“You may call me Hierodule,” she said as she seemed to cloak herself with a sudden air of dignity.
“Well, Hierodule, I am friends with the imps. I was on a ship in the harbor that was attacked by sea monsters, and the imps brought me to safety on top of the roof where I saw you,” Kestrel explained.
“The great masters would not have attacked your ship unless you were a terrible threat,” Hierodule replied. “What threat are you?”
“I am going to go to Uniontown to set a friend free, a woman who has been kidnapped,” he answered.
“Oh, how funny!” Hierodule laughed. “You’re going to take your imps and go to Uniontown and set a captive free. Just like that!”
“That’s what I plan to do,” Kestrel answered with a seriousness that made the woman stop laughing.
“Do you love her?” she asked.
“I do,” Kestrel said softly.
The woman’s hand shot out and slapped his face. “Stop it,” she said. “Love is for fools. It’s for the weak. You’re not weak. You’re just stupid. How did you survive those arrows, by the way?” she asked.
Kestrel looked at the woman, whose face was beginning to show darkening bruises. “Get in the water so you’ll feel better,” he told her.
“You think this water is safe?” she asked.
“Completely,” Kestrel assured her.
“Help me take this off,” she began to lift her voluminous robes. Kestrel helped her pull the material up over her head, then turned as she removed her under shifts. He heard her feet splash into the water, then suddenly turned his head around as she began to scream.
The woman was just a step into the spring, water only rising halfway up her calves. Her pregnant stomach was heaving in an extraordinary, violent manner, as though the fetus within it were fighting to escape, and her whole body was changing color, growing a darker shade. The texture of her skin seemed to grow thicker and rougher, and the features of her face seemed to shift. Kestrel imagined that she was beginning to resemble the manlike form of the Viathins that he had fought to set Picco free.
“You betrayed me!” she screamed as she looked at Kestrel, her voice taking on a gravelly, raspy sound. “It’s killing me!”
And then suddenly the paroxysm ended abruptly, and a dark mist rose from Hierodule; it shrouded her entire figure, hiding her from view. Kestrel started to draw his sword, fearful of what he was about to witness emerge from the cloud, when a timely breeze of fresh air wafted across the spring, blowing the mist away from the woman and making it rise upward, so that the small dark column of mist dissipated in the air above her.
And beneath the vanished cloud Hierodule stood in the water, once again appearing to be a dark-haired human woman, standing stock still, looking at Kestrel.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” Kestrel said. “Are you okay, Hierodule?” He held his hands out across the shoreline to her.
“I’m okay,” she said slowly. She looked at Kestrel. “I feel different. I feel like a girl again.”
“Who are you? What was that?” Kestrel asked her.
Hierodule hesitated. “Can I sit down in the water?” she asked.
“Over there by the rocks is my favorite place,” Kestrel pointed. “The water is a little warmer.”
Hierodule waded awkwardly then stroked briefly across the water to Kestrel’s spot in the spring.
“I was a priestess in the temple of Ashcrayss,” Hierodule said.
“Kestrel, who have you brought to this holy place?” a shrill voice asked from directly behind him. Kestrel whirled to see that Kere was standing behind him.
“I felt it; I felt a horrible, hateful pain at my spring, a raw, hurtful presence that threatened to overwhelm the purity of the water. It felt like I was experiencing a terrible stain about to break loose on a pure white piece of cloth,” the goddess said. “I had to work quickly to overcome the contamination, and then I came here to see what it was, and I discovered you standing here with one of your women. Who have you brought here? What have you done?”
“We came from Lakeview,” Kestrel responded. “We were under attack there.” He was speaking in elven to the goddess, as Hierodule watched.
“Where did she come from?” he heard the Lakeview woman ask, speaking in the human tongue. “Are you speaking the same language you used to speak to the imps?”
“Moorin has been kidnapped, and her captors are taking her to Uniontown. I was trying to go there to rescue her when I ran into trouble, and met this woman. We had to flee for our lives, and the imps brought us here,” he explained to the goddess.
“When Hierodule stepped into the water of the spring, there was a strange reaction. Her whole body transformed for a moment.”
“That was the spring water fighting to drive the infection out of her body, an infection of evil,” Kere explained. “This woman has been exposed to great evil – great evil.”
“Is she better now?” Kestrel asked.
“Well,” Kere seemed reluctant to answer, “She may be. The water drove the evil out of her. But there’s no telling how reliable she may be. What are your plans for her?”
Kestrel looked over at the woman, who was sitting in the water watching them. “I don’t have any plans for her. I just happened to meet her,” he felt reluctant to expose Hierodule’s suicide attempt. “We ran into each other when the guards discovered us, and I brought her along to save her life. I couldn’t just let her be killed, could I?”
“No, Kestrel,” Kere answered. “You couldn’t. Someone made of less compassionate stuff would have, but it wouldn’t be your way.
“Stay with her. Take her with you; use her as your guide. I foresee that she can lead you towards a goal,” the goddess said. “And you will do her good; you already have. Don’t let her slide back into her old ways.
“Good luck Kestrel. You’re approaching a climax; Kai’s choice is going to be proven to be right or wrong soon – within a few weeks,” Kere added. “I will not be able to give you much help in those places, not until after your great decision, but I will give you all my love, dear boy.” The goddess reached one plump, grandmotherly hand out and placed it as a benediction upon his head momentarily, and then she was gone.
“Worlds gone by! Where did she go?” Hierodule spoke, as gentle wisps of steam crept along the surface of the water around her.
Kestrel felt a twinge in his leg, and looked down to see the wound on his thigh seeping blood once again. It was too severe to heal quickly on its own, and he could not use the waters of the healing spring because of the need to prevent his ears and his eyebrows from returning to their natural elven shapes.
“She has gone back to doing what she does,” Kestrel answered Hierodule’s question. He then knelt on the ground, and cautiously pulled the imps out of the pool, taking care to not splash any water on himself, then sat down on the turf.
“What are you doing? Is it time to leave already? Where are you going to send me?” the woman asked.
“Stay,” Kestrel told her. “Relax in the water. We’re not leaving; I just need to send them on an errand,” he explained.
The imps woke up, grumpy and aware that they had spent little time in the water. “Kestrel cheater, we will not be able to come here all winter long,” Odare spoke to him crossly.
“I know. I’m sorry,” he apologized. “But my leg will not heal, and I cannot touch the water myself. If you could go bring doctor Alicia here to repair this wound, then the woman and I will be ready to return to Lakeview so that I may resume my quest.”
The imps grumbled no further, but instead gathered themselves together and disappeared.
“Where did they go? What manner of warrior are you that you have these other races – the blue sprites and the elven woman – serve your needs?” she asked. “We were told there is a great enemy out there, but we were told he is an elf, not a man.”
Kestrel paused. He wondered at the warnings, whether they were an indication that Union
town expected him to come into their domain.
“I have many friends who are elves, and sprites, and even gnomes,” Kestrel answered. “And by the way, the friends who are helping us are imps, not sprites.
“They’ve just gone to bring an elven woman who is a doctor here, to look at this cut on my leg,” he added.
“An elven woman?” Hierodule asked, then gasped as the imps returned with Alicia at that moment.
The doctor arrived with a bag of medical supplies in one hand and a lantern in the other.
“Kestrel, are you alright?” she asked as soon as she caught her breath.
“It’s my leg,” he answered with a motion of his hands to indicate the gory mess on the front of his leg.
“Is she your responsibility?” Alicia looked over at Hierodule, who sat in the water looking at them.
“I met her in Lakeview. She tried to commit suicide, and I saved her. Then we were under attack and the imps brought us here,” Kestrel replied, as they both looked at the woman in the water.
“Are you talking about me?” Hierodule asked as she saw them stare in her direction.
“I just told the doctor that you’re from Lakeview,” Kestrel replied, as Alicia looked down at his leg, then began to pull items out of her bag of supplies.
“I’m going to have to clean this up and stitch it up, Kestrel,” Alicia told him. “It’ll take a little while, and it won’t be pleasant for you.”
“I don’t have a choice,” he answered. “The imps won’t be able to carry me anywhere starting tomorrow. I have to get this fixed and get back to Lakeview before their travels stop.”
“Why don’t you lie back and relax while I work on this,” Alicia suggested.
With a sigh, Kestrel complied. He laid back and looked up at the stars in the sky, and he watched the imps fly in intricate patterns high overhead, making repeated crossings and twirls.
Kestrel felt Alicia cutting his pant leg open, preparing for her operation, and then he heard Hierodule splashing through the water.
“You didn’t tell me she was pregnant,” Alicia commented as the human woman stepped up into the shallower water. “I presume you’re not responsible for this, are you?”
“No!” Kestrel protested. “I just saw her for the first time a couple of hours ago,” which was true, he reflected. They had hardly been together, yet now Kere had told him to rely on the woman as his guide.
“Is she going to fix your leg?” Hierodule asked as she stepped up onto the shore.
“She is. I told her I need it fixed so that I can hurry back to Lakeview,” Kestrel answered.
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Hierodule asked as she slowly dropped to her knees on the side of Kestrel opposite of Alicia.
“She wants to know if she can help?” Alicia anticipated the question.
“Yes,” Kestrel confirmed.
“Tell her that after I clean this out, she can help hold the flesh together while I stitch it,” Alicia explained.
Kestrel translated the suggestion into the human language, even as he felt Alicia poking and removing debris from his wound.
“She has such slender, nimble fingers,” Hierodule commented as she watched. Her eyes shifted to stare at Kestrel’s face for a long moment, then turned again to look at the wound.
Kestrel passed the observation along, then winced as Alicia pulled something out of his flesh.
“And she has such large breasts, I can’t see why you want to have her as your travel companion,” Alicia mumbled in a tone that sounded dissatisfied. “They practically cast shadows on your leg.
“These human women – I don’t know why you find them so fascinating,” she stopped herself from saying more, and focused instead on his leg.
“I think I got all the debris out of the cut. Tell her to press the flesh together now, and to keep her fingers out of the way,” Alicia added. “This shouldn’t take long.”
Kestrel endured a steady series of painful jabs as Alicia proceeded to stitch the open wound closed during the next several minutes.
He laid with his eyes closed, enduring the continual pressure on his leg until he heard Alicia softly say, “Here – this is the last one,” and he opened his eyes to see both women raise their heads simultaneously and smile politely at one another.
“She did very well for you,” Hierodule told Kestrel, patting his shoulder in a comforting manner.
“I’ve trusted her many times to help me,” Kestrel answered.
“Thank you, Alicia. Hierodule says that you did very well,” he switched languages.
“It’s remarkable how nimble you are at switching languages,” the doctor commented as she returned her instruments to her bag, then stood up. “You seem to be as naturally human as you are elven anymore.”
She reached down and helped Hierodule rise to her feet, then extended her hands and helped Kestrel rise as well. “Be careful not to stretch that leg for the next few days if you can baby it. In about a week the flesh should be healed, and the stitches should have rotted; you’ll be able to pull them out. They’ll give off a little pus, but nothing serious, I expect.”
The imps came descending towards the group in graceful curving loops.
“I expect I’m going home now. Be careful Kestrel,” she said, then wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. “Next time you see me I’ll be different; I think I’m pregnant,” she whispered. “I’m going to be a mother too.”
They parted slightly, and Kestrel’s eyes probed her, searching her face for any clues of the emotions that such a profound statement might reflect. There was joy, and perhaps sadness on her face.
“You’ll be a wonderful mother,” Kestrel said. “Your little baby will be the luckiest baby in all of the Eastern Forest.”
“Thank you dear,” she said. They stepped apart.
“Are you ready to return home, doctor dear?” Odare asked.
“I’m ready, imp friend and ally,” she replied.
“Be careful Kestrel, and tell your companion to put some clothes on, please,” she smiled at him gently, then disappeared with her escort.
Kestrel and Hierodule stood in silence for a moment, adjusting to the darkness that resumed with the disappearance of Alicia’s lantern.
“You two are lovers?” Hierodule asked. “You seem very tender to each other, especially for an elf and a man.”
“No, we’re not lovers. Just friends,” Kestrel answered, as he thought about Alicia’s news of her pregnancy. He stooped awkwardly to pick up Hierodule’s clothes. “Here, let me help you get dressed. The imps will be back soon.
“I plan for them to take me back to Lakeview, so I can start my journey to Uniontown,” he explained, remembering Kere’s suggestion that he rely on Hierodule in his travels. “I can take you back to Lakeview with me. We’ll return to the same alleyway we left.”
“I don’t have anything to live for back there,” she told him as she shrugged her clothes over her head and thrust her arms upward, then turned and motioned for Kestrel to fasten the dress closed. “But I don’t have any place else to go.
“Lend me your knife,” she said as she finished straightening the material.
“What do you need it for?” Kestrel asked as he pulled the knife from his hip.
“I need to cut off a strip of cloth from my dress, to make a blindfold for you,” she told him matter-of-factly.
“I don’t need a blindfold!” he protested.
“You need to do something to hide those purple eyes of yours,” the priestess replied as she sawed at the hem of her dress. “There’s no one in the entire Uniontown empire with purple eyes. You’re marked as an outsider as soon as someone sees those.
“You just cover your eyes. We’ll pretend you’re a blind beggar. I’ll be your pregnant wife, and we can make the trip to Uniontown together,” the woman explained as she dropped the bottom of her skirt, the knife in one hand and a strip of cloth in the other. She returned the knife to Kestrel, then held the cl
oth up to his face.
“I don’t know of any other way for you to travel along the river to Uniontown,” she insisted.
“You’ll travel with me?” Kestrel asked in confusion.
“I don’t have any chance of staying in Lakeview and staying alive,” Hierodule replied. “I’ll take my chances traveling with you. It’ll probable get me killed anyway, but from what I’ve seen, I expect it will be interesting.”
Kestrel bowed his head forward, as he silently consented to allowing his eyes to be covered, and he felt the priestess wrap and tie the cloth around his head.
As she finished, the imps returned. “Kestrel friend, what game are you playing?” Stillwater asked.
“The human woman says that I need to cover my eyes because of the gnome color,” Kestrel explained.
“Ah,” Odare said sagely, “sometimes there are consequences to your reckless actions, such as running around with the other races.”
“You mean like an elf running around with imps?” Kestrel asked archly.
“I forget sometimes that you are not truly one of us,” Odare answered contritely. “You do seem almost bright enough to be an imp.”
“What are you talking to them about?” Hierodule asked, not understanding the elven language.
“The blindfold,” Kestrel answered. “Is there anything we need to pick up here, or do we have everything?” He pressed his thumbs against the bottom of the blindfold and pressed upward, allowing him to peek beneath the ragged fringe of the material to survey the area.
“We are ready to return to the last place we came from, the alleyway in Lakeview,” Kestrel informed the imps. He spread his arms and stepped towards Hierodule, then hugged her as the four imps gathered around them.
The imps carried the pair of travelers into the emptiness that was the way to move between places, and then emerged in the dark alleyway. Kestrel released his grip on Hierodule, and stepped back from the priestess.
“Stillwater,” he spoke as he raised his head to direct his think field of vision beneath the blindfold upward, “you and your squad must go home. You don’t want to be stranded here for months.”
The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 05 - Journey to Uniontown Page 11
