Kalina stood watching the girl working in the herb
garden. Over the years her hair, had darkened to a
honey color that danced somewhere between brown and
blond. Her eyes had also faded to a deep, dark
sea-green. Dana gave her a warm smile. "How are
you feeling this morning?"
"Much better. Thank you. The brew you made did
wonders for the stiffness in my hands."
"Well, good, but I really don't think you should be
out in the morning cold. You know it always makes
it worse again."
The old woman laughed and patted Dana's hands
lovingly. "It sounds more and more everyday like you are
the mother and I am the child."
"Well, I have to take care of you, Mother."
Kalina smiled at her again, then the smile faded.
Even though she still thought of her as the little girl
who she'd pulled from the brook so many times when it
was far too cold to be swimming and who had terrified
and angered her when she became enchanted with some
forest creature and chased it off deep into the woods,
this was a young woman in her sixteenth year. She
was still a skinny little thing; however, Kalina was
certain that it wouldn't be terribly long before that
changed.
The fact that she was growing into such a beautiful
and strong young woman should have made Kalina proud,
but instead it frightened her. She knew that the
time would soon come when she had to let her go.
There were things that Dana was meant to do. Even
with her face smeared with dirt from the morning's
garden work and clad in a simple, dark-brown wool gown,
she held an air of elegance that would have rivaled any
queen.
Dana went over to the brook and peeked in to see if
she was as dirty as she felt. The face that peered
back at her was covered in streaks of dirt across her
high cheekbones and even on her nose. She leaned
down and splashed cold water on her face scrubbing a
little to take the dirt away. It felt good.
Even though the air still held the chill of morning, she
had gotten very warm working in the garden, and the
shock of the cold was exhilarating.
After she was clean, she went back to the cottage and
sat in the grass outside closing her eyes and relaxing
in the sunlight. Kalina had gone back inside to
finish the stew for lunch. Dana had been out
hunting the day before and had managed to get two large
rabbits, so they were in for a feast. The smell
was already drifting out to her, and it made her stomach
rumble. The food had been a little
scarce in the last few months, and, to make matters
worse, the chickens didn't seem to want to give any
eggs. Kalina had said something about just giving
up and eating them, but Dana's luck hunting had earned
them at least a temporary reprieve.
Fortunately, it was almost mid-summer. The
fruits would be ripening soon, and then there would be
plenty of food to find. She looked at the little
cottage where she'd grown up and made a list of things
that needed to be done. The low, thatched roof had
lost a lot of its fullness in a storm that had blown
through a few weeks earlier. That was not so hard
to fix. She had done it several times. However,
the shutters on the south side of the house had begun to
fall apart, and that was another story altogether.
She'd never had to try to fix them before. It was
certainly lucky that the carpenter's wife from
Silverwood was having a baby soon. Maybe Dana
could convince him to teach her to fix them as payment.
For as long as she could remember, she'd gone along
with Kalina when she went to deliver the town's babies.
Dana had seen almost every child younger than herself
being born in the little town outside the woods.
There were only a few people who refused Kalina's
services for various reasons. Dana hadn't actually
performed a delivery yet, but Kalina said this was to be
her first. The carpenter's wife, Anna, was just a
little older than Dana, and she had already lost two
babies within the first few months of the pregnancies.
The carpenter's family had been some of the ones who had
refused to see Kalina. They'd called her a witch
and wouldn't have anything to do with her, but then,
after the loss of her first two children, the young
woman had demanded that they seek help from the old
healer. Fortunately, this child was almost ready
to be born and seemed to be perfectly healthy.
Dana had been learning the gentle arts of healing
from Kalina since she was a small child. It was
amazing. It was a little bit magic and a little
bit knowledge. You had to know what herbs helped
with what ailments and how to prepare them.
However, there was much more to it than that. You
also had to have a connection with the people that you
helped on a very emotional level and to understand how
the energies travel in the body. If something was
doing harm, then it interrupted the way the energy
traveled and that caused pain. Healing it was a
matter of allowing the energies to flow freely again.
Kalina had always told her that she was more gifted than
anyone that she'd known. Dana suspected it was
only because Kalina loved her that she thought so.
It was true that healing had always come rather easily
to her, but she was certain that it was more because her
mother was a wonderful teacher than because of any gifts
she possessed.
Kalina's voice drew her out of her thoughts, and she
opened her eyes to look at her. This was the old
woman who had raised her as her own child, even though
she had no reason in the world to do so. Kalina
had found her in the garden of her small cottage in the
Whispering Wood sixteen years ago with nothing to her
name besides a fine green woolen blanket. She'd
taken her in, named her Dana, and raised her with all
the love a real mother must have for her child.
Kalina's long, wavy, silver hair fell loose around her
shoulders and her wrinkled, little face screwed up in a
frown. She peered down at Dana with ever-sharp
eyes the color of the sky on a cold winter day, a
beautiful blend of blue and gray.
Dana knew she was in trouble by the look on her face.
"Yes, madam?" She gave her the sweetest smile that
she could muster and blinked up into her eyes.
Kalina laughed, knowing instantly what she as up to.
"Don't give me that look. Didn't I ask you to get
me some chamomile blossoms? If I don't have them
soon, then there is no way that I can get them dry
before Anna's baby is here. She will need
something to calm her nerves during the labor, and we
used all of my herbs at the last delivery."
Dana stuck her bottom lip out a little, "But the only
place it grows is in the old fort, and it's so far away,
and I am terribly hungry." She stood up and gave the old
woman a hug. "You wouldn't send your only child
out hungry into the forest would you?"
Kalina smiled at her. "Of course not, dear.
First, we eat this lovely rabbit stew, then you go out
and get it for me."
They had a delightful meal, sitting at the little
oaken table that had definitely seen better years.
The fire in the hearth, which held the huge pot, warmed
the entire cottage. The stew seemed to taste
better than anything that Dana had eaten in her entire
life. It filled her empty stomach making her warm
all over and leaving her feeling even lazier than before
she'd eaten.
When they were through eating, Dana climbed up into
the little loft where she slept and found her small
satchel for herbs and also her light green, lamb's wool
shawl. It was the same blanket that she'd been
wrapped in when Kalina found her. The old woman
often said that fairies must have spun it themselves to
keep her safe until someone came for her.
Her mother's voice sounded from below, and she knew
that she'd been dawdling again. "Coming!" She
called back and started down the little ladder.
When she reached the bottom, she turned to see the
old woman glaring at her. "If you don't go now,
then you won't be back before sunset. You know how
dangerous it is for you to be walking around in the
forest at night."
"Yes, Ma'am. I promise that I'll be as quick as
I can." She threw the bow and quiver over her
shoulder too in case she happened upon another yummy
meal on the way. "But if I am a little past
sunset, assume I am coming home with something good to
eat." She smiled and kissed the old woman good-bye,
before starting off in the direction of the old fort.
It was a nice walk but very, very long. It took a
good three hours of following the little brook upstream.
The brook had actually once run right through the middle
of the fort. It was really quite beautiful.
There was hardly anything left of the walls, just high
piles of stones around perimeter that crawled with
bright green flowering vines. When she had come
here as a child, she always imagined that she was a
warrior in the great army that had lived there.
She could almost see the fortress as it had been before
a terrible battle and the hands of time had destroyed
it.
As she came to the fortress, she could tell that
something was amiss. It wasn't, as it usually was,
completely motionless and peaceful. Now she caught
the scent of smoke, and she could hear the sounds of
men. Not just men, but warriors. There was a
faint clanking of metal against metal. She
recognized the sound quickly. She had heard it
once when there were soldiers who came through
Silverwood. They had been wearing armor made from
small interlocking rings of metal that made the most
musical sound when they walked.
Dana approached very cautiously, peeking around the
opening that was left from the little brook's entrance
into the fortress. She couldn't see anyone, so she
assumed that they must have been on the other side of
the fort and not actually inside. Her hands shook
a little at the prospect of being cornered alone with a
bunch of soldiers. Kalina had always warned her of
what soldiers did if they found a young woman alone out
in the woods. She shook it off. If she
didn't get that chamomile, then the Carpenter's wife
wouldn't have anything to calm her nerves during the
delivery.
She ducked inside the walls and stayed low, making
her way to the place where the chamomile grew. It
had obviously been a house. The small outline of
stones was lined on all sides with the herb she was
looking for. It was still early for the flowers, but she
was lucky enough that the unusually warm weather had
brought on the blooms sooner. They were
everywhere.
Dana laid her bow and quiver down in the grass and
crawled on her hands and knees gathering the flowers on
the path. Then thinking that she could add the
chamomile to her herb garden, she began to dig up a few
plants. She dug up ten different plants, pressing the
dirt tight and then placing them in her satchel.
After that she put the blooms she had picked in her
quiver with the arrows to keep them from getting covered
in dirt.
She had almost completely forgotten the sounds of the
soldiers as she worked. It only took about a half
an hour. Just as she was finishing up, she heard
the sounds of heavy, booted footsteps coming in her
direction. She pulled her things close to her body
and pressed against the short, stone wall that had once
made up outside of the house. Her mouth went dry,
and her hands shook. She heard those footsteps
coming closer and closer to her as if they knew she was
there.
Dana saw his shadow on the other side of the stone
wall. It was truly enormous. She felt her
hands begin to shake. The arrows in the quiver
began to bumped into each other and make the tiniest
sound. She prayed that the man didn't hear it.
Unfortunately, her prayers went unheeded.
Agonizing pain shot through her as a hand came down
and grabbed a fistful of her hair hauling her up to her
feet. It felt as if he would rip her scalp from
her skull. A gruff voice whispered into her ear.
"And what have we here? A little spy?" He
turned her around and looked her up and down in a way
that made her think of slimy things. He was an
enormous man in leather armor, which explained why she
hadn't heard him at first when he was walking toward
her. "You should answer me, you little brat."
His breath in her face made her sick to her stomach.
It stank like rotting meat. He had a thick beard
with bits of food stuck in it, as if he hadn't washed
his face in days.
"I'm just gathering herbs, sir. I'll be leaving if I
am being a bother." Dana could hardly speak.
Her mouth was dry, and she was shaking all over.
He reached up over her shoulder to grab something
behind her, and the stench of sweat was so horrible that
it brought tears to her eyes. He pulled an arrow
from the quiver with it came a few blossoms tumbling to
the ground. "Then explain what you need these
for."
"I was just hoping to find a little meat for my
mother on the way home."
He took the sharp edge of the arrow and pressed it
against her throat. Her heart skipped a beat as it
scratched her skin. "So you were planning on
stealing from our King's woods."
She was confused and very dazed. "No, no.
I had no plans on stealing from anyone's woods. I
was just going to hunt on my way home in the Whispering
Wood."
A strange look that she couldn't quite place crossed
his face. "No one is stupid enough to go far
enough into the Whispering Wood to hunt there."
She'd heard the tales of ghosts and wood spirits that
haunted the woods, but she'd lived there her entire life
and the only glimpse of anything even out of the
ordinary had been when she saw a tiny fairy in the wild
roses that grew close to the brook. However, when
she tried to talk to it, the little fairy had flitted
away faster than she could even see. "But, sir, I
live there."
"Oh, then you're not a spy, but you are a spirit or a
witch. Either way you have to be dealt with."
He lowered his stinking mouth to her throat and breathed
in deeply.
"Ian!" A voice sounded behind him loudly, and he
stood up straight. "What do you think you're
doing?"
Dana used the opportunity to move back away from him
so that the arrow was no longer cutting her neck.
The man who'd just walked up was wearing a set of the
armor made from rings, and it jingled as he walked.
His hair was fiery red and his face was clean-shaven.
He appeared to be much more civilized than the other.
The filthy man who had been gripping her held now only
to one of her arms, although it was still so tight that
it hurt. "Sir, I've captured a spy and a thief."
The red-haired man looked her up and down and then
let out a laugh that could have shaken down the rafters,
if they hadn't fallen years before. "A spy?
She looks more like a child than a thief and a spy."
"But, sir, she admitted that she was a thief.
She was planning on stealing game from the King's
forest." He seemed a little shaken by the man who
spoke to him now.
The red-haired man turned his eyes on her again.
They were a deep hazel color that sparkled with
amusement. "Is that true?"
She shook her head, "No, Sir. I hunt only in the
Whispering Wood. It's where my mother and I live."
"The Whispering Wood?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Well, if that's true, then it's not exactly theft,
although those are also technically his lands. We
will have to take this up with the king."
The huge oaf of a man dragged her along behind the
more civilized one. She was sure if she survived
this she was going to have a terrible bruise there in
the shape of his hand. They entered a small
encampment. All the men stood and watched the
three of them. The way they looked at her, like
she was meat, made her sick to her stomach. They
were all gathered around fires, most of them cooking
their evening meal. That reminded her that Kalina
would be terrified if she didn't come home, and it made
her all the more sick. The scent of cooking meat
and slaughtered animals which had not been taken far
enough from camp as well as the stench of too many men
living too close to each other was everywhere.
There were tents all around that were made of dirty
brown material held up with long wooden poles.
Dana decided that looking down at the ground would
probably be the safest thing to do at the moment, so she
dropped her eyes to the muddy ground. When they
stopped, they were standing in front of the largest of
the tents. The red-haired man went inside, and she
heard muffled voices. A moment after that, he
pulled back the flap of the tent and nodded.
The disgusting man let go of her arm with a little
shove toward the tent. She stepped inside but kept
her eyes low. The floor was covered with a carpet
that felt so soft beneath her feet that there must have
been rushes beneath it. The tent didn't stink like
the rest of the encampment. It held a faint scent
of lavender. Her eyes drifted a little up so that
she could see booted feet on a man who was seated in a
large wooden chair. Next to the chair were another
set of booted feet standing. She made a bit of a
clumsy curtsey on unsteady legs trying her best to be
polite.
A deep, rumbling voice asked in an amused tone,
"Well, Keefe, what have you brought me today?"
"Milord, one of your men caught her in the ruins and
believed her to be a spy and a thief." His voice
sounded a little amused as well.
The King spoke again, "Well, little spy, may I ask
your name?"
She continued to look only at his feet.
"Milord, I beg you. I am not a spy, but my name is
Dana"
"Dana of the Whispering Wood," the man called Keefe
corrected.
"The Whispering Wood is it? I am King Arlan,
Dana. May I ask what you were doing on the
outskirts of our encampment?" His voice was still
amused, but now it also held a hint of interest. "And,
Dana, I would prefer that you looked at me when I spoke
to you."
"Yes, Milord, I wasn't certain . . ." She
raised her eyes and saw before her a man of enormous
size. He was wearing black, leather armor with
silver studs all over it. His hair was a blend of
dark brown and gray, and it hung just to the tops of his
shoulders. His eyes were a warm brown color, and
they looked just as amused with her as his voice
sounded. "Milord, I was just gathering chamomile
for my mother." She held out the bag that she had filled
with chamomile plants, and Keefe took it showing the
King that it contained only the plants. "You see
my mother is a midwife. One of the ladies from
Silverwood is having a baby very soon, and she will need
it to calm her nerves. We'd run completely out."
"So your mother is the healer, Kalina, from the
Whispering Wood. She is one of the finest healers
in all my lands, but isn't she very old? You can't
be her natural child"
"Oh, Milord, she would be so honored to hear that
even you think her so very talented," Dana offered a
timid smile, "and no I am not her natural child. I
am a foundling." She glanced at the man next to
the King and then back again very quickly. She
only got a slight impression. He was very young,
probably not terribly older than herself. His hair
was black and his eyes looked almost exactly the same as
the King's in the same deep brown.
King Arlan's eyes followed hers, and he smiled.
"Oh, forgive me. This is my son, Patrick."
She looked back at the man standing next to him.
He had a proud, rugged look about him. It was
obvious that he was an important part of his father's
army. He was dressed in battle-worn armor and a
tunic with his father's colors. It was a blue
background with a golden lion ready to fight emblazoned
on it. Dana gave another rather wobbly curtsy.
She was becoming more and more certain that at any
moment she might embarrass herself all the more by
fainting in front of them all. The young man bowed
back to her and gave her a quick wink.
It startled her, and she quickly averted her eyes.
Father and son exchanged an amused look and then the
King spoke again. "So we have established that you are
innocent of the charges as a spy. What of theft?"
He looked again to Keefe for an answer.
"It seems the young woman has plans of hunting on
your lands without permission." He held up the bow
and quiver, which he had taken from the oaf.
"Child, that's quite a serious accusation. Is
it true?"
She looked down at her clenched fingers and then up
again. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and she
wasn't sure exactly what to say. "Actually,
Milord, that is true. And to be perfectly honest I've
done it many times before. I hunt in the
Whispering Wood not far from my home. It's just
that food has been so scarce lately, and I always worry
for my mother's health. I never knew that it was
stealing. As one of your men said before, no one
ever hunts in those woods."
The King thought it over for a moment.
"Considering that what you said is true, that everyone
is too afraid to hunt in those woods, and the fact that
you and your mother could not possibly make enough of a
dent in the animal population to make much of a
difference, then I am willing to make you a deal."
Dana was a bit confused over what she could possibly
have to offer to him. "A deal, Milord?"
He smiled warmly at her. "The deal is that you
and your mother are allowed to have anything off the
land in the Whispering Wood so long as you live there
provided you do one service for me."
She smiled genuinely at his kindness. "Yes, Milord?"
"The only thing I ask of you is that, when my son
finally chooses a wife and marries and she is expecting
their first child, either you or your mother come and be
the midwife to her."
The young man, Patrick, sighed in exasperation.
"Father, do we have to go over this again?" There
was a tired playfulness in his voice.
"I know, Patrick, but one day you'll be married, and
you'll need a good midwife." His voice was so full
of love as he spoke to his son, then he turned to Dana
again. "So, child, is it a deal?"
"Yes, of course, Milord. I can give you my
solemn vow. That either I or my mother or both of
us shall be there."
King Arlan smiled, "Well then, it would seem that,
that is that. Please escort this young lady home,
Keefe. It's getting dark, and we can't have
anything happening to my grandchild's midwife."
"Yes, Milord, of course." Keefe bowed and
turned toward her. She curtsied again and backed
out the door.
"Thank you again for everything, Milord." She
smiled to both of them and let the flap of the tent fall
closed. As soon as she did her head became so
light and the whole world flashed like lightening. The
next thing that she knew the man Keefe had an arm around
her shoulders holding her upright. She blushed,
"Oh, please excuse me. I think I've had a bit too
much excitement today."