Reina weakly shook her head. “I wasn’t serious, Mother. I can’t believe you would do something like that. No, actually, I can. You were always unforgiving after Father passed.”
Oh, what a relief. She’d only been jesting.
“Don’t berate me. We can both see the mess you have made of yourself,” my grandmother told her before she looked at me. “Cal, put these on.” She shoved some clothes at me.
I lifted a pair of pants and a long cotton shirt. “Why on Alyria do you want me to dress like a man?”
“Because you must look like one.”
My grandmother’s riddles on top of being punched in the gut were not something I could handle simultaneously. “Stop being evasive, Grandmother. I’m not putting them on until you tell me why.”
She turned to me, her gaze serious. “They know where you are now, and you need to leave before they get here.” She tossed some tall leather boots at me, but I only glanced at them as my unease grew and I wondered about her health. The horse and now this?
“Have you been drinking too much of your medicinal tea, Grandmother?” I asked as she rummaged around her tables with jittery movements.
“This isn’t a time for jests. I’ve told you a thousand times: if one of those cuffs came off, something horrible would happen.”
I wanted to say that this wasn’t the best time for my mother to steal from me either. But I bit my tongue. “What? What’s going to happen?” It was the middle of the night; surely she couldn’t be serious about us going anywhere.
“We don’t have much time. Put the clothes on now! They could be scouting the area already.” Her voice was shaky, and I could feel her anxiety surround me like a cloak. She lifted a floorboard and grabbed a pouch out of the hole, then looked at me intently.
Her eyes narrowed when I didn’t move, and with a sigh, I pushed my thoughts aside and finally obeyed, slipping the pants on. I pulled my nightgown off and switched it for the linen shirt. I had never worn pants before, and they were awkward as the rough material chafed against the inside of my thighs. When did she even get these?
My thoughts were interrupted when Grandmother came at me with a knife. My heart jumped and I took a step back, putting my hands up to ward her off. “What are you doing!”
She grabbed at my hair, and I realized then what she was planning. I pulled my hip-length strands out of her reach. “No! You’re not cutting it. Your mind has obviously been addled with old age!”
A horse and insane ramblings were one thing; cutting my hair was completely crossing the line.
She tried to grab at it again. “You have to look like a man, Cal.”
“Okay!” I said. “I’ll braid it and tuck it into my shirt.” I only hoped that she would get far away from me with that knife. I’d never even seen a woman with short hair. And I wasn’t going to be the first.
She grabbed a black cloak and threw it at me. “Keep the cloak on, then. All of Alyria will see you coming with your flaxen head like a virgin to a sacrifice. It’s not safe for you to travel as a woman; you must take all costs for others to think you are just a man passing through. Don’t take the cuffs off either. That is how they can find you.”
My mouth dropped open when I realized she wanted me to leave alone. “Are you mad?”
“No,” she answered.
“Oh, no, you really are.” I shook my head, my heart beating in unease. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She didn’t even raise a brow at me while she double-checked what she had put in the pack. “You’re going. Otherwise, you’re as good as dead.”
A chill crawled down my back. What was she talking about? And how was I supposed to travel alone? I had never left Alger; I didn’t even know the basic direction to Cameron, the closest neighboring city. My chest tightened in fear, and I shifted on my feet. “Have you not heard the stories of travelers not coming home, Grandmother? And you want to send me out there alone?”
“You have a chance out there; you have none here. You will do what I say.”
Fear tasted metallic in my mouth, my heart rate uneven. “Why can’t you come with me?” I repeated the question. It seemed the most important one at the moment.
“Because they would know exactly who to track if I went missing. Everyone knows I live here, and I can’t leave an empty cottage. If I stay, I can keep them occupied for a while, and you can escape.”
My brows knitted. “Who? Who is coming?”
She stopped in front of me, her wrinkly face the only mother I had ever known. “Bad men, Calamity.”
“But why?”
“Ever since you were an infant and your mother brought you to my door, I knew you were special. You were soaked in magic, Cal. One only had to look at you to know. Your mother doesn’t have magic, and I was sure your father didn’t either. I couldn’t figure it out, so I took you to a seer in Alger.” She gripped my hands between her wrinkly ones. My heart beat fast as I waited to hear what she would say.
“Only you, Cal, can find where the magic is sealed, and you are the only one who can open it.”
I only stared at her blankly for many moments. Because she had officially lost it.
She gave me a reproachful look as if she knew of my thoughts. And then her eyes softened around the edges and my stomach took an uneasy dive. She squeezed my hand, and a cold chill ran down my arms as I saw the truth in her expression.
I swallowed hard and glanced at the table my mother was currently laid out in front of. She was too consumed with her pain to be aware of us. I never realized how true that was.
Why would I be able to find where the magic was sealed? Why would a farm girl be able to find something so important and yet so destructive if it was opened? I didn’t have any magic; my grandmother was wrong about that. I couldn’t even bring a pail of water back from the stream gracefully, and I was given the ability to open the seal?
“You are wrong, Grandmother,” I managed to finally say. She slowly shook her head, showing that she wished she were wrong, but she wasn’t. At least that’s what she believed.
“Anyone who wants the seal open will be looking for you. They could force you to find the magic and open it. The already powerful Mages would become more powerful. But those are the ones who will want you to find it. There will be some who would rather kill you than allow you to find it, Cal. That’s why it’s vital for you to leave. The cuffs protect you. It took two so that no one could sense where you were. Take one off, and anyone who wishes can find you. I wish I could explain more, but there isn’t time. You must get to Undaley City. They are good people and will protect you. Once everything settles down here, I can come find you.”
She dropped my hands and gave me the boots, but I didn’t take them. She narrowed her eyes and shoved them in my stomach. I complied but dawdled slipping them on, giving her time to rescind everything she’d said. When she never did, I let out a breath and braided my hair, tying a piece of leather at the end. My hands shook as I tucked the tail into my shirt. My grandmother’s anxiety was clouding the air in the small room and suffocating me.
I looked over at my mother’s sleeping form. Her face was scrunched up against the wooden floorboards, and a pile of vomit lay next to her head. My stomach rolled as I finally noticed the stench filling the cottage and found myself following my grandmother outside. Benji brushed past me, probably deciding he didn’t like the smell either.
Grandmother’s white nightgown blew softly in the breeze as she looked up at the dark sky. “See that star?” She pointed to a star several shades brighter than the rest. “It’s called the Star of Truth. If you have a destination in mind, that star will take you anywhere you need to go. And no, it has never worked to find the seal. You need a definite idea of where to go.” She silenced my question before I asked it. I’d hoped some of her story wouldn’t add up so that we could forget this and go back to sleep.
She walked to the small wooden stable while I continued to look at the bright star as if it would ground me he
re. When had my grandmother ever steered me wrong?
There was a battle being fought inside my head and a nausea churning in my stomach.
“Grandmother, I’m not leaving,” I blurted.
“You will do what I say.”
I sighed as I gazed up at the night sky. There I was, standing in men’s clothes as my mother who abandoned me lay sick on our cottage floor, and my grandmother prepared our horse while expecting me to travel across the country alone.
“I put a map in your pack in case you get mixed up during the day. You should head to Cameron City first. There are many men for hire there who could escort you to Undaley. I’ve put a substantial amount of money in your pack for this. It’s a ruthless city, Cal, so be very careful disguising yourself. An inconspicuous man won’t have an issue there,” she said as she proceeded to saddle our new horse. The purchase I hadn’t been able to figure out for the life of me.
But I understood now.
“You knew this was coming,” I said to the star-lit sky.
“I suspected, Calamity. A shift in the breeze warned me. This land is powerful, and it can tell you anything if you open your mind to it.”
“Why didn’t you take me to Undaley, then? Why make me go all alone?” She cast me a veiled glance but didn’t say anything. “Why—”
“Now, they will anticipate for you to go around the Red Forest and for that reason, you need to go through it.”
My jaw dropped, and I stared at my grandmother with wide eyes. I knew then that she was senile. “You have lost your mind!” I thought she couldn’t have shocked me more with this whole situation, but this was unbelievable. No one in their right mind would suggest traveling through the Red Forest at night.
She huffed. “Stop it, girl. I might have misplaced the sewing needle a few times, but that bugger is tiny. My mind is as clear as yours.”
“Clearly not! I wouldn’t ask anyone to go through the Red Forest at night unless they had a death wish.”
“Cal, you must go through it, or they might find you before you reach Cameron. They are tracking the area right now. I can sense it. You have so much magic, Cal. I don’t think the creatures will try to harm you. But if I’m wrong, this will come in handy.”
I stared at the knife in her hand with a grimace. A knife wouldn’t save me in the forest.
“If you are wrong, I’ll be dead, Grandmother.” She didn’t reply; she only handed me a leather belt. I stared at her and at it uncertainly until she gestured for me to put it on. I let out a breath and wrapped it around my hips and put the knife in the sheath.
“By the time you reach the Red Forest, it should be light, and you will be able to travel safely through. Everyone knows the creatures prefer to hunt at night.”
Trepidation ran down my spine. “They prefer. Maybe they will be too hungry to care what time of day it is,” I said, sarcasm, something much easier to focus on than fear. I slipped the cloak on to distract from my feelings and pulled up the hood. I swallowed nervously. “Do I pass as a man?”
Grandmother gave me the up and down and then frowned. “Not quite. Your breasts are too large. Maybe we should bind them? No, we don’t have time. Hopefully, no one looks more than a glance. Keep your head down.”
I let out a short, bitter laugh. This was a lost cause. And I couldn’t believe I was even contemplating it. I was supposed to ride away from the only home I had ever known on the words of my ageing grandmother? What if that seer who had told her I could open the seal was wrong? What if he wasn’t? I’d be endangering more than myself if I stayed. I couldn’t lose Grandmother. My stomach sank at the thought. She was the only person I had in my life, and I couldn’t bear to bring danger to her door.
“Keep your sleeves over the cuffs; they will create unnecessary attention. If they are seen, some might try to steal them like your darling mother. Stay on the road and be inconspicuous.” She gave me a nod. “Now get on your horse.”
I stalled as the seriousness of this rushed through me like icy water in my veins. It wasn’t as if I had anything here besides Grandmother. Truthfully, she was all I had. The neighborhood girls had grown up, gotten married, and already had children. And I only felt relief in the fact that I didn’t have to marry Braden, the blacksmith’s son. For some reason, I never had any desire for that. I was just waiting for something to happen in my life.
Maybe this is it.
Maybe I’d known this was coming all along.
“Grandmother . . .” I started in my last attempt to make her see reason.
“Cal, I wish it wasn’t so, but I’m telling you the truth. Get on your horse,” she ordered. Her eyes were full of determination, but I heard the crack in her voice.
I wrapped my arms around her slight but sturdy frame. An ache began to settle heavily in my chest, and I hadn’t even left yet.
“Promise you’ll come find me?” I asked, feeling like a little girl again when instead I was a woman who was supposed to be having her own children by now.
“I promise,” she whispered in my ear and gave me a squeeze. “You might not believe all this yet. But you will. Ask the land to show you your magic and it will.”
I nodded with suspicion, and let her go to look at Benji sitting by her side. “You’re a terrible guard dog,” I told him. He blinked his golden eyes at me. I didn’t pet him, because this wasn’t goodbye. That’s what I told myself; truthfully, it would have only made it harder to leave.
With a weight settling on my heart, I mounted my horse. I looked up at the Star of Truth and whispered for it to take me to Cameron City. The horse’s hooves hit the soft ground as I rode away from the comfort of our cottage.
I didn’t look back.
CHAPTER TWO
THE COLOR RED
I was on the outskirts of Alger, the city full of revelry even this late at night. Instead of riding on the hill out in the open, I rode close to town, the wooden buildings’ shadows covering me. We walked at a slow pace, in no hurry to get farther away from home.
As I passed the back of a tavern, the side door flew open, and I heard a feminine scream. My heart jumped, my pulse racing as I watched a woman run out the door and down the alley, her red curls flying untamed behind her like a cape.
A chill went down my spine as I watched the woman glance behind her, her blue dress fluttering in sync with her hair. I stopped my horse in horror as a dark-haired man reached her. He wrapped his sleeveless arms around her waist and lifted her off the ground.
She fought him and squealed until he pushed her against the wall, put his face in her neck and his hand up her skirts.
Then she giggled.
I let out a deep breath of relief and willed my heartbeat to slow down. She had only been playing a game. Thank Alyria, because I couldn’t handle watching a man rape a woman without even making it out of Alger. That would only be a bad omen for the rest of this blasted trip.
I made it past the city with no other distractions. No men followed me; no one even looked at the shadowed rider on the outskirts of town.
The breeze against my face helped to settle the nausea in my stomach. The forest trees creaked as fireflies the size of a fist buzzed by. The soft sounds of an owl hooting and the song of the cicadas served as peace to my inner turmoil; the moon’s light a guide in the dark night.
I decided right then, that I couldn’t afford not to trust my grandmother. If she was right, and I didn’t leave, Alyria’s people would be in danger. If she was wrong, then I was the only one in danger. She made me wear the cuffs my entire life. It was easy to latch onto the thought that she was losing her mind, but she had always believed this to be the truth. I didn’t see her making that kind of mistake.
The dull ache in my chest as I rode further away was not for missing Alger. But for my grandmother and Benji. The dog had followed me home from the city one day and chose to never leave. He was part of the family, and I hoped he and Grandmother would be safe, although I wasn’t so worried about Grandmother. She was the
strongest woman I had ever met, even as her body became weaker from age. If there was anything I had learned from her, it was that you made the most of what you were given.
I was given a horse, a forest trail, and a destination. Many didn’t have those things, and that was what pushed me further and further from our cottage in the woods.
I allowed my thoughts to go rampant during the beginning of my journey. Thoughts of my mother overwhelmed me. If it weren’t for her, this wouldn’t be happening, and yet I couldn’t help but feel like the shackles holding me back were finally removed. Guilt sank like lead in my stomach because of it.
I had been ready to settle and get married. Just so I could find out what makes a woman run from a man only to get caught.
Most women would have been happy to settle down and have a couple of children. The thought of that monotonous life only left a bitter taste in my mouth. And it was another reason my horse kept carrying me further from Alger.
My mind kept traveling back to my grandmother’s insistence that I had magic.
So much magic, Calamity.
How could I have had magic and never noticed it? Grandmother had said the breeze talked to her, and to ask it to show me I had magic. When I became frustrated with my melancholy thoughts of my mother, I tried to listen to the land. I asked it to show me in my head but heard nothing. So, then I asked it out loud and felt ridiculous. But the only sounds I heard were the whistle through the trees and the rustle of leaves, which only had worry gnawing at me imagining the creatures crawling around the forest floor. I shook my head at my wild imagination. Wildlife was abundant in Alyria, of course there were animals out here.
I put all my fear and doubt about my journey into a little box and locked it up. I focused on the chirping of the crickets, the soft water noises of a nearby stream and the feel of the breeze on my skin.
A small hum thrummed through my body like a plucked fiddle, and I shook off the strange sensation.
Apprehension eased its way into my chest, and it felt as if I were dabbling in the dark arts, but I tried again. The hum was there, sending a shudder through my body and tickling my skin. I felt it coming from the ground, the trees, the air, as if everything was living beings. The feeling lifted my spirits. It was like finding out a secret I had always wanted to know.
A Girl Named Calamity (Alyria Book 1) Page 2
