Chapter 1: Roisin's Lot
A War Without End
Powell's Square bustled with activity, overrun with merchants excited for the harvest festival that was set to begin in a few suns. The final autumn crops were gathered, and per tradition the windfall was left in the fields for animals who remained untamed and people whose lives were overshadowed by the burden of market economies. The harvest festival served as an annual reminder that we all depended upon each other in ways sometimes invisible to the most well-to-do families.
It was never invisible to my family. Never invisible to me.
The nation of Lafleur was at war long before I was born, and so far as anyone knew, it would be at war until long after any of us died. My father was forced to raise me alone after my mother was drafted to serve the effort as a healer, the only other fully trained healer living in Powell's Square had been conscripted several years prior, and had died six moons after I was born. That would have been fine. Plenty of young people in Lafleur grow up without one parent because they were called to serve the country. And plenty of families in that circumstance got by just fine.
But on the morning of my seventh birthsun, the start of the harvest festival in Powell's Square, the Fleurian army's First Regimental Cavalry arrived in town with a decree from the queen.
By proclamation of her majesty, Queen Lavender Lillian Lisan Liatris of the Great House Liatris, one-half the able-bodied adult inhabitants of her majesty's second district, which is known by the name of Powell's Square, shall be conscripted to service in her majesty's royal Fleurian army in such a regimental unit for which they are best equipped to serve. The lottery has been assigned to proceed by drawing of lots on this the seventh sun of the tenth moon in the first year of her reign.
In addition, one-fifth of those deemed unfit for service shall be laid under the arrestive custody of the First Regimental Cavalry and delivered in due course unto the care of those souls located in her majesty's ninth district tasked with the expansion of medical science in the name of the war effort.
Failure to comply with this decree shall constitute high treason, the punishment for which is death by beheading, conviction thereof to be determined by those officers of her majesty who are present to observe the offense.
The event represented the greatest conscription of private citizens in almost thirty years because Powell's Square was the fifth largest district in her majesty's queendom, and the four larger districts would never see such an event due to the impressive measure of tax income they provided to her majesty's coffers. Prior to my seventh birthsun, the largest conscription "by lots" had been the False Lottery, wherein every lot involved had been violet, and the sixth district of Lafleur had been left without a single adult, young adult, or elder teen. Rumours tell that Queen Lavender's mother ordered the False Lottery as a reprisal for a planned uprising, but none would dare speak that thought louder than a whisper.
So I essentially became an orphan at age seven. I don't know what happened to my father or mother after their conscription, and I'm not certain I really want to. If not for my elder sister's kindness, I'd have been on my own from then on and likely taken as a ward of the nation to serve as a supply runner on the front lines.
The Unchosen One
"Roisin, dear, be sure and tell Delia that her order's ready," the general store's owner Mrs. Reed called out to me as I left to make my final delivery of the sun. She always had little odd jobs for me as a means to help pacify my natural proclivity for trouble. And my sister Delia took no small delight in knowing that the entire town seemed to view me the same way.
"Yes, ma'am," I called back, knowing full well I'd likely forget before I returned to the house I couldn't call home that I shared with my sister and her small family. "Soon's I arrive back from this job."
It wasn't that I had no ability to stay out of trouble. It wasn't that I made no effort to avoid it. Danger and mischief had a way of finding me, so how could I possibly be called to answer for myself if I made an effort to avoid that spilling over into other people's lives? Who could blame me for finding ways of being in mischief all alone.
But try telling my sister that.
Worse. Try telling literally anyone in town that I was doing them a service when, after my last delivery of the sun, I would make an extraordinary trek several miles out of town to my secret spot. Hidden deep inside the woods through which the main roads run, far out of the sights of potential interlopers, within a cave at the base of the Ehler's Cliff that opened up some time in the last several years, I have made a safe little home away from home, where I stay until just before sunset.
After delivering the small package to the Danner family at the town gate, I slipped past the guards and started down the road.
Most afternoons, the path was clear, making the trip fairly uneventful. Sevensunly, a merchant cart would make their way in or out. Moonly, a sheriff from the first district would come to collect secondary tax. Seasonally, a representative from the queen's court would stop in for inspection. But otherwise, it was a quiet road.
That sun in particular seemed like it would be completely ordinary and exceptionally quiet. I made it two miles out the gate when I spotted a carriage coming around the next bend. Given that I was absolutely not supposed to be there, I made the obvious decision to jump off the road and into the bushes far enough that I should be invisible.
As they came into view, I heard a melodic voice saying something, and her voice began to focus fully partway through a sentence.
"... and we'll need to be certain to take only the right one. Her majesty was very clear that no other options would work."
"Yes, my Lady," a man's voice replied gruffly. He was apparently frustrated at some aspect of their arrangement. "Do we have the description necessary to ensure our success?"
Their carriage came to a stop. If I had to guess, it was right around where I had just been walking. My heart skipped as one of them dismounted, grunting as they hit the ground.
"Why are we stopped?" The gruff man's voice was tense, verging on anger. "If we don't arrive soon, we'll be stuck in that little hovel of a town overnight. I cannot return to court with fleas, again."
"Need to stretch my legs," I assumed the speaker must have been the person who jumped out of the carriage. "You'll have to tell me about the first time you went back to court with fleas, Lord Montgomery."
Their voice was getting closer as sticks and dried leaves snapped under their weight. If I didn't know better, I would be certain they were coming straight for me, but there was no way they could have spotted my refuge.
"I will not have to tell you anything, given that you are merely my driver, Briar," the rage was starting to properly come across in his words as he used a servant's name to address the carriage driver. "Now if you wouldn't terribly mind doing so, I would greatly appreciate your return to this conveyance."
"In a moment, sir," Briar shot back lazily. Their footsteps finally stopped as they were within a few feet of me. I heard their weight shift as they apparently knelt down to take something from the ground before their steps began retreating. "Queen's Heart flowers out this way. A bit early for this time of year. Normally you don't see them until the tenth moon."
The lady's voice chimed in. "What's Queen's Heart, dear Briar? I've never heard of it."
"How honest would you like me to be, my Lady?" Briar seemed hesitant to explain, but they weren't going to back down if the Lady asked.
"If you are even slightly dishonest with me, dear Briar," she was playful but severe as she spoke, "then I shall have Lord Montgomery cut off your second favourite body part."
I had to fight back a laugh at the threat. Briar seemed to hiss in reaction to it as they re-mounted their seat in the carriage, which began to move near immediately.
"It's the common name for a flowering herb that grows wild during the colder moons," they spoke somewhat hesitantly, "named so because they don't often blossom fully until the first frost."
"How peculiar," the lady observed. "do you happen to know the proper ..." Her voice trailed off as they got too far out of range for me to make out the words. I found myself somewhat mesmerised for several seconds after I could no longer hear even echoes of their words.
Retaking my place on the road, I continued on my way. Only one more short mile stood between me and the hidden trail to my respite. I couldn't be blamed if I moved a touch more briskly after my brief encounter. Who could fault me looking over my shoulder a bit more than normal? I knew travel on that road was restricted to merchants and officials after three-quarter sun.
My safe haven greeted me warmly as I slipped into the shade of it and my cold-flame lamps sprung to life. Their faint blue glow settled on the last graphite drawing I had of my parents together, too long ago for me to remember. It was situated between the two decrees that took them from me. One for my mother in particular, and the one from my seventh birthsun. Both now faded with age as it had been nearly fifteen years to the sun since the latter.
"Hello ma and da. I'm home."