The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [25]
“Ye born noddy-headed thing. Shut yer carrying on an’ get back to work.” The girl’s giggles ceased abruptly. Catching sight of me watching her, she scowled as if I were to blame.
“Now, Andra,” Ariel said. “You recall how I promised you some extra help? Well, I have brought you a new worker.”
Responding with enthusiasm, the cook launched herself at him with much lip-smacking. I thought with suppressed glee that it served him right. He caught the amusement on my face. Disentangling himself, he ordered the cook to make sure I worked hard, as I was assuredly lazy and insolent. Andra promised to work my fingers to the bone as he departed with a look of spiteful satisfaction.
As soon as the door closed, her daughter leapt toward me, brandishing her knife. “Misfit pig. What sort of help will she be? Ye can see she don’t have a brain in her,” she sneered venomously, menacing me with the knife.
The syrupy smile dropped from the cook’s face. She crossed the floor in two steps and dealt her daughter a resounding blow with the wooden spoon. “If she has no brains, then she’ll be a good match fer ye, fool that ye are, Lila. If Ariel gives us th’ gift of a fool, then ye mun show pleasure!” the cook snarled. “Oh, th’ trials of my life. Yer no-good father gives me a fool fer a daughter, then disappears. I have to come to th’ end of th’ Land so ye won’t be declared defective. I find a nice powerful boy to bond ye an’ yer so stupid I got to do th’ charmin’ fer ye. Lud knows ye’ve little enough to offer without gollerin’ an’ gigglin’ like a regular loon,” she added succinctly.
With some amusement, I realized that the cook intended a match between her daughter and Ariel. It seemed he wasn’t a Misfit. But what sort of power could such a young boy possess?
With a final look of disgust at her daughter, the cook turned to me. “As fer you, no doubt ye are a fool at that. An’ work ye hard I will, if that’s what Ariel wants. Ye’ve angered him somehow, an’ ye mun pay. He’ll see ye do. He ain’t one to let petty angers gan away. Ye’ll learn,” she prophesied.
Turning to the sink, she explained that I was to wash the mountain of dishes and then scour the pots. I looked in dismay at the work ahead. In the orphan homes, there had been a great many of us, and a share in duties was always light. Yet there was nothing to do but obey.
I had been working for hours and had just managed to finish the dishes when the cook announced that the easy work was over since it was nearly time for midmeal. I felt like weeping. Already I was exhausted, but as Lila and I set the tables, I channeled my despair into fueling a growing hatred of Ariel, whom I regarded as the initiator of my woes. I was hungry, having missed firstmeal, but I dared not complain as I carried bowl after bowl of stew to the tables. Lila moaned endlessly and received endless slaps for her pains. I judged it wiser to hold my tongue.
Presently, the cook rang a bell. Young people of varying ages filed in through the double doors. Soon all the tables were full. The diners did not look at us at all but ate with steady concentration, then left, their seats soon taken by others. The meal consisted of a bowl of thick stew and freshly baked bread. The food smells made me feel dizzy with hunger. In town, food had seldom been this good or this fresh, but we had never had to work too hard. I wondered wistfully what the others did and regretted that I had fallen foul of Ariel.
“Ye gan eat now,” the cook said finally, and thrust a generous helping into my hand. My stomach growled in appreciation. I sat at a nearly empty table and devoured the food. Only when I had spooned up the last morsel did I look up.
“Hello,” said a soft voice at my elbow. I turned to look at a young blond girl sitting nearby. She smiled, and I was astonished that anyone would ever want to condemn her. Even her ungainly clothes could not hide the delicacy of her features and her slender bones. Her hair was like cream silk. She endured my examination without embarrassment, until it was I who