Disclaimer: The Circle universe doesn't belong to me, the characters are too nice!
Author's note: anything in (parenthesis like this) are Clover's thoughts in the "present", not my own. Please review to tell me if you like it or not and why you did or didn't. Harsh words are the kindest words! Oh and if you own Street Magic could you please tell me the girl's name. I don't own it., whenever I go book shopping it's sold out, everywhere!
Chapter 2: Clover's Plea
Four hours ago:
It was a hot spring day, the sun burning brightly down from the sky, with not a cloud in sight, the type of day that would have children by the harbor jumping into the waters below; the date was the fifth of Goose. Clover, a twenty year old pregnant woman with cropped black hair and brown eyes and eastern brown skin, wearing a loose cotton gray dress, found herself lost in Summersea, sitting on the fountain in the middle of the busy and bustling market place, her husband, Liam, had abandon her when his family had threatened to leave them nothing if he stayed with her, so he was gone. She was stuck in a strange city with no friends, no money, and no place to stay. She was alone like she was in Chummar. But she hadn't really been alone there she had a mage named Briar on her side. At least he had come to help her, when she had been attacked… by her own gang.
Unbidden memories of her time in the gang came into her mind. Once when they had been attacked, by their rival gang, Briar, a plant mage, had come and taken care of their injuries, barking at the uninjured to boil water or clean this or that. The reason her gang had gone to him was because he himself had once been on the streets. Eventually that gang had beaten hers and they had joined them, She had gotten her nose pierced and everything, but it wasn't meant to last, which Clover thanked the gods each and every morning and night. The Lady had wanted Evvy, a powerful stone mage not to mention Briar's student, and the only way she could get her would be to distract Briar. The gang had, well, they had (excuse the cliché, Clover thought to herself or the gods or whoever) ganged up on her, put some kind of weird potion on her tongue so she couldn't talk and had beaten her up horribly. Two of her old gang had gone to Briar and begged him to come and check her out, saying they didn't trust no one else and she was beaten bad. He had agreed, putting some kind of barriers (I think he wrads or werds, she thought, breaking, again, through her memories)around the doors and windows, only missing one, the roof door. When he had put that bad tasting stuff on her tongue that restored her ability to talk, she had warned him. She had shouted, 'They want to take your Evvy'. Instead of him hurrying off to Evvy, he had taken care of her before leaving her, not being able to convince her to allow him to take her to a healer ( Didn't he mention something about a girl? Sandy? or something like that? Well, he had defiantly muttered something about that girl being able to force her to go, Clover said raking a hand through her hair). She had left Chummar and went to work with her aunt. She, no longer liking her gang name, changed her name to Clover, sort-of as a memoir of Briar and what he had done for her as a clover was a plant. She had worked hard for years, had saved enough money and bought a house and a dog only to have it all dashed away from one look from a noble man. She, being the foolish girl that she was, had fallen in love with the noble ( noble my ass!) of Emelan, gotten married, and gotten pregnant, but when they had arrived at his estate twenty miles north of Summersea, his parents, mostly his mother, had expressed extreme… (what would be a good word?)… disappointment that he had married, well their, meaning his mother's, exact words were, 'a nauseating piece of filth!' They had threatened to leave him none of their money or lands unless he annulled their marriage. He had taken her to Summersea, saying his parents will accept it after a few nights of good sleep, but only hours (Hours!) that they had arrived here he had taken her to the courthouse showed them their marriage papers, spoke loudly and boastfully for all to hear as he got it sang out that their marriage was over. Liam made her, made her, sign the papers forcefully. She still had the bruises on her wrist as he forced her to write her married name and her maiden name. When she arrived at their inn, she found her things being held by the keeper with a smug look on his face (seems Liam told everyone besides me that we were getting an annulment.) as he thrust the clothes and what other personals she had into her arms. Giving her a broad smile ha had giving a mock bow and a murmur of "MiDirtily"!
She ran to the market place where she now sat, crying for an hour. People who had passed her gave her small pats on the back and murmured words of comfort, Clover too upset didn't notice. Clover remembering the pain Liam had caused her got caught up in fresh waves of pain and started to cry once more.
"What is wrong?" came a girl's (educated, Clover noticed) voice from in front of her. Clover looked at the girl from the cracks of her fingers. She looked into the face of a ten-year-old girl (how does a ten year old sound so educated?), with black curls cascading in waterfalls down her back and kind, sympathetic brown eyes. he was wearing a light blue dress with white lace around her collar (she's rich that's how she sounds educated. Her parents probably bought the best tutors money could buy, Clover rubbed her stomach protectively, I wish I could do the same for my baby, she sighed wistfully before turning her attention back to the child). "Are you hungry? 'Cause if you are…" the girl rummaged in her side pocket before pulling out a crumbly jelly roll. She grabbed Clover's hand, turned the palm up and slapped the roll into her hand. "Gorse made it, so it's good." the little girl burst into a bright smile. Clover looked down at the roll and up at the girl's smiling face and back again, bursting into laughter and tears at the same time.
"Glaki?" came another girl's voice, this one Clover half remembered.
"She's in trouble!" the girl, Glaki, called back towards the voice.
"You betta be in trouble or Rosethorn will hang ya in the well." this time Clover was able to pinpoint where she had heard the voice before. As Briar had been setting bones he had been yelling at a girl, hi helper he had called her, to boil water. The girl, named Evvy, had grumbled under her breath about his silliness. The voice Clover was hearing today was the same girl's voice except more mature.
"Not me, her!" Glaki said pointing to Clover as Evvy, an Asian girl with black hair cut to her shoulders and slanted brown eyes, came into view.
"Hey I know you!" Evvy said, coming over to stand by Evvy and me
Clover smirked and stood up, "we met in Chummar."
"Don't remind me, but hey what are you doing here?"
"And how come you're so big!" Glaki asked.
"To answer both of your questions I'm foolish."
Glaki giggled, "That doesn't answer our questions!" Clover sighed and shook her head. Glaki put her head at the side and looked at Evvy out of the corner of her eyes, "Is it?"
"Glaki, go!" Evvy said pointing the way she had come from, Glaki grumbling about a bird called lark and how she was going to tell her Evvy was being mean. "So, why are you here?"
Clover looking at Evvy's kind caring face she burst straight back into tears telling her about Liam and how she came to be here. After the story was out the two of them sat side by side on the rim of the fountain in silence. "Briar." Evvy simply stated as children came and washed their sticky hands in the water.
"Huh?" Clover asked surprised.
"He lives in Summersea and he will happily help you." Clover shook her head no. "Go!" she pulled Clover to her feet and pulled her out of the market and onto a street. Half jogging and half running in front of her Evvy kept making complicated turns here and there. Finally Evvy stopped, "Down the street two blocks turn left, follow that street for a block and make another left, down that street near the end is Briar's house. Number six Cheeseman Street. Got to go Rosethorn is going to kill me." And without another word Evvy went back the way they had come, only stopping before her turn to wave good-bye.
"He won't help me," Clover looked around, she had no idea how to get back to the Market. Clover sighed and began to wander, eventually she would run into someone and she would be able to ask directions. But she didn't come across anyone before she reached the first turn, subconsciously turned down the street. She was in the rich section of the town, bigger houses and stores with more expensive wares. Clover snorted, "If he lives in this part of the city he defiantly won't help street trash like me. He would have changed from the boy he was to a rich man." With bitterness tinging her voice she went on, "everyone changes, whether that wanted to or not." Thinking of Liam again she turned left again and onto Cheeseman Street, it was closer to the citadel, only a five-minute ride away. These houses were even wealthier looking than the ones on the other street; there were no stores here at least not any that were advertised to the general public. Before she knew it she was in front of number six Cheeseman Street.
It was a comfortable looking house, even though it was in the wealthy section. There were four stories, basement, ground, second, and third/attic. The outside was whit washed, more human than the pink, green, and blue paints of their neighbors. The shutters were only varnished not painted (seems Briar still likes simple things) and all of them were opened to catch breezes (actually it seemed like the breezes were pulled there! Nah, only a weather mage could do that and Briar's magic was with plants. Right?). The grass was cut neatly and set at no pattern was flowers. There was a maple tree near the house almost, almost, covering a small forge built on. (What does Briar need a forge for? Clover shook her head at her own foolishness. The past owner must have had it built and he hadn't gotten around to taking it down.) The path up to the front stairs wasn't a dirt one like Clover's was, but were odd shaped stones fitted together perfectly (A stone mage like Evvy? Maybe even Evvy.).
Clover, still not sure she wanted his help, started to walk up the path, she reached the door, varnished like the shutters. Clover stilled her beating heart and raised her hand to knock, and then she heard laughter from the back yard. Two people were laughing. Clover subconsciously recognized the one's as Briar's, his laughter, after he saved your life and the lives of your friends was hard to forget.
"Knock it off!" she heard him laugh out. "Sandry!" (Sandry that was the name Briar had muttered long ago.)
"Not till you admit you were wrong!" Clover began to make her way to the backyard. With each step she took, she was taken over with the sweet perfume of flowers. She sucked in a gasp when she stepped around the last corner of the house and into the garden. The garden was the most beautiful thing Clover had ever seen in her life. Flowers of every size and color were there, well except for orchards. Along the back of the house were shelves with thousands of shakkan, maple, oak, pine, fir, apple, peach, pear, chestnut, sycamore, dogwood, hazel, black locust, redwood, willow, walnut, birch, hickory, butternut, cedar, banana, palm, ash, gum, redbud, hemlock, spruce, larch, cherry, elm, mulberry, elderberry, orange, catalpa, coconut, elder, buckeye, magnolia, sassafras, seruice berry, hackberry, and mahogany, on them. Near the back, close to the small stable was a giant willow tree (of coarse Briar would choose a house with a lot of trees, with his magic and all.) and sitting under, well more like laying under it, was Briar, a eastern skinned man with startling Gray/green eyes wearing a pair of brown breeches and a white under shirt, Clover noticed that his over shirt, a green one, with leaves embroidered on, was draped over a blueberry bush, with a girl about his age, long sun-streaked brown hair, tanned skin, and the bluest eyes ever seen, she was wearing a light blue gown that only enhanced the color of her eyes and she had no shoes on, was sitting on top of him, tickling him, debris of their long past midday around them.
"Ahem!" Clover called out uncertainly, with a small smile playing on her lips. The two lovebirds looked up, the girl with shock and anger (because I'm from the hicks?) written on her face jumped up and ran into the stables and after a few seconds passed the girl came barreling out on a brown mare, followed closely behind by two guards, one a woman and the other a man. Without saying good-bye to the man she had just been tickling she left. Briar sat calmly watching her go.
"So what'cha doing here? And how did you get her?" so, for the second time that day Clover went over her story this time making sure she didn't cry, she didn't want to make him think less of her than he would by her story. When she had finished telling Briar her story she stood looking at the ground in silence. She heard him sighed and heard him get up. He still didn't say anything and she still didn't look up at him. "Well, come on." She turned her eyes on him; he had his over shirt slung over his shoulder and the midday meal tucked in the crook of his elbow, much like how a mother would hold her baby and was standing by the backdoor leading into the house, he was beckoning her with his finger. He opened the door and ushered her in and stepped in, closing the door, behind her.
They were standing in a dark hallway the only light coming from beneath two of the three doorways in this hallway. He opened one and the two of them stepped into a bright kitchen where a redheaded woman wearing an apron over her sensible brown dress was cooking dinner. "Boy, pass me the dough."
"We have a guest," he said passing her the dough in need of kneading.
The redhead snorted. "Sandry doesn't count as a gu…" she left her sentence hanging when she saw Clover standing behind him. "Daja!" and the other door leading out of the kitchen burst open. A black girl stood there, she was wearing soot-streaked (the forge belongs to her?) clothing brown breeches like Briar and a brown tunic to match. "Look," she said, pointing to Clover, "what our boy has gone and done."
The black girl got angry, making her face blotchy. She looked ready to throw a butcher knife at him Briar with a wide smile on his face explained who she was and her situation and most importantly how he knew her. "Does Sandry know this?" she asked calming herself down. Clover, who had gripped Briar's arm in fright, stepped over to the two girls and shook their hands, as Daja and Briar talked. She tuned in at the end of their conversation to catch, "Go tell her, we'll take care of the girl." Briar flashed a quick smile at his two friends and rushed from the room. Clover distantly heard the back door slam and the sound of hoofs only seconds later.
"I'm Tris," the redhead said, "that's Daja. I'll bring you to your room, you'll clean up and come down to dinner, hopefully Briar won't be back by then." Clover opened her mouth to say something, but Tris cut her off, "tomorrow Daja will think of a job for you to do. Any questions?"
"Why did you think my baby was Briar's?" the two friends shared smiles.
It was Daja who answered. "When Briar first got back he… got around. He finally settled down with Sandry."
"About time too. We thought they would never come to their senses. Now, come!" and without waiting for her she stepped out of the kitchen and into the dark hallway. "Remind me to ask Sandry to weave something for back her." Tris whispered to the pregnant girl. Tris opened the third door in the hallway; behind it was a stairway light from weavings.
"How?" Tris ignored her and continued up the stairs. Clover looked at the weavings on the wall, one was of a starling, another was of the harbor, and the third was of the market place. "Why a starling?"
"I had a starling when we were children." They stepped off at the second floor, more weavings, mostly of plants and animals, lit the way. On the floor was a red carpet with embroidering of leaves in green. Tris led her into the first door on the right; there were a total of four rooms on this floor. The room was whit washed like the outside. There was a single bed in this room, a dresser, a chest sat at the foot of the bed, and shelves were built along the walls. "I leave you to un pack. Briar's room is the last on the right, mine is the only room on the third floor and Daja's is the room by the back door." Clover opened her mouth to say something. Tris noticed and added, "When Sandry stays here she stays in Briar's room. They are engaged to be married after all." Tris then left the room, calling as she closed the door. "The door on the left is the wash room." Clover sighed and sat down on her bed. She couldn't believe all that had happened to her today.