You might have noticed that I took the summer off, staring in May actually. Now that the end of August is almost here, back to school thoughts roam around my head and its back to the usual.
Not that I'm giving up summer completely. I'm planning one last camping trip this weekend. Hurrah!
I must also confess, I've been somewhat fighting with Iana's story, and what happens next. Finally its out here, after months of wondering and worrying does this work? It feels so permanent to post it here for you to read. Well, I'll fix it later if I have to. The next scene will come sooner, tomorrow actually, since this one is mostly recap of what's happened. You'd forgotten the story, admit it you need a recap of what's happened.
#33 Iana's Story
We would fight. We must fight. There was no other choice. Giving up, or giving in like my sister Joli was the same as death to me. I refused to do something so stupid, and I had no intention of letting Joli throw her life away. Not even for love.I told Olwen everything. We stood in a small alcove away from the rooms where I told him what I knew, from the very beginning, from the time I spent in Catha, our life there, until the moment I received Mother's letter demanding our return. If only my last desperate attempts to remain in Catha with Lady Amelia Hildegale had worked!
The disaster only hastened my departure. I hadn't even managed to write Lady Hildegale to apologize or find out if that poor minstrel had recovered from his eye injury. Perhaps a curse does linger with me, following me, or perhaps my trying to delay caused all those problems since it wasn't just my mother who wanted me home, but those heartless creatures wanting Father's debt repaid.
Looking back I remembered how Joli's spirits had so drastically changed on the journey home. Where she'd been subdued in Catha, quiet and constant, she became giddy and eager, almost dancing. Our return home meant something quite different to Joli. Why didn't I notice the signs then? I should have realized Joli was acting strange and there could be only one explanation for it. She was in love and soon to be reunited. Stupid of me not to see it. I never realized, not once. I was blind, wallowing in my own misery like a selfish goose, unaware of the fattening and how soon I'd be eaten.
Oh, but Joli never spoke about it either. Never once mentioned a word about a special someone, which I can understand, if he wasn't suitable. A farm boy, perhaps, or . . . or a woodsmen, or a shepherd. But no, my heart chilled at the thought as I realized who Joli loved.
There was a simple answer to why my sister would decide to give herself up to quickly, why she would offer to go with the creatures to the forest. Her lover must be one of them. My poor sister.
I should have spoken to Olwen sooner, as soon as I said the words out loud, I looked at him and he nodded. "I suspected it before," he told me.
My words caught in my throat, but I had to continue my story. Olwen has always been so good to me. He waited until I could speak again without my voice cracking.
Returning home I'd had to face how ruinous Winding was. There would be no more dinner parties, no need to act charming for older, eligible men, no more hot baths either or new dresses or hats to admire (not that I'd had new dresses or hats, it was other people's I'd admired.) Rather than stay miserable I decided to more forward, no more dwelling on the past and how much I'd lost or what I'd failed to do.
It was also evident that Winding had gone from bad to worse, secrets stirred in every corner, with my father locked up in his study and no one speaking about it. Joli's behavior perplexed me, but I put my concerns aside. My Mother was somewhat to blame for keeping me in the dark about things, to protect me perhaps, but I shall not forgive her for it. My Aunts also kept me busy. There wasn't a chance before this moment to speak to Olwen, to understand what had happened to my once happy home, what had turned it into such a desolate silent place? Overworked, hungry and cold I stumbled into a search for answer, quite literally as I found myself lost in the gardens.
The only person I'd told that strange dream-like adventure to was my Aunt Rosemary, now I told Olwen about it too, how mysteriously I'd wandered into a different place, a forest of giant trees. The same forest, it seemed, my father must have wandered accidentally some months earlier. Olwen listened intently as I described what happened to me, asking questions to clarify what I'd seen, and how I'd escaped. I answered as best I could, in truth, I don't know how I escaped at all.
Once I'd learned about the fire rose from Aunt Rosemary, that my father possessed a power to restore the land and save Winding, I'd gone to confront him. Was it only yesterday? It seemed so much longer.
Now, I'd seen and spoken to the debt collectors, the Lion and the Wolf. I'd heard their third and final demand, that either Joli or I had to return with them to their masters, the Kings of the forest. I'd listened to Father's heartbreaking story, how he was tricked by them into paying for a single rose, and all their outrageous requests. Olwen was right. There was only one choice left to us now.
We would fight.
to be continued . . .
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