The Silver Gate by Kristin Bailey

Author:Kristin Bailey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-11-12T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Elric

THEIR PATH LED NORTH, AND it was as good as any at the moment as long as it led them far away from the village. The last thing they needed was more trouble. Wynn skipped along the path, gathering the new buds of early spring wildflowers. “Wynn, stay behind me,” Elric groused. “You don’t know the way.”

Her smile faded, and with hunched shoulders, she fell into step behind him.

With her eyes narrowed, she crossed her arms. He marched forward and Wynn kicked up leaves behind him. At least she was walking in peace through the woods without her incessant singing.

He could hear himself think, and also hear if any trouble was coming.

They walked the full day and she hardly said a word.

Mildred was also unnaturally quiet as she hunted bugs in the new spring shoots pushing up through the thick layer of dried grasses. Every time the hen passed by him, she stared at him through one red-and-gold pupil. She was thinking about pecking him, he knew it. Sure enough, she jabbed her beak at his toe every chance she got.

The second day was silent as well. While they managed to travel several miles, by the end of the evening, Elric was feeling half mad. He was used to going for days on end without anyone to speak to while tending the sheep, but this was different.

It was strange to have someone following only steps behind him without saying a word. It was unnatural, especially for Wynn, and it made him uncomfortable. As evening fell, he tried talking with Mildred, just to hear a voice even if it was only his own. The hen seemed intent upon ignoring him completely too.

On the third day, after hiking through steadily rising hills all afternoon, and as the sun was beginning to set, he finally broke.

“Wynn, I had to cut your hair. Remember when we passed that shepherd? He just waved at us without even looking at you. The disguise is working, so you have no right to be angry with me anymore.” Elric let his sack fall to the ground in a cluster of old oak trees. Their branches twisted and tangled like black snakes trying to slither into a red-and-orange sky. He turned to Wynn. She just gently let her sack down and lifted Mildred out of it, so the hen could scratch through the leaves.

But she still didn’t say anything.

“Fine, I’ll keep ignoring you then,” Elric said. “See if it makes any difference to me.” He pulled out the small pot and the wooden spoon, then took up the ax and eyed the trees for a broken limb that might be dry enough to cut for a fire.

The pot clanked behind him.

Elric turned around, and Wynn was holding the wooden spoon.

He rushed back toward her. “Don’t touch that!”

She immediately pulled the spoon in toward her chest and twisted away from him, cowering as if he were about to strike her.

He realized he was holding the ax.

Slowly Elric dropped it to the soft ground.

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