Chapter 6:

Princess shoes may be pretty to princesses, thought the Gray Mouser, but they aren't worth squat for walking, particularly on rooftops, or for doing it very quietly.

It wasn't long before he had her out of the dainty noisemakers and fashioned her a pair of foot-wraps using the bottom of her dress that he pulled back out of his bag. The shoes took the cloth's place in the bag. The wraps worked well on flat surfaces, but Altennia had to cling closely to him as they went up and back down some of the steeper slopes. It wasn't long before she continued to hold on to him on the flatter surfaces, too.

They crossed several connected rooftops before they came to a wide street below. Squatting down the Mouser studied the scene below, while the princess looked on. With a few oil lamps along the street casting dim glows, she soon thought she recognized one of the adjacent buildings.

"Is...is that the Street of the Gods?" she asked quietly. When the Mouser gave a whispered affirmation, she added, "I was on that street earlier this evening. We got stuck and had to take a back alley, which is where we were attacked. If we'd just been a bit earlier or a bit later, none of this would have happened."

"No, Princess," replied the Mouser softly, "I doubt that. I suspect that the people who attacked you had it all set up so you'd have to go that way. They wanted something. Since they killed most if not all of your guards and that one was trying to pull you out of your ride, I'd be pretty sure it was you that was top priority to them."

She nodded silently in the dark. "Why do you think they want me?"

"Just a guess but someone probably has it in for your father, the Overlord. With you in hand, they could potentially kill the rest of your family to take power, and then trot you, the last of the Ovartamortes dynasty, out as their queen to legitimize their rule. As soon as that's done, your value is essentially gone. It would be better to get rid of you at that point to keep you from making a reverse play at the throne."

"I don't get along all that great with my father, but I sure don't want anything bad to happen to him," she breathed. "What am I supposed to do?"

The Mouser took her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze as he replied, "We keep them from taking you, of course. Now, we have to get across this street and then south into the Tenderloin District where they'll never find you."

"South?" she asked. "Why aren't we heading north toward the palace? I'll be safe there."

"Sure, but with everyone knowing that, the chances of us making it there are pretty small. On the other hand, they probably won't be on the lookout for a drunken man and a strumpet out for a walk heading home to the south after the festival. You'll have to hang all over me to make it look real-"

"You wouldn't dare make me do that!" Her voice was raised dangerously high.

"No, Princess. I wouldn't make you do it. You only have to do it if you want to actually escape."

~F&tGM~

With Altennia's arms around his neck and her lips practically kissing on his ear, the stumbling trip across the Street of the Gods and south into the Tenderloin District was surprisingly uneventful though the Mouser was pretty uncomfortable from her actions. While they didn't cross unseen, they were unsuspected; the watchful eyes searching for "a little man and the princess" initially tracked their movements but soon switched to other drunken revelers making a similar trek toward their homes in less affluent parts of town to the south.

It took the pair a couple more hours of very close cooperation before the Gray Mouser finally lifted a latch on a back gate and led Altennia into his building. He'd taken breaks to be sure they weren't followed a few times, doubled back, and even taken back to the rooftops for a short period. As a result, he was finally convinced that no one had followed them. Still, climbing the steps was a slow process, as much from caution about potential threats from the assassins or common thieves as the princess's near exhaustion. She had been clinging to him even more closely without complaints or threats for quite some time.

He placed his bag on the little table and lit the remains of the only candle in the sparse apartment. Turning back to the princess, he was going to ask her if she wished to clean herself up, but he saw she was already curled up on his bed, her shortened dress exposing a bit more of the back of her upper thighs than she would probably have liked. He enjoyed the view for a moment before reminding himself that she was a princess and probably shouldn't be quite so exposed so he forced himself to look away.

As he was about to lie down on Fafhrd's bed, he paused for a moment and then turned back to take one more quick peek at her legs. Blowing out the candle followed by a short but quiet catcall whistle, he settled in to go to sleep with a sly smile on his face.

~F&tGM~

The sun was just coming up as Fafhrd reached the tenement building. It had been a long night at the seedy bar down at the dock, but he'd kept some semblance of order throughout the night and even had fun in a couple of the scuffles. All of the brawlers had ended up in the street or the water and he had a few more coins in his pocket as a result.

He opened the door and was surprised to see their little candle stub burning and a beautiful young lady with hints of what looked like soot marks on her face sitting in the middle of the Mouser's bed using a hand glass to look at herself in the dim light. The little man was sprawled out and fast asleep on Fafhrd's bed. Clearly, this wasn't Geena and, from what he saw, whatever plans the Mouser might have had for this young lady evidently hadn't gone as planned. As he neared her, his eyes widened in a hint of doubtful recognition.

"Uh, hello?"

The young lady looked up, her eyes also wide. "Good morning! Mouser said his friend was tall, but I thought he might be exaggerating."

Fafhrd grinned and tipped his head slightly, still doubting his eyes. "Well, he has been known to do that from time to time, but probably not in this case." Hoping for confirmation, he added, "I'm Fafhrd. And you are?"

"Completely in love with him," sighed the girl, looking over at the peaceful sleeper with that special look generally reserved for the completely infatuated.

The girl continued, "It's so crazy, I didn't realize it until just a few minutes ago."

Or the spellbound, thought Fafhrd. He knew his small friend sometimes had interesting effects on women, but it was usually when he was awake and they were perhaps slightly inebriated and certainly much less royal. "Hmm, can you tell me what brought this on?"

"Certainly. Do you have any water I can use to clean my face while I do? And maybe a towel? I have to make myself look good for him. I just lit the candle a few minutes before you came in and I found that I'm a total mess!"

Fafhrd directed her to a half-empty jug of water and a basin, and when he didn't see the cloth the Mouser used as a towel, he handed her a small, clean undertunic he dug out of a chest at the foot of the Mouser's bed.

As she washed her face and hands, the young woman quickly told the tale of the initial rescue—

That explains why there are so many of the Overlord's troops out in the streets this morning, thought Fafhrd.

—and how the Gray Mouser had helped her change her appearance. "And now I can't get it off," she added with a laugh as she glanced at herself in an expensive-looking hand glass. Continuing to scrub she added, "He carried me parts of the way and we even faked our way past some people by pretending to be a whore and her john."

"Your father would be quite proud, I'm sure."

She laughed lightly, "No, probably not, but it was quite exciting. In fact, it was the most exciting night of my life!"

"I see," said the giant barbarian, briefly wondering just how exciting the life of a princess might ordinarily be. "But you said you realized you were in love with him just a few minutes ago?"

"Oh, yes! He was really careful with this bag last night so I looked through it and found this wonderful silvered mirror. When I looked into it, it was so clear, as if everything I'd been seeking in life was suddenly revealed to me!"

"Which is?"

"Life! Love! Him!"

Fafhrd was nodding questioningly and held out a hand. "May I see the hand glass?"

She shook her head, almost petulantly. He nodded again, knowingly this time. Reaching into his trunk, he pulled out a hair brush he used on his own hair and beard. He cleared it of his reddish-blonde hair and then handed it to her. She sighed again as she started to use it to fix her hair.

"What's going on?" asked a disheveled Mouser, rising slightly as he opened one eye and then the other.

"Mouser, the Princess here is under a spell from that hand glass she's holding," replied Fafhrd, kneeling down and whispering to his friend.

Being an occasional student of and dabbler in the darker arts, Fafhrd's contention didn't appear to even faze the Gray Mouser as he replied almost incredulously, "You knew who she is?"

Fafhrd's eyes narrowed slightly in amusement as he looked at his friend. "Of course. She's the princess the Overlord's been trying to marry off. Didn't you?"

~F&tGM~

Author's Note: Thanks so much for reading. Since this is part of new fandom on FanFiction that gets very few views, won't you please take a moment to leave even a brief review to let me know what you think of the story? Your support may encourage me to continue the series with additional stories after this one is complete. Thank you!

~F&tGM~