“Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”
“Mm… Kayla, stop it,” Iris muttered, rolling over and burying her face in her pillow.
“You’re going to miss lunch!” Kayla jumped on the mattress with each word, her feet thudding against the floor below.
Iris made a mental note to remind Fred about re-stuffing the mattresses. “Lunch?” She rolled onto her back and yawned. “What time is it?”
“Noon!” Kayla landed on her hands and knees to peer into Iris’ face. “Come on, wake up!”
Iris sat up, yawning again and rubbing her eyes. “Noon? Why didn’t anybody wake me up for church?”
“Father John said to let you sleep.” The exuberant five-year-old hopped off the mattress and onto the floor, then grabbed Iris’ hand and pulled with all her strength. Iris didn’t budge. “Come on!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming. I have to get dressed first.”
Kayla released Iris’ hand and crossed her little arms over her chest, huffing impatiently. Iris turned away as she pulled her nightgown off, partly for some semblance of privacy, partly to hide her smile. But Kayla didn’t understand privacy yet. She walked right up to Iris when the older girl reached for her dress, her blue eyes fixed on Iris’ right wrist.
“What’s that?”
“Oh… that.” Iris pulled her dress on quickly, tugging her sleeve down to hide the ring of purple bruises wrapping around her wrist from the soldier’s grip. “It’s nothing. Where’s the hairbrush?”
“Can I do it?”
Iris didn’t hide her smile this time. “Yes, you may do it.”
She sat on the mattress, and Kayla climbed up behind her, yanking the brush happily through Iris’ tangled hair. It hurt, but Iris kept quiet. The sight of the bruises had brought the events of last night to mind, and they replayed in her mind, over and over. She had hoped it was all a nightmare. The marks proved otherwise. And the wooden ladle beside the bed…
“We’ll have to stop by the inn before we go to the river,” she told Kayla.
“Yay!”
Kayla dropped the hairbrush and bounced back to the floor, clapping her hands and forgetting all about Iris’ hair. She danced around the basement as Iris finished brushing her hair. Mr. and Mrs. Tumes spoiled Kayla. Everybody spoiled her. It was hard not to when she was just so adorable.
Iris set the hairbrush down and tied her brown hair back with a tattered ribbon. “Okay, let’s eat.”
Kayla skipped and twirled ahead of her to the stairs, and Iris followed with much less enthusiasm. She knew she’d have to talk to Father John after lunch. And the stranger’s weird questions from last night were running through her head.
You’re going to the river tomorrow, right? What time?
Why had he wanted to know that?
“Happy birthday!”
Iris almost lost her balance and fell back down the stairs. Father John, Fred, Ginger, and Kayla were all waiting at the top of the stairs, shouting the words in unison.
“It’s not my birthday,” she protested, blushing. “Not until tomorrow.”
“You’ll be working tomorrow.” Ginger’s wide smile squished her freckled cheeks and made her green eyes twinkle. “So we’re celebrating today.”
“Besides, who says it’s not your birthday?” Fred asked, matching his twin’s expression. “Your found day is tomorrow, but maybe your birthday really is today.”
“Come on, let’s eat while the food’s hot,” Father John interjected brusquely.
Kayla took Iris’ hand, and this time Iris allowed the little girl to drag her into the kitchen, where they’d set the table with eggs, pancakes, and bacon, all steaming hot and ready to eat.
“My favorites! You really shouldn’t have. Thank you, everyone.”
“Thank Mr. and Mrs. Tumes.” Father John smiled at her, his blue eyes sparkling. “They brought the food this morning to make up for last night.”
“Oh.” Iris took her seat, keeping her gaze on her plate.
They had already overpaid her; the food was unnecessary. And they had talked to Father John, too. So why was he in such a good mood?
She couldn’t ask over lunch, not without letting the younger children know something bad had happened to her, and Father John didn’t drop any hints, either. Kayla dominated the conversation with her lively chatter while Fred and Ginger finished each other’s sentences, creating the usual light-hearted atmosphere Iris expected from all the meals she had shared at this table with her cobbled-together family. She wondered if the older kids had ever faked a smile to hide something troubling from her when she was the younger one. It came easily enough to her now. She had to learn it somewhere.
Fred and Ginger finally started clearing the table. Father John beckoned to Iris, and she followed him into the sanctuary, down the aisle to the front pew where they always had their private discussions. He sat and patted the seat beside him. She joined him, looking straight ahead at the organ behind the altar, its brass pipes extending all the way to the top of the vaulted ceiling. Iris had tried to learn how to play it when she was the youngest orphan, but she never could get the knack for it. Nobody had taught Ginger. It was like she was one with the instrument, right from the first time she touched the keys.
She must have been more exhausted than she realized if she hadn’t heard Ginger playing during the service.
“Eighteen years since you came here,” Father John said with a sigh.
Iris nodded. She’d heard the story before, many times. It wasn’t an unusual story for an orphan. Father John had opened the front doors of the church and found her in a basket on the steps, a note pinned to her blanket with her name and an apology. That was all.
“Which means you’re about nineteen years old. It’s high time you got married, young lady.”
She smiled at him. “As if it’s that easy.”
He chuckled. “Just do me a favor and don’t marry that Darius boy. He may be nice, but he doesn’t have a lick of sense.”
She blushed and dropped her gaze to her lap. “There’s not much point in thinking about marriage right now, anyway, if war really is coming.”
“God help us all if it does,” he muttered, a sigh punctuating his wish and prayer.
His gaze grew vacant. Iris waited, knowing he’d struck upon a memory or a deep thought he’d use in his next sermon. It was only a moment before he refocused on her, speaking again with a renewed optimism.
“But we’re celebrating your birthday today, and I think it’s time to give you this.”
She watched curiously as he reached into his cassock for an inner pocket. He mumbled something under his breath, rummaging around, and switched hands to check the other pocket. Then his eyes lit up, and he withdrew a necklace, dangling it in front of her.
“Oh, you shouldn’t have.” She took it from him carefully. It wasn’t really much to look at, with its plain brass chain and small, circular glass stone, but it was the first piece of jewelry she’d ever owned.
“I probably shouldn’t have kept it from you for so long.”
She looked up at him again. “What do you mean?”
There was something complicated about his expression, a blend of tension in the fine lines around his blue eyes and fondness in his soft smile. “It was left with you in the basket. The day I found you.”
She looked down at the necklace again, letting the chain fall over one hand as she fingered the simple glass stone with the other. “Oh.”
“And it’s magical.”
She suddenly dropped it like it burned. The chain pooled around the stone on her lap. “Magical?” she whispered, looking up at him nervously.
“Now, Iris, you know magic isn’t intrinsically bad.” He picked up the chain and studied the glass stone. “It’s a powerful tool, one that can be used for good or for evil. And you,” he continued, undoing the clasp and draping the necklace around her neck, “will use it appropriately.”
Her heart pounded frantically as he clasped it behind her. She looked down at the glass stone resting on the faded blue cloth of her dress, and she didn’t want it there. “But—I don’t know anything about magic, or how to use it, or—or anything.”
“Then it will just be a pretty necklace for a pretty young lady. Now, about last night.”
Her heart sank. She reached up behind her to pull her hair out from under the chain, allowing the metal to relax and lower the glass stone further down her dress, and then she plucked at her collar and dropped the necklace behind the fabric. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Tumes told me all about it, and it wasn’t your fault.”
Father John rested a gentle, reassuring hand on her shoulder as she rearranged her collar to cover the chain. She couldn’t meet his eyes. She didn’t know why she was hiding the necklace; it just felt like she should.
“But you won’t let me work there anymore.”
“I haven’t decided yet.” He squeezed her shoulder lightly. “But that isn’t for you to worry about today. If Kayla is to be believed, you’re supposed to spend the rest of the day with her.”
Iris smiled at the mention of Kayla. “Yes, I am.”
“Well, go on, then.”
She leaned over and gave him a hug. “Thanks for everything.”
“Thank you, Iris. Now, go enjoy your day off.”
“I will.”
Hurried little footsteps echoed through the quiet sanctuary as she stood. She cast another glance at the silent organ.
“Iris!” Kayla exclaimed, running up and grabbing her hand. “Let’s go!”
“Okay, I’m coming. Be back later,” she called over her shoulder to Father John.
Kayla ran with her to the front door, and there Iris stopped. The sky was heavy with dark clouds. “Kayla, we can’t—”
Go even if it rains.
Her words died in her throat as his words echoed in her mind. Why had he said that? What was so important about her going to the river today?
“But you promised,” Kayla pouted, drawing Iris out of her thoughts.
Iris bit her lip, unsure of what to do. “We’d better grab our coats first.”
“Okay!”
Kayla dragged her back inside and down to the basement, where Iris spotted the ladle when she grabbed their coats. She picked that up, too, and added with false cheer, “And we can’t forget to stop by the inn.”
“Yay!”
It was hard not to smile when she was with Kayla. Gray skies and mysterious words notwithstanding, they were soon laughing as they skipped down Main Street. Yes, skipped. Kayla wanted to skip, so skip they did, holding hands and trying to coordinate their movements so they didn’t look quite so much like popcorn. It didn’t work. Their cheeks were red and they were both breathless when they walked into the inn.
“Iris! And is that Kayla?” Mr. Tumes called from behind the bar, a wide grin spreading across his round face. The tavern was mostly empty this time of day, with only a couple of regulars there.
The seat beside the fireplace was empty, Iris noticed.
“Yep!” Kayla tugged Iris over to the bar, and Iris tore her eyes away from the vacant seat to lift the little girl onto a barstool.
“You look a bit too young for ale,” Mr. Tumes’ gray eyes twinkled as he scratched his chin. “What would you say to whiskey?”
“No,” Kayla replied, giggling.
Iris rounded the bar and slipped into the kitchen, leaving Mr. Tumes to watch Kayla. Mrs. Tumes was busy over the sink, finishing dishes from lunch.
“Hello, Mrs. Tumes. Here’s your ladle.”
“Just drop it in the water there, that’s a dear,” Mrs. Tumes said, flashing her a smile.
“And I wanted to thank you for the food. You really didn’t have to do that.”
“Oh, it was nothing. Tisn’t as if anybody went without today. A couple of guests checked out last night and this morning.”
“Really?” Saturday night and Sunday morning weren’t typical check-out times.
Mrs. Tumes shrugged. “It isn’t my place to say, but good riddance. I don’t care much for mages or people who won’t tell me their names.”
The mage and the stranger. Something cold and heavy settled in the pit of Iris’ stomach.
You’re going to the river tomorrow, right?
Should she go to the river? Could she trust him? He’d pulled her out of that bar fight, but his reaction when she’d sensed the mage’s magic had been rather frightening. And yet he’d waited to walk her home. If he’d meant her any harm, surely he would have done something by now. He had plenty of opportunities.
“Well, I’ll be off,” she decided. “I promised Kayla we’d go to the river today.”
“Today?” Mrs. Tumes cast her a disapproving frown. “It’s going to rain buckets anytime.”
Iris pasted a smile onto her face. “Don’t worry. We’ll come back at the first drop of rain. Bye!”
She left the kitchen before Mrs. Tumes could talk her out of it. Kayla was lying on the bar top, giggling hysterically as Mr. Tumes tickled her.
“Come on, Kayla. If we don’t want to get rained on, we need to go now.”
Kayla was all too eager to go, oblivious to the anxiety eating at Iris' insides.
This wasn’t a good idea. Iris knew this wasn’t a good idea, even as she walked hand in hand with Kayla back to the church, then left Main Street to cut across the grass west of town toward the forest under a darkening sky. A little further south, the soldiers’ tents swayed in the rising wind. Kayla was chattering on excitedly about something Mr. Tumes told her, and Iris led her onto the familiar path through the trees, only half listening.
The weight in her stomach was getting heavier. Something was off. Something was wrong. They should go back. They shouldn’t go to the river today.
You’re going to the river tomorrow, right? Go even if it rains.
The trees broke open, revealing a wide clearing next to the slow-moving river. Kayla plopped down on the bank and Iris sat next to her.
“I guess we can’t name the clouds today, huh?” Kayla asked, tilting her head back to look up at the singular mass of gray above them. One of her favorite games was saying what the individual fluffy, white clouds looked like and then giving them names.
“Not today,” Iris agreed.
“Unless we come up with one big name.” Kayla fell back onto the grass, her blonde curls spreading across the blanket of green as she pursed her lips in thought.
Iris lay next to her. “Like what?”
“Hm.” The little girl fell silent, pondering the question.
A name was the furthest thing from Iris’ mind as she stared up at the swirling shades of gray, lighter in some places, darker in others. The wind blew the grass flat around her and rustled the leaves in the swaying trees, whispering the stranger’s words to her again.
Don’t. Don’t tell anyone about me. Got it?
What was that supposed to mean? He wasn’t invisible. Others around town saw him. He rented a room from Mr. and Mrs. Tumes.
He hadn’t given them his name, either.
Why was it so important for her to go to the river today? At this time?
Was she putting Kayla in danger?34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡy0c4AoTjyQ
