He was changing, Kestrel could see. The journey they were on was going to have proven to be a valuable one for having given Hampus the opportunity to grow and experience so much of the outside world, if nothing else. Regardless of any treaty they might sign.
Elder Miskel might not be happy at first, if Hampus returned from a successful diplomatic mission, but if Hampus maintained his growing maturity, the military leader would come to appreciate what Kestrel’s trip had accomplished.
He recovered his breath, and climbed onboard the boat. “Let’s try to sail this thing,” he said. “Does anyone know how to sail a boat?” he asked.
“My uncle was a fisherman, so I know some,” Raines volunteered. So she, together with Kestrel, who had a slight knowledge of sailing from his experiences in the human lands, managed to direct the ship to begin to course down the river, heading north towards Narrow Bay.
Chapter 23 – In Narrow Bay
They only needed two days to reach the city, and they pulled into a dock along the river front in the early evening. Putty was required to stay below deck. The yeti was unhappy with the confinement, though Kestrel promised her better times to come.
“I’d like to go make a couple of visits,” Raines said.
“Do you want any of us to come with you?” Kestrel asked.
“I’d like to go alone for now,” she answered evasively.
“Do you need anything?” Kestrel asked once more.
“No, nothing. I should be back before dark,” she said with a touch of softness, appreciative of Kestrel’s offer.
She departed from the ship, and the three men watched her go. Orren seemed to pay particular attention to her, Kestrel noted, as the bulky miner stood at the railing and watched Raines disappear from view around a corner.
“I think we all deserve something as a reward for our long journey,” Kestrel told the other two, speaking in both languages. “I’ll go to the market and see if I can find anything for the three of us to indulge in.”
“And you’ll get some for her as well, won’t you?” Orren asked.
“That’s very nice of you, Orren,” Kestrel said, caught off guard by the man’s thoughtfulness. “I will. I’ll get something for Putty since she’s being so patient about staying out of sight.”
“No! I meant the lady, Miss Raines,” the miner responded shrilly.
“Of course, her too,” Kestrel agreed. He privately suspected that they were not going to see Raines again, but it seemed unnecessary to mention that to Orren. He left the ship, and went in the same direction that Raines had strode minutes earlier.
Once he was away from the harborside, he found a street with bakeries, drawn by the smell of fresh bread. He walked out of the first bakery he visited with three loaves of different types of breads, a meat pie, and a berry pie as well.
His journey back to the ship didn’t take long, and when he returned he was surprised to see that Raines was already returned. She was crying, sitting next to Orren and crying on his shoulder as he wrapped a beefy arm comfortingly around her slender shoulders. The miner looked at Kestrel and made eye contact, then discreetly shook his head to discourage questions at that moment.
Kestrel raised his eyebrows, but quietly walked past, and went down into the cabin, calling Hampus to join him.
“This is for you, Putty,” he told the attentive yeti, breaking off part of the meat pie and handing the thick-crusted foodstuff to his friend.
“Here, try this rye bread,” he said to Hampus, slicing a piece of the dark bread off and handing it to the elf who had so little exposure to human ways.
“This is what they eat?” Hampus asked after his first thoughtful bite. “It’s not as good as acorn bread, is it?”
“It’s different. It’s what they’re used to,” Kestrel diplomatically said.
“This is the one they think is nice,” he sliced off some of the wheat bread and gave the lighter colored bread to his companion, then tossed the heel to Putty, who sniffed it momentary and then swallowed it.
“There’s so little flavor to it,” Hampus said, comparing it to his recollections of the strong taste of the acorn bread that was so prevalent among the elves.
A series of shouts suddenly sounded outside.
“I will not!” the three in the cabin heard Raines scream.
The boat began to rock, and Orren shouted angrily. “Get off the ship!”
Kestrel stood, dropping the breads onto the seat he vacated, then opened the cabin door. A half dozen men were boarding the ship, two of them seizing Raines, while three others faced off with Orren. Kestrel stepped up out of the cabin, and saw that other men were on the dock.
“What’s happening here?” Kestrel said loudly, stepping forward towards the brewing melee. “Take your hands off her.”
“So you’re traveling with an elf too? You’re disgusting,” one of the men holding Raines shouted at her, then soundly smacked her.
Orren surged forward against the three men who held him, while Kestrel likewise launched himself at the attacker.
The men who were on the dock came swarming on board the ship in response to the erupting melee. Kestrel slammed his shoulder into one of the heavier humans who was holding Raines, knocking the man away from the woman. The two of them went down to the deck in a wrestling match, as Kestrel heard Hampus shout in anger.
A pair of hands roughly pulled him off his opponent, and then a punch struck him in the side of the head.
And then Putienne roared loudly, her voice full of vicious anger, and Kestrel heard the men around him scream like children.
Putienne took three strides to reach the man who had hit Kestrel, and picked him up easily, them lofted him through the air in a high, long arc that resulted in a loud splash in the river. The yeti swung a fist that knocked one man out cold, while Raines scrambled away as her captors released her.
She ran over to where Orren was suddenly free as well, while the men on the attack fled from the deck. Kestrel stood up, recovering from the pain in his head, and saw Hampus sprawled out on the deck, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth.
Kestrel heard the distinctive twang of a bowstring, and saw an arrow bounce off of Putty’s hide, making the monster roar with anger. Concerned that things were about to get out of hand, he thought of the protective blue dome of energy he had erected in the mine, and he theatrically waved his hand across the sky in front of his face, recovering the combination of will and emotion and focus that he remembered.
The dim dock suddenly lit up as the blue dome glowed into existence, and two arrows were quickly shot at it, glancing off and upwards into the darkening sky.
The dome covered the deck of the ship. All the attackers were off, some standing on the dock and looking onward in shock, while others were desperately fleeing from an encounter far beyond what they had expected. Whistles sounded in the middle distance a moment later.
“Are you okay?” Kestrel turned to the yeti first, placing his hand over the spot on the creature’s shoulder where the arrow had been deflected.
Putty snorted in distress, her anger still evident.
“Take it easy; calm down,” Kestrel told her. “You did great. You fought for us and you didn’t kill anyone. That was perfect,” he praised the yeti. “Stand here and look mean,” he directed it, then walked over and knelt by Hampus.
“How are you?” he asked. The elf had one hand touching his mouth, examining the blood that his fingers discovered on his cheek.
“Those big humans hit hard, don’t they?” He asked as he accepted a hand from Kestrel and was lifted to his feet.
“An elf generally doesn’t want a fight with a human to get that close,” Kestrel agreed. “I’m part human and they still can knock me down.”
“How are you?” he asked Raines and Orren, who were holding tightly onto one another.
“We’re better than I expected, thanks to your shaggy friend and yourself,” Raines said, her face pressed partially against Orren as she s
poke.
“Who were those men?” Kestrel asked.
“I went to check on Passet, and found that he had already gotten back here, and already gone back to his wife – and she took him right back!” Raines said emotionally.
“Then I went past my own home, and found that my husband had already invited another woman in to take my place in his bed,” she said indignantly.
“So I screamed some choice things at the couple, and came back here and started crying to Orren, as you saw. Then my husband came to insult me back, and you saw what happened,” she finished.
“You there on the boat!” Kestrel looked up and saw a number of men with lanterns, dressed in uniforms, scurrying onto the dock.
“It’s the guard!” Raines hissed.
“What magic are you practicing? Desist!” a leader of the guardsmen shouted.
“Have you cleared the dock of the men who attacked us?” Kestrel responded, stepping over to the edge of the boat’s deck, so that he was little more than an arm’s length away from the guardsmen.
“This is all illegal,” the guardsman said. “You’re practicing magic, you’ve got a dangerous monster on your boat. I must take you all into to the central station for the sake of the public peace.”
Kestrel reached a snap decision. He had traveled on a long, grueling journey that had covered hundreds of miles in the wilderness. He had brought Hampus through the great challenge of the trip. He was running behind his self-appointed schedule. He had no reason to stay any longer in Narrow Bay, he decided on the spur of the moment.
“Raines, Orren, we’re going to go to Kiravee, the great city of the elves of the North Forest. Do you want to come with us?” he asked the two humans.
“What do you mean?” Raines asked.
“I have no place I need to be, nor any place to call home now,” Orren answered. “I’ll travel with the lady to watch over her for a bit,” he said, his face growing red.
“That is so nice,” Raines said appreciatively. “I don’t want to stay here any longer. There’s nothing for me in Narrow Bay now.”
“Stillwater, Stillwater, Stillwater,” Kestrel called.
“Hello Kestrel friend,” the imp said moments later. There were gasps from the watchmen on the dock.
“What is this great manifestation of power? Is something amiss?” Stillwater asked, staring at the dome of blue energy.
“We have had a misunderstanding, I think,” Kestrel tried to speak lightly. He felt anxious and jittery, as he worked to maintain the energy for the shield that he had erected so hastily. “There’s no immediate danger however.”
“This power – where does it come from? Is it you?” Stillwater questioned Kestrel.
“It is mine,” Kestrel confirmed. “Those men on the dock are unhappy with our presence, and it turns out we have no reason to stay here. I would like to ask if several of your friends could join you to take all of us on the boat up to Kirevee in the Northern Forest, where we were last year.”
“You want us to take all of you to the land of the northern elves? Even the monster?” Stillwater asked dubiously.
“Even my friend, the yeti,” Kestrel confirmed. There was a sizzling sound, as the guards on the dock shot a volley of a dozen arrows at the dome all at once. Kestrel made a reflexive wince, though he felt no physical pain, as the arrows all bounced off the shield, making it momentarily turn a greenish shade.
“The yeti will require a great many imps to carry her anywhere,” Stillwater reckoned.
“What if,” Kestrel recognized that he would have to do some bargaining. “What if we all went to the healing spring first, and then went to Kirevee?”
“I will bring an army of imps here to see you!” Stillwater exclaimed. “It has been a long, long time since we have had the pleasure of visiting the waters.” He paused, as he sent out his unheard summons to a variety of imps.
Blue bodies started appearing, crowding together in the confined space between the blue dome and the deck of the ship, arousing comments from those on the dock and on the deck.
“Kestrel! What is this?” Orren asked, as Raines clung to him.
“They’re going to fight back!” someone on the dock shouted. “Run! Run for safety!”
The guards on the dock did begin to flee in a stampede, while Kestrel tried to maintain order on the boat.
“These are my friends,” Kestrel said loudly to the two humans, shouting to overcome the rising hubbub of imps chattering gaily. He repeated the explanation to Hampus.
“Friends, and then too, some of us are the unrequited lovers who have spurned his advances,” Mulberry spoke up to correct him.
“Be that as it may, the imps are going to carry us with their powers, and take us to a spring where the water has magical healing powers,” Kestrel explained.
“The water that you carry and use?” Hampus asked.
“Exactly,” Kestrel agreed.
“The imps are going to carry all of us away from here to a safe place. Let them hold you and carry you, and do not worry,” Kestrel switched back to the human language. His shield began to flicker, and he realized that his focus was distracted by the mental strain of trying to agilely change languages.
Before any of his companions could respond, the imps descended around Raines, Hampus, and Orren, and carried them away. There were shouts from the few people who were left on the dock watching the extraordinary events unfold around the ship.
“Putty,” Kestrel said, noticing that no imps had approached the yeti. “We’re going to go someplace fun.” He walked over to the creature and placed his arms around it, his fingers tightly grasping handfuls of fur.
“Come and take us,” he called to the imps, and he felt a large group of them gingerly wrap themselves around the last pair of travelers.
He closed his eyes and focused on releasing the shield. He heard shouts as the watchers saw the shield disappear, and then he felt them all enter the strange dimension through which the imps traveled.
Chapter 24 – Danger at the Spring
As soon as Kestrel and Putienne arrived, the yeti gave a loud cry, and shivered and shrugged her muscles in an effort that sent the imps flying off of her.
“Kestrel friend, for that we deserve extra time in the water!” Mulberry said insistently.
“All of you imps go over to the usual spot, and I’ll be right over,” Kestrel told the hovering flock, though those most familiar with the spring were already floating in the direction of the grassy sward where they customarily gathered.
Kestrel sat down and removed his boots.
“That was frightening!” Raines said. “We don’t have to do that again, do we?” there was a pleading note in her voice.
Kestrel stood up and took off his shirt, then dropped his pants.
“Oh gods! What are you doing?” Raines screeched, turning and hiding her face in Orren’s shoulder.
Kestrel dove into the water without answering, delighted by the wonderful sensation of the energetic, warm water running along his body. He stroked over to where the imps waited in the darkness, and looked up at the bright stars that twinkled brilliantly in the moonless sky, including a pair of red and blue stars that shone brightly, stars he had never noticed before in the middle of the familiar constellation of the centaur. Under such a majestic sight, he found it hard to believe that the horror he had encountered in the mountainside mine could truly exist. With such peace and beauty abundant overhead, such evil should be impossible to survive.
“Come into the water!” he turned and shouted to the others. “It feels wonderful. Swim over to those rocks over there and relax,” he pointed, then turned his attention back to the impatient crowd of imps. He began to lift them each, one at a time, and packed them into rows of resting, dreaming little bodies that gently absorbed the small waves and ripples that broke upon their sleeping bodies.
Acanthus, one of the imps who had been assigned to be on his own particular squad, paused before his watery immersion to cha
t with Kestrel.
“The mushroom season in Oaktown is almost over,” he said mournfully. “There will be only one more of the markets this season, one more chance to trade with the elves and the humans.
“All of our kind have enjoyed the market you set up for us. Will you do it again next year, please?” he pleaded, as Kestrel held him above the water.
“I think the market is something we should have every year during the mushroom season,” Kestrel agreed. “And perhaps next season we can find even more things to trade, more items that we can share with one another, all year long.”
As Acanthus was dowsed in the water, only one imp remained awake and impatient.
When he finished by putting the petulant Mulberry into the water – “You should put me in first,” she insisted – he turned and saw that Hampus had done as suggested, and was settling into a comfortable position among the rocks. Orren was sitting on the edge of the pool, his boots off, his pant legs rolled up, and his feet soaking in the water. Raines stood behind him, looking at the water with an expression that was a cross between longing and embarrassment.
Kestrel recollected when he had first brought Wren to the pool, when she had still been so rebellious and headstrong. His cousin – the relationship unknown to him at the time – had been just as shy about undressing to enter the water.
“Why don’t all the men come over to the rocks, so that you can undress yourself and enter the water privately?” he suggested as he floated over towards the two humans. “The water is a tremendous experience. You’ll be sorry you missed it.”
“It does feel good on my feet,” Orren reinforced Kestrel’s message. “If you’ll just turn away, I’ll pop into the water and go over there too,” he offered.
A minute later the man came splashing over to join Kestrel and Hampus, making up for a lack of swimming finesse through his vigorous flailing of his arms.
Standing indecisively on the shoreline was Putienne, looking intently at where Kestrel reclined with the other men.
The Guided Journey (Book 6) Page 24
