Of Spinning Gold and Song

| Fourteen | The Gossip

I woke to a startlingly luminescent burst of sunlight jolting me from my slumber, forcing my eyes open to my foreign surroundings. It took a moment for me to get over my momentary confusion by the ornate room and the heavenly bed, both so different from the wooden slate and secondhand straw mattresses I was used to. A kind face, one that took a moment for me to place as the servant girl who had opened the door yesterday, looked at me nervously.

"The lady requested I wake you up," she said quickly, her eyes darting around frantically. "She's actually com—"

The bedroom door flew open with a bang before the servant's sentence was out, and an angry looking Margaret stormed in, body swaying with every step, eyes narrowed and trained on me. I wasn't sure what time it was, but she was already fully dressed and dressed to impress.

"Where for all the skies is my brother?" she snapped, her already shrill voice even higher than normal.

"I—what?" Her angry face was now looming directly above me, and all traces of sleep were gone in an instant. I felt like her sharp green eyes, made larger by the thick black lining around them, were piercing straight into my soul and couldn't help but shrink back into myself. I noticed that the servant girl was intimidated as well, and had shrunk back to a corner of the room.

"My brother. Your so called 'beau.'" She made air quotes with her hands, scorn written plain across her twisted face. "Augustin. He's gone. He left. He's not here anymore. He told the servants he was off on an important quest and was gone early this morning, before any of the rest of us woke up. He said you were staying here—said that without asking anyone, I might add. I don't suppose you have any idea where he went?"

It took a moment for the information to process. Augustin was gone.

I had known that he was leaving, and that he was leaving me behind. He had already told me what was what was going to happen. But still, I had expected some warning. He said he would petition the king for more help; he couldn't have done that in just an evening. Besides, I had seen him last night at dinner. He bade me goodnight and retired to his room.

And left.

He didn't even tell me goodbye.

I tried not to feel hurt. I had already known what was coming. And after all, he had absolutely no reason to trust me after I had stowed away where I wasn't supposed to be. Twice. Once with the quest in general, the second time to the dragon itself. Augustin probably figured that if I knew he was leaving, I would try to stow away a third time and follow him.

But still. I had changed. And I had the scar on my cheek to prove it. A near encounter with death would change a person, and I realized my errant ways. He hadn't needed to leave without saying goodbye.

"No," I said, trying but failing to keep the bitter tone from my voice. "I didn't know that he was going to be leaving today. I knew he was leaving, but I thought he would at least say goodbye." Much to my dismay, my voice cracked at the end, raising and becoming several octaves shriller. I didn't want this girl seeing me weak.

Last night had been one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. Probably the singular most humiliating experience of my life, actually.

It started when I had failed to fit into one of Margaret's dresses. It wasn't that I was fat. Skies knew I couldn't be when I had to spin day and night to keep any small scraps on our dinner table. There was no surplus of food. But neither was I a twig like her. I took after Mam in being petite as well; I had always been the shortest in my grade at school, and many girls years younger than I were taller than I. By contrast, Margaret was, for lack of better words, very tall.