Arrival of the Traveler (Waldgrave Book 1) Page 19

  “You want to discuss your exposition! Nothing is more important.” Serena smiled gleefully.

  Greg turned his chair around and gently folded his hands.

  Lena looked back and forth between them. “How did you…?”

  Serena nodded. “It’s been on your mind for a while now. How much have you figured out?”

  “Um…” Lena looked over at Greg, and then back into Serena’s dark eyes. “Well, not a whole lot, I guess. I need help.”

  Greg stood up. “Good luck.” And he walked out of the office. Lena stared after him; had she said something wrong?

  “He’s not allowed to help. No one on the Council, excepting your uncle, is allowed to help you with the exposition. Too much of a chance for bribery and coercion.” Serena took a last bite out of her cereal and set it on her desk. “We’ll need notes…” She pulled out a legal pad and a pen, gestured to Greg’s empty chair, and Lena sat down. “Now. I know this is going to be difficult for you, but your exposition needs to contain your full opinions on current events. The political situation, the religious situation, and the social situation. And don’t lie, because they’ll know.”

  Lena’s jaw fell open. She knew she would be cast as a radical considering her political beliefs. Her perspective on Silenti religion was—unique—to say the least. She hadn’t even known that a social situation existed. “Oh, my God.”

  Serena pointed the pen at her and then started jotting onto the page. “You believe in a God…it’s a start!” She looked back up at Lena.

  I’m never going to get in… Lena thought.

  Serena tilted her head to the side. “And that’s going to be a problem. First, you’re going to need confidence. And second, was it your intention to just broadcast that to the house?”

  “No, I was just…”

  “Try again, and this time think exclusively at me.” Serena said.

  Lena closed her eyes and concentrated hard. Is this any better?

  “It was okay. The exposition is usually given in the Silenti language…in thoughts, not words. As I’m sure you know, the assemblies are constituted of a great many people from all over the world. Some don’t speak English well, and communication through our thoughts—which is universal to all Silenti—is a key point in becoming a family representative. You’re going to need to work on your skills in that area.”

  Lena flinched. Mrs. Ralston had given her copious lessons on Silenti thought-language, and the truth was that she just wasn’t very good at it. Her public speaking came across muffled, and she had no ability at all to hear the public thought-speak of others. It had to be specifically directed at her for her to hear it; she couldn’t generate private thought-speak at all. But she was willing to work on it. “Okay.”

  Serena nodded resolutely. “Let’s start with the easy question, then. Where do you stand on our social situation?”

  Easy question? Lena thought. “I’m sorry, which social situation?”

  Serena crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair. “You’ve only been to one assembly, but I assume you noticed that the beds were always made, the food cooked and served, and the clothes always washed?”

  “Yes, because the Families bring their house hands to help.” Lena said.

  “House hands, servants, slaves…There’s different dogmas and situations the world over. The big situation is that the Silenti do not regulate or have any laws concerning the ethical treatment of the lower classes. They don’t have representation in the Council because most of them are recovered children—human-raised Silenti who never gain what can be considered full Silenti abilities…” Serena paused. Lena was in such a situation, except that she was in the dining room and not the kitchen. “Recently they’ve been asking for it. They want representation, and many are hesitant to give it to them on the grounds that the family representative speaks for the entire household; others say that they shouldn’t have it because they aren’t full Silenti.”

  “I’m in favor. They deserve to vote.” The family representatives voted out of self-interest, and the lower classes were feeling it. Devin had told her so once while they dried dishes together.

  “That won’t do well before the Council.” Serena looked up very solemnly.

  Lena shrugged in frustration. “But if I’m not allowed to lie, then—“

  “Try to think about it from a different angle,” Serena tucked the pen behind her ear as her hand movements became more animated. “You’re well-traveled, yes? How many times has intervention from an outside force caused a people to stand up, unite, and peaceably agree to a new governing system? Rarely, if at all, to my knowledge. It takes a revolution.”

  “You think the lower classes would revolt?” Lena asked.

  “It happened in France, and many other places. But it’s not about what I think…It’s about the fact that, historically speaking, you can only be sure that a vote will be used responsibly if it’s taken by those who want it.” Serena reasoned.

  “So…” Lena mulled Serena’s position over in her mind. “You’d rather the Council waited for a violent upheaval that would probably divide the community further, rather than settling it now? Is that what you mean by taking it?”

  Serena threw her hands in the air. “It’s not about me! It’s…look, you’re insane if you think the majority of people on that Council would vote to give their servants a voice in the law. It’s good to be the king, right? Same reason they’ve kept it a system of mostly first-born males. It’s self-preservation. Change won’t happen overnight. What I’m trying to say is this: they won’t let you in if you have an agenda concerning the lower classes. None of them are really from the lower classes. So you need to frame your opinion carefully—overnight change never works, fair statement?”

  “Sure.” Lena replied. It seemed to have worked for France.

  “So maybe you do support better representation of the lower classes, but not tomorrow. Not next week. Not next year. You support a system that will prepare everyone, the lower and upper classes, for a new governing system. Slow, gradual change—because we have a problem and it needs to be fixed. Just try to avoid defining ‘slow’ in concrete terms.” She looked over at Lena, who wasn’t convinced. It was the biggest load of bull she had ever heard, and yet she had heard it several times before from various politicians. “Just think about it. Maybe talk to someone about it.”

  Lena shook her head. “I’ll think about it. It’s not right, though.”

  Serena scribbled onto the page and looked back up. “What about politics?”

  “Integrationist.” Lena replied flatly. “That’s not up for debate.”

  Serena scribbled onto the page. “And where do you stand on religion?”

  Staring at the ceiling, Lena sighed. “Nowhere. I don’t believe in the portal. I’ll respect the religions of the Silenti as long as they don’t intrude on my life.”

  Serena cocked an eyebrow. “You don’t believe in the portal? Not at all?”

  Lena leveled her gaze. “Nope. It’s never actually been confirmed as real—probably just lore.”

  “That’s very interesting.” Serena raised her eyebrows, turned to a new page on her legal pad, and scribbled.

  Suddenly feeling as though the session had taken a turn to becoming a psychological examination, Lena felt defensive. “Just because I’m a Daray doesn’t mean that—“

  “Not because you’re a Daray.” Serena looked up quickly. “Because your mom is the only living Silenti who claims to have actually seen it.”

  Standing in the doorway of Ava’s bedroom, Lena looked at the strained figure lying on the bed. She had changed into a silver nightgown and cotton candy-like pink bathrobe, and her face was obscured by the eye mask and cold towel compress on her forehead. An open bottle of aspirin sat on the nightstand.

  “Mom?”

  “Is it important, Lena?” Ava moaned.

  “When did you see the portal?” Lena asked.

  Ava lifted the eye mask just enough to peek
out from under it. “You’ve been talking to Serena. There’s no point in my telling you because you’ve already got your opinion.”

  “All she told me was that you saw it. I need to know what you saw because…I never thought it was real, I guess.” Actually, Serena had said that Ava was the only living person who claimed to have seen it, but Lena felt it best to leave that tidbit out.

  Ava removed her compress, sat up, and pushed her mask up. She spoke in an exhausted tone; each word dragging out like it weighed too much to easily travel the distance from mouth to ear. “Sit down. It’s a long story.”

  Lena sat down on the bed next to Ava. She was hoping what her mother was about to say would decide her mind for her by being either entirely ridiculous or revolutionary—anything in between would stick her in a difficult spot.

  “Fourteen years ago, Aaron and I were in Ecuador diving the reefs for our third anniversary. We lived very much like you lived, I suppose. Place to place, one right after the other. No real home.” Ava shuddered. “I wanted to go home, but I didn’t want my father to have you. He was so angry with me, he said he’d kill me if I ever tried to come home. When he found out about Thomas, he started petitioning to gain custody because he immediately named him his heir. But I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

  “I was selfish and I wanted to prove to him that I could do what I wanted when I wanted, but it was hard. It was so much harder than I ever thought, because you and Thomas were such a handful. I never knew taking care of kids could be so hard—you were always hungry, or sleepy, or needed changing…did you know that kids don’t toilet train until they’re three? Sometimes you two would just cry and cry for no reason. One of you would start to cry and wake up the other…I was overwhelmed. Two small children, and we were always traveling to keep Thomas away from him. It was hell.

  “And then there was Ecuador. Aaron wanted to take me scuba diving for our third anniversary…I didn’t want to celebrate it at all, but I guess it worked out lucky for me. He took me out on a private tour…one of his friends had a boat and was certified. He stayed up on the boat with you two. When we were down there, we found a box partly buried in the coral. A big old trunk, just like pirate’s treasure in the movies. Aaron said to leave it at first, because the coral was growing all over it, but then I saw what was written on it. It was in Latin, which I didn’t know, but there on the lid…smack in the middle of the lid…was the word ‘Silenti.’ And I knew. I just knew.” Ava looked over at Lena, who sat with her eyes straight ahead, focused on the wall opposite the bed.

  “Wait.” Lena furrowed her brow. “I thought the portal was old. Like, older than Latin--older than the word 'Silenti'.”

  “The adornments were added later.” Ava shrugged. “It’s in one of those old books. Aaron couldn’t see it…he was human. Only I could see the writing. We pried it out of the coral and swam it back up to the boat. His friend was really upset that we had destroyed part of the coral formation until I said what I thought the box was. Aaron was livid—he said I should have left it in the coral. Another fifty years and it might have been covered completely. But then we had it, and we had to decide what to do with it. It was heavier on land, so we left it in the boat at the dock. Aaron said we should dump it back in the water the next day, and I told him we would. But as I lay there in the dark, another possibility came to me.

  “I waited until he fell asleep and then I snuck back out to the boat with Thomas. I knew that I couldn’t dump it back out at sea because I’d never find it again. I hired some locals to help me move it out of town. I hid it in a little cave just outside of Manta. Then I took Thomas and went to the airport, and I went home. I asked for full amnesty from my father in exchange for Thomas and the location of the portal. So I was allowed back, and the nightmare was over.” Ava smiled over at Lena, proud of her cleverness, but Lena was frowning.

  “You just left me and dad there? You didn’t say goodbye to me, or anything?”

  “Well, I only really needed Thomas, and I couldn’t cart both of you out to the airport. It would have been such a hassle.” Ava crinkled her nose. “My father only wanted a boy. Tough luck for him when he found out Thomas was human.”

  Lena sighed. It should have upset her, but such attitudes just didn’t anymore. Her mother was as self-centered and arrogant as any other Daray. “What happened with the portal?”

  “I went before the Council and told them the location, a representative was decided on, and he went out and retrieved it. He was murdered on the way back, and the portal hasn’t been seen since.” Ava shrugged.

  “Who killed him?” Lena asked.

  “Oh, we never did find out…” Ava yawned and reached for the hairbrush on her nightstand. She started to pull it through her matted hair.

  “Investigative services really suck here.” Lena observed.

  “Don’t use that word.” Ava replied indifferently. “It’s unbecoming of a lady. We’re sure it was someone with the New Faith, and that’s good enough.”

  It was all very convenient. Too convenient. A Daray, the only Silenti who would be able to find and identify the portal, just happened to be scuba diving in the exact location where the portal is. And then the portal disappeared before any conclusive evidence could be gathered? It wasn’t enough to earn Lena’s blind faith, but it was worth asking around for more information.

  Lena got up and walked back to her room. Since Hesper had helped her pick out a new winter wardrobe at the start of the trip, she hadn’t unpacked any of the summer clothes that she had brought in her suitcase. Now she was digging through them unceremoniously, looking for something she had packed on Griffin’s suggestion.

  “There you are…” She whispered.

  She pulled the journal free from a mess of shirts. She flipped it open to the inscription on the inside cover and tried to read it again, but to no avail. She flipped through the rest of the pages, wondering if she had missed something, but it was empty. She thought hard; if Griffin thought that she would need it, odds were that she would. But why would she need an empty book?

  The rest of the next week passed Lena by without any need of the blue journal. She denied her impulse to call Griffin and ask what the book was for; she would figure it out on her own. But with only one more week to go, and her chances of figuring it out by herself getting slim, she finally enlisted Hesper’s help. After making her swear that she wouldn’t tell Griffin, of course.

  “You know he’ll probably know anyway, right?” Hesper said in a bored tone.

  “I’m asking that you try, that’s all.”

  Hesper rolled her eyes. “I’ll try. Does this mean that I can ask you a favor, too? No questions asked?”

  “Sure. Whatever. You’re my friend.” Lena looked sternly at her. “Do you read Latin?”

  Hesper stared. “No. Lena, why the hell would I read Latin?”

  Lena sighed. She really was going to have to learn Latin. “It’s…nothing. No reason. What do you need?”

  Hesper checked the hall, closed the door, and lowered her voice. “I’m sneaking out tonight, and I need you to cover for me.”

  Lena’s defenses went up. From experience, it wasn’t good for political figures to go sneaking out alone. “That’s really not a good idea, Hesper…”

  “I’ll be fine. Look, you can sound the alarm if I’m not back by two.” Hesper implored.

  “Where are you going?” Lena asked.

  Hesper’s expression softened and Lena started to worry again. She was keeping another secret. “I want to tell you. You have no idea how bad I want to tell you. But your blocking isn’t that great yet, and you live with one of the most powerful living Silenti in the world. Not to mention Griffin. I just can’t tell you yet, okay? I swear I won’t be in any danger.”

  Lena didn’t want to let her go. It was a bad idea to go out alone. Hesper was Griffin's sister, which made her a potential target. Her death wouldn't go unnoticed; it would be a powerful political statement. It was fraught, e
specially with the way Eric had been following her around... But Lena agreed, and as sickening as it was to her, asked her to call every half hour or so to check in.

  Lena laid awake in bed, flipping back and forth through her journal. It was possible there was something written in it, but very doubtful. Lena had been able to read every book in the Waldgrave library for several months, and in general had no issue reading Silenti scripts anymore.

  iter itineris susipio hik

  Hesper had set her look to be a little more punk than usual that evening, wearing a pair of black jeans, a corset-style top, extremely dark eye makeup, and even putting temporary blue streaks in her hair. She had spent nearly two hours picking out clothes and putting on makeup, which was unusually long, even for Hesper, before she finally slipped out the window and down a ladder. As her blue pigtails disappeared into the warm night air, Lena had to wonder who had set up the ladder for her.

  Why wouldn’t Hesper tell her? She could keep a secret. And it wasn’t safe to go out alone. That was one of the things that Hesper and Lena had in common. They should be best friends, but they weren’t. Hesper was keeping secrets because she didn’t trust her, Lena, who had thought they were best friends.

  iter itineris susipio hik…

  She could keep a secret. What could be so important in her life that no one could know, anyway? Lena had bigger secrets. She had bigger problems. And Hesper knew about all of them. Lena rolled over and looked at the digital clock on the nightstand. Two forty-six.

  Maybe she should ask Mrs. Ralston, who knew everything, but might not want to help, given who the journal was from. Ava didn’t speak Latin; she had said so when she talked about finding the portal. Hesper didn’t know. Daray would certainly know, but Lena sure wasn’t going to go asking him. And she certainly wasn’t going to go to Griffin. She could imagine the smug expression on his face, the conceited tone of voice he struck when she admitted he had something she needed.

  iter itineris susipio hik…

  The journey begins here.

  Lena turned around. Serena was standing in the doorway, wearing a plush green bathrobe and holding two steaming coffee mugs. Panic stricken, Lena sat up and started to babble like an idiot.