47
WAYFARERS
The companions returned to the tavern. Fenworth and Cam had taken over the kitchen where they created elaborate culinary delights. Mistress Meiger muttered that she didn’t think her customers would take to such fancy food, but she sat at the table and sampled everything that appeared. Toopka joined her since food always claimed her interest.
Kale led Bardon, Regidor, and Lyll to a stand of trees near the road. She pointed to an empty field next to the last building, the Widow Ord’s cottage, on the edge of the village.
“Most wagons stop here, and the people walk into town. This is where the market is held once a month. We can’t see it from here, but there’s a sign facing the road.”
Twenty minutes later, a colorful wagon rumbled toward the village of River Away. Just as Kale had predicted, the driver pulled the house-vehicle onto the grass and stopped. She had seen these odd wagons before, but they still fascinated her.
On top of a rectangular wagon bed, a house built like a barrel on its side provided shelter for the peddlers. Red wheels carried the blue box. Yellow stars and blue stripes decorated the rear wheels. Green curlicues adorned the blue box and the driver’s perch.
The top had windows cut in the side, and elaborate swirls and stars in blue and purple crowded every spare inch. Yellow curtains flapped out of the open windows. In the back, a red door allowed access to the odd home. Beneath this, a pan box hung. Kale knew that the pan box folded down to make a step, but it also held the cook’s instruments for fixing meals over an open fire.
The driver of the caravan passed the reins to a young man sitting beside him. He stood and stretched before jumping to the ground. He patted the horse closest to him on the rump and walked to its head.
“The driver certainly isn’t a meech,” observed Bardon from their hiding place behind thick ernst bushes. “Nor the young man. They look like father and son, don’t they?”
“Has anyone been able to penetrate their minds?” asked Regidor. “I’ve tried with no success. This feels much like the shield around the core of the ship Dar visited.”
“I can’t get in either,” said Kale. “But I have detected Toopka trying to sneak up behind us.”
Kale turned and gestured for the little girl to abandon her hiding place.
“Fenworth said I could come,” she explained as soon as she plopped down beside Kale.
“You tricked him, then,” said Kale.
Regidor slanted a disapproving glance Toopka’s way. “Pestered him until he hollered at you to leave?”
She nodded solemnly, then smiled. She squirmed between Regidor and Lady Allerion, so she could see through the bushes.
“Where’s the meech?”
“We haven’t seen him yet,” said Kale.
“The door’s opening,” said Bardon.
The older man left the horses and came to the rear of the wagon. He let the fancy steps down, and an older woman with a colorful scarf wrapped around her head climbed out. She looked critically around the open field and spoke. The old man frowned and gestured toward River Away.
“What are they saying?” asked Toopka.
“I don’t know,” answered Kale.
“Just a minute,” said Lady Allerion. “I think I can fix this.” An intent expression invaded her eyes.
Kale’s efforts to penetrate the shield had been so great that when her mother broke its power, a flood of impressions burst with a clamor into Kale’s mind. She fell backward and landed on her backside. Bardon snickered, and Regidor laughed.
“Shh!” hissed Lady Allerion. She looked over her shoulder at Kale. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you, Kale.” She cast a look of disapproval at Regidor and Bardon who were still smirking. “We’ll just have to assume that some of us were not as intent on doing our jobs and didn’t need a warning.”
Kale grinned at Bardon’s look of chagrin and Regidor’s thin-lipped grimace as she returned to her position.
“Where’s the meech?” asked Toopka, her head still pushed into the bushes. “I don’t see the meech.”
“I think our meech is now coming out of the wagon,” said Lyll.
The five became silent. Kale pulled her lips between her teeth and held her breath. A tall woman dressed in a deep purple gown descended the steps. A round hat with a wide brim covered her head. A dark blue scarf draped over the hat, completely covering the woman’s head and shoulders. She wore gloves and carried a small, beaded reticule.
“Well,” said Toopka. “Where’s the meech?”
Regidor answered with a whisper of air, “That is the meech.”
“He’s a girl meech?” Toopka turned unbelieving eyes to interrogate her elders. “How can he be a girl?”
“Maybe it’s a disguise,” suggested Bardon.
“No,” said Regidor. “He is a she.”
Lady Allerion eyed her companions. “Let’s gather information before they realize their ring of containment has been penetrated. Kale, you take the woman. Bardon, the two men. Regidor and I will concentrate on the meech. Do not forget to protect your own mind before you delve into theirs.”
Kale asked for Wulder’s protection and claimed her status as His servant searching for truth. The woman’s anger smacked Kale, and Kale had to mentally back up and approach more cautiously.
“When did that man stop listening to me? If he’d done what I’d told him, we wouldn’t be in this mess. Don’t deal with that sleazy wizard. Don’t take in that unnatural creature. Have we sold any potion? Not hardly! Not enough to cover our expenses. Yet he thinks we’re going to be covered in money and living in a castle when we finish this ‘job.’ What job? Carting her all over the country?”
The younger of the two men had unhitched the horses. He constantly turned his eyes to the meech but continued to do his chores. The older man got a padded chair out of the wagon and then placed it in the shade. The woman pulled supplies out of a hidden cupboard beneath the barrel house.
“Look at those men. Like father, like son. Crazy men! Obeying orders she doesn’t even speak.”
Kale glanced over at the female meech sitting motionless in the shade. A breeze stirred the scarf veil. The urge to know what the mysterious figure contemplated tempted Kale to abandon the angry woman and explore the meech’s thoughts.
Toopka sighed. “Aren’t we going to do anything?”
“Yes, we are,” answered Lyll.
Toopka’s ears perked up.
Lyll turned away from the scene of the wagon and its load of villains. “We’re going back to the tavern and report to Wizard Cam and Dar.”
Toopka’s shoulders slumped. Kale suppressed a giggle when she saw Regidor’s shoulders do the same.
With Lyll in the lead, the comrades crept out of the wooded area and circled the village to enter from the other side. They found Dar and the two wizards sitting out on the benches in front of the tavern.
Kale furrowed her brow in puzzlement. Knowing the councilmen of River Away, she couldn’t imagine Dar had been able to bring them to a decision this quickly. Dar lifted a hand in greeting as they approached.
“No, Kale,” he said. “They are not convinced, but Librettowit has taken over for me for the time being. He’s giving them the history of the problem.”
Kale planted her fists on her hips and turned to Lyll. “Does he read my mind?”
Lyll laughed, a hearty laugh unlike the musical tinkle of the other mother’s. “I can’t answer that. I will say doneels are not known to be mindspeakers, but are renowned for their diplomatic skills. I imagine their success in diplomacy stems from an acute discernment of others’ temperaments.”
Wizard Cam laid a hand on the sleeping wizard next to him. “Fen, wake up, old man. We have news of the culprits. You won’t want to miss this.”
“Who are you calling old?” The voice rumbled out of the leaves, but Fenworth did not resume his manly form.
“You,” answered Cam. “Come now, Fen. We have work to do.”
Kale watched as the wizard opened his eyes. His other facial features emerged from the bark, moss turned to hair, sturdy branches to arms and legs. Leaves became cloth and a pointed hat.
No wonder the mariones of River Away are goosy about having wizards around. Cam leaves a puddle of lake water wherever he pauses for more than five minutes. Fenworth transforms into a tree. And he always has small creatures skittering about, climbing through his hair and clothing, some flying out at unexpected moments. I think a year ago, I would have cowered at the sight of him.
“Precisely so!” said Fenworth, looking her straight in the eye. “I’m almost as much of an oddity as you are. Tut-tut. How narrow we are in our thinking! Tut-tut, oh dear.”
“The report?” prodded Dar. “Ladies first.”
He stood up and gestured for Lady Allerion to take his seat.
When she was settled, she took Fenworth’s hand as she spoke. She didn’t direct her words to him in particular, but clasped his hand in a friendly manner. The old man beamed at her, and Kale remembered Fenworth had said Lyll had once been his apprentice.
“We have found the culprits. There are two marione men and two ladies. One woman is also a marione. The other is our meech. She has a tremendously strong personality. She believes in what she is doing. Her drive to succeed is reinforced by her insatiable desire to win Risto’s approval.” Lyll turned to Kale. “Kale?”
“The marione woman is bitter and angry. She resents the devotion her son and husband show to the meech.” Kale turned to Bardon.
“The two men respond to the meech differently.” Bardon reached up and pulled a lock of dark hair. He smoothed it over his ear, a gesture Kale had seen him do many times. Now she understood the subconscious habit had a significance that probably even Bardon didn’t realize.
I’m glad Grand Ebeck sent him with us. Bardon has secrets, and I think he’ll be better off once he gets rid of them. I have secrets too. Only my secrets are hidden from me as well.
She looked at the woman who claimed to be her mother.
There’s one mystery.
“The father,” continued Bardon, “is motivated by greed. The son adores the meech with an unnatural devotion.”
Regidor unclenched his fist and rubbed his palm down the rough material of the clerical robe. “Her name is Gilda. She’s proud, vain, and deluded. She believes Risto is the savior of the people of Amara. She derives pleasure from her power over men and dragons. She enjoys giving orders to destroy.”
Kale’s mind had been puzzling over a problem, and she had to ask her question. “How does she influence the dragons as a fortuneteller?”
“She sets up the farmers to distrust their dragons. She foretells the dragons’ defection. She warns of their treacherous ways coming to the surface. Then at night, she visits the dragons and sows seeds of discontent. She has a poisonous tongue.” He grimaced. “She then confuses their thoughts so her victims have no clear memory of where they acquired these errant ideas.”
Regidor shifted his feet and took in a deep breath. “What I find most disturbing is the smile on her face as she contemplates evil.”
“You could see her face?” asked Toopka.
“No, I could feel the euphoria in her physical being as her mental images conjured up destruction.”
“Not a nice lady,” said Toopka.
“But one Paladin wants us to rescue,” said Bardon.
Regidor clenched his fist once more. “It would be easier to destroy her than to change her mind.”
“Well then,” said Fenworth as he came to his feet, “let’s go. Sounds like a delightful challenge before supper. Stimulate the appetite, or kill it. Interesting either way.”