Chapter 4 To enter the city

There were jagged rocks right below where Lowenna was falling, the sea was raging and looked cold and dark. There was very little chance of her surviving this fall. Images of friends and foes flashed before her eyes. She could feel the wind rushing past her. Lowenna opened her hands and spread her fingers wide, releasing her dagger and touched her crystal with her two middle fingers then swung her arms out quickly.

Lowenna was looking straight down and the rocks that were rushing to meet her, and at the last moment Lowenna turned her wrists, and she swooped across the rocks heading out to sea.

Lowenna looked left and then right, two pale pink wings were stretched out under each arm. Lowenna laughed out loud, partly because she was grateful the magic had saved her again, and partly as the rush of fear had been replaced with an amazing high. She angled her arms a little more and soared into the sky, turning in the air to see if the lawmen were still there. She had expected the lawman who could fly to be heading towards her, but all four were still standing on the top of the cliff looking very surprised. Azmil and Neara where supporting Zenith and Erkut was looking straight at her. "If looks could kill," Lowenna thought again, as she started to fall. She was gliding through the air, swooping using the winds to keep her aloft.

She swooped over the sea again, laughing out loud, skimming over the water, heading away from where the lawmen had been. Lowenna could smell the salt and feel the wind blowing through her hair. She knew she had done this before. She had no memory of it, but she just knew. She swooped upwards, spinning up high into the sky, enjoying the rush she was feeling. She turned and again looked over to where the lawmen had been standing, but they had vanished. "Probably gone to Hymdale," Lowenna thought. Suddenly she felt an urgency to get to the city and swooped back down.

She had to get to Hymdale first. Getting there wasn’t going to be too much of a problem, but landing in the city might be. Only lawmen were allowed to use magic openly, so she couldn’t just land in front of people, or fly around till she found somewhere isolated, someone would see her. Then an idea hit Lowenna, and she turned keeping low, heading for the harbour, "if I can get on a ship I can just enter the city eas…” Suddenly Lowenna hit the water hard, stopping her mid-thought, as she bounced like a skimming stone, before plunging into the cold salty sea.

Lowenna swam back to the surface, breaking through the seas cold grasp, taking in lungs full of fresh air. She shook her head while treading water. She looked to the left and then the right. The wings were gone. She took hold of her crystal and looked at it while bobbing in the water. It was grey and lifeless. She had exhausted all of her magic.

Lowenna cursed to herself, the inexperience of gauging how much magic she had left had cost her. "So much for being easy," Lowenna thought. She was still quite far from the shore, and it was going to be a long swim. There was a small boat, which was closer to her, so Lowenna started to swim toward it. “Help” Lowenna shouted, trying to get anyone who was on-board's attention.

“Who’s there?” A voice suddenly shouted as a large man sat up, looking around in confusion. He was wearing a simple navy-blue tunic and trousers. His short dark hair had a hint of grey, and a big bushy beard completed his look.

“I'm here!” Lowenna shouted trying not to swallow any of the cold, salty water while staying afloat.

“Grab this,” the man shouted as he threw a rope towards Lowenna, she swam over to it and looped it around her waist, and the man started to pull her toward the boat. “Are you a Merfolk or a Siren?” he asked, as he looked at her in the water.

“Err don’t think so,” Lowenna replied as she offered her hand to him, but as she did her head went under the water. The large man paused for a second before grabbing her arm and helping her onto the boat. Lowenna coughed and spluttered, before thanking the man, who looked Lowenna up and down.

“You are welcome,” he replied, “may I ask how you ended up out here in the middle of nowhere?”

“Fell off...” Lowenna looked around, the cliff faces were so high and not exactly close, “a boat,” she lied.

“Not many boats or ships have passed by here recently, and you must have been swimming a long time.”

Lowenna stayed quiet, and she started to shiver. She was wet and cold, and now that she had a second to think, she realised she had lost almost everything she owned. Her bags and jacket were still on her horse, and she had released the dagger in the fall. The only things she had left was her Lowenna shield band, her pink, now grey crystal, and her arm guard, even her clothes were damaged and ripped after everything she had been through. She had even lost one of her shoes to the sea. “It’s been a long sun. I'm cold and tired, can you take me to shore please?” Lowenna asked.

“Of course, I will,” the man replied, but he was still looking at her. “The name is Quy, master fisherman.” Lowenna looked around the small boat there was a box full of small fish on the seat beside Quy. She gave him a smile as he took off his jacket and handed it to Lowenna. “Keep yourself warm. The last thing you need is to catch a cold.”

“Thank you,” Lowenna replied as she wrapped Quy’s jacket around her. Her nice warm jacket had been just shoved in her shoulder bag when she had been rushing to gather all of her possessions when back in the inn and was now lost.

“So mermaid, what do I call you?” Quy asked with a smile as he lowered his sail and the wind started to push his boat back to shore.

“Everyone calls me Wenna,” Lowenna replied, but her teeth were starting to chatter.

“Well mermaid Wenna it’s nice to meet you, I'm assuming there is someone in Hymdale, who has a change of clothes for you?” Lowenna stayed quiet just looking towards the city “No one?” Quy asked.

“I was traveling alone and have lost everything,” Lowenna replied, trying not to sound upset or angry.

“That's terrible," Quy said, trying to sound sympathetic "I’d like to be able to help, but I'm staying with my sister's family at the moment.”

“I'm sure I will be fine, and just getting me to the city will be a big help,” Lowenna said trying to smile.

“Well I wasn’t going to leave you out in the ocean was I?” Quy replied with a touch of humour in his voice. Lowenna nodded and looked again towards the city. She was feeling a little happier, and would soon be in the city. She just hoped that the lawmen hadn’t beaten her there. The last thing she wanted was to have the lawmen waiting for her as she arrived, especially since she didn’t have any magic left or weapons to defend herself.

Quy steered the boat right along the side of the harbour wall, and there were several metal bars embedded in the wall making a ladder. “You need to climb mermaid,” he said.

Lowenna, who had been expecting Quy to take the boat all the way inside the harbour and head into town with her, “er... ok, thank you,” she said, wondering what she was going to do with no money and no one to help her.

Lowenna passed the jacket back to Quy, before grabbing the ladder. Once she had climbed a few rungs, Quy pushed off away from the wall. “Pleasant sun to you mermaid,” Quy shouted as he sailed back out to sea.

"And to you Quy master fisherman," Lowenna shouted back, before climbing into the city.

Once at the top of the ladder, Lowenna was surprised how busy it was. There were hundreds of people carrying boxes full of fish and fresh produce. There were street traders, entertainers and lots more people just standing and watching. There were also a lot of people unloading from a large galleon, which was docked in the harbour. Lowenna watched for a moment as people who were chained together by their wrists, ankles, carried large covered cages off the galleon.

There were at least ten ships all positioned against the wall of the wharf. The wall was slightly sloping and looked very slimy, completely covered in seaweed.

Lowenna was trying to take it all in when suddenly she saw a group of lawmen heading towards the galleon. She ducked behind a large man and started walking behind him, trying to keep herself hidden, as they walked towards the busy, bustling streets.

Lowenna was smiling. She had done it. She was in the streets of Hymdale, and hopefully away from the lawmen for good, but suddenly the smile vanished from her face. There, walking towards her on both sides of the street was what looked like more lawmen. They were dressed all in red, not black, and looked very large and imposing. She couldn’t run else it would alert them to her presence. Lowenna tried not to look nervous and walked past them, not making eye contact, and they passed her without a second glance.

Lowenna kept walking only giving a sigh of relief once she had turned a corner and the lawmen could no longer be seen.

Lowenna was wandering up and down streets for a while. She had seen so many new sights. There were lots of shops that sold everything from jewelry to animal feed and everything in-between. There were also a lot of people. It was busier on this street than the market Lowenna had been to back in Penbirth. A town crier suddenly rang a bell catching her by surprise, making her jump before children ran past with large hoops rolling down the streets trying to see how far the hoop would go before it fell over while avoiding all the people. There had even been some sort of artist trying to paint a picture of a pretty woman, but when Lowenna got close enough to see his work, she had decided he wasn't very good so had kept going.

The sun was getting high, and Lowenna was wondering what she was going to do. She had nowhere to stay, no money and her clothes were almost destroyed. She looked down at her armguard. It was the only thing she owned which she was willing to part with. Even though it was damaged it should be worth something, she thought as she turned a corner and saw a shop, which was selling shields and swords. Lowenna smiled and removed the guard from her arm. It had saved her life more than once, but right now she needed food, clothes and a roof over her head. That was what was important right now.

Upon entering the shop, Lowenna noticed there were several people selling all kinds of armour and weapons. The shop itself was unlike any shop she had ever been in, it was bright and well light with armour and weapons adorning almost every wall and a large desk with an important looking man standing behind it. She went over to the desk and stood behind a patron who was haggling down the price on a pair of gloves.

“I told you,” The man behind the desk said to the customer. He was tall and smartly dressed, clean-shaven and was wearing a white shirt and gloves. “I can not lower the price anymore, you are already getting a great deal, and you won't find Hydra gloves any cheaper anywhere else in the city. If you want the gloves, I will need the payment now.”

The customer left after buying a pair of leather gloves, and Lowenna went up to the desk. “Excuse me I was wondering if you would be willing to…”

“I need to see your permit,” the smartly dressed sales person stated interrupting Lowenna, and not even looking at her.

“I, haven’t got one,” Lowenna replied and for the first time, the sales person looked at her. “All I want is…”

“If you haven’t a permit you can’t buy a weapon,” the sales person stated looking slightly angry, interrupting Lowenna for the second time.

“If you let me finish, I've just arrived in the city and am wanting to sell my armguard,” Lowenna replied, as she passed the guard over to the man.

The man spent a few moments first looking at the guard, then at Lowenna, “You’ve just arrived in town,” the man repeated.

“Yes,” Lowenna said slowly.

The man handed the guard back to Lowenna, “We don’t buy second-hand goods here, and that guard is well used and damaged.” Lowenna looked at it, it did have some nasty gouges in it, and one of the corners had been filed off.

“Please, can you tell me where I can take it? It must be worth something to someone?” Lowenna asked hoping for some good luck, as she hadn't had much since heading out for Hymdale.

The man eyed Lowenna up “Yes I might be able to help, I have a business associate, who deals in second-hand merchandise he might be able to offer something for it.”

“Thank you,” Lowenna said smiling, “where is his shop?”

“Next street over. Walk along the main street till you reach the next turning go through the winding alleyways till you reach a clearing it’s got a green door, but it’s not signed. The man said and for the first time smiled.

“Thank you again,” Lowenna said as she turned and headed out of the shop, thinking that for the first time this sun something was finally going right for her.