Free Encante by Aiyana Jackson Page B

forced to live in order to avoid being found, but she had given everything to keep Drusilla well, at the expense of her own health. I was too young to recall, but father has spoken of it often—the selflessness of the woman, the courage it took for her to do as she did. He was at his wits’ end and knew she would die if he did nothing, and so risked her being killed if she was found out.”
    “And Teddy gave her up?”
    “Not intentionally. He realised very quickly that she was still nursing, and did everything he could to hide the fact, but Uncle took a liking to her—this was long before Vee was aboard, you understand.”
    I was beginning to see where this was going, and I did not care for the direction at all. “He took her as his . . . companion?”
    “Yes. Teddy told him she was in no state for any kind of work, and Father had made it clear that she belonged to him, not Cage, but Uncle has never been one to accept what he is told. She was aboard his ship, under the care of his physician, as far as he was concerned that meant he owned her. It wasn’t long before he realised she was nursing. He confronted Teddy, who confessed, fearing for his own life. Cage expected to find a childling encante, instead he found my sister. Teddy’s never forgiven himself.”
    “And your uncle reported Drusilla’s mother?”
    “No, Escher, my uncle killed Drusilla’s mother.” He stared at me for a long moment, his face hardened to the reality. “He would have killed Drusilla too, had she not shown so much potential.”
    “You mean to say Drusilla is forced to . . . exist here, with the man who murdered her own mother? That’s horrific! Does she know he did so?” I checked myself. “Of course she does, how could she not?”
    “Had she not gleaned it from either my father or uncle, my own mother would have ensured she knew. Minerva takes great pleasure in tormenting my sister with that particular fact. She abhors the notion of ‘half-breeds’. If she knew there was another encante aboard capable of conceiving one, she would take action herself.”
    “You can’t mean to say . . . ?”
    “That is exactly what I mean to say. They’re twins, you know, my mother and uncle. That’s why he has Liza and Beth aboard: he has an odd fixation with twins. Never were two siblings so alike as my mother and uncle. If my mother knew about Mae, she would kill the girl herself. I sometimes find myself wondering if Mae wouldn’t be better off dead.”
    “Surely not!”
    “Imagine it, Simeon.” He grabbed my arm and shook it with far more ferocity than I would have expected. “Imagine someone repeatedly killing your children. Would you not sooner die yourself?”
    That silenced me.
    A noise startled us both, and we spun in unison, expecting to see Garrett and his damnable boxlock. It was only Piccolo, however, glancing at us curiously before sliding into the water and disappearing from sight.
    “He wears no tail,” I observed. “What prevents him from simply leaving?”
    “An infernal device of another sort. Piccolo is charged with ensuring none enter the water without their tails. He is always here. Somewhere. I’m honestly not at all certain he even sleeps. Garrett, however, is not always here to mind him, and as you saw when you arrived, those tails are weighty; they leave the encante exhausted. He has a different machine, implanted in his spine. It works in a similar manner: if he goes too far from the hull it paralyses him. Despite their resilience and abilities underwater, they do need to breathe also. Eventually he would drown.”
    “Why do they not all have this device? As disgusting as they are, they must surely be better than those tails. They seem such a burden.”
    “They’re expensive, and difficult to implant. Three of my uncle’s other farmers died in the attempt to perfect it.”
    I leant against the side of the gazebo, my vision blurring slightly, the lights of the eerie waters suddenly seeming