By Sarah Orr Aten
Part 2:
Now he was the one who banged open the door. Hargin yelped is surprise, spilling his bottle of ink across his parchment. He cursed loudly. “Beagus!” he said, rising from the chair, quill in hand, and steam billowing from his ears. “What have I told you about barging in here like that?”
“Sorry! So sorry!” Beagus said. “I was just excited.”
Hargin softened. “You saw your goose girl, huh?” He put the quill down on the desk. His eyes were cheery now, like he held a secret.
Beagus blushed. “Oh yes!” he said. He felt twisted into a knot.
Hargin laughed. “Try again with the smoke,” the sorcerer said.He plopped back down in his chair at the writing desk. Beaguswatched him shuffle several sheets off the desk and drop them in a disarray on the floor. Beagus knew he’d be tidying that up later.
Beagus sat down in the chair at the table, then poured some of the water from the jug into the cup. Then he frowned at what he had done, took the cup to the window, and tossed the contents outside. He couldn’t use Hargin’s water, then he’d only see what Hargin saw. He went back to the table, poured from the jug again. He lit the candle easily—a quick snap, just like his master—then dipped the candle into the cup. Concentrate…down, down, down. He coaxed the flame and it began to fill the cup with smoke. The smoke began to swirl and then descend onto the water, and when he peered into the pictures forming he felt a smile spreading through him. There she was! Edith was dancing, the veiled flowing around her shoulders, and then…there he was! He laughed as he watched this smokey version of himself dance with the bride.
“What do you see?” Hargin asked from behind him.
“I’m gonna marry the goose girl!” Beagus beamed.
He heard Hargin moving across the house. “And what about the princess?” he asked, right above Beagus’s head.
“Oh,” said Beagus, remembering.
“You’re supposed to be looking for the princess!” Hargin said, bopping Beagus on the head with his parchment as he said every word.
Beagus attempted to protect his head from the light blows by putting his arms between himself and Hargin’s parchment. “I’ll look again!” he said, shrinking.
“Bah!” Hargin said. “Before you do, go talk to your goose girl, and get her out of your head!” he said.
Beagus didn’t wait for further instruction before he raced from the house and back down to the pond. Edith was just beginning to round up the geese and take them back to the coop. She shook her stick at them, and they honked in protest. Beagus watched as all the geese eventually waddled into a loose formation. She began to drive them away from the pond, tisk tisking at them as she came towards Beagus.
She noticed him. “Oh! Hello again,” she said.
“Hi!” Beagus said. “I…eh…I came back!”
She laughed at him and shook back her hair from her face. She wiped an arm across her forehead, which Beagus could see was damp with a sweat. “It gets warm sitting in the sun,” she said. “Walk with me to the coop?”
Beagus beamed. “Oh, okay,” he said. “But I’m supposed to be…um…well.” He realized halfway through his sentence that he should not be telling Edith—or anyone—about his divinations.
She waited, clicking at the geese as they milled around her, honking and flapping. “Coming or not?” she asked, as she began to walk. The geese clustered ahead of her as she went, and she swung her stick from side to side, herding them ahead of her. Beagus watched her retreat for a moment, sighing to himself, before running after her. “I’m coming!” he called.
When he caught up to her, she looked sideways at him, her little smirk lighting fires behind his eyes and in his belly. “When will you be a sorcerer?” she asked sweetly.
“Oh I’m a long way from being a sorcerer. I can’t even see the princess in the smoke.” He’d said it without thinking, bewitched by Edith’s presence. He slapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes going wide with panic. “Oh!” he said, as she stared at him in confusion. “Oh! Don’t say anything about it! Please!”
“You’re divining for the princess?” she asked.
He nodded, then shook his head. “No, I mean, yes, but…I’m not supposed to tell.”
“I won’t tell,” Edith said. “Although, if you need to know who the princess prefers for a suitor…”
How had she guessed? Well, it wasn’t exactly what the queen had asked them to divine, but it seemed to Beagus that it should matter. Shouldn’t she want someone who looked at her the way he looked at Edith? “Do you know?” he asked, eagerly. He rubbed his hands together nervously as they walked.
“She told me she likes Prince Manford, from Esteria.” Edith said it so confidently, as if she had announced that the sunlight was hot.
“She told you?” Beagus asked.
Edith smiled at him. “She tells me all sorts of things,” Edith said.
They reached the coop. Beagus pondered what the princess was doing confiding in the goose girl as Edith sent the geese through the coop door in ones and twos. Then she lowered the door and smiled at him, again looking just like honey and sunshine. “Will you come see me tomorrow?” she asked
He nodded his head so hard he could feel his cheeks shaking. “Yes, yes, I’ll come to see you tomorrow at the pond.”
“Good!” she said. Then she was off, sauntering down the path to the village.
Beagus couldn’t believe his good luck. He ran back to Hargin’s hut, his heart enflamed by the memory of Edith’s smile. He banged open the door as he entered, wincing as Hargin yelped just as he had before.
“Beagus!” Hargin yelled from the desk.
“Sorry!” Beagus said, his adrenaline and his excitement propelling him across the house to his master’s side. “The princess prefers Prince Manford, from Esteria!”
A smile crept across Hargin’s wrinkled face, a light in his eyes both mischievous and playful. “Did you see that in the smoke?” he asked.
“No Edith said…wait…” He studied Hargin’s features, and when the sorcerer raised as eyebrow, Beagus dared to ask, “Is that what you saw in the smoke? That she would tell me?”
“You see what you see, and I see what I see, remember?” Hargin said. This time the reminder was merry. He gave Beagus a wink. “Why don’t you try to confirm what Edith told you tomorrow, eh? Before you go running down to the pond?”
Beagus laughed, and shook his head. “Will I ever be as good at this as you?” he asked.
Hargin shook with silent chuckles. “You keep looking and we’ll find out,” he said.
Beagus went to his cot in the corner, and laid down on it, watching the sun sink lower out the window of the house. Tomorrow he’d look for the princess, but for now, he’d enjoy thinking about dancing with Edith.
Poetry & More 