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

“Don’t you get tired of watching the same old sunrise every day?” Keith was looking towards the sky that was constantly brightening.

“No, not really. It’s never the same sunrise, you know. When I was little, my aunt always told me that sunrises were a reminder of salvation. There was always a story in there, too – she loved her stories. They meant almost everything to her. There’s just something special about them that can’t be explained.” Maggie followed his gaze.

“What a beautiful way to remember her…” Keith awed. Yet quietly to himself he added, “I wish I could remember Da like this.”

Maggie still heard him.

Maggie turned and looked at him. There was a deep kind of sorrow that played in his green eyes. Another breeze came and tossed his shaggy mane of red hair around. From this angle, there was something about him, that made Maggie want to give him a comforting hug, but she knew better. Instead she lightly placed her hand on his. A surge of heat spread throughout her body and she felt like there were butterflies fluttering inside her. She felt Keith turn and look at her, but she kept her eyes down, trying to hide the blush she knew was rushing to her cheeks.

“I know what it feels like to lose someone you love.” Maggie whispered as she cautiously lifted her eyes to meet Keith’s green ones. She gave him a small smile before looking to the east again. Hoping to lighten the mood before the sun came she said, “The sun will be up soon. This day will be like none other.” Afraid that she might lose the feeling she had when their hands touched, she didn’t move.

As the sun rose higher on the horizon, her mind started to wander back to Uncle Will and Aunt Heather. Back to when the three of them would sit in trees together. Soon she was surrounded by memories.

*****

How could she say that? Keith couldn’t really remember a time when he did love his father. The only loved one that he had ever lost in life was his mother. Daileas – an eerie look-a-like – was he needed to be reminded of her. The girl perched on the branch next to him held her aunt’s memory in her heart dearly, but he held the guiltily memory of his father instead. It nearly blotted out the memory of his mother completely.

Looking down at their hands, he felt warm and safe. Just the thought of her hand on his made his heart do summersaults. Which was strange, right? When she had placed her hand there, he felt a jolt of energy and yet felt weak. The fact that she had left it there made him feel a little bit giddy inside. A slight cool breeze came sweeping through the trees again as his eyes slid up her thin, freckle covered arm, to her sweet face that seemed to have more freckles painted across her slight nose and both her cheeks. Her blue eyes danced as they watched the horizon. Her blonde hair had come loose from her braid when she fell and was now swirling around her like she was some sort of woodland faerie.

Half of the time, Keith wondered if these three children were real. Maybe they were just his imagination. Sometimes, when he was half asleep, he started to make a list in his mind of what they could be; it went from pixies to trapped souls to witches. Keith thought of how they had seemed to appear out of nowhere; how Maggie could just sit back in trees all day if she could; how Angus was playfully immature and how Vika would kill him at first glance if Angus or Maggie weren’t nearby. Wood nymphs were still the highest on his list. It hadn’t actually changed since he first stumbled over them at the edge of the Curtian forest.

Then there was the confusing case of Redd. He was tall, skilled, and seemed to know almost everything about Maggie. Maybe he was the mystical creature among this strange group. He acted like he knew everything – except when it came to naming; he had named his horse Steve. Obviously, it was one of the man’s weaker points.

Suddenly a strong wind whipped through the trees tops, blowing away his thoughts. Coming back to the real world again, Keith realized Maggie had removed her hand from his and she was shivering against the bite of the cold gust. The sky was much brighter now, but the sun was still sleeping. She had nothing heavier that what she’d slept in.

“Are you cold?” Keith asked the shaking frame beside him. The only response he got was a slight nod followed by more shivers. He could just see Maggie’s jaw chattering. Reaching for the clasp of his cloak, he undid it and draped it across her shoulders. Maggie looked at him with thankful eyes, and gave him an appreciating smile before looking back at the sun.

After a quick glance down to make sure that the others were still asleep, Keith carefully placed his arm around her bony shoulders. He had the right to be afraid, didn’t he? For all he knew Vika would wake up and see him touching Maggie and kill him the first chance she got, or Maggie would use his arm to throw him out of the tree like she did in that empty courtyard. When he first placed his arm around her she froze stiff, but to his surprise, her shoulders relaxed. He rubbed the arm farthest from him to help her warm up and she slowly leaned into him, like she wasn’t quite sure that it was safe.

Her soft hair came to rest on his chest. She smelled like cedar and pine. She seemed small and almost fragile with his large cloak draped over her thin frame. How could this girl throw his whole life twirling in the wind? Maggie’s breaths were long and deep, like she was falling asleep. Or trying to control the urge to kill him. Keith silently hoped that it was the former – and that she couldn’t hear his heart pounding in his chest. Gently, he brought his other arm around her front to position himself so that he blocked most of the wind.

Oddly, he found himself relaxing.

She was like a small child. Reminding him of when he and his brother were younger and they would hide in a secret kitchen cupboard whenever their father had one of his drunken fits. Two little boys huddled together. Daileas had been so small.

They sat like that until the clouds on the horizon changed to bright pinks and oranges. Keith’s mind was swarming with questions from the night before. Maggie’s notes, Vika’s beautiful singing, as well as the dances Angus and Redd taught him with near impossible foot work all played back in his memory. With a glance down at Maggie’s left hand – the one she used for the finger board – he noticed that the tips of her fingers seemed to be smudged with the black stain of the wood.

“Maggie?” Keith found himself asking. “How do you do it?”

Maggie sat up and looked at him with a puzzled gaze, as if her mind was somewhere else. “Do what?”

“Well, you know,” Keith wasn’t all too sure where he was taking this. “A girl as young as you traveling across the country on a whim. Bringing along a girl with daggers, and a boy with a crossbow and shield. How long were you guys alone before I came across you? ” As her look of confusion turned to one of irritation, he tried to clarify quickly – even though a little voice inside his head told him to quit while he was ahead. “I mean, aren’t you all too young to be traveling alone? Especially a girl like you. ”

“A ‘girl like me’?!” Her startling tone made Keith’s blood run cold. “You don’t think that I can take care of myself and my own cousins!” Her voice had no question in it. “What is it with men? Why do you all think that women cannot care for themselves?” Now she was angry. Did I say something wrong? Keith was now looking down into two blue stormy seas as they stared back at him.

“No! No, that wasn’t what I meant.” He held his hands up in defence against Maggie’s reddening face. For a girl of fifteen, she can be pretty scary, he thought.

“Well, then what did you mean?” she stared hard at him. What was he supposed to say to her? Franticly, he thought of what he could possibly tell her, that wouldn’t offend her. ‘Um–I–uh, I was just wondering how you could do such a thing. Leave everything that you’ve known and head north with only a letter as a guide.”

Maggie had her mouth open as if she were going to tell him how wrong he was, but at his mentioning the letter she closed it up tight. Keith realized that he shouldn’t have said that. Slowly she turned her head back around to the eastern sky, where the sun had changed all the clouds and part of the starless sky a pale yellow. “What letter?” Her voice was barely above the whisper of the wind in the leaves around them.

“Maggie I –” Keith started to explain why he had been sifting through her bag but when he saw the tear sparkling in the faint sunlight as it rolled down her cheek, he stopped. He found he couldn’t lie to her. “It’s not what you think.”

“Not what I think, huh? How do you know about the letter?!” she demanded as she threw his cloak back in his face. “So after we were asleep, you–you just went through my bag?” Her voice was rising with her anger. “What are you, a spy? Is this a game to you?!” Now he had no idea what she was talking about. “Cursed stone.” She mumbled.

“What are you talking about?” Keith couldn’t think of anything else to say. Keith was positive that she had no intention of trusting him at all. What did she do that made her think him a spy?

“It doesn’t matter. Why were you going throw my things? Wait,” – she held up her hand – “I don’t want to know. But, just a warning, it’s a long fall to the ground.” And with one swift gesture, Maggie knocked him off the branch. Before he could grasp what was happening, the ground was coming up to meet him. Somewhere, beyond his pulse pounding in his ears and the air rushing past his face, he heard a sharp whistle. Then, Maggie’s voice called for Vika and Redd to catch him before he hit the forest floor.

He was caught by two sets of hands with his face so close to the ground that he could feel the moisture coming off it, and thrown against the tree he just plummeted from. Trying hard to slow his heart rate and catch his breath, Keith stared up into the amused faces of Vika, Angus, and Redd. He could have sworn they’d all been asleep, but the alertness the gazes locked on him told him a very different story.

“Oh man, you sure got taught a lesson!” Redd smiled down at Keith. “Let me guess. You said something about her being unable because she’s a girl, right?” Keith nodded, stunned. How did he know? “Yeah, I’ve been there. I’ve even got the scare to prove it.” As Redd rolled the sleeve on his left arm, Keith could see a tin faint line running jagged on the inside of his forearm.

“Hah! Bet you can’t guess what he said to her!” Angus said to Keith, he sounded just as happy as Vika looked. She had a smile of pure joy on her lips. “One day during training, Mr. Unbeatable over here, thought it’d good idea to