Chapter 17.5: When We Leave

The map was too large for the table. That is why Leonah had put it on the floor. It had nothing to do with the fact that Father had told them not to touch it. “Move your knee.” Leonah hissed to her younger sister, Elora, who was just a year longer.

“I’m not on it!” Elora grumbled. 

“You are!”

Elora looked down. Her knee was, in fact, planted directly in the middle of the sea. “That’s water.” 

“It’s still part of the map!” Leonah argued. 

“It’s water, Leonah.”

Leonah pulled. “You’re crushing it!” 

Elora rolled her eyes, but shifted backward anyway, leaving Leonah to smooth both hands over the wrinkled parchment. 

“There.” 

Elora stared at the meticulous work of her sister. “You’re ridiculous.” 

“You’re the one who nearly destroyed an entire ocean.” Leonah grinned, Elora snorted. They had been told to stay out of the Heir’s study. They had also been told not to run in the western corridor, not to steal sugared plums before supper, and not to climb the old pear tree because one of its branches had cracked during the last storm. It had been a very restrictive week for the ten and eleven year old. 

It had been a very restrictive week. Elmara would have told them they were going to get caught, but fortunately, Elmara wasn’t there. She had religious lessons that afternoon, which Leonah considered an enormous waste of perfectly good daylight. Elmara didn’t seem to mind them, she rarely did. She could sit straight-backed for hours while priests spoke about the gods, old ways, sacred obligations, and all the things a properly educated daughter of Korvethis ought to know. Leonah had once lasted almost half an hour. Elora had lasted twelve minutes. Neither had been invited back. Besides, Father wasn’t currently using the study. He was downstairs with the visitors from Qarthos…again. 

Elora dropped onto her stomach beside Leonah and rested her chin in her hands. “There are more of them today.” 

“More what?” Leonah asked as she read the names of the countries that neighbored Korvethis. 

“Qarthosi.” 

Leonah’s eyes flickered to the continent to the right of where Korvethis was. “I thought they were leaving.” 

“So did I.” 

“Maybe Father told them to.” Leonah began tracing the southern edge of Korvethis with one finger. 

“No. They asked to see him.” That made Leonah glance up. Elora lowered her voice. “They’re women.” Leonah waited. “Three of them.” She waited some more. Elora’s eyebrows climbed. “They came to speak to Father themselves.” 

“Oh.” 

“Without husbands.” 

That was a little more interesting. Leonah sat back on her heels. “Maybe their husbands died.” 

Elora looked at her unconvinced. “All three?” 

Leonah considered it. “Maybe Qarthos is dangerous.” 

“Maybe they killed them.” Elora said wide eyed. 

“Elora!” 

“What?”

Leonah huffed. “You can’t just say they killed their husbands.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because you don’t know that.” 

Elora was quiet for a moment. “I don’t know that they didn’t…” 

Leonah stared at her sister. Elora stared back. Then Leonah laughed so loudly that someone in the corridor called for quiet. Both girls slapped hands over their mouths. They lasted three breaths. Elora’s shoulder began shaking first. 

Leonah shoved her. “Stop.” 

“You stop.”Elora told her. 

“I’m not doing anything!” 

“You’re laughing!” 

“So are you!” 

Another warning came from the corridor. They collapsed against each other, choking down their laughter until Leonah’s stomach hurt. When they finally managed to quiet themselves, Elora whispered, “Lord Varen doesn’t like them.” 

Leonah crawled back toward the map. “Lord Varen doesn’t like anyone.” 

“He said Father shouldn’t encourage them.” 

“Encourage them to do what?” 

Elora shrugged. Neither of them knew. For a moment, Leonah wondered if she should ask Father later. 

Then she found what she had been looking for. “There.” She stabbed her finger onto the map. 

Elora crawled closer. “There where?” 

“There.” Leonah pointed harder. 

“That isn’t a country.” 

“Yes, it is.” 

“What’s it called then?” Elora asked. 

Leonah squinted at the tiny lettering. She had no idea. “That doesn’t matter.”

Elora burst out laughing. “You don’t even know where you’re going.” 

“I know exactly where I’m going.” Leonah said proudly. 

“You can’t pronounce it.” 

“I don’t need to pronounce it.” Leonah’s chin tipped to the sky. 

“You probably can’t even read it.” Elora rolled her eyes. Leonah shoved her shoulder. Elora shoved her back. “Fine.” Elora said. “You can have it.” 

“I already had it.” 

“I said you could.” 

Leonah stuck her tongue. “I don’t need your permission.” 

Elora stuck her own chin up. “You do if I’m Queen.” 

“You’re not a Queen.” 

“I might be.” She poised herself to look more royal, if that was possible. 

“Of what?” Leonah scoffed. 

Elora leaned across the map and began searching. 

Leonah watched her finger travel across Korvethis, over the neighboring kingdoms, and farther south. “No, not there.” 

“I didn’t ask you.” Elora stammered. 

“You don’t want that one.” 

“Why?” 

Leonah traced over the markings of the country. “Too many mountains.” 

“I like mountains.” 

“You complain every time we ride uphill.” 

Elora sighed. “That’s different.” 

“How?” 

“It just is!” 

Leonah shook her head and returned to her own search. There were so many places. More than she could remember the names of. More than her tutors had taught her. Some were painted in colors she liked. Others had rivers curling through them or mountain ranges drawn like jagged teeth. Beyond those were seas, and beyond the seas were other lands entirely. She liked those the best. The ones far away. The ones no one at court seemed to know very much about. 

“What about Qarthos?” Elora asked. Leonah made a face. Elora laughed. “Maybe Father will send you there.” 

“No.” 

“You could marry one of their princes.” 

“No.” Leonah shook her head, refusing to look at her sister. 

“You could live with all the husband killing women.” 

Leonah grabbed the nearest cushion and threw it at her. Elora squealed as it struck her shoulder. “Quiet!” 

This time the voice from the corridor sounded considerably less patient. The girls froze. Elora slowly lowered the cushion. Leonah pressed her lips together. Elora whispered, “You’d make a terrible Qarthosi.”

 “I don’t want to be a Qarthosi.” Lenoah reminded her, annoyed. 

“Good. because I don’t think they’d want you.” Elora taunted. 

Leonah lunged for her. Elora scrambled backward, laughing silently, and nearly knocked over a chair before Leonah caught her dress. For a moment there was nothing by elbows and muffled laughter and Elora whispered, “Get off me!” while Leonah tried desperately not to make enough noise to bring someone into the room. 

Eventually they ended up sprawled side by side across the carpet. Elora was still smiling when she said, “I saw another one today.” 

Leonah turned her head. “Another what?” 

“One of those cloths.” 

“What cloths?” 

Elora raised up her wrist and shook it. “The white ones.” 

Leonah knew what she meant then. She had seen them too. A strip of white fabric tied around the wrist of a woman near the palace gates. Another around the arm of a stable boy two days before. 

“I saw three last week,” Elora said. 

Leonah stared at the painted ceiling. “Why are they wearing them?” 

“I don’t know.” Elora shrugged. 

“Did you ask?” Leonah asked. 

“No.” Elora told her, a little annoyed. 

“Then how am I supposed to know?” 

Elora gave her an annoyed look. Leonah shrugged. Adults had been grumbling about a great many things lately. Father was always in meetings. Lords whispered to one another in corridors. Mother had sent two servants away from the dinner table the night before because they had been talking when they shouldn’t have been. None of it seemed particularly important. Not compared to the map. 

Leonah rolled onto her stomach again. “I’m going farther.” 

Elora sighed. “Farther than where?” 

Leonah dragged her finger across the parchment. Past Korvethis. Past the countries whose names she knew. Past the ones her sisters might someday call home. Across the sea. “There.” 

Elora leaned over her shoulder. “That’s very far.” 

“I know.” Leonah grinned. 

“You said you wanted the other one.” Elora reminded her. 

“I changed my mind.” 

“You always change your mind.” 

Leonah ignored her. 

Elora studied the place Leonah had chosen. “How would you come home?” 

Leonah frowned. “What?”

“If you lived all the way over there.” Elora pointed back toward Korvethis. “How would you come home?” 

Leonah shrugged. “On a ship.” 

“That would take forever.” 

“So?” 

Elora glared at her with glassy eyes. “So I wouldn’t see you.” 

That made Leonah stop. She looked at Elora. Her sister wasn’t smiling anymore. Leonah looked back at the map. The distance suddenly seemed larger than it had a moment ago. “Then you would come with me.” 

Elora blinked. “I…can’t.” 

“Why not?” 

“Because, I’ll have my own husband.” 

“So?” 

“So…” Elora blinked a few times. “So I’ll have to live with him. 

Leonah considered this problem. It was a serious one. Not because either of them particularly cared about the husbands. Husbands were vague creatures belonging to some distant future, like gray hair and aching knees. But wherever the husbands were, apparently they would be expected to live there too. “We’ll marry brothers.” Leonah decided. 

Elora’s face brightened. “Can we?” 

“Of course!” Leonah smiled 

“How do you know?” 

“Becuase we’re princesses.” That seemed sufficient to Leonah. 

Elora sat up and pulled the map closer. “They have to have a big house.” 

“A palace.” 

“Obviously.” 

“And horses!” Leonah added. “At least six.” 

“Each?” 

Leonah looked offended. “Obviously.” 

Elora nodded solemnly. “And you can’t live on the other side of it.” 

“The other side of what?”

“The palace.” 

“Why would I?” Leonah asked. 

“In case it’s very big, that's the rule.” 

Leonah thought about that. “Fine, Our rooms will be next to each other.” 

Elora smiled. “And our husbands can’t tell us what to do.” 

“They probably will.” 

“Then we’ll tell them no.”

Leonah thought for a moment. “What if they’re kings?” 

“So?” Elora grinned. 

“So,” Leonah continued, “we’ll marry brothers who have a palace by the ocean, twelve horses…” 

“Six each.” Elora interrupted. 

“That’s twelve.” 

“Oh.” 

Leonah continued. “...and they have to let us go wherever we want.” 

“And Elmara can visit.” 

Leonah nodded. “Whenever she wants.” 

Elora hesitated. “Do you think she’ll want to?” 

“Of course!” Leonah assured. 

Elora wasn’t so sure. “She likes her lessons.” 

“She doesn’t like them so much.” 

“She likes the gods.” 

Leonah rolled her eyes. “The gods don’t need her every day.” 

Elora giggled. 

Leonah reached across the map and tapped the place she had chosen. “We’ll live here.”

“Both of us?” Elora asked

“Both of us.” 

Again, Elora thoughts. “What about Wrena?” 

Leonah thought about her older sister. “She can live nearby.” 

“That’s not fair.” Elora looked at her sister unapprovingly. 

“She’ll be married before us. She gets to pick first anyway.” Leonah reminded her. Elora accepted this logic. 

For a while, they simply looked at the map. The palace around them carried on without them. Footsteps passed in the corridor. Somewhere below, a door opened and closed. Men’s voices rose briefly from the courtyard before fading again. Then came another voice. A woman’s. Sharp enough that Leonah and Elora both looked toward the window. 

They couldn’t make out the words, but another voice answered. A man this time. Then several at once. Elora crawled to the window. 

“What are you doing?” Leonah hissed. 

“Looking.” Elora whispered back. 

“You’ll get caught.” Leonah warned. 

“I told you the same thing yesterday when you were standing on Father’s chair.” 

“That was different!” Leonah insisted. 

“How?” Elora asked, inching her way to the window. 

“I just was.” Leonah whispered, getting more and more interested in what her younger sister would see. 

Elora pulled herself high enough to peer over the sill. Leonah lasted perhaps four seconds before joining her. Below, several people were crossing the courtyard. Leonah recognized Lord Varen first. He was walking quickly, one hand moving as he spoke to father. 

Behind them came the visitors. Three women. Leonah had expected them to look strange, but they didn’t. One was old enough to be their grandmother. Another wore her dark hair in a long braid down her back. The third was younger and walked slightly ahead of the others. None of them followed behind the men, that was what Leonah noticed. They walked beside them. The younger woman said something and their Father stopped. So did everyone else. Lord Varen looked around, though the woman did not appear to care. 

Elora nudged Leonah. “See?” 

Leonah watched the woman speak directly to Father, and Father listened. Then, he answered her. “Maybe she is married.” she whispered. 

Elora gave her a look. “Why?” 

Leonah shrugged. “I don’t know.” 

“Maybe she has six husbands.” Elora smirked. 

Leonah snorted, then she saw Elora’s eyes widened. “What?” 

“There!” she pointed not at the Qarthosi, but at a servant crossing the far side of the courtyard carrying a basket. A white strip of cloth circled her wrist. Leonah saw it and for one strange moment, she thought of the stable boy, and the woman outside the gates. Three last week, Elora had said. “Why do they keep doing that?” Elora whispered. 

Leonah didn’t know. Below them, the servant disappeared beneath an archway. Lord Varen started speaking again. Father turned toward the palace and Leonah ducked. “Elora!” 

Elora dropped beside her just as the group passed beneath the windows. They crouched beneath the sill, trying not to breathe too loudly. A moment later, footsteps sounded in the corridor outside the study. 

Leonah’s eyes widened, Elora’s did too, but the footsteps passed. Then there was silence. Elora started laughing. Leonah clamped a hand over her mouth. That only made it worse. They tumbled back onto the carpet. “You’re going to get us caught.” Leonah hissed.

“Me?” 

“Yes, you!”

“You’re the one who wanted the map!”

“And you’re the one spying on Father!” 

“You looked too!” 

“Because you did!” 

They both began to laugh again. Leonah didn’t know how long they stayed there. Long enough for the Qarthosi women to disappear from the courtyard. Long enough to forget about the white cloth. Long enough for the strange, serious world of adults to become distant again. Eventually Elora rested her head against Leonah’s shoulder. “Do you think we’ll be scared?” 

Leonah was still studying the map. “Of what?” 

“When it’s our turn.” Elora sat, hunched over, not very lady like.

“Our turn for what?” 

“To leave.” 

Leonah looked at her. Elora traced one finger along the border of Korvethis. “Wrena will go first. Then Elmara, then us.” The thought did not frighten Leonah. It thrilled her. One day, someone would tell her that one of these places belonged to her future. One day, she would pack trunks with all her many things and climb into a carriage or board a ship and see mountains she had only known as ink. She would learn another palace, another city, another country. 

She would see the world beyond Korvethis. Maybe all of it. Leonah smiled. “Why would we be scared?” 

Elora considered that, then she smiled too.  

Leonah caught her sister’s hand and dragged it across the map until their fingers rested together on the distant shore she had chosen. “When we leave,” Leonah said, “we’re going somewhere wonderful, together.” 

Outside the study, Korvethis grumbled. White cloth appeared on another wrist. Three women from Qarthos waited for another audience with the King. 

Still, two little girls lay across their father’s map, planning how far from home they could go.