Aelindra Moonwhisper's Arc

Chapter 4 of 9

The boy came to the back door after dark. Aelindra had left it unlatched. She heard the hinge and found him standing on the mat with his shawl clutched at his throat, staring at the warm kitchen like it was a trap. She stepped back to give him room. He came in three careful steps and stopped. "You have people?" she asked. "No." "Parents?" "Dead." She set a bowl of soup on the counter and pointed to the stool. He climbed up and ate without speaking. The mossy oven ticked as it cooled. Her rain cloud hung by the window, watching the street through the glass. Aelindra sat across from the boy and watched him chew. She had been raised to marry well and produce heirs. She would do neither now. The wanting did not go away just because the plan had. She cleared her throat. "There's a room above the shop," she said. "It's yours. Not for tonight. For as long as you want it." The boy set the spoon down. He looked at her for a long moment. "Why." "Because I have it," she said. "And you don't." He nodded once and picked the spoon back up. The cloud made a small unhappy sound at the window but said nothing. She woke to voices. Gray light. She went to the front window in her robe and pulled the curtain an inch. The street was full. Not a mob. Worse. A quiet crowd, thirty or forty people, standing in a loose half circle around her door. A woman held up a baby. A man leaned on a crutch. They had brought coins in their hands. They had brought nothing. They were waiting. "Told you," the cloud said behind her. She was still deciding what to do when she heard the horses. Six of them, coming up the lane at a walk. The crowd parted without being asked. The council rode in a tight column, gray coats buttoned to the throat, the officer she had refused at the front. He did not look at the crowd. He looked at her door. He swung down and handed his reins to the rider behind him and crossed the last stretch of cobble on foot. The boy came down the stairs in his shawl and stopped on the bottom step when he saw her face. Aelindra opened the door before the officer could knock. She stepped out onto her own step in her blue robes with her bare scalp uncovered and the smell of bread behind her. The crowd went quiet. The officer stopped one pace short. "Aelindra Moonwhisper," he said, loud enough for the street. "You will come with us to answer for the practice of forbidden magic." She did not move. She said, "Let me lock my door." He nodded. She turned the key with the boy watching from the stairs and the cloud drifting down to hover at her shoulder, and she went with them.