The Gift

Chapter Six

The rest of the trip across the isles was uneventful.  On the Sixth Isle when we were in the Northern Province Daniel left us for a few hours to report back to the lord who had sent them on their job and get the payment. He returned, split the money between everybody, and we resumed our journey.  This time we traveled to the Twelfth Isle to the Southern Province.

Once we were in the province, we went to one of the towns to a house.  The men immediately let themselves inside.

“Come on,” Daniel said after the wagon was in the stable along with all the horses.  “This is a house I own,” he informed me as I followed him to the house.  “I have a few of these across the Isles.  We use them usually during the cold months.  It gets rough that time of year so we stay at one of the houses and take smaller jobs.  We’ll do jobs that only require a few people as opposed to the whole band.  After a long contract like this one we’ll go to one of them for about a week just to relax.  It becomes a strain mentally, emotionally, and physically if we don’t let ourselves recuperate between jobs.  When this band first formed we would do jobs back to back non-stop.  It became a huge liability.  The men started arguing with each other and it would turn into physical fights.  We were all exhausted and didn’t work well together.  After about six months of them all trying to kill each other, we came up with this.”

“It’s good to have down time.  They all seem like they get along better now.”

“We all do.  Come on.  I’ll show you to your room.”

“I didn’t kick anybody out, did I?”

“No.  We have an extra room.  The men all double up but I can’t make you room with any of them.”  He led me upstairs and down a hall, opening a room.  It was fairly neutral and sparse.  There was a bed and a dresser and a door that I assumed led to a bathroom.  The room had a window with a broad seat I could easily sit on.  “They did fight over this one until I banned all of them from it.  Personal bathroom and an excellent view.”  He gestured toward the window.  I smiled.

“It faces the sunrise.”

“What is it with you and sunrises?”

“When I was little, my sister and I would watch the sun come up together every morning.  It was that time that we really connected, talking and reminiscing.  It reminds me of a simpler time before all this.” I gestured around me.

“You mean the killing and running?”

“Yes.”

“Are you-human?” he asked slowly.  I couldn’t help the wry laugh that escaped.

“That’s a new question.  I suppose I am human.  I used to be normal.”  I moved over to stand by the window.  Daniel stood by me, leaning an arm against the wall.

“You weren’t always a Seeress?”

“No.  When I was little, I never had visions, there wasn’t a voice in my head telling me what I should and shouldn’t do, my senses were all perfectly normal.  I made mistakes just like everybody else and I played with other children and got scraped knees and muddy dresses that my mother chastised me about.”  A sense of melancholy settled around me as I reminisced of my childhood.  “I had friends, too.  Nobody tried to kill me or turn me into,” I stopped, choking on my words.

“What happened?  How did you become Freyla the Seeress?” he asked.  I stared out the window as I started to tell my tale for the second time in my life.

“It was during the wars.  Everybody was trying to expand their province and nobody was safe.  I was twelve.  My family lived in a small town on the edge of the forest there.  We were attacked.”