Chapter 2 #2
Orelia briefly considered leaving Minro to start over in a new place, but the simple fact was she couldn’t afford to.
So in the morning, she headed into town looking for work.
Her boots collected mud in the rain-soaked street as she tried the two taverns, the inn, the bookstore, the docks, the apothecary, the feedstore, the chandler, and the smithy, but no one was hiring.
With her options exhausted, Orelia headed home with her head hung low, drenched in sweat from the humidity. She was so unfocused on the world around her that she almost caught a bite to the ankle.
“Hey!” she scolded, glaring at the village nuisance.
If the beady red eyes of a bruno duck weren’t ominous enough, their blade-like teeth were enough of a deterrent not to mess with them.
Thankfully, the rest of the flock pecked at the ground, minding their business.
But Orelia was hot, frustrated, and angry, so when the bird lowered its head and came at her again, she lifted a hand and sent it over the bridge, splashing into the river below.
After the ball of white feathers righted itself and shook out the water, the duck craned its neck and hissed at her.
She shot the duck a smug grin. “That’ll teach you.
” Orelia left the river behind, tromped through the wildflower field, and headed up the hill to her oasis.
She preferred the peace and quiet away from pesky ducks, noise of the main street, and crude dockworkers.
Orelia rounded her house and headed for the garden in the back.
“There you are!”
She startled with a hand over her heart. “Gods, Teegan, you scared the hells out of me!”
Teegan chuckled from her seat on the porch steps. “Sorry. Where have you been? You didn’t show up for work.”
Orelia sat next to her, set her face in her hands, and blew out a breath before telling her what happened. “So that’s where I’ve been. I tried everywhere, but no one will hire me.”
Teegan looped her arm through Orelia’s. “Morton doesn’t have a spot for you?”
She used a stair edge to scrape the mud off her boots, careful not to rip the soles further. “Not enough customers for a wizard in sleepy ole’ Minro to warrant taking on another employee.”
“None of the fishermen have openings?”
Orelia shook her head. “The boats are full. Even the dock jobs are taken.”
The insects trilled in the stagnant air, replacing the pitiful silence coming from her friend. She’d expected to be turned away, but to be rejected by everyone was still a surprise. Orelia lifted her hair off her sweaty neck and sighed. “Beron offered me a job as a pleasure girl.”
“He did? What did you say?”
The hope in Teegan’s voice made her hesitate, but she had to be honest. “I could never endure what you all do. I don’t even think I could pretend to enjoy it.”
Teegan nudged her shoulder. “Sure you could. Besides, you already know how things go around there, and with that body, you would certainly do well. Men love wide hips and large breasts.” Teegan’s mouth morphed into a beautiful smile, but Orelia couldn’t find it in her to do the same.
“Thanks, but I’m not strong enough. No one wants a girl who’d just be crying the whole time.” The thought of men being able to do whatever they wanted to her just because they paid left an acrid taste in her mouth.
Her friend was quiet for a moment. “Happiness isn’t as difficult to fake as you might think.”
The hollowness that occasionally graced Teegan’s face appeared, but the woman could handle anything thrown at her, including raising a child alone. Sired by a patron a few years ago, Jax was the light of Teegan’s life, and Orelia loved the little boy like he was her own.
Reflecting on Teegan’s journey through motherhood and all the hardships it entailed made Orelia nudge her friend back. “I wish I could be more like you. Braver. Stronger. More resilient.”
Teegan grinned. “You already are. I just wish you could see it for yourself.”
Orelia rested her head on her friend’s bony shoulder. “I may have lost my job, but I’m glad I have you.” The witch let her focus drift to the garden. To the shriveled plants sticking out of the ground, then to the wilting plumrose bushes.
Orelia loved plumroses. Their velvety, violet petals looked almost black, even in the sun. She’d pricked herself on their thorns plenty of times, never faulting the plant for what it was born to be. Beautiful with a bite if you weren’t careful.
Teegan tucked a strand of curly brown hair behind her ear. “If you did become a pleasure girl, we’d get to see each other all the time.”
If Orelia donned the green dress, she could still take care of the others and provide for herself.
An answer to both of her problems. She’d lain in bed, staring at the ceiling the previous night debating what to do, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t envision herself working for Beron in that capacity.
“But I don’t want you to do that. You’re meant for more.”
Orelia shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought about asking if I could work alongside Rotha, but she hates me.”
“She’s just jealous because there’s only two witches in this town and you happen to be the only nice one. She’s threatened by you, O. Just because she claimed being the village cleric first doesn’t mean she’s better at her work than you are.”
A small smile formed at the compliment. “Thank you, but I didn’t even bother going to the infirmary.
I already knew what she’d say.” Minro was too small not to get along with its inhabitants, so Orelia had conceded the cleric title to the snide woman years ago.
Besides, Rotha had studied medicinal methods for decades before arriving in Minro.
She had complex knowledge of healing methods, aside from what witches were naturally capable of.
“Maybe this is your chance to get out of here,” Teegan said, excitement growing in her voice. “You’ve always wanted to see more of Nivinia. Go somewhere else. Start over. Have enough adventure for the both of us.”
“I can’t leave you and Jax here.”
Teegan’s honey eyes softened. “We’ll be okay. I don’t want you to leave, but maybe this was a good thing. You can finally get out of this place and fulfill your dream of seeing the world.”
Dreams mean nothing if you don’t execute them, she’d overheard a dwarf say one night at Shaley’s Tavern. Orelia hadn’t given much thought to it then, dismissing the statement as intoxicated pessimism.
Dreams offered hope, and despite how dangerous hope was, a seed of it still lingered inside her.
“I’d love to explore,” Orelia said, “but I don’t have enough money to make it anywhere. Not to mention, whatever’s in those woods would probably eat me alive before I could even make it as far as Dallton.”
They both chuckled. Teegan hopped off the porch and smoothed her linen dress, her finger snagging on a hole near the hem.
“I’m working tonight, and I need to pick up Jax from the matron before she makes a fuss about me being late again.
Let’s get ales at Shaley’s tomorrow and we can figure this out? ”
Orelia didn’t want to say she couldn’t afford to, but she agreed, needing her friend’s company more than ale anyway. “Do you want me to watch him? I have nothing but time now.”
They both chuckled.
“It’s all right. I’m going to spend a few marks with him, and I already told the matron I’d drop the little hellion off again before my shift.
He loves that old woman just like every other kid in this village, but maybe tomorrow he can see his Auntie O.
” Teegan waved goodbye and bounded down the hill, back to her ramshackle home on the other side of town.
Orelia watched her friend’s curls bounce until she became a distant shape amongst the wildflowers.
Neither of them had much, but they had each other.
She pulled the purse Beron had given her out of her pocket and counted the coins again. Six silver, plus the three from her emergency jar. She could make it work for two, maybe three months, if she stretched her rations. But even that would be pushing it.
“What in the hells am I going to do?” Orelia said to the blue afternoon sky.
An eastern wind picked up, sifting through her hair, and making the tips of the trees dance.
She didn’t know if it was a sign that everything would work out, or if it was only the wind, and she was just desperately trying to conjure a good omen out of nothing.
The spring breeze carried the fruity scent of plumroses and pulled her attention back to her decaying garden. Sunspots danced on the soil, giving her an idea.
Orelia pocketed the money and headed into the house, grabbing the gardening book off the shelf above her bed. She was careful not to break the binding of the tattered tome as she carried it outside, flipping to the section on root vegetables.
She pulled a tie off her wrist and gathered her auburn hair in a knot on top of her head.
Orelia flicked a wrist, and the lid to the wooden storage box by the back fence slid away.
She rested the lid against the water pump to her well, then lifted three bags of seed out of the box and checked to make sure they hadn’t sprouted.
Satisfied they hadn’t, she summoned the stool she kept on the porch, took a seat, and began reading.
Maybe Teegan was right. Maybe Beron dismissing her wasn’t the end.
If she read the gardening book and did everything it said, her idea could work.
Thankfully, food grew twice as fast in spring as it did in winter, so if she planted now, she could harvest in two months’ time.
It wouldn’t be much, but it might be enough to hold her off while the rest of the fruits and vegetables grew.
Images came to her rapidly, building her excitement.
Fat, juicy tomatoes.
Plump, yellow squashes.
Herbs, potatoes, carrots in droves.
Plumroses she could sell in bundles.
Orelia smiled as she read her broken book in hopes it would stitch her shattered life back together.