Chapter 23

We still didn't know after we got there. It still could have been time, if it was measured even close to back home. It was a little over two hours before the town came into sight, and more than fifteen miles. It appeared to be a fair sized village, and had a marketplace going full bore.

Alan looked around and said "Maybe we won't stand out as much as I thought we would. I was afraid we were going to look like giants, after meeting shorty back there."

I was glad to see that, myself. Most of us were a little taller than the few people we saw, but not everyone. Claude, Cheryl and I might need to slouch a little, though. I didn't see anyone nearly as tall as we were. Finding an inn proved to be easy. People here must not be big on literacy, because all the signs we saw had pictures on them.

We tied the mounts in front of a place that had a picture of a chicken, and a mug. If I had to guess, I'd say the chicken was drunk. It was on its back, and had a tongue hanging out.

Before we went in, Claude warned "Remember, no one orders water. The safest way to go is either watered wine, or ale. In our middle ages, water could kill you. The alcohol helps keep the germs down."

Having an adult tell you to order booze was weird, but I did it. The bartender even acted like he knew what we wanted, and quickly served us. Our accent and language obviously stood out, so we weren't surprised when he asked "Ye young sires must be from far off. May I ask what brings ye to our fair land?"

Claude shot me a pointed look, and I got the hint. "We seek some folk with the name O'Hara. Do you know of such a group?"

From the way he turned pale and gasped, I figured he probably did. I was worried that the name seemed to inspire fear, until the man collected himself and tried to look as threatening as he could.

"What, If I may ask, would ye be seekin' the Queen's Wizard for?", he said sternly. "I must warn ye, folk willna' stand fer na'one ta try an' harm the man. If he da'not slay ye, the people will!"

"The Queen's Wizard?", I sighed with relief. "Thank god! That means they're here!" I took a breath, and attempted to calm myself for a second, before explaining "I was born Sean O'Hara. If the wizard in question is named Steven, he is my father."

"And mine", stated Denise as she stepped forward. The bartender did a double-take, and blurted "Ye be a lass!", and then clammed up. Denise prodded him, and he blushed "My pardon for speakin' so rough in a lady's company! I swear, I din'na know ye were not a man. Not many women do'na wear skirts, an' those tha' do, usually be in the guard."

"It is our custom", Denise politely explained, "and much easier to travel long distances, which we have recently done. Do you have rooms, here? And can you tell us how we might find our father?"

"Aye", he nodded, "but they not be fit fer the likes of high born folk like you. Alas, there not be an inn in town any better, an' I'd be honored fer ye to stay here. There do be a stable 'round back, an' I can ha' the boy care fer ye' beasties."

He explained the route to the castle, but asked that we wait for an escort. "The Queen does 'er best what to keep the brigands unner control, but there still be th' occasional miscreant about. I'd na' wish ye ta' coom ta' misfortune on yer journey. One thin' I na' wan' ta do, is suffer the wrath o' the wizards! We have ways to send a message tha' will be soon gettin' there, if you was to wait."

I didn't want anyone injured, so I told him we'd take care of the horses ourselves. We promised to give the idea of an escort some thought, and began to unpack. I found out Bernie had the "duty" tonight, as we put our things in the rooms. We had our meal at the inn, and it was actually pretty good. The stew was a lot better than the freeze-dried thing Claude had packed, and the bread was fresh out of the oven.

The bread wasn't the only thing that was fresh. The serving girl didn't seem to be able to decide who she wanted to rub on the most. She only got me once, though. Denise looked at her, and quipped "If you want to keep those things for a while, you might want to keep them off of my man."

She said it in such a calm tone, that I wasn't sure the girl would take her seriously. Maybe the six inch dagger she was trimming her nails with got the point across. Something did, because she left me alone after that.

The first thing we discovered about our rooms, is they were HOT. We almost decided to head back out and find a patch of shady trees. Being a wizard had its advantages, and we didn't hesitate to use some of them.

It was Kelley's idea. "I can remove heat, as well as create it", she explained. If Denise can get us some cross-ventilation, we can make our own little air conditioners!"

It took some tweaking, but when they finished, the rooms were a comfortable temperature. When that was done, we checked the beds to see how many unwanted visitors inhabited them. Claude was shocked to learn that there were none to be found. He'd expected to be sleeping on the floor, to avoid the bedbugs.

None of us were that tired yet, so we headed for the marketplace to check it out. We didn't really need anything, but wanted to try and find out what the people used for currency, if anything.

We soon discovered that customers were trading coins for goods but couldn't get close enough to see what they were made of, or what they looked like. An exciting little incident changed that in a hurry.

Claude spied a pickpocket plying his trade, and pointed him out to us. Kelley snarled "I don't like thieves", and soon afterwards, the fellow was dancing all over the street. I think she gave him a 'hotfoot'. I wasn't real sure why he ripped his clothes off, until I saw Bernie snicker. She looked at me, and whispered "Spiders. He doesn't seem to like them much, either."

That was an understatement, if I ever heard one. His dance reminded me of the Charlie Daniels song that I'd heard. He looked like "His head was on fire, and his ass was catching".

The nude thief ran off down an alley, and we checked the clothes. There were several small purses in the mess. Obviously, he'd been at it a while. We were able to find the owners of some of them, and verified their truthfulness before returning their money to them. We asked the onlookers to have anyone else that had been a target to look us up at the 'Drunken Chicken'.

We had drawn quite a crowd with the floor show, and they seemed appreciative enough. Some help was even obtained to identify the denominations and value of the coins. The woman we asked had a little trouble understanding why we wouldn't already know, but she was patient with us. She was one of the ones who had her money returned to her.

Her name was 'Mag', and she explained that one 'Bint', a quarter sized silver piece, was worth twenty 'Krant'. This was copper, and about half the size of a 'Bint'. This was all she had, but she asked if anyone had a 'Faw'. A better dressed man stepped forward and showed us a gold coin about the size of a half-dollar. This was worth ten 'Bint'.

I made sure to look closely at the Faw, as we didn't have any of those in the remaining coins we retained. We didn't bring any copper with us, and needed to duplicate the silver and gold coins.

A quick trip to our rooms later, we had spending money. We returned to the market, but didn't see much we really wanted. We ran into some people eager to get their purses back, though. One of them was turned away, however. He had been lying about being robbed, and was just greedy.

We wandered farther, and began to follow our noses. Something certainly smelled good, and mine wasn't the only stomach I heard growling. My appetite didn't even lessen as Claude remarked on the lack of horse dung and garbage in the streets. "It's kind of strange", he said. "Our middle ages weren't known for their cleanliness. Sanitation was the main reason people died so young. Plagues and sickness were pretty common, and mostly because of the lack of knowledge about the reasons it happened. These people seen to have learned about it earlier."

We used our new cash to purchase some meat pies and pastries. They weren't like anything we had eaten before, but they were good. We tried to use a faw to pay for them, but couldn't do it. The vendors complained it would leave them with no change. We did get quite a few krants as change, so we had some of those, now.

Stuffed but thirsty, we headed for the inn. I didn't care much for the watered wine, but I liked the ale. So much, in fact, that I convinced the girls not to mention that we could purify the water if we needed to. We had already done that for the horses, but Claude didn't need to know that bit of information.

Alcohol didn't seem to have much of an effect on us, and we were more sober than Claude and Alan when we found our rooms. Bernie was in a good mood, and warned me "Us girls talk, and if you're expecting me to get all maudlin, forget it. I'm as happy as a clam, and I love this place."

I got to sleep sooner, but no less exhausted than the previous nights. I felt a little funky in the morning, and all we had was a wash basin. It worked well enough, I guess, especially with Bernie there to remove the dirt from the water once in a while. I really should do things like that for myself, but they wouldn't let me.

The guy who we talked to behind the bar turned out to own the place. His name was Bartolemew, or 'Bart', for short. We found out a lot from him and his customers, including the reason his rooms were vermin-free.

"It din'na use ta be tha' way", he admitted "but we din'na ha' a way ta stop it. Then the clan O'hara come, an' put the end to it. It saddens me ta admit it, but we ha' been treatin' th' ones who could help very badly. Those who could work with the plants and herbs were looked down upon, but the wizard, he changed that."

Bart swept his hand towards the door, and said "Tis much cleaner now, and folk do na' get sick as much. The good Queen decreed that the streets be clean, an' other, more delicate matters be tended to. Now, instead of bein' run off, th' witches be a boon ta' us. I ha' one come by onc't a while an' run the bedbugs an' rats out o' th' place. Does a good job o' it too. They've become respected folk, an' make a good livin' plyin' their trade. They's handy when a body gets a sickness, too. They done healed me, time to time. They seem ta' ha' a potion for 'bout everthin'."

We talked among ourselves, after Bart left to tend to other matters, and Claude chuckled "I guess my knowledge of the middle ages is about useless. Even without the magic, this place bears little resemblance to our history. Especially the language. I can understand it, but it's nothing like the books describe. Your parents appear to be well liked, and the changes they've caused have probably already saved countless lives. It's no wonder the people here are so protective of them."

"I guess", sighed Denise. "I still wish they hadn't left us like that. I know it wasn't their fault, but still..."

As her words trailed off, Claude soothed "If wishes were horses, Beggars would ride; If wishes were fishes, We'd all have some fried.", he smiled at her look of confusion, and went on. "An old proverb, but appropriate. The point is, wishing won't change the past. You need to look to the future. What's done, is done. I'm sure they would have been with you if they could."

"What I don't understand", I said, "is why we weren't with them then. Why didn't they take us with them?"

"Because they loved you", Claude explained. "You heard the man say what things used to be like here. I imagine they wanted to keep you safe, and healthy. The infant mortality rate in the middle ages was astronomical. You also need to remember that they were fighting what amounted to a war, and a battle is no place for children."

"That may be so", Denise retorted, "but if they thought they'd be trapped over here, why didn't they have someone waiting to take care of us, instead of putting us in an orphanage?"

"That's a very good question", admitted Claude, "but one you need to ask them in person. I have my own ideas, and if they're right, your parents did the only thing they could under the circumstances."

He wouldn't say any more about it, so we let it drop. We discussed whether we wanted to wait for an escort, or head off on our own. The opinion was split, with the Wirtz's, Cheryl, and Ann preferring to wait. I guess three of us were more impatient than they were. We could see their point, as making an entrance with an escort would be better than showing up at a castle unannounced. Reluctantly, we agreed to wait.

While we waited, we spent the time talking to the inhabitants of Zarana. Word had spread about who we were, and most people didn't hesitate a bit in talking to us. It was kind of weird being treated like we were something special. Every time we spoke to someone, we'd get a bow or a curtsey first, followed by a lot of "sirs" and "lady's".

There were a few who avoided us, and we asked Bart about that. "Some folk do na' take to the new ways", he scowled. "They be mostly ne'er-do-wells, an' those what are not, fight any change whether it be for good or ill. Be na' offended by the likes of them. They may be a bit slow in the head, but they be learnin'"

I could accept that. I might be young, but I'd seen the same thing often enough. There always had to be some 'stick in the mud's' who preferred the status quo. We asked about the witches, and found that they even had a union. They called it a guild, but it amounted to the same thing.

We found the leader of it, and talked to her for a while. Her name was Magda, and she seemed awfully young for the position. She was much easier to understand, too. After talking with her for a few minutes, I was tempted to ask her age. Her being female, an me male, I knew better. The girls were under no such social constraint, and saved me the trouble.

"I just entered my eighty-third year, by the way the wizards measure time", she explained. She saw our looks of disbelief, and smiled. "We age differently here. Still, even with our long life spans, there was a real possibility that our people would die out. Births were, and still are, rare. With the plagues and sickness, our numbers were decreasing steadily. Then, the wizards came and changed all of that."