by W.J. May
“You should really try some,” Katerina urged. “He’s actually a much better cook than you.”
Dylan flashed her a chilling look, and she raised her hands innocently.
“I’m just saying…squirrel isn’t for everyone.”
Bernie obviously took the hushed argument to mean a ‘yes’, and snatched up a giant knife to chop up some more parsley. Dylan closed his eyes with a shudder as the blade whipped through the air, just inches above his head. When he opened them again, he was looking rather green.
“I think I’m going to be sick…”
“That’s the spirit.” Katerina clapped him cheerfully on the back, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “But not until after the soup.”
* * *
The next morning, Dylan and Katerina set out as soon as he was able to walk in a straight line. They were laden with gifts from their own personal friendly giant. Tubs of berries and butter. A loaf of bread the size of a small horse. Even a cache of herbs from his garden.
They thanked him profusely and dragged it all away with cheerful smiles until he was out of sight. Then they set it on the ground in front of them, and took stock of what could be used. While the sentiment was incredibly sweet, they simply didn’t have enough strength, or enough limbs, to lug around a giant-sized portion of food. So after packing everything they could possibly carry, they sat down beside a giant waterfall and proceeded to feast on the rest.
“I’m not going to lie,” Katerina said between mouthfuls of biscuit, “this is a lot more what I had in mind when you said we’d be living deep in the woods.”
Dylan spread a helping of butter across his toast with the tip of his hunting knife, chuckling all the while. “Biscuits and tea? Someone got used to the finer things back on the farm.”
She tensed for a moment, then let it go. It had become clear over the course of their travels that both of them had secrets. But as long as he wasn’t spilling his, she kept hers close to the vest.
“And what about you?” she asked with a rueful grin. “You used to the finer things?”
Dylan licked the butter off the blade before sticking it back in his jacket. “Clearly.”
“I’m serious,” she giggled, “you may act like this rough and tumble mountain man, but there are some things that you can’t hide. Literary references. Patterns of speech.” She cocked her head curiously, looking him up and down. Just the other day, he’d sarcastically quoted the Gutenberg Bible. “You’ve clearly been educated. How did that come about? For a travelling thief, I mean.”
He flashed her a grin. “I thought we agreed I wasn’t a thief.”
She grinned back. “Stop dodging the question.”
Perhaps it was the sudden abundance of food. A luxury that can’t possibly be overstated for two slightly malnourished people living in the woods. Perhaps it was the fact that they’d recently walked unharmed out of the cave of a giant. But something had loosened his tongue.
He set down a bottle of cider as the grin faded slowly from his face. It faded into something thoughtful. Something almost nostalgic.
“My mother taught me,” he said quietly. “My father wanted me to get a tutor, which was the custom at the time. But she wanted to teach me herself. Science and mathematics. History and literature. Whatever she could get her hands on. It was all there.”
His eyes warmed for a moment, softening with a tenderness that Katerina had never seen before. She couldn’t help but soften in return. “Where is your mother now?”
Just like that, the tenderness faded. The warm light vanished from his eyes.
“She’s dead,” he answered bluntly. “Both my parents are dead.”
That was the end of the conversation. Neither one of them said anymore. A few minutes after they’d finished Dylan pushed to his feet, surveying the remaining supplies with a trained eye. “We should haul these down to the nearest village, see what kind of price we can get.”
Katerina looked down in surprise, then realized the obvious practicality of his words. “Oh. Right.” She’d been planning on merely leaving it. A gift to the forest creatures.
Stop thinking like a princess, and start thinking like a fugitive. Waste not, want not.
“There’s one just a few miles down the road.” He squinted through the trees, trying to gauge the distance. “We should make it there before noon. Can you take the cider?”
“Yeah.” Katerina scooped up the leather straps and flung the bottles over her shoulder. The second they were balanced she grabbed up the deerskin blanket they used in the tent, as well as whatever cooking supplies she could manage before slipping them quickly into her pack. The cloak was the next to go on. Hair back. Hood up. The bottom of it tucked safely into the tops of her boots so it wouldn’t drag—a lesson she’d learned the hard way after getting stuck in some brambles.
It was a necessary routine, but a quick one. She didn’t realize Dylan was staring at her until she’d already made it to the bottom of the hill.
“Well, look at you.” His eyes twinkled as he brushed a stray lock of hair away from her eyes, tucking it safely back into her hood. “A seasoned traveler. Even survived your first giant.”
She blushed with embarrassment, but couldn’t resist a small smile. “It helped that he gave me soup.”
Dylan laughed shortly, then shook his head—staring off into the horizon. “It helped that he gave you soup…”
Chapter 8
Although Katerina wouldn’t have believed it just a few weeks before, her legs had become conditioned for a mountain hike. They made it into the village well before noon, and were able to set up an impromptu stand to sell their remaining food before the local workmen came back from the mines for lunch. As fresh-made jam and butter were in short supply, especially the delicious ones Bernie had provided, they sold all their wares quickly and were left counting their coins.
“Not bad,” Dylan murmured, slipping a handful of bronze into a leather pouch inside his jacket. “Not quite enough for what we need to buy…but it’s close.”
“And what exactly is it that we need to buy?” Katerina asked, sticking close to Dylan as she dodged the usual curious stares from the townsfolk.
Strangers were seldom seen in those parts; towns tended to act as giant families, and any traveler from the outside world was news indeed. Let alone travelers that looked like her and Dylan.
Sure enough she heard the telltale giggling, and looked up to see a group of blushing girls hurry past, casting him secret looks as they whispered behind their hands.
“I need a new handle for my hatchet. It split up the middle when that flippin’ giant threw me across the field. And you need a new a pair of shoes. Proper hiking ones.”
Katerina turned to him in surprise, automatically glancing down at her tiny feet. While the rest of her wardrobe might have changed, she was still wearing the same dainty slippers as when she’d left the castle, and they weren’t holding up well to the mountain terrain. “Oh, I didn’t…” She trailed off, not knowing quite what to say. “I mean, can we afford something like that?”
A little grin crept up the side of his face as he continued packing the supplies they’d be taking with them. “I think we can splurge just this once. Heaven knows I love shoe shopping.”
Katerina let out a giggle, which was soon echoing across the town square. She looked over again to see the same group of girls still watching, hiding behind the door of the local pub. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes and was about to get back to work, when a sudden question occurred to her. One she hadn’t thought to ask until that very moment. “Dylan…do you have a girlfriend?”
He almost dropped the bag he was holding. Those blue eyes of his shot up in surprise before hastily lowering back to the ground. “What do you mean?”
A mischievous smile danced in her eyes, and she suddenly found herself highly interested in his response. “It isn’t a difficult question. What part of it didn’t you understand?”
�
�No, I… uh… meant, why are you asking me?”
This time it was Katerina’s turn to suddenly not know where to look, taken aback by the directness of the question. She fumbled for a moment, before the girls giggled again and she found her escape. “I’m just saying…you’re breaking a lot of hearts over there. The least you could do is show them some skin. Do a little dance or something.”
He glanced towards the pub in surprise, noticing the girls for the first time, before returning to his work with a look of complete indifference. “A dance, huh? Show some skin?”
She flashed him a grin and tightened the strap on her bag. “If nothing else, we may be able to get some more coin—”
“Princess Katerina?!”
She and Dylan froze at the same time. Eyes fixed on the ground. Every muscle hardening perfectly still. They were facing away from whoever had spoken, and without turning around it was impossible to gauge how bad the situation might be.
One guard? A dozen?
Katerina’s heart pounded behind her eyes as a strange tingling sensation started spreading up the base of her neck. She was going into shock. It was easy to recognize, but hard to avoid. At any rate, she didn’t have time to be shocked right now. She needed to breathe. She needed to think.
“But I thought she was older than the prince. That they were twins, but she was born first.”
Wait… what?
The icy panic holding the princess loosened its grasp just enough that she was able to turn around. That she was able to glance over her shoulder and see the two farmers talking behind her.
“I thought so, too, but I guess not.” The taller of the two men folded his arms authoritatively, then spat on the ground. “If Kailas is on the throne, he has to be the rightful heir.”
The rightful heir.
Just hearing the words was enough to make her blood boil. The image in front of her started pulsing with rage, and she was about to lose herself entirely when a hand clamped down on her arm.
“Kat?”
She jumped like she’d been burned, and looked up to see Dylan standing in between her and the farmers.
He was staring down at her with a very strange expression on his face. A mixture of concern and a sort of abstract caution she didn’t fully understand. He studied her for a moment, trying to decide what to say, when he cocked his head suddenly to the main road. “There’s another village just a few miles from here. They might have what we need.” His dark hair spilled across his forehead as he stared into her eyes. “Do you want to leave?”
It was a strange question. One made even stranger by the fact that they were already in a village, and just over his shoulder she could see rows upon rows of little shops.
But in that specific moment, none of that seemed to matter.
Katerina took one more look at the farmers behind her. One more look at the chain circling around Dylan’s neck. And she suddenly couldn’t stand to be in the town any longer. “Yes.” She pulled her arm away and stormed up the street. “Let’s go.”
They left without a backward glance. Without a word between them. But it wasn’t until the little village was far behind them that Katerina realized the obvious question.
She knew why she had frozen.
But why had Dylan frozen, too?
* * *
They hiked the four miles to the next village in relative silence. Either unwilling or unable to address what had transpired in the marketplace. Oddly enough, it was Dylan’s silence that frightened Katerina more than anything else. More than questions, or accusations, or even carrying on as though nothing had happened. Because something had happened. She just didn’t know what.
Fortunately, she didn’t have long to wait. Before it would have seemed possible, a chorus of familiar sounds echoed up the road. The sound of people laughing, people talking, people bargaining as they haggled over things to buy. Both she and Dylan came to a simultaneous pause before proceeding onward at the same time. Moving with an instinctual synchronicity. Never more than a few inches of space between them. As two travelling companions alone in the world tended to do.
“Now this is more like it.”
They stopped at the top of a hill, looking out over the encampment in the canyon below. It was an outdoor market on wheels. A giant, multi-colored extravaganza. Teeming with life. Bursting with activity. But that wasn’t all there was to it. For a second, Katerina simply stared. Then her eyes widened as she began to slowly process what she was seeing.
“None of them…” She trailed off, feeling very much like she’d stepped out of the real world and into one of her childhood storybooks. “None of them are human.”
Indeed, they were everything but.
Dwarves were peddling their treasures. Trolls and pixies were working side by side. There were clusters of fairies selling nectar from a high-hanging row of potted plants, and a pack of shifters was challenging everyone who walked past to arm wrestle (after inadvertently consuming all the ale they’d been intending to sell). Scores of witches, and goblins, and vampires, and nymphs were wandering from booth to booth. At times they’d pause to make a purchase. At times they’d pause to flirt. But most often they simply wandered around. Chattering noisily. Drinking heavily. Completely isolated from the rest of the world in the safety of their own little bubble.
Carnival of freaks.
“This is where we’re going?” Katerina asked, failing to understand Dylan’s enthusiasm. While she might be literally aching to see some of the creatures up close, after her last encounter with the supernatural world she was more than a little hesitant to venture any closer. “Down there?”
He felt her stiffen, and glanced down with a crooked smile. “Relax. I can feel you stressing from here. Just stay close, and you’ll be fine.”
Yeah, or maybe I’ll be attacked by vampires. Or kidnapped by dwarves. Stranger things have happened. Like, VERY recently.
She put her hands on her hips and tried her best to sound reasonable. “You do realize that we’re going to stand out, right?”
A look of anticipation danced in his eyes as he took her by the wrist and started leading her down the hill. “In this crowd…what better way is there to blend in?”
What better way indeed?
As ironic as it was, Dylan was right. No one gave them a second glance as they wandered through the bustling market. There was simply too much else to see. There were fire-breathers and baton-twirlers. Contortionists, and a woman who looked suspiciously as though she might be part bird. Everywhere you looked, there was something new and exciting. Katerina was so spellbound that she hardly realized someone was talking to her until a wrinkled hand grabbed her by the wrist.
“Such beautiful eyes you have, my dear.”
She looked down in surprise to see the most ancient, mottled, semi-terrifying lady she’d ever seen. Her yellowing fingernails were long enough to curl. Her beady eyes seemed to pierce right through the princess’ skin. And her brittle white hair framed a face so overtaken by a hooked-nose that there was little room for anything else. But, despite being born sometime in the Stone Age, she was nothing if not strong. Already, the tips of Katerina’s fingers were starting to turn blue.
“I’m…I’m sorry?”
A hag, she suddenly realized. This must be a hag.
She elbowed Dylan discreetly in the ribs to get his attention, while the hag took a step closer, curling a crooked finger around the princess’ cheek. Katerina shuddered at the touch.
“You have such beautiful eyes,” she repeated, a hungry look flashing in her own. “I’ll give you twenty shillings for the left.”
“For the left…” Katerina trailed off, her face paling in horror. “For my left eye?!”
A strong hand pulled her backward, out of the hag’s grasp.
“No, thank you,” Dylan said sweetly.
A second later, he was tugging her down the street. The old woman melted into the crowd, pouting, as Katerina struggled clumsily to keep pace. She couldn’t
help flashing continual looks over her shoulder, as if at any moment the crone might reappear and demand her right eye as well. “Did you just…” she panted in shock, clawing at his arm, “…did you just hear what she—”
“Yeah, I did.” He came to a sudden stop, far too preoccupied with his own problems to care much about hers. “Take it as a compliment. In the meantime, we’re going to need a bit more money than what we have now.”
Katerina waited for further elaboration, but none came. Instead he fell silent, levelling her with an expectant stare. She stared back for a moment, waiting, before flashing a sarcastic smile. “Well, why don’t I just run down to the magical money store and get some?”
“That’s hilarious.” He didn’t crack a smile. “But not exactly what I had in mind. Do you have any skills? Cooking? Sewing? Singing? Anything at all that could be of use?”
Perhaps he didn’t realize how condescending he sounded, or perhaps he did. With Dylan, it was hard to tell. Katerina folded her arms defensively over her chest, eyes narrowing with a glare. “Do you have any useful skills?” she fired back.
“I most certainly do.” Without further ado, he raised his voice and called out over the crowd. “Does anyone here need someone killed?”
Katerina’s mouth fell open in shock as the creatures nearest to them glanced over curiously, then talked amongst themselves. She’d thought it was some kind of terrible joke, but not a moment later a springy little man in a giant sunhat waved his hand about excitedly.
“I do! I have someone I need killed!”
“Perfect.” Dylan nodded at the man, then handed Katerina a shilling. “Take this, get us both some lunch. I’ll be back within the hour.”
“You have got to be joking!” she exclaimed.
He frowned at the coin before glancing at the pub. “It won’t be more than that.”
“No! I mean about the—”