“Is the Maker King’s son really as bad as I remember?” I asked. “I mean, we hear little of him at the crossroad camp, and there is much about my childhood that I have remembered incorrectly.”
“He is, and worse,” she said. “I am sure of it, though mercifully I haven’t seen him since we were very small. There’s always talk, you see. The servants in the castle love me, in their way, and they gossip about how terrible it is that I must wed him. I understand that some of it must be exaggerated, but there is so much of it, Yashaa, and it’s quite consistent. I fear that it must be close to the truth indeed.”
“My mother doesn’t share your fear,” I said. “When she sent us out, she wanted us to go to the Maker King’s court and swear to serve the prince after he had married you.”
“I’m very glad you didn’t,” she said. “I should have hated to see you for the first time at my wedding, only to learn that you were sworn to my husband, and not to me.”
“I think it was the only way my mother could think of to get us into your service at all,” I said. “She never imagined, I think, that we would simply walk to your tower. I’m not sure if she will be furious with me for risking Tariq and Arwa like that, or proud.”
“You risked yourself, too,” the Little Rose pointed out. “You still risk yourself.”
“I don’t mean the risk of your father’s guards or army,” I said. “When Tariq crossed in Kharuf, the first thing he did was nearly cough up his lungs on the riverbank. It’s the curse, you see. It doesn’t affect us in Qamih, but Tariq has done the most spinning of all of us, and so when we came back, he felt it the worst.”
“But you felt it too?” She spoke so quietly I could hardly hear her.
“It was a pressure on my lungs,” I told her. “And, worse, I have never wanted to spin so badly as I did when I could not. It was difficult to think straight or focus on anything. Saoud had to mind us, like we were sheep.”
“How did you manage to climb into the tower?” she asked, but I could see in her face that she already knew the answer. “Yashaa, tell me you didn’t.”
“I did,” I told her. “It was the only way. It’s the only way that Saoud was able to take Arwa and Tariq with him to get supplies, though they won’t have to move quickly, which will make it easier to breathe. Saoud will make sure they don’t spin, and will keep them focused when they become distracted by their desire to work thread. We do what we have to, princess, even when it is hard. We always have.”
She beheaded a bright orange flower whose name I didn’t know, rather viciously I thought. I picked up the fallen blossom and tucked it into the corner of her veil, by her ear, where she would be able to smell the scent of it.
“I hate the curse,” she said, her voice quiet again. “I hate that I have caused so much misery, and I hate that I can’t even end it by ending myself.”
“We are going to find that piskey,” I said. “Or one who can help us. And we’ll find a way to break the curse. I swear, I will see it done.”
It was difficult to imagine dark and cruel magic in the glade, with the sunlight shining on us and the scent of flowers in the air. But when I listened, I could hear the deeper thrum of the mountains underneath me, and then it was easy to remember that the very ground we sat on had been built to be a prison and a paradise both.
“Come, princess,” I said. “We should go. The gnome will have work to do, and it might not want us to see it yet.”
I pulled her to her feet, and we went back down the slope.
I LEFT THE LITTLE ROSE standing by the pool, and crossed the ledge behind the waterfall to put away the basket. I sorted out the food and took inventory. It was not a great amount, but it was rationed such that we would get two or three meals out of it. We would not have to eat plain vetch until our very bodies started sprouting it. I wondered briefly if I ought to keep some of it for when the others returned, but I had no way of knowing when that would be, and I didn’t want anything to spoil. Besides, with luck they would be bringing food as well. I secured everything and then went back through the falls and along the ledge. I was not at all prepared for the sight that met my eyes.
The Little Rose had left her veil and overdress on the bank and gone into the pool to swim. Or at least float. I wasn’t sure if she was able to swim, or if she had ever had the chance to learn. In any case, she had no fear of the water. I noticed that her hair was several inches long now. It must grow very quickly. Of course, Arwa never cut hers at all, and the rest of us simply hacked off the ends whenever our hair grew past our shoulder blades. Perhaps short hair grew faster. It was still uneven and pale against her scalp, but it wasn’t as awful-looking as when I’d first seen her in the tower.
I meant to turn and go back into the cave so that she could have her privacy, but she saw me and waved.