by Amber Jaeger
Katiyana hesitated a moment. Cidra already knew but should she be truthful with the other girls? The queen thought her dead. If it got back to her…. she looked around at the open, smiling faces and decided to take her chances. “Katiyana,” she finally said.
Cidra gave another small smile. “They just wanted to know what to call you. We will guard your secrets as closely as we guard our own.”
Katiyana felt her strength melting away at their friendliness, at the warmth in the room and the delicious smell of the food. Adora’s eyes widened in alarm and she reached out to guide her to a chair. “The poor dear is about to fall over. How long did you traipse her about in the woods to make sure you were not being followed?”
Cidra shrugged her slim shoulders. “Only as long as it took.”
Adora tsk-tsked while she settled Katiyana into a surprisingly comfortable chair and fetched her a bowl of the steaming stew.
“Not so much at a time,” the girl with no name warned, “else you will sick up.”
Katiyana forced herself to take small bites and small sips from the mug of cool, clear water they had set before her. Sooner than she thought, her belly was full and beginning to protest. Cidra slid the bowl away. “Now that we’ve taken care of your innards, we should take care of your outwards.”
“I warmed a bath,” the girl with no name said quietly.
Adora turned from her lengthy inspection of Katiyana to raise an eyebrow at the girl. “I thought that was for you.”
The girl snorted. “Not for me, I hate to bathe indoors.”
Cidra sighed. “You knew she was coming? You could have warned me.”
The girl lifted a sharp, delicate looking hand and waved it in front of her. “How could I see until you took your first steps towards her?”
“Indeed,” Adora said under her breath. Louder, she spoke to Katiyana. “Then out of those clothes. You soak while I find you something suitable to wear.”
Katiyana did not protest as she was sleepily led to the small, shallow tub. It was a far cry from the tub in her room at the castle but she truly had no complaint. Cidra helpfully dumped a bucket of warm water over her head before pointedly handing her a cake of soap and leaving her to her privacy.
She scrubbed as best she could, lathering the soap into her hair and over her body. With grim determination, she rubbed the inoffensive soap over her mangled feet and nearly let a shout. The skin had been rubbed off her heels and the sides of her feet, leaving red, open blisters. Cuts and scrapes marred the bottoms of them and the pain of the burning soap brought tears to her eyes.
A shadow next to the little screen set up for privacy shifted and Katiyana looked up to see the white blonde girl holding out a thin towel. “Your feet will toughen up. Until they do, I have something for you to rub into them.”
The girl opened the small jar of green goo and Katiyana grimaced as the sharp, pungent smell hit her nose. But she was desperate for relief and let the girl slather it on her raw feet. The salve cooled as it soothed and she gave a grateful sigh.
Adora made a face of her own when she came around the screen with a small bundle in her arms. “It smells terrible but feels amazing. I remember how bad my feet were when I arrived here. Palace shoes have no place in the woods.”
Katiyana looked up with drowsy curiosity. “Did you come from the castle too?”
Adora bit her lip and her peachy cheeks flushed crimson. “A different one,” she said haltingly. “But that was my old life. This is my new one.”
The sadness in her voice resonated in Katiyana and she nodded slowly. “I suppose this is my new life as well.”
Adora flicked a tear from the corner of her eye. “It is not as bad as you are probably thinking right now.” She unfolded her bundle to reveal a soft green dress with a deep violet apron and a plain sleeping gown. “They will not be the best fit on you but I will teach you how to alter them.”
Katiyana took the dress gratefully. “Things are much better now than they have been the last several days. But I have to ask, do you always parade about in the woods dressed as men?”
A burst of musical laughter came from behind the screen before Cidra stuck her head over. “I was hunting, no parading. And a man hunting, even if it is a small one, is much less likely to draw attention than a woman hunting. But there is time for questions tomorrow. Get dressed and we will show you where to rest. Even with that putrid gunk on your feet, they must be aching something terrible.”
Finally clean and warm, Katiyana found she could barely keep her eyes open. Adora showed her to the clean mat near the large fireplace and covered her with a soft blanket. “Just try to rest, we can speak tomorrow.”
Katiyana thought she heard the other girls talking quietly at the worn, wooden table, but sleep got the best of her before she could make any of it out.
CHAPTER FOUR
The girl with no name was perched at the edge of the mat, intently peering down at her when Katiyana finally opened her eyes so many hours later.
The girl child was startling in looks with her nearly colorless hair and glowing eyes. But the words that came out of her mouth were even more startling. “Do you like to play with fire?” she asked in that clear, sing song voice.
“Um,” Katiyana grumbled, hunching up in her bed. “I do not believe so.”
The girl cocked her head. “Ah, so it is your temper then.”
She rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “My father always said a lady with a temper was no lady at all.”
The girl give a bubbly laugh. “So then you are just angry.”
A glance around the now brighter room showed the other two girls were out. Confused, she asked, “Angry at whom?”
The girl frowned. “I do not have it wrong. There is fire all around you. I suppose I will have to wait and see.” She gently patted Katiyana on the arm. “I will let you know when I see it.”
A dull pain was pressing in on her abdomen. “When you see what? What fire?”
Cidra opened the door and stuck her head in. “I thought you would be awake by now. You must need to go something fierce. Come out here and I will show you where.”
“Out there?” she asked incredulously.
“Out here. In case you had not noticed, we live under a hill.”
Katiyana groaned and heaved herself up onto her feet. The pain was much less than she was expecting, but still she had to hobble out the door.
The sun had barely risen and everything glistened brightly from the rain during the night. It smelled of trees and peat and dirt, all familiar and all comforting. Cidra took her to a crude out house and pointed at the little shovel leaning against it with a sympathetic look. “Put a shovel full down when you are finished. It helps keep things fresh.”
Mortified, Katiyana completed her business and rushed back to the hut. At least, she thought that was where she was going. The trees and the hills looked the same, and the cloud shrouded sun was no help in guiding her.
She was nearly panicked when she finally burst out into a small, cleared area. Adora knelt in the dirt among straight rows of vegetables. “Katiyana, how did you get out here?” she asked. The basket at her side was filled with greens and dark purples.
“I am not sure, I thought I was going back to the hut.” She scanned her surroundings and found them all to be frighteningly similar.
Adora shook her head, stood gracefully, wiped all traces of dirt from her dress and straightened the skirt. “Cidra should not have left you out here to find your own way back. Especially not with where you came from.”
“The castle—”
“Hush!” Adora cut in sharply. “There are ears everywhere.”
Katiyana glanced around, taking in the happily chirping birds and squirrels. “I suppose there are,” she reluctantly agreed.
“Come, let us get you fed. You look much too thin.”
Breakfast was much more spectacular than she had thought it would be. Fresh bread was baked every morning and eggs gathered. Adora
had pulled something out of the garden that Katiyana did not recognize but when she cooked it up with onions and wild garlic and topped them with the soft cooked eggs, she swore it was the best thing she had ever eaten.
When the last of the yellow yolk had been sopped up from the plates with thick slices of bread, Cidra pushed her plate to the side and folded her hands in front of her. “Now you may ask.”
Katiyana looked around at the three girls. “Ask what?”
Adora gave a slight smile. “The question that has been on the tip of your tongue since you stumbled onto us.”
“I…,” she could not clearly think of what the question would be. Suddenly it burst free in her mind. “What are you all doing out here?”
“Hiding,” Cidra replied.
“Surviving,” Adora said.
“Thinking,” the girl with no name said.
“And now we must ask you,” Cidra said gently. “What are you doing out here?”
Katiyana worried her lip with her teeth while she thought. Finally she said, “I suppose a little of all of that.”
The three girls nodded. “We understand.”
Katiyana wondered if they did. Only Cidra knew a shade of the truth of why she had come to them.
“You do not have to hide from us, but you do not have to tell us anything you do not want to,” Adora said softly.
Katiyana flicked the spoon around in her empty bowl, feeling guilty about keeping her secrets.
The girl with no name put a hand on her arm. “You truly are safe here, for as long as you need to be.”
Katiyana gave a sad smile. “I fear that I will need to be here as long as I wish to live.”
“Then I shall tell you the rules, before you decide for yourself,” Cidra said, her voice firm but kind. “First, we tell no one anything about any of us. Ever.”
Katiyana felt flooded with relief and nodded happily.
“Second, we keep who we are and where we live a secret. That means you act like a man, talk like a man and dress like a man in any situation you may encounter others.” She gave a pointed looked at Adora who was blushing.
“How often does that happen?”
“Often enough for a rumor to go about this part of the world about a band of little men living here.”
Understanding began to dawn. “Do we keep our numbers a secret?”
Cidra nodded. “We do, but it is not really necessary. Girls come and go as they need shelter and help. Sometimes there are only two of us, sometimes there are many more.”
“And when they leave, they do not tell anyone of their time here? How can you be sure?”
Adora snorted. “If they had, there would have been more than one prince charming or evil witch knocking down our door.”
Cidra frowned. “No, they do not. And neither will you. This place is… magic. If you let it, it will shelter and nurture you. No one has ever betrayed it.”
Katiyana glanced around the humble hut. “This hut is magic?”
The girl with no name spoke up again. “This place, this home, is magic. We were not the first ones here and we will not be the last. We all come and go as needed, but it remains steadfast.”
Katiyana’s mouth rounded into a little o. “Cidra, I thought this was your real home.”
“It is my real home, for now. But before me, there were many others. While I have been here, there have been many others. And whether I stay or go, many more will continue to come here.”
Her thoughts were all jumbled together and she struggled to make sense of it. “So what are the other rules?”
Adora broke in. “Everyone works to help everyone else. That means you will work to keep us all fed, warm and safe… and sometimes other things as well.”
She bit her lip again and picked at the edge of her nail. “I do not know how to do anything. My step— they promised to teach me, to give me lessons but never did. Other than fishing, I fear I am terribly useless.”
“We will teach you,” Cidra soothed. “And we do not expect you to be proficient in everything. You have brought your own strengths and we will use them accordingly. As for the other things…”
“Above all, we hide,” the girl with no name said bluntly. “Sometimes that means we lie. And when things get hard, sometimes we steal. Not from anyone that cannot afford to share,” she added hastily. “But we do what we have to.”
“I cannot steal,” Katiyana protested. “What if I were to be caught? My stepmother would— I mean, I cannot be found out.”
Adora gave a shockingly wicked grin. “Should you be caught, you will find your way out. I shall teach you.”
“I really do not want to steal, or resort to that,” she said, twisting her hands in her lap.
Cidra gave an exasperated sigh. “Sometimes people will not treat you fairly. They will think you a small deformed man and cheat you. You must not let that happen. Sometimes winter is much longer than our food stores and people will not trade with us because they think us less than them. Should you starve because of their prejudices?”
“No,” Katiyana said slowly. “But I never had to steal before.”
Cidra’s warm blue eyes cooled into chips of ice. “What is past is past, forget about it. If you want to live at all, you will embrace your new life.”
Katiyana gulped and rubbed her fingers over the rough table top. “And what else must I do in this new life of mine?”
Adora smiled. “Survive. Find joy where ever you can and be thankful for each day.”
Katiyana looked at the faces of her new family and gave a brave smile. “I think I can do that.”
“Wonderful,” Cidra said, rising from the table. “We shall begin your education at once. Have you ever washed dishes?”
She slowly shook her head.
“Well, grab as many as you can and bring them over here,” she said, pointing at the long counter running along the back wall. At the end furthest from the fireplace was a deep pan. When the dirty dishes were all deposited, Cidra handed her two buckets and took two for herself. “Now we get the water.”
A strong running stream flowed past the hill that hid the hut and while it was not far, Katiyana was exhausted after the several trips to fill the barrel that stood just outside the door.
Cidra dumped the last bucket in and fitted the lid on, securing it with a large rock.
“What do you think so far?” she asked the breathless girl.
“I think it would not be so bad if my feet were not so sore.”
Cidra slapped her hand to her forehead. “Why did you not say something?” she asked, leading her back into the hut.
Under one of the little windows was a large, ornate trunk. Cidra lifted its lid and dug around for several moments before finally finding what she wanted. With a wry smile, she turned back to Katiyana with a pair of thick woolen socks and a pair of men’s boots. They looked worn but the black leather gleamed.
“They will be a bit big on you, maybe we can trade for smaller ones.”
But Katiyana refused as soon as she slipped them on. The socks were softer and cushier than any pair of stockings she had ever worn and the shoes themselves were supple but firm, cradling her aching feet. “No,” she breathed, “these are so much better than any of the shoes I have had before.”
Cidra laughed before beginning her lessons. An hour later, both girls finally flopped down in chairs at the table. “You do this every morning?” Katiyana asked, brushing her hair off her sweat dampened forehead.
“We do this after every meal,” Cidra said wryly. “Surely you did not think that dishes washed themselves or that tables and floored cleaned themselves?”
Katiyana flushed and looked down at her hands. “I suppose I never really thought about it, I never had to.”
“Fair enough. But from now on, you must think of everything. You must plan every minute of every day, you must make every one of your actions count for something.” She gave another small smile. “I know it sounds hard but you will do well.”
Adora and the nameless girl returned to the hut as Katiyana and Cidra were preparing tea. They heaved a large basket of greens onto the table and took turns washing their hands in the pan of water. “There is much to learn about the garden, we will start today with how to properly clean everything that comes out of it.”
Katiyana nodded bravely and prayed that did not involve hauling more water. As they sipped minty brew, she looked around the room and noticed many things she had not the night before. Shelves and cubby holes had been dug into the walls and held books and bowls and overflowing baskets. Propped next to a large wardrobe was a short, unstrung bow.
“Cidra,” she asked. “If you were hunting yesterday, why did you not take your bow?”
The girl sighed and glared over at the weapon. “Because it is impossible to use. We have all tried and cannot even get the arrows to shoot out of it, they just fall to the ground and the little line snaps our faces and arms.”
Katiyana giggled then quickly smother it when Cidra turned to glare at her. “I am sorry, it is just a funny picture in my head.” She got up from the table to inspect the bow. “Harmen taught me to use one a few years ago. I was not terrible but not very good either. Perhaps I can try.”
She remembered fondly the day Harmen had taken her to meet Jason of Aramore. Jason was a man of the woods and a famous bowman. He had reputedly slain dragons with nought but his bow and a fierce knife he wore at his side.
“My old friend!” Jason said, embracing Harmen tightly. Katiyana was struck by the familiarity between them.
“How have you been? I see you have a new student.” Jason said, referring to the young princess.
“I do, and she’s almost as good as you!” Harmen said, giving her a wink. They chuckled a bit, and Jason proceeded to give them both tips on how to hold and fire a bow. She’d always remember the last thing he told her.
“Remember, never let that arrow fly unless you really mean it,” he said very seriously. “Each arrow already has a path, it is only your job to deliver it.”