Chapter 3:
The Girl with Black Hair
TWO DAYS AFTER CELESTY’S DEPARTURE, the mayor of Anavalez hosted two guests. Their quaint traveling attire did not fool the man; the way they carried themselves betrayed their status all too well.
One, who seemed caught in a perpetual scowl, had long dark blue hair. His companion’s hair was shorter and red, and his golden, half-lidded eyes churned the mayor’s stomach. The red-haired one sneered at everything around him, perpetually judging.
“Pardon our unannounced arrival,” the blue-haired one said. “I am Sable, and this is my companion, Lect.”
They identified themselves as knights in the service of Count Leginbarth.
The mayor gulped.
Count Leginbarth’s reputation preceded him. He was one of the king’s most trusted vassals, his vice-chancellor, and quite young for his rank. As such, his knights carried with them a great deal of authority that the mayor desperately hoped would not be leveraged against his small village.
“We come to you regarding a matter of great secrecy. His Lordship has tasked us with tracking down a certain individual.” Sable produced a small framed portrait of a beautiful brunette woman from his breast pocket.
The mayor gasped. “Selena?”
“You know her?!”
“Y-yes, Sir Knight. I presume that portrait was done when she was younger, but yes. I’m certain.”
“Hail, at long last, our search has ended!” Sable leaped to his feet, pure joy erasing his scowl. “His Lordship will be most pleased!”
Count Leginbarth’s lands sat quite close to the capital. Their journey would have been a long and arduous one indeed. It made the news the mayor had to deliver that much more difficult.
“Does something ail you, Mayor?” Lect asked.
Sable regained his composure. “Mayor?”
“G-good sirs, I’m… I’m sorry to say you’ve just missed her. Selena has passed.”
“Ye gods,” Sable breathed.
“Just two seasons ago,” the mayor continued. “There was a plague. It took her.” Sable collapsed onto the settee beneath him. “If it’s not impertinent of me, might I ask what Lord Leginbarth’s interest in her is?”
“I trust you understand this is not public information,” Lect answered for his companion. Sable had not yet recovered from his shock. “She was His Lordship’s lover, but their stations would not allow them to be together. So it goes. They were separated, but five years ago, His Lordship’s father passed, thus conferring the countship to his son, and so our search for his lady began. Too late, it seems.”
The mayor’s jaw dropped, and his eyes widened—but not at the knowledge of Selena’s secret, tragic love story. “Heaven strike me down. That would make Celesty…”
“Celesty? Who is this Celesty?”
“Selena’s daughter, sir.”
“Daughter?!” the knights exclaimed as one.
“Lady Selena was married, then?” Sable asked. The mayor shook his head. “She never took a spouse? Then her daughter… Could it be?!”
“She first came here thirteen years ago, a little babe in her arms. When I met her, Celesty had already been born,” said the mayor.
“How old is she? What does she look like? Tell us everything you know!”
“She’ll be fifteen this year. She has her mother’s eyes, bluer than the ocean and even prettier. And her hair…such a brilliant silver it shines in the sun. Truly, it was a sight to behold, good sirs.”
“Silver hair!” the knights blurted in unison again.
Selena’s hair was brown. The knights knew Celesty must have inherited that exceptionally rare hair from her father, a certain count.
“You said ‘was.’ Has she gone away? Where?! We must see her at once!” Sable pressed.
“I’m afraid her mother’s death shook the poor girl deeply. She’s gone on a pilgrimage across the border to the west.”
“Dear lord, alone?! It’s damned good luck we’re allied with our western neighbor, but no highway is safe for any maiden to travel alone!”
“I tried to stop her, sir, I did. Stubborn as a mountain, she was. She left just two days ago for a stagecoach that would carry her the rest of the way. I assume it’s departed Trendivalez by now.”
Sable and Lect set off at once in search of the girl called Celesty.
“I will go west and give chase. Lect, you report the news to His Lordship.”
“I suppose one of us must make the blighted trip back. Consider it done. Go with luck, friend.”
“You as well!” Sable swung onto the saddle of his steed and galloped westward.
Lect pulled his mount the opposite direction, toward the capital. Along the way, he came upon a girl carrying a bag—a girl with black hair.
She wore a clean (freshly sewn?) green dress and seemed wary of her surroundings, clearly unaccustomed to life on the road.
Out of concern for the girl, or perhaps due to some whimsy of fate, he hailed her. “Are you lost, young…lady?”
Words failed the chevalier as the girl turned to him. He had never witnessed such beauty. Her hair fluttered in the wind like raven’s wings, her eyes were obsidian gems, and her features were youthful yet womanly. Lect’s heart raced.
“I was, um, trying to find where the coach to the capital arrives,” she said.
“Th-that way, madam.” Lect pointed to a sign that marked the stage station.
“Oh, goodness, you’re right! Thank you so much.” The girl’s polite smile stunned the knight as she headed off in the direction he’d indicated.
“Traveling alone,” he muttered as she vanished into the crowd. “The kingdom finances the safety of these roads. She’ll get along fine.” He had to shake his head to dislodge the image of her smile. Duty came before personal concerns. “Come,” he told his steed. “To the capital.”
Lectias Froude, a knight of only twenty-one, departed before the stagecoach, though not without one last glance in its direction. He did not see the girl.
Lect scoffed at himself and continued on his way.
Regular staging services were a relatively recent invention in Theolas. Starting just seven years ago, the system allowed for unprecedented long-distance public transportation. Celesty was quite grateful to her country for establishing such a system. It had preset operating schedules, stable fares, nightly hours, coaching inns along the way, and even an armed escort.
“I’d be walking the whole way otherwise, and lord knows I don’t have the money for my own carriage. I suppose this was the crown prince’s idea?”
“He proposed it eight years ago. Took a full year for it to get implemented, though.”
“His Highness is the same age as me, so he would have been…goodness, six! The world is truly vast, and its people vaster.”
“That it is, and that they are.”
“I very much appreciate you keeping me company, Max.”
“Likewise, Melody. You’re a great conversation partner.”
Celesty had found a friend to pass the time with on her journey to Paltescia: a young man named Max.
She had introduced herself as Melody Wave, a hand-me-down from her past life as Mizunami Ritsuko. From “ritsu,” meaning rhythm, she extrapolated “Melody.” “Wave” came from “nami,” a more literal translation.
So Melody Wave she became.
The journey would take ten days, and Melody was currently on the third. Once she’d managed to find the stagecoach, the rest proved easy. She offered her silent thanks to the red-haired man who’d shown her the way.
“My compliments to the driver,” Max muttered. “Honestly.”
The other women on the carriage snuck frequent glances at Max. He was sixteen, just over a year older than Melody, and already quite the lady-killer thanks to his mix of androgynous beauty and masculine handsomeness. His hair shone as golden as honey, and his soft, emerald green eyes entranced all they beheld.
“Pardon?” said Melody.
“The trip has been remarkably steady. I’ve hardly felt a jostle since we departed, and we’re still on undeveloped roads.”
This far out, the highway was less a highway and more a trodden dirt path laid by heavy traffic. Indeed, the ruts of innumerable wagons crisscrossed it, speaking to its history. Max was genuinely impressed that they had not felt every bump detailing the road’s annals.