Dave Luckett by The Girl the Apprentice & the Dogs of Iron

Author:The Girl the Apprentice & the Dogs of Iron [Apprentice, The Girl the & Iron, the Dogs of]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Rhianna stood and watched Magister Northstar’s face. She tried to watch her father’s, and her mother’s, as well. She could not see Eriseth, who stood behind her, but she knew that her face, too, was lined with sorrow, and that her tears also fell. Rhianna wished that she could simply stare at the kitchen floor, the way she used to do, but she knew that now it would only make matters worse, if that were possible.

In fact, she wished that she were miles away, and that she could take back what had happened, but she knew that was something beyond her power. Even the Wild Magic couldn’t call deeds back again and unmake the past. So she stood and watched them, and the fat, hot tears slid down her cheeks, and neither she nor the others took much notice of them. They all knew that this was one of those things that was so horrible and so enormous that it didn’t much matter how sorry you were afterwards.

“How did you do it, Rhianna?” asked her Master. Her parents just looked at her, their eyes full of worry and sorrow. And there was pain, also, in her father’s face. The cut was worse, hot and dark, and it kept weeping blood, not healing.

Rhianna shook her head, and the tears trickled faster. She smeared them with the back of her hand. Her mother passed her a handkerchief. They were still watching her, and she had to answer. “I was so angry at her. I had to do something. I had to show her that I could do things she couldn’t.” She heard her own voice, almost with disbelief, and Eriseth drawing a long, ragged breath behind her.

Magister Northstar pushed the words away with a gesture. “Child, child, we can all do things others can’t. And others can do things we can’t. That’s part of not being all the same. But that’s not what I asked you. I know you were angry, and I think I know why, and that it’s my fault, or partly.”

“And mine,” put in Eriseth. “I had taken her rightful place, and I taunted her about it. I… I just envied her so much.”

Rhianna looked at her in disbelief. “Envied me? Me? How? Why? What could you want…”

“You have so much. Magic, yes, but more… people who love you, and will go on loving you no matter what you do. I have no magic, and my Home Grove, well, they said I shouldn’t live there if I had none.

Arwenna was good to me, and tried to find me a different craft, but still.” She paused, and her face showed the strain. “We… the Eldra do not live as you do, in families, in settled houses. We move and we live for ourselves alone. Children are rare among us, for we live long lives. A man and a woman will stay together as long as a child needs both to feed it, but will go their own ways afterwards.

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