by Alex Linwood
Lady Harper brought her deer around to face Portia. “You will get used to these creatures. They are gentle but a little jumpy,” she said, choking down a laugh at the word jumpy.
Oh well, Portia thought, at least she’s not mad. “Why are we riding deer and not horses?” Portia asked, trying to keep the petulance out of her voice. She did not want to sound like a child but really, it was too much. She had just learned how to ride a horse.
“Because we are going to the capital city. It would take six days by horse. It only takes two by Sika,” Lady Harper said.
Two days? These animals could travel three times faster than a horse? Now Portia really did not want to get on one. She shouldn’t have asked why. Or maybe it was better to have some forewarning? Quickly, she thought about the journey and decided that no, it wasn’t better to know about the speed of the deer. She did not want to go three times as fast as a horse.
But Lady Harper was not asking Portia’s permission in the matter. They were going to ride the Sika deer. Lady Harper motioned to the leather tubes that her legs were inside of, the tubes that were attached to the saddle. “These braces will keep you mounted. You must get your legs in them quickly when you get in the saddle. The deer are a little feisty.” Her mouth curved up into a little smile. “I think they secretly enjoy dumping their riders when they can. As you have found out.”
Portia nodded at that. She could not bring herself to return Lady Harper’s smile. She felt too silly and embarrassed. She vowed to herself that she would not complain. When the deer was brought back, she steeled herself, then walked forward and grabbed the saddle, put her foot into the stirrup, and mounted. This time, she managed to insert her leg into the leather tube when she got on and pulled the laces on the leather tight. She then put her other leg into the tube on that side of the saddle and pulled on those laces. When that was done, she was able to take her time to tighten the laces on each side and tie the leather into secure double knots. She did not want to be dumped again. It would be much worse if she landed on a rock. Getting dirt in her hair and clothes wasn’t so bad by comparison.
Once her pack was securely attached behind her on the deer, she let it walk around a bit, carefully holding the reins back so it wouldn’t race off. After a few moments, she nodded to Lady Harper that she was ready to go. They took their leave of the commander and started on the road away from the wall. The deer leapt forward onto the road, their hooves not even seeming to touch the ground. Portia’s heart raced at the sudden speed. Her hair swept back as they rode. They were going so fast she had difficulty keeping her eyes open with the strong wind and was forced to squint, making the landscape a watery blur of green. Looking over, she noticed Lady Harper had donned a hat with clear glass lenses over her eyes. She needed to get some of those for herself.
After they had been riding for an hour, Lady Harper pulled up on her deer, grabbing Portia’s reins as she did so to stop both of them. The sun was high overhead.
Lady Harper cleared her throat. “There is something you need to know.”
Portia looked at her in concern. Now that they were deep in elf country, it did not seem the time to share concerns. Might she not have told Portia whatever it was before they set off on their journey?
“I have agreed to your queen’s request because I had to do so. But I am not authorized to speak for my king except for saying he will listen to the request I make. You must prove yourself to our rulers to gain their trust. It is not a given. There is a long history of why that is so.” Lady Harper stared at Portia. “Do you understand what I am telling you?”
Portia did not understand, not fully. Had she not proven herself at the trials back in Coverack? She had risked her very life to be here. Would they ask more of her than that? But she did not think any complaints would change the situation, so she had to take another tact. “Yes, my lady. What do you suggest I do?”
Lady Harper nodded with satisfaction. “We shall see how things go. I will give you more instructions when the time comes. The important thing is for you to not take anything for granted. A bad attitude will sink your chances of learning what you need to learn and our chances of a strong alliance to fight off the coming danger.”
Portia could think of nothing to say to that. The whole situation was nerve-racking enough, but yet again she would have to prove herself and perhaps be forced to use social skills and court manners to achieve their ends—something she knew little about.
“Let’s eat and then resume,” Lady Harper said.
After lunch they continued on. At their stop, Lady Harper dug out another hat with goggles from her pack and gave it to Portia. Portia found riding so fast less nerve-racking when she could see.
She was sore and tired when they stopped for the evening and took shelter under a large tree to eat their supper. The deer were easy to care for, only needing water, for they could graze off the land. Lady Harper reassured her it was safe to sleep on the ground in their land, but Portia still slept fitfully that night, rousing from what she thought might have been a nightmare or perhaps just the stone underneath her back.
The next two days passed in a blur of green landscape. Towards the evening of the second day, they crested a hill and looked down on an enormous city that had been previously hidden by the rise. It was impressively large and sprawling. Colored spires and domes reached towards the sky. Curves abounded everywhere. Nothing was like the squares and rectangles of the human cities that Portia had lived in. Homesickness gripped her for just a moment but then passed. This was something new and exciting. She reminded herself to be grateful that she was getting a chance to see this part of the world, something that few humans could say.
“Let us rest here for a moment,” Lady Harper said. She reached behind her and pulled out two sticks of jerky, handing one to Portia. “This is Rocabarra. Our capital. I wanted to point out the layout of the city, something you can only see from this vantage. Much like the Eternal Wall design, there are two walls in the construction. The inner wall marks the original city. It had been much smaller then. And wealthier. It was the summer houses of the royals and the nobles. But when the last splintering occurred…” Lady Harper said, pausing to look meaningfully at Portia. “… the nobles were forced to flee and make this city their permanent home. Many others were forced to come here as well, and the city could not contain them all as it was, forcing its expansion. That expansion is marked by the outer walls.”
Portia squinted into the distance. She could just make out high red walls delineating the inner portion of the city. It was perhaps just a tenth of the total. The rest of the city sprawled around it, dense with buildings. The chaos of all the elves flooding to this location must have been huge. She swallowed nervously. Was this sort of massive change something humans would have to deal with in the future?
She tried to imagine the entire population of Coverack fleeing but could not do so. Where would they go anyway? The massive wall blocking access to the elf lands meant that direction was not a great option. She tried to remember details of the maps from history class but could not. She knew there were several other human cities, some in kingdoms that didn’t border the sea. If they failed in stopping any possible invaders from the Splinter, would the citizens of Haulstatt be forced to flee to those other kingdoms, begging for mercy and admission to their land? And if they did not get it, would they have to plead their case for the elves to let them take shelter with them? She thought about the huge Eternal Wall structure made to keep out humans and thought it not likely they would agree.
“Since the city leaders are in the inner city, that is where we are going. Keep in mind there are few humans here, so there will be many stares as we travel to the inner gates.” Lady Harper looked sharply at Portia. “Keep your head about you and don’t take offense at anything you might hear. No one will harm you, I assure you.”
Portia swallowed at the warning.
They entered the city at the outer wall. Lady Harper’s name was enough to gain e
ntry, although Portia tagging along behind her raised a few eyebrows. It was so crowded they had to lead the deer through the packed entryway. Thousands of elves milled around the courtyard just inside the entrance. More passed back and forth through the gate. Portia spotted a few humans in the crowd. It was easy to do, since they towered over the rest. She tried to make eye contact with a few of them, but most looked at the ground and hurried on their way. No one seemed interested in talking to her.
When they got further into the city and away from the gate, they remounted their deer and rode to the inner gate. Portia didn’t know where to look, scanning the city from side to side, trying to take it all in. There were shops, just like there were in any city, and many citizens walking on the streets. The city was densely packed with narrow streets. Even the carts of goods were narrow.
Closer to the inner gate, the roads began to widen. There was a wide apron before the inner gate walls all along its border. It reminded Portia of the no-man’s-land space in the Eternal Wall. She wondered why everything the elves did seemed in preparation for, or in usefulness for, war. Perhaps they were just cautious. Either way, it made her uneasy.
When they reached the inner city, Lady Harper boldly crossed the apron towards the gate on the red wall. But before she could get there, several large elves ran towards her from the guardhouse. Another ran up to Portia and grabbed the reins of her deer.
“Halt!” one of the elves called out. He spoke with authority.
Lady Harper sputtered, her face tense with rage and surprise. “What is the meaning of this? I am Lady Harper of the Meadows, envoy to the royal house. You have no authority to stop me.”
“That is true. However, no humans are allowed in the inner city, no matter who they are with,” the leader said, his face stern. “There are no exceptions.”
Lady Harper was not impressed. “There will be an exception. I have brought this human for an audience with King Magnus—and the audience will happen.”
The leader simply stared back, his face impassive. He was not going to budge.
Lady Harper blinked, astonished. Finally, she sighed. “Just so I know, when did this happen?”
“About a week ago,” the leader said.
Lady Harper looked at the leader, the gate, and around the city, considering her options. She turned back to the guard, her expression black but her tone civil. “Please tell me where the nearest inn can be found.”
The inn he told them about wasn’t far. It had the bonus of a stable for the deer. Exhaustion pulled at Portia. It was hard to keep her eyes open. It was just too much change and stimulus for one day. She handed over the reins to the waiting hostler and trudged after Lady Harper into the main reception area. To her surprise, Lady Harper asked for only one room and prepaid for an entire week.
“Are we running out of money?” Portia asked.
“Of course not,” Lady Harper responded in a terse voice. She was in a foul mood, and while she had not lost her temper, Portia could tell she was struggling to remain civil. “The room is for you. You need rest, and I need to figure out what’s going on and how I’m going to get you to the king. You must be in the inner city, not only to be received but also to gain any instruction in healing The Splintering.”
Portia nodded. She took the key from Lady Harper and watched her walk out of the inn. If she hadn’t been so weary, she would have felt more fear at being abandoned, for that was what it felt like in the city of elves. Looking around the reception parlor, she didn’t see a single human. The elves politely turned away when she looked at them. None were overtly friendly. No one smiled at her. She felt their eyes on her when she wasn’t looking.
The clerk pointed in the direction of the rooms and Portia trudged to them, carrying her pack. The room was small but functional. She flopped down on the bed and closed her eyes. She wanted to go to sleep, but the setting sun came through the windows and hit her eyes, reminding her it was supper time. There were only a few bits of jerky and a chunk of stale bread in her bag. If she wanted a real dinner, she would have to get up and go down to the tavern. With a groan, she sat up.
The dining area was just off the main reception parlor. There was no one in it, which made Portia worry that it was closed. But a tiny server saw her standing there and waved for her to come in and sit down. Grateful, Portia found a table and fidgeted until the server came to talk to her. She was glad she was sitting down, so they were at eye level.
“First question, do you have money?” the server asked, glaring at Portia.
Portia was surprised by the question but didn’t want to argue. “Yes, of course I do. I think. How much is dinner?”
“Sop and bread is three copper. No meat. If you want meat, you have to pay a silver. Water only. If you want anything else, that’s extra too.”
Portia opened her money bag and pulled out three coppers, handing them to the server. “Just sop and bread, please.”
The server frowned at the coins in her hand. “If you’re using human coins, then it’ll be five coppers.”
Portia didn’t understand how the coppers from her own kingdom of Haulstatt could have different values from the elf coins. Maybe the elf coins were larger—but that didn’t make any sense. The elves were tiny, so why would they have larger coins? But she was too tired and hungry to argue so she handed over two more coppers.
The elf server nodded and walked away. Portia slumped in her chair in relief. All she had to do was stay awake long enough to eat her dinner and then go to bed. Tomorrow would be a new day and she would have more energy to think then.
While she waited, she listened to the noises of the inn. There were murmuring voices from the front and the slams of doors coming from the back. The tinny echo of pots hitting each other told her the kitchen was close by. The sounds of cooking were a comforting, homey sort of noise. She liked it. She liked being around others. She was used to others being around from growing up in the Black Cat orphan house. It had been packed with orphans. And there were always others in the pyromancy house back at the Academy too. While the noises here were from elves, it was the same thing—she was not alone.
Portia was nearly asleep, lulled by the familiar noises around her, when a crash and a scream woke her up.
Chapter 10
She sat up, adrenaline coursing through her veins. Whimpers of pain caught her attention. The hairs on her arms and neck stood up. There were no other noises, so she didn’t think it was a fight or some other catastrophe, which had been her first thought.
She stood up to investigate. Walking towards where she thought the kitchen was, she turned the corner and found an elf on the ground surrounded by the remains of a pot of stew. The elf was grabbing her ankle, which was close to the pot, and Portia guessed she had dropped it on her foot.
“Are you okay?” Portia asked, bending down to look at the ankle.
“No. I think it’s broken. Cook ran off to find a healer,” the elf bit out. She was breathing shallowly.
“Is there one close by?”
The elf shook her head. She closed her eyes and grimaced as she tried to pull her leg up but stopped and exclaimed in pain as soon as she moved her ankle.
Sweat broke out all over Portia. She couldn’t stand when anyone was in pain. The memory of Harper’s healing magic came back to her. She would try it now. If it didn’t work, she could try her own healing, even though she knew it wasn’t as good. But maybe it would be enough to stop the elf’s pain before the professional healer arrived.
Portia closed her eyes and tried to remember the tune Lady Harper had been singing. She held one hand over the ankle and used the other to tap out the rhythm on the floor. Her voice cracked when she started singing but soon it evened out. The elf opened her eyes in surprise.
Hopefully, it would still work even if it wasn’t exactly the same. She should have asked Lady Harper for more information, but at the time there had been too many other soldiers around. Portia cursed herself for wasting time on the trip when sh
e could have been asking Lady Harper questions.
It got easier to fall into the rhythm as she continued singing and tapping. She risked opening her eyes, despite being afraid it would ruin her concentration, to peek at the elf and see if her efforts were having any effect. The elf’s face, which had been scrunched in pain, was now relaxed. There was only a slight furl between the tiny elf’s brows. Her eyes were closed. Portia quickly shut her eyes again and brought all her concentration back onto the spell. She didn’t know how effective it would be if she was stopped too early.
Time seemed to stop. All she knew was her singing and the rhythm of the song. She concentrated on that. She was so lost in what she was doing that she jumped when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Opening her eyes, she saw two elves staring at her, their mouths hanging open.
The taller of the two, wearing all white, stepped forward after a moment. “I’ll take over from here, human.”
Portia stopped singing and backed away from the injured elf. This must be the professional healer. Portia smiled uncomfortably. She hoped she had not done anything wrong.
The second elf watched with concern as the healer stepped in and felt the wounded ankle with his hands. The healer raised his eyebrows and looked at Portia with newfound respect. “I don’t know where you learned this, but you didn’t do a bad job.”
The second elf turned to Portia, surprised. “That is strong praise coming from one who never says anything good about anyone.” She pointed at the healer. “I’m the cook here, and the one you helped is my sister. Thank you.” The cook took Portia’s hands in her own and pressed them together, her warm hands holding Portia’s.
“I’m glad I could help. It’s awful to not do anything. I’m glad you’re not angry,” Portia said.
“Of course I’m not angry,” the cook said.
“You might have been, if I had messed it up.” Black started to creep around her vision. She suddenly felt a little dizzy and leaned back.