Page 4 of A Hunt So Wicked
Your presence will be required for up to the full month of celebration. While it cannot be guaranteed that you will secure a proposal, compensation in the sum of fifty thousand quintarian gold pieces will be allocated if you are not engaged by the final day of The Recurrence.
I didn’t read the rest. Fifty thousand gold quint!? I could completely redo the school, expand it even. Supplies would be stocked for years with that kind of money. I would even be able to afford better medicines for Dad. I didn’t want anything to do with those arrogant royals anyway. It would be like taking candy from a toddler. No royal would want anything to do with me when they realized how vile I found them. School was over for the next month, regardless. Aside from being here to help out and take care of Dad, I had no commitments.
“I’m going with them,” I announced, cutting my dad’s ranting off.
"What did you just say?” he asked in disbelief.
I squared my shoulders, my mind made up. “I said, I’m going. I’m going to the Isle.”
“Absolutely not, Evie. You don’t understand. There are so many things you don’t understand about their world,” he argued. I wasn’t hearing anything except for fifty thousand quintarian gold pieces on repeat. That’s all that mattered. As a commoner, I’d never get an opportunity like this again, and I would certainly never come close to making that amount of money in my lifetime.
The kettle began screaming, and I stood, grabbing two mugs on my way to the stove. “The money, that’s all I want. I can go there for the month of The Recurrence, sitting and putting up with their posturing and bullshit. Think of everything we could do with that money. For the good of the village! For us, Father. I can do this.”
“I forbid it. You’re not going anywhere except far from here, alone!” He was shouting again. I pinched my eyes closed and took a deep breath. He was the most stubborn man in the realm, no doubt about it.
I reached for my father’s herbal tea, and at the last moment, I grabbed the medicated one that would put him to sleep as quickly and deeply as possible. I shoved all feelings of guilt aside as I prepared each of us a cup, double-checking to be sure that mine was my usual black tea and not the same stuff I was using on him.
When I returned to the table, the old man was standing again, and I sighed. “Sit down, Father. You need to rest.”
He scoffed and I had to swallow the laugh that threatened to come out. I had just never seen him in such a state. Our neighbors, Jon and Beth Sharpe, would be able to take care of him for a month. They had been friends with Dad for as long as I could remember, so it wasn’t like I’d be leaving him alone. Once he passed out, I would be able to prepare things for him as much as possible overnight to make things easier for everyone involved.
I carried our drinks to the table and sat back down, my focus locked on the steam rising from my mug. I loved mine piping hot but I always added cooler water to Dad’s. He hated waiting for it to cool. Impatient was his middle name. We sat in silence for a few minutes as he sipped his drink, his body relaxing with each swallow.
“It’s not safe for a young woman to be on that island with all of those beasts.”
I took a sip of my own tea. “Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll be in some castle the entire time. Knowing the royals, it will just be a huge display of showing off and them finding new ways to boost their egos. It will be perfectly safe.”
“It’s d-dangerous,” he slurred, the medicine already taking effect. “What good is blood gold?”
“It spends the same and I’m out of chalk.Chalk!I requested supplies eight weeks ago and there has been no response. Not so much as a raven spotting in longer than that. I’m going to steal their gold and they won’t even see it coming. I’ll probably be the first woman in history to refuse the royal men.” I smiled to myself at the thought of it. Their shocked faces. The fractured egos. Yeah, that sounded like the music of my soul.
He sloppily put his mug down on the table and pinned me with a stern look. “You don’t know who you’re getting involved with, Evelyn.”
The use of my full name sent a shiver down my spine, reminding me of when I was a child and got caught doing things I shouldn’t have been. Like the time I realized how we actually got to eat chicken for dinner and where it came from. My poor little six-year-old heart couldn’t take it and I tried to hide all six of our chickens underneath my bed. We’d almost been in the clear but Chunky Cluck let out a rogue bawk and it was game over for them. “I know enough to know they’re all heartless. Selfish and egotistical. If you’re worried about the animals on the island—”
“I’ve never shielded you from my thoughts on the monarchy and their greed,” he said before yawning.
“Which is why I know how to get in and get out. I will come back here, Dad. That gold will change our village for the better, and I’d be able to afford a healer from Twisted Peaks to come and assess you.”
“I’m fine, I’m just getting older. But you have your whole life ahead of you. I’ll help you pack your things. You need to move fast and get out of here. Between myself, Jon, and Beth, we’ll be able to handle the school until you are able to safely return. Six months should do it,” he said, mostly to himself as he pushed himself up from his chair and promptly sat right back down, his eyes sliding suspiciously to his empty mug and then to my face. “What have you done?”
“What you taught me my entire life. I’m doing what I have to do to survive.” I stood then and helped my father stand. “Let’s get you to bed.”
“No. Evie,” he stammered, his words drawn out and slow, but he let me help him up. “D-don’t g-go there.”
We moved slowly through the cabin toward his room. “I have to do this. I know you’ll understand once you have time to think about it logically.”
The two of us collapsed onto his mattress, and I stood quickly to help maneuver him into bed while he still had some degree of consciousness. He fought the medicine with everything he had, the stubborn man. “I love you. I’ll miss you,” I whispered as his eyelids fluttered.
“N-not the animals,” he spoke so softly I almost didn’t hear him.
Leaning down closer, I asked, “What?”
“Not worried about animals,” he replied, and I smiled. He had taught me how to hunt and forage from the time I could walk. There wasn’t an animal in the forest that I was afraid of when I was properly armed. I held his hands in mine as his eyes closed and I studied his face, committing it to memory. This would be the longest I’d ever been away from him.
Just as I was about to stand, his grip tightened and his eyes opened wide. “I’m not worried about animals,” he repeated.
“I heard you, Father,” I assured him.
