Daughter Of The Wind --Western Wind

by Sandra Elsa

  Pink hoped she'd have the two days Henna expected her to be gone before they began searching for her. Nobody would believe she'd run away from Hallowisp...unless they found the body. If Carlena reported that the food was not being taken, perhaps they would begin the hunt early. With Harner's disappearance, Mistress Henna might even think she would be rescuing Pink.

  There was no going back. She had to get as far away from Hallowisp as possible. Her legs carried her at a speed only fear could sustain.

  She followed the road east toward Ronan at a steady jog. More practical to traverse the mountain road than the slippers she normally wore, she wished the boots were smaller. Blisters grew and popped as she ran.

  Pink separated her mind from the pain by concentrating on the future. Somehow the potions Pink prepared for Mistress Gelora, had always been more effective than those the old herbalist prepared. Pink had acquired a reputation as a knowledgeable herbalist around the mountain community by the time she was twelve, a fact that increased Gelora's bitter cruelty.

  Pink just needed to survive this run, and then she would command her own life.

  Her steps slowed, but she continued with dogged persistence until the sun brightened the morning sky. She sought out a crevice between two large rocks to hide away the daylight hours. Pine needles from the scrub growing on the near vertical cliff lining the road padded it. Curled in her blanket, using the dress as a pillow, she lay out of sight of the traveled way, to await the concealing black curtain of night. She rested uneasily, blistered feet throbbing, muscles, unaccustomed to continuous jogging and walking, burned.

  She roused several times during the day and curled deeper in the rocks as hoofbeats passed by on the road. Barely daring to breathe, she listened to the snatches of conversation the wind brought to her hiding place. Each group of riders that passed from the west, she expected to be slave hunters, but darkness fell without discovery, and she returned to the road.