*******

It did not take long to find the rest of the party. The Doctor, Samuel and David were all near by laying face down on the ground with their fingers in their ears. There appeared to have been a scuffle near them, but no one else was in sight.

Dana put her hand on the Doctor's shoulder. He rolled over quickly and looked like he was going to attack her but changed his stance when he saw who it was.

'My Lady,' he said. 'We feared for your safety when the attackers appeared. We tried to fight our way back to the Duke's carriage, but we were unable to achieve it before that noise began and the strange light. But, what's this? My Lord Duke, you are well again? And you?', he continued turning to Martug. 'Do my eyes deceive me?'

'Not at all,' Martug said. 'I'm in fine shape. I was in some strange dream a few minutes ago and a hand came and touched me and now I am hale. Would that all such sickness could be so cleansed.'

'Then I would truly be without work!' said the Doctor. He stood up and kicked his companions so they got up as well. 'Look here, sirs, our two patients became healthy while we lay down.'

'My Lord,' Samuel cried out. 'I did not expect to see the day again so soon. I am well pleased that you are hale.'

David did not seem quite sure what to do. He smiled and echoed Samuel's words.

'Well,' said the Duke. 'We are gathered together again. I suggest you tell none of what happened here today. Few would believe you and those that did are not the kind who should know about these things.'

'Well, what did happen?'

'We were visited by a Roubbe.'

'A Roubbe?' burst out Martug. 'They're just an old fable. They do not exist.'

'Our visit today proves otherwise,' said the Duke.

'A Roubbe, here. But why would he come here?' asked the Docter.

'They were summoned from my carriage,'

'You are of royal birth then, my Lord Duke?' said the Doctor. 'I have heard they listen to the King. Are you close to him.'

'As a matter of fact, I am. I know him quite well. I am also decended from his great grandfather. My great grandfather very nearly was King when Our King's Mother ascended the throne. But that is water under the bridge. Let us continue our journey.'

They all returned to the carriage. The horses did not seem to have minded the noise or strange light. They were a little spooked, but that seemed to be from the actions of the humans around them. Samuel soon had everything ready and they headed off again.

Early that afternoon they reached a villa owned by a close friend of the Duke's. They had their midday meal and left their tired out horses with the friend and continued their journey. They reached other friend's home about nightfall. This friend had a mansion and was able to provide everyone with room. When he discovered Dana in their company, he insisted she take his niece as her lady-in-waiting.

'She is old enough she should see a little of how society works,' he said to Dana in a side room when she tried to object. 'You are going to the Capital. She will see life there. If you find her a good husband, I am willing to put up a small dowry. She is an orphan you see. She has little, and I must provide for my own children. I think your Duke of Quirnotol will likely but up some as well if it comes to that. She may get even more than if I treated her as one of my own children. Believe me, it's best for her that you take her.'

The girl's name was Magra. She was tall and slim and much paler than Dana. She was not very talkative that first night as they were preparing for bed. Instead, she listened as Dana reminisced about how long it had been since she had had an attendant.

'I was probably younger than you are,' she said. 'The last time I had someone waiting on me. My first husband did not keep me very well and refused to provide me with an attendant until I was almost six months along. Then he begrudged it to me since I was having so much trouble getting dressed. Oh, but when my father was still alive, I must have had three or four attendants at any one time. And they wore such beautiful clothes.'

By this time Magra had her undressed and was helping her put the night shirt over her head. Dana was so tired she did not notice the girl's look of terror as Dana reached to help her undress in turn.

'No, my Lady,' she said. 'I can get it myself.'

'You are my servant now, young Lady,' said Dana. 'I wish to help you undress, so you will serve my by allowing it.'

'Yes, my Lady', Magra bowed slightly.

This actually took longer than it had for Dana because Magra had more and nicer clothing and more complicated clasps. Dana sighed that she would need even more clothes.

When they were done, Dana led her over to the bed and they pulled down the sheets and climbed in. There was plenty of room for both of them and they were soon sleeping.

The sun got them early the next morning and the growing party continued on their journey. Around noon they reached yet another friend's home, a small palace this time. It's courtyards and cloisters seemed to go on forever. After their midday meal, they again swapped horses and continued on their journey. Martug was impressed by how much faster they could travel by swapping the horses rather than waiting for their horses to recuperate from the morning's trip.

'Really,' Samuel told him, 'we're still taking it pretty easy. IF the Duke was in a great hurry, we would have stayed overnight here rather than at the last place. But it doesn't matter. We'll be at the Capital in time for the endday meal.'

'Wow,' said Martug. 'I had never thought of swapping out horses.'

'The Duke got the idea from an Ancient Book, seems from before the Ancients could fly and what not, they used horses themselves. Quite a few books referred to horses. Marvelous animals they are.'

'That is certainly true,' agreed Martug.

They arrived in the Capital that night as the sun set. Dana felt like she was finally coming home. It was the first time she had seen something that she remembered from her earlier life as a duke's daughter. The walls of the Capital had always meant fun and festivities when she was a child. Dana remembered always becoming excited when the walls could be seen beyond from their carriage.

Samuel rode quickly past the barracks and past the fields into the streets of the Merchants' City, then he carefully threaded the carriage through those streets, being sure not to hurt any chance stray animal. They soon reached the orchards and Dana could smell the apple trees. The scent reminded her of once when they entered the city and her father had reached out and picked her an apple. Her mother had been surprised that there was no one to stop them.

Samuel stopped at the gate to Kingcity and called out that the gate be opened.

'Who goes there?' called the guardsman.

'The Duke of Quirnotol and the Duchess Laura Lu of Loussington!' called back Samuel.

'Odd,' said the guard as he came closer. 'I just admitted the Duke of Loussington. I thought he had his Duchess with him.'

'That would be mine uncle,' said Dana. 'I look forward to seeing him.'

'I'm sure,' said the guard and motioned to his companion to raise the gate.

They passed into the City and Samuel quickly brought them to the Duke's residence within the City. It was gorgeous! Dana was impressed. She was sure it was a much bigger residence than her father had had when she was young.

Their supper was quite relaxed. Magra at first did not know what to do with herself. She seemed to think she should stand behind Dana's chair and be prepared to jump whenever Dana spoke to her. It took some time before Dana, the Duke, Martug, the Doctor, Samuel and David convinced her to sit at the table with them. It finally took Samuel, David and Martug all pointing out to her that she was of a higher caste than themselves and that if she had to stand so had they. They all stood, Martug behind Dana with Magra and the other two behind the Duke.

The Doctor looked around and seeing he had no one behind him said, 'It seems I'm not worthy of this company. Two servants each, and I have none. I believe I'll have to bow out.' And he started to rise.

Dana was starting to feel at a loss and unconnected when the Duke started to laugh. He laughed quite hard.

'I'm sorry,' he said to Dana seeing the look on her face. 'I'm suddenly understanding how the King feels sometimes, and the look on your face tells me you do now too.

'Now,' he continued as he turned to Magra, 'sit yourself down. I will not have any standing around to wait on anyone in my household while I myself am seated. I'm just a man. The Duchess here is just a woman. You can argue that she's a Lady, which she is, but she's just another human, nothing special that you have to stand in her presence. If you ever come with me to meet the King, you'll see I treat him as just another man. There's really nothing special about him, either, aside from his tremendous age. And he wouldn't have me treat him any other way. He'd likely tan my hide if I started acting like a mere servant. You are a friend to us now. So sit, enjoy the meal with us.'

Magra bowed and sat in the chair they had for her. She seemed very closed.

As the other sat down again, Dana thought about it and then quietly got up and fetched an apple from a basket by the wall. She took and sliced it and placed it in front of Magra who just then noticed that her new Mistress had risen.

'Now,' said Dana, 'I have served you. I very much wish us to be friends. I will serve you again and again. I hope you will come to find it a pleasure and a privilege.'

'Yes my Lady,' said Magra.

After supper, David and Samuel brought out a fiddle and a tom-tom. They started playing and Samuel honoured them with his singing. Dana was surprised he could sing so well until he told her that singing calms the horses and good singing makes them feel well in the worst of times. He had his Master's horses to love the sound of his voice, whether he was singing or just speaking. Dana was not sure whether or not to believe him.

The sun was setting when they finally all went to their rooms. When Dana turned to help Magra undress, she discovered this time the horror on Magra's face.

'What is wrong, dear?' said Dana. 'You learned that I didn't hurt you last night.'

'It's a great shame, my Lady,' said Magra.

'What's that? You are ashamed of your body?'

Magra thought for a second and then said, 'Yes, my Lady.'

'Of what is there to be ashamed?' asked Dana.

'Of it.'

Dana started to think she might not get anything else out of her handmaiden, so she decided to be a little more firm. 'Listen,' she said. 'I am not ashamed of my body, nor need you be of yours. You are mine and I am yours. If your body is shameful to be shown to others we won't show it. But it is mine. There is nothing which is my own that can be shameful for me to see.'

Magra accepted that and allowed Dana to help her. They soon climbed into the bed and were fast asleep.

The next morning, Dana woke early. Her companion was still sleeping and she quietly rose, put on some clothes, wrapped herself in a big warm housecoat she found in the wardrobe and proceeded into the hall. Not far was Martug's room. It seemed to Dana he was up since a fire was brightly burning in his room. The chill morning air seemed to be bit less chill as she drew near. He heard her and jumped when she entered the room.

'My Lady, good morning, I hope my getting the wood did not wake you,' he said.

'I don't believe so,' said Dana. 'But why are you up so early?'

'Every morning, from the time I was a little child, I have prayed to Goddess Gina for my mother, that is, the woman who raised me.'

'Where will that get her?'

'My Lady? I pray that she will watch over her and protect her. Now that I have seen what the gods can do, I ask her to heal her from her hobble.'

'When have you seen what the gods can do?'

'Was it not a god that came down and healed me, and the Duke? Anyone who could do that is a god.'

'The Duke explained to me,' Dana said. 'Those are not gods. They aren't even alive. They cannot hear your prayers.'

'How could they not? I speak them to the air.'

'They are not in the air that they could hear them.'

'Then there are no gods.' Martug seemed resigned.

'I wouldn't say that,' said Dana. 'I believe there is one.'

They heard a noise in the corridor. Turning, Dana saw that Magra had gotten up and was walking, still undressed. She quickly took off the housecoat and wrapped around Magra. It was then that she noticed that Magra was still sleeping. She gently led her back to their room and lay her back in bed.

Dana then got Martug to fetch some wood and bring some flame from his room to get a fire going in hers. Soon enough she had a warm fire burning as she waited for Magra to wake up.

Meanwhile, Martug left to find how breakfast was coming along. He soon found David in the kitchen starting a fire to prepare toast.

'That's a strange girl,' said Martug.

'Eh?' said David. 'Whom are you referring to?'

'Magra. She does like sitting or laying down. She was just a few minutes ago walking in her sleep.'

'Oooh,' replied David. 'She's cursed is she? They say sleepwalkers are under a heavy curse.'

'I don't know about any curse,' said Martug. 'She freaks me out. My Mistress is one fine lady though. She cares for her just fine. Me too.'

'Yeah, my Master is a good man too. Too bad they're so different in age. We could try to set them up. Although, his son is probably the right age for her. I think a year or two older than she is. Although poor young master, his father still thinks of him as in his late teens. Even said so a week ago to her.'

Magra woke with a start, and Dana was at her side immediately.

'My Lady,' she said as she shook the sleep out of herself. 'Why am I dressed in a housecoat? Was I sleep walking?'

'Yes,' said Dana. 'Is that what you were ashamed of?'

'Yes,' replied Magra.

'Well, no worries. I'm sorry I pressured you. We'll work out something in the coming days. Now here, let's dress and see what the Duke's men have for us for breakfast.'

They were soon dressed and joined David and Martug in the kitchen. The toast was just ready to be buttered. As they got to helping, Samuel walked in a moment later.

'Good morning,' he said smiling. 'My Master bids us to start without him. He is not feeling well.'

'Oh?' said Dana. 'That's too bad.'

'The Healer is with him and will let us know as the morning progresses.'

The ate and the conversation turned to the news of the city. Samuel had gone out and found someone to give him the news.

'First off,' he said. 'The King is not in the Capital, but is expected back in the next few days. He is returning from a trip west to the land of the Horingas. It's rumoured they wish to have more say in their own affairs and the King has been meeting with them to see what is to be made of their demands. Next, oh hello Healer, how is my Master?'

This last was said to the Doctor as he entered the room.

'Not well, unfortunately, I'm afraid. The sudden healing that happened two days ago seems to have reversed. I can see no reason why. He'll be fine soon in a day or two however, I should think.'

'Well that's a relief,' said Samuel.