From A Kingdom's Shadow

CHAPTER SEVEN

Apondra had poured through every book in the house now, and searched for something else to entertain herself. It would be a lie to say that she hadn't been counting the days since Barri had left. Cooking her own meals had become more of a chore this time than she had imagined. Barri had left an abundance of wood for the fire out back, but as the nights got colder, and she could not keep the chill out with her blankets, she had almost exhausted the supply of wood he had left for her. More worrying than the lack of heat was the dwindling supply of blood meal. "Just three more days..." she mumbled to herself as she went to tend the chickens, though they began pecking at her hands more aggressively with the growing cold. As much as she was longing for Barri to come home and tell her of his visit with Bermet, she worried that he would berate her for going through the food he had left for her so quickly. Soon she would have to go against him and venture out to the pub and hope that Aremina and Berendur would give her some food to take home for what coin she still had from her last delivery. But she did not want to burden them with that; knowing Aremina, she would take Apondra in at moments notice, and give her anything she wanted. Apondra frowned in distaste at it, not that she did not appreciate Aremina's generosity, but that it felt like charity rather than it was an act of kindness.

"The kings and queens of Galohar," she began singing to herself as she did her morning chores, the old song her mother used to sing rang through her heart, "the tears that shed for times of war. Amount to none in face of this... the fates of daughter and prince," she sighed at the memories that flowed and let herself sink into them. The smell of old stew, stale bread, and the soft, soothing voice of her mother singing on hard nights when she thought Apondra was deep in slumber.

"Hold them close oh Mother we beg. Father brought to fight in their stead. But the God and Goddess can only see, how desperate are we. How desperate are we. For one day the lands shall rise, like winged angels taken to flight. For when dark and light collide, old wrath will be purified,"

Truly she did not know what her mother's song spoke about; fates of daughter and prince? Old wrath purified? It sounded like an old wives tale, even older still than those. Even those seemed to have a hint of truth in them. Her mother's songs spoke only of fantastical happenings it seemed, so what truth was there truly? Even the song she heard children sing in the streets sometimes of a witch so torn by grief who had cursed the kings and queens first born heirs. How did that one go again? Even the melody escaped her.

The town was its usual bustling self, and the noise of it all brought Apondra to gather a plain black dress and her fur lined cloak from her room. She fussed in front of the mirror to press her tooth covers in for a moment, determined to beat her boredom by heading out into town. As she began out the door Apondra could hear Barri's voice booming in her ears and rushed back inside to take a pair of daggers from Barri's room and slipped them into her cloak. She nodded to her neighbor across the way as she closed the shop door behind her and sauntered out towards the pub.

Apondra was thankful for the good neighbors Barri had, besides Katherine who never seemed to look after anyone but herself. Apondra scoffed at the thought as she entered Aremina's. She nodded to Berendur, standing against the bar surveying the patrons as she went to take a seat near the bar. But as she went she noticed a man fussing over his hand in King's Head, a pile of coins in the middle of the table.

She smiled and stood next to him, glancing over his cards, and checking the cards in play. The man frowned at her but did not shoo her away, his opponent smirking from across the table.

"King, queen, ace to protect..." she mumbled, glancing at the man's cards, and the amount of cards that had been discarded. There weren't many. The game had only just begun.

Berendur came around and warned her not to meddle, but handed her a drink. Apondra glanced at him for a moment, noticing a subtle confidence in his eyes. Apondra assumed that he had been watching this game play out as well.