By midafternoon, Aurelie had awoken from a small nap that she took without caring who might have found her passed out on the road and was on her way to Berillian again. She hoped that she would have run into someone by now, just to make sure she was going in the right direction, but the road had been empty for hours.
When the evening started to loom, Aurelie heard the soft strut of an animal in the background. A little while later, it became clear that something was being dragged behind it. It was a small cart carrying bags filled with some sort of long grass. Its driver lay with his behind on the driver's bench and his back pressed against one of the bags. His hat covered his face. He appeared to be sleeping below it.
"Excuse me," Aurelie said once the cart came close enough for him to hear her.
The man did not stir. She repeated herself louder and waited some more. They moved past her and she ran along to catch up. He shot a hand out to remove his hat from his face and sat up straight, looking around him.
"Hello," she said, faintly out of breath.
"Woah," he said, scrambling for the reins that had fallen to his feet. He disappeared behind the bags for a second, then his head popped back out and the donkey slowed.
"Good evening, love," he said warmly, looking over his shoulder at Aurelie. "You lost?"
Aurelie walked closer, nodding her head. "Yes, I think so. I'm visiting a friend in Berillian and well, I don't really know if I'm still on the right road."
"You are," he said, his brows furrowed though, he gave her a second look, a cautious one this time. "It's a three-day walk still."
Aurelie's shoulders sunk. "Three?"
He nodded, peeking at her through his thick white lashes. "You been out here long?"
"That'll be the second night."
His eyebrows sprung then lowered slowly. "That's a mighty long time to be out here on your own."
Aurelie shrugged. "I've managed."
"I see that." He looked back at his cart and started shuffling the bags around. "Come on then," he said. "I'll take ya to Berillian."
"I don't want to put you out of your way," Aurelie said, already walking to the cart.
They were off again within a few minutes. Aurelie sat comfortably among the mossy, thick smelling bags of grass with a generous piece of apple bread. She ripped through it hungrily while her new companion led the donkey. He turned from time to time to offer her some berry wine or just to look at the state of her.
"Do your parents know you're out here?" he asked.
"No," she said between bites of bread.
He had the bushiest eyebrows she'd ever seen. They looked like freshly webbed cocoons and curved sharply at the bend, making him look oddly curious about whatever he was doing. It was especially funny when he ate. Every bite he took looked to be a mystery he was in the middle of uncovering. "Trouble at home?"
Aurelie nodded without saying a word. Perhaps he'd catch on that she wasn't much in the mood to speak to a strangerâhowever kind he may beâabout it.
"Did they want to marry you off to some bloke you hardly know?"
Aurelie nodded again.
"They try their best, you know, parents."
"I know." Aurelie put down the last piece of her apple bread and pushed it into a safe corner for later. Her feet were pulsing with pain and giving them a rest from walking seemed to just have worsened everything.
"You should let them know you're safe when you get to Berillian," he said.
"They're dead," Aurelie said matter of factly. "So, I don't have to."
He left her alone for about ten minutes and started telling her about his mother, who taught herself to read at sixteen and became the first person in her family to find work in the city. That's where she met his father, a carpenter's son. He told her gleefully of the time his mother had the privilege of cleaning the table the late King and his wife sat at for breakfast. She drank from every cup left on the table so that she could go home and tell her sons that she drank from the same cup as the King.
Aurelie fought to stay awake through the rest of his stories but the soft rocking motion of the cart had her asleep within minutes despite her protest. When she woke, the cart was still. She peeked over the side and saw the man leading his donkey to a small body of water. He was ankle-deep in wet mud.
Morning crept out from the dark blue sky in waves of orange light. Aurelie took the berry wine from his bench and took a large sip before putting it back. She wanted desperately to wash but the muddy pond he found looked like it would leave her dirtier than she already was.
The donkey was reluctant to tread into the dirt, but the older man pulled him with all his might and eventually had him inside and drinking water.
"Morning," she said to him.
"Morning!" He waved a hand toward her and then tapped the donkey on the back with it. "We'll be going in a second."
"I'm ready when you are."
She had hoped there'd be something of the town in the distance already. Perhaps, she'd see something when the sun came up. Another day on the road didn't sound pleasant, especially not with how empty the road was of any trees. They'd be clear in the sun with not an ounce of shade soon. Still, though, at least she no longer had to walk.
Soon enough, he wiped the legs of the donkey clean and they were on the road again. He told her about the stops he had to make to deliver the muckweed on the way to Berillian and said they'd be there by nighttime.
The first time Aurelie's stomach rumbled, he took out a package wrapped in paper from his travel bag and set out a large potato and two eggs on his bench, revealing quite sheepishly that he had waited till the two of them were properly hungry before he finished the rest of his food. He divided everything between the two of them, and they finished the wine too.
An hour later, they made a turn down toward a farmhouse. They had passed several on the way but Aurelie didn't really pay attention, growing tired from the heat of the sun on her head.
A man came up to meet them once they came to a flimsy wooden gate. His eyes briefly passed Aurelie and then turned back to the old man. He called him Hilton and gave him a small sack of coins in exchange for one bag. By the looks of his furrowed brows, he wasn't too happy about it.
Hilton let the donkey rest a while in front of the grass, snacking on scatterings of hay that must have been dropped while being transported to the property. Aurelie went to sit under the cover of a tree while she waited for them, eager to be out of the sun for as long as she could.
Then they were on the road again.
"What do they use the muckweed for?" Aurelie asked, shading her face with her hand so that she could see Hilton and the road ahead of them. The farther they got the bigger and more prominent the dirt road became. It felt smoother to ride on too, with the rocks either stamped into the ground or pushed out the way of the main tracks.
"Humans like to smoke it, think it heals the lungs. Suppose it does, since I've never had a problem with mine," he tapped his chest and bared his yellow teeth. "Mostly witches that buy the stuff, though. Don't know what they use it for, never ask."
"Do you know many witches?" Aurelie asked.
Hilton didn't turn but his eyes swiped at her. "You'll meet some soon too," he said, his voice dropping in tone to give off a sort of wordless warning.
"I think I'll stay in the cart for your next deliveries if it's all the same to you."
"Sure thing, love."
They stopped twice more at farmhouses. People weren't too friendly to Hilton despite being all too eager to grab his muckweed. He didn't seem to mind it much, though. Shaking the little pouches before putting them in his pocket was the only thing that interested him.
"See you next year," he said to each of them before leaving, as to confirm they would like him to keep his schedule.
They all scowled but nodded in his direction nonetheless and without a word of thanks went back to whatever they were doing before Hilton arrived.
They had a quiet hour on the road. The sun moved in behind a dark cloud and Aurelie started to feel better every second. The road was heading up a steep hill. "
We're going to have to help Kenny up this one, I'm afraid," Hilton said, getting off the cart. "He can never quite manage this hill."
Aurelie got off the cart and came to where Hilton stood.
"You just take him by the reins and pull. He just needs a little help."
He really did only need a little. Aurelie barely had to pull to lead him, though she suspected Hilton had to do much more from the back. They stopped at the top, Hilton and Kenny both wheezing and Aurelie unsure of whether she had done something wrong.
"That's when you know a town is close," Hilton pointed toward a lapidated wooden building a hundred feet away from them. "All the damn inns start popping up." He flicked his head toward the inn. "One more stop before Berillian. Suppose we can get something to eat too."
People stood outside on the terrace, drinking from oversized mugs, some heads turned and glanced them over with very little care or curiosity. Hilton led Kenny around the back of the inn and tied him to an iron pole by the open back door.
A woman peeked out of the door, wearing a tightly fitted dress and a large white flower in her curly red hair.
"Hilton!" the woman screeched and ran down the steps to hug the old man.
"How's your mother, Linda?"
"Well, thank you! She'll be glad to hear you're finally here. We've been out of muckweed for months. Did you get your letter to bring more? This year we were out two months into the new year!" Her eyes darted past Aurelie. "Is this young Moira?" She beamed.
"No, this is my brother's girl. Moira is away at school." Aurelie glanced in Hilton's direction but he kept his face hidden. She had suspected that he might not have believed her about her parents, but not enough to have lied about it to others. Aunt Elizabeth did always say that Aurelie was the world's most terrible liar because the truth was always written, clear as day, on her face.
"Pleased to meet you, sweetheart," Linda said, seizing Aurelie up from head to toe. "Come on, you two, you must be tired and hungry."
They followed Linda through the busy kitchen. Eggs were cooking on hot plates with streaks of bacon and pork sausages right beside them. Aurelie's mouth watered at the smell and the sight of the food.
A woman backed out of the oven to the right of them, holding a tray of puffy and fresh buns in her toweled hands. They waited for her to move and continued through the kitchen until Linda took a turn into a small office.
Low voices sounded and a moment later a different woman came out of the office. This was Linda's mother as far as Aurelie could tell. Her eyes were a light brown color, like soft amber, and her red hair streaked with strands of silver.
She stopped next to Aurelie and held her gaze until Hilton cleared his throat. Aurelie came to stand behind Hilton while they talked business, feeling rather uneasy about the look she just shared with the woman. It felt as if she had gotten much more from it than Aurelie did. Some sort of truth. One that certainly didn't belong to her.
"Have a safe journey?" she asked.
Hilton nodded. "Yes, thank you, Klo. I've brought the three bags to asked for."
She smiled brightly. "I wish I'd have asked for five."
"You're going to have to fight Sasha for it." He beamed back at her.
Klo fed them and packed an overwhelming amount of food for the road. Aurelie's suspicion about the women grew heavier once Hilton insisted she not waste her wrapping and put all the food into one basket, and she refused to do it even going as far as to slap his hand once he tried to pack the food himself. Telling them both that she knew very well Aurelie was no niece of his.
Hilton didn't do very much to ease her nerves either as his steps away from the back door of the inn were twice as fast as they had been, an hour earlier when they were approaching the inn.
Even Kenny seemed quite flustered with the pace he was made to trot.
"Have you known her very long?" Aurelie asked in a lowered and shaky voice.
"Not long enough to trust her with the knowledge of you, princess." Aurelie's eyes widened at that but she said nothing.
He left her, per her insistence and not his own choice, in Berillian a little while later and set off on his last delivery, leaving her with an address to the inn he was going to spend the night in before heading back home, in the morning.