8. Small Town Boys (KoS)

Luc yawned. “Any more of that tea?”

Yvon held up the teapot. A single sludgy drop dangled at the spout’s lip. “None. Ugh, I can’t believe we finished a whole pot of Madeline’s tea.”

“What about… what about those fiddly sandwiches, with the cucumber?”

“Gone. Why’d the Duke put a full tea service in his armored carriage, in the first place? And under the seat, at that?” Yvon questioned.

“’Cause he’s… the Mad Duke? It’s too late for… questions like that,” Luc yawned.

“Early. The sun’s rising.”

“Fuck,” Luc replied eloquently, through another yawn.

Yvon dug under the seat some more. “There’s some useful stuff under here, too. Cloaks. Hats.”

“Useful hats, or…?”

Yvon held up a tricorn fringed in ruched ribbon, complete with a rosette and bi-color ribbon in Domaine-Des-Deux’s gold and blue, and shrugged. “Er, if we get invited to a fancy dress party, maybe.”

Luc grumbled under his breath. Half-asleep, he waved lazily at Yvon. “Put one of those cloaks on, and pass another to me. I see walls up ahead.”

Through the window, a stone wall rose over the forest. Unlike the Duke’s wall, a sheer ring of pure, solid stone that thrust out of the earth, this wall had been built by mortal men. Large stones fitted snugly together, gaps closed with smaller stones, no need for mortar.

As they drew closer, the forest fell away, clear cut for a hundred yards until the wall. A pair of armored carriages queued ahead of them, waiting for the gates to open. Luc guided them to the back of the line.

“Here,” Yvon said, stuffing a cloak through the slit.

“Thanks.” Luc yanked it onto his side and drew the cloak on. Though the weather was warm for the season, it was still late spring, and in early morning, a damp chill hung over the world. The cloak, made of heavy fabric, was a welcome presence. He slung it over his shoulders and hugged it to him for a moment, then raised the hood, hiding his curls.

“We should, we should, we should… um, fake names,” Luc managed, snapping his fingers.

“Well said,” Yvon replied.

Luc stared at him. “Who drove the carriage all night while someone napped?”

Yvon waved him down. “Alright, alright. You have a good point. Fake names. Er… I’ll be… Von, and you can be… Uc?”

“I’ll go with Luce,” Luc suggested.

“Not much of a fake name.”

“Because Von is so much better.”

They both stared at one another. Luc broke out laughing first, Yvon barely holding out another second. They laughed until they couldn’t laugh anymore, Luc wiping away tears, Yvon shaking his head.

Luc rubbed his face and yawned again, exhausted. “I need sleep.”

“Let’s get through the gate first,” Yvon said.

“How much longer until they open the gate? The sun’s up!” Luc complained.

Almost as he said it, the massive iron slab that marked the town’s gate began to creak upward, chains rattling heavily over the land. As it slowly climbed high enough for the carriages to roll through, farmers, hunters, and foragers ducked out from under the slab and dispersed into the forest.

One enterprising young lady approached the carriages one at a time with a basketfull of piping hot baked goods. The scent wafted ahead of her, making Luc’s mouth water. He swallowed and leaned forward, gripping the narrow slit of his cab.

Something bonked him on the back of the head. Luc turned back, frowning at Yvon.

Yvon brandished a tea saucer at him. “We can’t waste our money on useless things! We’ll buy breakfast inside or work for it. Don’t fall for her trickery, she’ll almost certainly charge us double!”

“I know, I know, I’m not stupid. It just… it smells so good,” Luc sighed.

The girl arrived at their carriage. Twin red braids hung over her shoulders, bangs curled over her forehead, and she wore a pale blue dress with cheap lace at the collar. Smiling warmly, she brandished her wares. “Fresh bread?”

Luc took a deep breath. Warm bread, fresh and yeasty, assaulted his senses. Crusts glistened in the sunlight, touched by an egg wash, or perhaps fresh, melty butter. His stomach grumbled, and his resolve wavered. He reached for his bag.

Yvon struck him on the back of the head with the tea saucer again. “No! We’re poor!”

At the world poor, the girl’s smile vanished. She turned around and vanished back into the city, taking her bread with her.

“I drove all night, and now you’re taking my delicious bread from me, too?” Luc complained.

“We can’t afford it, Luc. We’re on the run. There’s no guarantee we can find work here, and even if we do, we might need to move on quickly from this city and leave behind whatever wages we make. We have to scrimp and save every penny.”

“And whose fault is that?” Luc snapped.

“Mine,” Yvon admitted.

The wind taken from his sails, Luc deflated. “Yeah, yours. It’s your damn fault.” He paused, then wiped his face. “Ugh. I’m sorry, Yvon. It’s not your fault. It’s… this damn world’s fault, or something.”

“Should we blame the gods for birthing the bloodlines, while we’re at it?” Yvon asked dryly.

“Might as well,” Luc replied, shrugging.

Yvon sighed. “Let’s get you inside, take a good long nap, and get some food, alright? Once you’re thinking straight, we’ll discuss our next move.”

“That’s my Yvon,” Luc replied.

The carriages ahead of them jolted into motion. Slowly, they drew up to the gate.

“Name, business, and papers please,” the guard demanded.

“Luce, travelling merchant,” Luc said. His heart jolted, adrenaline shot through it. Papers? Fuck! He yawned and rubbed his face, exaggerating his sleepiness to buy time as he shuffled around at his feet, pretending to search for papers. Come on, come on. The Duke… wait, does a Duke’s carriage need papers? What kind of papers? Dammit!

Please, I need a nap! Don’t send me back out into that hellish forest.

“Rough night?” the guard said, chuckling.

“You could say that. There was a bear…” Luc trailed off, still shuffling around at his feet. He yawned again, loudly, but sensed his time running out.

“You took a risk, running the wilds without a Chasser, or at least some kind of mage,” the guard commented.

“Yeah,” Luc grunted, too tired to be any more eloquent.

Yvon sat up in the backseat. He tugged his hood down and ducked to mask more of his face, though the long bangs in his eyes already did more. “We made a loss on our last venture. Tried selling rarities to the Mad Duke, but he called them all fakes and sent us on our way, with nothing to show for it. We made an overreach paying for the rarities in the first place, and then hiring a carriage and Chassers for the passage out… by the time we knew what was happening, we were stranded in Le-Voux, no money to our name and no way back. Had to drive the carriage ourselves when our driver got sniped by a better-paying client, at that, and we’ve been riding all night.”

“Damn. Sounds rough,” the guard said. He held out his hand for papers.

“I can’t find… anything,” Luc grunted, glancing at Yvon.

“Dammit, Luce, don’t tell me you lost the papers?” Yvon chided him.

“Shut up,” Luc complained.

“No papers, no entry. You’ll have to go back to Le-Voux. I feel for ya, but we’ve had bandits sneak in on armored carriages before,” the guard said firmly.

“Y… Von, the, under the chair,” Luc stammered. Please. I can’t drive another whole day.

Yvon shuffled around under the chair. “I’m looking, I’m looking.”

The guard leaned against the carriage. “It’s just the two of you?”

Luc nodded, exhausted. “Just the two of us.”

“Open the doors. Let me see.”

Too exhausted to think of a better plan, Luc opened the door to his cab. Yvon pulled his cloak around him and opened the carriage door as well, ducking his head under the hood.

The guard peered inside. He lifted Yvon’s cloak with the butt of his sheath, but when he saw only one pair of legs, let it drop, satisfied.

“Alright. You seem to have had a rough enough time of it. I’ll let it pass. Just this one time, though, understood?”

“Thank you, thank you so much,” Luc said. “If there’s anything I can do for you, I—”

“Get a nap and find those papers!” the guard replied, chuckling. He waved them through.

As they trundled past, Luc collapsed against the cab’s cool walls, exhausted. The horses continued on, wearily pulling the carriage ahead. A narrow ring of forest spread to the left and right, a crescent moon-shaped swathe of forest that stood against the village’s walls, but unlike their own Le-Voux, the walls here clung close to the village itself. From here along the wall, Luc could see the heart of the village, and from the heart of the village, the walls would always remain visible. It didn’t help that the village sat in a shallow valley, while the walls stood atop the ridge of the bowl.

Aside from the crescent of forest, most of the land inside the walls had been developed. Fields and orchards cut patchwork swathes across the land, while fences caged in a slice of pasture for the village’s animals. Compared to Le-Voux, the farms were tiny and dense, but at the same time, the village itself sprawled wider than Le-Voux’s modest settlement.

Not far from the village, atop a small rise in the valley, a grand manor, much less grand than the Duke’s, loomed over the town.

Luc sighed. “I thought I was going to die.”

“Yeah, yeah. Pull off into an open field somewhere, then come on back here and take a nap. At least we don’t have to pay for inns,” Yvon reasoned. He paused another second, then tapped the back of Luc’s head with something.

Luc whirled. “You and that fucking tea saucer—”

Yvon held out a handful of papers to him.

Luc blinked. “Eh… huh? You found papers? Why didn’t we…?”

“Papers made out to Hugo Sothe, purveyor of fine goods. Not Luce and Von, rarity merchants.”

“But I… but we…” Luc blinked, too tired to understand.

“By the time I found them, we’d already given our fake names, and the guard was already considering letting us through. I thought it was best to let it happen, rather than try to bluff our way through with papers made out in the wrong name after we’d already messed up once. Next town, we can use these papers.”

Luc considered, then shook his head and rubbed his eyes. “Whatever you say, Hugo.”

“Hey—why am I Hugo?” Yvon asked, taken aback.

“Merchants usually don’t drive themselves,” Luc replied.

Yvon sighed. “I can drive.”

“Nope, too late. Hugo.”

“Stop saying that. It’s a terrible name.”

Up ahead, a clearing opened up in the town’s outer forest. Luc drove the carriage into the clearing and stopped. “I’m taking a nap here. You care for the horses, I did my part.”

Yvon nodded. He climbed out of the carriage and stretched, while Luc wobbled into the carriage for a long-deserved rest.

--

When Luc emerged, night was already beginning to fall. Yvon had the horses unhitched from the carriage and mostly de-armored, and the massive beasts chewed the wild grass in the clearing happily. At the sight of Luc, Yvon nodded.

“Anything happen while I was sleeping?” Luc asked.

Yvon shrugged. “I was warned that Maud doesn’t take kindly to folks free-grazing on her lands, but she hasn’t been by to stop us yet.”

“Maud?” Luc asked.

Yvon nodded at the town and the manor. “Name of the mistress of the manor. She’s a Baroness, I believe. And this town is—”

“Providence, right? I paid some attention in geography,” Luc replied.

Yvon spread his palms. “Just confirming we went the right way.”

“There’s not much the other way past Le-Voux. One more town, and then the wilds proper, right? Something like… Findu…”

“Fin-du-Monde,” Yvon replied. “The ‘end of the world.’ A bit over-dramatic, if you ask me.”

“We grew up in ‘the wish,’ I don’t think we can throw stones,” Luc replied.

“Anyways, Fin-du-Monde is half a bandit haven, half an outpost for monster hunters, so it doesn’t really count. Providence is a tiny little town, but at least it’s got walls, so there’s that.” Yvon crouched and sketched a few blobs in the dirt with a stick, meant to illustrate towns. “Past it, we have two more towns, and then we reach the civilized lands.” He drew a long, wobbly line across the map.

“Civilized lands? Oh, right, the lands near the capital,” Luc remembered.

Yvon nodded. “Around the big cities, near the capital and the eastern seaboard,” he drew another line, to the far side of the original line, to mark the coast, “monsters are mostly hunted to extinction, and it’s safe to ride ordinary carriages. Some people even brave the nights alone, though it’s not uncommon for small groups and single travelers to go missing or end up eaten. We’ll be relatively safe in that zone, and we can hide there while I learn my magic.”

“No. As long as we’re heading out of the wilds, we should head for the capital,” Luc argued.

“Why?” Yvon asked, forehead crinkling.

“More people, so it’s easier to hide. More libraries, magic schools, and mages for you, which means a better chance to find some kind of text, book, I don’t know, instructor to help you with your magic. And lots of jobs and potential. If we have to flee the country, too, we can make a run for the port and sail across the sea.”

“But the Temple has a strong presence in the capital, as well. More chances for me to get caught. And more mages means more people who might be able to identify me as a mage, or tell what kind of magic I have.” Yvon paused and cut his eyes at Luc. “You just want to meet Emilie, don’t you.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!” Luc protested.

“No? You don’t want to meet Emilie?” Yvon prodded.

Luc rolled his eyes. “I do, but I don’t just want to meet her. Think about it, Yvon. Who do we know who’s a mage, who could have access to not just libraries, but magic techniques and live demonstrations? Aside from the Duke.”

“You think you can convince Emilie to teach an acolyte of the god of death how to use magic?” Yvon asked skeptically, quirking an eyebrow.

“We’ll tell her you’re un-Welled. From some wild bloodline. And we won’t let her see you use magic. Think about it, Yvon. She’s learning how to use her magic, too. She’ll be able to share her techniques as she learns them. It’s a perfect match.”

“As you pointed out earlier, we haven’t seen her for years. She might remember us, but she won’t be the same Emilie we knew. Even if she is, even if she agrees, what if she demands I get registered at the Temples? All mages, even un-Welled bloodlines, officially have to register themselves. It’s not an unreasonable demand, except that it’ll be the end of me.”

Luc sat down and looked Yvon in the eye. “What other options do we have? Wandering blindly across the continent? Begging random nobles to let us waifs use their library while we scrape together a few coins to survive? Admit it, Yvon, that’s not living. The permanent solution is for you to earn how to use your magic, so you can hide it and live on as an ordinary citizen. And the easiest place to do that is in the capital.”

“Learn to use my magic, so I can hide it.” Yvon chuckled. He shook his head.

“What? Isn’t that our goal?” Luc asked.

“No, no, it’s just… if my childhood self heard us now… learning to use magic, so I can not use it.” Yvon sighed. “It’s ridiculous. It doesn’t feel real.”

“I don’t know what else to do, Yvon. Your magic… it isn’t legal. Though… once you know how to control it, more options open up to us, right?” Luc said.

“Do they?” Yvon asked dryly.

“Well, like with the bear,” Luc reasoned. “We can become travelling merchants and cut costs by not employing Chassers. No one has to know your secret, and you can still use your magic in the wilds, where there’s no one around to see you.”

“Huh. I… that’s actually a good idea,” Yvon admitted.

“Oh, thanks, that idiot Luc came up with a good idea for once, huh,” Luc mocked, rolling his eyes.

“No, seriously, Luc. That’s not bad. I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Of course, it’ll raise suspicions if we go anywhere too dangerous, but a few lucky trips…” Yvon put a hand to his chin, thoughtful.

Luc clapped him on the shoulder, grinning. “So, to the capital?”

“I never agreed to that,” Yvon countered.

Luc’s smile fell.

“…But, but, I’ll think about it,” Yvon said. He edged out from under Luc’s hand. “And be careful. You shouldn’t touch me.”

“You’ve been touching me with the tea saucer all morning. As long as I don’t touch your bare skin, I’m safe, right?”

“Probably? But cloth is porous. It’s dangerous,” Yvon said. He touched his shoulder self-consciously and pulled the cloak over it.

“Eh, I was fine.” Luc stretched and yawned. He turned, looking down the road toward the town. “Let’s hide the carriage and the horses in the woods and see what this town has to offer. If nothing else, we can pick up a few coins here before we press on.”

Yvon stood as well, looking down into the valley. “I don’t want to spend too long here. A day or two, maybe three, but we shouldn’t linger in Providence. It’s too close to Le-Voux.”

“Concur. A day or two to rest, and then we move on,” Luc declared.