Swan Song

Five

After her morning chores and lessons were through Anike hurried to the market. She made her way through the crowd to the shop and knocked. With no answer she tried the door. Locked.

Why is no one here? Could I really have imagined it all, Anike wondered. But that couldn't be possible. She had the swan pendant. She looked down to be sure and there it was still hanging around her neck. If this was real then Madam Rumbel had to be as well. She would find that old woman and shake some answers from her, if that's what it came to.

She decided to search the rest of the market. Perhaps Julia Rumbel was around somewhere shopping. Anike spent over an hour looking with no luck. It was nearly meal time and Anike hadn't even picked up Odessa's book. Deciding it was time to give it up, at least for today, she headed for the book shop.

A small smile touched Anike's lips when the little bell on the door chimed signaling her arrival. The book shop had near everything an avid reader could want. Cealing high book shelves were crammed with as many books as they could manage. The shop was two stories tall and had a tower at the top that had once been used for quiet reading. Unfortunately the tower was in disrepair. The shop hadn't been doing as well in recent years and they hadn't been able to afford to fix the tower. After the storm that caused the roof to cave in they managed to save the books and had moved the tables downstairs, so the shop was more cramped than ever.

Still it was busy today. At the back was a corner for children where Ida, the shopkeeper's wife was reading to them. There were tables for studying where a few local scholars sat talking quietly about their theories. Families and students crowded the tables and each other, parents scolding children asking for quiet and those who were trying to study rolling their eyes.

  The shop had all kinds of books, everything from fairy stories, lore and legends to history, law and philosophy and shelves were filled to bursting. They even had books to lend for those who couldn't afford to purchase in crates piled here and there. At the front the shopkeeper's son was helping customers with their purchases and his daughter was selling cakes, hand pies and book baskets to pick up extra money. The family was working all the harder since Hakim, the shopkeeper, had been badly hurt a few weeks ago by bandits who had ambushed him and stolen the money in their safe.

"How's he doing?" Anike asked as she bought a hand pie.

Farrah smiled softly. "Father's doing much better. He tried to insist he was ready to come back today but the healer said it'll be a few more weeks."

They caught up before Anike made her way to the all too familiar fiction section. Odessa had given her some money for the book and some extra in case something caught Anike's eye. She picked up a book about the adventures of a rakish pirate and a kind hearted maiden, for Odessa as well as a story of a thief who disguised herself as a noble in order to assassinate the evil king, for herself. Odessa usually preferred romance where as Anike was fond of adventure. Books paid for and in hand she exited the shop, hurrying because she was late for midday meal.