Chapter 2 - Leaving

The spots on the ceiling were silent. They had always comforted her, watching over her while she slept. Laehry imagined they were the wise, old eyes of the pine trees long-ago cut for the construction of the Midwood home. Laehry's father had built this house with the help of some villagers when they first came to Riversend.

Laehry turned over on her side and hugged her damp pillow. She didn't have any tears left. Even her mother in her bedroom down the hall had stopped quietly sobbing.

He's not dead, Laehry thought. She felt in her heart that her father was somewhere in great danger, but he wasn't dead. And now, no one was looking for him.

She stared up at those knots, searching for an answer. Finally, she dropped into a restless sleep.

"Laehry, are you in bed?" a deep voice spoke behind the door.

"Yes, Papa. I just finished dressing," she replied, diving beneath the covers.

Her tall papa stepped into the room. His blond hair was rumpled and dark half-moons of fatigue showed under his eyes. Fort Midwood had come home today from a month-long journey canvassing the country, trading their farm's meager produce for supplies they would need for the winter.

"Princess, it's time we had a talk." He sat down next to her on the bed. "Soon you'll be turning thirteen. I can hardly believe how you've grown in these short years. You're nearly a young woman, now." A smile spread across her father's weary face.

"I remember the night you were born - how you screamed! It was as if you were angry to have been taken from your peace and quiet in your mother's womb. You were only calmed when we took you outside. There, you must have decided that the tall fir trees and star-swept skies were reason enough to stay." He tilted back his head and gazed at the ceiling. Laehry knew that her father was not looking for answers in the knotty pine, as she so often did. He was instead seeing some far off place - the mythical place of her birth where her family had come from.

"Papa, where was I born?" Laehry asked.

"You, my darling, were born a princess in a castle in a land far, far away," her father replied, his eyes twinkling.

"No, Papa! Where was I really born?" Laehry was impatient. This was the answer he always gave. She wanted the truth!

"I've told you, my love." He took her hand gently and his blue eyes met hers. "This is what I wish to speak of tonight. Your life will require great bravery and daring. You must keep your wits about you at all times, for there are those already afoot who wish all of us evil." His eyes grew somber as he gazed past her out the window. "I have a gift for you. I want you to keep it with you at all times from this moment on." He reached down and Laehry saw that he had brought a small wooden box with him. He drew back the lid and handed Laehry what was inside.

A heavy dagger, no more than ten inches long, lay in her hands. Four round, polished red stones ran in increasing size from the hilt to the end of the handle like drops of blood. With great effort, Laehry turned her eyes to her father.

"These are jewels," she stammered. She had never seen real jewels before, yet these stones sparkled with a clarity that belied their value. "We're so poor. Why do we have a dagger with a jeweled hilt? Shouldn't we sell it to pay off the farm?"

"This dagger is your only link, aside from your mother and I, to your heritage. Use it bravely and wisely and never let it part from you from this day forward." Her father again reached down beside him and withdrew a thin leather strap. "Wear this around your calf just below your knee. The dagger will always stand ready for you, yet the [dagger holder] will allow you to go about your everyday business without much thought to it."

"But, Papa, I don't need a dagger and we need the money so badly!" Laehry's fingers caressed the stones.

"My dear child, I cannot tell you what you will face. You will have to find that out on your own. Yet I can promise you that you will have need of the dagger someday."

"But, Papa!" Laehry protested. She knew they needed the money, yet the desire to keep the dagger grew outward from the pit of her stomach.

"Goodnight, my Princess," murmured her father as he bent to kiss her forehead. "It will all become clear in time."

Laehry watched her father leave the room, pulling the door shut behind him. She knelt close to the candle to examine the dagger. Below the four jewels, carved in flowery script were the words "Kingdom of Midra". Midra? Laehry thought. It doesn't exist anymore. The children in the village told stories about Midra and how, many years ago, evil swept over the small country, swallowing it up. Now, it was said that large beasts had come out of the water to roam the land, doing the bidding of their master, Lord Meldrum. Laehry had never had much time for fairy tales and legends, but now she was curious.

She climbed back into bed, placed the dagger safely under her pillow, and curled the down comforter around her against the cold spring night. Tomorrow she would ask her father more.

Tears slid down Laehry's cheeks as she made her decision. Reaching under her pillow for the dagger, she silently climbed out of bed and dressed. Creeping down to the kitchen, she packed some bread, dried sausages, and a skin full of water in her school rucksack. She scribbled a note to her mother on a scrap of parchment she found tucked in her mother's desk:

Dear Mama,
I've gone to save Papa. I'll come back soon.
Love your,

Laehry

The front door squeaked just a little as she pulled it shut behind her and stepped into the moonlit road.

Chapter 1 - Dead

Thud! Whap! Whoosh! Snap! The thick branch sliced the air, connected with its target and shattered. Thirteen-year-old Laehry Midwood eyed the straw-filled dummy with pity. Poor fellow. His ragged head hung by a string and a dismembered leg lay across the barn atop the plow, a gruesome reminder that spring planting was just around the corner. Laehry crossed to retrieve it and had just settled the dummy and herself at the workbench for some repairs when hooves clattered on the cobblestone in the yard. She flung her work down and scampered to the door of the barn.

"Papa! Come see what I did to the dummy!" she hollered. She squinted as the March daylight flooded her eyes. Focusing, she saw that the horse was not her father's and that its rider had already dismounted and was sweeping into the kitchen in a swirl of cape and boots. Laehry bolted across the courtyard and yanked open the sturdy wooden back door.

Laehry's mother, Bati, slumped on the scrubbed kitchen floor clutching the plain oak table leg. Her faded blue skirt flowed out from under her, giving the impression of a wilted flower.

"They grabbed him. No one had time to do anything except run. There were too many." The man's white hand gripped the back of the chair as he stared down at her mother. "Giorgio is organizing a party of men to go after him. I have to get back or they will leave without me." He stroked his straw-colored beard as he turned to leave. "We'll find him, Bati." As he swept past Laehry she heard him mutter, "Or what's left of him."

"Mama! Mama!" Laehry ran to her mother. "What was Mr. Silasi talking about? Find who?"

"I always knew this would happen someday," Bati's eyes searched the floor before coming to rest on the daughter who knelt in front of her. "Your father was kidnapped from the pub by a gang of Snaugs. They took him into woods south of town an hour ago." Bati's tear-filled eyes met her daughter's. "Help me up, I'll go get Auntie Elly to come over and help with dinner." Wiping away the tears with the edge of her skirt, Bati hugged her daughter tight. "Don't worry, Lili, the men will bring him home to us. Now, you go up and put a fresh diaper on the baby and bring her down." She held Laehry now at arm's length and forced a smile. "Let's get dinner ready before your brother comes home."

Laehry turned in a daze and climbed the steps to the room she shared with her brother, Benti, and their baby sister, Graci. Graci had just recently learned to pull herself up in the crib and was standing now, soggy diaper limp around her waist. At the sight of her big sister, she grinned a wide baby-grin, revealing two stubby bottom teeth.

Laehry thought about her father as she put a dry diaper and fresh dress on Graci. Snaugs. She had heard kids in the village talk about them. Joby, the huge bully in her class at school, claimed that Snaugs stole an entire flock of sheep from his family two summers ago while his brother the sheep herder was asleep under the tree. Laehry thought it more likely that the sheep had been stolen by the Turners from over at the Bluff. No one really thought that Snaugs existed. But now the whole tavern had seen a gang of them yank her father from his barstool and drag him into the woods.

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The next morning, Laehry was milking the goats and worrying about her father. Benti came into the barn, steam rising from his mouth in the early morning cold as he pulled the heavy, brown, wool sweater over his head and rubbed his eyes. Milking was usually her father's job, but last night before tucking her children into bed, Bati had told them they would be getting up extra early to do her father's chores. Bati herself was already forking hay out of the horses stalls while they grazed on the frosty grass in the paddock. Only baby Graci was still bundled up in her bed.

Together they finished the morning chores and trudged back to the kitchen for breakfast. Laehry stared at the lumpy oatmeal on her spoon, trying to will in down her throat and into her stomach. She wasn't hungry. Glancing around the table, she saw that her brother was likewise staring at his spoon. Her mother had given up on eating and frowned as she nursed the baby. Horse hooves rang out in the cobblestone courtyard. Abruptly, Bati stood up, still clutching the baby as she opened the door.

The courtyard was filled with horses and ragged-looking men from the village. Hiram Silasi approached her with a bundle in his arms.

"We found these, Bati," he mumbled, thrusting the bundle at her. Close up, Bati could see it was a pile of clothing. Fort's clothing. She lost her grip on the bundle and it fell on the kitchen doorstep, revealing heavy blood-stains on the front of the shirt and pants. Bati gasped and froze in the doorway.

"Mama!" Laehry and Benti both ran to their mother. Peering around her skirt, they saw what she saw.

"We don't have much hope that he's still alive. It's an awful lot of blood to lose. I'm sorry, Bati." Silasi stood staring at the side of the house with his hat in his hand. "My wife is feedin' our own wee ones. As soon as she's finished, I'll send her over to see if you're needin' anything." He turned to go and then stopped, "I'm real sorry, ma'am. Your husband was a good, honest man. We all thought so." Nods and murmurs of agreement moved through the crowd of me in the courtyard.

"Thank you all for looking for him," Bati found her voice and addressed the search party. "Your efforts are a great comfort to me." With that, the men remounted and nudged their horses out of the courtyard and onto the road, each one heading for his house and bed.