"No your Majesty,Xeexa was ambushed on her way back to the temple, she's dead."
The fury on the Kings face was something to see, in a very quiet voice he asked, "who did it?".
Illia held her hands up, "we do not know you Majesty, the sisters who found her say it must have been supernatural creatures judging from the injuries to the body."
The King sighed, "well this is bad news indeed, and that is part of the reason why you're here?".
He was very sharp Illia noted and must not miss a lot, "yes, to be ambushed in the manner she was indicated that her route was known to the enemy, whoever supplied that route will probably still be here."
The King stood up and looked out of the window, he was silent for a few moments,"let me know what you find out."
* * *
Stephanie was sore, she was more than sore she was in agony, they'd ridden till it was almost dusk and the last few hours were sheer torture, if she'd ever considered this was some sort of dream or hallucination,the pain dispelled it.
Dismounting as carefully as she could she still winced audibly as she stepped down, in fact she could barely stand, she stood there holding onto the pommel of the saddle to keep upright, Angie and Bria rushed over to see what was wrong.
Stephanie tried to put a brave face on it, "like I said I've never ridden before" the two Bards chuckled.
"I'm sorry we shouldn't laugh, you must be in agony, even for regular riders hard riding does make you sore."
They helped her sit down as gently as they could, Bria got her to lay down so she could do a little healing to ease the situation, Once the glow had stopped from Bria's hands Stephanie could at least move a little,even if she was still sore.
"I'm sorry I cannot heal you more but my power reserves are very low at the moment."
Stephanie who was now a bit more interested in her surroundings now was curious.
"You have a store of energy?".
Bria stood up and stretched "Yes, we pray to the Goddess to replenish it, we didn't really have time to do it over the past few days as it can take hours of prayer to get back to full power."
Stephanie didn't ask any more as her stomach rumbled loudly. Allia had got a fire going in the falling light and was putting slices of what looked like bacon in some sort of frying pan, the smell was heavenly.
By the time they had finished eating the bacon with fresh bread and wedges of an orange cheese night had fallen, it wasn't as cold as it had been, and the fire warmed them against the slight chill.
For all the riding Stephanie wasn't really tired, they all sat staring into the fire, Bria suddenly spoke up.
"Don't you think we should pray to the Goddess?, my energy levels are so low I can hardly feel it."
Angee went to her pack and got out her flute, the others got their instruments.
Stephanie was confused. "Excuse me for asking but i thought you were going to pray?".
Allia nodded, "we are, but we do it while playing music." Stephanie didn't know what to say so say while all three of the Bards got ready.
Angee started playing a simple melody with Bria and Allia joining her in short order, the sound they created between them stunned Stephanie, she could feel power from it,it was almost as if the Music was power itself, and the notes called more.
She noted all three of them seemed oblivious to her presence now, and there was an actual visible glow around their instruments, the melody seemed random,but she was almost able to predict what the next notes would be, as a musician herself she felt a compulsion to join this group.
It felt so like the 'jam sessions' she used to get involved with at home.
She berated herself, she'd forgotten what she'd bought in London, she went and got her handbag, at the bottom wrapped in tissue paper was a penny whistle, taking it out she went back to rejoin the others.
Sitting down the three Bards didn't even notice her,still wrapped in the magical music, but now Stephanie felt compelled to join in. She put the penny whistle to her lips and started playing.
It hit like a bolt out of the blue, a sense of enormous energy, her fingers fairly flew over the holes on the pipe playing more complicated harmonies and at a better standard than she had ever played before, the adrenalin rush lifted her to play till she felt as if she were soaring on musical winds carrying her to places she'd never been before, she felt good,better than she had since she arrived,and as she played she noticed the other had focussed on their surrounding again and were conscious of her music, ending with a flourish, she laughed, with the three Bard smiling and looking at her with surprise on their faces.
"How did you do that?" Angee asked.
"Do what?".
Stephanie had enjoyed playing but didn't understand what they meant.
"I can see from here the power in you, the Goddess replenished you too, yet you aren't a Bard and don't have any magical powers."
By now Stephanie was confused again.
"I just felt I had to join in with you, I felt the music like never before but as to power, I don't understand what you mean."
Angee was slightly worried now, she thought she'd pigeon holed this woman from another world,but this, well, it set all that on it's head.
Humming a small spell she invoked her true sight and yes Stephanie was full of power, a power she could only have got from the prayer to the Goddess, and her aura didn't not show anything evil, in fact it was akin to what she'd seen when she'd looked at Allia and Bria in this way, yet there were enough differences to establish she wasn't a Bard, besides, she didn't have a star did she?.
"Stephanie, can I ask do you, do you have a Star between your breasts?".
Stephanie looked shocked, "what sort of question is that?".
Rather than go into long explanations Angee under her tunic as did Allia and Bria exposing their stars, Stephanie looked away blushing furiously, "like this,it marks us as Bards and what order of Bard we are."
Stephanie looked back now and saw the white,blue and green stars. "No at least i don't think so."
She peeked down her tunic, when she saw the others were curious she gritted her teeth and showed them, there was nothing in between her two small breasts, she fastened herself back up while the others did too.
A puzzle then, a puzzle Angee couldn't solve at the moment,at least she was sure Stephanie was good,no evil creature could fake an aura like she saw.
Angee decided to find out a little more about their mysterious guest, "tell me, are there many more like you in your world?". Stephanie stared into the fire for a while before speaking,the shadows danced on her face.
"Yes, not a great many, but, yes there are. Some countries treat us better than others.
There are many religions in my world and some see us as going against nature and the will of their God."
This brought up something else Angee was curious about.
"So there are many Gods in your world then" this was said in the form of a statement rather than a question but Stephanie shook her head. "Not really,just different paths to the same God with some more flexible than others."
"Do you owe allegiance to any God or Goddess?".
Stephanie was quiet again.
"I have never found any path that felt right. The biggest religions all follow one God, we don't have any large religions in my part of the world devoted to Goddess's, that was more in the past, way in the past."
This sounded awfully strange to the three Bards, there was only one deity in the land,as far as they knew there had only ever been one, who needed more?.
The next morning Stephanie was glad of her Cape,it had turned cold again and was snowing, all the roads were white,it was white everywhere.
They tried to keep to the road but the wind picked up driving the snow in their faces, they stopped a minute while Angee consulted her map.
"There's a village about two miles in that direction,if we keep the hedges on our right we won't get lost."
It was hard to say anything else really, t
he blizzard for that was what it now was drove the cold in at all the vulnerable points, hunched forward Stephanie wasn't in pain,she was too cold to feel that.
After what seemed an interminable distance, Stephanie noticed houses just ahead, Allia had grabbed her reigns and was leading her toward one with a sign half covered by snow in front of a large building.
They dismounted quickly and a stable lad came and took their horses.
Once inside the heat hit them like a furnace, a woman in a tight white blouse came forward.
"You'll be wanting rooms?" Angee nodded while taking her Cape off.
"We're fairly full at the moment, we only have two left you'll have to share."
Stephanie who was taking her own Cape off and stamping her feet to get the circulation going stopped as she heard what was said.
"Fair enough."
The others did not seem bothered but then they weren't in her situation.
Stephanie was ushered to a chair by Bria while Allia and Angee took their gear, Bria ordered mulled wine for all of them, Angee and Allia joined them in short order, a serving lass came over with the wine.
"Would you like any food?, we got common lunch, slices off the roast and roots,cheese for seven coppers each, or some lovely chickens I killed them myself this morning one silver each" as an afterthought she said, "Ale is included with both."
Angee didn't mess about, "we'll all have the chicken" the serving lass nodded and went to get their order. Coppers,silvers, Stephanie wondered if it was the same as she'd read in the fantasy novels she liked to read.
"Tell me, is it ten coppers to a silver, ten silvers to a gold?". Angee looked surprised, "you have the same money?".
"No, but it's the same as I've read in fantasy books."
"Fantasy books?, what are they?".
"Well, some people like to read books, written for entertainment, fantasy novels, are books usually about a medieval world where good fights evil."
"These are made up books?" Allia asked curiously.
"Yes, really, this world would make an excellent fantasy novel, your world is like ours was seven hundred years ago, and people like to imagine themselves doing great deeds in the name of good."
"But this is real, we aren't from someone's imagination."
They paused as the serving lass came back with four plump chickens roasted to perfection and served with potatoes,roots and gravy, another serving lass brought a jug of ale, and as a bonus two loafs of bread and a jug of milk.
Stephanie was glad of the milk, she didn't fancy ale at the moment and she needed calcium as she hadn't any vitamin supplements with her.
The chicken's tasted gorgeous,juicy with a very strong flavour, one thing you could say about this world Stephanie reflected, they knew their food.
Stephanie resumed the conversation "No, it isn't from someone's imagination, but you could wager a lot of people who do read those sort of books would change places with me in a heartbeat."
After eating, they all sat quietly, their hunger sated, a minstrel who must have been engaged to entertain began to play a lute, badly, and Stephanie winced.
The others looked pained by his attempts at playing properly.
"You know, if I had my penny whistle I could play better than that in a second, at one time that was a way I earned extra money, playing to entertain others, although I used multiple pipes rather than a whistle."
Allia shot upstairs and returned with Stephanie's handbag, "go on then, play for us" she challenged.
Stephanie's hands had warmed up eating the chicken,so she went over to the minstrel, "would you mind if I played a bit,my friends requested it" she gestured to the Bards, the minstrel paled, "certainly lady" and he offered her his seat.
Stephanie decided to play some simple folk tunes and started with 'the Swallow', it's haunting melody seemed to capture the attention of those customers sat eating and drinking and the noise level dropped as people stopped talking to listen.
She played for about forty minutes, and was getting a little tired. She decided to end with 'Strawberry Faire', she hadn't noticed Angee must have left at some point for when she was into the second verse a flute joined her and she saw Angee walking towards her playing, the languid promise of summer seemed to float from the music and Stephanie added a couple of extra verses to keep the mood alive, when they stopped they was loud applause and coppers and some silver were thrown in appreciation by the crowd.
Stephanie smiled in satisfaction and curtsied, "go on pick up what you earned" Angee told her.
This as the first money she'd earned playing in years and the thought she still had her skill pleased her.
Counting it back at the table she had four silvers and nineteen coppers, not bad for a first attempt.
Stephanie fished her purse out of her handbag and was about to put it in when she realised it would mix up with the money from home, she put the silvers and copper down and took the fifties,twenties and tens out of her purse putting that on the table, the others looked on curiously.
"This is money from my home" she explained, the three Bards picked it up and examined it. "Would this buy the meal we had?" Bria asked.
Stephanie laughed. "No, that is like coppers to you,she opened up the notes section of her purse and pulled out some of her paper money.
"This is what it would have cost probably for all of us" counting out sixty pounds as she did so.
They had never seen paper money before. "So this is worth more than this" Angee asked holding a fifty pence piece and a ten pound note.
"Yes, you could get twenty pieces of that silver for that paper." "you don't have golds?".
"No, and that silver isn't silver either, it is other metals."
"Then what is it's worth?".
"It is simply currency, we use real silver and gold for other purposes like things to wear" she showed them her gold ring.
"Who is this woman on the notes and the coins?" Allia enquired.
"That is the Queen of our country, Queen Elizabeth the second."
"She is your ruler?".
"No,not in the sense you mean. Many hundreds of years ago we had a series of Kings who did things the people did not like, the people overthrew the current king and made a government up of the people to rule.
When the royal family was allowed to come back, their powers were forever stripped from them by the people.
The current Queen is a good one and has been on her throne for nearly fifty years, but it's as the head of the nation, someone people see,but no power to make laws."
Obviously they didn't understand but they didn't ask any more, looking at All of them Angee yawned.
"Time for bed i think, Stephanie you'll share with me."
A knot had formed in Stephanie's stomach as the walked upstairs, the room they went into had two small beds, hard,but better than sleeping outside.
Angee started to undress and Steph turned her back blushing furiously unsure what to do, " you not getting undressed?". Stephanie half turned to look out of her eye corner, Angee had hopped into bed, "to be honest with you I'm embarrassed."
"Why?, we're both girls."
Stephanie turned and the blush was a really deep red in the candle light, "yes,but with my body not matching what i feel,I'm embarrassed for a girl to see me like this."
Angee propped herself up on one pillow, "ah, I see, well if it makes you any more comfortable,I remember what it was like with a body like yours so don't worry."
"You're a Transsexual?" Stephanie asked incredulously.
"Not in the way you mean,no, I was male, but at my initiation after being chosen by the Goddess she made me totally female."
Stephanie was stunned and plopped down on her bed with a thud.
"If you only knew how many people like me dream of that in my world."
Angee face was full of compassion, "I have a fair idea of how you feel, I felt that way all my life, but in this world people like you are unheard of,and if wasn't for my Goddess I would no
t be the happy person I am."
Stephanie had crashed at other Transsexuals houses when on a night out, so she commenced to get undressed feeling a lot better, Angee diplomatically turned over to face the wall.
The next morning they had a breakfast of porridge,the weather had cleared to brilliant sunshine, it was cold though as a sizeable amount of snow had fallen and it would slow their progress.
Before they set out Allia purchased some extras in case they got stranded and paid their bill, the deep blue of the sky contrasted starkly with the whiter than white snow as they left the village, they headed back along the hedges to get back to the road they were on.
They were almost to the road when a group of men burst out of the hedge in front of them with a variety of weapons drawn, the three Bards immediately drew swords and charged, "don't give them time to organise!".
The men were not expecting them to react so quickly and three of them fell under Bard swords,the remainder tried to fend off these invincible warriors fear evident on their faces now.
One of the men charged at Stephanie who'd sat frozen,stunned at the attack, she jerked the reigns and the horse bolted across the field,it took her quite a while to get it back under control while clinging on for dear life.
When she did she turned it carefully, the animal snorting in distress and rode slowly back, she could see Bria and Angee knelt beside one man, he seemed still alive, as she approached they stood up and saw her, "are you alright?, we lost track of you."
Stephanie told them what had happened, "good job too as you've no weapon, these men were paid to ambush us, though the man we questioned died before we could find out who paid them."
They did not bother burying their attackers, a couple of their friends had fled,if they were bothered they'd be back to take care of it.
It was a quiet ride for the rest of the day, the mood sombre and alert, Angee wondered if in the few days left to their journey they would encounter further obstacles, she hoped not.
Three days later the turned into the lane that lead to the Temple, Angee said a quiet prayer to the Goddess for seeing them safely home.
A Change For the Light Page 18