“Hummpff,” she groused, plopping herself on my robed shoulder.
I smiled at Maya and pointed to a vendor cart coming down the street, and my dark elf winked and excused herself for a minute. Coming back, she carried a small, multi-colored sweetbun on a large leaf and held it in front of the pixie’s eyes. The treat was liberally coated in cinnamon and honey which was threatening to drip down the sides and make a mess.
Nia’s eyes got bigger than normal and she reached out and snatched the bun, taking a huge bite. “Well, I guess I could forgive you this one time.” She smacked her lips, her face already sticky. I chuckled, seeing another bath in her future. “So, where are we going, anyway?”
“I need Alex to make my father a new sword.” Maya said, licking a couple of her fingers which had honey on them.
“Why,” asked Nia, “what’s wrong with the old one?”
“Because after today, it’s probably going to be broken.”
“Oh, now I’m following.”
“Now, come on!” She led us the last few hundred feet and through the door of the smithy - at least that’s what it looked and smelled like. Inside, an old dwarf was sorting through some flats of wrought iron and barking out orders to a young dark elf who was making a list of some type. People say you can tell the age of a dwarf by how deep the crags in his face are and, if that’s true, this character was a lot older than even Darroth. Still, he had the typical dwarven smith solid build and the arms like tree trunks that testified to years at the forge. I instantly felt at home among the tools of my trade and looked around with a big smile on my face, inspecting the forge, anvils and tools.
Maya, on the other hand, walked right up and engaged the proprietor with one of her winning smiles. He eyed her warily, looking her up and down, and then he scowled at me seeing that I was investigating his shop. The sticky-looking, overly-full pixie on my shoulder probably didn’t reassure him much, either.
“Good morning, my Lady, and what can I do for you today?”
“Hello, my good dwarf! We need a few blocks of your best metals, the ones you keep in the back, a few strips of fine leather, and two of the largest mugs of dwarven ale you can find!”
He stood there speechless, jaw moving but nothing coming out, for a few seconds, at least. “What? Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Oh, you know, just the daughter of Faeron, nobody special.”
His eyes grew wide and his face split into a huge gap-toothed grin. “Maya? Is that really you?”
“Good to see you, Tavey; it’s been a long time. I thought you went back to Bellrock to retire,” Maya said, taking his proffered hand and shaking it heartily.
“Ha, the food’s terrible and that place is nuttier than around here; and coming from a dwarf, that says a lot! Say, look at you, you are the spitting image of your beautiful mother; the men must be falling all over you!
She smiled again and took my arm as I rejoined her. “Got my man right here.”
He eyed me. “A human?”
She chuckled, “Oh, much more than that.”
The old dwarf shrugged noncommittally and fixed me with a stare. “You got yourself a good girl there, young man, so watch yourself or you’ll have me and her father to deal with.”
Maya reached her arms around him and gave him a big hug. “Ha, good one! I bet you can’t say that when we leave! Tavey, I’d like you to meet Alex Martin; Alex, this is Tavey Slatepilot. He is the one who made my mother’s spear.”I nodded and shook his hand.
“Well, he’s got a firm grip, I’ll grant you that. Feels like he at least knows which end of a hammer to use, but you don’t look like a smith. Enough of that; you had an order to place. What were you thinking of making?”
“We will be needing a new sword for my father. See, his old one is going to break this afternoon. I would suggest you just leave it at that.”
He was confused, “This afternoon, but why…” She stared at him. “Oh, right, don’t ask, got it. I’ll be back in a second.”
He came back a few minutes later with a bag in one hand and two very large mugs of ale in the other. “Here you go.” Handing the bag to Maya, he then presented each of us with the ale. “And here you both go.” Maya waved it off.
“The ale isn’t for us, it’s for you.”
“Huh?”
She tossed me the bag of metals and leathers. “Get to work, Magic Boy. I want a side sword-styled weapon with a cross-guard with quillions, a knuckle-bow, two arms, and don’t forget an inner guard with some nice looking rings and loops. Make it look impressive, but not foppish. And make sure you add some enchantments to help him win duels without anything being noticed. You’ve got an hour!”
An hour, ok, I’m fine with that. And if I used a similar enchantment to what I used on my boots, it should work to make him a bit lighter on his feet. Add in the usual upgrades for lightness, sharpness and unparalleled durability, it should be a really nice sword.
The dwarf, on the other hand, seemed to be having trouble with that. “Maya, if it was anyone else but you, I would call you daft! No one can forge a sword like that in an hour. Hell, it would probably take me a couple weeks if I started right now and that’s without any mumbo-jumbo add-ons!”
Maya dragged him off and made him start drinking as Nia and I set to work. Believe me, you have no idea how good it felt to be at work again. To work raw metal with a hammer in my hand…ok, a blacksmith’s hammer.
A side sword is a long, straight blade, similar to a heavier-duty version of a rapier. Like a rapier, it usually has a ornate guard. They are designed more for thrusts and light slashing cuts than the heavy long swords I was used to seeing, but I could make this work just fine. All I needed was a good mental picture of what I wanted to accomplish. With Nia’s help, I started to make the metal flow and shape itself into the desired pattern. I really didn’t need the hammer and forge any more, but it served as a good mnemonic device to keep me focused. I quickly dropped into the mental state where I ignored most of my surroundings and just created.
Ignoring my surroundings was probably a good thing because, when I broke out of my trance, there were not two, but five empty tankards of dwarven ale scattered across the table. A supremely satisfied dark elf beauty was smirking on one chair and a frazzled-looking dwarf was asleep in an alcohol-induced stupor on another, his grey beard hairs blowing in and out with each ragged breath.
It didn’t take near an hour to make the blade so I was able to spend a bit more time on the enchantments and making a sheath. With everything wrapped up, I turned to Maya who was now just sitting on the table watching me work, her legs swinging back and forth like a happy child.
“Do you know how motivating it is to see your muscles work like that?” I had no idea, but I’ll take it as a complement. She hopped off the table and came over to take a look at our work. She whistled as she ran her hand across the long blade. “Very nice, Magic Boy, that will work wonderfully.” She kissed me on the cheek. “But it’s nowhere near my Winya, is it?”
I smiled. “No, it is not; and don’t worry, Winya, I won’t ever create anything to rival you. You are, and will always be, my finest work.
“Thank you, Alex, I love you, too!” Winya giggled.
“Now, what do you say we get back and make some food?”
After tucking a warm blanket around the sleeping dwarf and squeezing a pouch of gold coins in his hand, we left the smithy. Maya assured me he would be awake and wondering what had happened before we got back to her parents’ house. Apparently, dwarves have amazing constitutions. The trip back didn’t take very long and none of the guards even bothered to stop us.
“Who’s hungry?” I asked as we walked up to the house.
“Sweet cakes!” Nia demanded, and Maya nodded happily. “And eggs, and some fruit if they have any!”
“Well, I think I saw everything we might need in the pantry last night,” I said, leading them into the kitchen, motioning for them to have seats. Maya sprawled bliss
fully across a chair and propped up her chin, watching me carefully as Nia started to find and set out some of the food items. The kitchen and the adjourning dining room had no windows but were lit adequately by glow orbs.
I added wood to the stove coals, stirring them into life and started hot water for tea. I was just beginning to set out the pans I would need when I felt a presence standing next to me. I turned to see a young woman in a saffron linen dress standing there watching my preparations. She wasn’t a dark elf, her skin was far too pale for that, and she had wheat colored hair rather than the spun silver that Maya had. She was watching me with a bemused expression, but when she noticed me watching her back, she quickly lowered her eyes and bowed, holding herself rigidly in that position.
“Pardon me, Sir Alex , I was just wondering who was making noise in my kitchen. I apologize if I have disturbed you in any way; I will leave you to your work now.” She looked like she was about to flee the room but I held up my hand and stopped her.
“You must be Kalah. This is Maya and Nia. How did you know my name?” She smiled and I could see a dainty set of fangs peek over her lower lip.“Oh, word travels very fast here, especially when there is a very handsome knight and a King’s daughter involved.”
“Please join us,” I said, trying to keep my voice level so I didn’t spook her any more than I already had.
“You want me to join you, sir?” Then she looked over at Maya and curtsied. “My Lady, I beg your forgiveness for intruding on your time with your fine gentleman and his…” Her eyes tracked the pixie flitting about the windowless kitchen. “…able assistant.”
She was speaking to us in common rather than elfish, but with a peculiar accent that I found interesting; it had an almost musical charm to it. Waving her into one of the chairs, I asked. “Where are you originally from, Kalah?”
“I was born in a small village in the Rindeaux region of Elcance, my Lord. I was the fourth of six girl children in our family. When I was fourteen, I was apprenticed to a trading vessel that plied the coastal islands between Rindeaux and what was formerly Ressi in the kingdom of Normount. “
“That’s two weeks’ ride away on a good horse,” Maya interjected. “How did you ever end up here?”
“One night when we were docked at a city pier, our boat was attacked by a group of vampires, and those of us who weren’t killed outright were captured. When they found out I was a cook, I was forced to make food for their blood slaves so that they could be kept healthier longer. But eventually, they all died and the vampires had to find more victims, moving us from town to town. At one point, I became sick from the poor conditions and the sorrow, and rather than let me die mercifully, they forced the change upon me.”
Maya hissed under her breath but nodded for Kalah to continue.
“There is not much more to tell. Some years passed and I was still a cook, still enslaved. One night at an abandoned farmhouse a few days walk from here, the vampire clan left to capture more blood slaves and never returned. I waited a day and then released the blood slaves and wandered around the countryside for several weeks hoping to find release. Instead, I happened upon the villages under the protection of the Honalde family. Lady Honalde spoke kindly to me, said she knew of a place where I could find purpose and people who would not hate me for my plight. I promised her I would try, and I have been with the family for five years now.”
I thought about her story as I prepared the food. “If you don’t mind me asking, do you have to travel all the way back to the Honalde lands to, um…feed?”
She laughed for the first time, and it was an infectious happy sound like crystal chiming. “Oh no, I have my boyfriend, Bertrand. He is a town’s guardsman and he eats like a horse!” she said. “So he doesn’t mind eating for two, so to speak.”
“A dark elf?” I asked, somewhat amazed and she nodded happily. “Forgive me, Kalah, but I was told by another vampire once that dark elf blood was…a sour vintage.”
Kalah smiled demurely. “It is an acquired taste, to be sure, but when it is freely given and with love, it becomes more than palatable, even sweet. My Bertrand quite enjoys the giving as well.”
“Yes, Belrothe said the same for her people’s arrangement with the farm community. I think you and she may be on to something. A model that might provide a way for good people who are vampires to stay sane and even prosper.
Kalah jumped to her feet excitedly. “Oh, speaking of Madame Belrothe, you just missed her!”
“Belrothe was here?” I asked.
“Yes, she often visits Lady Talmin; they are great friends. I, of course, would never listen in on their conversation, but when you can hear as well as a bat, it is difficult not to. They spoke at length about you two and about how happy my Lady is that her daughter has returned to them.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially and her eyes twinkled. “The Lord and Lady have been so sad and lonely these past years, but now to see how well their only child has turned out, perhaps it will be the push they need to have more children. It would be so exciting to have little ones around the house!”
“Speaking of little ones, I’m about done here, so I think it would be best if we woke everyone up. Maya, if you would like to wake your parents, I’ll wake the girls.”
“I am sorry to say that only Queen Talmin is here this morning. King Talmin was called away on something but promised to be back in time for breakfast.”
Maya smiled, “It’s no matter, he did that a lot when I was growing up, but he always made it in time for food. But for now, I’ll just wake Mother,” she said as she padded down the hall to her mother’s room.
I walked into the still dark living room and checked on the three on the floor as Kalah followed and watched with surprising interest. “My lord, how do you intend to wake them?”
“What do you mean? You just wake them up.”
She looked confused for a second, trying to find the right words. “Forgive me, but I have never had much luck wakening anyone.”
I smiled. I think I know why that was - she was way too nice about it. “Well, I find that food works wonderfully.” She was even more puzzled. “Go ahead, just say that the food is ready into her ear, she’ll wake up.”
Shyly, she did as instructed and whispered into Lin’s ear. As always, her eyes popped open instantly. “Food? Where? Who are you? ”she said to Kalah who still had her head about six inches from Lin’s face. Kalah pulled her head back and bowed.
“I am sorry; please forgive me for my misconduct.”
Lin smiled, “It’s perfectly fine, it’s not every day you wake up to a pretty face hovering over you.” Kalah smiled, showing a little fang, blushed, and turned away.
“Sorry, Lin, she has a boyfriend already.”
“Drat!...wait, what? That’s not what I meant at all!”
I laughed and nudged Julia awake. She got up and sleepily rubbed her eyes and yawned. “Is it morning already?” She quietly stretched as I moved on to the dark elf girl, Ryllis.
“Ryllis, it’s time to wake up, the food is ready.” Her eyes opened and she yawned, looking around a little bleary-eyed and dazed before realizing I was there, then instantly freezing petrified in place.
“Um, who are you?”
Instantly, Kalah was right next to me explaining, “This is Lord Alex of Sky Raven Fortress.”
Realizing what she said, Ryllis quickly got to her feet and tried to smooth out the wrinkles in her clothes. “Please forgive my interruption; I will be leaving right away.”
“Oh, no, you don’t, Ryllis. You are staying right here with us,” said Renalla, as she and Maya breezed down the hall.
“But, my Lady!”
“Un uh! We have already talked with your father; you are ours until said otherwise.” Her head lowered to the floor, but Renalla just smiled. “Are you thinking you are in trouble?” The girl nodded. “Well, you aren’t. In fact, I would say it’s just the opposite. You had fun with the druids girls last night, did you not?”
“Yes, very much so!”
“Great, you will now go everywhere with them as their guide and caretaker. You have also been given permission to take them anywhere you wish that is not military-related, the grove included.”
Her eyes widened happily. “I…I don’t know what to say!”
Maya smiled, “Well, I do, let’s eat!”
Nia and I got everyone seated, well almost everyone. Kalah insisted on serving the food so we settled on just she and I doing it. Ryliss was vaguely appalled to be served by someone with the title of Lord, and she was watching me carefully. Finally, she stopped eating and looked at me strangely. “Lord Alex, there used to be a human boy in our village named Alex. He was very nice and I remember his mother made the best oatmeal rounds…”
Julia perked up. “They were awesome! Mrs. Martin is the best cook I know!”
Ryllis really looked confused now. “Yes, the Martins, but how do you…?”
Renalla reached over and patted Ryllis on the hand. “I will explain it all to you some rainy afternoon when we have lots of time, dear.”
Faeron came bustling through the door, whistling. “Sorry I’m late, but there was a very odd emergency that came up. Apparently, all the topiary animals from the town square uprooted themselves and started wandering around town getting into trouble.
“What’s a topiary animal?” Nia asked between bites of sweet cherries.
Renalla chuckled and answered, “They’re shrubs, usually boxwood or yews, that the gardeners shape into animal forms in our gardens. They’re good conversation pieces and they show off the skill of the botanists and gardeners who create them. They are works of art really, but I’ve never heard of any uprooting and wandering off…how strange.”
“Not only strange, but creepy,” Faeron ventured between bites. “It also seems that the shrubs took on the characteristics of the creatures they represented. The one that was shaped like a bull started knocking over carts of produce in the market and then found his way into a store that sold ceramic dishes. Wow, what a mess! The one that looked like a satyr got loose, and let’s just say that the widow Harcourt will have some interesting stories to tell at her next knitting circle. Thank the gods we didn’t have one shaped like a damn dragon!”
Return To Sky Raven (Book 2) Page 27
