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The rest of the daypassed without Odelna saying a single word.
That evening, when we made camp, she wouldn’t eat.
“She gives me the creeps,” Vesper confided, as he sat beside me during dinner.
“How can you say that? Yes, she’s odd. But only because she’s been through something horrible,” I said, surprised by his reaction to the child. “Sometimes people respond this way. It’s unusual, but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with her. She’s just a little girl.”
I looked at Odelna, her dirty clothes, her blood stained face, then got up guiltily and fetched a cloth. Carefully, I wiped her face clean. There was nothing we could do about her clothes right now. I had no wish to try to pry them off her and besides, there was nowhere to wash them at the moment.
Lancelet managed to get the little girl to accept more water but she would take no food.
When the little girl acted as if she had no idea what sleep was, sitting by the fire until she was nearly tipping over from exhaustion, I picked her up gently and laid her down in the middle of Lancelet’s tent.
For a while, Odelna looked up above her, eyes still wide, no sign she would drift off anytime soon. But in time, her breathing slowed and before long she was sleeping the deep slumber that only a child can achieve.
Lancelet leaned her head against her hand.“Who would bring a child into this place? Do you think she’ll start speaking to us?”
“I don’t know.” I thought of Florian and what he had put me through, then tried to imagine enduring something like that as a child. Slavering beasts attacking my family and devouring those around me while I watched, huddled under a wagon, wondering when I would be next. Abruptly, I realized I had been through something similar. While I hid beneath my mother’s bed watching my father beat her to death. “It could be a long time.”
“Do you think her parents were with her when it happened?” Lancelet whispered, as we lay on either side of the girl.
“For her sake, I hope not.” I thought of the look on Draven’s face as he noticed the tag around Odelna’s neck. The tag was still there–a small white piece of paper hung on a dirty length of twine tucked into the girl’s dress.
I gently touched a finger to the string. “I think she might have been a slave, Lancelet.”
Lancelet’s eyes opened in horror. “What? Why do you say that?”
“This tag,” I said, gesturing. “Draven noticed it, too. Why would a child wear a name tag around her neck? It seems odd. Unless she was on her way to being sold somewhere.” The idea filled me with disgust but I wanted to face the possibility.
“There are no slaves in Eskira,” Lancelet said with firmness. “It’s impossible.”
“What do we really know of Eskira?” I said thoughtfully. “Pendrath has no slaves, it’s true. Nor do Lyonesse or Tintagel. But Cerunnos might. And Rheged? What do we really know about Rheged? Not much. Besides...” I cleared my throat. “Merlin once told me that every despicable thing I could ever imagine was still carried out somewhere in Aercanum. If people are determined to possess others as slaves, they’ll find a way. Especially if they’re rich and powerful.”
“So she was kidnapped?” Lancelet said, resting her head on her arm. “That’s awful.”
“Maybe the fenrirs saved her from something even worse.” I touched a hand gently to the girl’s forehead.
“What are we going to do with her?” Lancelet asked. “After Valtain, I mean.”
“We’ll bring her back to Camelot with us. She could live in the castle as my ward.” I thought of Arthur and the way young girls so easily could become prey in the Rose Court. “Or I’ll ask Merlin to take her in, at least until she’s older. Then she can decide for herself what she wants.”
Odelna would have every choice possible in front of her. I would make sure of that, I decided.
The girl stirred in her sleep, tossing her curly head about, and I leaned over her. “You’re safe now, little one. We won’t let anything else bad happen to you. Go to sleep.”
I thought of Draven and how he had knelt down before the little girl and refused to leave her behind.
“He didn’t didn’t hurt babies,” I mumbled to myself as I turned over in my bedroll and prepared for sleep to come.
