The White Sheep's Disguise ✓

Chapter 4

When Rivian began nearly a thousand years ago, shaped naturally from the world's doings and happenings, Gudgeon Docks was one of the first landmarks to be established by the founders. Most of what they caught from the water was small, meatless fish, and they named the docks affectionately so.

No one thought to change it after the Void Queen, Wyetta Terravale, took the throne and reshaped the land with her Luminary abilities, molding Rivian into a perfect circle, its capital rimmed by a monster-infested river to protect the royal and rich. Gudgeon Docks remained the same except for the bountiful harvest of new fish species coming to the land once their ocean—an underwater home—was reshaped.

Settlers, mostly fishermen, constructed what is now Gudgeon village, a mess of buildings and storefronts planted next to the docks in hopes of looking like home. Before that, we didn't have a name. We're not considered a large enough city to be worth anything, but our six-day travel from the capital makes Gudgeon Docks and the cluster of homes next to it highly prone to attack.

Everyone here knows of everyone else. There isn't a face in the crowd I don't recognize and though their names may elude me, I know their businesses, their families, their laughs, and their take on Luminaries. Some keep so hushed that I wonder if they are one themselves, but the others that parade of magical death, swinging ankles from the gallows, are the threats I attempt to avoid.

For the past three years, I've kept my secret. The Raven Queen said it best the day she visited us to hunt down the obvious Luminaries in Gudgeon village. Magic is treason. Magic is dangerous. Magic will get you killed.

Surrender to me now and you face no consequence.

She didn't lie, technically, as death wasn't a consequence in the queen's eyes or that of the people. Some willingly stepped forward, and it wasn't until a large enough crowd formed that she ordered her sentinels, along with the strongest two of her four children, to execute them all.

The Void Queen clutches the army of the soulless. The Raven Queen adopts murderers.

I think of the tales of their separate uprisings on my way home from work. My ankles ache, the back of my knees weighs heavier than normal, and my neck strains after looking down at a table for hours on end. All the seasoned and flavored soaps in the world can graze my hands and the fish smell will cling on like a frightened child to its mother's breast.

Three blocks away, beyond the cottages for captains and foremen, guards and tradesmen, is one of my two homes. The one I despise the most. Not for the flower baskets hanging from the bottoms of the windows or the wooden bench out front, too close to the front door that I stub my toe on the metal leg every time I'm not paying enough attention.

The person on the inside makes my lip curl back from my fangs. His shadow passes by the front window and I stop, considering not opening the wooden door with the metal handle in the shape of a curved branch, but I have to stop by at some point. Three days is usually when he looks for me.

Rylan, my dear husband, is sitting on the sofa when I hang my satchel on the metal hook nailed to the back of the door. He frowns at me but attempts to remain stoic by giving me enough time to remove what is the worst-smelling part of my wardrobe. Another pair of leather boots—ruined.

My schedule revolves around his, not so we arrive home at the same time, but to give me a chance to miss his arrival or departure. Judging by the light armor still clinging to his underclothes, the silver chest plate covered in scratches and dents, Rylan hasn't been here for long. Otherwise, I would've found the chest plate and gauntlets on the floor where he believes they belong.

With no affection in his ice-blue eyes, dull as they've always been, Rylan says, "Hello, Marie." Even the sound of his voice makes me cringe. I tug my hair out of its loose braid, the strands having fallen around my face hours ago, and force a smile.