Thornwyn Mossbrook's Arc

Chapter 35 of 38

The matron opened the door and did not step back. She looked at the elf tied to the chimera, at the girl gripping the antlers, at the piebald deer with dried blood on its shoulder, at Thornwyn's staff planted in the frost. Then she looked past them, toward the field. Thornwyn turned to look too. A knot of villagers stood at the far edge of the field, ten or twelve of them, close enough to see the blood on her coat. One pointed. Another ran back toward the smith's row. "Inside," the matron said. "All of it. The deer too." Thornwyn lifted the elf down. The matron took his weight without a word and carried him to a cot by the hearth. The girl slid off the chimera and followed, one hand still on the deer's flank. Thornwyn stayed in the doorway and watched the villagers gather. A woman in an apron. Two men with axes on their belts. A boy running. "They saw us cross," Thornwyn said. "They saw you cross a month ago too. Talk brought a butcher to your door then. Talk will bring worse now." The matron wiped her hands on her skirt. "You will speak to them before the sun is full up. Not me. You." Thornwyn took the signed paper from her coat. The lord's seal was pressed into the wax. She read the words once more to be sure of them, then walked back into the field with the staff in one hand and the paper in the other. The piebald deer came with her. It limped, but it came. Its long tail flicked once against her thigh. The villagers went quiet as she stopped ten paces from them. The woman in the apron folded her arms. One of the men rested his hand on his axe. "The eastern lord sent men against my house," Thornwyn said. She held up the paper. "He has signed off any claim on the child. His men have turned back. That is finished." "And the blood?" the woman said. "Mine. The elf's. The deer's. Not yours. Not the village's." The man with the axe stepped forward and looked at the deer. The deer looked back. He lowered his hand. "The girl is inside," Thornwyn said. "She is cold and she is thin. I am asking for a roof until the elf can stand. I am not asking for more." The woman took the paper. She read slowly, mouthing the words. She passed it to the man. He read it. He gave it back. "Market day is the third," the woman said. "Bring her. Let people see her fed." "I will." They turned and walked back toward the smith's row. The boy went with them. No one else came out of the houses. Thornwyn walked back to the matron's door. The deer walked at her hip. The frost was already melting off the sill.