The Phoenix People

Chapter Fifty-Six

The next day was calm. Anna woke me early so we could get breakfast, and then we visited Jack.

I instantly hated the room in which he was kept.

A girl no older than seven was staring at the wall, gaze devoid of emotion. A four-year-old miniature version of the girl sat next to her, playing with a crudely sewn doll.

The six-year-old was the eldest child in the group. Jack was nearly the youngest. He was sitting at the feet of the man, who was missing a leg and cradling a young child in his arms.

"Mama!" Jack called when he saw me, holding his arms towards me. I hurried to him, a smile splitting my face.

"Hello," I cooed, swooping him up. I nodded at the man who had been watching him. "Thank you."

The man smiled wearily at me. I wondered how long it had been since he had gotten a break.

I realized Anna was no longer by my side and glanced around for her, finding her crouched next to the six-year-old, staring into the child's vacant eyes.

"Anna!" I hissed in horror, hurrying over to her. "Leave that poor girl alone."

Anna's eyes flew closed, her hands roaming over the air near the girl's body. I easily recognized the Scan spell she was performing.

"She's traumatized," I told Anna, confused. My friend just shook her head, opening her eyes and standing.

"Something's physically wrong," she announced, addressing both myself and the man, who was staring at her in awe. I wondered if he had ever seen magic performed. "Can I fix it?" The question was directed more at the caretaker, who nodded hopefully.

Anna pressed a hand to the child's forehead and squeezed her eyes shut in concentration. Suddenly, the little girl jerked back, blinking as if she had just woken from a deep sleep. She looked around and, upon locating her younger sister, grabbed her and held her close. Her sister was obviously very confused, but happily hugged her back.

Anna turned away, a sad smile on her face. She took a deep breath and shook her head slightly. "Come on," she told me, and left the room. I made to put down Jack until she called over her shoulder, "Bring the baby." I did so, hastening to follow her.

"We can watch him and train at the same time," Anna explained. Then, lowering her voice: "And he needs to get out of that horrible room. It's too sad in there for babies."

I nodded in agreement. The man was obviously doing the best he could, but who could be happy in a room of recently made orphans, especially the orphans themselves?

Jack seemed to perk up more as we went outside. Again, we retreated to a corner of the courtyard and I placed my child by the wall. Anna sat next to him.

"Show me what you remember from yesterday," she commanded.

I did so, her giving me pointers and corrections all the while. She then taught me a few more spells, our progress slowed due to the fact that we had to watch Jack more closely as more Phoenix People started to arrive and use dangerous weapons.

The sun was directly above our heads when my magic started to wane. "We should stop," Anna decided.

"I still have a little magic left," I protested.

Anna raised a finger. "You should always have a little magic to fall back on. Just in case."

I shrugged; she had a valid point. "So what's next?"

Anna glanced at Jack, who was starting to fuss. "A diaper change and some food," she decided.

*

Since we were relatively early, we beelined for food after dropping Jack off with the orphaned children. Anna and I both felt guilty for returning him to the negative environment, but the crippled caretaker fully equipped with infant supplies. Anna was also going to attempt to find me a trainer for hand-to-hand combat.

It was difficult to watch a baby while working with dangerous metal weapons, after all.

This meal was a bit more substantial than the last. Anna was grinning as she brought over two plates of meat to the seats I had staked out. I returned the smile at the relatively large meal.

"Apparently, Audric's forces are pulling out of the forests!" Anna exclaimed as she placed one of the plates in front of me. "That means those at headquarters can go hunting safely now!"

I clapped my hands together before starting to eat. "Robin and Oak are in headquarters, correct?"

Anna nodded, also starting to dig into her food. For the rest of our meal, we ate silently. I hadn't realized how hungry I was before seeing the meal, but now I tore into the chewy meat ravenously.

Afterwards, Anna and I returned to the courtyard. Training was fully underway now, but there still weren't many Lowborns outside.

Anna cast her gaze around the courtyard, hands on her hips. I couldn't help but smile at her self-important stance.

"There," she finally said, pointing to a woman who was resting against the stone wall, a sword in her lap. She looked vaguely familiar, but it took me a moment to remember where I had seen her.

"Is...she a laundress?" I asked, remembering the surly woman who had helped me leave the palace.

Anna glanced at me. "Yes. Wren. You know each other?"

"She helped me escape the castle," I explained.

"Perfect!" Anna grabbed my wrist and pulled me over to the laundress. "Hello, Wren," she greeted the surly woman.

"Hey," Wren grunted, glancing up at us. She did a double take and snorted when she saw me. "Princess? Long time, no see."

I nodded, unsure of what to say in reply. Anna quickly jumped in. "Alexia needed to be trained for combat, Wren. Could you...?" She trailed off and raised her eyebrows expectantly.

Wren sighed and thought for a moment. Then, she looked back up at us. "Fine. Training the Highborn princess'll probably be the most exciting story I have." Her tone was dry and sarcastic, but she was smiling slightly. I took that as a good sign.

Wren climbed to her feet, handling her sword at ease. "I assume you want to learn sword fighting?"

I shrugged. "Anything to help me in battle."

"Sword fighting it is, then." Wren walked over to a rack of swords with Anna and me trailing behind. She turned around, sizing me up. Finally, she grabbed a small, plain sword from the rack. "Try this one."

I grabbed the proffered hilt and stumbled as the weight pulled me forward. Wren snorted.

Face burning, I recentered my weight and hefted the sword up. It really wasn't so heavy - I had just expected it to weigh less.

"Your stance is fairly good," Wren complimented. Then, she added, "For a beginner," and shot me a wry smile.