BOOK ONE
CHAPTER FOUR
The assassins camped out in front of the cave entrance. There was Huge Iver, a large man with enough strength to kill using only his pinky finger, Lauori the Quick a tiny woman, expert with a bow, and Stellan the Hyena, a man who rarely spoke, but often laughed, with the build of a scarecrow and a scary talent for swordplay. Together they were known as the Poison Wind, a name which struck fear in the hearts of men, and laughter in the bellies of children who, when they smelled something foul, would always say “Who released the poison wind?” The trio had tried many times to make another name stick, but nothing worked.
Stellan kept guard while Iver and Lauori played a high stakes game of Go Fish that frequently devolved into hot-headed death matches. Iver had just told Lauori he didn’t have any eights when they heard a whooshing sound coming from the cave. Each of them readied their weapons just in time for a powerful gust of wind to blow them all over. Out of the cave came a gigantic hawk flying full speed with a human rider atop it—their target, Sasha. They all scrambled to get to their horses, and took off after the hawk. When the coast was clear, the Prince exited the cave, collected their horses, and rode off to meet his friends at the rendezvous.
Moriandra’s transformational ability allowed her to alter form, but not size. As a human, she was freakishly tall; as a hawk, she was a monster. Luckily this meant she could bear Sasha’s weight without too much trouble. Sasha and Mo led the assassins quite some way before deciding to lose them and meet up with the Prince. It would take days now for the killers to find them again, but this meant they could no longer travel through towns for fear of making their movements too easily known. Their next stop, the Forest of El, supposed home of the golden sparrows.
And so the group trudged on together, using back roads, sleeping in caves and eating whatever game they could find. Mo proved to be an excellent asset, travelling as a giant puma which scared away would be robbers and ensured good eating for all thanks to her excellent hunting skills. Before long they reached the Forest of El, though they had no idea where to start looking for their next object, a sparrow made of Living Gold, and every day that passed, the assassins closed the distance between them.
Stellan kept guard while Iver and Lauori played a high stakes game of Go Fish that frequently devolved into hot-headed death matches. Iver had just told Lauori he didn’t have any eights when they heard a whooshing sound coming from the cave. Each of them readied their weapons just in time for a powerful gust of wind to blow them all over. Out of the cave came a gigantic hawk flying full speed with a human rider atop it—their target, Sasha. They all scrambled to get to their horses, and took off after the hawk. When the coast was clear, the Prince exited the cave, collected their horses, and rode off to meet his friends at the rendezvous.
Moriandra’s transformational ability allowed her to alter form, but not size. As a human, she was freakishly tall; as a hawk, she was a monster. Luckily this meant she could bear Sasha’s weight without too much trouble. Sasha and Mo led the assassins quite some way before deciding to lose them and meet up with the Prince. It would take days now for the killers to find them again, but this meant they could no longer travel through towns for fear of making their movements too easily known. Their next stop, the Forest of El, supposed home of the golden sparrows.
And so the group trudged on together, using back roads, sleeping in caves and eating whatever game they could find. Mo proved to be an excellent asset, travelling as a giant puma which scared away would be robbers and ensured good eating for all thanks to her excellent hunting skills. Before long they reached the Forest of El, though they had no idea where to start looking for their next object, a sparrow made of Living Gold, and every day that passed, the assassins closed the distance between them.
In the meantime, the Queen had decided to take matters into her own hands. Ever since the Prince had left the castle, she felt wrong. Her headaches were getting worse and the voice was louder than ever. Her assassins had written with an update, “Sasha escaped the mountain. On run. For now.” The Queen never expected the girl to survive the cave. She had sent dozens of knights in there over the years to retrieve the North Star, and not one had made it out again. She received no report about her son, but the Queen knew he was still alive. Alive, but not safe. She had sent messengers in all directions with a letter calling off the Poison Wind, but once on a job, the assassins told her, they travelled in stealth and could not be contacted. She had to find him herself. So she assembled a caravan and set off into the countryside heading towards the Forest of El.
Moriandra’s behavior had altered since reaching the forest; she was anxious, taciturn. Sasha feared that Mo regretted her decision to join them. They had made no progress in their search for Living Gold, and days were passing far too quickly, so they decided to risk venturing into villages incognito to ask for help. In one town after another, locals laughed at the trio, assuring them that they would have just as much luck finding talking trees made of silver, or bronze statues doing circus tricks, as they would animals made of Living Gold. They kept trying though, and to Sasha’s relief Moriandra stayed with them.
One day, they walked into a tavern and came face to face with a large picture of Sasha. It read ‘Wanted for Kidnapping’ and listed a very, very high reward, but luckily the rendering looked so villainous nobody noticed any resemblance. The trio ordered their drinks and inquired if anyone could tell them about Living Gold.
“You sure came to the right place,” the barkeep replied. “Why, there’s a great sorceress in the center of town who can help you.” They found their way to the sorceress’s establishment, but were disturbed at what they found within—a chinsily decorated gift shop filled with Living Gold memorabilia. They stared balefully at rows of cages filled with depressed woodland creatures covered in what was obviously nothing more than gold paint, and toxic gold paint at that considering how many of the animals on display were dead. Each cage had a price tag in front of it; sparrows were even on sale. A bored youth stood behind a counter waiting for the group to make their choice. Instead, they exchanged horrified looks and left the shop. They returned to the tavern, firmly resolved to get quite drunk.
After a couple ales, people in the bar begged Sasha to play her lute, an activity she had been avoiding since she started running from assassins, but the crowd could not be dissuaded, so she got up on the bar and turned a normal evening at the pub into a joyous musical event. The Prince tried to accompany on tambourine, but the other patrons soon confiscated the instrument. Mo sat in the corner observing the festivity, feeling particularly pleased with her decision to join this lot, when a man with a crutch and a smarmy expression approached her.
“Hello beautiful,” he said. Mo did not answer. “What’s a woman like you doing in a place like this?” No answer. “When I saw you here I thought I was dreaming, dream girl.” No answer. “You ever seen something made of real Living Gold? Not that fraud down the street, I’m talking the real thing.” This got Mo’s attention. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wooden idol wrapped in paper. “I stole this from the magician who created the stuff. If you take this trinket in your hand and recite the words on the page, golden animals will appear around you. But it won’t work for just anybody, you have to have a touch of magic in you already, and you’ve got magic to spare, I can tell. I can smell it on ya. You might actually be able to use this. So, what you say we go out in the woods and give it a try.”
“Do I know you from somewhere?” Mo asked.
“Name’s Barnaby,” he replied, but Mo’s attention had turned back to the room – Sasha had abruptly stopped playing and the raucous cheers of an adoring audience had ceased, replaced by a foreboding silence. It started when one boy realized that before him stood the wanted criminal ‘Sasha-the-Merry-Maker.’ He elbowed the man next to him, who elbowed the girl next to him and so on until everyone had made the connection that this musician was worth three times her weight in gold. Sasha sighed, then ripped the spigots out of the closest casks, spraying the room with eyeball-burning mead. She grabbed the Prince’s hand, and ran. Mo picked up the idol on the table and stole out the window before her would-be lover could respond. They ran far into the woods, and hid in a cave guarded by an angry bear named Mo.
The next morning, Mo told them about Barnaby, and showed them what she’d nicked.
“Great!” said Sasha. “Let’s do it!”
“Do either of you find this strange?” asked Mo.
“Magically summoning living sparrows made of gold? Nothing could be more normal,” replied Sasha.
“Not that,” said Mo. “The fact he gave me this information for nothing in return.”
“What? You stole it. He did want something from you in return,” said the Prince. “Mo, you’ve been out of the world for a while. When a man talks to a woman at a tavern…”
“He made it too easy to steal. If this is truly magic, he should have been more careful.”
“So he lied. Mo, sometimes when a man sees a woman that he likes…”
“Then why not sell it? He could have profited even off a lie.”
“There are certain feelings a man has…”
“So what’s the worst that could happen?” Sasha interjected. “It doesn’t work and we’re back where we started.”
“Or he’ll get paid later somehow,” Mo insisted. “I’m not doing it.”
“Can I do it?” asked the Prince. “I’ll take the risk. I want to be the one to do it.” Sasha handed the figure to the Prince, he opened the paper and read the words, “La. Ah-lo-rah. Laou-rah. Niche.” And he disappeared.
“Oh, no,” Sasha muttered.
The Prince found himself surrounded by a breathtaking menagerie of golden animals hopping around in cages and habitats of all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, he saw them from inside a large cage of his very own. Barnaby, the crippled man from the tavern, glared at the Prince furiously.
“YOU?!” he screamed. “I don’t want YOU!”
One day, they walked into a tavern and came face to face with a large picture of Sasha. It read ‘Wanted for Kidnapping’ and listed a very, very high reward, but luckily the rendering looked so villainous nobody noticed any resemblance. The trio ordered their drinks and inquired if anyone could tell them about Living Gold.
“You sure came to the right place,” the barkeep replied. “Why, there’s a great sorceress in the center of town who can help you.” They found their way to the sorceress’s establishment, but were disturbed at what they found within—a chinsily decorated gift shop filled with Living Gold memorabilia. They stared balefully at rows of cages filled with depressed woodland creatures covered in what was obviously nothing more than gold paint, and toxic gold paint at that considering how many of the animals on display were dead. Each cage had a price tag in front of it; sparrows were even on sale. A bored youth stood behind a counter waiting for the group to make their choice. Instead, they exchanged horrified looks and left the shop. They returned to the tavern, firmly resolved to get quite drunk.
After a couple ales, people in the bar begged Sasha to play her lute, an activity she had been avoiding since she started running from assassins, but the crowd could not be dissuaded, so she got up on the bar and turned a normal evening at the pub into a joyous musical event. The Prince tried to accompany on tambourine, but the other patrons soon confiscated the instrument. Mo sat in the corner observing the festivity, feeling particularly pleased with her decision to join this lot, when a man with a crutch and a smarmy expression approached her.
“Hello beautiful,” he said. Mo did not answer. “What’s a woman like you doing in a place like this?” No answer. “When I saw you here I thought I was dreaming, dream girl.” No answer. “You ever seen something made of real Living Gold? Not that fraud down the street, I’m talking the real thing.” This got Mo’s attention. The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a small wooden idol wrapped in paper. “I stole this from the magician who created the stuff. If you take this trinket in your hand and recite the words on the page, golden animals will appear around you. But it won’t work for just anybody, you have to have a touch of magic in you already, and you’ve got magic to spare, I can tell. I can smell it on ya. You might actually be able to use this. So, what you say we go out in the woods and give it a try.”
“Do I know you from somewhere?” Mo asked.
“Name’s Barnaby,” he replied, but Mo’s attention had turned back to the room – Sasha had abruptly stopped playing and the raucous cheers of an adoring audience had ceased, replaced by a foreboding silence. It started when one boy realized that before him stood the wanted criminal ‘Sasha-the-Merry-Maker.’ He elbowed the man next to him, who elbowed the girl next to him and so on until everyone had made the connection that this musician was worth three times her weight in gold. Sasha sighed, then ripped the spigots out of the closest casks, spraying the room with eyeball-burning mead. She grabbed the Prince’s hand, and ran. Mo picked up the idol on the table and stole out the window before her would-be lover could respond. They ran far into the woods, and hid in a cave guarded by an angry bear named Mo.
The next morning, Mo told them about Barnaby, and showed them what she’d nicked.
“Great!” said Sasha. “Let’s do it!”
“Do either of you find this strange?” asked Mo.
“Magically summoning living sparrows made of gold? Nothing could be more normal,” replied Sasha.
“Not that,” said Mo. “The fact he gave me this information for nothing in return.”
“What? You stole it. He did want something from you in return,” said the Prince. “Mo, you’ve been out of the world for a while. When a man talks to a woman at a tavern…”
“He made it too easy to steal. If this is truly magic, he should have been more careful.”
“So he lied. Mo, sometimes when a man sees a woman that he likes…”
“Then why not sell it? He could have profited even off a lie.”
“There are certain feelings a man has…”
“So what’s the worst that could happen?” Sasha interjected. “It doesn’t work and we’re back where we started.”
“Or he’ll get paid later somehow,” Mo insisted. “I’m not doing it.”
“Can I do it?” asked the Prince. “I’ll take the risk. I want to be the one to do it.” Sasha handed the figure to the Prince, he opened the paper and read the words, “La. Ah-lo-rah. Laou-rah. Niche.” And he disappeared.
“Oh, no,” Sasha muttered.
The Prince found himself surrounded by a breathtaking menagerie of golden animals hopping around in cages and habitats of all shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, he saw them from inside a large cage of his very own. Barnaby, the crippled man from the tavern, glared at the Prince furiously.
“YOU?!” he screamed. “I don’t want YOU!”
“Calm down already,” Mo insisted. “He’s fine.” Sasha looked utterly helpless, an expressions that didn’t fit her face well.
“He’s the most sheltered person, I’ve ever met. He’s not fine.” Sasha snapped.
“Well there’s nothing you can do at the moment, so take some deep breaths and sit down. He’s got my star so we’re going to find him and that’s that.”
“Why did I let him do that?”
“Let him? You’re not his mother. He has issues enough in that area, don’t add to them.” Moriandra excelled at acting unperturbed, but underneath she feared that they would find the Prince in a dire situation, if they found him at all. She really didn’t want to call them for help. It was bad enough being in the Forest of El. Avoiding them this long had been sheer luck. Or maybe not, she thought. Maybe they knew she was here, but were leaving her alone. Maybe they were waiting for her to come to them. That was it. So they could rub it in her face that she had to. Well, she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. Whatever she did, she was not asking them for help. Oh no, she realized, oaths like that never turn out right.
“Oh my gods,” Sasha whispered, her eyes directed upwards. Moriandra followed her eye line and saw what astounded Sasha: a tiny golden bird chirping happily on a nearby branch.
“Allow me,” Moriandra said quietly, transforming into an large, stealthy cat. She climbed silently toward the innocent bird, reached out a paw slowly, so slowly, and swiped! And missed! The bird flew off. Sasha grabbed a horse and followed, as Mo, changing to monkey, swung through the tree tops. The bird flew erratically, desperate to get away from its pursuers, but it could not. They followed it, followed it, followed it, then all of a sudden, lost it.
“Damn it!” cursed Sasha, scouring the branches for any sign of the sparrow.
Mo noticed something funny about the clearing in which they had stopped. Something contrived, almost too natural, the forest floor just the right amount of messy, a nearby rock face just craggy enough. Then Mo saw it, a dwelling built into the side of the hill, camouflaged perfectly, almost impossible to notice. When looked at correctly, a seemingly random assortment of ivy and leaves and moss and branches revealed a quaint cottage that disappeared into the hillside. “I see. A hidden house.” Mo walked up to the door and lifted her arm to knock. Sasha stopped her.
“We don’t know what’s waiting in there,” Sasha whispered.
“We will once I knock,” Mo replied.
“No! No, it could be dangerous. Here, take this.” Sasha handed Mo a large stick.
“What am I going to do with this?”
“You know. It’s a weapon.”
“I can turn into a lion,” Mo overenunciated.
“Just take it. And don’t knock. Let’s try to get in and out quietly. On the count of three. One. Two…” Suddenly, the door opened from the inside.
“Who wants tea?” the Prince asked cheerfully.
“He’s the most sheltered person, I’ve ever met. He’s not fine.” Sasha snapped.
“Well there’s nothing you can do at the moment, so take some deep breaths and sit down. He’s got my star so we’re going to find him and that’s that.”
“Why did I let him do that?”
“Let him? You’re not his mother. He has issues enough in that area, don’t add to them.” Moriandra excelled at acting unperturbed, but underneath she feared that they would find the Prince in a dire situation, if they found him at all. She really didn’t want to call them for help. It was bad enough being in the Forest of El. Avoiding them this long had been sheer luck. Or maybe not, she thought. Maybe they knew she was here, but were leaving her alone. Maybe they were waiting for her to come to them. That was it. So they could rub it in her face that she had to. Well, she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction. Whatever she did, she was not asking them for help. Oh no, she realized, oaths like that never turn out right.
“Oh my gods,” Sasha whispered, her eyes directed upwards. Moriandra followed her eye line and saw what astounded Sasha: a tiny golden bird chirping happily on a nearby branch.
“Allow me,” Moriandra said quietly, transforming into an large, stealthy cat. She climbed silently toward the innocent bird, reached out a paw slowly, so slowly, and swiped! And missed! The bird flew off. Sasha grabbed a horse and followed, as Mo, changing to monkey, swung through the tree tops. The bird flew erratically, desperate to get away from its pursuers, but it could not. They followed it, followed it, followed it, then all of a sudden, lost it.
“Damn it!” cursed Sasha, scouring the branches for any sign of the sparrow.
Mo noticed something funny about the clearing in which they had stopped. Something contrived, almost too natural, the forest floor just the right amount of messy, a nearby rock face just craggy enough. Then Mo saw it, a dwelling built into the side of the hill, camouflaged perfectly, almost impossible to notice. When looked at correctly, a seemingly random assortment of ivy and leaves and moss and branches revealed a quaint cottage that disappeared into the hillside. “I see. A hidden house.” Mo walked up to the door and lifted her arm to knock. Sasha stopped her.
“We don’t know what’s waiting in there,” Sasha whispered.
“We will once I knock,” Mo replied.
“No! No, it could be dangerous. Here, take this.” Sasha handed Mo a large stick.
“What am I going to do with this?”
“You know. It’s a weapon.”
“I can turn into a lion,” Mo overenunciated.
“Just take it. And don’t knock. Let’s try to get in and out quietly. On the count of three. One. Two…” Suddenly, the door opened from the inside.
“Who wants tea?” the Prince asked cheerfully.
Next, Chapter Five...