Misfit Trials

Chapter 34

"How did you not see it?" A thick French accent calls out through the clearing.

The entire assembly turns to peer at an old man sitting in the middle of the benches in the glen. He sits ramrod straight on the bench, his white beard flowing down his chest.

"Did you have something to say, Nostradamus?" The Cat calls out. Normally, he would not take others heckling the petitioners, but Nostradamus was always good for a dry laugh.

"I wondered how they didn't see what those witches were up to. I could have seen it from a mile away," Nostradamus says, his papery voice echoing across the glen.

"Ah ha!" The Cat chuckles a bit. "Nice little pun there."

Nostradamus bows his head to The Cat. Then he turns his attention to Snick. "But seriously, how did you not know what they were doing?"

"You have to remember that we had been on our own for most of our lives. Everyone left us alone. We didn't know that people could lie like that. We didn't lie to each other. There really wasn't a point. So we didn't understand how evil they could be." Snick's words are full of pain as he tries to explain why they didn't see how Rose Red and Snow White were just using them.

"But surely you figured it out rather quickly. I mean, you're telling us exactly what happened," Nostradamus insists.

Snick gives a half-hearted smile. "They didn't know that we knew how to read half a dozen different languages. Our parents had taught my older brothers, who taught the rest of us. Well, except Quee." A tear comes to Snick's eye, which he hurriedly wipes away. "There were books everywhere, all over our cottage. I could read every single book there. So I could read the spells that they conjured. For someone who kept our house neat and tidy, Snow White wasn't very good about putting her items away."