A Captive of Wing and Feather A Retelling of Swan Lake - Melanie Cellier Page 0,39

talked about him affectionately.”

“What do they say of Leander?” Gabe asked.

She frowned, hesitating. “That he’s very different from his father. They don’t criticize him directly, but given how they praise his father, it’s rather implied. He doesn’t mistreat them, exactly, but they don’t much like the merchants he brings in. Apparently he and his father always clashed—they were so different—but it got worse after he returned from studying in the capital eight or nine years ago.”

“How so?” Gabe asked.

“I don’t know, exactly,” she said. “But I think he hates how remote we are out here. I guess his father hoped that letting him go off to study would help him settle down, and that he would come back ready to take on his responsibilities here.”

I snorted.

“Yes, exactly,” Audrey said to me. “Instead he just came back with an even stronger desire to get out of here. He wants to conduct experiments of some kind, but the servants didn’t know any details about them since he spends all day locked away alone in his study. I guess he hopes they’ll help him make a name for himself? Apparently he always used to complain that his father made no effort to improve the family fortunes and earn a higher rank and more important estates.”

“It sounds like a good thing that the people of this region have Cora,” Gabe said, his gaze distant and voice thoughtful.

“Oh yes, everyone around here knows to send those needing care and shelter here to Brylee,” Audrey said, her voice proud.

“However did she come to start the haven?” Gabe asked.

“She doesn’t talk about it much.” Audrey sighed. “I think it was all very sad. She was orphaned when she was a year or two younger than I am now, and her remaining relatives sent her to live with her Aunt Florinda.”

She wrinkled her nose. “She sounds like a perfectly horrid old lady. She owned the haven’s building but tried to run it as an inn—not too successfully, since Brylee is hardly big enough to need two inns. Plus everyone says she was miserly and miserable, so who would want to stay with her?”

“Who indeed?” Gabe sounded slightly amused at Audrey’s narration.

“Well, Wren told me that Cora made a vow that if anyone ever turned up at her door, she would give them a better welcome than her aunt gave her. Thankfully, her aunt died a long time ago, and the haven went to Cora. And she’s stayed true to her promise ever since. It’s all a bit beautiful and romantic, really.”

I bit my lip. Except for the parts where the roof leaked, and I’d overheard Cora talking about watering down the soup. With Leander as lord, Cora might have to finally break that promise. Unless we could take him down first.

When flashes of the Keep began to appear ahead of us through the trees, Audrey stopped abruptly. Gabe and I also slowed to a halt, going back to join her. With narrowed eyes, she gazed ahead at the building, and then to either side.

“This way,” she said, her voice low.

We followed, eventually stopping in the trees to one side of the Keep. I could just see the road to our left, and occasional glistens from the sunlight hitting the lake at the back of the Keep to our right.

“I could see the spot from the top of the walls,” she told us. “I looked for it especially after I overheard about its location. I thought maybe I could trace it back, but of course that didn’t work.” She frowned at a tree in front of us, craning her head back to look up toward its crown. “I used to spend a lot of time on the walls when it all began to feel a little claustrophobic.”

My heart seized in sympathy, but she kept murmuring, almost to herself. “It all looks a bit different from down here, but I think…Yes…That must be the one.”

A number of large boulders, some taller than us, broke up the trees in this section, and she stepped toward one of them. Circling around it, she began to pull down the various creeping vines which trailed over it.

We both hurried to help her, sweeping them away rather than completely removing them where possible. We wanted to avoid advertising our presence here.

A small door appeared, made of stone a similar shade to the rock itself. With the vines trailing over it, we would never have noticed it without Audrey’s prior knowledge. But having now uncovered it,