They arrived in town around mid-morning. The sun was rising high, and a cool breeze eased the heat of the road. They crossed the moss-covered stone entrance, and proceeded down a cobblestone main street. In the air hung the scent of freshly baked bread and chimney smoke.
Silas peeked his head out of the wagon so he wouldn't lose anything. Much to his dismay, he was curious. Aside from the Lake Village and the castle, he didn't have much experience with settlements like that.
Here there were wooden houses with thatched roofs, though built differently from the huts of the lake tribe. Others were made of stones and different materials. They also came in all sizes. Some looked more opulent, others more humble. Most of them showed different shades of colors, and there were flower pots in some windows.
The villagers were already immersed in their daily chores. Their clothing was also quite diverse. In the castle, each inhabitant dressed in a certain way according to the function or position they carried out, and that had made it easy for him to identify everyone. However, in that town there were clothes of all colors and types, and it was almost impossible for him to know what each person did, although he could identify a group of guards who passed them by, and another group of men dressed in black who might occupy some important position.
Since they had crossed the entrance, the chimera had been on constant alert in case they encountered any wizards. Although the talisman had been able to change the color of his eyes, it still had to pass the real test.
As the wagons continued to move, Silas heard the voice of Gorwan and other members shouting to those present to announce the arrival of the group:
“Attention, attention, listen, dear neighbors! The Walking Dreamers have arrived in town!” Gorwan shouted enthusiastically, ringing a small bell.
“Tales of faraway lands and heroic deeds, told by the best musicians and actors in the kingdom!” followed Deema.
“This evening! In the square! At sunset! A show that will fire your imagination, and set your hearts aflame!”
“Comedy, drama and magic! You cannot miss it!”
“Come with your family, drag your friends! The Walking Dreamers promise you an experience you'll never forget!”
“Hey!” a group of children ran towards the wagon. “It's you again!”
“Indeed, my dear friend! We meet again,” Gorwan replied.
“Will you do 'The Princess and the Jester' again like last year?”
“Of course we are! Tonight! A special performance for our loyal fans! Tell your parents! Spread the word! The Walking Dreamers are back!”
The children laughed and ran off, probably to do the very thing Gorwan had asked them to do.
A little later the street gave way to a large open space surrounded by buildings that looked important. In the center a large number of people had gathered, walking in all directions. Women, dressed in all colors, carried baskets of freshly purchased food, and gathered in small groups to chat while their children scampered all over the place, dodging the busy adults. Several vendors had set up their food, fabric and tool stalls, and were loudly advertising their wares. From a busy blacksmith shop came the sound of hammering mixed with shouting. There were also artisans' workshops crafting ceramic pieces with their skilled hands.
Silas guessed that the huge place was probably the town square because the wagons stopped in one of the few areas that was empty, and they all started to get off. Olivia and Silas helped unload all the materials that would be used to set up the stage, and once they were done, she took him aside while the others talked about what they would be doing in the next few hours.
“That place you see over there,” she whispered to him pointing to a tall white building “must be a temple dedicated to Nemertyss. Wizards go there a lot, so you'll have to stay away. That over there I guess it's a tavern, as you'll see they're all wiped out, you don't want to go near it either.”
“I am not a child. You don't need to tell me these things...”
“You are a chimera for the first time in a human town. Here there will be no sirenian to save you, understood?”
“Yes...”
“Good. Those two buildings must be the Town Hall and the Guild House.”
To Silas that didn't sound like anything so she had to elaborate. The Guild House was where merchants and artisans met to discuss important matters related to their trades. Meanwhile, in the Town Hall, there was the mayor, a person who was in charge of the town, judges who dispensed justice, a tax collector who took money from the people just for living there, a barracks of soldiers, and also the wizards appointed by the Council.
All of that sounded unnecessarily very complicated, so Silas didn't think he would be curious to go inside.
Upon returning with the rest of the group, Deema informed them that the women and the younger ones would be sharing bedrooms at the inn while the men would be sleeping in the wagons. Olivia protested saying that they didn't want to bother them any more, but the woman reassured her that they always did it that way since they had to stand guard by the wagons so that no one would steal anything from them.
Led by Deema, Silas and Olivia, along with other members of the group, made their way to a nearby inn where she paid for two rooms. One for the boys and one for the women. After dropping off some of the luggage in the rooms, they headed to the dining room for some lunch before starting on all the work of assembling the stage. Deema disappeared for a moment to take the food to Gorwan and the others who had remained in the square tending the wagons.
As they began to greedily devour an exquisite beef stew that melted in their mouths, Elyssa made a comment about Olivia, that caused the latter to choke on the food:
“You have very good manners. I would love to be as refined as you.”
In the last few days, the chimera had noticed something rather odd, which was that Olivia seemed to attract more attention than he himself. The cause was related to her noble origin that made her behave differently from the rest of the commoners. It took him a while to notice it as he was not used to spot those little differences that for humans seemed to be very important. Meanwhile, trapped in that form, and despite his ignorance, he had no problem blending in with the rest. And he had barely learned how to use the cutlery by watching the castle servants eat, which was quite useful now that he was forced to pretend to be just another human.
It was a funny situation indeed.
Awkwardly, Olivia tried to change the topic of conversation and the way she was holding the spoon, which caused her to splash some of the stew on the table.
She had to watch herself, too. They had no idea what had happened in the last few days at the lake. There could be people looking for her, Eldrin, the wizards, even the king's soldiers.
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It was too late to change her name. With all the surprise it had been for her to wake up in the tent with him changed into that form, they had forgotten to change her identity. But it was too late. Now they had to go as unnoticed as possible. That was why Olivia had left her hood on from the moment they had entered the town, making the excuse in front of the others that she was protecting her delicate skin from the sun.
“You should have asked your friend the witch,” Silas had told her at another previous time.
“I told you, she is not my friend. And she has helped us enough without asking her for more favors.”
“You're too nice to someone who can use your body without your permission.”
“You're right...” sighed Olivia. “She's a bastard... they're all bastards... although maybe I shouldn't be saying that... they might be listening... I'm going to lose my mind!”
To her advantage, the engagement to the royal heir had not yet been publicly announced, and she herself was not well known in the kingdom due to the secluded life she had led. Also, her father had told her at parting that he would take care of the suspicions surrounding her disappearance. They had no choice but to trust him and continue their journey to reach the island as soon as possible.
The problem was at that rate it would take them quite a while to do so. According to the actors, depending on how they did with each performance, they could stay between five to ten days in each town they passed through. That meant it would take a month to get to Stormbrace.Silas had proposed at one point that they go on their own, but Olivia insisted that a boy and a girl walking alone in the countryside would draw quite a bit of attention, whereas being with the actors no one would notice their presence. Besides, there was always the risk of encountering soldiers, wizards or bandits.
Therefore, they were in a dead end.
After lunch, they returned to the square with the rest of the group, who were already assembling a small wooden platform on which they would perform the play. Silas didn't want to hit himself again with the hammer so he went to help Meldo, a man close to Gorwan's age, who had been designated as the group's puppeteer.
Silas hadn't understood what that was all about until Meldo showed him a pile of cloth puppets. He had assembled a sort of huge box out of wood that stood vertically. In the upper part of the box there was an opening through which the dolls were to appear.
With a broad smile, Meldo asked if he wouldn't like to help him entertain the children who had gathered around. Silas told him he didn't know what to do, but the man explained. They both got inside the cramped box and each raised his hands to handle the dolls.
In the end, it had been quite simple. The doll handled by Silas was a villain who was being chased by soldiers because of his misdeeds and then beaten with a stick by a cunning old woman who had been the only one able to catch him. The story was rather silly and nonsensical but on the other side they could hear the children who seemed to be cracking up with laughter.
He also had his fun.
Meanwhile, the stage had been completed, and was now adorned with colorful fabrics. After the show with Meldo was over, Silas looked for Olivia and found her helping inside one of the wagons with the actresses' costumes.
Although she had also changed her clothes for a pink dress, which seemed suspicious.
“Don't tell me that...” Silas began to say.
“Ah...” she blushed. “Elyssa and Celestia convinced me... It's not a very important role. I'm just the courtesan number two of the court. I hardly say anything.”
“You're...!” Olivia covered his mouth so he wouldn't scream and Silas lowered his voice. “You're crazy. Do you want everyone to see you? Someone might...”
“Celestia has given me a blonde wig and a mask for my character... No one will be able to recognize me.”
“But what for?”
“It's... liberating...”
“Hiding behind a mask is liberating?”
“It allows you to be a different person... to forget what constrains you... you could try it too.”
“I don't want to.”
“Oh, right, you're afraid of wizards,” she said in a worried tone. “What a pity.”
Silas' body tensed with indignation. He wasn't afraid of wizards. In fact, he was more afraid of standing up in front of all those people and making a fool of himself as she was about to do. But he didn't know whether to lie to her or tell her the truth, either option would make him feel ashamed, so he just grunted that he wasn't interested in that meaningless human entertainment.
“I guess there are no actors among the chimeras... but maybe you must have told each other stories, right?”
She wasn't so wrong about that. Every now and then the pack would stop somewhere, and the elders would tell stories to the youngest so that the memory of their ancestors would be passed on to the next generation. There were also a couple of times in the year that all the packs in the mountains would congregate at a sacred place to sing songs in the moonlight. But there was a chasm between that and dressing up in those ridiculous costumes to talk about the exploits of people who never existed.
“Careful, Silas...” Celestia crooned, passing by them. “Olivia could capture many hearts today...”
“It will be a break for us,” added Elyssa winking at him. “We are grateful for her sacrifice.”
Silas walked away annoyed by the comment, which made the rest of the women laugh at him.
Now he understood why her father had locked her in the castle, Silas thought. Ever since Olivia had befriended Elyssa and Celestia, she had become much sillier. The sisters kept giggling like magpies, and letting out annoying giggles, especially when they saw him passing by.
Silas knew that in that form he must have a very unpleasant face. He didn't like to look at himself in the mirror but curiosity had led him to do so, wondering what was so funny. He had even feared that his eyes had become golden again. That talisman seemed to be a similar object to what Daephennya had given Olivia so it wouldn't be unusual for its power to be consumed. But that was not the case, it was still working.
By dusk, the vendors had set up their stalls, and the rest of the townspeople had begun to gather around the stage. Many children were running around and spying on the actors who were rehearsing hidden among the wagons. Everyone was chattering and shouting, impatient for the long-awaited show to begin.
Silas stood at the side of the stage, near the wagons.
To calm the audience's eagerness, the first to come out were two boys who began to perform daring acrobatic stunts, as well as risky juggling with knives and lit torches.
The people shouted both in amazement and terror.
To start the play, Gorwan then came out to play his lute and sing about the events that were to follow. Behind him a kind of white sheet had been placed where shadows of people appeared and moved according to the musician's voice. Finally, the actors appeared and the whole square burst into cheers.
The name of the play was “The Princess and the Jester”. The dumbest name Silas had ever heard in his life. It was a comedy of misunderstandings in which a grotesque jester helped a princess escape from an arranged marriage to a snooty, arrogant prince... Why were there so many arranged marriages? Where did so much obsession come from? But, not to despair. The story had a happy ending because the jester was actually another handsome prince, the real one in fact, who had been cursed by a villainous elf who had put an impostor in his place. The Mistress of the Whispering Forest would certainly not have liked that play.
Olivia's appearance lasted no more than a few brief minutes and then she went to sit for the rest of the play next to Silas. Despite how little time she had been on stage, she seemed joyful. She kept laughing and clapping enthusiastically, just as she had done at the Dragon Lake when the tribe members performed the Terrarkana legend. A while earlier she had told him with her eyes sparkling about all the times her father had invited actors from different parts of the kingdom to come and perform on special occasions.
Silas, bored with the play, had taken to watching the audience carefully. He could not recognize any red tunics in the crowd. Nor had he seen much movement in front of the Town Hall during the day.
The show seemed to be a resounding success, much to Silas' frustration, since that meant they would probably be staying in that town for several days.
A bald, mature man, dressed in opulent clothes, who was introduced as the mayor, took the stage to welcome and thank the actors.
The evening continued with a small party in honor of the newcomers, who mingled with the villagers to share mugs of beer, food and conversation at wooden tables that had been brought into the square. Some bonfires were also lit.
Celestia and Elyssa dragged Olivia and Silas, along with Alder, over to a group of young couples who had begun dancing around the bonfires to the rhythm of lively music of lutes, flutes and drums.
Silas began to feel dazed by the incessant murmur of cheerful voices and raucous laughter. At some point, an unknown boy appeared in front of him by surprise, brought a mug of beer to his mouth, and forced him to take a sip, which he soon spat out. As he coughed, trying to get rid of the bitter taste that had remained on his tongue, he heard laughter all around him indicating that he had become the target of a joke that did not amuse him at all.
He walked through the crowd, trying to find his way to the inn but, suddenly, two unknown girls stood in front of him looking at him with their eyes as wide as if they would pop out at him.
“By the Nymph... Do you see that?” said one of them.
“His face!” exclaimed the other.
A shiver ran down Silas' back as he put a hand to his chest and clung to the talisman.