Leopold
Sighing, he sat on the old, too-narrow bunk bed. Below him lay Finn. He talked to Marko, who had also chosen the higher bed of the loft bed opposite. One, with three beds. Peyo slept in the bed below Marko, in the middle. The lowest one housed Benjamin, who threw his pillow against the bed frame above him, annoyed. Peyo was already complaining. Mads and Levi shared a narrow single bed. The two had pulled their blankets over their heads and whispered close to each other.
The girls had been assigned another room. Emmie and Chloe slept in the room opposite, with three other servants who were strangers to them. And Shay also slept in another room. This was located at the end of the hallway. He also shared this with strangers. Noisy strangers. You could hear them laughing.
As servants, and slaves at that, they were not allowed to rent any of the normal rooms for a few nights. This was reserved for Julia, Fritz, Paul, Lea, and a little cat. In order not to attract attention, they did not complain about the arrangement. But Julia looked angry as Leopold and the others were led away from her. He hardly felt anything. Just a dark bitterness lurking at the end of his thoughts.
Leopold was no longer used to being a 'slave'.
The walls of the room were barren, the duvets were much too thin, the pillows were filled with straw and even the mats seemed to be made of straw. In one corner of the room were mouse droppings. But according to the wolves, there were none in the room at the moment. However, they had found a hole in the wall. Big enough for a mouse. Levi had covered it with a loose wooden board and fixed it with the only chair in the room, otherwise Mads wouldn't have stopped whining. Apparently, he was afraid of mice.
"Hopefully the girls are okay. At least we're among ourselves...", Peyo grumbled. There was a dull rumble and Peyo grimaced. "Benjamin! Stop it!"
"What!" growled the other elf. He was still throwing his pillow. "I'm bored!"
"Then do something about it! But not THAT!" Peyo snorted. "Emmie and Chloe have to be careful. So that the strangers don't notice anything! Emmie is too proud to act like a good servant."
"She's an alpha!" Mads shouted from under the covers as if this explained everything. Maybe it did.
"She growls and threatens anyone who gets in her way!", added Peyo. "And she can't stand orders. You can tell right away."
"Peyo!", hissed Leopold immediately. "Hush! The walls are thin!"
"Oh. That's right." The black-haired boy grinned sheepishly. "Oops."
"Just sleep, it's late!" said Finn quietly. "I'm tired."
Mads chuckled.
"I want to sleep with you in your bed!" Marko swung his legs over his bed and almost kicked poor Peyo. "Why are these beds so uncomfortable?"
"Hey!" Peyo dodged the wolf's leg with a frightened look. "Good heavens!"
"Huh?" Marko grimaced. "What? Did something happen?"
Mads giggled again.
"This room happened!" Benjamin was now throwing his pillow after Leopold. Grinning, Leopold threw back. He hit the elf right in the face. He grunted in surprise at the impact.
"Because we're worthless!", whispered Benjamin, hugging the pillow. "That's why!"
"I'm worth diamonds!" exclaimed Mads, giggling.
"Woe betide you fall over each other!" growled Benjamin, as the duvet moved suspiciously and Mads giggled more and more. Nothing was heard from Levi.
"What? Let's... Oh! Yes! There!" Mads chuckled again.
Leopold pulled the duvet over his head, annoyed. "How old are you?"
"Old enough!" Levi grumbled at last. "And we don't do anything."
Mads chuckled.
"Never!" hissed Finn. "Let me sleep!"
Emmie
They shared the room with three older elves who served the same wizard. Emmie didn't know exactly how old they were. They looked like about thirty. The three were also in a terrible state. Skinny, with pale skin, dark circles under their eyes, and bruises that they tried to hide under their thin nightgowns. Chloe kept staring at the skinny backs of the three of them. Their wings had been removed. The tiny remnants of the wings trembled now and then.
Emmie felt sorry for them. If anyone dared to hurt Peyo like that, well... They would not survive their deed!
Except that the three elves belonged to the same wizard, they hadn't revealed anything about themselves until now. They only called their 'owner' their master. And whenever they mentioned him, the little shreds of wings trembled.
They were pretty. One more beautiful than the other. One had dark skin and frizzy curls, the second was very pale with red hair and freckles. She was also quite tall. The third was blond with thin lips and a petite, small body. All three had green eyes.
Presumably, their master was into green eyes. Emmie felt sick.
"How long have you been here?" Chloe tried to engage the other elves in conversation.
The dark-skinned one blinked. "Two days, perhaps? Our Lord is in town on business. And you? How long will you stay? Tou two belong to the same person? You came with a girl, what a pretty child, and a young woman, and two men." She looked nervously at Chloe's beautiful, intact wings. "Or do you belong to different people? There were more servants... Your owners must be very wealthy."
The pretty child was, of course, Julia, who used a fake face at the inn. More inconspicuous and ordinary than her usually very cute face. Emmie didn't think the fake face was pretty. But she kept that to herself. "They're friends. All four. And we don't belong to the same person. No."
"Friends?" The blonde chewed on her lower lip. She hid half behind the redhead's back. "And the girl?"
"My mistress's daughter!" Chloe replied quickly. That's how they had introduced themselves at the inn's reception. A false identity. "Our owners are also here for work."
Emmie nodded. "Otherwise you can hardly travel."
"What do they do for a living?" The redhead grinned curiously now. "Our master is a merchant. Jewelry. He wants to order new goods here. He obtains his jewelry from several blacksmiths. There are four of them here in the city. Even Her Majesty has already bought jewelry from him! Unfortunately, we didn't see the castle. It's supposed to be beautiful."
The blonde nodded and disappeared completely behind the redhead. Emmie sighed. This wizard is a monster!
"I don't care about the castle", grumbled the dark-skinned woman. I’m glad when our Master forgets us! Like now! He probably won't pick us up until we leave. Well, if we're lucky. And what do your owners do?"
"They're accountants", Chloe replied. "The best there are."
Emmie almost laughed. Princes and princesses as tax consultants? There was something funny about it. After all, the nobility lived in luxury, didn't they? But that, too, was the lie they had made up. Tax advisor! Ha!
Julia
Josef mewed depressedly.
"What is it?" Julia picked him up and hugged the soft cat. They had made themselves comfortable on a large bed. Silk sheets, fabric wallpaper... This was a good inn. And the only one they had found. According to the owners, most of the inns had to close after the travel ban came into force. There were not enough visitors.
Only merchants who were in transit. Now and then someone from the nobility, or important generals. That was all.
Lea lay in the second bed, reading a newspaper that was provided to them. Her eyes darkened more and more. Julia ignored her. She wasn't in the mood for bad news. The fact that they had been separated from Leopold and the others already angered her. But they had to endure it.
Josef meowed again, rubbing his head against her chin. Then he yawned.
"I'm tired, too."
"It's terrible!" growled Lea suddenly. There they were! The bad news. "People are looking for us with pictures! Look!" She turned the newspaper over and showed Julia several drawings.
Drawings of Fritz, Paula, Lea, Cleo, and Julia. Julia was the best hit. Lea's hair was long in the picture and her nose was a little too wide. Cleo looked almost like a man, Paula's eyes were too small, and she had a very big nose, and Fritz's face was a bit too pointed. Too pointed and sunken. There was no current picture of Paul. Not even from Valentina. Probably because her mother didn't know what he looked like now. Or had someone else commissioned the pictures? Mother will be annoyed by these portraits if she sees them. At least you wouldn't recognize them right away. None of them.
"That's unfortunate!", murmured Julia.
"Let's hope no one pays too much attention to us!" Lea sank into her pillows.
"I could..."
"No!" Her sister shook her head. "I can see how exhausted you are. Please don't use too much magic! Fritz and I are healers. We can hardly protect our group with magic! At most, with swords."
