Prin turned it to face herself and gulped. The two people in the painting were no longer smiling. They looked worried, perhaps a little angry. “Their faces are different.”
“I thought so, too.”
“How? Is this why my father was called a great mage? He could do things like this?”
Sara said, “They might reflect what you are thinking.”
“Maybe. But I’m not sure. I think it is what they would believe if they were here. Don’t ask why I think that.”
Sara looked intently at the painting from several angles. “I believe at least part of that picture was enchanted by a sorceress. Your mother, without a doubt. But there are other parts I’m unfamiliar with. The faces are telling us something.”
“They made it together!” the girl who would be known as Prin shouted.
“Are you angry?” Sara asked. “Like in the painting?”
“No, I’m not. I’m scared and confused, but I guess I have reason to be angry if I thought about it. I just don’t think I am, and that’s why the painting isn’t a reflection of me.”
“I wish I’d have known them,” Sara said, staring into the eyes of the woman in the picture.
“Me too.”
CHAPTER TWO
Prin and Sara walked side by side down the road until they reached a smaller path that branched off. They took it and continued on until reaching still another. Eventually, the two girls came to an overlook that afforded them a view of the entire valley, the sprawling city, and the vast river flowing down its center. Staying on the smaller paths gave them less chance of meeting others or being seen. They paused to rest, look, and learn something of what lay ahead.
Sara perched on a fallen log and said, “I think there are more people in that valley than I’ve ever seen in my life.”
“You mean, more people gathered in one place. I agree. It’s big.”
“No. I mean, all together. If you take every person I’ve ever seen in my twenty years in my village, and place them in that valley together, it wouldn’t add up to half the number of what we’re seeing. I admit I’m scared.”
“With so many people, it will be easier to hide.” Prin flashed a glance at the young woman she now called Sara. Hannah then remembered her new name was Prin. The changes were going to be hard to remember, but necessary. She considered Sara a mentor and all-knowing, but she realized in many ways, even at her young age, Prin was the more experienced of the two. She was more streetwise, more likely to react to threats or slights, and she could be sneaky or wheedling. Prin turned her attention back to the valley floor while thinking of her past—and her future.
She counted over twenty wide, tree-lined streets built east to west. Forty or more streets ran perpendicular from the foothills all the way to the shore of the river. Even more buildings stood across the river, enough to comprise another city, although smaller and less opulent from the little she should make out. It appeared older and drab.
Sara said, as if considering it for the first time, “Your enemies will be searching for you in every corner of the Kingdom of Wren. They will someday follow you here. It may be hard to believe, but I think we must stay in plain sight, yet not be seen. They will expect us to hide from them and they’ll look in those places where fugitives live behind closed doors, first. But who will look for people out strolling the streets and shopping?”
“We’re not in our kingdom, don’t know what lies down there, and we do have a little time to prepare. But you’re right. We need to disguise ourselves from the very first, even while walking to the city. Give them no back-trail to follow.”
Sara said, “I have another idea that might help. See that river down there? It has ships moored at the port. Big ones with tall sails. I’ll bet they travel down the river and maybe across a sea.”
“Oh, I don’t think I could sail away to another land. Besides, they will follow me. If they come this far, a voyage is not going to slow them.”
“Not necessarily so. Especially if we spread a small lie about a little blonde girl leaving on a ship while we remain here.”
“I like that one,” Prin said. “The more of them that sails away to chase a ghost, the less remain to look for me.”
Sara smiled and said, “Remember, we need a good story to tell people, or we’ll be discovered in days. We need to tell a tale that will keep them looking elsewhere. As I said earlier, if we do it well, we might even join in the hunt. That is the key to knowing what we’ve done is right.”
“What kind of tale are you thinking about?”
“Well, let’s see. We can pretend that we’ve just arrived from a strange land across the sea. Somewhere so far away that nobody had ever heard of it. We tell them that we sailed here on a ship. Let’s say that we’re the daughters of a wealthy merchant, and we’ll live right out in the open with nobody suspecting anything.”
Prin returned the smile. “The daughters of a wealthy spice merchant trying to make our way in the business world by him looking for markets to sell and buy his new spices?” She paused, then in a stilted voice, continued as if speaking to a stranger. “In my homeland, we have strange customs, including shaving the heads of young girls. That story will also account for all that we do not know about this place. However, even a land with other customs won’t let an eleven-year-old be on her own.”
“We need to make you thirteen. You’re almost twelve, so that isn’t much of a stretch, and every little bit of difference, every small change helps. Then our story will be almost perfect, but with a few changes. You won’t be on your own because you’re my younger sister. We’ll try to draw all attention to me. I’ll do the talking. And perhaps we’ll even find us a “father.” We just need a man we can trust to play the part.”
Prin added, “Okay, we hint that as a spice merchant, our father is always searching for new products, so we move from city to city. We can also use that story to buy the supplies we need for learning our sorcery, and nobody will suspect. Maybe we can even find a place to do our studies in sorcery.”
Sara said, “The story also gives us a reason to ask any questions without raising suspicions. We’re strangers, and they will be expected of us.”
Prin said, “Which ship will we claim as ours?”
“One that departed days ago. We will say that we spent five days traveling to the countryside to visit your aunt who is a hermit, that is why we are walking into the city now. Never tell a lie that can be verified.” Sara shrugged as if her statement was common knowledge.
Prin was glad she’d taken all the coins she had found in her father’s belongings and hid them in the little purse carried inside her waistband. She had never had gold or silver. Or copper, before her father had rescued her a few weeks ago. Now those coins were her future.
More of his things filled the leather bag she carried, one of which was a pair of books she could not read, and a small diary written in his hand. And she also had the large tooth of an unknown animal and a bright little bead, a small red scroll, and the double-edged knife she found. She had strapped the knife to her thigh under her clothing. That accounted for the items she’d found in her father’s secret hiding places in his apartment.
As the slope leading from the mountains flattened, they stayed at the edge of the forest and passed the first farms, then a small village of five buildings clustered at a crossroad. The construction of each roof had a steep peak, enough to provide a small room or two above the ground floor, and the roofs would shed heavy snow in winter.