Chapter 1 – Disappointment

"When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment." - Ryan Reynolds

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Prologue (From Chapter 79 of "The Angry Boy" :

In Thornberry, Bredin saw a girl with the beginnings of a powerful fetching gift. Lacaral said she would almost certainly be Chosen, but it was a few years away. Her parents thought the only proper thing for their daughter was to prepare to be a good housewife and mother. Without telling her parents Katie was likely to be Chosen – which might not happen – Bredin persuaded them to see she got special instruction from the local priest of the Twain. The priest was a former guardsman who had taken vows after the end of the Tedrel Wars. When Bredin suggested that Katie be taught basic weapons drills as well as languages and figuring, the priest gave him a knowing look.

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"Well, Katie, you're becoming a right handsome skirt. I think you need a man to make you happy." Shay Gulley stepped in front of Katie Wood, leering at her bosom. Katie started slightly, she hadn't noticed Shay lounging against the side of building.

Katie thought quickly. She didn't want to provoke the bully, but neither did she want anything to do with him. Carefully, she said. "Thank you, Master Gulley. I haven't thought about it." It was a lie. Her mother made it plain that her daughter should find a husband, though maybe not for a year or two. And, when she was with other girls her age – a rare occurrence – most of their conversation was about one boy or another or how they would have a perfect wedding.

She attempted to go past Shay, but he blocked her path. "A fine pretty girl like you? You must have felt the urge." He pumped his hips slightly and smirked.

Disgust fought with amusement in Katie's thoughts. She knew she was pretty enough, with strong regular features and high cheekbones, but she was not the beauty that Rosie Sikes or Mary Doane were. She was fit – with the exercises Father Eron put her through, how could she not be? – and her breasts were firm if a little small. Katie's one point of pride was her long black hair, which she brushed every day so that it hung down her back in a glossy tail.

Amusement won and Katie said "I have never felt this 'urge' you speak of." Another lie. She did have dreams, but the men in them wore white coats and rode white steeds with blue eyes and silver hooves.

"Let me show you what I mean." Shay took her arm and moved closer.

Katie pulled back, shaking his hand off. "Please! I must be going."

As she started to walk away, Shay grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her. Now worried, Katie ducked under his grasp the way Father Elon taught her and started to run.

"Come back here, you little witch!" Shay chased after Katie, only to be blocked by a horse.

"Is this man bothering you, Mistress Wood?" Pierce Bellamy asked. The second son of Baron Bellamy sat on his bay gelding, positioning the animal between Katie and Shay.

"Stay out of this, lordy-boy." Shay tried to go around the horse, but Pierce blocked him.

"It appears the lady does not desire your company." Pierce said. "Leave her alone."

"Mind your own business! Out of my way!" Shay attempted to grab Pierce's leg and throw him off the horse.

Pierce booted the gelding, ramming into Shay, flattening him. "I said 'leave her alone.' If you bother Mistress West again, I'll haul you before my father."

Shay glared up at Pierce for a moment, then looked away.

Pierce turned his horse back to Katie, who had stayed to watch. "May I offer you a ride, Mistress West?" He reached down, offering a hand.

Katie's lips twitched. "No thank you, Lord Pierce." Pierce Bellamy was two years younger than Katie. The boy was very serious about his dignity and rank, with an exaggerated ideal of chivalry and knighthood. Pierce earnestly tried to live up to every ideal of courtesy and his duty as he saw it, often with comical results. Though the villagers laughed at his pretentions, the laughter was affectionate due to the boy's well-meaning good intentions. He would be a fine lord, they said, if he only had a little more sense.

"Then, will you allow me to escort you?"

Katie's lips twitched again. "You may, Milord." When Pierce prepared to dismount, she added. "Please remain on your horse, Milord. Otherwise, people might suggest we were courting."

Pierce blushed and stayed on his horse, keeping beside Katie until they reached the town. As they walked, Pierce told Katie about his older brother, who was now serving as Squire to Baron Piers DuGrenze and his own hopes of becoming an officer in the Guard.

They parted at the Temple of the Twain, where Katie went in for her lessons with Father Eron.

###

"Ah musta left it onna table afore I wen' ta market." Old Margie Brooks said as she handed two pennies to the miller. "Ah d'clare ah had it when ah wen' out ta door an' a swear t'wernt there when ah git home. But atter ma nap, there t'were this atternoon. Ah mus' me maunderin' or goin' blind."

Katie Wood smiled to herself. Margie hadn't forgotten or lost her purse. Shay Gulley had picked Margie's pocket as she tottered her way to market that morning. Not that Shay was a particularly adept thief – Margie's years made her an easy target. Poor Margie had been distraught at the loss of her few shillings, painfully earned selling pies and tarts.

Everyone loved old Margie, who had a kind word and a smile for everyone. The miller and the dairyman cheerfully 'advanced' her the flour and butter on Margie's promise to pay; neither man cared if she ever repaid them. For Margie, her inability to pay was a torment.

Katie did not see the theft, but word of Margie's loss flew about the town on the wings of rumor and Katie went 'looking' for it. She 'found' the purse in Shay Gulley's pocket just as the boy sat down with his friends in the Crow and Gate. Katie 'fetched' the purse back and returned it unseen to Margie. She grinned at the memory of how the innkeeper reacted when Shay could not produce payment. Shay could not explain the missing money without revealing the original theft.

Katie continued on to the home of Healer Helen Oniel for her afternoon gift training. For the last four years, ever since Herald Bredin told her to get training for her mindgifts, the village Healer taught Katie the basics. Once Katie learned the basics of grounding and centering, her gifts grew rapidly. First, the fetching, which Herald Bredin noticed. As Katie learned to move larger and heavier objects more precisely at ever greater distances, the first signs of farsight appeared. Now Katie could 'see' and move things as much as half a mile away.

A grinning Helen Oniel threw her arms around Katie when she arrived at the Healer's home. "That was a sweet thing to do for Margie." The Healer said.

"How did you find out?" Katie worried she'd betrayed her secrets. The Heralds warned her not to tell anyone about her gifts: People would either pester her for favors or shun her out of fear. Not that Katie would mind if Shay Gulley stayed away from her – she could do without the prideful bully's attentions.

The healer said "I paid a visit to Margie this morning to offer help. There was nothing on her table – healers are trained to be observant. When I heard she'd found it there, I knew someone found it and secretly returned it. Anyone who found it on the ground and returned it wouldn't need to keep it secret, so I was sure it was you." Helen made a sly face. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Master Gulley's little problem at the Crow and Gate, would it?"

Katie's red blush confirmed Helen's shrewd guess. Helen hugged her again. "Smart girl! Righting a wrong and a just punishment in one clever move. And nobody to guess how it happened! You are doing good and keeping your secret safe. Tell me how it you did it."

After Katie gave Helen the full details, the Healer made a face. "Never liked that Gulley boy. Healers are supposed to be impartial, but he's got a mean streak a mile wide.

"As for you, just keep on the way you're going. This town's going to be proud of you some day." Helen Oniel patted Katie's cheek affectionately, mentally adding. 'When a Companion shows up and takes you away.' The Healer kept the thought securely behind her own shields. Katie was beginning to show signs of mindspeech. The Heralds told Helen never to mention the possibility to the girl, reminding the Healer not even they knew why Companions Chose and it would be cruel to raise hopes if they were wrong. Instead, the Healer told Katie and her parents Katie was learning to be a lay healer and Helen's assistant.

Katie, like any Valdemaran child, had her own dreams. She'd voiced them once. The teasing persisted to this day. Katie told herself the other children were jealous and, in fairness, she admitted they had reason: None of the others got to continue schooling past their twelfth year or had special lessons with both Father Eron and Healer Helen. Not even the boys got weapons instruction from the priest, who had been a soldier in the Tedrel Wars before finding his vocation. At fourteen, other girls spent their days helping their mothers with 'womanly' pursuits, preparing them for marriage while Katie passed the candlemarks with books and learning languages. Her parents didn't like it, but the Heralds insisted Katie get a broad education. Katie knew she was favored but kept her dreams to herself: She was enough of an outsider already.

Katie sat down to the lesson: The mindspeaking came much harder than the fetching and farsight, especially as Helen's Healing gift came closer to the latter than the former.

###

The soft click of the needles soothed Katie's nerves. She sat on the porch, casting the loops of yarn in the warmth of a late spring evening as the sun set. The knitting was her concession to her parents' notion of 'being a proper girl.' She enjoyed the task and the fierce concentration the patterns demanded; it pulled her mind away from the worries of the day. She finished a row and glanced up to see the last bit of the sun disappear behind the hill. Another half-candlemark of twilight before she would have to go in.

She held up her work. A quick glance was enough to confirm that every stitch was even and the pattern was correct, but she feigned a close concentration as though she suspected an error. Instead of examining the pattern, she focused her mind and cast out with her farsight.

That afternoon, on her way home from Healer Helen's, Katie overheard Shay Gulley raging how he'd been 'robbed' and vowing vengeance on the 'bastard who did it.' 'Overheard' was an understatement. The whole town heard Shay's grievance, which he shouted out at the top of his lungs. Katie frowned. Shay would hear of Margie's 'finding' her lost purse; the bully would certainly work out that someone had filched the purse back from him and returned it to Margie. Katie worried that Shay might take out his anger on the old woman.

Katie found Shay. The boy sat in the deep shade of a willow tree, an angry expression on his face watching the door of Margie Brooks' tiny cottage. The boy took a drink from the wine bottle at his side. Katy 'saw' his lips moving, but her farsight did not carry the sounds. From the way Shay glared at Margie's cottage, Katy guessed he was cursing.

Absently, Katie resumed her knitting, her stitches slow as she continued to watch Shay. He was planning something, she was sure of it.

The twilight faded and the sky grew darker. Soon, it was too dark to see the loops of yarn clearly and Katie continued to knit by touch.

"Katie, come in now." Her mother called.

"It's so lovely warm, mother. Can I just stay here a little longer?" Katie pleaded.

"No. Come in now."

Reluctantly, Katie stood and went in the door, her mental 'eye' still watching Shay Gulley. She sat between her mother and her youngest brother as the family gathered around the fireplace and pulled out her knitting once more.

"You should have seen Felen Tate and his sons thrashing Shay Gulley today." Her oldest brother Zeb said. The innkeeper administered his own punishments to freeloaders; he and his beefy sons were more than a match for cocky youngsters like Shay and his friends.

"And what would you be doing at the Crow and Gate?" Kell Wood raised a skeptical eyebrow at his son. "You were supposed to be fixing the fences."

"Ah, pa, we'd been working all day. Can't we have a break?" Zeb looked slightly shamefaced.

""Rest is sweeter when the job is done.'" Kell quoted.

"Katie, you look a little distracted." Anne Wood changed the subject deliberately. "That's the third time you've redone a stitch."

"I – I just was thinking about what Helen Oniel showed me today." Katie lied. Her family knew no more of Katie's gifts than the rest of the village. Katie loved and trusted her family, but Father Eron and Healer Helen insisted that the fewer who knew, the less likely her secret would get out.

Her mother sighed. "She's wearing you out with all that book-learning. You go lie down, pet."

Blessing the chance to escape, Katie thanked her mother and went to her room. As the only daughter, she did not share a room the way her three brothers did. Here, alone, she could drop all pretense of domestic work and give her full attention to watching Shay.

###

In the deepening gloom, Shay watched Margie Brooks' door. Somehow, that witch had taken back the purse. The old fool thought she could make a fool of him? His muscles and bones ached from every blow Felen Tate laid on him. Shay would make the stupid woman pay for every twinge.

He raised the bottle of currant wine and swallowed another mouthful. What right had the old witch to hang on? Instead, she held on to the land, taking rent from Shay's father when she ought to just die and let his pa have it.

Shay grinned. Maybe if he threw enough of a scare into her, the witch's heart would just stop. Shay waited and plotted his revenge. He saw the light go out in the tiny cottage. Good. The witch was going to sleep. Between that and the mask he wore, she'd never know who he was.

It was still too early. Shay took another drink and waited for the town to go to sleep. No sense taking a chance somebody might see him. Twilight faded and the lights of the town grew quiet. Soon it was full dark, the waning moon would not rise until just before dawn.

The last patrons left the Crow and Gate and staggered to their homes. Shay frowned, he'd get even with Felen Tate another night. In his mind's eye, he saw the inn burn to the ground.

A quarter candlemark more. It was time. Shay stoppered the bottle and got to his feet. Time to teach the witch a lesson. He pulled the mask over his face and swaggered to Margie's door. He raised his foot and kicked the door open. He charged inside, knocking her table over.

As he charged inside, the old crone cried out "Who's there?"

###

Katie sat on her bed, farsight fixed on Shay. Darkness did not affect her gift, so she saw his every move. She was tired, but she forced herself to stay awake, bracing her shoulders whenever she felt the urge to drowse.

She saw Shay stand. When she saw him put on the mask, she knew she had to act. She got to her feet, thinking to call her father. But he was asleep: It would take too long to rouse him and it would take too long to reach Margie's cottage.

She made a decision. She'd used her gift before, but always in secret ways no one would notice. This would be blazingly obvious. She sat down again and centered the way Helen Oniel taught her. As Shay burst through Margie's door, she acted.

###

Shay screamed in terror as a force grabbed him and flung him out the door. Twenty feet in the air, he soared three hundred yards down the road to land in the manure pit of his father's pig farm. He splashed into the foul muck, more liquid than usual due to the spring rains, submerging completely before spluttering to the surface.

The pool was only waist deep, but Shay floundered and thrashed for some time before managing to find his feet. He was still screaming and bellowing when his father reached the edge of the pit and shone a lantern on Shay, covered head to toe in manure and filth.

"Help me!" Shay cried out as he waded to the edge of the pit and climbed out. He pulled the mask off, revealing his face.

Orrin Gulley stood back to avoid the stinking apparition coming towards him. "Shay, is that you? What happened to you?" By now, neighbors wakened by the screaming and shouting began to arrive at the Gulley farmstead.

"That cursed witch did this!" Shay shouted. "She stole my money and did this to me!" He waved a hand, splattering bystanders with the stinking drops of sludge. Those closest moved further back.

"What are you talking about? Who do you mean?" Orrin asked his son.

"That disgusting old witch Margie Brooks. She did this to me!" Shay continued to rage.

"What? Margie wouldn't harm a soul." Shay's mother said.

"She did. Look at me!" Shay insisted.

"How could Margie Brooks make you jump in the manure pit?" Orrin was puzzled.

"I didn't jump in. She threw me in."

"Ridiculous. She's an old woman and you're twice her size." Orrin wondered if his son had gone mad.

"She used her cursed powers! She's a witch! She threw me from her place to here. She's a witch!" Shay repeated.

Kell Wood heard this as he came up, his nightshirt tucked into his trousers and his boots untied. "I just came by Margie's place. Someone broke down her door and smashed her table before running away. Was that you?"

A chill went down Shay's spine as he realized he'd said too much. Scrambling for a story, he said. "No! I didn't. I don't know what happened. All I know is she threw me through the air and dumped me in the manure pit."

Kell raised his eyebrows. "Margie threw you from her place to your father's? How could she do that?"

"She used her cursed powers. She's a witch! She threw me over the tree-tops!" Shay insisted.

"A likely story." Kell said. "What were you doing by Margie's place?"

A light dawned in Orrin Gulley's mind. "Shut up, boy." He muttered quietly. "Afore you hang yourself."

Shay's eyes flicked to his father, then back to Kell Wood. "I don't answer to you. Go away."

"Tell us what you were doing." Kell demanded. The others in the crowd murmured agreement.

Alarmed, Orrin interrupted. "You're not the watch. Off my property, the whole lot of you."

The crowd persisted, demanding answers. Orrin stayed firm and insisted they leave. Shay, finally realizing he was in trouble, remained silent. Eventually, the townsfolk drifted back to their own homes.

After Shay stripped and scrubbed himself with lye soap in the water trough, his mother allowed him to enter the house. When the door closed, Orrin pinned his son against the wall. "I don't know what you was doing an' I don't want to know. But sure as **** stinks, the watch will be here in the morning and you'll have to answer afore Lord Bellamy. I hope you got a good explanation."

###

Helen Oniel was with Father Eron when Katie arrived for her lesson the next morning. From their smiles, Katie knew they'd deduced what she'd done. They demanded all the details from her.

"I approve, Katie." Father Eron said. "You gave him the chance to turn away and acted only when you needed to. Better yet, you kept your secret hidden. Well done." Healer Oniel nodded her agreement.

"I'm still worried about Margie." Katie said. "He's calling her a witch. That sort of thing sticks in people's memories, even when they've forgotten who said it."

Father Eron nodded. "Good thought." He rubbed his chin as his eyes glittered with mischief. "If I said there was a benign spirit around that protected the innocent…."

Helen laughed. "Oh, yes! I've been sensing that benign spirit for some time."

Katie blushed while the other two chuckled.

The Healer turned serious. "I wanted to ask if you had a reaction headache. Remember, I warned you about gift-strain. Moving a person takes a lot of power. I don't think you've worked with anything that big before."

Katie blushed again. "No, I'm fine. I haven't had a reaction headache since I rescued Josh Wharton's mare last fall."

Josh Wharton, in a hurry to get home with his wagon, decided to take a shortcut across a frozen pond. The ice was too thin and the mare and wagon broke through. Josh scrambled to safety and ran home. By the time he changed clothes and got back, the mare had somehow scrambled onto the bank, dragging the wagon with her.

Helen nodded, remembering how she'd treated the mare for extreme exhaustion and cold. "My dear, that was wonderful! Why didn't you tell me?"

Katie looked shamefaced. "I thought you'd be angry with me for overstraining my gift."

The two adults looked at each other and rolled their eyes.

###

Baron Michel Bellamy looked down at Shay Gulley. Like the townspeople gathered in his Court, he was certain Shay Gulley had tried something last night, but he did not have enough evidence. Margie Brooks couldn't identify her attacker, but the mere fact Shay had been out and about so late in the evening did not mean he did it.

Shay denied everything, of course, but Baron Bellamy did not believe for a minute that the boy 'just went for a walk.'

This 'witch' business bothered the baron as well. What could make someone fly through the air like that? He didn't like the 'benign spirit' business the priest and healer spouted, either. What kind of 'benign spirit' flung people into manure pits? He hid his smile at the thought of Shay coated with pig ****; that was unbecoming a magistrate.

Baron Bellamy sighed and tapped his gavel. "I am unable to unravel this mystery. It is beyond me. Accordingly, I am holding this over for the circuit Herald on his next visit, which is due next moon." Did Shay look a little frightened? Never mind, the Herald would sort it out. "In the meantime, I am ordering a strict curfew on Shay Gulley. Until the Herald arrives, Shay is to be inside his father's house from sunset each evening until a candlemark after sunrise the next morning. He is also forbidden to drink any wine, beer, cider, spirits or other alcohol or enter into any place where any of these may be sold during this time. Do you understand this, Shay Gulley?"

Shay looked belligerent for a moment, then nodded. "I do."

###

Katie joined the stream of people going out of the courthouse. The crowd milled in the street, discussing the testimony they'd heard. Most were convinced Shay had attacked Margie Brooks. They believed that the 'benign spirit' made its anger plain. Baron Bellamy should have recognised the Otherworldly Signs and punished Shay accordingly. A few grudgingly admitted the baron was right to refer the matter to the Heralds.

The argument was still continuing as Shay emerged from the courthouse at his father's side. Orrin Gulley took a firm grip on his son's arm and marched him through the angry crowd, looking neither right nor left and ignoring the muttered threats.

They were nearly through the crowd when little Ben Wharton called out "Look! A Companion coming."

Everyone turned to look as the glorious white Companion cantered into the town. There was no rider on its back. Everyone in Valdemar knew what that meant. The crowd fell silent as the Companion slowed to a trot and then a walk. It marched directly towards the crowd. Katie, like every youngster present, held her breath as the Companion made its way among the people. 'Please, oh please!'

The Companion stopped. ::I am Ohiro. I Choose you.::

Companion and Chosen stared into each other's eyes for a long moment. "His name's Ohiro. He's Chosen me!" Pierce Bellamy beamed at his father as he threw his arms around the Companion's neck. The crowd cheered loudly and Baron Bellamy puffed with pride. Everyone was happy for Pierce and Ohiro.

A few were not happy. Orrin and Shay Gulley sneered and turn their backs, continuing their walk home. Katie clutched herself to Helen Oniel's breast and wept bitterly while the Healer and Priest, themselves disappointed, tried to console her.

All was chaos for a candlemark as Pierce Bellamy prepared to leave. His mother, summoned hurriedly from the manor, smiled and laughed and wept for her son. Everyone congratulated the baron and Pierce and begged the boy to remember them. Katie composed herself; forcing a brave smile to her face, she hugged Pierce and wished him well.

At last all was ready. The crowd cheered when Pierce mounted Ohiro. The tall stallion curved his crest in a magnificent arch. Ohiro turned his head slightly, looking Katie in the eye.

Pierce stroked the proud neck, then followed the stallion's gaze. "Katie. Ohiro says to be patient." Ohiro pranced in place a moment, causing the crowd to part. With tears in her eyes, Katie watched the two canter away until they disappeared into the trees. Then she wept again in the Healer's arms.