Heavy is the Crown

4

"Ow!" Irene hissed in pain, dropping the tongs she had been holding a horseshoe over the fire with and pulling her hand against her chest. She squeezed her eyes shut, clenching her teeth hard.

Anetra was immediately alerted, dropping the mallet in her hand and hurrying over. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, it's nothing." Irene mumbled, looking down at her hand. Her glove had been scorched by the fire, and Anetra winced when she saw it.

"You should take that off and check your skin. You don't usually cry out like that." Anetra said, reaching for it to pull it off for her.

Irene jumped back. "No, it's fine. I've been burned by the fire before."

Anetra rolled her eyes. "Luxx and Loosey kisses can't cure all of your wounds, Irene." She said, grabbing an empty bucket and taking it out of the workshop to fill it with cold water from the pump. She'd find a way to convince her friend to put her hand in it somehow.

As she filled the bucket and leaned against the side of the workshop building, noise from other townspeople got her attention. She looked up, her eyes widening. A castle guard sat on his large horse, placing a paper sign on the side of a metal lamppost. Anetra tilted her head when he road off with more of the papers in his bag, one of them slipping out onto the gravel road.

The townspeople immediately crowded around the one that was hung up. Anetra hesitantly walked over to the one that had fallen, picking it up and looking it over.

"Anetra! I need those nails finished!"

The sound of her boss interrupted her before she could read what was on the paper. She quickly rolled it up and tucked it into the pocket of her torn up and burnt apron. At one point, that apron had been white. She rushed back to grab the bucket, carrying it back into the workshop and sitting it down next to Irene.

"Take your glove off and keep your hand in that for now." She said, picking her mallet back up and going back to her anvil. "I'll work on the horseshoes when I'm done with the nails."

"You don't have to do that." Irene mumbled, but the pain was starting to get to her. She pulled her glove off and took a seat, wincing when seeing the irritated and burnt skin underneath. She placed it in the cold water, sighing softly. "What was all that noise outside about?"

"Some castle guard hung something up on the lamppost." Anetra explained, dropping a finished nail into another bucket beside her. "I didn't get to see what it was before I got called back in."

Irene hummed in response, her eyes having closed slightly. Anetra glanced at her friend. She looked exhausted and worn down, but she never showed that when they got home. Her and Anetra had to be the stronger ones. Sasha worried enough, they didn't want to make her worry more. So when Irene felt as if she had dulled the pain enough, she raised her hand out of the water and grabbed a cloth to wrap it in so no one would see the new injury.

Anetra took a deep breath and went back to work. Her muscles wanted her to stop, but she pressed on.

----

Same as always, Bosco and Kerri were the first to greet them when they returned home. They got to return in higher spirits that evening. Their boss had finally paid them what he owed them and they returned home with food, which immediately lifted a weight off of Sasha's shoulders.

But as Anetra held Kerri and watched her prepare it for them, she noticed something a little off. So she carried the young girl in her arms away where Sasha wouldn't hear. She'd get more answers out of her. "How's your mama been today, Kerri?" She asked her quietly.

Kerri hummed as she played with a wooden toy that Loosey had carved and Luxx had painted. "Sleepy." She responded. "Sleepy and coughing a lot. But taught me and Bosco how to sound out new words today when she read to us."