The Maiden of Moonfane Forge

Too many dead. Too many missing. The stories had been horrific. Soldiers, merchants, innkeepers, husbands, wives, children. The raiders had made no distinctions between any of them. They had simply killed whomever was in their way. Lily had ventured back through the town hoping—or dreading—to find word of people she knew, from distant relations, to friends, to familiar shopkeepers. Instead, people had spoken to her in generalizations—not who had died, but how many, or what state the bodies had been in. For every townsperson identified, there were many others who had been injured beyond recognition, or had simply been buried before anyone who had known them in life could be located to give them their name. Nobody even seemed to have a consistent tally of how many people had gone with the soldier Ennric and his retinue to the capital, let alone who those people were. Some who were counted dead might still be alive, like Lily, and vice versa. Moonfane Forge was in disarray; every individual surviving however they could, with little care for anything that didn’t help them in the moment. Lily felt heartbroken to not be able to glean any solid information, and she didn’t have the time to try and hunt down every acquaintance on her own. Not if she were to be rested and ready to move in the morning.

In the end, she had settled for helping any townsfolk she could on her way back to Eike’s home. People recognized her and her hulking panthegrunn roaming the streets and had asked for her aid in the form of Barriers. Barriers to keep chickens from being snatched, Barriers to protect shops that still contained wares worth stealing, a Barrier across a child’s bedroom window to make them feel safe as they slept. Most of what Lily had been asked to do would be too much for her apprentice’s skill, or would see her Slumbering much too long again. Turning people down was gut-wrenching. She felt their sadness, their fear, their anger, and wanted to do something for all of them. But she simply couldn’t. Expectations had to be tempered. She was not Marigold. Not even close.

“Three Barriers,” Lily whispered to herself through a yawn. Marigold had early on taught her to keep track of the Barriers she cast and the durations of the Slumbers that followed those Castings. She lay in Eoforill’s old bed, wearing Eoforill’s old nightgown, tallying up her day’s work. Three small Barriers she had made for people. By Lily’s accounting, they would equal out to a full night in Caster’s Slumber—a regular night’s sleep to anyone else’s eye. It was daunting to work out the time herself, but she believed she had it about right. Always, Marigold had been there to help her. She had kept a journal for years, delighting as, over time, her entries showed her Barrier-Casting becoming more complex, while her periods of Slumber became shorter.

That journal was gone now, burned up with the rest of her home. With a wrench to her heart, Lily remembered that all of the other writings that had been there were gone with it—Marigold’s written exercises and practice guides, books passed on to her by her own Mage-Matron, all the other various works and treatises on Barrier-Casting she had collected that were to be Lily’s one day. Her training materials. Her inheritance. Gone. Sorrow, upon sorrow, upon sorrow. It was a significant loss. Such layering of tragedy would make it impossible to sleep. But, then, she wouldn’t be sleeping, she remembered bitterly. She would Slumber. Already, she felt as if her body were becoming lighter, like she would drift up off the bed and scatter, as so many dandelion seeds in the wind. And no one was here to watch over her. To cast magic without another mage to watch over one’s self was to be as a soldier going to battle knowing there were no healers nor supplies waiting back at camp.

Like Vetch did now. That thought was both a fright and a comfort to Lily, that they shared something so completely different and yet so very much alike. So many tears had come unbidden to her eyes throughout the day, but now, as she watched the moon cresting the summit of Mt. Moonfane through the window, Lily smiled through those tears. In the morning, she would set out to fulfill her obligations to her Mage-Matron, and in doing so, she would find Vetch and protect him, too. However she must.

She floated up and off her bed, or at least she felt she did, and in that moment, Lily opened crusted eyes to full morning daylight streaming through the window. Mt. Moonfane stood its eons-long watch. Crisp spring sunlight glittered off the mist of wind-blown snow at its peak. So, she had Slumbered and woken. About a full night’s sleep, just as she had estimated. Any other day, Lily would have felt proud to have calculated the time so accurately, just as Marigold could do. But there was so very much to worry about that any feelings of pride and accomplishment withered on the vine.

She waited. Soon, the sensation of weight returned to her body, allowing her to feel once more a part of herself. It was closer to how she was used to feeling when waking from Caster’s Slumber. That was encouraging. Her head was clear; her thoughts ordered. Yes, it was time.

“Alright. No thinking, just go,” she counseled herself. If she thought too much, she would begin thinking of everything she had lost, or of the frightening task she had set for herself, or, worst of all, what few remaining precious things she hoped to win back. The last thing she needed was more tears, or to face the complexity of what she planned to do and talk herself out of it. “Get up, girl,” she said to the empty room.

Lily stood, and by habit took the two steps past the foot of the bed that would have brought her to the wash basin in her own bedroom. Remembering where she was, she turned to the other side of the room and found the wash basin and ewer left for her on a side table. There was a tap on the door.

“Lily? Are you awake? It’s Eike. Is there anything you need?”

Lily poured water into the basin and wetted her fingers, rubbing them gently across her eyelids to clear them. Even after washing her face, when she opened her eyes and looked at herself in the little mirror provided, she still appeared tired and haggard. Her eyes were reddened from crying and the skin below them was dark and discolored, evidence of a lack of real physical rest. It was such a contrast to how she had looked when she had been preparing for her day out in the markets with Vetch—

“Lily?”

“I’m awake,” Lily said huskily, before clearing her throat and adding, “No, there’s nothing I need, Eike, thank you.”

There was a slight hesitation before Eike’s voice returned. “There’s porridge over the fire in the kitchen.” There was another pause, then Lily heard Eike’s footsteps retreating down the hall.

With a sigh, Lily shed her nightgown and got dressed. She didn’t truly want to leave this place. Eike and her mother had been so kind and accommodating. But she had to leave, didn’t she? If she didn’t, then what was she doing but being a coward?

“Stop thinking,” she tried again to counsel herself. It wasn’t working, but her aching arms and hands went through the motions regardless. She gathered her hair back into a simple tail and lifted the rucksack she had packed for herself. The previous day’s wanderings about town, while not fruitful in assuaging her concerns about friends and family still missing, had at least been so in preparing for the trip she must undertake. Eike had been correct; townspeople were simply taking whatever supplies they wanted from shops and storehouses. It had felt strange at first, stepping through splintered doors and over broken glass in order to raid shops for what she needed. She would have been tempted to leave coins behind, if she had had any. But what good was coin in a ravaged town? Who would return to collect it? So, in this way, she had acquired for herself a sturdy canvas rucksack and waterskin, a knife, rope, cooking and fire-making materials, and as much dried fruit and salt meat, soldiers’s hardtack, and grain as she could carry. Additionally, she had been relieved to find Fae’s riding tack undamaged in what remained of the stables. She added to it plundered saddlebags, which she had filled with as much fodder as she could get her hands on. Knowing how much the panthegrunn typically ate, it would not last more than a few days, but she’d rather that than nothing. After that, Fae would have to decide for herself what was palatable along the way.

Lily found Eike and her mother, Arlette, sitting at the kitchen table speaking in quiet tones. They stopped speaking and offered smiles and soft ‘good-mornings’ when she appeared. A place had already been set for her, with a steaming bowl of porridge waiting. Lily sat heavily and fell to eating rotely, while the two women across the table watched her. Lily tried not to meet their eyes. She didn’t want to confront the pity there.

“You’ve packed for travel,” Arlette offered, in a way that held no appraisal, when she’d judged Lily had eaten her fill. Still, a question hung in the air.

Feeling better for the full belly after the night of Slumber, Lily nodded. “A mage’s apprentice is tasked with watching over her when she is in Caster’s Slumber. Knowing that Mari is still alive out there somewhere, it is up to me to find her and take care of her. She may have woken by now, but that changes nothing. She’ll be alone and held by all those guards. She’ll need someone who understands ... to explain what ...” Lily swallowed and looked down at her empty bowl. “Mari is my only family now. I will not abandon her.” She paused, confronting the other reality she had been attempting to hide even from herself. “And I have nowhere else to go. I cannot bear to see Moonfane Forge like this,” she finished quietly.

“You can stay here,” Eike ventured. “Vetch is taking care of it. He and his people will bring her back.”

“She’s right, you know,” Arlette added. “Take it from me, those soldiers were stung by this loss as much as anyone in this town. Don’t think for a second they’ll let any of this go unpunished. Leave them to their work. There’s more you can do here, preparing for their and Marigold’s return.”

“I can cast Barriers,” Lily bristled, wondering both why she must defend herself, and if she even should. Why not let their arguments win her over and have a perfectly reasonable excuse to give into her fears? She squared her slim shoulders. “Only basic ones, but that’s better than nothing. Traditionally, there were mages in garrisons to support men-at-arms, not just be protected by them.”

“Battle mages,” Arlette clarified.

“And I know I’m not one,” she admitted. “Still, I must go. I can’t explain it. I just feel it. I don’t expect to fight or confront anyone. But I cannot be around this death and despair a day longer without doing something or I will fall to pieces. It would be enough if I could even just find where Marigold has been taken and then perhaps ... I don’t know. Catch up with the garrison and help them somehow. Either way, a mage depends on their apprentice or assistants to keep watch over them when they fall into Caster’s Slumber. That’s how it has always been. Even if I had to turn myself over to these raiders and become a prisoner myself, it’s imperative that I am there for Mari.”

The thought had come to her so suddenly, and slipped past her lips before she’d truly had a chance to consider what she said. Would she truly give herself over to these raiders as an additional prisoner in order to return to Marigold’s side? Of course, she would. She loved the old woman as she would a beloved grandmother. That was not in doubt. But, then, the raiders and their leader had shown no mercy to Lily. The dark-haired woman had been prepared to throw Lily to her guards, and when that didn’t work, she had tried to kill her. What was making her think now that she’d be able to bargain with them and be allowed to attend Marigold in captivity? Lily shook off these thoughts. No good wondering until she got there. If she got there.

Eike made to speak, but her mother placed a hand gently on her forearm and spoke in her stead. “Then go, Lily. With our blessing, and let us hope it doesn’t come to that. Find Vetch and help him. Let him know that you are alive. Take anything of ours that you need.”

The smile that came to Lily’s face then was heartfelt. She saw the strength of this soldier’s wife and discovered she had a deep admiration for it. What did it mean to learn to accept that a husband or wife, or a son or daughter, might walk out the door with a sword in hand and never return, and yet still let them go, with a smile and a blessing, because it’s what they must do, because it’s the life they chose? She was affording Lily that trust and freedom now. And, suddenly, Lily felt her concept of Vetch as that cavalier boy she’d grown up with fading, to be replaced with Vetch the soldier. If she wanted him, and she knew she did, it would mean accepting him living by the sword, as Arlette did her husband.

And, yet, Lily did not feel herself to be the type of woman who would want to sit at home waiting to find out if he’d ever return.

She thanked Arlette and Eike, and stood up from the table.

Upon leaving town by the East Gate, Lily went to mount Fae and then caught herself.

“Of all the things to forget,” she chided herself. She looked down at her borrowed dress and its not-quite-long-enough skirt. A skirt not split for riding. “I suppose you would find this funny?” she asked Fae. The panthegrunn glanced at her disinterestedly, then went about nosing at the grass. Lily furrowed her brow. She didn’t want to go back into town to scavenge for additional clothes. “Nothing else for it,” she muttered to herself. She swung her rucksack down and dug through it for her knife. Standing there on the path, she made two clumsy, ragged cuts down through the nice fabric. “There,” she said, and stowed the knife, before swinging the pack back over her shoulders. She swung herself up into Fae’s saddle and took up her reins. “Okay, girl, let’s go find our friends.”

The great charge-beast stepped out on the road with the enthusiasm of a dog that had been begging to be let outside. Lily watched the pastures pass by with a new heaviness in her heart. Would that she was enjoying a typical, brisk morning ride with Fae. At least she would not steal that experience from Fae. She gave the panthegrunn her head and let her stretch her great cat-like muscles all the way down the track toward Bannerman’s Wood.

Lily reined her in only to make a stop at the gravesite of her parents and brother. She had promised herself she would not tarry long there, but it was difficult to see the fresh graves once again and not drop to her knees beside them and pour her heart out. She dismounted from Fae and, instead, knelt down and touched her fingers to the freshly turned soil. It was just starting to become warm under the morning sun.

“Mom, Dad, Matty ... I have something I must do. But I will return soon. And when I do, I will raise a proper stone of remembrance for you all here.” She sniffed and drew her arm across her eyes. “And rebuild the dairy. I will be safe,” she added. She couldn’t promise that what she was going to do would be safe, but it was something her parents would tell her to do. She filled in their words for them. She clenched her eyes and took in a shaky breath before standing and returning to Fae.

She mounted, then a gentle touch of her heels on Fae’s sides got them moving and they left the site behind them. The track led them into the woods. She knew that Vetch had a head start of a couple days—and the people who had taken Marigold more than that—but a panthegrunn could move swiftly for its immense size. She and Fae would catch them up.