Chapter 4: In Which Punishment Leads To Discovery

Perié was six moons old. That meant that for about five moons, it had been my job to watch over him. That’s the curse of being the oldest child, Scout. You’re expected to practically raise your younger siblings. But may the sun and stars help you if you say that out loud.

That was something I had picked up rather quickly: No one likes facing reality.

Even though at a certain age, we were expected to stop running around like Perié does, everyone still had their dreams and fantasies. And sometimes they’d go cuoo-koo if you told them it wasn’t real.

Like how Mama likes to pretend she can make the best deserts in all of Trifecta. Sorry Mama, but nobody likes cucumber suckers.

Or like how Papa says our little stone-stack house where Perié and I have to share a room is a palace. He’s been saying that since I was little, but I never saw it.

What Scout? Me?

Gosh, I don’t know...

I never ran around with my head in the clouds like anyone else. For me, the crop fields were always fields, not a maze to another world. And the stone-stack house was always a stone-stack house.

But that’s okay. I mean, how much magic does a girl like me really need?

Well as it turned out, quite a lot.

“Avaká, I can not believe you!” Mama shouted for about the hundredth time. “Letting your brother run off on his own like that! Oh!”

“But Mama --” I tried to intervene.

“You’re meant to keep watch on him at all times! No exceptions!”

“I know that Mama!”

“Clearly you don’t! No supper for you tonight! Take the washing down to the ravine!”

Sighing, I hung my head. The roll was cast and set, I had no choice but to be a good little puppet.

“Yes Mama....” I headed out the back door, grabbing the washing basket and scrubbing board as I went.

Stupid Perié. Stupid cliff. Stupid magic shawl. What good was any sort of magic if it only got me in trouble? And what good was trouble if it went to the wrong person?

Perié was the one who stole my shawl. Perié was the one who ran. Perié was the one who told Mama he’d flown, not that she believed him.

Oh, but stars and sun forbid precious Perié ever be in trouble. No, despite me being one hundred percent responsible for him, he was Mama’s little baby. Precious Perié was a good boy. Precious Perié could do no wrong.

Well precious Perié was a twit!

I slammed the chipped wicker basket angrily on the shore, causing it to chip more. Why did my existence revolve around keeping Perié from the trouble he was so determined to revile in? Shouldn’t my life be about me?

Ever since I could remember, the only time Mama looked at me was to say something about my brother. Was I really so easy to skip over? I knew Perié was the future of our household – sun and stars help us there – but didn’t I matter too?

Ever get the feeling you’re different Scout? That maybe you were born in the wrong place, or there’s something wrong with you?

That was me. I should be scanning the village for the most eligible bachelor, like all the other girls who were thirteen moons and older. But the only males in my life were Perié and Papa.

Hmm? Oh, Papa? That’s right Scout, I haven’t mentioned him much.

That’s because on my ninth moon, he started taking more hours at the mines. If you’re doing the math, that’s right around when Perié came along.

Papa said that we needed the money, as our kind village was becoming less lenient. People were growing scared that King Francis and King Peter had become tired with our decision to remain neutral, and that a war would soon break out, bigger than anything any of us had ever seen.

Then again, people are always worried over something.

Besides Scout, who has time for war when there’s washing to be done?

I scrubbed my shawl first, tugging it from around my neck. I inspected it again, making sure there were no tears, before delicately using the foaming current of the ravine to clean it off. I was thankful the current was slow today, any faster and the water would have certainly taken the fabric with it.

Doing the washing wasn’t exactly the worst punishment Scout. Or even a punishment at all, I’d usually end up doing it anyway. Doing the washing just took ages and meant that I’d be out of the house so Mama wouldn’t have to look at me. Loosing supper was the real punishment. Because of the raising prices, food was something no one shared anymore. If you grew it to sell at market, that was something else, but even then Mama had been storing away vegetables from her garden.

Once I had finished washing my shawl, I noticed that I had forgotten to bring an empty basket to transport the wet things back to the house.

Dragons and dungeons.

Oh well. All of this was going to be washed anyway. I grabbed the basket full of clothes and dumped it into the grass. A few things landed in the mud by the bank, but as I said, they were going to be washed anyway.

Grabbing the first shirt from my pile, I dunked it into the ravine. Among the water and fabric wicking past my fingers, I felt something hard.

Curious, and not wanting to actually work, I moved to scoop it up. Clutching the shirt in one hand, I used the other to hold the hard thing at eye level.

It was a stone, but not like any stone I’d ever found at the ravine before. This one was bright red and polished like the jewels in the expensive jewelery I’d seen merchants selling.

It was round. A perfect circle with a perfect hole in the center going all the way through. I had seen this before, I knew it from somewhere....

Ah! I remember!

It was the same shape as the Trifecta tribute stones. Since the circle was the fabled woman’s symbol, someone had thought to carve stones like this to make necklaces.

But those were gray and black stones, common thing found on the side of the road that held no value until a carver set to work on them.

This looked more like a gem stone. What had the merchants called the red ones? That’s it! Rubies!

It was a ruby.

My first thought was that it must have washed away from a merchant’s cart, or fallen from around someone’s neck. My second thought was how much it could be worth and that we could get a lot of food for it.

Both thoughts were quickly banished, despite the growling in my stomach. No. With my luck, Mama would accuse me of stealing it, And to be fair, I wouldn’t believe my story of finding a ruby in the ravine unless I had lived it.

No. It was better to hide it for now. My own secret treasure.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5: In Which You Meet Papa