chapter 2- bewitched

My newest travel companion quickly caused problems with my old one. I just opened the carriage door and in her regular fashion Oormi shrieked. As she was becoming accustomed, she grabbed my dress’s collar and yanked me by my neck, back in the carriage.
I gave her my best disgusted look. Immediately her mouth started running.
“That girl is bewitched! What the hell are you thinking!”
I slapped at her wrist so she was forced to let me go.
“Bewitched? How would you know,” I groaned.

“Her eyes, I’ve seen it before,” Oormi practically shouted with indignation.

I rolled my eyes which only made her more frantic.
“Did she say anything to you,” this time digging her thin fingers into my shoulders.

I went silent because the blonde girl
hadn’t spoken the entire time.
Oormi shoved me out of the way and threw open the carriage door.
“Say something,” she barked at a bewildered looking blonde.
I felt my heart fall as in response the blonde just shook her head no.

Oormi pivoted to glare down at me where I was still sat on the floor of the carriage.

“See I told you! There are whole villages worth of bewitched in the woods, all of which can’t speak. Those eyes, at any time her evil master can take back control and watch us through them! Get rid of her now,” Oormi barked angrily down at me.

I dusted off my thighs, and wobbled trying to get my thick body back to a standing position . Once back on my feet I took a step bringing me nose to nose with Oormi.

“I don’t think you understand how this works,” I felt my teeth grinding angrily as a I spoke.
“ You’re below me in the pecking order. I won’t be dissuaded by some superstition. She’s coming with us,” I told her with finality.

Oormi opened her mouth to speak but the severity of my glare told her everything she needed to know. She sat down.

I grabbed the blonde’s hand and gently guided her into the carriage. Once she was in I stuck my head back out of the carriage. From the empty field I watched as cattle dogs dashed toward the sea of cows. Ears flopping back, and fur matted down in gleeful exertion as the sea of cows bent to their will. Their owner whistled commands to them as they worked the field.

“Just in time,” I breathed in relief and shut the carriage door.

Sitting down I made an extra plump barrier between Oormi and the object of her dissatisfaction. I looked at the bewitched fair haired girl. I tried to mull over my words carefully.
I could ask if she had a home to go back to. That seemed like a poor choice of words. Worse still would be to ask if she was allowed home. I rubbed my temples in frustration.

“Do you want to come back to court with us,” I muttered without even thinking. Immediately her head bobbed up and down signifying a yes.

Despite having given her lots of room our new guest scooted to where she was squished into my side.

I felt my shoulders slumping in relief. The ordeal had somehow settled itself in the nick of time. Just as these thoughts ran across my mind I felt the familiar sensation of the carriage moving again.

I was looking at her for too long. I felt the mean voice in my head chide me. I couldn’t talk to her. I didn’t even know her name. I shouldn’t be staring as she wedged herself up as close to me as possible. Then I remembered calligraphy practice on the last long trip in this carriage. Reaching under my seat I pulled out a roll of paper, and a quill.

“Can you write your name?”
I handed her my penmanship practice kit. When she nodded yes I almost squeaked with excitement. The feelings seemed to bubble over when she perfectly etched out the name “Calida.”

—-
“ Maybe my lip reading still needs work,” I felt a blush creeping across my face.

Calida gave me a severe expression. I rolled my eyes and sunk my teeth into a candied apple. The smell of food baking had been distracting me all day. Despite the kitchen being on the lowest level, the smell always seemed to float to my room.

The various confections were meant for the Fall Equinox party. It was a holiday I silently begrudged. My oldest sister Alara, and her husband had calculated the days between their birthdays. Not only did they celebrate the individual days, but also the half way point as well. The half way point just happened to fall on the equinox.

Due to my lack of respect for this sacred holiday I had planned to steal some treats. Calida was only too happy to help. Unfortunately, I had misread a vowel she mouthed. She was watching the door and the miscommunication ended with us
being caught. I was beaming victoriously anyway. I’d still managed to make off with a candied apple. Calida seemed much more affected by getting caught.

I swallowed a bite of gooey Carmel coated apple.
“Can we practice some more?”
Calida nodded and I followed her down a castle corridor. She led me to the garden that was becoming her favorite.

I shuffled and bounced my way up on to my usual perch. Once happily planted on a ledge in the stone garden wall I looked down at Her. She had nestled herself into a a bed of ornate kale. The edges of the leaves blushing lavender and magenta as the weather cooled. The cool tones in the cabbage complimenting her icy hair. I felt my fingers subconsciously fumbling around the tightening fabric on my waist as I swallowed the last bit of candied apple. Sometimes it felt as if Calida’s eyes weren’t leveling with mine. However, when I sat this high off the ground I chalked it up to the spatial distance between us.
Practicing reading lips was simple. Calida mouthed a word to me, and I called out the guesses. She would indicate yes or no with a bob of her head and I’d guess until I got it right.
When I’d finally gotten ten to fifteen words right she’d move on to whole sentences.

I slashed a line through four tally marks. That was five correctly guessed sentences.
I looked down at my practice partner, as the sunlight dimmed. She shivered causing the kale leaves to shutter. I hopped down from my seat.

“It’s getting too cold to be out here.”
She nodded in agreement.
We both headed inside. Traveling back down the same hall we’d used to go outside, I could hear a strange clattering. Turning the corner at the end of the hall the familiar noises were starting to click. The loud pounding of wooden polls, shuffling, and the clap of wooden boards colliding.
Calida and I stuck our heads into the doorway of a large ballroom.
“ They haven’t had a ‘Talent for a Gift’ party since my mother died,” I breathed watching several vendors resurrect their booths in the empty ballroom.
Then something else caught my attention. It was a group of servants. Their uniforms weren’t in the usual emerald that you saw at court. That’s when the horrible realization dawned on me. There wouldn’t be room for Calida in the servant’s quarters. All the empty rooms would fill with the servants of visiting lords and ladies. I had set her up there where she wouldn’t be noticed. Now I was going to have to find somewhere else to keep my little stowaway.

——
I grimaced and wrapped my fingers around Calida’s hand, “Watch your step, it’s going to be dark in here.“ I turned the lock on a door that hadn’t opened for some time. It was a wing of rooms but after being unused for so long might as well have been a cave. We headed towards the first door.
“ This is my extra staffing wing. It’s where I would keep staff if one day it seemed likely I might rule.”
Calida nodded heading into the first room.
“I had to use it once,” Even in the dark I could read her lips flawlessly when they formed a, “What?”
“Before Alara was queen she was bed ridden with a fever for months. She’d been out riding and got bitten by an infected tick. No one thought she’d someday get well and rule. During that time they staffed my extra wing, and prepared me for ...” my voice trailed off.
“Being here is just uncomfortable for me, that’s why I shut down the entire wing and closed it off,” I finished.
She didn’t say anything. I felt awkward for sharing, and I looked at the torch for a moment.
“The servant quarters will be full with all the guests coming in to celebrate the fall equinox. Not to mention they will put all the drunk commoners in the servant quarters after the talent and gift swap part of the party,” I mumbled ushering her into the empty room. Using the torch I lit some of the candles that might not have seen a flame in decades.
“You’ll be safer staying here, and your much closer to me. You can leave the wing and you’ll exit directly into my room.”
I opened a chifforobe and began rummaging around.
“This would look nice on you,” I pulled out a velvety turquoise dress. Calida flared her nose in disdain.
“Well there are twelve rooms, each with a forgotten wardrobe,” I hesitated thinking about the long eerie hallway “Maybe wait until the light of day to go looking.”

I felt the heaviness of a long day weighing down on my plump legs.
“I’m going to bed,” I stifled a yawn.