"It's important." She answered him, unsure. "My dad said I have to find my brother."
"Why?" He said, puzzled.
"I don't know why! That's why I need to find him." Mabel fought the urge to bury her head in her hands. "Navon is in trouble, and somehow my brother is closely connected."
Mabel put her sword in her back and walked to the horse. She took the bridle, and with her other hand she paused it on the back of the horse to help her get up to the saddle.
"What are you doing?" The leader walked up to Mabel and took the bridle out of her hand.
"I can't stay here. I have to go."
"Hey, calm down." The leader said, looking at her on the horse. "I can help you."
She shook her head uneasily. "You can't."
"Yes, I can. We're a sort of bounty hunters, mercenaries, or whatever you want to call us. People pay us to perform bureaucratic services they don't want to do." The leader took a few steps back when he realized he got her attention. "We rescue people, we capture murders, and we recover stolen money... that kind of bureaucratic service."
"What's the point?''
He turned his back at her looking at the emptiness of the forest, and Mabel jumped off the horse. The sound of her feet hitting the ground made the leader smile satisfied for having managed to make her stop trying to run away from him.
"I'm saying we could fight for Navon." His head swung to the side. "But that would require money, obviously."
"How much?"
He turned his face at her, and he didn't hesitate to say it: "Three gold weights."
Mabel was perplexed and didn't hide it. "Three gold weight, you said? I don't believe that you are interested in helping me if that just involves money."
"My proposal seems better than yours. I mean, the world is huge and your brother may not be around. You can't go out there and follow a trail that maybe doesn't even exist. I'm sure that's not what your father wanted you to do when he asked you to find your brother."
She lifted her eyebrow. "Are you telling me that I'll never find my brother?"
"I'm saying that you don't have to do this alone."
"Now are you promising to help me find my brother?" She laughed, looking at him and shaking her head. "How much is it going to cost me this time?"
"Maybe it won't cost you anything. It all depends on whether you're coming with us." He put his hair behind his ear, so restless. "We're going back. Are you coming with us?"
It took a couple of seconds for reality to bring her back to her senses. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to do that alone, after all. Those men lived there and they were offering help; nobody better than them would appear. Not even Navi. He didn't know anything about that place and he knew nothing about her brother; and of course he wasn't reliable. He never fulfilled his promises. Besides, the prince believed he was the only one who could help her, and that wasn't true anymore.
Mabel didn't take long to respond. "Yes, I am. It looks like it will rain soon." But it didn't look like it. The sky never looked so bright.
"Yes, it looks like it." Shai confirmed, looking up at the clear sky with no sign of a storm.
Vilanis rode his horse back to the tavern as a demon. The monster's pelage was flying against the wind; long white horsehair blocking the animal's eyes, and yet he could see perfectly where it laid its hooves. When Vilanis thought he was riding too slow, he rushed the horse even more, beating his boots against the horse’s belly.
Vilanis didn't look like a fearless knight when he rode a horse that way, demanded by the commanders to form their armies or by the young girls to join their dances. The horse and the rider didn't show bravery; they didn't have the same posture that heroes had; he would have never been mistaken for men of glory. But Vilanis had courage. He could have saved a nation and could be able to save a girl. Even though none of them had any idea that Mabel was in danger, in each cavalcade Vilanis had the unsettling and powerlessness feeling that any extra minute could be tragic.
Looking at Mabel would have relieved him, and would have been so easy if they had not missed each other on the way. He didn't know the alternate path, just the one that led to Turilessa, but that's not the trail that Mabel took back to the tavern.
Vilanis dismounted from his horse, walking in the tavern he had left shortly before. "Where's the girl we left here?" He asked the first person he saw.
But it was another man who answered. "She's not here. She left right after you guys, and after her several men, and after them several others." The man behind the counter said, giving him a cruel smile. "You guys handed her over like a piece of cake."
"We didn't hand anybody. I came back to stay with her."
"You're a little late, don't you think?"
XIV
"Under her pillow the waters whisper."
The Ballad of Mulan
◊
Mabel felt a little lust for being escorted back to the tavern like that. Everyone looked at them when they walked in the tavern. If it was to the men surrounding a girl like a valuable cargo or to the girl in between them, she couldn't tell. Not even Navi's men treated her like this; and she was beginning to like it.
When Mabel entered the tavern, she remembered she was hungry. The adrenaline didn't allow her to feel hunger. But the midday meal had been served already, and there was no way they would make her an exception.
The leader passed by Mabel after hitting her gently on the back. "You must be hungry. You didn't eat anything earlier."
Mabel chose to believe he was a keen observer that had been watching her carefully before. "I don't think they're still serving food."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you?"
"Maybe a little."
The leader shouted: "Leila, prepares some food for our new friend!" Mabel didn't doubt his power on Leila, but she was surprised when Leila moved and went into the kitchen. When she came back, it was to bring a plate to the table where Mabel and her new friends were sat.
Mabel looked at the food. Into the bowl there was the spoon tied to a wooden handle carefully sealed so that it didn't hurt her mouth. The food was a kind of stew. If a stew wasn't cooked properly, it wouldn't taste very good, and that stew wasn't cooked properly. She figured that the men who were used to eating there didn't care about it, and neither should she. So, she just shrugged her shoulders.
"By the way," The leader said, extending his hand to her. "I'm Shai."
"I'm Mabel."
"Well, Mabel, I've never seen a girl fight like you before." Despite him sounding relaxed, Shai seemed curious and intrigued; just like everyone else on the table. "You fought bravely out there."
"It's because I'm a commander's daughter." Mabel admitted between a spoon of food and another. "He taught me everything I needed to know to defend myself."
"And where is the commander now?" Gaspar's eyes were insightful when he asked. "I guess he doesn't know you are here just like your friends didn't know."
Mabel chose not to respond to him. She didn't want to tell these men she had just met that she was an orphan and she was on her own. She wanted them to look at her and see an independent girl, not a lonely girl in a small house, in a small valley that nobody knew about.
"I wouldn't feel proud if my daughter ran away from home to be out here." Shai said in an accusing voice. He threw his back on the chair, folding his arms over his chest while he watched Mabel eat. "On the contrary, I'd be thinking on various ways to punish her."
Mabel rolled her eyes at him while she continued eating the stew, which luckily wasn't that bad. "Well, unfortunately my dad can't see me now. So there's no way he could feel disappointed, or anything else. And I think you are too young to think like a father."
"What are you doing here with the King's Army?" Gaspar curiously asked, his forehead furrowed to a girl eating like there's no tomorrow.
Mabel stopped eating to look at Gaspar, and then she realized that the Shai's men were staring at her. All of them were very attentive about every
thing she did or said. All those men were paying close attention to her as if she was an unusual toy, and she felt bad that Navi and his men didn't look at her the same way. When she joined the army, it should have been seen as an act of courage; they should admire her and respect her. But they thought she was stupid and they made her feel stupid, and that's not how things should be.
"I am in the King's Army."
Shai dropped his arms over his chest and he moved away from the chair, leaning on the table. "I thought I heard them saying you're out."
She turned her head to him in shock. "Were you spying on me?"
He shrugged, wiggling his fingers on the table. "It just happened."
Gaspar's face smiled when he looked at her. "You would be a great help in our gang. You can stay with us if they don't want you with them. We will be a family."
"Can you guys really help me find my brother? I haven't even asked if you guys know Gael. It's my brother's name who I'm looking for." Mabel said; a little fearful for the reply, a little anxious for it.
"No." Shai answered without flinching.
"But," Gaspar's finger rose to Shai in surprise. "She is…"
Gaspar was interrupted when Shai's elbow hit his ribs. Mabel analyzed the face of every gang member who looked at her with suspecting eyes. "You'd tell me if you knew him, wouldn't you?"
They didn't answer her verbally; they just shook their head in affirmation. Mabel shook her head back at them while she picked up the spoon, ignoring the feeling they were hiding something. She wasn't reliable enough for them to give her any information, anyway.
Mabel dropped the spoon on the plate when the tavern's door opened with an impetuosity that made her scared. Maybe it was those criminals bringing reinforcements. However, who passed through that door were not criminals. It was the general and his troops that were returning. She abandoned the food and rose at the same time, surprising that they were there when they should be heading to Turilessa by now.
Vilanis was right behind, and he was visibly relieved to find Mabel alive. When he saw her, Vilanis looked worried when he realized that Mabel wasn't exactly looking the same as when they left her. "What happened to her?" He found himself saying.
Navi walked up to Mabel. So the general, and no one else, stood in front of the bounty hunters' table. "What are you doing here, Mabel?"
For a moment, Mabel lost words while she was trying to understand the reason for this sudden tension between them.
"The girl's just eating, and we're her company." Shai answered on her behalf, turning his back on the chair. "No big deal."
Shai got Navi's attention. "Did you do that to her?"
With the mention of her bruises, Mabel raised her fingers to touch her face, having no idea of what she looked like.
"No."
"So who did it? I will make him pay."
"They. And they're not here." Shai said, predicting what crossed Navi's mind. The same thing would have crossed his mind too. "And they won't come back."
Navi turned to look at Mabel, and he saw the bruise above her left eye and her mouth hurt. Navi realized that none of this would have happened if he had just let her follow them to Turilessa. For a moment he felt sorry, his face temporarily condemning himself. "You okay?"
Mabel was surprised for him finally asking. Princes had no one else above them whom they could get worry about.
Shai didn't let her respond. "I would have never left her that way, no matter what she had done."
"It's none of your business." Navi said. That guy couldn't imagine the things that Mabel had already done. Someone had to stop her no matter what. She could get hurt or hurt someone at any time. Mabel definitely had a good heart, but she was a reckless girl, and that made her dangerous.
"If you don't care enough about her, maybe you should let me take care of her."
"Who do you think you are?" Navi snapped at Shai, walking towards him. That guy had just met Mabel and he was talking as if she were his property. What the hell happened while I was gone?
"Navi, wait." Mabel tried to stop him when she pressed her hand against Navi's chest, and she felt the powerful drumbeat of his heart. There was a moment that Navi's men held their breath when Mabel touched him, Mabel herself held her breath when she realized she had touched him. What had she done? Who did she think she was to stop the prince from doing anything?
But this was all about her and no one better than her to speak her mind about it. Mabel put her hand away from Navi, giving a step back. "He's right."
Navi looked at her in the eyes, and when he noticed she was serious about it, his face became tense. Navi's jaw clenched so tight that Mabel could see all the muscles on the side of his face straining. For the first time, he would let someone else know what he was thinking. It was as if he had lost a fight; and that's what it really looked like. Mabel chose a stranger who could be fooling her over him. How mad could she be? "Get your stuff, we're leaving."
Mabel didn't move her feet off the ground. "I'm not going with you."
In a few hours, Navi seemed to have aged ten years, his wrinkles around his eyes looking much more evident now. He was a boy, however, he was no longer a boy. He needed to rest in a comfortable bed, in a quiet place, away from Navon's problems and the madness of his father. He needed to dance with girls at a ball like a normal guy, but this seemed distant from his reality. "What the hell are you doing now?"
"Shai and his men promised to help me find my brother."
"I also promised you many things and I didn't keep my word."
"Not everyone is like you." She said to him, not mattering the others were listening to her. "I trust them."
"You trust anyone who promises what you want. You are so blind about finding your brother that nothing else matters, aren't you?"
"I'm not blind. My father asked me to find my brother, and he wouldn't involve me if it wasn't important. He trusted me, and now I need to do it for him. How can't you understand us? My father and I love Navon with all our hearts, and if there is a way to help, I will."
"Us three love Navon. But you are putting yourself and the people around you in danger, and I'm not going to let you do that anymore."
"You can't do this. You can't interfere in my life like that."
"Yes, I can. I'm your prince, remember?" Navi turned to his men, talking over his shoulders. "You guys, go get your things. We will spend the night here."
After the bath, the general and his men came down for dinner. Their clothes were the same, but they were cleaner, face and hair washed. Navi wore cotton clothes underneath the armor, and he looked like an ordinary man, not part of the royalty.
Mabel didn't come down for dinner, in part because she wasn't hungry, and in part because she didn't want to see Navi. She couldn't keep mad at him, anyway. That wasn't his fault. He had been acting as if he was her older brother, ironically because the king forced him to make a promise. Still, he couldn't tell her what to do or where to go. By the way, Mabel didn't know why he still insisted to keep his word among so many other promises he made.
Shai managed to get some medicine with Leila to take care of Mabel's face. After dinner was over, when everyone had already gone to their rooms, Shai sent a note to Mabel asking her to meet him downstairs. Girls should suspect an invitation like this coming from a man, which by the way, he was a total stranger, but there was something familiar about him that told her she could trust her instincts.
"Here," Shai invited her to take a seat, touching the leather bag with the medicines.
The place was not completely dark. Some candles illuminated part of the canteen, the tables resting one on top of the other, showing it was the end of the day. The medicine was on top of the table where he supported himself. Shai's figure wasn't moving while Mabel walked up to him. When her back touched the chair as she sat down, she finally breathed.
"Why didn't your friends take care of it for you?" Shai said, pointing the finger at his own face.
"It's okay."
Shai smiled, realizing her face contorted by the candles reflection. "Don't worry about that, I'm not trying to seduce you." Then, he blew the wound to relieve the medication from burning her face.
Mabel had never been interested in someone before. She's been waiting for someone like Navi, someone who loved his home as he did, who didn't lose control easily as him. And she wanted to open her mouth and ask this guy if he could be the one she was looking for.
Mabel raised her hand to take the medicine out of Shai's fingers, feeling suddenly uncomfortable. "I'll do it."
Shai went back to the table, looking at her while she blindly took care of her face. "Where is your family? Why don't they care about the way you are right now?"
"My parents died."
"What happened?"
"Balthasar's men attacked Navon and my parents were killed." She answered him, her face shining of sudden anger and revolt. "I'm alone now. I have no one else, except my brother."
He stared at her for a long moment. "Why are you looking for your brother now? If he is your only family, why didn't you look for him before? Why did you wait to be alone in the world to remember you have a brother?"
"You know we don't usually go out looking for our family. You saw how Navi yelled at me for being here. It wasn't possible for me to be here before, but now I am. Why are you making me feel worse?"
"I'm not. I just want to know if you had no choice or if you deliberately forgot your brother who was exiled." The word "exiled" came out of his mouth with grief. Before that day, Mabel never realized that it was one of the worst punishments a young man in transition could get.
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