A strange disappointment filled my being, but I brushed it aside. “Are we already at the inn? How long have I been out?”
“This village doesn’t have an inn, but we should be able to find a place to sleep for the night. Our route has taken us off the main road, but we should reach my friends in two days.” I sank into my seat and let out a sigh. He lifted a teasing eyebrow. “You sound very relieved about that information.”
I sat up and cleared my throat. “Well, I’m just relieved I can sleep in a bed, at least for a night. Your saddle is very nice, but my butt doesn’t agree with my admiration, and it’d like to have a bit of a rest on something soft.”
“The bed is likely to have straw underneath you,” Cassian warned me with a gentle smile. “But we’re sure to have good food from my people.”
The reminder of his kingdom brought to mind a question. “And I need to avoid calling you by your title, right?”
“Yes.”
“What about Cassian? Will they know you if I call you that, or is that a nickname?”
“It’s my real name, but it’s used so little that I doubt very many of my subjects are aware of it. Besides that, the name is not uncommon. Many people have admired the family name for decades and have named their children after my ancestors.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “So you’re not the first Cassian?”
“I am the fourth king to bear the name.”
“That sounds like a heavy name.”
He chuckled. “My predecessors weren’t always the best of kings.”
I cocked my head to one side to study him. “That’s not something a king usually says about his dead family members.”
“A lineage as long as mine has had enough time to make mistakes.”
His words caused a memory to resurface within me. “Your kingdom is really old, right? Five hundred?”
“Four.”
I snorted. “I guess that’s plenty of time for anyone to make a mistake. So if you’re not the king, what’s the story we’re going to give everyone? That I’m your wife?”
His eyebrows shot up, and a sly smile curled onto his lips. “What an interesting suggestion. I had thought to introduce us as cousins.”
My face drooped. “Oh. I-I guess your idea would be easier to pull off.”
“But not quite as entertaining, and it would be less strain on my purse.”
I looked around him at the tiny packets on the back of the saddle. “How much is your purse holding?”
“Enough for a few meals, and a few other things. Secundus managed most of the coins, and I didn’t think to ask for more before we parted.”
My stomach grumbled at the mention of food. Apparently, all my bodily functions had already returned to normal. I clapped my hand over my stomach, but the cat was out of the bag.
Cassian smiled down at me. “While there may not be an inn, there’s a tavern in almost every village. If my memory serves me, Fenovilla has a fine pub where we can find a stout drink and a warm meal.”
A chill breeze blew over us from the fields, and I wrapped my arms around myself. I glanced at the darkening horizon and shivered. “That does sound really good right now.” Something caught my attention, but not from afar. It was from below.
I pointed at two distinct, narrow depressions in the road, set six feet apart. The ruts were some four inches deep. “It looks like something runs through here pretty often.”
“Those wheel tracks are the main coach. It runs from the capital to all the outlying areas and back, at least in this direction.”
We rode down the winding way until we reached the outskirts of the village. Fenovilla was a quaint hamlet of a few dozen houses and shops. Nearly all the homes had chickens roaming the yards, and a few had pens for hoofed animals. The shops were the typical medieval venue. There was a blacksmith, a tannery, and even a quaint little tailor with a sign over the small door that showed a needle threading its way along a road. People bustled about, trading coins and goods for what they didn’t have.
Our entrance caught the attention of many of the locals, some of whom skittered to the sidelines of the road and gawked at us. Others gave us not-too-hospitable glares. Cassian, for his part, returned all their stares with a smile and a bow of his head. A crowd of children followed at a safe distance, gawking at both me and Cassian’s majestic horse with its fine saddle and bridle.
I did the same from my awkward position, but I shrank into the saddle at every look because I was receiving a lot of them. I couldn’t blame them. My futuristic and filthy clothes stuck out from any crowd.
