Chapter 12: The Lantern Festival
Haru's steps slowed as she approached the arched entrance to the city, one hand absent-mindedly pulling her hair up into her arms. Beyond the archway was the bustle of life – people, so many people! More people than she could ever remember, more faces than she could ever recognise, all here. She closed her eyes and revelled in the sound of a hundred people chattering, the faint sound of music drifting from further along the street. As she inhaled, a dozen different scents lingered by her – candies and candles and freshly baked bread – and her head spun with the sensation.
There was the sound of squelching socks, and she turned her head to see Baron stop by her side. She was quietly pleased to see that Toto had forgone his distrust of Baron long enough to use his shoulder as a resting post. That, or to make sure the thief couldn't run off without him. She preferred her first theory.
"Is everything okay?" he asked.
Her mouth flapped a few times as she tried to select just one thing out of the many wonders before her. "It's so big. And busy."
"It is the capital," he reminded her amusedly.
"There's so many people – and the smells – and the sounds – and… and, oh, my legs are shaking." She grinned somewhat lopsidedly. "I think I'm a little nervous."
Helping her with her hair, Baron ushered her over to the stone side of a large fountain centring the square. "We really need to do something with your hair. We can't just leave it trailing or carry it round all the time."
"It's been fine for the last eighteen years," Haru retorted, but she eyed the crowds with their stampede of feet just ready to tread on her hair, and her expression shifted. She pushed it back and dumped the weight of it into Baron's arms. "Fine. Can you plait?"
"You want me to plait your hair?"
"That'll shorten it. If we separate it out into three strands, plait those, and then plait those three together into a larger braid, it could work. I mean, it's either that or you can be my official hair carrier while we're here. Hair bearer? Hair caretaker."
Baron found himself smiling as he started to coax the hair out. "We might have to triple-plait if we want it to be off the floor."
"Then we'll do that." Haru was already weaving a handful of golden hair into an intricate braid. Baron watched for a moment, and then admitted defeat and started a far simpler plait on his side.
"Why didn't you ever do this while you were back at the tower?" he asked.
"Do you have any idea how heavy it is? Anyway, no one's in danger of stomping on my hair when I'm at home. It's easier just to leave it be." She was working at a merry pace, her hands dancing as they already reached down to her waist length. Baron continued at a far slower speed. "Hey, how do you know how to plait anyway?" She twisted her head back to offer him a grin and he nearly lost the plait. "I can't imagine you with long hair."
"How worried would you be if I admitted I'm mostly making this up?"
"A little uncomfortable, if I'm being honest."
"In that case, I know exactly what I'm doing."
"Uh-huh." She watched his movements and then tilted her attention back to her own work. "Well, I've seen worse."
"It looks fine to me."
"Sure. Just don't give up your day job."
"I'm sorry, are you openly endorsing that I go back to thievery?"
She snorted. "Not what I meant."
"I could steal you a proper hairdresser, if you'd like. I'm sure they'd do a much better job at this." He dropped his attention back to the braid, fumbling momentarily as he tried to remember which direction the pattern was going. Once it came back to him, he resumed at the same gentle pace as before, even as Haru finished one strand and went on to the next.
He had carried her hair before, but now, with it woven between his fingers, he could really feel how soft and silky it was. Perhaps not to be unexpected of magic hair, he reminded himself. If he concentrated, he thought he could feel the spark of that enchantment running through it.
He was aware Haru had gone quiet, and he paused in his careful plaiting to see her watching him. "Is everything okay, Haru?"
She blinked, like she suddenly realised what she was doing. Her fingers sped into action, weaving with a deftness that he had no chance of replicating. "It's fine. I just… My mother always warned me against letting anyone even know about my hair, let alone…" Her gaze trailed to the golden locks he held between his hands. "She would think me so foolish if she could see me now."
"Haru, if you would rather I didn't–"
"Keep plaiting, Baron." Her words were brusque, but not unkind. "If I had any issue with you, I wouldn't have asked you to help me with this."
"Of course." He continued, but now his gaze kept flickering back up to Haru. He tried to read her body language, to see if she was being polite and his actions were actually making her uncomfortable. Her shoulders were tense, a slight reddening on her cheeks – embarrassment, unease? – but at some point they had started to lean closer together. He straightened.
"I know you think I'm naïve." Her voice was soft, and for a moment he wasn't even sure he was meant to hear. "And you're probably right. Goodness knows my mother would agree. Even you've warned me against trusting you. But I've spent my whole life looking out a window, dreaming of someday seeing beyond the tower, and now I'm here, I can't… I don't want to believe it's all bad."
"You're right," he murmured, and he felt rather than saw her attention focus on him. "I do think you're naïve. But I also think you're brave, and smart, and… full of light, and that's not just because of your hair," he added, and he was relieved to hear her chuckle. He finished his plait and his hands lingered, a sudden desire to reach out and make contact now itching in his veins. "You're reckless and funny and… I'd never do anything to harm you."
"I know."
His eyebrows raised. "You do?"
"Well, not exactly. But I trust you." She smiled. She tossed her head and flipped several plaits over her ear. "Now keep going. We've got a lot more hair to braid before we're done."
ooOoo
It wasn't, Baron had to admit, an immaculate job. There was a noticeable difference between his plaits and Haru's, one being tight and flawless and the other loose and haphazard, but when Haru rose to her feet and spun, it rippled around her like woven gold. She admired the work in the waters of the fountain and then grinned at Baron. "Not too bad, if I do say so myself." She tilted her head from side to side and took obvious pleasure in the way her hair swayed. "And I do."
"Careful, Chicky; if ya turn too fast, yer gonna knock someone out," Muta warned.
"Oh, do you think I could?"
"Let's not go getting any ideas," Baron said, steering Haru away from the fountain and towards the busy street of shop fronts. "The only one here who's wanted by the guards is me and let's keep it that way."
His grip on her shoulders tightened suddenly, and he hauled them both behind an alley.
Haru tripped and he righted her before she could fall. "Ow, what…?" She trailed off as she saw just who Baron had spotted. "Oh."
Baron watched the guards amble by, his breathing suddenly uneasy and his eyes diluted. He offered a grin that didn't reach his eyes to Haru. "Please hold; your schedule of fun and festivities will resume momentarily," he whispered.
She resisted the urge to elbow him. Of course they would have to keep a low profile in the capital – it was weird; in all her time with Baron, she was beginning to forget his status as a wanted man. She glanced to Toto, to see if he was at all tempted to call out and bring the guards running, but he seemed to be keeping to his earlier promise.
"Okay, the coast looks clear," Baron breathed, and he turned his attention back to Haru and both realised at the same moment how close they were standing. He sprung back, and Haru was relieved to see she wasn't the only one reddening. "So, Miss Haru," he said, in a voice that didn't sound quite as casual as he was probably aiming for, "you've never been out of your tower before, am I correct?"
She gave him a searching look. "No…"
"Then I imagine you have never tasted ice cream."
Her searching look didn't lessen. "No…?"
He grinned. "Then you're in for a treat." His hand curled about hers and, with only the slightest hesitation as if the contact had startled him too, he pulled her out of the alley and towards an open shop front. The temperature was lower there, chilly almost, and the counter that boarded the large window showed a display of some kind of half-frozen food in tubs.
"Ice cream," she repeated, whispering her words to Baron. "It better taste better than it sounds."
"You'll never know if you don't try it," he whispered back. "Now, what flavour?"
Aware that the shopkeeper was watching and waiting for a decision, she offered him a quick grin before dropping her gaze to the various tubs. Many were fruit flavoured, according to their tags, some with toffee or nuts, and a few flavoured with what Haru suspected was alcohol. She pointed to what she hoped was a safe option, a dark cherry tub, and then watched with wide eyes as the shopkeeper scooped it out and settled it into a wafer cone.
She took it rather gingerly and flinched when she felt the cold against her skin.
"Okay, I have the ice cream. Now what do I do with it?"
Baron took his own selection – a lemon flavour, by the looks of things – and stuck a very small wooden spoon into her scoop. Haru tilted her ice cream and the spoon stayed in place. "Now," he said, "you eat it."
She eyed him, and then her ice cream. "I'm only trying this because I trust you," she said, and she peeled the spoon out. It was met with a worrying amount of resistance, but came away with a small lump of ice cream that she bit into.
She startled and almost dropped the cone. "Cold!" she gasped round a full mouth. "Cold! Cold!" She made a face, trying to open her mouth without drooling the ice cream off her lips, and blew warm air between her teeth. Eventually it melted against her tongue and she was left with a sweet berry aftertaste. She looked up to see Baron trying not to laugh.
"You could have warned me."
"In my defence, it is called ice cream." He paid the shopkeeper and prompted her to continue down the street. "Do you like it?"
"Well, I don't… not like it…"
"That's good enough for me." Baron paused as he realised Haru had halted. He turned back to find her staring up at a mosaic mural along the side of the plaza. Little candles were set along it, punctuated by the occasional red lantern, a sad sort of silence buffering it from the rest of the festivities.
"Who are they?" she asked.
"That's the King and Queen," he said. His eyes shifted to the tiny blonde baby depicted in their arms. "And the missing Princess."
"The one your mother…?"
"Yes."
"The candles…?"
"The festival is for the missing Princess. They celebrate today in hopes she will one day return."
"Do you think she will?"
Baron was silent for a long moment. Too long. "Maybe," he said.
Haru stepped up to the mural and met the tiled eyes of the King and Queen. The King was tall, mostly muscle, with dark hair and dark eyes. The Queen was shorter, with brown, reddish locks and golden-brown eyes. Ordinary people, even with their crowns. And then there was the Princess. Tiny. Loved.
Lost.
She stared at the baby and tried to see what could have driven Baron's mother to steal her best friend's child. To abandon her own sons and send two families and a kingdom into despair.
But, of course, she found no answer. The Princess, for all her inheritance, was just a baby.
"Haru…"
She tore her gaze away from the mosaic and back to Baron. He was watching her, something unreadable in his eyes, and then he nodded down to her hands. She followed suit and saw that the ice cream was dripping out of its cone.
"Aw, shoot!" She started to scoop it back into place with her spoon, and allowed Baron to prompt her back into the festivities. After a moment, she glanced back and saw Muta was still sitting in front of the mural. He was unusually quiet, his form smaller than normal and his attitude gone. "Hey, Muta," Haru called. "You coming or not?"
The cat jolted, like he had been in the midst of thought, and quickly followed after them. "Yer not leaving me behind, Chicky."
Haru grinned, and spared one last look at the mural. Something nagged at her. Something important.
She shook her head and upped her pace, looping an arm around Baron's and drawing them closer. "So," she said, "where next, oh guide of mine?"
Baron tilted his head to the clocktower rising in the centre of the square. "Looks like we've still got a bit of time before the festival really kicks in. I have a few ideas."