by Guy Antibes
“Still open for business?”
Ness laughed. “If you don’t mind the fresh air.” All eyes went to the charred holes on the far wall.
One of the farmers said, “Sometimes the place gets a bit close of a night. The new ventilation might do us all a bit of good.” The two sat down and by the time Unca and Sallia had finished not-quite-warm stew, the place began to fill up.
“Time for bed, Pol,” Unca said. “Do you have some clothes for the both of us. I’m afraid we’ve burnt holes through the ones on our backs. I had intended on getting some more in Handleford, where we thought we’d be spending the night.”
“Oh. I’ve got a closet full of stuff left behind. All of it is clean, maybe with the scent of smoke now, and you’re welcome to whatever you find. It’s the closet between Room 3 and 4 upstairs. Your rooms are 3 and 6. Our maids have just arrived for serving and will have hot water up in each room in a few minutes. You both deserve a nice long soak on us.”
“Thank you for your hospitality.”
“We appreciate you two saving our lives. I was afraid for Ness, but he’ll do.” She smiled and pulled a couple of keys from her apron.
~
Sallia woke up to Unca’s hand on her mouth.
“One of the farmers came by with milk and eggs and told Ness that the Duke’s men are on their way back. We are leaving now since they might arrive at any minute. I picked out some clothes, which you did not do last night even though I told you to.”
The golden light of dawn began pushing through the window. Sallia yawned and sat up once she realized what Unca had said. He actually made her feel guilty for not touching second-hand clothes.
“Leave me while I put these on.”
“I’ll turn my back. Pol has already brought up some food. She probably knows you might be the princess and wants us out of here. The only room with a roof beneath the window is this one.’
Sallia couldn’t believe what Unca had just said. “You expect me to go out a window?”
“Sally would, if men were after her. You are Sally and I am, for the moment, Bodkin. We’ve got to leave now. I’ll not take any chances on detection.” Unca turned around.
The clothes hung on Sallia’s body like potato sacks. Unca had done a good job with the shoes, though. Her royal boots were nearly worn through. They were never meant for two days of hiking along forest paths. Unca gathered up her other clothes and put them in another lumpy sack that probably held his own.
He helped Sallia out the window. “Don’t twist your ankle. We have to hurry to the woods, a few hundred paces east, through a still-fallow field.”
Sallia hadn’t escaped through a window before and the thought paralyzed her for a minute. She tried to breathe deeply and thought of how she could fall and not break her ankles. What would be the solution? Bend her knees. She heard that somewhere, but couldn’t recall where in her present state. She poked her head out of the window and put her sturdy, used shoes on the thatch roof and sat down in the straw and slid down. When the roof ended, she concentrated on bending her knees. The distance from the end of the roof to the ground might have been five or six feet and her strategy worked! She smiled in triumph.
Unca came bouncing silently down, nearly missing her, as he hit the dirt with knees not quite bent enough. He fell forward, yet he remained silent, even though he gasped for breath.
“I’m too old for that,” he said.
“You’re too old for a lot of things I’ve seen you do in the last few days, wizard.” Sallia whispered. “Now which way is north?”
~~~
CHAPTER THREE
~
NO ONE WOULD HAVE MISTAKEN UNCA AND SALLIA for the former king’s wizard and Princess Sallia as they zigzagged their way through the Red Kingdom. Unca insisted that they spend two nights on the road for every time at an inn. If someone investigated their travels, they would have a difficult time tracing their route.
Sallia kept to herself as they traveled. The more she thought of her life in the castle, the more unreal their trip felt. However, Unca urged her to put one foot in front of another. Her feet grew calluses. Calluses! Unca had bought her a walking stick and now her hands had lost some of their softness. Nothing a princess should have to endure. Her hair had gone unwashed for days at a time and lay limp and listless around her face until Unca bought her a simple scarf to tie up her hair. The reality of her situation made her angry with Unca, yet what else could she do? Sallia just didn’t have the experience to fend for herself and every time she let her thoughts stray towards her parents’ demise, her energy seemed to disappear.
At Unca’s request, she reluctantly had cut her hair shorter to little more than shoulder length as a disguise. The wizard died his white hair black. He looked awful, but even she wouldn’t recognize him.
They changed names every few days, but Unca had always remained her great uncle. She wondered if it wouldn’t have been better to let the Duke’s men capture her. No princess should have to travel this way and in her condition, but then she reminded herself that she no longer held the title now that Duke Histron had usurped the kingdom.
She tended a campfire, waiting for Unca to return with supplies from a nearby village. He went in alone, again, to confuse their trackers. She heard the crack of a branch and slipped away from the fire, but then Unca appeared with a sack on his shoulders and two horses in tow.
“I splurged,” he said, patting one of the horse’s flanks. “We’ll be riding from here on out. The paths we follow lead us into the foothillls.”
Sallia had some experience on a horse. “I’ve ridden before and know what it is to be saddlesore.” Unca bowed and it felt good to let him know she had experienced some levels of discomfort in her pampered life.
They rode on small, lonely tracks and spent more nights out in the open. Unca showed her how he made simple traps for rabbits.
“Why must I know how to find forest vermin?” Sallia said as her trap disintegrated in front of her eyes right as she set it. She shook her hands in frustration at her fourth failure in a row.
“We eat a lot of rabbit at my cottage. I don’t know how to hunt, but rabbits are easy to capture and they can cooked in a number of ways.”
Sallia glared at Unca as he threw some more bark strips at her feet. He could do the trapping.
“I won’t always be at the cottage. We won’t be particularly close to well-traveled roads and there will be times when you’ll have to fend for yourself. I have a woman who helps me keep house. There is a cow and chickens, so we’ll have milk, butter and eggs. She can even cook passable bread.”
“Bread, chicken, rabbit!” Did her palate have to become so restricted, so soon? She thought she could bear the trail food for a time, but living like peasants! Sallia shook her head. “I’m better than that.” She knew her frustration spoke that time. She had been a pampered princess and the reality of fending for herself, long term, nearly frightened her as much as that last night at Foxhome. She picked up the bark and finally succeeded at setting the trap. Sallia didn’t want to show Unca, so she set the trap down and sat on a rock.
Unca laughed. “I’m sure you are, Princess Sallia, but I’d rather you tried to swallow simple fare down an unrestricted throat rather than royal comestibles with a rope tied tightly round it.”
Sallia shivered. “Why me?” She knew the answer, but couldn’t let Unca know of the terror she really felt.
“Would you have rather been one of your father’s guards, who will never eat another crumb of bread or sip an ale? Who will care for their widows and children? You will have to learn patience, Sally.”
~
Unca didn’t like the wince, Sallia made when he called her Sally, but he had to keep at it so she’d be used to it. He didn’t like dying his hair black. He could have used his magic, but Unca needed to preserve his power, as it trickled back into his body, for an unforeseen emergency.
They hadn’t been caught out again by the Duke’s men and they
were just a few days from the final trail to his holding.
“We will be going through the closest village to my cottage soon. I’ll need to buy some supplies. No scowling or wincing or complaining. You are my grand niece. Some of the people know who I actually am, so please don’t draw any undue attention. You can do that?”
Sallia nodded. “Can I buy another dress?”
Unca tried not to sigh. Clothes at a time like this? He clamped his thin lips together and nodded his head and forced a smile. “A reward for a long and harrowing trip.” He pulled out his purse and gave a silver and a handful of copper coins to Sallia. “Don’t whine about the money. Keep to this as a limit and you won’t draw unwanted notice.”
Sallia quickly grabbed the money and put it in a pocket in her dress.
“One more thing,” Unca said. “I will use a bit of magic to change your eye color again. Instead of the hazel, a nice dark brown might contrast well with your golden hair.” He concentrated and spoke a spell within his mind. He stood back from Sallia. “There that’s presentable. This is a more permanent fix and will last until I change it back. Guards will definitely be looking for a violet-eyed woman.”
“My eyes have changed permanently?” Sallia’s eyes flashed with anger. “I didn’t give you permission!”
Unca gave Sallia the hint of a smile. “Would you have let me? Just be thankful I didn’t turn you into a man.”
Sallia tightly clutched her dress with both hand’s making fists. “You turn my eyes back!”
Unca just turned his horse back along the path and rode on. He didn’t want to argue with the princess. He knew her well enough now that her ill-humor came from being scared to death of what might happen next. She needed a refuge more than he.
The eye-color change nearly took all of his power again. The physical energy that he had used thus far on this trip had not recharged very quickly. He took deep, slow breaths, so she wouldn’t see how weak he’d become. His spine seemed to turn to jelly, but he concentrated on keeping his head erect as his horse ambled on while Sallia continued her harangue. Let her yell and talk. Perhaps her anger was therapeutic. She would follow him because she didn’t have a choice.
He took a deep breath as she finally rode up alongside. “I’ll forgive you,” Sallia said. She now breathed more heavily than Unca. “Please… ”
She actually said please? Unca suppressed a smile.
”Please don’t do something like that again unless you have my permission. You must now that I am anxious about what the future holds.”
Anxious? If she felt like him, she’d be totally and utterly terrified. Very angry people were after them and they both had to rely on Unca’s wits. He’d need some time to recover from the spell he just used. His hand went to the Bloodstone and could feel its power. Not yet. The power in the stone hadn’t been used in a long, long time and no one that Unca had ever known in his long life knew just what the stone could do. He had a few old tomes in his cottage, that he hadn’t had the opportunity to read, that might provide some insight.
“I promise, Sally. We both must remember to behave. Just a few more days. We spend our last night at Sally’s Corners, and then we shouldn’t have any trouble. Not much longer.”
He’d recover faster at his holding. Access to the nexus was stronger there than any place in the surrounding area. That was one reason he had chosen it. Unca couldn’t wait to reach his sanctuary.
~
Sallia walked the long cobbled street of Sally’s Corners. She had expected another disheveled rural village, but Sally’s Corners had pavement and whoever had laid the village out had managed to create an orderly grid of lanes. Did Unca change her name to match the village? She shook her head as she passed a store with dresses in the window and walked in.
“Can I help you?” said a woman with wings of gray in her pulled back dark hair.
“I need a dress. I’ve been traveling with my great uncle for days and this is all I have,” Sallia said plucking the shoulder of her travel worn outfit.
“Another travel dress?”
The question made Sallia perspire. She couldn’t tell the woman they were nearly at the end of their journey. She took a deep breath and thought carefully how she would respond.
“We are making our way into Gensler.” She put her hand to her chin. “Do you have something serviceable, yet with more style? My uncle gave me this much to spend.” Sallia pulled out all of her coins. She had no idea what kind of dress the money would buy.
“You poor dear,” the shopkeeper said, clucking her tongue. “You’ve probably never bought a dress in your life.”
“Indeed I haven’t.” Sallia felt relieved that she didn’t have to lie. The kingdom paid for all of her clothes in the past. Price was never an object.
“Hmmm.” The woman took the money and laid it on a well-worn, but polished counter. Her eyes brightened. She gazed at Sallia’s eyes and smiled. “I know just the thing.” She walked into the back of the shop through a deep blue velvet drape that had seen better days and returned with a light gray dress with brown trim. “It’s a little warm for summer, but will travel well. The wool threads are very fine, so it’s not so warm as a winter dress, but it should last a long time.”
The shopkeeper led Sallia back to a changing booth. She put the dress on and smoothed the front. It fit so much better than the oversized dress she had been wearing. Sallia felt the cloth. The fine wool did not scratch very much and she could deal with the weight.
“It’s a bit out of season. I had this made for a young woman last fall, but she didn’t last through the winter.” The shopkeeper let out a shuddering breath. “We all miss her. I’m sure she would like you to have it.”
“How much?”
“The owner had intended on selling the dress for more, but I can let you have it for what’s on the counter.”
Nodding her head, Sallia forced a smile. What other indignities would she have to bear? Now she owned another’s dress. She had to admit that the workmanship was more than serviceable for a serving woman at the castle and she had seen much worse in her travels, and that included her current garment.
She put on her old dress and wandered around the shop while the woman wrapped up her purchase, dismayed at the lower quality of goods offered. She would miss her clothes and wouldn’t be building an appropriate wardrobe from the shops in this village. The workmanship was fine enough, but the cloth. Where did they buy the cloth? Thanking the woman, she quickly headed back to the inn where they would be spending the night. It had just begun to rain.
The Traveler’s Rest filled up with villagers seeking refuge from the afternoon downpour. It seemed that a number of men took advantage of the suddenly inclement weather to fill their gullets with ale. Sallia couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose at the heavy odors of wet clothes and unwashed bodies. She stopped and sniffed in shock. She found she contributed to the overall stench.
They shared a two-bed room. Unca napped on one of the beds and her entry roused him from slumber.
“Were you successful?” Unca said between yawns. His eyes went to the package underneath her arms. “Looks like you were.”
“I’d like a bath. Can I get one?”
The wizard sat up and stretched his spindly arms. “Certainly. You wait up here and I’ll arrange things downstairs.” He sniffed the air. “Must be raining. I’ll bet the common room stinks.”
Sallia just glared at Unca as he left their room. The glare vanished. He could have said worse, much worse.
~
Unca had to smile, while he rubbed the sleep from his eyes, as he sat up from the table. He took in the heavy aroma of the common room and his grin widened. The sound of the downpour outside had brought even more into the inn. He knew a few of the patrons and waved as he made his way to the innkeeper’s desk at the side of the bar.
“My grandniece would like a bath, if you would.”
The lady innkeeper squinted, as she looked closer at the wizard. “Is that
you Bodkin? You look awful with that dyed hair. You’ve been here enough to know what’s going on here. I’ve got my maids serving everyone in the room. Your niece will have to wait an hour or so.” They knew him at the inn as Bodkin in Sally’s Corners, but the innkeeper knew Unca’s real identity.
Unca patted the man on his shoulder and walked back to the kitchens. “Regetta!” he called out in the cacophony of the kitchens trying to get more food ready with the rush of orders.
“Over here, Bodkin,” a woman with iron-gray hair said. Regetta stood nearly as tall as Unca. She folded her arms as she guided the frantic activities of the kitchen.
“My grandniece would like a bath. Is there anything you can do?”
Regetta bent back and laughed. “You are the luckiest man alive. I had a couple of maids ready to wash clothes when the rain hit. I’ve got a tub in the back. If your niece will come down to the kitchen, she can have her bath immediately. If you want a tub and hot water lugged upstairs, it will be an hour or two. Take your pick.”
“She’ll be down presently. What do you hear?”
The innkeeper’s wife laughed again. She looked so imposing, but Unca didn’t know a woman with a more jovial disposition. “Nothing. Some of Histron’s devils have been around sniffing for the missing princess, but we sent them on their way.”
“Why would a member of the royal family ever pass through Sally’s Corners?” Unca said.
Regetta shook her head. “You’re the one to know. We’re not that far from the border, so why would a princess stop here and not continue on to safety at Crackledown? They’re all idiots. I’ve got to get back to my staff. Send your niece down.” She turned her head and began belting out more instructions.
Unca trudged up the stairs. His energy had nearly returned, but he would take the opportunity to return to his nap upstairs on a bed.
“The innkeeper won’t have maids available to help you with your bath until after the customers leave. There is a tub of hot water in the clothes washing room ready immediately, if you head down right now.”
He could see a battle in Sallia’s head. She could wait and bath in the privacy of their room or bathe in front of strangers.
