THE LOWER CITY

The lower city overflowed with residents going about their business, and refugees from the countryside searching for work or a place to live. Anna did not think the refugees would have much luck—places to live had been taken up long ago, and there weren’t nearly enough jobs to go around. She imagined a few ended up finding work with unscrupulous employers who paid a pittance for backbreaking labor and long hours. People were desperate for even these jobs. Though there had been few reports of Raider activity for a while, no one seemed eager to return home.

Maddie moved through the crowd with her ears laid back much of the time. She snapped at those who got too close, but overall, she remained remarkably steady. It helped that Lieutenant Mara rode her Firefly on Maddie’s blind side. The gelding projected calm, and Maddie had warmed up to him as she had Condor. Every so often, he nickered as if to encourage her.

Anna was very glad she wasn’t on this “message errand” by herself. She had not ridden Maddie into such crowds before. Lieutenant Mara considered it “training” for Anna, and a test for Maddie. Normally, Lieutenant Mara had explained, a new Rider would be taken out on extended training runs with a senior Rider before they were sent out alone. However, with most of the senior Riders away, either with King Zachary or on assignment elsewhere, the typical training routine was not possible.

“I think I have an answer,” the lieutenant said, picking up on a strand of conversation they’d been having since the middle city. “I think she’s jealous of you.”

“Jealous!” Anna exclaimed. She corrected Maddie before the mare took a bite out of a cart horse they were sidling up along. “Why on Earth would Melry be jealous of me?”

“She always planned to be a Rider, assumed she’d be called, but she hasn’t been. Her mother, of course, was relieved. The more the colonel didn’t want her daughter to be a Rider, the more Melry wanted it. But here you are, suddenly brought into the messenger service, not because you were called—at least, not in the conventional manner—but because you were made a Green Rider by Colonel Mapstone herself. Something the colonel would not do for her own daughter.”

“Oh.”

Mara nodded. “You have the colonel’s attention and special consideration in a way Mel has never had.”

“In other words,” Anna said, “she thinks I’m taking her place in her mother’s heart when it’s really the opposite. Her mother loves her too much to allow her to be a Rider.”

“Exactly. And look, here’s our turn.” Mara reined Firefly down Potweld Lane.

While certain sections of the lower city might be tenements and warehouses, some tradesmen still retained their businesses there, including Arling Robinson, master saddle maker and leathersmith. All Green Rider tack and message satchels came from his shop.

“Look, I wouldn’t worry too much about Mel,” Lieutenant Mara said. “She’s got a good heart, and in time she’ll realize she’s being wrong-headed.”

Fortunately, Potweld Lane was quieter than the main thoroughfare of the Winding Way and they didn’t have to shout to hear one another.

At least Anna now knew the crux of the matter when it came to Melry Exiter, the colonel’s adopted daughter. Mel had been standoffish, even unfriendly to Anna’s overtures while she’d been at the castle. Anna had been relieved when Stevic G’ladheon took her with him to go after the colonel. Her behavior had mystified Anna until now.

Master Robinson’s saddle shop was a few blocks down the narrow street. The creaky, wooden buildings shouldered together like shivering old men and blocked most of the daylight from the street. Though it had not happened during Anna’s lifetime, fire used to sweep through the ramshackle parts of the lower city on a regular basis. Some said they were set by the city’s elite to rid themselves of lower class garbage, but the inhabitants always rebuilt. Those who could afford it used brick or stone, and Queen Isen had ordered the lord-mayor to organize fire brigades among the inhabitants to help put out fires—not just here, but throughout the city.

This section of Potweld Lane did not look as if it had burned in some time. Ugly gargoyles, covered in so many layers of paint that the details of their faces were obscured, peered down at her from the eaves.

They dismounted and tied their horses to hitching posts just outside the saddle shop. Lieutenant Mara paused before entering, and Anna followed her gaze across the street to where a pair of fellows appeared to be eyeing their horses. Their expressions were speculative.

“I wouldn’t, lads,” Lieutenant Mara told them.

They smirked and laughed at her.

She shrugged. “Consider yourselves warned.”

She smiled and led Anna into the shop. The tinkle of a little bell over the door announced their entrance. Anna inhaled air suffused with the intoxicating scent of leather, a smell she had come to appreciate when it came to tending the tack of the messenger horses, and her fine riding boots.

An apprentice cleaned and oiled a new bridle, while another braided a set of reins. A journeyman carved intricate patterns on a side saddle. Reins, bridles, girths, and harness hung from hooks on the walls and from the rafters of the low ceiling. Saddles in various stages of creation were mounted on wooden horses. Leather scraps mixed with the wood shavings on the floor. Brasses and buckles and lengths of chain gleamed in crates and barrels.

The apprentice braiding the reins looked up. A startled expression briefly crossed her face, one Anna had seen on others encountering Lieutenant Mara for the first time. Her burn scars took them aback. People, Anna observed, had a hard time meeting the lieutenant’s gaze, but then would sneak looks and stare, and even talk behind her back, when they thought she wasn’t aware. Anna was pretty sure Lieutenant Mara was actually very aware, but was astonishingly good at concealing it, and managed to still treat such people with courtesy and patience.

“Can I help you, Riders?” the apprentice asked.

“Yes,” Lieutenant Mara replied. “I have an order for your master.”

The apprentice scampered off to a back room to fetch him. While they waited, Anna admired the craftsmanship on a saddle with fancy scrolling designs scribed into the leather. She ran her hand over it from pommel to cantle. She thought the leather so soft that it would melt beneath her fingers.

“Like it?” the journeyman asked with a smile.

“It’s beautiful.”

“It was commissioned by an aristocrat in the upper city, but he never came for it.” He named how many gold coins she needed to buy it, and she jerked her hand away from it. He chuckled. “Truth be told, your Rider saddles may be smaller and plain, but they are just as fine and more durable, even without the exorbitant price.”

An older gentleman wearing an apron then emerged from the back, his specs pushed up on top of his head. “Riders,” he said with a nod of greeting. Then something caught his eye and he glanced out the window. “Those your horses? A lot of thieving around here lately, and the shortages of available horses make ’em worth something.”

Anna gazed out the dusty window. The two fellows were casually crossing the street toward Maddie and Firefly. She glanced anxiously at Lieutenant Mara, who chuckled.

“Not to worry, Master Robinson,” the lieutenant said. “They are Green Rider horses.” And she handed him her list.

“Your colonel too good with her new rank to come around for a cuppa?” he asked. “Haven’t seen her in a raccoon’s age.”

“She is,” Lieutenant Mara said carefully, “away for a while.”

“Hmph. Imagine that. Laren Mapstone actually gone away. She taking leave during all this upheaval? Not that she don’t deserve it, but the timing’s odd.”

“Not exactly,” the lieutenant said with a tight smile.

Master Robinson rapped his own head with his knuckles. “Of course! She’s off with the king’s army. Not on leave at all. Figures. The day Laren Mapstone takes leave is the day all five hells turn to sunshine and flower gardens.”

Lieutenant Mara remained conspicuously quiet.

“You tell her when she comes back to come see me and we’ll have a cuppa.”

“I’ll do that,” Lieutenant Mara replied.

“Well, then.” The master propped his specs on the tip of his nose and silently read the list.

“I’ll do the best I can,” he said at length, “but we, like everyone else, are encountering shortages. I can barely get what I need from the tanners.”

As he recounted all the materials that were hard to secure for his craft, Anna gazed out the window just in time to see one of the fellows mount Firefly. “Lieutenant?”

“Just a minute, Anna.”

The gelding took it calmly and stood there even when the fellow jammed his heels into his sides.

Maddie, on the other hand, bit a chunk out of the shoulder of the other fellow as he reached to untie her reins. He screamed, and even as he started to run away, she kicked him in the buttocks and sent him sprawling across the street.

His companion persisted in ramming his heels into Firefly’s sides. Firefly yawned, then lay down, and rolled on the man. The man dragged himself away, and when he stood, he had a decided limp. The two wounded men looked as if they wanted to exact some kind of revenge on the horses, but Firefly clambered back to his feet, and when the two got within range, both horses kicked. The men ran off.

“Huh,” Anna said.

Suddenly, Lieutenant Mara was there peering out the window with her. She grinned.

“Shiftless transients hanging about,” Master Robinson muttered, joining them at the window. “Lower city has become no better than a blighted slum, especially with these refugees mobbing the place. Customers I’ve had for years don’t want to come down here anymore. I’d move uptown if I could, but space is scarce now. And the cost?” He shook his head. “Used to be decent here.”

“I’m sorry the lower city isn’t what it once was,” Lieutenant Mara replied, “but those refugees are mostly just families who are scared and fleeing a war not of their making.”

“I know, I know,” the master said with a sigh. “Most are fine, I suppose, but there are those who take advantage of a situation.”

“There are always people who will, no matter the situation, or where they are from. I’ll warrant those two who tried to steal our horses were born and bred here.”

“Aye, well, maybe next time you see the king or queen, you can tell them how it is down here for an honest tradesman. And don’t you worry about your order. I’ll get it made up as soon as I can. Don’t want to lose the customers I’ve still got. I’ll send word when all is ready.”

They bade him farewell. Outside Lieutenant Mara patted both Maddie and Firefly. “Can’t blame him for being concerned,” she said, “but people are like to blame everything and anything on those refugees.”

Anna knew. She had heard muttering around the castle blaming high prices and more crime on those seeking safety in the city. The realm had enough enemies, she thought, that people didn’t need to go looking for more among those who were on the same side.

“And you two,” the lieutenant told the horses, “you make a good team.” Firefly nudged her pocket in search of a treat.

“You knew they’d give those thieves a hard time?” Anna asked.

“Messenger horses are pretty smart. They know enough not to be stolen. And, well, I’m familiar with Maddie’s tendencies.” Lieutenant Mara scrubbed beneath Maddie’s forelock. The mare started to press her ears back. “Go ahead, be like that. I know you secretly like it.” She gave the mare another pat and mounted Firefly. Maddie’s ears went to point as if to ask where all that attention was going.

When Anna mounted up, Lieutenant Mara told her, “I’m proud of you and Maddie. You both did a very good job on the ride down. The traffic we encountered can be unnerving, but you both handled it well.”

Anna was very pleased by the praise. The ride had been unnerving at times, but it had helped to have Lieutenant Mara and Firefly there.

“This time,” the lieutenant said, “I think Firefly and I will keep to Maddie’s sighted side and see how she fares among the crowds.”

“Yes’m,” Anna replied, less pleased by this change, but it had to be done at some point, and it might as well happen while she had Lieutenant Mara and Firefly with her.

All was calm until they came to the end of Potweld Lane and reached the Winding Way. Anna and the lieutenant halted at the intersection, watching in astonishment people running this way and that, some dumping whatever they had been carrying, and shouting as they ran.

“This can’t be good,” Lieutenant Mara said.

There was too much confusion to see what the problem was.

“C’mon,” the lieutenant said. “Let’s go down to the gate and see what’s going on.”

Anna sucked in a breath and rode with her lieutenant into the fray. Maddie danced beneath her, but Firefly gave her a gentle whicker and the mare didn’t go berserk. Yet.

The crowd became thicker and more chaotic the closer they got to the main city gate. There was a surge of people trying to rush into the city hauling their goods, leading livestock, and carrying children.

Anna read the lieutenant’s lips more than heard her say, “What the hells?”

The horses plowed their way through the people, bumping them aside, stepping on a foot or two. Those who did not move got a chunk bitten out of them by Maddie.

When at last they neared the gate, they found the guards overwhelmed, unable to stem the tide.

“What’s going on?” Lieutenant Mara yelled at the nearest guard.

“Army on the horizon,” the man shouted back. “Doesn’t look like Sacoridians.”

A chill coursed through Anna’s veins. If these were not Sacoridian or provincial troops, war had come to the city.