With a light westerly breeze steadily blowing behind them, Isabel and João spent some days travelling through the rolling hills and lush verdant gorges of the mountains straddling the Meseta Central until the snow-peppered landscape of Ávila peeked at them from over the horizon. When one afternoon they noticed that they ran out of bread, they stopped by at the marketplace of the first town they could find along the way. They meandered through the cobblestone alleyways, browsing the modestly-stocked stores filled with wares of all kinds until they found a bakery nestled among the stalls.
Through the storefront, they saw a baker filling the nearly-empty shelves with different kinds of bread, freshly-baked just in time for nuncheon. The two dismounted and briefly talked about their picks among the available types of bread before they asked the baker about the prices of the ones they chose. While João thought nothing of the baker's answer, Isabel was miffed. "Really?" she complained. "For the price of one loaf of this bread here, I could get slightly more of the same back home."
"There's not much we can do, Señora. Our town lost our flour mill last summer." The baker gestured towards some burnt-out buildings outside the marketplace. "Our farmers had to send their grain elsewhere to be milled, so we bakers have to pay more than usual for flour."
"Alright, we're taking them." She reached into a pocket of her overcoat to get some coins to pay for the bread, which she gave to João as soon as she got them from the baker. Then she asked the baker, "So, how is the rebuilding going?"
"Very slowly," the baker shook his head. "King Enrique promised to help us by sending much-needed building materials, and so did several nobles from around here. Now, the king is rumored to be dead, and we haven't heard back from the rest. At our current pace, we won't be able to rebuild the mill in time for the next harvest."
"Is there anything we can do to help you?" she asked again.
"If you know where to find those who promised us help, please remind them. Otherwise, spreading the word would be the least you can do."
Not wanting to blow her cover, she turned to João, who was busy eating a piece of bread he tore off from one of the loaves they bought. Briefly setting aside the half-eaten bread, he cautiously told the baker, "We'll see what we can do for your town." The two soon left the bakery and went elsewhere within the marketplace.
A while later, more of the town's residents began gathering within the marketplace. Before they could attract unwanted attention, Isabel and João rode out of the marketplace and back to the dirt road leading out of town with their supplies of bread and fruit replenished. She insisted to take her turn on the reins, leaving him holding onto the saddlebags to keep himself seated behind her. They were passing through the ruins of the town's flour mill when he heard her flustered mutterings at the sight of the locals' desperate attempts to repair it.
"Senhora, is there anything wrong?" he asked.
She briefly turned to him and replied, "I'll explain later when we find a place to spend the night." Then she turned her focus back to the road ahead.
Near sunset, they came across a castle of one of her allies. Approaching the castle guards on horseback, she asked to see García Álvarez de Toledo, the Count of Alba de Tormes. Moments later, the guards lowered the drawbridge to reveal the count, a middle-aged man who wears under his overcoat a colorful tunic subtly more luxurious than the attire of the queen and her companion. He crossed the bridge on foot, went along with her pretense of not being queen, and led his guests to the stable.
Upon entering the stable, Count García approached Isabel after she and João dismounted from her horse. "It's safe to act like your true selves now," he assured them before bowing down to her. "Especially you, Your Majesty."
"Please, Señor García, don't go around telling everyone here that I'm visiting," she requested while leading her horse through the stable. "I just want to skip the fanfare and sleep over here."
"Understood, Your Majesty." Then the count rushed to open an empty stall at the far end of the stable. "As soon as you're ready, meet me at the door of the keep," he told her. "We're preparing our dinner."
She secured her horse inside the stall, then grabbed on her way out the saddlebag containing the crown jewels. She came across João while he browsed through the count's herd of horses under the slowly-dimming sunlight coming through the windows. She tapped his shoulder, then said, "I'm getting hungry. Let's go."
The count guided his guests through the keep and brought them to the dining table. Countess María Enríquez de Quiñones, the count's wife, brought a large bowl of pottage and a plate filled with pork sausages to the middle of the candlelit table. Drawn in by the faint aroma of herbs mixed into the pottage, Isabel was tempted to eat right away, but she had João taste the food for her first. As soon as he confirmed there's nothing out of ordinary in the food, she filled her bowl with pottage and sprinkled slices of sausage on top of it.
After taking some spoonfuls of the pottage, the queen asked the count, "We came across a burnt flour mill some leagues away from here. What happened to it?"
"I heard it accidentally burned down and took neighboring houses with it," the count recalled. "Some were rumoring arson, but there's nothing conclusively proving it."
"Regardless of who's to blame, have you done anything to help the people of that town?" the queen diverted.
"We gave them some food and spare clothes," the countess answered.
"Did they receive anything else of note from others?" the queen quickly followed up.
"King Enrique, your half-brother, was with us when we gave them what we could give. We remember him promising to provide them materials for rebuilding their mill," said the count. "We haven't heard back anything about it from the townsfolk, however."
"He must have forgotten about it until he died," the queen speculated. "We came across some workers rebuilding the mill this afternoon. They don't have much building materials with them, right, João?"
Surprised at being included in the conversation, João just silently nodded.
The queen sharply turned towards the count and the countess and continued, "If he fulfilled his promise before he died, they'd be done by now. We'll have bigger problems on our hands if the mill isn't yet rebuilt before the next harvest."
"What do you propose to do, Your Majesty?" the count asked softly.
"We'll do whatever he promised to do to them," the queen sternly replied. "Once I'm back at my palace, I'll find sources of materials they need. Then I'll send them to you so that you could oversee further construction efforts."
"As you wish, Your Majesty," both the count and the countess replied.
Shortly afterwards, the queen finished her dinner ahead of everyone else and stood up. "I knew my half-brother was awful, but I never thought he'd be that awful," she sighed. "Help me on proving to the people that I'm a better ruler than him."
The following morning, Isabel was awoken on her bed by Countess María's knocking on the door of her room. When she opened the door, the countess brought in some slices of bread and a mug of milk. Then, the countess went on to wake up João, who insisted to have a room of his own the night before, to give him his share of the breakfast. After eating most of the bread, the two went to the stable while drinking milk on their way.
Meanwhile, Count García followed his guests to the stable. Before they could get onto the queen's horse, he asked, "Nice warhorse you got there, Your Majesty. Don't you think you're overburdening it, though?"
"Traveling with someone wasn't part of my original plan," the queen admitted, "but my horse seems to be holding up fine to the weight of us two."
"Carrying two people for too long isn't safe for a horse, even for the largest warhorses," he warned them. Then, he went to one of the other occupied stalls. "How about you take one of mine?" he offered, pointing to a slightly-smaller palfrey inside the stall.
"Please, you've done more than enough for our stay," she tried to refuse. "I'd have to owe you a favor now."
"You don't have to do anything for us in return," said the count.
"We could use the extra horse," João suggested. "Having more room for us and our baggage would be good."
"Well, if you insist," the queen relented. Then, she split with João their provisions and directed him to get the count's horse. While he was away, Countess María went into the stable to fetch the mugs.
"Your Majesty, could you check in on my father?" the countess requested. "He's the current Admiral of Castile. I'm sure he'd welcome the help of budding sailors like João for rebuilding our navy."
"Don't worry about it, María," the queen told her. "We're way ahead of you. Still, it's good to know who to find for that." Upon glancing at João, she noticed that he's almost done loading his share of the provisions on the other horse. "Anyway, we have to go now," she added. "That milk was quite nice. Don't forget to have more of it ready when I come back." With both of them on horseback, she led the way out of Count García's castle and back to the road towards Madrid.
After breezing through roads that cut across seemingly-endless pastures and empty vineyards for several days, the two reached the outskirts of the capital. Taking advantage of the fact that almost no one in the city knew either of them, they roamed around for a while until they saw the imposing walls surrounding her brother's palace not far from the city center. Guards in full chain-mail armor stood atop the walls, and a banner bearing the kingdom's full coat of arms were draped upon the wall towers. The top left and the bottom right quarters of the banner bore the yellow castle emblem on a red field, while the other quarters bore a purple lion facing leftwards on a white field.
Slightly unsure of her surroundings, Isabel pulled out a parchment map from her overcoat to check. João leaned over and whispered to her, "Your Majesty, I suppose this is our destination, right?"
"Looks like it," she confirmed before pulling out her pennon out of one of the saddlebags. "Time to drop the disguise."
She came closer to the gates while briskly waving her pennon above her head. Before she could say anything, one of the guards watching atop the outermost wall left his post. He later returned with Gonzalo Chacón, one of the queen's advisers, who recognized her and directed the guards to open the gates before rushing to meet the queen and her companion.
"Welcome to your new home, Your Majesty," he boomed and bowed his head briefly before turning his attention to her companion. "So, who's this fine young man travelling with you?"
"João from the House of Aviz, son of the Duke of Guimarães and a sailor in our navy. He'll be here as our guest while awaiting his new duties," she introduced him before dismounting from her horse and securing the saddlebag with the crown jewels. "Anyways, Tio Gonzalo, please take the horses to the stable, then meet me inside."
While Gonzalo and João are away, Isabel approached the doors of the palace still having second thoughts about other people recognizing her newly-acquired authority. Most people elsewhere would be satisfied with her showing them her signet ring, her crown, or her scepter, but most of the palace guards were recruited by her half-brother Enrique, the former king. She was still afraid that the guards would rather support a usurper that came out of nowhere and claimed to have been chosen as heir by Enrique at the last possible moment. Although she struggled to look at the faces of the guards posted at the entrance, she exhaled loudly when the guards, who seemed to have listened to her conversation with Gonzalo, let her in without any issue.
Once inside, she began pacing across the unfamiliar, dimly-lit hallway, checking every room she could enter, failing to find any piece of furniture or even a speck of dust inside any of them. Then she went further into the hallway, looking for a room unlike every other she has seen so far. While she was looking into yet another room, light footsteps began echoing through the hallway. She tightened her clutch on her saddlebag and turned around in time just to see her best friend Beatriz de Bobadilla entering the room she's in.
"Is there anything I can help you with, Your Majesty?" Beatriz cheerfully asked the queen while curtsying.
"Beatriz!" Isabel called out and gently dropped her saddlebag before they embraced briefly. "I just came here this afternoon. Are all the rooms here really like this?"
"The rooms near the hallway were empty when Gonzalo and I arrived here weeks ago, Señora."
"That's weird. What about the other rooms, like the throne room?"
"Glad you asked. We're excited to show it to you. Follow me."
Isabel then picked back up her saddlebag and followed Beatriz until they reached a heavily-guarded door at the end of the hallway. She mostly held her breath until the guards opened the door for them, revealing a well-lit, lightly-decorated room. Afterwards, they both went inside and walked to the dais where the throne sat at the other side of the room.
"Here it is, Your Majesty," Beatriz said, presenting the throne.
The queen slowly climbed the dais and approached the oddly-familiar throne, reaching for one of the armrests. "This is the same throne that was brought to Segovia when I was crowned," she recalled. "Was this Enrique's old throne?"
"Indeed. He seemed to have left it together with the crown jewels inside this very room. We managed to bring them all to Segovia uncontested," Beatriz admitted. "Thank the men and women of the church getting the word of your half-brother's death out very quickly. But then again, nobody else has come forward to claim them."
"I hope we'll never have to deal with anything like that." After some hesitation, the queen dusted off her clothes and sat down on her throne, putting the saddlebag on the floor. From it, she took out her crown to put it on her head and grabbed her scepter with both of her hands. "That would be one less thing we have to worry about," she said as she began lounging on her throne, relishing her first proper rest since her coronation.