by M. Gregg Roe
Gabriel cleared his throat again, but then couldn’t think of what to say. He hurriedly took another sip of wine to cover his embarrassment.
Kora raised her goblet and looked his way. “What, pray tell, do you wish to converse about?”
“I wish to attempt a reconciliation,” he began, gaining courage with each word. “I would resume our relationship.”
“What has changed?” she asked, no longer sounding formal.
Gabriel gaped at her. “I do not understand.”
“Have you decided you don’t want children? Or that you’re fine with just adopting? Well?”
Once again at a loss, he drained the contents of his goblet so quickly he ended up coughing. He didn’t dare lie to her. Adoption was a way to help the unfortunate, but it was also fraught with issues. Sometimes the mother changed her mind, perhaps even stealing back her own child. Having been abandoned, such children often displayed behavioral issues.
“You don’t need to answer,” she murmured, staring at the tapestry on the opposite wall. “I can see it on your face. You still want to father children, and I don’t blame you for that. There is really only one possibility if we are to resume our relationship: a surrogate.”
He knew what she was referring to, but the possibility had never crossed his mind. “It is an interesting suggestion,” he remarked, back to staring at the fire.
“I want you to take your time, Gabriel. Look into the matter. Speak with surrogates or couples that have employed them. Then, when you are ready, we will meet again. Okay?”
“Yes,” he replied, returning her smile. He had no doubt that she had already researched the matter thoroughly. “I will let you know,” he said, rising to his feet. “I can see myself out. Fare well, Kora.”
“Fare well, Gabriel,” she returned, remaining seated.
Compared to the warmth within the house, it was distinctly chilly outside under the clear sky. Less than ten minutes later, he was working on building a fire in his own small fireplace. He wasn’t back with Kora yet, but there was still hope.
[ 12 ]
Many Secrets
While waiting for Birchbark to reappear, Audrey admired her handiwork. Earlier that morning she had assembled a line of four blocks that were obviously the base of a wall, since they had no patterns underneath. They had patterns on one side that would presumably connect to the interior’s floor. On top of them were attached three more blocks, including the two she had first joined. By the time she finished, she had definitely been feeling the effects of the magical surge that resulted from each joining. It was exhilarating, and she couldn’t wait to build more. But that would have to wait.
The crystalloids were now searching for other villages within the Gray Forest, a task difficult this time of year due to the dense foliage. She had her doubts about Ferikellan’s plan to help the elves of Dellhome, but he had proven his skill by successfully crafting a Gray Potion on his first attempt. It was while sounding out Birchbark’s opinion of the elf that she offered to show him the strange blocks. Once at the site, he had cast a spell and sunk into the ground without disturbing the soil. She couldn’t help but be envious. Or wonder what it was like to explore underground like that.
While waiting, she performed an exercise known as the Slow Form, a series of unhurried movements that were part of her martial arts training. The familiar sensation soon calmed her. Birchbark reappeared during her second iteration, and he waited for her to finish before saying anything.
“Look at this,” he said, walking up from her left. Holding a chunk of rock in his right hand, he thrust it toward her. Despite his subterranean trek, his dark green clothing wasn’t even dusty.
She took the rock from him and weighed it in her right hand. It was nearly the same color as the blocks, but it was heavy. And there was something odd about the way it felt. She held the rock up and rotated it around. There were tiny pits all over the surface, creating a rough texture.
“Have you figured it out?” he asked, crinkling his eyes.
Audrey was about to protest that she had no idea of what he was talking about when the answer suddenly came to her. “This is where the sand comes from?” she asked, staring at it.
“Yes. There is a great deal of that rock below here, and much of it looks like this. Tiny pieces are being extracted and then compressed to form the blocks. It’s really quite impressive.”
“But how are they doing it?” she asked, still staring at the rock.
“I have no idea. The good news is that we don’t have to worry about the ground collapsing.”
That possibility hadn’t even occurred to her. “What about the blocks? Can you tell if they’re hollow inside?”
“I investigated one,” he told her. “In a way they are similar, containing many small voids with no obvious arrangement. That allows them to be both strong and light.”
Audrey still didn’t think of the blocks as particularly strong. After carefully putting down the rock, she said, “Does this seem like something dangerous to you?”
He paused a moment, presumably to collect his thoughts. “I understand your concern, but this doesn’t feel like an immediate threat. If it’s some kind of attack or invasion, then it’s a very slow one. And the location is terrible. Why not put the structure closer to the river where the soil is richer? On the opposite side of the river would be even better.”
“Because they want a nice view of the Gray Forest?” she suggested jokingly. “Do you think Andoran could be responsible for this?”
Birchbark shook his head. “I can’t see any purpose in something like this appearing so long after his death.”
Audrey spread her arms in exasperation. “I don’t see any point to this at all.”
“But you’re dying to find out?”
His silly expression made her laugh. “Yes, I am. Aren’t you?”
“Of course.” He winked. “I and the EarthStaff are at your service, Guardian.”
“I’ll keep you informed,” she promised. The staff would be the perfect thing to destroy the structure if it did turn out to be a threat. It was extremely powerful, especially in the hands of a skilled druid.
After teleporting them back, Audrey ended up accepting Fern’s offer to stay for lunch.
For Audrey, one consequence of being made Guardian was the need to keep secrets. After considering just telling everyone, people both older and wiser had thankfully talked her out of her naïve plan. That would have utterly ruined her life, drowning her in requests for aid and making her a target. And it would have endangered her friends and family. No, secrecy was best. The fewer people that knew what she was capable of, the better.
To keep it all straight, she had created a document that detailed who knew which of her secrets. It was something she reviewed regularly and strove to keep up to date. The only person who knew absolutely everything was Aliva, who had a similar problem with needing to hide what she truly was, not to mention her relationship to Lasrina. Audrey would eventually tell her cousins everything, but she preferred a gradual reveal.
At the moment, it was all going swimmingly. But that couldn’t last. No matter how long she lived, Audrey would never appear to be older than twenty-eight. It was the kind of thing that people would eventually notice, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Her plan was to move away before her perpetual youth became an issue. She would establish a new identity, live a different life. It would be both a challenge and an opportunity to experience more of Andoran’s Realm.
Conrad was one of those who knew none of her secrets. He was part of her normal life, and she wanted it to stay that way. But there were problems. She had been asked more than once why the two of them hadn’t married. Restrained by his shyness, Conrad had never broached the subject, but she knew he would agree if she asked.
At the moment, her cousins served as her excuse. Audrey wasn’t budging from her cottage until the two girls were old enough to fend for themselves, and Conrad definitely wouldn’t be moving o
ut of the nice living quarters above his carpentry workshop. She would be the one to relocate if they decided to live together. But that would make it nearly impossible to hide her secrets.
Unless the two of them drifted apart, which seemed increasingly unlikely, she was probably going to tell him part of it. But she feared that revealing such long-kept secrets might damage or even end their relationship. He was an important part of her life, someone she felt she understood perfectly. Most found the man to be dull and uninteresting, but she had learned to read even the tiniest changes in his voice, expression, and body language. Conrad felt things deeply but wasn’t comfortable displaying his emotions.
It was the inevitable end of their relationship that filled her with dread. She wanted it to happen gradually and amicably. Her fear was that he would insist on accompanying her when she moved away. She didn’t want that. Watching him age while she remained youthful would be torture. No. One way or another, their relationship had to end.
Moving away from the Witch’s City would also be difficult. Even though she had grown up elsewhere, Audrey had felt comfortable there from that first day. It had been where she truly found herself, discovering an unexpected talent for the martial arts. And the friends she had made! Leaving them would be painful, but there was no other way. But at least she could still secretly visit the ones that knew her secret.
Normalcy was what Audrey craved, but the strange blocks were now a threat to that. Until she understood exactly what they signified, they needed to be her top priority. After all, what kind of a guardian would she be if she failed her first genuine test?
After an exhausting afternoon of teaching bright-eyed but untalented novice students, Audrey arrived home to find her cousins camped out in her sitting room. “We want to go visit the crystalloids again,” Ilona said, sitting on the dark green oval rug in front of the fireplace. “You promised,” Iris added, sitting in a chair with Benson filling her lap.
“I’ve been busy,” Audrey said, pointedly dropping the canvas bag that held her sweaty Shorinken uniform. “And I’ve got plans tonight. Don’t you two have homework or something?”
“We already finished it,” Ilona announced proudly. “We’re smart.”
“And smart alecks,” Audrey quipped.
“What about tomorrow?” Iris asked, absentmindedly stroking the cat.
Audrey considered it. “The day after would be better. Come over here after dinner.”
The girls looked at each other and nodded in unison. “That’s fine,” Ilona said, springing to her feet. “What other powers do you have as Guardian? Can you blow things up?”
“I can do this,” Audrey said, willing herself to ascend several inches.
“You can fly,” Iris said after Benson jumped down and returned to his bed. “Can you carry others with you?”
“Yes,” Audrey replied, returning to the floor and growing impatient. “Now leave me in peace or I’ll show you the Guardian’s true power,” she threatened, shaking a fist for emphasis.
“We’ll find out eventually,” Ilona warned as they exited through the still-open door.
After closing the door firmly, Audrey took a deep breath. “They probably will,” she muttered to herself. The two had been making real pests of themselves lately. Like she didn’t have enough troubles.
Yesterday Audrey had been late for her morning class, having gotten carried away adding more blocks to her wall. Each one that snapped into place gave her a sense of accomplishment. And the feeling of euphoria was delicious. That effect might be deliberate, a way of encouraging whoever discovered the blocks to assemble them, but she didn’t care. She trusted her Guardian powers to protect her against any actual harm.
A long hot bath calmed her nerves, but also served as a reminder that she was behind on laundry. That was something she could have easily hired out but preferred not to. She also did her own cleaning and shopping. But the landscaping was tended to by professionals that came by three times a month.
As she worked on her hair, Audrey decided to take some time off from her castle-building. There really wasn’t any rush. With only about ten new blocks appearing each day, completion of the structure was still in the distant future. But the overall shape should be visible much sooner. And maybe different-shaped blocks would appear. It was not knowing that made it so exciting.
Light rain combined with steady wind made the twenty-minute walk to Conrad’s shop less than pleasant. Her light cloak was still waterproof, but that didn’t help with the humidity. Or the puddles and muddy areas. By the time she arrived at the back of the sturdily constructed two-story building, all the work on her hair had been undone.
The lock on the back door opened smartly when she inserted the enchanted brass key. Once inside, she hung up her cloak on a peg and removed her mud-spattered leather shoes. Conrad was a stickler for tidiness, as the lack of even a speck of sawdust in the work area could attest. It was one of the things she admired about the man.
Mounting the stairs that led up from the small office, she smiled as the distinctive aroma of one of Conrad’s beef roasts filled the air. He rarely cooked anything fancy, but that suited her simple tastes just fine. It was the type of food she had been raised on.
Noting that a fire was already burning and the table set, she went to the kitchen entrance and said, “Is there anything I can do?”
He glanced over with a trace of a smile. “Pick out something for us to drink. I’m just waiting on the potatoes.”
She went over to the beautiful red oak cabinet where he kept his alcoholic beverages. After some consideration, she selected a local ale that she felt went well with beef. She filled two pale green ceramic cups and then replaced the jug. After carrying the cups to the table, she fetched flint and steel and used them to light the fat white candle that perched atop a stack of wooden disks, each a different type of wood. She had a matching one at home that he had given to her.
Dinner was consumed in the usual silence, with Audrey showing her appreciation by smacking her lips and eating heartily. Afterward, she refilled their cups while he cleared the table. The fire was faltering, so she added two more small logs before seating herself on the sofa.
“I made this for you,” Conrad said as he seated himself to her right. Held out on his calloused left palm was a piece of nut brown wood shaped exactly like one of the stone blocks.
Unable to take her eyes off it, Audrey felt her chest tighten with fear. It was all coming back to her, the sensation of joining the stone blocks, the urge to keep doing it. How was it possible? More importantly, had he made more? She opened her mouth to ask, then forced it shut. What was she doing? She needed to regain control.
“Is something wrong?” he asked with uncharacteristic emotion.
“Take it away!” she wailed, covering her eyes with both hands. Cold sweat broke out as her heart pounded wildly in her chest. She felt him get up from the sofa, but didn’t dare look.
“It’s locked away,” he said, what felt like hours later. “Audrey, I don’t understand. It’s just a piece of wood.”
Lowering her hands, she felt the tension vanish like a bursting soap bubble. A sensation of warm affection swept over her as she gazed into his worried eyes. She wanted to get up and embrace him, but she still felt weak.
“I don’t fully understand either,” she said, gesturing for him to resume his seat, which he promptly did. He picked up his cup, and she followed suit.
“The explanation is going to take a while,” she continued after taking a drink. So much for keeping everything secret from him. But after what had just occurred, there really wasn’t a choice. She continued to take sips as she thought about what to reveal.
“Is this related to you being able to see in the dark?” he asked just after the fire popped loudly.
“Yes,” she answered, feeling somewhat relieved. “When did you notice?”
“A while back.” He shrugged slightly. “At first I thought I was imagining it.”
&nbs
p; “Well, you weren’t. About three years ago, some things happened. I was granted some powers but also given a major responsibility.”
He frowned ever so slightly. “And it’s all secret?”
Audrey wanted to kiss him, but that could wait until later. “That’s it exactly. But I can tell you part of it.” She told him about the mysterious blocks but made no mention of the location or how she traveled there.
“I can see why you’re intrigued,” he said, still clutching his empty cup. “But the way it’s affecting you…”
“It worries me too,” she confessed, staring at the flames. Was she even capable of destroying what she had built? She could always ask someone else to do it, but would she? Her mind had clearly been affected.
“I’ll burn that piece of wood,” he said flatly. “And I won’t use that shape in any designs.”
“And I’ll seek help,” she promised, smiling at him. It might even be the cleric she had in mind to assist Ferikellan.
The rest of their evening proceeded in the usual fashion, progressing from kissing to foreplay to a variety of mutually pleasurable sexual acts. But even that wasn’t enough to allow her to sleep well that night.
[ 13 ]
Priestess Rosalind
The shortest half-elf that Ferikellan had ever encountered was standing outside his bedroom door. “Hello,” she said, dimpling her rosy cheeks and sounding as perky as she looked. “I’m Rosalind. I’m going to be your translator and healer.”
“Ferikellan,” he responded, not knowing what else to say.
Rosalind was young, certainly no older than her mid-twenties. Fair of skin, her attractive oval face featured a hooklike nose and a somewhat pointed chin. Her glistening shoulder-length hair was chestnut. Below long bangs, large blue eyes sparked with life as they flitted about his room. Her slim but shapely body was well-displayed by a bright blue dress with a short skirt and deep V-neck that nearly reached her waist. It was attire more fit for a prostitute than a priestess.
