flammingirl – Yes, the Stones should have been explained at least a bit. I'll go over the story again and double check, just in case though
Guinevere-971 - Gasp! You might? (know how to record the voice, that is) Oh, that'd be great! And even if you don't, that's more than fine! Thanks.
Chapter Twenty-three: Choices and PlansAs I cried, I thought about what I could do. What could I do? As I saw it, I had two choices:
1) I could go meekly to the shepherd's cottage and stay there until either the war was over and we'd won, or until the enemy cut down everything in it's way and made it to us, cut us down, and moved on.
2) I could do what no one else would do and go after the Stones.
I weighed my choices carefully.
For the first choice, I knew I would probably be safe for a time, but what of the time when the enemy finally made it to us. I'd have scant chance of defending myself from an army in a mountain shepherd's cottage.
My second choice had good pros, but not so good cons. It would be a journey full of danger and risk, but if I pulled it off, even to a small extent, the results would be enormously beneficial. If my parents found out… I wasn't sure what they would do. But it would be worth it. I could figure out a good plan to keep that from happening. How…
A light bulb hit my head. Of course, idiot. A decoy. Like Amidala had. I'd find a girl who could pass as me if you only had a description to go by. I'd find someone with brown hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and normal features. I'd bring along all the money I could scrounge up and pay her and her family well. I'd fill her in on all the details I knew about this trip. (and any big things she needed to know about my life, like what happened in Washington, though she probably knew about much of my life in Kyrria before Washington, since most commoners heard at least the big things about their royals, and I could give her all my little quirks) Ah, I'd write it up in a journal, and she could pretend to write about her journey, but she could really be studying my notes. Oh, this would be perfect. Well, as long as my parents didn't find out.
But Mother had said that we wouldn't be able to send letters, so I was safe there. And the shepherd and his family would only know I was a nobleman's daughter, so she probably would only need all these facts for any soldiers that were coming along. I'd work out the details later, but if I insisted on wearing a veil (on the pretense of disguising who I was. Mother would most likely agree), and then on the road, I caught laryngitis or something, then I wouldn't have to talk for a while, either. Shean would have to be told, but I would tell him at the last minute or leave a note. Yes, a note would probably be better. It'd make it harder for him to follow me.
I could smuggle all of my weapons and armor along somehow, too. I'd stick my trunk full of things in at the last moment and the servants probably wouldn't notice. And I could insist that Switchfoot (my gelding, and no, I did not name him, so he's not named after the band, unfortunately) come with so I'd have something to ride in the mountains. Switchfoot was a good horse, as close to a war steed as I'd probably get for a while, being so small. He was big and contrary, and we got on well enough.
Now I was ready to get everything together. I felt horrible about disappearing again, but hopefully no one would notice for a long time, and hopefully by then, I'd have already started sending the Stones back. (oops, I'd have to work out how I'd do that later)
But at least I was doing something worthwhile that would help my kingdom, maybe even other kingdoms.
With my plan as well thought out, I went about my business as usual… or so I hoped it seemed to everyone else. In reality, I was smuggling armor and weapons up to my room and packing the trunk. I talked Mother into letting me bring Switchfoot. (I'd decided that I'd tell the coachman I was dropping him off to his owner before we left the town I'd find my double in) I started writing in my 'journal' and did pretty well. I'd decided I'd write in it every day so it wouldn't seem abnormal for me to suddenly start writing in it, and I'd look in every town for a girl similar enough to me, and once I found her, I'd give her the journal, tell the coachman that I had to give Switchfoot to his owner, and I'd switch places.
Everything was going according to the plan.
The day finally came for me to leave. I pretended to be mad and sulked, but in reality, I was rather excited. I was finally going on a real adventure!
As a little girl, I'd wanted to be a knight, and for the past six months or so before I turned fifteen, the arms master and my other teachers kept commenting that if it weren't for the fact that I was a girl (and the whole princess thing), I could probably try for knighthood. I knew it would be very hard, but I had to try. I had to know if I really could have been a knight like I'd wanted to be.
I refused to talk to my mother, which was understandable, apparently, as she didn't try to press me to talk. I just climbed into the coach once everything was loaded (my trunk of armor had been packed and I'd insisted on my bow and quiver, supposedly in case we got attacked or something). We had been taken into the nearest village the night before, where a coach was due the next morning, and when it came, we took everything out of the inn, and in this way, no one, even the coachman, knew I was the princess, as they would have had I started my journey at the palace.
When everything was finally loaded, we set out. I tried to keep up my facade of fuming. Luckily, I'm an actress, and a pretty decent one, if I do say so myself, and it seemed to be working, because even Shean had only tried to get me into a discussion about Pernese dragons or whatever it was. After I snapped at him that I didn't want to talk, he left me alone, at least for a while. I started to write more in my 'journal'. I felt someone watching me. I looked over to see Shean trying to look over my shoulder. When he saw me, he quickly straightened and pretended to be peering out the window. We were the only people inside the coach as of yet, so I didn't mind asking him just what exactly he thought he was doing.
"Oh, looking out the window, watching the country pass by, you know," he said, then started whistling again.
"Yeah, whatever. Just don't try to read my diary again. It's rude." Phew, that had been close. If he'd seen what I had been writing…
I turned so that my back was against the wall so I was sitting on the seat lengthwise and pulled my legs up in front of me. This way, Shean couldn't peek again, and it was more comfortable anyways.
When I stopped writing, I was on speaking terms with Shean again (I didn't want to have to be so snappy, but he'd suspect something was wrong otherwise).
I didn't find anyone who could double for me that night. Or the next. Or the night after that. I had decided not to try to find someone the fourth night, being very tired, so I just went to the inn instead of going to 'shop' like I had before. We ate dinner in silence (we had been joined in the coach by an elderly gentleman and a young married couple in the past three days, though we didn't talk to them much since they weren't interested in Star Wars or anything like that).
Once I was done eating, I left the others and went up to the room I had paid for. I collapsed onto the bed, folded my hands behind my head and stared at the ceiling. There came a timid knock at the door and I called for the knocker to come in. A maid who looked to be in her mid-teens came in and set down some towels next to the bed stand. She brushed some of her golden-brown hair away from her face as she straightened up.
"Be ya needin' anything else, miss?"
I shook my head and she turned to go. Wait… when she had asked me if I needed anything else, I'd noticed she had blue eyes… and fair skin. Blue eyes… fair skin… golden brown hair…
"Wait a moment," I called, sitting up just as she was turning the doorknob. She turned back.
"Yessum?"
"Could you come here a moment?"
She looked puzzled, but came back over as I swung my feet over the edge of the bed and stood up. I looked her over as she clasped her hands behind her back and looked uncomfortable. About my height, features close enough to mine that…
"Do you have any family…"
"San'y. No'm, miss. I was found as a little 'un wandering the streets and the innkeeper here brought me in. I've been-a workin' 'ere ivver since."
Drat, there was one problem. "Is that your usual accent?"
"This?" She looked surprised. "No. I just use that because people seem to think that's how servants are supposed to talk." She had dropped the accent. It had been very good. Now she sounded enough like me to pass, though. "Why?"
"How would you like to go to the mountains and make some money while you're at it, San'y?"
Her eyebrows shot up. "I'd like it very much, but… I'm not sure what you mean."
"Well, this is how it is: I need someone who can pass themselves off as me. Would you be able to do it? I can pay you if you can stay up in the mountains until you get a message to come back to the p – my home." I caught myself just in time to avoid saying 'palace'.
San'y grinned. "I'm a good actress. I could do it."
"Great," I cried, smiling broadly. "Is there anyone who would be able to take you place here? I can give the innkeeper a bit for the inconvenience."
"Sure, if there's money involved, he can find someone else," she smirked. Good. Greedy innkeepers were always easier to bribe.
"All right, here's the deal. I'll go talk to the innkeeper, and then I'll come back up here and tell you everything you need to know."
San'y nodded, looking very excited. If she'd been found as a toddler, she'd probably never been out of this little village, so this was probably a big adventure for her. Perfect. She'd at least have some fun.
After negotiating with the innkeeper, and eventually managing to make him take only a copper whole instead of a silver two-eighth. I went back up to my room and found San'y patiently waiting for me.
"Okay, here's what you need to know…"
I took most of the night explaining my plan to her and all the big details she'd need to know and giving her the notebook. The coachman had already told me that we were going to have a late start the next morning because we had to get some supplies that had been ordered by someone in a town we would be at in the next day, so I took advantage of this to go and give Switchfoot back. Once I found San'y, I had told the coachman that night that I'd be giving Switchfoot back to his owner the next morning.
I dressed in one of my tunics, pulled my hair up into a livery cap and went to the stables. San'y and I had already taken my trunk out to the back of the inn and hidden it so I could get it once the coach left.
Switchfoot wasn't too happy about leaving Filly, Shean's little mare who was Switchfoot's best friend, but I managed to convince him to come along and tied him to a hitching post behind the stables. Once a good amount of time had passed, I went back to the inn and threw a bunch of little pebbles at my room's window until San'y came and opened it and gave me the 'ready to go' sign, arrayed in my old travelling clothes, complete with the veil. I'd caught laryngitis a couple days before, so she wouldn't have to talk for several days until she 'got better'. We had drilled on not talking the night before, and also on answering to Val, which was the name that everyone had been given. I had decided she would do well enough now, and she hurried down to go have breakfast with the others. I had to wait until the others had left to have breakfast and fill my saddlebags with supplies for my trip.
The dogs had come with me, but I had made the painful decision to leave them on the coach. I was afraid that something might happen to them otherwise. And it might look too suspicious to give a horse back to it's owner in one town, and then sell a dog (or whatever I'd have had to do) in that same town. They had taken to San'y right away and I was confident they wouldn't blow our cover.
The coach finally got ready to leave and everyone left the inn. Shean had been acting a little strange, going around with his hood over his face and his head down as if he was afraid it was going to rain, even in the inn. I decided to forget it. I hoped he'd be all right and that he wouldn't blow my cover when he discovered my decoy.
When they had finally gone, I quickly went to shop around for supplies. I still had a goodly amount of money after paying San'y and the innkeeper, and I got good supplies. I already had all of my tack and armor and stuff, but I needed food and other necessities, which I purchased easily. I was finally ready and I went back to the tree where Switchfoot had been guarding my trunk (he enjoyed biting people he didn't like, which happened to include thieves).
I rapped him on the nose when he tried to bite me for trying to get to the trunk, and he sniffed me, and then ignored me, satisfied that I wasn't new, and therefore not interesting.
I put on my armor and my helmet after saddling Switchfoot and managing to get his bridle on (as well as a few scratches from his teeth). I mounted up and we were off.
A/N: Was that plan well thought out and realistic sounding enough? I'm always afraid that it'll sound too fake and everyone will just dismiss it because no one in their right mind would do something like that. (I know I've mentioned this before (and it's not like this would happen to anyone in their right mind anyways, hehe) but I can't help it)