Maybe half of the summer had been wasted. That was the most disagreeable thing, the wasted time.
Well, that and the refund.
The man entered the bedroom in the little town's inn. He slid a bar over the door.
Another man was sitting at a table inside the room. The first man softly called out to the seated one, "Eh? Hello?"
The second man seemed too busy with his work to hear the greeting. He was using a dipped quill pen on some parchment, and he seemed rather fierce. His dominant arm moved almost as if he was fighting someone. There was a nervy grin on his face.
"Robi?" The first man said to the second, to the one writing and drawing at the desk as if his future depended on it.
Finally, there was a reduction of fire in the second man's eyes as he distractedly said, "Huh? What's the issue?"
"I had to give the last client a refund," the first man said.
That got the arm to freeze in the middle of a loop of ink. His brow wrinkled up and his voice turned suspicious. "Why? We couldn't have failed."
"We did," the first man insisted as he went over to the bed and sat on the edge. "She's alive. She'll be in the next city soon."
"Impossible," Robi said as he went back to his work. It was very likely that he was planning out some overly complex plan for something else. Whether he recognized the problem or not, he simply adored making something more complicated.
Shaking his head, the first man said, "It's true. We need to think of something else. Too much time was lost. We'll have to finish this while she's in the city."
"Kolos, I said it's impossible." Robi paused and pulled some cloth away from his belt. He patted his sweaty face with it. "The arrowhead was perfectly designed."
Perfectly designed to break like some cheap piece of shit.
Kolos' eyes rolled up, then down. He groaned. "Next time, you could use something more potent and dip a metal arrowhead in it."
Carelessly sweeping the wet parchment off one side of the desk, Robi made a tsk tsk noise with his teeth and lips. "Never do the same thing twice in a row." From a stack on the other side of the desk, he picked up a fresh sheet. With a far off voice, waist deep in his thoughts, Robi said, "I think I have a poison that's weak and undetectable in small amounts, especially when diluted."
Leaning over, his hands going to his spread thighs, Kolos looked down and groaned again. His fluffy, golden blond hair tumbled down a bit. "We don't have time to slowly kill her off day by day."
Dipping the point of his quill pen in ink, Robi said, "Don't be a cretin. I'm not going to do that."
***
The married women of this city also had their favored styles of head coverings. A simple, tight cap was popular. Sometimes they were decorated with braids of fabric, or yarn, even straw. Some women had a flowing veil pinned to their caps. The length and shape varied.
Rahela personally made a white linen braid to put over her forehead, over the cap she had while pretending to be married.
Inside the inn room she stayed in with her maids-in-waiting, her preferred maiden hairstyles were chosen.
When the first dinner of the trip was served, with the Emperor and his boys joining, Rahela had her favorite ribbon plaits.
The employees served each person an individual tray of foods. Rahela silently admitted that she was curious about the meal. She'd been craving meaty bacon, and she'd asked to have some. To her delight, when the man with golden blond hair removed the lid from her tray, there was a great amount of bacon.
During the meal, Rahela found that she was drinking much more water than she typically would. Soon, she was taking more wine. The thirst was intense. Halfway through her meal, she wondered about how it had all been seasoned. The food was unusually salty, even a bit spicy.
With a little sigh, she resigned herself to a night of much less sleep than normal. She'd wake up several times to find a chamber pot.
By the time the meal was finished, Rahela had taken three times as many liquids as everyone else. The Emperor even quipped about her being a "dainty little fish."
***
At this time, holding the Emperor's bare hand wasn't as unsettling as it had once been. Considering all the risky kisses she'd gotten in secret, this hand to hand contact was almost nothing.
Another marketplace in a city. Another early day.
The maids-in-waiting giggled and shopped. There were many pretty things to delight them. Soaps and ribbons. Yarn and fabric. Combs and creams. Rahela liked pretty things too, even luxurious things. She wasn't unaffected by all the temptation. Yet, her foolishly prideful nature had her refusing to buy anything she didn't need.
The Emperor had a prideful nature too. She'd gradually learned that during this long trip. He was pretending to be a husband, of course, and he had significant means, to say the least. His "wife" will certainly have a new thing from time to time. A pointless purchase. A simple brooch here. A fur-lined cloak there. A bolt of fabric. Some bobbins of thread. Even snacks. Rahela had admitted that she liked dried fish in gelatin.
It was only another shopping scene. Only that.
But Rahela was curious about something.
When she happened to look around at all of the people, slowly chewing on her fish snack, she thought she saw someone familiar.
That golden blond employee? The man that had served her food last night?
He disappeared in all the bustle. Fine. Nothing suspicious about that. People have the right to exist. They also have the right to move out of view. She wasn't in charge of that person.
Yana, the tall girl, she suddenly keened out and leaned forward at one point, her palm going to a local well. Her face shriveled. Oksana asked her what the matter was. Stomachache. The group decided to leave the marketplace to go into a shopping district that had literal buildings instead of stalls. At an apothecary's shop, Rahela watched the exchange between the cheerless Yana and the kindly, wizened woman that showed her a pouch of herbal medicine.
"Don't take more than a pinch of this into your beverage at a time," warned the apothecary, "and don't take more than a single cup's worth of a beverage within a fifteen minutes. If you take too much of this medicine too quickly, you'll have the worst diarrhea." Smiling, the old woman even said, "Some things are harmless or helpful in little quantities, but when you have too much at once you'll turn ill or dead."
What the apothecary said was overflowing with considerate and motherly intentions. Rahela saw no issue with her words. Nevertheless, she thought about that truth concerning dosages. She'd known about that truth for years, of course, but hearing about it made her ponder something.
Something that reminded her of salty foods.
Rahela chose not to speak to anyone about it.
***
It was almost time for autumn.
This was going to be the last day of camping.
In the distance, they could see a vague hint of a border wall protecting Yahsin itself, the center of the empire that Rahela was meant to spend the rest of her life in.
As everything was being arranged and settled, Rahela stood outside and stared at the wall. It looked like a line of ink dividing a sheet of parchment in half. At her sides, her maids-in-waiting stood by, her near constant companions.
To her left, Oksana gave a whimsical sigh and said, "Your Highness, you must be so excited to be so close to your new home."
Yana nodded as she reached up to improve the angle of her headdress. It was a light blue thing with little white ribbons forming vertical stripes. "I-it's nice to ... to be home."
"Have either of you been to the Imperial Castle?" Rahela asked.
"I haven't," Oksana said. She put her palms together and turned her head to smile at Rahela. "I have seen some of the roofs and towers, though."
Rahela gave an understanding nod and looked to Yana, who only shook her head.
"It wouldn't be absurd to assume the castle would be quite large," Rahela said as she turned herself around. When she started walking, the girls followed. "I won't torment myself with futile pondering. We'll see the castle eventually."
They walked all the way back to where their tent had been arranged. It was one of the first things set in place. It had looked very chaotic at the time, men hurrying to put everything in place but still treat everything as if they were precious.
Rahela said that she wanted to look at some of her collection of poisons. It was always wise to make sure nobody had picked the lock to take anything away.
But to her horror, as she sat her chest on top of a table to get a better look, Rahela noticed something. She put two fingers under the padlock and tilted the thing up.
There was a light chip in the outline of the keyhole.
There was no reason for that. Rahela was always smooth when she put her key inside.
Almost like a cat or bird, Rahela felt the hairs on her body stand up. Someone had most definitely picked the lock, or at least tried to. There was always the chance that some soldier had damaged the lock while moving the chest, but that hadn't happened in the past. There were thousands upon thousands of opportunities for any of the padlocks to be damaged. They'd all been pristine. In fact ...
Rahela told the maids to stand aside while she looked at all the other locks on her luggage. Perfect. Just as perfect as they'd been before this long trip. Well, except for the other chest of poisons. The padlock there had a chip in that keyhole too.
She put these two chests on the table and said to the maids, "Don't touch these." She looked to Oksana. "Find the head farrier." The farriers in the troop were meant to be around as much as possible to care for the horses' hooves and nail down horseshoes. "Ask him if he has anything that could snip through thick iron. If he gives you nothing, go to the cook. If he also gives you nothing, go to the medic. Go to as many people as you can reach until you find something. Then find the Emperor himself and ask him to hurry to my side."
While Oksana went off to do that, Rahela stayed with Yana. That tall girl was knelt down on the cloth floor, tapping her fingertips together and halfway whimpering. Her head was partially bowed. She didn't know what was going on but she certainly knew something was wrong.
