The rain gods were displeased.
Or maybe they WERE pleased. Rain could be how they showed their happiness, showering, so to speak, worshipers with their blessing. Shanna wasn't up on the theology of this world. Sufficed to say, the humans weren't enjoying this blessing from above.
The column trudged forward, wooden wheels and shod and unshod feet struggling down the mud and stone road. The stones did make things better, Shanna for the first time approving of the actual work put into the construction of the roadway. Most of the water drained off, running down into the green grass on either side. Still, it pooled in ruts and depressions, as well as falling on and soaking already exhausted Poles.
All in all, a shitty day.
They were walking their mounts again, resting the poor beasts. In a way, Shanna preferred walking at that moment. Being down between the horses and the wagons offered some small shelter from the elements, much more than being mounted. She also, well, felt less guilty. Her feet trudged through puddles alongside all the others. No special treatment for her.
James, too, walked. She liked that about him. A rain poncho of some sort had appeared out of the aether, or the Royal Wagon, as soon as sprinkles had begun to fall. He gave it to Ewa, the girl holding the baby under its semi-waterproof protection. When her turn came to ride in the wagon, under its canvas top, he gave it to another woman with a child. The look in that woman's eyes, in the eyes of all around them, said all.
Would she have done the same? Possibly. Shanna was awesome, after all.
"Lady Shanna?"
Shanna let out a quiet sigh. The girl Anelie had improved as the day went on, as she came to understand her constant stream of consciousness conversation truly did annoy the woman she wanted to impress. So, too, Shanna had gotten used to the red haired girl. After a day on the road, the person beside you became someone who had always been a part of your life. There had been quiet for the past mile, so she accepted that conversation was not now an unreasonable thing.
"What?"
"Do you know any songs?"
"Songs?" That had been a random question. She looked at the girl beside her. Her braid looked like a shipboard rope, water soaked and heavy. Her shoulders slumped under the weight of her pack. At camp, Shanna would have to go through it, see what could be divided among the others for the next day's travel. There was no reason for the teen to kill herself trying to impress.
"Yeah, a song. A song from your world. I love songs. I always sing them when I'm walking alone, and we've sung them before as we walked." Shanna had heard singing, from ahead and behind, and from other camps. This group was a bit uptight in that regard. Maybe a song would help.
Her eyes went to the river, now swollen, still flowing parallel to the road.
"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream. Row, row, row your boat..."
"Row, row, row your boat..." James' deeper voice came in, unexpectedly fitting well with her softer tones. Shanna wondered what the others were hearing, English, or Polish? She didn't think the song would work in that language. Rhymes never translated.
"Row... row..." Anelie's voice, uncertain, joined in at just the right place. Shanna smiled at the girl. Encouraged, her voice strengthened, pronunciation improved. A fourth joined them. Male. Piotr.
Shanna felt tears on her cheeks. Imagine. Crying over "Row Your Boat". She was pitiful.
Maybe they could do "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" next. She always cried during that one.
****
"Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle dandy, mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy!"
Shanna was cold, soaked, and tired, yet happy. Singing did sooth the grumpy woman. The King's hands before her signaled the end of the song, cheers erupting around them. The people, too, where cheerful. Which made sense, as they had to be full of cheer for cheers to be able to erupt out of them, and oh, god, was she cold and tired. She wanted to stop. Why couldn't they stop...
"Make camp! Make camp!" The rider tore down the side of the road towards them, seeming to understand the people were too tired to move out of the way on the road proper. A wave of cheering, muted as it was, followed him, passing over Shanna and the King's party as he passed.
"Thank God," she moaned. Anelie let out a similar moan beside her.
"This is the worst day ever."
"And it's not over yet." Shanna moved her mount off the road, giving the wagons more room as they began to maneuver off onto the wet grass. "Please, Jesus in heaven above, don't let any wagons get stuck. I don't want to have to push them now..."
"Why would you have to?" Anelie's face looked confused through the suddenly heavier downpour. "You're with the King! Important!"
"So?" She was too tired to offer a better rebuttal than that. Let the girl think about it for awhile. She looked around as Piotr led the Hussar guard off. It took a few moments for Shanna to locate James. He was with his unmounted guards, the men as always suddenly there when it was their turn to shield their King. The men were at attention, James serious as he talked.
She frowned. He was demanding loyalty, most likely. What would he do, if one refused? Even the knowledge that James was doing this could have horrible repercussions. Imagine if the US President asked those around him to follow him, ignoring the law and Constitution if his orders defied those? That was grounds for impeachment, it was. Here, she suspected unwanted Kings were not left around to cause trouble. That said, she agreed with what he was doing. A King NEEDED a loyal core. A buffer between himself, and those whose loyalty might be to some other noble, or general.
Or Captain.
****
"So, this is our mystery book."
Shanna dried her hands some more on the towel, the rest of her nowhere near dry as she sat in the desk chair. She could still smell the sweet, warm scent of their evening dinner, now cooking outside the tent under mostly rainproof tarps. She needed food, rest, warmth. However, now was the time she and James had a moment alone, the rest of the camp busy working to provide those needs. The last rope had barely been tied, the tent's contents just hurried in, when he had ordered everyone out except her.
If this wasn't important, she was going to be very annoyed.
His own hands freshly dried, James opened the book on the desk before her. He said nothing, wanting her untainted opinion. Leaning forward, she looked at the first page.
Shanna frowned.
"You're fucking me."
"That's probably what they think we're doing," James replied with a chuckle.
"No, I mean..." Reaching out, she flipped the page. She couldn't be seeing...
"What is it?" he asked.
"I KNOW this book!" She looked up at him. The black haired King looked at her with open disbelief. He frowned.
"Seriously?"
"Seriously! You've never seen it?"
"No." He flipped a few more pages. "What the hell is it?"
"It's... give me a moment." Her eyes closed. Shanna knew the name of the thing, but had never heard it pronounced. Voy... Voy something... "Ah!" Her eyes opened, looking back up at James. "It's the Voynich Manuscript!"
"Voynich..."
"Yup! I'm sure of it!" She grabbed a hundred of the pages, flipping through them. She stopped on a page of text, illustrations of nude women in water tubs grown from plants on the top and sides of the page. "I've looked through it before. It's famous."
"Never heard of it."
"Uneducated heathen." Almost reverently, she touched the page. "It's a mystery book."
"Obviously."
"No, I mean, in our world nobody knows what it is. It turned up in some bookstore a century or so ago, and is around five hundred years old. Nobody can read it, nobody knows what language it is, or even if it is a language. It could be a code, or just gibberish. It could be a magic book, written by or for someone like John Dee, or it could be a hoax someone made up to sell to someone like that. Nobody knows!"
"But it's here."
"Yeah! Well, probably not the same one. Another copy. Just because the one on Earth is five hundred years old doesn't mean it wasn't copied from an older version. Wow."
"But what is it?"
"I just said, we don't know."
"SOMEONE here knows."
That was right. The book was real. Not a hoax. It had meaning.
"There are recipes in it," she told him, flipping through to show him. "At least, they could be. And astronomical charts. And the plants."
"A few I've seen on our travels."
"Yeah. Now that I see this book, I realize that's where I'd seen them before. Not many, but some."
"So... the book is from some other part of this world, where those plants grow."
"Could be."
"Could it be Elvish?"
"Hmm..." Her first instinct was to say 'no', but that was based on her experience with the Elves of human literature. This wasn't Elvish as Tolkien had portrayed them. But, then, neither were the creatures who had attacked her that first day those elves either. The use of the name did not mean anything had to be in common between them, apart from, maybe, pointy ears.
"It could explain," he went on, "the 'why' of this war. Maybe they're after the book."
"Then they would have kept attacking."
"Unless they think it was destroyed. That chest was burned badly. Blow up the King's chambers, then attack to make sure the thing is gone?" Before she could even answer, James was shaking his head. "No. You're right. That doesn't make sense. This may be part of it, but..."
"What about the other book?" She reached over for the small leather bound volume. Opening it, she cursed. "Fuck. It's in Polish, isn't it?"
"I guess so, if you can't read it. I assumed it wasn't in English. It's badly written, whatever it is."
"A child's handwriting," she agreed. He laughed.
"I assumed a King who ignored his teachers, but, yeah, a kid could be the answer. I haven't read it."
Shanna handed it up to him.
"Do it. While we have time."
Shrugging, he took it, flipping it to the first page. Shanna looked back down at the Voynich Manuscript, pushing her glasses back up as they slid down a still wet nose. James cleared his throat.
"Today." He laughed. "OK, I like this kid already. They dated each entry 'Today'."
"Very helpful," she agreed. "Go on. Dinner will be soon."
"Krzysztof told me I am not allowed to tell anyone what I see, or tell anyone what I hear. I can not even tell Mother, if I see Father with the vanishing woman. I want to tell Mother, but Krzysztof says God and Father will not like that. He said I could instead write down what I see and hear, and God and Jesus will read it. Mother Mary will read it, too, and Mother Mary will then tell Mother if Mother should hear it. I like that idea. Krzysztof is smart, even if he does hit me sometimes. Krzysztof gave me a book to write in, told me where to hide it so nobody would find it. I think Krzysztof wants to read the book. I don't want him to. I wrote in the book, and put it there, but I then went and bought THIS book. I'm hiding it in a small chest in my room under my bed. Nobody knows it's there. God, this is the book you should be reading, not the other one. Even if that book says it's the real one, ignore it. This is the real one. I promise."
"Damn," Shanna said. He nodded, flipping the page.
"Yeah. There's a lot to unpack in here." He flipped a few more pages.
"Today. I saw the woman go into Father's room after Mother left. She's green. I didn't know women could be green. She was pretty. Very pretty. I do not know how she got into our chambers. She did not see me. I saw her go into the bedroom where Father was, and close the door. I went to my room to read. I have a book on all the people, and I read that. The green people are the Elves. Is the woman an Elf? I did not know Elves were pretty. The woman was not there when Father came out for dinner. Maybe I dreamed her.
"Today. Mother told me about Elves. I asked her, and she told me Elves are evil ugly creatures who hate Jesus. Maybe that is why Jesus has not told her about what is in my book, because she would not like to know about the pretty Elf? After dinner I heard her tell Father that all Elf women are horrible ugly bitch whores. I asked Krzysztof what a bitch whore was. He said a whore was a woman who would do fun things. Maybe I can marry a whore someday!
"Today. Father had a meeting with all his officers today. Krzysztof and I were in the room, too, so we could learn. They told Father that the Elves are causing trouble. They will not let us pass through their land. Father said that is because we charge ships to pass through our city, and the Elves do not like that. The army wants to attack the elves. Father does not want to, but does not want to stop charging ships as money is good to have. The army is angry. They yelled.
"Today. Krzysztof hit me. I hate him.
"Today. I saw her again! The pretty green woman! I was in the hall outside Mother and Father's room, and she suddenly appeared! It was like magic! She has round black eyes, with white dots in the middle, and long red hair! So very pretty! She saw me, and asked my name. I said my name was Kostek, and she said that was a wonderful name. She said I was very handsome, and maybe someday her daughter could marry me! I was so happy, I ran away! To marry a girl who looked like her!
"Today. Mother hit Father. Father hit Mother. They yelled. I hid in my room. Krzysztof told me I was a baby. I do not like it when they yell.
"Today. I went with Father and Krzysztof out of the city. We went with our guards to the woods. It was exciting. Father told us the world is a wonderful place, and all the people in it are good. Even those who everyone says are evil. He told Krzysztof that when he is King, my brother will have to be friends with the leaders of all the people. If you are friends, you do not go to war, and war is bad. I nodded, but brother asked if that meant we were not going to fight the Elves, as everyone is saying they are hurting our people and we should fight them. Father said that we can not fight them. We would lose if we fought them. I looked at the Captain. He was mad. Why was he mad? We went back home.
"Today. Captain Putaski argued with Father. I saw them in the Throne Room. A village had been attacked! The Captain wanted to fight the Elves who did it. Father said no. Father was mad. I think we should attack. I dreamed of houses burning, of children crying. I woke up crying.
"Tonight. Someone woke me. It was the beautiful Elf woman. She was next to my bed. She told me she needed me to hide something. I said I had a secret spot nobody knew about. She asked me where it was, but I did not tell her because it was a secret. She smiled, and said that was a test and that I was a good boy for keeping it a secret! My face got red! She gave me a book, told me to hide it. She said it was a magic book that nobody should read, and I was not to open it. She made me promise. I promised. The pretty woman then kissed me on the forehead! She kissed me! I promised to hide the book and never tell anyone! She kissed me again, then vanished! She said some words, and vanished! Wow! Magic! I hid the book here next to this diary. Now, God, I promised that nobody would read it, so please do not read it, or let your Son or Wife read it. I promised. Thank you. Don't tell Mom, either."
James paused. Shanna put a hand to her forehead.
"God. That's..."
"Fucked up. That's what it is. The King sleeping with some Elf woman? Worse than any intern blow job."
"Hell yes. Oh, God, what if that was the Elf Queen or someone like that? Can you imagine? Countries on the verge of war, and the two leaders are banging like horny rabbits! Not good!" She shook her head. "Keep reading."
"That's it."
"What?"
James showed the book to her. The rest of the pages were blank.
"I think we know what happened next."
"We do?" He nodded. It took a moment, but Shanna realized what he meant.
The fire. The death of the Royal Family. She closed her eyes.
"God. That poor kid."
"Yeah. He sounded like a good kid. The King, too. The stories you hear are all bad, but he obviously had a good side."
"Or at least a less evil one. God. This just gives us more questions."
"At least they're different ones. Nothing worse than trying to answer the wrong questions." He took both books, carrying them over to their hiding place among Ewa's clothing. "Go out, tell them I'll be there in a moment."
"Right." Standing, she paused. "What are we going to do about the Captain?"
"Don't know. Assuming he had nothing to do with the fire, it's not like he was wrong about anything. He might not even have known what was in the chest, just that he wanted to get first crack at anything like that. Just in case." He stood. "Well, now that I'm done, we can go out together. Should we pretend we WERE just fucking, to mess with them?"
She regarded his grinning face for a long moment, hand going to the hilt of her sword.
"As if you're up to my standards."