by Iscah
Once again she sold or gave away everything that was not a necessity for travel or too precious to lose and bought a heavier coat. Still her bags were heavy with gold, books, and her new dresses. On Leifhound's suggestion, she decided to travel north as a pegasus.
"You may risk someone trying to capture you," he told her. "But no one will try to shoot you down. It's against the law to wound a pegasus, and they're far more valuable alive."
Against practicality the girl wished the prince would kiss her goodbye, but he found it easier to feign indifference. After she transformed, he did adjust her saddlebags and wish her safe journey.
She had determined to return to Gourlin to reclaim her books, which had weighed on her mind like abandoned children. But she had waited too long to ride back with the flying caravan, who wintered south at the Laughing Peak, so she flew north between the mountains to go the long way around the desert.
While the girl could take on the form of a small pegasus, she found she was not nearly so hardy. As the cold grew more severe, she forgot about Gourlin and looked instead for a place where she might keep warm. After days of searching, she found a small village by a narrow river.
Given the habit of private holds in remote parts of the mountain, the villagers of Bracer's Low found a girl emerging alone from the woods to be unusual but not unthinkable. They were not unkind people, and the coming winter bred solidarity for the fight against the elements. The girl was soon directed to a farm where she was able to find shelter for the brumal season, sharing a room with a farm girl her own age.
The company helped heal her wounded heart.
Verity was a typical farm girl of thirteen. She worked hard, talked a lot, and was a little silly. She was the second of four children. Her older brother was a thick fellow, too interested in pursuing the village milkmaid to pay any attention to their gawky guest. The younger brother and sister still played the games of small children. They loved the stories the girl told them, but otherwise found her too melancholy. The parents were typical of Urite farmers: hardy, practical, and hard-working with easy manners and simple wants. They considered her books and education to be frivolities unfit for a mountain girl, so the girl took care not to reveal her other talents.
Sunny Verity was happy to fill the girl's time. She spoke endlessly of boys and needlework and chickens. She found it curious that the stars had names but only cared that they were pretty. The girl learned all the business of the village from her in far more detail than necessary and with too much speculation to be practical.
At night, they squeezed into the same bed, and Verity liked to snuggle against her captive friend's shoulder for warmth. The girl loved her much the same way she had Michter but found her conversation about as stimulating.
While the family were good and comfortable people, their simplicity of thought and lack of imagination grated on her. She came to understand better that magic was not the only thing which made her unusual. There was no place in Uritz for an educated peasant. She began thinking again about Middlefort, and the city behind the high walls grew more alluring and less intimidating.
When the snows stopped, the girl was eager to be on her way. On the first warm day, she said her goodbyes and hurried as fast as legs and wings could take her out of Uritz. She joined a small band of nomads and traveled with them over the grassy hills north of the Gourlin desert. She eventually found her way back to Paradox without serious misadventure. Her reunion with her books was a happy one for she discovered them unmolested.
She determined not to be parted from them again and spent her gold on a proper caravan wagon, large enough for her to sleep in at night, and an ox to pull it. She traded her heavy fur coat for colorful scarves and simple cloaks more appropriate to the southern climate and warming weather.
She also bought a small, dull mirror, so she could check the consistency of her faces. She was no longer content to be as Leifhound wanted her with a plain face in the most common colors. She was tired of being ignored. So she changed her hair and eyes to the rarest and most vibrant shade shades of red and green. While there is a beauty to any healthy girl or boy, the girl did her best to make her own brand striking. She could accomplish by will what most women could only manage by makeup.
With her new face and wagon, she made a slow and easy journey along the stone road to Middlefort. She picked useful herbs when she spotted them on the roadside and spoiled her ox by letting him graze whenever he pleased. She tied the herbs to the edge of the wagon's wooden roof to let them dry as they rolled along.
Though she stayed in her wagon rather than a tavern, she met other travelers coming and going on the road. Their eyes did not look past her so easily now, though most just bid her a quick hello in passing.
On the second day, the driver of passing a wagon took off his hat to her and slowed his horses. "Hello, there, pretty lady. And what's your name?"
The girl laughed. "I need no name, sir. I am a sorceress."
Chapter 26
The stone walls that surrounded the city of Middlefort at the center of Gourlin were tall and thick, not only for protection but because they channeled water from the river, that had originally run through the city, around it. The channels provided water to a series of fountains both inside and out. To divert more of the river water that flowed in through the northeast, a significant series of irrigation channels supplied the northeastern estates, and a reservoir captured the excess. There was a channel that flowed through and under the city, still following the path of the original river. It had been filled in and built over so much it was barely visible inside the walls but emerged above ground far beyond the walls and stone road to the southwest and carried with it all the things a city needs to have swiftly carried away.
There were ten gates in the city walls to match the ten roads. Four main gates stood facing the cardinal directions; with smaller ones to the northeast, southeast, and so to the west; and two tiny ones, more like doors, in unobtrusive places.
The girl entered the city by the northwest gate and was only vaguely aware of this massive feat of engineering. Her attention was instead drawn to the crowd and soldiers standing guard and a faint awareness that she knew more of the laws of Uritz than her own country. The tight, tall buildings and crowded byways told her that finding a place in Middlefort would not be as simple as claiming a hold, even assuming one could find an empty spot to claim.
While she drew a few glances, in the city, it took more than an ox and a pretty face to stand out.
There had been crowds in Loch High, but it had never felt so crowded. Nor had there been so many carts and wagons. She followed slowly behind the cart that went before her, suddenly unsure of where to go now that she had arrived. The entirety of the city was paved in stone, and the main roads were wide enough for two wagons to pass without difficulty. She stuck to these and attempted to tour the place.
The main roads of Middlefort crisscrossed from gate to gate like a deranged and over zealous pentagram. Either by design or happy accident there was no direct way to go from north to south or east to west The city was cut into triangles occasionally interrupted by a circle or piece of a circle. Most of the gates had something of a courtyard area just inside to avoid clogging. The girl got lost more than once, but she told herself this was normal when one lacked direction.
The city within the walls was large enough to have its own hill and valley, and the most important buildings were up on the hill. After many hours of zigzagging the girl made her way to them. There were a few patches of greenery here, but they were small. The Emperor's private dwelling was one of the few buildings with an actual garden, but it was obscured by courtyard walls, only visible through the iron gate, which stayed locked, barred, and guarded on both sides. It was a very large house, so pale it was almost white, more tall than wide, but modest in scale to the castle where she had spent so much time in Uritz. The Gourlin Emperor displayed his wealth in other ways like gold tipped points on the iron gate. There were full-size
d glass windows; in Uritz the castle windows had been mostly lattice work and wooden shutters. The guards were dressed in richer material with higher plumes on their helmets than seemed practical for soldiers. The guards themselves were tall and more attractive than chance alone was likely to cast them. While she was sure they served a practical purpose as well, the girl believed their main one was decoration.
Beside the Emperor's private house and on the very top of the hill was the Forum where laws were made and men debated and argued. The Forum was an enormous building, open to the public, though certain sections were reserved for the lawmakers. Gourlin made no effort to teach its children history, but the girl would come to learn that a counsel of noblemen who advised the king privately had been replaced by a Senate (made up mostly of the same noble families) who preferred open and public debate. In theory, any man could bring a subject to the Senate's attention; in practice, it was a difficult and involved process to be heard. Less ornately dressed guards made regular patrols to dispel troublemakers. They gave the girl friendly but rigid nods when she tried to greet them.
She was told of a place where she might park her wagon and tie the ox for a short time and small fee. This put strain on her pocket, but it seemed a worthwhile expense to walk around for a bit without risk of her things being stolen.
Opposite the Emperor's ornate house on the other side of the Forum was the University where anyone with sufficient money and time could study mathematics, science, law, philosophy, or other obscure subjects with the help of Masters. Wedged beside the University was the Library, and while it was a humbler building than the other three, it was the one that most excited the girl's imagination. Like the Forum, it was open to the public but with no small number of rules. The books and scrolls contained within were not allowed to leave. The University students and Masters were allowed to claim first pick. Lawmakers, their assistants, and other noblemen were to be deferred to politely. So the most popular works were all but inaccessible to peasants.
Copying was allowed but only under the strictest supervision and many found it more practical and less stressful to hire a scribe for this job. The library employed a hundred scribes who worked in rooms on the top floor. However most of their work involved making copies of government documents, so they were very slow to produce fresh copies of books.
Even so, the number of books was a beautiful and overwhelming sight to the girl. Despite the crowds and smells and confusion, she determined to stay in the city.
She started making inquiries, and while she received several offers of shelter, it took quite a while to find an agreeable one that would accommodate the ox and wagon as well. At length she was directed to an older portion of the city where decrepit buildings had been torn down to make way for new ones. Since a city is a poor home for an ox, she sold the animal and used the proceeds to pay the rent on a portion of an empty lot where she could park her wagon.
While the west coast (Uritz included) was rather rigidly Monotheistic, Gourlin (particularly Middlefort) was a babble of religious confusion. Alongside the Monotheist were Atheists, Moralists, Pillarists, Polytheists, a growing cluster of Animists, Panists who tried to believe in everything at once, and defeated Agnostics who found they had too many choices and hoped it would all sort itself out eventually. All of them took a very different stance on their perception of magic: some claiming wizards were godborn holy men who had abandoned them for their sins, many who had muddled magic and witchcraft and did not believe one to be any better than the other, and quite a few more who thought the whole idea was absolute nonsense best regulated to children's stories.
Despite her declaration on the road, the girl decided to take Leifhound's advice and not draw the attention of any of them. She made cures for colds and similar complaints and sold them as many others who claimed to have some medical education would sell bottles of random ingredients which worked more on positive thinking than good science.
As the girl's cures worked with far more consistency and her prices were fair, she found herself with a steady stream of regular clients. Most were not concerned with who she was, but those who asked she deflected by saying she was a student of the Library. And this was reasonably accurate.
While her talents could have made her rich as Leifhound suggested, she only kept her business open enough to pay for her rent and necessities. She devoted as much time as possible to the Library. She still felt she was a novice at her peculiar trade and was determined that, if she was to be the only sorceress in the land, she would be a great one, a true master of the art of magic. She set herself to two main tasks: first, the study of languages so she could unlock the secrets of the books she bought in the Loch High bookstore, and second, the scouring of the Library for forgotten texts on the magical arts.
While it was permissible for all to enter the Library, a pretty young girl in humble dress and no escort drew more than her fair share of attention. Some of this was kind. Young men with grins were overly helpful and talked too long. The few young women she encountered looked at her with a mix of envy and curiosity and often warmed to her quickly when she was given a chance to speak to them. But their escorts, whether men or women themselves, usually steered them away after a dubious glance in her direction. The scholars and noblemen frustrated her. Even if they had finished with a book themselves, they preferred to tease her rather than hand it over. The taunts varied in tone, some cruel, others kindly, but many of them ran along the lines of the books being too difficult for her or the Library no place for a woman.
If she dared to ask a question or state an opinion, they gave her a long suffering glance like she was the most trying simpleton. It made her miss Leifhound and want to snap back that she had counseled princes, but she suspected this would only make the men laugh more and do Uritz a disservice. The Masters were the worst because she desired to speak with them most of all, to ask questions and join their discussions, but they would only shush her and wave her away.
While she had a growing distaste for the subterfuge, she began to take on the shape of an old man to aid her peace while she studied. She bought appropriate clothing for this visage and made him look as scholarly and unassuming as possible. While most people offered her a quiet respect, they did not bother her. The Masters who shunned her opinion as a girl were quite happy to listen to her as an old man. She found this useful but maddening.
Sometimes she came as herself just because she thought it would do the scholars good to see a young girl doing the work of a scribe or a student.
Her search through the dustiest corners of the Library yielded fruit. She found a book on magical ethics, which began to work as her own religious foundation. She read other books on natural science and anatomy, which are very important for those who wish to use magic responsibly. She found a book of very advanced magic in a very old language, and since there is no lower thief than one who steals from a library, she spent over a year making a careful copy.
She was not as careful with her money as one who wishes to build wealth should be. Her tastes were not extravagant, but she preferred to pay for others to cook her meals and wash and mend her clothes so she could devote more time to her studies. She bought things that caught her fancy and gave what surplus she had to the crippled beggars on the street.
From this class, she took a select few as special clients. She pretended to be a student of medicine and offered them free treatments if they would allow her to try her skills on them. Since many of the men and women in this class of life had little or nothing to lose, most of them accepted her offer. She healed a leg bone that had been shattered and useless, made a bent back straight again, and removed a cosmetic deformity, but she worried she had taken on more than she could handle when she tried to restore sight to a blind man. Eyes were complex and delicate, as easily harmed from over growth as too little of it. The gaunt, middle-aged man returned to her for the warm meal she provided, but the process stretched over several months of frustration.
They did
not become friends exactly, but they told each other stories over warm tea, which eased their loneliness. The blind man had spent his youth as a soldier, and she learned enough of war from him to wish to avoid it.
All this time, the girl grew a little older, a little wiser, and a good bit taller. She had been in the city two years, before her success with the blind man brought her trouble.
Chapter 27
A man who once limped and now walks straight, or a woman who stopped complaining of her back, had not excited the imaginations of the jaded Middlefort inhabitants. The girl with the deformity had lived her life behind a veil, and no one recognized her when she took it off. But the blind man had been what one might call a respectable beggar, with many men who remembered him from his better days and considered his blindness to be a regrettable but honorable war wound. Had his injury not made him bitter and poor company, he would have been well cared for by friends.
The restoration of sight for the old soldier was another chance to be useful and earn his keep rather than beg for it. It rekindled his self-respect and filled him with a joy that could not be kept to himself quietly. So despite the girl's request for discretion, he ran to share his good fortune with old friends, some of whom were officers in the army. The restored sight of the blind man was not half as remarkable as his restored spirits, and he drew the curiosity and stirred the imagination of many. While at first he was reluctant to reveal the girl's secret, his friends pressed him, and he soon found himself speaking of her, favorably, but openly.
The girl found herself suddenly popular, which is often not as nice in practice as it sounds in theory. The rumors exaggerated her beauty which made it worse. Skeptics, admirers, and new clients flocked to her little wagon in such numbers that she holed up inside it until most of them left.