Cat shrank back at her Father’s aggressive tone. Her Mother put her hand on his shoulder but he pushed her away and stormed across the room at Cat, throwing a chair out of his way. “What did that clocking piece of Galdor shit do to you?”
Catriona could only sob as she backed against the wall of the kitchen. They’d eaten here every night since Cat was a baby. It was a tradition and a rule. We eat together as a family, no matter what. Last night was the first time in years they’d broken that tradition. The last time, her Father was arrested for conspiring against the crown. Thankfully Mr. Feldwyn had been there to get him out. He was the last person Cat wanted to see right now, but then who would get her out?
“Joseph, please, you’re scaring her.”
“She should be scared! She should be terrified! He could say anything and she’ll be blamed! She should have never gone with him in the first place!”
Catriona clung to her Father’s arm, trying desperately to say she was sorry but failing miserably. The words were choked back with tears and her injury made it near impossible to speak.
“She is a child, Joseph.” Her Mother’s form voice cut through the din as her Father sent another chair across the room. “And we need those chairs.” She pushed past him to wrap her daughter in an embrace and ushered her out of the room.
Joseph stopped suddenly, taking shaky breaths, trying not to cry. “I’m calling on his Father. I will lose my land and my home before I let some Vita forsaken Galdor ruin my daughter!” He was holding another chair now as he struggled to stand, eventually falling in the floor to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably.
His workers had brought her to him. Her tongue had been cut out. Her dress was gone. It wasn’t hard to connect the dots. The only thing she was wearing was some cloak that- Joseph froze. He knew what he needed to do.
He walked through the woods with purpose, only knowing a general direction. Years ago he’d gone to jail for them and they’d been grateful. He’d hidden one of their own and they’d been able to rescue them as he was being arrested. It was a debt they said they’d never be able to repay. But it looked like they might have done just that.
“I know you’re out here! Show yourselves! Please. It’s Joseph and I- I need-”
He was surrounded by cloaked figures. He could see them in the trees, just atop a ridge. All keeping just out of his discernible eye. Joseph has never realized how many of them there were. A whole civilization just beyond the borders of Bad Aisling. None of them approached him right away. He was struggling to keep himself calm. His wife had a full time job at that, keeping him calm. But he could not have brought her here. He didn’t know what he would find. If he was honest he thought he’d find the Wick who’d helped his daughter hanging from a tree. Still he pulled the cloak from his bag and held it aloft. He spoke quietly this time, respectful and unsure if they could hear. “I need to know...what happened to my daughter.”
One hooded figure approached and took Joseph’s head in their hands. Joseph looked under the hood to see a woman’s face, a burn scar still healing on her forehead and a black eye. “I will tell you what happened, but we are moving on. So that when you reveal where you heard the tale, we will not be here to reap any more consequences.”
Joseph nodded silently and the other figures retreated into the woods, the woman leading him by the hand to an answer he wasn’t sure he would ever be ready to hear.