Words Like Coins (5 page)

“You believe stupid stories. ‘Pecksies kill babies.’ Ha! This pecksie save her baby. Save her, too.” The little woman gave Mirrifen a dark look. “And not just because you say, ‘no harm to child,’ and dead mother is harm to child. I save because pecksies not filthy, wicked things. Now you go milk cow, get eggs, cook. She needs food, rich food. So does pecksie.” 

As Mirrifen walked toward the kitchen, the pecksie waddled along at her side. “What did you do?” Mirrifen asked.

“Broke your stupid ‘no pass’ charm that kept baby inside her. Turned baby. Cut mother, just a little. Helped baby out.”

“Cut her.” Mirrifen shivered. “Will she be all right?”

“Sore. Weak. Better than dead. Feed her, rest her. She be better. She already less stupid.”

“Less stupid?”

“Knows pecksies saved her. Saved baby.” The little woman shrugged. “Less stupid about pecksies.”

“Thank you.” Mirrifen met the pecksie’s eyes. “I’m sorry I bound you. I’d undo it if I could.”

“I took milk.” The pecksie shrugged. “Bound myself.”  She sat down on the kitchen floor with a sigh. “And you?” the pecksie asked her. “Are you less stupid?”

“It was my fault, wasn’t it? When I made a charm that said small people could not pass, I kept the baby from being born. I should have been more careful.”

The pecksie nodded grimly. “You less stupid now.” She cocked her head at Mirrifen. “Do chores. I stay here.”

Mirrifen paused at the door. “You’re a hedge-witch, aren’t you?”

The pecksie considered it. “Stupid words. Pecksie not a hedge, not a witch. Pecksie a charm-maker.”

She could not bring herself to ask. “I always wanted to be a charm-maker.”

The pecksie narrowed her green eyes. “Will you bind me to teach you?”

Mirrifen shook her head. “No. Never again. Words are too dangerous to bind anyone with them.”

“I teach, then.” A small smile of approval bent her cat’s mouth. “You learning already.”