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  At length she spiked hunks onto the waiting bread, for the most part impartially, though the last portion was doubled. For Wyche, of course. Tilting the skillet now with caution Willadene poured a measure of the sizzling grease over each slab of plate bread.

  Figis had gone off with the tray of bowls and the pot of honey for the sweetening of their coarse contents. Now he returned for the rest of the meal.

  “The merchant from Bresta,” he said, keeping well away from Jacoba as he spoke, “said as how he found him a roach in his bowl. See—” He had put the bowl on the table and there was no mistaking the black creature. “Said as how he was going to speak to the Reeve—something about meat he had not ordered—” The boy sniggered, easily evading Jacoba's doubled fist. Catching up the second tray of bread, meat, and a large round of cheese he was gone before his mistress could round the table.

  Figis had little sense, Willadene thought. Jacoba had a very retentive memory. Sooner or later the boy would pay for his pertness. Though what he warned might well be true—a few more complaints to the district Reeve and Jacoba could find herself in trouble.

  In fact, Willadene had come to wonder, through the days of her servitude here, why the cook had so long escaped any real censure for her lack of cleanliness and her questionable products.

  The Wanderers Inn was, of course, Jacoba's own. But no building in Kronengred was really owned by anyone but the Duke, even though the same family might shelter in it for generations. The Duke undoubtedly had more important things to think over than the lacks and temper of an innkeeper.

  It had been five years since the great plague, which had seated Uttobric on the ducal highseat. He had been a relatively unknown and distant member of the family, but the only male fortunate enough to escape the all too devastating death. The only male—but there was one far closer to that honor—the last Duke's daughter, Lady Saylana. She had been widowed also by the march of the disease, but she had a son (luckily away from the city when disaster struck), and there were those who lifted an eyebrow significantly, or perhaps even dared to whisper behind a hand, when his name was spoken in passing. Thus Uttobric had a rival—or the threat of one—though Kronen law did not change and by all rights the rule was his.

  “Get you in to the tap, slut,” Jacoba said. “Wyche wants to clear his morning throat. Be sure you draw the best— Hmm—” There was something in that “Hmm” which kept Willadene from immediate obedience.

  “You are but one and twenty days away from Reeve listing as a full woman, scrawny and stupid as you are. Upchucking good food and saying it makes you sick. Sick! It is only that stubborn will of yours tryin’ to lie to your betters. No—you've no looks to you. But you're young and might wash up better. Wyche was taken a fancy to you, girl. Don't you give him any black looks. As one set over you by the Reeve himself I has the right to choose a man to take you off my hands. Wyche must be mazed to want you. Now get in there and, as I have said, do the pretty for him. Be glad you are gettin’ a man as has a full purse—sure he has offered enough wed bounty for you to promise that.”

  Somehow the inn mistress had talked herself into a good humor. Now she laughed, roaring coarsely. Willadene was well aware that her utter horror of this promised fate must be read on her face.

  Halwice—if she could only get to Halwice!—though she could not be sure the Herbmistress would even listen to any plea. She thought longingly of that quiet shop and of all it had seemed to promise since she had first found it. If—if she could serve as Halwice's cook maid—she could cook and well when she had the chance—that would be heaven. But twenty days lay between her and any free choice, and Wyche was waiting, Jacoba moving toward her, a big fist raised. Willadene went, her hands pressed tightly against her bosom as if the faint scent still rising from her bag could arm her against the future.

  She scuttled around the edge of the wide door, intent on reaching the shelf by the already tapped barrel so she could fill a flagon as soon as possible. Giving a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw that the big chair was empty, and she looked a little wildly ahead to her goal— hoping that Wyche was not lying in wait there.

  However, his broad back fronted those in the room as he stood by the major window, curtaining the light from those behind him. Four of them—all dressed in that sturdy travel-worn leather and heavy cloth favored by out-city merchants. They were all wearing badges, which meant they were legal and registered wayfarers, protected by tradition from any trouble within the borders of Kronen— except, of course, from those inhabitants now outside the same laws.

  The eldest of the three was picking with his belt eating-knife at the half-charred bacon before him, disgust plain to be read on his face. He was trimly neat, his short gray hair curling up in the back about the border of his bowl cap. There was a flash of ring on his knife hand, and it was plain he was prosperous in his trade. Now he pushed aside the slab of greasy bread and uttered a sound deep in his throat which brought the full attention of his three companions. Two of them were plainly of lesser rank in their guild, but the youngest had the same wide nose above a smallish mouth and shared the older man's other features to a degree which made it very possible they were father and son.

  “The road guard has been thinned again.” There was an angry note in the older man's statement. “We passed a full half company coming down from the west hills, bag and baggage—and not on leave either. I tell you whoever gives such orders delivers us like geese to the poulterer!”

  Both of those seated, one on either side of him, nodded. But the youngest one moved his head in the smallest suggestion of a shake as he stared straight at their leader.

  “The affairs of the highborn,” one of the others remarked, “seldom are settled to our satisfaction. Remember there are more disasters than the plague. There has never been Kronen blood turned against Kronen blood. However. . . .” His voice trailed away and he shrugged.

  In Willadene's hands the flagon was now brimming full, but she shrank from crossing toward that bulky back, sniffing its foul odor. However, Wyche had not changed position. She was determined now that he was entirely intent on what lay beyond the bubbled glass of that window. Dare she ease her way to that small side table almost within his reach to empty the flagon into the waiting tankards, slip back before he was aware of her?

  Only, fortune failed her now. He shrugged his huge width of shoulder and turned his head. In his fat, puffed face his small dark eyes looked like a pair of dry, shriveled raisins. But his mouth gaped in what he might consider a welcoming smile.

  “Good fare for the belly, wench.” He swung farther away from the window and stuck out his bristly paw of a hand. Swiftly Willadene passed him the tankard. However, when he raised it to his mouth and was gulping its contents he deliberately raised his other hand to slap palm to the wall, cutting off her flight. His blubber lips had pursed, and, bringing down the tankard after that hefty pull, he eyed her from head to foot and back again.

  It seemed to Willadene then that that odor she had never been able to identify strengthened until she wanted to gag.

  “Skinny,” Wyche remarked, “but you're young and Jacoba swears you are still a maid. Though that state will not be with you for long now.” Before she could do more than flatten herself against the wall, her hands again seeking her amulet, his huge face loomed above her, and her skin shrank from the rough touch of his lips.

  “Yes, a bargain, I'm thinking. There won't be any youngsters hanging around gawking at such as you. Jacoba says you can cook—and a full table before him and a warmer for his bed at night is all any man wants. You're as skittish as a spring lamb.” The tip of a fat tongue passed over those thick lips which she felt had left a kind of scum on her own skin. “I likes ‘em so—it don't take long to tame ‘em—”

  What more threats he might have added Willadene did not know. Those she had just heard had sickened her. But Wyche's survey of her was interrupted, and she felt the door to the left—the one giving on the outer world— open
ing. Did she have a chance? But to run without any protector of rank was folly. She could be named vagabond and driven out of Kronengred—though she was sure that Jacoba would not willingly lose the bride price. She heard the tinkle of a small silvery bell as two cloaked and veiled women came in, a girl in a drab cloak at their heels, in her hand a basket already laden heavy enough to draw her childish body to one side.

  “Food for those in hunger as is the second commandment.” The first of the women to cross the threshold swung her bell again, its tinkle echoed by the one in the hand of her companion.

  Stools scraped across the flagstones as the four merchants got to their feet and bowed. Their leader advanced, digging one hand in his belt purse, and Willadene caught the glint of what could only be a silver coin.

  “Well has your Great One favored me.” The first of the cloaked Sisters of Bright Star was already bringing forth a plump bag of her own into which he dropped his offering, his fellows swift to follow his example.

  “What prayer would you have us set for you?” the woman asked. It was difficult to see her features so deeply she was veiled.

  “That of safe travel—-for me, Jaskar of Bresta, and for these, my companions. Such petitions are needed in our present days, Sister.”

  “Evil always awaits beyond the bonds of light,” she returned as Jacoba came into the room.

  “What's to do—?” the inn mistress began and then, catching full sight of the women, she stopped short. “You"—her attention swung to Willadene—"if the guests be through, then clear the table.”

  Thankfully Willadene put room between her and Wyche. The girl with the basket lugged her burden up to the board, and Willadene hastily crammed in those rounds of well-greased bread. By the looks of what already lay within the basket the Sisters had had good fortune in their begging round of the taverns and noble houses of the section this morning.

  “Fortune favor you, goodwife,” the Sister commented, but when her small serving maid tried to raise the basket she near sent it and its contents toppling to the floor.

  “It would please the Great One,” the Star follower added a moment later, “if you would lend us this girl of yours to our aid. We have only one more place to cry for alms and she would be quickly back.”

  Willadene knew very well that Jacoba wanted to answer that with one of her angry outbursts. Yet no one refused a Sister, for that Great Mistress was well-known to rule the whims of fortune itself.

  “Come back, wench"—there was a threat of trouble to come—"as fast as you can. We have dawdled away to near the Second Bell and nothing is done.”

  Willadene eagerly took half share of the handle, and the basket swung between her and the girl as they left. Oddly enough, Wyche was back to the window as if to watch them out of sight.

  She was breathing fast. Just as there were odors which clung to evil, so there were fragrances which matched good. She had sniffed those many times in Halwice's domain. And there was a strain of what might even be flowers—a mere whiff—as she and the girl maneuvered their way with their burden out of the inn door.

  Wyche was watching, but she thought that she knew the house the Sisters would seek out now—the section Reeve lived three doors away in the direction the Sisters were taking. His wife was well-known to be both pious and bountiful. She could cut through the alley beside the Reeve's house and, though it was near time for the Second Bell to summon all shopkeepers to the business of the day, she thought she could reach Halwice's without being seen.

  What would happen then she could not foresee. She had received both kindness and training from the Herbmistress in the past—ever since Jacoba sent her monthly for the scant supply of spices to hide the age of the meat.

  Now she walked obediently behind the Begging Sisters, fitting her pace to that of the maid whose burden she shared. The girl had not done more than glance at her once, following the rule of the Star's outventuring—eyes to the pavement and no worldly gazing at anything on either side.

  They had turned the corner to approach the Reeve's kitchen door, as was the custom. As Willadene heard die silver notes of the bells she tensed. The moment she saw the door thrown open and heard a brisk welcome for the Sisters, she herself looked to the girl.

  There was no time for any explanation—she would just have to go! Shifting her grasp off the basket handle so swiftly that the other girl had to grasp at the house wall to steady herself, Willadene ran.

  She thought to hear voices behind her and was amazed that such did not come. But the Great One of the Star— perhaps She would spread her shining cloak between those in the house and this fugitive.

  Turn left here—yes, she could catch sight of the great Maninger House—two streets over and around another corner—Halwice's. She had never taken this way to the Herbmistress's shop before, but she was sure.

  The morning chill whipped about her and caught at her toes left bare by her house sandals. Willadene was gasping a little, aware of every lighted window, every movement on the street. She tried to force herself to fall to a walk, but within a step or so her pace quickened again.

  She could not reckon now when she had discovered this haven. It went back to the shadowy days before the plague, for she had known the Herbmistress a very long time.

  Halwice had a place on the Guild Council. She was far more learned in the properties of her wares than were many of the doctors who strutted in answer to a distress call, their badged robes of fine cut worn with a flick and flourish of hem, their brimmed hats with a dangle of face mask ready to use when one might be called to enter a disease-tainted room, their pride in their calling sometimes—most times—spilling over into arrogance. Yet it was to Halwice that these same “masters of healing” must send for the mixtures they drew upon speedily enough.

  But healing—though Willadene knew well the importance Halwice placed on such knowledge—was not the only product sold in that shop where spice vied with fragrances and with sharp odors of oils. Those scents themselves had their place of importance.

  Willadene rubbed her knuckles across her nose. Already she could almost anticipate the feast awaiting her. She always stood just within the door of Halwice's shop for a long moment or two, drawing into her lungs the medley of odors. It was as if she could bathe herself in the freshest air of spring, the headiest perfume of summer, the spice of autumn. She could feel it scrub across her salt-sweated skin, her sticky hair—freeing her from Jacoba's hold, somehow stirring within her new thoughts and firming good memories.

  For Willadene had “the nose.” Although each and every one of her kind wore such a feature, only to a very few was the privilege given—the ability to recognize and name the most subtle of mixed scents. Just as the foul odors which haunted Jacoba's kitchen assaulted her to the point of choking and nausea, so could inhaling the perfume of a skillfully blended cream, a packet of dried leaves and petals, liquids so precious they must be dripped one drop at a time from small glass tubes, bring her a kind of freedom and pleasure.

  She could remember Halwice's first testing of her “nose,” the holding of a small jar of ointment from which there had risen a moisture—-golden, luxuriant as any treasure from a jewel casket. And Willadene had confidently named each ingredient of that cream—measures of this and that.

  Those of the ducal court paid well for their choices from Halwice's array of bottles and jars. Though Willadene was sent only for the coarsest and cheapest of spices, she would linger as long as she dared to drink in a nearly distilled scent, to listen to Halwice's explanations, to regard longingly the lines of tubes and bottles, the stands of narrow drawers—each compartmented and meant to hold powered leaves, petals, snippets of dried fruit rind. She had even drawn back to her a near lost skill in reading by studying the symbols lettered on each container.

  If Jacoba would only— That frustration which was like a pain never left the girl. For two years now the Herbmistress had made regular offers to buy Willadene's apprenticeship. The cook's spiteful answer was alway
s the same—that her scullery maid had been officially assigned to her from among the children orphaned by the great plague and as a relative she had accepted the Reeve's fee for taking such an unhandy servant.

  Why the innkeeper wished to hold on to a serving maid who was always deserving of punishment, who was as sickly as a winter-born lamb, Willadene could never understand. There would be a fine-fee for such a change, yes, but she had even heard Halwice offer to pay that. Was the answer what she had learned today—that Jacoba could get a bride price for her?

  She had sometimes thought that the cook had held on to her from pure spite. Jacoba had this twisted desire to torment. Willadene often thought that she was sent to the herb shop on trifling errands just to tantalize her.

  But all things come to an end in time. In twenty days she would be of age and Jacoba could not hold her against her will. Then—not yet had she dared suggest to Halwice that perhaps the Herbmistress would take her into her employ. She would not even expect a full apprenticeship— willing to work any number of hours without more pay than a chance to be in the shop, to learn—if Halwice came to think her worthy.

  The Herbmistress was of calm and unruffled temperament—but she was not cup friend to any of her neighbors. Pleasant to all but not welcoming chances for idle gossip. For the most part she was a silent woman, as if her thoughts occupied her more than her customers. Yet she was ready to serve all, listening to the complaints of those who ailed, mixing cordials and salves which served their purposes so well that all Kronen-bred knew their value.

  She certainly was not noble born. However, though Halwice went plain of dress and quiet of demeanor, Willadene had seen her more than once reduce some fretful or up-nosed housemistress to uneasy deference. She dealt with courtiers as well as stall keepers, and treated both with the same quiet courtesy.