| After her brief conversation with Fred about their route, Astra returned
to her own thoughts. She had much to ponder. When she and Fred had been
so unexpectedly returned to human form a week or so ago, she had thought
that things were looking up, but since then they had taken several turns
for the worse. As she had told Fred, the gods had been very fickle lately.
She went through her problems one by one.
First, her pregnancy, which had become visible to even a casual observer in the last few days. Until then, she had been able to put it out of her mind for most of the time, but now she could do so no longer. The worst aspect of it, of course, was the hold over her that it had given Rift. She tried to avoid thinking ahead to what she could do after her child (or children) was born some three or four months hence. She had wondered for a short while after the Crystallic had been used on her whether it might cause her to miscarry, which would have solved the problem albeit at great risk to herself, but it didn't look now as though that was likely to happen. Second, there was her startling conversion to black hair and skin. As well as being a shock in itself, it had increased the hold that Rift had over her, for he was quite right that her parents would never believe that she was their daughter if she appeared before them like this. The worst aspect was that she wasn't at all sure that Rift could undo what he had done, even should he be willing. She had seen his haggard face immediately after her change, even though he had soon recovered and said that he would now keep the crystal. Either using it had taken an awful lot out of him, or things hadn't gone quite as planned. Then there was the recent coolness between her and Fred. She suspected that the cause was his lack of comprehension of why she might be willing to obey Rift. She supposed she ought to explain it to him, but the longer she left it the harder it seemed. She had thought that he might catch on when Rift had mentioned her Aqualarian birthright, but apparently not. She knew that Fred, though a kind, brave and noble man, was not overly bright. Then she remembered that his seeming mistrust of her might have begun a little earlier, when she had offered to join the Paine gang. She had done that on impulse, not quite knowing why. She had learnt over the years that her intuition was normally right, but perhaps it had failed her for once. Astra realised that she was in danger of falling into self-pity. She reminded herself that she was an Aqualarian princess, and also that she had been in some far worse predicaments that this in recent months. She didn't know when or how it would happen, but she vowed that one day she would have a reckoning with Master Rift and Tarin-Gazin. That was assuming Fred didn't step in first. She hoped he wouldn't. And perhaps that day of reckoning would not be so far distant after all, she thought. If it became clear that Rift couldn't reverse the change he had wrought in her, then her birthright was irretrievably lost, and fear of losing it need constrain her actions no longer. But no, that wasn't right, she realised. Someone with more magical ability that Rift might be able to use the Crystallic to better effect and undo her change. The idea that she herself, by virtue of having drunk some of the essence of the Crystallic [2313], might just possibly be able to reverse the change simply by wishing it newver occurred to her. (And not only Fred and Astra, but Tarin too, had drunk some of that most unusual soft drink.)
On the cart road, but before reaching the shrine, they came to a wayside inn. Dusk was falling, so they all looked forward to having a proper bed for the night rather than a sleeping-bag on hard ground. All except Tarin, that is, who didn't like soft beds and would probably sleep on the floor. As they attempted to enter the inn, however, the innkeeper barred their way. "You gentlemen, and even the dwarf, are welcome to come in," he told them. "But I cannot allow the woman to enter. If I did, I should lose most of my customers. These are backward parts, and they would at best say that she brought bad luck, at worst take her for a demoness." Demoness? Astra was stunned. Even Rift looked slightly taken aback. Fred glowered. The dwarf was smirking, though. He had been a victim of prejudice himself often enough, and it amused him now to see a princess brought low. The innkeeper went on: "There's a stable out the back. The woman can stay there with your horses."
|
Rift refused the offer.