jack!” she hissed, grabbing his hand. “What do we do?”
He pursed his lips. “Just run.”
He’d seen the dogs. He’d seen what they could do. He didn’t think as they ran. He pulled her through trees and over roots that stuck up too far. He’d seen men torn apart by the dogs, and those were just the ones at the Wilkes Manse. No telling what the Brimbury hunting dogs could do.
But then she tripped. Wil tumbled headfirst over a fallen branch and knocked Jack down. They heard the dogs coming closer. Wil sighed once, then stood up to brave the end. She thought she might as well go down with some honor.
She saw the dog come at her—
