In a poor hut, a pretty woman with long brown hair curled over a simple bed of straw and a roughly woven blanket. Her name was Ashtena. Her face was contorted with fear as she shook the boy lying on the bed vigorously. "Rovan wake up! What is it Rovan? Wake up!!!" The boy had short blond hair and a little freckles around his nose. He was crooked on the side of the bed and had his teeth pressed together and he gritted with them that it could be heard clearly and his eyes were narrowed. His hands were clenched into fists in front of him and he occasionally twitched slightly all over. "Rovan, by the gods. WAKE UP!!!!" Ashtena shook her son so vigorously that he rolled from side to side, but the boy did not seem to notice or wake up. The woman got up stunned and looked around the room frantically. Her eyes fell on a clay bowl of water with which Rovan had washed his face the night before he went to bed. Spontaneously, she reached for the bowl and poured it over Rovan's face with a quick movement
Snarling and shaking, Rovan jumped up and stared in shock at his mother. "What? What is it? What did you do?" He jumped up and shook himself and ran his hands through his wet hair and then looked at his mother angrily. "Why did you do that? It's the middle of the night." The wet nightgown stuck to him and the cold water made him shiver. "You dreamed something Rovan. I couldn't wake you." Ashtena ran to Rovan and took him in her arms and thought: Gods why my son? Please let it stop. . Rovan looked contrite. "I don't remember anything. Are you sure I dreamed?" "You gritted your teeth so badly that I thought you'd break them out my boy." Ashtena hugged him tightly. These dreams started three years ago a short time after he turned 10. Since then, he regularly fell into a deep sleep at night and nothing could wake him up. It didn't happen every week, but it did hap-pen 2 or 3 times a month and Rovan could never remember what he had been dreaming of. Ashtena had spoken to Mirielle, the healer who had settled in the village 12 years ago, but she couldn't help her either. They had tried soothing teas in the evening for a while, but Ashtena didn't have much money and her husband Torkan only came home every three months. He brought just enough of his hunts to eat and for the bare essentials. She quickly stopped taking the remedies when she saw no improvement. She thought that if her boy didn't get enough to eat, she wouldn't help him with ineffective healing teas. She should have seen a wizard or priest. But that was out of the question. On the one hand, the nearest temple of Sinanna was 4 days away on foot and, on the other hand, she should have made a suitable donation so that the priestess could have dealt with Rovan extensively. And magicians? It was even more difficult. Since the healing was the re-sponsibility of the priests, there were hardly any healing wizards. You could only find them at academies and the next one was located in Uhlheim. And for sure the wizards would charge much more for their services than the priests. But the school in Uhlheim specialized in exploring inanimate objects. They said they could turn a chair into a pot or make it fly for a while. But Ashtena had never seen anything like that, and she didn't want to wait until her boy became an inanimate object. Consequently only the schools in the east were an option. Even if the mysterious city-states in the east were said to be inhabit-ed by degenerated and godless people, these godless places, in return, gave freedom to find all kind of services without regulation and they might find a magician there who could penetrate her son's dreams to see what was going on there and possibly end them. But Kambozan, the westernmost of the city-states, lay in the middle of the desert, around the largest oasis of this sea of sand. It was certainly 2 weeks by foot, and she would have no protection. She couldn't pay guards, and what would 2 men do against the fabulous desert tribes, which according to stories included 200 or 500 men. They would both fall into slavery. Ashtena went out of the room sadly and Rovan watched her, wondering what his mother was thinking about. Then he sat down on the bed with a sigh, pushed the thin but heavy blanket that covered the window aside and looked diagonally across to the stone and mud house. But the windows there were all dark, so he lay back, sighed softly, and thought of the baker's pretty blonde daughter until he fell asleep again.
As soon as she woke up from the rooster's crowing, Lenja sat up in bed, rubbed her eyes and then gave a short, bright laugh. Today was the day. Today the party was a mess. At the end of summer, when most of the crops were harvested and the winds came up, the days were still comfortably warm but shorter, the people of the sand marches celebrated the rich harvest and the end of field and forest work. This exuberant festival usually last-ed for a week. The sandmarches were a blessed country. The mild climate and the many rivers and the abundant rain brought them plenty of food year after year. It was one of the granaries of the empire and would have been almost paradise if the barren desolation did not extend east of the Stonesword mountains. Aware of the prosperity of the sandmarches, looting hordes of nomadic tribes from the desert invaded the empire almost every year, pillaged villages and kidnapped women and children. The border, which stretched from the sea to the north, could not be ridden by a rider in two weeks and so Empress Narioba II was unable to completely protect her empire from the robbers. These became more and more cunning in misleading patrols and scurrying through the unman-ageable border without being noticed. And now that there was unrest in the far north of the empire, the empress had even pulled out a few regiments. But Lenja had only heard stories of all of this so far, and she did not waste any thought on it.
She jumped out of bed and ran to the earthen water bowl standing on a stained oak chest of drawers. There was also a small oval standing mirror on it and next to it was her hair-brush. These were possessions the other girls in the village envied her about. Because Lenja's father was a baker and sweets master. He had learned the craft at the court of Duke of Stormfir when he was young and he was extremely talented. Nobody, within a few hours of walking, equals him in the art of baking. That is why everyone who could afford it always bought bread and festive treats from him and so he was able to offer his daughter some luxury. Lenja briefly washed her face and then sat on a wooden stool, looked into her 11-year-old face and combed her hair dreamily. Today there would be mu-sic everywhere. And jugglers would come and perform miraculous tricks. Her father would conjure up the most delicious sweets and everyone would be in a good mood. She could not wait for it to happen. She was looking forward to this day even more than to her day of blessing. After she had combed her blonde hair extensively, she put on her green dress and examined herself in the mirror. She tied it more tightly on the sides, but she was not quite as convincing as her mother. She grimaced briefly in the mirror, then splashed some water out of the bowl, laughing. She afterwards looked around for her shoes. Sud-denly she heard her father's voice. "Lenja get up and help me. There is a lot to do and we want to be ready by noon. "Since she did not see her shoes, she dropped to her knees and looked under her bed. She remembered that she had thrown a shoe under the bed in the evening. She cautiously slid under her bed and touched the ground with her hand, looking for the shoe. When she finally found it, she climbed out below the bed and quick-ly slipped into her shoes. In a hurry to meet her father she ran down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, she ran into the kitchen and jumped laughing on her father's back from behind. "Good Mooooorning daddy," she said.
Her father reached to his back and supported her and said: "Good morning, my little rose, well, you're in a good mood. Could it be because of the festival today? "He turned around slowly with her on his back and she laughed softly. "Yes, dad this will be so great. I can't wait to see all the jugglers and musicians and,..., mhhhh, that smells so great. Are you making your cinnamon honey bags again?" "Of course, my little one. How could I with-hold them from the village, and", while setting her down, "of course also from you." Lenja grinned happily at her father and sat down at the table. Mommy had made porridge with fresh milk and honey. Sighing for joy, she took the spoon and was about to push it into the pulp when her father held her hand. "Did you wash your hands too? Show it to me." "Daddy, of course, right after getting up". Well, she showed her hands and her father nodded and gave her a gentle pat on the back of the head. "Fine eat now. When you're done, you have to go to Elmon at the bakery and bring him 5 baskets." With a full mouth, Lenja nodded and thought:" But not all at once! "She imagined herself carrying two heavy bread baskets in each hand and balancing one on her head. She had to grin so dearly that the porridge almost flowed out of her mouth. Her father frowned at her and raised an eyebrow: "Lenja !!!" "Yes. Yes, I'm sorry Daddy," she murmured and giggled, quickly hold-ing her hand over her mouth. Her father sighed and shook his head and turned away and she could have sworn he was grinning. Lenja loved her father more than anything. He was making fun with her, trying to fulfill all her wishes, but he was also strict and made sure that she behaved, dressed properly and expressed properly. He had once said to her that a bully could become a knight if he proved himself in battle. But a dissolute girl never became anything because women got what they wanted and needed and were admired for, mainly through their pleasant company, virtue and beauty. That is why he sent her to Master Ranik twice a week. Master Ranik was a strange man who had settled in the village a few years ago. He could read and write several languages and probably also speak. He knew the history of the empire and all large families. He had books about the "legalities", what the empress had allowed and what she had forbidden, and it con-tains also how much everyone had to pay to his masters. This is why most people came to him when they had quarrels with others and it had settled so far that they complied with Master Ranik's word because he checked their quarrel in legal terms and then reported what the empress had issued. This saved everyone a lot of money. Otherwise you would have had to send for a Wanoy. These were the traveling judges of the dukes, who spoke justice on behalf of the empress. But that would cost money if someone insists on calling them.
Lenja learned history and courtly behaviour from Master Ranik. He also taught her the Akzetum, this was the ancient language of the scholars. Most of the books were written in this language. It combined statements and entire parts of the sentence in one word, and was considered to be particularly difficult. Master Ranik had started teaching Lenja two years ago by asking her little riddles. The answer was a short statement. And for this there was a word and a sign. Lenja only found out that this was Akzetum later, and so she had found playfully access to this difficult language. She often played the puzzle game with Master Ranik and he thought of poetic rhymes whose answer was a word in Akzetum. The following day, Lenja had to come up with a puzzle for which the same word was the answer.
Lenja delicately shoveled the delicious porridge intoher mouth and imagined what she would get to see today. She especially loved the fire dancers. They juggled with torches or fire bowls and spat fire. They danced to Eastern music. Lenja always thought why they did not burn their mouths when they spat fire, but obviously they did not because they always smiled happily into the crowd. The women were barely clothed and wore beautiful jewelry to see, while the men were mostly muscular guys. Then the door opened and Len-ja's mother, Sharia, entered. She had her blonde hair tied up and was carrying a basket of apples under her arm. Sharia smiled at Lenja. "You have already woken up Lenja, that's great. You can help Daddy at work." She went to Lenja and gave her a kiss on the head and then went on to Anor, Lenja's father, and hugged him. "Dear the Warwincks,gave this basket of apples to us. I guess they feel guilty because they have not paid for your deliv-ery last week." She smiled at him. "They all eat from the palm of your hand Darling . When I married you, I never thought that my master baker would have a grip on the whole vil-lage." "Sweets master, sweetheart," he replied with a grin and took the basket of her hands. "I can use it to make apple milk whisk cake for the Torqua day." The Torqua day was the most important day of the week. No work was allowed on that day. He served to pay homage to Torqua, the god of justice, law and order and the patron saint of the em-pire. On this day there was always a ritual of God in the holy house or grove and at the time of the tree stuff festival this was the highlight of the festival week, the last day. If the tree stuff festival was also a folk festival, it turned towards the homage of the gods and especially Torqua, who watched over the righteous and the God-given empire and, of course, especially about the righteous loyal to the emperor.
The basket landed on the sideboard next to the fireplace from where Sharia immediately removed it: "It is much too warm there or should they already be soft?" Anor sat down and ignored the remark. "Have you eaten yet, Shari? "" Yes, the Warwincks gave me one of our rolls with nut mousse. They really wanted to keep me there and tell me about their daughter. Listen, Axana moved to Schuln with her husband. He opened a carpentry there and is now building racks for the ducal wainwrights. Can you believe that? Rolk this slacker actually made something out of his life. ""Rolk is nice! "Lenja spoke up indignant-ly. "Just because he wanted to see the world he is no slacker! I would also like to see something of the world. "
"Oh my little one, there are always dangers lurking on trips. And if you are not trained in warfare like Rolk also was not, you might not come home one day. A young woman does not travel the world. We live here in the most beautiful part of the empire. Elsewhere you only see hunger and misery or fall victim to wolves or robbers. Get that out of your head. Daddy will find a cute young man for you who will take care of you and you of him. And that is how it should be. "
Daddy grinned tortured: "Not so soon Sharia. You do not have to tell her that all the time. There is still a long way to go. "Lenja smiled gratefully at her father. "Yes you two once again conspired against me. You can also clear the table together then. "Sharia said mis-chievously and pinched Lenja lightly on the cheek. Lenja pouted: "But I have to go help Elmon. "" No contradiction young lady do what your mother says.", Anor said and rose from the table. Lenja also rose from the table and saw from the corner of her eye how her father pulled Sharia into his arms and kissed her softly. Her mother snuggled up to Anor and hugged him with both arms. "Yeah they smooch and I have to work," thought Lenja, grinning. She remembered how Zuni and Exiros had secretly kissed behind the barn of old Birch. Exiros had pulled Zuni close and pressed his lips on hers. Thereupon Zuni had pushed him away and shouted "bahhh" and wiped her lips, running away. Exiros had looked quite stupidly. Lenja giggled involuntarily when she thought about it. She did not understand why everyone was so keen to smooch. When she noticed that Daddy and Mommy were still busy, she quietly tiptoed out of the kitchen and hurried to the bakery.