The Warded Man

“Are not!” Arlen said.

“Go see!” Beni challenged.

Arlen looked at both girls, then climbed down the ladder, slipping into the house as quietly as he could. He could hear voices from behind the curtain, and crept closer.

“I wanted Lucik right away,” Harl was saying, “but Fernan wants him makin’ mash for another season. Without an extra back around the farm, it’s hard keepin’ our bellies full, ’specially since them chickens quit layin’ and one of the milk cows soured.”

“We’ll take Renna on our way back from Mey,” Jeph said.

“Gonna tell him they’s promised?” Harl asked. Arlen’s breath caught.

“No reason not to,” Jeph said.

Harl grunted. “Reckon you should wait till t’morrer,” he said. “While yur alone on the road. Sometime boys cause a scene when they’s first told. It kin hurt a girl’s feelin’s.”

“You’re probably right,” Jeph said. Arlen wanted to scream.

“Know I am,” Harl said. “Trust a man with daughters; they’ll get upset over any old thing, ent that right, Lainie?” There was a smack, and Ilain yelped. “But still,” Harl went on, “you kin do them no hurt that a few hours of cryin’ won’t solve.”

There was a long silence, and Arlen started to edge back toward the barn door.

“I’m off t’bed,” Harl grunted. Arlen froze. “See’n how Silvy’s in yur bed tonight, Lainie,” he went on, “you c’n sleep with me after you scrape the bowls and round up the girls.”

Arlen ducked behind a workbench and stayed there as Harl went to the privy to relieve himself and then went into his room, closing the door. Arlen was about to creep back to the barn when Ilain spoke.

“I want to go, too,” she blurted, just after the door closed.

“What?” Jeph asked.

Arlen could see their feet under the curtain from where he crouched. Ilain came around the table to sit next to his father.

“Take me with you,” Ilain repeated. “Please. Beni will be fine once Lucik comes. I need to get away.”

“Why?” Jeph asked. “Surely you have enough food for three.”

“It’s not that,” Ilain said. “It doesn’t matter why. I can tell Da I’ll be out in the fields when you come for Renna. I’ll run down the road, and meet you there. By the time Da realizes where I’ve gone, there’ll be a night between us. He’ll never follow.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Jeph said.

“Your farm is as far from here as there is,” Ilain pleaded. Arlen saw her put her hand on Jeph’s knee. “I can work,” she promised. “I’ll earn my keep.”

“I can’t just steal you away from Harl,” Jeph said. “I’ve no quarrel with him, and I’m not about to start one.”

Ilain spat. “The old wretch would have you think I’m sharing his bed because of Silvy,” she said quietly. “Truer is he raises his hand to me if I don’t join him every night after Renna and Beni are off to bed.”

Jeph was silent a long time. “I see,” he said at last. He made a fist, and started to rise.

“Don’t, please,” Ilain said. “You don’t know what he’s like. He’ll kill you.”

“I should just stand by?” Jeph asked. Arlen didn’t understand what the fuss was. So what if Ilain slept in Harl’s room?

Arlen saw Ilain move closer to his father. “You’ll need someone to take care of Silvy,” she whispered. “And if she should pass”—she leaned in further, and her hand went to Jeph’s lap the way Beni had tried to do to Arlen—“I could be your wife. I would fill your farm with children,” she promised. Jeph groaned.

Arlen felt nauseous and hot in the face. He gulped, tasting bile in his mouth. He wanted to scream their plan to Harl. The man had faced a coreling for his daughter, something Jeph would never do. He imagined Harl would punch his father. The image was not displeasing.

Jeph hesitated, then pushed Ilain away. “No,” he said. “We’ll get Silvy to the Herb Gatherer tomorrow, and she’ll be fine.”

“Then take me anyway,” Ilain begged, falling to her knees.

“I’ll … think about it,” his father replied. Just then, Beni and Renna burst in from the barn. Arlen rose quickly, pretending he had just entered with them as Ilain hurriedly stood. He felt the moment to confront them slip past.

After putting the girls to bed and producing a pair of grimy blankets for Arlen and Jeph in the main room, Ilain drew a deep breath and went into her father’s room. Not long after, Arlen heard Harl grunting quietly, and the occasional muffled yelp from Ilain. Pretending not to hear it, he glanced over at Jeph, seeing him biting his fist.

Arlen was up before the sun the next morning, while the rest of the house slept. Moments before sunrise, he opened the door, staring at the remaining corelings impatiently as they hissed and clawed the air at him from the far side of the wards. As the last demon in the yard went misty, he left the house and went to the big barn, watering Missy and Harl’s other horses. The mare was in foul temper, and nipped at him. “Just one more day,” Arlen told her as he put her feed bag on.

His father was still snoring as he went back into the house and knocked on the doorframe of the room shared by Renna and Beni. Beni pulled the curtain aside, and immediately Arlen noted the worried looks on the sisters’ faces.

“She won’t wake up,” Renna, who was kneeling by Arlen’s mother, choked. “I knew you wanted to leave as soon as the sun rose, but when I shook her …” She gestured toward the bed, her eyes wet. “She’s so pale.”

Arlen rushed to his mother’s side, taking her hand. Her fingers were cold and clammy, but her forehead burned to the touch. Her breathing came in short gasps, and the rotting stink of demon sickness was thick about her. Her bandages were soaked with brownish yellow ooze.

“Da!” Arlen cried. A moment later, Jeph appeared with Ilain and Harl close behind.

“We don’t have any time to waste,” Jeph said.

“Take one’a my horses t’go with yours,” Harl said. “Switch ’em when they tire. Push hard, and you should reach Mey by afternoon.”

“We’re in your debt,” Jeph said, but Harl waved the thought away.

“Hurry, now,” he said. “Ilain will pack you something to eat on the road.”

Renna caught Arlen’s arm as he turned to go. “We’s promised now,” she whispered. “I’ll wait on the porch every dusk till you’re back.” She kissed him on the cheek. Her lips were soft, and the feel of them lingered long after she pulled away.

The cart bumped and jerked as they raced along the rough dirt road, pausing only once to rotate the horses. Arlen looked at the food Ilain had packed as if it were poison. Jeph ate it hungrily.

As Arlen picked at the grainy bread and hard, pungent cheese, he started to think that maybe it was all a misunderstanding. Maybe he hadn’t overheard what he thought he had. Maybe Jeph hadn’t hesitated in pushing Ilain away.

It was a tempting illusion, but Jeph shattered it a moment later. “What do you think of Harl’s younger daughter?” he asked. “You spent some time with her.” Arlen felt as if his father had just punched him in the stomach.

“Renna?” Arlen asked, playing innocent. “She’s okay, I guess. Why?”

“I spoke to Harl,” his father said. “She’s going to come live with us when we go back to the farm.”

“Why?” Arlen asked.

“To look after your mam, help around the farm, and … other reasons.”

“What other reasons?” Arlen pressed.

“Harl and I want to see if you two will get along,” Jeph said.

“What if we don’t?” Arlen asked. “What if I don’t want some girl following me around all day asking me to play kissy with her?”

“One day,” Jeph said, “you might not mind playing kissy so much.”

“So let her come then,” Arlen said, shrugging his shoulders and pretending not to know what his father was getting at. “Why is Harl so eager to be rid of her?”

“You’ve seen the state of their farm; they can barely feed themselves,” Jeph said. “Harl loves his daughters very much, and he wants the best for them. And what’s best is marrying them while they’re still young, so he can have sons to help him out and grandchildren before he dies. Ilain is already older than most girls who marry. Lucik Boggin is going to come out to help on Harl’s farm starting in the fall. They’re hoping he and Beni will get along.”

“I suppose Lucik didn’t have any choice, either,” Arlen grumbled.

“He’s happy to go, and lucky at that!” Arlen’s father snapped, losing his patience. “You’re going to have to learn some hard lessons about life, Arlen. There are a lot more boys than girls in the Brook, and we can’t just fritter our lives away. Every year, we lose more to dotage and sickness and corelings. If we don’t keep children coming, Tibbet’s Brook will fade away just like a hundred other villages! We can’t let that happen!”

Arlen, seeing his normally placid father seething, wisely said nothing.

An hour later, Silvy started screaming. They turned to find her trying to stand up right there in the cart, clutching at her chest, her breath coming in loud, horrid gasps. Arlen leapt into the back of the cart, and she gripped him with surprisingly strong hands, coughing thick phlegm onto his shirt. Her bulging, bloodshot eyes stared wildly into his, but there was no recognition in them. Arlen screamed as she thrashed about, holding her as steadily as he could.

Jeph stopped the cart and together they forced her to lie back down. She thrashed about, screaming in hoarse gasps. And then, like Cholie, she gave a final wrack, and lay still.

Jeph looked at his wife, and then threw his head back and screamed. Arlen nearly bit through his lip trying to hold back his tears, but in the end he failed. They wept together over the woman.

When their sobs eased, Arlen looked around, his eyes lifeless. He tried to focus, but the world seemed blurry, as if it wasn’t real.

“What do we do now?” he asked finally.

“We turn around,” his father said, and the words cut Arlen like a knife. “We take her home and burn her. We try to go on. There’s still the farm and the animals to care for, and even with Renna and Norine to help us, there’s going to be some hard times ahead.”

“Renna?” Arlen asked incredulously. “We’re still taking her with us? Even now?”

“Life goes on, Arlen,” his father said. “You’re almost a man, and a man needs a wife.”

“Did you arrange one for both of us?” Arlen blurted.

“What?” Jeph asked.

“I heard you and Ilain last night!” Arlen screamed. “You’ve got another wife all ready! What do you care about Mam? You’ve already got someone else to take care of your thingie! At least, until she gets killed too, because you’re too scared to help her!”

Arlen’s father hit him; a hard slap across the face that cracked the morning air. His anger faded instantly, and he reached out to his son. “Arlen, I’m sorry …!” he choked, but the boy pulled away and jumped off the cart.

“Arlen!” Jeph cried, but the boy ignored him, running as hard as he could for the woods off to the side of the road.