Chapter II.15 #2
Miria shook her head, which was something she would have done even if she had heard this tale, seeing as it had distracted Adaline from her initial questions. “What happened?”
“Oh, he courted her, and she fell in love with him, but before they could figure out how to run away together, her brother found out and set a trap. The knight and all his fellow thieves were killed or captured, and the magistrate seized everything they had stolen from the townsfolk and left them even more destitute. Then he married the lady himself.” Adaline frowned.
“It’s a horrible story. I wish I hadn’t thought of it. ”
“Truly!” Miria raised her hands in despair. “Why would you share that? You need to read happier books.”
Adaline rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it was given to me to teach me some kind of lesson.”
“Obviously no falling in love with men you find in the woods.”
“I am quite certain that won’t be a problem.” Adaline affixed the sheathed sword to Pearl’s saddle and turned back to Miria with a sly expression. “What about thieves, though?”
“I wouldn’t advise that either. They’re completely untrustworthy and could steal your heart.”
“I mean,” Adaline said, “are you a thief?”
“Oh.” Heat crawled up Miira’s neck. She was almost positive the logical thread in this conversation had broken. If she tugged on that thread, it sounded like Adaline was suggesting … Miria pushed aside her confusion and the warmth it stirred. “I promise I’m not a thief.”
“Good to know.”
“I’m something far worse.”
Adaline’s face lit up. “A spy? A murderess? A heretic?”
“A wild and uncivilized woman.”
Adaline clapped her hands together. “My favorite kind.”
Adaline left that afternoon while the sun was high, and Miria returned to the cottage to begin dinner.
She’d picked up fresh cream earlier, and that plus some early shoots from the garden and her cheerful mood, put her in the mind to bake Yali’s favorite savory pie to go along with the fish she’d caught.
Her nana raised an eyebrow when she saw Miria stirring the thick cream sauce, but she said nothing until they sat for dinner. “I thought you were going to practice the portal magic today.”
Miria blinked. She had meant to do that this morning. The portals that allowed witches to travel long distances were complicated spells that required regular maintenance. Miria had learned how to cast them, but that didn’t make her proficient at it.
“I’m sorry.” She lowered her head. “I lost track of the time.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me, child. I’ve just never seen you so distracted before.”
Miria dipped her bread in the sauce and swallowed. “It’s nice to have a new friend, but I won’t forget my responsibilities.”
“It’s good that you don’t,” Yali said. She poured herself more of the elderflower wine before continuing.
“I don’t mean to discourage you being friends with this girl, but you must remember who she is.
You’ve tried so hard to remove yourself from your old life, from the world outside these woods, and that’s partly on me. I encouraged it.”
“I’m not completely feral,” Miria said, unsure if she was trying to convince herself or her nana this time.
Yali snorted. “Not completely. Possibly you’re too sheltered to be so. Lord Sigmun’s niece might be a lovely girl, but she’s connected to powerful people, and powerful people are dangerous. Especially for outcasts like us.”
The I know danced on Miria’s tongue, but did she? Had she been too glib with Adaline earlier, joking about who and what she was as she tried to make Adaline laugh?
Nana seemed to read something of these thoughts, because she nodded.
“You are so different from the girls in town, and even more different than Adaline. I’m glad you became friends despite that, but you must be prepared for the likelihood that your friendship won’t last, through no fault of your own. I don’t want you to be hurt.”
Miria swallowed. Her nana did not want to specifically remind Miria of the pain when those you cared for—and who you thought cared for you—abandoned you. The warning, however, was clear, and she’d be wise to heed it.
“And I do not want to accidentally bring harm or unwanted attention to you by being careless,” Miria said, also choosing to avoid the subject directly. “I’ll be careful. I promise.”
Unfortunately, promises, like plans, were sometimes impossible to keep.
Miria tried for as long as she was able.
She made Adaline a tea to ease the discomfort of her monthly bleeding and didn’t tell her that magic was one of the ingredients.
And once, when Pearl got a hoof stuck in a tangle of unfortunate thorny plants, Miria discreetly healed her injuries.
But one day Miria went to meet Adaline along the forest path and discovered she wasn’t alone.
Adaline had followed Miria’s lead as best as she was able, and she’d taken to dressing in more simple attire.
For the past week, she’d abandoned her lady’s fine riding dress, opting instead for an undyed linen underdress and a drab bodice and split skirt—an outfit even plainer than the one Miria wore into town.
She told Miri she’d secretly obtained the clothes because they made it easier for her to sneak away from her uncle’s manor and she no longer had to explain inconvenient things, like mud stains, to anyone.
With her perfect posture, soft hands, and fancy braids, Miria thought Adaline managed to make her clothing appear regal regardless, but it was true that no one would guess she was the Lord of Gawfrid’s niece from a simple inspection.
And surely that was why two men who could not be more than a few years older than Miria had the audacity to be heckling Adaline on that day.
They both had axes slung over their shoulders, and their shirtsleeves were rolled up as high as they could go.
Patchy stubble covered one’s chin, a reddish brown that made his face appear dirtier than it was.
The other was taller and thinner, with a gangly look that years of swinging an ax might or might not cure.
There were no logging sites nearby, which meant they’d run off from wherever they were supposed to be.
“Did you steal that horse?” the taller one yelled at Adaline. “No way a girl like you owns it.”
“And the sword,” said the other young man. “What’s a girl doing with a sword?”
“Think if we took ‘em back, someone might reward us nicely for them, yeah?”
They’d crowded around Pearl, making it difficult for Adaline to continue riding, at least not if she didn’t wish to hurt them, which she clearly didn’t. Not yet. “Move along,” she snapped, her voice laden with the weight of her station.
“Move along.” The shorter boy imitated her tone and snickered.
Miria studied the two for a moment longer, searching for any potential resemblance to the face of a brother she barely remembered and deciding there was nothing of her own in theirs. Surely then, neither of them could be Hans.
She stepped off the path, letting her cloak slip across her shoulders as she did. Adaline was busy kicking away the taller of the boys who’d made a grab at Pearl’s reins, but the shorter man nearly jumped out of his skin as Miria seemed to appear out of thin air. He cursed and took a step backward.
“She said move along. Now go.” Miria’s voice lacked Adaline’s casual authority, and she knew it, but she also knew hers carried a different sort of power. Especially in the woods, hers was a voice of a witch in control of her domain.
The shorter, red-haired man, the one whom she’d startled—sensed that power immediately.
He rubbed the back of his ruddy neck nervously and didn’t move closer, yet he still eyed with her suspicious hostility.
His friend was more oblivious or too interested in harassing Adaline to notice anything strange about Miria.
He did, however, stop making a grab for Pearl’s reins long enough to turn his attention Miria’s way.
“What is this?” he asked, spitting on the path. “Upside down day? We got a girl with a stolen sword and another girl dressed like a boy.”
“Miri, be careful,” Adaline said. Pearl had a clear path to break into a run, if Adaline needed to escape, but Miria knew Adaline would never leave if she thought Miria was in trouble. She would stay and prove she knew how to handle her sword.
Miria nodded to indicate she heard Adaline, then she pointed down the path in the direction from whence Adaline had been riding. “Leave.”
The short man neither moved closer nor moved to follow her directions, but the taller one laughed. “This your forest to go around bossing people about?”
“Yes, it is actually.”
Tall Man shoved his companion on the shoulder, nudging them both closer to Miria.
“You don’t even got a sword, girl. You can’t order us around just ‘cause you’re wearing clothes that don’t belong to you.
” He tapped his fingers over the handle of his ax.
“Maybe someone’s looking for you and her? ” He motioned toward Adaline.
He was getting close enough that Miria could smell the stink of sweat and old beer on his clothes, and her pulse quickened as she realized her dilemma. It would be so easy to make them not merely leave, but run, but to do so would require revealing more to Adaline than she was supposed to.
The sound of boots hitting the path directed Miria’s attention to Adaline. She’d jumped off of Pearl and was pulling her sword from its sheath. “If you think I don’t know how to use this, you’re mistaken,” she said.
“Is that so?” Apparently the shorter man thought this was funny enough that however unnerved he was by Miria, he was able to grin. No, leer through his snickering. “I do like a girl who knows how to handle a man’s sword.”
The other man clearly thought that was the height of wit, and they shared a laugh that made Miria’s hands curl into fists.
“What about you?” he asked, turning to Miria. “You know how to wear a man’s clothes, but do you also know how to work a man’s sword?”