When Women Were Warriors Book III: A Hero's Tale by Catherine M. Wilson

Author:Catherine M. Wilson [Wilson, Catherine M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Historical, Fantasy, Epic
ISBN: 9780981563633
Google: di31LAAACAAJ
Amazon: 0981563635
Publisher: Shield Maiden Press
Published: 2008-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

80. Freedom

I must have slept for hours. There was nothing else to do. At last I heard footsteps in the hall. They stopped outside my door. The bolt slid back, the door opened, and a young woman came in. I thought of pushing past her and making my escape, until I saw the guard, who had followed her and now stood blocking up the doorway. In one hand he held a lamp. Its light revealed the woman's face. I remembered having seen her in the kitchen.

She was carrying a tankard and a plate. "I've brought you some breakfast," she said.

My hands reached out for the tankard before I was aware of being thirsty. I took a long drink. It was not ale, but water, cold and sparkling.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You must be starving." She set the plate down beside me. "In all the confusion no one remembered."

It was a feast of bread and cheese. I fell upon it as if it had been days since I'd had a bite to eat.

The woman turned to the guard and said, "I'll wait until he's done."

The guard handed her the lamp, and without a word he shut and barred the door. I heard his footsteps echo down the hallway.

The woman sat down beside me on the floor.

"Did you really steal it?" she whispered, as if we might still be overheard.

"What?"

"The knife."

She sounded like she thought the theft was something to be admired.

"No," I said between bites. "I didn't."

"You don't have to lie to me," she said. "That was just the bravest thing!"

"It was?"

"I thought I'd never seen any folk as arrogant as the mighty, but these so-called guests of theirs are worse!"

Clearly she expected my sympathy. I had to nod my understanding, because my mouth was busy eating.

"You're new here, aren't you?"

I nodded again.

"Are you a slave?"

I shook my head.

"You took an awful chance. What are they going to do with you?"

I shrugged my shoulders.

"Oh," she said, "I wish I could let you out of here. The last boy they caught stealing, they beat the daylights out of him." She gazed at me with sympathy. "I'd hate to see them hurt you. Maybe with the war and all, they'll forget."

She spoke of the war as if it were no concern of hers.

"Aren't you afraid of what may happen?" I asked her.

She didn't understand me.

"What if the mighty lose? What if the enemy wins?"

"Oh, nobody ever wins or loses," she said. "Nothing changes here. I wish it would."

While I ate, she chattered on, about the mighty and their doings, which seemed to have little to do with the life of the common folk other than to provide them with work to do and something to gossip about. It was almost as if the two peoples dwelt in different worlds, though they shared the place they lived in.

When my plate was empty, she took it from me and set it aside.

"Are you feeling better?" she asked.

I nodded and remembered to thank her for thinking of me.

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