Kiri knocked on the carved-wood door of the south side of the mill. Most of the mill was sternly built and practical, but this part, the attached family quarters, bordered on the ornate. Flower beds surrounded the walls, as full of flowers now as they had been in spring, thanks to Mala’s mother’s careful curation. She was the one from whom Mala had inherited her love of flair.

Kiri was admiring the animals carved into the doorframe--her favorite was a cat chasing a mouse--when someone grabbed her from behind. Kiri screamed and struggled, overtaken by a rush of fear that faded only when she saw who had attacked her.

“Mala!” Kiri blew out a breath of relief as the other girl released her. “What are you doing?”

Mala waved a hand dismissively. “Sneaking,” she said, as though that explained her actions. “I’ve been waiting forever. I thought you would leave the village much earlier than this.”

“Wait, how long have you been waiting out here?” Kiri said. “Why didn’t I notice you when I came up the way?”

“I told you,” Mala said. “I’ve been sneaking. I’m getting good at it.”

Garon had opened the door while Mala was talking. “It’s her new thing,” he said. “And she’s right; she’s very good at it. Frighteningly good. She’ll be the death of someone before she’s done.”

“Hmph.” Mala put her nose in the air and stalked into the house.

“Huh.” Kiri cocked her head thoughtfully to the side as she followed Mala in. “Maybe she could teach me.”

Garon frowned at her.

The miller and his wife were both welcoming and kind to Kiri as always. The food was delicious as always. Sitting and eating Equinox dinner with Garon and Mala made Kiri feel completely at home, almost like the past few weeks had never happened. They fell right back into their old teasing, laughing patterns like she had never left.

The plates were down to the last scraping of food when the miller was imposed on by his son to tell Kiri some strange news he had heard in the village. “You won’t believe this, Kiri,” he added aside.

Mala was opposed. “She doesn’t need to hear about Ulan being robbed,” she said. “And it’s a tall tale anyway.”

“Maybe he embellished the story with magic, but something happened,” Garon argued. “Right, Pa?”

“Well, he was robbed. Robbed by a man with skin of stone, as he tells it,” the miller said. “I don’t know about the skin of stone, but something broke his blade, he showed it to me. I’ve never seen anything like it. The fellow took his horse and wagon, sure enough, and half the food he had stored.”

“That part about the broken blade,” Garon said. “Doesn’t that sound like the robbers that hit our caravan a little ago?”

“It does, sure enough,” the miller said. “Ulan said the man called himself untouchable. Let’s hope Lord Westfall’s men figure out how to touch him, and soon.”

Kiri couldn’t believe her luck. All these years the valley had been boring and nothing ever happened. Yet earlier today she had saved a brigand on the road and already another opportunity for heroism presented itself. But it was best not to get too excited and see an advantage in what was surely a terrible situation. There was no harm, though, in learning more. “What did he look like?”

“Well, I don’t know.” The miller stroked his whiskers with work-hardened fingers and his eyes took on a far off look. “It was night when Ulan saw him. But, you know, Kiri lass, that’s not all that’s strange in Westfall Valley lately. There’s a rumor going around town about a sorceress. It seems she appears in the night with fire and lightning. She’s bent on defending the virtue of young maidens, they say.”

“I’ve heard stories like that before,” Garon said. “Any names to the stories?”

“Not that I heard, no,” his father said.

“Then that’s just a tale, I’ll wager.” Garon said. “But this untouchable fellow,he sounds dangerous.”

Well, that was unfortunate. Kiri clearly needed to work on the Firebrand’s name recognition. With luck that Gilliam fellow would get the word out, and soon even Garon would believe in her.

~

On her way back from attending to nature’s call Kiri was ambushed, not by Mala, whom she was sort of expecting, but by Garon. He stepped around the corner of the house as she approached, blocking her way back.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” he said in low tones. “I wanted to talk to you...alone.”

He looked so serious that it made Kiri nervous. She tried to smile, but her lips only twitched. “Well. That’s fine. What did you want to say?”

Garon blew out a long breath of air and stared up at the clouds. He seemed to be having trouble coming up with words. Kiri wanted to help him out, but since she had no idea what he wanted to say, she was forced to wait patiently for him to spit it out. She caught herself beginning to tap her foot and tried to arrange her features into a look of pleasant interest.

Eventually Garon pulled himself straight and his eyes dropped back to Kiri’s face. For a moment he looked a little alarmed. Apparently her look of pleasant interest was not working. He quickly shook it off and visibly relaxed.

“It’s really good to see you again, Kiri,” he said.

“Oh,” she said. Why did they need to be alone for him to say this? “Good to see you, too.”

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“Um, yes, thanks,” Garon said. The thing is...well. The thing is I was wondering if you’d mind if I came to call on you in Westbridge?”

“Well, of course you can come!” Kiri said. It wasn’t that she didn’t like The Leaning Pillar, but being here had made her realize how much she missed home, and her old friends. It would be great to see them more.

“Good, good,” Garon grinned. “You know I mean...just me.”

“If Mala can’t be bothered.” Kiri shrugged. “You know you should get away from her more. She’s a little much for you to be around all the time.”

It was at that moment that Mala leaped out of the hedge onto Kiri’s back. “Who is a little much?” She growled into Kiri’s ear.

“Definitely you.” Kiri laughed. She picked a leaf out of Mala’s hair and the two girls went back into the house arm-in-arm.

~

As dusk fell many more families gathered at the mill. Garon helped his father set up the maypole in the wide lawn beside the river, conscious of Kiri watching him. He would never have Mala’s fascination with beauty, but it was nice to watch its many-colored ribbons trailing in the light wind.

When everyone was gathered all the young men and women were pushed to the front of the laughing crowd. Mother quickly arranged them, alternating boys facing one way and girls the other, each holding their own ribbon. Then someone whipped out a fiddle and the crowd sang and clapped as the young people danced in and out, weaving the ribbons around the pole, tighter and tighter. At first it took a few skips to cross over and under each other’s ribbons, but by the end it was hard for Garon not to bump into the girls as the ribbons got shorter and they were forced to twist and duck to get by. He finished face-to-face with Kiri, holding ribbons so short they were almost touching the pole. He could see by the last light of the setting sun that she was smiling hugely. He took her elbow and led her to the bonfire his father was feeding at the other end of the lawn.

Mala joined them, bringing along a few of the other young unmarried men and women who had danced at the maypole. Garon tried to send her away with a glare, but she either didn’t notice or didn’t care. At least he was sitting next to Kiri. He looked at her smiling face, so close that if he were to just lean forward...

“What?” Kiri asked.

Garon bit his lip. “It’s a pretty night,” he said.

Kiri looked at the darkening sky. A smattering of stars had already appeared, and the moon was bright and nearly full. “Yes, it is,” she agreed. “But you usually don’t talk about the weather.”

“Hmmph.” Garon looked away. His sister, as usual, was drawing plenty of attention from the other boys. She was laughing her hearty yet feminine laugh that didn’t sound nearly as self-conscious as he knew it was. How many times had he heard her practice?

“Don’t you want to talk about that untouchable bandit?” Kiri asked.

Garon turned back to her. An easy topic. “I wonder if he’s struck anywhere else,” he said. “Have you heard anyone mention anything like that at The Leaning Pillar?”

Kiri shook her head. “Sorry. Most of our business is from Westbridge, anyway. But nobody from out of town has mentioned anything either.”

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised,” Garon said. “If there was some bandit out there that could shatter swords just by touching them, we would have heard of him before now. I’d think that would be a story that would get around.”

“I hadn’t heard about what happened to Ulan until you mentioned it today,” Kiri said.

“But that’s only because it happened so recently,” Garon said. “After tonight I’m sure the word will be all over the valley. Probably half the people here are gossiping about it right now.”

“We are,” Kiri said.

Garon laughed. “See what I mean?”

Kiri laughed with him. She was stretched out on the grass facing him, propped up on one elbow, her chin resting in her gloved hand. Without even meaning to, Garon shifted until he was mirroring her. He could feel the pressure of her closeness tingling along every inch of his skin. If he didn’t concentrate his hand would reach out to close the gap of its own accord.

“I can think of a reason we might not have heard of this untouchable before,” he said.

“What’s that?” Kiri asked.

“We wouldn’t have heard of him before,” Garon said. “If he only acquired the ability to be untouchable recently.”

The smile vanished from Kiri’s face and she rubbed her free hand along her leg. “Recently,” she said softly.

Garon was taken aback. Maybe Mala was right that talk of bandits should be avoided to keep from bringing back memories of what happened to her mother. Quickly, he tried to change the subject. “How come you wear gloves all the time? Is that your new ‘thing’ like Mala?”

Kiri smiled at him, although it looked a little forced. “I guess so,” she said. “I guess its my new quirk.” And then her smile widened to a genuine one and she laughed. She held up her hand, laughing harder. “My quirk.”

Garon did not see what was so funny, but he was happy to laugh along with her.

~

The moon rose high in the sky, and the air took on a crisp chill. People started saying their goodbyes and walking away to their homes. Kiri realized she needed to go home, too, but she was having such a nice time talking to Garon she didn’t want to. When she saw that Heath and his family were leaving, she got up reluctantly. Besides herself, they were the last ones who would be headed to the village. The farmers were closer to the miller’s family, and lingered longer.

“I had better go now.” Kiri smoothed down her skirt as she stood up. “I don’t want to end up walking home alone.”

Garon looked over his shoulder to where Heath had turned to the path. “I can walk you back.”

“Oh, thanks,” Kiri sat back down on the grass. “What were we talking about?”

“Who knows,” Garon leaned back on the grass, his face carefree and happy in the moonlight. Had Kiri ever seen him as relaxed?

Mala came skipping up to the two. “Come on, you,” she said. “Stop lying about in the grass. We’re playing Ghost in the Graveyard.”

So Kiri and Garon joined the group Mala had assembled. There were ten of them altogether, a perfect number for the hiding and chasing game that was so much more fun played in the dark of night. Mala’s practiced sneaking served her well. She was always sitting safely in the fortress while the rest of them were still hiding, chasing, shrieking, and giggling around the perimeter of the lawn. Finally Mala’s mother came out of the house.

“I can’t get a wink of sleep with all this racket,” she said. “Go home, the lot of you.”

Garon quickly fetched a lantern from the house before setting off with Kiri back to town as he had promised. “It’s a bright night,” he said. “But that willow stand will be black as...well blacker than night.”

As she walked alongside him, chatting easily, Kiri felt the sudden and unexpected urge to reach out and take his hand. She had never thought of Garon like that before. He had always just been Mala’s brother, fun enough, easy to tease, familiar. Without meaning too, she had taken him for granted. Shyly, she snuck a glance at him from the corner of her eye. He met it with shining intensity in his gaze. Garon’s face was happy and relaxed, relieved even, but his eyes had the hunger of long anticipation nearly met. Kiri spent the walk trying to understand how she was feeling--how he was feeling--in her head. It made it hard to keep up with the conversation. By the time they reached the doorstep of the inn she decided it would be best not to do anything about it. Her life was complicated enough already without a beau. As little as they saw each other, he would likely forget about her and fall in love with one of the farm girls.

“Well, good night,” she said over her shoulder as she stepped into the inn. “Thank you for walking me back.”

“Don’t forget,” Garon said. “I’ll be coming back soon.”

Kiri had forgotten. She hesitated with her hand on the doorknob. “Yes, um, yes,” she said. “I’ll see you.”