Chapter One
The clattering sounds of cooking and living shattered through the walls and floorboards of the Marsala home. Ellia shuddered at the noise, wishing she were anyplace but home. Determined to ignore the familiar chaos, she grasped her grandmother's mirror ever more tightly in her callused hand. She was perched precariously upon the windowsill, her legs dangling against the rough stone edges of the outer house walls. Falling was a laughable suggestion, not because she was in no danger of it, but because she had fallen so many times before that the injuries she might have gained from it seemed superfluous.
Her eyes rose from the solid ground below to the almost intangible sky. It seemed to be an enchanted evening, Ellia had earlier observed. The skies were showing off, doing anything to outdo themselves. Colors that could only be imagined among the colors that belonged to the fey were painted across the heavens. Bright swirls reflected in Ellia's stony eyes.
Blinking away the brightness, she moved the mirror up to her face. With her other hand, she traced the familiar curves and bumps. A grin split her face, revealing an imperfect smile. One of her canine's was chipped and broken. She felt the sharp edge of the tooth before wiping her hand on her shirt and moving onto her crooked nose. A habit of never keeping her mouth shut had left her lots of fights, lots of broken noses, and the knowledge of how to fight dirty. Ellia's eyes twinkled at the memories while her fingers traveled to her latest battle scars. A black eye that was trying to rival the sky, but looked more like a rotten banana than anything else and a scabbed over split lip that was threatening to break open again. Almost done, Ellia moved the mirror even closer to her features so as to see every single one of her freckles and pock marks in all clarity.
Yes, her face was exactly as she had left it. It was a countenance she had earned, and one she loved. A small smile still playing around on her lips, the young woman flipped her legs back into the room and hung the old mirror back up on it's hook in the wall. Contented, Ellia looked back through the open window as the first touches of dark purples and blues began to appear.
"You have to go downstairs. Mama said so."
Ellia's eye twitched, she had almost forgotten about her family. She took a deep breath, and turned around. "Edie, dear. I don't care what Mama said. I do not have to go downstairs, nor do I wish to do so. Now why don't you go downstairs?"
The little girl's brows pulled together in frustration. A flicker of hope stirred inside her older sister; maybe Edie would leave. Edie looked up, her eyes squinty. "Yeah, well." She paused, "Yeah, well, you can't make me!" Laughter erupted from the youngster as she dove beneath one of the beds and began to sing at the top of her lungs. "Birdie Elderberry used to be so ugly! All the boys thought she was an ogre, and, oh, the girls would-"
"Stop it, Edie, you incorrigible, little brat!" Ellia yelled, her voice barely rising over her sister's shrill song. Feeling red-hot anger flowing from her heart and through her arms and legs, she stomped over to the bed. "I hate that song!" She shouted, after she pulled Edie out roughly and held her tightly to her chest. The child's protestations were muffled as Ellia went down the stairs, and into the kitchen.
Six pairs of eyes fell onto the two sisters as they entered. Resigned to her fate, the elder of the two slowly set the younger in her chair before walking round the table and sullenly sitting down in her own.
"I am not an incregible, little brat." Edie said, breaking the silence. She punctuated each word with a kick against the table.
"Yes, you are. You're awful!" Easton said with feeling.
"Am not! Am not! Am not!" The kicking increased.
"Are too. You're completely awful. Incregible too!"
Edie went into hysterics, pounding on and kicking the table while steadily screaming louder and louder. Ellia snorted. Sabine sent her a meaningful glare before leaning over the table to comfort the baby of the family.
"Mama. Don't talk to her, talk to me!" Easton whined, pulling on Sabine's sleeves.
Ellia turned toward the calmer half of the table and quickly served herself some of the food. She didn't pay attention to what she was serving herself, it didn't really matter anyway, she was far too busy counting heads. Four, five, six, seven… Who was missing? She wondered. Suddenly it came to her, she knew there was a reason she hadn't started screaming herself yet.
"Da, where's Emilie?"
"With some boy or another, something about a picnic." Dane replied, his speech slow and measured. He began to turn back to his previous conversation.
"A picnic at night? Who has a picnic at night?" Ellia replied quickly, knowing that if she let her father turn himself around completely she wouldn't be able to talk to him again until much later.
Sighing, he replied. "Apparently your sister does, Ellia." He turned around completely, his back to her, and began his conversation with Elijah again. Elijah made a face at her from over Dane's shoulder.
Ellia made a rude hand gesture in reply.
"Ellia Evelyn Marsala!"
"Sorry, Mama." She said with stormy eyes. After her mother turned her back, Ellia made the same gesture with an accompanying grimace. Elijah rolled his eyes. Sulking, the young woman turned to her favorite sibling and ate quietly for a few moments. Ernestine was the intellectual of the family, and as her siblings had quickly discovered the most fun to mess with.
"Hey, Ern, what's seventy-nine times thirty-four?" Ellia whispered into her ear, knowing she wouldn't be able to resist.
"Two thousand six hundred eighty-six." She said without thinking. Ern turned toward her sister, her lips pulled together tightly while red anger grew in her cheeks. "Don't do that."
Ellia shrugged and acted as if about to go back to her food when she turned quickly and said, "What's Sunderin's Sonnet?"
Helpless, Ernestine's mouth started off without her, the recitation of the hundred line epic rolling off her lips effortlessly.
"Everyone!" Sabine yelled over the din. Everyone turned toward her, the only sound was Edie's soft crying sniffles and the soft cadence of Ernestine's narration. Sabine looked pointedly at Ernestine until she was talking as fast as she possibly could. After a few minutes of awkward fast talking the poem wound down to it's end, and Ernestine breathed heavily. Sabine looked back to the rest of her family. "Everyone, I would like to have a nice, quiet family dinner tonight. I think if we all work together we can manage at least that."
"I don't."
"Ellia…"
Easton leaned over towards Edie and poked her in the arm. "Don't!" She shrieked.
"Mama, look! I made a face with the carrots. Look! Mama, look!" Sabine turned toward the youngest, with Easton yanking forcefully on her arm.
"Hey, Ern, what's-"
Ernestine clapped her hands over her ears. "I'm not listening! I'm not listening! I'm not listening!"
"I'm ho-ome!" A high voice trilled. For a second the chaos stopped, but it started up again almost immediately. Sighing daintily, Emilie pulled out her chair and took a seat. She pulled on one of her curls, letting it bounce around her face before letting her eyes fall onto Ellia. "Why Ellia, dear. Aren't you going to welcome me home?" Her syrupy voice changed to one of ice, "Or are you as ugly on the inside as you are on the out?"
Ellia stood up abruptly, her hands in fists. "And what have you done this evening, Emilie?" She reached out to pluck a piece of hay out of her sister's hair. "Rolled around in the hay with a good for nothing boy? You're nothing but a common harlot, I bet your insides are even uglier than my outs." Ellia dropped the offending bit of yellow-brown plant on the table, before stalking to her room.
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Back on the windowsill, she watched the stars pop into existence. Little bright dots winked against the black velvet expanse, and the moon's crescent laughed at the world below.
The sounds of an eight person family, minus one, wafted up into the room. Ellia imagined them rising ever higher until they would reach the moon, and then even the great celestial body would frown at the noise.
Her eyes moved from the above to the below. Lightning bugs hovered next to the path that led to the village, illuminating the bright green grass and troublesome weed flowers for seconds at a time. The sound of a pair of feet on the stairs made Ellia stiffen. She listened, trying to figure out who had decided to abandon dinner with her. The footsteps weren't stomps and there was no accompanying loud voice; not Edie. It didn't sound like someone on tiptoes or with light footfalls; not Emilie.
"Ern."
"How do you know it's always me?" She asked as she sat down beside Ellia. Her feet stayed inside the room, unlike her sister, Ernestine was wary of the drop.
Ellia shrugged. "Why'd you leave?"
"Edie and Easton got a hold of the pea bowl," Ernestine grabbed her brush and began to pull it through her dark, almost black, brown hair.
She nodded in reply, when the youngest two grabbed the pea bowl it was always a good idea to vacate the premises. Once peas had dried they were surprisingly hard to get out of one's hair. "Those little scoundrels."
The two sisters sat in silence, their eyes big with looking out at the world. The sounds from below washed over and away, while the sound of Ernestine's brush going through her hair seemed imperative and insistent. Mosquitoes buzzed around and landed every now and then. Neither seemed to care.
"Hey, who's that?" She said, gesturing with her brush.
Ellia leaned forward, even closer to falling than before. "I don't know. It doesn't look like anyone from around here. He walks too… nobly, I suppose."
They watched the figure walk ever closer, and Ernestine agreed that there was a certain something about him. The way he carried himself seemed a touch prideful, a touch assured that nothing could go wrong. "Is he going into our barn?"
"What an idiot. I'm going to go check it out." Ellia said. She wiggled until she was a hairsbreadth from allowing gravity to have it's way with her.
Ernestine grabbed her arm. "No you're not! It could be dangerous." She bit her lip, realizing how silly she sounded. Telling Ellia that something was dangerous. "I'll tell Mama if you go."
"No, you won't"
"I will too, so don't you dare jump-"
"What's the Sun King's Ballad?"
The opening lines of the ballad burst from Ernestine's mouth as Ellia jumped from the windowsill. Her landing was better than usual. She landed flat on her feet, her knees bending at the impact, and her hands slapping the ground. For a split second she was still, letting the vibrations run up through her. She stood up and ran across the moonlit ground. Her bare feet rolled across the soft grass while the new scratches and cuts on her hands stung like lots of small pinpricks.
When she reached the barn, the doors were partially open. Ellia crept into the barn, her eyes adjusting quickly to the new dark. The man had his back to her and was pulling a blanket out of his bag. He was tall, she noted, but didn't appear to have a lot of muscle tone. Smirking, she figured she could take him.
"I don't know what you've heard, but most people don't like it when strange men go into their barn uninvited."
He turned around. "Hello, fair maid-" He paused, embarrassed. "Um. Hello maiden. I have decided to use your gallant barn as my resting place this very night."