“So you’re telling me you don’t know who these clothes belonged to?” I ask.
“I don’t even know where Talton found them.” Ardruna puts down her leg and blinks.
“He’s clever.”
“Sure he is. Pure delight to be around, when he’s not mourning his family.”
With a start, I look up to meet her eyes. “He lost his family? That’s so sad. When did that happen?”
“Before I met him.”
“I thought you were raised by Roane.”
“Oh, no. That was a joke. We were already adults when we met him.”
“I see. What happened? Were you out hunting and ran across him?”
“I don’t… know what I was doing before I met him,” Ardruna says, a note of reluctance in her voice. “My memory of that day is somewhat clouded.”
I frown at that, but focus on getting dressed, pulling off my petticoat and underpants to try the new ones on. Strangely, they fit me like a glove. Using the same fabric belt I had on, I bind my breasts so I can move more easily, then drag the shirt on and button it down. Even more impressively, the pants and the tunic fit me, too.
“It’s as if they were tailored to my measures,” I whisper, tying the laces on the sides of the pants and the tunic.
“Book magic,” Ardruna says. “The best kind of magic. Don’t question it.”
That would be like asking me not to breathe. I question everything and double-guess my every decision.
Like wanting to go out. But I have my reasons, including trying to understand how the magic of this world works. I remember the river starting to glow. It’s stuck in my mind. I need to test if what I think really happened.
“All ready to go.” I smooth my hands over my new attire. It’s a nice feeling, wearing clean, warm clothes.
Ardruna jumps to her feet. “Roane won’t like you leaving the building. He has done his best to protect you until now.”
“But now he doesn’t seem to care anymore.” I wave a hand. “His interest suddenly evaporated.”
She grunts. “Did he really treat you that badly?”
My face warms. How to explain what happened without sounding like an idiot? “He did save my life. And was… very sweet to me. Which I suppose is why I was so upset when heturned around and told me he had only been testing me, to see how far I’d go.”
“Oh, my. That’s… unkind.”
“Glad you agree.” Pulling on my shoes, stashing the egg in the nest and shoving Olm’s book against my breasts, I put out the fire. “Is there any basket I could borrow?”
“There is the satchel you brought the book in,” she says. “Over there.”
I thought it had been lost. Now I see it lying at the base of a column. Magic again? Or did Roane place it there?
She watches me, her blue eyes looking kind of sad. “Stay inside, girl. Wait until he returns. Then we could talk to him.”
“Look, I know it seems crazy, but I won’t stay cooped up in here. It may be safer, but it’s also stagnant. Dangerous or not, I need to take my fate into my own hands. Discover this world. Discover how I can exist in it.”
“Then I’m going with you.”
I sigh. “I thought you didn’t want to be around this silly human.”
“It’s… complicated.” She trots along as I retrace my steps up the stairs and to the great double doors of the building. “Roane is our friend and you accused him of being mean.”
“Unkind. Your words, not mine. And the way he treated you two today wasn’t kind, either.”
