"I'm telling you - it's her." The older hunter said, peering at the golden haired child, who ran, smiling, behind an older girl with dark-brown braids. The girls were drawing their sleigh back up the hill, with several dozen other village children also enjoying sleighing down the same snow-packed hill in the woods not far from their village.
"I don't know, Ru." The younger hunter shook his head, unsure.
"We found no tracks of that creature anywhere. So it must have gone to the villages. This is the only child who showed up at exactly the right time."
"They say her uncle brought her, from an eastern village."
"No one seems to know where exactly, do they? I think it is just a ruse. And they do say she be mute." The older hunter frowned with hostility at the children, struggling up the slope.
"Mrs. Grundolg's daughter is also mute, in Bayana. So is Nieg Ruston's cousin, in Margolen. And remember what the people did to the baker's daughter, in Maerdom?" The younger man pointed out. His brother irritably shook his head.
"That won't happen here."
"But what if you are wrong, Ru?"
"All right. Then we don't tell anyone. We wait until she is alone, and then we snatch her and carry her off. Then, you'll know for sure if she is a demon or not."
"That other girl is always with her. She'll scream." The youth looked dubiously at the pair, flying down the hill in their sleigh. The older girl with the dark braids squealed with high-pitched delight loud enough that her voice carried above most other children's voices.
"Then we'll take her, too. I heard that she's a foundling. Maybe she be a changeling, too."
"I don't know, Ru."
"What are you fretting about? We'll take the girls to where no one will hear them. Then we'll use the amulet and the fire, just as the duellen said. When that other one learns that her sister be a demon, she'll be grateful we saved her."
"I still don't like it, Ru." The young man said gloomily. The older hunter grimaced with irritation.
"Fine, then don't like it. But do as I tell you to do, understand?"
...
On the way home, Marisha let Liani sit on the sleigh and pulled it by the straps. It was almost like pulling an empty sleigh, because her sister was so light. The hill by their house was even longer than the hill by the village, but it was so much more fun to play when there were many other children around. There were not too many chores after lunch on weekends, so Nishanka children could stay and have fun in the snow for hours.
Marisha laughed, breaking into a run along the trail. Looking back, she saw that Liani laughed too, holding on tightly to the wooden rails. The scarf fell away from the little girl's face, and her face was ruddy red from the cold. There was no one else around. Tall trees towered around them, their branches heavily laden with fluffy snow. The sun shone distant and cold in the cloudless, blue sky, where the shimmering bands of Sky Rivers bent across the horizon like glittering spider webs.
Marisha slowed down to catch her breath, while following the trail uphill. She was looking at her feet plodding through the snow, following her own tracks left earlier in the day. She didn't pay attention ahead, and so didn't see the two men in fur coats walking toward them along the same trail. When she looked up, she startled a little, but thought nothing too strange of it. The two men looked like they were hunters, and she had seen many hunters before, using this trail to come down from the mountains.
Catching their intent eyes on her, she smiled politely in greeting, and averted her eyes again, passing right by them, when one of the men suddenly leaped and grabbed her, his weight toppling her into the snow. His glove clasped over her mouth and muffled her startled cry. Marisha remembered her mother's warnings about some men who wanted to do bad things to girls. She struggled, and kicked, but the man who held her down was much stronger, and she was tired from running up and down the hills and pulling Liani on the sleigh.
"Sh-h-h! Be still. We are not going to hurt you." The man growled, breathing hard from the effort of holding down the willful girl. Marisha fell still, if only to gather strength for a surprise effort to break free as soon as the man relaxed. He caught her again by her boot, and jumped with his full weight on her, so she could not move.
"Be still!" He commanded. "Rin?" He barked impatiently to the other. Marisha glanced and saw that the other man had Liani over his shoulder, easily holding her legs from kicking with just one hand. He ignored her small fists swinging at his back.
"I got her."
"This one's strong." The man growled at Marisha.
"Let me go!" Marisha threatened.
"If you scream again, I swear, I'll hit you." The man said irritably and thrust a fist in Marisha's face.
"What do you want with us?" Marisha asked, sniffling and tears readily spilling down both her chubby cheeks.
"I don't want you, stupid girl, just this thing that pretends to be your sister." He pointed roughly in Liani's direction.
"What… What do you mean?" Marisha struggled to make words come out between hitched breaths.
"You'll see what I mean. Rin, go ahead and take the sleigh, too. You, you come along nice and quiet, and if you be human, nothing will happen to you."
He pulled Marisha to her feet, and led her off the trail into the woods. Marisha's knitted cap displaced in the struggle, and its strap pulled against her neck. Some loose snow fell from the hunter's rough hand on her neck and trickled cold down her back, inside her sweater. Marisha couldn't help her tears, stumbling through the snow.
"Here will do. Tie up them up and get the fire started, won't you?" The hunter dragging Marisha ordered the other hunter.
The other hunter was much younger, Marisha noticed. He obediently pulled out a length of rope and tied Liani's limbs together first, then sat her down and secured her against a tree. The little girl's face was wet with tears and scrunched up with silent crying. The older man tied Marisha to another tree, and stood watch over her, while the younger collected the wood for a small fire.
"Think that's enough, Ru?" He asked the older hunter.
"Pour it on."
Marisha watched the younger hunter obediently pour something dark and oily over wood from a black flask.
"Start the fire, Rin. And bring that one, first." He pointed at Liani. Rin paused.
"We are not going to burn her up, are we?" He asked, blinking his blue baby eyes.
"No, no. Just start the fire, Rin. I'll get the amulet ready."
Rin struck a match and the oiled wood flamed up quickly. Rin walked back and paused before Liani. Frightened girl looked up pleadingly at him with her beautiful azure eyes.
"Don't look in her eyes, Rin, or she'll put a curse on you." Ru warned strictly, noting Rin's hesitation. Rin looked away. Quickly, he untied the little girl from the tree, lifted her and brought her with him to the burning fire, where the other hunter was leaning close, heating something at the end of a metal stick.
"Give me her hand." The older hunter ordered. Rin hesitated again, but pulled the mitten from Liani's hand and forced her hand close to the fire, palm up. Liani was trying to pull back, silently bracing against him with all her strength.
"Duellen said that demons cannot bear the touch of a holy amulet, after it has been delved in the blessed fire. It will reveal itself at its touch."
With wide eyes, Marisha watched the older hunter lift the hot amulet out of the fire. Liani tightened her hand into a fist. The younger hunter's lip stuck out with frustration as his large fingers tried to pry open her tiny hand, but slipped right off.
"I cannot open her fingers." The younger hunter complained.
"Just pull back the sleeve, then. The arm should be just as good. It doesn't matter where the amulet touches."
Rin nodded, and pulled off the little girl's jacket. She suddenly slipped from him, but ran only a few steps before he grabbed her again. He forced her to the ground, to make it easier, and, keeping a knee on her back, stretched out her arm.
Ru brought the hot amulet close, careful not to touch Rin with it, and slowly dropped it, so it fell on inside of Liani's wrist.
Marisha winced at the sight of her mute sister's body tightening at the pain. She could hear the sizzling and smelled a disturbingly familiar scent of burning skin. Both hunters were peering at her sister's arm closely. The older appeared puzzled, the younger unsure. A few moments later, Ru lifted the amulet off Liani's arm and lay it aside into the snow. Both hunters then carefully studied the little girl's arm again.
"Nothing happened, Ru. I don't think she be a demon." Rin said quietly, reproachful. While the older hunter frowned, the younger man loosened his weight off Liani. The little girl stayed where she was.
"I was so sure." Ru shook his head. Rin gently picked up the little girl, covered her in her jacket, and carried her to the sleigh, where he sat her down.
"Perhaps her sister is the demon, then." Ru said gloomily.
"No, I am not!" Marisha immediately protested.
"She talks, Ru." Rin pointed his finger at the older girl.
"I already got burnt! I have a really bad scar. I can show you!" Marisha offered eagerly, sticking forward her foot.
"I lived with my aunt Meg when I was little, in Brunselow. She was old and often forgot things. And she burned the house down, by accident. A log fell on my foot. But my neighbor saved me out of the fire. You can ask anybody!"
Ru didn't move, but Rin came and took off Marisha's boot. He only peeled off her sock back a little, when he saw the ugly scar that stretched up the girl's leg.
"Look, Ru. She's telling the truth." The youth said. His brother nodded.
"All right. So they are not demons." He said reluctantly.
"Why did you think we were?" Marisha said angrily. The hunter narrowed his eyes at her.
"You and your village folks have no idea what's going on out there. The whole kingdom is stirred up. If you lived down in the lower valley, you and your sister would be taken to the temple to be tested. A duellen in Ranook asked us to go and check all your small villages for foundlings, like your sister."
"I'm going to tell our parents how you hurt my sister." Marisha threatened.
"We did this to protect you and your village! What if she were a demon? Your village is far away. Our duellen is old. He will not come here till late spring. Who knows what a demon would have done to you! And we knew that there was a demon hiding around these parts. We knew that it pretended to be a child. So, we came to make sure. Sure, it hurt a bit, but, at least now you can be sure she's not a changeling. She would have changed into a monster, if she was, as soon as this amulet touched her."
Ru picked up the amulet, which had cooled down in the snow.
"You should have gone to our wise-woman, then. She would have told you that Liani isn't a demon. She knows about things like that." Marisha frowned at both men angrily, now that she felt more or less safe.
The older hunter smirked with derision.
"A wise-woman! Your village is really backward. Untie her, Rin. They can go home now."
Marisha felt so relieved that the hunters let them go, that she didn't say anything else. She put her boot back on, stomped past the hunters to Liani, silently took hold of the sleigh reigns, and pulled it along the hunters' tracks back to the trail. She dared to glance back only after she could no longer see them.
"Are you all right, Liani?" She asked her little sister. Liani nodded mutely, shivering, holding on to her arm.
"Can I see?" Marisha asked. Liani allowed the older girl to gently stretch out her hand wrist up. The skin around the black burned pattern was red, and irritated.
"It's not too bad. It even looks pretty, like a black rose. It's not nearly as bad as my ugly scar... Does it still hurt?"
Liani nodded.
"Mom will make it feel better." Marisha promised. "Here, I'll help you put your jacket on. You don't want to? All right. We are almost home, anyway."
Marisha put her weight into the sleigh strap, to make it go faster.
Watching the little girls slowly make their way through the snow away from them, the older hunter huffed with frustration.
"So much for the reward." He grumbled.
"We should have stayed on that demon's track. We were so close. Now, who knows where it went? And it's all you, complaining. Oh, Ru, I'm cold. Oh, Ru, I'm so hungry. Can we please go, Ru!" The older brother mocked.
"Sorry, Ru." His younger brother said sheepishly, though he did not sound too unhappy. It had been so easy to overpower that little girl. The memory of her beautiful blue eyes and helpless silent crying stayed within his heart, and he felt bad that he had hurt her, and glad that his brother let her go with her sister. At first, he thought that his brother would drag her along to Bayana, anyway.
"Maybe I did something wrong. Or, maybe duellen Radis was wrong about the amulet... You want to go to Coeur with me?"
"Sure!" The youth beamed.
"Yeah… Tell you what, I'll buy you a beer - the finest in Pharshena. And there is a temple there, with a real laeden. He'll know more than a duellen about the changelings. He'll tell us if we did wrong."
"If you say so, Ru." Rin shrugged, again indecisive. His brother swore under his nose, kicking the snow over the fire, which still burned.
"Well, come on, then. We wasted enough time here..."
...
Paul and Martha heard Marisha's angry telling of the hunters attacking her and Liani in the woods. And Martha treated Liani's burned hand with her special balm. After this fright, Liani once again became reluctant to leave far from the house, and, this time, Martha allowed the little girl to stay home. Marisha also became much more attentive, while walking through the woods by herself. But she had not seen those two hunters again, nor ran into any other strangers the rest of the winter.