Guest by Mary Downing Hahn

Author:Mary Downing Hahn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HMH Books

10

* * *

I OPENED MY EYES TO find myself lying on the mossy ground at the foot of the tallest stone in the circle. It towered over me like a robed figure from a dimly remembered story, dark and foreboding.

Guest squatted beside me, stroking my face with his cold hands. “Mollie, wake up, wake up,” he begged.

Aidan stared down at us. “On your feet,” he said. “This is no place to linger.”

Without any help from Aidan, I struggled to stand. My legs ached with fatigue, and I was weak and dizzy. The Kinde Folke had gone and taken Thomas with them, leaving no trace of themselves behind.

Clinging to Guest’s hand to steady myself, I followed Aidan slowly down the hill, trying not to slip on the damp, mossy stones. How long had I lain unconscious? Was it dusk or dawn? It was impossible to tell. The gray light and misty rain cast a perpetual twilight in the woods.

Once we were on the path, Aidan found shelter in a shallow cave and set about making a fire. Guest and I huddled together and watched the flames sputter on the wet wood.

“What should I do now?” I asked.

Aidan didn’t bother to look at me. Frowning into the fire, he said, “You heard what she said. Go home. Your brother’s not of a mind to leave the Kinde Folke. The longer we stay here, the more the danger.”

Aidan laid two potatoes on the fire.

“You need to roast another,” I said. “There’s three of us.”

“I count two. Me and you.”

“You’ve left out Guest.”

“Why should I cook for him?”

Taking a third potato from the sack, I laid it beside the other two. I half expected Aidan to remove Guest’s potato, but he left it where I’d put it.

After we’d eaten our potatoes and what was left of the apples, cheese, and bread, I heard a noise in the dark beyond the firelight. Alarmed, I looked at Aidan, but he was already on his feet.

“Where have you been?” he shouted. “The Kinde Folke near killed us all.”

Madog stepped out of the woods. “I didn’t know how close you were to the stones. It’s glad I am to see all of you unharmed.”

With a smile at Guest and me, he turned to Aidan, and the two spoke together in low voices.

Madog shook his head, frowned, and then sat down beside me. “Aidan tells me you were less than courteous to Her Royal Kindeness. Why must you speak your mind without giving a thought to what you say? If the queen hated you before she met you, she hates you even more now.”

Aidan glanced at me. “I doubt anyone has ever spoken to the queen as that saucepot did. Someone should stuff a rag in her mouth. She’s made things worse for us all.”

“What did you do to help?” I asked. “Nothing, nothing at all. You stood there and watched, even after she hit you. You don’t care what happens to Thomas or me or anyone else.”

“And why should I care? Your brother can stay or go, it’s all the same to me.

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