A Brother's Price

from a long difficult trip, Kij suddenly no longer seemed young, as if she had crossed over to middle age since Ren last saw her. Dark smudges underlined her vivid blue eyes, and her ash-blonde bangs hung down almost to the tip of her nose.
    Still, the Porter beauty that had made her brother, Keifer, exquisite remained. Kij leaned her lanky frame over the railing to better show Ren the headlines of the newspaper she held out.
    Well, that answered the question of whether the type size was as large as Ren had feared.
    “I saw the Herald yesterday!” Kij shouted. “How is Odelia?”
    “She’s fine!” Ren shouted back. “She’s with me, getting dressed, late as usual!”
    Kij glanced ashore and saw the royal coaches waiting there. “You’re not planning to make the opening of Summer Court after what you’ve been through?”
    “Good gods, yes!” Ren said. “If we don’t show, the rumors will have another day to run rampant. Will you be there?”
    Ren asked out of courtesy. Any noble house could attend, but usually only those involved in the current case made an appearance.
    Kij scrubbed wearily at her face and then shook her head, laughing. “No! No. We aren’t interested in anything scheduled for today. Besides, I’m bone tired. You’ve got more fortitude than I do, sister!”
    A flash of gold hair streaked along the rail of Destiny’s top deck, and a moment later little Eldest Porter scrambled up beside Kij. She squealed at the sight of Ren.
    “Auntie Ren!”
    “Hoy, Eldie,” Ren called to her only niece. The girl was living testament to how badly Kij had taken the loss of her mothers, sister, and brother. In a grief-borne panic, Kij had visited a crib the day after the bombing. Luckily, all she came away with was a child.
    Still, it had been enough to ruin an offering months in the planning, and it had been the stated reason for many rejections since then, despite Kij being able to produce medical records proving she was clean. Ren suspected that the truth was that many families were jockeying for a royal match of their own, and only used Kij’s possible infection as a cruel, convenient snub.
    When we marry Jerin , Ren thought, those families will be regretting their heartless rebuffs .
    “Auntie Ren!” Eldie shouted again, bouncing up and down on the railing in excitement. “Look, I lost my top teeth!” She grinned, showing off the gap between her canine teeth.
    “I see! You’re bigger every time I see you! Look at you. How old are you now? Ten?”
    “No, five!” her niece giggled. “I’ll be six at summer’s peak! Auntie Ren, can I come and see the youngest today?”
    Kij’s youngest sisters were in their teens, leaving Eldie without anyone to play with except her slightly older aunts. A sad way to grow up; Kij must have been crazy with grief.
    “Summer Court opens today!” Ren called back. “Zelie and the others have to attend. Tomorrow?”
    “Perhaps.” Kij told them both. “We’re scheduled to continue upriver to home tomorrow—if today goes smoothly.”
    Odelia came out of her cabin, wondering whom Ren was shouting at. There were greetings exchanged at full volume, the missing teeth were displayed, and then the two great ships parted. Ren’s tucked in close to the landing, while Kij’s—with Eldie blowing a farewell on the steam whistle—moved on upriver to find a berth.
    “We could have missed the morning session and bathed like civilized women at the palace,” Odelia complained as the carriage pulled away from the docks.
    Ren glowered, picking up the case binder. “Focus, Odelia, focus.”
    Odelia ignored her binder, choosing instead to rest her head, eyes closed, against the padded wall of the carriage. “I’m focused on a hot bath and a meal prepared by Cook.”
    Ren shook her head, scanning the cases they were to judge. The first one made her curse, startling her sister. “Raven!” At her call, her captain pulled her horse alongside of the carriage window. “Someone has shuffled the caseload. 1 left instructions that the Wakecliff inheritance wasn’t to be tried until we returned home. We weren’t expected to make this morning, so it shouldn’t be first case up.”
    “I’ll look into it while you’re in court.” Raven’s look turned dark.
    Ren slumped back in the carriage, raging at this new miscarriage of justice. The opening day’s schedule would have been posted in the Herald a week ago. By the laws protecting civil rights, once made public,