“And so what happened then?” Lomones said sarcastically, his body shaking in rage. “Did you eat her for your meal, or did you let her die? You beast! She was only a little girl, and yet you saw fit to torment her in that way?”
“Don’t be a fool,” Alzan said, looking annoyed. “Do you think I could treat her in any other way? I acted in an appropriate manner. You do not give help to anyone who does not agree to supplication. That would be improper. If she wanted my help, she needed to lower herself to me, which she did.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You described her, a little girl, as forlorn and hopeless, and yet you would taunt her still, with food and love – as if you would love her! – and force her to crawl to your feet, though she was injured greatly, and kiss them, thus enslaving her to you.”
“A little girl?” Alzan said, raising his eyebrows. “More like a little whore. Didn’t you hear? She would have sold her body to men who would have ravished her willingly, if she would only be accepted by the whorehouse. The only reason they rejected her was because she was already ravished by a man and they feared that she might react badly to the next man that would hire her out. And you want to paint her as an innocent thing? Preposterous. She described herself well enough to me in the beginning – a little nothing. Without me, she would be dead, or worse. The best thing she ever did was to become my slave. At least then, she could eat.”
“I can’t believe I am hearing this.”
Alzan snorted. “Consider this, if your emotions won’t allow you to think: would you rather I have left her for dead? Turned her away without a second thought? That’s what you White Swans would have done, you barbarians. At least I heard what she had to say. And listen! Can you hear her snoring? She is able to sleep without worrying about a thing, for I am her master and guardian. She knows that I will not hurt her and so she sleeps unmolested. Her heartbeat is steady and calm – she is fast asleep.”
“Where is she?”
“In the other room – would you like to see for yourself?”
“Very much so.”
“Then follow me.” Alzan leapt from his chair and bounded toward the room, quick because he could see, while Lomones followed him, abandoning the White Swan feather and seeing through the darkness from eerie glow of Alzan’s eyes.
And there she was, a little girl dressed in silk. She was clean, her cheeks were flushed, and in her hands she clutched the blankets she had twisted out of and had not quite yet abandoned to the floor.
“See? She’s perfectly comfortable.”
At the sound of Alzan’s voice, her eyes fluttered open. “Lord?” she murmured.
“Go to sleep, Iluve.”
She was about to comply, but then Lomones said, “Wait,” and he rushed by her side, sitting by her bed. Her eyes opened wide and she shied away from him.
“You’re scaring her,” Alzan warned.
Lomones ignored him and took her hand. “Iluve,” he said. “Can I talk with you for a moment, in private?”
Her hands were shaking. “Private?” she asked, glancing up at Alzan.
The red glow vanished. Lomones heard Alzan moving closer. “You have two seconds to get your hands off the girl,” Alzan said. “If you don’t, I swear, I will attack you.”
“But—“
The next moment, Lomones was on the floor, his ears pounding. He saw stars.
“Sorry, Iluve,” Alzan said cheerfully. Lomones felt Alzan grab his shoulder and drag him up to his feet. “You should go to sleep, my slave. We’re be leaving now.” With that he dragged Lomones out of the room.
“I think I’m bleeding,” Lomones moaned.
“Too bad that you aren’t,” Alzan said, throwing him to the floor. “What the hell was that? You know she was raped before. Do you like touching her while she’s in her nightgown and vulnerable to you?”
Lomones rubbed his head. “I wouldn’t have hurt her.”
“Of course not. You’re a mated White Swan. You wouldn’t have been able to if you had wanted to. But she didn’t know that. You look very human right now. And what would you have privately talked with her about anyway? Didn’t you hear? She’s my slave.”
“But she shouldn’t be!”
His eyes narrowed into slits. “Why not?”
“Because she’s just a little girl! Because she just got put into a bad position. Because you essentially forced her to choose between slavery and death.”
“But that was all her choice. Like I said, would you rather I abandoned her? Now listen, let me finish the story!”
~
I swear to you, I didn’t hurt her. I did exactly as I promised. Upon her supplication, I wrapped her in my cloak, for she was trembling violently, and took her to the restaurant, a fancy one that was made for Swan visitors, specifically. When they saw me with the girl, they were horrified – for once, it was not me but rather my guest that horrified them, for she stunk from her times on the streets and she was covered with filth. There, I took her back to a private room – the waiters were quite glad to have her hidden from view – and ordered her some simple food that she could eat.
I have described her before, but as I said my description was lacking; understand that she was emaciated and looked as if she were about to die. While her food was warming, I cleaned her face and hands with a wet napkin and set her by the fire, my cloak still wrapped tight around her, and tended after her. Her eyes were suspicious at first; she hardly trusted me at first and every one of my touches was treated to a flinch. But as the fire warmed her and the grime wore off, her suspicion appeared diverted to somewhere else, as if she couldn’t believe that this was real or just another cruel dream that would end soon. When the food came, her hands were shaking too hard for her to eat, so I fed her myself, holding her as if she were a baby and I were her mother, and taking pains to make sure she would eat. Then, as I continued feeding her, her eyes grew heavy and her body relaxed. She looked like a sated lover and her eyes were tender as they looked over me.
“I must be dead,” she murmured, after I had put down her spoon and laid her down on a bench near the fire. “I am dead and somehow, though I deserve nothing, Diamea has allowed me into heaven.”
“You are not dead,” I said. “Were you dead, you would not be in so much pain.”
“I don’t feel pain,” she said. “Only sleep coming fast to my eyes. That is what I feel.”
“Are you comfortable?” I said.
“Yes, very.” Her voice was starting to dissolve in an incomprehensible mumble.
“Then sleep, and be cheered. When you wake up, I shall be here and you shall have breakfast. You shall not be disturbed and no harm shall come to you. While you sleep, I will read the book that you gave me.”
“Before I sleep, tell me your name,” she said.
“It is Alzan,” I said.
“Thank you, lord,” she said, and her eyes fluttered close and she dropped off to sleep, her body relaxed and her cheeks flushed at last.
~
“That makes me feel much better,” Lomones said sarcastically.
“It should,” Alzan said. “Because now she is alive and we know about this diary. While she slept, I read, and now I have let you read it. What do you think of it?”
“I think Solea is one of the most unluckiest girls I have ever heard of.”
“Besides that,” Alzan said impatiently. “Let’s go beyond the obvious.”
Lomones thought. “I don’t think she is a Conqueror.”
“Good. Why not?”
“Because she isn’t.”
“I’m sure that will stop the humans from executing her,” Alzan said sarcastically. “Think! Why couldn’t she be a Conqueror?”
Lomones looked frustrated. “If I could see her, even for an instant, I could tell whether she was a Conqueror or not.”
“You won’t be allowed to see her. A White Swan was bled because Uclepidies attacked her, remember? They are severely restricting Swan entrance, especially for us. Either we prove that she is a Conqueror or we prove that she is not a Conqueror.”
Lomones sighed. “Do you think she’s a Conqueror?”
Alzan hesitated. “I don’t know. There are certain times when I am certain that she is not a Conqueror and other times that I’m certain she is one. I hoped to discuss it with you. That is why I asked you to come. You knew Elise the best anyway.”
Lomones flinched at the name. “You mean I thought I did.”
“That’s besides the point. You knew her as a little girl, before everything happened. That’s why you’re here. Solea is a little girl too, capable of much evil. In fact, you can argue that she has done much evil already.”
Lomones frowned and picked up the book and flipped through the pages, not so much to read but to smell the pages and the ink used. “Why would she use this silly little book to convey her thoughts?” he said. “She could have easily talked to the Mother.”
“Good thinking,” Alzan said, nodding. “Yes, I thought of that too. If she were a Conqueror, it would be logical for her to not need to write in a journal at all because of that intimate family connection. All she has to do is think and Mother is right there to help. Besides, using a journal might be dangerous. Remember that one girl, I think Pahtsi was her name, who was caught as a Conqueror through her journal?”
Lomones shuddered. “I remember that,” he said softly. “She was killed for it.”
“Yes.” Alzan didn’t blink. “She wrote about all that Mother had told her when she had no mother at all – her mother had died in childbirth. When she was first discovered, she tried to pretend that another woman in the village was the one to have told her everything, but when no woman came forward, she was finally forced to admit that she was a Conqueror.”
“And if I am correct,” Lomones said, “we all agreed that it would be unlikely for us to ever find a Conqueror through another diary. Elise is too smart – she would not make the same mistake again and kill off another one of her children.”
“Which makes the similarities between Pahtsi and Solea that much more strange.”
“But Solea’s not a Conqueror.”
“Again, why not?”
Lomones gestured to the diary. “Her family is central to her life, not Elise. She has no mention of Mother, nor is she upset with the idea of Lin replacing the role of mother for her.”
“What about Daddy?” Alzan asked. “What if Daddy was really code for Mother?”
Lomones smirked. “Then there would be a lot less hugging between them.”
Alzan sighed. “You do realize that this is a serious issue, don’t you?”
“I do,” Lomones said, setting down the diary. “But I don’t see why she is a Conqueror. It is equally possible that, for some reason Uclepidies likes the family for some reason and wants to help. She doesn’t need to be a Conqueror.”
“What about the diary then?”
“What about it?”
“Let me put it this way. There are several inconsistencies that don’t match up. Her writing is much more sophisticated, as if a Swan taught her how to write. Where could she learn that skill in such a small town? Most of the population is illiterate and the women are actively discouraged from reading, as it might give them ideas and make them rebel.”
Lomones shrugged. “Her daddy taught her. He seemed educated enough. How could he run a store otherwise?”
“Interesting. So you think her daddy taught her?”
“Why not?”
“That’s what I thought initially. It seems a likely theory at first, until you read his actual writing, that is. Shortly after taking on Iluve, I met with Temas and procured a writing sample from Temas of her darling daddy’s hand. This is what he gave me.”
Alzan handed him a letter. Lomones squinted, trying to read the writing in the dim red light.
~
Dear Temas,
I hope you are good. I met with Yrasef today. He is doing good. The deal is good. I will be back soon. Expect me in two days. Tell Solea that I will be there in two days. Make sure Granid is not spoiled. I will see you soon.
Fly free,
Lars
~
Lomones read it five times before handing it to Alzan, baffled. “That’s her daddy?” Alzan nodded. “Maybe he kept it simple for Temas.”
“That’s what I thought too, but when I talked with Lin and quizzed her about it, she showed me one of the more verbose love letters that he wrote before he fell ill. It was the same tone. I don’t have it, but I can recite it to you, if you would like.”
“Do so.”
~
Dear Lin,
I am sorry to put you through this trouble. I am very glad you are here. I love you very much. I hope we can meet soon.
Yours,
Lars
~
Lomones frowned. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Maybe he was writing for Lin to understand.”
“No, Lin is much more fluent than that; she was from an educated family and even knows a little of our language. She said Lars was always this lacking and she joked about him not being very verbose.”
Lomones glanced at the diary again. “Maybe Granid taught Solea. After all, as a Potential, he was probably trained as a writer.”
“Temas said he wasn’t. Temas said that Granid’s father taught him how to write and read.”
Lomones bit his lip. “Granid wrote a letter to Solea.”
“Yes, he did. And I can already tell you that Solea is a much more advanced writer than he ever was, if that writing sample was typical of him.”
Lomones felt helpless. “Maybe she is just better at writing.”
Alzan rolled his eyes. “Don’t be a fool,” he said. “She is better at writing, but writing is a learned skill. How could she ever hope to get better if she didn’t have proper training?”
“Maybe her daddy told better stories than he wrote and she simply transcribed them.”
“Do you honestly believe this?” Alzan paced. “No, Lomones. You can argue all you want, but she is too good for her own good. Her diary is damning. We know from experience the Conqueror will come down in dreams to her bloodline and teach her children how to read and write, both our language and the human languages to a level that is much more advanced than typical humans. She’s a perfect example.”
“Then why would Eurodities and Archondid be her godparents?” Lomones argued. “They hate the Conquerors. Why would they ever want to support a child who had that bloodline? Besides, you neglected to mention them. Maybe they taught her to read and write.”
“Archondid, maybe, but Eurodities? Hardly. She hates children, and Archondid would have to fight her to stay with this family for any length of time. The very fact that Eurodities abandoned her is no surprise to me – she always hated anything smaller than her. That’s why she probably was so eager to kill Elise. Not that I am complaining or anything.”
Lomones face burned red and blood pounded in his ears. He gritted his teeth. “But they did have an effect on Solea’s life.”
“Yes, maybe, but a minimal one at that.”
“It’s still an effect.”
Alzan shrugged. “Perhaps they have. I will not argue with you on this point anymore—not until we have a chance to interview them. Perhaps they know something else. Now, let’s talk about something else. Have you considered the bastard princess story?”
“What about it?” Lomones said sharply. “The story’s well-known. Why wouldn’t she know it?”
“But that version!” Alzan cried. “How would she have heard it? That version that her daddy taught her – that version is not available here anywhere. Trust me – I’ve checked. The closest version that is available in the church library, and that book doesn’t contain near enough of the details that Solea described.”
“Maybe her daddy added on some of the detail.”
“Say that if you will, but consider the language. Nowadays, the queen is described as having hair the color of a White Swan’s feather, while her version had the queen as having the color of a Black Swan’s feather. And the side note with the bastard princess being interested in horses! That is in no version that I’ve ever read.”
“So what? Those are minor details.”
“But, see, that’s the interesting thing. In all of those minor details, her version is closer to the truth. The bastard princess did like horses. The queen’s hair was a deep black. The priests were greedy and corrupt and the queen did try to bribe them. All of those details are not in any of the versions available now. They have been edited out or revised after centuries of rewrites. So how does she know so much?”
Lomones shifted uncomfortably. “Her daddy told her?”
“And how did her daddy find out all these little details?”
“He was very lucky? Or maybe he’s a seer.”
“He’s not.”
“An unknown seer?”
“Or maybe the Conqueror told her that little story,” Alzan said, pacing. “The Conqueror would know that story very well, I imagine. After all, she used this story to gain power. Or have you forgotten your wonderful little daughter?”
Lomones’s face flushed red again. “Solea is not a Conqueror! There is nothing to suggest she is in her actual words, only in her style, which could be explained from her family connection with the Swans. And even if she was, she still doesn’t deserve whatever fate has come to her. You said she is imprisoned, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, she shouldn’t be!”
“Why not?”
“She’s innocent!”
“She is?” When Lomones hesitated, Alzan shook his head. “No, Lomones. I haven’t seen a guiltier little girl than her since the Conquerors. If anyone deserves to be killed, it is she. In fact, she should have been killed long ago. At least only one would have died. Let me finish the story.
~
In Solea’s last entry, she spoke of a dinner with Temas and then she didn’t write anything more. The reason why she hasn’t written anything is simple – when she saw Iluve’s note, she was very ashamed and realized that Iluve had read everything that she had written. She also realized that instead of developing a relationship with Iluve, she was spending a lot of her time writing in her diary, which was making Iluve feel alone. So she apologized to Iluve and promised to be a better sister. Instead of writing in the diary, she talked to Iluve more and made a conscious effort to be a nicer sister. Iluve confirmed this – Solea’s kindness, in fact, was her main motive for coming to me on her sister’s behalf in the first place. So the next story that I tell you is from Iluve’s perspective.
Now, Temas didn’t come the day he was supposed to, nor did he come the next. Solea was very disappointed, because she loved Temas and every day that he didn’t show up, she grew sadder and sadder. So, on the third day that Temas didn’t show up, she moped around the apartment. Iluve, seeing that Solea was feeling so sad, offered to do something special for Solea. Solea, having the sweet tooth that she does, decided that she wanted to make some rice pudding. They were making this rice pudding when a knock came at the door.
Now, Iluve had been told not to answer the door to anyone, however the knock was so strange sounding that Solea wanted to find out who it was. So she peeked out of the door and then cried with joy – it was the Black Swan! Of course, as you know, this Black Swan is Uclepidies, but she didn’t know this. So, she told Iluve who it was and opened the door for him, beckoning him inside. Iluve was very nervous about this all – after all, her mother had expressly forbidden anything like this from happening. However, Solea reassured her that the Black Swan meant no harm and, because the Black Swan didn’t seem so bad and moved really slowly, Iluve decided that it wouldn’t be bad, as long as the Black Swan left before Lin came back. Solea talked with the Black Swan for an hour while Iluve watched, but finally the Black Swan seemed anxious and he limped over to Lars, Solea’s father.
What actually happened next is a bit sketchy, but it seems that Uclepidies touched Lars, Lars woke up and begged for Uclepidies to come inside him again. Iluve remembers that particularly because the wording disturbed her very much. She wanted Uclepidies to leave then because she was afraid that Uclepidies would hurt Lars, but Solea told her that nothing bad would happen since the Black Swan was a very nice Black Swan. Uclepidies shooed the girls out of the room at that and Iluve doesn’t know what happened during that. But, after two hours, he came out of the room, bowed, and left.
Lin was late that evening, which made her miss this event entirely. However, when she came back, she brought Temas. Solea, of course, was overjoyed to see him and tried to give him many hugs and kisses. However, he seemed less than happy to see her. When she approached him, he glared at her, which made her feel awkward. Iluve felt awkward too because he seemed to be such a cruel man.
Temas had dinner with them, but he was very quiet and he kept on glaring at Solea, which made her even more uncomfortable. Several times, Lin tried to make conversation with him, but it was never very successful.
Finally, it was Temas who started the conversation. He said, “What do you know about Black Swans, Solea?”
Iluve says she remembers the sentence because that whole question shocked her and she thought that maybe Temas knew about the Black Swan that they had brought inside. She tried to shoot Solea a warning look, but Solea didn’t see it.
“What do you mean?” Solea asked.
“Black Swans. What do you know about them?”
“Not a lot,” Solea began, and she started to talk about how she didn’t know very much about Black Swans, but Temas interrupted her.
“Do you know what happened after you left?” he said.
Solea responded that she didn’t know and then explained that there was a mob of people coming after her and Eurodities was hurrying her away to the forest so she didn’t get a chance to see anything except for the fires.
“Did you see the Black Swan?” Temas asked.
“Eurodities?” Solea asked.
“No, the Black Swan who attacked the people.”
“A little,” she said. “If it weren’t for him, I would probably be dead.”
“Do you know what he did?”
“No.”
“He tore off seven people’s arms, blinded twenty-two people, mutilated thirteen women’s breasts, and gave seventeen people a severe head concussion. Not just men either, but women and children too. Some of them were trying to run away from him, but that didn’t stop him. He maimed indiscriminately.”
Iluve says she remembers the sentence well because it shocked everyone. Solea didn’t understand it at first, so she asked Temas to repeat it, which he did. Then she asked him to explain it, which he did. Then she started to cry.
“So are they dead?” she finally asked.
“Black Swans can’t kill,” Temas said. “So they didn’t die out-rightly. But some were so injured that we had to kill them. There was nothing else we could do. And others killed themselves.”
This really upset Lin. She asked, “Didn’t you go to the White Swans? They might have been able to help.”
“They refused to help. They said that the people probably deserved to die. The Black Swan is a crippled Black Swan and they felt sorry for him, so even though we were suffering, they didn’t do anything about it.”
“What do you mean by crippled?” Solea asked.
“He can’t speak, for one. He’s the only Black Swan who can’t speak.”
“The only one?”
At that moment, Iluve realized that the Black Swan that Solea had praised so highly before and this Black Swan were the same, and she was very much afraid. Solea looked afraid too, but Iluve was concerned mostly for Solea’s safety, since Temas seemed so angry and she was afraid that he would hurt her. So Iluve stepped in and said, “You know someone who was hurt, didn’t you?” in a very soft and understanding tone so that Temas turned to her instead of Solea with tears in his angry eyes.
“Yes,” he said. “I buried my son.”
Solea started crying at this and Temas got angry. He stood up and said, “What, you’re weeping now? Shut up! If it weren’t for you, the Black Swan would have never come there in the first place. You’re a cursed child, always was. I should have listened to the others when they warned me, but I was a fool.”
Lin told him to calm down then, but Temas turned on her instead. He said, “Lin, you have come to me to ask me about Lars and whether he has any hope of recovery. My answer to you is that, as long as this filthy girl remains in your house, he will waste away and die. She is more cursed beyond all little girls and hated by all the seers. If you had any sense, you would abandon her. Otherwise, surely her curse will spread to you and your daughter as well.”
Lin said, “Sir, I have lived most of my life considered cursed. At fourteen, when I was pregnant, I was disowned and cast away to live on my own ingenuity. At fourteen, I brought into a lovely child, which you see here before you, and for all her thirteen years, she has been considered to be a cursed little girl, though she has done nothing wrong. The world hates us women, who are not of typical origin, and she is no different. What is a curse in the world’s eyes cannot be a curse in Diamea’s eyes, and I will not abandon Solea for a mere superstition.”
Temas’s eyes turned wild then. He said, “And what if your lovely child is killed? What will you do then?”
“Pray to Diamea and bury her. What more can I do?”
Temas was enraged by this answer and Iluve sensed his violence, so she stepped in, her voice trembling, and said to Temas, “I am so sorry of your loss. Black Swans are evil things and I am sorry that you had to suffer as you have, for even though I cannot possibly imagine what you must be going through, I know that I would not be strong enough to handle the burden.”
Temas’s eyes softened at this. “Diamea only gives us what we can bear,” he said.
“Then if that is true, you are the strongest man that I know, and I respect you that much more,” Iluve said. “Let us pray for your son and the rest of the victims in Diamea’s name. May they find paradise within him.” So she led them all in prayer. Then Temas, mollified, asked Solea whether she knew anything about what had happened and Solea, visibly upset, said no, but that she was very sorry about everything. And with that, Temas left with all the women deeply perturbed.
