After an uncomfortable start to the morning in town, Mina must face the reality of Saecula Saeculōrum.
If you’re just joining this story, you may want to start from the beginning.
♫♪Suggested Music: Persian music on AudioNetwork
Mina awoke the next morning as the early sun broke though the loft window, muted by the hood pulled over her head. What she could see from her view hindered by the hood, was Yuila's hood, also covering most of her face, where the girl slept beside her. After a moment of semi-consciousness, Mina sat up slowly and removed her hood, then drew back when Edvard crouched beside her and pulled her hood back up.
"Keep it on until we leave," he said lowly. "Yuila, too. And keep her quiet."
Mina nodded, then chanced to look to where the soldiers had been during the night as Edvard began packing their belongings. One soldier remained, slouched into a corner against the far wall, watching them. He was younger than she thought a soldier would be, deciding he was in his early twenties, at the most. She hadn't been able to distinguish any of the soldiers apart last night, so she didn't know which one was left.
And it didn't matter anyway, she thought, reaching over to shake Yuila. He was still armed, and in their loft, and that was all that mattered.
"But I want to sleep," Yuila groaned, pulling her hood closer. "It's so soft here."
"I know, but we're leaving. And keep your hood up." She leaned closer to the girl. "And don't make a fuss. We're not alone, Yuila."
This got the young Crone's attention, and she sat up swiftly, one hand securing her hood. Mina tried to block her view of the soldier, but the girl looked around her.
"Who's he?"
"A soldier. Now let's get moving."
Yuila stood and let Mina comb her hair under the hood with her hand. "I can see he's a soldier, Sapo."
They hurriedly packed their bags and had gotten to the ladder when the soldier rose and stopped Edvard. Mina urged Yuila on ahead of her down the ladder as Edvard paused to speak to the man.
At the animals below, Mina deposited their bags beside the mule and looked to the ladder, hearing muted voices from the loft. She couldn't understand anything that was said, except Edvard's adamant denial of something. When the man and Edvard appeared at the bottom of the ladder, Yuila lowered her head to the mare's side, busying herself with her shawl.
"The brothels are full. I'll give you three times what the women usually charge," the soldier said, following Edvard to where the horses were tied.
"No. That's final," Edvard said tightly.
Mina's thoughts froze at the words, her mind filling in the gaps. She ducked beneath Makka's rope and stood beside Yuila. "Don't say a word, Yuila," she whispered to her.
Yuila's hood nodded in return.
"Maybe she'd like to make some money," Mina heard the soldier say. "I'll ask her."
Mina kept her head lowered at the sound of a sword being drawn. Yuila clutched the older girl's cloak, burying her head in it.
"I say no," Edvard said. "You're done here."
For a long moment Mina heard nothing, and then the soldier left the stable, cursing as he went. She sighed, chancing a glance up to where Edvard was holstering his sword, watching the man leave.
Yuila peeked out from her hibernation as Mina pushed her hood back a little.
"He's gone," she told the girl. "But keep your hood on in the streets." She looked to Edvard as he saddled the mare. "Thank you."
He nodded, studying her for a moment. "Mina, there are a lot of soldiers and travelers in town. You and Yuila are going to have to watch. Some may be more persistent. Stay close and don't speak to anyone."
She nodded, handing him a saddle pack.
Yuila sighed, patting the mare's neck. "What did he want?"
Mina chose not to look up, instead feeling her face heat as she dropped another pack by the mule.
"What every soldier wants in town," Edvard finally said. He tightened the saddle cinch on the mare. "We'll get our supplies and be out of here soon."
They made their way through the busy thoroughfare of the village. Yuila was content to walk between the mare and gelding as they traveled on foot, her hood and shawl pulled close, relying on Sova to lead her. Mina was at Neito's head, one hand on the gelding's mane, her attention divided between the traffic ahead and the Crone behind her.
The incident was on Edvard's mind as they entered the shop selling clothing and blankets. He watched Mina and Yuila as they cautiously examined the fleece-lined dresses and skirts, speaking quietly to each other. He saw Mina hold up a periwinkle overdress of wool to Yuila, sizing the young girl's slim form. The soldier's proposition wasn't entirely a surprise to Edvard; he just thought it would come in a larger town. The auction had swollen Ditimar to unusual proportions. He thought he may be approached in one of the busier towns that marketed slaves to sell Mina, and especially Yuila if it was discovered she was a Crone. He had known of that prospect as soon as he had decided to return her, before even meeting Mina on the road. He hadn't expected soldiers to be present in any town they passed through.
Or the Derans. He didn't want to be on the trade road if they were, but he didn't really want to go through the mountains, either. Although summer in the grasslands, there would very likely be much colder temperatures over the pass. Maybe even snow.
"Take them both," he said to Mina as she tried to decide between the periwinkle dress and a mild yellow flannel slip for Yuila. He nodded to two other pieces of clothing she had considered for herself. "Those, too."
She looked with misgivings at the clothes, shaking her head. "I don't need more, Edvard. I have—"
"Get them, Mina." He looked to where the shopkeeper was watching them hopefully. "I don't know how far it is to these mountain people, or if they'll take boarders."
Her eyes went over the dresses, then to him. "I told you before, I can't pay for anything."
"Mina, I don't expect you to," he said lowly. "You can't go into the mountains with a bunch of cotton frocks. These will be warmer."
"Thank you. For everything, Edvard."
He nodded, an awkwardness seeming to envelop the shop. He cleared his throat and looked to where Yuila had grown strangely still. "Stop trying to read my mind, Yuila," he growled.
The girl's hood bobbed.
After they left the shop, they headed amid the crowd to a few other merchants, trying to anticipate what goods would be best to use to bargain for lodging in the mountains. After a few careful inquiries at several merchants, Edvard decided on the staple supplies of rope, wax, two bags of tea leaves, a bale of carefully wrapped stevia, three bags of potatoes, and two bags of dried beans for trading. He loaded the new clothes and supplies needed to see him and the girls through the next week on Makka, making sure the stevia was buried in a pack so the mule couldn't reach it for a nibble.
The auction had started at noon and the streets were a little less crowded as Edvard and the girls passed through on the horses. He felt Mina's fingers clutch his shirt nervously as they crossed a group of soldiers loitering outside a noisome ale house. Yuila had pulled the hood to her shawl tightly over her head, and Edvard had attached a second rope to the mare's bridle in case the girl wandered farther than she had planned.
At the outskirts of town the girls discarded the hoods and breathed easier. Mina didn't realize her hands were knotted in Edvard's shirt until they had left Ditimar half an hour behind. She relaxed her hold, sighing, then looked over at Yuila as the girl began humming. A true sign of contentment, she thought.
They had checked the well in the village before leaving to see if Bersi was still there. He was not, and they were confident his nephew had collected him.
They kept on the trade road for another hour with no sight of Derans, but Edvard turned off as the trees thickened alongside and the crop fields grew sparser, not wanting to get caught by surprise by Derans around a bend any more than in an open area without any cover.
What they encountered was not much of a trail, and little more than a path, even less so than the trail they had taken to detour through the widow's place before Pantia. The low hanging, sprawling trees kept them on vigil and twice Yuila got a mouthful of fir needles when she was too busy trying to catch a pinecone rather than guide Sova. The second time, the girl looked sulkily at Edvard as if he had anything to do with it.
"Watch where you're going," he told her. "Why do you want a pinecone anyway? You can't eat them."
The Crone didn't answer, but consigned herself to humming lower.
Mina looked ahead of them at the ground strewn with dried pine needles and broken cones. "Do you camp in the winter, too, Edvard?"
"You mean, at home?"
"Yes. With all your, well, your family."
"No. We have a winter home on the valley ridge. We camp every other summer."
"Why?"
He shrugged, batting a fly off Neito's neck. "Change of pace, I guess. Not the same place every other year, but within one of the valleys. It lets the fish stock up in the lakes, too, at the winter house."
Yuila stopped humming and looked over to them at the mention. "What kind of fish?"
"Well, pike, and catfish, and trout and smaller kinds." He shook his head. "Nothing like the big ones you have at home, Yuila. And no large turtles, either."
The girl nodded, disappointed. "We have enormous fish on the coast. My father caught one once that was bigger than me." She sighed. "But I was littler then, but it was still big."
"Do you swim?" Mina asked.
"Sometimes. Only in the still water. Near the rocks." She pushed an intrusive tree branch out of her way. "Where do you live, Sapo? Near the water?"
"Uh, no." Mina frowned, studying the girl's look of genuine curiosity. "In a town. A small one."
"What's it called?"
Mina shrugged. "I'm not sure. I can't remember that part."
"Maybe, if you try real hard to think about it," the girl offered, "I can tell you what it is."
Mina wondered if it would work. "Could you really do that, Yuila?"
The younger girl shrugged as Edvard looked to her. "I don't know. I mean, it sounds like it would work."
"All right." Mina concentrated on one thought, watching the girl's reaction. "What am I thinking?"
For a long moment Yuila returned her attention, then shook her head. "You're not thinking anything, Sapo."
Mina sighed. In her mind she had pictured the mass of blank faces that kept coming into her thoughts lately, ones she thought were her new classmates from the new school, that she couldn't focus on. Maybe the thought was too vague for the Crone. She tried a more concrete image. "How about now?"
Yuila's face drew into such an intense scowl Edvard chuckled. "You're thinking about how there might be snow and how you hate the snow and Neito will fall and kill you."
"Yuila," Edvard said sternly.
"No," Mina said, sighing again. "Not even close."
"Well, what was it then?"
"I was thinking about braiding your hair," Mina lied. She'd actually been thinking about the long bow strapped to the mule's side and how she was itching to ask Edvard more about it.
"Well, it wasn't too clear," Yuila mumbled, and went back to humming.
"I don't think she can read minds," Mina said to Edvard as they ducked beneath a low tree limb. "Do you have teachers? At your house?" That wasn't exactly what she'd meant to ask. "I mean, tutors?"
"Yes, until last year." He looked to her. "Have you?"
"Well, there was a school nearby. I went to it, for a while."
"You did?"
"Well, yes. Girls go, too," she explained.
"I guess so."
"You really don't have any sisters, do you?"
"No. And if I did, they wouldn't be going to school. It's just, well . . ." He shrugged, uncertain what he meant to say. "Well, it's not done in Saecula Saeculōrum. No girl would go to a school. Tutors, maybe. But not a school, even if there was one close. Didn't you get teased? Or did all the girls go to school?"
"They all did. What is Saecula Saeculōrum?"
"That's where we found you, Mina. Where we are now. My country." He turned in the saddle to look at her better. "You didn't know that?"
For a moment she just returned his stare, then tried to laugh. "I guess I'm more lost than I thought."
He turned back to face the road ahead of them. "Well, in that case, this," he said, making a sweeping motion before them, "is Sombra Mundi, in case you've forgotten our world."
Mina swallowed hard, trying to remember to stay on the horse as she began to feel a little dizzy.
His hand closed over hers at his side. "I'm just joking, Mina. I know you haven't forgotten."
If there is ever an opportunity to tell him, she thought, this is it. She glanced over at Yuila, who had stopped humming. "Of course not."
"That's just silly," Yuila said, shaking her head.
Not our world, Mina thought, trying to clear her head. Your world, not mine. She looked at the pine needle covered path before them, the tall coniferous trees towering overhead, the intermittent suns playing light games in the forest.
It was now official.
She was gone. Lost.
He had even told her so. It had taken over a week, but she had to face the fact that she was not home, or going home. There was no place to go to.
A sudden screech of an owl ahead of them broke the silence and they saw it perched on a high limb. It opened its wings as they passed, large yellow eyes unblinking as the horses and mule laid their ears back at it.
"It was just a joke, Mina," Edvard said, mistaking her quietness. "I know you know. And there's nothing wrong about girls learning. It's just different."
"Oh, I know. I was just thinking about," she paused, sighing, "wondering about home. That's all."
PG13, saga; teen, fantasy, fantasy world travel, teen romance, clean romance, realm, magical realism, shadow world, school/new school, high school, fiction, serial. #ReadFree with free signup. ♫♪
Thanks to P.G. Waters for the use of her story!