Treva's Children Read Online Free Page B

permitted.  I am, perhaps, overcautious.”
    Mistress nodded. “Well enough.  I will remember that.”
    Together, they walked deeper into the wood.  Mistress continued to name the various plants they encountered and tell Talisa about them.  This one reduces fever.  That one can help a weak heart, or stop it.
    They reached a tree heavy with nuts.  Mistress reached up and plucked two of them. “Hold them in your hand like this.” Mistress placed the two nuts into her right hand, one low against the base of her thumb and the other farther up, next to the fingers. “Squeeze, one nut against the other.” She handed the nuts to Talisa.
    Talisa took the nuts and squeezed.  The nut near her thumb cracked against the other.  Mistress took the cracked nut from Talisa and peeled the thin shell, revealing the nutmeat inside.  She handed the meat back. “Eat.”
    Talisa ate.  The nut had a rich flavor, stronger than the nuts that grew in the barony’s orchards.
    “Stay here.  Eat your fill from this tree.  I will return later.”
    “Mistress, I am fine.  I ate enough fruit this morning.”
    Mistress started to turn away, then turned back. “What happens to a person who eats no fruits or vegetables?”
    Talisa hesitated.  She did not know of anyone who did not eat those.  Only in the winter following a poor harvest when such things were scarce. “Oh, the Winter Sickness.  A man gets weak.  His skin grows blotchy.  Eventually, he starts bleeding from the gums.”
    “That is so,” Mistress said. “But if a person were to eat only fruit, that too would cause sickness.” She raised a hand, pointing into the deeper wood. “If the lynx tried to eat grass and ivy, it would die.  If the deer tried to live only on flesh, it would die.  Each must eat that which is natural to it.  Men eat many things.  Try to eat just one and man sickens and dies.” She plucked another nut and held it out to Talisa. “You do not serve me well to sicken and die.  Eat.”
    Talisa took the nut, cracked it against the other in her palm, and ate.
    “When I send you to give instruction to the people, if they have food, you may eat with them.  Do not dawdle, but I will allow the time.”
    Talisa bowed.  Mistress stood, looking at her.  Talisa looked back.  Mistress frowned and raised a hand, indicating the tree.  Hastily, Talisa plucked another nut and cracked it in her hand.
    “I will return,” Mistress said and she was gone.
    Finding that she was actually hungry, Talisa ate.  When she could eat no more and Mistress still had not returned, she sat leaning against the bole of the tree.  After a time, she drifted off to sleep.

    “Rise.”
    Talisa woke to see Mistress standing, staring at her. “You are fed.  You are rested.  Good.  Come with me.”
    Mistress led Talisa to a small ravine.  They stopped at a narrow spot in the ravine, where the ground sloped more steeply to either side.  A stream ran along the bottom of the ravine, little more than a trickle.
    “Treva’s Garden has many streams and brooks,” Mistress said. “But some fish require still water to thrive.  I want you to gather rocks.  Pile them here, across the stream.” She looked up at the sun, filtering through the trees. “I want a wall, waist high at the middle stretching level to both slopes by sundown.”
    “Now, Mistress?”
    Mistress nodded. “Now.  I will return at sundown.”
    Talisa waded into the stream bed.  She tried one rock but found it too heavy to lift.  A smaller rock broke free.  She lifted it and waddled to the narrow spot in the ravine.  She dropped the rock where it splashed into the water.  She looked up.  Mistress was gone.
    She went to select another rock.

    Talisa’s arms felt like wooden sticks, or maybe lengths of rope for all the strength that remained.  She staggered up to the low wall and dropped another rock on it.  Her breath coming in short gasps, she splashed to the center of the small stream to