CHAPTER FIVE
Throbbing pain woke Aladdin from a dream that his leg was being squeezed in the blacksmith’s vice. The sound of sparks from his fire turned out to be rain pattering outside the tower chamber.
Frau Lena’s helper, a young woman with brown hair and a shy smile, caught his eye and asked, “Would you like something to eat?”
“Yes.” He pushed himself up to sitting. Even if he was still in pain, at least his stomach was calmer. His head no longer pounded and his vision no longer spun.
The woman soon brought him some soup and bread. While he was eating, Frau Lena came in. “Feeling better?”
“Much better.”
She sat on the stool beside him. “Your friends came this morning to ask about you, as did Master Alfred, Frau Litzer, even Duke Wilhelm. And Lady Kirstyn has been here almost all the time since they brought you in.” She smiled. “I realize I’m caring for a very special person.”
“Everyone is very kind to me.” Aladdin’s cheeks heated. He set his empty bowl on the tiny table beside him.
“I’m glad you’re able to eat. That’s an excellent sign. Now I’ll just look at your leg.” She flipped up the blanket covering his feet and unwrapped the bandage on his lower leg. Inside the bandage was a layer of brown moss Frau Lena had been using to stanch the flow of blood, which she removed to see the wound. The movement intensified the pain.
“I can already see some healing happening.” She leaned closer to examine his leg. “There may not be any damage to the muscle or bone. Which would be a very good thing. You will have terrible scars, but we shall have to keep praying. Perhaps the outward scars will be the only lasting effect.”
Let it be so, Lord. Aladdin could not lose his leg. How would he earn his fortune with only one leg? He tried to imagine his life with one leg and a picture jumped into his mind—a long-buried memory of a one-legged man in the bazaar sitting on a mat and begging for money. He had held out his hand to Mustapha, but Mustapha kicked him.
“Worthless beggar.” Mustapha shook his fist at the poor man.
Aladdin shuddered.
“Do you need some more herbs to help with the pain?” Frau Lena hovered beside him.
“No, thank you.” The herbal drink made him sleep, and he was tired of sleeping.
Frau Lena held a pot of the brownish salve with a cloth, then picked up the stick resting in the pot. It had a ball on the end from which she let a drop fall on the inside of her wrist. It must have been the right temperature because she drizzled the warm honey-like substance over his ripped and ragged wounds.
Aladdin clenched his teeth against the intense burning and stabbing pains in his leg. But the application of the salve was soon over, and Frau Lena began wrapping his leg again with a clean bandage.
She brought him a cup of cool water. He drank it while the pain lessened. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths.
What were his friends doing now? Probably studying mathematics or economics. Aladdin was ahead of the other students, but he didn’t want to lose this time and get behind. Perhaps someone would bring a book and some notes to him.
What was Lady Kirstyn doing? He hoped she was not too affected by the horror of the bear nearly attacking her and seeing him get attacked. No doubt Duke Wilhelm would be irate at how close his daughter came to being mauled by a bear. Were their walks and exploring over forever? His shoulders slumped at the thought.
Hushed voices came from the door behind him. He turned his head but had to use his arms to turn his whole upper body to see. Lady Rose and Lady Kirstyn stood there.
“He is much better,” Frau Lena told them.
Kirstyn’s gaze captured his. She smiled and hurried over to him, then knelt on the floor at his bedside.
“You mustn’t. A stool’s right there.” Aladdin’s face heated at the thought of the duchess seeing her daughter kneeling by his bed.
“I’m so glad to hear you are feeling better.” She remained kneeling. “Truly, you look better—less pale. Are you in pain?”
“Not very much.” How could he feel pain when she was looking at him like that, with concern on her face?
“I also wanted to tell you . . .” Her voice became hoarse, and he could barely hear her. “I’m so sorry. I should have waited for Sir Ruger. It was my fault you got injured. Please say you forgive me.”
“It was not your fault.” Aladdin pushed himself up higher on the pillows so he was looking down at her.
She picked up his hand, held it between both of hers, and bowed her head over it. Something wet and hot splashed on his skin.
“I just want you to know I’m sorry.” Her voice cracked. “And I hope you don’t hate me.”
“Of course I don’t hate you. I will never hate you.” He was aware of her mother and Frau Lena so nearby, but he caressed her blonde head just for a moment, even as she continued to hold his other hand.
She raised her head and gazed at him with eyes made even bluer by the tears swimming in them. Then she lifted his hand and pressed the back of it against her cheek.
“You are so kind and wonderful, Aladdin. The truest friend I ever had. I would never, ever want to see you get hurt.”
“You didn’t hurt me.” He tried to infuse his voice with enough intensity to make her believe it. “It was the bear. And I would fight ten bears to protect you.” He smiled so she wouldn’t be frightened by the impassioned declaration of an orphan boy.
Her smile trembled at the corners. “I’m glad you don’t hate me.”
As Lady Rose approached, Kirstyn let go of his hand and sniffed.
“Thank you for protecting Kirstyn, Aladdin. You are a courageous young man, and Duke Wilhelm has expressed a wish to thank you in person, when you are feeling well.”
“That is gracious of him.”
“Not at all. Your actions were heroic. We’re grateful to you for saving our little girl.” Tears glistened in Lady Rose’s eyes. He prayed she wouldn’t cry.
Frau Lena was standing behind Lady Rose. “He may be walking again in a week or two, if there is no damage to the leg bones.”
Two weeks sounded like a long time to Aladdin, but Lady Rose looked pleased. Aladdin silently vowed to be walking within a week.
Kirstyn was still kneeling beside him, but her expression was calm and composed now, with all vestige of tears gone except for a dampness clinging to her lashes. He imagined he could still feel the soft pressure of her hands on his.
Lady Rose explained how Duke Wilhelm and his men had located the mother bear and her cub and had driven them away from Hagenheim. The duke had considered killing the bear but did not want an orphan cub on his hands. Aladdin could appreciate that.
“Duke Wilhelm and his men have been patrolling the area. He doesn’t believe any other bears are nearby. You may have even saved someone else’s life, someone walking alone in the forest who would have happened upon the mother bear and her cub and been attacked without anyone to help.”
“Lady Kirstyn was very brave as well. Did Sir Ruger tell you? She struck the bear repeatedly with her stick, or else I wouldn’t even be here.”
“He did tell us.” Again, Lady Rose’s eyes filled with tears as she turned her gaze on her daughter for a moment. “I am very proud of her courage, and yours as well.” She smiled and the moisture disappeared.
“Aladdin and I are bold and fierce.” Kirstyn was smiling too as she met Aladdin’s eye. “We take care of each other, don’t we?”
Aladdin’s heart swelled. He didn’t trust himself to speak as he stared back at her.
CHAPTER SIX
Spring 1414
Kirstyn’s heart was bursting. She held up her skirts and ran as fast as she could across the bailey to the stable. Aladdin was just walking out, leading his horse. He was mounting when she called out, “Aladdin!”
Everyone around—stable workers, blacksmiths, a couple of knights—turned to look.
Aladdin stared at her with his brows drawn together and his lips pre
ssed in a straight line.
When she reached him, she took hold of the horse’s saddle. “How could you leave without saying farewell?” Her throat was so tight, she sounded as if she were strangling. “How can you stare down at me in that cold way?”
“I left you a letter.” He turned his head, refusing to look at her.
“A letter. You can’t just leave . . . not like this.” She felt the gazes of people watching them. Some of them could hear what they were saying. Perhaps her parents, her younger siblings, and her brother Valten’s wife, Gisela, were watching from the window.
“I’m going with you,” she said.
Aladdin opened his mouth, no doubt to tell her she could not.
“Just for a little way. I’ll ride with you until you’re out of town.” She didn’t wait for him to agree. She turned and called to one of the grooms, who was dumping a bucket of water in a trough. “You there.” She waved her hand at him. “Go and saddle my horse.”
Sir Sigmund strode toward her.“Lady Kirstyn, I don’t think—”
“I will only ride with you until you get through town, and then I shall leave you to go on your journey.”
Sir Sigmund frowned, then heaved a sigh and shrugged.
Kirstyn forced herself not to look at Aladdin while she waited for a stable boy to saddle her horse, but she could see him out of the corner of her eye.
When her horse was ready, Sir Sigmund helped her into the saddle. Then he mounted and the three of them set out.
As they made their way through the streets, Kirstyn finally ventured a glance at Aladdin. His expression was slightly apprehensive, his mouth and jaw rigid. His gaze flitted in her direction, but he seemed determined to avoid eye contact and turned his eyes forward again.
Was he angry that she was here? She could not let his letter be his final farewell. Her chest ached and her eyes stung. Memories overwhelmed her of her sister Margaretha leaving to go to England with her new husband. That had been a year ago, a day very much like today. She missed her sister so much. How could she bear to part with Aladdin too?
But she would not let him see her looking sad. She pushed back against the memories and let her deep breaths dry her unshed tears.
The town had never looked so big. The main street that wound away from the marketplace, moving south away from Hagenheim Castle, seemed to go on forever today, and people flooded nearly every foot of it. Men and women hurried or strolled, carrying baskets of food and household goods, and they stopped to talk to each other and laugh. They were oblivious to what was happening to her and to Aladdin.
Finally they exited the south gate and approached the tree-lined road that would take Aladdin . . . where? The road was suddenly deserted except for her, Aladdin, and Sir Sigmund, and her heart began to thud.
Aladdin turned and held her gaze. He sighed. “You didn’t like my letter, then.”
“I liked the letter, but I didn’t get to say my farewells.”
“I told you last week I was leaving.”
“And I told you not to leave.” Tears returned to her eyes, and she bit her lip and blinked them away.
He sighed again. Then he glanced over his shoulder. “Can you give us a few moments to talk?”
Looking none too pleased, Sir Sigmund stopped his horse and dismounted.
Aladdin and Kirstyn continued on a few more feet, then Aladdin halted. They were far enough away that Sir Sigmund could not hear if they spoke quietly.
“I have to leave Hagenheim, Kirstyn.”
“No, you don’t. If you stay you can be the duke’s steward. No one will be greater than you in Hagenheim except my father.”
“But I will always be just a servant, and it will never . . .” He stopped and looked away. “It will never be good enough.”
The pain behind his words snatched the breath right out of her lungs. “Good enough for whom?”
“I want to make my fortune, to prove I am not just a poor orphan foreigner. I don’t want to be a servant with whom your father has reluctantly allowed you to associate because you begged him and he couldn’t say no.”
“Don’t I mean too much to you to—?” Her words choked off. What could she say? Why did her heart feel as if it were breaking in half?
Her horse became restless and sidestepped away from Aladdin. Kirstyn dismounted and took advantage of the distance from him to press a hand to her cheek and take a deep breath. But when she turned around, Aladdin was standing beside her.
“I’ve wanted to become a merchant and make my fortune since I was very young.” He leaned down—he had grown quite tall in the last few years—trying to look into her face. His black hair swooped over his forehead and rested on his neck. His dark eyes captured hers.
What if she tried to change his mind? He might stay, but he would always regret not leaving to make his fortune. She didn’t want to do that to him. And although she didn’t want him to leave, her reason was purely selfish. She did not want to lose her friend.
“I understand. Thank you . . .” Her throat clogged and she had to swallow hard before going on. “For being my friend.” She stood on tiptoes and kissed his cheek.
The feel of his cheek on her lips made her suddenly self-conscious. She stared at Aladdin’s hand holding on to his horse’s reins.
“Promise me something,” she whispered. She was so close she could see the tiny nick on his jawline where he had cut himself that morning shaving, could see the way his brown eyes, as dark as they were, bore flecks of gold. She could see the way his gaze flicked back and forth from her mouth to her eyes.
“Yes?”
“Promise you will never forget about me.”
His throat bobbed. “I promise.”
An ache welled up inside her. She threw her arms around his shoulders.
His arms enfolded her as she pressed her cheek to his chest.
It felt so good to be in his arms. But there was so much pain inside at his leaving her. He’d always been there for her, never failing to pay attention to her when she felt insignificant. When she felt like the least of many in her large family, Aladdin made her feel special, as if she were the most important person in his life. And she believed she was.
He let go. She turned away and squeezed her eyes shut, listening to him remount his horse. Part of her wished he would tell her . . . something—anything—to make her turn around and see his eyes one last time. And part of her could not bear to look into them again.
She heard his horse’s hooves start moving down the road. Soon Sir Sigmund rode past her to join him.
She leaned her forehead against her horse’s neck and bit her lip. In a few moments the sounds of their horses galloping through the brush faded as they disappeared around the first bend in the road.
She felt as if she were suffocating. Aladdin. Please don’t leave me. If she had begged him, if she had held on to him, would he have stayed?
The heaviness in her chest, along with a rumble of thunder in the distance, seemed to foretell evil happenings, to portend a long separation between her and her dearest friend. But she couldn’t bear to think that she would never see him again.
As he rode farther and farther away from Hagenheim, Aladdin could still feel Kirstyn’s gentle kiss on his cheek, the warmth of her throwing her arms around him. And he could still see her turning away. His chest was like a hollowed-out tree stump. If he’d pounded on it, an echo would have rung out.
He knew it would hurt to leave her, but he never realized it would hurt this much. He’d always had a dream—an impossible dream of marrying Kirstyn. He’d told himself it was a foolish child’s dream and dismissed it. But it seemed to have a life of its own, unwilling to die in the face of impossibility.
They made their way on the northwesterly road toward the North Sea and the Hanseatic town of Hamburg. Sir Sigmund was good company. He told him stories he’d heard of the fighting in the holy wars and sieges of castles. Aladdin in turn told stories of living at the orphanage in Hagenheim, of the stra
nge ways of some of the older orphans who had been living on the streets and begging and stealing their whole lives—which would have been Aladdin’s fate had Priest not taken him in.
He did not, however, tell him of his own days of stealing for Mustapha. Aladdin still felt too much shame. Perhaps someday when he was wealthy and respected and secure in his position, he would be able to tell those stories.
After two days of traveling, they were bedding down under the stars again. Sir Sigmund stretched out on his blanket in the warm summer’s night air. Having fried some eggs for their supper, Aladdin snuffed out their cook fire with some dirt and rocks and lay down on the ground.
“Why are you leaving?” Sir Sigmund asked, the pale light of the stars on his upturned face.
“Why am I leaving?”
“Duke Wilhelm seemed to be grooming you to take over the steward’s duties. He must like you a great deal to do that.”
Aladdin traced with his finger the shapes the stars made. God knew each one’s name, and it was God’s good will to fling the stars into the dark expanse, just as it was His will to bring Aladdin to Hagenheim. Was it God’s will that he leave? Or was that only Aladdin’s?
“After all,” Sir Sigmund’s deep voice drawled, “you were obviously a favorite of Lady Kirstyn’s. It’s not often an orphan boy is so close to the family of a duke. No one wanted you to go. So why leave?”
“I need to make my fortune.”
Silence stretched between them, then Aladdin heard Sir Sigmund’s light snore. Aladdin had a much harder time falling asleep, as he was haunted by the look on Kirstyn’s face. He couldn’t seem to shake the uneasy feeling that he shouldn’t have left her.
Aladdin awoke to shouts. When he sat up, Sir Sigmund was reaching for his sword and leaping to his feet. Aladdin took up his own sword, which he kept by his side, and followed after Sir Sigmund in the half-light of predawn.