The Names Our Children Will Know

Starting Out - Draft One

An hour later, Tessa and Jordan were watching the sun go down together. Pink and gold clouds stretched over a purple-laced sky, threaded with streaks of orange. Jordan had been sitting silently for a while, a vacant, tired look in her eyes. Her hair was damp from running through the brief rain shower that had swept through and her hair clung to her forehead in dark strands.

Tessa's own black hair was not-quite-curly and stuck with leaves. Jordan picked a few of them out for her sister and dropped them to the ground. Jordan's blonde hair was cut short and choppy, with uneven lines trying to follow her chin, but it had grown out a little. She shook it out of her eyes now, looking up at her sister.

"Wait, why's he coming over?" Jordan wanted to know as Charles plodded toward them. His footsteps were heavy and resigned, and he looked like he had come to a decision he didn't like.

"I came to give you the news," Charles said when he was within earshot. "Wesson would be pleased to know that I will think about giving the three of you the map."

Tessa and Jordan both stared. "You seemed pretty adamant about it before," Tessa said hesitantly.

"And I still think it would be unwise. However, I will send you on your way even so, and if you find the spellbook, then good. If not, then you cannot say I did not warn you."

The two girls couldn't think of any argument to that.

The night passed uneventfully. The girls and Wesson were given rooms in the tower to sleep in, but Tessa was too restless to sleep. She sat outside and watched the stars overhead.

As soon as the two moons rose, a pale, pearly pink barrier rose out of the ground around the tower and the surrounding valley, meeting overhead like a soap bubble. When Tessa poked it with a tree branch, the light rippled and shimmered, but the barrier didn't give way. Tessa wondered how Charles had a shield around his tower when magic was gone.

Despite the barrier, crickets chirped and owls hunted. Tessa felt like a bug in a glass–shielded and trapped at the same time. The stars all had the same pearly pink tinge to them, and the moons held the same hue, but Tessa liked sleeping out in the open more than sleeping under pink stars.

Not long after, Tessa went back inside. She saw a candle burning in the top window of the tower and wondered if Charles was still awake, but she thought better of asking him about his strange barrier.

The morning brought a cacophony of early-morning bird calls and the chatter of small animals just waking up as Tessa and Jordan were packing up. It also brought a shout of frustration from Wesson, who had been speaking quietly to Charles. Tessa jumped, pulling a knife from her sleeve, and crouched defensively over Jordan, who had curled up in a ball to protect herself.

Wesson stormed over to where Jordan was unfolding herself and Tessa was beginning to straighten up. The two girls exchanged a nervous look.

"It's disgraceful," Wesson began without preamble. "Backing out on us like that? Absolutely disgraceful. We'll have to steal that map no matter what that man says," he added.

Tessa frowned. "You're not going to listen to his warning about how everyone that's made this trip dies when they get there?"

Wesson made a disparaging noise. "How is he to know for certain? And really, how would he still have the map if people had died with it?"

Tessa mulled that over for a moment. "But that still doesn't mean we should steal it from him. He's just trying to help."

"He can help by letting us get the only thing to stop the plague," Wesson growled.