From a High Tower (34 page)

“Well, I shall enjoy having you along. And if you like, you can travel in the wagon. I'll part the wards for you. I don't want you to end up somewhere strange, too tired to fly on. Winter is a bad time for that.” Giselle concentrated long enough to make a “door” in the wardings—one that she specified was
only
for the sylph—and let Flitter dart inside. Even though the sylphs didn't seem to mind the cold, they all loved heat, and Giselle was fairly sure she would spend the day curled up over the stove, drowsing.

It would be nice to have her company. Already Giselle missed Rosa.

Another day on the road brought them to their first show, in the small town of Bludbehren. Despite its name, it was a lovely little place, and the abbreviated show was well received. There was a telegram waiting for them there from Rosa, a simple “All well.” Bludbehren was home to a rather impressive, modern flour mill, and Kellermann was able to procure enough bags of flour there to last them the whole winter at a very good cost,
and
grain for the horses. Meat, they were well supplied with; besides what he had sent ahead, he'd had the brilliant idea of going around to every one of the food vendors at the Oktoberfest before they left and buying up their surpluses. The vendors were happy to be rid of things that otherwise might have spoiled, and he was happy to have it. He arranged for what was fresh to be salted down in barrels and then packed up and sent over, and what was smoked or otherwise preserved to go straight into in the wagons.

As far as Kellermann was concerned, anything could be salted and preserved. Salt beef, salt fish, salt pork, even salted-down fowl; Giselle had the feeling he'd salt down anything that didn't run away fast enough.

They would be able to hunt once they got to the abbey, since the forest all around was full of game, most of it unmolested for as long as she and Mother had lived there. That was why “Johann Schmidt's” story had been so believable. It was entirely likely that a professional hunter would have investigated such a relatively virgin forest for hunting. But virtually everyone with the show could shoot, and fresh game would liven up the table as the winter went on.

The next town they stopped at, their show coincided with the weekly farmer's market, and again, Kellermann was able to find things at a good price. This time it was root vegetables. Burlap bags full of them were added to the wagons. Everyone was carrying foodstuffs now. She even had things that would not be harmed by the weather piled on the top of the
vardo
in order to make room for food inside other wagons
,
and shared some of her space with casks of spices he entrusted to her. He was completely in his element, and utterly happy, whenever he could make these bargains. It made Giselle smile to see him so happy.

But then, she had a great deal to smile about. It seemed that the unknown “watcher” had lost them when they left Freiburg, for she had not felt those eyes on her since.

The show finally arrived at Meiersdorf just as the first flurries of snow appeared in the now-overcast sky.

There would be no show at Meiersdorf, given that it had begun to snow and not even the inhabitants were eager to brave the cold in a tent, no matter how exotic the promised production was. They had planned to camp in the field normally used by the village for their little festivities, for it was a good long day's journey to the abbey under the best of circumstances. Giselle was not expecting to see Rosa until then, but to her great joy, her friend was waiting, bundled up in her gorgeous scarlet cloak and hood, mounted on a sturdy hunter, right at the entrance to the village.

Giselle did not actually see Rosa right away, as she was in the middle of the caravan. Rosa waved at her, but then turned her attention back to Kellermann and Cody. Giselle understood perfectly, and got her
vardo
maneuvered into the circle it belonged to in the meadow they were using to camp overnight. All of the wagons were circled up at night since they'd left Freiburg, rather than parked in rows. This was to provide a windbreak for people who were still forced to sleep in their tents. The horses were left tied at night to wagons outside each circle, each with his own blanket, bucket, and pile of hay and grain. The cattle were corralled inside a circle of the transport wagons. The buffalo went into the same space as the cattle. They didn't seem to mind.

The cooks came around to each circle with a big pot of stew and some sort of hard cracker—unless it was possible to buy bread where they were camping, which case everyone got a piece of a loaf instead. There was bread tonight. For the sake of making things easier on the cooks, each of them was responsible for his own plate, cup and utensils, and coffee was made on the central circle fire. Giselle lined up with the rest when the cooks arrived. That was when Rosa turned up, armed with plate and cup herself.

They got their food and quickly retreated to the relative warmth of the
vardo.
“Is your watcher still watching?” was the first thing Rosa asked, once they were settled into seats on casks of peppercorns and salt
.

“No,” she said shortly, and Rosa smiled with relief.

“Good. I was hoping once you were on the move, he'd lose track of you, or simply would not be able to scry you out at any real distance.” Rosa ate with a good appetite, and so did Giselle. It was lovely to have hot food after a long cold day of driving.

“I'm glad you came to meet us,” Giselle said. “How are things at the abbey?”

“Very good.” Rosa grinned with satisfaction and wiped her bowl absolutely clean with her bread. “We've a hard day of driving ahead of us, but when we get there, absolutely everything will be ready. There will be hot food waiting, we've even got sleeping arrangements in place, and everyone can just put the horses and cattle in their stable, eat, and go straight to bed, then deal with what needs to be unpacked in the morning.”

Giselle gaped at her. “How on earth did you manage that?” she asked.

Rosa shrugged, but looked pleased with herself. “Dwarves and brownies, of course. I don't know what sort of arrangement your Mother had with them, but they didn't even
charge
me for any of it, they said they'd already gotten what they needed when the work was done! The chapel has been rebuilt into a stable for the animals with a hayloft over it. I got mowers to come and harvest the meadow twice for hay, there's enough to last all winter. What isn't in the hayloft is in haystacks next to the stable. What used to be the east wing has a second floor now, and the dwarves made up beds and wooden partitions on both floors. The west wing has the kitchens on the first floor and storage above. Did you know there was a cellar under it?”

Giselle shook her head.

“Well, there is. With all you have with you, it will be stuffed. There's more storage above the kitchens, which we will need, with all the food we'll need to produce for all these people until spring. The north wing with your tower, I've had redone as quarters for the couples and families, the Pawnee, Kellermann and Cody. I moved a bed into the floor below your bedroom in the tower for me. If you don't mind?” Rosa's voice faltered a little as if she was afraid that Giselle would be annoyed at this intrusion on her privacy.

“Not even a little! It will be grand to have you there!” She reached out and impulsively hugged Rosa's shoulders. “It all sounds amazing.”

“I'm not sure you'll recognize it. The dwarves took a lot of liberties with the design, but it's as perfect for the purpose as it can be.” Rosa hugged back, and finished her stew before it got cold. “I can't wait for you to see what it's all turned into.”

“Neither can I!” Giselle said, and meant it.

T
HE
horses seemed to sense that this was the last leg of the journey, and although what they were hauling the wagons over barely qualified as a rough track, they actually got their pace up to a fast walk, rather than the plodding pace they usually took. Even the cattle seemed more willing to move.

But maybe that was Rosa. As an Earth Master, she could communicate wordlessly with animals and birds, and perhaps she had “told” them that a warm stable, good food, and rest were waiting for them at the end of the day.

When the abbey appeared in the distance, serene and oddly beautiful in the middle of its meadow valley, the animals
truly
put their backs into their work. They seemed to recognize that this was where they'd find shelter and food and hauled the wagons over the trackless, shorn meadow at a pace that rattled Giselle's bones.

Rosa was right: she barely recognized the place.

She doubted that the original inhabitants would, either. The rebuilding had been done in a purposeful, blocky manner more suggestive of a fortress than a place of retreat and worship. Windows had been reduced to the barest slits. The original roof had been tiles; it was now slate, and looked as if it would last a thousand years. And the original buildings had
not
been connected; now they were, so that the abbey was now one single building with a protected central courtyard. It had been two single-story (with attic) and two double-story buildings, with Giselle's tower forming the corner of the building in the north. Now it was a uniform two stories tall with an attic, all the way around, except for Giselle's tower.

She had to work to keep from gaping with amazement as she realized the extent of the work that had been done.

As she drove her
vardo
around to the eastern side of the abbey, following the others, she saw (without any surprise) that an efficient system had already been worked out for dealing with wagons and livestock.
That must have been what Rosa was talking to Cody and Kellermann about last night.
A cowboy directed her where to move the
vardo
into place: close to the wall of the abbey, with just enough space for a kind of walkway between the virtual wall of wagons and the stone walls. As soon as she had it positioned to his liking, he unhitched both horses and took them away, in through a kind of tunnel through the east wing, under the second floor. She got the things she had packed this morning before they left, including her new eiderdown rolled tightly and strapped up with belts, and approached that entrance herself.

The fortress impression was even stronger when she saw that the entrance could be completely shut off by both heavy wooden doors
and
an iron portcullis.

At
both
ends.

That had never been in the design of the original abbey!

Then again,
she reflected.
Dwarves are used to being able to lock up anything securely.

The central yard of the abbey was still a garden; as it had been with the original, it was an herb and vegetable garden. But now there was a paved walkway all around the periphery, an actual stone wall around the garden itself to keep it from being trampled, and a brand new chicken coop in one corner. Someone had evidently closed the chickens up for safety while people went in and out.

The former chapel looked nothing like a religious building now, which was a relief, as she'd had a bit of unease, picturing the place as a stable. Cowboys were bringing in horses two at a time and taking them inside through a stable door in the middle of the building. She kept well out of their way, but out of curiosity, decided to go into the door in the east wing for a moment to see just what had been done there.

When she got inside, it looked like nothing so much as a stable for humans. Which, now that she thought about it, was a very good way to organize things. Most of the showfolk were used to sleeping either out in the open or several to a tent, and really didn't have much thought for privacy. This was a good way to give them each a
little
room to themselves, while at the same time making the most of the space available.

It was a single large room with a fine—huge!—iron stove at one end. At the other, of course, was the stone wall of the tunnel that went beneath the second floor. Presumably the second floor looked just like this one, but twice as big. Along each wall and down the middle were something like rows of wooden horse-stalls: plain wood reaching about seven feet high, seven feet long, and five feet wide. Each of the “stalls” contained a wooden “box” bed full of hay attached to one side, and a small table with a holder for a candle on it at the back of the stall. Some of the beds already had bedrolls and packs on them. It seemed like a very good plan for housing a lot of men in rough comfort. The stove would heat the entire room efficiently, and if the fellows didn't like the loose hay-beds, they could always sew up their own straw or hay mattresses. And meanwhile the hay certainly made a better bed than the cold, hard ground.

She decided to forego any further inspection until after she had gotten back into her own room to see if any changes had been made there. She could see a doorway at the end of this room, but rather than get in anyone's way, she decided to use the courtyard to reach the tower instead.

She was relieved to see that nothing important in the tower had changed. There was still the small kitchen on the first floor and the library on the second, although there seemed to be some changes to the kitchen she didn't trouble to examine for now. Rosa had made only the minimal addition of her own bed and some chests with her belongings on the third floor. It looked as if there was an iron stove on the hearth instead of the inefficient fireplace And on the fourth floor . . .

Everything was exactly as she had left it. With a single exception. There was another of those marvelous iron stoves. Someone had started a fire in it, and the room was delightfully warm.

I am going get some hot water very soon and have a real bath.
There had been plenty of opportunities to get a good all-over wash in streams and springs when they had camped, of course, and she had taken them. And of course she could do a basin-wash in her
vardo.
But it had been . . . well, far too long since she had had a real, long, hot, soaking bath. And she had a wonderful old bathtub down there in the kitchen.

I'll bet that Rosa's used it too.

Someone had made up her bed with fresh sheets and blankets; the faint scent of lavender hung all about the bed. She tossed her new eiderdown on it, put her bags down beside it and decided to first go see about some food.

She went straight to the west wing, where Rosa had told her the kitchen was; this was when she noticed that with the exception of the east wing, which had two ground floor doors in it, all the wings had one door into the courtyard, set right into the middle of the wing. And sure enough, when she walked in the west wing door, there it was, a kitchen big enough and efficient enough to gladden the heart of the most exacting cook, in the north half of it, and benches and tables already full of hungry show folk in the south half. Presiding over it all was . . . a woman she didn't recognize. She had grey hair braided and wrapped on the top of her head and wore a black dirndl, white blouse and apron, and a black shawl cross-wrapped and tied at her waist. Her face was round, with merry eyes and a tip-tilted nose. Her cheeks were pink with the heat from the kitchen.

But as soon as the woman—who appeared to be Tante Gretchen's younger sister—turned around, it was clear that she recognized Giselle. The woman's face lit up, and she gestured to Giselle to come properly into the kitchen itself.

“You'll be Giselle,” the woman said. “I'm Elfrida. Fraulein Rosamund engaged me to come take charge of the housekeeping here, since it was unlikely anyone in your company had ever done such a thing before. Also, Herr Kellermann sent many food items I do not think your cooks know how to prepare. Beets, mangel-wurzels, common things of that sort. I will show them how to deal with German food.” She lowered her voice. “I, too, am an Earth Magician, although a minor one. A
kitchen-witch,
Fraulein Rosa calls me, since my powers have always been domestic. I was
most
impressed with your Mother's preservation rooms. I was able to extend them into the entire cellar, and copy them in the storage room above us. I do not think I would have been able to concoct such a work on my own.”

“You sound like the answer to all prayers, Frau Elfrida,” Giselle said warmly, “Since my talents are most decidedly
not
in the kitchen.”

Elfrida's round face lit up with a smile, and her blue eyes shone with pleasure. “Well, you must, like the others, be starving and cold. Come get a plate and fill it up, and take care of both needs at once!”

Giselle hadn't known what to expect. It was wonderful to find that supper was to be chicken and dumplings, with a pickled beet and onion salad, fresh bread and butter, and plenty of hot coffee. She got her plate full, and went to join the others—who might not have recognized what they were about to eat, but had already tried enough native Bavarian food that they were not inclined to turn up their noses at anything that looked and smelled as good as this did. Giselle ate slowly, very glad that there would be no more performances, no more long drives in the cold, no more rising at dawn. No more rushed meals. Tonight, she would sleep as long as she liked. Then she would get the rest of her belongings from the
vardo,
move the spices to the kitchen, and . . .

I don't know. But whatever I do will have
nothing
to do with performing.

Rosa brought in the company cooks at just that moment and took them straight to Frau Elfrida. They gave her the respect any good cook does when he or she steps into the kitchen of another. In her turn, she welcomed them warmly, showed them about the place, and presumably explained where everything was and how things were done in “her” kitchen. Giselle had never had much to do with the three cooks from the show, but it appeared they were all good-tempered, and were going to get along famously with Elfrida, and that was all that mattered.

When Rosa was sure that everyone was going to get along, she cast her eyes over the tables full of hungry, tired show folk, spotted Giselle, and smiled. Since Giselle had finished eating at this point, she got up, left her dishes in the big tub of soapy water standing ready for the purpose, and joined Rosa.

“I am no mind reader, but I would risk a bet that you want a hot bath,” Rosa said, chuckling. “It was the first thing I wanted when I got here.”

“Oh, sweet Virgin, yes!” Giselle exclaimed. “And you can answer some of my questions while I soak.”

“I started the copper warming in the little tower kitchen this morning. You should have all the water you want. And
wait
until you see the clever things the . . . builders . . . did in that kitchen!”

By now, the sun had set, and they hurried around the courtyard in the cold as more snow began to fall. It looked as if the wooden doors had been closed on the entrance, although Giselle couldn't tell if the portcullis was down. She wondered what Cody and the others had made of
that
particular facet of the abbey.

Probably they think this is a castle, and there are always iron portcullises on buildings in Germany.
Certainly they had seen plenty of such things in the towns they'd played at. Almost all of them had been defensively walled towns, and most of them still had their gates and portcullises.

Now that she had the time to really look, it was evident that the dwarves had made some very important changes to the little kitchen. There was yet another iron stove,
and
a bread oven. There was a big copper boiler for heating water, and a real stone sink with a pump and drain, and the wooden bathtub had been given a drain in the bottom that let out into a grating in the floor. Giselle stared at that, and the drain from the sink. “They added
plumbing?”
she gasped.

Rosa laughed. “Yes, they did. They dug a proper cesspit for each building, including one for the stable, and built very nice
conveniences
for each building that don't stink at all! They aren't water-flushing, like the ones that the Graf has had put in, but just pour a pitcher of water down when you finish and it all goes . . . somewhere. I didn't ask for the details. I am just happy we are not having to use latrines or garderobes.” She nodded at a little door off the kitchen that hadn't been there before. “It's in there, if you need it.”

“Not now. What I need is a bath. I haven't had one since Freiburg. And I'm cutting my hair back, too. It's not as if it isn't going to grow again.”

The bath was an old-fashioned one that allowed you to have hot water right up to your chin, and that was
exactly
what Giselle got, soaking away the bruises of the last day's travel and the grime of not having had a proper bath for two weeks. Once she had cut her hair to chest length, she washed it, setting the braids aside, since
now
she wouldn't have to worry about it falling into the wrong hands. Meanwhile, Rosa filled her in on all the details of what had been done to the abbey. “Elfrida will tell the cooks about their quarters, which are in the second floor next to the storage, so it's convenient for them,” Rosa concluded. “I told Cody and Kellermann everything yesterday. Kellermann is taking care of informing the fellows who'll be living in the common quarters in the east wing, and Cody is giving the couples and families and the Pawnee the tour of their spaces. I hope the Pawnee like theirs . . . I told the dwarves to give them a stone-walled room with stone floors, so that it was as like to one of their earth-houses as we could get. It seems strange to me that people who live on the open plains would choose to make underground houses.”