“I’ll talk through the door,” I waited for a response.
Nothing.
I raised my voice and tried again. “Loud enough for the neighbors to hear.”
The door swung open. She stood with her broom firm in her hand, glowering at me, nostrils flaring with anger. Then to my surprise, stepped back.
I took her cue and walked into the kitchen, sitting at the table while I waited for her to say something.
She closed the door, and for a moment, just stood there as if trying to decide what to do about me. “You have until my cake is done. I don’t expect it will be terribly long.”
She placed her broom against the wall and sat opposite me, crossing her arms as she looked coolly down her nose at me. She wore lines I didn’t remember, and guilt poured through me at the thought of what she’d lost because of me.
“Thank you for hearing me out.”
“I have no choice, apparently.” She took a long sip from her glass, looking away from me.
“I’m sorry for everything that’s happened. It’s all my fault, but I never asked for any of it. I never asked to be a dreamwalker. I never asked to be the person to free Beru.” How could I reason away her pain? It was all true, but I knew it wouldn’t help.
“You freed a monster.” She slammed her hands on the table as she glared at me, half-standing from her chair.
“There’s so much you don’t know.” I leaned closer, pleading with her, yearning to see the old Mother Ofburg. Even a small glimpse would mean so much.
“There’s nothing you can tell me that will change my mind. All of a sudden, you can dreamwalk and know everything? Oh, and if that isn’t just like you.”
“I don’t know everything, but I know Beru. He’s not what people say of him.” I pushed away from the table and paced the room, raking my fingers through my hair. I needed her to trust me again, but could she?
Mother Ofburg rose the rest of the way and stormed over to the fire, lifting the top off the pot suspended there. “It’s done.”
“I’ve barely spoken.”
“That’s all the time I have. I’ve heard enough.” She turned to the cake, removing it from the fire.
“I want to come back. I want to be a healer again.” I watched as her movements slowed.
“You were never a healer. And now you’re a dreamwalker.”
For the first time since I returned, she sounded like the Mother Ofburg of old briefly.
“I want to be a healer and learn from you. I promise to take it more seriously. I’ll study and be present. I won’t fool around. I promise.”
I stood at attention and prayed for her to accept me again.
“Your time here would be wasted as a healer. You must practice dreamwalking. It’s too dangerous not to take seriously.”
The hint of concern in her voice was obvious and unexpected, but it wasn’t enough. Though I tried not to, I still longed for her approval.
“Couldn’t we try? You mentioned training me to dreamwalk.” I clasped my hands together, realizing with a vague sense of surprise they were trembling.
“Most of my assistants are dead. So, no. I don’t need another child to look after. It was a favor to your parents, that’s all. I owe them nothing now.” She turned back to the fire, showing me a stiff back as she stoked the coals until they burned bright orange.
The fire seemed to be mocking the pain burning in my chest. “It was just a favor to my parents?” Blinking several times, I willed away my tears, steadying myself with a hand on the chair as the room spun slowly around me.
“Yes, that was all. A favor.” She kept her back to me, tending the fire as if it was the most important thing to her.
Blood rushed to my face as anger mixed with embarrassment and pain. I turned away from her to flee, knocking over my chair as tears blurred my vision. Ignoring it, I ran out the door and didn’t stop until after I’d passed a tear-misted version of her gate.
Had the past few years studying healing under her tutelage only happened at the request of my parents? I pushed the thought away, trying to process it. Surely, she’d meant they’d inquired about her assistance.
I meandered through the village. I needed time to think before returning home. I hadn’t dared wonder what the future held when I’d left here, save for my mission to bring Gavin home. I’d always assumed I’d go back to being a healer again, and my life would be the same as before. How foolish I’d been.
Wiping residual tears from my cheeks, I dragged my feet along the road filled with the familiar yet new. Most of the buildings had been rebuilt or were in the process of after the ur’gel attack had destroyed so much of the town.
“Traitor,” a woman spat at my feet as she passed me.
I stopped, turning to look at her with confusion. Had she been speaking to me? No, that was ridiculous. I shook my head, sighing, and continued, clasping my hands behind my back and keeping my head down as I watched my plodding feet on the dirt lift small clouds of dirt.
I was almost to the cobbler’s shop when the owner exited the door with a bucket of waste and dumped the contents on the street merely a foot from me. A drop of the foul-smelling water splashed on my shoe.
I jumped back in disgust. “Hey, watch where you’re throwing that!”
He marched back into his shop, slamming the door behind him but not before I caught his reply. “I missed.”
Did he mean to say he’d meant to hit me?
I shook my head to clear the paranoid thought.
He’d always been pleasant in the past. Maybe he was having a bad day.
But as I continued walking, I began to take note of the strange way people were acting.
They avoided eye contact or wrinkled their noses as I passed, as if I disgusted them.
One woman even pulled her child away protectively as she passed me, walking faster, and glancing back with a mixture of fear and disgust.
Unable to believe what I was seeing, I veered away from the street and took a shortcut through an alley to avoid the main road, picking up my stride until I was running as fast as I could toward the woods.
I slowed when my breath caught in my chest and I was far enough away from town I was sure no one was watching. How could this be happening?
My neighbors seemed to hate me and had either shunned or expressed their hatred outwardly. Surely, they would have done the same to save their families.
How could they be judging me so harshly?
A hand tugged my arm back and I swung around, grabbing my knife with my free hand.
“Whoa!” Sade stood behind me, holding her hands up as she stepped back.
“Sorry, I didn’t hear you.” I placed my knife back in its sheath.
“Were you crying?”
“No.”
“What’s going on?”
“Oh, nothing. Just everyone hates me apparently.”
“Everyone?”
“Pretty much.” I inhaled raggedly as a tiny sob escaped from my lips.
“So, you were in the village then.” She bobbed her head, walking past me, before turning to give me what appeared to be a sympathetic look.
“You knew?” My face burned at the thought of Sade having kept this from me.
Had she enjoyed my downfall? From the well-liked healer’s apprentice to the town pariah?
“You didn’t?” She stopped, turning to me with raised eyebrows. “What did you think? They would all embrace you for freeing Beru?”
“No. But I didn’t think I’d almost be drenched in urine.” I held my hands out, unsure if any of the liquid had fallen anywhere aside from my shoe.
“Urine?” She barked with laughter, before muffling the rest of her amusement with a hand when I glared.
“Don’t you dare laugh at me.”
She continued chuckling despite my threat and ran away from me.
I gave chase, and soon we were both laughing and running between the trees like fools.
“Okay. I give up.” She held h
er stomach as she leaned over and tried to catch her breath.
I rested on a tree. While it certainly wasn’t funny, I knew Sade was on my side and the lighthearted teasing had gone a long way toward soothing my wounded pride.
“I went to see Mother Ofburg.”
“How’d that go?”
I paused, not ready to relive the painful moment so soon, finally settling on the reason I’d gone to her house in the first place. “She won’t mentor me.”
“And you’re surprised?”
I didn’t bother answering, choosing to stomp on the ground as we walked. It may be immature, but it made me feel less angry.
“This is why I prefer to be alone. Humans suck.”
“Maybe you’re on to something.” I certainly wouldn’t feel so hurt with less human interaction. Perhaps, just for the next little while, until things blew over. Whenever that was.
“I have something to cheer you up,” she shot me a mischievous grin. “Come on.” She took off through the forest.
I did my best to catch up but keeping her in sight was all I could manage.
When she finally stopped, it was in the center of the clearing near the miller’s field. The sun shone brightly now it was unencumbered by the branches of the trees. “Your surprise.” She gestured for me to go ahead.
“An empty field?” I raised an eyebrow, perplexed, but walked past. I’d had enough surprises to last me a lifetime the past few months, and wasn’t excited about one more.
“You don’t see it?” She ran past me into the middle of the field. “Are you scared?”
I rolled my eyes at her childish glee and ran to catch up. As the top of the grain touched my fingertips as I ran, thoughts of my childhood rushed back. I missed the days when life had been so innocent and a hard day of working on the farm in the hot sun was the worst thing to happen to me.
“Now can you see it?” She stopped, turning toward a mountain of hay.
My heart leapt. “Astor and Iri!” I ran to them.
Iri scooped me up in his strong arms.
I yelped as he spun me around, almost crushing me and when he let me go, I dropped to the ground and turned to Astor for a gentler hug.
“What are you doing here?” I stepped back, holding him at arm’s length.
“I’m here to protect him from himself.” Iri pointed toward Astor, a patent falsely aggrieved look on his face.
“More like I’ve come with a message, and this big lug offered to take me.”
Astor slapped Iri on the chest in reply and he grunted, folding his arms.
“A message? For whom?” Curiosity plagued me. I hadn’t expected to see them so soon. Or, perhaps ever, to be honest.
“For you.” Astor stepped closer, reaching for my hands with a solemn expression.
“Why do you have a message for me?” I pulled away, uncertain I liked the reason they were visiting.
“There’s a new dreamwalker in Western March. She wishes to speak to you.” The smile on Astor’s face seemed strained.
I tried my best to read him but came up empty. “And if I don’t want to speak to this dreamwalker?”
“Why wouldn’t you want to?” He wrinkled his forehead. This time it was easy to read his confused look.
“I’m done with all of that.” I walked past, brushing him off with a wave of my hand as I tried to hide my frustration at the turn of events. Why couldn’t things just go back to normal?
“She wants a dream meeting.”
I heard his footsteps behind me. Shaking my head, I strode away. “I’m busy with the farm.”
“Oh, come on. You’re no farm girl!” He called after me.
I turned to face him, embarrassed by how I was treating him. It wasn’t his fault a dreamwalker wanted to meet with me.
“Here, take this.” He walked up to me, gently placing a small stone in my hand.
“What is it?” I accepted out of curiosity, flipping it over to get a better look. It was red and beautifully polished, with little flecks of gold that sparkled in the sunlight.
“It will help you connect to her.”
The stone began to warm up in my palm. With a jolt, heat moved up my arm and I gasped, dropping the stone to the ground.
“Aria, no!” He hit the ground, frantically patting the hay for the small, now effectively invisible, stone.
“Crap. Sorry.” I winced. Kneeling beside him, I began to move the tall strands of hay aside to help find the stone.
“She’s going to kill me,” he mumbled as he pushed the hay back.
“Who?”
“Runa. The dreamwalker. She’s moody.”
“Great.” Of course she was. Today kept getting better and better. Luckily, it didn’t take long to find it, but only because there was a connection to the stone I couldn’t fight. “Got it!”
Astor tossed his head back, letting out a long, overly dramatic sigh.
I spit on the rock and shined it on my pant leg, much to his disgust. “What? Good as new.” I held it up triumphantly, appreciating how it sparkled again.
“Just don’t. Please.”
“Okay.” I shrugged, dropping the stone in my pocket. I didn’t know if I’d use it, but it seemed important to him so the least I could do was take it.
“Let’s go, kids.”
I’d nearly forgotten Sade and Iri were there until her impatient command reminded me.
They were nearly a hundred feet ahead already, and Astor hurried to catch up.
I hung back, uneasy about what a strange dreamwalker could possibly want to talk to me about. It wasn’t like I was good at controlling my powers yet. I had a hard time turning my thoughts away from the feel of the stone in my pocket as I followed slowly, its presence weighing heavily on me the rest of the way home.
Chapter 3
“Who asked you to come back?”
Damour’s voice floated out from the kitchen window as I returned from dropping my friends at a tavern for the night. He sounded angrier than I’d heard him since childhood, when I’d broken his favorite toy.
It was so unexpected, I ran to the house quickly, worried someone had broken in. I flung open the door, pulling my knife from my belt as stepped into the kitchen. But when I saw my oldest brother, Harov, standing next to the fireplace, I put it away. Glancing between the two men uncertainly, I wondered whose side I was supposed to be on.
“What's going on here?” I hadn't seen him for many years and wondered if he even knew who I was.
“That's your sister, Aria. Talk to her because we’re done here.” Damour threw the washcloth on the floor and walked out, slamming the door behind him so hard a picture fell off the wall.
I bit my lip, hoping it hadn’t broken, then tilted my head to focus on my estranged sibling.
“I knew who you were.” He looked out the window, moving to stand where Damour had been. He seemed unable to look me in the eye, and for a moment I wondered why.
Then it all came back—the day he’d left home.
I’d been barely five and had no idea what he was doing with his bags packed by the door so early in the morning.
He’d been startled when I asked where he was going but had recovered quickly. Ruffling my hair, he’d assured me he’d be back within the week.
It had taken me days to tell my parents, and by then, it was clear he wasn’t coming back.
“It's been a while.” I walked over to the table and took the seat by the window, gesturing to the one across from me. “Sit.”
“It has.” He perched on the edge of the chair, like he was prepared to bolt.
I noticed his eyes dart around the room as if he’d never seen any of it before, and remembered it had been two decades since he’d left.
He probably hadn’t seen most of it.
I waited for him to speak, but it was hard. I had so many questions, the least of which was where he had been all this time.
We’d heard many things over the years, but there had been no way to know where he
was, or even if he was still alive. And now here he was, looking like a younger version of Father, or an older Gavin.
When he remained silent, I prompted him. “Have you seen our parents yet?”
“Not yet. Damour said they’re still in the fields.” He shifted as he spoke, looking uncomfortable at my mentioning them.
I watched him intently, looking for clues about his life. It was true we shared parents, but I wasn’t sure I would have recognized him if we passed on the street.
His skin was smooth and a pale alabaster, suggesting he no longer worked outside. His hands were clean, the nails trimmed short and filed. Even his clothing was clean, too clean, as if he wore something new every day. His boots were a soft, grey leather, buffed almost to a shine, with silver clasps for decoration.
I didn’t have a sense of what his life was like, other than he appeared to be doing quite well for himself.
When he still didn’t volunteer any information, I stood up in a huff, pushing back my chair as I went to the sink to compose myself. I poured a glass of water and took a few deep breaths, looking out the window as I centered myself. Once I felt calm again, I turned to regard him quietly for a moment.
“I'm not sure if you’ll be welcome here.” It was harsh, but true. I’d only been gone a short time, but I clearly wasn’t welcome in town anymore.
“When I heard about everything, I came back. I hope that counts for something.”
I rose an eyebrow, but he was looking at his hands. I took a sip from my glass, then sat down across from him again. I scoured his face, remembering the younger version, trying to see him in the stranger in front of me now. Much had changed, but his eyes were the same.
“What did you hear, exactly?” I was curious if he’d heard about me and if news of the prison break had spread.
“Enough to know to come home. Is it true? Is he here?”
I nodded, hurt welling up despite my efforts to remain calm. The only reason he was home was because of Beru, not because he wanted to help his family.
Damour returned with an armful of wood, glaring when he saw Harov was still present. Ignoring him, he addressed me instead. “Can you tell your guest to leave?”
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