We at last rejoined the road, which wound ahead through a cluster of houses and farms lining one side of the bay before it reached the keep. The capital city of Tailliz, presumably, as unimpressive as might be expected of the capital of any minor, unimportant kingdom.
Something about it seemed not quite right to me. I wasn’t sure why until we got closer.
No smoke rose from the thatched roofs, and no fishing boatsplied their trade in the water. When we reached the outskirts of the village, I saw no one in the fields planting crops of winter wheat or washing their clothes in the small river that poured into the bay. No children played in the street. The buildings stood eerily silent around us; our footsteps on the cobbles were the only sounds not made by wind or surf. The paint on the walls was peeling. Fences slumped in disrepair. As far as I could tell, the place was deserted and had been for some time.
The first time I came across anything in Tailliz that didn’t strike me as an ominous portent, it would come as a very pleasant surprise.
Had the villagers been eaten by monsters? Surely the hunters would have said something. They appeared to be unconcerned by the emptiness of the village and made no comment as we passed through.
Jack led us to the keep, where the gate was warded by a formidable portcullis and huge ironclad wooden doors that might each have been carved from the great trees in a single piece. Any army with plans to take Castle Tailliz would have a tough job ofit.
Of course, the assaults on the kingdom weren’t being made against the walls. They were being made against any who dared to venture outside of them. This was a country under siege by an unseen enemy, even if no sign of that siege showed in the placid, unruffled waters lapping at the seashore.
And it was, according to my stepmother’s design, going to be my home from that point on. Or at least, it would be my home once I admitted to my true identity. The idea failed to fill me with a swell of happy anticipation.
I wondered briefly if the castle would turn out to be as empty as the village, but I was quickly disabused of that idea. “Hallo, the keep!” Jack called up to the gatehouse.
“Hallo, the huntsmen!” a voice replied. “Which one are you? Is that Jack I hear?”
“Indeed, it is.”
“Glad you’re back at last. We were getting worried!”
It was reassuring to find the castle inhabited—although that destroyed any remaining shreds of my theory that I had been kidnapped by bandits. I hadn’t been taking the idea all that seriously by that point, anyway. Whatever secret had led the hunters to don masks and accost young women in the woods, it wasn’t that.
A soldier poked his helmeted head over a parapet. “What’s that you’ve caught for us there? A fat deer? A succulent boar?”
“Alas, neither,” Jack replied. “ ’Tis a girl.”
“Oh, is it? And how does she taste?” Riotous laughter echoed from above.
“The ogres always thought I’d be delicious,” I said. “But then, they say that about everyone.”
Jack blinked at me. “A very strange girl,” he muttered. Sam grinned.
Soon the small troop of soldiers standing guard (all human—no ogres, dragons, or transfigured teeth here) raised the portcullis and let us through. From there, a trek across the long bridge led us through another gate and into a courtyard within the castle walls.
A very crowded courtyard. The bridge had been silent save for the cries of seabirds and the slosh of the waves against the stone supports. Here, noise assaulted my ears, and my vision was blocked by the great mass of people crammed into the yard. My nose was likewise overwhelmed. The scent of unwashed people mixed with a strong smell of horse and dog; I imagined stables and kennels lurked somewhere nearby. As we pressed through, I saw that crudely constructed shelters had been erected haphazardly throughout the courtyard, springing up from the ground like mushrooms. Most were rickety structures, made of whatever material had come to hand—loose lumber, boxes and barrels, blankets to keep out the rain. Sheep and cowswere packed shoulder to shoulder in rough pens, adding their noise to the general clamor. Cookfires had been lit wherever there was enough room. There must have been a few hundred people jammed into the cramped space.
“So this is where the villagers got to,” I said, relieved. They hadn’t been devoured. They’d sought shelter behind the stout castle walls.
“No one wants to take their chances with the monsters,” Sam said.
Hundreds of refugees. My notion of a country under a siege hadn’t merely been a colorful metaphor. I’d been more correct than I’d known.
The Tailliziani packing the courtyard were a varied lot, with hair that could be anything from ash blond to so black it was nearly deep blue and complexions that ranged from almost as pale as my Ecossic escort to almost as dark as my sister Jonquil. Pretty much what I’d expect in a kingdom on the western shore that, as I recalled from my lessons, had a reasonable lumber trade during the months when the coast was navigable. Dynastic marriages weren’t the only reason foreigners came here. Which didn’t guarantee I’d be welcomed to the court with open arms, but at least I wouldn’t be an inconceivable oddity solely because I spoke with a different accent.
It took us an age to pick our way through the courtyard, as the pathway weaving between the structures shifted with the crush of people, sometimes vanishing before our eyes.
“Gervase has tried to make room for as many as possible.” Sam surveyed the makeshift campground, his lips drawn into a grim line. “As much as the court nobles have allowed him to, anyway.”
“Allowed?” I said. “Isn’t he the king?”
“Aye, but…it’s complicated.”
“The Great Hall is over here,” Jack broke in as we approacheda pair of doors leading to the castle’s interior. “We’ll find you an escort to the women’s wing and let the king know you’re here.”
“An escort to the what?”
