Page 20 of The Last One
Milo barks, then wags his tail.
I scratch the top of his head. “Who’s a good boy?You’rea good boy, aren’t you?”
Once I have my clothes, I will leave this death village, and I might just invite Milo to travel with me. And maybe I’ll ask Jadon to join me, too, at least some of the way.
Olivia pulls her short hair into a messy bun and taps my shoulder. “Are you hungry?” She ambles out of the barn and toward the nicer dwelling, the one with the curtains the color of the daystar. “You’re in for a treat,” she says. “I made potato-and-leek soup.”
On cue, my stomach growls. “I’ll eat anything.”
5
But I’m not eating anything before I find soap, water, and something decent to wear. I won’t spend another minute looking like I’ve been dragged across all of Maford in the rain. I’ve remained in this village long enough for the daystar to slip across the sky and drift down to the horizon in the west. Which means that the Ealdrehrt cottage sits at the southern edge of town. Good to know if I try to escape.
While Jadon returns Milo to Gery, Olivia hands me a bar of soap, a washcloth, a large brown tunic, a pair of dark boots, and a blue dress. “You’ll need to fit in more if you want to avoid Narder’s attention. Not wandering around naked will help.”
“You think?” I ask, a smile playing at the edge of my mouth.
“You can sleep in the tunic,” Olivia says. “It’s Jadon’s old shirt, so it’s a little big but more comfortable than wearing just your muddy breeches and bandeau. And tomorrow, you can wear the dress. It’ll be a little short on you, but once you’ve bathed, we can see where it falls so that I can adjust or find you something else sooner rather than later.”
She leads me to the other side of the barn, entering a dark nook with a barrel of water hidden behind a wooden divider. “For a little privacy. You can wash up back here, okay?”
After Olivia wanders away, I peel off my breeches and bandeau and set them on the closest bale of hay. The cold water makes me shiver, and the soap smells like licorice and vinegar, but the washcloth helps scrub the mud away along with some of my anger and frustration.
Clean now, I tug the short-sleeved peacock-blue dress over my head. Its hem is lined with yellow felt circles and diamonds. The dress is tight around my chest and hips, and I wince—sore from the jailer’s kick to my ribs—but there’s give in the sleeves. The blue material scratches against my skin, but I’ll survive. As Olivia predicted, the hem skims the middle of my calves and hits the cuffs of my borrowed boots.
Olivia returns to the nook, and her gaze immediately snaps to my dirty clothes.
I know what she’s thinking without even listening.
“I could try them on, just to see—”
“Don’t even think about it.” I throw her a scowl that tells her,promisesher, that my hands will wrap around her neck again if she eventouchesmy last two possessions.
She slips her hands into the pockets of her skirt. “I was just admiring the circles on your lovely scarlet bandeau. And those elks on your leather breeches? Absolutely fabulous.” She then angles her head as she peers at me in the dress. “Not perfect, but it’ll have to do. No one here in Maford is as tall as you. Except Jadon.”
I turn this way and that, looking at the pattern on the cloth as she pulls strings and fastens buttons. “What do the circles and diamonds signify?”
“Huh?”
“Strength? Wisdom? Holiness?”
She blinks at me. “I think they’re pretty.”
I wait a beat, then say, “You just put shapes on your clothes because they’re pretty?”
“Umm… Yeah?” Olivia plucks the seams on my shoulder and sleeve. “I’m guessing that circles and diamonds mean something wherever you’re from.”
I stare at the elks on my breeches and nod, wishing I knew more about their meaning. But Idoknow they mean something.
“Good clue,” Olivia says, tapping her chin. “You can’t be from Pethorp. They see even less meaning in things than we do. Or maybe—” She gasps. “Chesterby! It’s far, far north of here, high up in the mountains past Baraminz Spires. We got word not too long ago that Chesterby was totally destroyed by an earthshake, and that a fire spread across the mountains, and that people from Chesterby and the small towns around it were displaced.”
Chesterby.My body shivers just thinking the name.
“You know what else?” Olivia leans in, lowering her voice to a harsh whisper as if she’s sharing choice gossip. “They say that a lot of strange animals folks had never seen before lost their homes in the woods and started wandering south looking for new forests.” She straightens, and her face brightens with excitement. “Maybe you were trying to escape the fires and a giant eagle that used to roost in those trees spotted you, thought you were food, picked you up, flew around looking for a place to eat, and accidentally dropped you.” She places her hands on her hips, obviously proud of this story.
I want to smirk at the image of a giant eagle, but I can’t shake off the sensation of falling. It wouldn’t explain the great light in the sky, though. But still…Chesterby. The name pricks like needles in the back of my brain.I cock my head. “I think you’re onto something. And those people saw meanings in shapes?”
Olivia shrugs. “No clue, but I think I’m onto something, too.” She smiles and pats herself on the back. “Good job, Olivia. So now, we just need to find someone who can tell us what elks mean and if the people who lived in the northern mountains believe that circles hold a mystery. Or we can find someone who’s been to Chesterby.”
