When she had finished, Talis was unsmiling. “I’m glad I killed him, Callie. Maybe he would have wanted to eat you so he’d have all your stories inside him.”
“Would you be sad if a dragon ate me?”
“Sure,” he said. “If you died, who would tell me stories?” At that remark, he jumped off the wagon and started running the few feet to the house while Will, awake now (the horse knew just when to jerk the reins to wake him), drove into the yard.
“I’ll get you for that,” Callie yelled, jumping off and running after him.
Talis ran toward Meg, standing in the doorway and watching for them, as she always was when they returned. Will said she sensed when they were going to return, but the truth was that she was always so terrified that the three of them would disappear that she spent most of market day standing in the doorway and waiting.
Talis, nearly as tall as Meg, grabbed her thick waist and dodged Callie as she tried to hit him.
“Now, now, what’s this?” Meg asked. “Have you two been quarreling again?” She was trying to be stern, since Will was always telling her that she spoiled the children outrageously, but she didn’t fool them. They knew Meg would give them anything it was in her power to give.
As for the children quarreling, it wasn’t so much that they got angry but they teased each other mercilessly. They competed with each other constantly. There was no feeling that Talis could do something because he was a boy or that Callie did things because she was a girl. They challenged each other to see who could climb the highest in a tree, and to Meg’s horror, Callie would follow the much stronger Talis anywhere.
Meg would never forget the time two years ago when Will had taken Talis with him to the market for the first time. Neither of the adults thought much of it at the time. Will needed help and Talis was big enough to give him help, while Callie, being so tiny and a girl, would just be in the way.
Talis had been so excited about getting to go to the village, he’d talked about it for days. Callie had realized from the first that she wasn’t going to go but she’d said nothing. On the morning he was to go, Meg hadn’t had to wake Talis, and that was unusual since he was a sleepyhead. He got dressed quickly, wolfed his breakfast and when Meg told him to get on the wagon, he ran to the door. Then, abruptly, he halted and turning back, frowning, he said impatiently, “Come on, Callie, it’s time to go!”
It was Will who told him that Callie was too little to go with them.
Meg would never forget the look on Talis’s handsome face. He was stunned; it had never occurred to him that Callie would not go with them. She doubted if he’d ever contemplated doing anything without Callie. They slept in the same bed and spent every minute of every day together. As far as she knew, they had never been apart for more than minutes since they were born.
Silently, with what Meg knew was a false show of bravery, Talis followed Will out the door and got on the wagon seat beside him. He didn’t once look back at Callie, standing in front of the house, staring after him with big, lonely eyes.
Meg and Will had talked about this and decided it would be “good” for the children to be apart now and then. It would prepare them for what life had in store.
But what could prepare the adults for the devastation of two children who they loved so very much?
All that day Meg had tried to interest Callie in what she was doing. But Callie just sat down on the grass in front of the house and stared at the road. Usually, Callie was very conscientious about her animals, as taking care of the rabbits was her job, but that day she paid no attention when Meg told her the rabbits were hungry.
Meg tried to get some response from her, but there was nothing. Callie just sat there, her knees drawn up, her arms wrapped around them, and stared at the empty road. Meg even tried to get her to come inside to help her cook something special for Talis, but even that got no response.
After a while Meg couldn’t stand it anymore so she picked the tiny child up, planning to take her inside the house. Never in her life had Meg seen anyone fight as Callie fought. Callie was usually the sweetest child, but when Meg touched her that day she turned into a raging animal. She stiffened her little body and her hands began to scratch and claw; her feet kicked painfully.
Quickly, Meg put her back down to allow her to continue her silent vigil. By midmorning, Meg gave up trying to interest Callie in anything, so she moved her chair outside and shelled beans while watching the little girl, her heart aching at the emptiness she saw on the child’s face.
Then, in the early afternoon, abruptly, Callie’s head came up, her ears perking up as though she were a dog listening for something. Meg looked up and down the road that ran before the old farmhouse but saw nothing. Callie sat up straighter, listened more, then, with an agile movement, she was on her feet and running.
Meg tossed down the beans and ran after her but wasn’t able to keep up with the eight-year-old child. She was worried that in the state Callie was in she would run in front of a wagon and be hurt.
Meg reached the crossroads and there was tiny Callie standing in the dusty road, turning about, round and round, as though she were demented. Meg went to her, knelt down and tried to hold her in her arms. “Callie, love, Talis will be back soon. You’ll see. He’ll be back very soon and he’ll be all right.”
There was a wild look in Callie’s eyes. “He can’t find me. He can’t find me. He’s looking for me. He can’t find me. He’s looking for me. He can’t find me. He can’t—”
Clasping the child to her bosom was the only way to stop her frantic cries, to keep her arms from flailing about in a crazy way. Meg’s first thought was to get the girl home and into bed. She wanted to reassure her that Talis was safe with Will and he couldn’t be lost, but then Meg’s heart lurched as she thought, What if Callie is right? What if Talis ran off from Will in the village and had tried to get home? For all that Talis looked half-grown, he was only eight years old and he’d never been to the village before. And if he were anything like Callie was now, he wouldn’t have his senses about him to find his way back home.
Right now they were standing at a crossroads of six lanes. It was confusing to an adult, much more so to a child who was frantically trying to get home.
Meg stood up and took Callie’s shoulders in her hands. “Listen to me, Callie. You must pay attention. I want you to go down that road there and shout with all your might for Talis. Don’t go too far. I don’t want to lose you too. Do you understand?”
When the girl’s eyes continued to have a glazed look, as though fear was overcoming her reason, Meg gave her a little shake. “Yes,” Callie said.
“If you see anyone on the road, tell them what Talis looks like and ask if they have seen him. Ask—”
“Like a magic prince,” Callie whispered. “He looks like a magic prince.”
“Yes, well, perhaps you’d better tell them he is so high and has black hair and is wearing a green leather jerkin and no doubt has that dreadful sword with him. Can you do that?”