A few minutes later, the three of us are gathered around the table eating our delicious, sweet biscuits. “I really think these are the best thing you can eat, don’t you, Auri?” I ask, licking my fingers. She nods in agreement as I stand up and push my chair in. “Do either of you want anything else?” When they both shake their heads no, I start washing the dishes.
“I can do them, Harper,” Elowen says from the table.
“I know.” I continue anyway. When we’re all finished, and the kitchen is clean, I face Auri. “We are going to head outsidesoon, but before we do, I have a special project.”
“What is it?” she asks curiously.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
She doesn’t crack a smile. “Yes. That’s why I asked.”
I shake my head.This girl. “I’ll show you. This way.” I lead the way from the kitchen back to her room. When I open the door to her room, she frowns at me. “It’s a project in my room?”
“Yes. First, you’re going to tell me where you want to hang your tapestries.”
Her eyes widen. “You have some for my room?”
“Of course I do. Now, come over here and pick.” I lead her over to the bed where I put the tapestries while she was in the kitchen. We saved three of them for her room. We tried to pick the ones we thought she would like. “If you want to switch any of these out for the ones in the great room, we can.”
“No. I love these,” she says softly.
“Good. Now where should we hang them?”
She studies her room, really thinking about where she wants them. We settle with one on the wall behind her bed, and the other two on the side walls on either side of her bed. When we finish that project, I pick up my axe. I watch as her eyes widen. “What’s that for?”
“I will show you.” I walk over to her bed and drop to both knees on the fur. “I wanted something else, but this was the only tool I could find that might work.” I take a breath. “All right. Here we go.” I use the axe to hit the first leg holding up her bed.
“What are you doing?” she almost yells.
I hit the leg again. “You’ll see.”
“I can’t watch this,” Elowen mutters. “Call me if she chops off any important body parts,” she calls out over her shoulder as she leaves the room. I can’t help my chuckle. I focus in again and hit the leg again in almost the same spot. It takes much longer than I thought it was going to, but eventually, I get the first leg lowered. The bed leans in a funny way now, and I move to the next leg. Now, that I kind of have the hang of it, this leg goes faster.
“Other side,” I call out cheerfully to Auri, as I make my way to the other side of the bed. I hack at that leg for a long while until it finally lowers. “Last leg,” I call out as I move to the fourth leg. I sit next to the leg for a moment, trying to catch my breath. Apparently, I am weak with an axe. My arms ache, but I can’t stop now. “Let’s do this.” I chop into the last leg and promptly get the axe stuck. I tug on it but can’t get it out. I pull and pull and make no progress.
“I think it’s stuck.”
I turn at the sound of Auri’s voice right behind me. “No kidding.”
She’s quiet a moment. “What are you going to do?”
“For right now, I’m going to leave it. Once I recover some arm strength, I’ll try again.” Auri glances from her bed back to me. “Yes, I know. It’s in a terrible position. I hope you don’t roll out of bed; that would be a bummer.” Her eyes widen, but I pat her hand as I stand. “Don’t worry; I’ll get it fixed before tonight.”
Because we spent so much time in her room, we decide to wait until after lunch to work with the knives. After lunch turns into a few hours later, because Auri takes a rest...not in her bed because that’s still not fixed. She ends up resting in Rauk’s bedinstead. Finally, it’s time to get to it. “All right. Let’s head outside,” I tell Auri.
She nods, and we make our way through the hallway. She would never say it, but she looks forward to these knife throwing sessions. She’s actually getting pretty good. She’s got really good aim. If she keeps developing arm strength, she’ll really be something. I glance down at her as we walk, gauging her mood and strength today. She doesn’t know this, but my goal is to try to get her out of her chair today. I have no doubt that she can’t walk or put any kind of weight on her legs, but I do wonder if she’s ever tried. I have no idea even what her condition is, why she can’t walk; but I’m hoping to find out some of that today. I wonder if maybe she’s never tried. What would happen if she started trying every day? I don’t know, but I’d like to find out. I keep all that to myself as we head outside. My arms are a little shaky when I lift her into my arms. I make another mental note to build up my arm strength.
When we get to the ground, I help her into her chair. “Is Red coming?” she asks, looking up at me. She’s taken to calling Redara by her nickname, like I do.
“She should be here soon. While we wait, let’s practice with the knives.”
Red, you almost here?I ask. She’s usually here by now and waits patiently while we work with knives before we get her attention.
Yes.
I want to question her, but Auri makes a sound, jerking my gaze to her. I see the red drip from her hand. “What happened?”I ask as I quickly wrap her hand in my shirt, trying to stop the bleeding.
“I was trying to flip it like you do and it cut my hand. It’s fine,” she says, trying to pull away.
