Day 15

This happens right after Day 14's stuff

They stopped for the evening in a clearing near the road and set the wagons up in a circle with a fire in the center. Preparations were quickly made for a meal of roasted meats and vegetables. The meat was heavily spiced, and unfamiliarly so, but Etana found it tastier than she would have imagined. She ate a lot, and tried to ignore Ma Belda's approving glances. There was some cider passed around, and the smell of it reminded her of home. She found herself wishing she were back there, with everything alright and no dabbling in the mystical arts required. She felt someone settle in beside her and looked up.
"You alright?" Asked Aleth.
"Yes, why?"
"Weren't you looking homesick just now?"
Etana looked away, and then looked back. "Yeah, I guess I was."
"What made you think of it just now?"
"The cider. The inn would always have this amazing cider they made. Nobody knew what went into it, but it wasn't like anyone else's. My mother always used to trade some of her best threads and cloths for jars of it, and she would ration it carefully through the year." She smiled wistfully, staring at the campfire. "In apple season, Moren would always smell like cider."
"Ah." He seemed to be at a loss for words.
"I miss him. A lot. Sometimes, I don't know what I'm doing, running off trying to find some woman who lives in some hills in the hopes that she can help him get well again. Shouldn't I be staying behind and letting real doctors look at him? And instead I'm going off across the countryside when I've never travelled further than the next town."
"Isn't there anything you like about travelling?"
She looked at him again. His expression was unreadable. "Yes, I suppose there is. I've seen so many new things already, and we're barely past Broomholt. It's just that sometimes I wish I had a solid mattress rather than a lumpy bedroll placed on too many rocks, and a roof over my head instead of the stars."
"Ah." He seemed about to say something more, but stopped himself. There was an awkward silence that stretched on for too long. Finally, he stood and said "I feel the need to stretch my legs." And he walked off.
Etana watched him go. He seemed to be looking for someone. He crossed between her and the fire, and she was struck by how absurd it seemed that the light formed a halo through his messy blond hair. She continued sipping her cider. She heard someone else approaching.
"I've set up your bedrolls in the props wagon," said Ma Belda.
"Oh, thank you!"
"Ha, it was no problem at all. I saw you've been eating well tonight."
Etana smiled at her. "I was hungrier than I thought I was."
"What have the two of you been eating?"
"Umm... Lots of dried stuff that we bring with us. Fruits and vegetables if there are any nearby when we camp. Once we found a patch of blackberries, mmmm."
Ma Belda grinned at that. "Blackberries are good for you. Keep your gums from bleeding."
"I haven't had that problem before."
"You been getting any meat?"
"Yeah, Aleth sets up snares at night. He's showed me how to make some of them, but he's better at it than I am."
"Good, good." She seemed very pleased.
"Why?"
"Aleth's a good young man, but sometimes he forgets to take care of himself properly, especially when he's travelling. First time we met him, he'd run out of food somewhere in marshy country."
"Oh." Etana didn't know what to say.
"And sometimes he forgets to charge when he performs, or decides to give his earnings away to someone else and doesn't leave enough for him to eat. That's why he's so skinny."
"I don't think he's that skinny."
"No, not right now. My lessons must have gotten through that thick skull of his finally." Ma Belda pantomimed whacking him over the head with a board repeatedly. Etana laughed. "But I overheard you say earlier that you're not much of a traveller. So why're out on the road?"
"Well, it's kind of complicated."
"I got time."
"Back home there's a man I love who loves me back. We were intending to get betrothed, as soon as his father thought he was ready and he asked my father for permission. But one night he came to me with a gold ring he'd found somewhere in the forest. You could tell it must have been fine gold, even old and worn as it was. He wanted to give it to me, but I refused because... I was afraid of the tax collectors, and of having to hide such a thing. So I told him to keep and hide it. Then a couple of nights later, he fell ill, and nobody was able to wake him up. I asked the priest and he said there was an evil spirit at work, but he couldn't cast it out. And my love was just lying there, sick like he could die at any moment, but not dying."
"That sounds like a bad piece of work, indeed. You figure it was the ring."
Etana nodded. "That first night, I noticed he was wearing it. And I tried to pull it off, but I couldn't. His parents couldn't see the ring. The priest couldn't until he'd said prayers over the room. Then..." Etana paused and swallowed, not sure how much she should tell.
"Then what?" Ma Belda placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Since the priest wasn't able to help, I decided to look elsewhere. In the woods near my village lives a... a wise woman called Granny Rumple. So I put together a basket with some gifts for her, and fresh bread of my own hands, and visited her house. I broke the bread with her, and gave her the gifts, and she agreed to help me as she could."
"You must have great insight, to know what gifts to give her."
"I gave her what I had."
"And what did you give?"
"My family raises sheep. My mother and I dye the threads and the cloth. I gave Granny Rumple threads of three colors, spun with my own hands and dyed with herbs I had picked -- sun, earth, and night."
"Hmm," said Ma Belda. After a moment, she said "And what did Granny Rumple give you?"
"She told me to seek the Lady of the Hills, and she made a charm to protect me on my way." Etana pulled her sleeve back to show the bracelet around her wrist.
Ma Belda breathed in audibly when she saw it. "As true a charm of the Fair Folk as I have ever seen." She looked closer. "Are those the threads you brought her?"
"Yes."
"There are four colors here, not three."
"She asked me for a fourth thread, 'something of the heart'. This" -- she ran her finger along the red strand -- "was the best red I ever dyed, but I have been scared to use it."
"Why?"
"Because it has my blood in the dye -- I cut myself on thorns as I dug the roots for the making of it."
Ma Belda smiled at Etana. "You have power, girl. I sensed it when I first saw you."
"What do you mean?"
"I have dealt with Granny Rumple before, and she is not usually so generous. And seeing this charm, I can tell that its potency is not entirely her work. It would not be as effective on the wrist of anyone else."
"But I --"
"Right now, you work on your intuition, on your sense of what needs to be done. Likely the real reason you refused the ring was because you sensed the evil within it. I wish to make you an offer."
"What is it?"
"Our route is not set in stone. It would be easy for me to talk to Dacore and convince him that we take a route that heads more directly for the Lady of the Hills. While you travel with us, I want to teach you the things you should know."
"I don't know if I should..."
(cont next day)