Juliet Marillier - Wildwood Dancing

insisted, it was too soon since Uncle Nicolae’s death. I told her that both Aunt Bogdana and Cezar had agreed to it, as long as we kept it sedate. Then she said, “But we always go. The others will be upset.”

“I’ve already told them, and they’ve accepted this. It makes perfect sense after what happened to Ivona. It’s logical for us to stay away until we know the valley is safe again.” I struggled to sound calm and controlled. I would not let her know the compulsion I felt to cross over at Dark of the Moon, to confront Tadeusz and make him understand that I did not want his help—not at such a cost. “And we don’t always go.

What about the times when one of us was ill or away from home? We’ve certainly missed a few over the years. Ileana and the others are unlikely to be upset if we don’t make an appearance. It’s not their way to trouble themselves about such things.”

“What about Sorrow? He’ll be upset. He’ll think I’m staying away because I believe he did it—that he’s capable of killing someone in cold blood. I must go, Jena. I must explain it to him!”

“He mightn’t even be there anymore,” I told her. “Ileana’s probably sent the Night People away by now. Their crimes must put her own people in danger. You weren’t there when Cezar and the others stormed out of Piscul Dracului with their pitchforks and crossbows.”

“Sorrow won’t go,” Tati declared. Her pale cheeks were flushed a hectic red; she looked as if she had a fever. “Not even if Ileana banishes them. He won’t leave me.”

165

“This is stupid! You’ve only seen him a couple of times, Tati!

You know what it means for a human woman to ally herself with someone from the Other Kingdom. You’d go and you’d never be able to come back. You’d get older and he wouldn’t. One day you’d be an old woman, all wrinkles and toothless gums, and he’d still be a lovely young man. You’d never see any of us again.

Is that really what you want?”

“It might not be like that.” Her voice was very quiet. She bowed her head; her ebony hair hung down like silken curtains, shielding her face. “Stories don’t tell the whole truth.”

“It might be worse. If he’s one of the Night People, you might not last beyond a single bite.”

“Don’t say that, Jena!”

“I’m sorry. But it’s true. I’m not asking much. Only that you miss one Full Moon visit.”

“That’s not really all you’re asking, Jena.” Tati turned her big eyes on me; their expression was cool now. “Anyway, you aren’t asking, are you? You’re telling. I can’t go through the portal if you won’t help open it. What you really want is that I never see Sorrow again. You think the moment I get up and dance with some fellow Aunt Bogdana’s dredged up for me, I’ll forget all about him. Well, I won’t. And I won’t go to your stupid party. You don’t understand.”

She was right. Whatever Tati was feeling, it was something new to me, something I couldn’t comprehend: powerful, mysterious, and frightening. I began to wonder whether I had this all wrong—whether I had meddled in something I could not hope to control.

166

“Tell me, then.” I sat down beside her on the bed. “It might help if I did understand.”

“You’re just trying to be nice to wheedle me into agreeing.”

“No, I’m not. I’m finding it hard to believe this has happened so quickly and made you change so much. I feel as if you’ve gone away from me—that I can’t rely on you anymore.”

“You know how you felt last time, when you lost Gogu?

When you really thought he’d been trampled to death, but you wouldn’t say so?”

I nodded, surprised that she had noticed: she had seemed entirely wrapped up in her own woes.

“Multiply that by a thousand, and you know how I feel when I think about never seeing Sorrow again. It’s the most awful feeling in the world—like having part of your heart torn away.”

“A thousand? Isn’t that rather extreme?” I thought the way I’d felt that night was about as wretched as I could possibly get. Gogu had been my constant companion—an unusual one, true, but no less loved for that—for more than nine years. She barely knew Sorrow.

“Well, after all, Gogu’s a frog. Sorrow is a man.”

It was just as well I’d left Gogu with Paula while I spoke to Tati. I was certain he’d have been offended by this, even though it was half true. “That’s the point, isn’t it? Sorrow isn’t a man. I want you to answer a question, Tati.”

“What?”

“Have you asked him straight out if he’s one of the Night People?”

167

“We’ve talked about it, of course. He couldn’t tell me.”

“Couldn’t? What do you mean?”

“It’s something he can’t talk about. I don’t know why. It seems to be somehow forbidden. He wants to, but it’s not allowed. He seems so alone, Jena.”

“They’re all like that. Tadeusz said, ‘We all walk alone.’

Maybe Sorrow’s mother was a human woman.” I shivered. “A victim. Only instead of dying, like that girl, she changed into one of them .”

“He’s not at all like the other Night People, Jena. He’s so sweet and thoughtful.”

“Just a ploy to win your affections.” Sweet and thoughtful would work with Tati. For me, Tadeusz had held out the heady prospect of perception beyond my wildest imaginings.

He had flattered me, too, and I was forced to admit that I had liked that. His words of admiration had stirred something in me—they’d made me realize I would have liked to be a beauty.

Tadeusz had known how to tempt me, and Sorrow knew how to work his wiles on my sister.

“Tati,” I said, “what do you and Sorrow talk about? Do you actually have anything in common?”

Tati stared into space, smiling. “We talk about everything.

And nothing.”

“Everything. And you still can’t tell me what he is. How about his teeth? You’ve had a good chance to see those up close.

Are they like yours and mine?”

Tati hesitated.

“Well?”

168

“Not exactly.” She spoke with some reluctance. “They are a little odd. He’s very self-conscious about it. But they’re not fangs .”

“Nor are Tadeusz’s teeth,” I said. “And he makes no secret of what he is.”

“Jena, I’m not just playing at this, you know, and neither is Sorrow. Do what you like. Have your party. Let Aunt Bogdana trot out her eligible young men. Bar me from Full Moon dancing. I’ll find Sorrow anyway, somehow. Or he’ll find me.

Whatever you do, we’ll be together. You can’t stop us.”

“Ileana can,” I said, chilled by my sister’s certainty. “If she banishes the Night People, you’ll have no way of finding him.”

“I will find him,” Tati said. “Wherever he goes, however far away she sends him, we’ll find each other.”

It was then that I noticed what she was wearing around her neck: a very fine cord, black in color—just a thread, really—

and on it, a tiny amulet that caught the light. I was certain I had never seen it before.

“What’s that?” I asked her, intrigued. Tati’s hand shot up to cover it. “Show me, Tati.”

Slowly she drew her fingers away, revealing the little charm, dark against her creamy skin—a piece of glass shaped like a teardrop, and red as blood.

“Did he give you this?” I hardly needed to ask. Such an item had Sorrow written all over it.

“We exchanged.”

“You exchanged? What did you give him?”

“My silver chain,” Tati said in a whisper.

169

“Mother’s chain? You gave it away?” It had been a gift from our father to his sweetheart on the day she agreed to marry him.