Kidnapping (6)
The moment the morning sun rose, the people of Harrington Village made ready to set out after Jack's gang. There was no longer any need. Just as they were about to step beyond the palisade, they caught sight of Ariel, Lou, and Jack's gang walking toward them from afar.
Ariel and Lou looked none the worse for wear. Jack's gang, by contrast, was a sorry sight — faces and clothes caked in blood, every one of them worn to the bone. They had clearly suffered through the night. That hardly mattered.
The instant the village chief laid eyes on them, rage surged hot to the crown of his head. He had let them raise hell around the village all this time, chuckling indulgently and looking the other way, and this was the thanks he got — a calamity on this scale? He wanted to thrash them senseless on the spot, but seeing to Ariel and Lou came first.
"Lady Elf, Lady Fairy, are you all right? I heard what happened. Those damned bastards kidnapped the two of you..."
"They did."
Lou, perched on Ariel's shoulder, answered curtly.
"Not that it did them any good."
"I am sorry. This happened because I failed in my duty as village chief. I am deeply ashamed."
"Save the apology. My sis, in her boundless generosity, has already decided to forgive those idiots. Right now we just want to get back to the inn and rest. We haven't had a proper rest since yesterday."
"Of course. Let us go straight to the inn."
The village chief escorted Ariel and Lou all the way there. While he did, the villagers dragged Jack's gang off somewhere.
"Ariel! Lou!"
The moment they stepped inside, Canna rushed over.
"Are you both okay?"
She hadn't slept a wink, terrified that something might have happened to them.
"I didn't think you'd be back this soon. What happened to Jack?"
"Ask the villagers. Right now my sis needs to rest. Bring cream bread and milk. And warm bathwater, and fruit wine... no. Forget the fruit wine."
Lou was in the midst of a solemn reckoning. It was because she had drunk herself stupid on fruit wine yesterday that Ariel had been kidnapped. It had ended without any real harm, thankfully, but from now on she meant to keep her head clear and protect Ariel properly. To do that, she would have to give up drink.
"You don't want the fruit wine?"
The moment Canna asked, that resolve cracked on the spot. Lou's face twisted in genuine suffering.
"Th-that's right... If I'm going to protect Sis... I can't be drinking..."
Then Ariel spoke.
"You can drink."
Lou's eyes flew wide.
"R-really? May I drink, Sis?!"
"Yeah."
"No, but — yesterday I failed to protect you, so if I do this, I won't deserve to stay by your side..."
"It's fine. Drink."
"Sis..."
Lou looked at Ariel with tears shining in her eyes. A heartbeat later, though, she broke into a brilliant grin and spun toward Canna.
"All right, Canna. You heard her? Sis has given her permission for once, so bring a whole heap of fruit wine! Quick, quick!"
Hauled off by the villagers, Jack's gang was thrown into a cell. This time it was no goblin-built cage, but a prison the villagers themselves had made.
The village chief began by wringing the full story out of Jack. It was a relief they had walked back of their own accord before anyone had to go drag them in, but he still did not know precisely what had happened.
Jack told him everything, plainly and without evasion. None of his old slippery dodging or delinquent swagger remained. To the village chief's eye, the air around the boy seemed to have changed overnight.
Up through the part where Jack's gang had fed Ariel a sleeping draught, kidnapped her, stolen the village's communal carriage, and set out for the city — that much he had expected. What followed was an astonishing tale. Above all, the claim that Ariel had swept away an entire goblin horde with a single spell was difficult to believe even after he had heard it.
"I thought she was no ordinary soul from the moment she brought Patricia back... but to think it went this far..."
Someone of that caliber was, without question, a powerful mage. The village chief pressed a hand to his chest, relief washing through him. They had come within a hair of true disaster. If Ariel had chosen revenge, Harrington Village would have vanished in an instant.
"Stupid bastards."
He glared at Jack's gang. To think the village had nearly ceased to exist because of them — the anger rose in him all over again. Ariel and Lou might have forgiven them, but that was their affair. From the village's standpoint, forgiveness was impossible. Because of these fools, the village would have to buy a new communal carriage and a new horse. The loss was considerable on that alone.
"From this day forward, the lot of you are slaves of this village. From the moment you open your eyes in the morning until you close them at night, you will do nothing but work. The term is three years. For three years I will work you until your bodies break. That is the punishment I am handing down. If you have any complaint, speak now."
Jack's gang did not open their mouths. Their faces were hardly bright, yet they did not seem to harbor any grievance either. An almost devout stillness hung over them, as if they had resolved to accept their fate.
The village chief counted that a small mercy. Had they tried to make excuses even now, or shown any sign of refusing to answer for what they had done, he had been prepared to flog them to the brink of death and then cast them out of the village. The moment one was exiled from Harrington, the only thing waiting beyond the palisade was death.
"And for the rest of your lives, you will live in repentance toward the Lady Elf and the Lady Fairy. They are your benefactors. Not only did they forgive your shameless crimes — they saved your worthless lives besides. Do you understand?"
Jack's gang nodded in silence.
The village chief let out a long, heavy sigh. With that, the matter of what to do with them was settled. The labor he meant to set them to would be grueling indeed, and the village stood to gain a great deal from it.
What he could not decide was how to make amends to Ariel and Lou. If he asked what compensation they wanted, he was certain they would say they wanted nothing. And yet doing nothing was unthinkable, when the kindness they were owed was this great. If they refused money, he still wanted to show his sincerity some other way.
I should speak with Canna...
It was Canna who had brought Ariel and Lou to the village, and she was the only one who had managed any real conversation with them. The village chief turned his steps back toward the inn.
A little bell chimed. When the village chief stepped into the inn, he found the place loud with commotion.
The villagers had gathered in a ring in the dining room, and at the center of them Lou was weaving unsteadily through the air, boasting of Ariel's battles. She told of the troll Ariel had slain, of the monsters cut down while rescuing Patricia, of the wyvern that had tried to snatch Lou and been brought down for its trouble, and of the Goblin King and his horde destroyed just last night — every tale inflated far beyond the truth.
Fairies are born storytellers. Ariel's fights had a way of ending in a single second, but once Lou's gift for talk and her flair for spectacle were laid over them, those battles became grander and more dazzling than they had ever been. The villagers listened in rapture, bursting out with their oohs and aahs.
"So how old is Lady Ariel, then? She looks even younger than Canna."
When a young man asked, eyes shining, Lou's face crumpled into a scowl.
"For heaven's sake. Asking a woman's age is rude. You don't even know that?"
"Ah, right. Sorry, sorry."
In truth, Lou did not know Ariel's exact age either. She went around calling her Sis, but privately she thought of Ariel as the younger of the two.
Ariel herself, however, was nowhere in sight. The village chief was glancing about when Canna emerged from the kitchen.
"Chief, were you looking for someone?"
"Ah, Canna. Where is the Lady Elf?"
"Ariel went to take a bath."
"Hmm. Could you spare me a moment, then?"
"With me?"
"Yes."
"All right."
He led her out of the inn. Inside, Lou and the villagers were making far too much noise for a proper conversation. Once they were outside, he came to the point: he wanted to offer Ariel and Lou some reward, but he had no idea what would be fitting.
"Hmm... Ariel and Lou don't seem very interested in money, at least."
"So did I. I asked yesterday and got a thorough scolding from the Lady Fairy. Bringing up money would only insult the purity of their hearts, I should think. But doing nothing weighs on me all the same. We've been shown such great kindness. So I'd like to give them something, nothing burdensome... Canna, what do you think the two of them like?"
"Hmm..."
Canna tilted her head, thinking. Then she clapped her hands.
"Oh, then that's perfect. Lou loves fruit wine like crazy, and Ariel loves cream bread like crazy. Give them those and they'll be so, so happy."
"Fruit wine and cream bread...?"
"Yes."
In that instant the village chief felt his mind snap wide awake. Now that he thought of it — when he had asked Ariel in the square what she wanted, hadn't she answered cream bread? No. She had. She definitely had. After that she had gone to the inn and eaten cream bread. So that truly was what she had wanted.
He dragged both hands down his face. Ariel had already told him. The one who had failed to listen was him.
"Haha... honestly."
He laughed, a little hollow, and patted Canna on the head. Better to have realized it now. Any later, and he might have been left with a deep regret after Ariel and Lou had already left the village.
"Give the two of them plenty of cream bread and fruit wine. As much as they want — it doesn't matter how much. Don't take a single coin. I'll settle the bill after they've gone."
"All right."
"Good. Go on back in. You're the closest to them, so look after them well."
"Yes."
He watched Canna disappear into the inn, let out a quiet little laugh, and turned toward home himself. Perhaps because he had finally learned what Ariel and Lou wanted, his heart felt considerably lighter.
Back at the inn, Canna paced in front of the bathhouse with a worried look. Ariel had neatly finished her cream bread and milk, announced that she was going to wash, and gone in — and she still had not come out. There had been more than enough time for the water to go stone cold. However thoroughly a person scrubbed, this was taking far too long.
Could something have happened? The worry had grown that sharp.
She thought of telling Lou, but somewhere along the way Lou had gotten thoroughly drunk and fallen asleep on top of a table.
"And she means to protect someone, like that," Canna muttered, and knocked on the bathhouse door.
"Ariel...?"
No answer came. There was nothing else for it. This was not Canna indulging herself. She was worried, and so she had no choice but to open the door and step inside.
The door creaked. She eased it open and slipped in, and there was Ariel, sitting in the tub with her head bowed and her eyes closed. Canna started in alarm and hurried closer.
"Ari...el?"
Just as she reached to shake Ariel's shoulder, she caught it — the soft, even sound of sleeping breath.
Ariel was asleep.