Three Coins_Chapter 1

The market was aflutter: bright colors mixed with dull golden sandstone.  Gently sloping canopies shading pottery and dark-skinned nomads.  Farmers had larger stalls.  They sat on stools, their products spread over long, narrow counters.  Gnomish, even Elven wares gleamed in the sunlight.  Shepherds led ewes and their lambs; countrywomen chased chickens and geese.1

On the corner of the smaller street and the vast, confused main street stood a country girl, completely befuddled by it all.  Her hair was long, tied in an ebony braid in the manner of farm women.  An old stallion laid his head on the girl’s shoulder.  His snout was rough, covered in fine, long age-whiskers.  Katry watched the the creature’s wet, weary eyes sadly.  She knew she wouldn’t be able to sell him except to a tanner.2

“You’ll make damn hard leather,” she murmured to the creature, though she herself quailed at the thought.  “Sweet Stephan.  We won’t let them harm you, not you, you arthritic old…” she sighed, unable to think of an epithet.  Poor old Stephan had been the subject of too many jests in his time.  He deserved a long retirement at the farm, but if they had him when taxes came the bailiff would charge them for one more working horse.3

She laid her forehead against his hard nose for a moment before finally venturing onto the main drag.  “C’mon,” she said, pulling the grey along by the bottom of his bridle.  Market-goers shoved her back, and she was jostled against solid Stephan many a time.  The farm-girl tried to see where she was headed, but the middle of a crowd was not a good place to assess the area.4

Finally, she shoved herself to the side of the street, out of the mass.  You act like a farm-girl, too, she thought.  You just have to push a little.  She stopped on the narrow cobblestone sidewallk and glanced up and down the swinging shop signs, unable to find the one she was looking for.  5

“Leettle child, why you stand in front of stall so long, eh?  Move, you scare away costomers with ugly horse.”  The foreigner who was accosting her from the shadows of her stall was grizzled, brown, and considerably less attractive than the old stallion.  Emboldened by her new city-manners, Katry stared the woman down brazenly before moving on toward the tanner’s.6

A small wind blew over the hot city streets, and Katry allowed herself to pause just long enough to change her mind.  “Stephan, come now, we have to get home before dark.”  Da could send the stablehand, Erik, tomorrow.  Let Erik do it.7

Katry started the other way without looking around.  She hit someone and bounced back.8

“Sor—“9

“Quite all right, miss.”  She heard the clipped, polite voice a little below her right ear.  “That horse wouldn’t happen to be for sale, miss?”10

She looked down and started.  At her shoulder was a young man, a fair one at that, but he was no more than four and a half feet tall.11

“Yes, yes he…is.”12

“I’ve not much,” he said, digging into his belt-purse, “but I do have these.”13

He held out his hand.  Three silver coins reflected the green sign above.  Katry had never seen any so perfectly formed or so smooth.  She did not recognize the currency, but she felt them warm in her palm, and she could not help but close her fingers around them.14

The two were jostled by the crowd.  The man reached up and took Stephan’s reins.  He threw back his yellow head, laughed, and sang,15

“Governed by fancy and wanton fae’s prayer,16

Aye, little girl, thou’d best beware,17

For one coin buys sweet and marvelous things18

The other foul fortune in threefold brings19

And when the last doth pass from thy care,20

That's when time is undone.  Of chaos despair!”21

Katry reeled back in horror, though she only knew to recognize a curse from faerie tales her father had told her.  Before she could force him to take the coins back, he was gone.22

Knotted hands rested on her shoulders.  “Tha’ there was a sprite, servant to the faerie folk,” a voice said.  She looked up at the speaker.  He was old, but not so old as his hands.  He patted her shoulder.  “Take courage, child.  The faerie folk don’ hand out their magic easy.”23

“But it’s a curse,” she managed.  “He cursed me.”24

“Aye, but they shan’t leave you to it alone.  Strange things are in store for you, girl, strange and miraculous things.”25

Katry twisted out of his grip.  He was spouting folklore.  She glanced up and down the market and realized the curse was beginning to take effect; every gleaming, glazed, and glittering thing under every awning and in every shop tempted her now.26

A circle had gathered about her; everyone had witnessed the man's disappearance, and more were pushing in to see what the fuss was over.  She tucked the coins into her purse—they were scalding her hands now—and held it tight as she pushed through the front line of the crowd and jogged down narrow alleys toward the gate27

A woman came around the corner after her.  Three or four others followed.28

“Give them to us if you don’t want them.  They’re right beautiful, they are,” the woman shouted after her.  29

Hadn’t she heard the curse?  30

Katry wished for the comfort of Stephan’s tepid shoulder.  Alone, she could not keep from running like a mouse.31

Finally, she saw it: the tan arch rising from the street, and beyond it, green green countryside.  The gate.  The road home.  The coins burned her fingers through the purse.32