The Illyrian Series: The Oracle Of Rosedale

We head into the city the next morning, it's busier than I expected. "Adria and I will get the food, Malin can you get the supplies on this list?" Violet hands him a brown piece of paper.

He parouses the list. "Bandages, clean clothes, skin water bottles. I can handle this."

"Good, we'll meet back at the entrance." He walks off. "And you." Violet gives me a hard look.

"What did I do now?"

"I cut my list by half." She explains. "Because you gave away all your money."

"That was over a week ago." I protest.

She grunts then goes from booth to booth, haggling prices with the merchants, I hang back and let her do her thing.

People keep violently bumping into me, so I find a building and lean on its side. I never lose sight of Violet as she hovers around with our wicker basket tucked safely under her arms.

She rejoins me twenty minutes later with a basket bursting with produce. "Let's go back to the stable, Malin will meet us there."

We arrive at the large stable and the attendant brings our horses to us. We stand under the sun for fifteen minutes. "Where is he?" Violet asks, she seems irritated. "He should be done by now, I'm getting tired."

"You're the one who gave him the ridiculously long list." I remind her. "Let's wait half an hour." I take a seat on the grass a few meters from the stable.

Violent springs up sometime later. "It's been forty minutes, we should go investigate." She draws our horses back to the stableman. "We'll be back later."

We head to the town square and search everywhere for him. "Excuse me." I say to the local apothecary in his shop. "Have you seen a man, he's not from here. Tall, dark hair and eyes. He should've been here an hour ago."

He shakes his head. "I would have seen him if he came."

We go to the blacksmith next, his work space is open and scorching. The owner is big, bulgy and has sweat dripping down his red face. "Hello, excuse me. Have you seen a man, dark hair and eyes. Not from here."

His grin is malicious. "I might have." I feel hopeful. Then the blacksmith turns around and yells at a much younger and skinnier man. "Ollie, come here." The younger lad jogs up to us in torn and soot covered clothes.

"Yes, sir." His voice is croaky and uneven.

"This young lady is looking for a man, dark hair and eyes. Did you see anybody like that today?" He laughs.

Ollie nods, he looks grim. "Malin's his name?"

"Yes." I'm torn between feeling happy or sad. "You saw him?"

"He was here two hours ago."

"Okay, where is he now?"

Ollie doesn't want to talk, his boss speaks for him. "He's in prison." His laugh is boisterous.

"What?" Violet and I yell in unison.

"He came in here, started a kerfukkle, got in a fight. Soldiers intervened, rounded him up and took him away."

"That doesn't sound like Malin." I say in his defence.

The blacksmith laughs, exposing his brown and crooked teeth. "Doesn't matter, the eyewitnesses saw what they saw. He started it."

"You're lying." I step up to him.

He shakes his hands weakly and laughs louder. "I'm scared." My hand moves to the dagger in my belt. He notices the movement and closes the distance between us. "Your move, my men will happily recount the tale of how you started this. We'll see who the soldiers believe. Right Ollie."

Ollie looks uncomfortable, he hums in agreement and goes back to work shoving coal in the furnace.

"Come." Violet takes my left arm and drags me out. "Not worth it, let's just go see Malin."

I kick the first stone I see, it hits the side of the blacksmith's building. "I can't believe him, that...oaf. Malin better not be in trouble."

"He's in a foreign prison, he definitely is." She asks for direction from a fruit seller and guides us towards the prison. It's a depression-inducing building made up of grey stone, three soldiers are stationed at the front.

Violet and I walk past the armour-clad men and into the building. The first room has a wooden stool backed up against the wall and a table opposite it, behind the table is a dingy corridor that no doubt leads to the cells.

"Hello." I knock on the cedar table. The man behind it is an officer, clad in the same silver armour as the ones in front. He's sprawled lazily on his chair and has an indifferent look on his mustached face.

"Can I help you, Miss?" He drawls in an annoyed tone.

"Yes, my friend was arrested. I'll like him released."

He sighs and sits up. "What is his name?"

"Malin."

The corners of the officer's mouth twitch up. "Oh, Mister fighter's your friend, eh?"

"He is." I don't break eye contact.

He shrugs and widens his smile. "All right, no problem." He scrunches his forehead. "The thing is, your friend created quite a ruckus. In addition to paying bail, you'll have to pay for some damages." I'm too angry to speak. "The blacksmith's mending table was seriously dented after the incident. Now, was it like that before?" He pauses. "I don't know, but my friend Marty swears it wasn't. And it's really his word against your friend's."

"You cheating, miserable..." Violet places her hand on my shoulder.

"How much is it?" She asks simply.

The officer ticks off his fingers. "Bail, reparations, this young woman's disrespect for authority." He pretends to think. "A hundred gold coins."

Violet and I scoff. "That's ridiculous," she says.

"If you can walk around with fancy weapons and expensive jewels, you can afford it."

"We're not paying that." Violet almost laughs.

"Too bad, we have a 48h hour policy. If you don't pay with gold by then, he pays with his life."

"You can't do that." I slam my fist on his table.

"More insubordination, another ten gold coins." He retakes his former position on his chair.

"You're crazy."

"120." I want to slap the smirk off his face. "And don't think I won't make good on my threat."

"I won't let you murder my friend."

"Oh really, and how are you going to stop me?" He flicks his wrist dismissively. "Now get out of my sight, and don't bother coming back without the money."

I lunge at him but Violet holds me back. She drags me kicking and screaming out of the single story building. "The nerve of that man."

"Let's go back to the horses, see how much we have left." Violet offers.

"We don't have that many gold coins, and even if we did, I'll never give it to that pig."

"We don't have a choice, we barely know where we are. We're foreigners, we have no power here, let's just get Malin and leave as quickly as we can."

I'm fuming all the way back to the stable. Luckily, we had left most of our money back there and only taken enough to pay for our stuff. Unfortunately, we don't have enough money.

"84." Violet sighs. "We're almost 40 down." I arch my brow. "Your insubordination." She mimics in a gruff voice.

I ball up my fists. "There has to be something we can do."

Violet covers her forehead. "I don't know what to do. Maybe we can sell the jewelry pieces we got from the fisherman." We settle down and spend the rest of the morning appraising jewels.

Later that day, we get a surprise visitor. "Ollie." I barely recognize the grimy man in front of me.

"Hello." He looks around suspiciously. "I can't stay long, no one can see me with you." He glances behind us at the lone stable.

"Why are you here?" I ask menacingly.

"I feel bad," he admits. "Marty always does this, it's a con. He and the soldiers are in on it. They pick a fight, testify against the other person and charge a highly inflated bail."

"If he does this all the time, why are you suddenly interested in helping us?"

He keeps his eyes focused on the floor. "Your friend was nice to me, before the incident. He spoke to me like I was a person, he may seem all fancy but he's good to men like me. I appreciate that."

Violet sighs. "Nice sentiments." She's disinterested. "So how can we help him?"

He looks up at us, I finally see his eye color, it's a dark blue. "There's only one person the soldiers fear, the governor. Or his son, mostly."

"And how can we meet the governor?" I ask.

Ollie frowns. "They stay in this big manor a few miles from here, it's impossible to get in. They don't let most of us in there."

"Great." Violet whispers.

"Who do they let in?" I ask.

Ollie shrugs. "I don't know, people like them. Fancy, rich, high society?" He says the last one distastefully.

I nod. "Does this town have an inn?"

"What are you planning?" Violet asks.

I let out a deep breath. "Something I'm actually good at."

***

Two hours later, I'm ready to leave my room. "I hate you." Violet scorns. "So much." I ignore her and walk ahead. We soon come out of the building and are gawked at immediately. "I still hate the smell of your soap." Violet wrinkles her nose.

"Don't talk to me." I order and inspect the freshly groomed Apple. Ollie offered to do it for free, but I gave him two gold coins when he was done.

I smooth down the skirt of my outfit. It's a silver tulle dress with lace and sequins at the top, the bottom is made up of the same lace material. The sleeves are transparent with flowery designs. My coat is heavy, dark sliver and has shiny white embroidery covering the edges. The lapels part to reveal the dress and are fastened by a single button at the base of my neck. I replace my regular boots for the silver flats I purchased earlier from the closest boutique I could find.

On my ears are beautiful sapphire earringss with a matching bracelet on each arm and a ring. My silky, wavy hair falls just below my shoulders, and sitting on my head is the elf wire tiara I obtained from the fisherman.

"Why didn't I change?" Violet complains, she's beside me in her usual brown get up.

"I said stop talking to me," I say again. We ride the twenty minute distance from the inn to the big stately manor held back by big brass gates. "Remember what we talked about."

A soldier leaves his post and walks up to me. "Can I help you?"

I wrinkle my nose at him. "I hope so. I was looking to speak to the governor." I adopt a superior tone.

"Is he expecting you?"

"What do you think?" I scoff.

"I can't let anybody in without his approval, I'm going to have to turn you back."

I don't deter. I place my hand on my chest and let out a little laugh. "For a second there, I began to believe this was your house." I look him up and down. "Don't know what I was thinking."

He's getting angry. "Turn back, Miss."

"This isn't you house. You can't turn me away." I smirk.

"I'm well within my position to do so."

"Position, ah. That's a word I understand." I scowl. "We are not in the same position, I can't even believe I'm talking to you. Open the gate so I can talk to someone in my class. Now. Or we'll have a problem and when I eventually get the governor's attention, you won't have a job anymore."

The other soldier leaves his post and joins us. "Is there a problem?"

"Yes." I say quickly, showing off my sapphire bracelet. "This man is preventing me from meeting the governor, it's especially annoying because the matter I wish to speak to him about is of upmost importance. Please tell me your names, so I know who to blame when we inevitably talk."

The second soldier clears his throat. "Right this way, Miss." He signals for the first soldier to open the gate, the latter does so begrudgingly.

Violet and I ride in and take in the manor. It's three stories high and very wide. Vibrant green vines snake all over the grey, stony exterior. Two big statues of lions are positioned on either side of the mahogany door.

I hop off Apple and hand him to the young man at the front. "Be careful with him, he's a special breed." Violet gets off her horse and hands him the reins.

"What is wro..." She starts.

"Don't talk to me," I whisper angrily.

A grande foyer welcomes us into the house. The walls are white with magnificent paintings hanging everywhere, the floors are polished marble and the ceilings depict vivid images of people clothed in clouds.

"Good day, Miss." A woman wearing a simple blue dress says to me. "I don't believe we've met."

I size her up invasively. "We haven't, I just arrived."

She smiles. "I'm Marisol, matron of this manor."

I laugh. "Good for you. I'll like a word with the governor please."

She shakes her head slowly. "One can't simply pop in on the governor."

"Of course, but please do inform him that I'm here. The matter is urgent." She nods and begins walking away. "Wait." I snap my fingers at Violet. She hands me the silk purple pouch. "A gift."

"How kind." Mariosl takes the pouch, offers me a smile and walks off.

I circle round the room inspecting the paintings. "Can I talk to you now?" Violet whispers.

"Not yet." I don't look at her. "We have to careful for this plan to work, Malin's life depends on it."

We settle into a grave silence.