Free First Light by Michele Paige Holmes Page A

Gemine and his family. Though I wondered if they meant the thieves were looking for me again.
    Whoever or whatever they meant, I’d deal with later. The only thing that mattered now was getting away from here— from them.
    “Better she leaves us soon, then,” the man said.
    I couldn’t have agreed more.
    I waited for the conversation to continue but heard only the crackling of the fire interspersed with syllables unfamiliar to me. Thoughts raced through my head. What had Gemine meant when he said I didn’t know the pearls’ value? I retrieved the bracelet from my bodice as he spoke once more.
    “What if they’re right?” he asked. “What if she is capable? Would it not be wise for us to help her?”
    A young woman’s voice I hadn’t heard before replied with sarcasm. “You saw her today. She can’t even walk straight. How is she to be the one—”
    “ You caused her legs to fail.” Gemine’s voice rose. I listened as heavy steps crunched across pine needles littering the forest floor.
    “Don’t touch me,” the woman’s voice matched Gemine’s pitch. “Or I’ll cripple you as well.”
    I glanced down at my legs— what little I could see of them in the dark— and a new anger burned within me. I should have known it was a curse or spell of some sort. Until today, never once in my life of hard labor had I been unable to walk or run as I pleased. Not after the most arduous day in the fields with my father and brothers. Not after those few carefree afternoons when I’d wandered miles alone over the rolling hills and countryside. Not when my stomach had ached with hunger and my knees had felt weak with fatigue. I inched closer to the window, desperate to see the face of the woman who had caused me so much difficulty.
    “Shh,” Gemine’s mother scolded. “You’ll wake her.”
    Me? I froze, keeping my head beneath the bars. Seeing out would have to wait until later. For now I must be content to listen.
    “I thought you mixed a sleeping potion with her food,” the younger woman said.
    My heart skipped a beat as I stared toward the far corner of the wagon where I’d dumped the meal they’d brought me. Intuition had warned me not to eat it, and though I was hungry, I now felt grateful I hadn’t. No wonder the gypsies had seemed pleased when I returned the empty plate.
    “I did mix a little something in,” she said. “But I don’t know how long it will last— especially if she truly has the gifts spoken of.”
    “Ah,” Gemine said. “You believe it, too.”
    “I believe she was not the only one affected by your time together today.”
    “What do you mean— nonsense!” he said, a defensive edge to his words.
    “She is certainly fair enough in face,” his mother added, and I wondered suddenly if it was really me they spoke of. Was there some other girl locked in a different wagon? My sisters had said many things about my complexion over the years, none of them complimentary.
    “But what chance can she possibly stand against the evil one? Better that the pearls are in our possession, so we might at least protect ourselves.”
    “But if we helped her—” Gemine began.
    “It would seem the charmer has been charmed,” the man said.
    “I don’t see why. She’s completely inept,” the younger woman argued. “How can she possibly do as foretold when she could not even refute a simple bodily charm?”
    “Jealous, Simone?” Gemine asked.
    “Enough.” The man cut them off. “It matters not how pretty she is, or what it has been said she will do. Either way, she is a danger to us, and the sooner we are rid of her, the better. If Nadamaris discovers we’ve had anything to do with her, we will all pay.”
    “Agreed,” the other woman answered smugly.
    “Agreed,” Gemine’s mother said. “Once we have the pearls, we must leave the kingdom— and Adrielle— behind. Death seeks her, even now.”
    I held my breath, waiting for her son to say something else— something different—