Maggie of the Mist by Madeleine M. (best ebook reader for ubuntu txt) 📕

“What does he want?” Keith asked as he tossed a few more pieces of wood into the fire.

“Redd wants to hear Maggie play a song for him,” Angus replied. He walked over and took a seat next to his brother. “He figures that if he starts bugging her about it now, she’ll play after dinner.”

“I haven’t heard her since before I left.” Redd feigned wounded. Keith seemed curious as he took the rock across from the brothers.

“What does she play? A harp or something?” Maggie rolled her eyes. She was not some dainty lady who sat idly and gracefully plucked harp strings for entertainment.

“Oh no, don’t you encourage him,” Vika warned. She climbed down from her branch and plopped herself down by the fire. She leaned back against a rather large tree root and glared at Keith and Redd. “That’s the last thing Maggie needs right now.”

“But Vika,” Redd looked like an innocent child as he leaned towards her. “I also want hear you sing.”

Vika laughed mockingly. “Like Veils you do! Don’t you dare think that you can sweet talk me.” She spat into the fire, and then half grimaced at herself. Maggie smiled. Vika acted tough, and was most of the time, but she was still a young girl no matter what way you looked at it.

Maggie found the squabbling amusing. She had not said a thing throughout the entire conversation. She just hung back and observed them as she prepared their meal.

She went to get a few apples out of a pocket in her aunt’s cloak and other things from a pack. The apples almost looked fresher than when she had put them in. She pushed the thought aside as she also retrieved potatoes, carrots and some pre-cooked salted meat. She walked over to the fire and set them down on a nearby rock, then went back for a knife and a large spoon.

Maggie placed the pot onto a stone that she had told Keith to put in the pit. Soon the water was at full boil from the heat of the stone.

She peeled the potatoes and carrots, cut them up and put them in the pot of water. Next, she took the knife and sliced the meat into chunks and tossed them in with the potatoes and carrots. At the edge of her hearing, she heard Redd telling his infamous stories while Vika scoffed at some of his tales and Angus kept hushing her. She couldn’t hear Keith, though. But she wouldn’t dare look over, despite her curiosity.

With her luck, he just might be watching her.

Whenever she caught him starting, it made her feel like she was being sized and measured. As if she was on display at market. The strange thing was that she found herself wanting to impress him. Now, why would I want to do a silly thing like that? She asked herself as she tried to focus on her soup. He’s nothing that special.

Thus, she kept her eyes on her work and forced herself to think about other things. She did, after all, have more pressing matters to worry about than a troublesome young man.

If the woman with the copper hair was getting closer, Maggie knew they probably weren’t going to make it to the bog before another encounter.Since Keith was a Tine’la, she feared that they might recognize him. That surely wouldn’t end well. Maggie straightened up and sighed. If Keith reallywas a spy, he might be able to send word through the king’s bounty hunters about where they were headed. Only if they weren’t caught before they made it to the bogs. She glared into the cooking pot. There seemed to be a lot of if’s.

“I’ve heard, that if the cook looks at the food when they’re preparing it, with a face like that,” A large finger was shoved in Maggie’s face and she felt the root she was perched on take on more weight. “The meal will spoil before it is eaten.” She looked up and found Redd sitting next to her, his eyes teasing.

“Sorry…” Maggie leaned back on her hands. She suddenly realized that the others weren’t there. “Where’d everyone go?” She asked her trainer as she searched the surrounding trees from where she sat.

“Keith said something about a re-match. Vika said she wanted to see it because she missed it the first time. Apparently, it was worth watching.” Redd looked at Maggie questioningly, and she laughed. Keith wasn’t going to have a chance. “Anyway, Angus said that he wanted the practice.”

Maggie smiled at the pot of soup as she thought of Angus needing to practice. But her high spirits began to sink slightly, when she realized that Angus wasn’t the only one in need of practice.

“Hey,” Redd nudged her gently with his elbow. “Copper for your thoughts?”

Maggie reached forward and stirred the contents of the pot. “You know, right?” She didn’t take her eyes off the swirling pieces of meat,potatoes and carrots. “That we’re being followed?”

“Angus mentioned it back at the house, yes. Then there was that little episode with your stone.” She felt him watching her, but she felt too worn out to look up. “Well, according to him, the fight was quite something.”

“Angus is still a child, though. He doesn’t seem to understand how much danger we’re in.”

Redd made a scoffing noise. “Maggie, you’re still a child, you know. Do you know how dangerous it is for you right now?” Maggie felt energy slowly drain from her body. She didn’t really need to be reminded that she probably wasn’t ready to leave her home and take on her destined responsibilities. Speaking of which…

“Do you know about me?”

Redd shifted next to her. There was a count of eleven heart beats before he answered, but to Maggie, it felt so much longer. “It came with an agreement I had with your aunt and uncle. If I trained you, I had to be ready to go with you when it was time. Training you was an awesome responsibility, not that you were hard to train. I’m proud to be able to help you.”

Maggie couldn’t say she was completely shocked that he had known the entire time, but she was a bit surprised. She smiled slightly, that was just like them. Whether they were with her physically or not, her aunt and unclealways found some way to protect her. The odd time, Redd knew the right things to say. But, there were many more times that he didn’t. Maggie tried not to think of those.

“Honestly, I don’t know if I can do this.” Maggie sighed as she used to spoon to scoop some broth out of the pot. She brought it up to her lips and blew at the steam to cool it off.

“I know what’ll make you feel better!” Redd jumped up and walked over to their packs. A moment later he returned carrying the case for her fiddle as Maggie sat and continued to blow on the spoonful of soup. She eyed him skeptically as he set it down next to her. “Here we are!” He made a grand sweeping gesture towards her and the case.

Maggie sighed and rolled her eyes. “Redd, I already told you –,”

“I know you did, but I’m not asking you to play it for me.” Redd looked at her as if remembering a bitter-sweet memory. “Before I left, you used to play it to make people happy. You even told me that seeing those people smile and laughing was almost better than playing because you wanted to.”

Maggie felt like crying. They both knew it wasn’t because he left that she had lost the joy of playing. She was being selfish, and she knew it. She wasn’t the only one who grieved after Aunt Heather died.

Redd wrapped his hand up in a cloth and took the pot with the finished soup out of the flames. He put in on another stone that was covered in moss. “I’m going to get them. The Warrior is almost below the horizon.” Without another word he stalked off through the mighty trees of the Curtian Forest.

Maggie’s eyes followed him until he disappeared behind the large trunks. She glanced up at the sky and realized that the daylight had faded more than she had thought.

Then her eyes landed on the very familiar case sitting next to her on the ground.

*****

Keith’s pride wasn’t the only thing that was wounded.

He had lost to Angus, again.

He tried attacking from the trees, as the boy had done the night before, but found it was harder than he thought. He ended up falling from a fair height and then Angus found him and gave him a good pounding.

“How do you guys do it?” Keith asked as he limped beside Angus.His left side had a stitch, and his thigh was going to have a Warrior-awful bruise from falling out of the tree not to mention an assortment of scrapes and scratches from branches.

“What, you mean beating cocky nobles? That’s easy!” Angus smirked up at Keith who tripped over some tufts of grass at the mention of nobles. Angus laughed and Redd chuckled. “Give us a bit more credit. Maggie didn’t tell us anything until after we asked. But we had it figured out after we first met you on the road. Almost everything about you practically screams nobility.”

Keith sighed. He hoped that his appearance wasn’t that obvious. But with these cousins, he didn’t really have to worry about rank. “No. I meant, how do you move through the trees so fast?” Keith glanced at Redd expecting him to explain.

Redd laugh in response and shook his head. “Sorry, my friend.” But the trainer said no more.

Vika was the one to answer Keith’s question, much to his surprise. “Maggie is the one with speed across the branches. She might have taught us most of her tricks, she’s still faster that both of us.” The young woman indicated herself and Angus. “Some people just have the knack.”

“So could traveling through the forest be her quality?” Keith asked, interested.

“Perhaps.” Vika shrugged. “But I know for a fact that she has more than one.”

Keith was about to ask more about Maggie’s qualities, but just then a strange noise drifted in on the twilight. It reminded him of a harp, but the plucking of the strings sounded too tight. “What is that?” He asked, as he searched the trees around them.

Redd chuckled softly – knowingly – beside him.

Vika squealed excitedly behind Keith. “Redd! What did you do?” She jumped on his shoulder and he stumbled slightly. “I haven’t heard her in close to forever!  Not since… how did you do it?” Angus cleared his throat and made a face. “Okay, fine. Not since that pub, but before that it felt close to forever.” Both Angus and Redd rolled their eyes.

Keith was quite taken aback. He had never seen Vika in such a good mood. On his other side, Angus was beaming. A slow and gentle melody came floating into Keith’s ear with the next breeze.

“Well? Come on, tell me!” Vika demanded with a giggle.

Redd shrugged. “I told her what I thought. She might not seem like it, but she’s terrified. I told her what I thought would give her some confidence.” The trainer’s seriousness had a ripple effect. Vika slide off his back and went quiet. Angus stared at where his feet were going. His smile had vanished. Keith looked ahead of him, towards the camp. Was the strong young woman he saw Maggie as, scared? Just the thought of having people hunting him down, made Keith feel uncomfortable. He doubted he could even grasp the fear she knew of without knowing a bit more about her.Maybe I should have stayed with Daileas. He thought to himself, and not for the first time.

The four walked on in silence, with only the undergrowth crunching beneath their feet and the distance sound of Maggie’s plucking.

By the time they reached the firelight, their solemn air clashed with the sad atmosphere that waited there. Maggie sat facing the burning wood, eyes focused on the orange flames. In her lap was an instrument Keith recognized as a violin. It’s curved wood shown in the dimming daylight. Her fingers seemed to move with a mind of their own. The near black shade of the finger board had spots where the paint was slightly worn. The girl didn’t look up as they approached and took the empty places around the fire.

Without