Chapter 7
We joined the others and continued our journey west. Talia wrapped the dress and cape in her bedroll. Since she didn't have a horse, she had to ride on the back of the woodsman's cart with Zore and Prentice. Not that she minded, she seemed deliriously happy to have people around.
Patera pulled his horse alongside of mine. "I see you've picked up another stray."
I had been riding alone, in the middle of the column, still wearing the worn comfortable clothes Talia gave me. Vomeir was at the front of the column, talking to Sardis.
"Her name is Talia. She's the Queen of Thieves's daughter."
"You stole her from the Queen of Thieves?"
"The Queen of Thieves died over the winter, as did the last of her men. Talia was alone."
"So you didn't find what you were seeking."
"On the contrary. She gave me exactly what I needed. Her mother schooled her well."
"You think it's safe to have her around? Her mother was a thief and a murderer."
"She took an oath to serve me. I believe she will honor that oath."
"What are you going to do with her?"
"By nightfall, we'll be through the Pass of Nod."
Patera nodded. "Give or take a few miles."
"Tomorrow morning, I'll continue my journey alone. The rest of you will wait for me where we make camp. If soldiers from the Army of the West enter the pass without me leading them, you'll need to scatter. Talia was born and raised in these mountains. She can help you hide."
"I'm not comfortable with you riding to the Western Palace alone."
"But you understand my reasoning."
"I understand it, but if Trager Selis kills you, I'll have failed your mother."
"Trager Selis won't kill me," I said. "I'm more valuable to him alive. He has a chance to become the first King of Adah with me at his side."
"And you'll point that out to him?"
"I'll explain to him that we have much in common. He wants to be king. I want to be queen. I'll then propose that we make an alliance. If he supports my claim to the throne of Adah, I'll make him my husband, which will make him king. He'll question my motives, wondering why I'd be willing to do that. I'll point out that I have no alternative and that it is better to share power than die at the hand of my sister. At that point, he'll arrange a quick wedding ceremony. After the ceremony, we'll celebrate. During the celebration, I'll make sure my new husband has plenty to drink. At some point during the celebration, he'll insist we retire to our bedroom and consummate our union. That's when I'll kill him."
"You know how you'll kill him?"
"Yes. Thanks to Talia."
"And you're sure it will work?"
I wasn't sure anything would work, but my plan made sense, and as far as I could see, I didn't have a lot of options. "I believe I have a good chance of killing Trager Selis, but I don't know what the Army of the West will do once he's dead. They're trained to follow orders and I'm counting on them to do that once their self-appointed leader is dead."
"What if you fail to kill him?"
"If I fail to kill him, I'll be no worse off than if Bedonna had caught me."
"How long do you want us to wait for your return?"
"If I'm not back in a fortnight, everyone is free to go where they wish. You can consider your oaths fulfilled."
We rode till dusk then made camp where the pass narrowed, going from a mile across to less than half a mile. We were also starting to descend. The green knee-high grass that made up the floor of the pass was thinning out, and the mountains on both sides of the pass were getting shorter. All of that reminded me that we were nearing the end of the pass, and that tomorrow, I would have to ride on alone. That realization made my stomach lurch and when they passed dinner around--some sort of potato and bean soup--I found I had lost my appetite.
"You need to eat," Vomeir said, thrusting a wooden bowl full of soup into my hands.
I never had a chance to tell him I wasn't hungry because another vision hit me. This one involved my other sister, Iderra. She was sitting in a pub, not a high class establishment that might expect royalty to enter it, but a dark dingy place that harbored no illusions about its cliental.
She wasn't dressed like a princess, wasn't even dressed like a girl. She wore an outfit similar to what I was wearing, black riding boots, brown leather breeches, a white wool shirt that tied in front, and a brown leather jerkin. She also wore a hat, what people liked to call a wizard's hat. It was made out of soft brown leather that came to a point on top and had a huge brim that flopped down over her face.
Her brown hair had been cut short, similar to the way I wore my hair before mother told me to let it grow. She had a green wool cloak draped over her shoulders. A knapsack rested on her table, as did a wooden mug of mead. There was dirt on her face, making it look like she had been on the road for several days. As far as I could see, she carried no sword, no weapon of any kind.
The fact that she carried no weapon didn't surprise me, Iderra was a thinker, not a fighter. Out of the four of us, she had always been the worst when it came to handling a sword, even Salisha could beat her in a sword fight, and Salisha had shown little interest in sword fighting.
For a second, I wondered why I was having this vision. She seemed to be in no danger, at least no more than could be expected considering our current situation. Then the pub's door opened and four of Bedonna's men burst into the room. They wore the uniform of the palace guard, black riding boots, gray leather breeches, green tunics, silver breastplates and helmets. Their swords were drawn, which meant they were there on business.
"Everybody remain where you are," the biggest of the guards said. "We're looking for the Princesses Iderra Derbe Haran and Lila Marie Haran. Not that we'd expect to find either of them in a scummy dive like this."
"Is there a reward?" someone yelled.
"The reward is we don't throw yer scummy arse in prison."
"What do the princesses look like?" Iderra said. I couldn't believe she would draw attention to herself. If it had been me, I would've tried to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
"One's tall and skinny with long brown hair and a beak for a nose."
"Sounds kind of ugly," Iderra said.
The guard laughed. "She ain't the best looking woman I've ever seen, but she ain't as ugly as some of you scum."
There was general laughter from the crowd. A few, Iderra included, even toasted to their ugliness.
"What's the other one look like?" someone said.
"She's short and cute with long black hair. She might have cut her hair, so she could pass herself off as a boy."
"How long is the city going to be locked down?" Iderra asked.
"Yeah," someone else said. "Some of us got business in other towns."
"Help us find the princesses and you can be about your business. Until then, you'll just have to confine your thieven and whoren to Morcesha."
The guards turned and left.
"He called us ugly," Iderra said, loud enough so the whole room could hear her. "Have you seen the princess he works for?"
"Yeah. She's got more hair on her mug than me," a scraggly bearded man said. Everyone laughed and resumed their revelry. Iderra looked directly at me, and spoke in a voice only I could hear. "Do you like my disguise, Mouse? I got the idea from you. I figured if short hair could make people think that you were a boy, then cutting my hair short could make them think I was a man. Of course, I hated to do it, you know how much I loved my hair."
That was true. Iderra always felt that her hair was her best feature. It had reached clear to her waist and was thick and shiny and chestnut in color.
"I trust you're not surprised by my talking to you. I figured out a long time ago that you were a seer. I've even learned to sense when I'm being watched. It's kind of like that feeling you get when someone's looking over your shoulder."
I wasn't surprised by that. Nothing Iderra said or did surprised me. Out of the four
of us, she was the most unpredictable.
"Bedonna still has Morcesha locked down, but she'll soon conclude that we've both left the city. Then her guards will fan out and search the surrounding countryside. When that happens, I'll leave Morcesha and head for Sorea, where I plan to seek refuge. I trust you remember my theory about the Dark Wizards of Sorea."
It was hard to forget her theory. Iderra believed the wizards that ran Sorea weren't wizards at all, but intellectuals like herself. She believed they possessed great machines that harnessed the power of steam. She even showed me a device that she believed was at the heart of the machines they used.
The device was a metal ball with bent spouts on opposite ends. The ball had two metal spikes attached opposite each other. She filled the ball with water then placed it in the fireplace, using the two spikes to suspend it over the fire. As the water in the ball got hot, steam began to shoot out of the two spouts. Since both spouts were bent in the same direction, the steam coming out of them flowed in the same direction. As more and more steam flowed out of the spouts, the ball began to spin.
"Imagine bigger versions of this," an excited Iderra had explained. "You place a firebox underneath them. You attach those spikes to wheels and you get self-propelled carts. You could build one of these in a mill, attach it to a millstone, and use it to grind grain. The possibilities are endless."
Iderra believed the Dark Wizards of Sorea had built machines such as those. She believed they had closed their borders to keep that knowledge from leaking out, from finding its way to people that might use the machines against them.
"I'm glad to learn that you're still alive," Iderra whispered. "I imagine you already know what Bedonna did to Salisha. She'll do the same to us if she catches us."
Or worse, I thought, remembering the look in Bedonna's eyes after she killed Salisha.
"Don't worry, Mouse. She won't catch me. I hear she's already planning her coronation. Hard to believe considering we're both still alive. Maybe not so hard to believe knowing Bed. I told the court scholars that I wasn't interested in being queen and that they should support you. I think they understood. They know I'm happier than I've ever been. I don't have to worry about living up to mother's expectations, nor do I have to compete with Salisha's beauty, or with Bedonna's skills as a warrior. And when I reach Sorea, I'll be able to devote all of my time to studying machines I've only dreamed about."
The vision began to fade and I whispered under my breath, "Goodbye, Ide."
I found myself sitting in front of our campfire. Vomeir and Patera were watching me, waiting for me to come out of my trance.
"Is it good news or bad news?" Vomeir said.
"Probably bad," Patera said. "That seems to be the only kind of visions she has."
"That's not true. I had a vision telling me of your arrival and that wasn't bad news."
A hopeful look crossed Vomeir's face. "So it was good news? Tell me it was good news, because we could use a little good news."
"I saw Iderra. She was in a pub in Morcesha. Bedonna's men entered looking for her and me."
"Definitely bad news," Patera said.
"They didn't recognize her," I said. "Even when she spoke to them. They didn't know who she was."
"How is that possible?" Vomeir said.
"She cut her hair short. The way I used to cut mine. And she was wearing clothes similar to what I have on right now. And she wore a big wizard's hat. And her face was covered with dirt. And she looked happy. As happy as I've ever seen her."
"Happy?" Patera said. "What's she got to be happy about?"
"Maybe she's happy that she's still alive," Vomeir said.
"She's happy to be away from the palace. She's happy that she no longer has to live up to mother's expectations. She's happy that she doesn't have to compete with Salisha's beauty. She's happy that she doesn't have to practice sword fighting with Bedonna. She's happy that she's free to go where she wants and study what she wants."
"So Morcesha is no longer locked down?" Vomeir said.
"It's still locked down. But Ide believes Bed is about ready to give up searching the city."
"How do you know that?" Patera said.
"She told me."
Both men stiffened. "What?"
"She knows I'm a seer, has known for quite awhile. Somehow, she could sense my presence."
"That's just creepy," Vomeir said.
"Which is creepy?" Patera said. "Iderra's ability to sense Lila's presence, or Lila's ability to see what's happening in another part of the country?"
"Both."
Patera turned to me. "Did she say anything else?"
"She said Bed is already planning her coronation."
"That's a bit premature," Vomeir said.
"But not surprising," Patera added.
"As soon as Bed's men fan out to search the countryside, Ide is going to leave Morcesha."
"And go where?" Vomeir said.
"Sorea." I couldn't let it go at that, so I laid out Iderra's theory on the Dark Wizards of Sorea, how she thought they were intellectuals like herself and not wizards. That was why she was wearing a wizard's cap. It was her idea of a joke, her way of letting people know where she was going.
"Sounds like wishful thinking on her part," Patera said.
"Ide knows as much about Sorea as anyone in this country. She's read every text written about it, investigated every rumor spread. I wouldn't dismiss her theories too lightly."
Patera pushed himself to his feet and headed off to lay out his bedroll. "Still sounds like wishful thinking to me."
That night I dreamed about machines. Big metal machines that had steam coming out of the top and rolled along metal tracks at incredible speeds. Ide was driving one of those machines and she had a big smile on her face. All in all, it was the best dream I had since my mother became ill a full year ago.