During the week it took them to reach Bullridge, Eva thought about her magic. I used magic! This is awesome! She thought of all the spells that she could now learn to cast, she would just have to look in the books. She hadn't read them thoroughly in a while, so she sat up and studied them each night before she went to sleep. She shared all the information with the dragon even though he didn't really understand it.
One night she was reading the chapter 'Revelation at Yazuac'.
"They kept a swift pace in anticipation of the food and drink they would soon enjoy. As they approached the small houses, they could see smoke from a dozen chimneys, but there was no one in the streets." I thought it was in Daret where they were ambushed by Urgals. Oh well.
"A mountain of bodies rose above them, the corpses stiff and grimacing. Their clothes soaked in blood, and the churned ground was stained with it. Slaughtered men lay over the women they had tried to protect, mothers still clasped their children, and lovers who had tried to shield each other rested in death's cold embrace. Black arrows stuck out of them all. Neither young nor old had been spared. But worst of all was the barbed spear that rose out of the peak of the pile, impaling the white body of a baby."
That's disgusting.
"Eragon concentrated on leading the Urgals away from Brom. He slipped into a narrow passageway between two houses, saw it was a dead end, and slid to a stop. He tried to back out, but the Urgals had already blocked the entrance. They advanced, cursing him in their gravelly voices. Eragon swung his head from side to side, searching for a way out, but there was none."
Just like Eragon to get stuck . . .
"As he faced the Urgals, images flashed in his mind: dead villagers piled around the spear and an innocent baby who would never grow to adulthood. At the thought of their fate, a burning, fiery power gathered from every part of his body. It was more than a desire for justice. It was his entire being rebelling against the fact of death – that he would cease to exist. The power grew stronger and stronger until he felt ready to burst from the contained force."
Dude, that sounds like something from Naruto.
"He stood tall and straight, all fear gone. He raised his bow smoothly. The Urgals laughed and lifted their shields. Eragon sighted down the shaft, as he had done hundreds of times, and aligned the arrowhead with his target. The energy inside him burned at an unbearable level. He had to release it, or it would consume him. A word suddenly leapt unbidden to his lips. He shot, yelling, 'Brisingr!'"
Fire! Yeah.
"The arrow hissed through the air, glowing with a crackling blue light. It struck the lead Urgal on the forehead, and the air resounded with an explosion. A blue shock wave blasted out of the monster's head, killing the other Urgal instantly. It reached Eragon before he had time to react, and it passed through him without harm, dissipating against the houses."
Cool. Can I try that?
"Eragon stood panting, then looked at his icy palm. The gedwëy ignasia was glowing like white-hot metal, yet even as he watched, it faded back to normal. He clenched his fist, then a wave of exhaustion washed over him. He felt strange and feeble, as if he had not eaten for days. His knees buckled, and he sagged against a wall."
Wait . . . He got that tired after killing those Urgals? I thought he was perfectly fine. She thought back to when she had broken the door in Urû'baen. I should have been exhausted.
She reviewed the incident from when they reentered the citadel to when they left it. There had been so much confusion that it was hard to tell, but she thought she remembered a strange pressing on her thoughts, like someone touching her mind, and then a surge of energy. Did someone help me? She wondered, then she thought of the Vault of Souls. Maybe the dragons helped me. A rush of excitement filed her. The dragon's really helped me? Cool!
She didn't think that the dragons would know she as here but apparently they did. I wonder if they know how I got here.
After her revelation she tucked the book safely back into her pack and lay down to sleep.
When they arrived at Bullridge, the dragon had gotten much larger. His head now reached her knees. Eva wondered how long it would be until he could talk.
"Ugh . . . I feel terrible . . ." She complained to Gelsey.
"We have been walking for quite some time." That was true, doing nothing but walking all day wore Eva out, she had never done so much exercising in her entire life.
By midday Eva was walking into Bullridge. It looked pretty much like how she had imagined it, like Carvahall. Gelsey had made camp outside the village where she would take care of the dragon and keep watch over their belongings. She had looked rather nervous about being alone but she had agreed.
Eva tried not to stand out too much, while at the same time watching the men and boys in the village, she tried to copy them as much as possible. She watched how they walked, how they stood, the kinds of gestures they made, and she listened in on their conversations as she passed by.
Normally she would have been excited to see a medieval village like this but after everything that had happened she didn't feel like being excited. Every few seconds, images of Galbatorix would torment her and threaten to pull her into a dark depression that she knew she wouldn't be able to pull herself back out of. It seemed as if she could remember every word, every touch of his hand with precise detail. She tried hard to bury the memories in a deep clump of sarcastic optimism, but they always broke through, each time more intense than the last.
While battling with her memories she kept an eye out for someone who looked like they could afford her jewels. She had a small bag of them in her pocket, she wouldn't sell them all at once, that would look too suspicious. She would sell them bit by bit in different locations so that the buyers wouldn't notice any irregularities, if they did they would be able to report this to someone who might be trying to find her.
As she walked down the main street she remembered something from Eldest. Oromis had Eragon meditate on a stump so he could sense everything around him. Maybe she could try that, although she was doubtful, she had never contacted anything other than her dragon before, she tentatively reached out looking for something living, it was difficult. She found the sensation sickening, she felt as though she would drift off into space and become detached from her body, but she forced herself to reach out more until she touched another mind, it was feint, but it was a mind, after close inspection she found that it was a dog, it was busy scratching itself in an awkward place, so she quickly pulled away from it. After that she kept to her own mind.
Just then a young man passed her, she quickly caught his shoulder and asked him where she might find a buyer for her jewelry. The man pointed her to a house on the edge of the village. She reached the house which had a sign dangling over it, it had a picture of a small silver working hammer and an anvil painted on it, she could hear loud metallic bangs coming from the other side of the house.
The building looked very old and worn, the wooden walls were splintering, the painted sign was peeling, and the windows were so dirty that she couldn't see inside. She decided to walk around back, there, she found a man hammering away at a silver goblet. She waved when the man noticed her.
"Come over here! I'm nearly finished!" She walked over as he struck a few finishing blows and dunked the goblet in a barrel of water. He inspected it for a moment then, with a satisfied grin he turned to Eva.
"What can I do for you lad?" For a moment Eva was confused. Lad? Then with a jolt she remembered she was disguised as a boy. I can't forget!
"Oh - yes . . ." Her voice cracked as she shifted from American accent to British accent. "I have some jewelry I want to sell. I was told you might be interested in buying." The man scratched his stubble for a moment in contemplation.
"Well, I'd hate dismantling beautiful works, being a maker of beautiful works myself." He gave her a wink. "But it depends on how beautiful these beautiful works are, let's go inside and talk." Eva followed the man toward his house, on their way he said: "Oh, and the name's Elis."
"I'm . . . " She suddenly realized that she hadn't thought of a name. "Brom." She spat out the first name that came to mind. Brom? Reeeally? The man nodded as he showed her through the door. "Brom, that's a good strong name." He said.
The interior was fairly clean, but vacant. There was a lot of open table, wall, and floor space. Having lived as a middle class citizen in her old world the emptiness surprised her.
There was a young woman tending to a pot of what Eva assumed was soup. She turned and said: "Elis, supper is almost done, and who is this?" She eyed Eva oddly.
"This is Brom. He wants to sell us some jewels." He then turned to Eva. "This is my wife Malle. My children are around here some where . . . But let's sit down and talk. Malle, make us some tea." Malle got to work making the tea and Elis and Eva got to discussing the jewelry. Eva took out the little bag containing a couple of necklaces and a medium sized broach. Elis whistled when he saw them and Malle leaned over the kitchen table to get a peak.
"These are fit for a lady." Elis commented.
"They are," Malle agreed. "Where did you get them?" Elis waved a hand to silence her. "It isn't our place to ask the lad where he got his things." Malle turned back to her cooking with a sour look, Eva was relieved that she wouldn't have to make up a story, but she also felt sorry for Malle, being shushed like that.
"My mother gave them to me to sell for money; her mother gave them to her." She felt she had to say something to poor Malle. She turned her head slightly to glance at Eva, then went back to pouring the tea. She brought the tea over and walked back to the kitchen in silence.
"Well, your grandmother had good taste. They are exquisite. How much are you asking for?" I thought he didn't want to dismantle beautiful works. Oh well, as long as he's buying.
"Three hundred crowns."
"Now, they can't be worth that much can they? How about one hundred?"
"Two hundred, no lower." Elis scratched his stubble while he thought. "Are you sure one hundred fifty isn't reasonable?"
"Two hundred, no lower." There was a slight pause, then, "Alright, two hundred it is." He stepped into the next room to get the money while Eva sipped her tea awkwardly. He came back with a bunch of gold coins. Eva put them in her pocket, having no coin purse to store them in.
"Well, I should go." She said, awkwardly trying to excuse herself.
"Your leaving already? Why don't you stay? You can have supper with us."
"Oh no . . . My mother is waiting for me."
"Ah right. Well it was nice doing business with you lad." She nodded.
"Yes."
Outside, the air was warmer than it had been before, although it was still cold. She happily made her way out of the village and to the camp where Gelsey was desperately trying to get the dragon down from a tree. As soon as the dragon saw her he flew down from the and landed in her arms. She scratched his head with two fingers.
"Hello Moony, I'm back, and I have money." Moony was a nickname she had come up with for the dragon she had borrowed it from Harry Potter. "Do you think it was a fair price?" She asked as she pulled out the money. Gelsey counted it.
"I don't know ma' lady. But it will pay for food."
"Should we buy supplies here? I think we have plenty." They had a month's worth of supplies in their bags. "What we really need are horses. It's really hard to carry all this stuff. I think we have enough to get three." They decided that she would go back into town the next day and buy horses. In the meantime Eva studied the books. She had a list of dragon names going, she wanted a varied selection when Moony was old enough to choose his own name.
Not all of the names were from the book, she had: Ohen, Azizi, Jura, Iormûngr, Spyro, Ingothold, Yuki, Koyuki, Conan, Lateef, Hexus, Astor, Kage, Yukikage, Hiyuki, Cyprin, Cosmos, Naruto, Hírador, Gretiem, Galzra, Fundor, Cinder, Comet, Eridor, Vanilor, Aang, Fire-tongue, Ice-fang, Deynor, Beroan, Gilderien, Fäolin, Bid'Daum, Briam, Acallamh, Belgabad, Roslarb, Hii, Jolinar, Hoshi, Albus, and Tsukiko.
I like Lateef, or Hiyuki. I wonder if he'll like them. She scratched the dragon's head as she read. It shouldn't be long until you can talk. She thought to the dragon. You're getting pretty big. In a few weeks she expected him to be at her waist.
The next day Eva went into Bullridge again in search of horses. She found a small barn where a man stood brushing a fat little pony.
"Hello."
"Hello," said the man. "Can I help you?"
"I'm looking to buy some horses and tack."
"How many?"
"Three that are fit for traveling, and a full set of tack for all three."
"Traveling eh? How much traveling are you doing?"
"A lot."
"Well, that'll cost you more than a farming horse."
"That's all right, I can pay." The man began gathering tack and said: "The name's Baldwin."
"I'm Haberth." This time she had come up with a name beforehand, she had read through Eragon and found a few names that she could use. She had memorized all of them for future use: Heberth, Evan, Neal, Roran, Garrow, Merlock, Sloan, Byrd, Albriech, and Dempton. They were all pretty easy to remember since most of them were mentioned quite often, but she still had a little trouble with Dempton.
"I'm afraid these are the only horses I have that are fit for hard traveling." Baldwin said as he led two fine looking horses up to her. "If you would like you can look over the others and choose one." Eva was rather hesitant, she didn't know anything about horses, but at least she could pretend to. She walked along the stables eyeing each horse, she saw a few that looked strong but didn't have the same build as the horses Baldwin had brought out. She guessed that they must be for hard labor, not running. After looking in every stall she made her decision.
"I'll take that one." She said and pointed to a large grey draft horse. The man looked rather astonished.
"A draft horse? Are you sure?"
"Of course. It's strong, it can walk long distances. It's perfect."
"But, it's a mare. Could I suggest this fine stallion?" And he gestured toward a dark brown draft horse.
"What's wrong with a mare? She can walk."
"Yes but she's not as strong. She'll give out faster." Really? Dude, it's a horse.
"It's fine. I'm not traveling that hard." The man still looked a bit concerned but he opened the stall anyway and led the mare over to the other horses tied up outside.
"That'll be one hundred crowns." He said. Eva dug out the money and counted out the amount. She was glad Gelsey had taught her how to count crowns the night before; otherwise she would have looked like an idiot asking Baldwin how many coins made one hundred.
She quickly gave him the money and began leading the horses out of the village. She felt very odd leading horses; she had never touched a horse in her life and now she was leading three of them through a tinny medieval village, she didn't even have the faintest idea how to ride them.
I feel like I should be riding one and leading the rest but I don't know how. She wondered if she looked odd at all and hoped that Gelsey knew how to ride a horse.
