The Wealding Word (28 page)
Authors: A C Gogolski
Nell ducked her head. The sorceress had handed her more than enough to think about, and it was time to go. “I understand,” she said, and then opened the door, finally ready for sleep.
Just before it clicked shut, Lady Zel began speaking again. “
But…”
she said, “That is not to say I bestowed the Wealding Word upon you accidentally.”
Nell appeared at the door again. Her face was open, her heart aching for something she could not put words on.
The sorceress mused, “It’s true, the conditions were not ideal at the time, but when I saw you on the drawbridge one year ago, I saw your heart. A person who loves the weald as you do may someday come to understand the word compassion. It’s something only the world can teach. This was my hope, when I awakened the Wealding Word in you. Everything else was a gamble made on that initial feeling. I am glad, so far, at all the rest.” Smoothing her floor-length hair, she peered down at the girl in the doorway. “Now, goodnight Nell.”
After the ordeal with Rhiannon, Lady Zel wished for Nell to spend a week with her family; and intended to set out early the next day, in order to escort Nell back to the cottage beneath the leaning oaks. Over breakfast the sorceress persuaded Evelyn to join them as well. The girl begrudgingly agreed – but only after Lady Zel promised to use a spell that would make the distance speed by. Before they left the shadow of the tower however, Evelyn was claiming exhaustion. What’s more, she wouldn’t enter the trees when they came to the forest boundary. “
You didn’t tell me
we were going through the weald! I can’t go in there, it’s full of wolves and bears!”
The peacocks of the tower strode past as Nell sat on a rock, listening to Evelyn argue with the sorceress. For someone who was ensorcelled into obedience for the whole of her life, Evelyn had an astounding gift for dispute. After what seemed like half the morning, Nell finally interrupted. “She doesn’t want to come. Why can’t we just leave her here?” She tried not to sound irritated, but she wanted badly to see her family, and Evelyn’s whining seemed a useless delay.
By now, however, Lady Zel was determined that Evelyn would accompany them. “No! Groundless fears are something that must be seen through. Wolves and bears indeed!”
After several more arguments, copious tears, and the promise of new clothes, the group started down the forest path. Along the
way, Evelyn poured forth a relentless stream of complaints. Water leaked through her second-hand boots, her fingers were numb with cold, and she was going to catch a fever from the boggy woods. To Nell’s dismay, the quibbles didn’t stop when they reached the village. “What a dirty slum!” Evelyn said. “Don’t these people know you’re supposed to keep animals in a barn, not your home?” And when they finally reached Nell’s cottage, she sniffed in disappointment. “
This
is where you live? Your house is smaller than my bedroom.”
“At least it’s real.”
Lady Zel frowned at both of them. “
Girls
,” she warned.
Danielle and Chase welcomed Nell as though she were Queen Pharisij herself. Nell’s mother begged Lady Zel to stay for tea. “We love meeting Nell’s friends,” she said to Evelyn. “I hope you’ll be staying the week with us too.”
For a moment of terror, Nell thought this might have been Lady Zel’s plan all along. She swallowed hard, gaping at her teacher. “My apologies, but she cannot,” the sorceress said. Nell breathed an audible sigh.
Lady Zel continued, “Evelyn will be staying with me. I must take her to be fitted for some new clothes – and shoes.” She looked to Nell’s father. “Mr. Shoemaker, perhaps you might measure her and have a pair of sturdy boots ready for when we return.”
“With pleasure,” the man replied. In a moment he was back with his tools. “I have a soft bit of hide I’ve been saving for something special. It will make excellent boots for a pretty young lady.” Evelyn scowled at Chase, and Nell hated her for it.
Lexi tried to make conversation with Evelyn, who she thought was nearer her own age. “Are you from higher on the hill?” she asked, assuming the girl was born into wealth. Evelyn scanned the ceiling as though she didn’t hear. Nell’s sister looked confused for only a moment, and then smiled a dragonish grin – no one could slight her and get away with it. “I guess your friend is fat
and
mute,”
she whispered loudly to Nell. Her words kindled a dangerous glint in Evelyn’s eyes.
Across the room Rapunzel was saying: “With your permission, I would like for Nell to remain with me for the foreseeable future. She still has… her unresolved issue. By keeping her safe at my tower, you are kept safe as well.” Chase and Danielle nodded gravely, as though listening to some inscrutable prognosis. Bad luck might strike their daughter at any time, and the witch could fix it. That was the extent of their understanding, and it was enough. Ignorance and superstition made the family agreeable to anything Lady Zel might propose.
As the conversation moved on, Evelyn distanced herself from Lexi. She began nosing about the cottage, opening cabinets and doors impudently. She lifted a black iron poker to test its weight, peered in a kettle, frowned at a pair of mice in the rafters, and pulled at a piece of plaster peeling from the wall. It snapped off in a strip the length of her arm, leaving bare fieldstone and mortar showing through the hole. Now there was something else for Chase to fix.
Evelyn’s one moment of approval came when she saw Sola. “You have a cat! I miss my kiddies.” Sola was dozing next to the fireplace, her furry belly rising and falling. In an instant, Evelyn scooped her up and was squeezing the life from her. The cat wriggled free like a wet fish, leaping in the direction of Nell’s bedroom. “Oh, come back!” Evelyn moaned.
The sight of the girl’s disappointment made the Shoemaker sisters exchange grins. “Not even Sola likes your friend,” Lexi said to Nell, this time in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
Lady Zel cut short Evelyn’s angry retort. “If you have the measurements you need, we will be off,” she said. Chase assured the sorceress the boots would be ready in a few days, and Lady Zel gave a satisfied nod. Shoeing Evelyn out the door, the sorceress told Nell, “I will return one week from today. Please be packed and prepared
for spending the winter with me. Stay on guard and keep out of the weald while you are here at home.” She glanced up at the great canopy of trees looming over the cottage, and then peered down the road. “Something is afoot, and you will be safer near your family.”
Over the next few days, Nell honored the sorceress’ caution about the forest. She lingered at the window watching the trees sway in the autumn gusts, but the days passed easily enough. Her father had accidentally smashed his thumb while hammering the soles of Evelyn’s boots, so he spent much of the week finishing them at home in the company of his daughters. “No real need for me to be in the stall this week. Business is better than ever, thanks to you,” he smiled at Nell.
Lexi took up her father’s praise of Nell. “You’re the talk of the town. It started two months ago when somebody offered me ten pence just to see you. Of course, you weren’t here, but I took his coin and showed him where the vines grew over the house.”
Nell gaped at the news. “Ten pence, just to see me?”
Indeed, word of King Reginald’s proclamation had spread quickly, and with unexpected results for the family. Everyone in the village knew that Nell was a harvestmaiden, and anyone who had ever put a seed in the ground sought to profit from her power. Farmers from far and wide had started dropping by to hear if the stories were true – stories about the girl who could make the plants grow. Given Nell’s age, most reasoned the best way to secure her blessing was through the good graces of her father. Consequently, there was no shortage of business for Chase Shoemaker. Poor growers asked for simple repairs on their wooden soles, though many could have fixed them themselves, while well-to-do landowners had their attendants place orders for fine footwear. Of course, not everyone wanted new shoes. Some simply came to barter for her time. Weathered men with big hats came bearing chickens, some brought supple leather or bright cloth, others left small purses of tobacco or coins. Always
they reminded Chase where they lived, and how obliged they’d be to see his daughter when the weather changed. None of the visitors ever mentioned Nell’s “curse,” nor concerned themselves with the king’s disapproval.
It was on the fourth day that their neighbor Mr. Gall stopped by looking for Nell. He knocked upon their door, showing his teeth and smelling like a burned fleece. With his good hand he held a small red bag secured with a drawstring. “A gift for the harvestmaiden herself,” he said. Its contents clicked when he shook it, as though it were filled with glass marbles. “It’s a
Trigoria
, for seeing the future. The answer to any question you can think of is in these thirty-odd tiles – if you know how to read them.” His voice had a strange echo to it, like he was speaking through a hollow tree, but Nell was too interested in the gift to take note.
With his maimed right hand, Gall clasped the bag between his palm and thumb. “I hope you’ll see that my own crop does well this year,” he said, but he didn’t seem that interested in whether she would bless his field or not. He managed to release the knot using his other hand and his front teeth. Once it was opened, he gave Nell a yellow grin and shoved the bag at her face. “Take one.” Hesitantly, she reached in, running her fingers through the tiles and making them click. The man looked on impatiently. “Go on, take one,” he goaded.
She pulled one out at random: it was rather light, chipped at the corner, and as long as her index finger. Onyx on one side, the other showed a simple rendering of a woman stepping into a boat. Three yellow stars crowned her head.
“Of course, you’ll need to find someone who can teach you to do readings.” Gall leaned close to observe which tile it was that Nell drew. When he saw it, a frown crossed his features. “My old mum used to see much in the tiles, but she’s in no condition for reading them now. Still, I can give you the basics. There’s money to be made from it if you do it right.”
From the kitchen Lexi piped, “You should learn how, Nell. Then you could tell me who I’ll marry.”
Nell shook her head, suddenly suspicious of the man. “No,” she said, “It’s okay.”
Gall edged closer. His voice suddenly reminded her of the visitor she had the night the animal tracks appeared on her rooftop. “You’ve had strange dreams, yes? The tiles can help you understand the things that come to you in the dead of night.” The wormy grin slipped, and his eyes narrowed. Nell gripped the painted stone tile, taking a quick step backward. How did he know?
It was then that Rawley lumbered into the room a few steps in front of Chase. Immediately the dog began to growl, stalking forward with his tail straight back. Rawley’s sudden threat surprised Gall so much that he dropped the Trigoria. The bag clattered to the floor, scattering painted tiles at Nell’s feet.
Nell’s father held no love for Mr. Gall, and moved to stand over his younger daughter. “What are you doing here?” he demanded. Clearly the herder was not welcome.
Gall already had his hand on the door handle. “Well, I must be getting along then. I hope those tiles bring you
luck.”
He nodded to Nell and Mr. Shoemaker, and then hurried from the cottage with Rawley snarling at his heels.
“Rawley, you know old man Gall. He won’t hurt you,” Nell said. Something about him made Nell nervous though. Rawley had felt it too. Despite her words, Nell sensed she really didn’t know Mr. Gall at all.
Her father seemed unwilling to discuss the man from down the road, and today was no exception. When Nell asked, Chase said only, “He’s no good, and I don’t like him in my house.”
The next day, Nell heard Lexi talking loudly to another stranger at the door. “No, old man, Nell isn’t here today and neither is my father…
I don’t know
when they’ll be back. Just go away!”
Nell saw a wizened fellow with a sparse gray beard and ratty, patchwork coat standing on the stoop. He had a crutch propped under his arm. “Mr. Domani!” Nell cried. Laughing, she pushed past her sister to greet Peter.
Like all the children of the village, Lexi heard stories about the crazy old hermit of Murkly Marsh, and she had no wish to let the man himself into her cottage. Quickly she closed the door, leaving Nell and Peter outside.
It was a sublime fall day, however, and the two ignored Lexi without a second thought. “Your leg, does it hurt?” Nell asked.