“We’re just about there, lad,” came a voice from the front of the wagon.
Tomas sat up in response, stretching. He glanced around at the landscape before turning to the front of the wagon. They were just entering a small bustling town. The buildings were lit in the bright hues of the sunset, oranges and reds coloring the town. It was a more than welcome sight; he didn’t want to spend another night in the wagon.
He had left Viola a couple of days ago, asking her to get a message to his mother. He didn’t want her worrying about him; even he hadn’t expected to be gone so long. If Dove hadn’t disappeared from under his nose, he probably would have been home by now. It had been quite the adventure for him. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t really the adventurous type.
He had been worried about how he would get to Lucerne. He didn’t have the supplies or the money to walk there. It was far too great a distance for that. He had been fortunate to find a group of traders who were heading into a small town just across the border. The traders were friendly, and something told him Viola knew them and had set this up somehow. After he had told her his plan to go to Lucerne, she had told him she had a few errands to run. She had taken the short message Tomas had written with her, and he could only assume some other contact of hers had agreed to take it to his mother. He smiled; Viola seemed to know just about everybody.
The wagon pulled up to one of the buildings and stopped. The trader hopped out of the driver’s seat and came around to the back.
“Well, this is it.” The trader gestured to the bustling town around them. “Me and the lads need to get unloaded, so you’re welcome to head off. Do whatever you came here to do. The inn’s right there,” he pointed to the building they had pulled up alongside, “and the rent’s cheap.”
Tomas nodded and smiled. “Thank you. Really.”
“No problem,” the trader replied, and stood out of the way as Tomas hopped out of the wagon. “Good luck, boy.”
“And to you too,” he said, nodding towards the goods. The trader smiled and gave a wave as Tomas headed into the inn.
It wasn’t very crowded inside, unlike he was used to. Of course, the inns he was used to served dinner as well. It seemed the building he had entered was a straight up inn, however. He walked up to a woman at the front. She looked like the sort of person who would know about getting a room.
“Hey,” he said, his voice a bit tense. The woman turned and flashed him a smile.
“Hello, dear,” she replied. “Would you like a room?”
Letting out a small sigh of relief, he nodded. “Yes, I would. Do you have room?”
“Of course we do! Small town like this, we don’t get too many people aside from traders from across the border. Plenty of room for young lads like yourself.” The woman gave a small wink, and Tomas returned a tense smile. He suddenly felt rather uncomfortable.
The woman smirked and leaned across the wood counter. “Father, there’s a man here who’d like a room!” A few moments later, a man emerged from the back.
“Ah, yes! Hello,” the man said. “A room, then?” Tomas nodded. He felt much more comfortable with the man than his daughter. He saw the man eye her suspiciously, and he decided he wasn’t the first man she had tried to charm.
“Wonderful.” The man rummaged in a drawer for a moment. “Here you are,” he said a moment later and handed Tomas a key. “Up the stairs, take a right and it’s the first door on the left.”
Tomas smiled and gave the man a nod. “Thanks.” He headed for the stairs, trying not to look at the man’s daughter. He didn’t like her very much.
Despite his awkward welcome downstairs, he had to admit the room was nice. The bed was comfortable, and there was plenty of space. It was better than he had expected, that was for certain. He had found the room with no problems and deposited his bags, keeping his coin pouch on him. His stomach was rumbling, and he ought to go get himself something from the local tavern. It was less convenient than having a meal at the inn, but since they didn’t do meals here, he would just have to make do.
Finding the tavern proved slightly more difficult than finding his room. For one thing, his room he’d had directions to. As he walked down the street, he wished he had thought to ask directions. Fortunately, however, just as he was ready to give up and ask someone, he spotted the sign. It hung above the road in the traditional fashion, sticking out from the building and announcing the tavern’s presence quite clearly. If he had only come down this way sooner, he would have found it much easier.
He entered, and there he found the crowd. It was evening, the time of day when a place such as this would be most popular. He had to squeeze past some people to get to the bar at the front to order.
After he had ordered, he looked around for a table to sit at. He was surprised and dismayed to find all the tables were full. He shook his head. Sure it was a tavern, but he hadn’t expected the place to be this popular. At least there were a few seats at the bar in front still open. He slid into a recently vacated one and scanned the crowd.
He was beginning to realize what Dove must have felt like when stranded in Pommern. His dark hair stuck out amongst the blond and ashen heads surrounding him. It was unnerving enough that he had put his hood up. He wasn’t the only dark head, however; it was a border town, after all. There were a few traders here from Pommern, but they were mostly outnumbered by the lighter heads. He imagined he must look fairly odd to the others as well. Border town or not, dark hair wasn’t exactly common here.
“Here you are, dear,” a woman’s voice said, and Tomas turned. A woman had pushed a drink towards the young man sitting on the stool next to him. The young man nodded gratefully at the woman before grabbing the tankard and downing half of it in one gulp. Tomas raised an eyebrow at this. Odd behavior.
The young man noticed, however, and gave him a dirty look. “Whatchu lookin’ at?”
“Nothing,” Tomas said quickly. He didn’t want to start any bar fights, and the young man was clearly on at least his second drink. “Just…” he nodded his head towards the half empty tankard, and the young man looked down at it.
“Ah. Of course.” The young man looked over at him. “I’m no drunkard, I swear. Sorry if I snapped at you, though. I think the drinks are starting to get to me.”
Tomas nodded in understanding. “If you don’t mind my asking, what’s got you so bothered anyway? For a man who claims not to be a drunkard, you sure are going at it pretty heavily.”
This elicited a dry chuckle. “Got drafted, o’course. Never thought I’d end up in the king’s army. Guess they’re really getting desperate, eh?”
“Drafted?” Tomas asked. Why would the army be drafting? As far as Tomas knew, Lucerne was a fairly peaceful country.
“Yeah, haven’t yeh heard? The king declared war on Pommern just less than a week ago. Never thought I’d see the day.” The young man shook his head and took another swig of his drink. “Then again, they did kidnap the princess.They’re practically asking for it. Still surprised the king obliged, though.”
Tomas blinked in confusion. “Pommern kidnapped the princess?”
The young man gave him a sideways glance. “You been livin’ under a rock or somethin’? This is old news, pal.”
“Not quite a rock, no,” Tomas said with a chuckle. “But I do live pretty far out in the country. Not much news tends to reach that far.”
“You need to get out more,” the young man said, shaking his head in amusement. “Anyways, the princess was kidnapped a few weeks or so ago. They tried to keep it kind of hush hush an’ all, but there’s only so much you can do when there’s soldiers combing every inch of the town.” The young man stopped to finish his drink before continuing. “They found the tracks, though. Heading straight into Pommern, they were. You’d think they’d cover their tracks a bit better if they wanted to get away clean,” he finished with a laugh. “They were all but asking for war.”
Tomas was silent, taking in the information. Suddenly, he was glad to have his hood up. His dark hair would have been an unwelcome sight in a country about to go to war with his own. But something told him there was more to this than met the eye. If the king of Pommern had decided to start a war, Tomas had no doubt he would have heard about it. While it was true that he lived out in the country, he wasn’t completely isolated. He likely even would have been drafted in the war preparations. And war preparations there had been none of.
“You know, maybe I should think about moving out in the country,” the young man said suddenly. “Would’ve saved me from getting drafted.”
Tomas looked at the young man, and this time really looked at him. He was younger than he had first appeared. The young man was right; they must be getting desperate.
“Here you are, sir. Enjoy your meal.” The woman was back, this time handing Tomas his meal. He offered her a smile and nodded in thanks.
But he couldn’t bring himself to eat. Instead, he stirred his food idly, lost in his thoughts. What if Pommern had kidnapped Lucerne’s princess? He could easily be wrong about all of this. But one thing was for certain, and that was that he couldn’t stay in Lucerne long. Not with war just over the horizon.
Out of sudden curiosity, he turned to the young man beside him again. “How did they manage to kidnap the princess? Was it an inside job, do you think?”
The young man shrugged. “It’s a possibility, I s’pose. No telling, really.” He looked at Tomas. “Sorry, pal, I don’t know much. I’m just the baker’s boy.”
Tomas nodded. “Right, but why would they kidnap her? If they really wanted to start a war, why not assassinate the crown prince or something easier than kidnapping a screaming girl?”
The young man looked at him as if he was crazy. “You kiddin’ me, man? The princess can’t scream. She was born without a voice.” When Tomas said nothing, the young man leaned in closer. “You okay there? I mean, livin’ under a rock or not, surely you know about the princess. Mirabel, mute princess of Lucerne? She’s kind of famous.”
“Um, yeah, sure. Of course. Guess I just forgot.” Tomas felt dazed. This couldn’t be a coincidence. What were the chances of there being more than one noble born mute in Lucerne? If Dove was the missing princess, he had to get to the palace as soon as possible.
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A/N Dun dun dun! Tomas finally knows who 'Dove' is :P It's getting to the part of the story I've been dying to write, so stay tuned :D Hopefully the next chapter will be up Thursday, so you can keep an eye out for that. Let me know what you thought of this chapter down below! I love seeing what you guys have to say :D As always, love you guys! xx
(dedicated to @RainforestGirl for being an awesome singing buddy, and one of my most dedicated readers/commenters. I might have given up on finishing this if it weren't for her comments :D Love ya, Rain! xxxx)