For Whom the Bell Trolls: Hands of the Highmage, Book 1

by D. H. Aire

  #

  The Seeress stood at Dragonmount’s rear gate as the strangers as Gwilliam and their escort arrived. Her acolytes attended her, both children in flowing robes, which were a bit too big for them. She smiled as unbridled hounds bounded playfully toward her and Gwilliam stepped up to her side. “Well, they’re here.”

  They then settled to the ground, looking from her to their friends. The girls’ hounds divided into two groups, one to her right, the other to the left. The girls unstrapped themselves, then stood clear and faced her, frowning.

  The boy on the horse stopped in the space between the two groups as the trolls halted behind them.

  Gwilliam cleared his throat and announced, “May I present the Seeress of Trelor, who has ordered all our preparations.”

  Greth leaned forward, “Seeress?”

  Casber’s eyes widened. “You’re the Seeress!”

  “Yes, I am, young Casber du Winome.”

  Gwilliam’s eyes widened as he muttered to her, “du Winome?”

  The Seeress gave the slightest nod, then addressed the mare. “There is no need for further disguise, Great One.”

  ‘There should have been!’

  The Seeress and her apprentice winced as the unicorn’s horn appeared and the mare seemed to take on great vigor and sleekness of form. “The time is nearly here.”

  ‘No, it is too early! He’s but a boy!’

  “Fate demands what it will, Great One. I have seen it.” Though, I might wish it, otherwise. “Our guests are to be given every courtesy. They have journeyed far. Rooms have been prepared, baths, refreshments, and robes, so that our people may wash thine… Later there will be much to discuss.”

  Greth said, “The goblins.”

  “The scouts will warn us, should my Sight be clouded by the goblin lord’s mage. Be at peace. Come.”

  Chapter 27 – Dragonmount

  Lawson and Yel’ane were led to a high ceilinged chamber as the hounds and unicorn went to a recently built barn. The girls glanced at them uncertain as a servant gestured them to the one next door. Casber, Greth, and Nessa, were gestured to the room across the hall.

  “Please set your clothing needing laundering here,” the servant said.

  Yel’ane nodded, gazing about the expansive room with a great pool of water in the back. She glanced at the robe and felt the fabric. “It’s so soft.”

  Lawson frowned, “It almost looks like it is been waiting for you for a long time.”

  She held it up. “It’s beautiful, and look at yours. It’s just your size.”

  He twitched, sensing more than a matter of the Sight at work, but magery, and did not like it one bit. He touched the room’s walls, saw the door near the bathing pool at the far end of the room and wondered if it led to a dressing room.

  Yel’ane looked at him a moment. “You should eat… Milord.”

  He glanced at her and she began disrobing.

  “What do you think you are doing?”

  She chuckled. “Whether fact or not, I’m as good as bonded to you and you’ve already seen me naked.”

  He grabbed her hand. “Yel’ane, don’t.”

  She smiled up at him, “Is it because you think me but a child?”

  “Uh, Yel’ane…”

  “Are you so old then… Milord?”

  Swallowing hard, he dined not to answer. “Sit, let’s eat and you and I are going to have a rather long talk,” he said at last.

  What he intended to say to her, she knew she was not going to like. Then again, his words did not matter in this case. Her heart was already lost to him. They ate and she smiled back at him, ignoring him, slicing an apple and offering him some.

  “Yel’ane, stop.”

  “You like to eat it whole?” she replied, sweetly.

  “Yel’ane,” he sighed.

  They ate in silence, then she rose, smiled at him and disrobed. She walked past him and set her clothes on the platform by the door the servant had indicated, then went over to her pack, leaned over it, knowing Lawson had covered his eyes. She drew out the rest of her clothing and put it by the door, but not before giving Lawson a gentle kiss on the cheek. “Get used to it, Lawson.”

  He winced, couldn’t help but stare at her as she soon began crossing the room to the bathing pool. But before she even got half-way, the door near the pool opened and out came Ani’ya, who glanced behind her, “Here’s the bath!”

  Vi’ya, En’sta, and more than half of the other girls ran through naked and quickly climbed in. Yel’ane stood staring as Lawson blinked, hastily trying to cover his eyes as the rest entered as En’sta turned and gaped, “Oh, by all the Lords! Lawson!”

  The girls shrieked and ducked down.

  Yel’ane sighed, “Bar the door, Lawson! Nessa coming in here will make it only worse!”

  “Huh?”

  “He’s seen us naked?” En’sta cried.

  “Does that mean we’ve married him?” Jen’yan rasped.

  “Bonded him,” Ani’ya muttered, chuckled. “We’ve bonded him.”

  “No, you have not!” Yel’ane shouted as the girls squealed in shock.

  There was pounded on the door. “What’s going on in there?”

  “Everything’s fine!” Yel’ane yelled back, gesturing the girls to quiet. “Lawson’s just a bit angry… and has every reason to be.”

  “You really all right? I thought we heard the girls.”

  “Lawson hit the wall and I think it scared them. Why don’t you check on them?”

  Ani’ya climbed out of the tub, paused a moment, covering herself, then ran dripping back through the adjoining door as Nessa pounded. “We’re fine, Nessa!” she cried.

  “Unbar the door.”

  “Nessa, we’re not, uh, children. Everything’s fine.”

  Yel’ane listened at the door and heard Nessa tell Greth they were just acting their age. She winced. Ani’ya re-entered the room and paused, “Milord, I… hope I do not displ—”

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” Yel’ane said. “You are too young to take up the bond.”

  She trembled. “He saved my life that night… and all of us.”

  “Ani’ya cover yourself.”

  She shook her head. “She’s as good as bonded you.”

  “Not in truth, or did you lie to me?” Lawson asked, glancing at Yel’ane, who strode past him and up to Ani’ya.

  Glancing back, she said, “I did not, Milord. No formal bounding can be made of me… or them, though the forms are being met in all innocence.”

  “Good, then I’ll just leave you young ladies—”

  Yel’ane said, “No, Milord… Get back in the pool, Ani’ya.”

  The girl frowned, then climbed back in, ducking down with the rest.

  “None of us will speak of this without leave,” Yel’ane said. “Milord, you have seen them as naked as day they were born.”

  “Um.”

  “The matter is witnessed. Girls, if you would want Lord Lawson as thy foster-father, come forth as from the waters of the womb.”

  “But Yel’ane!” Vi’ya exclaimed. “Who will—”

  “I shall be as your Mother from this day forth,” she said the ritual words. “If you so choose. But only if you so choose.”

  “But Sire Ryff…”

  “Would not begrudge you a foster-father, I think,” Yel’ane replied. “And this will settle matters as you are but children.”

  Ani’ya climbed out. “Papa?”

  Lawson blinked, “Yel’ane, what are you…”

  The girl ran naked dripping wet up to him. He knelt and clasped her in his arms. “My Daddy’s dead, isn’t he?” she whispered in his ear.

  He blinked, “I don’t know, little one.”

  “I’ll be a good daughter,” she whispered, kissing his cheek. “I promise.”

  Vi’ya and En’sta rocked him back, seeking to hug him. Ani’ya stepping aside, bent on one knee, “Thank you… Foster-father.”

  Jen’yan slowly climbed out,
wiping her eyes, “I think I’d like you to be my foster-father, Milord.”

  Thri’la drew herself out from the pool, taking Jen’yan’s hand. “It will be good for us to be foster-sestors and not just sisters.”

  Jen’yan smiled as the other girls followed them out of the waters.

  Vi’ya and En’sta bowed to Yel’ane, “Mother.”

  Lawson had tears in her eyes, she thought, uncertain as wet as they girls had made him. “You will tell no one. Act no less and no more respectful save when we are in private,” Yel’ane said as all the girls now bowed to her. “Then get back into the pool and bathe. I want your hair to sparkle. You will look immaculate in your robes tonight.”

  The girls obeyed in better order than Lawson had yet seen. Yel’ane turned to him. “You know I’m going to marry you one day.”

  “Yel’ane.”

  “I’ve birthed twelve daughters for you in one day. Has any troll woman bore so many for the man she loves?”

  He coughed, “I can honestly say none ever has. Now, will you please stop standing there naked and just get in the pool and bathe.”

  She ran forward and leaped into his arms, feet off the ground he hugged her as she grinned. “You know that beard needs to go.”

  “Beard?” he said, leaning forward to set her back down.

  Her arms went about his neck and feet touching the floor, she kissed him as he tried to disengage. “I may not be woman enough for you yet, but I will be.”

  “You don’t understand… I’m not quite like you.”

  “Enough alike for me,” she said. “Neither of us is alone anymore.”

  “Yel’ane, I doubt you know what it means to be alone.”

  She hugged him and whispered, “I’ve never done anything right. Not even, this.”

  He stood, lifting her off her feet, cradling her, noticing she no longer complained of just where his hands where. “Young lady, you have killed goblins with uncanny aim. You have never given up… you may have been born to this body. But you’ve the soul of what you term a troll.”

  “Uh, thank you, I think,” she chuckled, then turned her head, realizing it was too quiet and saw all the girls staring. “Don’t you have something better to do, my… children.”

  They gasped, turning around, returning to washing.

  Lawson just held her as she loosed his jerkin’s draw strings. “Are you going to put me down… or are you thinking I am not too young for you?”

  He closed his eyes, “You are much too young.” But he did not wish to set her down and she smiled, glancing at her once again staring foster-daughters as he continued to hold her as she teased the hairs on what she knew had to be his well-muscled chest.

  The girls hastily turned and whispered to one another as their foster-father turned his back, head leaning forward. Yel’ane hands tightened around his neck and there was a long, “Mmmm” sound.

  It was Ani’ya who grinned, nudging Vi’ya, “Mommy and Daddy have it bad.”

  Chapter 28 – The Great Hall

  “I don’t know what could be taking them all so long,” Nessa muttered as they sat at the great table with the Seeress, Sir Gwilliam, and the man they were introduced to as Truthsayer. “Oh, they will doubtless be here, momentarily,” the Seeress said, eyes twinkling.

  Casber frowned, “You think when we heard—”

  Agwin opened the hall doors, serving as herald. Her gown low cut and backless. “I present the daughters of Lord Ryff.”

  The girls entered wearing white, rather sheer, robes. Kusins standing to the right of his Mistress, swallowed, “They’re lovely.”

  The Mistress’s apprentices glance askance, frowning slightly as Agwin then announced, “Lawson, Assistant Engineer, Lord of the Great Waste and Lady Yel’ane Goblinslayer, provisionally by Bond.”

  Nessa grimaced, whispering to Greth, “She better not pull that nonsense back home.”

  “Somehow, I doubt she intends to return to it,” he muttered, frowning.

  Lawson marched in wearing a flowing blue robe with Yel’ane also dressed in a sheer white gown. Nessa blinked, uncertainly, muttering, “Yel’ane?”

  Casber and the acolyte boy, Kusins, both gaped.

  Greth raised an eyebrow. She did not look an inch a child somehow, yet her height alone, should Lawson return home with her, was going earn her a rather frosty reception. Though, he privately admitted, his aunt, Mendra, might have something to say about that… as would he, he realized, Yel’ane Goblinslayer, indeed.

  The Seeress gestured for them to join her at table. “Lord Casber, I hope you do not mind, but Sergeant Agwin will sit in the place of honor on your left, as you consort for dinner.”

  “Um,” the boy muttered, glancing at the unicorn kneeling across the room, sacks of grains being poured into large clay pots before her.

  ‘You have excellent manners,’ the unicorn shared.

  “Why, thank you, Great One.”

  Casber glanced up as the older Agwin sat down beside him. “Are you related to Lord Balfour du Winome, Milord?”

  “Uh, he and I aren’t lords. We’re just part of the Winome Clan in the mountains.”

  Ani’ya and the girls were seated at a table opposite the unicorn. She clasped her hands under the table trying to catch every word as Yel’ane was seated at Lawson’s side. Vi’ya whispered, “They’ve dressed Nessa differently.”

  En’sta whispered at her other said, “It’s the Seeress’ doing.”

  “Quiet,” Ani’ya whispered back.

  Jen’yan craned her head to try to see what was going on, whispered, “Nessa looks pissed.”

  “By us?” Lan’lein whispered back.

  “By that Agwin,” Ani’ya said.

  “She’s taller than Casber.”

  “He’s practically staring at her bosom.”

  “Shh,” Ani’ya muttered, seeing Nessa slowly turning red. Her left hand vanished beneath the table.

  Casber suddenly winced, winced harder, and turned to glance at Nessa, who was smiling ever so sweetly. “Lord Casber’s uncle is my mother’s lord husband, by the bond,” she said.

  “Does that make you brother and sister, then?” Agwin asked, leaning closer to Casber, who winced against before he could offer a reply.

  “No, Cathartan custom makes him more my charge, actually.”

  “Then you’ve bonded him?” the young woman asked.

  “No! Certainly not,” Casber managed to say before wincing.

  Sir Gwilliam chuckled, “I’m glad that’s settled, then. We wouldn’t want to insult are guest now, would we, Agwin?”

  “Truth,” Ani’ya thought she heard the other guest at the Great Table mumbled behind his hand.

  “Uh, no, Mil— Sir Gwilliam.”

  Greth smiled, which made the man preparing to fill his flagon shy back. “You are all being quite… accommodating. I can understand, Seeress, your knowing of our coming here before we ourselves ever did. But I take it there is more to it.”

  “Yes, Lord Greth, Commander of Marines… that is your title, though, you did not have the good Sergeant announce it upon your entrance.”

  “That is, indeed, my title.”

  “Interesting title,” Gwilliam replied.

  “Practically hereditary.”

  “Truth,” the man coughing into his hand seemed to say once more.

  The Seeress nodded, “As I told you, your coming has been foretold, Lord Greth.”

  “And this keep is well fortified and appears a bit crowded,” he replied. “Our rooms enjoyed a most excellent view.”

  “Yes,” Sir Gwilliam answered, “we’ve nearly seven thousand people here.”

  “And a great many forges and smiths among them,” Greth said.

  “And archers in training,” Agwin admitted, “what, Sir Gwilliam, it’s not like he could notice that. We’ve nearly a thousand women with bows.”

  “Not men?” Greth said.

  “We’ve a levy of infantry,” Gwilliam replied, “armed with
spears and shields—” Truthsayer cleared his throat, “and,” he hastened to add, “pitchforks and axes.”

  Ani’ya frowned, seeing the man nod almost imperceptibly.

  “We’ve nearly three hundred horses, the rest are either too old, too young—” Gwilliam added.

  “Or too frightened of their own shadows,” Agwin offered.

  That earned her a glare from Sir Gwilliam.

  “A good size army,” Greth replied. “How many do expect to face?”

  The Seeress looked at him, “Five thousand men at arms and a thousand archers.”

  “Ouch,” Lawson said, which earned him a look from Greth.

  The Seeress said, “You might think that, but not now.”

  “Why?”

  The unicorn suddenly rose to her feet. “Because Lord Casber’s here.”

  “Who, me?”

  “The unicorn and the Hand will bring us victory.”

  The mare whickered, shaking her head.

  Agwin put her arm around the boy’s shoulder, “Milord, I and all of my archers are at your service.”

  Nessa harrumphed, loosening her robe. Casber swallowed as Nessa brought his right hand to her lips. Agwin frowned, changed position and put both hands to his cheeks and kissed him. The girls gaped as she kissed him, “Welcome, my lord, I look forward to serving as the head of your personal guard while you are with us.”

  Nessa looked like she might leap out of her seat.

  Greth’s hand suddenly pressing down on her legs stopped that. She turned and glared at him as Casber was offered an opportunity to breathe.

  Lawson whispered to Yel’ane, “Well, our problems aren’t going to be of concern to Nessa.”

  “Oh, my,” she murmured back, then glanced at the girls.

  Ani’ya right hand tapped the table, catching Yel’ane’s attention. The girl’s finger signing was not quite right, but she understood. The man on the other side of the Seeress is some kind of soothsayer.

  Yel’ane smiled thinly as Nessa seethed and Casber sputtered, “Uh, I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

  The Seeress sighed, “Sadly, I have not… You see, I’ve met the human mage that your uncle seeks to guide to Highmage Alrex in the Empire. Like you, none will credit his gifts, or what he represents.”