Promise: The Scarred Girl by Maya Shepherd Page B

under the tree and emerge from the shadows into the bright sun. Their robes retain heat from the sun. It is clear that spring is moving in, though it is rarely this warm.
    Their journey continues through the flowery meadow, so the twins pick flowers as they walk along and create floral wreaths that they set upon their habit-covered heads, almost like a crown of flowers. Sometimes, the two behave really silly and childish, though they must be a few years older than Nea. In fact, they must have been teenagers when the disease erupted. Nea was only twelve years old, in the early stages of puberty. The disease could have hardly chosen a worst time to erupt. Not only was her body changing and she no longer knew which way was up or down, but the whole world changed around her. Sometimes she thought that everything was not so bad, and then the next she would be sitting with her knees drawn up to her chest sitting in a corner and crying like a baby. After the death of her parents, Miro had been helpless to sway her constant mood swings. Nevertheless, he was always patient and never made fun of her when she was in the midst of a violently bad episode.
    “Do you know exactly where we need to go?” Nea asks sometime after they followed a straight path for what seemed like an eternity.
    “Yes, Urelitas gave us a plan, if we keep to the plan, then all will be well.”
    “May I see the plan?”
    Faith reaches into the pocket of her habit and hands Nea a folded paper. When she opens it, Nea sees that their journey is divided into a three days’ march, and each night they will rest in a Carris village. The paths they are to follow are described in detail. Today’s path states they should follow the path of Shepherd’s Field until they arrive at a lake. They are to cross the lake by boat, then there is a two hour walk through a forest. According to the plan, they should reach the next village by dusk.
    Nea hands the plan back to Faith.
    “It’s certainly not far off,” Hope tries to cheer her up as she looks into her desperate face. But she is not distressed because she is tired or exhausted, but because she only has three days to convince the two of them to follow her or run away without them. For it would be impossible for her to go to Fortania and see Ereb. He would know immediately that no patrol was ambushed in the south and all her lies would collapse like a house of cards.
    Hope is right and soon they find themselves on the rocky shores of a jade green lake. On a dock, the trio sees a single boat. When they approach it, they see that the rudder is damaged and there is a hole in the side of the boat and it is partially submerged. They realize at first glance that this boat is unusable.
    They look at each other interrogatively to see if the other two have an option for crossing the lake. Far and wide, neither a bridge, nor another boat can be seen. They could swim to the other side, the shore is not too far away and should not take more than an hour for a skilled swimmer to cross it, however, all of their gear would then be wet. But when Nea looks at the perplexed faces of the twins, she knows that they have not thought of this possibility.
    “What do you think about swimming?” Nea asks.
    “We cannot swim,” they both reply in unison.
    “We could repair the boat,” Hope suggests instead.
    Around the lake is a forest, so they would be able to find enough wood, however it would not be suitable to cover a hole in the boat with, and they do not have the right tools to cut the wood in a fashion that would fit the boat.
    In desperation, the girls look on.
    The lake is so large, that if they look left or right, they cannot see the edges. Only the shore directly ahead is in sight. This would actually be the perfect time for Nea to leave the sisters. She could suggest that they give her the directions and then she would swim away alone. But Nea is not ready to bid them an early farewell. They’ve just gotten to know each other