Mira's Way by Amy Maroney

Author:Amy Maroney
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780997521337
Publisher: Artelan Press
Published: 2018-06-14T12:45:22+00:00

In the kitchens she placed a glob of honey and a smear of pulverized herbs in a ceramic cup, then poured boiling water over it. There, that should do the trick, she thought, carrying the cup through the silent corridors to Brother Arros’s chambers.

One candle burned on a table next to his bed. Elena placed the cup on the table and rummaged in a small wooden trunk for a blanket, then tucked it around him. She perched on the edge of his bed and reached for the cup.

“Sit up and take a drink.”

He scrabbled and clawed until he was in a sitting position. His hand collided with the cup and liquid sloshed over the rim, burning her arm. She sucked in her breath at the searing pain.

“Oh, my child,” he cried. “What have I done?”

“Drink,” she said curtly. “I’m fine. It was not so hot.”

He gingerly slurped some of the brew. “Not so hot? I’ve peeled the skin off my tongue,” he grumbled.

“You exaggerate.”

He drank again, his eyes on Elena’s arm.

“That is where you were burned as a child.”

“Yes.” She carefully returned the cup to the table and rolled back her sleeve. The silvery ridges of her old scar now had a pinkish cast from the new burn. “I’ve Ramón de Oto to thank for this.”

“Why did he do it?”

“Because he was a cruel boy, just like his father before him.”

Elena stared unseeing into the tiny flame shuddering atop the candle.

“If I had known the Otos would return to Belarac I never would have sent you there,” Brother Arros said sadly. “I thought you would be safe across the mountains. I tried to protect you from your mother’s fate.”

“I know.”

“The Otos had not honored their duty as patrons of Belarac for a generation,” he went on. “I thought—we all thought—they would never set foot in the place again.”

Elena blew on her arm, turning it over in the candlelight. The pain was diminishing a bit.

“Did he attack you?” Brother Arros had never pressed her for details about the incident. She wondered why he did now.

“Ramón?” She shook her head. The memories came racing back like a pack of yellow-eyed wolves snarling inside her skull, converging on her mind from all directions. “Not with his hands. With words. He came upon me in the kitchens, chopping vegetables for a dish that was meant to serve his parents. They were off with the abbess, getting a tour of the place. He wandered in, spied me. Called me a stupid waif, ordered me to make him a stew right then. I did my best to drag a kettle of water into the hearth to heat. But then he said the vegetables had to go in before the water, ordered me to start again. I grabbed the handle of the kettle not thinking of how hot it’d be. The water went everywhere. My arm got the worst of it.”

“What did he do?”

“He watched me scream. Laughed at my pain. When the cook came in he told her I’d been stealing food.

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