The others in the room looked at one another, then at Kestrel, and then at Hierodule. “I don’t think Hiram is appreciated for all he’s done and all he can do, and I think he feels that. Just wait and see what he brings back. You’ll be satisfied,” his sister said reassuringly.
Once Hiram was gone, the group turned to distributing and consuming a portion of the food that Kestrel and Hiram had brought to the room. Kestrel watched with satisfaction as the imps devoured copious amounts of food, and all grew sleepy, lying down and closing their eyes to rest and digest their meals.
“What chance do we have to find five berths on a ship?” Moorin asked Kestrel as she came to sit on the floor next to him and the imps.
“I don’t know,” Kestrel answered. “I didn’t pay that much attention to the docks when we arrived – I had my eyes covered to hide their color – so I don’t know how much traffic there is.”
“You’ve done a marvelous job, to travel this deeply into Uniontown’s territory and to rescue me and the water skin,” she told him softly, placing her hand on his arm. “I appreciate what you’ve done, my lord.”
Kestrel turned his head to face her directly, and smiled gently. He felt the angry energy within him, trying to goad him to assert his claim over Moorin, to declare her his own spoils of victory, but he resisted the terrible urge. He knew the noble elven woman beside him had suffered a terrible journey to arrive in Uniontown, and he marveled at her composure.
“Whatever happens, it’s been heroic of you to have come here for me,” she added.
“What choice did I have? Who can resist your allure?” he asked her. “Even if a goddess hadn’t told me to save you, my heart would have said the same thing.”
She blushed, and offered no resistance as he curled his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a leaning hug, where they sat contentedly and silently until the door opened several minutes later, and Hiram entered the room, carrying a large sack of material over his shoulder.
Kestrel stared in amazement at the change Hiram had wrought in his own appearance. The man wore a headband over his short hair, and had unbuttoned two buttons at the top of a white blouse to reveal a necklace. He had traded a pair of pants for a skirt. And in those few simple things, somehow Hiram had become a woman in appearance. The mild face of the man became the profile of a strong woman, Kestrel thought, as he stared.
Hiram looked at Kestrel defiantly. “Here are the clothes for everyone else who’s going to dress as a woman,” Hiram said, laying his bundle on Hierodule’s bed. “There’s even enough for you to dress as a woman if you want to,” he looked at Kestrel as he spoke.
“No thank you,” Kestrel said, flustered by the success of Hiram’s impersonation of a woman. “I wouldn’t be able to carry it off as successfully as you have, and I’m already using one false identity anyway just by pretending to be a human.”
Hiram proceeded to eat his share of the food in the bag as the others dressed themselves according to the plan, and an hour later, everyone was declared ready to begin their evacuation from Uniontown. Kestrel put his blindfold in place, and they opened the window to allow the imps to fly to freedom.
“We’ll watch for you and follow you,” Stillwater promised.
They left their temporary refuge and began walking the streets on a route towards the riverfront, Kestrel the only apparent male among the four who were dressed as women.
“There are guards everywhere, at every crossroads,” Moorin spoke gently in Kestrel’s ear as they began the journey. “Your escapades have apparently made the local authorities extra vigilant.”
The guards were checking people who walked past them, choosing folks at random for interviews and searches.
“Kestrel,” Moorin said in a low voice, minutes after they started, “the guards are examining Hiram and Hierodule.”
“Which direction?” Kestrel asked. “Face me towards them, and let me know if I need to do something.” He pulled Lucretia partially from the scabbard on his hip, unable to see what was passing. “Tell me what they’re doing.”
“They’re making Hierodule take her dress off!” Moorin whispered indignantly. “Right here on the street! As if being pregnant is something she could fake!” She stood silently as Hierodule was subjected to the humiliating examination.
“Now they’re searching Hiram,” she whispered moments later. “They’re letting Hierodule get dressed again.”
“How many are there?” Kestrel hissed, expecting trouble to break out once Hiram’s false identity was uncovered.
“There are four right here. There are four more down to the left at the next corner,” Moorin began to scout out the situation. “Oh, they’re done with Hiram; they’re letting us go on. They’re even giving Hierodule a pass,” Moorin whispered.
“Let’s get moving,” Lake said, speaking from the other side of Moorin, who grabbed Kestrel’s arm to begin to lead him to the river front.
“What happened? They just let us go? Did they really even check Hiram?” Kestrel asked Hierodule, who took up a position next to him as they began to move.
“”Everything’s fine. They didn’t really bother him very much, and I’ve got a pass to get us to the river,” the pregnant woman said.
Kestrel lapsed into silence, wondering what had happened, until he was suddenly called to attend to their changing circumstances.
“These are the upriver docks,” he heard a man tell Moorin. “The downriver docks are on the other bank. But there are no passenger ships allowed to carry anyone down river right now; a new directive from the palace just came to the docks this morning prohibiting passenger travel until we’re told otherwise,” the voice said.
They walked away from the docks, and Kestrel felt them enter a cooler shadow, apparently out of the way of traffic on the sunny street. “So now we need to go west,” he heard Lake say.
“We need to at least go to the other bank and check with the ships there to make sure they know they are banned from taking us,” Kestrel argued. He had no desire to try to escape into a wilderness controlled by Uniontown, trusting only Lake, who he hardly knew, to lead them to safety. Hierodule was hardly able to move through rough terrain, nor to move quickly under any circumstances, while Hiram was not a fighter, and Lake’s fighting ability, if needed, was unknown.
“But we just heard the guard say,” Lake protested.
“We need to find out for ourselves,” Kestrel cut him off, and spoke in a voice that was almost a snarl. He could feel the restless energy within him, telling him to be forceful, to dominate the others and bend them to his will. “There’s nothing to debate. We need to find a bridge and cross,” he commanded.
He heard someone give a sigh, then Hiram spoke. “I saw a bridge to our right.”
“Let’s get going,” Kestrel commanded, as Moorin took him by the arm to lead him with the others.
“You’re a little testy,” she spoke very softly as they walked.
“You would be too if you had to wear a blindfold in this city,” he replied.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” he heard Lake say.
Kestrel shook his head, but said nothing, and they walked until they reached the bridge and crossed the river, then went back south to the docks, where they started to ask boat captains whether they would take on the group of passengers for a trip north to Lakeview.
Universally, the answer was ‘no’.
“Kestrel, I think there are guards starting to follow us,” Hiram spoke to him after an hour’s futile effort to find a ride.
“Let’s get away from the docks, and try to find some place to stop and rest,” Kestrel suggested.
There was a sudden clap of thunder overhead, and Kestrel felt a pair of fat raindrops hit the top of his head. A moment later, a series of drops began to shower down upon him and the others.
“Kestrel, it’s raining,” Hierodule unnecessarily said.
“I know,” he replied, frustrated at being caught out in the elements. “G
et us into the nearest shelter,” he ordered.
“Kestrel, we’re in trouble,” Moorin said suddenly, her mouth pressed against his ear to be heard over the sound of the downpour.
Kestrel felt his anger growing, and the parasitic energy within him both stirring the anger and feeding off of it. “I know,” he said curtly. “Let’s just get under a roof and figure this out.”
“No, the guards are converging on us from every direction. There must be a score of them,” Moorin spoke.
“All of you stand apart,” a deep voice called. “Nobody run. Everyone separate and obey orders. Put your hands over your heads,” the voice ordered.
“Why are you doing this?” Kestrel heard Hiram ask.
“Everyone be silent,” another voice ordered.
“What’s happening?” Kestrel asked, his hands half-heartedly raised above his head.
“Silence!” an unknown man behind him roared, and slapped the back of Kestrel’s head to emphasize his order.
“Ow!” he heard Hierodule exclaim. “I have a pass,” she spoke up.
“Let’s see this one,” someone said.
“There was a ripping sound. “Go tell them to open up the prison gates. We’ve got ourselves an elf!” someone said triumphantly. “Check that one too.”
“She’s the one! Send a messenger to the palace,” yet another voice said a moment later.
“Kestrel!” Moorin’s voice spoke tremulously.
He lowered his hands to his head and pulled the blindfold off of his face, then blinked in the rain as he regained vision for the first time since leaving their room in the boarding house. He wanted to call upon Kai’s energy within himself, to use it to put an end to the confrontation that had erupted, but the energy from the temple blocked his access, forcing him to delve through the anger and the lust for violence in order to get to the other energy.
The rain was falling hard, limiting visibility to only a few yards of clear sight. Men in bright yellow uniforms were everywhere he looked. Lake and Moorin stood with their heads uncovered, ripped scarves hanging down upon their shoulders, their elven heritage – only recently regained though it was in Lake’s case – exposed for the Uniontown world to see.
Kestrel raised his hands high above his head again.
Hierodule’s dress was ripped open, exposing the skin of her pregnant belly. Hiram stood nearby, unmolested, the rain-wetted short hair atop his head pressed down upon his scalp, leaving him looking like a vulnerable and weary woman, Kestrel thought.
And then he felt the energy within him erupt. It came pouring out of him, Kai’s energy stained by the temple energy, beyond his control, ready to do things to set his companions free, things he didn’t intend, through violence that wasn’t needed.
A column of light rose from Kestrel’s hands straight up into the air fifty feet above the scenario on the docks, and all eyes turned upwards to look at the brilliance that replaced the cloudy gloom. The column of energy was white, pure blinding white; as it reached the top of its height it spread wide in all directions, forming an umbrella over the scene below. The uniformed guards who had converged to capture Kestrel’s crew began to back away from the extraordinary scene.
The roof at the top of the column continued to widen, covering the plaza they were in, and extending beyond.
“Kestrel, what are you doing?” Moorin asked, as he held his hands high to release the energy, planning to use it to immobilize the guards they faced.
Suddenly, the umbrella portion of the spectacular display began to turn from white to deep red, a wave of crimson spreading out from the center. As the red reached the outer edge of the wide circle, it suddenly turned an even darker shade of red.
And then it fell down upon the city. Streams of the red energy fell suddenly, striking every living person in the vicinity, every person except for Kestrel and his companions. All the guards were touched, as were bystanders and merchants and dockworkers. As the energy touched the others, they screamed in agony, then burst into flames. Some managed to stagger a few steps away before they fell, while others simply fell where they stood, instantly dead from the fatal energy.
Kestrel pulled his hands down, and ended the transmission of the energy, so that the column disappeared and the red roof overhead dissipated away.
Kestrel and the others stood alone, no other living being within fifty yards of them, as wisps of steam rose from the dead bodies of his victims, while the rain fell down upon them.
“What did you do?” Lake asked in astonishment.
“That’s not what I meant to do,” Kestrel said, his eyes wide and his face pale. He felt drained of energy, and he felt the restless energy of the temple churning gleefully inside him, satisfied with its deadly usurpation of his own efforts.
“I didn’t want to do that,” he added.
“You killed so many. Look at that family over there,” Moorin cried in horror.
“I didn’t mean to; I didn’t want to. The power of the enemy took over, and made it go wrong,” Kestrel cried. He looked at Moorin and saw the shock in her face. “I would never want to deliberately harm innocent people.”
“I didn’t think so, before this,” Moorin replied.
“We ought to get away from here,” Hiram spoke up, focusing the attention of the group. “We need to escape while we can.”
“Follow me,” Lake spoke up. “I’ll lead you west to the mountains, to my homeland.”
The others looked at Kestrel, who nodded. “Let’s follow Lake’s path, and see where it leads,” he acquiesced, still caught up in the shock of what he had done.
“I’ll pull my blindfold back on,” he said.
“You don’t need to,” Moorin told him as she stood near him, staring at his face. “Your eyes aren’t purple any more.
“They’ve turned black,” she explained.
Kestrel slowly raised his hands to his eyes, letting his trembling fingertips touch his eyelids, his cheeks, his forehead. It troubled him, almost as much as the death of the innocents troubled him.
“Let’s move,” Lake said, starting to walk away.
The others fell in behind him, and Kestrel took the last position in the line as they left the stench of burnt flesh behind and walked away from the death and chaos of the docks.
Chapter 14 – Escape from the Docks
As nightfall arrived, the small group stopped at an empty house on the edge of the city. They had woven through the rainy streets of the west side of the city, moving amidst the warehouses and businesses and timberyards and forges that were located near the river, then through the slums where the workers lived, and finally made it to the outskirts of Uniontown, where some homes were occupied and some were empty.
Lake led them into the small empty house whose neighboring structures also appeared to be empty as well. As they all gathered in the front room, Kestrel pulled his sword and walked into the two back rooms, which he checked for any signs of recent occupants. Satisfied that the house appeared to be completely vacant, he returned to the front just as the imps came swooping in through an empty window frame.
“Are you and all of your companions safe, Kestrel-friend?” Stillwater asked as the small blue bodies saw Kestrel step through the doorway.
“We seem to be,” Kestrel replied in a weary tone. He had not spoken to anyone during their meandering journey through the city, as his mind replayed the horror of the use of his powers, the defense that had gone so wrong at his hands, and killed so many innocent people. He felt horrified by the realization that he murdered people, even children, solely through his own exercise of power. He had allowed his power to be hijacked – he hadn’t done it himself, he told himself by way of an excuse, but it was hollow and weak, and failed to absolve him of any guilt.
“What happened in the city, when the great energy occurred?” Canyon asked. “We nearly got singed when the power came rising up into the sky so quickly.”
“It was my fault,” Kestrel admitted instantly. “I lost contro
l of my abilities, and a lot of people suffered.”
“We all know you didn’t intend that to happen as it did,” Moorin spoke up. “Don’t crucify yourself endlessly Kestrel. You’re a good man, better than I originally estimated,” she gave a shy smile, and Kestrel momentarily smiled in return.
“The power from the temple,” he said haltingly, “some of it is inside me; when I was on the temple’s altar and under attack I was infected by it. It took over the divine energy I tried to use to set us free back there. I just lost control of it.”
“We’re free now, and Lake is going to lead us someplace safe,” Hiram spoke up to comfort Kestrel.
“I don’t want to let that happen again,” Kestrel said softly.
“We know, Kestrel,” Moorin assured him.
“What will our journey be like?” Hierodule asked Lake, trying to change the conversation.
“We can follow the Dangueax River to the south, and when it nears the Western Mountains, we’ll be able to follow the canyons to my homeland,” Lake explained.
“Does Uniontown control the territory? Will we be hunted?” Hiram asked, looking at Hierodule.
“There are Uniontown soldiers patrolling the roads, but they aren’t looking for humans, or expecting trouble,” Lake replied, “especially not this close to Uniontown. We won’t have any troubles for several days.”
“What will happen after several days?” Kestrel asked.
“No humans are allowed near the mountains or the former forest any longer, so we’ll have to hide from the random patrols when we get to that area,” Lake replied.
“Will we be able to obtain food along the way?” Kestrel asked.
“There were a few villages I saw when I was brought to Uniontown. I think we can get some food as we need,” Lake said reassuringly.
“Let’s all have something to eat now,” Moorin suggested, “and then get some rest for the night.”
Kestrel emptied out the sack of food that he had carried, leaving everyone hungry as they each took a small share of the available food. Kestrel and the imps agreed to take the watch duty for the evening, and everyone found a spot on the floor of their shelter where they curled up for warmth in the chilly evening air. Hiram and Hierodule laid down back to back, and while Odare took the first watch, the other imps slept in a heap together. Kestrel, Moorin, and Lake each picked a spot and lay down silently, and soon the room was silent.
The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 05 - Journey to Uniontown Page 21
