people. He was just…some cave troll. He chucked a little remembering the old man trying to pretend to be as short as he looked compared to Sara. They’d over done it a little bit. Sara was less than a foot taller than he was after all. Oh well, artistic license and all that.
The nose still bugged him though, making him touch his own self-consciously.
They weren’t met by guards this time as they flew in, but they did see a small red building next to four large white arrows on the ground that all pointed to an x. An official landing area? Rolph took them in carefully, descending slowly so that if it wasn’t the case, someone could come warn them off or something. Instead a thin young man that must have been about the same age of everyone else in their group came out with a clip board.
“Gentles!” He cried loudly enough to be heard from thirty feet away easily. “Welcome to the Capital. I’m Steward, and I’ll be your Two Bends representative for the day. If you have any packages that need to go out, the next pick up is tomorrow, though special delivery is always available for an extra fee. We can also signal for transportation from here if you have errands in the city. Please let us know if anything we can do for you will help make your stay here more pleasant.”
Two Bends? Tor smiled, getting it instantly. His family already had a building up just outside the Capital and a landing place for anyone flying in? That was clever of them. Or possibly of this fellow here, Steward. Tor moved in and shook his hand.
“Hi Steward, yes, some transport would be great. Um, we need to go to…” Tor froze for a bit, he’d been working so much he didn’t know what anyone’s plans were at all. Everyone else had places they could stay, except for him of course. He could always just stay in the corner of Rolph’s room or something if need be, or even sleep outside, if everything had been filled up. That things might be a little more cramped this time had been mentioned to him more than once. Really, no one knew if their own homes here would be full or not, as far as that went.
It was just possible that Trice’s parents would have lent the house out for instance, if they hadn’t flown down themselves. Debri could have high powered guests in too. Since no one was expecting Rolph home really, even his rooms might have been given over to some Count or something.
Stepping forward the Prince suggested they try the palace first.
“After all, if nothing else we can all sleep on the floor of the tool shed out back, I’m sure.” He added with a wink. It made sense to Tor, and he knew that Rolph would do it, even if no one in the palace would have let him most likely. They’d find something, even if a servant had to give up their own bed. Well, Tor at least didn’t need anything fancy. The floor was good enough for him. It would be like camping out, sort of.
It took a bit for the carriages to come, again three of them, like the last time they’d been to the Capital. This time the whole trip took a lot longer though. Nearly four hours of riding in the carriage to get to the palace grounds, sometimes not moving at all because of all the people in the streets already, putting up banners and hangings, sweeping and getting ready for the coming festivities it looked like. The events seemed to be quite a lot bigger here than at the school, and Tor had thought they made a big thing of it there.
It was dark when they pulled up to the gate, a Royal Guard walked up to the carriage carefully and held up an oil lamp so that he could see who was trying to get in at this time of night. He greeted the Prince by name and asked, very politely, as to who else might be with him. With each name spoken the man checked a thick bundle of papers to see if they were allowed entrance.
“Sir… we seem to have everyone listed except for Mr. Baker. I’m afraid that I can’t allow anyone not listed in, by order of the King, Sir…” The man looked… not pleased at least. Tor just shrugged.
After all, why would he be on the guest list at all anyway? They hadn’t known he was coming. That the others were on it, well, they’d been Rolph friends for a lot longer than he had, at least as far as palace visits were concerned. Right? And Trice was even family and Sara was Rolph’s “special friend” which Connie knew personally. Or, well, maybe they just didn’t want someone like him here right now? Save room for the important people?
“Uh…” Rolph looked around for a second. “Right, well, no use arguing with a Royal Guard, would you be all right waiting here for a minute while I get this sorted out Tor? It won’t take but bit I’m sure…”
His friend sounded embarrassed, like it was something he’d done that caused this inconvenience. Tor just hoped that he could find someplace to stay if they wouldn’t let him in here, at least for the night. He could always fly back to the school the next day if not, but it would suck waiting for ten hours until it was light enough to fly. He climbed out of the carriage so that it could drive in, wondering if he should grab his trunks as the carriages disappeared into the palace complex. Too late for that, he realized. So he wondered around for a bit.
An hour passed and no one came back for him, not even to tell him to go make other arrangements. At two hours he kind of wondered if he’d just been ditched all together. He didn’t even have any coin on him, what he had being in his main trunk, so getting something to eat in town was out of the picture. Not that he was hungry particularly, but it would at least give him something to do and a place to sit. The guards were changed over about then and the new ones didn’t know who he was, so they asked him to move away from the gate all together.
Asked… was a little more polite than they really were about it. They kind of threatened to hurt him if he didn’t leave right then, even after he explained the situation and who he was waiting for. Not knowing what else to do and not really wanting both his legs broken at the knees as offered, he turned and wondered back into the city. The streets were dark now and, as it had neared midnight, no one was out on them at all, except for him and a few women that looked lonely, standing out on the street corners in their distinctive tall boots, asking him if he wanted to spend some time with them.
Not even Tor was so naive that he didn’t get it.
Still, they didn’t seem happy with their work at all, not to him. Then again, how much work could they be getting if no one else was out on the street right now? He kept on walking after explaining that he didn’t have any coin at the moment. Oddly they were all pleasant enough about it, winking at him and telling him they knew how that was. Even though he couldn’t be their customer, they smiled at him and said nice things, which was sweet. Tor had never met any women like that before and had expected, well, that they’d be bad. Mean or course. Instead they just seemed like people. Fairly pleasant ones even, that didn’t hold his being poor against him.
No one tried to stop him, or rob him, which wouldn’t have worked anyway. Even if he hadn’t been armed and wearing a pretty good shield, what would they have gotten, some amulets? Those might be worth a little. Maybe he could trade one for a meal or somewhere to stay? If he could find anyone to trade with. Even the prostitutes had gone in by the time he’d thought of it. Not that he wanted to trade for their services, but maybe they’d have known someone, or where he should go?
So instead he just wondered, hoping that when light broke he’d at least be able to see the wall and figure out where one of the gates was. His feet were getting sore from all the walking, but it just didn’t feel right to sit down anywhere. Most of it was either in the street itself or someone’s private property. Sitting in the street was a bad idea in general, plus it would look weird. No one did that. With private property, well, someone might let him sit or even lie down and take a nap, if he could explain things to them. But no one was out yet.
Hours later he finally saw someone moving, opening the door to what looked like a small shop. Tor didn’t want to spook the woman, who looked about ten years older than he was, even though it was hard to tell in the light. He stood well back and called out to her.
“Excuse me please,” he started, causing the woman to turn around and look at him, smiling a little.
“Let me stop you there.” She held out her right hand, about half way into the room behind her already, as if ready to run if she needed to.
“I’m not a prostitute, don’t have any money to steal, and don’t have any work for you for the duration of the festival, unless you can bake or know the city well enough to do deliveries. So…”
Tor laughed a little.
“I don’t know the city at all, but I can bake. At least I can for the country; I grew up in a bakery, literally. But I was wondering-” The woman cut him off.
“Alright. I’ll bet you to making some things. If you can do it without burning half of the product, I’ll give you room and board, plus half a silver per week for the duration of the festival. Not to dazzle you with my clever math, that means half a silver all told. You’re here to work though, not goof off all day or ogle the girls that come in and if you pinch my behind even once you’re out on your ear. Deal?”
It sounded like he could at least get off the street for a while, so he agreed. Especially since she wouldn’t let him finish a sentence otherwise. It kind of reminded him of home already.
Board meant she fed him, right?
The interior of the shop was much nicer than what he’d grown up with, but the ovens were almost identical.
