by Drew Hayes
The frog that had hopped up while they were watering their horses was different. For one thing, she gave a proper introduction without once mentioning her favorite type of lily pad. For another, there was a subtle humanity in her speech that most animals lacked. The most important reason of all, though, was that she spun one hell of a story.
“So you dropped a ball into this pond, met a frog who claimed to be a prince, kissed him, and turned him human,” Jack said, quickly packing her ten minutes of talking into a few brief bullet points. “And then a few seconds later, you turned into a frog?”
“That’s the long and short of it.” The frog was currently sitting perched near the edge of the pond, close enough to be heard but with an easy escape route in case they got too close. She was wary, and they could respect that, especially given her diminutive form. “He bolted right away, pausing only long enough to tell me that the curse could be passed on with another kiss. I have no idea if he was ever a prince or not, or he was the one who first got this curse. All I know is that it’s been nearly a week, so my kingdom must be in an uproar. Unlike him, I’m not lying when I claim to be royalty.”
“Royalty who cared so much for a toy that they were willing to kiss a frog?” Marie asked.
“The ball was a gift, thank you, I consider it a keepsake more than a toy.” The frog seemed a bit testy at her tone, bristling as best an amphibian could. “And I kissed him because it’s the obvious thing to do. If someone is in need, you help them. Freeing someone from a curse when all it costs me is a single kiss? I’d be a heartless beast to do otherwise.”
“Or you’d still be a human,” Jack pointed out.
“I won’t feel bad about doing the right thing. That ruffian already stole my human form, far worse if I allowed him to take my humanity as well.” The frog let out a loud croak of indignation, after which her eyes quickly went wide. “Pardon me, those are hard to stifle.”
Frank and Marie looked over to Jack, who was eyeing the frog carefully. Marie might be able to smell her way across an entire forest blindfolded, but no one could sniff out a lie like Jack. He took a tentative step closer to the frog, lowering down onto his haunches. “You seem to be telling the truth, madam. Might I inquire as to who in the royal family you are?”
Another croak, this time without an apology, as the frog began to look nervous. She didn’t want Jack to know who she was. Marie could practically see the internal conflict as the frog weighed trusting them too much against the fact that they at least acted as though they believed her. If the frog ever wanted to be human again, it would need aid, and there were only so many people who would come through this area, let alone believe her tale on top of it. And even if the frog didn’t know it, she was probably in the presence of some of the most capable helpers she was likely to find. The coincidence of it all made Marie’s hair stand on end, as it often did when she sensed the Narrative’s hand guiding things. There was no helping it on this one, however. She was duty bound to aid royalty, and her own opinion on curses meant she had extra pity in her heart for those struck by them.
At last, the frog gathered up her courage and spoke. “I am Princess Vasilisa, of the Revna Kingdom. Aid me, good travelers, in finding my culprit and restoring my form, and ample riches shall fall upon you as a reward.”
Jack’s eyebrows rose so quickly that Marie nearly swore they caused a breeze. He was, no doubt, imagining the mountains of gold he might receive for returning a lost princess. Marie, on the other hand, knew to probe a touch deeper.
“Princess Vasilisa, it is an honor, but I must ask: how many princes and princesses are in the kingdom of Revna? As I recall, they are a family that emphasizes ample breeding, believing that through great numbers they will sire the strongest possible heir.”
“I have…many brothers and sisters,” Vasilisa admitted, some of the pomp going out of her eyes. “In truth, I am not considered a great candidate for the crown when my father passes. But I am still of royal blood, and there will be gold waiting for you if you give me aid, I swear it.”
Marie didn’t doubt that, she just wanted to reel in Jack’s expectations a touch. He could be positively pouty when a big payday failed to materialize. “We can pin down the precise number as we travel, as I’m sure Jack will want to haggle with you for some time. To begin with, however, this job actually has two components. You want to be returned to your human form, and you want to find the man who tricked you. Those two do not necessarily need to be intertwined. It would be no trouble to find someone that you could pass the curse on to, then we could hunt for your perpetrator without you staying trapped in that body.”
Vasilisa blanched, her green skin paling in a way that Marie was almost certain real frogs couldn’t manage. “I would never! Passing along this curse to anyone else would make me as vile as the man who did this to me. I must return him to this form. Him, and no one else.”
“Are you truly set on that?” Frank asked. “Surely the dungeons have people sentenced to death. Is it any crueler to turn them into a frog before they’re killed? A life is a life, no matter the form it takes, and they have presumably earned their punishment.”
This time, Vasilisa was a touch slower to reply. She mulled over Frank’s point for some time, pausing only to snatch a fly from the air with her tongue. A look of embarrassment swept across her amphibian face, but Marie tried to pretend she hadn’t noticed. As someone with a primal part of her brain constantly whispering inhuman thoughts, she had a measure of empathy for the trouble of dealing with frog instincts. Finally, once the fly was chewed and swallowed, Vasilisa seemed to reach a decision.
“You make a point, robed stranger. If we cannot find the man who turned me in reasonable time, then perhaps I will be forced to take your advice and change someone whose fate is already sealed. As a princess, I have a responsibility to be there for my people. But I won’t turn to such a path unless it is necessary. And to make sure you’re properly motivated to see justice served, I think your lady was right. We should look at this as two jobs, and you’ll be paid accordingly. Let’s say one hundred gold for restoring me to human form, and one hundred gold for returning this curse to the man who passed it onto me. Fail to find him, and your reward is cut in half.”
Marie was slightly impressed. They’d only met Vasilisa a half hour ago, and already she’d seen right to the heart of how to motivate a third of the team. Debates on morality might be well and good, but by tethering their pay to what they could accomplish, she’d more or less locked down Jack’s compliance. He would do, and had done, far more than hunt down some poor sap for the decadent sum of a hundred gold.
“I think that’s an excellent starting point for our negotiations,” Jack said, the greed in his eyes momentarily outshining his smile. “Frank, grab one of our cooking pots, if you would. The princess will need water to travel in, and this pond has a healthy supply. We’ll mount it on my saddle for the ride.”
“No.” Marie stepped forward, angling herself slightly between Jack and the frog. “She rides with me. I’ll stay close enough for you two to bicker, but I’ll handle the princess’s safety. In case there’s a fight, she’d slow you down.”
Jack’s stare was brief; he didn’t need to ask why she felt accountable for seeing this princess home safely. “Very well then, I can hardly protest when our greatest fighter wants to guard royalty.”
“Her?” Vasilisa was looking over at Marie, oversized eyes even wider than normal. “She doesn’t look particularly tough.”
“Marie may lack Frank’s insight and my raw speed, but make no mistake, on a battlefield she is hands down the most formidable in our numbers.” Jack walked a step closer to the princess, getting lower so that he could approximate looking her in the eyes. “And given your current predicament, I hardly think I should need to lecture you about the importance of not judging things based on how they look, princess.”
Vasilisa met Jack’s gaze before glancing back to Marie. “My apologies. I fear my manners have
rusted in their time spent trapped here.”
“Quite all right. I rather like being underestimated. Makes my work easier,” Marie replied. “As to the matter of hunting down your man, can you tell us anything about him? A description? A name?”
“I know what he looks like, although it’s quite plain I’m afraid, and the only name I have is the one he gave me. It’s probably false, like the rest of the tale he spun.”
“Still, probably better to know in case he’s used it with other people,” Jack said.
“Henry. The lying bastard called himself Henry.”
* * *
It took roughly an hour for Vasilisa and Jack to agree on a price for their services, one that ultimately was very close to her original offer. Every time he tried to increase the total, she countered by adjusting the ratio. The more gold Jack wanted, the more Vasilisa pinned on him finding Henry rather than restoring her to her natural form. Marie rather enjoyed the exchange; it wasn’t often they met someone who had the patience to argue with Jack for longer than a few minutes. Vasilisa had clearly studied the art of negotiation, a tool useful for any member of royalty, and was putting those lessons to good use.
Once the price was set and the bickering died away, they passed the time by asking Vasilisa about her kingdom. The more they knew, the better prepared they would be, and Revna was more remote than some lands, meaning there were fewer rumors to go on. Even Marie knew of them only from a trade alliance, and that had been a few passing facts at best.
Revna was, as Vasilisa portrayed it, a relatively small kingdom with heavy emphasis on agriculture. No diamond mines or grand magical communities to keep them afloat, they were a land of hard workers who had been formed around tending the soil. It wasn’t especially grandiose, but the thing about food was that there was always a market for it. Diamonds might wane in value and magic might grow more dangerous than profitable, but people would always be hungry. Because of that, the kingdom was prosperous, if not lavish. It was a far cry from the kingdom Marie had grown up in, yet she could respect it all the same. As time wore on and they grew closer to Revna’s capital city, she found herself eager to see the place with her own two eyes. It had been too long since she stood in a proper castle.
Sadly, that would not be their first stop. Frank had hit upon the fact that since Vasilisa was out for a ride when she met her frog and the pond was some distance from town, Henry must have stolen her horse to get back. Tracking a plain-looking man in the capital of a kingdom would be nigh impossible with no leads, but someone riding a royal steed into town would stir up notice. If they could find the creature, they might discover where the rider had gone to. While it was a thin string to pull on, it was the only one they’d found so far. Unless this led them somewhere, there was a good chance Jack would end up with only half pay, and neither Frank nor Marie wanted to deal with the amount of sulking that would follow such a disappointment.
The ride to Revna’s capital was a short one, which worked out well. Had it been a long, harrowing journey Marie might have felt a touch swindled once the city came into view. “City” was actually too generous of a term; it looked more like a large village that happened to have a castle in the center. The keep surrounding the castle was substantial, at least, and from a ways out they could hear the sounds of guards doing drills in the courtyard. As Revna had never been known for its massive size or unstoppable army, it was strategy that kept them safe. Being one of the largest food suppliers to all neighboring kingdoms meant going to war with them would mean charging with empty-bellied soldiers, a poor strategy in any conflict. Not to mention all the kingdoms they were still feeding had a vested interest in making sure their supply shipments weren’t interrupted. The modest size of the town and castle were a good reminder that here, land was meant for tending, not building lavish estates.
The first stable they tried ended up with nothing, even after Jack smiled and charmed the clerk, who was pushing a hundred if she was day, into letting them leave their own steeds for a pittance. At the second, their luck held no better. It wasn’t until they approached the third stable, which by this point Marie had a hunch about because these things always seemed to happen in threes, that they got a lead. The clerk did indeed remember a man showing up, riding a fine horse despite being dressed in rather damp and common clothes. He’d been looking to sell the stallion, or trade it for a lesser horse and a few coins, but the stable master had suspected something was amiss and turned down the offer. He had, however, traded the rider a set of new clothes in exchange for a few trinkets from the saddlebag on the horse. This revelation incensed Vasilisa to the point where she let out a thundering croak from her pot of water. Annoyed as the princess might be to have her belongings bartered away, Marie was grinning from ear to ear at the news.
For a few copper, less than the rags were even worth but that was Jack, they purchased the abandoned clothes. When Jack was distracted, Marie slipped the man a piece of silver to tell no one about their visit. Better to keep the element of surprise for as long as they could, even if it did come with a cost. With the clothes in hand, they headed to the nearest inn and booked a room. Marie needed some privacy to focus for the next part.
* * *
“What’s she doing?” Vasilisa had emerged from her pot of water and was sitting on the edge of the bed, something the inn’s owners would likely have been furious about if they knew. Marie, the “she” in question, was seated on the floor, the former frog’s clothes stretched out before her. One by one, she picked up each article and held it to her nose, breathing in deeply, separating each scent woven through the fibers from one another.
“Marie has a fine nose,” Jack explained. “So good that if she has something with a person’s smell deeply ingrained, she can learn that scent and track it halfway across a kingdom. Usually getting our hands on something to smell is the hard part; most people are too careful to leave such items behind for exactly this reason. Well, I suspect they fear dogs tracking them rather than someone like Marie, but the point remains. This Henry fellow is sloppy. He should have traded for new clothes outright and burned the old ones.”
Henry had indeed been sloppy. Sloppy, and scared. There were still lingering slivers of his terror amidst the clothes. Marie could smell it there, along with the sweat from the ride, the musk of the horse, and the stink of the pond. The curse changing the victims’ clothes along with their bodies was a lucky break for those kissed, but Henry had apparently failed to get fully out of the pond before turning back. The pond-stink was making things harder. Harder, yet not impossible. As Marie breathed deeper, she unknotted the complex aroma and began to lock in on Henry’s true smell. Not the fear or the sweat or the pond, his natural odor that would be forever present and impossible to hide. With every sniff, she drew a little closer.
“Vasilisa, tell me something.” Frank was sitting at the window, watching the people in town wander past. “If I were a man, a normal man, who entered your town with no money and few items to trade, what would be the easiest way for me to make some coin? We now know that Henry didn’t have any assets nearby if he was trading things from your saddlebag to afford new clothes. Sooner or later he’ll want for food and shelter. Now, there’s a chance he could get those on his own, however even if he has the skill, that will be difficult without proper tools. So for a stranger with little to their name and a quickly emptying belly, what would be the best path?”
“Easy: joining the kingdom’s army,” Vasilisa replied. “We’re always wanting for warm bodies to take up swords; most of our people stick to working the land like their ancestors before them. If Henry can point a blade in the right direction, they’d take him in and start his training. That comes with room, board, and a small stipend as payment. Very small, actually, which makes it all the harder to recruit new soldiers. My father and I disagree often on that policy.”
“Tell me about it.” Marie mumbled the words under her breath, not quite aware that they’d slipped out as her mind focused on t
he task at hand.
Jack, in the meantime, had produced a gold coin from his pockets and was twirling it effortlessly between his fingers. “That’s why I was never big on civil service. The glory of the kingdom pays for shit, while taking these skills onto the open market can make one very wealthy, if one knows how to apply them.”
“In this case, the kingdom’s frugality may turn out to be our ally,” Frank said. “If the stipend is small enough, Henry won’t have been able to save enough to leave, so he’d still be in town.”
“And all we have to do to get to him is what, break into an army barracks?” Jack asked. “We’re all quite good in a fight, but that seems to be pushing it even for us. Not to mention, I can’t imagine the princess here would take kindly to us slaughtering her men.”
“You have guessed extraordinarily correct.” Vasilisa was staring at Jack with as much malice as a frog’s face could muster, which was actually more than one might expect.
Through it all, Marie barely listened, clothes pressed to her nose as she burned the scent into her mind. She could already feel the change hitting her eyes, which was why she was keeping them closed. Doing something this bestial required tapping into the other part of herself. Not fully, as when she was fighting. This was an exercise in self-control as she drew forth only some of the curse. There was a time she’d have never thought such control possible, when suppressing the shift had taken every bit of willpower she possessed and even then sometimes failed. Meeting Jack and Frank had changed that. They were the first ones who taught her to see the curse not as an outside entity, some threat to be repelled, but rather as a piece of who she was. While Marie still burned for the day she’d be free of the monster in her blood, for now she had accepted that it was part of her, a part she could work with once she’d made peace with that truth. Terrible a burden as that inner beast was, it did have a fair share of uses.
