• The House That Built Me by Miranda Lambert •
The ride was, as Citra had promised, long but safe. The path that the Moon illuminated was the safest route, devoid of any wildlife that could harm them or be harmed by their presence. And by the time they reached the southern edge of the forest, the Sun was taking over. What great teamwork, Jade thought.
Jahima was shrouded by the niceties of the festival, the sounds of wheels rattling on the undulating terrain, the chatter of people, and the warm smell of rye bread. The realm waited for the approaching party with open arms and Jade was more than eager to rush into the embrace.
But there was still work to be done.
She stepped down from the bicycle seat, using her back and hips to keep the cart from rolling forward. Sweat trickled down her temple and neck and she rubbed it off with the back of her palm.
"My Queen, should I-" Citra wanted to take over but a shake of Jade's head stopped her.
When Jade hopped back on the seat, a dark pall rested over her hair and nose. She pedaled forward and let themselves other carts, carriages, and palanquins going towards Jahima.
She watched the liveliness of her people, the colorful stalls, most open and selling breakfast to the incoming tourists, and the pattolling sentries. The soldiers still wore the redwood crest on the back of their winter uniforms. They were still Jade's soldiers, not Sillia's.
If Sillia thought Jade would fall for it, she was wrong. Jade had learned her lesson.
The Queen pulled her disguise tighter and looked around. Life went on as it always did
Did they not know about their Queen's disappearance?
She remembered the Professor's note from two weeks ago, informing that the Emperor had decided against making the news of the Princess' disappearance public. But the people of Jahima must have figured out about Jade's disappearance when she didn't return as planned.
Her courtiers should have raised a ruckus
"Your Highness, it's here," she heard Citra's soft voice from behind her and pulled the tires of the bicycle to a stop. Hopping off the seat, Jade stretched her arms and legs to pop the joints that had been sitting in the same way for too long.
Once she looked up to behold the establishment they had stopped in front of, she snorted at the signboard.
Malinpuu
Omistaja: Mali
Kuningattaren puolesta
Sometimes, Jade felt that her people gave her too much credit, and celebrated her for no real reason. She knew Larimar would be giving her an earful for even thinking such things, and smiled again, at the thought of the Princess.
And for the first time, Jade raised her head to look at the sky and inhaled the musty smell people associate with rain and greenery. The sky was dark, but only because the Sun hadn't really woken up yet. Rain was still, she concluded, at least days away.
She prayed for rain to be delayed for as long as possible, for the festival would be put an end to otherwise. She sighed and walked towards the shop's door when Citra called out.
The door led her into a wooden wonderland. In the light of the dawn streaming through a window, she saw a large enough room, with the same tapestry on the walls as the house in Kalk, and a cabinet full of small wooden trinkets, ready to be sold. Behind it stood an unusually tall and burly man, with rusty hair, striking blue eyes, and a constellation of freckles over his nose and cheeks. Jade's eyes didn't halt for long near his mien but went to the wall behind him. Illuminated by a candle's light were shelves on the wall that carried numerous trinkets and tools.
"Welcome, our Queen, to our humble shop," the man spoke in a cheery tone that matched his spouse's. "We haven't opened yet for the festival, but may I interest you in something?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm not really here to buy anything," Jade conjectured, sounding apologetic for not bringing any business.
Mali laughed. "Buy? Your Highness, everything in this shop is because of you. It's all yours. Name anything, and take it away. Or if you want me to make you something special, just give me a day and you shall have it." Jade looked from him to Citra, and both of them smiled back at her, encouraging her.
"Umm.." she went down a thought spiral, and looked about. Even though she didn't want anything, she knew, she felt that this shop had something that was supposed to be hers. She felt it - Larimar would have described it as "an energy" - coming from the shelves behind the woodworker but didn't know how to reach out to what was calling her.
"Would you prefer it if we suggested something, our Queen?" Citra asked, a smile and blush never leaving her face. Jade nodded with pursed lips.
She watched as her host walked towards her husband, crossed him, and started rummaging through the very spot her heart was being beckoned to. "Muru," Citra addressed Mali, "where's that necklace you made? For the prophecy? You know which one I'm talking about?"
"Yes, rakkaani," he seemed to have understood what she indicated right away and fingered his way through the ton of trinkets on an upper shelf to finally retrieve a box - wooden. "There you go," he said, handing it to his spouse.
"Thank you," she smiled shyly. "What would I do without you?"
She turned to the monarch before walking up to her. "We think you'd like this one, our Queen," she said, opening the case and holding it in front of her. Jade gasped when she looked at it.
It wasn't a necklace. It was a pair, two lockets attached with two strings sat on the cushion inside, but they were fused. The Sun and the crescent Moon. On further inspection, she realized the Moon was hollow and half of the Sun's makeshift rays were tucked inside it.
"Do you like it, your Highness?" Mali asked.
"Yes, it's... it's lovely," she replied. "Is it, by any chance, for me and the Princess?"
"Yes, yes, of course," Citra replied, smiling broadly, her elation untameable.
"Well," her partner started. "When I made it, I didn't know it'd be for the two of you. But, I'm really glad it is the two of you."
"What if it's not the two of us?" Jade murmured.
The question agitated Citra, and her husband came quickly to her rescue. He put a hand on her shoulder and said, "we'd still like you to have it, our Queen. It's just a bijou, a simple gift from the two of us to the two of you. If you don't like it.."
"No, no, I love it. Thank you, really." Jade smiled, pocketing the box with an embarrassed grin on her face.
"Can I ask you something?" She asked as the couple directed her towards a back door of the shop. They nodded. "Is it common knowledge, our association with the prophecy?" She asked, and this time, they shook their heads.
"I don't think so," Citra answered. "Why do you ask, your Highness?"
"I was just curious about how Mali knew exactly what you told me. Had you discussed it before you met us?"
"No, our Queen," the woodworker answered, with blush smeared all over his cheeks. "The Lovers have blessed us with an ability to communicate even if we're miles apart. That's how we keep tabs on each other throughout the month when I'm away."
When Jade left Malinpuu, it was colder, even though the crowd had thickened. She adjusted the pall around her face as she headed towards her determined destination.
She was excited to meet the people she had left behind and anxious at the same time as the thought of change bothered her. A left turn ushered her into a narrow gully, it was only a few steps away - her home. Not the throne room or the mansion Sillia had shifted her to, her real home where she had grown up, albeit she had abandoned most of those memories.
And for what?
When a right turn threw her back on the broader street of Markkinat Tie, at the far west of the locality, she found herself face to face with another shop. A tavern of sorts, but far different from other boozers where the only attractive commodities were ale, vacancy, and sex.
Jalo was a temple for the intellectuals, for those who were unprivileged but their minds were of the elite kind. They came here, men, women, and otherwise, drank, ate, discussed politics, literature, mythology, current affairs, and the likes of them. On any given day, the pub would be teeming with guests, all jovially drinking and chattering with people they knew and people who had traveled miles in search of good booze and even better company.
Jade stood in front of it, the arch of the door towering over her. The handle stared into her soul, either welcoming her back home or refusing to budge even if she tried. She walked towards it anyway and produced her hand to the wood of the door, but before she could even touch it, the handle turned by itself and the door opened wide. From inside it, came a person she didn't immediately recognize.
"Oh, huomenta," the girl cheered when their eyes met, and proceeded to shut the door behind her. "We haven't opened yet," she declared, walking away with two buckets swaying from a single grasp. "Come back in an hour."
"I'm here to meet Jasper and Maw," Jade spat in the girl's direction.
The younger of the two stopped in her tracks and turned. "They didn't tell me they'll have a visitor. Please come back in an hour, and you can have their attention and some food to go with it."
This agitated Jade. "They weren't expecting me. I'm going in."
"Wait." The girl dropped her buckets and rushed to stand between the redhead and the door. "We don't let everybody in like this, especially during these hours. What's the password?" This made Jade laugh. "Why are you laughing?" The girl asked.
She replied, angrily, "don't mess with me, kid." With that warning, the young queen attempted to force her way in, but the girl seemed to be stronger than she looked. It was only several attempts later that Jade budged and gave up.
"Fine," she said with an undertone of fury. "Humalassa sanat selkeitä ajatuksia. Happy?" Looking far from happy, the girl sneered at her and moved away to let her pass.
The bar was exactly as her brother had described to her after she had lost parts of her memory of the place. The hall was large, with tables set up on two sides, enough to seat around 30 people at once. The broad hall led to the counter, behind which was the cabinet of booze and in between these two was an old man, drying some glasses. Beside the counter was a fleet of stairs that led to the lodging rooms.
With a deep breath, Jade started to walk the length of the room to reach the tavern-keeper. She was only halfway through the hall when she heard a door slam shut and a rush of footsteps that surprised her to a halt. When the bearer of those steps appeared in front of her, it was like looking into a mirror for the two of them.
"Jade!" The red-haired, tall, freckled boy ran towards the queen with his arms open wide. Jade welcomed him in her own, breathing in his scent - the scent of home.
"Veli," the Ironwood Warrior exhaled into her brother's chest, the warmth from it contesting the coldness of the vicinity.
"I could tell." Jasper held her at an arm's distance and regarded her. Even though half of her face was still shrouded by the scarf, there was not an ounce of doubt in him that it was indeed his sister.
"I could tell since the break of dawn that I'd see you today," he said. "Why didn't you write? Aren't you tired? And.. why... why are you here? You could have just asked us to come over to the palace. I'm sure Sillia would have lots to say about your impromptu trip to the pub."
"Sillia betrayed me, Jasper." Jade finally cut through his barrage of words.
Confusion flashed through the boy's face. With his eyebrows and nose scrunched, he asked what anybody would have. "What do you mean?"
Before Jade could answer, the man from behind the counter approached them. He stood at an angle where he could see both his children and produced his hand to cup Jade's face. "Welcome home, child," he said. "You seem agitated. Why don't you sit down? I'll bring you some breakfast."
Her father's easy, caring words put the young Queen at ease. She politely nodded, before her twin led her to a table.
"Now, tell me," Jasper prodded once she had downed a whole glass of water.
"You tell me first." She reached out and grabbed his hand. "How much do you know? Where did you think I was for the last fortnight?"
"In Eira, of course. That's what you told me, right? Before leaving?"
"Yes, but I was supposed to return quickly. I told you I'll be back soon, didn't I?"
"Ye, you did," Jasper pushed his hair back, exasperation bleeding over his face. "But you sent that other note a few nights after the New Moon saying that the plans had changed. And, the Emperor invited you and Sillia to stay there until the winter ball."
"What? What note?" The pieces were finally falling in place for the Queen. She mirrored the confusion on her brother's face, just like she mirrored most of his features.
"You didn't send us a note?" He asked. She shook her head.
"But it was your handwriting," he pressed. "Peri thought the whole affair was strange, so I even matched it with your notebooks from before. It was your handwriting." He looked over his sister's shoulder.
"Oh, speak of the devil and she's here!"
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Translations:
• Malinpuu - Mali's Woodworks
• Omistaja - owner
• Kuningattaren puolesta - For The Queen
• Muru, rakkaani - terms of endearment
• Huomenta - good morning
• Humalassa sanat selkeitä ajatuksia - drunk words, sober thoughts
• Veli - brother
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