Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) (17 page)

Just then we heard heavy footsteps on the staircase and a deep voice outside the curtained arch.

“Good evening old chap, the ladies about? Yes, right!” And a massive figure pushed through the curtains, tangling himself neatly.

“Hullo my darlings, looks like I missed the main act. Rough business down at the club, I tell you what— Oh! Ϛaioћ!”

The newcomer was a huge beast of a man, in his mid-forties perhaps, with tanned but oddly greyish skin and long bushes of hair and beard. His exquisitely tailored robe was a pale grey and pink stripe, and instead of a hood it had a starched collar, wrapped around with a bright cerise silk cravat. On his head he wore a sort of trilby hat in black velvet. His hooked nose and huge dark eyes gave him the look of an enormous bird of prey.

“Jeetz, you’re looking well!” Charlie was enveloped in a massive hug from the man.

“Ϛaioћ, bloody good to see you. Enclave life treated you well I trust? And who’s this?” He peered down at me. “Oh right, yes, you’re Mentoring now, good work.”

“Jeetz, this is Jaseth of Jaelshead, my Bloodkin.” Jeetz shook my hand formally.

“Ϛaioћ and Jaseth were just leaving, they came down with all the Bloodkin and Mentors from the Hall.” Anna pointed over the balcony at our group, gathered by the door and looking around for us.

“Of course! I saw my old Toѫen on the way in, great to have him back, it’s been years. But I won’t hold you up, was lovely to see you again, boy.”

Anna smiled at us as we made to leave. “Bring Toѫen and Jyѫ and their Bloodkin up next time Ϛaioћ, we should like to meet them.”

Charlie hesitated for a moment, then nodded. “Of course. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

Jeetz, already with a glass of wine in his hand and a hookah hose in his mouth, waved us goodbye. Fiona and Aliakh hugged us both while Anna simply raised her hand in farewell.

Charlie and I stepped through the arch and down the stairs, nodding at Anna’s guards. Jimmy waved us over as we came out into the main tavern room.

“There you are! Shall we all head back to the Hall? I’m whacked!”

O’Malley looked up from wiping the bar as we passed, waving at our group, and with Charlie and me bringing up the rear we left the smoky warmth of the tavern to make our way home.

As if to forestall any awkward questions on the walk back through the Quarter, Charlie told me about Jeetz.

“He’s a Mingle. You know what that is, don’t you?”

“A half-breed?”

“Well, it’s impolite to call them that, but yes.”

“Of course, we had one at home!”

“What? You told me you’d never met any Nea’thi before!”

“Well it’s not as if he looks like you!”

Charlie laughed, “No, he probably wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, he’s head vintner at one of the wineries. My parents never let me have much to do with him though.”

Charlie humphed, then continued with his story.

Jeetz’ mother had travelled up from Yhull as a young woman, seeking her fortune, and was working at one of the rowdier taverns in the Docks area of Lille. She had caught the eye of a Nea’thi Journeyman, drunk on cherry vodka, and they ended up spending the night together.

“Silly twit didn’t even realise you need to use protection with Human women.”

By the time the waitress realised she was pregnant the Journeyman was long gone, off on his travels, but she decided to keep the baby anyway. When she finally gave birth to a little grey Mingle she struggled valiantly to raise him. But like Nea’thi infants, young Mingles are horrifically sensitive to light and cold, and the babe sickened and almost died. Desperate, Jeetz’ mother went to the Temple, where they advised her that the baby had to be taken down to an Enclave to be raised. Most Mingle babies are simply left on Temple doorsteps to be cared for, their mothers ashamed of having given birth to a half-breed. Not Jeetz’ mother, however. She refused to give him up, and insisted on taking him Underground herself to care for him. Seeing as she had no idea what Enclave the father had come from, she decided to go to Жanờ, the Enclave closest to Lille.

Underground, she lasted two full years with the young Jeetz before the heat and lack of sunlight drove her reluctantly back to the surface. The Жanờ Nea’thi had grown rather fond of this bolshy young mother, and sent her with a wagonload full of Nea’thi-crafted trinkets, jewellery and other curios that fetch high prices in the Human world, and she set up shop in Lille’s market district. She had a shrewd eye for a bargain, and traded her way to a modest fortune while she waited for Jeetz to be old enough to leave the Enclave.

Due to their Human heritage, Mingles mature faster than pure-blood Nea’thi youths, and are permitted to sit the Journeyman exams when they are twenty-one years of age. Unlike full-blooded
Nea’thi however, they are then assigned a Mentor and study at an Academy with Human Bloodkin. So when the young Jeetz turned twenty-one, he passed his exams, was assigned to Thomas and studied at the Lille Academy for two years.

“So what does he do now?” I asked when Charlie wound up his story.

He winked at me and tapped his nose. “That’s a tale for another day, boyo,” and he discreetly moved up to talk with Donnick, Adam and the Journeymen as Sallagh wandered over to walk beside me.

“Where did you get to before?” she asked as she took the arm I offered. She seemed a little put out.

“Oh, Charlie wanted me to meet some old friends of his.”

She sniffed,
definitely
annoyed. “Well the rest of us had a nice time dancing, if you can even call it that. I mean, the music was nice, but not what I’m used to.”

“Yeah?” I encouraged. Seeming to soften a bit, she grinned unexpectedly at me.

“Oh yes, my girlfriends and I, we used to sneak out and go down to the Docks sometimes. They have proper dancing there.”

“You? Sneaking out? But I thought…”

“That I was a nice, well-bred girl who wouldn’t
dare
set foot in a Docks tavern? There are lots of things you don’t know about me, Jaseth of Jaelshead.” She tried to look mysterious, glancing up at me from beneath lowered lashes.

“Well, uh, maybe you should show me what Lille is really like then.” She curved an eyebrow at me.

“Maybe sometime I will.”

We had turned into the lane that led to the Hall and up the front Jimmy made a big show of putting his finger to his lips to shush everyone. We all crept in and across the reception room floor. Sallagh and I were the last in, and as I went to close the Hall door behind us she slipped her hand from my arm and wove her fingers through mine. I led her up the stairs and we paused outside her room as everyone else peeled off with whispered goodnights until we were alone in the hall. She pulled me close and kissed me softly.

“Goodnight Jaseth.”

Before I could say or do anything she was gone, her door closed behind her.

I almost skipped down the corridor to my room, stumbling into Charlie inside.

“Oi, watch out!” he grumbled, but laughed when he saw my face. “Now that is the smile of a man who has just been kissed by a pretty girl. Hell Jas, you don’t muck around, do you?”

I tried to be dignified as I swayed across the room.

“You’d know all about mucking around, wouldn’t you?” I gave him a sly smile. “Anna seems nice.”

He threw up his hands in mock defence. “Fine! Fine, point taken!”

I wrestled with the door to my room before it opened suddenly and I almost fell in with it.

“My room’s all dark!” I complained. “Charlie, how do you make the glowbe thingy work?”

He came over and moved a small lever that rolled the glowbe in its bracket. Slowly it came to life.

“What are these things anyway? We don’t have lights like this at home.”

“It’s a strain of bioluminescent algae that grows in the Enclaves. It produces the chemical luciferin, which reacts with oxygen to make light, so movement gets it started. When they go dim you have to take the lid off to feed it.”

He twisted the top of the glowbe and a small crack appeared, then the top half lifted off in his hand. Now I could see that the bottom half was filled with a sort of slime, glowing a rather sickly, bright yellow-green. Charlie showed me the lid and I could see it was the amber glass that gave the light its homely colour.

“Myn Eve will have a box of sprinkles – the stuff you feed the algae – for when we need it. Kind of a pain, but still better than candles, eh?” He screwed the top back on, the glasswork so precise I couldn’t even tell where one half ended and the other half began. He pulled a velvet lid half over the glowbe, dimming the light.

“Best get some sleep now Jas, we’ve got this picnic in the morning.”

I groaned. “Ugh, do we have to? I have a feeling I’m going to be miserable tomorrow.”

Charlie grinned at me. “Come on, it will be fine. We’re taking the ferry across to Nallow. It’ll be relaxing!”

I yawned loudly. “Sounds like bollocks. Sod off then Charlie, I’m going to bed.”

He smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. “Sleep well Jas.” Then he was gone, the door shut behind him.

I barely managed to pull my boots off before I lay down. Every part of me was sore. The world seemed to spin when I closed my eyes, so I opened them again and focused on the partially dimmed glowbe. With thoughts of Sallagh and her sweet lips, it wasn’t long before sleep mercifully stilled my swirling brain.

aseth! Wakey wakey!”

Oh sweet Lilbecz no. It couldn’t possibly be morning already. No, no, no. I rolled over and tried to shut Charlie out as he pounced around my room, pulling the curtains. My eyes felt like they were caked with filth and my mouth tasted as if I’d been licking a cat’s arse.

“I hate you Charlie. Bugger off,” I muttered, pulling my pillow over my face in a vain attempt to deny the intrusive morning. Charlie wrenched the pillow from me and yanked the blankets off the bed.

“It’s picnic time! Come on, get up. You want a quick bath?”

“Maybe. Coffee?”

I pulled myself into a ball, then gave up and tried to sit. Ugh. Dizzy. Sick.

“Right here kiddo, the bath’s all ready to go.” He handed me a mug of extremely sweet coffee and I stood, swayed a bit, then sat back down with a thump, spilling hot coffee all over the robes I was still wearing from the night before.

“Oh bollocks, bloody— Hey, look at that!” The coffee slid off my robe and puddled on the floor, leaving not a mark.

“Nea’thi-weave my friend. We wear it for a reason!”

“Huh.” I stood more cautiously this time and waddled over to the bathroom, where I slipped off my clothes and eased myself into the bath. I sipped my coffee as I soaked, feeling sorry for myself until Charlie knocked on the door.

“Hurry up Jas, everyone’s almost ready!”

I heaved myself out of the bath and dried off, dressing in my cream linen robe back in my room.

Down in the reception the others had gathered, an entirely more subdued crowd than the previous night. Eve had packed two huge baskets of food and they were being lugged down the stairs by Steven and Alan. When we were ready to go, Eve farewelled us cheerfully.

“Have a nice time! Don’t forget to stop in at a Temple.” She looked at us miserable lot. “Maybe on your way back then. Off you go, don’t want to miss the ferry.”

We trudged out of the Hall and turned right at the end of the lane instead of left, which would have taken us through the Quarter and down to the Docks where I assumed we were heading. Instead we followed the street down to the lake, and barely five minutes’ walk from the Hall we came out from between the last of the small lake-side cottages. A paved promenade ran beside the pebbled shore, and not much further along a single jetty pushed out into the lake. Tied up to the jetty was the ferry, an oddly shaped craft with two layers of decking and a chimney perched on top.

Out of the shade of the Quarter the late-morning sun was bright, glancing off the water and burning my eyes. Sallagh walked ahead of us, wearing a pretty white sun-dress with lace gloves and a wide-brimmed hat. Everyone else had their robes on, hoods pulled up against the glare. We wandered down to the end of the jetty and crossed the gangplank onto the ferry. Thomas in the lead gave the captain a handful of coins he counted out from a sizeable purse, and led us up some stairs to the upper deck.