Free From Across the Clouded Range by H. Nathan Wilcox Page B

at her,
fists as big as her head sweeping in from both sides. Teth froze.
What had she been thinking? Had she thought she could actually stab
someone? She scrambled back from the closing fists, spun just
enough to get her face out of their paths. One set of knuckles
passed over her, but the others caught her shoulder, sending her to
the ground. She landed hard. The knife spun from her hand as she
struggled to find her hands and knees.
    A boot caught her in the
stomach. She spun, landed on her back, and felt the air rush from
her lungs. She gasped, rolled into a ball, felt tears form in her
eyes. A roar erupted from the circle of boys around her. She could
feel them closing in. By the Order this is
really happening , was all she could think.
The posturing, the intimidation had finally failed. They were
finally going to get their revenge. She closed her eyes, prepared
to feel the kicks and blows that would soon rain down, prayed to
the Order that they would stop at a beating.
    “ Stop! All of you, right
now!” a voice demanded. “Every one of you will be in the village
square for judgment in five minutes or I will hunt you down
personally and deliver double. Now, leave her be!” The voice
belonged to Counselor Torpy. Teth had never before been glad to
hear it, and she wasn’t sure she was now. Was a beating really
worse than dealing with a counselor right now?
    The boys grumbling as they
shuffled past her. “If I see one of you so much as touch a hair on
her head, you’ll spend the next month with me and The Book of Valatarian .”
    Counselor Torpy appeared at her side,
helped her to her feet with surprisingly strong hands. She could
barely stand for the pain in her stomach and ribs, but the
counselor supported her. With the protection of the village’s
smallest man, she watched the mob disperse. Several boys looked
back with death in their eyes. She wasn’t sure if the counselor had
helped or hurt her. “I guess I’m supposed to thank you,” she
finally managed. She held an arm over her stomach and tried to work
feeling into the other. She could barely lift it. The bruise was
going to be vicious.
    “ You should leave.”
Counselor Torpy examined her with what could only be disgust. “And
this time, while you are away, think about what you have done to
your aunt, to this village. Do you see what happens when you don’t
follow the Order? Your selfishness has delivered this entire
village to chaos. You have made your aunt an exile.” Teth fumed,
but the counselor just sniffed. “I have tried to be patient with
you. You may think I have been harsh, but I should have been far
harsher. I should have stopped this game of yours a long time ago,
but I thought it would play itself out. Now it has come to this. It
is time for you to grow up, Tethina. You’re not a little girl
anymore. This isn’t cute anymore.”
    Teth looked at the
counselor in shock. A game? Did he think she liked being hated, that she was
doing this as some kind of joke, that she just wanted attention?
Was that how the people here saw her, as some kind of misguided
child who would eventually grow up and be the woman they all
expected her to be? She fought tears again as the counselor’s
disapproving eyes pounded her as surely as any fist.
    “ Get out of here,” he
finally waved her away. “Go to your hiding place and mope. But if
you can’t take up your place in the Order when you return, you are
not welcome back. I will not allow this blatant disregard for the
Holy Order in my village any longer. If you can’t honor your aunt
enough to take her advice, then I don’t want to see you again. And
next time, I will not be here to save you when the Order tries to
reestablish its balance.”
    Counselor Torpy released her arm with
a shove. Teth could feel where his fingers had been digging into
her, just another set of bruises to remind her of this tremendous,
terrible day. She picked her pack up and stumbled toward the old
stone bridge at the edge