He waved an arm. “It is packed and ready for you to take with you. I will pay for the shipment to your home, but you must take her work with you. I am ill and cannot wait for another sorceress. If you cannot carry on her work, you must swear to pass it on where it will be treated as a treasure.”
“Isn’t there another sorceress in this city?” Sara asked. “There are so many people.”
“Sorcery is forbidden here. If there is one, we do not know of her.”
“But, this is so much! So, important. I am not worthy to be entrusted with it.”
“If I die, all you see will be a waste to the owner of this building. He will dispose of it so he can rent out the space.” His voice turned hard, “I am very ill and will not last the winter. Would you have this discarded as rubbish after my death?”
“No, it’s far too important, but I’m so young. I’m just beginning to learn the craft. I only know a few simple spells and charms,” Sara protested.
“Once, we were young also, and Angelica only knew a single spell, but she used it to bring us together.”
Prin stepped forward and gave Sara’s shoulder a shove. “Forgive her. My sister is a stubborn cow.”
They both turned to her, but Prin stood firm, arms folded over her chest. “We will accept, care for, and study all that is here. I too am a sorceress. I will personally see to it, protect it with my life, and offer you my solemn promise to do your wife proud.”
He placed his boney hand on Prin’s shoulder. “A child’s promise, but she must accept, not you.”
Sara stood quiet, then relented and said, “I will do it for the fee of two pairs of sailor’s shoes and the honor of buying you dinner tonight so I can find out more about your wife.”
He began to cry softly but nodded his silent agreement.
Sara said, “You should know we are in hiding from people in our land, so we are working on a small cargo ship named the Merry Princess. Since we keep getting lost in your city, could I give you a silver coin to hire people to deliver the crates to our ship in the morning?”
“I have friends who will transport the crates. They will be there at your ship shortly after dawn. Now, I know of a woman who runs a small café with food like none you’ve ever tasted. May I show you the way?”
Their dinner was served in a small, dark room in a café without windows or other patrons. Prin learned that when others said that food would be like none she ever tasted, it didn’t always mean it was going to be good. The spices mixed in the odd, fatty meat were pungent, the bread wore a crust harder than the hard bread in the breakfast kitchen, and the rest of the meal fared no better. Prin didn’t know if the next bite would be spat out, singe her tongue, or poison her.
Prin feigned illness before Sara could use the same excuse. Sara used the excuse that she has just eaten before entering the shoe store. The shoemaker didn’t appear to catch on. However, the watered wine was exceptional, and they talked about the shoemaker’s wife for so long they finished two full bottles.
Leaving, they wound down and around buildings without corners, trying to follow his explicit directions, and always going lower on the hillside where they expected to find the water. Three times they had to retrace their steps and take alternate routes because of dead ends and blind alleys.
Sara said, “He was very nice.”
“Doing all that for his dead wife. He must have really loved her.”
Sara didn’t respond for a few paces, and when she did, her voice was choked, “The responsibility of the treasure she left is too much. Her work should go to a sorceress of the first magnitude, one who supports a queen.”
Prin placed her hand on Sara’s arm and stopped walking. She said, “That would be you.”
“Me?”
Prin continued as if she hadn’t been interrupted. “As a royal princess, you are my sorceress. That sounds strange in the circumstances we’re in today, but in ten years I may sit on the throne and do you believe I’ll have another as my sorceress?”
Tears streamed down Sara’s cheeks. “I never think ten years ahead.”
“I always do,” Prin said. “You are my mentor and the only person in the word I trust.”
Sara said, “I don’t know how all this can be happening to me. I’m just a woman from a small village who sells a potent or love charm now and then.”
Prin said, “Change of subject. I think I just saw Jam again.”
“His father is going to hear about this.”
“What will you say to the captain about the crates?”
Sara paused. “We will pay for their passage, of course. But, we will say that they are being sent to Indore to our father, the spice merchant. We know nothing of what is in them, but the books. We will need them to study on our trip.”
“We forgot the shoes,” Prin said, adjusting the things she carried as she glanced around for Jam again.
“They will be with the crates in the morning, I’ll bet.”
“We don’t even know his name,” Prin said.
“We don’t have to. But we will honor him and his wife by continuing her work. Do you understand what an honor it is to do that? And what a treasure of sorcery she left for us.”
“For you. I will be too busy being queen.”
Sara said, “I don’t know everything about kings and queens, but help me out by explaining something I’ve been thinking about because there may be a way out for you.”
“I don’t understand a lot of it, either.”
“Sooner or later the king will die. His son will become king. But, any of the son’s children will step ahead of all others, so your best hope is that he has a dozen children. Then, all the rest does not matter. I can make a love charm and perhaps find him a good wife.”
“I was told by a reliable source that the king’s son has a very handsome boyfriend.”
Sara said, “Oh. And the two after him are uncles, one ill and the other too old.”
“Then there is me.”
“What if you never went back?”
Prin shook her head and pursed her lips. “That will never happen for a good reason. It would mean the one after me would be crowned king or queen, probably the one who is trying to have me killed. If you think there is a manhunt for me now, can you imagine that person trying to prevent me from returning and taking the crown after he or she has been coronated?”
“I see.”
“Besides, it means that person won. It says they killed my father, Sir James, and William, all who were going to have me as their daughter, and they got away with it. That won’t happen.”
Sara paused and said, “That look in your eye. Please, never direct it at me.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know.”
Another few turns brought them to the head of the pier where the Merry Princess sat tied up. Another ship, one three times as large, was now on the other side of the pier, and longshoremen were hard at work unloading its cargo. As they walked down the wooden pier, Sara suggested they watch the process.
“Why?” Prin asked.
“Two reasons. One is that we might learn how a larger ship does things and we can maybe use something we learn to better our ship. The other reason is that your friend Jam is hiding behind the corner of that house with the bright green curtains in the window. If we stay here, he cannot come out without revealing himself. He will be uncomfortable hiding there on a hot afternoon.”
Prin found a crate of convenient height and sat with a smile. “Maybe we could get dinner delivered here by one of the crew?”
“Only if dinner comes from our ship and not from Donella.” They laughed at the remembered awful food and watched the crane unload the cargo while making comments on how it was done, but in the end, they found no methods to improve on those the Merry Princess already used, and more than one that the larger ship might consider trying.