“Maybe another day,” she said.
“That’s what you always say.”
“Because it’s boring, that’s why.”
“I know it’s boring, but you’re going to need it someday.”
“You don’t know that for sure,” Aislin said sullenly.
“Wouldn’t you like to know more about your power anyway?” Treylen asked.
“Not really.”
“Controlling water is nice, but water has its limits, and the day may come when you need something stronger.”
“Nothing is stronger than the sea.”
“You’d be surprised.”
╬ ╬ ╬
“I know I’ve said it before, but I’d give anything for your hair,” Netra said the next morning while brushing Aislin’s hair. “You spend all that time in the sea. You never brush it. You never spend any time on it at all. But look at it,” she marveled. “It’s not tangled at all. If I tried to do what you do I’d have to cut all mine off and start over.”
Aislin ignored the comments. She’d heard them before and, the truth was, she couldn’t care less about her hair. “I want to go up and see Liv again today.”
“Okay, but I’m not going to be able to take you. I have too much to do. Randel will have to take you.”
“Can’t I just go by myself?” Aislin asked.
“Really? After what happened when you went to buy candles? Which we still need, by the way.”
Aislin didn’t argue with her. She hadn’t expected her mother to agree to it. Mostly she’d asked out of habit. “So long as Randel doesn’t follow me around the whole time while I’m playing with Liv,” she said sternly. “I don’t want him interfering.”
“I don’t see any reason why he needs to,” Netra said. “He can wait at the gates until you’re done.”
“Good.” Aislin jumped down off her stool and headed for the door.
“I’m not done brushing your hair,” Netra protested.
“It’s fine, Mama. You said so yourself. It doesn’t matter if it gets brushed or not.”
“It matters to me. I like brushing your hair.”
“Maybe some other time.” Aislin opened the door and stepped outside.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
Aislin set her jaw stubbornly. “I don’t want to wear shoes.”
“Not that. Remember what we talked about?”
Aislin’s brow furrowed as she thought about it. “Oh, right. Goodbye, Mama.” Her mother had been working on her to say hello and goodbye.
“Goodbye, Aislin. That wasn’t so bad, was it?”
“It wasn’t so good either.” Aislin ran off, leaving her mother shaking her head.
“To the castle it is,” Randel said when Aislin ran up to him and told him. He got his short sword out of the guard hut and strapped it on. “Are we going to see your new friend?” he asked, once they were out on the street and walking toward the castle.
“Not we,” she corrected him. “Me.”
“Don’t tell me you’re ashamed of me,” he said, putting his hand on his heart and giving her a sad look.
She was unaffected by his theatrics. “Sometimes.”
“That’s not good. I’ll try to be more guard-like today then.” He pulled his shoulders back and started marching. “Maybe if I’m serious enough they’ll offer me a job. I think I’d be a great castle guard.”
“They’re not going to give you a job. You already have one.”
“What job is that?”
“Making sure I stay out of trouble,” she said with exasperation. “Stop being so silly. And walk faster. I’m in a hurry.”
Randel snapped to attention and saluted her, the effect ruined by the big grin on his face. Aislin made an irritated sound and walked even faster. She wondered what Liv would have for them to do today.
When they got to the castle gates, she told Randel, “You wait here.” Then she hurried inside.
“I think I’ll just wait here!” he called after her.
Aislin wondered if she should say goodbye to him, then decided against it. It was only Randel. He wouldn’t care anyway.
Liv was sitting on the steps in front of the palace, tossing pebbles at a statue. She jumped to her feet when she saw Aislin, then ran to her and gave her a big hug.
“I missed you sooo much!” she exclaimed. “It was so boring here without you. I was so lonely I could have cried.”
For some reason that made Aislin feel good, knowing that Liv had been lonely too and it wasn’t only her. “What are we going to do today?” Aislin asked.
“I think we should go into the city,” Liv said. “Let’s go ask Mommy if we can.” She grabbed Aislin’s hand and they ran into the palace.
But Bonnie shook her head when Liv asked her. “It’s not safe for two little girls alone in the city, and I don’t have time to go with you today. I finally got your father to agree to let me throw out that awful furniture in our rooms and if I don’t get on it right away he’s liable to change his mind.”
That’s when Aislin surprised herself by speaking up. “We wouldn’t be alone. Randel can go with us.”
Bonnie turned to her with a raised eyebrow. “Who’s Randel?”
Now both of them were staring at her, waiting for her answer, along with a maid who was cleaning the floor. Aislin froze, suddenly unable to speak.
“Well?” Bonnie asked, her hands on her hips. “Out with it, child.”
“He’s a guard at the estate,” Aislin said in a voice barely above a whisper. “He goes with me whenever I leave.”
Bonnie thought about this. Liv started pulling on her dress. “Please say yes, Mommy. Please.”
With a frown, Bonnie twitched her dress out of Liv’s grasp. “What have I told you about doing that?” she grumbled. Then she looked back at Aislin. “Let’s go meet this Randel. I want to get a look at him.”
Randel was sitting in the shade, leaning up against the castle wall. He jumped to his feet when he saw Bonnie approaching, a look in her eye that said she meant business. She wasted no time.
“Are you Randel?”
“Yes, ma’am.” He stood at attention.
“Aislin says you escort her around.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She looked at his sword. “Can you use that thing?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Do you say anything else?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Are you simple?”
“Yes…I mean, no, ma’am.”
“And Netra trusts you to look after her daughter?”
“Yes, ma’am. For a couple of years now.”
“What do you know? A whole sentence finally.” She looked him up and down. “Do I need to tell you what I’ll do to you if something happens to my little girl?”
Randel gulped and swallowed visibly. “No, ma’am.”
“Have her back by midafternoon. Don’t let her go near any taverns and for the gods’ sake stay away from the Warrens.” The Warrens were a grimy network of narrow streets, the poorest part of the city. It was where Wulf Rome and Quyloc had grown up. Since becoming king, Rome had made an effort to clean the place up, but it still wasn’t a very good place.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Bonnie turned to Liv. “You listen to Randel and do what he tells you, you hear me?”
Liv nodded, grinning hugely and shifting from one foot to the other in her eagerness to be off. Bonnie bent and wrapped her in a big hug. “Be careful,” she told her gruffly.
Once she let Liv go, Liv grabbed Aislin’s hand and pulled her through the gates at a trot.
“Wait for Randel!” Bonnie yelled after her.
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” Randel told her. “I’m used to running after Aislin. They won’t leave me behind.” Then he ran after them.
They were a few blocks down the street and a little ways ahead of Randel when Liv leaned in close to Aislin. “He's very dashing, don't you think?”
“Who?” Aislin asked, confused.
Liv glanced over her shoulder at the young guard. “Randel.”
Aislin shrugged. “I don't even know what that means.”
Liv smiled. “It means he’s cute.”
Aislin looked at her friend, not sure if she was joking or not. “You think he’s cute? Why?”
“I don’t know. He just is.”
Aislin pondered this. She knew what Liv meant by cute, at least kind of. It meant she liked the way he looked. But that really didn't make any sense to her. Who cared how someone looked? What difference did it make anyway?
“If you say so,” she said finally.
“I’m glad he’s coming with us.”
Aislin had nothing to say to this. So much about her new friend was a mystery to her.
“Well, ladies,” Randel said, catching up to them and walking beside them. “The whole city lies at your feet.” They were still near the top of the hill that the castle sat on, and from where they were most of the city was visible, spread out below them. “Where to first?”
“Let’s go to the market!” Liv exclaimed. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small leather pouch. “I have some coins.”
“To the market it is!” Randel said, drawing his sword and pointing it at the horizon. Liv laughed and even Aislin smiled a little. Randel liked to be silly. It was one of the things she liked about him.
Randel put his sword away. “Just one problem. Which market? There are a lot of them.”
“All of them!” Liv yelled.
“All of them!” Randel echoed. A man walking by gave them a strange look and shook his head.
They came to a market with a number of stalls selling rugs. Liv looked at the rugs and wrinkled her nose. “Maybe not all of them.”
They were walking down a narrow street a few minutes later when Liv looked at a shop they were passing and lit up. “It’s an apothecary shop,” she said. “We have to go in here.” She hurried inside and the other two followed.
From what Aislin knew, an apothecary shop was a place to buy medicines. But why would Liv be excited about going to buy medicine? She looked at Randel for clarification, but he shrugged.
“Whatever age they are, women are a mystery to me,” he whispered. “I find the best thing is to go along and act excited.” He gave her a wink.
“Oooh, look at these,” Liv said. She stopped at a table with lots of little jars and bottles and small tins on it.
“What is it?” Aislin wanted to know.
“It’s makeup.”
“I don’t know what makeup is.”
“It’s something you put on your face. Colors and stuff.”
Aislin frowned. “Why would I want to color my face?”
Liv paused. “I’m not really sure. But a lot of women in the palace do it. Mommy won’t let me so I’ve never worn any before.” She held up her coin purse, shook it, and gave Aislin a wicked smile. “That changes today!”
Liv bought several tins, some brushes and one bottle, the apothecary wrapped their purchase in cloth, tied it with a string, and they left the shop. “We need a good place to sit down and do this,” Liv said, looking around.
“There’s a park nearby,” Randel said. “Follow me.” He lead them to a small park with a couple of benches and a handful of oak trees. They sat down on the grass underneath one of the trees and Liv unwrapped her purchase.
Aislin opened one of the tins. It was filled with red powder. “People put this on their face?” she said suspiciously, poking her finger into it.
“It goes on your cheeks,” Liv said. “Watch.” She took one of the brushes, stuck it in the tin and brushed some of the color on her cheek. The result was a large, funny-looking red blotch.
Aislin started to giggle and Randel got a big smile on his face.
“What?” Liv wanted to know. “What’s so funny?”
“Your face,” Aislin said.
Liv rubbed her cheek with the brush, which only spread the blotch further and made the other two laugh harder.
“No fair!” Liv cried, contorting her face as she tried to see her own cheek. “I can’t see what I look like.” She snatched up the tin. “Let me put some on you. Then I can see too.”
Aislin reluctantly acquiesced. The brush tickled a little bit. Liv put some of the red powder on both her cheeks and sat back to look at her work. “Hmm,” she said. She tilted her head to the side as if it would help her see better.
“What?” Aislin asked. “How does it look?”
At first Liv succeeded in keeping a straight face. But it didn’t last long. The corner of her mouth twitched. Her eyes lit up. Then she gave up and burst into gales of laughter, laughing so hard that she toppled onto her side. Randel joined in, though at least he didn’t fall over on his side.
Aislin rubbed her cheeks, trying to get the stuff off. That only made the other two laugh even harder. At first she didn’t know how to respond. She’d been laughed at before, especially when she was still living in Seaside, and it still stung. Her first impulse was to get up and storm away.
But this laughter was different, she realized after a moment. When the other children laughed at her it had been mean. They’d wanted her to feel bad. But Liv and Randel weren’t being mean. Liv was laughing the way she always did. She laughed all the time at so many things. It was one of the things Aislin liked about her. Liv’s laughter made her laugh too and she liked laughing. She’d never really laughed before she met Liv. And this seemed like that same kind of laughter.
Aislin relaxed a little then. And before she knew it, she was laughing along with them, for no other reason than that it felt good.
In time their laughter died out. Liv sat up and picked up the lone bottle she’d bought. She opened it and poured a little on her finger. The stuff that came out was thick and sticky and a blue-green color. With a wicked glint in her eye, she turned to Randel, who suddenly stopped chuckling and put his hands up defensively.
“Easy there, young lady. I don’t like the way you’re looking at me at all.”
Liv’s grin got bigger.
“May I remind you that I am here to guard your persons?” he said hastily. “To keep you safe?”
Now Aislin knew what Liv intended and she was smiling too. The two girls closed in on Randel.
“Please,” he said weakly. “I have a reputation. Dignity, even.”
But it did him no good. Liv would not be denied. She dabbed the colored ointment on his face with another brush while Aislin went to work on him with the red powder. They followed that up with liberal doses of white and black powder also.
By the time they finished, both girls were in stitches. Randel’s face looked like something out of a grotesque parody. All around his eyes the skin was painted in a wide swath with the blue-green cosmetic. Above that Aislin had drawn thick eyebrows with the black powder. His cheeks were red and his goatee was white. The girls laughed and laughed.
“I suppose you think this is funny,” Randel said with mock severity, crossing his arms and pretending to glare at them.
“You look ridiculous!” Liv yelled.
“Will you still think it’s funny when…” He turned away, putting his arm over his face, then spun back toward them, leaped to his feet and yelled, “When the evil sorcerer Lowellin is coming to eat you up?”
He roared and grabbed at them. They squealed and jumped to their feet and took off. Randel began chasing them through the trees. He ran limping and bent over, as if he had a hump on his back. His hands were curled into claws, his lips pulled back from his teeth. The girls darted this way and that, ducking under his arms when he tried to grab them.
It wasn’t long before Liv went on the offensive. She picked up a small stick and started jabbing at him. “Stay back, evil sorcerer!” she cried. “Or taste my steel!” Aislin threw acorns at him and he began to retreat, snarling the whole way.
After a minute he went to his knees. “I surrender,” he said, holding his hands in t
he air. “Don’t kill me, please.”
Liv rested her imaginary sword on the side of his neck. She looked at Aislin. “What do you think? Does he deserve to live?”
Aislin held up her hands. “I don’t know.”
Liv looked back at Randel. “Because I am a fair and just queen, I shall let you live. But go, and never trouble my kingdom again.”
╬ ╬ ╬
The next day Aislin and Randel walked up to the castle again. Heavy clouds hung low in the sky and the air smelled of rain.
“It took me forever to get my face clean,” Randel said. “I’m going to be hearing about it from the other guards for a long time.”
“I don’t know why women wear that stuff,” Aislin said.
“They wear it to make themselves more beautiful.”
Aislin shook her head. There were still so many things about people she didn’t understand.
By the time they got to the castle it was starting to sprinkle. Randel looked at the sky and said, “Looks like we won’t be going into the city again today.”
“Why?” Aislin asked.
Randel gave her a look as if to check on whether she was joking or not. “Because it’s raining.”
“So?”
“You’ll get wet.” Then Randel caught himself. “What am I saying? You love getting wet. But most people don’t.”
“Liv doesn’t care if she gets wet.”
“No, but I bet her mother does.”
It was starting to really rain by the time Aislin reached the doors of the palace. Randel hurried off to find shelter under a tree while she went inside. Once inside she stood there, not sure where to go to find Liv. The entrance hall was huge, with wide, curving stairways on each side of the room, marble floors, and a high ceiling. She felt tiny and lost. A servant who was sweeping the floor said, “You’ll probably find the princess in the—” But then he broke off as Liv came running down the stairs.
“You’re here!” she yelled. “Now we can have some fun!”
Her mother appeared at the top of the stairs and followed her down, though at a far more sedate pace. Liv gave Aislin a hug and whispered into her ear. “Mommy took away the makeup so we can’t play with it anymore. She was pretty mad.”
Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3) Page 6
