Moons' Dreaming (Children of the Rock) (34 page)

Tob scratched at his shoulder. Jordy put his spoon down firmly on the table.
“
Now, that
’
s quite enough
—”
He stopped in mid-sentence as his wife abruptly rose from the table and drew Matti closer to the window. Jordy got up as well and peered into the child
’
s shock of golden-brown hair. Then he stared at Cyril in evident surprise.
“
Fleas!
”

Pepper looked at her parents.
“
What?
”

“
Blechh,
”
Tob said, disgusted.

“
It
’
s a little insect that likes to live in hair or fur,
”
Jordy explained in answer to his older daughter
’
s question.

Matti
’
s brown eyes grew round with alarm. Vray listened with growing horror.
“
You mean I have a bug in my hair?
”
the child asked.

“
Probably dozens,
”
Tob said helpfully.

“
Momma!
”
Matti wailed.

“
Tob, that wasn
’
t necessary.
”

“
Well, it
’
s true.
”

Pepper snatched her hands away from her hair.
“
Do they crawl on us? I don
’
t like things that crawl on me.
”

“
Fleas hop,
”
Tob informed her.
“
Hop, hop, hop.
”
He demonstrated, bouncing his hand along the table on two fingers.

Matti, intrigued, paused in her sniveling. Jordy gave his son a look of grudging acknowledgment, and warning not to go any further.
“
Light the fire in the bath house,
”
he told Tob.
“
A good cleaning will take care of things.
”
He glanced at his wife.
“
I
’
ll clear out the attic.
”

“
But if it
’
s too early for bugs,
”
Pepper interrupted,
“
where did these come from?
”

Vray sat very still, hardly breathing, as first the two adults, than each of the three children turned toward her. Jordy said,
“
Iris, come here please. We
’
d better have a look at you, too.
”

Nothing that had happened to her at Soza had felt quite like this. Shame and self-loathing made Vray
’
s skin crawl, far worse than mere flea bites could. Stiffly, she got to her feet and approached the carter
—
the clean and well-groomed carter. Why hadn
’
t she seen it before? She had been brought to a farm, yes, with a stable and chickens and a dirt yard and a plain, unadorned farmhouse. What she had failed to recognize was the orderliness beneath the rough simplicity. The floor of the house was bare wood
—
bare and well swept. None of the pots were encrusted with old food. The glass in the windows at either end of the room was rather thick, but it was also clean. Even the rafters were free of cobwebs. The clothing the family wore was unstained by grease or barnyard filth. Their complexions were uniformly free of blemishes or scratches. They were something she was no longer used to
:
average, healthy Keepers. Obviously they wouldn
’
t have parasites. Matti hadn
’
t been overreacting. She
’
d been genuinely afraid of an unknown, unimaginable, malady.

Unknown,
Vray thought wretchedly,
until now.

She bowed her head before the carter. His fingers, hot against skin that had gone cold with the mortification, lightly parted her hair.
“
Ah, lass, you could have told us you wanted a bath the night you arrived.
”
His voice hardened.
“
Jenil could have told us.
”

Behind her Tob said,
“
You finished that new dress yesterday, didn
’
t you, Iris? So you won
’
t have to put those smelly old black things on again.
”

Vray shuddered once.
Gods, did she smell too?
She looked up to find the carter
’
s gaze on her, his mouth downturned with displeasure.
“
Tob,
”
he said.
“
I thought I told you to build the bathhouse fire. Perhaps you
’
d best go first, Iris.
”

It was too much to bear. Vray whirled away from him, threw her dirty hood over her infested hair, and ran out of the house.

* * *

Tob didn
’
t know why both Pepper and Matti began to cry when Iris fled out the door. Maybe because Iris had been crying, her pale face gone dead white. Tob shook his head at the way girls behaved while his father and mother each scooped up a wailing daughter. Iris was an odd girl. Didn
’
t seem to know anything about anything. He sighed and looked around the room. The whole house was going to have to be scrubbed from top to bottom, and they
’
d probably send him off to Garden Vale for the stinky herbs used for fumigation. Tob wrinkled his nose in protest against aromas to come.

“
Should I follow her?
”
he asked his father.

Jordy spoke above Matti
’
s loud sniffling.
“
Aye. And no teasing the girl, Tob.
”

He didn
’
t see Iris out in the yard. He tried the barn, but she wasn
’
t there either, or in the stable. A white kitten followed him from the barn and made an awful racket until he picked it up. Holding it in the crook of his arm, he petted it until it purred louder than anything that small had any right to. Where would he go if he was upset about something? The pasture. He climbed the fence, the kitten contentedly coming along for the ride.

Huddled under the old oak, her black robe was easy to pick out against the browns and early greens of spring. Dead leaves still clung to the tree
’
s branches, although the fresh green buds had started to show. Iris probably didn
’
t hear him over the rustle of the leaves, though the furball
’
s mighty rumbling should have been hard to miss.

Iris sat with her head on her knees, her red hair loose. It hung over her back and arms, as long as his mother
’
s but not as shiny. He looked at it, then deliberately didn
’
t look at it, and tried not to think about bugs.

Tob sat down next to her. Hoping to get her attention, and maybe get rid of the cat at the same time, he asked,
“
You like kittens?
”

Her voice was muffled by tears, hair, and knees.
“
I
’
d give it fleas.
”

“
Then we
’
ll give it a bath.
”

Iris lifted her head.
“
Stop being so practical,
”
she said accusingly, then sniffed.
“
I
’
m sorry.
”

“
Why?
”

She snuffled again, and wiped her nose on the black cloth of her skirt. It didn
’
t do her wet, dirty face any good.
“
I disrupted a Keeper
’
s home. That
’
s the last thing I should do. I
’
m not supposed to
….”
Her voice trailed off into another sob.

Tob didn
’
t know what to say, so he held out the kitten.
“
It
’
s got blue eyes,
”
he said.
“
That
’
s lucky.
”

Iris
’
s were greeny-gray
—
where they weren
’
t red. She wiped her hands on her soiled robe and held them out. He gladly passed the kitten to her. She held it close.

“
I had a cat at Soza,
”
she said.

“
Do you miss it?
”
he asked.

“
No.
”
They lapsed into shy silence for a few minutes while Iris stared toward the woods behind the pasture.
“
I called him Dael,
”
she finally added.

“
The cat?
”

The girl nodded.
“
Everybody spoiled him. That
’
s why I called him Dael.
”
She stared to cry again, very quietly. No snuffling, just big tears rolling down her cheeks.

It made Tob very uncomfortable. His mother never cried like this. He wasn
’
t sure he could remember his mother ever crying at all.

Iris squeezed the white kitten tighter. It meowed in protest. She put it on the ground, but it just climbed back up her robe, hanging on her knees until she took it in her arms again.

“
Does it have a name?
”

Tob shrugged.
“
It
’
s just a barn cat.
”

“
I
’
ll call him Nocca then. Cause he
’
s persistent.
”

“
Who
’
s Nocca?
”

“
Dael
’
s big little brother.
”
Iris shook some of the hair out of her face. She looked at Tob and said sadly,
“
I miss them. Dael
’
s the only friend I ever had.
”

Feeling lost, Tob just nodded, and wondered if he should bring up the subject of the bath. He hoped Dad would understand if it took him a while to coax her back to the house.
“
You talk funny, Iris. How can somebody have a big little brother?
”

She almost smiled.
“
You have to see Nocca. Dael
’
s tall, over six feet. Nocca
’
s the youngest of Dael
’
s two brothers, but he
’
s a whole head taller than Dael.
”

“
Who are they?
”
Tob asked.
“
Where do they live?
”

She bit her lip and looked worried.
“
They live in Edian,
”
she eventually answered.
“
Their father
’
s a goldsmith, but they
’
re both in the king
’
s guard.
”

Tob remembered seeing guards in Edian. He especially remembered seeing them, and being nervous because of them, the day of the Remembering for Princess Emlie. His first summer of traveling with Jordy had been an eventful one. He remembered the guards they
’
d met on the road, and the smell from the burning bodies of the Abstainers they
’
d killed. There had been a Dael and a Nocca in that patrol, escorting the goldsmith Loras
—
surely the same family. He thought about the guards who
’
d taken Pross away from the village when he didn
’
t want to go. He doubted that he would like this Dael, or his big little brother.

“
Why would anyone be a guard?
”
he asked.

Iris
’
s face, already blotched with crying, reddened further.
“
Why wouldn
’
t they? Dael
’
s Captain of the Guard, and I
—”