***
Katrin woke much earlier than usual.
There was a man standing by her bed, slouched over, wearing an awful old jacket that looked like a horse blanket.
Her breath hitched in her chest and she began to squirm across the bed away from him, trying to scream, remembering how Menders had always told her to scream long and loud if there was any danger and to get away as fast as she could.
The man looked over his coat collar at her – and was Menders. He waggled his eyebrows at her.
“What are you doing?” she cried, her fear turning to laughter. “Where did you get those horrible clothes?”
“’Ere now, me proud princess,” he said in a funny voice, bowing to her like someone who’d never done it before, “What you say you put on this ‘ere fancy ballgown and we go an’ ‘ave a look at the fair?” He held out a worn old dress.
She jumped right out of the bed, hugging him with all her might.
“How did you know I wanted to go?” she cried. “I never said a single word! I knew I couldn’t go!”
“I’m magic,” he smiled.
He helped her with the dress, which was skimpy and too tight under the arms. He showed her how to tie the scarf to cover her hair, like some of the little farm girls did when they worked in the fields.
Katrin was so excited that, for once, she had trouble eating. Eiren packed up the food, saying they’d get hungry enough on the way. She laughed as Menders tucked his hair up under a horrible old hat that looked like a horse had stepped on it and she said he looked like a proper country bumpkin going courting before kissing them both and sending them on their way.
There was a wagon and dray horse waiting outside. Menders tossed Katrin up into the wagon, took up the reins and clucked to the big horse.
Katrin felt that she could never look enough or see enough of the new things that went by on either side of the wagon. She had never seen these woods and mountains before, and was transported when they drove by a waterfall that cascaded under a wooden bridge in a foamy rush.
Sometimes they passed people on the road. Katrin waved and smiled every time, fascinated by the unfamiliar faces. She could tell when they were getting near the fair, because there were more carts going in the same direction. All of them had children in them. They called out to one another and boasted about the things they were going to do. Katrin had never seen so many carts. She could barely stand it and held onto Menders’ arm, hugging it hard and smiling until her cheeks hurt.
“Look down the road,” Menders said. She did. There were tents and flags and people. She’d never seen so many people!
Menders found a good place for the horse under a tree, and handed some coins to a man standing nearby to watch it for him. Then he held out his arms for Katrin to jump down, straightened her scarf, took her hand - and they walked into the fair.
There was so much at first that she couldn’t even see it. She told Menders and he suggested that they wait a while, until she got used to things and then they would decide what to do next. Katrin looked around until she was more used to all the people and tents and noise and her heart wasn’t hammering so hard from excitement.
“What’s that?” she asked, seeing people tossing little circles of rope over sticks set in a board.
“It’s a contest,” Menders said. “If you can get three of those loops over three of the sticks, you win a prize.”
“That would be easy,” she said. She wanted to try it.
“But the man who runs the game is very clever, and he’s fixed it so it isn’t as easy as it looks,” Menders explained. “Watch for a minute.”
She did and saw that people managed to get the first two loops easily, but then they always missed the last one that was the furthest to throw.
“I don’t think I could do it then,” she said.
“Oh, we’ll give it a try,” Menders said, moving her over to the game. They stood next to a young man who had just bought several tries. Menders put down some coins and handed her the loops.
Yes, he was right – the first two were easy, the last one she couldn’t get on the right stick.
“Faw! I didn’t win anything but it was fun anyway,” she grinned.
“Oh, it’s my turn,” Menders said in her ear, “and I just happen to know a trick or two. Watch.”
He put down another coin and picked up the loops. He tossed the first two, then took careful aim and got the third one to go where it was supposed to! Katrin squealed and jumped up and down. The man who owned the game gave Menders a little doll that he immediately handed to Katrin. She grinned at the man, who managed to grin back. He looked upset.
Katrin looked where he was looking and saw that it wasn’t because they had won something but because the young man next to them was throwing loop after loop and winning every single time. He had a pile of prizes on the counter beside him. He kept trading them back to the man who ran the game for bigger and bigger things. He finally stopped throwing the loops, pushed all the prizes across the counter and said, “Give me yer best then, friend.” The man grunted unhappily, handing over a pretty bracelet, just right for a little girl.
Just then a scary looking fellow walked up behind the young man and said softly that he could move on now.
“Oh aye, right, shall do,” the young man said. He looked at the bracelet.
“T’won’t never fit me wrist,” he said, holding it up to the light. He turned, bent down and handed it to Katrin. He tilted his hat brim up a bit so she could see his bright blue eyes, so like her own.
“Care to ‘ave this trinket, little girl?” he asked. It was Kaymar! He put a finger to his lips and winked. Then he was gone in the crowd and she had the bracelet in her hand.
Menders laughed and helped her put the bracelet on before he took her hand and walked her away from the crowd.
“That was Kaymar!” she whispered in his ear.
“I know. There are more than just me watching out for you today, so if you see any of the Men, just smile, but don’t say anything. They wanted to come to the fair too. Now, don’t miss everything watching for them; you see that lot every day.”
The smells of food were wonderful and they ate everything there was, cakes, cookies, sausages, apples coated with soft taffy. They looked at every single display of fruit and vegetables, comparing them with the ones grown at The Shadows.
“We should have brought some to show off,” Katrin told Menders.
“Perhaps so – maybe next year,” he replied. “Look over there at the fellow swinging the hammer.” He explained to her that the hammer hit a button and sent a weight flying up a pole. It you hit it just right with the right amount of weight, it would make a bell at the top of the pole ring and you won a prize.
“Can you win that one?” she asked.
“That I can’t say, but I’ll give it a try once this fellow gets finished making a fool of himself,” he grinned. That made her curious. She looked closer.
“It’s Haakel,” she laughed in a whisper. And it was – and he was not doing very well. The man who ran the game kept convincing him to try again and again. He must have finally gotten the hang of it, because he suddenly started making the bell ring every time, until the man told him that was enough, gave him a bunch of cigars and sent him away.
“He fooled that man,” Katrin said. “You try.”
“Watch this.” Menders set her up on some hay bales so she could see, then went slouching up to the man, looking like he was about to fall down from tiredness or hunger, and gave him a coin.
“Watch the little man, ladies and gentleman, he’s going to step right up and have a try!” the game man yelled. “He probably don’t weigh more than that hammer, but he’s a gamecock, he’s ready to show us what he’s made of! Pick it up there and give it a try, little fellow!”
Is he ever going to be sorry, Katrin thought, jigging up and down in excitement on the hay bales. She’d seen Menders work in the woodlot since she was born. When he swung a sle
dgehammer, he did it from the ground up, so fast and hard that big logs flew all to pieces.
Once there was a good crowd standing around, laughing about how he was going to faint when he tried to pick up the hammer, Menders grabbed the handle and swung it around so fast you could hardly see it. The weight whizzed up the pole so hard and fast it nearly knocked the bell off. The game man gave him a cigar and told him to go away. He came back to Katrin with it, laughing.
“Care for a cigar, my dear?” he asked. She opened her mouth as if she was ready to have a smoke, but he handed it behind her. She craned around and saw Haakel wink and walk off, putting the cigar in his pocket.
“He was there behind me all the time?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t go off and leave you alone in this crowd if someone hadn’t been with you,” Menders explained.
They saw everything. There was a beautiful lady who danced to very strange and exciting music, though for some reason Menders kept giggling. Katrin thought it was thrilling, especially the way the lady kept looking like she was going to take her clothes off, but never really showed anything. There was a carousel that Menders let her get on alone, but the moment she chose a beautiful white horse Kaymar was there, lifting her on and standing next to her while the carousel went around. She asked him how he liked the fair and he showed her his pockets full of prizes and cigars.
They played every game they came to. Katrin won a couple of them, pushing the little handkerchief and toy puppy that were the prizes into her pockets. Menders won a cage with two little birds at the shooting gallery, with lots of targets moving around fast. She was worried about the birds in the crowd, but Kaymar came up to them, took the cage and walked off toward the wagon. She saw that Ifor was playing the shooting gallery. He had a pile of prizes, just like Kaymar had at the ring toss game.
They ate sausages in buns while sitting on hay bales. Katrin looked up to see Doctor Franz, dressed like a farmer, going by with two ladies, one on each arm. He looked over at her and winked. Then they were gone in the crowd.
“Did you see? He had two!” she whispered to Menders, who was having a sort of coughing fit. He nodded, and managed to swallow his bite of sausage. It must have tried to go down the wrong way.
“Yes, well they were both rather small,” Menders smiled.
“What will he do with two ladies?” she asked.
“Probably lie a lot and spend too much money,” Menders said. That didn’t make much sense.
“He might get tired of kissing them because he would have to kiss twice as much,” she observed. Menders nearly swallowed another bite the wrong way. “That sausage doesn’t agree with you,” she worried as he managed to stop choking and stood up.
“Oh, I’ll take it with me,” he said. “Why don’t we go find that fire breather Hemmett was telling you about?”
They saw the strong man, who lifted huge weights, and a bunch of men who were doing tricks on horses. They weren’t a patch on the Thrun and Katrin said so.
“You’re right there,” Menders replied. “Listen. If that isn’t the sound of someone breathing fire, I’ll be very surprised.”
And it was. Katrin sat on Menders’ shoulders, staring at the fire breather. Hemmett hadn’t been making it up – the man really did breathe fire like a dragon. He made it go in all sorts of ways, in curves and bursts. It was like something out of a dream. She could have watched forever.
Finally she let Menders move on. She was really tired and felt sort of sick from all the things she’d eaten. The sun was low when they got back to the wagon.
Once they were away from the fair, she heard hoofbeats behind them. Kaymar drew even with them while Menders stopped the wagon. Kaymar got off his horse and hitched it to the tailgate, then climbed up and sat next to Katrin, putting his arm around her.
“You look pretty tired, Cuz,” he smiled as she snuggled against him and closed her eyes. “I think you had quite a fair.”
She nodded.
“I think when I grow up, I’ll marry a firebreather,” she said. She felt Kaymar laughing where she leaned against him. Menders was laughing too but she didn’t care. She’d seen the fair, had gone and had fun just like regular children, not like a princess at all. At that moment, that was all that mattered.
Katrin went to sleep.
***
Menders groaned and collapsed on Eiren’s bed. She tugged off the big boots he’d worn all day and he wiggled his toes in ecstasy.
“You look like you had a day of it,” she laughed, peeling off his socks and blowing on his hot and aching feet.
“My darling, I have eaten so much stuff that even my stomach is protesting,” he sighed.
“Impossible!” Eiren laughed.
“I must warn you that you will be presented with several ghastly pieces of cheap jewelry tomorrow by Princess Katrin, who is convinced they are the Crown Jewels,” he smiled.
“I’ll be delighted to receive them,” she smiled, folding the rough jacket and setting it aside with the bucketlike hat. “How did our little one enjoy her day?”
“It was worth every aching step, every sore muscle, every suppressed laugh,” Menders answered, sitting up against the headboard and grinning at her. “She was transported. She had the best time! I only wish you could have been there.”
“I’ve seen many a country fair. I think this was something for you and Katrin to do together. It’s the stuff of wonderful memories.” She carefully covered Katrin’s caged birds for the night.
“Wait until the Men realize that they have a million gewgaws. They’ll be giving it all to her in a day or two,” Menders warned, rising and shucking off the wretchedly fitting trousers and shirt with relief. He hefted the pot of water Eiren had kept warming on her little stove, poured some out at the washstand and began sponging himself down, feeling as if he’d picked up the dust of the entire district.
He told Eiren about Franz going by with the two women and what Katrin had said about him getting tired from kissing two at once while he scrubbed his hair.
“Dear Gods, say he didn’t bring them home with him,” she laughed. “We can’t hang them on a hook like the birds!”
“No, he abandoned them at some point – or they abandoned him. He rode home in the wagon, unconscious after far too much hard cider. Katrin was so exhausted she never even noticed him wedged in between all the junk in the back. For all I know, he’s there still.” He toweled his hair and gratefully shrugged on his dressing gown.
“Back to civilization,” he sighed. Then he grinned, looking over at Eiren.
“Katrin’s announced that she intends to marry a firebreather,” he said, “and you’d best prepare yourself for a little girl imitating the amazing exotic dance style of the very aged and unattractive ‘Surelian’ dancer, who looked as if she probably grew up in the less desirable part of Erdahn. Katrin thought she was wonderful.”
Eiren sat down and laughed. She could give herself over to laughter like no woman he’d ever met. He drank it in. Two years and he was still completely enchanted with her.
“I suppose we’ll have a few days of attempted firebreathing and gyrations,” she finally gasped, looking up at him.
“Gods, I never thought of that. Better hide the matches. I’ll prepare myself to deliver a fatherly cautionary speech tomorrow morning, first thing,” he groaned, going to the bed and stretching out. He was rapidly falling asleep – and sure enough, before long, he felt Eiren gently untying the sash of his dressing gown. He let her help him under the covers and smiled.
His Katrin had seen the fair.
(32)
A Force of Nature
From Her Majesty, Queen Morghenna VIII to Lord Stettan,
Sir,
You are commanded by Her Majesty the Queen to accompany Her Royal Highness, Princess Katrin Morghenna, to Court three weeks from the date of this document, to be presented to Her Majesty upon the occasion of Winterfest. The Royal Train will be sent in sufficient time to accommodate you.
/> Morghenna VIII, Queen of Mordania
“Here we go again. At least there’s been warning this time,” Menders growled, flinging the document down on his desk and looking up at Kaymar. They’d had word from Bartan that the Queen was going to command Katrin to Court.
“So what do we do?” Kaymar asked. He perched on the corner of the desk and lit a cigar, then proffered it to Menders, who took it gratefully. “Can’t say she’s sick again, they’d be getting wise to that dodge.” Menders had used the excuse of illness when a similar summons had come last year.
“We hope for lots of snow. If that doesn’t work, we do something else,” Menders answered, taking the first puff and handing the cigar back, though he was rattled enough to want to keep it and smoke the entire thing.
“Would they expect you to take her by boat if the train can’t get through?” Kaymar asked. Menders shook his head.
“I’m forbidden to travel with her by boat. If we can stop the train getting through, that will be sufficient,” he answered. “I need you back there to keep an eye on the Queen.”
“She’s already drinking again. This message was dated and sent before we left to come back here,” Kaymar answered. “I saw her myself. She tried spending some time with Princess Aidelia because she’s desperate to find some way for her to be helped or treated. Thirty minutes with Aidelia and she hit the bottle hard. She hadn’t stopped when I left. That was three days after this message was sent. I’ll go back if you want me to, but I might be of more use to you here if we’re to see to it that the train can’t get through.”
After a thoughtful moment, Menders nodded his agreement. “We’ve only a week and a half left since this was so long getting here. Did you talk to the driver when you picked up the mail today?” he asked. When Kaymar nodded, he continued, “How are the tracks between here and Erdhan?”
Weaving Man: Book One of The Prophecy Series Page 40
