Chapter 2


PLAYTIME

Tofa watched with delight out the scullery window as her son and daughter frolicked on the grounds, tossing a cabbage ball back and forth, its arc increasing, their laughter coming in shrieks as Aud whirled first towards Erp, then towards Silksif, arms stretched painfully high as she leapt at each throw and missed. This was a popular sport, one the children played whenever Aud brought home more rabbit feed, and that simpleton girl fell for it every single time. If just once the child had shown signs of intelligence, Tofa was certain she could overlook Aud's infirmity, but moments like these only proved there was no point in trying.

"Audhumla, Audhumla, bringing greens home for her rabbits," Erp sang out, heaving the cabbage so hard he lost his balance and toppled onto the grass.

"How ever will she feed them if she never can quite nab it!" Silksif squealed, cowering as the ball neared her. It plopped at her feet and she scooped it up quickly, making a wild pitch to her brother when she saw Aud advancing.

The game took a chaotic turn as Aud careened headlong into Silksif, having lost her footing, and both girls plunged into their mother's garden, Aud struggling to free herself from Silksif, who kicked and screamed like a madman being dragged to the gallows. Erp lay a few feet away, his almond-brown eyes widened in horror.

"Get her off me, get her off me! Mamma!"

Positive that his sister was being murdered, Erp launched himself upright and reached the flowerbed in three long strides. Aud had already made it to her feet and was trying to tame one of Silksif's floundering arms long enough to assist the girl in standing. Erp gave Aud the most vicious shove he could muster, in the process receiving a series of blows to the shin by the hysterical Silksif. He opened his mouth to howl, but forgot to be hurt when he noticed the squiggle of blood that had formed under Silksif's nostril.

Tofa, winded from her dash out of the thatched roof cottage and onto the lawn, gasped at the sight of her daughter tangled in clumps of delicately flowered vines, nose bleeding. "Silky!"

"Aud did it, Mamma. She made me ruin your ivy."

Aud stood to the side, sullen and motionless as one of the nymph sculptures that decorated Tofa's garden, her arm cradled to her chest as it had been since Erp's attack sent her reeling. Fearing her own injuries - imagined or real - would be overlooked, Silksif erupted into tears, face burrowed in hands. When she drew back and noticed the watered-down crimson streaks on her palms, the sobs became real and twice as loud.

No amount of cajoling from Tofa or Erp would quiet the girl.

"I hate her. Why do you let her stay, Mamma? She's naughty and hateful and... and she smells like dirty rabbit fur." Silksif stamped the last insult into the ground with her heel, shaking off Tofa and Erp when they tried to help steady her.

"Calm yourself, pet." Tofa gingerly plucked a leaf from the girl's blond ringlets. "I've told you before, she must stay. The world is not kind to her sort. And though she may be troublesome, she is of some use. You wouldn't want to be stuck with her chores, now would you?"

"You always side with her. You love her more than me and she's not even a person, not really. She's nothing."

Consumed by rage, Silksif marched towards Aud and landed a sound smack across the child's ashen cheek. "Do you hear me, cow? You're nothing." Silksif's aim never missed its mark as each slap became more ferocious, egged on by her disgust that Aud simply stood there and took it. "Nothing!"

Tofa had never seen her eldest daughter in such a state. A pang of guilt made her look away, momentarily shamed that she allowed this to go on in her presence. But it would be hypocrisy to stop it, when she herself had punished Aud in the same fashion on more than one occasion. There was release in it. The fault had to lie somewhere -- the fault for Tofa's dead husband, the fault for the unwanted child his murderer had placed in her belly, and all the hardships she had faced since. Aud was an easy target, her mere existence a constant reminder of that day ten years past. The child's condition was proof enough she wasn't meant to be. A mistake of the gods, Tofa believed, not to be treated as anything more.

Assuring herself that Aud didn't possess feelings, Tofa allowed Silksif to finish her temper tantrum, then ushered the exhausted girl into the cottage, Erp tagging along after he had taken pause to spit at Aud's feet.


Halfrek lowered the hood of her cloak and peered at the solitary figure standing near the cottage. A cluster of spruce trees extending from the dense forest that shrouded Aud's home had offered a tranquil and pleasantly scented hideaway, perfect for viewing the little family tragedies and other goings-on Halfrek had witnessed in the week since her discovery of Aud. Ordinarily Halfrek would have confronted the child again and finagled a wish out of her long before it came to this, this undignified spying from the wood, but Aud was anything besides ordinary.

She might not speak or think in an accessible language, but there was a soul behind those doe eyes (yes, despite what the imbecilic mother believed) and so much life, so much strength that it took Halfrek's breath away. She would have been envious if that weren't such an absurd concept: one of D'Hoffryn's favored daughters envious of a shabby child whose only purpose in life was maintaining smelly rodents! Still, every time Aud's emotions surged, be it joyfulness and love for her rabbits, or the degradation and pain inflicted by her family, they intoxicated Halfrek with their sheer power. She was almost pleased with the setback Aud's inability to speak had caused. Almost.

Halfrek gasped and slid further into the shadows when Aud suddenly turned from the cottage and faced her. If she had been spotted, the girl gave no indication, just a tilt of the head that made visible a bright smear of blood on the cheek assaulted by that vulgar beastcalled Silksif. Aud touched the red mark, eyes fixed and unreadable, then licked clean her fingertip. Quivers danced along Halfrek's spine when a strange metallic taste flooded her own mouth. Again she felt a force pulling her toward the child, like they were at a game of tug o' war and Aud was winning, and she found herself creeping behind Aud, who had retrieved her disheveled cabbage and wandered off to the rabbit hutch.

Something akin to affection filled Halfrek as she watched Aud supping with her furry companions. Rabbits were usually skittish around humans, but they flocked to Aud, eating from her hands and never straying far from her side as she sat in their midst nibbling at a cabbage leaf. When one adventuresome bunny did eventually try to hop away, Halfrek saw her opportunity and seized it. Peppering the animal with a neutralizing powder to ensure it would not fight, Halfrek gathered it to her breast and strode into the feeding pen. The rabbit took up thrashing the moment she placed it at Aud's feet.

"This little rogue was about to escape."

Catching Aud by the shoulders before she could scramble upright, Halfrek echoed the phrase she so often fed her prey: "Fear not. I mean you no harm." And as proof, she seated herself in the dirt, casual as you please, and selected a downy white bundle to hold in her lap. Luckily this rabbit was far more subdued than the other and needed only a light stroke between the ears to keep still.

"I think he likes me, don't you?"

Halfrek cast a sly look at Aud and grinned to find the child studying her carefully. "Ah, so you do remember me, then. I should have known you would. I'm afraid we got off to a bad start, you and I. I've been waiting for the right time to introduce myself to you properly, without frightening you away again."

Aud stared, paying close attention to Halfrek's mouth.

"My name is Halfrek. And you are Aud, of course." Halfrek made a flippant gesture. "Imust have heard it from someone in town."

She lifted the rabbit and nestled her cheek in its soft fur. "Does this one have a name?"

Aud responded by snatching the rabbit from Halfrek and hugging it protectively.

"Well." Halfrek chuckled. "Aren't we ornery. Take care you don't turn out like Silksif, my dear. One of those in the world is enough."

Losing interest, or at least pretending to, Aud left Halfrek on the ground and went about garnering the rabbits, placing several of them in her apron skirt and depositing them in their hutch. Halfrek remained seated and acted as though she didn't notice the child's occasional glance over the shoulder. When every rabbit was accounted for, Aud disappeared inside the small storage hut that stood nearby the feeding pen. Halfrek knew it was the child's dwelling place, Tofa's cottage being out of the question, and she was debating whether any boundaries would be overstepped by entering, but Aud saved her the trouble by coming back outside.

Any surprise to see Halfrek still sitting inside the pen was absent from Aud's face as she nudged aside the gate, favoring one arm, and plopped onto the grassy section that was farthest away from the woman.

"What have you got there?" Halfrek inched her way closer, scooting on her rear until she was within arms reach and could see that the girl was holding a family of ragamuffin dolls made from scraps of grain sack. "Oh, fun. May I play?"

Aud spread all four dolls neatly on the ground and looked to Halfrek. It was as much of an invite as she was going to get, and Halfrek took it, eagerly choosing the smallest doll of the bunch. "I want to be the baby," she said, fussing with the droopy skirt her new toy was dressed in. It looked like it had been sewn on by a blind monkey. "I gather you made these yourself."

Busy toddling the doll through the grass and speaking in a high-pitched voice, Halfrek took a while to notice Aud's much quieter - and therefore less enjoyable - method of play. Holding the largest doll in one hand, Aud brought forth the smaller pair and mashed them together, then wrapped them in a tight embrace. Her lips puckered, she dabbed silent kisses atop each scruffy cloth head. She repeated this process several times before pausing to look at Halfrek's doll.

"Allow me," Halfrek said, preparing to make her own rare display of affection. It would be easier to carry out on a lifeless bit of knotted rag. The doll was halfway to her lips when Aud yanked it free.

"Hey!"

Vexed with having everything jerked from her grasp, Halfrek reached to take back her plaything but missed. She was considering whether a look at her true face might scare Aud into letting go, when the child's actions became distracting. All hints of caressing gone, Aud was using the two medium dolls, one wearing what looked to be trousers and the other in a dress, to pound the smaller figure senseless. Her fury mounted until finally she threw down the weapons, picked up the pulverized toy and twisted off one of its tiny dangling arms.

"Oh, I see." Halfrek looked around at the strewn rag family. Taking caution incase the violent scene wasn't finished, she pointed at each doll in turn, starting with the largest, the mother, and said, "Tofa. Silksif. Erp."

Aud handed the limp and smallest member of the doll family back to Halfrek.

"Aud," Halfrek murmured, cupping the broken baby lightly in her palm and tracing its coal-sketched outline of a mouth with her finger. When the real Aud took her by the hand, Halfrek was too startled to pull away. She let herself be guided until her fingertips touched flesh, the child's silent lips. Halfrek grazed the pad of her thumb against Aud's plump bottom lip and vowed, "I won't let it go on much longer. I promise."