Bag of Tricks by Carmen Webster Buxton

Author:Carmen Webster Buxton [Buxton, Carmen Webster]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Crimson Fox Publishing
Published: 2020-09-21T16:00:00+00:00

AVELINE groaned. Her head still ached, and the dawn light from the window hurt her eyes. She sat up to survey the tiny space she had found herself in when she awoke in the middle of the night.

Light didn’t make the room any cheerier. It was as close to a dungeon as any room Aveline had ever occupied. The ledge of the one small window high up on the wall sat level with the grass of the courtyard. Through the bars and the screen of a scraggly hedge, Aveline could catch glimpses of the paved drive and one corner of the chapel. Only yesterday morning she had sat on the bench near the chapel doors, free to come and go as she pleased.

Aveline covered her eyes, not wanting to look at the stone walls, the bare wood floor, or the bucket in the corner that served as a chamber pot. The feel of the hard narrow cot under her couldn’t be blocked out so easily. She concentrated on suppressing the messages from her senses—the odor from the bucket, the feel of the cot under her, the sounds of horses moving around in the courtyard, even the warmth of the sunlight from the window.

All at once that warmth dissipated. Had a cloud covered the sun so thoroughly? Aveline sat up and opened her eyes.

“Psst!”

It wasn’t a cloud, it was a woman in black, kneeling by the barred window. “Aveline?”

“Roksanna!” Aveline jumped to her feet and raced to the window. “Roksanna, is that you?”

“Yes.” The widow cast an anxious glance over her shoulder and crouched down even lower. “I had to come—to say thank you and to give you this back.” She stuck one hand through the narrowly spaced bars and held out a carved ivory disc.

Aveline reached up and took the transfer charm. “Tell me what happened to the Princess!”

Roksanna looked confused. “But—but she’s gone. She left yesterday, around the middle of the afternoon, well after dinner but before supper. The Abbess said Princess Inessa grew upset when you—” her eyes dropped, “you became agitated and violent. Duke Konrad happened to arrive at the same time, so he escorted Princess Inessa back to Drune while you recover here.”

Aveline let out a snort. “Princess Inessa isn’t upset, and I’m not agitated. Duke Konrad intends to force the Princess into marriage, and the Abbess is helping him because he’s her nephew.”

Roksanna put one hand to her mouth, distress in her eyes. “Fidelja help us!”

Aveline gripped the bars. “Why did you come here if you thought I had gone mad?”

Roksanna’s expression grew solemn. “You helped me. You told me the truth. Even if you were mad, I owed you something.”

Aveline held up the ivory disc. “It’s not really a strength charm, you know. You spoke up on your own, with no help from me.”

Roksanna turned pink and smiled a tiny smile. “I know that now. I had left the charm in my room when Teofil stopped me in the courtyard and tried one last time to argue me into taking vows.

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