Scions of Death by Marcela Carbo

Author:Marcela Carbo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Marcela Carbo

30

Feroh stood in the kitchen doorway, watching the village women prepare the meal. The brothers had done this work when he first arrived, but the order had grown, and the brothers were put to work using their talents. Those without a gift helped the women with the heavier tasks.

One woman in particular, a Kolan by the look of her, drove them all as one, like a general. In the stone windows, they grew herbs.

At that moment, Feroh preferred life in this kitchen. Could he ask to be one of these brothers? They had families in the village, worked hard, lived their lives. The women were married to elders. They smiled and laughed, chatting as they worked, gossiping about village life.

The head cook glanced at him. “Anything I can help with, master?”

Feroh covered the embroidered band around his sleeve. “I’m no master. Reminded me of my home… where I came from.”

She rolled her eyes and got back to work. Brothers must come by all the time, seeking solace in their memories.

He inched away and then raced down the hall away from it and toward Kerrin’s study.

“Come in, lad,” Kerrin said, offering him a seat.

Feroh slumped in the chair and glanced about at the wide variety of seeds in jars, shoots in small pots lining every windowsill. An assortment of sadu plants sat in shadow.

“I don’t think I belong here,” he said.

“I see. Can you tell me why? You are of the branch. You have the blood.”

Feroh’s jaw tightened. “But I don’t belong here.” I am good. I am good!

“Can you explain?” Kerrin asked patiently. He must get weekly visits from candidates. “I would so very much like to help you. You are especially important to us.”

“But why?” he asked too angrily, so unlike himself. “Who am I to merit such concern?”

“You are the scion of Sasnian, the second son of Xulian.”

“But who am I?”

Kerrin frowned at his raised voice. “Aren’t you past such self-concern? You have a duty, an obligation to what you carry and to those of your kind. Focusing on yourself is dangerous. It leads to dangerous indulgence.”

Feroh exhaled a trembling breath. “I know. I am trying.”

“Are you happy here?”

“Yes, truly.”

“It is a good life, isn’t it?”

Feroh nodded.

“Well ordered. Safe.”

Feroh nodded again. “But there is a sickness in it. Something opposed to the course we have set.”

Kerrin stared at him with gentle eyes, but he expected a response.

“I don’t know about—”

“Are you sure? I think you’ve known it from the first day he returned.”

“I’ve not seen anything.” He could mention the woman, the secret lessons in the caverns, the sifting of brothers for their secret society.

“You would tell us if there was a problem, if anything was incorrect about his behavior? We are trying to make a safe place for ourselves in a world that no longer wants us, Feroh. Our past transgression is ever with us, and that part of us resists. Do you understand?”

He’d not admit it, but he felt like two people. The waking version of him, and this other ravenous thing.

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