Page 4 of Fae Tithe (The Cursed Courts #1)

“ T his is the year that counts,” Eleanor asserted to herself in the mirror with a nod.

She tilted her head in curiosity at the bare bed in the shared room. No other girl had appeared to claim the spot yet. I wonder why.

Eleanor shook her head from the distraction and set to the task of unpacking.

Once I have completed school, she pulled out her uniform for the day and pushed in her pearl earrings, I’ll apply at every single shipping company.

Someone will take me, I know it. I might even ask one of the teachers to help me with my application.

Once she was cleaned up from the ride and changed into her uniform, using a fabric head band to keep her long hair from her eyes, the teenager pulled out her new timetable and made her way to the first lesson of the day.

Eleanor took a deep breath, heart hammering nervously as she approached the already queuing girls.

She put a smile on her face as she went to greet a group of them.

She raised a hand to wave, clutching her books and pencil case with her other hand. “Hi, how was—”

Miss Taylor opened her classroom, interrupting Eleanor’s attempt at connection.

The teenager sighed, regret at the missed opportunity, but followed the gaggle of chatting girls inside.

The class quickly settled at their individual wooden desks with matching chairs.

Eleanor’s mood perked up when she managed to seat herself in her favourite spot, right in the middle of the room with the best view of the blackboard.

Miss Taylor led her students in a short recital. “We thank the Fae. We offer our gratitude to the King of Seelieland. We promise to serve the Seelie Court.”

“We thank the Fae,” the class murmured together.

“Now, before we begin, who can tell me what they remember from last year?” Miss Taylor picked up a white chalk and stepped towards the blackboard.

A collective moan came from the students. “But, Miss! The last class we had with you was before Winter Solstice. That was ages ago!” a particularly apathetic girl whinged aloud.

“Irrelevant!” Miss Taylor said. “This is History! This is learning about our great nation of Seelieland. We are so lucky to be born here. If we were humans of somewhere like Unseelieland, we would be suffering unimaginably.”

“What would happen if we were?” a student called out.

“Now, now, hands up if you want to ask something,” Miss Taylor reminded.

“It is, however, an excellent question!” The young teacher continued in earnest. “Seelieland humans are, now, afforded the same rights as lesser faeries. We have our own finishing schools, can hold positions in courts, and have our own levels of aristocracy. The Fae, of course, occupy the upper court positions, with only the Seelie Fae serving the King’s Seelie Court. ”

Eleanor rolled her eyes as Jessia’s hand went up, neat, pearl bracelets clinking as she extended her arm. “What’s the difference? Isn’t a Seelie and Fae the same thing?”

“Good question, Jessia,” Miss Taylor replied. “Not all Fae are Seelie. Think of it as a title. All Seelie are of Fae-kind. Currently there are six: the five Seelie Lords, each in charge of a province, and then, of course, the Seelie King himself.”

Eleanor noticed that Jessia had stopped listening to their teacher’s answer about halfway through the explanation, and instead sat fiddling with the ends of her long chestnut hair.

Her brows drew together with irritation. Why bother asking a question but then ignoring the answer?

“Hmm… now where was I…” Miss Taylor tapped her chin with tip of her chalk, leaving a small smudge there.

A student with a black bob called out, “The difference between being a human in Seelieland and Unseelieland, Miss.”

“Ah yes! Thank you, Anne.” She cleared her throat with a cough. “In Unseelieland, however, humans do not have any rights, they cannot serve in government, they do not go to school, and they are basically chattel.”

Another hand flew up. “What’s chattel?”

Eleanor huffed in exasperation. “Property,” she interrupted with a bite. Frustration needled at her. They had learnt all this information previously and repeatedly. “In Unseelieland, humans are property, like livestock, you know… goats, cows.”

“Yes, yes, thank you, El. Since you have the answers, please share what you remember from the final class last year,” Miss Taylor interjected.

“Dragons. We learnt about Dragons.” Eleanor answered without missing a beat. “The last Dragon gifted a Seelie Fae with the Dragon Flame. They were made King because of it. Only one person carries the Dragon Flame, and it is always the Seelie King.”

“Excellent, El.” Miss Taylor had been scribbling in chalk on the black board under the heading ‘Review’. “Now, we can actually start our lesson properly for today.”

The teacher shifted to the centre of the blackboard. She wrote the new title ‘Tithe’ in elegant swirls. A confused murmur went through the teenage girls.

Eleanor could not recall learning anything about the topic. She furrowed her brow as she concentrated, flicking through her memories of History lessons over the years. This is new. I don’t know anything about this.

“The Tithe is the highest honour for a Seelieland human,” Miss Taylor explained.

“Many aristocratic human families prepare their young ladies for the Tithe. They do this in the hopes they will be chosen by a Fae Lord, Seelie or not, and serve his family.” The teacher’s quickly diminishing chalk bobbed up and down as she wrote her words as notes on the board.

Eleanor’s nose crinkled, her brows drawing together. She lifted her fountain pen and carefully took notes about the Tithe. The whole subject of the tradition made her feel nauseous, and she shifted uncomfortably at her desk.

“The Tithe occurs rarely, especially by human lifespans. They are usually held at the beginning of a new Seelie King’s reign.

The last King did not hold a Tithe at all, and he ruled for hundreds of years.

Our current monarch, King Rian, has not yet called a Tithe.

” Miss Taylor stepped to the side so the students could see the notes to copy them.

Eleanor shifted again in her wooden seat, her mouth dry and stomach clenched.

She recalled everything she knew about her late father.

How aristocratic do you have to be? She worried at her bottom lip.

It sounds awful, who would want to live with some strange Fae they’ve never met? She glanced across the classroom.

The iron bell in the yard clanged, hammered by the gateman, signalling the end of the first session and snapping Eleanor from her thoughts. She rose slowly and smoothed her school uniform skirt, deliberately lingering long enough so that her classmates had eventually drizzled out of the room.

“Miss Taylor?” Eleanor asked. “Why are we learning about the Tithe? Is there one happening soon or something?”

“Simply because I was asked to include it in my lesson plans,” the teacher replied with a smile. “Just like I’m in charge of you girls when you are in my classroom, I have people who oversee what I teach.”

“Hmm…” Eleanor chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully, something about the sudden inclusion of the topic not quite sitting right in her mind.

“El?” Miss Taylor tilted her head and met the teenager’s eyes. “Time for your next class.”

“Ok, Miss… thanks.” Eleanor blinked, trying to rid herself of the thoughts homing in on the Tithe. She clutched her books to her chest and headed to her next lesson.

The teenager normally enjoyed Geography. This quarter of the year focused on the physical features of the different Provinces of Seelieland. The one she would love to travel to, Emerald of Sol, was the area their teacher explained they would be learning about today.

Eleanor’s vague discomfort at the idea of the Tithe rooted in the pit of her stomach. The seed of needing to know bloomed into thoughts she could not shake.

Why would the Fae do that? Who would agree to let their daughter go to some stranger? Eleanor clenched and unclenched at the fountain pen, suspended above the notes she had been taking.

“Are you paying attention, Miss Neycur?” the teacher asked, her clear voice snapping Eleanor from her spinning thoughts.

The girls around her tittered and Eleanor felt her cheeks flush in embarrassment. “Sorry, Miss. I’m listening.”

Her teacher gave a curt nod and rolled out a huge paper map, She hung it over the blackboard and pointed out the key areas.

The woman gushed about vibrant valleys and forests.

She spoke of an evergreen floodplain that was infiltrated by sapphire tributaries.

This was where different woodland faeries – such as Dryads, Anthousai, and Alseids – lived.

These faeries, with their combined magical talents, grew an abundance of delicious fruits and vegetables for Seelieland.

The rest of the day passed in a blur for Eleanor. In each of the lessons she tried to keep the incessant questions her mind had about the Tithe at bay. As the bell for the last session clanged, she funnelled into the classroom for comportment.

“Well,” the elderly teacher, Mrs Alred, began, “seeing as it is the first day back, we will start with posture, shall we?”

How does any of this help me get onto the ships? Eleanor stifled a sigh.

She tried to wait patiently, resisting the urge to tap her foot, as Mrs Alred made her way slowly around the room.

The teacher’s steps were both slow and deliberate as she placed a flat hard-backed book on the head of each straight-backed student.

“Good posture is key!” Mrs Alred called out as a book slipped off one of the girl’s heads.

Eleanor chanced to glance over, her neck still straight. She did not recognise the student. A new girl? she wondered, has she only just arrived? I didn’t see her earlier. She eyed the girl’s hair that was swept up into cloud-shaped bun. That’s not really her fault.

She grimaced as her new classmate swept down to collect the book.

When she straightened up, she tried to shove it back into place and it simply slipped back off her curls.

The rest of the class giggled at the clatter as it thumped to the floor for a second time.

Mrs Alred tutted, clicking her tongue against her teeth as her gaze dropped to the book, eyes crinkling as she narrowed them at the bent spine.

Eleanor swallowed, a flush of second-hand embarrassment flooding her cheeks as she watched the new girl’s mouth tug downwards from the corner of her eye.

I know how that feels, everyone laughing at you.

She could not just keep watching. Instead, Eleanor, with neck straight and head forward, broke the line of straight-backed girls.

She picked her way across the room and over to the fallen book.

Eleanor squatted down next to it, spying the book in her periphery and plucked it from the floor.

She carefully stood straight, gritting her teeth in panic as her own book wobbled on the top of her head.

She breathed a sigh of relief as the tremor ceased.

Eleanor turned and met eyes with the new girl. She gave her an encouraging smile as she held the book out. The teenager looked back at her with russet-brown eyes set in a beautiful umber face, eyebrows raised in surprise at the gesture.

Eleanor shook the book in front of the girl’s face. “Here.” She pushed it a little closer.

The teenage girl blinked in surprise and took the offered book. “Thank you!” she replied, a flush across her cheeks.

“Miss Neycur!” Mrs Alred bit out. “Back in line!”

Eleanor bit her tongue in frustration as she carefully trod her way back to her place, the book continuing to wobble precariously.

Her gaze briefly met Jessia’s as she went past. The girl smirked at her, amusement dancing in her eyes at Eleanor’s scolding.

She shot a scowl back at Jessia before finally returning to her spot.

The iron bell clanged for the final time that day and Eleanor rushed to her room. She planned to write to her mother, to tell her about her day and how she had been introduced to the completely new topic of the Tithe.

Eleanor smiled as she sat at her desk and opened the spare stationery bag her mother had mentioned that morning.

Helena, hinting heavily to her daughter, had provided the teenager with a stack of envelopes and a handful of stamps to encourage her to write more that school year.

Just as she began to put pen to paper, fountain pen poised, the muffled thud of bags on wood took Eleanor’s attention.

Her gaze widened in surprise. “Book girl!” she blurted out, before covering her hand over her mouth.

“Book girl?” her new roommate asked with a snort.

Eleanor removed her hand. “I’m sorry, sometimes my mouth says things before I can stop it.” She pushed back from her desk, standing slightly taller than the teenager in front of her. She inclined her head slightly in a nod. “I’m Eleanor, El for short.”

The girl grinned back and returned the greeting gesture.

“Marina. Thanks, for what you did there.” A grimace passed over her face.

“What a way to start at a brand-new school! First, I was late, and then I made a fool of myself. I’ve never had to balance a book on my head before.

” She patted the bun on the top of her head.

“Otherwise, I would have had my hair down.”

Eleanor shrugged. “It’s what I would want someone to do for me. Which school did you go to before?” she asked, her rampant curiosity peaked.

“I didn’t. My fathers home-schooled me.”

Eleanor blinked. I didn’t even know that was something you could do. She continued her questioning. “Why were you late today?”

“Faedamn, you’re nosey, aren’t you?” Marina giggled. “We were visiting family in the Faerie Isles. The ship was supposed to arrive two days ago but was delayed by a storm.”

Eleanor jolted with excitement. “You’ve been to the Faerie Isles? What’s it like?”

Marina raised an eyebrow at her new roommate and chuckled. “El, let me unpack, then I will tell you all about it.”