Dragon's Apprentice (8)

Part Eight

Lynn stood slightly apart from the other girls who had clustered together behind the curtain of the stage that had been erected in the town square for the sole purpose of the bridal auction. With her hands clasped tight behind her back she leaned against one support beam and watched them as they milled about nervously like cattle ushered into too tight an enclosure. As of yet she hadn’t peeked beyond the curtain as each of the other girls seemed to do in shifts, but she didn’t really care to see all of the village boys, decked out in what amounted to their finest garb, milling about as their fathers glared. Even Lynn’s sisters didn’t seem immune to the nervous peeking of the others and normally Lynn would have made at least a token effort to cluster with them, but since none of them had said a word to her since she’d glided down off the stairs in the dress their mother had horded for her she didn’t want to push her luck by trying to hang on them like the an annoying kid sister.
Lynn rolled her eyes and dared to hope that all of her sisters were purchased that day or life at home would soon be a greater hell then it ever had been. If nothing else, Lynn thought, her mother knew how to insure that all of her daughters felt ostracized from one another. Oh, the glares Lynn had gotten from Gypsum as she’d left the house. If their father hadn’t been there Lynn was positive that her oldest sister would have beaten the crap out of her and ripped the dress from her body. As it was she might still loose the dress if she had to walk home if the looks she was receiving from the other girls, all of them older then her, none of them as well dressed.
She shook her head and looked away from the others at last since their nervous fidgeting was making her nervous. She just hoped that she was right to not worry.
She flexed her hand again and felt for her rings by touch, counting each one slowly. She hadn’t bothered to remove them after she’d gotten home the night before, but had simply cast a light don’t-notice-me spell across them to keep anyone from asking questions. She didn’t need anyone noticing anything else odd about her…like spontaneously appearing rings.
She clinched her hands into fists and looked longingly in the direction of the forest even though she couldn’t see anything other then tree tops over the buildings. She couldn’t help but long for Vaden’s singular company, for the peace of the forest. By contrast the voices around her sounded discordant and loud. It was disturbing to ears no longer accustomed to it.
At long last the town magistrate began to speak beyond the curtain and one of the older married women of the town, a matronly woman that Lynn didn’t know personally, bustled back and began to form all of the young women into some form of a line. Lynn somehow ended up fourth in line, crammed behind Milsy Longsdaughter who was a husky, tall girl who looked the part of the farmers daughter, and Jamsis Millsdaughter, a very slight, fragile girl who’s health had always kept her out of the fields.
Lynn hugged herself and wished desperately that she could get a deep breath around the girdle crushing her ribs. The people were suffocating enough without help.
Somewhere beyond the curtain a gavel banged and the world fell to silence before the name of the first girl in line was called and she disappeared through the curtain in a swirl of blue fabric.