sarraphine

Chapter: 2 The impact knocked the wind out of me. The horse reared and lashed out with his front hooves. The boy let loose and dodged away. By some miracle I kept my seat and dug my heels into his sides, whistling sharply. My inner thighs and tail were going to be bruised from the hard saddle. Those would fade, but I couldn’t feel much of anything except terror right then. Merik grabbed at my skirts and I jerked them away. He aimed to grab my leg next. I leaned left swaying off the saddle to one side and kicked him square in the chest. He went down with a strangled shout and the crowd gasped. I slipped right back in the saddle. The horse stutter stepped and then plunged headlong as I kicked for all I was worth. My feet didn’t reach the stirrups so I gripped with my legs till they ached. I yanked the reins right and we cut hard through the crowd. I picked out Alister Murdock’s curses as the crowd parted before me. A couple sets of hands grabbed at my skirts

First: Everyone said we won the war but it didn’t seem that way to me. My father and one older brother never returned, and my brother Eric came back missing three fingers on one hand and a leg from the knee down. Injuries like that made a beggar not a farmer, well, that’s what everyone said. Mama fell ill before Eric was brought home, leaving only me to tend what I could. She tried her best to help but she could barely stand for any amount of time before she doubled over coughing. I worked from sun up to sun down trying to take care of the land and animals, but it was never enough. Most of the land and crops went untended or rotted in the ground. It felt like something bad was on the way, and then the King decided we could all part with more, as though any common folk had more to give. No one had much of anything to begin with except our lives and families, and even less after the war. Every man younger than forty and boys over sixteen had been conscripted. I