Two Queens (Seven Heavens Book 1) Read Free Page B

lay it on the grass near the fire. “That was a fortunate day for my family.” She sat on the blanket, both feet tucked back to one side. “Even today we reap the blessings of being your friend.”
    His smile broadened. “I'm glad you've come to Darach. I mean, not happy.” He tried again, “It's Enda. I thought the time had passed. When she was a baby you were there but as a little girl, she was all mine. Almost like a boy, like I thought a son would be. I could take care of her then.” He gestured with his hands and looked right and left but the words were slow in coming. “She's different, now. Like I can't reach her.”

 
    “Oh Kerdae,” she said.
    “Aye,” Kerdae said. He plucked a wildflower from the grass in front of him. “She's like the flower. I—, these hands, they work in iron and stone and wood. Not flowers. Only thing they can do is...” He held up the flower. “Looks pretty, don't it? But it's already dying, just don't know it yet.” He crunched it in his hands. “One mistake and there she goes. I don't know how to do this. Will you help?”
    “Yes, I will. It's scary having someone you're responsible for. Not a friend or a spouse, a child. But they're strong, Kerdae, especially Enda. She'll do fine.”
    Astra continued. “She is a fine girl. Don't worry. If she's like me she's just sorting things out, thinking about everything and anything. But she has good roots. Of course I'll help. I want to help.” Their eyes connected and the blacksmith breathed out. His shoulders settled and he tossed the crumpled flower to the ground.
    Suddenly he stood up. “Enough with the sitting. Where are they?”

Seven
     
    “Didn't your mother say something about berries?” Enda asked Brian. They had the next load of poles bound to Kerry's skids and were walking along a deer path.
    Brian felt his face go red. “Right.”
    “Don't be silly, it's not as if you were Liam and forgot to pack your water.”
    His face smiled but his eyes didn't. Enda stopped talking too. It seemed to take forever to return. Kerry was walking more slowly with the wood dragging along behind her. Enda walked next to Brian, either moving ahead in the wrong direction or keeping back with him and causing Kerry to lose her pace. Finally she pretended to admire some wildflowers to the side then followed along behind.
    Brian felt cooped up. Why was it when it was just he and Kerry he felt his mind expand, sensing the wind whistling through the leaves, his toes scrunching within his mocassins to meld to the shape of the ground, a slight rolling bounce in his gait that coincided with the Khardja's easy footfalls? He saw everything: rabbits skittering under the brush, birds flying overhead. Once he even had seen a fox with a bright red pelt staring at him, so silent and still that he seemed but an imagination of the real thing.
    Not now. He felt like he was back in Kerdae's kitchen. He stubbed his toe on a rock he'd stepped over a hundred times and couldn't be free of the thought that Enda walked back there, staring at him. Probably thought him foolish. She seemed vague in her comments about his story. He'd told it all wrong too, so many skips and backtracks.

 
    They stopped at the bushes Ramona had shown him a few days ago. Then most of the wild raspberries had been hard and green. Today he could see more red, much more. Oh bother, that's more work.
    Enda raced ahead to the berry shrubs while Brian gave Kerry her head, leaning the skid against a nearby tree for a quick re-harnessing later. Brian turned to follow her with the bucket but could only see her knees down.
    She flung some hanging branches away from her face. “Surprise!” she said. Her mouth already had a few red stains.
    Brian just looked at her, wondering. Were all girls this way? Maybe she's forgotten the story by now. That would be a relief. He grabbed at a bush near him and pulled it up. Little red bumps dotted its leafy arm, almost like a tomato vine.
    Not many