The Moxy Byrd

Chapter 6

June 24th 2040 18:00

After she'd sorted out her plan, Amia went straight to Justin's house. She was positive he would help her. He was her brother, after all, and if there was anyone who loved this clan as much as she did, it was him.

She followed him into his house. The three of them had built it about five years ago when he'd been engaged to Elizabeth Wilk. He'd been pretty smitten, but then she'd gotten sick and all of the medicine they had tried had failed. Amia remembered how hard he'd cried and the three or four months of grieving and wasting away that had followed. When he'd finally gotten better, he'd moved in to the house, saying it brought back good memories.

She sat down at his small kitchen table in the chair they had made together two summers ago after breaking the old one. It'd happened during a training exercise that included jumping onto a horse, shooting an arrow, and then jumping back off of the horse and onto a chair without falling. Neither had managed it, and eventually the horse had trodden over the chair. The new chair legs were a little uneven. Justin joined her at the table in a chair a little more stable than the one she was occupying. The table was littered with arrowheads Justin had apparently been sharpening before she had knocked.

He picked one up and ran his thumb along its smooth edge. His face was calm and body relaxed. Amia was incessantly rocking back and forth in her chair. It made a strangely soothing clacking noise. The plan, which had seemed so perfect when she was alone, refused to be put into words. "I want to dig up dead criers, pull out all of their teeth, and sell them to that man James was telling us about." She ran over the words in her head. If James' story was true, this was a simple and fast way to make money. Taxes were due in less than a month. It was logical enough. But the words wouldn't come out.

"You trying to make that leg shorter than it already is?" Justin asked her, looking at her over one of the dull arrowheads.

"Maybe," she retorted. She took a deep breath. "Do you remember that story James told us last time he was here?"

Justin cocked his head and eyed her suspiciously. "Which story? The man's a never-ending parade of stories."

Amia ignored the sarcasm in his tone. "The one about the man who buys crier's teeth."

Justin stared at the arrowheads silently for a moment. "Yes. I remember the story James told about the man who buys crier's teeth in Athens. You know half of what that man says can't be true, right?"

"Why do you think it's not true? Why would he lie about something like that?"

"To make conversation. You know how James is. Never one to stop a story at the end of the truth."

"Sure," Amia grabbed one of the arrowheads and contemplated its keen edge, "but at least some of that story is probably true."

"Yeah, but which part? That there was a man in Athens? That he bought crier teeth? That he paid two pieces of silver for five of something?"

"What if the money part was true? What if we could get two silver pieces for five crier teeth? We've got hundreds of them over in the dump area. What if we could sell those? We'd have enough money to pay taxes."

"And what if you get cut while handling those nasty things? What if you get killed on your way there? What if the man kills you and keeps the teeth?" He looked her dead in the eyes. "You try telling Dad about this?"

She looked down at her lap and shook her head. She felt her cheeks reddening. They both knew Thomas would be furious.

Justin's expression softened. "Look, Sis. You know I understand, but I refuse. We'll find another way to pay the taxes. Leave dead criers where they belong... in the ground."