Sara grabbed the jar of snails while Prin tried to read the label for tannin. Maude came to her side and selected one small jar and placed it beside the others they had gathered. She double-checked each ingredient, probably more to teach them to be careful than because she required doing so.
She said, “Read how to make the spell and then tell me.”
Sara started to read, and Maude watched and questioned all steps. Finally, they had a dry mixture of the right proportions, and she approved. Olive oil bonded the compound together in the bowl until a thick, unappetizing paste remained.
Maude said, “Who’s first?”
Both Prin and Sara pointed at the other. Maude smeared the concoction on Prin’s head, then Sara’s, following the natural hairline and carefully wiping off any overspill from it. She uttered the words and waited, smiling as if watching puppies play. Sara watched the mass transform into short brown hair on Prin’s head, and then it started to lengthen, and it grew longer and longer. Prin’s hand went her head, and she lightly touched hair longer than her finger and still growing.
Prin’s hair was medium brown, straight, and down to her shoulders and still growing. Prin said, “How do we stop it?”
Maude said, as she outlined Sara’s head and applied the concoction, “When it uses all the energy we instilled into it, the hair will stop growing. If it’s too long, we’ll give you a haircut, but hopefully, we didn’t give it so much it will reach the floor.”
Sara said between giggles, “The snails and tannin give it color?”
“More gives the hair a darker color,” Maude said, standing back a step and watching, still wearing the smile. “The medium color is a compromise between your black and Prin’s blonde. It makes you look like sisters—which is a good thing considering the story you tell.”
Prin fingered the hair and found it felt almost strange. Not in touch or texture, but because she had been weeks without hair. She pulled some to the side of her face and looked at it.
Sara watched her. “Nobody will recognize you now.”
Maude was looking at both, and a sly smile slowly filled her thin lips. “I wonder how the two of you will look with noses the size of turnips and ears so big they that they flop when you walk?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Prin couldn’t stop looking at Sara, and when Brice woke, neither could he. But he gawked at both as if they’d suddenly grown two heads, a comment that made all four of them laugh. Prin kept an eye on Maude in case her nose or ears started to tingle.
But Maude was right in wishing to further disguise them. Prin said suddenly, “Can you add a few years to me? Maybe five?”
“I was just considering the same thing,” Maude said. “Who is searching for an eighteen-year-old girl with brown hair, and her older sister? None, that’s what I think.”
Maude collected a few items from near her desk and turned, hands full. “I use this on me every week or two, so all I need is right here.”
Prin backed off a step. “Hey, I was kidding.”
“No, you weren’t,” Maude said, setting her things nearby. “Get over here, or I’ll come get you.”
“Let me help,” Sara squealed.
Prin said, “Careful, you’re going to trip over your hair.”
Maude threw a little of one item and a dash of that into a mixing bowl, poured water and vinegar in, and swirled it all around while humming to herself. Finally, she spread the concoction on brown paper to dry. “That should be about five years. If we need more, we can add it next week.”
Prin said, “I want a Treeman.”
“A what?” Maude asked.
“A tree stump. When I throw my knife at your trees, it just falls to the ground. And Sara has arrows that don’t miss. I want a spell like that on my knife, but I want to learn to use it first.”
Maude said, “Reasonable and forward thinking.”
“And I want someone to teach me to fight.”
“Fight?” Maude asked, her face showing her confusion.
“Sir James promised to teach me. I sat helplessly by and saw my father killed. Sir James promised—then he died, too. And another. I could do nothing for myself. Gutter-snipes from the local bars and taverns killed the men sent to protect me while I was a scared mouse. I will not ever be helpless again.”
Maude sat on a high stool where her feet wouldn’t reach the floor and said, “Again, a reasonable request. We will find you an instructor. Soon. What sort of self-defense did you have in mind?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe swords, knives, wrestling, kicking, punching, pikes, staffs, and hair-pulling. Especially the latter. There are a couple of high-born girls at the palace who need a fist-full of their hair yanked out.”
“Prin, you do have a way with words. That may be your most effective weapon,” Maude said. “However, I know a man who may instruct you, if asked. If not, I will approach another, but the one I have in mind will not be gentle. He believes pain is the best teacher.”
Brice woke and pointedly ignored them. He sat up groggily and reached for the candle in front of him. His face locked, as he concentrated on the blackened tip of the wick and the melted wax. His eyebrows furrowed and for a long time, nothing happened. The women watched wordlessly, silently urging him on. He closed his eyes, gathered himself, then opened them and focused again.
The candle flickered to life.
Maude looked at Prin from the corner of her eye.
Prin shook her head. She hadn’t interfered. Brice had done it on his own. The flame winked out. Then rekindled. A smile grew on his face as he stood, the candle extended. “Thank you. Once you know how it is easy.”
Maude said, “The first of many things you’ll learn, but you will also learn to conceal your talents, so the other sailors do not suspect.”
“I still have to go away?”
“You do,” Maude said. “You have a great deal to do. I will teach you more because you need instruction, but the cost for that is that you will sail to Indore and gather information for Prin. When you return, I will teach you more, but again you will sail back to Indore and return. Your new ship will arrive there after three more ports of call, but once there you will leave the Merry Princess for a ship that travels only between there and Gallium.”
“How many times?” he asked.
“Until Prin learns what she needs,” Maude said. “After what your life was to be before her taking you in, I’d think this a small price to pay for a lifetime of rewards.”
As he nodded, his eyes widened. He had only spoken to Maude, and the other two were shielded from his sight and attention. As Sara struck a lamp to life, he saw her hair.
Prin turned too, seeing that it had continued to grow and was now a mass of brown with soft curls that hung well past her shoulders. Prin’s hand went to feel hers, knowing the texture, color, and length were the same.
He said, “I thought your hair was a dream. You look so different! And you, too!”
His eyes had shifted to Prin. She said, “It’s just hair.”
“No, it’s not. It’s like you two are different people. You look—well, normal.”
Maude said, “There is more of the hair growth spell if you’d like to use some for yourself, but it will fade in a week or so, and disappear in two. Tomorrow, I think we will teach you how to hide your talent, and maybe give you a little hair. By the time it fades, your real hair will be taking its place, but it will be short until it grows out naturally.”