Threatened [W&W Book 2]

Chapter 13

Anya left the tray with Missus Allendale, who whispered a thank you in her ear.  Anya could hear Ildri singing to herself while she mixed something in a bowl.  Anya left quickly so that she would not get drawn into conversations.

There was not much left for her to do, so she went in the direction of the library.  Perhaps a short while alone away from everything would make her feel more like herself; more like she had been in a time before Thorne.  She needed to be that calm person again to succeed.

In a time when her biggest worry was a simple debt to a moderate lord.  How good she had had it back then.

Anya opened the door and let herself inside the library.  She breathed in the dusty book smell and took the last book she had been reading from the shelf.  She went to an armchair stuffed in the back of the room and settled into it.

"Escaping from all that?" Anya jumped when she heard a voice.  It took her only the briefest moment to realize that the undisturbed tone belonged to Jim.  She felt her heart pound like a terrified bird.

"Oh.  I didn't know anyone was here," she said feeling oddly nervous.  He was sitting in a chair pushed up against a bookshelf.  It was not visible from the entrance of the library.  "You're right; it's too busy out there."

Jim nodded.  "It's overwhelming."

She agreed completely.  "Yes."

"My home is deep in the woods, and it's usually just my animals and me.  I get the occasional visitor, but it's not like the numbers that are here."

"Me too."  It seemed that he was avoiding all the chaos like she was.

"Where do you come from?" he asked.

Anya wished in retrospect that she had not alluded to her home.  Even mentioning her past might raise the curiosity of those near her.  She also knew that he was just being polite, but nevertheless she felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise at the questioning.  She told herself it would be odd not to answer.  "Around the capital.  It's very small, you would not have heard of it."

"I might have.  I lived in the capital some time back."

"You did?  I thought you preferred the woods," she said, trying to get him off the subject of herself.  Why was he asking so many questions about her?

He nodded.  "When I was young, my father saw that I had some magical talent.  He sent me to the capital to study magic.  He was just a farmer, so even with his best efforts I was a scholarship student."

"How fortunate that you were able to go," Anya said, thinking about how difficult it would be for a farmer to get his son into a prestigious magic school.  Anya assumed that he was talking about Rothforth's, the main magical school of the capital.  Even a witch like herself had heard of it.  It was one of the foremost schools in the world.  She had thought that it was packed from rafter to rafter with only the children of nobles.  Apparently there were occasional exceptions.

"I think so now.  But at the time I would have preferred to stay on the farm and experiment with magic alone."

Anya smiled at that.  "But you're lucky to have formal training.  It must have opened many doors for you."

He nodded.  "I learned much and made good friends while at the school, so it was not a waste."

Anya nodded.  It had probably not been easy for a farmer's son to go to an elite school.  The noble classes purportedly hated any person of lower class who had the audacity to attempt to achieve great things.  They maintained their superiority by pushing down the rest of the world.