Leena Likitalo - The Five Daughters of the Moon

And indeed, the dove pearls rested on the velvet of the bottom drawer, gleaming with the souls that the gagargis had coaxed from the birds. I picked the pearls up gingerly. If I were a thief, would I leave behind something this valuable? Nope. Not even if I was out of practice or a butterfingered novice.

A rustling sound interrupted my train of thought. Elise had got up at last. She clutched the hem that must have weighed a ton. She must have applied too much rouge, for her cheeks glowed brighter than fitted her. She kept her gaze down. “Will you help me fasten it?”

I dangled the pearls from between my fingers as I ambled to my sister. On the way, I bumped into the sofa. I lack the grace that comes to my sister so naturally. Or perhaps I haven’t practiced enough before my mirrors. Notes, I’m writing it down here and hold you accountable for reminding me, I shall start practicing graceful gestures and movements at least once a day. No, make it twice a day.

Elise held her head down and red-gold hair up as I fastened the pearls around her neck. After I’d secured the clasp, she straightened her back. Of the flush I’d seen earlier, there was no sign. She took my hands in hers.

“Do you want to hear the latest rumor?”

“Depends,” I replied, wary. She’s my best friend, but she’s also cunning. More cunning than I am in so many ways.

“The thing is, my dear Sibs”—she gave my hands a squeeze, but her voice wavered—“I think Celestia has a lover.”

At first I failed to register the importance of Elise’s statement. Then my legs gave in, and I would have ended up on the floor if she hadn’t been holding my hands. “She… she has a lover at last?”

Elise hugged me tight. The sequins pressed against my chest almost painfully. How she could stand to wear the dress, even think to wear it all night, I couldn’t even imagine. But I admired her for that.

“She’s sneaking out all the time,” Elise said as she detached from me. She ran a finger down the length of her necklace. “And there’s this glow, a dreamy look about her.”

I swayed, I’m afraid to admit this to you, as I pondered on this revelation. Could my eldest sister really be in love at last? If there had been a change in her, it had completely escaped me. Though Celestia has always been different from the rest of us, so regal and rational. Then again, she has to be—she will be the empress one day. We won’t.

Unless she were to die, that is. Which isn’t something I wish to happen, just to be clear, dear Notes, as that sort of statement will see one to an early grave or to an exile in the least.

“Perhaps Papa has finally taken note of our plight,” I replied gingerly. During the past two months, I’d asked Papa to facilitate a romance with K often enough, not that I would ever admit that aloud either. “I thought he’d wait till we were all old hags.”

Elise skimmed a step back and held her hands out for me. I clasped them.

“Come next year, come your debut,” Elise said. We started spinning together as we sometimes did when we were much, much younger, both still wearing girl dresses. Now her dress, heavy with silver sequins, positively crepitated. My nightgown merely whooshed. “You can charm as many young men as you want. And for myself, I have just the right handsome young captain in mind.”

I leaned back, smile widening with mad glee. For I could have K as my lover! At last! Unlike Celestia’s, our lovers won’t become generals and court officials by default. We are free to love whomever we choose, provided she picks a lover first and we maintain caution. For messing up the succession order never ends well. One only has to think of Mama’s sisters and what became of them. They’re… gone, as if erased from history.

I was so concentrated in thinking of this and basking in joy that I didn’t notice Elise’s intention to halt. And as she halted, I stumbled and collapsed with her.

“Elise…” I chided her, panting against her shoulder. The world still spun around me. “What was that?”

“I have an idea.” Without offering further explanation, my sister pranced toward the doors leading to the balcony, despite the weight of her dress. When my sister spoke, her voice chimed with excitement. “Come!”

“Where?” I blurted, always, always so hatefully clumsy compared to her.

In Elise’s room, pristine white curtains embroidered with crescents guard the balcony’s double doors. Elise swooped her hands around them and pulled them apart. She turned the key twice in the lock and pushed the doors open. Night breathed in the chill of late autumn.

“Come now,” Elise said, disappearing outside.

I followed her like a lamb. As the Daughters of the Moon, our lives are full of transitions. Name at six. Debut at sixteen. Death. Returning to the sky to shine next to our Celestial Father. What was following my older sister where she deemed fit compared to these?

The smell of algae and rotting leaves instantly flooded my nostrils, but I ignored it. The garden lay below, canals crisscrossing its length. At this hour, only the imperial guards haunted the tiled paths. And one untired magpie, it seemed. The Moon peeked through the thin, gray clouds, and the guards’ shadows mixed with those of the many willows and poplars.

“Dear Father Moon.” Elise curtsied between giggles. I curtsied, too, heart beating with guilt and excitement. Nurse Nookes would chide me if she learnt of this. To sneak from my room, to fool around outside without a coat or gloves!

But Elise spread her arms wide, bent her head back, and addressed our father. “Please send us lovers, handsome and tall.”

“Elise! You can’t just…”

Elise glanced at me, grinning. She fluttered her painted lashes. “I can’t just what? We are the Daughters of the Moon. We have the right to call out for his help when in desperate need.”

At that moment, I did consider if I really was that desperate to meet K again. His lineage is impeccable; not that I care about that sort of thing. He adores me. I’m sure of that, though we shared only one waltz, in secret, during Alina’s name day celebrations. But the look he cast me afterwards, from across the dance floor. Smoldering.

“Your turn.” Elise elbowed me.

“Ouch.” Dear Notes, my sister has the boniest, sharpest elbows.

Elise looked at me expectantly, and I knew it then: if I didn’t ask something from our father, she would ask something much more daring in my place.

My voice was but a whisper, but this is what I said: “With curious mind and wandering hands.”

Elise gasped, shocked by my plea, and I was pleased to see that. “Why, Sibilia…”

The guards in the garden below stirred to these sounds. They glanced around, hands tensing around their rifles. In their sky blue uniforms and the black bicorner hats, they looked menacing, men ready to spring into action on our behalf. They hadn’t yet spotted us, but inevitably…

I fled inside, Elise at my heels. She pulled the doors shut, while I blushed embarrassingly furiously. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said what I did. Perhaps Nurse Nookes’s diligence is my punishment for yearning for what I should wait one more year to have. But surely if Celestia has a lover, I can take one, too. What difference does a year make at this point anyway? I’m already a woman!

“Are you all right?” Elise asked. No matter how bossy she can be at times, she has a good heart.

I fanned my face—blush often creeps to my cheeks. Oh, that night with K, I was blushing all the time when we danced, but he seemed to find that charming, can you believe that, Notes?

“Sibs?” Elise placed a palm on my shoulder.

I really didn’t want to let go of my fondest memories, but if Elise caught me dreaming, she’d extort the juiciest details in no time. “Um…”