DARKHAVEN | "Three Sisters" Book One

Chapter Thirteen

Roslin

"Are you quite sure you don't want to talk about it?"

Blodwyn held her arm around Gia's shoulders as the pair sat with their legs dangling over the side of the wall that looked down into the garden below.

Gia shook her head, her face still burning as silent tears traced the contour of her cheeks. She wordlessly took the bottle of wine from Blodwyn's hand and took a pull.

Roslin, who was sat on Gia's other side, leaned over and brushed a stray strand of her sister's hair behind her ear. "I hate to see you so sad," soothed Roslin. "Is there anything that would cheer you up?"

Gia sniffed and nodded her head. "More wine."

Roslin sighed. "What happened to us?" She gently urged the bottle from Gia's hands and took a swig of her own. "Remember when—" Her words cut off as she listened for something barely audible. All three of them listened.

Hooves.

They watched from their vantage point on the terrace as the commanders led their horses around the castle and back to the stables. None of the sisters commented, but they watched until the commanders disappeared all the same. Gia leaned her head on Roslin's shoulder as Roslin passed her back the wine. "What were you saying?"

Roslin's sigh was weighted. "Nothing."

"Speak," encouraged Blodwyn between pulls from the bottle. "We will listen."

"I just...miss when things were simpler. When magic was a craft to us, something worldly and wonderful and ours. When the greatest conflict we faced was which way we were going to cook the potatoes that night."

Blodwyn laughed. A loud, clear, genuine laugh, but sad, too. "I miss that damn prized cabbage."

Gia smiled through her sniffles. "Blodwyn, you would miss a cabbage."

The three of them laughed.

Together.

"I miss my chickens." Roslin tucked her hair behind her ears. "Their eggs were blue and so healthy they were the size of a dragon's eggs. No chicken in all the kingdoms could out-lay them."

There they sat, passing the wine back and forth and taking turns sharing memories now bittersweet of what had once been such a vastly different life for them. It was often said that one never realises they're living "the good old days" until they really are little more than the good old days, but the sisters had always known this.

That, somehow, made it even harder.

They'd known those days wouldn't last forever, and they hadn't, and no amount of preparation nor acceptance dulled the empty ache.

Gia said in a voice thick with nostalgia, "I miss our summoning circle. The one at the top of the mountain." There were times they had felt they could reach up and touch the heavens from the top of that mountain. "I felt the spirits with us for the first time there."

"I bet it's still there," said Blodwyn. "Those stones are ancient, and there's no reason for anyone to have gone up there. We could go back."

But we can never go back went unspoken between the three of them.

When no one said anything, Gia spoke again. "I miss the hearth in the cottage and making soup, of all things. I asked Ms. Magda if I could visit the kitchens to cook some time and she looked at me like I had two heads."

"Well that's because Ms. Magda hates anyone near the kitchen."

Edric's voice startled the sisters. The three commanders stood at the far end of the pavilion, having climbed the back staircase.