Thera folded her arms and glared down at Pixie. “She’s not another one of your pets.”
“Of course not,” Pixie scoffed. “If she were, I would have chosen her name myself and I wouldn’t have picked somethingstuffy and boring like ‘Eliza.’ I would have called her something like Blondie or Pearl. I like her, and she’s not even a princess so it doesn’t matter.”
Thera turned her glare to Lizzie, who shrugged. “My father disowned me.”
It was true enough.
“Well, if that’s the case I’m sure we can find some other use for you. You’re pretty enough, anyway.”
“Come on, Eliza.” Pixie wrapped her hand around one of Lizzie’s arms, just above where the ropes were tied.
“Pixie,” Thera warned.
“She’s staying with me.” Again the little girl stomped her feet, and her voice rose in pitch. “She’s my friend and she’s staying with me.”
Lizzie expected a battle of wills to ensue, but Thera gave in with a sigh.
“Thank you, Ma!” Pixie let go of her long enough to skip around her mother in a circle and kiss the back of her hand before pulling Lizzie off towards a dark, rundown building.
Despite its dubious exterior, the inside of the building was a clean and cozy barn. The center aisle was lined with four stalls on each side. Pixie skipped down the aisle, greeting each occupant with a cube of sugar she produced from somewhere on her person and soft, cooing words. There were five horses, four of which Lizzie recognized as the animals that had been pulling their vehicles that day, and two gray donkeys. She trailed behind Pixie, watching but not participating, until they reached the final stall.
“Oh, there’s my Drizzle,” Pixie cooed as she held out a sugar cube on her flat hand.
A large animal with tall, thin antlers leaned its head over the stall door. It was covered in thick brown fur that looked soft and warm, and its wide face reminded her more of a cow, ratherthan the thin, angular faces of the deer she was used to seeing in Nedra.
“What is that?” she whispered.
Pixie answered proudly, running her hands up and down Drizzle’s neck. “This is Drizzle. He’s a reindeer. Ma brought him back from Norditch and thought he might fetch a good price, but it turns out no one has any use for such a big deer, other than to want to eat him, which I won’t allow. I think it would be grand to get a whole bunch and have them pull a sled, but it doesn’t get cold enough for that much snow unless you’re in one of the northern countries. Ma doesn’t want to move, so it’s just Drizzle for now. Do you want to pet him?”
Lizzie stepped forward, holding out tentative hands. They were still tied together, and Pixie grabbed both and smashed them against the side of Drizzle’s neck. “He won’t bite you, see?”
She stroked the fur, which was a little coarser than she had expected. The reindeer sniffed at her shoulder and tossed his head. Lizzie took a step back. “I wanted to see a reindeer,” she whispered.
“What’s that?” Pixie had already retreated halfway down the aisle, heading for a pile of hay in the corner.
“I went to Norditch to see a reindeer.”
“Did you?”
“No. Kai found me before I could.”
“Well, that was rude of him.” Pixie grabbed an armful of blankets that had been thrown over the sides of one of the stalls. She tossed one to Lizzie. “But I still think it was very nice of him to go all that way to get you. And now you have gotten to see a reindeer, so it all works out. Did you know, one time when we were in Cabriole, I saw a lady with a reindeer pin…”
Lizzie sank into the hay beside the little girl and tried to spread the blanket over herself. She only vaguely registered Pixie’s story as she recalled another day, years ago:
Freddy wrinkled his nose at her. “Norditch? Why would you go there?”
She held up her hand and began to tick off the reasons, taking mischievous joy in teasing him. “It’s far away. I love ice skating, and you can do it nearly year-round there. I hear the fishing is pretty great.”
“You’ve never fished a day in your life.”
“And they have reindeer.”
It was hard to keep her face straight, and Freddy, like always, seemed to see right through her. He nodded slowly. “Hmm, yes. I know how much you love reindeer.”
Lizzie bit her lip, trying and failing to keep the smile at bay. “Some might say they’re better than people.”
“It’s true. But you know you can see them here in Kysta?”
