Hugs went all around and Jimmu said, “Time to go”.
“You all need to follow each other in close succession. Remember, the portal isn’t stationary, and you don’t want to end up far away from each other,” Liam said.
Emma and Danica lined up behind Jimmu who turned to the portal and put his hand on the ring that served as a doorknob. When he turned the ring and pushed, the rusty hinges of the old timber door complained loudly and then gave way, groaning as it swung outward. A soft light filtered into the dark cellar through heavy fog, and bird song drifted on the cool air that came from the other side. He gave everyone a last look and stepped across the threshold. The air shimmered around him and then he was gone.
Emma quickly followed carrying her pack, and with a barely noticed hesitation, Danica stepped across the threshold after her and into a crystal clear and cool autumn wood in the late afternoon. The light and colors were intense. She turned and looked back but the portal was gone, leaving only a trace of a shimmer in the air. She was alone.
Where are Jimmu and Emma?
Before she panicked, she spotted them walking over a hill, their shoes crunching on the dried leaves underfoot. She was going to call out, but Jimmu put his finger to his lips and so she was quiet and walked to meet them. When they came together, Jimmu said softly, “There’s a village close by. We’ll go in and get lodging for the night and learn what we can about our destination, Crown City.”
They walked through the trees for a short distance before the village appeared in the valley below. Danica gasped in pleasure. It looks like something out of the Middle Ages! Wood smoke rose from a few chimneys of low cottages with thatched roofs. Red and yellow leaves drifted down from trees that lined the narrow dirt road.
They stopped to take an assessment of each other before heading into the village. Both Jimmu and Danica were dressed in unremarkable black Eastern clothing designed for working. Danica’s thick black hair was in a single braid that hung down her back. Her face was shielded with the brim of a sedge hat. Jimmu’s hair was tied in a high bun. Emma wore a plain brown wool dress covered with a threadbare apron. Her light hair was braided and wrapped around her head underneath a white cap. She wore scuffed brown shoes and gray woolen socks.
“You two look all right. How about me?” Danica asked.
Jimmu eyed her critically. “You’re fine, too,” He led the way down the hill and Danica and Emma followed.
When they got to the edge of the village, they stopped a young man pushing a wheeled cart full of stones, and after she heard his greeting and accent, Emma mimicked his dialect perfectly and asked where lodging could be found.
“There’s the Blue Horn Inn around the next corner. That’d be your best bet.” He looked at Jimmu and Danica curiously and moved on. Since Emma’s diction was perfect, they had decided she would speak for them. She was posing as a Lymonian who had been hired to interpret and escort them, and Jimmu and Danica would feign ignorance of the language. They walked down the dusty street, wide enough for wagons and carts to pass each other. When they took a left turn at the corner, they saw the inn ahead. The signboard above the door was painted with a bright blue curved horn, a red tassel hanging from it.
Jimmu glanced around making sure no one was within earshot. “We’ll go in and order food, and then you can inquire about lodging, Emma.”
She nodded and the two women followed Jimmu. When they stepped through the door, the pungent odor of stale ale and smoke from a fire that was struggling to stay alive assailed their senses. Danica’s eyes prickled and she was tempted to hold her nose. In the dim interior she could make out wooden plank tables with benches. A few men sat drinking from metal tankards. A young serving girl with tangled curly red hair was delivering bowls of what looked like some sort of watery stew. An open doorway led into the kitchen where another woman stirred a large pot that hung above a fire. The three travelers chose a table in a dark corner and sat down. Soon the serving girl made her way to them.
“What’s your pleasure?” she asked, her cheeky smile settling on Jimmu. There was a gap between her front teeth, and freckles sprinkled across her nose gave her a puckish look.
Jimmu looked at Emma who said smoothly, “We’ll have ale and the stew.”
“You aren’t from around here,” the girl said.
“I live in the hill country. These two hired me to translate for them.”
The girl looked curiously at Danica and Jimmu. “What’re they here for?”
“They’re traders, heading for Crown City. This is Master Ota and his wife, Nica.”
The girl looked Emma up and down. “They pay you well?”
“Well enough.”
The girl’s face registered a look of longing. “I’ve been to Crown City a few times. It’s grand. I’ll be heading there again, soon’s I can get away from my folks.” She jerked her head in the direction of the kitchen. “Last time I went he found me and drug me back here. I got a good thrashing.”
A large, disheveled man in stained, worn clothing passed by the kitchen door. The girl smiled slyly and looked from Emma to Jimmu. “Tell Master Ota I’m available if he’s interested. It’ll cost him, but he looks like he can afford it.”
Emma nodded towards Danica. “That’s his wife. He’s happy with her.”
The girl surveyed Danica. “She’s pretty, but I bet I could show him a few new things.”
Emma turned to Jimmu and said something in a foreign language. Jimmu’s face registered alarm, and then he shook his head, looking at the girl who smirked and walked away from the table. Soon she returned with the ale and stew. “Let me know if you need anything more.”
“We need lodging for the night. Do you rent rooms?”
“Yes, I’ll tell my ma.”
Danica barely touched the thin and gristly stew. She was hyper aware, scanning the mind of each man in the room. A couple of them were exhausted from the day’s work. One was preoccupied with how to get the serving girl to take him to her bed. It seemed he didn’t have the coin she required. Another man brooded over a failed business deal and plotted revenge against his competitor. Nothing seemed remarkable or out of place. As she slowly released her breath, Jimmu looked at her and cocked one eyebrow.
“Relax,” he said quietly. “I can feel your tension from here.”
She watched him eating his stew. “I’m glad someone can stomach this food.”
“Get used to it. You’re not going to find fine dining in Lymonia.”
“Shhhh,” Emma cautioned.
The alewife lumbered towards them. Her hair, tied into a kerchief, may have looked neat in the morning, but now many strands had come loose, giving her a harried look.
“Nella tells me yer wanting a room?” She asked, hands on ample hips. An apron that at one time had been white covered a dark skirt.
“Yes,” Emma answered.
“I got a nice big room at the top of the stairs. Only one bed though.” When she talked, Danica could see she was missing a few teeth.
“That will do,” Emma said.
The alewife leaned forward, putting one hand on the table. “Nella says you’re from the hill country. What village?”
“Dunston,” Emma said without batting an eye.
“Never been there. All those hill towns are alike. Not much going on. What do your folks do there?”
“Sheep,” Emma said.
“That’s what they all do up there. Tough life.” She looked Emma up and down and then nodded toward Jimmu and Danica. “How’d you learn their language?”
“My pa had a slave from Shenzhou. She taught me the language.”
“Do these two understand our language?”
“No.”
“They pay you well?”
“Well enough. Mostly I get to go to Crown City.”
“Ha! That’s all you young folks want to do. Go to the big city. As for me, I’d rather live here. Nice and quiet.”
“Your daughter likes the city.”
The alewife grunted. “She does that. I don’t see what the attraction is. Lots of crime. Low-lifes. Count Gurdyn makes life hard for the common folk.”
“How so?”
She leaned closer. “He has his spies everywhere. You better mind your words while you’re there. Say the wrong thing and you’ll find yourself behind bars.”
“The wrong thing?”
She lowered her voice to nearly a whisper. “Anything against the Count and his family. The dungeon is full of folks who spoke freely.”
Emma nodded sagely.
A man’s voice yelled from the kitchen, and the Alewife looked in that direction.
“That’s going to be 17 cretars for the dinner and room.”
Emma looked at Jimmu and said something in the foreign tongue. He dug in his pouch and produced the currency. The alewife took it, grunted, and left.
“Come on. Let’s check out our room and make our plan,” Jimmu said after they finished their stew, and the three of them got up from the table and headed to the stairs. Emma pulled Nella aside and said something to her. She nodded and went into the kitchen.
The sparsely furnished room at the top of the stairs was long and narrow. In the middle against one wall was a bed of sorts--a raised platform with a straw filled mattress. Danica and Emma would share it, and Jimmu would sleep on the floor. In the far corner in front of the window stood a folding screen, thin muslin stretched over the panels, and behind it was a large basin big enough to stand in, and a few buckets full of water. A half-used bar of soap floated in one of the buckets.
They put their packs on the table and sat on the floor, forming a triangle.
“Tomorrow we walk to Crown City. We’ll stay at the Red Fox Inn which is close to the castle,” Jimmu said. “Emma, you’ll start spreading the word right away that we have fine silk to sell. It shouldn’t take long to get an invitation to court. Danica, you can explore the area and get into as many heads as you can. Listen to what is being said and to what people are thinking. We need to know who we can trust and who we must be careful around. Maybe you’ll come across the blacksmith from Master Stefan’s cards.”
“What are you going to do?” Danica asked.
“I plan to hire a horse and scout out the outlying area. I’ll look for Wolf Wood from your vision in the cards. And I want to observe the guards and where they go and what they do. We have a lot to do tomorrow.”
Someone tapped on the door. When Emma opened it, Nella was there with a tray holding three tankards and a loaf of coarse bread. She entered the room and set it on the table.
Nella turned to them and said breathlessly, “I want to go with you to Crown City.”
Emma looked startled for an instant.
“Nella, we can’t take you with us. Besides, your folks would be furious.”
“I don’t care.” Her eyes were defiant. “They know I’ve been asking to go, and they’ll no doubt figure it out when I turn up missing.”
Emma turned to Jimmu and Danica and said something to them in the foreign language. Jimmu replied.
“He says no, Nella.”
“But I can help you. I know the shortest route, and when we get there, I have friends who can help get you into wherever you want to go.” She moved closer and began talking faster. “I have a friend who’s a guard at the castle. I have another who pilots one of the longboats. That’s the easiest way to travel through the city what with all the canals.”
She saw the sudden look of interest on Emma’s face.
“And I know most of the tunnels. Lots of public buildings are connected with them. There are spy holes in the doors. They’re good places to hide, too.”
Emma turned and spoke to Jimmu and Danica while Nella looked from one to the other anxiously, her freckles standing out on her pale face. “You won’t have to pay me. I just want to get away from here for a bit,” she implored.
Emma turned back to her. “All right. You can come with us. We need to leave before everyone is awake. What time is that? And how serious will your folks be about coming after you?”
Nella flushed happily. “Meet me outside an hour before dawn. Don’t worry, we won’t be followed. They’ll be spitting mad, but with the Count’s hunting party coming through tomorrow, they’ll be too busy to think about following me.” She slipped out the door, closing it softly behind her.
“I hope this isn’t going to be a mistake,” Jimmu brooded. Emma handed him a tankard and then gave one to Danica.
“To the mission,” she said, holding her tankard aloft. Danica and Jimmu followed suit and they nodded solemnly at each other and drank. Danica choked when the fiery liquid hit the back of her throat.
“What is this?” she coughed.
“It’s whiskey.” Emma smiled wryly. “I figured we needed something more substantial than that sour ale.”
“And it’s potent. Alcohol will affect you here. Remember, we’re not in the Beyond,” Jimmu said.
They shared the bread and firmed up their plans. It was dark when they blew out the lamp. Danica and Emma crawled into the narrow bed, and Jimmu leaned against the opposite wall. Sleep wouldn’t come easily for Danica. The straw in the mattress poked through the thin covering and she couldn’t find a comfortable position. Insects crawled under her clothes across the landscape of her body leaving her itchy. Emma snored softly next to her.
Danica must have finally fallen asleep for a few hours. When she awoke everything was in darkness except for a faint light coming from the window behind the screen at the far end of the room. Quietly she slipped out of bed and went to the window. The street below was illumined by the faint light from a streetlamp. A skinny cat hugged the shadows of the opposite wall, and aside from that the street was deserted. Her mind went in search of anyone awake nearby and came up empty. She scratched at bites going up her arms and looked at the basin and the buckets of water close by. Impulsively she decided to take a shower. Hopefully, any bugs in hiding will get washed away.
She stepped behind the screen and removed her clothes and unbraided her hair. She stood in the basin and poured a bucket-full of water over herself. It was icy-cold, and she nearly shrieked out loud. Then she used the soap briskly on her body and hair. When she was satisfied that she was sufficiently scrubbed, she took the water from another bucket and poured it slowly over her head, rinsing the soap away. She looked at the water that had collected in the basin. Along with some soap bubbles were a few dead insects. That’s the shortest shower ever, but I feel a lot better.
She wrung out her long hair and spent a few minutes braiding it. Then she used a thin towel to dry her body. She inspected her clothes for more insects, shaking each piece vigorously. When she was confident they were bug-free, she dressed. She hated donning the same clothes she had worn the day before, but it couldn’t be helped.
From across the room, Jimmu watched Danica’s shadow playing across the muslin of the screen. A light sleeper, he had awoken at the sounds of water pouring into the basin. The light from the streetlamp below shone brightly enough to dimly light Danica’s ministrations from behind the screen and give her shadow a mysterious and surreal beauty. Parts of her shadow-body elongated as she gracefully washed her hair. His chest ached. I shouldn’t be watching, he thought. She bent her head back, and her alluring contours softly separated the dark from the light. She lifted the bucket above her head and poured, and as the water sluiced over her body, Jimmu squeezed his eyes tight and put his head on his knees. I should look away, but I can’t! He raised his eyes and watched Danica’s shadow braid her hair and towel her body. She bent over to dry her legs, and the curve of breasts and buttocks etched the faint light.
He was in agony. Feeling like a part of the plank floor beneath him, he turned stiffly to the wall. Huddling there, his legs drawn up and arms folded tightly over his chest, he willed himself to breathe slowly, but it was hard to get the picture of the beautiful shadow out of his mind. Slowly he replaced it with another image he didn’t like to recall. He
was at home in Japan. In a garden. Trying to tie down a young tree. The howling wind. Rain slashing, cutting. The roaring. Then the wall of water and blackness.
Twenty-Nine
An hour later the three made their way silently down the stairs and out the door of the inn. Out of the chilly darkness a figure detached itself from the wall of the building next door and gestured for them to follow. Soundlessly they walked through the village until they left the buildings behind and the forest, redolent with the smells of rich earth, dry leaves, and pine, swallowed them.
“We’ll follow this cart trail for a few miles, and then we’ll pick up the Granger Road. That will take us all the way to Crown City,” Nella said.
“How far away are we?” Emma asked.
“No more than twenty miles. We should be there by mid-afternoon.”
They made their way slowly along the cart trail and picked up speed when the sun rose. The sound of birdsong filled the air. Danica and Jimmu followed closely behind Emma and Nella and listened to their conversation.
“What business do they have in Crown City?” Nella asked.
“They’re silk merchants. They’re hoping the Countess will want to see the fabric they have and give them a good price for it.”
“Have you ever seen her? The Countess?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“I hope they brought a lot of fabric.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s tall. At least six feet. Taller than her husband, the Count. He’s maybe five and a half feet tall. I bet she outweighs him by a few stone.”
“What’s she like?”
“Meaner than a badger. And sly. You’ll have to be careful. By the time she’s finished with them, they’ll be paying her to take their silk.”
Emma smiled grimly. “Sounds like she’s a good match for her husband.”
Soon they were coming out of the forest into a wide valley. A well-used road stretched before them.
“This is the Granger Road. We’ll most likely meet others, and if they’re coming from Crown City, they’ll have news. We’re going to want to know if there’s any trouble before we get there.”
The Acolyte: Magicians of the Beyond Page 18