by Chris Africa
"Less than a day’s walk to Sunoa," William breathed.
15: Out of the Darkness
When the group emerged from the wood, they looked like a group of strangers. Nita realized that she really had never seen them before, swathed as they were in the black of the forest. Yasmina stretched, and Bruno's grin reached ear-to-ear. Maybe they were different people now—taller, more confident. Maybe the kind of people she could even be friends with.
It felt glorious to be under the sun again! And William was even more beautiful in the light. Chassy nudged her. She blushed and looked away quickly. William was having a quiet conversation with Yosef and, thankfully, appeared not to notice.
"Shall we proceed?" William said finally.
The journey to Sunoa went quickly. They started passing other travelers, which was a refreshing change from the Blackwood. Just before dusk, the city’s stone walls bloomed on the hilltops ahead of them. Nita was staggered by the reach of the walls. How many people could fit inside? She had a hard time imagining.
"You can’t see the beginning or the end in either direction," she said when they got closer. "I could get lost just trying to find the city gate."
Yosef laughed. "Stick with us, girl. Yasmina and I know this city wall to wall."
Nita laughed, too, but she couldn't feel the humor through the anxiety beating in her chest. She had suddenly remembered William's original bargain: "I'll name the rest of my price when this accursed wood is behind us."
The wood was behind them now. Surely he would name the rest of his price. Nita dared not ask, for they had nothing left of value to give. They couldn't leave the company until they had paid up.
"I know what you're thinking," Chassy whispered. "Almost time for William to name the rest of his price."
"I'm sure he didn't mean anything ominous by it," Nita said. She hoped she was right.
The walls of Sunoa grew larger and longer, and the traffic gradually grew heavier. Finally, they stood in front of the city gate behind a line of traders and merchants filing docily through a towering gate. The path was a natural rampart paved in rough brick to prevent horses from slipping in winter. Tilting her head up, Nita saw five guards at the top of the barbican itself and a dozen more on the walls in each direction.
"If you keep doing that, you’ll end up with a crick in your neck," Yasmina warned.
"And draw unwanted attention," Robert added softly. "Keep your head down and look bored like everyone else. We want to blend in."
At the front of the line, the guards were pulling back tarps to inspect the goods, while a nearby clerk marked notes on a slate. One stout-looking woman tried to offer a guard her purse and was harshly reprimanded. Upon uncovering a load of people in the wagon, the guards dragged her, screaming and punching, from her wagon.
"What’s that about? Not allowed to bring people in your wagon?" Chassy asked.
"Slaves," Robert said in a low voice, "and she offered a bribe in plain sight of the clerk."
"Slaves? Will they be freed now?" Nita asked.
Robert shook his head. "Their chains will be removed and they will be marched into the city and let loose, but her buyer already knows to expect 'em. There'll be someone on the other side picking them up as they come through."
"That’s terrible!" Nita said. "What is going to happen to that woman?"
"Oh, she’ll hang for it, to be sure," Robert said. "Slave trading is a serious crime here."
Nita frowned as one after another of the intended slaves that had been packed into the wagon collected their meager possessions and walked into the city, probably believing they were free. Nita pictured the man on the other side, snapping them up as they walked through the other side. What kind of a person would the slave buyer be? Tall, broad and cruel? Short and fat, carrying a whip?
Nita heeled her horse and raced toward the disappearing line of slaves. Someone should warn them. If only they didn't go into the city, they would be free!
"Where is that girl going now?" she heard William ask.
Well, if he was too apathetic to do something, she wasn't going to explain herself.
She stormed right up to the first guard she saw. "Do you realize what's going to happen to those poor people in the city?" she demanded.
Yasmina caught up and reached for Nita’s reins. "Come on, little sister, let's not bother the guards."
"You—stop it!" Nita tried yanking away, but Yasmina had already captured one of the reins. "All the times you've come to this city, and you never do anything!"
One of the guards looked amused; the other was clearly annoyed and looked impatiently back down the line of people they had yet to search.
"Are you trying to cause trouble?" he asked.
"Absolutely not," Yasmina said, struggling for the other rein. "You know you impudent children can be."
Children! Nita kicked her in the leg, but her grip didn't loosen. "Let go of my horse! I'm not a child!"
The amused guard's smile grew larger. "She should meet my son. He likes the feisty ones. The two of them would be quite a pair."
"She would be delighted to meet your son." Yasmina's voice was light. Nita's stopped struggling, as her horse became increasingly anxious.
"Tonight, then, at the Queen's fest. We'll have a little dance, and maybe your sister will be able to relax," the guard said.
"I'm not going—" Nita started.
"We'll be there. Now, if you please, I have to get my sister back to the wagon, where our brother will surely tie her down and gag her for her bad behavior."
Nita felt five years old again, as Yasmina led her horse back to the wagon.
"What happened?" Yosef asked.
"My little sister and I will accompany the guardsman and his son to the dance on the riverfront this evening, and he has agreed to forget her small indiscretion," Yasmina growled through her teeth.
"I can’t believe you’re just going to let them walk into a trap," Nita scolded, as Yasmina handed her reins back. "What kind of people are you?"
"We’re the kind of people who want to live. There was nothing we could do for them, girl," Yosef said.
"Nothing we could do? What about warning them? You’re all a bunch of cowards when it comes to anything but fighting."
Yosef laughed, and Nita scowled more deeply when she realized how silly that must have sounded. She saw Chassy frown in confusion. Nita turned the horse and trotted off, trailing a few feet behind the rest of the group. She wanted nothing to do with any of them right now. Andrev and Chassy should have been right up there with her! William circled back and rode silently beside her, but she ignored him.
"Come on, don’t sulk," he urged. "You know what they said is true, Nita. You would never have gotten to speak to the first one of them. The guards would have stopped you and possibly arrested all of us."
"These things don't happen where we come from," she answered. "We don't let them happen."
"How fortunate you must feel, to live in such a righteous and honest village," William tossed at her.
When they reached the gate, the guard passed them through with wink and a grin.
"We will see you and your little sister tonight, eh?" he called.
Yasmina smiled and waved. Nita realized that with her arms crossed, she must look like a sulky little sister. She loosened up a little and tried to look cool and aloof.
As the wagon rolled under the massive gate, Nita felt the weight of the structure above her. The wall and barbican were so thick that the gate was actually a solid stone tunnel with a portcullis at either end.
"Why didn’t they search our wagon?" Nita whispered to William as they passed through the gate.
"Yasmina paid the guard," William said.
"I didn’t see her pay him."
"If you had, we would all be on our way to the dungeons right now."
Nita looked at the wagon. What was William carrying under all that burlap? Anything you would want to hide from a guard couldn’t be good. Andrev caught
her eye and frowned, apparently having similar thoughts.
"Are we in danger being with you? Are you going to get us arrested or killed?" Andrev asked.
Yosef grunted. "You just keep your head down, boy. You’ll be rid of us as soon as your foolish sister clears things up tonight."
Nita let the conversation roll past her, as she thought about all those people rushing into slavery.
16: Sunoa and the Queen's Festival
As they emerged from the gate tunnel, the scene in front of them was a riot of colors, sounds and smells. A guard dragged away a boy who was howling at the top of his lungs. A man with a cane and upended felt hat begged for spare coins. A group of children played snake tail, winding through the crowd at top speed with their hands clasped together. Their squeals and laughter echoed louder than a rowdy horse, whose owner was trying in vain to recapture the reins as the horse spun this way and that.
Lining each side of the street were taverns and inns, street hawkers with wheeled carts full of pastries and other quick eats. And every cart, inn, and wagon in sight was decorated with a white flag bearing a fish embroidered in brilliant greens. A man in livery with the same fish embroidered on the breast and down his sleeves stopped them.
"A token of the Queen’s goodwill, and an invitation to the festival this evening," he said. He handed a flag to Strato, who wrapped the cloth on a post stuck in the corner of the wagon.
"The Queen?" Chassy asked. "There’s a queen in Sunoa?" Chassy had never paid much attention to the doings of royalty. In fact, he couldn't recall anyone in Waet ever giving a fig about anyone more important than their own mayor—and the gods, of course.
William stared hard at him. "Are you daft? There’s no queen in Sunoa, but her daughter is to marry the lord here. Do you know nothing of the world beyond your own farm?"
Chassy shrugged it off. He actually didn't know much about the world, except what he learned from traders and Andrev. That’s why he’d always wanted to travel.
They took a wide road north to the Switchback Inn, located on a curve where the road turned back on itself. In the distance, the lord's castle loomed above everything else, looking large enough to hold every building in Waet Tree Village. The Switchback was built into the side of the hill, with its lower level completely underground except for a couple of windows.
"How do we get in?" Chassy asked. "Crawl through the window?" He was only half joking, but William laughed.
"The entrance is above. But the lower level is where we will be staying. That is, unless you have a big bag of coin you'd like to donate so we can stay in the nicer rooms?"
Chassy shook his head no, and resisted the urge to touch his pouch where his last 10 silvers rested.
"Thousand stone of earth above you, and no way out in a fire," Yosef mumbled, sounding unhappy.
"You can have your wages now and buy your own room above," William offered, but Yosef only grumbled more.
"At least there are windows," Nita said. "Remember, Chassy, last time you didn't have a window."
"Those windows aren't big enough to let me out," Yosef said.
"We'll push and pull you through, if need be," promised Yasmina, and Chassy hid a smile.
The path leading to the upper level of the Switchback was narrow, with a short stone wall on the inside to keep travelers out of a strip of gardens between the road and buildings. Although it was not the only business to take up residence on the unusual hillside, the inn was the only one he could see that appeared to have rooms both above and below. It was the only three-floor building Chassy had ever seen. Even Two Pumpkins was only two stories!
As they stood in front of the stone building, Chassy hesitated, trying to catch Nita and Andrev's eyes. He finally had to nudge both of them to get their attention.
"We only have ten silvers. Surely that’s not enough to pay for the room, much less food," he said in a low voice. "And William still hasn't named the rest of his payment."
"We have to stay in the city," Nita argued. "If I don’t attend that dance tonight, I don’t know what will happen to us. Yasmina might clobber me just for being contrary."
"Maybe we could sleep outside the city walls tonight," Andrev said. Of course, Andrev would suggest sleeping with the bears.
Several boys arrived to take their horses, and the group was filing after William into the inn.
"Robert, where you going?" Chassy called. Robert was following the horses back to the stable.
"It’s my night to watch the wagon," Robert grinned. "William's getting off cheap with me. I'm so big I need two beds to rest proper, but the stable has twice the space at half the price."
"Could we stay with you?" Chassy asked.
"Now, why would you want to sleep in the hay, when William's got you all paid up for a room inside? Even below is not that bad."
"William paid?" Chassy's heart skipped. One more way to be indebted to the merchant. One more tie to this group.
"'Course he paid. You stood guard, same as me." Robert looked puzzled. "You go on inside now and have yourself some rest. On duty, we eat travel rations, but you three will be wanting some hot food tonight."
Chassy turned to Nita and Andrev.
"I don’t know if we should do this." He paused in front of the door. "What if William wants us to pay him for the rooms and food? We have almost nothing left."
Nita pushed past him. "Robert said William is paying. Besides, he knows exactly how much coin we have. Remember, you announced it to everyone."
Mildly annoyed at the reminder, but unsure how to respond, Chassy followed her into the inn.
The walls and floors of the Switchback were cut stone and worn smooth in places from years of use. Although it seemed small from the outside, the inn was three times the size of the Two Pumpkin Inn, with its kitchen door so far back inside the hill that Chassy could barely make it out through the crowds. At least a half dozen serving girls moved through the sea of people like dancers, trays held high here, leaning back there, in graceful but precarious movements that would have sent Chassy crashing into customers if he had tried it.
Nita had disappeared, but Chassy spied her across the room with William.
"Will you be staying with us this evening?" A tall, narrow fellow with a long curling mustache and a pristine white apron appeared in front of them.
"We’re with him." Chassy pointed to William's table.
The innkeeper nodded and raised his eyebrows.
"In that case, the boy Jared is at your disposal. He’s my best," the man said. "I am Captain Longboat." He leaned close, and his moustaches wiggled at the ends when he talked. "That’s what my friends call me. And if you’re a friend of William's, you can count yourself a friend of mine."
"Thank you, Captain," Chassy said.
He and Andrev crossed the room and took seats at one end of a table where William and his men were congregating. A serving girl set pitchers of ale in front of them.
"You’ll want to have Jared take those packs down to your rooms," William told them. He made a motion in the air with his hand, and a small boy slipped out of nowhere and bowed. Like the innkeeper, Jared wore a white apron, though slightly less clean. As he rose from his bow, he kept his dark eyes lowered.
"Yes, sir?"
William laughed and ran a hand through the boy’s curly black hair. "Don’t be shy. These are friends."
Friends? Chassy wondered if William was including him, Nita and Andrev in that description. Then Jared’s face lit up, and he gave Chassy a shy smile.
"Would you deliver these packs to their rooms?" William tossed Jared a silver coin. Jared’s eyes widened. Chassy felt like his own were probably popping out of his head.
"Of course, Master William, anything they need. I’m at their service." He eagerly hauled their packs away.
"You tip like a noble." Andrev gave William a suspicious look.
Yosef's raucous laughter ended in a mousy squeak. Chassy noted that everyone was staring at the table. William's face
froze in a crooked smile.
"Hardworking men don’t like to be called nobles, lad," Yosef said.
Chassy held his breath. Andrev and William were staring at each other like two dogs sizing each other up before a fight.
"Who else would tip a serving boy an entire silver?" Andrev asked.
"My business is lucrative," William said. "I can afford to pay good people well for their services. Anyway, that coin was for the entire company. Less than a silver would have been unfair."
Several people muttered agreements.
Yasmina cleared her throat, cracking the tension. "Well, Nita and I had better clean ourselves up. Even the city guard won't be excited to dance with women who smell like sweat and horses."
Chassy decided that sounded like a good idea. Andrev followed, muttering under his breath. They wove their way through the crowd, following Nita and Yasmina.
"Do you have to pick fights with everyone, Andrev? He bought our meal and our rooms!" Nita glared her brother.
Chassy sighed. Yes, Andrev did have to argue with everyone. He did have to pretend that he knew more than everyone else. He did have to antagonize the man who was turning out to be almost their patron. He was Andrev, after all.
They followed Yasmina to one end of the hall. "This is your room, Nita. You're the only unmarried woman, so you're the only one fortunate enough not to share."
"Fortunate" may have been the wrong word for Nita's rooming situation, Chassy thought when he peeked inside. The room was barely big enough for his head once Nita slipped inside, and it was on the windowless side of the hallway. A single oil lamp with smoky glass cast dim shadows. Captain Longboat had done his best to make the dank space cheery, but even the embroidered linens and fresh flowers took on a green-gray cast in here.
Across the hallway, Chassy and Andrev's room was barely brighter in the evening sun, but just the presence of a window made it feel slightly less depressing. Jared had squeezed a tub into the room, filled with steaming water, and he hustled out. Chassy was faster to undress and first into the tub. When he was done, Andrew peered at the dirty water and grimaced before reluctantly shedding his own clothes and climbing in.
