Harem System novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Stairs

Nils refuses Veyra to her face and she sits on the stairs all night; at dawn Ardith Mourne arrives with fruit and offers the Trial Gate stamp he has been denied for three months.

Nils took the page from her hand and read it from the top.

Every line was filled in.

The ink had run where her fingers shook.

"You had three months," he said.

"I know."

"Every night I asked you for one week. One week, on paper."

"I know." Her voice broke. "I'm giving it now."

"Now is the night I signed with someone else."

Down the hall a neighbor's door clicked shut, and then clicked open again.

Veyra stared at him.

She had not seen Ruenna behind his shoulder until that moment, and her eyes dropped to the red stripes on Ruenna's cheek.

"Her," she whispered.

"Cask," Ruenna said. "I'm the one who ate tonight."

Nils folded the page once and put it back into Veyra's hand.

"I won't sign this."

"Please."

"Go home. Lock the door. I left money on the table for crystals."

"Nils."

"Goodnight, Veyra."

He shut the door.

On the other side, nothing happened for a long time.

Then there was the scrape of a body sliding down the wood.

Ruenna put her ear to the door and pulled it away again.

"She's sitting down."

"Let her."

"She'll freeze out there." Ruenna scowled at her own words and rubbed her face. "Why do I care? She screamed at you all night for three months."

"Everyone's heard of it."

"The whole mercenary yard knows about the S-rank who wouldn't sign." She jerked her chin at the door. "Nobody out there thinks you're the problem."

Nils lay down on the cold floor with his jacket under his head.

He did not sleep.

Every hour the landing creaked.

At the third hour he got up, took the blanket from Ruenna's bedroll and a cup of water, opened the door a hand's width and set both on the boards.

Veyra was sitting with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up.

She did not look at him.

Her hands were wrapped around her own wrists so tightly that her knuckles had gone white.

He closed the door.

"You're soft," Ruenna said from the dark.

"I'd do it for a stray dog."

"That's what I said."

She was lying on the floor beside the stove with her arms folded behind her head.

"Is she that dog?" she asked.

Nils did not answer.

He lay awake and listened to the stairs until the window turned gray.

Morning came with the sound of wheels in the street.

A carriage stopped outside, a good one, with gilt on the lamps and four matched horses.

Nils opened the door to the landing.

The blanket had been folded in a neat square.

The cup was empty.

Veyra was standing at the top of the stairs, upright now, with both hands behind her back.

A tall woman climbed toward her in a gold-trimmed coat with a covered basket on her arm.

Her black hair was streaked silver at the temples, and she smiled with her whole face.

"There you are, darling," she said. "The whole guild has been looking for you."

She set the basket down, and then she kissed Veyra on the forehead.

Veyra's whole body went rigid.

"Matron," she said.

"Ardith, please. We're past that." The tall woman turned and held out both hands to Nils. "And you must be Mr. Halvorsen."

He did not take them at once.

"I am."

"Ardith Mourne. Veyra's matron." She dropped her hands without offense. "I'm told you've looked after my girl for three months with nothing but your own two arms. I came to say thank you, and I brought you something to eat. It's only pears and bread."

She lifted the cloth from the basket.

The pears were ripe and the bread was still warm.

Ruenna came to the door and stopped beside Nils.

"What does the Mourne Guild want with my flat?" she said.

"Nothing, Miss Cask. I'm told you've signed a trial." Ardith smiled at her too. "Congratulations. It's about time somebody did."

She turned back to Nils.

"I'll be plain, because you look like a man who prefers it. My guild owns the queue stamp for the Trial Gate. Every slot goes through my office."

His hand tightened on the doorframe.

"I know," he said.

"Then you know that your slot has been on hold since the day you paired. A clerical hold, because your partner's contract was never filed." She sighed. "It's my fault. I should have caught it."

Nils said nothing.

Three months of queue lines.

Three months of turning up at the Gate at dawn with his papers in his hand, and being told every morning to come back later.

"I can lift it today," Ardith said. "I'd only ask for something in return."

She reached into her coat and took out a small bronze disc stamped with the Gate's open door.

It was the stamp he had been waiting three months to see.

She held it up between two fingers.

"A post in my house," she said gently. "For a man who nurses the way you do."

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