Chapter 48 part 4

When she reached the next gate, the sun was at a clear angle. Beth hoped that it didn't mean that it took her longer to reach this point than she had thought. Though, if this wasn't the gate she was looking for, she wasn't sure if she'd be able to find it today. Primarily because she was pretty sure if she didn't start heading back to where she was supposed to meet back up with Feon and Hesha, that she'd likely be well past the time that she'd said she'd meet up with them.

As Beth turned to walk towards the gate, she couldn't help but wonder just how large this city was. It didn't really matter, but if the city was large enough, it might take a few days to locate the information that she was looking for, since it just meant that there would be more distance to travel.

Fortunately at this gate, the guards were out and questioning a few people who clearly wanted to enter the city while other guards poked through the wagon they apparently had brought with them. Which meant that she'd either need to wait until these guards were done or find one that wasn't occupied. Regardless of how long it took, she was confident that she wouldn't have to have a repeat of that woman in the guard house at the last gate.

Beth was willing to wait, regardless. If this wasn't the gate she was looking for, she'd have to start her search in the morning, but if it was, she had a little bit of time before she really needed to start heading back to meet with the others.

After a couple of minutes, while two of the guards spoke to the people with the wagon, one of the guards who had been searching the wagon came over to Beth. The guard had blight blue hair, light purple eyes, skin that looked like it might have been made from cream, and looked like she was starting to grow a beard, though she also looked like she was seventeen, so it wasn't very long.

"May I help you with something?" she asked professionally.

If only that other guard had been like her, Beth thought to herself as she took a breath before she gave her answer.

"Is this the south gate?" she asked, hoping her search was at an end.

"Why do you want to know?" the guard asked, her face and tone not giving anything away.

Beth wasn't that surprised and gave her explanation about the rumor and how she'd been directed to the south gate to talk with the customs officer.

"We can let you talk with her, but only after their wagon is through," the guard answered politely.

Beth thanked the woman and sat down, leaning against the side of the wall to wait. Since it was probably going to take a few minutes, Beth figured she might as well make herself comfortable. Especially since she couldn't say how long it would take. If it did take longer than she'd like, she figured she could always hustle on her way back. Such as jobbing long the same streets that she'd used to get to this point. If she didn't, she was confident that she'd get lost in no time.

While it might be fun to explore the city like that, she also couldn't disregard the fact that not only had she agreed to meet at about a certain time, she also now had someone who had been following her. What that last part was about, she couldn't say. Only that it merely complicated things for her.

Beth was surprised when she felt someone shaking her awake. She hadn't realized she'd fallen asleep, nor was she sure how long it took before she'd nodded off.

"They're through now," the guard from before said. "She said she has a minute she can spare to talk with you."

Beth nodded, unable to say anything right away as a yawn overtook her ability to speak for a minute. "Thanks," she said when her yawn died away.

The guard nodded in response and motioned for Beth to follow her. Beth walked after the guard, not sure what else to do. Though, she could still feel whoever was hiding watching her.

While she suspected whoever was watching her was an enemy, she couldn't say for sure. As far as she knew, it was just someone else who was interested in the girl from the rumor as well. Beth really didn't like how many uncertainties there were right now. It made it hard to know precisely what was going on.

When Beth entered the building by the guardhouse, which looked like a kind of warehouse to her, behind the guard, she saw a woman who looked to be in her thirties behind a desk that was pushed to the side, sorting through papers. Or what Beth assumed was paper. The woman had skin that was a dark brown, hair that was a purple so dark that it almost looked black, pink eyes, and a scar than ran from her left eye down to her collar bone.

"This girl said she wanted to talk to you about the girl in the rumor," the guard informed the woman.

The woman that Beth assumed was the customs officer groaned, sounding pretty annoyed. "Another one? Why can't they figure out that the girls was moved on to the capital?"

"Couldn't say," the guard answered, though Beth had a feeling the question had been rhetorical and the woman hadn't expected an answer.

"Whatever," she said dismissively. "Where is this girl? Might as well talk with her so she can get out of my hair sooner."

Beth stepped forward, as the guard motioned for her to. "I don't want to take up much of your time," Beth started, hoping her question wouldn't annoy the woman any more than she already was. "I was just looking for a friend of mine who disappeared a little over a month ago in the Forest of the Lost. Then I heard about the girl in the rumor, about how she was able to cure the plague. So, I thought I'd check to see if it might be her."

The woman set the quill she had in her hand as she had been marking something on the papers and turned to look at Beth. Her face was clear or any annoyance and Beth had a feeling she was rather interested in what Beth was saying.

"Why would you think that it was your friend?" she asked, her words making Beth realize she might have made a mistake, even though she couldn't think of how she could have avoided it in the first place. However, it wasn't like she had many options. All she could do was explain with as few necessary details as possible.

"Well, just before my friend disappeared, we had come down with the spotted plague ourselves when we were going through the Forest of the lost," Beth started, picking her words carefully. She had a feeling that whoever had been watching her from a distance was somehow listening to them as well. "My friend put a blue spotted mushroom in some water after a week and set it to boil, then was able to save us from the plague."

The guard looked shocked at Beth's statement, but the customs officer didn't seem very fazed by it. "How did she know to do that? Has she seen it done before?"

Beth shook her head, wishing that she'd be offered a place to sit, even though she didn't see a chair of any kind in the room. "I didn't get a chance to ask her, but I'm pretty sure she hadn't seen the plague get treated before."

Beth was certain Charlie hadn't seen that done before, since they hadn't even been on this world for very long. Not to mention the fact that they hadn't even known about that plague in the first place when they arrived on this world. Although, while Charlie may have said how she knew, Beth couldn't really remember, which for her was the important part.

"How did you become separated from your 'friend?' Or was she your slave?"

Beth sighed. If she thought it would help, she might consider saying that yes, Charlie was her slave, but she had a feeling it would only complicate matters even more. So, she shook her head. "No, she left because some of our other friends made a joke about her that she didn't like and was gone in the morning. We haven't been able to find her since."

The customs officer nodded, looking like she was accepting Beth's story. "So, what did you want to know? I'm sure you heard me tell this genius that she'd already been sent on to the capital, so what do you want with me?"

"I just wanted to confirm that the girl is my friend," Beth said. "If she isn't, then I don't need to waste my time going to the capital."

A broad smile broke out over the customs officer's face. "You're alright," she said, sounding more friendly than she had up to this point. "Not wasting time is always nice to do. Just wish more people in the world would do that."

Beth nodded. "Anyway, would you tell me what she looked like?"

"You think your friend is this different from others?"

Beth shook her head, wishing she could just implant the image of Charlie into this woman's head or even extract the image of the girl from the rumors from the custom officer's head. If nothing else, it would speed things up.

"If I thought that was the case, I'd have asked that earlier," Beth answered dryly. "I'm asking so I can be sure I'm not chasing shadows. If the girl had hair like yours, then she wouldn't be my friend. She'd be someone else entirely. Someone who merely may have come into contact with my friend."

"You make a good argument," the customs officer remarked. "What's your name anyway?"

"Beth," she answered succinctly. Given the headache she'd endured at the marquis' dinner table about her last, or family, name, she figured it would be better to leave it out of this.

"I'm Hisith," the customs officer answered sounding even more friendly than she had when Beth had seemed to pique her interest. "The girl in question had brown hair and green eyes, I think. She also seemed to try and keep her body from being seen, which is weird enough for a slave. Then there's the fact that she can't speak at all."

Beth nodded, starting to turn to leave. "It sounds like my friend, even with the part of her trying to keep a semblance of modesty there."

Hisith nodded. "Well, if that's the case, then you're going to have to move quick if you want to keep your friend from getting auctioned off, if she hasn't already. She left for the capital when the quarantine was over, and they should have already had an auction since then, so unless there was something special about her, she's probably somewhere else by now. If not, you're going to have to assemble a good amount of rainbow silver if you're going to buy her."

"Why's that?" Beth asked, pausing in her movements. She wasn't sure if this was important or not, but she at least had a bad feeling about it.

"Because the next auction is the one that brings in the biggest buyers. If your friend has something about her that catches the interest of the woman who's in charge of that auction, then it's because she thinks she can get a hefty sum for that girl."

"How much are we talking?" Beth asked, hoping to get a simple estimate. She didn't think it would be easy to begin with, but she thought that she could at least know what might be good for a goal for her friends to earn with their unique way of playing music.

"At least a hundred Ziks," Hisith answered promptly. "You probably won't need that much, but you never know. Besides, you also can't be sure you won't be interested in any of the others as well."

Beth couldn't help but chuckle. "If you're telling me I should have at least a hundred, I think I should probably shoot for twice that much. Just in case things get worse than anyone would expect."

"Good luck getting that much," Hisith commented, turning back to her desk. "If you do manage to buy that girl, let me know. I have a few things I'd like to ask her, if you can figure out how to get around her inability to speak."

Beth nodded. "I will. Though, I can't say why she'd have been unable to speak, but it's possible that my friend's general description is just too close to this girl's. So, it's possible this will be a waste of my time anyway."

"Well, good luck with that then."

Beth didn't reply to the farewell. She wasn't even sure what she could say in response anyway. Anything that came to mind would be more like they would see each other again. Which wasn't really likely as far as Beth knew.

_

Ralph didn't know what to say. Not only were most of their songs not holding the interest of their audience, but when anyone did toss them some coins, Hesha told him that they were the smallest coin called Tist.

Which meant to Ralph that they were being given pennies! Not something he was happy about.

Then there was the fact that the songs that attracted the most attention had been the pure instrumentals. Especially when they played a few that had bagpipes. Not that Ralph understood what had caught their interest so much about them.

As far as Ralph was concerned, if there wasn't any lyrics, then he didn't see the point so much. Aside from when he already knew the song. Though, he couldn't say what it was about that the music they played didn't get as much attention as they had expected. After all, it wasn't like anyone on this world should have heard any of the songs from Earth before, so it should be completely intriguing to them.

When they stopped after a couple tists tossed their way after finishing with 'What I've Done' by Linkin Park, Ralph was ready to quit for the day. He didn't care how much they'd made, or hadn't made, he could tell that this would be a long process to make any real money. Which meant that it would take more effort than he had anticipated. Which was another reason for them to find another way to make any kind of money. It was as simple as that for Ralph.

"Should we call it a day?" Ralph asked, hoping that he wasn't the only one ready to throw in the towel.

The sun was still well above the horizon, but with how many people were passing by, he again felt weirded out that they weren't more of a crowd stopper. Not to mention how his magic was letting the people know what the words meant in the songs. It was just completely baffling.

"Why don't we just go pure instrumentals?" Wes suggested. "I know you're not that big on it, but it might be simpler than continuing on like this. If nothing else, we might be able to get more coins."

"But all we're getting is their equivalent of pennies," Ralph complained.

"Doesn't matter. It all adds up. Just like how they say that one vote can sway an election, since we don't know how much we'll need if the girl from the rumor is Charlie then we'll need every penny we can get," Wes replied diplomatically. "I'm sure you won't be happy if we're just a few pennies short of being able to save her, if it comes to that."

Ralph glared at Wes. While he understood what Wes was saying and getting at, it didn't help his mood any. Especially with how he couldn't argue the point because he knew Wes was right.

"Do we have any instrumentals we haven't played?" Ralph asked, hoping Wes would say 'no.'

"Of course," he answered. I've even gotten a few basically recorded where I don't need to use the CD to play it."

Ralph rolled his eyes as he sighed. Of course Wes would have done that without having said anything. Why wouldn't he? It wasn't like they hadn't talked about this a lot on the three week trek over to this city. The dress he had to wear was bad enough, but this almost felt like it was adding insult to injury.

Then another thought occurred to Ralph that soothed his irritation.

"So, you're saying you won't need me then, right?" Ralph asked, wondering if he should just relax in the inn they'd found. Although, they had to fork over one of Hesha's larger rainbow silver coins for a single night in the room.

"Not really, but if you think about it, if we only do the instrumentals, why don't you set up at another place around here. We might be able to increase how much we're able to get that way. If you take Feon with you and Hesha stays with me, then we should be able to get more," Wes commented.

Ralph looked at Wes then Hesha and Feon before he let out a sigh. While Wes' idea had merit, Ralph couldn't help but wonder if he was getting himself into more trouble than he'd like. Although, the guards they had asked before they set up here had told them that whatever they did that they'd need to pay a fee of one tenth of all they got from the day.

While Ralph would rather give them nothing, he knew that if he tried that, they'd probably have more of a headache than anything they'd had to deal with so far.