The Chosen (20 page)

Later, as she watched Kathryn’s shift ride off Natalie felt a small surge of victory. Slavery was a touchy subject with Kathryn, now it was up to her to discover why. The only problem was that Kathryn was so silent. If she hadn’t known that Kathryn could speak, Natalie would have sworn she was mute.

Except for the slavery question she brushed off every question without any reaction. However by the third week Natalie could tell that her persistence was starting to work. Kathryn would finish her chores, give a short training session to the others— forgoing one for herself, and then return to her room and close the door until her next shift. Natalie would not be dissuaded. She stood outside the door and continued to ask questions, with Lindsey keeping watch on the stairs in case someone came upstairs.

Four days after she had started taking refuge in her room, Kathryn had had enough. Natalie was not going to leave her alone. She decided that taking sanctuary in her room wasn’t enough. Dismounting she stabled her horse, finished her chores, ignored Natalie’s numerous questions, and then set off towards the forest. She passed through the barrier, with Natalie chatting away behind her.

There! The perfect spot for her to disappear was straight ahead. Shifting her pack ever so slightly she moved through the forest silently, Natalie falling farther behind with every step until she could hear Natalie calling for her. “Kathryn? Kathryn where did you go? Where are you?”

Kathryn wasn’t about to stop, she continued on at a running pace, letting her gift guide her to a place where she could find peace. Destiny followed overhead, her flight guiding Kathryn through the trees and around boulders until they reached the place that called to her.

A magnificent waterfall tumbled over the rocks and into a calm pool below. Hot and sweaty, and grateful for the unseasonably warm late fall temperatures, Kathryn stripped off her work clothes, slipped into a bathing tunic and jumped into the water.

The water invaded every pore and dissolved all of the frustration and anger Kathryn had been harboring against Natalie. Diving down she explored the bottom of the pool, swimming over rocks and sandy areas until she was directly beneath the falls itself. She surfaced, feeling the power of the water as it crashed upon her head, neck, and shoulders massaging and soothing her tense muscles. The pounding outside her skull made her forget the pounding and throbbing within.

Reluctantly she pulled herself out of the water and sat down on the grassy bank letting the sun dry her off. Deciding to return every day to the waterfall she sank back into the soft grass, feeling every soft blade brush against her skin. She dozed pleasantly, letting the sound of the falling water block out every other thought.

When she woke she dressed quickly and returned to the clearing with fifteen minutes to spare of her shift. Natalie was nearby as always and quickly made her way towards her.

“Where did you hide?” she hissed as Kathryn saddled Lerina, when Kathryn remained silent she added, “You can’t hide forever, sooner or later I’ll find your hiding place.”

Kathryn mounted and looked down at the older girl. “I’ve seen you track Natalie, I have no worries about you finding my hiding place.” She nudged Lerina into a trot and left the barn, leaving Natalie speechless.

Natalie trembled with rage
.
Fine
,
she thought coldly
,
if a war is what you want, then a war is what you’ll ge
t
.

“Natalie? Are you alright?”

Natalie turned to find Lindsey standing behind her, a worried look on her face. “Come on, we have plans to make.” She hurried back to her room.

Closing the door she began to pace again. “How else can we get to Kathryn?”

Lindsey sat down on her bed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, annoy her, upset her, get an emotional reaction from her!” Natalie shouted. “The girl is stone and I want to make the stone bleed.”

“Well,” Lindsey said slowly. “Continually asking questions didn’t help, she just locked herself in her room, and when she’d had enough of that she sought refuge in the forest.”

“Thank you for reminding me,” Natalie grumped. “Could you track her?”

Lindsey shook her head. “Tracking is not one of my strong skills.”

“We’ll just have to make her miserable another way.”

“How?”

“We’ll figure out something.”

Natalie thought for a long time about what she could do to annoy Kathryn. For a long time she could think of nothing, finally, at a loss for any other ideas she moved toward Kathryn’s room. Her fury grew as she approached the nondescript door on the coveted second floor.
This
should have been
her
room. And it would have been, if the Council hadn’t assigned the position of family lieutenant to a girl who
obviously
didn’t want it.

Jasse’s warning of ‘everyone’s room being their sanctuary’ didn’t even enter her mind as Natalie opened the door to Kathryn’s room. Looking around in disgust, Natalie could see nothing that would help her get under her nemesis’ skin. The girl hadn’t even bothered to decorate her own room. It was as plain as when they had first moved in.

Decorate her room?

Natalie raced back to her room and pulled out bolts of pink and red fabric and other decorating supplies. Hurrying back to Kathryn’s room she began to work. She worked until twenty minutes before her shift. Taking one last look at her handiwork, Natalie closed the door and prepared for her shift, wishing she could see the look on Kathryn’s face when she saw her room.

She moved to the kitchens where Matt was fixing dinner. When they had first moved in, Matt had made it a rule that no one was allowed in the kitchen while he wa
s
creatin
g
, however she needed a new water gourd to replace the old one she had lost and he would just have to live with her intrusion.

She opened the door and stepped inside. “Matt I need—

Coming to a dead stop just inside the doorway she stared in horror at the scene before her.

Hundreds upon hundreds of bugs covered the room from floor to ceiling. Suji bugs, large oblong shaped creatures with a hard black and green veined shell covering their backs and sporting a distinctive yellow half-moon on the thorax paced back and forth along the countertops, dragging pieces of meat. Merici, little bugs with six legs and an antenna on top of their heads, paraded across the floor, dragging noodles and sallat greenery behind them. Spiders of every size and species hung from the cupboards lowering spices and other small items into a large cooking pot simmering on the stove.

Mendemire roaches were pulling bread dough every which way, flies were constantly diving downwards over the pot and bees were shaking what appeared to be honey off their legs.

“Natalie!” Matt exclaimed as he exited the cellar, a large jar of spice in his hands and two dozen firebugs flying around his head. “What are you doing here?” Suddenly all of the bugs stopped what they were doing.  Slowly each one turned in unison to face towards Natalie.  Those with antennae pointed their long slender appendages directly at her face to capture as much information as their tiny sensors allowed.  As if of one mind they all waited patiently on what the girl would do next.

Natalie opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a strangled yelp. She watched as a spider the size of her hand dumped some merchan spice into the pot. Gulping and gasping she finally found her voice. Letting out a piercing scream she turned on her heel and raced out of the room.

Flinging open the front door she sprinted outside in a blind panic and straight into David and Luke, sending her and David both flying.

“Natalie! What in blazes is wrong with you?” David exclaimed as he picked himself up off the ground. Luke was doubled over, hooting in laughter.

“Thekitcheniscoveredinbugs!” she shrieked as she accepted David’s hand to regain an upright position.

Both David and Luke stared at her. “What?” Luke asked slowly.

“Iwenttothekitchentogetanewgourdandfounditcoveredinbugswhowerecookingourdinner!”

“Did you understand any of that?” Luke asked, canting his head to one side.

David shook his head. “Natalie, you’re hyperventilating,” he told her calmly, “take a deep breath,” David watched while she did so, “good. Now, tell us what happened.”

“I…went…to…the…kitchen…to…get…a…new…gourd…and…found…it…covered…in… bugs…who…were…cooking…our…dinner.” Natalie drug out each word, partly because she was highly irritated at the boys for making her repeat it and also because she needed to catch her breath in between each word…perhaps she really was hyperventilating…whatever that meant.

The two boys exchanged a concerned look before racing to the kitchen to see for themselves. Natalie waited for the shouting to begin but when a few minutes had passed and no one had raised their voice she slowly ventured back inside.

The kitchen was spotless, not a bug in sight and Matt stood stirring the pot with a large wooden spoon with David and Luke laughing beside him.

Spotting her in the doorway Luke called out, “Where are your bugs Natalie?”

She scowled at Matt. “They were right here a minute ago.”

David chuckled. “I don’t see any now. In fact this kitchen’s spotless.” Seeing Natalie’s angry glare he quickly changed the subject, “Dinner smells great Matt, the rest of the Dragons will enjoy it. Come on Natalie, Luke, we have a shift to start.” He pulled Natalie out of the kitchen, missing Matt’s smirk.

The story of Natalie’s imaginary bugs spread through the Dragons like wildfire and by the time supper started everyone had heard it.

Natalie, usually a girl who loved being in the center of attention, resented both Matt and the Dragons. Matt because he obviously knew the truth but was letting the rest of the Dragons tease her about it— and the family because the
y
wer
e
teasing her about it.

But what really irritated her was that Matt had made her look like a fool in front of David. The first time she’d laid eyes on her new leader Natalie had taken careful note of his extreme good looks and calm confident demeanor. The way he had skillfully taken control of the introductions had proven to her that he was of a noble family, peasants simply did not possess such tact—Kathryn certainly didn’t. He was a perfect match for her and she had decided that she would do everything in her power to get him to notice her.

She wanted him, his attention, and she always got what she wanted. However David was proving to be difficult, hardly taking any notice of her. Instead he seemed to be preoccupied with making sure the Dragons became a smoothly functioning family, the mark of a true leader, but it was definitely running him opposite of Natalie and her ambitions. If she could get close to David, perhaps she could eventually replace Kathryn as second-in-command. The goal was a delicious one to contemplate, one that would be even sweeter due to her irritation over the younger girl.

However instead of getting closer to her, he seemed to take more of an interest in Kathryn. Natalie had caught him staring hard at her adversary more than once and it made her furious. Now, the one time she’d had his undivided attention, she’d looked like an idiot. Briefly she considered retaliating at Matt, but then decided she couldn’t handle both Kathry
n
an
d
Matt, especially if Matt could call on some of his littl
e
friend
s
for help.

Kathryn unsaddled her horse, grateful that Natalie wasn’t around to irritate her with ridiculous questions. She still couldn’t forgive herself for reacting the way she did when Natalie asked her about slavery. The older girl had obviously noticed and took it as a sign that she was on the right track.

Sighing, Kathryn climbed the stairs and opened the door to her room—and stared. Pink and red fabric hung from the ceiling and walls. Candles matching the fabric sat ready to be lit and little red and pink hearts had been cut from parchment and strewn about the room.

Natalie. It could only be Natalie.

Sighing deeply, Kathryn bent over and began picking up the tacky hearts and pulling the fabric off the walls. She deposited the pile in Natalie’s room.

When Natalie returned from her shift and spotted the pink pile on her bed she smiled. "Well, at least she had the decency to return it," she muttered to herself as she undressed. "That way I can reuse it all tomorrow." She crawled into her bed and snuggled under the blankets wondering just how long Kathryn would tolerate her room being decorated before lashing out at her. It would be interesting to see how long it took for Kathryn to snap.

On the fourth day Kathryn returned from her last shift to find her room once again a collage of pink and red she felt her anger rise. 

 
Fine
,
she thought angrily as she surveyed the disaster that was her room
,
if Natalie won't stop, then the least I can do is make sure she suffers for it
.
Gathering up all of the decorations, she stuffed them into her satchel and made her way out of the house and into the woods. On the outskirts of the magical boundary that protected the Dragon's glade she dumped the colorful ensemble out of her bag and quickly set it on fire using her flint and steel. An enormous feeling of satisfaction welled within her as she watched the bright fabrics wither away into pieces of black ash. Her nose wrinkled in distaste as the wind shifted direction, blowing the smoke into her face.  Once she was satisfied that there was nothing left for Natalie to salvage she returned to the house, Destiny swopped down over her shoulder screeching victoriously. Kathryn couldn't help but agree with her.