Chapter 4

Noora

It was already dark outside. An owl hooted into the night, the creatures awakening slowly to prowl in the shadows and wait for their prey to fall into their traps. Everyone was already asleep when Noora slipped into the sleeping chamber. She passed the rows of beds as quietly as possible, stubbing her toe against the boots discarded at one of the girl’s beds. Trying not to make a sound she found her bed. Lulva was an ocean of red hair peaking from beneath the duvet. Careful not to wake her, Noora retrieved the salve from beneath her mattress and slowly peeled off her shirt. Biting her tongue hard, she drew blood as the shirt stuck to her wounded skin. Black spots danced in front of her eyes but she kept on going until she finally dragged the shirt over her head. She would not be able to reach all parts but even just a bit of the salve would seal the wounds.

She would not be able to sneak out tonight and meet with Lukas but to her surprise, it didn’t bother her as much as she thought it would. She spread the salve on two fingers before reaching over her shoulder and spreading it over her wounds. A shuttering sigh left her lips at the cooling sensation.

She managed to cover the top of her back and the end but no matter how hard she tried she wasn’t able to reach the middle.

She would need to sleep on her stomach for the rest of the week in order to shut an eye.

Defeated Noora eyed the almost empty metal tin, knowing that soon she would have to walk to town to get another one. Gold was spent on things that shouldn’t be necessary.

She stayed there. Sitting on the edge for a moment, trying not to pass out from the blinding pain racing through her.

She remembered the first time she was whipped by the Matron, she immediately passed out. It was Ingrid, one of the elder girls at the orphanage at that time, who found her. She cleaned her back quietly, applying the healing salve before binding her up. Ingrid didn’t ask Noora why it happened. There was no use to it because the Matron did not need a real reason. The fact that Noora existed was enough.

She remembered what Inrgid said to her that night. “It might not seem that way right now but it will get better. You will leave this place once you turn eighteen, until then you can survive this.” Ingrid would’ve turned eighteen in the next month. But she didn’t make it.

Noora was ripped from her thoughts when small hands grabbed the tin out of her hands. “Do you need help?” Lulva looked up at her, her naked feet on the cold ground.

“What are you doing up? I thought you were asleep.” She tried to grab the tin out of the girl’s hands but Lulva quickly dodged her and climbed up on her bed.

“Turn around.”

“Lulva please go back to sleep.” Noora never wanted her to see these things. She was so young and she didn't deserve to be burdened with something like this.

“Turn around, Noora.” A fiercer look took place on the girl’s face.

Tears bundled in Noora’s eyes as she turned around. A moment later the cooling sensation spread over the middle of her back. It had a light numbing effect but not enough to take a third of the pain.

“She did this because of me,” her small voice said and Noora turned immediately, despite her protesting back. “Don’t say that. Never say that.”

To her surprise, there were no tears in the little girl’s eyes. “She punished you because of me, Noora.”

She quickly took the tin out of her hands, closed it, and shoved it beneath her mattress before she gathered Lulva’ina into her lap.

“If it wasn’t you, it would be my hair, or the way I work, or a crumble on the floor. It is no one’s fault but mine, Freckles.”

“Why is she doing that? Why does she hate you so much?” Her blue eyes widened with concern. Noora stroked her locks out of her face.

“People like me are not liked, Freckles, they hate what I am.”

“Because you can do magic?” Noora nodded. “Because I can do magic.”

“But why? It is such a cool thing to do. I wish I could do magic so I could turn the matron into a frog.”

Noora laughed at that before pressing a kiss to the girl’s temple. “That would be an excellent thing to do.”

“Why don’t you do it?”

“What?”

“Why don’t you turn her into the frog?”

Noora smiled sadly, “It doesn’t work that way.” The girl frowned, crossing her arms in front of her small body. “What good does magic do, if you cannot turn people into frogs?”

It could only bring pain, hate, and destruction.

Noora turned Lulva in her lap so she could look at her better. “We won’t need magic to get out of here. I have saved the Gulls from selling the animals on the market and only a little more and we can leave this place.”

“But where would we go?”

“Anywhere we want to. We could buy tickets to a ship and sail off to the Southern Isles if you want that?”

The girl’s eyes lit up in astonishment. “That would be wonderful, Noora.” She grabbed her hands and squeezed them with more strength than a small girl should possess. “I love you.” Noora's heart almost tore apart at those three words.

She gently laid down on her side pulling Lulva beside her on the bed. “I love you too, Freckles.” She wrapped her pinky around the younger girl’s. “I promise you, I will get us out of here even if it is the last thing I will do.”