Chapter 19
We walk into the kitchen, and Elowen looks up and stops what she’s doing. “Well?”
I look down at Auri. “It’s pretty good,” she admits.
I meet Elowen’s gaze, and we share a smile. “All right. Who’s hungry?” she asks.
“I am,” I tell her. “I have to do something; I’ll be right back.” I leave and am back less than five minutes later, dressed and ready.
A few minutes later, the three of us are gathered around the table eating our delicious, sweet biscuits.
“I really think these are the best thing you can eat, don’t you, Auri?
” I ask, licking my fingers. She nods in agreement as I stand up and push my chair in.
“Do either of you want anything else?” When they both shake their heads no, I start washing the dishes.
“I can do them, Harper,” Elowen says from the table.
“I know.” I continue anyway. When we’re all finished, and the kitchen is clean, I face Auri. “We are going to head outside soon, but before we do, I have a special project.”
“What is it?” she asks curiously.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
She doesn’t crack a smile. “Yes. That’s why I asked.”
I shake my head. This girl. “I’ll show you. This way.” I lead the way from the kitchen back to her room. When I open the door to her room, she frowns at me. “It’s a project in my room?”
“Yes. First, you’re going to tell me where you want to hang your tapestries.”
Her eyes widen. “You have some for my room?”
“Of course I do. Now, come over here and pick.” I lead her over to the bed where I put the tapestries while she was in the kitchen.
We saved three of them for her room. We tried to pick the ones we thought she would like.
“If you want to switch any of these out for the ones in the great room, we can.”
“No. I love these,” she says softly.
“Good. Now where should we hang them?”
She studies her room, really thinking about where she wants them. We settle with one on the wall behind her bed, and the other two on the side walls on either side of her bed. When we finish that project, I pick up my axe. I watch as her eyes widen. “What’s that for?”
“I will show you.” I walk over to her bed and drop to both knees on the fur. “I wanted something else, but this was the only tool I could find that might work.” I take a breath. “All right. Here we go.” I use the axe to hit the first leg holding up her bed.
“What are you doing?” she almost yells.
I hit the leg again. “You’ll see.”
“I can’t watch this,” Elowen mutters. “Call me if she chops off any important body parts,” she calls out over her shoulder as she leaves the room.
I can’t help my chuckle. I focus in again and hit the leg again in almost the same spot.
It takes much longer than I thought it was going to, but eventually, I get the first leg lowered.
The bed leans in a funny way now, and I move to the next leg.
Now, that I kind of have the hang of it, this leg goes faster.
“Other side,” I call out cheerfully to Auri, as I make my way to the other side of the bed.
I hack at that leg for a long while until it finally lowers.
“Last leg,” I call out as I move to the fourth leg.
I sit next to the leg for a moment, trying to catch my breath.
Apparently, I am weak with an axe. My arms ache, but I can’t stop now.
“Let’s do this.” I chop into the last leg and promptly get the axe stuck.
I tug on it but can’t get it out. I pull and pull and make no progress.
“I think it’s stuck.”
I turn at the sound of Auri’s voice right behind me. “No kidding.”
She’s quiet a moment. “What are you going to do?”
“For right now, I’m going to leave it. Once I recover some arm strength, I’ll try again.
” Auri glances from her bed back to me. “Yes, I know. It’s in a terrible position.
I hope you don’t roll out of bed; that would be a bummer.
” Her eyes widen, but I pat her hand as I stand.
“Don’t worry; I’ll get it fixed before tonight. ”
Because we spent so much time in her room, we decide to wait until after lunch to work with the knives.
After lunch turns into a few hours later, because Auri takes a rest..
.not in her bed because that’s still not fixed.
She ends up resting in Rauk’s bed instead.
Finally, it’s time to get to it. “All right. Let’s head outside,” I tell Auri.
She nods, and we make our way through the hallway.
She would never say it, but she looks forward to these knife throwing sessions.
She’s actually getting pretty good. She’s got really good aim.
If she keeps developing arm strength, she’ll really be something.
I glance down at her as we walk, gauging her mood and strength today.
She doesn’t know this, but my goal is to try to get her out of her chair today.
I have no doubt that she can’t walk or put any kind of weight on her legs, but I do wonder if she’s ever tried.
I have no idea even what her condition is, why she can’t walk; but I’m hoping to find out some of that today.
I wonder if maybe she’s never tried. What would happen if she started trying every day?
I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. I keep all that to myself as we head outside.
My arms are a little shaky when I lift her into my arms. I make another mental note to build up my arm strength.
When we get to the ground, I help her into her chair. “Is Red coming?” she asks, looking up at me. She’s taken to calling Redara by her nickname, like I do.
“She should be here soon. While we wait, let’s practice with the knives.”
Red, you almost here? I ask. She’s usually here by now and waits patiently while we work with knives before we get her attention.
Yes.
I want to question her, but Auri makes a sound, jerking my gaze to her. I see the red drip from her hand. “What happened?” I ask as I quickly wrap her hand in my shirt, trying to stop the bleeding.
“I was trying to flip it like you do and it cut my hand. It’s fine,” she says, trying to pull away.
“It’s not okay; you’re bleeding. Let me see how bad it is.” I put more pressure on it. When I pull my shirt away, I notice with relief that it’s already stopped bleeding. “Well, congrats, Kiddo. You got your first of many cuts.”
“Yeah?”
I scoff. “Oh, yeah. I’ve cut myself so many times.
Hazards of working with knives.” That seems to pacify her worry.
“Now, let’s try that again.” I show her how to flip the blade so she catches it by the pommel easily.
“Not bad. Try it again.” She tries it several more times, getting better each time.
“You really do have a gift for knives. I can’t wait to see if it translates into any other weapons. ”
She faces the tree, serious. Seeing she’s ready to get back to work, I take a step to the side. “All right. Let’s see this next throw.”
Auri takes to weapons like she was born to wield them.
After several days working with throwing knives, we try a bow and arrow.
It’s a little tricky to do in her chair, but she learns how to leverage her weight in the chair.
I can’t believe how far she’s come in the time that Rauk’s been gone and not only in wielding weapons.
She’s like a different person. She gives these hesitant smiles now.
They’re not full-fledged ones, but they’re smiles and I’ll take them.
Today, we’re back to knife throwing. I grab her knife from the tree and walk back to her.
I reach out to Red, who was supposed to be here by now. Did you get lost on the flight here?
It takes her a minute to respond. I’m not coming today. I frown but wipe my face clear when Auri turns to me. “That was a good one. Try it again. Remember to keep it—” The back door flies open, crashing into the wall with a clang.
“Auri!”
My stomach drops. Rauk is back. After three weeks, he’s finally back.
I watch as his wild gaze takes everything in, in an instant.
And then he shocks me by jumping over the railing, avoiding the stairs all together.
I’m pretty sure my mouth hangs open because that was what?
Like six, seven stairs? But I don’t get a chance to be any more shocked because he’s suddenly striding towards us, fury in his gaze.
“What is going on?” he thunders. Without thinking, I move in front of Auri and block him.
“What are you doing?” he all but roars at me. “Get out of my way.”
“No.”
His eyes narrow, and I swear I can literally feel the heat of his anger. “Get out of my way,” he grinds out.
“No. Not until you’ve calmed down.” I keep my voice level. “So, you don’t scare your sister.”
His eyes flash and then dart over my shoulder a moment.
When they meet mine again, I’m surprised I don’t just incinerate on the spot.
He takes a step closer, and I hold my ground, putting us nearly chest to chest. “You and I will be talking later.” His voice is so low, it nearly vibrates.
I stand there a moment, unsure what to do.
I don’t want to be here with him, but I also don’t want him to take his anger out on Auri.
I glance over my shoulder at her. Her face is calm, and there is no trace of fear on her face.
“It’s okay,” she says quietly, stoic once again. “My brother won’t hurt me.”
“He’d better not.” I turn to face him, so he can see just how serious I am. “Or he’ll answer to me.”
Those dark eyes stare down at me, but he doesn’t say anything.
I leave them a moment later and start back inside.
When I get to the door at the top of the stairs, I turn back.
Rauk stands beside her now. As if he feels my gaze, he lifts his head.
I can feel the anger from here. I should just leave them alone, but I’m angry and annoyed.
I stare him down. “Harper?” I turn at the sound of Elowen’s voice.
“What’s going—Oh.” She turns back to me after a moment.
“Come on in, Dear.” She urges me inside.
It’s probably a good thing; otherwise, I’d probably still be staring the man down.
“Are you okay?” she asks, once the door closes behind us.
“I’m fine.” My voice is sharp, and I don’t mean to take it out on her. “I just can’t stand that man.”
She turns to me, sorrow in her expression. “Don’t be too hard on him. Just...be gentle.”
I snort. “Gentle? With that beast of a man?” She looks at me with an assessing gaze. “What?” I finally ask.
“Sometimes, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.”
Her words make absolutely no sense. “What?”
She puts her hand on my arm. “Why don’t you give them space for a little bit, and maybe give him some time to cool down?”
“So, he doesn’t murder me?” I ask, not even joking.
Elowen frowns. “Rauk’s not like that.”
“Rauk’s exactly like that!” I say in exasperation. “I thought he was going to strike me down out there just now.”
“He was worried for his little sister,” she argues. “Rauk is very protective of her, but he would never hurt you.”
I stare at her. “I don’t think we’re talking about the same guy.
” I breathe out a sigh of frustration. I don’t want to argue with her.
”You’re right. I’ll head to my room for a little bit and give them space.
” I take off without another word. I need the space too, or I just might go at it with Rauk.
Again. I reach out to Redara. Figured out why you didn’t come.
I can’t help but feel a little betrayed that she picked Nox over me. ..again.
You’ll understand some day.
I’m pretty sure I won’t, but I don’t want to get into it with her either. She doesn’t deserve my ire. No, there’s only one person that deserves it; and I can’t do anything about it right now while he’s with his sister. But when she goes to bed tonight, all bets are off.