The next day I wasn't allowed to go out. Mother made me stay at home and read my new schoolbooks.
"You want to be top of the class, don't you? Made something of yourself, like your sister will? Then put some effort into it!"
Of course she only had my best interests at heart...but I couldn't see it then! I sulked, and barely looked at my schoolbooks. Instead, I played with some of the new things I had got in Diagon Alley, and ate some of my secret stash of sweets. In Diagon Alley, when Mother was in another shop, I had hurriedly bought some things from the sweet counter. Every-Flavor Beans and Chocolate Frogs and the like. I wondered if maybe I should bring some for Malrie and Rinlen.
At lunch, I barely paid attention. It was soup...which I hated...and I was still miserable. The news Victoria sprung on us wouldn't make me any happier either.
"I have a boyfriend," she announced suddenly, halfway through her soup.
My mother dropped her spoon. "How wonderful!" she said. "Who is it?"
"Benjamin Vance," Victoria said proudly. I knew him very vaguely...he was supposed to be the best-looking boy in the town. I groaned at the thought of all the gloating she'd be doing.
"He says he loves me," she continued. "And he tells me I'm beautiful..." She shot a look at me. "He's wonderful and perfect. I love him so much!"
"I'm sure he is," I muttered.
"Well, you don't have a boyfriend, do you, Dolores? No-one would call you beautiful, anyway."
I put down my spoon in my soup and left the room.
*****
The rest of the day I just moped around the house, not really doing anything in particular. I wound up, for some reason, standing outside the doors of my father's study. From inside I could hear talking...talking about me.
"I don't like to think she may be going into the forest...but I am suspious. Very."
"We raised her to be obedient, didn't we, Persephone? I'm sure she's not doing anything wrong...just acting like a child, that's all."
"And children very often do things wrong."
"Why don't you question the girl about it?"
"Because I'm sure she won't be truthful. Anyway...have you considered the centaurs might have hoodwinked her?"
"Oh, nonsense! She may not be too bright, but she knows enough to not speak to creatures like that. Especially after what they did to her grandfather."
"But she doesn't know what they did to her grandfather. I believe we decided not to tell her."
"Hmmm...you're right. Very well, we'll tell her in good time."
*****
They told me that evening what became of my grandfather. I knew very little about him, except that he died long ago.
"Your grandfather went innocently off into the forest one day," my mother said. "And he was killed. The leader of the centaur herd who lived there were furious he'd dared come into their home...even though it wasn't theirs. They killed him. Just like that."
My jaw dropped.
"They killed him?"
"Yes. Apparently, they kill anyone who ventures into their forest, except for young children."
"But I'm not young," I said, then realised what I'd said. Luckily she didn't notice.
"Exactly. That's why you mustn't go near that place."
"What did you do to the centaurs?" I asked, knowing full well the answer.
"We killed them." my mother said. "Well, you know, not me...your father and his friends."
"Even the little ones?"
"Even the little ones."
*****
When I was allowed to go out again...not for two days, I hated being
stuck inside...I went to see Parath. And the first thing I said to him
was:
"My mother says you killed my grandfather."
He stared at me for a minute, then realised. "Oh." And then he said. "Not me. I didn't kill him."
"Centaurs did..."
"The leader of our herd was called Kajan. He was the ruthless, mean type. He was the one who sentenced your grandfather to death. I was one of the ones who protested."
But there was something he wasn't telling me. "Who else protested, then?"
Rinlen came around the corner. He was holding a stone and a piece of wood. He looked over at us, and then leaned against a tree, carving the wood with the stone.
"Not many," Parath said.
"Did your wife?"
He was quiet, deciding what to say, and finally said. "She never liked humans."
Rinlen glanced at me, daring me to say anything about his mother. I kept quiet.
"So...they killed you for revenge?"
"Yes."
I didn't know what to say. Surely killing a human being was worse
than killing a centaur! (Is worse than killing a centaur.) But killing
all the centaurs...
Rinlen spoke. "That's why we don't want you here. Well, why I don't want you here." He gave his father a slightly cold look, then turned and left the clearing.
"What does he think I'm going to do?" I muttered. "I'm not about to murder you."
"The human mind," he intoned. "is a complicated thing."
"You're not human."
He narrowed his eyes. "I don't look like you do. But I have a mind, and a heart, you know."
Yes, I know, but they're nothing like mine! I didn't say this, of course. I wonder if he guessed it.
"Malrie wants to see you," he changed the subject. "She hasn't seen you for a few days."
"That reminds me." I said. I pulled a handful of Chocolate Frogs out of my pocket. "Frogs! Would you like one?"
He shook his head in disgust.
"It's only chocolate." I said.
"Revolting. Unhealthy, too."
I shrugged. "What about Malrie? Can she have one?" (I didn't want to give anything to Rinlen now.)
"I'd rather she didn't touch that stuff, but if you insist..."
I skipped away into the forest, and I found Malrie. We spent our last day together talking and sharing the chocolate.