Waiting

Part Six

"She

has

been through

hell.

So believe me when

I say,

fear her when she looks

into a fire and smiles."

— E. Corona

The door slams and boots are running toward me and I bolt awake, hands reflexively grabbing for the axe. The light of day is blinding me, and I know now that I had fallen asleep sitting up. I attempt to blink the blur from my eyes and get to my feet before whoever is coming is upon me.

My eyes clear and I find Bastian still sitting in front of me, leaning at an uncomfortable angle against the wall and asleep. I swallow and Vee is tearing through the room.

"Tal!" She halts when she sees me, taking in the scene. Her shout has woken Bastian, who stirs behind me. Vee sighs. "When I saw the door open, I panicked. Thought he got out."

She jerks her head in the soldier's direction. I turn my head to look at him in my peripheral vision. He's rubbing various body parts, face contorted in pain, no doubt uncomfortably sore from sleeping against a wall. My gaze finds Vee.

"All is well. Better than well." She tilts her head in question and I start toward the door, Vasilisa following closely.

Once outside of the house I brush matted hair from my face and yawn. Vee is standing just in front of the closed door, staring me down, hands on hips. I avoid eye contact and look up at the blazing blue sky instead.

"His general is my uncle, he's who sent Bastian to watch over me." I say.

Vee sighs. "So he's watching over you? Not watching you?"

I shake my head, distantly disgusted with the levity with which we are talking about the situation. Some people in the kingdom are followed, and not because their uncle wants to keep them safe. I make a vow to myself to put a stop to these actions of the generals that have bred so much distrust and anxiety.

"You were there, when he received his orders to go to Winter. He's returned recently and found out about what happened fairly quickly. Supposedly, the only thing he could do was send Bastian – you know – since he would otherwise be singled out in the court for being suspicious, running around the slums."

Vasilisa fiddles with the stud in her bottom lip. "All right, so what's his plan now? He does have one, doesn't he?"

I tell her about my uncle's assembly of soldiers, and the current state of the court as Bastian told me. When I finish, her hand is rubbing the back of her neck and her eyes look bakery-wards as we smell the baking sticky buns and my stomach rumbles. "Well, this has proved useful. Maybe we're not alone in this after all." She shoots me with a smirk. "Told you."

I roll my eyes, a daily occurrence since we met outside of the smithy. "Lucky bet." I stroll past her back into the house, making a beeline for Bastian's room. He sits with his legs stretched out in front of him and his expression resembling that of a scolded puppy. I almost smile and turn to Vee. "I need to go set traps if my family is to eat today."

But she shakes her head. "I'll go to the bakery and buy you two breakfast, and I'll get some sticky buns for your family. We can't keep taking shifts here and having no chance to talk."

This is when Bastian decides that his pleading eyes aren't working on us. "Why, might I ask, are you still taking shifts? I have cooperated, haven't I?"

We look at him then to each other. I set my axe against the wall and cross my arms over my chest.

"You have, but we don't know if you're telling the truth." Says Vee. I wince. That thought never crossed my mind. I was willing to trust him because he mentioned my uncle's name. I take a deep breath and urge myself to stop being so easy to fool.

I make my way to Bastian and use my dagger to cut through the beanpole stalk that Vee had tied around his wrists. It was surprisingly tough, leaving swollen red marks on his skin. "You go to the bakery," I say to Vasilisa. "I will have him write a note to my uncle to send to the court, asking him to come."

She scoffs. "And what if he comes with half of the kingdom's army, ready to imprison his soldier's abductors?"

"He'll write that he is injured, that he came here for shelter and is in need of assistance. The general will come, perhaps with two or three others, to help. We can hide, and Bastian can have a few moments to prove that what he says is true." My gaze cuts to him. "If you're being truthful, it shouldn't be difficult. Correct?"

He nods confidently. "Correct."

Vee saunters away, squeezing my hand in hers as she passes me. "I trust you. Be back soon."

My uncle's arms are wrapped around me and I bury my head into his chest. I'm sure that tears streak both our faces, and I am the happiest I have been in months.

The general answered Bastian's call for help in under an hour. It took less than that to prove to me that all he had said was true. Vee is standing against the wall, watching us, while Bastian is nursing the black eye and broken nose I've given him, helped by the two soldiers my uncle has brought.

My uncle pats my head and I pull away finally, swiping tears from my cheeks with my palms. "I missed you."
He smiles, but it doesn't reach his eyes. Instead, they're on my dirty face, dusty feet, matted hair, bony shoulders. "I've missed you too, child."

There are more soldiers now, about six. They are starting a fire in the fireplace, fetching water for the tub upstairs that they have deemed safe for my to bathe in, flirting with Vee. A young woman from the village, the daughter of one of the kingdom's farriers, is running a brush through my hair and apologizing each time my head is jerked back with the brush's assault on a knot. I murmur to her that it's okay, that I don't mind. My cheeks hurt from the broad smile that has become plastered on my face.

My uncle sits on the floor beside me where I sit by the fire. He presses a pouch into my hands, which I open to find bread and cheese, apples and a skin of water. My eyes are misty again, but I blink and smile at him. "Thank you."

"Don't eat too fast, now. Don't want you getting sick." He says, voice hoarse from the smoke of the fire. He is exactly as I remember him; the same as the day he left. Icy blue eyes, long blond hair tied back. He wears the soft leather armor of a general off duty, sun emblazed on his chest.

I pick off a chuck of cheese and set it on my tongue, sighing as it melts. I've had nothing but burnt sticky buns and barely-cooked meat for three years and now I'm not sure how I ever stood it.

Vee and Bastian sink to the floor next to us. The farrier's daughter, Aver, catches a knot with the brush and apologizes again and I smile and tell her it's all right.

"I've had an interesting conversation with Vasilisa while you bathing," says my uncle. "I admire your girls' ambition. I would be pleased to have both of you in my ranks." He speaks of his small assembly of discontent soldiers and citizens that want to become the antidote for the poison coursing through the kingdom's veins, thanks to Angra.

Vee and I nod enthusiastically, until Bastian speaks. "We do have plans," he says, glaring at a soldier that is trying to catch Vee's attention. "But they are dangerous."

My uncle nods, solemn. "You need to be aware of the peril-"

I cut him off, looking to Vee then into the fire. My lips tilt into the beginnings of a grin. "We're aware. And we're ready."