The Crow God's Girl Read Online Free PDF Page A

his leave. Lady Beatra leaned forward, her eyes narrowed.
    “Now you listen here, Colar. I spent all morning trying to soothe your darling’s heartache from whatever cow-brained thing you did. She needed fresh air, a chance to be useful, and some time by herself. Perhaps you could be less churlish about it and thank me for doing you a favor.”
    “Mother, she doesn’t know anything about Aeritan!”
    “She survived in a war camp last year, using her wits to rise to a respected place. Easy enough for her to have become dishonored and sunk to the depths, don’t you think? Perhaps you should give her the benefit of the doubt.”
    “That’s different,” he said lamely.
    “Yes,” she said, picking up her quill. “Terrick is much safer. Call back Torvan when you leave, will you? We still have a lot to do.”
    Colar waited but as she seemed content to ignore him, he huffed out. He grunted at Torvan and the old man scowled at him and ducked back inside.
    Of course she would be on horseback. He headed to the stables to get his own horse. His mother’s scolding came back to him and he sobered a moment. I wasn’t being cow-brained, he thought, but he felt a bit guilty. He had been hard on Kate last night, but he had wanted to impress on her that they had much less freedom here than they did in North Salem. If his parents could have seen what went on in the halls of the high school...
    The sooner she got used to it, the better. And once they married, they could do what they liked, of course. Maybe this could convince her that they could marry sooner rather than later, as she wanted to.
    In punishing him, his father had given him a sudden gift. He would find Kate in the village, and they could be together without the prying eyes of the householders on them. He even knew where they could be alone. It would be taking a risk, but not like last night’s, when at any moment they could be discovered by a householder.
    Not long after, Colar was mounted and cantering down the road toward the village.
     
    Callia was a wizened woman , thick in the middle with faded brown eyes and gray hair that frizzed out around her kerchief. Her hands were rough and worn, her cheeks rosy, and her nose broad and red, blood vessels standing out around the nostrils. It was a drinker’s nose, and Kate smelled the spirits on Callia’s breath when she met the woman at her front door.
    Kate stood on the uneven stone front step of the little house and handed over the herbs. “From Lady Beatra,” she said. “She told me you would need them for Andarin’s labor.”
    “Ah, the good lady,” Callia said. Her voice was surprisingly sweet and musical. “You are the stranger girl who’s promised to the oldest son.”
    If I don’t kill him first. Kate smiled, and said, “That’s me. My name is Kate Mossland.”
    Callia eyed her for a moment, her gaze assessing, probing. “Come child, sit. Take welcome in the small house of Callia.”
    Kate knew she couldn’t say no. Callia had offered her guesting, even for an hour. It was the most sacred thing in Aeritan. The way the woman looked her over, though, was disconcerting. After a very short pause, she said, “I would be honored.” She glanced back at Allegra, but the mare was busy grazing.
    Callia kept that intent gaze on her and then led Kate into her small house. Kate expected it to be dark inside, but the house was only a bit dim. Windows, their shutters open to let in light and air, were larger in the back of the house, and they looked over a garden.
    “Oh!” Kate said. The garden was a higgedly-piggedly mishmash of plants and trees. Flowers and vegetables rioted together, and bees buzzed overall with drowsy resonance. The sunlight glowed on the green and the lavender and pink of the flowers, and a tree with white bark and yellow leaves, almost aspen-like but more delicate, quivered silently against a tumbledown stone wall.
    Without realizing it she walked to the window and looked out. Callia came