Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #13 April 2015 | Page 145

basket clinking with pots of preserved fruit, poor payment for the healer, but the best she could manage in
the famine season. She wondered how she would get
Rosleen to the safety of her own cottage without the
rest of the village seeing, for she had no pony or cart.
Perhaps Mistress Elvienne would be able to tell her.
The old woman waited for her on the front step, her
hands overflowing fresh herbs. She was short and
pink-cheeked, with deep lines at the corners of her
eyes and mouth. If not for her eyes, she would have
looked like a sweet and gentle grandmother. Only her
eyes, cold and hard as two slivers of jade, revealed her
hidden anger.
“Come with me, Onelle,” she said, by way of greeting.
“See what marriage has done to your daughter.”
Rosleen was sitting up in bed, and she smiled and
reached out as Onelle ducked under the lintel. She
hastened across the room and gathered her daughter
in her arms, stroking her long hair. The girl’s hands
tightened on her cloak. “You won’t make me go back
to him, will you? Mother?”

The hammering against the wood grew more strident,
and the latch rattled. Rosleen clamped her hands
over her mouth, as if forcing a scream back down her
throat. Onelle tightened her embrace. Hawn would
have to rip her away from her daughter before he
could touch her.
“Open this door, witch, or we’ll torch the house, and
you with it!”
“I’d like to see you try it,” Elvienne muttered, glancing at Onelle. “You want me to turn him into a frog?”
“Can you actually do that? Turn people into frogs?”
Elvienne shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’ve never tried it
though…”
“Rosleen?”
She pushed herself away from Onelle, until there was
space between them, and cold air. “Let him in,” she
said.

Onelle let go, looking at the floor. She would not meet
Rosleen’s eye.

“Are you sure?” Onelle cradled her cheek. “You don’t
have to – ”

“Mother?”

“Hawn would burn the house for fun if he felt like it.
I won’t let that happen to you, Mistress Elvienne.”
Her cheeks flushed, Onelle felt the heat of unexpected courage. Hawn had not yet completely doused her
daughter’s fire.

“You know the law, Rosleen. You know what they
would do-”
“I don’t.” Elvienne had been standing quietly in the
doorway, witness to the reunion. “What do they do to
a woman who leaves the husband who beats her?”
Onelle closed her eyes, a shadow flickering acro 72