The Prince's Assistant

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

'Marcus.
If your reading this, then that must mean something has happened to me and that Marianna has found you. As you know, your mother and I were very close friends and I ask this of you because I know that I can count on you.
Please, take care of my baby.
It will be hard for her with me gone I hope and pray that you will watch over her until she gets old enough to watch over herself or until she finds a husband. Please I beg you watch over her, as though she was your sister. But no matter what she must stay disguised as a boy and the cat she is with is not a cat but a dragon. I wish you the best. Thank you.

Yours truly,
Aunt Lillian.'

Is what the letter said. I knew that because he had dropped it on his desk after reading it and sat back in his chair, thinking.

"I have to think about this for a little bit." He said, finally after what seemed like forever, I looked up from Saph, who I had been petting. "Come back in a week, around noon and I'll give you my answer. Stay in the city, just in case I make my decision earlier. You are dismissed." He stood up and walked over to a bookshelf on his right side, my left, and pulled a book off the shelf. I looked down at Saph and tilted my head sideways. 'We have been dismissed, child. Come, we must go and find an inn and we must find some work for you to do over the week so you can pay for the inn.' Saph said, silently in my head, I quickly nodded, grabbed my bag and headed for the door and left, looking back at him once before shutting the door. As I walked past the gate the man who'd led me to Marcus's office waved as I walked by, I nodded to him and his companion. I kept walking until I got to the inn that I had been at the night before, The Sleeping Badger. When I walked, in the inn keeper looked up from wiping the counter and a little frown crept onto his face.

"What do ya' want, kid?" He growled at me, Saph's tail flicked my neck showing his irritation at the rudeness. "Weren't ya' here with them gypsies? I thought cha' left." I smiled politely before answering.

"Yes, I had been here with the gypsies, I was just traveling with them 'til they got here. I was wondering, though, do you have any work I can do here for a couple days or so?" He looked at me hard, pulling his eyebrows together and narrowing his eyes slightly. Then he answered.

"Maybe, I do and maybe I don't. Why, boy? What're ya' lookin' fer, money?"

"Oh no, sir, no money, just a place to stay for a week." I paused for a second thinking of a quick lie before continuing on. "You see, sir, my mum just died a couple weeks ago and I'm looking for some of my relatives that live in this city. But while I'm looking for them I need a place to stay, sir. I'm willing to do chores around here if you'd like." I proposed hopeful. Saph's tail flicked my ear approvingly. The innkeeper chuckled, all his hostility from before left him.

"Well, now that you say something about chores I think I might have an open room in the attic." He motioned me to follow him, I grabbed my bag and did as requested. "Now the room in the attic ain't much and it might be colder than the other rooms, but it has a comfortable bed and a roof that don't leak. If yer wanten' to help instead of pay that's fine as long as you do a good job. Dinners in an hour, you'll help make breakfast in the kitchen, with my wife, tomorrow mornin', around half past five." He stopped walking when we reached the attic, like he said the room wasn't much but it had a bed and a roof that didn't leak. He moved to the side to let me go into my room for the week. He nodded, as if he were reassuring me, and left after a moment, mumbling something about have to let his wife know about the extra help she'd be getting. After he left I plopped on to the bed and took Saph from my shoulders. He shifted into his natural form, his red and silver dragon form, sighing as he released all of his cramped mussels.

"You did well, child, all we have to do is wait for Marcus to give us his answer." I stroked his back as he spoke, nodding. I sat there with him until it was time for dinner.