Thornwyn Mossbrook's Arc

Chapter 2 of 38

The door shut behind Thornwyn and the noise of the lane fell away. The hall smelled of porridge and wet wool. The matron wiped her hands on her apron and looked Thornwyn up and down once, quick, like a woman pricing cloth. "You want a child," she said. "I've eleven. Most won't suit a woman who lives alone in trees." "I know," Thornwyn said. Her staff felt too tall for the low ceiling. She lowered it and held it close. The matron led her down a corridor. Doors stood open on either side. Thornwyn glanced into each one and her chest tightened. A boy in the first room was building a tower of spoons and knocking it down, laughing too loud. Two girls in the second whispered and stopped when she passed. A small child in the third clung to an older one's leg and would not look up. She had come thinking she would know. She did not know. Any wrong choice would put a frightened child in a cottage a mile from any other voice. She thought of her own quiet mornings and felt sick. "Show me the ones no one asks about," she said. The matron stopped. She studied Thornwyn for a long moment. Then she turned and walked to the end of the corridor and opened a narrow door. A girl sat on the floor by the window. Elven. Maybe seven. Her hair was cut short and uneven, like she had done it herself with a knife. She was feeding crumbs to a sparrow on the sill. The sparrow did not fly when the door opened. The girl did not turn. "She doesn't speak," the matron said, low. "Not since she came. A year now. Families look at her and pick another. She won't sit at the table with the rest." Thornwyn stepped in slow. She knelt at the doorway, staff across her knees. The sparrow watched her. So did the girl, sideways, without turning her head. Thornwyn set a piece of dry oat cake from her pocket on the floor. She did not push it forward. She waited. The sparrow flew to it first. Then the girl crawled two steps and picked up the crumb the sparrow left and put it in her own mouth. Thornwyn's throat hurt. "There's a deer on the step outside," she said. "And a crow. They came with me. Would you like to see them?" The girl looked at her full-on for the first time. She nodded once. Thornwyn stood and held out her hand. The girl did not take it, but she stood too, and walked to the door on her own feet. The matron watched them pass. "You'll need to sign," she said. "And come back tomorrow. There are papers." "I'll come back," Thornwyn said. The girl was already looking toward the front door.