The Princess and the Bear - Mette Ivie Harrison [42]
Chala moved closer to the girl and pulled her hands apart, then smoothed them out.
It was the first time Richon had seen her interact with another human. She was gentle, almost like a mother would have been.
There was a voice in the distance calling out a name. “Halee! Halee!”
The girl pulled away from Chala when she heard it. “My brother,” she said.
“He has magic?” asked Richon.
She shrugged. “All in my family do. Nearly all in the village as well.”
She might have said more, but she was interrupted by a voice from behind them. “There you are, Halee!”
The girl stiffened and it was as if, from Richon’s perspective, she had been drained of herself. The pain disappeared from her features, for she would give no sign of it to this brother of hers. But neither could he see her rapt attention and innate intelligence, for she hid that as well. Did none of her family see Halee as she really was?
“Come home now. Mother wants you to help with the washing,” said the brother.
“I will come,” said Halee. She was holding herself purposely so as to block her brother’s view of Richon and Chala.
“Now!” said the brother impatiently. Then he added, “You’ll never get your magic unless you learn to obey.”
It seemed a cruel thing to Richon to promise the girl something that would never come to her.
Richon watched until Halee and her brother, who had turned into an young eaglet, were out of sight.
Then he turned back to Chala. She took one of his hands, and he felt her warmth spread to him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Chala
THEY REACHED A town the next day, on wide, well-maintained roads at last, a full week after they had passed through the wild man’s gap in time. Richon said it was called Kirten, and it had a grand marketplace. There were voices calling out everywhere, merchants hawking their wares, people bargaining for the best price, and children running and laughing underfoot.
Chala saw ahead of her a man standing near cages that smelled of animal. When she got closer, she could see that inside one was a small creature with a long tail and a face like a small child’s. She had never seen its like before and was intrigued, though the sight of it caged and forlorn made her heart ache.
“Sir, come. Lady, too. See this fine creature. The perfect exotic pet for nobles such as yourselves.” The animal trainer held a whip and a rope. He wore a long mustache and no shirt.
“No, thank you,” said Richon, backing away, his hands held up.
But Chala, behind him, did not move.
“Ah, the lady has had a long journey, has she not?” He gestured at her dirty gown, which Chala herself had not noticed. She had simply not bothered with it, though she kept her face and hands as clean as she had as a hound.
“Give her something to hold on to, eh? A pet would make her very happy, make her grateful to the man who gives her such pleasure,” the animal trainer suggested to Richon with his eyebrows raised and his hands making a rude motion.
Richon tried to pull her away. She knew he was trying to protect her. But she felt a responsibility to protect this animal, and she would not let Richon take that from her.
“What is it called?” she asked the man, trying to buy time.
“It is a monkey,” said the man. “And I never give ’em names. Don’t want to make ’em answer to something that the new owner will change all over again. What would you want to name it, then? Anything you want, and it will come, I swear to it.”
The man was obviously a liar, and not a good one.
“Do you want the monkey?” asked Richon. He did not argue with her, or tell her that this was a whim, as the men she had known as a princess would have done. What a woman wanted was always a whim to them. But Richon, bear