Chapter 9: The Ledger

Fia woke at first light and found a stranger sitting on the end of her bed.

She sat up with her hair in a brown cloud and stared.

"Who are you?"

"A friend of the lady," Mirelle said. "I walked up the mountain to see the dragon."

Her eyes were red from a night of not sleeping, and her voice was very careful.

She had wrapped herself in one of the hold-keeper's blankets.

Her hands lay folded in her lap.

Fia studied her.

"You were crying in my sleep."

"Was I?"

"I heard it. Are you cold?"

"A little."

Fia pulled the quilt off her own bed and held out a corner.

"Here. It's warm."

Mirelle's face did something terrible and lovely, and she pressed her fist against her mouth.

"Thank you," she said.

Ysmera stood in the doorway and watched, with her arms crossed.

The two heads leaned together under the quilt, and for an instant she forgot to hate the woman at all.

She turned away and went down to the kitchen.

Mirelle came after a while, alone, with the quilt folded in her arms.

Fia had run out into the yard with the hold-keeper's boy to chase the goats.

"She hums," Mirelle said quietly. "Did you know? A river song. I have no idea where she learned it."

"From the hold-keeper's wife. She is from the lowlands."

"Yes, I expect so."

Mirelle set down the quilt.

She sat at the table across from Ysmera, and her back was very straight.

"You'll want to know why I came, Majesty."

"I would."

"I held her for three days in the cottage, before you took her. I never knew her name. I wanted to know she was alive."

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