Chapter One: The Carriage

Evie poked her head up from behind a large boulder on the edge of the meadow. Her cousin, Bridget, played down in the grass, stalking small animals. Every once in a while she caught one, pet it for a moment and let it go. On beautiful summer days like this one, the sweet smell of wildflowers fed the girls’ excitement. They often played in this meadow where the flowers grew tall enough to touch their waists and the butterflies nearly outnumbered the stars in a clear night sky. Evie loved it there. It was not far from home and her aunt let the two of them play when their chores were done in the afternoon.

“Climb on up, Evie! It’s not that scary once you’ve tried it,” Bridget hollered with a giggle. Evie wasn’t so sure. The rock stood on a ledge that over-looked the field, and Bridget always had some courage she lacked. The back side of the rock was rough enough for climbing, but the front had been smoothed out over the years by countless children sliding down its surface to drop two paces into the grass and flowers. They had been through this before, with Bridget smoothly sliding down the boulder and Evie climbing down the smaller rocks to the side. But today Evie had promised herself she would brave the slide. It was silly to be scared and she was tired of Bridget’s taunts each time she backed down.

“I’m not afraid,” she shouted haughtily, quite sure her voice didn’t tremble a bit. “I’m just trying to puzzle out the best way up the back of this stupid rock!” Bridget grinned with such understanding that Evie was quite sure her cousin knew exactly what was going on in her head. She simply needed to climb the rock and slide down. She could do it. She would do it. The back of the rock wasn’t so high. She’d climbed into barn lofts that were much higher. In no time, she stood on the flattened top looking down. Perhaps it was higher than she thought. Not that it mattered. She would do it this time.

Bridget set a brown-speckled bunny down and turned to look up at Evie on her boulder, “Come on, Evie! We haven’t got very long to play today. Mother will want us home and cleaned up for lessons.” She flung herself into the grass with an exasperated sigh. That was certainly true. Bridget’s mother, her Aunt Abby, insisted that they spend three nights a week studying their lessons. Bridget thought it was ridiculous. None of the other children in the village did lessons. Education was usually limited to the souray, at least that’s what Evie had heard. For all she knew, even they didn’t have to do it.

The souray all lived close to the city and Evie had never met one. Everyone in the village was part of a group of people called the ray. It was said that, in the city, all of the ray served the souray, but out here nobody really understood the relationship. The souray were a strange people who dabbled in magic and worried about power. They didn’t concern the people of Evie’s small village.

Evie’s mother had taught her to read and write when she was a small child, despite the fact that she was not part of the ruling class. Sometimes Bridget and Bridget’s mother would come over and listen as well. When Evie’s mother died of a fever two years ago, her aunt continued the lessons even though she knew less than what Evie had already learned. Evie would have bit her tongue off before admitting it to Bridget, but she actually enjoyed lessons most of the time. She liked learning on days that were not like today. Today their teacher would be there. She didn’t mind him so much, but he frustrated Bridget to no end. Her cousin always ended up ornery after a lesson from the teacher.

Her thoughts were straying; she was going to slide down the boulder. She glanced down at her cousin’s, now stern, face. She searched for a way out. “It’s just so pretty from up here,” she managed. It was not a lie, exactly. “Why should I slide down? I can see the whole world.” She rotated in a circle, careful not to misplace her bare feet. The rock did have some sharp spots, after all. To emphasize her point she started naming off the things she could see: “the Hansail barn, the grain silo, the pond and…” She trailed off, shocked. “Bridget! There’s dust rising from the road! What time is it?” It couldn’t possibly be late enough yet. Today the teacher, Elder Banied, would be coming to help with lessons, and they’d both be whipped for sure if they weren’t there when he arrived.

Despite the early hour, Bridget jumped up from the bed of grass where she’d been laying and stared toward the road. She couldn’t possibly have seen the dust from where she stood, but after only a moment’s hesitation she ran toward Evie and began scrambling up the rocks. Grateful for the excuse, Evie climbed down and the two girls ran side by side all the way to the cottage where they lived.

Elder Banied was an ornery old tree trunk of a man who expected the girls to behave as if they were souray. Not that anyone in the village had ever met a souray. But they were expected to behave as they’d heard souray did. The ruling class didn’t come this far out of their city. It had been whispered, though, that Elder Banied wasn’t from the village at all. Some of the other children claimed to have heard it spoken that he was a loyalist and had served the souray before he had been exiled for some horrible crime. Evie didn’t believe that. Elder Banied was certainly a terrible old man. But he wasn’t evil. On the other hand, how did he know the things that he taught to her and Bridget? No one else in the village had such an education.

Her mother had told her to trust him, though, and so she did. A few weeks before her mother died, when she was already very sick, she had asked Evie and Bridget to fetch him while Aunt Abby continued to keep a watch on Mother’s illness. Evie remembered that very well because she was only ten at the time and mother had certainly never sent her that far on her own before. She spent the entire trip talking to Bridget about the Elder and discussing how he would certainly just send them on their way. He had never so much as spoken to Mother that she had seen.

In their village, and in every village she’d ever heard of, the ten oldest people were set apart as part of the “counsel of elders.” They mediated disputes between neighbors and acted as judges when people committed crimes. Members of the counsel were always beyond the age of working and were usually supported by their grown children. That way, they could spend all their time working for the good of the village.

Elder Banied was different. He didn’t have any children and no one seemed to know for sure what he had done when he was younger. Still, he devoted all his time to the counsel and supported himself by bartering beautiful items that he had stored away. Evie’s aunt bought a teapot from him once. Covered in delicate painted flowers, it shined like the surface of a lake. She didn’t think she had ever seen anything so pretty. Despite lacking a job, the Elder didn’t seem to have any free time. He worked as hard as if he had always been in the village. She was quite sure he would send her and Bridget away, making excuses about all his work and not having time for children.

After a three hour walk, two filthy and exhausted girls stumbled into the Elder’s beautiful and pristine home. Evie felt silly. But when she asked him to come, he didn’t say a word. He just nodded, put on his coat and followed her out. The trip home had been much quicker because Elder Banied had a horse and cart, but they still arrived well after dark. Mother was so intent on Elder Banied that she forgot how late it was. Instead of insisting that Evie go to bed, she just sent her and Bridget away. The girls spent the next hour making up stories of why Mother could possibly know Elder Banied. They laughed for a long time until Bridget suggested that maybe the Elder was actually Evie’s dad. How dare she say something like that? The man could be her mother’s grandfather.

When he finally left, her mother asked Evie to come stand by the bed. It stood out in Evie’s mind that she seemed much more relaxed than she had in days. She smiled and touched her daughter’s cheek. She made her promise to listen to Elder Banied and do as he instructed. Evie didn’t know what it all meant, but the Elder had come to teach once a week starting three days after her mother’s funeral. For some odd reason, the first time he refused to let her aunt and cousin listen, but Aunt Abby made the point that she had to continue the lessons between his visits and that meant she had to learn too. The old man finally conceded.

It was all very strange, but with the death of her beloved mother, she hardly cared. Mother had told her that the Elder was a good man, and so he was. That didn’t make her love his lessons, though. And it certainly didn’t make her less afraid of being late today.

Gasping for breath, and still running as fast as her legs would carry her, she was caught quite off guard when Bridget grabbed her sleeve just short of exiting the forest next to their home and shouted for her to stop. “It’s not…” she breathed heavily for a minute, “It’s not him…look.” Evie looked up and stared in amazement. It was not Elder Banied’s old cart in front of their cottage. It was a carriage. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. Made of some black wood she didn’t recognize, the doors were carved with what might have been birds dancing on the wind. How, even in her haste, had she missed seeing that?

“I think…” Evie had to stop for breath, “…that the king has come to visit your mother.” She tried to smile at the joke, but Bridget seemed to hear the sincerity in her voice. “Come on! Let’s get a better look at this carriage.” She stumbled a bit over the last word. She’d read about carriages, but certainly never seen one.

Bridget smiled her agreement and the two cautiously approached. A slight wind blew through the clearing and the black curtains in the windows waved just a bit. That made Evie nervous. She didn’t see a way to tell if someone was inside. Of course, there certainly wasn’t. Why would anyone be just sitting there? Still she glanced up at the doorway of the cottage, hoping to see evidence that someone strange had entered. There was, of course, none.
They circled around the thing quietly, examining every inch. Every few minutes one would silently point to a design and the other would nod or gasp quietly. It seemed only appropriate that they should be silent; neither wanted to disturb the magical atmosphere that this oddity created.

“I want to see inside,” whispered Bridget. It was an echo of Evie’s own thoughts, but she didn’t have her friend’s courage.

“What if someone’s in there? It must be a souray to own something so fine,” Evie replied cautiously.

“Don’t be stupid,” Bridget spoke in a tone that was almost as loud as usual. She seemed to notice before continuing in an even quieter whisper, “There are no souray anywhere near here. Oh please, Evie! Why do you always have to be afraid of everything?” Just then a loud gust of wind whipped through the area without warning. The trees rustled ominously and birds flapped away from the disturbance. Barely taking the time to look at each other with widening eyes, the girls screamed and ran back into the forest. It had to be a souray. They knew magic. Tanya, another village girl, claimed to have seen one once and she said that they could control evil beasts and shoot lightening from their eyes.

It didn’t take the girls long to realize that the wind was gone and nothing seemed to be chasing them. Still, they hid behind a tree and began discussing their next move. “I told you,” Evie breathed, “We should have just left it alone.”

With a look of exasperation, Bridget sighed, “Oh, Evie, it was just a gust of wind.” But she certainly didn’t start back toward the carriage. Evie smiled. Bridget was braver than her, she knew that, but she had run as fast and screamed as loud this time. She supposed there was really nothing to be afraid of. The more she thought about it, the surer she was that no one sat in the carriage and the wind had only been happenstance. But she wasn’t about to back down and admit she’d been wrong.

“Fine, if it was just the wind, go back.”

Bridget held her chin a bit too high when she nodded, “I will.” With that, she started creeping toward the clearing, but not the most direct route. She moved slowly, stalking as though approaching a wild animal, peering from behind every tree. Evie watched her cousin with a small smile. She’d grown up with Bridget, played with her almost every day since they were both small children. She looked absolutely ridiculous creeping that way with her trousers rolled up to her knees.

Bridget nearly always wore the silly things. She had two older brothers and she was almost a boy herself. No one would actually mistake her for a boy, though. She had beautiful blonde hair braided almost to her waist and a pretty face besides. They were very different to be best friends and cousins.

Evie was an only child whose father died before she was born. Her dark-reddish hair and freckled face didn’t look anything like Bridget’s beautiful complexion. Besides that, Evie was a head taller than her cousin. She wore her curly hair loose around her shoulders. Before her mother died, she had always fixed it with barrettes and bows. Now it just seemed to get tangled. Her mother had also dressed Evie in skirts. She said a proper young lady ought to dress like a girl. She still dressed that way even though Bridget tried to convince her that she could play better in pants. Bridget’s real talent came from being able to make any situation so much fun, though! It didn’t matter how different they were.

Evie’s smile slipped when she noticed her friend several paces away motioning violently for her to follow. It took a minute to swallow her suddenly remembered fear, before she crept quietly to join Bridget. When they were both hidden by the side of the house where they could peer toward the carriage, Bridget pointed silently. Evie almost gasped. A boy examined the woods from inside where he had pulled back those black curtains. He couldn’t be much older than the two of them. But he wasn’t from anywhere nearby. They knew everyone who lived close.

His black hair slicked away from his face as if it had been drawn on with wet paint rather than grown naturally. He wore a black coat embroidered with gold thread that covered his arms and neck completely. Vaguely, Evie wondered how anyone could dress so in this weather. The most surprising thing, however, was his self-satisfied smirk. He looked as if he were searching for them, although he was looking quite the wrong way. They had worked their way around to the side of the house before remerging from the wood. Bridget grabbed Evie’s arm and dragged her toward the back of the house where they’d be in no danger of being seen.

“That’s no souray!” Bridget whispered angrily, “He’s just a dumb boy, and I think he was laughing at us!”

Evie hesitated; this had to be handled gently. She’d seen that light in her cousin’s eyes before and it almost always ended with the two of them getting into trouble. She kept her whisper quiet and tried to sound very calm. “I don’t think he even saw us. We were very quick. And if he did,” she shrugged, “we probably looked rather silly running into the woods screaming because of some wind. What do you suppose he’s doing here?”

Bridget’s cheeks colored. She was finicky about her pride, especially with boys. It probably came of being picked on by her big brothers all the time growing up. She always wanted to prove she was as brave as they. “I don’t care, but he won’t make a fool out of me!”

Evie knew that there was simply no way around it now. Bridget wouldn’t back down if she was this worked up about it. Besides, it might be fun to play a trick on this strange boy. Involuntarily, she smiled. “What are we going to do?” Evie asked, knowing she sounded too excited to be sensible.

Bridget’s reply was speculative. “We could throw eggs at him, but we might hit that beautiful carriage and I just don’t know if we should.” Evie could agree with Bridget on that point, she didn’t want to do any harm to the carriage. She also didn’t want the beating they would certainly be in for if Aunt Abby discovered them wasting eggs, but Bridget wouldn’t have thought of that point. She never worried about getting in trouble. “I think we need to lure him into the woods.” It sounded as good a plan as any. Evie idly wondered how her cousin always talked her into things that managed to get them in hot water. Instead of protesting, however, she listened carefully while Bridget planned out the sketchy details.