That last bit made her feel a teeny bit of a twinge, even though she knew it was foolish wasting her sympathy on Gabriel. He’d stolen a priceless family heirloom, for profit. He was the last person she should be feeling badly for.
Teresa opened the door, looked around, then walked down the metal folding steps. Kelly grabbed her drawstring pouch and followed her. The glowing yellow-white orb of the sun floated in a cloudless sky the color of faded denim, and the din of the fair attendees ebbed and flowed like a tidal wave of sound.
As they started to make their way towards the staging area, Kelly glanced around quickly to make sure that nobody was watching them. A few people waved, and she waved back, hiding behind Teresa as much as she could without being too obvious. The fairground scents of cotton candy and popcorn and roasting meat wafted through the air.
“So literally all the Fair Maiden does is lie around and scream for help?” Teresa spoke in a low voice, lip curled in disgust as they weaved their way through the crowd.
Kelly nodded. “Exactly. When the knight threatens me, I scream, ‘I would rather die than marry you! The dragon is my only true love!’ And then the dragon flies in, lands, and St. George and the dragon fight, and the dragon grabs me and flies off, and that’s the end of the skit. Except of course it won’t get that far.”
Now they were walking behind food vendors’ booths, and the smell of frying funnel cake and corn dogs made Kelly’s stomach rumble. She’d been too nervous to eat that morning.
“How did the dragon get that close without the knight noticing?” Teresa wondered. “You’d think that a twenty-foot beast with a fifty-foot wingspan would be pretty hard to miss. You’d hear the wings flapping and see the shadow.”
“Don’t ask me, I didn’t write the play.”
“And your only role is to be rescued? How positively medieval.”
“Yes, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it?” Kelly looked at the stage up ahead.
“I need to get home to plan my wedding. Don’t screw this up,” Teresa warned her.
“Do I ever?”
“There’s always a first time,” Teresa said. Kelly thought she sounded a little too hopeful.
They were getting closer to the stage, and the crowd was thicker now. People recognized the Fair Maiden costume, and they whooped and hollered as Kelly walked by.
A couple of women in medieval garb, with big yellow “Tri-Valley Fair” badges hanging around their necks, spotted her. They waved at her impatiently, urging her towards the stage.
“I don’t see Gabriel Kingsley,” Teresa said nervously.
Suddenly, someone bumped into Kelly hard, and sent her staggering. She struggled to catch her balance and bit back an unprincess-like response…and then she felt a sudden emptiness. The truthstone was gone; she sensed its absence. She looked down at her now empty hand and let out a gasp of dismay.
She could just see the man who’d bumped into her, racing away through the crowd, elbowing and punching people. “My purse!” she cried out. “He took my purse!”
