The Keepers of Eternity

XVII

            

Lenore moved carefully through the thicket of pines and needlebarks, holding up the hem of her long black robe so it wouldn't snag on shrubs and fallen branches. These forests were chilly compared to her homeland, and the air smelled strongly of evergreen.

This wilderness was frightening to her.

Lenore never had the desire to visit places such as this. She needed civilization. Being this alone meant there was no one there for you, no one to call for if you needed help. What if she was attacked by one of those beasts she'd heard roamed these forests? Kaisa's machete still remained strapped around her waist and Lenore found her hand drifting towards it several times.

"Sid!" Where had that boy run off to? He'd rushed away rather quickly.

Lenore's breath misted up in front of her. In the past few days her somewhat-peaceful life had been torn apart in one smooth stroke. The worst part was, she couldn't imagine a future for herself. Things couldn't go back to the way they were, no matter how their search for her sister ended.

Maybe she would just leave the manse altogether. Days ago, she'd thought her only option would be to return, but now she wasn't so sure. There was another way. Lenore could go out into the countryside and live in a small town like she did as a child. She'd take up work as a seamstress there, and maybe make enough to live from day to day. Maybe she'd ask the Swordfellows to come with her.

Leaving that town twelve years ago had been a mistake. She should have begged her parents to stay, and done anything in her power to make them change their mind...then none of this would have happened. She'd never understood why they left in the first place.

She would never understand her parents, especially her father. Her fondest memories of him took place in that town, a village of about three-hundred people just outside of Plaethien, close to Lake Shashtier. He'd been a farmer, but smarter than most of the others he worked with. Lenore could remember the way he smiled every day as he came back from the grain fields. Even after a long day, he was always smiling, as if he hadn't a care in the world.

Things had changed one day. Lenore wasn't sure what—she had been ten at the time. The lightness in her father's blue-green eyes had dimmed, as if someone had snipped off a thread of is soul. The smiled stopped. Both her mother and father had gone cold, and soon after they moved, without any explanation. It had been less than a week after the Telling.

Abreigelle had just turned six. She should have grown up in that town like Lenore had. She should have had the time to run through the open fields, and play with the other children, carefree. Instead, she'd worked confined behind the walls of the Varner's estate. Her whole life had been serving...though, somehow, she made light of it anyways. Lenore always admired that about her sister.

Abreigelle was strong in ways Lenore was weak. She would survive this.

"Sid? Where'd you go?" Lenore was growing impatient.

She stopped, spotting a glimmer of blue light ahead. A glimmer of moonlight. Moonlight against the water. Lenore backed up, hiding behind the sappy trunk of a sugar pine.

Sid stood by the lake, his head bent as if in reverence. He was whispering something.

Lenore had seen Sid back at the manse. She'd always thought him to be such a strange person, and small for his age. How cruel would his parents have had to be to send him into the army like that?

Fog rolled off the outer edges of the lake and poured into the thicket of trees beyond. It was cold here. Sid didn't look like he was aware of her presence. He just stood still.