Princess Electra Book 4 School of Medicine
Page 27
Chapter 26
Kingdom of Fernland
Serafina woke up before dawn and quietly left the archery supply shed. She moved into the cover of the forest where she could remain hidden as she watched the archery practice field. Not much had changed from the time she lived in Fernland's castle many years ago.
A little after dawn the first few archers arrived at the field to begin morning practice. They pulled targets from the shed and attached them to hay bales down the field. They called out and joked with one another as they readied their bows and arrows. These were the youngest archers. They tried for distance and accuracy, placing bets with their friends.
About mid-morning more experienced archers took the field. Serafina watched carefully as a cart, pulled by two grooms, rolled out from behind the stables. The archers waited for the cart to reach them at the edge of the field, then they gathered around the cart and began filling one tube each from the three buckets on the cart. The men packed their tubes carefully with less joking than the younger archers.
A young boy ran out on the field and pushed the hay bales aside. He set saw- horses in the place of the hay bales and leaned battered poles against the saw-horses, before running off the field.
The archers stood watching on the side of the field as one man moved back for a long shot. He had tied his little tube of powders onto an arrow and stood ready to let fly. The same young boy ran out with a lit candle and held it to the wick that hung from the tube, then stepped away quickly.
The arrow flew up, trailing its burning wick, and hit one of the poles which exploded on impact. The top of the pole was reduced to hanging splinters.
The archers on the side lines cheered at the success of the shot and the next archer stepped forward to try his skill. Serafina moved further back into the forest. She knew what she needed to know. She would wait now until nightfall.
An hour after sunset the castle grounds grew quiet. The drawbridge was up and most Fernlanders were home with their families, eating their evening meal. Serafina moved out of the forest and followed the tracks the cart had made to an area behind the stables.
Between the stables and the kennels stood the shed where oak barrels full of wine and ale were stored. She followed the grooves made by the cart into the shed. Next to the barrels was a new storage area, bricked in and secured with a heavy lock. She did not need to open the lock to know this was where Geoffrey had stored his precious white powder.
Serafina studied the ground around the new storage area. The bottom layer of bricks had been set into the ground. She poked at the edges of the ground layer with her cane. The foundation was only one brick deep. She heard footsteps and quickly stepped back into the shadows.
A man with a lantern was moving toward the entrance to the wine storage shed. A guard perhaps, posted to watch over the white powder. As the man held up his lantern to look closer at the elevated wine barrels, Serafina could see his face clearly. He was Shandor the fiddle player—Angelica's father.
Shandor looked around, listening to be certain he was alone. He held his flask up to the wine barrel and opened the tap. As soon as his flask was filled he turned off the tap and doused his lantern. He stood for a minute taking a long drink, then left quietly.
Serafina waited until her eyes adjusted to the darkened room, then dug a bit deeper under the foundation with her cane. When she had a tunnel beneath the bricks she continued to gouge out a channel along the dirt until she reached Shandor's wine barrel. She enlarged her trough a bit to make sure of a downhill slant. Then she made little troughs from each of the remaining barrels of wine to the deeper trough.
Serafina took one last look at her network of shallow troughs, then turned on all the taps. A powerful smell of wine enveloped her. The little dirt troughs filled quickly and soon the floor was covered in channels of wine. The wine slipped under the brick foundation of the new storage area to pool up inside.
As she left the storage area, Serafina wiped the soles of her boots off in the grass outside the stables. She could still hear the wine splashing down onto the floor of the shed as she returned to the archery field to spend a second night in the archery supply shed.
The next morning before dawn Serafina hid in the forest to wait for the drawbridge to be lowered over the moat. She heard the cries of the palace guards as they discovered first the tragedy of the lost wine and second, the horror of the ruined white powder. She joined the crowd that had gathered to see what all the shouting was about.
Muller rushed in to view the scene and grew pale as he considered the implications. She saw him run for the stables. A few minutes passed and Shandor appeared outside the stables looking confused and unsteady as he glanced at the wine storage area. He quickly headed toward the marketplace. Serafina followed him.
Shandor did not stop to say goodbye to Angelica. He waited at the drawbridge until the plank was lowered. He was the first one across. Serafina smiled. As she had hoped, Muller suspected Shandor was to blame. He was giving him this chance to escape King Geoffrey's wrath for Angelica's sake. Perhaps Muller hoped no one would remember the fiddle player had been sleeping in the stables.
Serafina waited until a few more people had crossed the drawbridge, then limped her way slowly across leaning on her cane. She turned south once again.