Chapter 18 #2
“I would like to know, in due time. Right now, I think we all need to calm down and take it slow. Maybe tomorrow, unless you really want to tell me. First, I’d like to hear about all these wooden things you’ve brought along.
Wairen had already packed most of your belongings by the time I got there, but I did get to see some carvings.
” Schula set a stack of books by her feet while she made room on another shelf for them.
I hadn’t talked to anyone about Bryn or my life in such detail. Just enough to know what had happened. Schula was quickly becoming my rock in this storm of the Wyldes. I just hoped that someday I could repay her kindness.
“All right, I’ll tell you all about them.”
We never finished unpacking. The afternoon and evening flew by with my stories of the mountains.
Schula told me a few of her own. She never admitted it, but I thought she was born somewhere in the Winter Lands.
Not that it wasn’t an obvious conclusion to draw from her appearance, it was just never outright said.
We had laid ourselves on the bed around my things and fallen asleep sometime before dawn, and it was midday before I opened my eyes again.
“Nice to see you still in the land of the living.” Schula smiled at me from the floor, where she had curled up with a bear pelt and a book next to the woodstove. The day was crisp, and we’d let the heat flicker out overnight.
“I haven’t slept that well in days.” I smiled and dug in my sack for the wool blanket from my bed in the mountains and joined her on the floor. “So, what will we do today?”
“Today we meet Eberon. Thain will have talked to his triquetram before leaving, even on a mission from His Majesty. We can decide what needs to be done from there.” Schula stretched under her fur and closed her book. “First things first, though, have you been keeping up with our exercises?”
“Some,” I admitted. “Not as well as I could have been.”
“We’ve all had a lot going on. Would you like to start them again? A morning routine, perhaps? Tomorrow?” she prodded.
“Sure, I do still want to learn.” I yawned.
We sat in comfortable silence for a while. Eventually, she got up and brought over a bowl of dried plums, which we shared pieces of with Puko. The room warmed up, and we left our blankets on the floor while we cleaned ourselves up.
“We should talk about yesterday,” I said, combing my hair at the table.
“Probably.” Schula was lacing her pants. “If you’re ready. I gather it was about your magic?”
“Yes,” I said. “Wairen saw my back the other night.”
“Oh.” Schula looked up at me. “And naturally told Thain.”
“Right.” I fidgeted. “Is . . . I mean, how bad will this be?”
“Ah, how do I put this?” She shoved her boots on her feet. “The witches were in a vicious conflict with the courts a long time ago. These days, they keep humans out of our land and the fae out of theirs. The wicked fae, anyway. But once upon a time, our kinds were friends.”
“What changed?” I asked. “What turned an alliance with a group of the most peaceful people I know into a war?”
Schula smiled sadly. “It wasn’t only the witches but anyone who disputed the drawing of lines for the courts. It all boiled down to claiming ownership of land.”
“The Mother has no borders.” I murmured a line I had heard so many times in the quiet of a hut filled with drying herbs and crackling fire.
Schula shrugged. “Sounds about right, from the stance they took. But our kind will clash to ruin without borders. The courts remain apart, and though some travel and visiting can happen, our natures won’t allow us to thrive in the heart of another season’s magic.
A Spring fae might feel all right in Summer, but the Autumn Court would forever be like living with an itch that won’t go away.
A winter fae might weather their days in the Autumn Lands, though the warmer days might be uncomfortable.
And if the courts didn’t separate from the Unclaimed Wyldes, these lands would have fallen into desperate chaos long ago. ”
“And the witches would never feel the need for any of that,” I said slowly.
“The fallout from the dispute was terrible, or so I’ve heard, and the fracture left the witches chased from the Wyldes for good.
There has never been proof that they would retaliate or even bear ill will toward these lands and people, but any who lived through a conflict with that kind of magic will carry the scars from those days.
My partners were both alive when it happened, and I can’t imagine what they saw back then to shape their views of witchkind.
Some even think the witches had something to do with the plague, though no one has any proof. ”
Letting out a slow breath, I fidgeted with the end of a braid. “And what do you think of it all?”
She looked tired, aged, when she answered.
“I think the fae can be joyous, busy, lovely people, but I also think some of us can be cruel, judgmental, and stubborn. I can’t hate the witches for living their lives the way they did, and I don’t have enough experience with them to say who was right and who wasn’t.
But if you’re worried that any of this colors the way I see you, don’t be.
You’ve only been with us for a short time, and already I consider you a friend I wouldn’t want to lose.
As for the rest of our kind . . . It would take an incredible effort on the part of the witches, because I don’t believe we would ever reach out our hands first to reestablish any kind of relationship with them. ”
“That’s no way to fix the rift.” I frowned.
“It’s not, but old fae are set in their ways.” Schula shrugged. “I wouldn’t think Thain would be that set in stone about anything, given his nature, but he has lived much longer than most fae I know. He can be hard to read, and he had personal experience in that war.”
“If he isn’t mad about the witch seal itself, he must be mad about something else,” I said. “He made it sound like it was about how closed off I’ve been. The fact that I’m still keeping secrets.”
“And it’s no business of his that you are. He has plenty of his own,” she told me.
“I wasn’t trying to make him mad.” I watched Schula come over to me.
“Someone else losing their temper is never your fault. If you haven’t noticed, Thain is more beast than the rest of us.
When he gets back, he’ll come running with his tail between his legs, begging forgiveness.
I think he’s just been trying really hard to help you.
He was excited to report to me and Eb about the lost fae he found.
An excited Thain isn’t something you see often.
” She smiled and squeezed my shoulders. “Now, get up. We’ve got a fire fae to bother. ”
I couldn’t help but smile as she pulled me out the front door. Puko landed on my shoulder and eyed me, making Schula laugh. Downstairs, we ran into Mama Flori. She demanded we stop and talk to her, and then she sent us on our way with a loaf of cinnamon bread and a packet of breadcrumbs for Puko.
My stomach was a pit of nerves. I hoped Thain had talked to Eberon before leaving Thanantholl. I also hoped, despite our argument, that he was all right.