1. AND MANY HAPPY RETURNS.
A loud slap smashed down across her face. Stunned, she toppled backwards over a table in the crowded tavern. She landed with a stupefied crash and felt her shoulder pop. She wanted to scream but she couldn’t move her jaw. The man above her hawked and spit. He wasn’t that large truth be told, but neither was she. She was a regular barmaid, not a brawler. He moved to grab her hair and she kicked his closest foot out from underneath him and he came crashing down beside her. They both lay on the ground and as the dazed man cursed and grabbed his bleeding head he looked across to her. He saw the same scrawny girl, but, she was smiling? By that point tavern goers had all stopped and were staring. The man’s friends began to advance, but they froze in their tracks when they heard laughing. The tiny barmaid was laughing. It wasn’t menacing, it wasn’t some low sinister chuckle. It was the laugh of genuine humor being found in the situation by the girl. Who then began to rise to her feet. Not groggy. Not limping. Steady and unbroken. The man’s friends watched with shock as she stepped on the fallen man’s jaw breaking it. Then she pulled out her dagger, steely sharp and thirsty. She drove it into the man’s shoulder. Her scrapes and bruises had disappeared. Only her blood red smile remained.
“You should run.” Was all she said.
And run they did. She’d never seen drunk men move with such speed and agility. It made her laugh, again. This was all too rich for words.
“Beth? Beth!” The tavern owner, a wiry thin man named Caleb warily approached her. He was dirty, but they all were. He didn’t let it show however. He was above the dirt, he liked to say. "I thought you were taken away?”
“I guess they had the wrong girl.”
Beth turned to the still stunned tavern goers. And gave a warm, kind, still blood stained smile. She quickly took in the further horror of the tavern goers and wiped her teeth with her apron.
“I’m ok!” She said in a futile attempt at comfort to the terrified onlookers who began whispering with furtive sideways glances.
Caleb swept in and gently ushered her into the barrel room.
“Beth. We saw you get taken away. And everyone else might not notice you, but I definitely saw you walk in and bee line it to the bar and smash that man’s head into it a second ago. What happened? What’s going on?!”
“Caleb! Shh. I’m fine. That’s all that matters.”
“Beth the entire castle just came crashing down yesterday! Nothing is fine!”
“I said I’m fine.” She said this coldly. Much more than she had intended. And she saw Caleb back away in fear. She was confused until she traced his eyes to her dagger. Where he hand was now resting. She didn’t remember putting it there.
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to frighten you. I’m frightened too.”
“Said the laughing girl with the bloody smile.”
“I don’t know anymore than you do. Listen. I was taken, yes, fine. But I was in a cell when I heard all the commotion. You probably know more than me. What happened?”
“What happened?!” At his point Mary, the other barmaid, came rushing in. She was what you wanted in a barmaid Beth thought. Cheerful, and cheeky. “The entire bloody royal line almost got wiped out! Oh Beth! I am so happy to see none of this affected you!”
“Mary! Oh my sweet. Are you ok?” Beth was deeply happy not to be the topic of conversation.
“Am I ok? We should be talking about you!”
At this point Caleb gave a conspicuous cough.
“Oh don’t mind me just in the middle of a story.” He said, put out.
Mary smirked “Go on old man, tell your bleeding story.”
Caleb looked struck. “Old?! I’m only 7 years older than you!” Caleb composed himself. “What was I saying?”
“Strapping lads memory, there.” Mary loved taking the piss out of people. Beth would have smiled had she not been so self conscious about the blood.
“WELL. Some right villain who used to live on the outskirts is who did it so they say. But that doesn’t explain all the bloody crows.”
“Crows?” Beth felt a shiver up crawl up her spine.
“Yes Beth, crows.” Caleb looked at her like she had three heads. “Are you blind or did that man knock every sense out of you? Towns been overrun by them! How in the hells have you not heard them?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m… Where did this man on the outskirts live?”
“Just past ole Tom’s god rest his soul.” Caleb fumbled at some religious hand gesture. “They say they found him and his family dead. That’s how they figured it, what who caused it.
“And their baby.” Mary added stricken. “My gods their poor baby.”
“I have to go.”
Caleb’s look turned to concern. “What?! Where are you going? Beth, what am I going to tell all those onlookers?!”
“Just tell them I’m hysterical.”
“Every good lie has truth in it they say.’ Caleb’s nose lifted an inch. Then dropped again. “You’re not going to that killers home are you?”
“No.”
“Now that’s just a bad lie altogether.”
2. EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON.
Beth quickly exited from the back door of the Tavern overhearing Caleb’s shouts at the riled patrons. “What are you mewling about?! She only poked ye in the arm like? You men get hurt real bad by a young lady did ye?”
Beth smiled, Caleb might have been a little pompous for a Tavern keeper (young as he was) but he always took care of Beth and Mary. He was a good soul.
“Oh no Beth! Yer not gotten away that easy like!”
“Mary! You startled me.”
“Oh, like a cat I am.”
“Mary you can’t/“
“I can and I will thank you very much. Caleb has the crowd under control. He’ll be fine. You though? You have some splainin to do.”
Beth sighed, but smiled all the same. “Where should I begin?”
“At the beginning ya silly goose. And don’t leave anything out!”
“Well, I was born a small babe my mother said.”
“Oh she’s got jokes! I’ll let you weave those into the actual story then. I expect we’ll be out for an hour or so as it is. Tell me the story.”
“It’s a short tale really. I got dragged away by guards for reasons I still don’t understand.”
“You had a bloody piece of cloth in your apron.”
“But I didn’t! Or at least I didn’t put it there!”
“There was a lot of commotion that night.”
“I was jailed in the castle. Then I heard such a crash Mary. I thought the world was going to fall down on top of me.”
“Aaaaand? It obviously didn’t. So you decided the next thing you were going to do was pick a fight with a drunken brute?” Beth tried to interject “Yes I did see that. So is your plan to pick a fight with every drunken man you see?”
“No, that isn’t the plan. I don’t have any plan. I don’t even know why I picked that fight. Much less how I survived it.”
“No kiddin. He hit you so hard he spun you like a top! I nearly screamed. But I was frozen stiff from fear you’d died.”
“But here I am.”
“And there you are. Wanna tell me where you got that pretty dagger?”
“Oh Mary you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Mary raised her eyebrows “Fine. I got it from some birds.”
Mary snorted. “She does have jokes!”
“I’m serious Mary. And they brought me the keys to the jail. It’s how I escaped.”
“S’possin I believe you, why are we going to a dead killers house?”
“I don’t have a good answer for you. I’m sorry Mary. I just know he’s connected to this. To me.”
“And your bird friends?” Mary grinned and laughed.
“Yes. Though I don’t know if they’re my friends or not. Everything feels wrong.”
As they drew closer to the burned down cottage their conversation quieted. As if they didn’t want the air itself to overhear.
“Beth, what are we looking for?”
Beth pondered this for a moment. Then she shrugged. “I’ll know when I see it.”
“Oh, good. That’ll narrow it down.”
They continued to pick through the rubble and the ash. Many feet had trampled over the grounds. They saw a hole covered in burnt wood and clothes leading to an underground cistern or cave. Beth tossed a rock down it and counted to three before she heard a splash in the water.
Mary curled her face back as if from a bad stench. “Well I’m not going down there.”
“I just wonder what could be down there?!”
“Aside from water? We’ll come back in the morning when the sun’s up. There’s nothin here Beth. And your bird friends are beginning to circle over head. We should get back.”
Beth had just noticed them as well. They circled silently over a patch of ground about 30 yards away. Beth strode towards where the birds circled overhead.
“Beth? Where are you going?” Beth said nothing in return as she strode on. “Lords bollocks”
Suddenly Beth stopped in her tracks. She looked down to where the dagger sat on her hip. She felt it grow hot. Looking down she saw in the dirt what looked like a book, unburnt, and she went down to grab it. The birds let out shrieks as she grabbed it so loud that Mary could hardly make out her next words “Mary! I found a journal! Can you read it? I can’t.” There was a rustling in the trees near by. Someone or something was watching them.
It was then she felt the first arrow whip past her cutting the air.
“Mary get down!”
Mary couldn’t hear her over the shrieks of the birds, but seeing the arrow lodge itself in the ground was all the warning she needed. She dashed to there the burnt wardrobe near where the hole was and hid behind the planks.
Beth trailed by arrows, the shrieks of birds and the new sounds of men yelling, threw herself over Mary to protect her. She couldn’t live with herself if Mary came to harm.
“Don’t worry I/”
It was then an arrow sliced through Beth’s throat and she collapsed on Mary as they both tumbled down the hole into the cistern. And this time Mary did scream.
Chapter 3: YOU CAN BE ANYTHING YOU WANT TO BE.
Mary surfaced the water gasping. She still had Beth in her arms weighing her down, but she wasn’t about to give up yet. She pull up her skirt with one hand, Beth in the other arm, and began to kick backwards. Mary has been swimming in the lake since she was child, she could do this, she would do this. Not being able to see where she was going she just kicked and hoped to find ground. But the voices of the men grew louder.
“They went down this hole! Get a torch and a rope!” The voice was harsh and rasped.
Mary heard a rope splash in the water, over the sound her own kicking. And saw the first man descend with a torch. He spotted her instantly.
“Oy! I see em!”
He climbed down quickly and dropped into the water with his torch above him and Mary saw more men follow. Suddenly she bumped her head. Looking over her shoulder she saw she had run into an outcrop of rock. She let her feet down and was almost shocked to find what felt like stairs. She struggled and pulled Beth up to the top of the rock.
“Beth! Beth!” Mary rolled Beth over and saw to her horror that Beth’s throat had been split open. “No! God no!” She turned and saw the first man had nearly reached the rock. He quickly reached them, stepped onto the stairs and threw his torch at Mary almost hitting her and lighting her aflame. It fell past her onto the outcropping, lighting the cave. He was on top of her in the blink of an eye. She could see a joyful bloodlust in his eyes. Mary screamed.
“You little bitch! You’re not getting away from me now!”
Mary struggled, but he had her in a fierce grip. She couldn’t break loose.
“I’m gong to enjoy gutting you. After I/“
A dagger, shining a bright red ruby, thrust past her ear and through the mans chest. Mary went to scream again but no sound came out, overcome with fear as she was. She turned to see Beth staring the man in the eyes, smiling that same blood red grin. This time the grin was not by accident. This time she saw Beth enjoying it.
Beth rose deliberately as Mary sat rooted in fear. Beth let out a roar. Louder than she should have ever been capable of. Foreign and low, it echoed through the cave and shook the rocks as they began to fall into the pool of water. Then the birds came. They flew in from every direction and began to circle Beth and Mary. The roar continued as if the rocks themselves yelled in rage. The men on the ropes began to fall screaming, the birds clawing their eyes and bodies. One’s screams were cut short as he crashed into the water then with 3 more rapid splashes silencing the terrified screams of the men. There was a yell from above ground. Mary could hear other men screaming and then go silent one by one, until what looked like a lightening storm erupted over ground. The roar in the cave died. The rocks went silent and the birds all landed around Beth and Mary in a circle. They didn’t move and they made no sound.
“Malphas taught you poorly!” The rasping harsh voice yelled from above. “But he isn’t here is he? It’s just you and me wench!”
A bolt of lightning blasted through the hole in the ground above.
“Come to me my girl and I promise I’ll kill you quickly! Or you can stay there and drown!” The voiced laughed a cruel laugh.
“Beth?” Mary’s voice was quiet at first. And Beth didn’t respond. “Beth! We have to go!”
Beth snapped to. She was breathing heavily as saw what she had wrought. The bodies of the dead men floated in the water Illuminated from the torch on the outcrop. She turned her eye to the blackbirds. They landed, and ringed her and Mary, silent, all of them staring at Beth.
Beth roughly grabbed Mary with a strength not her own and pulled her up.
“Do you have the journal?!” Mary started, bewildered.
“You had it!” Was all Mary could muster.
A blackbird cawed. It was next to the journal a few feet away on the outcrop. Beth stepped over to the journal ignoring the birds, grabbed it and thrust it upon Mary.
“Read it to me.”
Another flash of lightning from above stuck the water with a thunderous crash.
Beth looked up, and for the first time she registered the threat and felt her peril. But her fear drove her forward. She picked up the torch on the ground.
“Read it to me on the way.”
Mary looked back at the bodies floating in the water while the rasping voice laughed from above. She turned to Beth in a mixture of confusion, shock, and fear.
Beth was already heading out and Mary hurriedly trailed her, as the echos of the rasping laugh followed them.
Chapter 4: NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL BAD WIHOUT YOUR PERMISSION.
They walked quickly through the cavern making their way toward the lake beyond. The torchlight flickered at the speed they were going, making it hard for Mary to read.
"Beth, stop. Stop!"
Beth shot a hard look at Mary, but Mary didn't cower.
"What's going on Beth?! I saw your throat! You were dead! And now I don't even recognize you. This isn't you."
Beth stared at her. And then her thoughts turned inward. She felt the rage, the desire for vengeance seething inside her, and pushed it down.
"You're right Mary. You're right about everything. I don't know what's going on. With me, or what these birds are, or what they're about. I don't know who that man is and I don't know why he wants me dead. I don't know much of anything Mary. But I do know that man is going to try to kill us whether we know what's going on or not. I think, I hope, that journal has some answers."
Beth felt the darkness, the bloodthirsty urges, receding. Mary stood still. Those were the words she wanted to hear, but she hesitated to trust them.
"I'm sorry Mary. I can't do this without you. And I don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry. I'm sorry about all of this."
"Ok. I believe you. You just go into this strange place where I don't recognize you. Like you enjoy all the chaos. I don't like it. It isn't you." Mary sat against the cave wall and opened the journal. "Now hold that torch steady. I can't read in the dark."
"We don't have a lot of time Mary."
"The way I see it we have all the time in the world. Or you could go out there and fight that man knowing no more than you do now."
Beth seated herself next to Mary. She touched her throat. No cut. Not even a bump or a bruise. She watched Mary reading, her brow furrowed in concentration. How foolish she had been to let Mary come, to get her into all this trouble. Yet there she sat, focused and determined, searching the journal for what might save them. She was a better friend than Beth deserved right now. And she cherished her for it.
After a few minutes Mary looked up from the journal, troubled.
"Well? What does it say?"
"It's not a lot. He doesn't just spell it out for us. But from what I can tell he didn't like the birds. It might be best not to trust them."
"Well that's easy. They creep me out."
"But there's more to it. The journal starts with him being angry and forlorn. Listen to this bit near the beginning." Mary traced her finger along the page. "'The crows mock me with their presence. They follow without purpose, without use. I did not ask for them. I do not want them. Yet they remain, as if waiting for me to become something I am not yet.'"
Beth felt a chill. "Something he wasn't yet."
"It gets worse. Later on he writes, 'I feel nothing for the ones I've ended. Not guilt. Not satisfaction. They simply needed ending, and I was capable. That is all.'" Mary looked up. "He talks about killing people the way Caleb talks about mopping the floor."
"Does he mention the laughing man?"
"No. He speaks of others but dismisses them. They're beneath him. Says they're no match for him. The only person he speaks about is a woman named Ves."
"I think I met her. At the tavern."
"He hates her. But he's sorta in love with her? I don't know. But the important thing is he's brutal Beth. The things he says he did. They're gruesome. He isn't even bragging. It's matter of fact. Like hurting people is just something you do." Mary looked long at Beth.
"I'm not like that."
"No. Not yet."
"Don't be an ass Mary, I'm still just me. It's the situation that's crazy."
"Beth, you keep snapping in and out of it. Like you lose yourself to it. You aren't you then. You're 'it', whatever 'it' is. It happens every time you're in danger."
"What am I supposed to do if the man comes back? Let him kill us?!"
"I think we need to get back to town. If you can be around people who can help, maybe you won't need to do whatever this is. You can't do this alone. You need your friends. More than just me." She paused. "I need them too."
With that, Beth just nodded. She understood. And she finally began to feel weary. This was all too much, wasn't it? She stood up, and Mary did likewise. Mary grabbed Beth's hand and they continued to walk out of the cavern. Together.
5 WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU LEMONS MAKE LEMONADE..
Beth and Mary cautiously peered out of the cavern towards the lake. Beth had put out the torch and as they were still in the dead of night, it took a second for their eyes to adjust. The brightly lit moon soon seemed to make the torch redundant. All that was left was to get from the Lake to the Town and they could meet up with Caleb and the other townsfolk. Seek shelter in numbers and friends. Maybe get more time to read the journal and find out what was really going on.
"Do you, sense anything?" Mary looked genuinely curious and hopeful.
"Being a bloodhound isn't something special I got from this."
"No need to get your skirts in a ruffle. I was just hoping this had some benefit that wasn't connected to people dying."
"I make a good scrambled hash."
"You've always made a good scrambled hash. Now I worry what might go into it."
"Har har." Beth played at being as light hearted as Mary could so effortlessly be. But neither of them had moved from the mouth of the cavern. Mary finally had enough.
"Look at us, like pair of scared little girls. You can't die and I…"
"Look fantastic even with your hair a mess. There's a power I wish I had."
"I'll teach you my secrets back at the tavern. Come on then."
Mary cautiously stepped out with Beth trailing behind her. They followed the tree line doing their best to stay low and out of sight.
After about 30 minutes walking they decided to take a breath and rest their legs within an outcropping of trees. Mary brought out the journal again.
"So, before, you said you thought you'd met the woman this Malphas loved-hated? What makes you so sure?"
"She had my necklace. The old beaded one? And she was wearing it when she walked up to me. She gifted it back to me. She put some kind of cloth in my apron pocket. That's when I was carted away to jail. Then I heard that that drunk bastard who stole it from me had died. So…"
"Put two and two together. Right.”
“Who taught you to read?” Beth said this with a tinge of envy. She gently took the journal and flipped through its pages of symbols.
“Caleb did. The smug little arse.” Mary smiled. “He’s too smart to be running a tavern. But he won’t talk about brought him to it.”
Beth began to get restless. “I bet Caleb can tell us more when we see him. Speaking of which, come on. I don’t like being out here.” They both rose and Beth noted the moon wasn't shining anymore.
"It was almost bright as day earlier. That can't be good." Beth heard Mary gasp and looked back to see. Mary was staring at Beth wide eyed in shock. A man stood behind her wearing the sliver of a smile, like a slice through stone. Through Mary’s chest was a dagger, dark, and blood stained.
Beth screamed and the man laughed.
"And a Caleb for dessert? I thought I'd just get to kill you two tonight!"
"MARY!" Beth froze. Her mind blank as her body shook.
"I think I'd run if I were you!" He dipped his dagger and Mary slipped off it silently, onto the ground, as he laughed.
Beth screamed and a force radiated out from her like a shockwave. The Laughing Man covered his face with his arm as it pushed him backward.
He yelled in return and a force met her own. Not breaking it, but blunting it.
Beth's body reacted in sheer terror and her feet did the thinking for her. She tore off towards the tavern, her life quite literally depending on it. The crows appeared but did not intervene. She didn't notice their absence. Their ambivalence. She only knew that she had to reach Caleb. Though she had no idea what to do once she found him. It didn't matter. Mary was gone and it was all her fault. She would run. She would tell them all to run.
And so Beth did, all the way to the tavern.
6 LIFE IS NOT MEASURED BY THE NUMBER OF BREATHS WE TAKE, BUT BY THE MOMENTS THAT TAKE OUR BREATH AWAY.
"CALEB! CALEB!"
Beth burst through the back tavern door into the barrel room. She was out of breath, haggard and hysterical.
"CALEB! SHE'S DEAD!" Beth began to weep while wide and wild eyed. Caleb burst into the barrel room.
"Beth! What is going—"
"She's dead Caleb! She's dead and it's my fault! You have to run!"
"Beth, slow down! Who's dead? What is going on?!" He tried to hold her and calm her down but she would have none of it.
"Mary! Mary's dead! He killed her and he'll kill you next!"
Caleb stopped in his tracks. The words had finally sunk in.
"Oh my god. Are you sure? Who is this man? Tell me something, anything Beth!"
"I, I don't know who, who he is. Oh god Mary!" Beth began to weep again uncontrollably.
"Beth. You're ok. I'm here. Everyone is here."
"Oh god no! He'll kill you! He'll kill you all!"
Beth broke free and made a mad dash for the tavern room.
"Everyone! Everyone listen to me! You have to run. There is a man coming. He's a killer. He killed Mary and he wants to kill me and he'll kill anyone else that is in his way. You have to run!"
A tavern goer spoke up. "If there's a man who wants trouble he'll have to go through me first!" A chorus of "Aye!" and "Hear hear!" rose up amongst the others.
"No! No you don't understand!" Beth was losing her patience and she felt the heat from her dagger. She felt her pulse steady and her blood run hot.
"NO!"
Her voice shook the tavern. Low and rumbling, not her own. The men quieted.
"Listen to me." She was stock still and calm. "You will get your things and you will leave. You may not get another chance."
A villager in the back stood up. "And where am I supposed to go? This is my home."
There were no cheers, no aye's and hear hears. But every man in the tavern looked straight at Beth. She could tell none of them were going anywhere.
Then they heard the laugh. Rasping and cruel. The man kicked the door in and it fell with a wood splintering thud.
"There you are. On a platter."
"Oy! And who are you?!" A man in the front stood up and stared the laughing man down.
"Good. Good. It's more fun when you think you'll win."
The laughing man seemed to focus within himself. And then like a sudden crack in the air, the villager was sent flying backwards. His legs caught the table he was sitting at which sent him into a cartwheel in the air, until he slammed with bone crunching force against the tavern's back wall. The men of the tavern were rooted in their chairs.
"Who am I? I am the thing that goes bump in the night! I am the man who would haunt your dreams if I left any ahead of you. I am the man your wives will wail at the sight of. I am Old Tom of the Sunken Tower! And I have come for what is mine by right."
Beth didn't feel it, but the dagger had found its way into her hand. Her fear, her rage, her guilt, all seemed to feed the ruby which shined like a red sun.
"That's right girl. Show me what you've got. You think you're a match for me?" He laughed here, but it was forced. Beth didn't think he found this funny. But she believed his smile. "Show me what you've got before I gut every last one of you and feed you to the crows."
"You think you can take this from me?" Beth demanded. She felt the tavern dim. She didn't know if it was her or Old Tom who made it so.
And then she felt it. The warmth spreading from the dagger through her palm, up her arm, into her chest. It felt like coming home after a long journey. It felt like the first breath after nearly drowning. It felt right. She felt whole.
She could see exactly how she would do it as if time itself wait upon her whim. A step to the left, a feint, then the blade across his throat. She could see his blood. She could almost taste it. Mary's face flashed in her mind; not her death, but her smile. He took that from me. He took that from her. He should suffer for it. He will.
The ruby pulsed and Beth's lips curled into something that wasn't quite a smile.
Old Tom's forced laugh faltered. "That's it, girl. There you are."
There you are. The words echoed. Mary's voice: You just go into this strange place where I don't recognize you. And Malphas, in the journal: They simply needed ending, and I was capable. That is all.
Beth looked down at her hand. The dagger felt like an extension of her body. Natural. Perfect. And she realized with a cool pleasure that she was enjoying this. Not the danger. Not the necessity. The anticipation. She wanted to kill him slowly. She wanted to hear him scream the way Mary never got to.
This was how it started? This was the first entry in a journal that ended with a man who felt nothing? But she wasn’t Malphas. Her story didn’t have to be the same as his. He couldn’t tame this power. But she understood it. Viscerally. She was beyond him. She knew in that moment exactly who she was and the certainty rested upon her like a mantle.
"You cannot it take, no matter how hard you will try. But I will give it to you, one way or another."
Beth flipped the dagger in her hand so that she held it by the blade. A dexterity she did not possess guided her hand. She heard the sound of crows cawing. The room fell to an airless hush.
With a delicate flick of her wrist she flung the dagger, and it found its mark with a thud; in the middle of the floor between them.
Old Tom's smile vanished. He stared at the dagger. His eyes shot up to Beth in confusion and hatred; then they went wide, as Old Tom toppled over with a butcher's knife in the back of his head. He landed with a thud onto the ground. Behind him stood Caleb, stone faced, and covered in blood.
Beth ran to him and threw her arms around him.
"Thank you." Was all she said.
7 EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING..
Caleb pulled at the oars slowly.
“The service was lovely. I think Mary would have liked it.”
“If she were only here to see it.”
“I think she’s watching down from a better place.”
“Do you?”
Caleb paused in thought.
“Yes. Yes I do.”
“You’re too good for this world Caleb.”
“Now what has gotten into you? If I didn’t know better I’d think you were pulling my leg.”
Beth looked out onto the lake. It was a clear sunlit day. The kind of day that was meant for happiness. Beth almost thought she felt it.
Caleb pulled up his oars.
“Well, here we are. Middle of the lake just like you asked. Go ahead then. Whenever you’re ready.”
Beth pulled out a white cloth from under her seat. You could just make out the faint shape of a dagger wrapped within it. She started at it for a long time.
“It’s the right choice Beth. It brought you nothing but heartache.”
“And death.”
“Yes. And that too.”
They both sat there for a while taking in the view from the center of the lake. Beth had noticed some crows began to circle overhead.
“Blood crows.” Caleb and Beth said this in unison and it brought a small chuckle out of them both.
“Go on Beth.”
She took the dagger in a firmer grip. Felt it’s perfect balance, and could almost make out the red ruby from beneath the layers of white linen. Then with a deliberate motion, she dropped it into the lake. It slid out of her hands and almost imperceptibly broke the surface of the water and sunk to the bottom of the lake.
Beth felt a wave of sudden relief wash over her. Like a bright ray of sun piercing a cloudy day. She let out a breath. Caleb nodded.
“Well then. It’s over. Now what do you say I make you some shepards pie with a nice pint of ale.”
“That sounds heavenly.”
“Thought you’d like that.”
“What brought you to this tavern Caleb? What’s a man like you doing here?”
“What’s a lass like you doing here?”
“I’m being serious. Answer my question.”
“It’s a long story. Maybe one day I’ll tell it to you. Though it may take half a keg to get it out of me.”
“Good thing I know the tavern keeper.”
“Ha! You’re the first to say so.”
“That’s too bad. Caleb?”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“Of course. Well, is it a dangerous favor?”
Beth finally laughed. “No. It’s a regular favor.”
“In that case, anything.”
“Can you teach me how to read?”
Caleb paused. He took this question with a weight that told Beth it truly meant something to him.
“I would be honored to teach you how to read Beth. Anything you had in mind?”
“I have a book I’d like to read yes.”
Beth patted her leg, as if to signify a deal made. Then she rested her hand, where under her skirt, was a journal.