On the third night of her journey, Saria was sitting in the dining area of a small inn situated just off the main road to Faron. The weather had forced the wagon load of travellers to stop earlier in the day, and though the rain only sputtered off and on, the sky didn't clear up until the sun had already begun to set. The wagon driver had made the decision for everyone to stay at the inn until morning. Saria was put out, she would have preferred to sleep on the wagon and continue travelling throughout the night, but then, she wasn't the one that would be awake all night driving. Still, she had been in a foul mood for days now, a mood that even the warmth of the hearthfire didn't seem to be softening.
A young, overly-perky serving girl with bouncing blonde curls and a heavy accent that marked her as being from the southwestern region of Autos practically skipped over to the table where Saria sat alone. After her meltdown on the wagon the other travellers had begun keeping their distance, something that Saria had immediately noticed and thought of as the first sign of intelligence any of them had shown.
The serving girl plunked down the wine Saria had ordered onto the wooden table top and smiled so brightly Saria thought her head would begin to hurt from the cheerfulness.
"Is there anything else I can do for you, ma'am?" There was that infuriating smile again.
"No," Saria plastered what she hope passed for a cheerful look on her own face. "Thank you, I'll be going up to my room soon."
"Okay, well, you just let me know if you change your mind!" The girl skipped back across the room, headed for the door to the kitchens.
Saria rubbed her temples with a sign, then took a deep drink from the cup the girl had placed in front of her. And then almost spit the contents across the room.
Of course the wine would be watered down, she thought, forcing herself to not slam the glass to the table. She pushed it away from her and started to rise from her chair, the bed she had rented for the night beckoning her. A phrase from a nearby table caused her to freeze mid-rise.
"...they raided the town in the middle of the night, during that big storm that passed through. Most of the townsfolk weren't disturbed, didn't even realize the soldiers were patrolling until the next morning. Why would they need to raid a town as small at Bremerton?"
Saria's heart crashed to a stop and she dropped back into her chair, forcing herself not to stare at the elderly man who had just spoken to several of the people she had been travelling with. She had noticed the man earlier and thought him to be the inn's owner. Bremerton had been raided by the soldiers? Why? She took a deep breath to calm herself. Maybe it didn't mean anything. She kept that thought in mind as she once again stood and walked over to the group talking about the shocking news.
"I heard from a farmer who had gone into Bremerton for some supplies," began a woman who Saria didn't recognize as one of the people she had been travelling with. The woman leaned in from the table she was seated at as though she was telling a big secret and didn't want the other groups around the room to overhear. After she was sure she had everyone's rapt attention, she continued.
"He told my husband that the only building that was actually attacked was the town bookshop."
Saria couldn't breathe. No, she thought, her heart slamming inside her chest, her vision blurring. She barely heard what the woman had to say next.
"Yes, it was the only place with any damage, the entire front window of the store was blown out. But that's not even the most interesting part!" the gossipy woman continued, a smirk on her lips and a gleam in her eyes
If she wasn't in complete shock, Saria would have pummeled the woman for taking such pleasure in what she was saying. Saria pushed aside the man standing in front of her and step right up in front of the woman.
"What else did you hear?" The demand rang out through the room as Saria worked to control her voice. It wouldn't do to give herself away as someone close to the situation, not if the soldiers were still looking for Zephyr and Agitha.
"I was getting to that," the woman shot Saria a nasty glare, before turning back to the other listeners with that enraging gleam back in her eyes. Saria could feel anger bringing color to her cheeks.
"As I was saying," the woman continued, "The farmer told my husband that not only was the shop wrecked, but there were dead soldiers inside! No one knows who could have killed them! He heard there were at least a dozen bodies!"
Before Saria had a chance to find her voice again, another woman, with a face that looked familiar to Saria but not from the wagon, voiced the question she had been trying to form.
"What about the shop owners? Were they there?"
"Oh," the woman said, seemingly disinterested by this part of the story, "the old woman who owned the place was found dead with one of the soldiers swords sticking out of her gut."
Saria's heart stopped once more. No. No, no, no! Please no, not Zephyr!
"And I also heard that a troop of soldiers was sent out to find the old lady's daughter!"
Saria snapped back to attention.
"Did they find her?" the words burst from Saria as quickly as they entered her mind, any thought of hiding her relationship to Zephyr left behind and replaced with an urgent need for more information. A need for just one kernel of good news, of hope.
"Oh I don't know, the farmer didn't say. But how could one girl hide from the queen's men?"
The woman continued speaking but Saria could no longer focus on her words. She slowly began to back away, trying not to draw attention to herself as she made her escape from the room. She kept her pace steady as she walked to the room she had rented for the night. She carefully pulled her key out, tried to keep her hands from shaking, and entered the room. As soon as she closed the door and locked it, Saria sank to her knees. The sobs she had been holding in finally were released and her tears flowed in a stream down her face. She rested her forehead against the hard wood of the door as she cried.
Saria couldn't get a grip on her emotions or her thoughts for what felt like hours. Finally, when no more tears would come, she rose from the floor, her legs stiff from the position she had fallen to and remained in for so long while she cried. She sat on the edge of her bed and began fingering a loose thread on the old quilt covering the rough mattress.
Zephyr could be okay still, Saria thought, trying to see how that could be true. If anyone knew how to keep people, including soldiers, from noticing her, it was Zephyr. Saria was confident in her friend, but her first impulse was to steal a horse from the inn's stables and go back to search for her friend. She knew that would be foolish though. What could she do against a whole troop of men in Queen Lorelei's army?
It was killing her, not knowing if her friend was safe, if she was even alive. Saria felt the sting of tears rushing to her eyes once more at that thought and bit her lip as she tried to push the emotions back. What could she do?
Father, she thought. He could help, he has connections. Saria knew what she would have to do, and hated it. How could she wait until she was in Faron to even begin to try and help Zephyr? What if by then it was too late? But she didn't see any other options. Then a thought struck her.
I obviously can't steal a horse and go back to Bremerton, but I could steal a horse to get to Faron quicker.
Saria stood from the bed and began packing her things. She would have to grab some food from the kitchens, maybe the friendly blonde girl would be of some help after all. Of course, if the wine was watered down, then surely the bread is stale and the cheese is moldy, she thought, but even that didn't deter her from the course she was she on now.
~
Bennet had started out in the lead when he, Jasper and Zephyr had first dashed off to flee from the figures rapidly closing in on them. Within moments though, Zephyr had passed him and Jasper both up on her black mare. The animal almost seemed to fly over the dirt road, at a speed Zephyr hadn't expected in the least.
Zephyr chanced a look over her shoulder and saw that their pursuers weren't gaining on them yet. Jasper and Bennet were riding furiously just behind her. She turned back around to face forward in the saddle just as she crested a hill. Zephyr was forced to immediately pull back on the reins, for just over the hill a large caravan of some sort was taking up the entire road and a good amount of space on either side into the woods.
As her horse came to a very abrupt stop Jasper and Bennet pulled up beside her. People milled about everywhere, and many seemed to be unpacking the caravan and moving it to the side of the road. They were moving too slowly though, and Zephyr was sure they wouldn't be out of the way before the soldiers caught up to them. She wanted to gallop straight through the crowd, but so many people were walking around, and children were running every which way, she couldn't chance hurting someone. She gave Jasper and Bennet a desperate look.
Jasper held her gaze for a moment, his face impassive, but he was unable to hide the panic in his eyes. Then he turned and rode off to the side of the road, into the trees and brush. Zephyr and Bennet followed closely.
"Maybe we can hide among the people in here," Jasper suggested once they were a ways into the trees. Zephyr was too nervous to respond. Bennet just nodded in agreement. All three watched the road, the top of the hill, for their pursuers. There were plenty of people walking around them, but Zephyr wasn't confident that Jasper's idea would work. She wasn't confident in it at all. Panic filled her and her breathing became ragged.
They saw the riders the moment they crested the hill, and almost in unison the trio released a breath of relief. The men on the horses weren't soldiers. They looked to be five young men of maybe fourteen or fifteen years, all wearing black cloaks emblazoned on the back with a red symbol of some sort. Other than the strange symbol, the cloaks bore a striking resemblance to the ones Queen Lorelei's soldiers wore.
The boys were whooping and slapping each other on the backs as they approached the caravan and began dismounting their horses. That's when Zephyr noticed that the red symbol on their cloaks was also painted onto the sides of all the wagons and on banners that could be seen throughout the busy area. The symbol was made up of two red triangles edged in white that overlapped to form a six-pointed star. She began to really look around at the people surrounding her and what they were doing. Jasper and Bennet had begun to do the same thing.
Curiosity overcame Zephyr. She dismounted and began leading her stolen mare through the trees, back toward the road where people were still unloading wagons and moving them off into the trees. The two men followed her, taking in their surroundings as they walked. Zephyr began to notice that many of the people were dressed rather strangely.
There were probably about fifty or sixty people total. Some were wearing bright, vibrant clothing in every color imaginable. Some were in sequined costumes that were reflecting the light of the fires beginning to pop up throughout the camp. Zephyr watched two women who looked identical except for the color of their clothing. Both wore skin tight outfits that covered them from their feet to their necks to their fingertips, one in black and one in white, with the red symbol from the wagons echoed on the left shoulders of both costumes. Zephyr's eyes widened as the women stretched, then began contorting their bodies into positions she hadn't thought were possible for a person to conform to. She was still staring when she heard Jasper address someone.
"Excuse me," he said to a woman who looked to be in her thirties. The woman stopped to face him and Bennet. Zephyr pulled her eyes away from the contortionists and walked over to join her companions.
"Yes, what can I do for you?" the woman responded to Jasper. Zephyr marveled at how beautiful this woman was. Her creamy skin was flawless, and it stood out against her straight black hair that shone in the moonlight that was now beginning to shine around them. Her eyes were as dark as the night sky, slightly tilted up at the corners, and reflected an easy happiness that shone on the woman's face.
"We were just passing through and happened to notice your caravan," Jasper said with a laugh. The woman smiled in return.
"Oh yes, I'm sorry that we are blocking the road. One of our wagons lost a wheel coming down that hill and we decided that this would be as good a place as any to set up camp for the night. It was a bit spur of the moment, thus all of this," the woman gestured sheepishly to the mild chaos surrounding them. By now, most of the road had been cleared off though. Zephyr figured they would be leaving soon and couldn't go without satisfying her curiosity.
"What exactly is all of this? What does the symbol mean?," Zephyr asked, cringing at herself for asking two questions at once. The woman only laughed at her inquisition.
"We are just traveling performers," she answered, spreading her arms wide, "and we love to take in strays. And you three look like you could use a drink. Let me show you around." The woman winked toward Zephyr, grasping her hand and pulling her forward. Jasper and Bennet followed closely behind. "Oh, and the symbol," the woman continued, "it's nothing."