Young Writers Society

A thin strip of light lay over one side of Buck's face when he awoke the next morning. He screwed up the eye caught in it, groaning. Sometimes the execution of an early morning plan was significantly tougher than the concoction. He'd moved his pallet a few feet before settling down to sleep so that it was directly in front of this narrow window, and he'd be woken up as soon as dawn broke. The two guards' body clocks would likely wake them soon anyway, but he probably had about half an hour. He wriggled out of the sleeping back and knelt at the side, where he'd left the bucket.

"Morning, Simone," he whispered. "You seen my notes?"

He had brought a few sheets of parchment tied together at the edges, on which he often scribbled shorthand notes about guests who came to Resador City, whom he might have to research in order to set up a plan with Pires. He turned the first page away from the notes about Erson.

"Alright... What did I learn last night?" he murmured as he wrote. "Hilene... chatty - with questions, little about self. Back to normal on way to sleep? Suggests not night owl. Victane - quiet outside, doesn't like the cold? Liked watching me plan."

Buck frowned, chewing on the end of his quill, then immediately grimacing because he'd dropped it in ink last week. He wrote down four questions to have answered by the end of the day, then stretched his legs and headed off to find the shopkeep to ask for breakfast.

There was a door to the left of the bar that the shopkeep stood behind; as Buck knocked on this, he heard footsteps approaching from behind.

“Morning, Buck,” Hilene said, giving him a quick smile. He motioned with his eyebrows towards the door. “You getting us breakfast?”

Buck nodded. Hilene was back to sentences longer than three words, it would seem. Maybe he had just needed some sleep last night. Before he could test again by asking him a question, the door swung open behind him.

“Good morning,” said the shopkeep. “I’m guessing you three would like breakfast?”

“Victane doesn’t eat breakfast,” Hilene said. “He says an extra half hour sleep gets him going better in the morning.”

The shopkeep shrugged. She adjusted her cream linen shirt which was tucked into a wide brown skirt, yawned, and scratched behind her ear. “Fair enough then. Take a seat by the bar and I’ll bring you out some eggs.”

Buck and Hilene slid onto the nearest two stools and waited for the shopkeep to re-emerge.

“I didn’t know that about Victane,” Buck said.

Hilene shrugged. “It comes up every so often when our boss offers us snacks in the morning, when he’s assigning us jobs for the day.”

Alright, definitely back to chatty. Buck rubbed the back of his neck. “I was wondering about Victane actually. He was awfully quiet on the way here.”

Hilene let out a long breath through his nose, pursing his lips. “I think he misses his daughter.”

Buck’s eyebrows shot up and he forgot his next line of enquiry. “I didn’t mean to drag him away from his family!”

“No, no. She left Resador City years ago. She’s a trader,” Hilene said. He glanced towards Victane, who was still on his side facing the fire. “But he’s leaving the home where she grew up. I think he just needed a moment.”

“Yeah, he did seem to perk up towards the end of the night,” Buck said.

“Yes,” Hilene said, as the door beside the bar opened again and the shopkeep came through, carrying three plates of eggs. That was a one word answer again, just as they were talking about the point of the night where Hilene had gone quiet. But perhaps it was just because the food had arrived. The shopkeep placed the plates down on the bar and slipped around to the other side, drawing a stool out for herself.

As they tucked in to the food, which was delicious, Hilene asked her, “What’s your name, by the way?”

“Dosine,” she said, “And you two?”

They told her their names, Buck using his true name of Buttane, and Buck made up some backstory about the audience with Erson that had earned him his place at the Royal Court. They continued their chat as they ate, but Dosine ate faster than the others, then excused herself to go get the horses ready.

As Hilene finished off some bread that had come with the toast, he said, “We should go wake Victane. But Buck… Just, you asked why Victane brightened up towards the end of the night. Well, you’re about the same age as his daughter. And I think he might see her reflected in you.”

“Aren’t the two of us the same age?”

Hilene chuckled slightly. “True, but she liked to dance. You’ve seen me dance.”

Buck laughed. “I appreciated the attempt, man! That was a fun birthday. But I get what you’re saying. I’ll be wary of that.”

Hilene smiled, wider than he had when he’d greeted Buck before breakfast. “Thank you. Right, let’s go wake him.”

Buck nodded, hopping off the stool. “You do that. I’ll go pay for the horses.”

He headed back out the front door of the hut and followed the path of flattened grass around to the back, where there was a stable attached. Dosine was tending to the three of the horses who had been led out of the stable and tied to a wooden post. Buck let out a small sigh of relief. He knew next to nothing about horses and would have struggled to pick out which three to take.

“Hey,” he called as he approached. “How much?”

“A gold each?” she asked, patting a big brown horse on the nose.

“Sure,” Buck said, wondering a moment later if he’d been expected to haggle. But Pires had set him up with plenty of money; there was no reason to offer less than Dosine seemed to find fair.

A moment later Hilene and Victane appeared at his side. Hilene grinned wide and slowly approached the brown horse.

“Can I have this one?” he asked, turning around to face Buck. Three word answers gone again.

“Of course,” Buck said. He let Victane select which of the remaining two horses he took, then slowly approached the third. He rarely left Resador, and when he did he did so in a carriage with Pires. He had little more than the basic understanding of how to ride a horse.

Once he’d handed Dosine the coins, she helped him up onto the horse. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the one time as a child he’d ridden a pony at a courtyard fair. Surely it couldn’t be that hard to remember. Muscle memory was coming back to him, here and there, and he could copy Hilene and Victane for the rest.

“Good luck!” Dosine called up.

Buck gave her a smile and wave, then mimicked the two guards as they kicked the sides of their horses and headed back towards the road.