Chapter 4: River Journey
I really wish I could say the next part of our journey was smooth sailing, when we set out it really did seem easy, all we had to do was find someone who had bought frogs from Lady Rosaleen and get her address from them.
But, things never really happen the way we want them to, do they?
We had tracked down one of Lady Rosaleen's contacts to a small village near Wendell's castle; he was a salesman, whose shop sold magical animals and trinkets.
When we entered the shop the first thing I noticed was the noise, cats, bats, dogs, and frogs, gerbils, and hamsters, guinea pigs, and roosters all making such a cacophony that it was hard to hear myself think, I'm pretty sure I heard a horse whiny from somewhere in the back as well. I did however, make note of the aquariums lining one wall that held magical reptiles and amphibians, including one tank full of frogs. Wolf had made a bee-line straight for a corral full of rabbits, and was stroking their fur and eyeing them hungrily. I frowned at him, and he made his eyes look huge and innocent, feigning he didn't know why I was suspicious.
Upon hearing the bell on the door ring, god knows how over the racket, a little old man came out of a dark back room and stepped up to a counter on which an old-fashioned till sat waiting to collect a fee.
"Can I help you?" He asked in a little quavering voice, and proceeded to smack his chapped lips and run his tongue over his toothless gums.
"Yes, we'd like to enquire about your frogs." Jordana said sweetly, stepping forward.
The man nodded. "Oh yes, I have plenty of those. Frogs for fly-hunting, and pest control, guard frogs, water frogs, wood frogs, shoe frogs, any sort of frog you're after I'm sure to have it…"
"No, you don't understand, we need to ask you about where you get your frogs." Dad interjected.
"Oh… so you're not looking to buy anything then?" The man visibly deflated, and I quickly scanned the shelves closest to me for anything that might strike my fancy, a small silver-link charm bracelet caught my eye and I took it off the shelf.
"Well, I'd be interested in purchasing this," I said holding up the bracelet. "If you'd answer our questions…"
The man smacked his lips together again while he considered. "Very well, my frogs are provided by a woman who goes by the name of Lady Rosaleen."
We all grinned at our apparent good fortune.
"Do you know where to find her?" I asked.
The man looked uncomfortable. "Erm… Well, no, not exactly. You see she has this rather peculiar knack for showing up exactly when you need her… an hour or so after I've sold my last frog, she will appear, to sell me some more. I've been buying from her for years, and you know, she never looks a day older! She still has raven-black hair and a pretty a bottom as you ever see on a woman!"
I cringed a little; this was not something I particularly wanted to hear about the woman who had kidnapped Wendell.
"Any idea of anyone who does know where she lives?" Dad asked.
"No, a few other people in the village buy from her as well, but they all got her name from myself, or a friend of a friend, or their brother-in-law's step-daughter's aunt… Mostly she just shows up with a cart load of toads though… That's all I know. I am sorry I can't be more help."
"Thank you anyway." I said stepping up to the till and putting the bracelet on the counter so I could pull some money out to pay.
The man eyed me as I did this. "Do you know what this is?" he asked.
"No, what is it?"
He was silent for a moment before appearing to come to some sort of decision and gently took the bracelet and clasped it around my wrist.
"It's protection." He whispered. "From all sorts of things… I have a feeling you've got a long road ahead of you, and you'll need all the help you can get. It'll be fifteen gold Wendells, and a kiss."
Wolf stiffened behind me at the request, but I smiled. "But it says thirty gold Wendells on the price tag…"
"So it does, but like I said, you've got some rough times ahead of you." He then tapped his cheek with one gnarled finger.
I handed over the money and bent over the counter to give the man a kiss on the cheek. Wolf was still glaring suspiciously at the man when I stepped away from the till towards the door.
"Good luck to you." The old man called after as we exited.
"Well now what do we do?" Dad asked as we stepped into the sunlight once again.
I fiddled with my new bracelet and bit my lip in contemplation.
Jordana who had been oddly quiet since the old man had told us he couldn't help us finally found her voice again.
"We could go north." She said, and we all turned to look at her. "There's a library, in the 2nd Kingdom, it's said to hold all the wisdom of the Nine Kingdoms in its shelves! If Rosaleen has been around for as long as that man said, then she's probably a sorceress, and if so, then she'll be in one of the books. Maybe there will be an address as well."
"It's worth a shot." I said, when no one else said anything.
"There's no way we can walk there though." Wolf argued. "Not with Virginia in the state she's in."
I growled.
"And it's a lovely and perfectly wonderful state, but it's not terribly conducive to walking long distances…"
"So what should we do?" Dad asked.
"The Silver River runs north into the 2nd Kingdom." Wolf said, "I say we find a town on the river, and buy a boat."
And so we did.
The Silver River was the smaller of the pair that run through the 4th Kingdom. The larger being the Gold River, which Wolf, my father, Wendell, and I had travelled down on our last journey through the Kingdoms to find the travelling mirror. Honestly, the Silver River looks much the same as the Gold River, just a bit smaller.
The boat we rented was also much the same as the boat we'd travelled in before, small, and powered by a steam engine that huffed and puffed as it chugged along. The only real difference was swapping a royal golden retriever for a girl, and no one found a magic fish anywhere on board.
"We are here," Said Wolf, pointing to a spot on the map he'd laid out on one of the benches on the boat's deck. "And we're trying to get: here." He pointed to another spot, marked by what appeared to be a city with many high towers. "The sooner, the better. If we don't stop, and move as fast as we can, it would take oh… three to five days? But that would mean running the engine constantly and not stopping to sleep, eat, anything."
"I don't think we can do that." Dad stated.
"Why not?" I asked. "Besides not sleeping or eating…"
"We don't have enough wood to feed the fire for the engine, well, unless we start burning bits of the boat, but I'm sure we can all see why that's not a good idea."
"Yeah, let's not do that."
"But going slower means we're making more frequent stops along the way, for food."
"And that would mean running into more people…" Wolf said. "Anyone might recognize you Tony, or you Jordana, or even the two of us. We can't risk the news getting out that Wendell has gone missing, again, we can't even risk rumors. There are too many ready and willing to claim his throne."
"What if we only went into any villages at night?" Jordana asked, chewing her lip.
"Then all the shops we need to buy things from will be closed." Wolf replied.
"Oh yeah…" She conceded. "Then what are we going to do?"
Wolf scratched at his head. "I think the best thing for us to do would be to let the engine rest at night, just let the river carry us along towards the 2nd Kingdom, but go full steam during the day. We'll still have to make those stops but if we plan right and possibly don disguises, we should be ok…"
"Wolf," Jordana said, hesitantly. "It's the full moon in three nights…"
"I know that, I can feel it." He replied. "You can let me off into the forest that night and drop anchor out in the middle of the river then pick me up in the morning when it's safe."
Something twisted in my gut at the memory of Wolf's state during the full moon, it had been somewhat more manageable in my world, but here it had a strong pull on him.
"Right, well that sounds to me like we have a plan." Dad said, clapping his hands together cheerfully. "How long would that take us to get to the Great Library?"
"No more than a week, maybe less if we make good time." Wolf replied.
"Then that's the pace we'll have to use." Jordana stated, "Let's hope that Wendell will be alright in the mean time."
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A/N: Firstly, a huge THANK YOU to anyone who has stayed with this story for so long. I've finally figured out what I want to do with it which means more frequent updates (yay!), and you can thank Syfy's rendition of Alice for rekindling my love for the Tenth Kingdom (don't ask, it's a long and convoluted story), and getting my re-interested in writing this fic again. Well, more specifically you can thank some of the authors of some of the amazing fic for Alice, for getting me interested in writing this story again. So, hopefully it won't be too long (and certainly won't be AS long) before I get the next chapter out, though I am currently at uni, so I'll aim for getting it out by next week. Again, huge thank you for all of the reviews, and for your loyalty.
And remember, reviews are love, please review. I'd love to hear your feedback; it gives me incentive to keep going, quite similar to cookies.