Page 2 of To Ride the Wind

She wanted to pause, even to reach toward the bear, but her body was already running. Within steps, trees blocked a clear view of the animal’s face. She slowed, but the memory of the claws returned, and she shook herself. She must have imagined the look in the bear’s eyes. There was no way an animal could display such sympathy, despair, and longing with a single glance.

She didn’t look back again as she fled, and within minutes she had reached her family’s wooden home. It was smaller than ideal for five people, and the paint was long since peeling, but at least the walls and door were sturdy. No wild animal had attacked the structure in the past, and there was no reason to think a bear would do so now.

She pulled on the door, meaning to fling it open and tumble inside, but it resisted her tug. Someone had latched it, although they didn’t usually secure it during the day.

“Elizabeth!” she cried. “Odelia! Open the door!”

A shuffling sounded inside, and a crack appeared. Her oldest sister’s eye peered through, as if checking to see that Charlotte wasn’t a bear speaking with the voice of a girl.

Charlotte huffed and pushed the door the rest of the way open, shoving her sister back. Lately her relationship with her sisters had regressed, and she had been restraining herself around them, but she was too irritated to hold it inside.

“You locked me out there? Are you serious? You were just going to leave me to be eaten?”

“I’m very thankful no one has been eaten.” Her mother spoke with a faint trace of amusement. “But was there really such a need for concern? White bears in the forest sounds like one of your childhood tales, Charlotte, but I don’t know what to make of it when all three of you claim you saw the creature!”

Charlotte winced. Her childhood claim that an invisible girl lived in a tower in the woods had been proven true in the end, but apparently she was never going to live down her reputation for being fanciful.

She directed an extra glare at her sisters, although neither of them was looking in her direction. It was partially thanks to her sisters that she had acquired the reputation in the first place. They had known the truth of the girl in the tower but had still taken delight in undermining Charlotte’s claims. Her relationship with both Elizabeth and Odelia had seemed much improved in recent years, however, thanks to their leaving their old town behind and moving to such a remote area. But lately, it seemed as if nothing had changed after all.

“Perhaps you all imagined a bear,” her mother said in a more comforting tone. “Sometimes the shadows among the trees can be positively fearsome.”

The older two protested this suggestion, but their manner lacked the certainty Charlotte felt. Now that they were in the comfort and security of home, they were clearly both feeling ashamed of their reaction among the trees.

Charlotte shook her head stubbornly, however. “I saw it clearly. It was definitely a bear—and an enormous one too. I knew bears were large but not that large. And its color...” She shook her head. “It was such a pure white it would have hurt to look at its fur if the sun had been higher.”

Neither of her sisters responded to her words, and her mother soon set them to chores around the house, separating Charlotte and her sisters in the process. It was an intentional act, Charlotte knew. Her mother was trying to give them space in the hopes it would soften the other two toward Charlotte. She had been doing similar things ever since the recent resumption of her sisters’ old hostility—a change triggered by the celebration for their cousin’s wedding.

But though Charlotte knew her mother meant well, she was tired of feeling alone and just wanted someone to take her side for once. It had been different in their old home. As young children, the sisters had been close enough, and by the time Elizabeth and Odelia pulled away from Charlotte, she had friends she could turn to in their place. When she was younger, she had solved the problem of her sister’s growing animosity by escaping the house and them as much as possible, spending her time with her friends instead.

But it was different this time. When their father had first announced the family was moving to join his sister and her family in the far eastern valleys, Charlotte hadn’t been too worried. Elizabeth and Odelia had complained that their destination was too remote, but the family had always lived in one of the remotest towns in Northhelm, so Charlotte had dismissed their complaints. The timing had even seemed perfect since her closest friend had just left the village.

But it turned out that the unscalable peaks forming the eastern border of Rangmere were even more remote than the forests of Northhelm. And while a number of secluded valleys were hidden in the lower part of the range, very few humans made those valleys their home. Charlotte had assumed they would at least have their cousins for company, but even they lived several hours’ ride away. It had been a shock at first, and she had feared living in such an isolated way with only Elizabeth and Odelia for company.

But the isolation had worked to her advantage. It had been the presence of others that had first caused the issues in the sisters’ relationship. First, the girl in the tower had chosen Charli as her closest friend, despite Elizabeth and Odelia being closer to Daisy in age. And afterward, the youths who caught her sisters’ eyes had looked past them to their younger sister and the growing promise of her great beauty.

Elizabeth and Odelia, so close in age, had always been closer to each other than to Charlotte, and it had been easy for them to form an alliance against her. But in the valley, it was only the three of them, and her sisters had softened toward Charlotte, growing less distant and severe until she had even started to think of them as friends again, as they had been as children.

All of that seemed over, though. Their cousin had recently married, and everyone from three valleys had gathered for the occasion. There had been several new young men, recent arrivals to one valley or another, and it had also been the first gathering since Charlotte had turned eighteen. Since social customs decreed her birthday made her eligible for potential courtship, it had been a disastrous combination. Not one unattached young man had looked in the direction of either of her sisters, and in such an isolated living situation, that was too great a blow for them to bear.

Charlotte hadn’t felt a connection with any of the young men, but it hadn’t mattered. Before they even arrived home, all the progress of five years had been lost. Their memories of her supposed past crimes had reemerged, and Charlotte was back to being a source of resentment, an other her sisters could unite against. As the younger sister, she was supposed to wait her turn, not constantly steal the attention her sisters desired.

The door thudded open, and their father strode into the house, his cheerful smile banishing Charlotte’s gloomy memories. If Charlotte had the qualities of a dreamer, she had inherited them from her father. It was no surprise he had followed the rumor of prosperity to a distant land—the true surprise was that he had remained settled in Northhelm for so long.

Looking back, Charlotte should have known it was the beginning of the end when a royal tour visited their old town. Not that her father bore any resentment toward King Richard or his heir, but a place visited by royalty was far too established to satisfy the explorer inside him—the one who wanted to carve order from the wilderness and uncover riches for his family in the process.

Her sisters still resented their father for ignoring their protests in favor of his own urge to go. But Charlotte couldn’t maintain resentful feelings in the face of his obvious pleasure in their new home. He could never hide his joy after a day spent taming their land without another soul in sight, and she could rarely help smiling in response to his happiness.

His eyes fell on Charlotte first, standing closest to him. He immediately swept her into a hug, his bulky jacket emphasizing their size difference.

“Charli-bear!” He squeezed her as her broom dropped to the floor, and she buried her face in the soft leather of his jacket, barely holding back tears. Her father had his faults, but he was always warm and affectionate, and lately she had needed those qualities more than anything.

“You can’t call her that anymore,” her mother said in a tone of indulgent amusement. “The girls have seen a real bear in the forest.”

“A bear?” Her father released her and stepped back, turning to look at Elizabeth and Odelia with a chuckle. “Here in the valley? It must have been a shadow you saw, although I’m sorry to hear you had such a fright.”

He glanced at Charlotte, clearly as surprised as her mother that it was her sisters and not Charlotte spouting tales of a bear on the loose. And it was true that in the past she had shared her discoveries without first stopping to consider how credible they might seem to others.

A small, resentful part of her wanted to stay silent—or even to speak up in agreement that it had only been a shadow. She knew from bitter experience that her sisters wouldn’t hesitate to undermine her in such a fashion. But the idea of being dishonest made her stomach squirm.

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