The door of the Smuggler’s Rest trembled as the wind tested it. Betty skulked about the bar, cleaning out the ash from the fireplace and replenishing it with logs for the coming evening.
Selina, Priya and Reighn sat morosely in the corner of the room with a breakfast of rabbit and eggs, Reighn clutched a tankard of ale, idly tapping his upper teeth against the rim.
Priya was tired, though shrugged off any explanation when Selina asked her about it. ‘Must be the weather,’ she mulled eventually. She had been spending her days at home, cooped in her room and sleeping off her nocturnal commission.
The three of them sat in silence, Selina smiling exaggeratedly at the two of them and Priya doing the best she could to force down her tired irritation.
‘Ted’s not been down here for a while,’ Selina said, toying with her food and trying her best to spark a conversation.
‘Thinks someone killed his Breaker, don’t he!’ Reighn said with a sigh. ‘Don’t know why, mind. Accidents happen. He should know that better than anyone.’
‘Do you think maybe we should go and see him?’ She asked Priya, who looked up at Reighn.
‘What do you mean he should know it better than anyone?’ Priya asked.
‘Back when they were doing repair work on the Sayer’s barn. It was what? Say, ten years ago? Ted was there when the scaffolding collapsed on Dalton Sayer and James Soothe. Poor bastards took a support beam to their faces; dragging them down in a second and crushing their heads against the wall.’
Priya recalled Semilion mentioning the incident, though hadn’t pressed him for details.
‘James...’ Selina queried.
‘Jasmine’s husband.’ Reighn replied.
‘Poor woman,’ Selina said, trying not to imagine what the aftermath of such a tragedy would have been like.
‘She used to do those palm-readings of hers before then... It was something for the children. Entertainment. No-one really took any notice of it. After the accident though, that’s when she started to act like she could see things the rest of us couldn’t...’
‘Told me my old pa were with me,’ Betty interrupted as she continued to sweep the hearth. ‘Why she thought I’d be happy to hear that old scoundrel were lookin’ out for me I never reckon I’ll know.’ She stood and left the room, muttering about her father as she did so.
‘Started saying she knew things were going to happen. Personal stuff,’
‘Like Dawn’s miscarriages?’ Priya asked tentatively. Selina fired an angry glance at her, what a thing to mention!
‘Not the first... But she said that we wouldn’t have any more children. I was furious with her. So was Semilion... Banned her from coming here for a long time, he did.’
‘Well she was wrong, wasn’t she? You’ve got young William now.’ Selina placed her hand on Reighn’s wrist, though his taut muscle made her retract it.
Reighn closed his eyes. ‘William’s so sick... He fights and gets better for a day or two, and then he loses his colour and won’t eat, or drink. Amber’s stopped burning her herbs... she says it’s not making him any better. She doesn’t know what else to do.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Selina said quietly, sharing a forlorn glance with Priya, who was noticeably angry.
‘I haven’t said anything to Dawn, but I sometimes think,’ he cleared his throat as though about to offer a life-long secret. ‘I sometimes think that Jasmine got it right. I mean, when I’m scared... In the middle of the night when I can hear him breathing. He’s so fragile. So completely helpless... I lay there and expect his breathing to simply stop, for the night to take him away.’
‘And you don’t think to take him to get help?’ Priya said sternly. With the community under the shadow of a southern enemy, she wanted nothing less than to tell him his loyalty to seclusion was nothing short of moronic.
‘Where?’ Reighn wiped his eyes and frowned.
‘Anywhere where there’s medication... This community Runner, what’s his name?’
‘Guliven?’
‘Why doesn’t he bring back medical supplies?’
‘He didn’t know to. He left before William fell sick.’
‘Then why doesn’t Semilion let you take another boat and follow?’
‘It would take too long.’ Reighn began to grow angry. Did she think he hadn’t thought of everything that might save William? Did she think he wouldn’t go to the ends of the earth if there was a chance he could save his boy?
‘Would take too long!’ Priya snorted.
‘Don’t tell me I’m not doing enough to help him. Where would I go? Do you expect me to put him in a row-boat and take him across the channel? He wouldn’t last a night! Or maybe I should carry him to the border? Get myself arrested, have William prized from me and subjected to test after test, and bring the community down with me?’
‘At least there would be a chance for him to survive, no matter how small, and no matter the consequences!’ Priya spat. ‘How many have died to save this place? You know what I hear working in the crèche? They don’t even bury the young in the churchyard because there are so many of them Semilion’s worried about disease breaking out in the village.’
Reighn pushed his chair back, knocking over his tankard. The ale swept across the table and Selina jumped up.
‘You haven’t got a clue!’ He pointed his thick finger in Priya’s face. She grit her teeth and remained motionless, expecting him to strike her. He bore down on her menacingly, before pushing the table forcibly and storming from the pub.
‘What the hell, Pri?’ Selina glowered.
‘It makes me sick! They think they’ve hidden themselves from the devil when all they’ve done is caged themselves in with him!’
‘Well, it was nice of you to try and get him to understand that, he was opening up about his dying son you... selfish bitch!’
Selina followed in the wake of Reighn, the door slamming behind her as Betty re-entered the bar, noticing the mess surrounding Priya.
‘You think I enjoy cleaning up after you lot?’ She snapped, snatching up a bucket.
Priya sighed and closed her eyes, thankful she was being taken out of the crèche. Long days and nights of work were rousing her anger before she even realised what was happening.
The wind thrashed Selina’s hair as she ran after Reighn. He ignored her at first, but eventually he turned, tears in his eyes, as she caught up with him and laid a hand on his arm.
‘I’m sorry about her, there’s no excuse for what she just said.’
‘Do you really think I wouldn’t do anything I could to save my boy? Do you think I want him to die?’
‘Of course I don’t!’ She replied passionately. ‘I don’t think that at all, Priya had no right to say any of that to you.’
He was silent for a moment, debating whether he should say anything more, the anger he felt towards Priya almost extinguished his true feelings, but the focus of his thoughts brought him back to William.
‘The truth is...’ He said, turning from her, ‘The truth is that maybe she’s right and it torments me. I could take him to the border, even if I thought it would be the end of everything here, even if I accepted I would never see him again... I could take him and rest assured that he at least would be safe.’
Selina said nothing, and didn’t voice the feeling of panic that coursed through her when he spoke his mind. Was she growing so attached to the place that she would put it before the life of a child? For a fleeting moment she grasped the dilemma unconditionally.
‘What will you do?’ She asked, and thought for a moment he understood she appreciated his concerns.
‘If I’m any kind of father I’ll try to get him out of here.’ His voice was low. He barely opened his mouth to say it and he stared at the ground.
She looked up at him, the faintest nod beneath her lashing hair.
‘I'm... We’re living with a choice our great-grandparents made. I know why they made it. At least, we’re told why they made it... But in all honesty I don't k
now. Why they did it... Or why we continue to do so.’ He looked up at her, tears in his eyes. Selina said nothing. Her features had changed to one of overwhelming sympathy. ‘We know nothing of the world,’ he continued, ‘nothing except for you and Priya. When I see the two of you, and think that you represent the old-world, it makes me question everything.’