Shadows in the Trees: Book 1

Chapter 16

Freya drowsed in the cart while Malik and Julian walked alongside it. Julian had tried to take the seat in the furs, but Freya had given him such a fierce look that he had backed away without a word. She found the rocking and bumping of the cart comforting, and despite her surroundings, she was soon fast asleep.

Freya saw her mother. She wasn't fuzzy or shadowy like she usually was in Freya's dreams; no, she was in full color, her features sharp and clear. Freya could even detect a whiff of rosemary and grass, her mother's scent. She was bent over a trunk in their wagon, carefully packing away her herbs and spices.

"Maman," Freya said. Her voice was reedy, and her mother seemed tall, even though Freya had towered over her when she died.

"Wait here, my dove," her mother said. "I have to speak with Yaya." 

Her mother jumped down and walked around the corner. Freya climbed a few odds and ends until she was level with the window at the back of the wagon. She quietly propped it open with her headscarf. From the outside, it would appear to be closed, but Freya would be able to hear everything that was said just outside the wagon, where Yaya and her mother were whispering.

"Don't leave," Yaya was pleading.

"She's not safe here," her mother argued. "You saw the cards. We need to go somewhere we can be anonymous; a big city, perhaps."

"She is safest with her people," Yaya said. Freya had never heard Yaya sound so angry. "She can't be found if she is from Nowhere."

"Jentsi will be the first place they'll look. They're the only ones still sympathetic to the Fae." Her mother said. Fae? Freya thought, like the ones in Yaya's stories? "I'm sorry, Yaya, but we have to leave." Freya heard a slapping sound, like Yaya had grabbed her mother's wrist.

"Soren, you are making a mistake," Yaya said, her voice trembling. "Please."

"I guess we shall see," her mother said.

"At least give her this," Yaya said. "I carved it for her myself."

"It's beautiful. But I can't," her mother said. "It will give her away. Goodbye, Yaya. May we meet again."

"Soren, wait!"

Freya heard her mother's footsteps crunching on the grass and scrambled down from the window, quickly tying her headscarf. Her mother wiped away a few tears before peeking into the wagon, when she thought Freya couldn't see.

"Are you ready, my dove?" she asked, smiling a little too forcefully. Freya nodded. "Your headscarf is crooked. Come here, let me fix it." Freya obeyed, crouching down so her mother could retie it. "It's best if you keep your hair covered, you know that dove."

"Yes maman," Freya said.

"C'mon, want to ride up front with me?"

The wagon lurched over a tree root and shook Freya awake, tearing her from her dream. She had never had a dream that vivid before. Perhaps a trick of the woods, she thought. She looked around and shivered, still unable to believe where she was. She had grown up hearing stories of the terrors in these woods. Trick of the woods or no, she wished she could have stayed in that dream with her mother for just a while longer. She had forgotten the details of her face, the crow's feet, the big freckle above her lip. She dug her fingernails into her hand to keep herself from crying.

"You're awake!" Malik said. "I can't believe you slept more after sleeping for an entire day."

"Sleep is a convenient escape from reality," Freya said, rubbing her eyes.