The Lost Crown

Walliam, The Innkeeper

Walliam rowed towards the lights he saw in the distance but after a while his arms were so weary he could row no more.  He pulled the oars in and wondered what he would do when the sun came up.  It would get very hot in the boat, stuck in the middle of the harbor.  As he sat there, holding the oars he saw the boat still moved towards the distant shore.  It had to be Shurrista.

The sky began to turn pale as he drew close to the island.  He made it to the shore a good half hour before sunrise.

He got his legs wet as he climbed out of the boat and pulled it up onto the shore.  Once he had the boat secured he sat on a large rock to catch his breath and let his legs dry out.  The sun rose and he watched the color of the water change to the deep, rich blue that he had grown accustomed to.  Everything flashed through his mind and he felt heartsick.  

It took him an hour to find the Sinking Sun, the inn where Maysie was staying.  He sat in a secluded corner of the common room and had one of the serving girls take a note up to her.  A half hour later Maysie poked her head through a door to his right and looked around.  She spotted him and crossed the room to where he sat.

They ate a hearty breakfast while he told her that he’d been expelled from the academy.  When he was floating across the harbor he had thought about what he should and shouldn’t say to Maysie.  He didn’t want to lie to her.  One day he would tell her the whole story, but right now he was keeping it short and leaving out the whole story of the crown.  He had been expelled and he was leaving, and that was all that really mattered and that was what he told her.

It all tasted bitter on his tongue.  

On his boat ride he’d fought over many decisions.  He wanted to write a letter to Soronia and tell her that he wasn’t the one who took the crown.  He had gone back and forth several times whether or not he should write to her and tell her it wasn’t him.  He decided against it.  Crown Princess Soronia might as well be the goddess Annapraxsis.  Both were in a world that did not include him.  

He was a fool to get involved with Soronia at all, and he knew it.  That was another of the bubbles of queasiness that kept rising in his stomach.

He poured out his heart, as best he could, to Maysie, as they ate their breakfast.  He was leaving Cerallon that day.  He wanted to be as far away from the city as he could get by nightfall.  He wanted to forget everything that had happened.

She asked him if he wanted her to go with him back to Kelton village.  When he told her he wasn’t going back home she gave him a strange look.  

He told her he didn’t want to face the ridicule he would get when he returned home.  He couldn’t bear the thought of it, which wasn’t a lie.  He didn’t tell her about the warning he’d been given not to return there.

Near the end of the meal he took Maysie’s hand in his and looked into her eyes.  They were a soft blue that made him think of spring, when it’s early, and everything green is waking up.  “Will you marry me, Maysie?” he asked.  “We can go to the temple of Annapraxsis and have them do it right now.  I don’t want to travel with you and put your reputation at risk.  And I want you to go with me.”

She looked startled and tried to jerk her hand back.  He realized later that she hadn’t tried very hard.

She asked him several questions and it took him the better part of an hour to answer them all.  He was going to open an inn.  Would she fancy being an innkeeper’s wife?  When she finally said “yes” Walliam was electrified.  Suddenly he was filled with energy, which surprised him.  In a corner of his mind he still felt sorry and dejected over being expelled from the academy.  

She couldn’t understand why he insisted on keeping the stuffed owl.  

They went to the temple of Annapraxsis and a priest performed the ceremony.  He kept giving Maysie a knowing look that boiled Walliam’s blood.  She saw this and he could see a laugh in her eyes.  And something else.  He didn’t know what that was, but her eyes glowed brighter when she said her part of the vows.  

After the vows he put his arms around her and kissed her.  The strangeness of it melted quickly and from that moment he felt his new life, with her.  He would feel a fit of anxiety and then he would turn and look at her eyes, and he felt right inside.  Giddy, happy --- and right.

He insisted they get her bag from the inn and leave the city immediately.  By the time they were riding out the city gates the sun was only two hours from sunset.  He looked out the carriage window at Cerallon as they rumbled along the west road, into the countryside.  He could see the towers of the royal palace turning pink in the late-day sunlight.  And then he pulled away from the window and looked at the inside of the coach, and smiled at his new wife.

For a week they travelled north and west, into the heartland of the southern plains.  There were a few times when they passed farms and orchards and he felt a tug at his feelings, and he wished he was going home to Kelton.  He pushed the feeling away before it cold take root and concentrated on the scenery around them as they rode further away.  

They travelled many leagues when they came to a small village called Crofton and Walliam stopped the coach.  This was it.  He could feel it.  When he looked at Maysie he saw the same feeling in her eyes.

There was no inn and the Elder put them up for the night.  He liked the Elder.  Tomas Garnap was a middle aged man, and his wife, Darya, was about the same.  They both welcomed Walliam and Maysie to their village.

It took time to build the inn.  Walliam didn’t care.  Every day felt like a feast day, to him.  By the time the inn was finished and the lintel was placed he and the Elder were good friends.  Maysie and the Elder’s wife were inseparable.  

They got married a second time in front of the inn.  Walliam bought Maysie a white gown and Darya sewed him a suit out of black velvet.  Maysie had little white flowers in her hair when the Elder performed the ceremony in front of the wide slate steps leading up to the entrance of the new inn.  The feast went late into the night and there were many empty barrels in the inn’s new cellar the next morning.  

Walliam felt at home.  Every few days he still felt a lump of bitterness in his throat about what had happened, but he found it easier and easier to forget about it.

He felt a flush of pride when they nailed up the sign over the inn’s heavy, oak door.  Maysie asked him why he chose the name, but he just smiled.  One day he’d tell her.  One day, many years away.  He knew, when she heard the whole story, she’d understand why the only name they could ever give their inn was “The Lost Crown.”