Family of Outcasts, Aaron McLeod [best book club books for discussion txt] 📗

telling his soldiers that they could go. Hanalos and Gregory stayed in the courtyard.

            Ariana brought Hammond through the main hall and up the stairs to the bedrooms. There were five bedrooms in total. It was usually two rooms for the girls, two rooms for the boys, one room for the sisters and then one room for whoever was in charge. However, with so few orphans, one of the three spare rooms was used for storage and the other two for guests. Gregory had the guest room that was the second farthest to the right side, next to Hanalos’s room. The last of the spare rooms was on the far end of the hall. She opened the door and let Hammond it. It was large and had a lot of space like the other room, but the window was smaller than the others. There were eight beds in total, with four of them lined up against the walls on both the left and right sides. In the corner stood some old wardrobes that were falling apart and covered with dust. Hammond entered the room and stood in the center. He observed the beds, applying pressure with his hand against each one until he stopped at the left bed nearest to the window. He sat down on the bed and let out a relaxed sigh.

            “Thank you, young Ariana. This will do just nicely.” He said.

            “I am glad you like it. Now I must return to Sister Hanalos.” Ariana replied quickly.

            “Wait a moment. Come here. I wish to speak with you.”

Ariana halted halfway through the door. Turning back, she walked slowly towards Hammond, who was now walking towards her. She kept her head down to try and conceal her silver eyes from him.

            “What do you wish to talk of?” Ariana asked.

            “I simply wish to ask some questions. Is that alright?” Hammond replied.

            “Yes. It is.”

            “Thank you. First, are you and the other orphans treated well?”

            “Yes.”

            “How long have you yourself been staying here?”

            “Twelve years.”

            “And how old are you now?”

            “Sixteen.”

            “Where are your parents?”

            “I don’t know. All I remember was being found by a hunter when I was three and being looked after by him until he died.”

            “Just one more. Please look at me while you answer.”

Ariana froze in place, her heart racing as she contemplated not looking at him and instead ask him why he wanted her too. She could feel him staring at her though, his piercing her soul as he awaited her to obey. Finally she made up her mind and lifted her head.

            He seems like a nice man. Maybe he is not like the other priests we’ve had. She thought to herself.

            Hammond looked directly into her eyes. Ariana knew what he was doing. He was observing her. His eyes turned downwards, observing her body. They ended up stopping at her chest, where they were fixed for quite some time. Ariana could feel the blood rushing up to her cheeks, but she kept her composure. Hammond continued to stare at her chest. He seemed to be trying to say something, but words were failing him.

            “Father Hammond?” Ariana finally asked him. Hammond suddenly regained his senses and returned his eyes to focusing on Ariana’s eyes.

            “Forgive me. I should not have been staring. Anyways, back to my question.” Hammond stumbled over his words slightly. Ariana nodded as the blood left her cheeks. “Are you the child of a bonding between a human and an elf?”

            “Yes.” Ariana didn’t hesitate in answering. She knew that he be able to tell if she was lying.

            “I see. So the rumors about her showing sympathy towards our former enemies are true.” Hammond let out a small sigh of relief. “That is all I wished to ask. You may go now.”

Ariana quickly turned to the door and was moving at an almost skipping pace. Her heart felt like it was rising up to her throat. She breathed slowly and eventually managed to slow her pace. Looking down at her feet, she held her hands together to keep them from shaking. Suddenly, she bumped into someone and hit her head against the person’s chest.

            “Forgive me, young lady.” The person said in a gentle voice.

            “Pardon me, sir. I did not see you.” Ariana responded.

She looked up at him and was surprised at how the man looked. He was rather old, having a full, but short beard across his face that was a mix of black and grey hair. There was a giant scar that went horizontally across his nose. His hair was slicked back, the same colors as his beard. The man’s face was covered with dust and his skin was slightly tanned from the sun. It was hard to notice, but his jawline was rectangular in shape underneath the man’s beard. Finally, there were his eyebrows and eyes. The eye brows were slightly untrimmed, thick and rather unkempt. His eyes however were much more pleasant. The eyes were deep blue and stood out like a sore thumb when compared to the rest of his face. The man stepped his left foot back, and gave Ariana a polite bow.

            “There is no need to apologize. I have been on the road long and was not paying attention.” The man spoke. His gentle voice was out of place when matched with his rough exterior. He was dressed in plate armour with chainmail underneath. The armor was covered with scratches, scrapes and dents from the shoulders all the way down to the legs. On his left side was a basket hilt sword. The hilt was gold coloured and had dragons engraved into the hilt. The scabbard was made of brown, cowhide leather that had silver embedded on the sides down to the tip.

            “You’re too kind, sir knight.” Ariana replied with a curtsey. The man’s eyes widened and he smiled.

            “Thank you for the compliment, but I am no knight. I am High Inquisitor Brygon, head of the Inquisitorial Church and leader of the church’s army.”

            Ariana froze in place and looked at the man. She was at a loss for words. Standing before her was the man who had caused hundreds of thousands of deaths, yet he did not look like a monster. Instead, he looked like a kind hearted man who wouldn’t hurt a fly.

            “Do not worry. It is a common mistake many people make.” He said. “But now I must go. Father Hammond most likely wishes to speak with me. It is not wise to keep the man waiting. Farewell my lady.”

Brygon walked down the hall and into the room where Hammond was. Ariana immediately hurried down the stairs once he was out of view. She turned to the left at the bottom of the stairs and headed for the chapel. She needed to collect her thoughts. So much had happened in such a short span of time, she felt overwhelmed. Finally, she reached the side door of the chapel, but just as she was about to open the door, she heard someone inside. Placing her hear against the door, she listened to the person inside. She could hear Hanalos yelling at Gregory inside. Hanalos was yelling at him for how he hadn’t told her about how Hammond was supposed to be inspecting the place. Gregory said something, but Ariana couldn’t quite make it out. The room went completely silent. Ariana listened as carefully as she could, but not a sound came from the chapel. Then she heard tiny footsteps behind her. Startled, she turned around and saw Jade looking at her. She was holding a giant story book in her arms and was smiling at Ariana.

            “Can you help me read a story?” She asked gleefully. “Sister Hanalos said she was busy and that I should find someone else to help me.”

            “Of course Jade. Where do you want to sit?” Ariana couldn’t refuse little Jade. She had a smile that could melt even the coldest of hearts and was always happy. It hurt everyone to see Jade sad.

            “Right here is fine.” Jade sat down against the wall and opened the book.

Ariana hesitated for a moment, but then sat down with her. “Alright. Which story do you want to read?”

            “The story about the little girl and the faerie.”

            Ariana turned the book to the page with the story. It was a very simple children’s story about a little homeless girl who was protected by a faerie.

“The girl was six years old and had no home of her own.” Jade started reading. “Her parents had died when the house they lived in had burned down. Eventually she found herself being bullied by other local street orphans who were older than her, taking anything they found from her. The little girl wanted to kill herself. One night, when she was just about to jump off a bridge into the river, she saw a glowing light flying towards her from the water. The light grew brighter as it came closer until it was right in front of the little girl. It was a faerie.” Ariana corrected Jade on her pronunciation of glowing. Jade had pronounced it with an “ow” sound. “The little girl changed her mind about jumping off the bridge and the faerie began to stay with her. The girl would find food and shelter for them both while the faerie would protect her from the shop owners and street bullies. For many years, they stayed together, keeping each other safe, telling each other stories and becoming the best of friends. But then, one day, the faerie was gone. She just left the little girl without telling her anything. The girl searched for the faerie for many days, but could find no sign of her. The faerie had abandoned her. So the little girl grew up into a woman, who became a tailor in the city. Soon she married and had many children of her own. One night, while watching over her own little girl, she saw a glowing light come from her window. She smiled as she realized the faerie had been watching over her all along. And so, the little girl turned tailor grew old and forever knew that her children and grandchildren would be safe so long as the faerie watched over them. The End.”

“Very good Jade! You’ve gotten a lot better.” Ariana exclaimed happily. Jade smiled and hugged Ariana tightly.

Suddenly the door burst open and Gregory marched out of the door. He ignored Ariana and Jade and went towards the kitchens. There was nothing but silence coming from the chapel. Jade stood up from the floor and walked to the door to peek around the corner. She saw Hanalos kneeling and praying before the altar. Ariana entered the chapel and sat down on one of the stalls. Jade sat beside her. They sat there for only a short while though, as Hanalos stood up with some difficulty and proceeded to leave the chapel. She only noticed them just as she was about to go through the open door. Hanalos looked at them both smiled.

“Come along now. We must begin preparing supper.” She said softly. Ariana and Jade followed her into the kitchens where every one of the orphans were gathered. They all worked together to prepare supper for them and their guests. Ariana and Jade worked with Jordan and Brendwin to cut up the vegetables, Arthur and Athos helped Gregory slice up the lamb, Aldus, Oldus and Hannah kneaded the dough for seed cakes with Hanalos and Ragosh kept stirring the water in the cauldron for stew. They worked tirelessly for roughly an hour, putting the lamb and vegetables into the cauldron and pulling the seed cakes out of the oven. Ragosh and Gregory took turns with stirring the stew, adding small slices of garlic cloves into the mix. As the stew cooked, Hanalos turned her attention Soon enough, they were all ready