Freedom's Pyre ✓ [SAMPLE | Libertas Series | Book I]

Chapter Four: The Barn Incident

My father would never allow me to go, so I don't ask for permission that night at the dinner table. Besides, formal alliances between mages are difficult things and take months of work. Better to beg for forgiveness with alliances in hand than to ask permission and never get the chance to showcase my skills. The sooner I do that, the sooner I can get to the University.

I creep downstairs. My parents have both retired to their room shortly after sundown. I make it to the door easily and carefully undo the latch.

I am into the free air faster and with more ease than i'd anticipated. The night air is cold and I wish I'd thought to bring my cloak but the walk is short. I pick up my pace to avoid the chill.

The barn is lit up and welcoming. I slip in the door. Oil lamps hang along the walls and young men and women alike are sat on bales of hay. A young man, possibly one of Urias' many brothers, plays a fiddle in the corner and a few couples are up and dancing, laughing to each other as they spin around the makeshift dancefloor.

There are a handful of mage children dotted about, their blond hair standing out amongst the brown and black of their fellow villagers.

Urias is in the corner, and I give him a wide-berth, instead looking around for Harriet.

She is sat on a hay bale near the fiddler, tapping her foot idly to the music. She's wearing a mage gown rather than her usual day clothes, the edges trimmed with frolicking deer. When she sees me she gets to her feet, a smile breaking across her features.

"I thought you wouldn't come!" she says. I smile at her and gave her a quick bow.

"I said I would, didn't I?"

She laughs, though I'm not sure I've said anything funny. The fiddler pauses for a moment between songs to sip from a bottle of something that almost certainly isn't apple juice.

"Would you like to dance?" I ask. Harriet looks surprised.

"You want to dance with me?" 

I fix a smile on my face.

"It's why you would come to a barn dance, isn't it? To dance?" I ask. She quickly grabs my hand, as though I might change my mind, and pulls me closer to the fiddler.

It is a simple dance, with few enough steps that I don't really have to concentrate on what I'm doing. I can see Urias watching me but I purposefully ignore his intent stare.

"When Kasper left, I felt for certain that you would become a hermit up in that dreadful little cottage," Harriet says as we pass each other on one of the turns.

I frown. No one has ever described my home as 'dreadful' before.

"I mean, it's bad enough that you are all so isolated up there, but to be young and to be far from the rest of us... It must be difficult. I know Kasper always felt that way."

I try not to let my confusion show too plainly. My brother had never expressed any disappointment to me about our home.

"It's nice to be out," I say, attempting diplomacy.

Harriet smiles but I can't help but wonder if it was a bad idea to be here at all.

The music stops and the fiddler put down his violin with a laugh. He hops off his bale and disappears outside, no doubt to relieve himself away from prying eyes. I'm left having to think of something to say in the absence of music.

"To be honest, it's nice to have you instead of Kasper. Sometimes, he was so boring," Harriet says, brushing off her skirts. Her cheeks are flushed from dancing.