CHAPTER 50 Lady’s Secret

CHAPTER 50

Lady’s Secret

Brownie

Brownie knew that Donna wasn’t too keen on portal travel, but the idea of more enchanted carrots harvested from the Dark Enchanted Forest and grown by the Pixie Prim tempted her horse forward. Who would choose regular old Servalt carrots grown in the nonmagical hills when enchanted carrots awaited on the other side of the bridge?

She was always willing to do things for enchanted carrots.

Brownie and Rufus were on the wagon, and Gerda stood off to the side with one foot on the bridge and one on the path. The magic of the bridge enveloped them, and it felt like a gentle warm wind that lifted everything ever so slightly. Brownie’s skirts slowly billowed, and her hair rose up just a bit. Like gravity was lighter within the magical aura.

Rufus shivered beside her, and she noted that his entire furry self bristled at the sensation. Again, she resisted the urge to reach out and pet him. For calming purposes, of course.

Once the wagon finally passed all the way onto the bridge, Gerda moved her foot off the road and said, “Let’s go!”

Brownie had actually had more than her fair share of portal encounters, from that time Marquess Dorset had kidnapped her at the Spring Ball, to the time her maternal cousin Leo had pushed her into a Vort Port and she’d teleported with a crate of cargo onto her Aunt Persia’s ship. That had been an unexpected trip to visit her grandparents in Drendil. By the time she’d crawled her way out of the hold and managed to alert the crew of her presence, they’d been long out to sea and couldn’t turn back. She’d been seven.

Leo had gotten in so much trouble, but she hadn’t been mad at him; it beat knife fighting practice !

This portal didn’t feel like the jolting, stomach-twisting violent travel that the low-grade but high-cost portal scrolls had. It also didn’t feel like the sudden popping sensation of the Vort Port. It felt closer to the slight temporal distortion of walking through Gerda’s front door and into her pocket space.

Not bad , but strange. Donna was not amused.

One minute, the horse was walking on a bridge surrounded by rolling hills, and the next, she was walking on a slightly more dilapidated bridge surrounded by craggy oaks. She snorted and kept walking until she’d pulled the wagon clear onto the road ahead. The stream bed trickled west.

They would have plenty of time to get to the castle and find an inn if Gerda was correct.

Brownie still had that bag full of gold coins Their Royal Highness had given her, so she could stay wherever she wanted. Before this trip, she’d only known Henrietta out of everyone living in the Black Fortress, and her newly married friend had been … distracted.

That had prompted her to sometimes stay at an inn.

Now, Brownie had a borderline flirtatious friendship with Rufus, and she wouldn’t be alone at a breakfast table full of random powerful political leaders who didn’t know her. Technically, Rufus had been at the table when she’d broken her fast in the past, but at that point, he’d just been another one of said random powerful political leaders.

A nice one, but still.

“What are your plans for the rest of the day?” Brownie left Donna to eat some grass off to the side of the road. She and Rufus both joined the troll, who was busy inspecting the bridge, presumably reviewing her character sheet logs.

“I have upkeep to do.” Gerda crouched down and poked at the short wall on the side of the bridge. A small aquamarine spark shot between the stone and the green finger. The troll smiled. “But it shouldn’t take long. I’ll meet you at the castle?”

Brownie looked down the path. “If you could teleport us to any bridge you’ve crossed, couldn’t you have taken us straight to the castle?”

Gerda laughed. “I don’t exactly want to advertise this skill, Brownie. And it’s too busy. Unless you want to portal directly into someone already standing there, I don’t recommend it.”

“That reminds me,” Rufus cut in. “Since you’re being so forthcoming, how do you have a proper troll bridge at the Black Fortress without having to toll it?”

“I do have to toll the bridge.” Gerda continued to feed magic into one particular stone on this bridge but looked at Rufus over her shoulder. When he patiently waited for her to continue, Gerda turned back to her work and sighed. “I didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that I’m controlling the bridge. I’ve just been paying the experience penalty. ”

“What?!” Rufus exclaimed, incredulous. The beastman actually held up a hand, counting and mumbling to himself, “But that would mean … if you added the army rations team … though technically, Gimtak flies . You have at least fifty people a day traveling over that drawbridge! How are you not level one!”

“Lady’s secret.” Gerda winked at Rufus.

Brownie decided that was enough information from the otherwise private bridge troll. “Then we’ll leave you to your magic and meet you back at the Black Fortress.”

“Where”—Rufus pointed out—“you’ll be required to file an interkingdom business registry for opening portals into other kingdoms … How many kingdoms can you cross bridges in?”

Gerda gave him a self-satisfied half smile. “Why, all of them, of course.”