"Mr Lowellen? Your wife said I could pay you for the room?"
"Ah yes," he was a worried-looking man with thin hair. "Lass, my wife, when she gets something in her mind she’s hard to stop. We’ve got to cover costs though, what with fewer and fewer people travelling ’cause of the war."
Ella tried to hush him but he seemed desperate to tell her why he had to charge her.
"Plus there are plenty of thieves about, let me assure you of that," he sighed, a long deep tribute to trial. "Half a deen should do, lass."
Ella handed him the money. "Thank you," she smiled.
"Thank you, lass," Oerl said, the worried expression never leaving his face. He examined the coin before putting it into a pocket.
Ella turned to leave.
"Why, you wouldn’t believe it, but a man tried to pass me my own stolen money, he did. First he steals it from me, and then he tries to use it to pay his bill! The nerve!" his voice trailed off as he returned to the sign.
Ella stopped in her tracks. "I’m sorry, Mr Lowellen?"
"Oerl, you can call me Oerl."
"I’m sorry, Oerl. What did you say?"
He sighed, "Perhaps you can shed some light on it, you’re not from around here. It was two days ago. A man stayed here, a priest by the way he was clothed, though he had the look of one well-travelled, I’ll say that. I don’t know how it happened but you see I remember coins, I do. Some people remember faces, I remember coins. Anyways, when he came to leave he paid me with one of my coins. I wasn’t sure of it so I let him go. It’s a strange thing to accuse someone with. But after he left, I checked my strongbox and sure enough it was down by three coins. That was all he took, just three coins, and one of them he used to pay me. A strange episode, if you ask me." He stopped, as if exhausted by such a long speech.
"This man, did he have red hair? Dark, and long, to his shoulders? And blue eyes?"
Oerl stared. "You know him?"
"He’s a thief. He stole something from me. How long ago did you say he passed through here?"
Oerl just stared at her.
"How long?"
Oerl started, "It was two days ago that he left. Not yesterday morning, the one before. Left early."
Ella gripped his arms warmly. "Thanks Oerl!"
She ran off down the road. Glancing back, she saw Oerl following her with his eyes and shaking his head.
~
TWO days! She was only two days behind him! It gave her a spring to her step, the shoulder bag seemed lighter.
It was good to be running, and Ella soon left the small village behind her and was back on the road, loping towards her prey. She felt reckless, like a hunter finally gaining on its target. When the road curved around a field, she cut across it, leaping the hedge on the other side to get back onto the road. The road curved again, and she cut through a second field. The far hedge was taller this time, but she leapt over it.
And careened straight into a lumbering beast made out of wood.
35
The life of worship is a life of paradox. We must give to receive, realise we are blind to see, become simple to be wise, suffer for gain, and die to live.
— Sermons of Primate Melovar Aspen, 539 Y.E.
"AH, good to see you’ve returned to us, young lady." The voice spoke in the rich timbre of the Halrana.
The large wooden wagon Ella found herself in was being pulled by two small drudges, the simple constructs making speedy headway on the level path. The driver, evidently an animator, kept one eye on the drudges, the other on Ella.
She was lying on top of a woollen rug in the back of the wagon. There was something hard under the rug, sticks or poles of some description. Ella quickly sat up and joined the driver, perched on a sill at the front of the cart.
"How long?"
"How long? Six days, you’ve been unconscious."
"Six days! Are you serious?"
She looked at the man. He wore a dirty brown robe, the raj hada of the Halrana faded until the hand and eye were hardly visible. He had white hair and a scruffy ginger beard, flecked like salt and pepper combined with hotspice. His eyes were blue, and they were twinkling as he regarded her.
"No, I am not serious. You’ve been passed out in the back of my wagon for about an hour, and that’s the truth. What were you doing, leaping hedges like that? One moment I’m peacefully plodding along, the next moment a slight piece of sunlight comes crashing into my poor drudge. He’s never going to feel the same way again!"
The man pointed at one of his constructs. Ella could almost swear it carried an injured pose as it hobbled along.
"Now, I’m supposing you live somewhere around here. Where to? Hope I haven’t carried you too far?"
Ella thought rapidly. The drudges were by no means fast, but they were a good sight faster than her walking speed. "It’s quite far actually." She cleared her throat. "I’m going," she pointed, "there."