"Very well, I consent. I shall assume that you do not wish to celebrate my impeding nuptials with me, Father. So I shall go, and celebrate them myself, in the style in which you seem to be convinced I spend all my days."
Without waiting to be dismissed, Gorren turned and left the room. His father had his answer. Now Gorren had to go and tell his friends the glad tidings, and then he was going to get drunk, very, very, very drunk.
Chapter Seven
After a month of riding, the absolute last thing that Elthrinn wanted to do was be civil and sociable. Actually, she had a list of things she didn't want to do. The first thing on that list was getting off her horse. For the first week, she'd hated the fucking animal; her arse had ached, her thighs had ached, her back had ached, even her fucking hair had ached. And then, somehow, the pain had eased and she'd begun to enjoy riding again. She felt a bond with her horse, they understood each other, they worked as one being. Now, she felt like she might be more centaur than human. Of course, everyone knew that the centaurs had been wiped out after the giants had taken offence at something their king had said.
Speaking of giants, it was obvious that Erkas had been cultivating relationships with allies other than the wolves. His two most trusted guards owed at least a quarter of their heritage to the country of Morjay, the land of giants. Elthrinn knew next to nothing about that land; she hadn't covered it in her studies before she'd moved to Senthirr with Serwren. Once they'd become settled in the countryside, Serwren had done her best to ensure that Elthrinn's studies continued, but there had always been so much to do for the house, animals and garden.
Serwren had set up a local school of sorts, and taught lessons there. Elthrinn had attended whenever she could, but most of the classes were below the level she'd attained in Thrissia, and yet Serwren didn't have the time to teach her more. Elthrinn could read and write, and her arithmetic was sketchy but passable, but her knowledge of history, politics, and science as not as good as it could have been.
The two guards, Fyntor and Hish, were brothers. At first, Elthrinn had been worried about travelling alone with two strange men for a month on the open, lonely road. It had quickly become apparent that the brothers had the manners of gentlemen. Or, at least, as they explained to Elthrinn, she was much too short for them to take an interest in that way. She had not been convinced by their discrimination, and had been extremely careful about washing and sleeping around them, but after several days on the road, she had realised they were being truthful. By the time they arrived in Dorvek, she might well have been their own sister for all the modesty she exhibited around them.
Fyntor and Hish had confirmed early in the journey that their instructions were to deliver Elthrinn safely to the royal residence in Dorvek, and then they were to return directly home. Whilst Elthrinn did not want any of Erkas' potential spies around her, she would have welcomed the illusion of the friendship she'd found with the two half-giants. They had been patient with her as she had adjusted to the long hours in the saddle, and they had vastly increased her knowledge about their country and culture.
Having ridden for what felt like half her life, Elthrinn had been surprised when she woke one morning to be informed by Fyntor that they should reach the town of Cranak before sunset. Although the air was crisp, there was no snow on the ground. From the little that she'd heard about Dorvek, Elthrinn had been expecting a land that was perpetually deep in snow. She'd lost track of how many days they'd been riding, but given that she was still surrounded by green grass, purple heather and blue skies, she'd been expecting to have to ride for longer.
Now they had reached the outskirts of the town. Elthrinn would not have known it for the capital of the country if Hish had not told her it was so. They had passed through a couple of small villages along the course of their journey, and this one looked no different. The buildings were not more grand, or at all larger. The main difference was that in the outlying villages, most of the dwellings had been covered with a layer of mossy peat or with turf. Hish had explained that this was a method of insulation. Elthrinn thought that they had looked like clusters of warts on the landscape, warts with wooden doors. Although the dwellings on the fringes of Cranak were similar, the houses soon lost their green blankets.
The road started off as a strip of flattened grass. As they got closer to Cranak, the grass became worn away, and the earth and stones denoted the direction in which other feet and hooves had travelled. As the homesteads became regular features by the side of the road, the bare earth merged into large flat stones. Elthrinn, Fyntor and Hish had their arrival to Cranak announced by the clop of their horses' hooves on the pavement.
Elthrinn had found the whole country, thus far, to be far more provincial than Felthiss. In Felthiss, even outside Thrissia, at least in Elthrinn's experiences in Senthirr, the houses had all been of stone construction. In her homeland, the animals were penned into large paddocks to graze, or in fields surrounded by low walls. In Dorvek, they were allowed to wander at will. To Elthrinn's way of thinking, there was something less civilised about the houses formed of wood and turf.
If she concentrated, she could see no differences in the actual people. They did not appear to be starved, and they were generally neatly dressed, although in a fashion necessarily dissimilar from Felthiss to accommodate the climate. They were not the savages that she had been expecting. To be sure, fur was a dominant feature of their fashion, but that was to be expected in a country so far north. Neither did they smile at her as she passed, but the possession of a healthy suspicion of strangers was not a mark of vulgarity. After all, she was a lone woman accompanied by two half-giants; they were a party worthy of askance glances.
Fyntor had pointed out the roof of Cranak Hall when it had begun to be visible over the roofs of the homes in their path. The roofs of the cottages had all been made of thatch, but the roof of the Hall appeared to be of a different construction, the covering was not straw, it was flatter. As they drew closer, Elthrinn could see that it was a sort of shingle or tile. The walls were a mixture of ruddy wooden planks and grey stone.
Cranak Hall was the largest building that Elthrinn had seen in the country yet. All the homesteads that they had passed, even the ones that looked to be the homes of the head of the village or a kind of town hall, had all been on a single level. The Hall appeared to be three stories high. It was separated from the other buildings in the town by what looked to be a town square or green. The street that they were following led across the flattened grass, directly to the main doors of the imposing structure.
It seemed that they had been expected, or that someone had been watching for them. Elthrinn suspected the latter, since she had seen no opportunity for Fyntor or Hish to send word of their imminent arrival. Two people, a tall man and a young boy, a steward and a squire perhaps, stood waiting for them outside the great doors to the hall, which remained closed. Elthrinn wondered at the reception she was to receive. From the way that Erkas had spoken, the deal that was being paid for by her freedom was mutually agreeable on both sides. The stubbornly closed doors seemed to indicate otherwise.
They halted their horses before the hall. The young boy reached up with one hand to catch the bridle of Elthrinn's horse and gave it a carrot with the other. Her horse, which was as tired as she was, immediately began nuzzling for more treats.
Having wanted nothing more than for the arduous journey to be over, Elthrinn found that she was now reluctant to dismount. It wasn't only that she felt more comfortable in the saddle now, or that she felt her small stature as a disadvantage before Fyntor, Hish and the tall man who was becoming impatient at her dithering. If she dismounted, then the journey was definitely at an end. If she dismounted, this was truly the point of no return, the acceptance of the future that had been planned for her. There would be no more pretty lies to herself about worrying about something that would happen in the future; that future had arrived.
"Elf."
Elthrinn was snapped out of her apathy by
the sound of the nickname that Fyntor and Hish had bestowed on her. Fyntor was holding out his huge hand to help her to dismount. She didn't have to look down at him; he was tall enough that they were on eye-level, even though she was still in her saddle.
"It's time."
Of course it was. She had known this moment was coming. She placed her hand in Fyntor's, swung her leg over her saddle, and allowed him to assist her to the ground. She was grateful for the help. She was stiff from the day's ride and would have been less than graceful by herself. Hish was already untying her pack from the back of her saddle.
Without the extra height of her horse, Elthrinn felt completely dwarfed. Fyntor and Hish both rode horses large enough to take their weight, which meant their beasts were twice the size of a normal pony. The two half-giants, who were not nearly as unrefined as their rough looks and demeanour would suggest, towered over her. Even the barrel-chested steward, although substantially shorter than her escorts, was almost twice her height.
"Will you stay and take some refreshment, gentlemen?"
"No." Fyntor shook his head, sending the braids in his shaggy red hair flying. "Our task is done. We're to return without delay."
"As you will." The steward nodded, obviously not caring either way.
Elthrinn hadn't realised that her own horse had been led away until Fyntor and Hish remounted. She couldn't leap back into the saddle and ride after them.
"Thank you, both." Elthrinn had to crane her neck and shade her eyes against the afternoon sunshine to look the giants in their eyes.
"Our pleasure, Elf." Hish nodded once, curtly. "Take care."
"Safe journey," she returned.
Elthrinn felt like there should have been more words, but she wasn't sure what she would have said. The three of them had been travelling together for a moon. Now the giants were riding away as if they'd delivered a sack of meat. She supposed that, in a way, they had.
Elthrinn didn't want to turn around and take the next steps to her fate. The steward hadn't been surly, there had been nothing in his demeanour so far to cause offence, but Elthrinn got the impression all the same that he was not pleased by her presence. She felt awkward and didn't know if she dared to ask the hundred questions rushing through her mind.
But she did turn when she heard the creak and scuff of heavy wood moving. One of the tall doors was opening. Elthrinn caught sight of the elaborate carvings around the door frame before the new arrival appeared, but she couldn't make out the complicated designs.
A woman stepped from behind the door that had moved. She was older, judging by the tracing of lines at the sides of her mouth, but her hair, as deep a copper as Fyntor's, was shining and flowed in thick waves around her shoulders to her waist. She was important, too, judging by the way the steward bowed his head when she stepped out into the daylight. The woman's bright eyes sparkled with warmth as she smiled at Elthrinn.
"Welcome, welcome. You must be Elthrinn."
"I am," Elthrinn confirmed.
"I'm Rehan. Gorren's mother."
Elthrinn found it interesting that the queen should identify herself without using her title.
"I'm pleased to meet you."
"You're not, I'm sure." Elthrinn stuttered a denial but Rehan waved it away. "I'm well aware of the situation, my dear. I don't hold any reluctance against you. Come. Dechard has your pack." Elthrinn looked, and indeed the steward had hefted her pack onto his shoulder. "I'll show you to your room. You must be desperate to wash the road away and to change."
"Thank you." Elthrinn nodded gratefully. "It has been a long journey."
"Come, then."
Rehan motioned with her hand and held out her arm. Elthrinn was reluctant to touch the queen, she felt that the dust and grime of the trek across countries was embedded in her skin as well as her clothes, but Rehan tutted, grabbed Elthrinn's hand, and hooked her arm over her own.
"I'm not one for formality when it isn't needed, my dear."
Rehan pushed the heavy wooden door wider to allow them both to pass through the opening side-by-side, and guided Elthrinn into Cranak Hall. Elthrinn looked about, wide-eyed. She hadn't known what to expect at all. She hadn't seen any windows in the walls of the hall from the outside, so at best she had guessed the inside would be dark and dank; it was anything but.
Torches fastened into iron sconces on the walls kept the shadows at bay. The hall that they stepped into seemed to be a place for gathering. There were tables and benches along each side, and fire pits in the centre. Frames, from which iron puts hung on chains, spanned the dully glowing coals.
"Don't worry about finding your way." Rehan patted Elthrinn's hand as she led her into a corridor. "I'll show you around when you've had chance to make yourself comfortable. For now, I will be your guide. I'm not sure what you're used to. Erkas spoke mainly to my husband, and men are not well-equipped to remember the more interesting details about women, so I don't know much about you at all."
Elthrinn didn't say anything at first. Her own life had taken a strange enough turn without wondering why a son's mother would agree to him marrying a stranger.
"I don't know much about you, any of you, either."
"Men." Rehan chuckled. "They think they're so very good at talking, but they always forget the important things."
Elthrinn didn't have much experience to base an answer on, so she refrained from making one. They ascended some stairs, and traversed what seemed to Elthrinn's tired mind to be a rabbits' warren of corridors, until Rehan stopped outside one door in particular. The queen was wearing a green woollen dress with long fitted sleeves and a full skirt down to the floor. The waist was cinched by wide leather belt. The queen flicked at the folds of her skirt to reveal a small ring of keys on a chain attached to the belt. It was much like the way that Elthrinn had worn the dagger that Serwren had given her in Senthirr. That dagger was now tucked discreetly into her boot.
Rehan opened the door and a puff of steam escaped into the corridor.
"Oh, good. Your bath is ready."
Elthrinn could have wept with gratitude.
"Put her things by the foot of the bed. Thank you." Rehan directed Dechard, who had followed them through the hall. The steward did as he was bid and nodded at the queen again before leaving the room.
"Now. You should bathe first before the water cools. There's wine and food on the table there."
Rehan pointed to a small table next to the head of the carved wooden bed which dominated the room. A copper tub sat in the middle of the space that was left; steam billowed from the hot water within it. An earthenware jug and matching cup, and a plate of bread, cheese and other morsels was waiting where the queen had indicated.
Rehan patted Elthrinn's hand again and unwound their arms. "Eat, then sleep. There are fresh clothes in the drawers. I think we've estimated your size correctly. There is to be a meal in the great hall downstairs in honour of your arrival."
Elthrinn felt herself pale at the thought of being at the centre of so much attention, but Rehan smiled kindly.
"I know, I know. I persuaded my husband that having you walk into a room full of the town was a sure way to have you faint just inside the door, but I couldn't dissuade him from withholding a welcome altogether, or even delaying it for a day. Don't worry, though. I will stay by your side. I'll come for you when it's time to go down."
"Thank you. I don't know what else to say." Exhaustion and the overwhelming relief of Rehan's friendliness and thoughtfulness made Elthrinn's voice catch in her throat.
"I want you to be happy here, my dear. I want my son to be happy, too, and that will not be possible if you are miserable." Rehan pressed a quick kiss to Elthrinn's cheek and left the room.
Elthrinn listened for the sound of the key being turned in the lock, but she heard only Rehan's soft footsteps as they hurried away.
There was a catch on the back of the door. Rehan had not left the key to the room, so Elthrinn felt perfectly entitled to engage the catch, lest someone walk
in whilst she was in the middle of her bath.
Once the door was secure, she stripped as quickly as her aching limbs would allow. Elthrinn sighed as she stepped into the tub of water, which was hot enough to cause her skin to blush pink. She sank down, finding it was large enough to accommodate her until her shoulders were submerged, if she bent her knees. The water was scented with heady spices; the aroma was dense, but not unpleasant. On the floor by the side of the tub she found lotions and cloths to use to wash her body and hair. She scrubbed herself until she felt about as clean as she ever had in her life.
Searching the Darkness (Erythleh Chronicles Book 2) Page 7
