The Crags

Chapter 2

The trip to the town was uneventful, though Santi had never flown in such style and comfort. She barely felt the chill with a heated blanket wrapped around her shoulders and another over her legs. They rarely left the house and never entertained, since her uncle spent most of his time hunting when he did not have a corpse to prepare for burial. That happened far too often during winter when illnesses struck and doctors could not reach their patients.

After she turned sixteen, she had fewer lessons to keep her engaged during the day, so she walked. Her route took her to her uncle's funeral home at the edge of the city, through the graveyard and the forest to the meadow beyond it. She would spend a few minutes breathing the fresh air before taking the same route home.

Because every girl needed a skill to protect herself, Ms. Anise, her governess, tried to teach her how to use a bow and arrows, a blaster, and then throwing knives. She mastered only the latter and a few moves a martial arts master taught her—when her uncle was not around to reprimand her. Those lessons along with her long walks, kept her in shape.

She could never be as tiny as Ela, though. Her uncle said she had her mother's build. Apparently, that meant large busted and muscular, but not fat. The tips of his longest fingers brushed against each other when he wrapped his hands around her waist. He did that purely to tease her.

Missing the open fields behind the forest, she stared out the window as they flew towards the town of Dusk. The aviator slowed as they came to a hill and she pressed her face against the window, then slid to the other side to take it all in. When she sighed at the breathtaking view that the countryside offered and the expanse of the town below, he continued down a winding road to the valley.

The town of Dusk did not differ that much from Down-under. It had the same wide roads, and crafts parked along a path that stretched in front of all the shops. However, the residential zone seemed more compact because people built up and not out. Everywhere she looked, children hovered above the ground in hover-boots, while their mothers floated in chairs. If they expected her to keep her feet off the ground, she would leave Upper-capital before the week ended.

She must have voiced her thoughts because the aviator snickered. She apologized, but he waved it off and said, "Only the well-to-do families refuse to dirty their soles."

Santi barely had a glimpse of four floor-to-ceiling windows, and two more levels above it, before the aviator guided them into a dark tunnel. It opened into a storage room for the crafts. Side by side stood two equally stylish cars, modeled to Mr. and Mrs. Sphere's tastes, and a much larger craft with four bench-seats for when the family traveled with guests. They would probably use that one when they left for the assembly rooms.

Ela's words came back to Santi as the butler showed her into the drawing room. Her uncle's home in Down-under was decorated with well-made and well-placed furniture. Had Mrs. Grunt not married an animal, she might have become friends with Mrs. Sphere. But that entailed setting foot outside. Mrs. Sphere also had an eye for well-made and well-placed furniture, and used colors to add warmth without extravagance.

Santi felt welcomed the moment Murai rushed to greet her. Before she had met Mr. and Mrs. Sphere, she already knew Murai and Ela had become close friends; she did not like Pen; and Murai and Hal almost married. Her father did not consider him suitable for his only daughter, because he did not earn enough to give her the same life they had provided. Her excessive friendliness and the way she kept Santi's attention on her made Santi wonder if the girl had not rejected Hal for the reasons she provided. She deemed it so when she did not greet Murai with the same exuberance and the girl became more reserved.

Mr. Sphere greeted her equally warmly. He expressed his sorrow that her father was not well enough to attend, which kept the eldest Miss Crag away from the festivities. For a moment, she did not know which of her family members' absence distressed him more. However, as he continued to speak, she soon realized how much he missed his old friend's company at the card tables.