Kaila had her world turned upside down when her parents died leaving her to fend for herself and little sister. In haven she found somewhere that they could call home. What will she do when circumstances take away everything she has worked for to give her sister the best life she could.Only one option remains: Kaila must become a herald.
Kaila sat watching the group of young women as they walked past. They were daughters of the richer merchants. They laughed at some shared joke and one of the women turned her lip up at Kaila as she saw her sitting on the tavern steps watching them.
Kaila looked down at herself; she wore a dirty, well worn dress. If you looked really carefully you could just make-out that it had once been blue. Her once fine hands were stained and calloused. Her hair fell down into her face; with a sigh she pushed the stray strands back behind her ears. It hadn't always been like this, once she had been carefree and confident in her future as the young women just passed were. Her whole world had fallen apart when two years ago her parents had died in a bandit raid on their village. She had just turned thirteen, too young to bring in enough to support herself and her baby sister, Amari. The villagers had encouraged her to head for haven as they didn't need nor want any extra mouths to feed.
Now she was fifteen and had been living and working in The Sword and the Mug, for a year and a half. On the way to haven she had done whatever work she could to pay for her and her sister's passage to haven. The Sword was not the cleanest tavern but the food was decent and well priced. The owner, Lanoilyn, never laid a hand on any of the staff in fact he treated them like they were family. Other than Kaila there was also Laela, the cook, who was only a couple of years older than Kaila and Bryce, the young stable hand. When the tavern was busy everyone helped to serve.
Of everyone, Amari was Lanoilyn's favourite, though no one was jealous of the attention and gifts he gave her. Amari had become the daughter he had lost and he was the father she so dearly needed in her young life. When they had first arrived and Kaila started working, Laela had told her Lanoilyn's story. He had married a young girl whom he loved more than anything. They were married for five years and she had not fallen pregnant. Finally she had feel pregnant but fell very sick during her pregnancy. She had only enough energy left to birth her child before she died not even knowing if she had borne a boy or a girl. Lanoilyn had held her limp body in his arms until it went cold. The child, a daughter, died within two days of her mother. For years Lanoilyn had blamed himself for the death of his daughter, who died nameless. He felt that if he had let go of his grief to look after his tiny girl, she would have lived. When Kaila and Amara arrived, Lanoilyn's wife and daughter had been gone for over 5 years. Amari had been about two years old, now she was nearing four years old.
"Kai, Lano says to come inside now," said a smug voice from behind her. She turned to see Amari standing in the door way smirking, "He doesn't look very happy, what did you do?"
"Wipe that smirk off your face Mari, or I'll tell Lanoilyn to put you to work scrubbing pots." she replied as she stood up to go inside. The indignant look on Amari's face made her chuckle. She ruffled her sister's hair as she walked past her, "You coming squirt"
"I'm NOT a squirt, stop calling me that." Amari shot back as she puffed her chest up and stuck her bottom lip out. Kaila felt something tug at her awareness, she shivered and shook her head to clear the feeling. Whatever it was she'd been feeling it all day.
"Whatever,"she said to her sister, she was no longer in the mood to tease her. "I see you've got a new dress"
"Yeah, Lano said I was a big girl now and needed a big girl dress" the dress was not what Kaila would have called a 'big girl dress'. It was pink, shiny and worst of all, covered in frilly lace, it made her look like a porcelain doll.
"Well good for you, did you thank Lano for his gift?"
"Yes of course I did"
"Good, go up to our room, I'll be up soon, okay."
She stepped into the kitchen looking over to the corner where Lanoilyn was talking to Laela. She waited for a break in the conversation before clearing her throat and saying "Lano, you wanted me."
He turned to her gesturing for her join them. His face was pale and his eyes wide. In his hand was a letter. "I have to go away for a little while; I'm not sure for how long I will be gone. I know that with just three people the workload will be too much for you all and I can't afford to hire anyone else." He looked like he was about to faint, Laela steadied him then moved him to an upturned ale barrel. He sat down then motioned for Laela to continue for him.
"The only other thing we can do is close the tavern for a while and go stay with family and friends, but Lano is worried about you and Amari being alone."
Kaila nodded then bit her lip as she thought about their possibilities.
"Hmmm, when will you be leaving?"
Laela answered for him, "Lano should leave as soon as possible, maybe a day or two."
"And you don't know how long you will be away for, hmmm, well I do have a bit of money saved up but I don't know how long it will last. If you could write me a letter of reference I might be able to get a bit of work here and there until you get back"
Lanoilyn nodded, "I'll write one up tonight. Now we all better get to work, tonight looks to be a busy one"
As Kaila served the customers, she couldn't help wondering what had been in the letter that had shaken Lanoilyn so severely. She really didn't know enough about Lanoilyn's life outside the tavern to guess what it might be about. She felt the now familiar sensation of someone looking through her tugging at her awareness again. A shiver ran down her. "Hey girl, you pouring that ale?" She shook her self out of her trance. "Coming."
When she went to bed, she lay awake starring into the darkness. All the feelings she had two years ago came flooding back to her. At least this time she had more chance of supporting Amari and herself straight away. She had her savings and with the reference she could probably get a fill in job easy enough. Still she worried, what if she couldn't get a job, or somewhere to stay, or… there were so many terrible possibilities. As she felt her eyelids getting heavy she thought to herself oh well, something to worry about tomorrow, for now I need to sleep