“Your horse doesn’t like you much.”
His eyes found her quickly, hands involuntarily moving to his weapons. She was about ten years old, wrapped in furs against the cold, her pale face poking out to peer at him with unabashed curiosity. She had emerged from behind a broad oak, mitten clad hands clasping a small bunch of pale yellow flowers he recognised as winterblooms. They grew well in the surrounding woods and sometimes people from the city came to pick them. He didn’t understand why since Master Hutril said they were no use as either medicine or food.
“I think he’d rather be back on the plains,” Vaelin replied, moving to the fallen birch trunk and sitting down to adjust his sword belt.
To his surprise the little girl came and sat next to him. “My name’s Alornis,” she said. “Your name is Vaelin Al Sorna.”
“That it is.” He was growing accustomed to recognition since the Summertide Fair, drawing stares and pointed fingers whenever he ventured close to the city.
“Mumma said I shouldn’t talk to you,” Alornis went on.
“Really? Why’s that?”
“I don’t know. I think Dadda wouldn’t like it.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t.”
“Oh I don’t always do what I’m told. I’m a bad girl. I don’t do things girls should.”
Vaelin found himself smiling. “What things are these?”
“I don’t sew and I don’t like dolls and I make things I’m not supposed to make and I draw pictures I’m not supposed to draw and I do cleverer things than boys and make them feel stupid.”
Vaelin was about to laugh but saw how serious her face was. She seemed to be studying him, her eyes roaming his face. It should have been uncomfortable but he found it oddly endearing. “Winterblooms,” he said, nodding at her flowers. “Are you supposed to pick those?”
“Oh, yes. I’m going to draw them and write down what they are. I have a big book of flowers I’ve drawn. Dadda taught me their names. He knows lots about flowers and plants. Do you know about flowers and plants?”
“A little. I know which ones are poison, which are useful for healing or eating.”
She frowned at the flowers in her mittens. “Can you eat these?”
He shook his head. “No, nor heal with them. They’re not much good for anything really.”
“They’re part of nature’s beauty,” she told him, a small line appearing in her smooth brow. “That makes them good for something.”
He laughed this time, he couldn’t help it. “True enough.” He glanced around for sign of the girl’s parents. “You aren’t here alone?”
“Mumma’s in the woods. I hid behind that oak so I could see you ride past. It was very funny when you fell off.”
Vaelin looked over at Spit who artfully swung his head in the other direction. “My horse thought so too.”
“What’s his name?”
“Spit.”
“That’s ugly.”
“So is he, but I have a dog that’s uglier.”
“I’ve heard about your dog. It’s as big as a horse and you tamed it after fighting it for a day and a night during the Test of the Wild. I’ve heard other stories too. I write them down but I have to hide the book from Mumma and Dadda. I heard you defeated ten men on your own and have already been chosen as the next Aspect of the Sixth Order.”
Ten men? he wondered. Last I heard it was seven. By my thirtieth year it’ll be a hundred. “It was four,” he told her, “and I wasn’t on my own. And the next Aspect cannot be chosen until the death or resignation of the current Aspect. And my dog isn’t as big as a horse, nor did I fight him for a day and a night. If I fought him for five minutes I’d lose.”
“Oh.” She seemed a little crestfallen. “I’ll have to change my book.”
“Sorry.”
She gave a small shrug. “When I was little Mumma said you were going to come live with us and be my brother but you never did. Dadda was very sad.”
The wave of confusion that swept through him was sickening. For a moment the world seemed to move around him, the ground swaying, threatening to tip him over. “What?”
“ALORNIS!” A woman was hurrying towards them from the woods, a handsome woman with curly black hair and a plain woollen cloak. “Alornis come here!”
The girl gave a small pout of annoyance. “She’ll take me away now.”
“I’m sorry, brother,” the woman said breathlessly as she approached, catching hold of the girl's hand and pulling her close. Despite the woman’s evident agitation Vaelin noted her gentleness with the girl, both arms closing over her protectively. “My daughter is ever curious. I hope she didn’t bother you overly.”
“Her name is Alornis?” Vaelin asked her, his confusion giving way to an icy numbness.
The woman’s arms tightened around the girl. “Yes.”
“And your name, lady?”