The Dark Days

Chapter Seven

 It was still dark by the time I left home the following morning. I wore Mama's least worn down boots and Papa's thick cloak again. As I left Wrights, I went out of my way to avoid Eliza's house altogether, I refused to agonise over it, about what she going through. If she wanted my help, she would reach out for it. I could only hope that she did so before she left her children motherless.

I walked along the street, in the opposite direction of Lord Barrow's estate, and kept at it until I'd left Wrights far, far behind me. It wasn't until the sun broke the horizon and lit up the dawn sky in an array of orange hues that the fear began setting in. It was scary to be so far from home, unaccompanied, but I kept my nerve. This was what was best for all of us. Mama couldn't—wouldn't—leave Nana and Isaac alone at home.

This left me to do all the travelling when needed. We tried to avoid it at all costs but if it couldn't be helped then it couldn't be helped.

I reached Daysa when the sun peaked in the noon sky. Daysa was more advanced than Wrights. They had fields and fields of vegetation as opposed to our little gardens in every household. Daysa seemed to have no poor villagers and I was reminded of what Druig said. His village would be something like Daysa. I wondered what it would be like to exist in a village that required nothing from me. A village that looked after everyone regardless of status or wealth.

Daysa also had two streets that crossed in the middle of the village. The centre housed their Lord and his family. Each of the four sub-streets led to a different type of vendor. The houses were behind the stalls, just like it was in Wrights. As though the stalls separated the houses from the streets. The first road, the one I walked on entering Daysa, was known as Education Street. The schools and skills tables were found here.

I passed the many tables with little examples of what skills they had on offer. Wooden carvings, woven baskets, ground spices, seamstresses etc. I didn't see a stall that advertised teaching how to use plants for medicinal reasons and I imagined a life in which I lived in Daysa. In this fantasy world, my use of the plants is allowed and I would open a skills table and teach what I know to the next generation. Perhaps finding a more skilled individual than I. Fewer women would die in childbirth, fewer people would die in general. I could pioneer the way forward for healers.

The second street, to the right of Education Street, was Live Street. As you can imagine, this was where you'd get your vegetables, fish and meat. Just about anything else that can be eaten. As well as animals to be eaten or for recreational purposes, like horses and donkeys.

The third street, opposite Education Street, was Fashion Street. They sold fabric in sheets, household linen such as drapes or bedding and clothing of all sorts. The clothes were mostly the same, stitched by the same group of women from Education Street. Chances are if you wanted something but the first stall was sold out, the second stall would have it.

And lastly, the fourth Street was known simply as The Market. That's where items were built and sold. Items like beds, tables, and cupboards. Where you could get clay pots, woven baskets, and basins for bathing. Ornaments to decorate homes.

I went to Fashion Street first. There was one vendor Nana had gone to all the time. She'd taken me once when she was still able to walk the distance. The vendor would remember me, I hoped. I rounded the Lord's home and halfway down Fashion Street, I spotted Mary's orange hair and her hunched shoulders.

I raced over to her stall and much to my delight, her face lit up at the sight of me. "Jane! You've gotten so big!" She pulled me into an embrace and squeezed me. "How is your Nana? I haven't seen her in such a long time. I hope she fares well."

"Nana is great, Mary." I laughed, inhaling her undiluted lavender scent, "She'd love to visit but her poor legs won't be able to make the journey from Wrights."