I entered Pike’s tavern just as the sun made it over the horizon. Despite the early hour, there were two men chatting with the black haired maiden cleaning. It was the same girl the merchant had flirted with the night before. Markus was not positioned at the door as he was last night; a different guard lazily watched the scene unfold before him. His eyelids were half closed, slumped against the inside wall of the tavern.
I cautiously weaved my way around overturned tables and spilt liquid to the girl. The men glanced at me from the corner of their eyes. One lifted his eyebrows at my early appearance.
The older of the men asked, “Isn’t it a little early for games, Liana?” His hair was cropped short to the skull, but its gray color was clearly visible. The other sputtered a laugh between sips of liquor at his friend’s comment. He looked young enough to the old man’s son, with his blond hair still straw colored.
“Isn’t it a little early for stupid questions?” I attempted to bite back, my brain refusing to cooperate for a better insult. But it still did its job. Both men fell silent. The merchant’s beloved stared at me cautiously, eyes full of fear as though she knew what I could do. I grimaced at her. I laid a hand on the table she was cleaning. “Is Pike here?”
She refused to meet my eyes, but she nodded, scurrying behind the bar counter to grab him. He appeared with a concerned look in his eye, hair wild with curls. Deep circles were cut around his eyes. He waved me towards him. I took a seat at the bar while he stared me up.
“Heard your father is back in town,” he commented, eyebrows raised. “Heard you threatened to go to Chara all by yourself.”
The hair on my arms stood on end. The fact he had heard so quickly had to mean my father had to have sent word to his people to be on the lookout for me. I studied the guard more closely now. He was no one I knew or had met before, but there were many people under father’s command. Pike caught me eyeing his guard.
“Relax,” he drawled. “He’s so darn close to sleeping that he wouldn’t notice if you were the king himself.”
I rose to leave before Pike could send someone for my father. I would have to get my supplies for my trip elsewhere. My breathing increased as he put a hand on my arm. The long sleeve of his shirt rode up as he reached for me. I gasped as I noticed the lines cut into his wrist. It was all I could do to not rip my arm out of his grasp. He was like me. Either he didn’t notice or ignored my reaction to his scars.
“Your father will probably have my head for this, but we’ll worry about that another time. Now, I know that you have something you need to do in Chara. An act we won’t speak of here for fear of listening ears.” He briefly looked at the two men who were watching the conversation between Pike and myself like a predator getting ready to strike. “I also know that you’re the best one suited for the job.”
“How could you-?” I questioned, mind racing. It suddenly occurred to me that the only way he could know was because of the merchant. The maiden was his daughter after all and the merchant would have tried to impress her with his information from all the way in Chara.
He tapped his wrist with a finger. “I can read what you control.” He winked and smiled at my shell-shocked expression. My eyes widened with realization. He hadn’t needed the merchant to get anything. He got everything right out of my own head. Distrust of the man quickly darkened my thoughts as I thought of everything he could know about me. And about everyone.
He sighed and I realized he was reading my thoughts again. “Stop that!” I whispered fiercely. “How can I trust you?”
“Who said you needed to?” His lip curled. “You don’t really have any other choice, do ya? Your father has already sent word for people to be on the lookout for you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. My suspicion had been right then. He was already on the lookout for me. Father knew I was serious when it came to this. My pride rose when I realized he was finally thinking that I had enough guts to do something on my own. My thoughts quickly turned back to the dilemma at hand. Did I dare trust Pike’s word or my own gut? But they were telling me the one and same thing: father was looking for me and if I didn’t get out quickly, I was never leaving Aspen Port again. The next dilemma was that fact that I had no supplies of any kind. I’d remembered my money but there was hardly enough there to get me all the way to Chara.
“Sorry to interrupt, but I have a solution,” Pike said. I raised an eyebrow questioningly. Who knows what he had up his sleeve. “I will provide all supplies needed to get you to Chara in three days’ time.”
Pike drew a bundle of paper from his trousers then unrolled it to reveal a map of Lewin. “This is the quickest way to travel to King Leopold’s castle.” He drew a line with his finger from Aspen Port directly east. “I will arrange for a resting place tonight in Winburg. But it will be up to you to get there.”
I pondered if there was a cost to his information and why he was helping me.
“You’re not foolish for wondering if there’s a cost. Nothing in this world is free. It’s a good lesson to learn.”
“And what’s your ‘cost’?” I asked, wary of the answer.
He called out, “Provinia! Come here!”
The teenaged bar maiden with black hair scrambled from the room behind the bar, a large yellow bag hanging between her shoulders. “You have to take her with,” he commanded. “Since she’s disinterested in marrying that merchant, maybe she’ll like a prince instead.”
“At least the prince isn’t double my age,” Provinia muttered under her breath. She didn’t seem to care that he knew what she’d said.
“Fine, I’ll bring her with. But if she can’t keep up, I’m leaving her behind.”
“Oh, I’ll keep up just fine. I seriously doubt you know where you’re going, Liana,” Provinia said harshly. Taken aback by her rude manner, I seriously questioned whether or not I could finish this trip without killing her. Pike glared at me.
I studied the map, trying to see which path out of Aspen Port would be the best to take to avoid my father’s guards. Pike spoke up, “Don’t worry about them. He hasn’t actually sent anyone looking for you yet.” He smiled smugly.
Provinia snatched the map out of my grasp. She copied her father’s smile. “Don’t act as though you know where you’re going, princess. You hardly go outside the town limits.”
Provinia ended up leading me down a path behind the tavern, one she claimed to have taken before. Soon we were outside of town. It looked tiny from the hill we stood on. We continued on a path directly towards where the sun had risen that morning. Eventually, it grew higher in the sky. When it reached its peak, Provinia decided it was time for lunch. She opened the pack on her back and handed me a sandwich and an apple. I looked at her in disbelief.
“A sandwich?” I questioned. “That’s our lunch?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes,” she dragged out. “That’s what us poor folk eat.”
I took a bite and found it to be alright. The bread felt crusty compared to what we ate at my house, but I decided commenting on that would make me look more privileged.
“My life isn’t all glamor, ya know,” I told Provinia. She stopped midbite but didn’t interrupt. “My father expects much of me. It’s hard sometimes.”
Provinia choked on a laugh. “It’s hard, huh? Poor little princess has the house to herself and everyone does what she says.” The words were sharp against her tongue.
“I don’t understand.”
“Of course not,” she huffed. “You’re powerful. You can do anything you want.”
“I can’t leave.”
“You just left.”
“I had to leave everything behind to do that.”
“It seems to you just want something to complain about.”
“That’s not true!” I argued.
She wheeled to look at me with those icy blue eyes. They were daggers to the heart. “With your father’s power, you can do anything. Most people are scared of you,” she stated. “And if that doesn’t work you can control minds and manipulate people into doing anything you want. You can literally do anything you want.”
“My gift is not as all-consuming as you would think. People can fight it. Is that what you fear? To lose control of your mind?” My voice had risen to a shout. “I’m not a monster. I don’t recklessly intrude into people’s heads. Unlike your father.”
Her teeth clicked together. “He has no control over what he hears. He has trained for years in order to maintain the degree of control he has now. Without that training, he would’ve gone mad ages ago,” she defended.
“You think I like using my powers?” I asked. “I use them as little as possible. I don’t like taking people’s choices away from them, but sometimes you have to.”
“You frighten people. People underestimate me. Do I look scary to you?” Provinia asked.
That momentarily caught me off guard. “Of course not.”
“Exactly. People overestimate you, but no one thinks me capable of defending myself. Even my father thinks I’m unable to make it Chara on my own.” Her mouth was a straight line as she spoke. “Maybe its partially my fault though. He always focused on the mental parts of training which makes sense with his gift of mind reading. But mine is physical. I should’ve said something.”
“You seem bitter,” I remarked. “Do you blame him?”
“Sometimes. I wish he would’ve spent more time preparing me for using my ability to fight. Especially with the rebellion growing closer towards King Leopold every day.”
“Everything I’ve learned was on my own.”
Her gaze met my own and understanding filled her eyes. Neither of us talked until we made it to Winburg.
**********************************************************************
Provinia led me to the center of town where an inn stood. We entered through the tavern in front. It was set up similarly, but it maintained a lighthearted atmosphere that would’ve not felt at home in Pike’s tavern. There was no sense of mystery here; there were no shady deals in the corners. Even the men were more relaxed and less rowdy; their attitude towards the games was muted. No one cared whether they won. It was a strange sight for me to behold.
Provinia headed straight for the counter, where a middle-aged woman stood. “Hello, Miella! It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
Miella nodded at Provinia. “Your father called ahead already made arrangements for the two of you.” Miella’s head barely reached my shoulder, black ringlets suddenly cutting off at her waist, as though someone had slashed it with a knife. The ends were uneven.
Miella showed Provinia and I to a rough wooden table with two chairs. We sat and she promised to bring us dinner in a few moments. My shoulders relaxed at the thoughts of food, and I slumped against the table. Provinia’s spine stayed ramrod straight, peering cautiously at the other people in the room.
“Relax,” I said. “We’re safe here.” She raised an eyebrow at my calmness.
A moment later, Miella served Provinia and I with a soup. I took a sip of it, finding it delicious, and slurped it down. I finished mine first and went to stand to return the empty bowl to Miella, but swayed. I tried to catch myself, but my hands weren’t under my own control. Across the table Provinia made a grunt-like noise as though struggling herself. Mind fogged, I wondered if I was simply exhausted from the long day. I fell to my knees, busting one open. Blood flowed onto the floor. Pain flared as one clear point in my head. It was a terrifying feeling having no control. My vision grew dark and there was no more pain.
ns 15.158.61.7da2
