Akatika's Legacy Read online

  “First off he doesn’t flirt with me. Tony and Ivy are together, and he has no interest in me. Second, even if he was trying to flirt with me, I can handle him. I don’t need you to fight my battles!” Gabby declared as she jabbed her finger into Lafe’s chest.

  “Gabby, that’s not what I meant. You know Tony, he is a criminal passing off as a town guard.” Lafe said as he put his hands over Gabby’s.

  Gabby yanked her hand away from him and walked back to the gate. “Fine. How do you recommend we open the gate?”

  Lafe walked over to the gate and ran his hand through his hair, then started fidgeting with the coins he found in the pile of bones.

  “Uh… Your right…”

  “About?” Gabby inquired, eyebrows raised, with a smug smiling creeping on her face.

  “It has to be Tony.” Lafe admitted. “He has the skills and Ivy keeps him in line. Mostly.”

  Gabby started walking toward the door. “Let’s get back to town. It’s getting late and I don’t want my parents finding out that I left town without telling them.” Gabby explained.

  “I thought that you were out on errands for your dad today and that took you out of town.” Lafe inquired as he hefted himself over the support beam and made his way to the door.

  “Well, the cloth that was supposed to come in this morning didn’t. So, my dad couldn’t make the clothes and send them out.”

  “So, what do your parents think you’re doing?”

  “I told them I was helping out at the apothecary with Ivy.”

  “What if Ivy comes to look for you?”

  “I told her I was with you and not to come looking for me.”

  Lafe sighed. He was going to die a long and painful death when her dad found out they left town together, his mind warned him.

  “Better say goodbye to the beetles. I think they will miss you. I can hear them, and we haven’t even got to the hall yet.” Lafe teased.

  Lafe got to the door he heard an eerie rattle.

  “LAAAAAAAAAAFE!” Gabby screamed.

  Gabby was backed into the corner of the hall jagged tears across the front of her tunic showing a considerable amount of her stomach and chest. Angry red trickles bled down her abdomen from several slashes.

  Lafe looked around quickly for what could have done the damage. He heard the clicking again, louder this time than it was before.

  Lafe noticed that there was a skeleton standing a few feet away from Gabby. It clutched the torn patch of fabric from Gabby’s tunic in its bloodied skeletal fingertips.

  Rage, in its most pure form boiled into Lafe’s blood. It was the kind of rage that erased fear and reason. It was the type to lead men to be heroes and martyrs. This rage removed control and men died easily under this intoxicant.

  Lafe charged, almost flew, across the hallway.

  The skeleton opened its mouth issuing a hissing cackle.

  Lafe roared, swinging the torch in his hands like the axe he had used every day to fell trees for the past five years. The skeleton, even possessed of whatever evil power reanimated it, flew across the hall. Bones exploded as they hit the wall. Showering Gabby in the splintered remains of her would be murderer.

  Lafe took Gabby into his arms. “Are you alright?”

  She stood there for a few moments not saying anything, letting him hold her.

  She pushed him away. “Lafe turn around. I need to fix my tunic and you don’t need any more of a preview than you got.” She said perfectly calm despite the tears running down her face. After all, adventurers don’t cry.

  Chapter 3

  Gabby slid the window to her room open so quietly that any thief or assassin would have been jealous of her technique. She crept into her room as silently closing the shutters and window behind her.

  She crept around the small desk next to the window. She slid past the stack of books that she was endlessly reading and carefully set her pack of loot down next to them. She smiled as she saw the books in the moonlight, she was now one of the adventurers and one day she would have a book about her adventures.

  The next and hardest trick was opening the armoire. She placed a hand towel from the table with the wash basin on it over the hinge. It had a hinge that creaked so loudly it could wake the dead, and she had had enough of that this evening.

  The room echoed horribly. Any sound that she made would alert her parents that she was up and moving around. With any luck, they would think she had come home while they were out and had gone to bed early.

  She took her dirty and torn clothes off and hid them in the bottom of the trunk at the end of her bed. She pulled the nightgown she had retrieved from the armoire over her body and started to creep over to her bed.

  The door slammed open. “Gabriella Sanderson! Where in the blessed name of Maerryth have you been all night!” Phoebe demanded.

  Phoebe Sanderson was the type of mother everyone wished they had. She was an endless fountain of love and support. That was until you upset her. When upset she was the type of mother that you ran and hid from until she had cooled down.

  Unfortunately, there was no place to hide in Gabby’s small room.

  “Uh, whatever do you mean mother?” Gabby squeaked.

  “Don’t bother with the innocent act, your father and I saw you climbing the fence from across the lane in.”

  “You saw me climbing the fence?”

  “We almost called for the guards, thinking you were a thief. But we saw your face as you went over.”

  Gabby’s face turned red. Her parents had seen her. What else did they see? Did they see her tunic and how exposed she was? She had to tear off almost all the lower half of the tunic to cover her exposed chest.

  “What were you thinking! Not only are you coming home well after is proper for a young lady of your station but what you were wearing. It’s almost too much to think about. What will people say, hopefully, no one saw you.”

  Gabby was paralyzed with fear at this point. There was nothing her parents worked harder on than the reputation their family had. Her father was a tailor and owned the premier shop in town. All the upper class bought his clothes.

  “Trousers, Gabriella you were wearing trousers like some common night walking hussy. I know I raised you better than that. Out with it, what have you been up to?”

  It was a small blessing that her mother had not seen the mangled covering she had been using as a shirt or she would have started the conversations off by beating her, Gabby thought.

  “Ivy and I went riding in the country. I hate riding in a dress I always get blisters on my legs. No one saw us. I made sure that Ivy got the horses and put them away. I know how important the reputation of our family is to father’s business.” Gabby spat out.

  “You weren’t out with the Souter boy, were you; gallivanting around doing all manner of improprieties?”

  “Mama you know his name. We’re going to be married after the harvest festival when I come of age. Papa set it up, you can at least call him by his name.” Gabby whispered.

  “I know dear and he is a good boy but there are consequences for everything. Were you out with Lafe?”

  “No mama, He was out cutting down the forest so that we will have enough money to buy a home.”

  “Off to bed with you, your father will speak to you of this in the morning.”

  The next morning the sunshine sliced through the gaps in the shutters to Gabby’s room. It was not supposed to be this bright this early Gabby thought. She rolled onto her stomach to try to block out the intruding light from her face.

  Forgotten pain blossomed from the scratches across her stomach. The cuts she had received at the hand of the villainous skeleton were not deep, but they were very painful. Any more sleep was going to allude her, and she would have to go downstairs and face her father.

  She filled the chipped basin with water to wash with and carefully dabbed at the wounds, so as not to reopen them. She grabbed her favorite dress and put it on. Her mother would grudgingly approve,
not because it wasn’t proper but because it was worn and had seen better days.

  It was frayed along the bottom of the skirts, but she loved it. It was her favorite color, green, and it reminded her of the forest and adventuring. This dress had only a little lace at the neck another reason she liked it. Lace was just not practical for an adventurer. The dress was also not too billowy, it draped down and mostly laid flat against her. Most of the other girls in town loved the dresses that either had long trains or billowed out five feet in every direction.

  “Honestly, how could someone do anything in one of those monstrosities?” She asked the dull mirror on the armoire.

  She trotted down the stairs as if nothing was different than any other day. If her father knew what had happened, she would be chided for the possible loss of face with clients. If her mother knew, she would be verbally skinned.

  The kitchen was her most beloved place in the house. If she wasn’t already a hardened adventurer, she would have been a baker or chef in Lord Clint’s manor. Who wouldn’t want to be one with all the butter and cream and buttery creamy desserts?

  She smiled thinking about all the decadent treats she was sure chefs and baker ate all day when she walked into her father’s back.

  The distinct sound of a porcelain cup breaking as it hit the floor made her cringe. This would not make the conversation any better with her father. Her daydreams could get her into bad spots sometimes.

  “Oh, Papa, I’m so sorry I didn’t see you.”

  “I guessed that from the speed that you ran into me. The broken teacup isn’t going to make your mother happy. Best that we keep this mess to ourselves. It will be simpler if I tell her I did it. She already wants me to forbid you from going out because of the trousers and that won’t do if I am to influence the higher castes.”

  “I can explain about the trousers.” Gabby cut in.

  “Oh, you probably can. You sit down and eat something. I’ll clean this up before your mother gets back in from the garden. We will talk about the trousers later.”

  Gabby sighed as she sat down. She was hoping that her mother was not going to be involved with the discussion this morning. No doubt that her mother would have her locked away until the harvest festival.

  She grabbed a biscuit and slathered butter all over it. Next she placed a few sausages and a small slice of cheese in the biscuit. Her mother hated it when she ate with her hands but there was nothing better than a biscuit filled with sausage and cheese. She quickly ate the filled biscuit so that her mother would not come in and have another problem to confront her with.

  She wiped the crumbs from her mouth the back door opened, her mother was bringing in a basket of fresh vegetables. She quickly placed another biscuit on her plate with a sausage and acted like she just sat down to eat.

  Phoebe eyed her daughter knowing that something was amiss by the way Gabby’s face turn red when she walked in, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

  “Joel have you spoken with our daughter?”

  “She just sat down to eat, love. I will in a moment. I dropped my cup of tea and have been cleaning up the mess.”

  “You? Cleaning up the mess? What’s wrong, you never clean up around the house.”

  “I do when there are shards of porcelain all over the floor and I don’t have my boots on.” Joel claimed.

  “Talk with her, I will finish cleaning up.” Phoebe demanded.

  Joel sat down at the table and started to play with his mustaches. Gabby couldn’t remember a time that her father did not have them, they had been less white when she was younger but always present. She could remember playing with and pulling on them as a young child.

  The fact that her father was now playing with the long bushy hairs was an ill omen for her. He only did that when he was thinking about his business deals. Maybe someone saw her come in last night from the shop.

  His sharp knowing hazel eyes pierced into her as she sat across from her interrogator. He stroked his mustaches down both sides of his mouth.

  “You wore trousers out riding.” Joel declared.

  “Yes, Papa.” Gabby whispered.

  “Why not the divided riding skirts?” Joel inquired.

  “It’s harder to get on and off the horse in them… and trousers are more comfortable.” Gabby admitted.

  “Hmm. Why is that? Are the skirts too bulky?” Joel stood and started to pace back and forth at the end of the table. “Do they protect your legs any better?”

  “Joel, what are you doing. Her impropriety, remember. That’s what you are supposed to be discussing.”

  “Yes, Phoebe, we will get to that, but I need to know about this. What if other women want to wear them, think about the extra coin. A new style of female riding clothes, we pioneered.”

  “Joel, you can discuss business afterward.”

  “Your mother is right Gabby. You should not have been out in trousers. Don’t do it again. At least not until I have some put up in the displays at the shop.”

  “Joel!” Phoebe gasped.

  “Phoebe if we make a new style and Gabby is seen wearing them all the other young girls will want them. After the harvest festival when Gabby is recognized as a woman, all of the women in town will want them as well.”

  Phoebe groaned and left the room muttering to herself, “Always business and never…”

  Gabby tried to look as innocent and cute as she could and asked, “Am I to be punished?”

  “This time no, but your mother does have a point you need to think about what you are doing before you do it. Now go off I need to think about this for a bit. Come by the shop later, I’ll have some ideas I want your opinion on.”

  “Thank you, Papa.” She walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek and escaped out the back door.

  She had to go and talk to Ivy before anyone else thought to check her story.

  The apothecary shop was hot and humid. It always was, except in the cellar where it seemed was always unusually cold. They claim that the Apothecary that built the shop a hundred years ago had a mage, or a priest depending on who was telling the story, cast a spell on the building to always be hot and the cellar to always be cold. It made it possible for the sick that needed to stay to be warm all night without having someone tend fires.

  Gabby hated going in the apothecary shop, her dresses were always soaked in sweat. That was the price that one had to pay when your best friend was the apprentice to the apothecary. The only other option was waiting outside and that carried own set of problems.

  She stopped at the wall of jars, some opaque and some clear. They were all interesting and served to fuel her fancies about the life of adventuring. Someone had to find the rare herbs and other unidentifiable things that floated in the various fluids. Her favorite was Dragon’s Tongue; she didn’t know if it was actually a dragon’s tongue or the flower Dragon’s Tongue.

  She had asked the apothecary once and was told it was the real thing. This only made the adventuring flames burn brighter in her. She was not allowed back in for a few weeks because of all the questions she asked about where dragons were found and who got it for her.

  Gabby learned her lesson, and now quietly waited for Ivy while browsing the shelves. Some of the prices on the bottles were outright robbery. Honestly, who would pay three gold slices for red volcanic ash? It was red dust for Maerryth’s sake.

  A few moments later a young woman with dark brown curled hair walked around the corner. She had a stunning pair of blue eyes; they were light, like the color of the sky reflected in ice. All of the girls in town wanted to be Ivy Faeryda, even if she was a bit too skinny and taller than any of the other girls.

  “Gabby! They told me I had a visitor, but they didn’t say it was you.” Ivy said as she ran up and hugged her best friend.

  “Ivy, we went riding out in the country yesterday. Oh, and you did all the work of getting the horses out.”

  Ivy pushed Gabby to arms-length; “You know I don’t like to lie. What is so
important that I have to cover for you this time.”

  “Lafe and I were –”

  “Out doing something you shouldn’t have been. Was it at least something decent?” Ivy chided.

  “Ivy.” Gabby gasped. “You know I would never.”

  “I know that you would never a lot of things, but you have been getting more anxious to be married the closer to the harvest festival it gets. So, what exactly am I covering for.” Ivy questioned.

  “It was decent, at least most of it. I’ll have to tell you the rest when we’re alone. Rest assured you are not having to cover for any disappearance of my virtue.” Gabby reassured her.