“You don’t live here in the forest, do you?” I asked.
“Right now I do,” she said.
“But you’re an elf,” Cindra said. “Why live in a forest in the human lands?”
“Half elf,” Mamba said. “Half gypsy.”
“Well, whatever you are, you should get out of the forest,” I said. “It’s not safe here. Duul has scouts all over now looking for men to conscript into some evil war, and women to kidnap to holding pens until he decides what to do with them.”
“If it’s not safe here,” Mamba asked, “why are you here?”
“We’re on our way to Valleyvale,” I said.
“Is Valleyvale any safer than here?”
“I don’t know,” I said. Mamba’s voice was gentle and kind, but her question was jagged and hard. I didn’t know anything about Valleyvale. I assumed that if Duul had been there, Nola would have told me. She seemed pretty plugged in to which gods have temples where, and whether they’ve fallen to Duul.
“Then why go?” she asked.
This conversation would go nowhere if I didn’t try to play on her turf. “The same reason you stay here,” I said.
“Because the wind that filled your sail is a destiny you can’t ignore,” she said.
“Exactly,” I said. Whatever that means. “If destiny’s wind exhales a word you like, you can join us. Otherwise, we’ll just blow on out of here.”
Mamba tilted her head for a moment. “The wind carries shapes today, but no warm words. Safe travels, Arden and Cindra.” She arched her arms over her head and jerked her hips to one side, then the other as she resumed her dance. Snakes wreathed her legs in no time, covering her body in a writhing bundle of legless creatures.
“I thought she was too tall to be an elf,” Cindra said as we walked away.
“And too loony to come with us,” I said. “I was hoping she’d let us bring her to a healer in the city. They’d know what to do with her.”
“She didn’t seem crazy,” Cindra said. “I locked eyes with her for some time. There was a sense to her, even if it was a unique one.”
The forest was uneventful after that as we marched through the trees. Finally, the city gates of Valleyvale came into view. They were taller than Meadowdale’s by ten feet, and made of a rich, dense wood. The wall surrounding this city was also higher and sturdier than ours had been.
A guard tower sat on either side of the front gate. One had a glowing ball of energy atop it, like it would strike us with lightning if we looked at it sideways. The other held three archers with bows trained on us. I almost wanted to turn around and leave. I wondered if a little more attention to our defenses would have prevented Duul and his army from taking Meadowdale so easily.
A small metal door slid to the side, about eye level. On the other side a person asked, “What business have you in Valleyvale?”
“I’ve come to buy supplies,” I said. “I’m the head priest of—”
The door slid open. “Your grace, you’ll have to pardon this formality. There are men afoot with hate in their eyes, spilling out from Meadowdale. They want a war, and we won’t give it to them. Please, enter with your, um, creature.”
“This is my trusted associate, Cindra,” I said. I was thrilled that my position with Nola’s temple brought some cache, but I wasn’t going to horde it to myself. “I demand only that she receive the same degree of respect I do.”
“Of course,” the man said, bowing and allowing us to pass.
“You’re quite the gentleman,” Cindra said. “I’ll have to repay that kindness later.”
“You still have our gems?” I asked.
She wiggled a bit. “There they are.”
“Good,” I said. “You can repay me by getting us the best price imaginable for those. Then we’ll go on a little shopping spree.”
“Perhaps we should start at the jeweler?” she said.
We walked the streets of Valleyvale. The city was wealthier than my hometown, with cobblestones where we just had dirt roads and evenly sized bricks when our buildings were crude, rough stone. A series of shops welcomed us through the front gates, selling wares I had only dreamed of buying in my old life.
There was a cheese shop, a butcher, a tavern, a clothier, and more. Then, finally, a jeweler.
Inside the jeweler’s shop were glass cases with all sorts of pendants and talismans, amulets and rings. I leaned over the case to look at a ruby the size of an eyeball set in a gold ring with a price tag of 50,000 gold coins.
“I think that would look gorgeous on these long green fingers, don’t you?” Cindra asked. I nearly fainted at the suggestion of it. That’s more money than most people made in their lives. A smile curled up one side of her face.
“You almost got me,” I said.
“Come,” she replied, “we have business.”
We pressed toward the back of the shop. “Excuse me,” I said. The jeweler grimaced. I realized then that my shirt and pants, torn by gi-ants, dirty from a quarry collapse, and dotted with blood after a snake attack, didn’t exactly say, “I can afford nice things.”
“I’m the head priest of Nola’s temple,” I said. He didn’t seem impressed. Whatever. As soon as I laid my rocks on the counter he would be.
“Cindra,” I said.
She reached inside her own body, horrifying the jeweler. Her hand sank inside her chest, then reached down, further and further. She seemed upset, and for a moment I was afraid she had lost the jewels. That they had slowly sunk through her gelatinous body until they fell out of her and landed in the forest somewhere.
“This is so embarrassing,” Cindra said. She removed her arm from her chest and reached under her dress instead. After a moment, she had pulled the small bag of jewels free. “That was a strange feeling, but not an entirely unwelcome one.”
She emptied the bag’s contents on the glass counter.
The jeweler, never once looking at the jewels themselves, said, “I assume you have no papers for these… wares.”
“Papers?” I asked. “No, what kind of papers?”
“The kind that proves ownership,” he said. “We don’t deal in stolen property here. Whatever priest you killed to get these, you murdered in vain. No one will buy these, thief. Now get out of my establishment before I call the guards.”
I took the gems, put them back in their bag, and left the store in a hurry.
“Cindra,” I said when we got outside, “what are we supposed to do now?”
“Oh, sweetie, I don’t know. I didn’t see any ownership papers on the shelf with these jewels.”
We stalked through the streets, the excitement draining with each step. We’d head back to Nola’s temple with a handful of precious stones and nothing else. No supplies, no gear, and no way to get them. Cindra was a good sport, letting me wallow in our losses for a bit without trying to cheer me up. Sometimes, you just need a good wallow.
When I looked up, we had wandered in front of Valleyvale’s temple. “Let’s take a peek inside,” I said.
Cindra pushed open one of the temple’s double doors. The carved wood either came from a magical tree or else it had enchantments all over it. Either way, it gleamed with a faint cyan light.
Inside, the temple was bright and cheery. The same cyan color emanated from every pew, every wooden statue that lined the building, and the thick wooden altar. A fireplace behind the altar was the likely source, as it housed a roaring cyan flame in the center.
“Welcome!” called a brightly clad woman with long blonde and gray hair. She looked like she had been pretty in her youth, and she carried that same self-confidence with her into middle age. “Come to make a generous offering in exchange for a holy boon?”
“No,” I said, “nothing like that. I was just curious to visit a new temple. I’m from Meadowdale.” I didn’t want to let on that I was a head priest, the same as she was. I was a little embarrassed by the state of our temple.