the Leathermines

Back to Chapter 2

 

 

The Inn at the crossroads they finally stopped at was only one of several larger buildings that were at the obvious trading and resting point in the road.  Geralk tied his mule to a post in front of the Inn and opened the door for Laun.  She hesitantly went into the darkened room before the merchant, but found that the white painted walls and the fattened Innkeeper and his wife were instantly amicable to her when they saw Geralk.

“You are going to the Festival on Lord Falmir’s land?”  The Innkeeper swiped at a permanent stain on the pine table before he set tankards of ale down before the two travelers.

The merchant pressed a piece of metal into the Innkeeper’s hand without making a show of it and said, “I shall be heading that way myself, but my Lady here will be parting my company tonight to follow another road.”

“I see.”  The knowledgeable thumb ran across the face of the unseen coin as it was put into a pocket on the Innkeeper’s tunic, the smile widening slightly.  “Shall I bring a joint of meat and some pies for you and the Lady?”

“That, and have Marie come to my Lady Laun to help her wash some of the road from her.”

The cheerful Marie came out from behind the bar of rough pine and gently took Laun to another room past a curtain in the main room.  The curtain was drawn closed again and Marie set about pulling out a few items from a chest of drawers on one side of the room and putting them on the table in the middle of the room.  Laun recognized cleaning items and started to pull at the straps of the backpack to get it off her back.  She put it on the table and started to pull out things that Lord Helmic’s people had left for her.

“Ah!  Lady, you are prepared, aren’t you.”  Marie started to pour water from a pitcher into the large bowl she had brought out of the drawers.

“I have to admit that I was...given these things as I left my Master’s lands very suddenly and I still am unprepared for my journey.”

Marie did not say anything as she finished what she was preparing at the table.  Cloths and soap and oils and ointments crowded the table around the washbasin.  Marie came to Laun and started to take the cape from her shoulders.  Laun looked panicked and Marie calmed her by saying, “We need to get you clean and presentable as a Lady should be.”  Marie did suppress a small gasp as she saw the condition of Launs hands and again at the leather warriors harness under the ripped tunic.

Laun had not realized that her hands were as damaged as they were until she dipped her hands into the cold water.  The clear water instantly clouded with the silt and dirt and blood that had clung to her over the last three days.  The soap stung as she lathered, but also was comforting as it cleaned her wounded hands and her dirt layered face.  Marie clucked as she saw the bruise come out from under the dirt and then the redness under the slightly peeling skin on the girl’s nose.

Marie took the tunic from Laun’s shoulders and brought out a thin, laced-up tunic from another of the drawers.  Laun would not let Marie take the arming harness off, the Innkeeper’s wife was partially glad for it was not something she was very familiar with.  Marie cleaned Laun’s skin around the leather of the harness, putting ointments on where the tender skin had rubbed raw, small strips of cloth on ones that were openly bleeding to protect them.  The boots, though soft, had also provided some blisters on Laun’s feet and washing those sore feet was both pleasurable and painful to Laun.  Ointment went on the unaccustomed Lady’s hands and the thin tunic went over the harness.  Marie had Laun sit on a stool and passed a comb and then a brush through the tangled hair to make it cleaner and more presentable.  A thong tied off the braid that Marie put into the Lady’s hair and then a small black hair stick pinned the hair up off her neck.  A set of soft linen socks went over Laun’s salved feet and into slippers, again produced from the chest of drawers.

Geralk’s roving keen eye stopped on Laun as she came back out from behind the curtain almost an hour and a half after she had gone in with the Innkeeper’s wife.  She still had a weary look about her, but cleaned, coiffed and with a long, plain tunic on, she looked much more like a woman, if not a lady, than the dirty waif the merchant had met on the road.

It was almost night as the meal that had been bought with the crown plate pushed into the Innkeeper’s hand was placed on the table in front of Geralk and Laun.  Laun did have some difficulty in holding the utensils, but Marie was kind enough to quietly bring a plate of soft small bread and sliced meat to the Lady’s place when she came to refill the tankards.  Geralk noticed and nodded appreciatively to the woman.

Laun was ravenous and the first few bites that came to her mouth were swallowed before she could really taste them.  Geralk put a hand on hers and said, “If you are to be the Lady your Master wanted, you should slow down so you do not choke and kill yourself.”

She had a look of surprise and then guilt on her face, but did as her host asked, taking each bite as though there may be metal in it.  The carefully chewed morsels made for a much more satisfying meal and Laun could feel her stomach filling in a pleasant way.  It also allowed for conversation which brought both the new Lady and the old merchant companionship and information.  Laun was unpracticed, having only watched the small talk that most commoners and nobles are brought up with, so the Merchant changed his tack after many hesitant answers from his guest.

Geralk started telling a small story of a housemother he had sold some pennyroyal salve to a few days before.  “...and when she came out and said that it was fleas that she needed to get rid of, I swear she was more embarrassed than if it had been a full case of the clap!”

Laun was confused for a moment but then put her hand over her mouth to keep the food from spewing onto the table.  She finished chewing, swallowed and then let her companion see her smile.  “Oh, I don’t think anyone has talked like that to me - ever!  I know of several of the other dancer slaves that, um, provided other entertainments and had to have medicines once in a while.  I can’t see how fleas would be worse, but people are strange.”

The merchant offered a piece of succulent veal to Laun by placing it on her plate.  “People are sensitive to what others think of them.  Some, such as the housemother would find it a personal affront if anyone thought that her house was unclean enough to have fleas.”

Laun tilted her head and thought for a moment.  “I watched as the nobles interacted and thought I understood.  Now I am not so sure.  The beautiful Ladies would be so soft spoken and hang on every word of their Lord and smile at my Master.  They would talk amongst themselves as if they had always been the best of friends.  But I would see the women look at each other as though they hated each other when their backs were turned.  And they seemed to be more gracious the more that hatred showed.”  She looked at Geralk.  “They were seeing if what they were doing impressed the others?”

Geralk nodded.  “You saw it from the outside.  It is an interesting perspective, and one that I hope that you can use on your journey.”

Laun glanced outside and watched a group of five men on horses going past the torches in front of the Inn.  “I feel lost, Geralk.  My Master gave me this to do, and I have met you, which has been such a wonderful thing, but I really don’t know what to do next.  I just can’t do anything but...”  She softened her voice to a whisper. “-dance.”

The merchant lifted his tankard of watered hard cider.  “You have the touch of the angels on your soul, Lady.  What you need to do you will do, and I salute you.”  He indicated that Laun should do the same.

Laun lifted her own tankard and hesitantly said, “I thank you for your kindness and wish that you have nothing but profit.”  They both smiled and took swigs from their tankards and continued to talk.  They learned some of each other, though Geralk would not know how much the new Lady had learned from him in that one conversation.

Laun kept seeing groups of four or five mounted men go past the Inn and realized they were going all in the same direction - the direction that Laun and the merchant had come from.  She dropped the chicken leg she had been daintily nibbling on and stiffly walked to the door.  Geralk was at her side and they both went outside to watch the progression of mounted men go past.  They were in small groups, and if they had been going towards the festival, it may not have been as remarkable.  Laun felt her face flush and turned away from the next group of men before they came within the circle of light.  Geralk put his arm around her and pulled her face to his shoulder, a small silver bell pushed into her cheek from the tip of his collar.  She could feel a nod from the merchant at one of the groups and then she let herself be led back into the main room of the Inn.

Geralk almost didn’t hear Laun as she whimpered into his shoulder, “He will be dead by morning.  And he was nice to me.  Why is this happening to me?”

Marie was instantly at her side and took Launs’ other arm to support her to the table again.  A rough cloth was offered to mop the tears from her eyes.  “I have told you much, but I saw them go past and realized that the noble who I met at the Inn today will be the next to die.”  Laun sank onto the bench.

“Lady?  Do you need anything?”  Marie gently patted Laun’s shoulder.

Laun shrugged, wincing at the pull of the harness on a sore spot there.  “I do not have anything to give you for your kindness-”

Geralk interrupted.  “Whatever you need tonight, you shall have, Lady Salam-Dir.”  The seriousness of his voice stopped the sniffles that had started up in Laun’s nose.

“Thank you.  I will never be able to repay you.”

Geralk sat next to Laun and took one of her hands.  “I will be forthright with you, Lady.  I trade in information.  The information you have, though you may not know it, is very valuable.  If you are up to it, I will like to go over the last few days in detail with you so that any information you have comes out and that I have it accurate when I find the right people for it.  In exchange, I will try to tell you what you may need to know about this outside world and make sure you are comfortable for tonight.”

Something changed in how Laun saw the man next to her.  Kind, yes, but he was there to make a profit.  A profit on her grief and misery.  If that was the way of the world, she would learn as much from him this night as she could.  Laun nodded.  “We may need to be in a bit more private area, as there are others around.”  Laun looked at Marie still at her shoulder.  “Though I feel that you trust these good folk with your life.”

The merchant nodded in a differential way.  “That I do, and have for years.  Though a coin once in a while doesn’t hurt, does it?”

Marie smiled and said, “That is right true, good sir.  Shall I set up a private room for you?”  Geralk nodded and she left to go behind one of the curtained rooms off the main room.

The Innkeeper helped to transfer the food to the private room as Laun and Geralk slowly walked to the curtain.  The few others in the main room did not turn as they went by, but Laun could feel at least one set of eyes on her back before they stepped through the curtain.

Laun detailed as much to Geralk about what she had seen for the last few days as she could.  She was still very tired, but the food and rest made it possible for her to give a detailed account.  Her perspective on what had happened at the Salam-Dir keep changed as she had journeyed to Lord Helmic’s lands and past.  Having seen the death, and finding out more from Geralk about the world as they had walked together, Laun had to start from the beginning several times as details, like the bandits not wanting to burn things, came to mind.  She tried to not hold anything back, but some things just were being suppressed as she glossed over the bodies and actual death she had seen.

In exchange, the merchant quickly taught Laun what he could about how the outside world was like, from his perspective.  He went through a litany of noble do’s and don’ts that would catch her if she wasn’t careful.  Many of them seemed arbitrary, but having been a slave all of her life, the reasoning behind a rule didn’t matter to Laun, it just was.  Some of the don’ts she remembered happening at gatherings that the nobles she was entertaining would gasp at in seeming horror, though many times the situation turned into a good thing to talk about for the noble women she attended.  Geralk even went over how she should ignore those of a lower rank because she was a landed noble, which she did understand but not like.  He taught her about the coins she held and what value they had, and how to use them.  Geralk even glazed over the exchange rates for the Rosemond currency, but it was a little much for the new Lady.  Laun’s eyes were getting tired as they went over the list of denominations again and she pushed the paper away.

“I know barter.  It is what we had to do to get some things in the castle.”  The Lady Salam-Dir looked at the copper disks in her palm, with a now recognizable numeral and a profile of the King on one side, the Midlands Tree and Crow on the other.  “Money is...valuable but valueless, isn’t it?”

Geralk sneered and chortled at that.  “I guess it is, Lady.  Without the King behind the coin of the realm, we would never know if the next person would accept one copper for a meal or would insist on a handful of silver for the same thing.”

Laun looked at a scab on her wrist when she realized she was picking at it.  “The King has been at the head of the nobility for longer than I have been alive.  Should he know about what is happening to the nobles under him?”

The merchant swirled the cider in his tankard.  He looked at the light bubbles swimming at the top of the beverage, shimmering as they grew together in the lamp light.  “Until I know more about what is going on, I would not even dare approach him with any of this information.”

Laun looked up again.  “You don’t believe that the King would be involved...?”

Geralk looked deeper into his cider.  “I cannot see how it would be anything but bad for him.  It may be some greyworld Master getting too big for the outlaws.  But it just doesn’t make sense.  I do not remember any rumbles from the greyworld about anything this big.”

Laun moved to the window and looked into the blackness.  She thought about the blackness mirrored in her future, the unknown that was everything right then.  “My world has changed.  There is nothing I know that can help me.”

The merchant thought as he looked back and forth between his drink and Laun.  “Information is best gathered at the source.  Just like water, it muddies as it flows along, picking up things that changes what it was.”

Laun turned and looked at the merchant.  She did not say anything.  She was outwardly calm as she thought about what Geralk said. The thought of the Grey Waters she crossed made her think all information was muddied.  She turned back to the window and patted her blistered hands together.

It was several minutes before Laun said anything.  When she did, there was an edge to her voice that Geralk had not heard before.  “Thank you for your advice and instruction, Geralk.  You were right to tell the Innkeeper that we would be parting tomorrow.  You will be able to sell your wares at the Festival.  I will try to find out more about the bandits.  I just ask that you keep the information we have discussed to yourself until I can find out and get at least a message to you.”  Laun turned.  “For the sake of...my people.”

A change had happened in Laun that Geralk saw in that phrase.  Geralk nodded, both to the Lady and to himself.  “It is late, Lady.  Do you wish to retire for the evening?”

Laun nodded, picked up the cape on the back of the chair across from Geralk and put it over her shoulders.  She was looking around and had started towards the corner she had picked when Geralk laughed out loud.

He stood and held out his hand to her.  “May I escort you?”

Laun hesitated and said, “My pack...?”

“Marie and Disa will make sure you have everything you came with.”

The small room towards the back of the Inn had a lockable door to keep the occupant safe while asleep in the soft bed.  Laun was grateful for the bedding to sleep in as floors and leaves had taken just about as much toll on her body as the rope had on her hands.  It had not been an easy life as a slave, but it was harder on the road than she had ever known in her life.  With her meagre things with her in the room and the door locked on her side, she felt secure enough to relax.  Tears and sobs followed each other for quite a while until Lady Laun just did not have any more tears in her.  A light tip-tap of rain on the window broke the silence in the room.  Laun felt that the tears that had left her were now coming from the sky.  She laid down under the feather-filled quilt and fell into sleep.

Onto Chapter 4  Laun Follows the road towards the bandits, finding information in everyday interactions