Chapter 8: Big Rats and Red Roses

The rest of the week followed the same pattern. Violet would wake before Ima and prepare the awful oatmeal for their breakfast. If she was quick enough, she would toast some of the stale bread and eat it with butter and jam before Ima arrived. Next, Ima would assign a room to clean while she went off to work on another important task that required her immediate attention. Violet often found her napping in her chair in the sitting room. After a morning spent dusting, polishing, and shaking out curtains, she would make a simple lunch, again following one of Ima's recipes and producing a bland, unappetizing meal. The afternoon was too hot for any activity other than a nap. As the sun dipped low in the sky, Ima would tend her garden while Violet either mended something or polished silver, or one of several tasks that Ima needed doing. Then she would prepare dinner. When she was through cleaning up the kitchen, the two women would retire to the sitting room where Ima would talk for a couple hours about life in the house before she was left alone in it.

The rats were a constant menace. The second day Violet was at the house, she searched the garden for flowers or plants that would repel the vile creatures. She didn't find any in the garden, which was odd since some of the flowers were quite common. Maybe she could come up with some kind of warding spell to keep them out of her room at least, she thought.

Something else bothered her, both Nori and Chi-chi had accompanied her when she left the farm and had followed her to the village, but ever since she got to Ima's house, she hadn't seen either. She could really use them around with the rat problem. At least they might be able to keep the vermin out of her bedroom. She was getting tired of cleaning up the poop and urine every night. One had even peed on her pillow! When she got a chance, she was going to go looking for her two erstwhile companions.

During the week, despite Ima's insistence that the house be tidied up, not a single visitor came calling. In fact, the only other person Violet saw was the boy that delivered a basket of vegetables and a parcel of beef to the kitchen one morning. Ima quickly paid him for his delivery, and he hurried away.

Violet inquired several times about finding someone to take her to Highmoon, but Ima brushed off the questions and answered vaguely that she would see what she could do.

The second day, Violet had put on the clothes given to her by Etta before going to the kitchen to make breakfast. When Ima saw them, she frowned and asked Violet if the gray dress wasn't to her liking. Violet hurried to assure Ima that it was just fine, but way too long. That night she found herself hemming the dress without cutting any of the length off. Just in case, Ima told her. The next morning, she dressed once more in it to appease her host. The only good thing was that she had washed most of the starch out of both the chemise and the over dress, so they weren't quite as stiff.

Violet offered to help Ima in the garden. To her disappointment, Ima turned down her offer of help. The only time she had done so all week. She explained to Violet that the garden was her personal space, that she had a spiritual connection to it. Violet, having felt the same about her garden at home, understood. Violet had lovingly tended the family garden for decades. It was soothing for her to work the earth and coax the seeds to sprout and thrive. When she was in the garden, she felt closer to the goddess than any other time. Except when she performed her little bits of magic, she reminded herself.

During her fifth day in the village, covered with dust, her eyes watering and nose itching, Violet sat in the middle of one of the abandoned children's rooms and wondered what the heck she was doing. She only came to the village as a means to reach Highmoon and now she was basically working for Hamish's sister for free room and board. She had never been one to shirk hard work, but the endless dusting and cleaning was getting old. She was tired and irritable. Without thinking, she curled her hand around the pendant in her pocket. The warmth of the stone was comforting, and she could feel the pulse in her palm against its hard surface.

Within a few minutes, her irritation ebbed, and she felt like she was ready to continue. For the rest of the day, she cleaned while humming tunes to herself without a hint of her previous weariness or temper.

By the end of the week, most of the rooms of the house were spic and span through Violet's labors. The only rooms she hadn't cleaned were Ima's bedroom and three other locked rooms on the same side of the house. When Ima didn't suggest she clean them, she heaved a sigh of relief, there were no more rooms needing done. Maybe now she would have some free time to explore the village and meet some of the people. Maybe even find someone to take her to Highmoon.

Then a delivery of sugar arrived. Ima was delighted.

"Finally!" Ima grinned. "Now I can get down to real work."

Violet sensed another one of Ima's verbal traps, but curiosity got the better of her.

"What's that?" she asked.

"It's time to make my rose jelly," Ima declared. "It's famous throughout the Dale Lands."

"Oh," Violet wasn't sure how she felt about rose jelly. After all the smell of them almost turned her stomach every time she went out back.

"And this year I can devote myself to making it, since I have you to help me with the little stuff that distract me."

"Yeah, lucky you," Violet said with a touch of sarcasm.

"No," Ima turned to her with a fierce look, "lucky you. You get to learn yet another of my old family recipes. You have to promise me you won't steal this one, though."

Violet shook her head gravely, "oh, I wouldn't dream of it."

Ima contemplated her for a bit before nodding, "Good. We have a lot of work to do. Come with me."

Rolling her eyes at the woman's back, Violet dutifully followed. Behind the house, the entrance to the cellar was Ima's destination. Violet helped her open the shuttered doors and followed her down the stairs. The room at the bottom was much bigger than Violet's room in the house. Mats of spider webs filled the spaces between the beams that supported the floor of the house over their heads making Violet want to duck low to avoid contact, even though there were several inches of clearance. She hadn't thought it was possible but the layer of dust in the cellar was thicker than that in the unused rooms of the house above. She hoped Ima wouldn't suggest she clean down here also.

On the wall opposite the stairs, a shelf sagged under the weight of several large crocks. The wall to the right at the bottom of the stairs held another shelf stacked with wooden crates filled with ceramic crocks of various sizes. Some were the size of quart jars, some squat and only three inches tall, still others were smaller that half-pints. The dust on both shelves and the crocks was considerably lighter than the rest of the cellar, indicating that they had been used more recently.

"These are the crocks I use for my jelly," Ima indicated the crates on the shelf.

"What's in those?" Violet asked, curious.

"That's my fertilizer for the roses."

Ima started to lift a crate then flinched and clutched her back.

"Here, let me get that," Violet picked up the crate for her. It was heavier than she anticipated, the crocks weighing more than their glass counterparts.

"Thank you dear," Ima told her and led the way back to the kitchen.

When she started to set it down on the table, Ima stopped her with a shriek.

"Not on the table!"

Violet looked around, "where then?"

"There on the floor behind you," Ima pointed. "That table has been in the family for generation. If it was to get a scratch on it," she fanned her face with her hand, "I would die of shame."

The table didn't look that special to Violet, but she did as Ima bid and put the crate on the floor with a grunt.

"That's perfect. Now if you'll just bring up the rest of the crates, I'll get started up here."

While Ima puttered about the kitchen not really accomplishing anything that Violet could see, she trudged up and down the cellar stairs bringing up eight heavy crates and stacking them on the floor with the first. When she was done, her back and legs were aching, and she was grimy with dust and sweat once again.

Ima was seated at the table with three crocks in front of her and last night's stale bread. Spreading a dollop of clear red jelly on a piece and handed it to Violet.

"This is the original recipe."

Violet sniffed the jam. It smelled like roses. Taking a bite, she stifled a gag. It tasted like someone had taken a dump truck full of rose petals, added half a ton of sugar then distilled it all down to this single mouthful. It was as if she had sprayed rose air freshener straight into her mouth. Forcing herself to swallow it, she wondered how she was going to get the awful flavor out of her mouth.

"Devine, isn't it?" Ima asked.

"Uh, yeah. Amazing," Violet choked out the lied. "And you say you sell a lot of this?"

"Yes, it seldom lasts a day and I'm sold out."

"Wow."

Violet wondered if everyone in this world had terrible taste but reminded herself of Etta's amazing meals.

Ima spread a dollop from the second crock on another piece of bread and handed it to her. "This is one where I changed up the recipe a bit. You know, livened it up."

The color of this sample was a deep red that seemed to absorb the light. Hoping it wasn't going to be as vile as the other, Violet took a tentative bite. Oh, goddess! She was going to hurl right here in the kitchen. This one was even worse than the other. In addition to all the horrible qualities of the first bite, this one had the cloying taste that matched the oddly sickeningly sweet smell from the roses in the garden. The dump truck of rose petals for this batch had been rotten and mixed with compost. Violet was proud when she swallowed it without vomiting.

Ima frowned, "you aren't going to eat all of it?"

Thinking fast, Violet replied, nodding at the third crock, "I'm assuming there's one more to taste and I don't want to completely overwhelm my palate."

"Good thinking." Ima scooped up some of the jelly in the last crock and smeared it on bread. "This is my personal favorite. I added a little something special to it. See if you can guess it."

Swallowing hard, Violet took the bread with a slight tremble in her hand. This one was the same deep red of the last. Taking another bite so tiny she barely got any of the jelly, she waited for the explosion of flavor to overwhelm her senses. Some other flavor had been added to the rotting rose petals and compost. It was still horrible, but this time her stomach didn't heave.

"Cardamon," she pronounced, praying to the goddess that the ordeal was over.

"Excellent!" Ima clapped her hands together. "I'm surprised your palate is that refined." She pushed aside the first crock. "I think I'll focus on just these two this year."

Standing, she picked up a large basket Violet hadn't seen on the floor by her side, "I'll get started harvesting and you can clean the crocks."

Violet glowered at the crates on the floor behind the table on the far side of the kitchen from the wash tub that served as the sink. Squatting beside the first one, she picked up one of the crocks. And promptly dropped it back into the crate when a large brown spider skittered out of it. Falling back on her butt, she scooted away from the crate before the spider could get on her. Her hand slipped into her pocket and clutched the pendant, the rhythmic throbbing of her pulse against it calming the rapid beating of her heart.

"Goddess help me get through this," she prayed under her breath. This was when she needed to be a real witch and knew a quick spell for cleaning. She remembered both her grandmother's and mother's grimoires had pages dedicated to their failed attempts at the spell. The incantation her grandmother had tried to use was….

"Èist sgiobalta glan," she said out loud. Then she sighed. She would settle for a spell to ward off spiders.

Getting back on her knees, she inched towards the crate and peered inside, looking for the spider.

"Oh, goddess," she breathed in wonder.

All the crocks inside the crate were spotless. Not a spick of dust or grime in sight. And notable absent was the spider. Leaning over, she checked the next crate. The crocks in it also were clean also.

Violet sat back on her heals. Her hand was still clutching the pendant in her apron pocket. Did it have something to do with it? The pendant pulsed once as if answering her unspoken question. Violet pulled out of her pocket and tossed it away from her, feeling ill. What kind of fae magic had she fallen victim to?

"Or am I just getting paranoid?" she asked out loud.

This time no answer was forthcoming. Eyeing the pendent where it had rolled, she chewed her lip nervously. She needed to get to the library in Highmoon soon. Maybe there was something there about it. Until then, though, was there any way for her to test it?

But first, she needed to get these crocks out, so it looked like she cleaned them. Getting up from the floor, she walked over to the pendant and picked it up, tucking it back into her apron pocket.

"I'll deal with you later."

By the time Ima returned from the garden with her large basket brimming with a variety of rose petals, Violet had all the clean crocks lined up on the counter in neat rows.

"Done already?" Ima asked with a raised eyebrow. "They can't be clean in that short of time."

Carelessly dropping the basket on the kitchen table, she strode over to inspect the crocks. Picking up first one, then another, she turned them in her hand, looking inside and out for any dirt. She saw the one that Violet had set off to the side and snatched it up, spinning around to confront the girl.

"This one has a chip in it!"

"That's why I set it aside," Violet explained. "The chip was already there when I pulled it from the crate."

"Right," Ima sniffed.

Violet bristled at the insinuation. "I did not break it," she insisted.

Ima ignored her. She walked over to the table, picked up the basket, and dumped its contents on the table.

"These will need to be carefully cleaned in cool, fresh water. Be careful not to bruise them in the process," she told Violet, then returned to the garden.

"Oh, I'll be careful not to bruise them…," Violet muttered crossly. Ima's bossiness was getting old quickly.

Grabbing a pitcher from the counter, she started outside to get water. At the door she paused. Maybe she could experiment with the petals? Going back over to the table, she set the pitcher down and pulled the pendant from her pocket. Setting it on the table by the petals, she smoothed her hands down the front of her apron and took a breath, focusing on the petals.

"Èist sgiob…," she stopped, her heart dropping.

The rose petals were turning brown and curling up as if she was watching a fast-forwarded video of them spread out over several days. The process started with the petals closest to the pendant and spread quickly from there.

"Oh, no. No. No!" she pleaded with them, but the petals paid no head. In just a few seconds the pile had withered into a sad brown pile.

Violet heard Ima's step outside the door and quickly snatched up the pendant and shoved it into her pocket.

"Violet, I forgot to tell you…," Ima started. "What did you do?" she shrieked.

"No… nothing," Violet stuttered, backing away from her.

"Nothing? Nothing?" Ima's voice got shriller with each word. "You call this nothing?"

"I never even touched them," Violet told her.

Ima darted forward and grabbed one of her hands before she realized the woman's intent.

"We'll see about that," Ima snarled, raising Violet's hand to her nose and taking a sniff. She turned it over and sniffed each finger, then grabbed the other hand and did the same. A shiver ran down Violet's body and the creepily intimate action and she stifled the impulse to yank her hands back.

Dropping Violet's hands, Ima grunted, "you're telling the truth. You haven't touched them."

Of course, thought Violet, with a silent sigh of relief. If she had touched the petals, her hands would smell of roses.

"I was just going to get water and they just started turning brown," she pointed to the pitcher on the table.

Ima examined the pile of dead petals trying to discern what had happened. Finally, she stepped back and scratched her head.

"I've never seen anything like it."

"Nor I," Violet told her.

"Well, it's too late to pick another batch today. Clean this up and we'll start dinner. I'll try again tomorrow."

Violet was relieved that she was going to let it go for now. Quickly cleaning up the pile, she got dinner started while Ima sipped her tea.

Back in her room that night, she pulled the pendant out of her pocket. Even in the dim, candlelit room, it seemed to draw light and sparkle with life. In the short time she had it in her possession, she hadn't sensed any ill intent from it, but that didn't mean anything.

"What are you?" she asked the orb.

The prism of light at its center seemed to flicker in answer.

"Well, that doesn't help at all," she sighed before placing it on the nightstand. There was no use putting it in a drawer; it would just end up back in her pocket in the morning.

Turning back to her bed, she let out a little scream. Sitting in the middle of her bed was an extraordinarily large rat. Almost the size of a cat, albeit a small one, it hissed at her, baring its long yellow teeth. Since her goddess was the earth goddess, Violet knew she should love all living beings, but this thing made her shudder with revulsion.

Violet and the rat glowered at each other for a few seconds, then the rat sniffed and scurried off the bed and disappeared. Violet stood frozen in place for a few more seconds, half expecting the beast to lunge out from under her bed at her. When it was clear the rat was gone, she pulled her bed away from the wall. Down at the baseboard, a large hole had been gnawed through the wall. That had to be where the rat went.

Suddenly feeling stifled by the house, Violet had to get out. She left her room and went outside through the kitchen. Standing in the early evening with the light quickly fading, she took a deep breath to calm her panic. Her senses were overwhelmed by the scent of the roses and her stomach rolled with the memory of the horrible jelly. Driven by the urge to get away from the smell, she left the garden through the gate and wandered away from the house.

Ima's home was on the north edge of the village, with only the dense forest beyond it. Taking several steps into the forest, Violet breathed in the smells of nature around her. This was the first time she had left Ima's property since she came to the village just over ten days ago. A weight she hadn't been aware of lifted from her spirit and she felt more like herself than she had in a while. Smiling, she danced around in a circle just for the joy of it.

"I've got to get out of there," she told herself when she stopped.

A chirp of agreement answered.

"Nori!" she cried out happily as the fae appeared from the shadows around her, followed by a familiar calico shape. "Chi-chi!"

She sank to the ground and let the cat crawl into her lap to be petted as the fae alighted on her shoulder and rubbed against her. Flashes of emotions came with the contact, happiness and worry chief among them.

"Where have you guys been?"

Images of the forest filled her mind. Her two companions had been staying in the forest while she was at Ima's.

"Well, at least you're safe."

More images from her familiar showed large rats and Ima's rose bushes.

"Yeah, I know. I don't like them either." She shook her head, "I can't understand how someone can take something a delicate as a rose petal and make something so horrible with it. That is a peculiar talent."

Nori made a mournful sound and Chi-chi echoed it.

"I know. But I promise only a few more days at most. Tomorrow I'm going out to find someone willing to take me to Highmoon. Just be patient, please."

Both made annoyed sounds and Chi-chi stalked off her lap with her tail held high and the end twitching irritably. Nori dug her claws into Violet's shoulder painfully before shoving off to take flight.

"Ouch! Was that necessary?"

The fae and cat faded into the deep shadows without answering.

"Rude!" Violet yelled after them.

Standing up and stretching, Violet found she was loathed to return to Ima's house, but she couldn't spend the night here on the forest floor. Taking a fortifying breath, she left the embrace of the forest.

"Just a few more days," she told herself.