Affinity

Once upon a time, at the bottom of Loreia, where the orchards run down to the river, there lived a girl named Atia and her father, who had been a soldier.When the King sent for him, he went to war across the sea in Marat. He left Atia a gift: a real legionary's kit, shield and sword and helmet and mail, made exactly her size. He promised he would be home before the first snow.Then a man with a stiff leg came to the gate with his pay and his name on a list.The village decides what happens next. The house goes to a widow, the goat goes to the miller, and the kit will be sold for her dowry. Atia will go to the miller's kitchen until she is old enough to marry. But Atia knows her father. He knows how to keep his head down when a fight goes bad. He is hurt, and hiding in the hills, and nobody has looked properly.So she puts on the armour and goes to look.Her road runs across the wide gold plain, over the mountains and the sea, and into the hills of Marat. On the way she will catch a fox, face down wolves and bandits, and meet a hard-faced soldier in a harbour tavern who tells her the truth and fixes her sword. And she will come to a village where nobody will go into the valley, because something lives there that has killed seven men.The Legionary is a story about a girl and her father, told the old way, with songs and storytelling and a great many animals. It is for younger readers, for the grown-ups who read to them, and for anyone who has ever been someone's child.A Tale of Affinity.