Idol Week 10: Take a Hike
"Hurry, Elana. We need to leave right now."
"But it's still dark out, Mother."
"I know. We have a long journey ahead of us so the sooner we get started, the better."
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe where we can live in peace," Renata said as she lifted her four-year-old daughter into the carriage. Once the door was shut, the driver clicked at the horses and they were off.
And that was how it began. They traveled around the countryside for almost a year, moving from town to town, never staying in the same place for more than a week. At first they stayed in nice houses much like the one they had left until the day Renata overheard something that frightened her. She snatched up Elana and they left the estate immediately. After that they only stayed at inns. Elana was never allowed to take her hood off until they were alone, and she could never come out of the bedroom until they were leaving the inn. Sometimes Renata would leave her alone all day while she met with various people. Then, right before the winter storms began, they moved into a small house deep in the forest. Renata said they would be safe there. For now.
In later years Elana would look back on that winter as the best time she ever had with her mother. They had so much fun together. On calm days they would go outside and play in the snow, and when it was storming they would stay inside and spin and weave. Mother had learned to spin long ago when she was Elana's age, but she had only recently learned how to weave on the big loom. "My parents always told me and my sisters that we should learn a craft," she told Elana. "Back then I thought it was just their way of keeping us busy during winter and the spring thaw, but it looks like these skills will come in handy."
"Why?" Elana asked. She tried to wind a length of newly-spun thread around her spindle and managed to get herself tangled in it. Renata laughed and untangled everything.
"We're going to have to work, dear. We don't have a lot of money left and none of our friends will lend me any more right now. So I'm going to take this thread you spin and weave cloth out of it and then some friends of Mother's will take it and sell it for us. Then we'll have money to live on next summer."
"Does that mean we're going to live here now?"
"Yes."
"Good. I'm tired of traveling."
Renata laughed again (she never laughed so much later) and hugged her daughter. "Me too, dearest."
But they had to leave because of the glowing wolf. It came out of the woods one day while Elana was playing in the rhododendrons. She froze in place when she saw it but it just sat down and stared at her. She stared back. It twitched its ears at her, said "ruff," and stood back up. Elana thought it might come at her, but it just turned and walked back towards the edge of the woods where a stripe of white light had appeared. It stepped onto the stripe and vanished.
Renata nearly panicked when she heard what had happened. She knew what that wolf meant: the Tuvendis had enlisted the von Leys to find them. The friendship between the Tuvendis and the von Leys went back nearly thirty years, since the days when Markgrafin and Markgraf von Ley were just plain Thistle and Vik, since before Thistle redrew the ley pattern to keep the magic that was vital to the survival of the world from dissipating and became the Twelfth Source Mage. As Source Mage, Markgrafin von Ley had an intimate connection with the ley pattern she had created. She could feel everything that drew magic from the lines, from the invisible defensive walls that surrounded the major cities to the smallest quartz point...or a little girl who wasn't being careful with her inborn powers.
Thistle von Ley felt Elana invoking her Earth magic as she played in the garden and sent the wolf, her familiar, to pinpoint their location. And now the Tuvendis were going to come and take Elana away from Renata. Again. The courts would revoke the shared custody arrangement they had handed down after months of legal wrangling and Elana would go to the Tuvendis for good.
Renata took a deep breath to steady herself. Truvio would never get her daughter away from her. Bad enough that he had tried to humiliate her in court, making all those wild accusations. She had gotten one over on him once before when she agreed to "share" custody with him. He never even wanted a child, she had. Elana was hers.
But in order to keep her, she was going to have to take drastic measures. They were going to have to go somewhere where Elana couldn't use her Earth magic so that bitch of a Thistle wouldn't be able to find her.
They would have to go to the Ice Isles with the other outlaws and exiles. Nothing grew there. It was the only place Renata knew they would be safe.
"But it's still dark out, Mother."
"I know. We have a long journey ahead of us so the sooner we get started, the better."
"Where are we going?"
"Somewhere safe where we can live in peace," Renata said as she lifted her four-year-old daughter into the carriage. Once the door was shut, the driver clicked at the horses and they were off.
And that was how it began. They traveled around the countryside for almost a year, moving from town to town, never staying in the same place for more than a week. At first they stayed in nice houses much like the one they had left until the day Renata overheard something that frightened her. She snatched up Elana and they left the estate immediately. After that they only stayed at inns. Elana was never allowed to take her hood off until they were alone, and she could never come out of the bedroom until they were leaving the inn. Sometimes Renata would leave her alone all day while she met with various people. Then, right before the winter storms began, they moved into a small house deep in the forest. Renata said they would be safe there. For now.
In later years Elana would look back on that winter as the best time she ever had with her mother. They had so much fun together. On calm days they would go outside and play in the snow, and when it was storming they would stay inside and spin and weave. Mother had learned to spin long ago when she was Elana's age, but she had only recently learned how to weave on the big loom. "My parents always told me and my sisters that we should learn a craft," she told Elana. "Back then I thought it was just their way of keeping us busy during winter and the spring thaw, but it looks like these skills will come in handy."
"Why?" Elana asked. She tried to wind a length of newly-spun thread around her spindle and managed to get herself tangled in it. Renata laughed and untangled everything.
"We're going to have to work, dear. We don't have a lot of money left and none of our friends will lend me any more right now. So I'm going to take this thread you spin and weave cloth out of it and then some friends of Mother's will take it and sell it for us. Then we'll have money to live on next summer."
"Does that mean we're going to live here now?"
"Yes."
"Good. I'm tired of traveling."
Renata laughed again (she never laughed so much later) and hugged her daughter. "Me too, dearest."
But they had to leave because of the glowing wolf. It came out of the woods one day while Elana was playing in the rhododendrons. She froze in place when she saw it but it just sat down and stared at her. She stared back. It twitched its ears at her, said "ruff," and stood back up. Elana thought it might come at her, but it just turned and walked back towards the edge of the woods where a stripe of white light had appeared. It stepped onto the stripe and vanished.
Renata nearly panicked when she heard what had happened. She knew what that wolf meant: the Tuvendis had enlisted the von Leys to find them. The friendship between the Tuvendis and the von Leys went back nearly thirty years, since the days when Markgrafin and Markgraf von Ley were just plain Thistle and Vik, since before Thistle redrew the ley pattern to keep the magic that was vital to the survival of the world from dissipating and became the Twelfth Source Mage. As Source Mage, Markgrafin von Ley had an intimate connection with the ley pattern she had created. She could feel everything that drew magic from the lines, from the invisible defensive walls that surrounded the major cities to the smallest quartz point...or a little girl who wasn't being careful with her inborn powers.
Thistle von Ley felt Elana invoking her Earth magic as she played in the garden and sent the wolf, her familiar, to pinpoint their location. And now the Tuvendis were going to come and take Elana away from Renata. Again. The courts would revoke the shared custody arrangement they had handed down after months of legal wrangling and Elana would go to the Tuvendis for good.
Renata took a deep breath to steady herself. Truvio would never get her daughter away from her. Bad enough that he had tried to humiliate her in court, making all those wild accusations. She had gotten one over on him once before when she agreed to "share" custody with him. He never even wanted a child, she had. Elana was hers.
But in order to keep her, she was going to have to take drastic measures. They were going to have to go somewhere where Elana couldn't use her Earth magic so that bitch of a Thistle wouldn't be able to find her.
They would have to go to the Ice Isles with the other outlaws and exiles. Nothing grew there. It was the only place Renata knew they would be safe.