Trinket (Reverse Harem)

In Which Yanice & Deliah Meet Marcus

 Soir had sent me home with an older Raven attendant named Marcus. No relation to Maris, obviously.

"Take good care of her, Marcus," Soir had instructed the attendant, who had the stiff bearing of a master-of-house more than a personal attendant. And Maris had just nodded gravely. Maris, clearly, had been clued in on Soir's hopes to get me to marry him and add "Lady of Haven" to my list of titles. So like Ormiss presumed I was Lady-Consort of the Hippocamp (well, okay, it wasn't a presumption, I was), Soir presumed I was the Lady of Haven.

Deliah looked at Marcus with huge eyes, while Yanice looked like it was a rude shock.

"This is Yanice, and that is Deliah," I said, gesturing to each in turn. "This is Marcus, one of Lord-Raven Soir's household staff. The Lord-Raven sent him to help get the house in order."

"Specifically," Marcus told me with both correction and deferral, "I am one of Lord-Raven's Soir's personal house stewards."

In the hierarchy of servants, that put Marcus above Yanice and Deliah. He was from a house with higher standing, he was a steward in that house's employ, and he was a "personal" member of staff. If Yanice and Deliah were warriors in a Lord's employ, Marcus was a personal bodyguard. And the look on my maids' faces as the realization washed over them was priceless.

Marcus took in the foyer with a hawkish gaze, and when he spoke, his voice dripped a Raven's song of scorn. "Yes. Much to do."

Yanice clutched her skirts in pretty little hands. "Of course there is. She has only just arrived."

"Quite. Two maids for an ambassadorial residence is, of course, insufficient." He intoned insufficient with a bit of Raven-song to convey his actual meaning.

Deliah went beautifully pink in mortification, Yanice looked like she was watching something crumble before her--sort of a mix of powerless fury and vague terror.

They couldn't hear the Raven's song. And Marcus was being very subtle about it. I made a mental note to be especially careful around Marcus.

"Three of us will be barely adequate," Marcus added, his song conveying that they would stop at nothing to be fully adequate. Yanice and Deliah both made small eep sounds. Marcus, eyes narrowed, told Yanice, "You will show me the house. You will attend to my lady."

Yanice's smile was watery. "Of course."

Could they really not hear the Raven's song? I'd never heard a Raven's song before now either... had I? I'd met Ravens as a child. Was it something I'd never been able to hear before, or had the Ravens in my dream-pocket deliberately never sung, just like everything I'd ever heard about demons had not included how dangerous demon-touched were.

Or was this simply my magic was awakening?

I kept my hands from wandering up to touch my scars as my scars itched. I'd never felt my scars before returning to Haven. The brutally twisted skin should have bothered me a little, one would think.

Marcus approached Yanice, who gave him the shakiest smile I'd ever seen, and her voice quavered slightly as she said, "This way. We'll start downstairs."

"Quite. You can also draw the lady's bath while we're down there."

"Yes, of course," Yanice said with a little bit of obviously, and Marcus withered her with a stare, and Yanice half-fled, half-crawled towards the stairs to the lower levels.

Deliah bobbed a quick curtesy in my direction, one eye on Marcus, and then she herded me up the stairs with a bunch of whimpered little platitudes like I was Tynne's mother.