50: The Dove

Hello, mum. We haven’t got to Middenheim yet. In fact we’ve barely left Altdorf. There was a lot more to do preparing for the journey than I thought, and we only had a day to do it, but we made it in the end.

We decided to call our wagon Der Kutsche which just means wagon in the Reikland, of course, but I’m sure you will appreciate the clever pun when you say that as Mootish. And we thought it was especially appropriate given how snug the sleeping arrangements are in it.

As sad as I was about Das Moot burning, I think, in a way, having a wagon will be similar, and now I’ve moved Das Moot’s stove into Der Kutsche and organised things it feels a bit more like home, and although we have to feed and water the animals we don’t have to swab the bilge. And the way the wagon follows the road is a bit like a boat following the river, so in a way, it’s exactly the same.

So once we loaded up Der Kutsche with everything we might need for our journey we were ready to set off. Willow has been in charge of getting the horses ready, but they are not as easy to organise as we thought. Peony has a bit of an attitude and she doesn’t really like people (except Guido for some reason – Willow), and she doesn’t really like other animals except Piano (but piano is the sweetest little pony you ever thought of – Willow).

Guido turned up in his normal clothes, and not his robes. So I’m not sure if that means he isn’t in the cult of Myrmidia any more or he just didn’t want the grime of road travel getting on his robes.

And we had not gone a hundred yards, when you’ll never guess who we saw, mum. Yes, it was, you’re right. It was Josef Quartjin. Good guess. He was dead drunk again, though. And in a really nasty tavern. Anyway, I decided that it would be good to have a chat, and once we got him a bit straighter, he told us that he was drowning his sorrows because he had lost the Berebeli to river pirates. It turned out that it was pirates from the Bloody Betty, the same ones who had robbed Blume, and who Guido had sorted out. So we told him we had dealt with the pirates but that didn’t console him much because he still didn’t have a boat. And he had no way of earning any money.

You’ll remember, mum, how he had treated us well, giving us a job with some good wages on our way to Boegenhafen, and so I said he could come with us to Middenheim. That didn’t cheer him up much, because, I think, like me, he is a man of the river. And so I suggested he could live on Das Moot while we were out of town, and I said that he could make sure all the repairs were done properly, and then when we got back from Middenheim he could be part of the crew. And this did cheer him up and he agreed. Hopefully he sobers up a bit before we get back, though, because as nice as Josef is, I think he does drink too much and I wouldn't want that to put Das Moot as risk.

So, I took Josef to see Max Wagner at Blucher’s and told him that Josef would represent us while we were gone on his errand and Max seemed to like the idea. Josef said that once the boat got going he would start trading and split any profits he made with us, but I think he was getting ahead of himself because I’m sure we will get back from Middenheim before Das Moot is ready to sail again. I mean, how long could it take?

Meanwhile, I think Dreamy was a bit concerned about our safety with all the nefarious around, and he thought that a single wagon might be a bit of a sitting duck, so he bought a riding pony that he could use to scout a round a bit, on our journey. She was called Priscilla and she was a nice pony but Peony didn’t take to her.

Then Guido wanted us to stop off at the temple of Verena. So we had only gone about two hundred yards and stopped off three times already. Guido asked the sister superior if there was anything she wanted him to do in Middenheim. She said there wasn’t but did say that tensions were high in Middenheim, especially between sigmarites and ulricans, and because the emperor’s edict that I have already told you about, mum, had angered the Sons of Ulric. And they both agreed that mutants were real although it was not their place to question the emperor. And he asked about the massacre of Sigmarites, which I think is what he is really interested in. She didn’t have much to say about that, but told him to be careful.

Blume told Willow that she thought that Guido was looking a bit chippier and she said it was because he was finally going to a more fashionable city. But Willow said it was because he had made a new friend in Peony.

So we set off yet again, but then had to slow down as we were in a long queue trying to leave town by the Wolftor. Blume was making tea in the back of the wagon, and she noticed that two men who were walking behind the wagon had a look through the flap at her, and one of them had a purple feather and the other had a purple purse. And they didn’t look very friendly at all. But then, it looked like the noticed the crate, as one gestured to it, and that seemed to change their mind and they disappeared back into the crowd. And Dreamy who was leading Priscilla spotted them too, and he said that perhaps they had left because they noticed the address on the crate.

And that made us wonder whether they knew who we were delivering it to, or that meant they knew where we were going, and would be able to beat us there. Dreamy even suggested that they might think the inheritance (remember Blume’s inheritance that never happened, mum?) might be in the crate. And then we tried to work out how much room the entire inheritance would take up if it were gold, and we couldn’t. And Dreamy warned us all that we were being followed and that we should keep our pistols loaded.

And so all that made us wonder even more about what was in the box, and whether it was nefarious, and whether we should open it or not. We picked it up carefully to feel its weight and to see if we could get a clue as to what was inside, without shaking it or tipping it. It was a bit lighter than I thought it would be, so it wasn’t gold, and I think whatever was in there was packed in straw so it didn’t move around or make much noise.

We had a heated debate about whether we should open it nor not, and it went on for a long time and the discussion kept going round and round but getting nowhere. So we finally agreed to vote on it, and we also agreed that if we voted not to open the box there would be no need to mention it even again, or at least until we had more information. And so Blume and I voted to open the box (I guess I was just curious, mum), but Willow, Dreamy, and Guido decided that they didn’t want to. So that was that and we didn’t need to discuss it again for the whole of our journey. Except five minutes later, we started discussing it again.

I did suggest that Guido could fly his magic bird into the crate and look around, but he said the crate was too small, but I think he was worried that Myrmidia had grounded him (I think we should just find a clairvoyant – Willow).

And that discussion must have gone on all day because before we knew it we had reached the town of Frederheim. It is famous for having a big hospice nearby, which is run by the Shallyans. And we stopped at a coaching inn called the Dove which is a very Shallyan name. I had heard things about the hospice, that it was full of mad people, and I said that I bet the people of Frederheim locked their doors and windows at night. And I had heard things about Shallyans too, which is that some of them have horns. And I thought if I was locked in a hospice with a load of people with horns then that would probably drive me mad, too.

In the Dove’s courtyard, Willow unlimbered the horses and fed them. She remarked about how proud and gracious Priscilla was, and said that Dreamy had got a real bargain when he bought her. But Willow said Priscilla also seems to think she’s above the other two, and she said Piano doesn’t mind that but Peony does.

We wondered what the deal was with coaching inns if you had your own wagon and wanted to sleep in it, and we decided that if you stabled your horses, and bought a few drinks or a meal then it would probably be alright to use their courtyard to park the wagon in and sleep there and that’s what we did, and no one told us any different.

Anyway, we all had a nice beef and bacon pie at the inn, and a few drinks and Guido asked about any trouble up the road. The landlord told him that the Ulricans of Middenheim were becoming increasingly militant, and they weren’t just picking on the Sigmarites, who they traditionally have a rivalry with. But they were now picking on the followers of the other gods, and even dwarfs. The authorities had also passed some drastic tax laws, and were taxing everyone they didn’t like very heavily, or something, mum, I wasn’t really listening to that bit.

Guido wanted to find out where that massacre had happened, but no one seemed to know (if it even happened at all!) but they did say that the witch hinters had set up a road block in the village of Mittelweg and checked out everyone travelling through. This was about five days ago, and we would be passing through Mittelweg in a few days.

We went back to Der Kutsche to sleep but Guido decided to get a room in the inn, anyway, because I think he thought it was too crowded on the wagon, and he didn’t want to sleep underneath it, even though it is nearly summer. But he said he was doing it to protect the crate and so he carried it up to his room and guarded it there. And then Blume started worrying about whether Guido had burnt our boat, again, and whether he was going to open the crate without us being there, and decided to get the room opposite him so she could keep an eye on him.

Anyway mum, that’s our first day of travel up to Middenheim. I wonder whether the whole journey will drag like this. I think when you’re the captain of a boat sometimes you can travel a long way and the days pass almost without you noticing but it wasn’t really like that on the roads. I’ll let you know in my next letter.