The Maiden of Moonfane Forge

Watching Vetch carrying Fae’s saddle and saddlebags recalled Lily to the last time they had been together and spoken. He had helped her put Fae’s tack away in the stables at that time, and then watched as she had tended to her panthegrunn. They had made their date to stroll the markets together, something that had never come to pass. They strolled now, side by side through the woods, with the glum weather closing in around them, to a place that Vetch assured her was a safe haven.

Following their emotional reunion, Lily had come to understand from Vetch’s breathless explanations that an ambush in the woods had resulted in him being the only one remaining of the soldiers who had ridden out from Moonfane Forge to track down the people who had attacked their town. He had spoken in short bursts of speech, biting off each word as if it pained him. Lily had been heartbroken, not only to learn of yet more devastation wrought upon the good people of their town, but to see the desolation in Vetch’s eyes as he delivered the news. She, who had lost her family, still struggled to know how it must feel for him to lose nearly his entire garrison’s worth of compatriots. He looked as if he had aged years since the last time she had seen him.

He had been anxious to change the topic and she could not blame him for that. He had been beside himself with disbelief that she was alive, then brimming with curiosity about how it was she had survived the confrontation with the mage who had stolen Marigold, before coming to find him in this unlikely place. She had explained all, haltingly at first, for the wounds of those memories were still fresh and frightening. But he hung on every word and, painful as it was, she could not deny him any truth of all she had experienced in the aftermath of the raid on their town. He had looked upon her with awe and relief and then folded her into his arms again when tears had come to her eyes.

Now, as they walked a narrow path beside a little stream with Fae following them, he looked at her still, in a way she had never been looked at by anyone except him, and it brought color to her cheeks.

“There it is,” he said, grunting as he hefted the heavy saddle and saddlebags higher. Lily had wanted at least to carry the saddle, but he had insisted, even though she could see that he had been battered in the attack that had killed his companions. She carried only her canvas rucksack on her back, with Fae’s bridle held loosely in her fingers.

Through the dwindling daylight, Lily saw the little cottage come into view. It looked like something out of a fable, a lone stone and wood dwelling set deep in an otherwise wild and uninhabited forest. She could not decide whether the apprehension she felt upon seeing it was due to the stories it reminded her of or for fear of imposing on someone who was already taking such great pains to live removed from other people. Vetch, on the other hand, seemed to benefit from a surge of energy as they approached the place. As he set down Fae’s tack beside the doorstep, the door opened and a woman in a bright red skirt and white blouse stood looking at her. The woman’s hair was pinned up as if she’d just woken from sleep. Lily had felt the concentration of magic in the area almost from the moment she and Vetch had left the pond behind. Now, its source was clear to her.

“Who is this?” the woman asked. Her words, kind and conversational, were directed at Vetch. Her eyes, however, remained on Lily. The warmth in her voice did not extend to Lily in that look.

“This is Lily, a friend of mine since childhood,” Vetch said, sweeping his hair out of his eyes and smiling at the woman. “She is apprentice to the mage who was taken by the people my soldiers and I were tracking when we were attacked. Lily, this is Hayleigh. She saved my life.”

Lily hesitated, feeling awkward and out of place for no reason she could pinpoint. She swallowed and said, “You have my gratitude for saving Vetch. I sense you are a mage, too.”

“She casts healing magic,” Vetch explained.

Hayleigh stood in the doorway, as if she were barring it against entry, it seemed to Lily. But then the woman smiled in a way that creased her eyes. “That, I do,” she declared, stepping aside. “It is good to meet you, Lily. Huh, another mage. To think, I have more guests at my household this day than I had the entire last year. Well, do come in and warm yourself. Your ... your charge-beast, it will be all right on its own outside? I have no place to put an animal of that size, you see.”

“Y-yes,” Lily answered. “Fae will be fine out here.”

“Mm,” the woman responded.

Vetch went inside the cottage, and as he did the woman touched his shoulder and allowed her fingers to trail down his arm in a way that was almost tender, her eyes remaining on Lily the entire time. While the gesture itself struck Lily as overly-familiar, it was Vetch’s lack of reaction to it that discomfited her. After another small hesitation, feeling like she was a stranger to the situation, Lily followed him inside.

The warmth inside the cottage was pleasant, as was the sensation of having true shelter around her for the first time since she had left the home of Eike and Arlette. Vetch removed his boots and took a seat in a chair before the hearth, appearing for all the world like a man come home to his own domicile of years. Lily stood awkwardly in the center of the of room, suddenly and strangely embarrassed by her own appearance—her ripped and ill-fitting dress, her blistered hands, scratched arms, the messy way she had tied back her wavy hair. On some level, she knew that no sensible person would expect her to not appear ragged and worn after her harrowing experiences in the woods, yet, still, she couldn’t help feeling like a peasant invited into the home of lords on the pretext of some compulsively charitable whim.

Barely had Lily decided to sit down in the seat opposite Vetch, thinking to speak with him more, when Hayleigh said, “Vetch, dear, come help me with the preparations for dinner. I need water drawn from the stream, then if you would collect the game birds hanging out back?” Vetch gave Lily an oddly blank smile as he answered her with a “Gladly”, put his boots back on, and went to perform these things. As he did, Hayleigh stood at her kitchen board chopping root vegetables and humming to herself. She neither looked at nor spoke a word to Lily.

Darkness fell in the woodland outside, making the cottage its own glowing little ship in the night. Lily sat with her hands folded in her lap, as Vetch helped the woman prepare supper for them all. The two traded small exchanges of conversation and smiles, the woman voicing short giggles and always finding reason to place her hand on Vetch’s shoulder or the small of his back. And Lily sat in silence, like a child excluded from an adult conversation. Only when the meal was ready and they all sat down at the table to eat did Hayleigh finally speak to her.

“I see you went through much getting here,” she said. “All alone, with a ... domestic magic only to protect you?”

“Not all alone,” Lily replied. “I have Fae. And now Vetch. We go to rescue my Mage-Matron, Marigold. You must understand how it would be,” Lily added in a small voice. “You would do the same for your master or matron, surely.”

Hayleigh chewed thoughtfully. Seated beside her, Vetch listened to the conversation with the face of a man mildly drunk, though they’d had no ale or spirits with their dinner. “I have no master or matron,” Hayleigh said at last. Lily thought the woman would elaborate, but she merely returned to eating.

“Oh,” said Lily. They sat in strange silence for a time. Lily took a drink of water from her cup and then stirred the game meat and boiled vegetables on her plate. The food was good, far better than she’d had in days, yet her appetite was absent.

“She must be very important to you,” Hayleigh added finally. “To come so far through these woods. There are wild animals out there, you know. Dangerous ones. But I admire your quest, and you should fulfill it.”

“I should,” Lily echoed and wondered why the notion bothered her.

As the evening wore on, Lily could think only of wanting to speak to Vetch alone, to confide in him her discomfort with the situation they found themselves in. The magic she could sense in the household unnerved her, and made clear thought difficult. She wanted to be away from it. But Vetch seemed as content as could be. He smiled at Lily across the table, laughed at Hayleigh’s little jokes and observations, and spoke shiningly of her skill with healing magic. When Lily excused herself to go and feed Fae, neither Hayleigh nor Vetch offered to come help her.

Standing outside and shaking out fodder, she breathed in the cool night air and felt her head clear somewhat. She scratched Fae between her horns as the panthegrunn munched away.

“I am happy to find Vetch and know that he is safe,” she said quietly to Fae. “But I don’t like it here. I wish I could speak to him privately and ask what he plans to do next. I only wish to leave here and continue on to find Mari.” Lily ran her fingers through Fae’s shaggy mane and then hugged her round her neck, burying her face in that thick hair. She breathed in the clean and herbaceous animal smell of the panthegrunn, scents that reminded her of her little dairy goats back home, and was comforted. Strength came back to her. Then, she sensed a spell being cast, and her attention was drawn to the little cottage.

When Lily went back inside, she found that dinner had been cleared away and Vetch now sat shirtless, while Hayleigh knelt before him pressing her fingers to his chest. Lily put her hands to her mouth in horror at her first viewing of Vetch’s terrible wounds. She had not even imagined their severity. He had cuts and stab wounds all over, places where the blade of a sword had bit deep into his flesh. She felt sick to her stomach. She wanted to drop to her knees before him and ensure for herself he was not at risk of dying soon.

Instead, she stood stock-still, afraid to interfere with the healing mage’s work. She could feel the magic being done. This, perhaps, was the reason Vetch himself seemed so out of sorts. Despite all that she knew from her own studies in magic, she had never before witnessed magic worked into another human being. While it was rougher and less focused, she could feel the magic build in much the same way it did for Barrier-Casting. It was only when the woman applied the magic gathered within her mind to Vetch himself that it became completely foreign to Lily. She could not understand how it moved through him, nor the mechanism by which it worked. Perhaps his distracted and drunken manner was the side effect of this kind of magic, a magic that could save a man from injuries that to her eye should have been fatal.

“Vetch ...” she whispered, her voice quavering.

Hazily, he looked up at her, read the look in her eyes. “I’m okay, Lily. I’m okay. Hayleigh has taken care of me. She says I will heal in full.”

“With more of these Castings, you will,” Hayleigh spoke through her concentration. Finally, lifting her hands from him, she stood up and wavered on her feet. Lily recognized the after-effects of over-extending one’s power. Hayleigh took in a shallow breath, composed herself, let it out. “This is what I can muster for now, dear soldier. I will Slumber and you must to bed. Lily, forgive my haste. You know how it is. Please, lay out your bedding anywhere you wish. I have given my own bed over to Vetch, for his recovery, and made a place for myself nearby him.” She smiled at Lily, said “Goodnight,” then turned and hastily took herself from the room.

Before Lily could say a word to implore Vetch to stay and speak with her, he stood and looked at her with unfocused eyes. Apparently misunderstanding the apprehension on her face, he only smiled at her and said, “I’m feeling much better. Much better.” The man who looked through those eyes at Lily did not strike her as being her Vetch, but he did not remain in the room long enough for her to comprehend why. He turned and followed Hayleigh into her bedroom, closing the door behind him.