When Things Are Set Right

A Lie

Aeryn paused with Grim on the landing just outside her parent's front door.

"I'm coming with you," she said to him. It wasn't a question.

"Really?" He sounded mildly surprised, though unopposed to the idea.

"Yeah. I want to help you find your family."

It took him only a second to decide what he thought of that. "Okay," he said. He nodded toward the house. "But what was that all about?"

Aeryn hesitated for a breath. She dropped her gaze to adjust her pack. "They're not happy. They don't think it's a good idea for me to go with you."

Which was true enough, but as far as answering the question went, it was a lie. She felt a nudge against her conscience, but admitting that her family was livid over her avoidance of her life and obligations felt even worse.

"They're probably right," he said, as though stating a matter of fact, not trying to talk her out of it. "If I had a daughter, I wouldn't want her going with me either."

She raised an eyebrow and met his face again. "Are you saying you're dangerous?"

"I am dangerous," he said, again as if stating that water was wet. "Didn't you realize that?"

Aeryn's insides shifted uneasily. Maybe this wasn't a good idea. She hesitated again, then resolved herself. "Well, so am I."

She slipped her pack over one shoulder.

"I gotta go back in and get my things. Wait here. Give me the bearskin."

Aeryn pulled the door open, bringing the harried conversation inside to halt. All four remaining family members were standing, dour in appearance. Father was hard. Mother was distressed and upset with him. Avoiding their faces and without slowing, she crossed the room in a few steps and hurled the bearskin at Samuel. He staggered under the weight.

"Here. Consider it a gift for the baby," she said. Without waiting for a response, she took the stairs to the second floor two at a time.

Aeryn's room was as she left it, with a strand of ivy draped around the doorframe. The walls were decorated with pressed flowers mounted on heavy parchment and drawings she was particularly proud of. Her half-spent candles sat atop the chest. The dusty lute leaned against the wall in the empty corner where Daphne's crib once stood. The bag of salt she left behind on her last visit had been tucked just inside the door.

Aeryn yanked open her chest of drawers. She indiscriminately scooped an armful of leggings, tunics, socks, and undergarments into her arms and crammed them into her pack. It occurred to her that Noemar was probably chilly, being in the North, so she grabbed her nice leather jacket with the furry lining that she used in the mild winters of Thoen. Though half the clothes which lay dormant in her drawers weren't made of fuzzy animal hides, it didn't seem to matter right now.

In one of the drawers, she found the pouch of money she'd been saving. Fingers swimming through it, she counted mostly silvers and coppers, and three gold coins. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing, and enough to get started. If she were richer, they might be able to afford horses, or pay for transport, but Aeryn came from a working class family, and life in the woods didn't present many opportunities for accumulating wealth. She and Grim would be traveling on foot.

From the shelf above the chest, she snagged the two books she'd used in lessons growing up. One was a book of history, religion, reading, and the practical arts. The other was oriented around plants, animals, and the natural world. She couldn't remember which book had the map of Errebos, so she brought them both.