The Woven Crown (Completed)

Chapter 9

The next day dawned bright and cool with the leaves already beginning their twirling descent to the ground. Years of waking up in the bone-achingly cold darkness to begin her chores kept Ryla from sleeping past daybreak. She woke to the sounds of busy people— sloshing water buckets, cheery greetings, clanging pots and pans. It seemed most people here rose early too. Although Ryla had heard many of the same sounds at Wightmanstry, there was a difference here; a sense of peace to the cadence of noise. Waking up to it was such a wonderful feeling she kept her eyes closed just a few moments longer, listening.

Once up, she folded her blankets and made a neat pile against the wall. She went to peek around the doorway to Elira's bedroom, but there was only a tidily made bed and the unlit lantern on a small table. She found a stack of clean clothes folded on the stool by her bed. Ryla was happy to rid herself of the clothes she'd been traveling in for weeks, caked in mud and dust from the road as they were, and don the soft green tunic and leggings left out for her. She started to pull on her boots but stopped midway. She remembered seeing many of the people going barefoot around the refuge yesterday. Thinking of how nice it would feel to have the soft moss under her feet and the grass between her toes, she left her boots by the door.

Outside, she caught a whiff of something sweet and savory cooking nearby and her stomach gave an audible growl, so she followed the scent to the long canopied tables where she'd ate dinner the night before. A few other early risers sat around the tables eating their fill before going off to whatever work awaited them. Ryla didn't recognize anyone so she helped herself to a bowl from a pot kept warm over a few glowing coals and sat down by herself. It was a mixture of oats and bran with a sweet syrup and what looked to be a few bits of ham mixed in. The warmth of her first bite traveled all the way to her toes.

Her bowl was scraped clean and still neither Elira nor any of the Caravan had come to by to collect her. Ryla felt a sudden lurch in her stomach somewhere between anxiousness and excitement. Every day of her life thus far had been decidedly ruled by other people's demands. Every morning began with a list of things to accomplish— clean the ashes from the fireplaces, bring wood in to build new fires, draw back the curtains in the common rooms, begin peeling whatever limp vegetables would be needed for the midday meal. But as far as she knew, this morning was the first she'd had free all to herself. She was giddy with potential.

The paths leading off into the trees looked inviting, so Ryla decided to start her day with a walk around the refuge. She had always enjoyed the woods surrounding Wightmanstry and would find any excuse to spend time there. The solitude was what she liked best. And the quiet. The other servants would have thought her crazy had they found out how much she truly enjoyed venturing out into the forest, the birthplace of many tales that did not end well for unaccompanied young women, but Ryla had always been careful not to venture too far out of sight of the estate's gray walls.

The forest she now traversed lacked any of the ominous atmosphere she sometimes felt in the estate's woods. She followed the path around tree homes, each one unique in the twists of its roots or the texture of the bark, each door painted in one vibrant hue or another. She wondered at the massive structures, occasionally returning a smile from someone sweeping a doorstep or watering plants. She walked under the canopy of their branches until she came to a small clearing.

There a group of men and women stood in a loose circle around a slender silver birch tree. Ryla stopped a little distance away from the group, not wanting to be seen quite yet. Elira and Oran were on one side of the circle while two more men and another woman made up the rest. They all had their eyes closed in concentration. Ryla wondered if this was the start to another home, but she didn't think birches grew to be very wide.