The Duchess Cannot Sleep || ONC 2021

12 | The Home

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Outside Korsa, Isantad
The next day, late sun
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Reide had two brothers: one three years older than him and one seven years younger. The older one, Sauva, would likely not be at home, and the younger one, Tariben, would apparently "love her to bits."

Reide's eyes sparkled as he went on about it, his hands moving along with him as he told her how short his brother was even though he was almost eighteen, how his father had lots of scars on his hands and a grisly one right down his forearm, how him and Tariben would go out in the rain as children just for the sake of getting wet.

When Andreya asked about his home, he described smiling neighbors and close-knit communities, a vast network of traders and artisans and families like his all living close to one another.

And then, after a full day of travel, they arrived. Andreya jumped off the back of the wagon, Reide still chattering about his childhood adventures, and she stared at the town as they approached it, mouth pressing into a line.

On either side, houses were stacked atop one another with old, grayed wood walls and windows open to the evening sun. The crowds here were not as dense as the towns, but there was no lack of people, either—many children from toddlers to academy age, darting through the streets while adults chatted and bartered and strolled along—no doubt the inhabitants of the numberless homes around them. It was not like anything she had ever seen. It was...

It was a right slum.

Andreya wouldn't dare say it. It was where Reide was raised, and she would treat it as such even if she had to steer around puddles of deep mud in the narrow dirt street or endure the startle of dogs barking from behind a nearby building. It was claustrophobic and loud and reeking of compost, yet Andreya had never seen Reide so happy to see random passersby.

"Reide!" a woman called from a third-story window, waving a handkerchief. "Back from the Borderland already?"

"Never better, Missus Degreadie!" Reide waved back.

Another older man turned from his conversation and planted a sturdy hand on Reide's shoulder. "Hav'n' seen ya since last spring, lad! Glad to know the animals din' get ye!"

Some children halted their chases to point or shout across the street at him, others asking if he had brought anything back for them or clinging to his pant leg or trying to snatch the tie out of his hair (though most little ones could hardly reach above his torso). Above them, laundry lines hung more brightly-colored garments that would never be found in Nasavte, streaking the sky from one building to another like festival decorations. Andreya said nothing as she gazed at it all, holding tight to the edge of Reide's sleeve and attempting to avoid the eyes of every person he spoke to, which was near everyone.

Due to the interruptions, it was well into dusk and all the houses flickered candlelight through the gaps in their walls by the time Reide stopped and pointed her to a building on their right, the bottom half of two homes with a poor but cheery disposition similar to every other they had passed.

"Probably doesn't seem like much to a noble," he said, "but this is where my family lives."

No, it did not seem like much at all. Even still, Andreya stood perfectly stiff as Reide knocked on the door. Something uncomfortable and anxious had entered her insides and clung now to the base of her throat. When a call answered from beyond the door and it opened a moment later with a scrape in its frame, Andreya dipped into a curtsy out of pure nervous habit.

But the boy there, thankfully, didn't even notice her. Instead, he stared blankly at the man beside her.

"Tari!" Reide said, and the boy gasped, lighting up immediately.