Princess Electra Book 4 School of Medicine

by Dory Lee Maske

  Chapter 25

  Fernland

  Serafina stood at a candle vendor's stall in the busy castle marketplace of Fernland. She wore the clothes and face of an old woman, bent over, leaning on a cane.

  "Those candles be good 'uns," the vendor insisted. "Give ya light longer than any another you'll find 'ere in the marketplace. Slow burnin' they are."

  Serafina seemed to be thinking long and hard about her penny purchase, but in fact her eyes swept the marketplace for information. She saw several Barburee men inspecting the wares at an archery stall. Bataar was not among them. She wondered why they were visiting Fernland. She saw merchants from the south with spices and hard woods for sale. She noticed one of King Geoffrey's archers stopping by the market on his way home from archery practice. One of his arrows had threads attached to notches in the wooden shaft. Threads that could hold a cylinder of explosives, she surmised.

  Serafina took a thin penny from her pocket and the vendor's eyes lit up. Then she put it back in her pocket. "I will think on it," she said as she limped to the next stall.

  She recognized Angelica at the fabric seller's stall. The girl had a baby in a sling close to her chest. Serafina smiled at the tiny child. Angelica looked up and smiled herself to find someone admiring her new son.

  "It's a boy," Angelica said to the old woman. "He's just three weeks old." She smoothed down the child's dark hair.

  "A fine young lad," Serafina said.

  Something in the old woman's voice drew Angelica closer. She peered at the old woman's bent over face and saw a twinkle in the woman's green eyes.

  "Serafina?" Angelica whispered.

  Serafina put her fingers to her lips and pointed her jaw toward the castle gate.

  Angelica followed Serafina out the gate and stopped with her at the edge of the moat.

  "You are in danger here," Angelica said softly, looking around to make sure they were not being watched. "There is a prize of ten gold pieces for your capture." Suddenly Angelica's expression changed to one of fear. "You are not here to take my father back to the dungeon, are you?"

  Serafina pursed her lips as though she might be considering doing just that. Then she shook her head.

  "No. Is he behaving himself?"

  Angelica sighed. "He was for a while. He stopped drinking and moved in with Muller and me." She paused to remember how much had happened since Serafina sent her off as a decoy to mislead King Geoffrey's spies. "Muller is the spy who followed me on the ship to Manoa. We got married." Angelica smiled a mischievous smile. "Thank you for the love charm."

  Serafina sniffed. "And now?"

  "And now we have a baby."

  Serafina waited.

  Angelica tilted her head, then realized what Serafina wanted to know. "You mean how is my father, now. I'm afraid he has taken up drinking again. First to celebrate the arrival of little Nicu's birth and now because he is lonely for his actor friends who went to Henge without him. Muller told him he would have to move out of our house if he kept drinking so now he's bunking down in the stables near our house, but he still comes around when he knows Muller is gone." She shook her head. "When he wasn't drinking, he was..., quite nice to have around."

  Serfina's eyes bore into Angelica's. "He will never quit."

  Angelica nodded. "I know." She looked at her baby with a forlorn expression. Then her face filled with curiosity. "Why have you come here to Fernland?"

  "I am only passing through on my way south." Serafina gazed out at the dark water in the moat. The smell of the foul liquid wafted up in the warmth of a late spring day. "I see King Geoffrey has the exploding arrows now."

  Angelica held her baby close and again made sure no one was close enough to overhear them. "That is a closely held secret. Muller had to go all the way to Taz to find the powder they needed to make the little exploding tubes. How did you find out about the arrows?"

  "We have had them in Henge for some time." She shrugged off the question. "It is a long voyage to travel to Taz whenever you need a new supply of the powder."

  Angelica nodded. "He brought back two camels loaded with the powder. King Geoffrey gave him a bonus. They have a supply now that will last a long time, thanks to my Muller."

  "I suppose all those vendors to the south that wish to sell their white powder to King Geoffrey will have to find a new market now," Serafina said.

  Angelica could not hide her surprise. "Muller did not know anyone in the south had it to sell. Is that where you get your supply for Henge?"

  "We have enough of our own in Henge," Serfina lied.

  Angelica looked around and saw no one watching them. "Can you come to my house for a while? I could fix you something to eat. Electra says you have married Prince Blackwell and given birth to twin daughters. You must have an important life now. I would love to hear about it. It is hard to believe you and Electra are both royalty now."

  "Perhaps another time. My mission now is...delicate. It might be best if you did not make mention of my being here."

  Angelica crossed her fingers over her heart. "I will not say a word. Not even to Muller." She paused and smiled. "I was so happy when Electra told me you were not really dead. I love my new life and I owe it all to you." She looked down at her baby, then back at Serafina, her eyes shining with happiness.

  Serafina cupped the baby's cheek in the palm of her hand. Then she turned and limped to the drawbridge without looking back. She crossed the bridge and turned south toward Lands End.

  When Serafina reached the first curve in the road, she moved off the road into the forest and slowly retraced her steps back to the marketplace. She kept to the shadows as she limped past the castle to the archers' practice field. There she hid behind the shed that held the targets and archery supplies.

  After the groundskeepers had made their rounds, she opened the lock in the door of the shed with a bit of wire and slipped inside. Stacks of targets, mounds of straw to stuff the targets, boxes of metal arrow heads and bow strings littered the floor. She sorted through the supplies but found no white powder. She gathered enough straw together to make a comfortable bed and lay down to rest. Come morning she would set about discovering where King Geoffrey stored his supply of the white powder. Then she would destroy it.