This is a section from an early chapter in For the Good of the Realm, a novel inspired by The Three Musketeers which includes swordswomen and magic. Anna and Asamir, two members of the Queen’s Guard, are seeking the help of witch to stop the rain that is keeping them from returning to the Queen with the necklace they’d been sent to fetch.
Anna walked forward and rapped loudly on the door. The eaves of the roof dripped on the guardswomen’s heads as they stood there, though they were so soaked through they scarcely noticed. When an old woman finally opened the door, she did not invite them in.
“Good dame,” said Anna, “Could you not let two travelers caught in the storm dry themselves before your fire?”
“Travelers do not pass this way by chance, guardswoman. What want you here?”
Asamir, bristling at the remark, laid a hand on her sword.
The woman laughed, as Anna reached out to calm Asamir. “I should cooperate or you will take what I have, is that it?” Her open mouth showed she still had most of her teeth.
“No,” said Anna. “We do not take. We ask, and we pay for services rendered.” She took out her purse.
“Well, then, come in,” the old woman said. She stepped back from the door, took a look at the purse, as if deciding how much gold it might contain, and then stepped over to put another log on the fire.
Once inside, Anna got a good look at the woman for the first time. The witch was tall and lean, with deep brown skin weathered by years and life outside. Her head was uncovered, showing a mass of silver and black curls. She looked directly at Anna and smiled as if in recognition.
Anna did not know the woman, or, at least, did not think she knew her, but there was something familiar about her, perhaps related to the earlier feeling of déjà vu. Was she being manipulated by the witch, or was there a simpler explanation? She took a deep breath to keep her fear at bay.
The witch gave her another smile, one that did not answer Anna’s uncertainty but rather left it in the air between them. She waved her hand toward a low bench in front of the fire.
The guardswomen sat, though they were so wet that Anna thought they would not likely dry out even if they should sit in front of a good fire for a week. She said, trying for a casual tone to hide her disquiet, “It is a hard rain out there. Some have suggested that it might not be, well, a natural rain.”
The old woman said, “Oh, come. Please do not waste my time being coy and careful. You’ve come because you think I can stop the rain, have you not?”
Anna threw caution to the wind and said, “Yes, we have.”
Asamir made the gesture.
The woman snorted. “Will you pay to stop it?”
“Can you do it?”
“If you can make it worth my while. It is, as you say, not a natural rain. And only a fool meddles in the unnatural without fair compensation, particularly when she will also be meddling in the affairs of princes.”
Asamir said, “Princes? Mean you the king?”
“Ah, guardswoman, there are all kinds of princes in the world. Princes of the realm, and princes of the church. Princesses as well. And all of them dangerous to any who might stand between them and their desires, be it queens, or soldiers, or witches.”
The witch’s words did not sound like a speech to drum up business, but rather like the matter-of-fact statement of someone who knew quite well what she was dealing with. Anna opened her purse and pulled out a gold coin, laying it on the bench beside her.
The woman smiled, but said nothing.
Anna took out a second, putting it on the first. And then, when no reaction came, she added a third.
“One more, my lady. One more, and the rain will plague you no more.”
“And the bridge will be standing when we reach it?”
“Ah, yes,” the woman said. “The bridge will be there.” She laughed as she scooped up the coins.
Anna and Asamir made no move to go. The old woman said, “Well, now, you’ve made your request. Be off.”
“But it is still raining.”
“It will stop. Do you really want to watch what I do?” She looked straight at Asamir as she said this, and Asamir again made the religious gesture. “Go on, get on your way.”
