“No one ever specifically asked me to be king,” he equivocated. Both Hampus and Miskel had, at different times, come to him and asked him to take charge of the palace, but he had refused. He had no desire to rule, and he felt the urgent need to avoid being tied down in the city for an unknown, but lengthy, engagement. Not only did the burden of making mortal decisions trouble him, but he wanted to expeditiously escort Medeina back to the portal in Cedar Gully, and then finally, finally begin the journey west to Uniontown.
He feared that he would be too late – that the civil war in Uniontown would have found its end, and the Duke Listay, along with his daughter Lark, would have lost the war – perhaps have lost more, even their lives.
“You’re not trying to play word games with me, are you?” the goddess asked. “You know better than that.”
“I didn’t want to be king here. I want to go see Lark, and help her father,” Kestrel agreed.
“You made me realize I can have more control over my powers,” he changed the subject.
“It comes from you, from within you. There are limits of course, because you are mortal. But the boundaries have not been reached, except when you have done the most extraordinary things,” the goddess told him.
Kestrel trotted along in silence, thinking about her comment. If he could learn to call upon and control his powers as fully as Medeina suggested, he would be able to do extraordinary things. He would focus and practice and learn, he promised himself.
The group traveled for the next three days, and reached Oaktown with a spontaneous parade that celebrated their return. Putienne and Remy disappeared immediately to check on the status of all the favorite places in the manor, to see how they had been treated by the Center Trunk occupants.
“Tomorrow, you will take me back to the passage to my own land,” Medeina told Kestrel. Her appearance in the guise of a Parstole created quite a stir in the household.
“It won’t be a long journey,” Kestrel told her. “I’ll miss having you here.”
“You will and you won’t,” the goddess corrected him. “I am going to miss seeing you though, young godling. You have much potential and a good heart. I hope it stays that way.
“But I am anxious to return to the company of my wilderness – the animals and the plants and the special places. I have missed them greatly. There is too much going on in this world of yours. I’m sorry I didn’t meet your goddesses, but it is time for me to return nonetheless. I feel it,” she said.
The next morning, the pair of them slipped out of the Oaktown manor early, and ran to Cedar Gully. They created a stir in the village as the red visage of the goddess casually passed through the settlement in the company of the Warden of the Marches, and entered the haunted house on the edge of town. Minutes later, when Kestrel came back out, alone, there was even more gossip. Kestrel refused to reveal much of what had happened in the house, or what the fate of the strange red being was, creating further rumors and legends about the haunted house, and assuring that no one would ever live within it again.
Chapter 14
Kestrel sent the contingent of imps home the next morning, with many heartfelt farewells.
“As soon as the Rishiare Estelle ends, we will get together,” Kestrel had assured his friends.
“And we will have mushroom markets?” Odare had asked.
“As many as we can, as early in the season as we can,” Kestrel had promised. “You deserve them.”
“That is only true,” Mulberry agreed. “But Kestrel, you must not fall in love and get married before we see you again,” she admonished him.
“I won’t, I assure you,” he answered solemnly.
Energized by Kestrel’s promise of mushrooms, the imps departed from the manor house in a buoyant mood.
And suddenly, life was close to being what it was supposed to be. It was mid-winter in the southern reaches of the Eastern Forest. The sunlight shone down through the empty tree branches, and the elves stayed warm either by staying inside, or working briskly out-of-doors. Thanks to the arrangements with the humans of Hydrotaz, there was sufficient food for the habitants to remain fed.
Whyte was determined to settle back into domestic control of the manor and the village, as though society had not been completely disrupted. Only a few hours after Kestrel saw the imps off, his steward came to talk to him.
“I understand you’ll not be staying with us very long,” the staff leader came to speak to Kestrel.
“That is correct. If things can work smoothly here without me – as I’m sure they can, now that you’re back – I’ll plan to leave tomorrow, on a long trip,” Kestrel agreed.
“Will you ever choose to come live in your home, my lord? I’m sure we’d all love to have you take up residence here, both because we appreciate having you here, and because it would mean that the world had achieved relative peace, and didn’t have to rely on you to go off to start or stop some war.”
“Whyte, I’d love to stay here, and after my part in this war in Uniontown comes to close, I will be back here, and not have to leave again, expect to visit Merea, and my friends,” he referred to his daughter, who lived with her mother in distant Seafare. “So you’ll have time to come to wish that I was out of the house and out from underfoot. You’ll be glad to see me start up visits to all our villages and small communities again!”
“I know those elves will be happy to see you out visiting among them,” Whyte said. “So what can we do to help prepare you for your journey, and when will you leave?”
“I will plan to leave tomorrow,” Kestrel answered. “I’ll need very little – a bow and arrow, some coins, a bit of food to start the journey.”
“We’ll have it all prepared, you can be assured,” the steward confidently said, and the next morning the full kit was waiting for Kestrel in the kitchen when he entered in the morning.
“Do you feel certain that I should not go with you?” Putienne asked anxiously.
“I feel certain,” Kestrel replied with more confidence than he felt. He did not wish to separate from the yeti-changeling once again; their time together on the campaign through the Eastern Forest had re-strengthened the bonds between them. But Kestrel felt that his adventures on Uniontown would be better enabled without the lovely girl at his side, especially as he sought to pursue a relationship with Lark, once he had done all he could to assist her father.
And Kestrel sensed that he should allow the girl to continue to develop her own social skills. She was handling Remy quite competently, he noted, as he watched the Oaktown manor urchin readily fetch and serve the lovely girl, while guiding her around the village. With her ability to shift shapes, Kestrel felt confident that Putty would be able to handle any situation as she needed to.
“And I’ll feel better, knowing that you are here to protect the manor,” he said, truthfully.
“That’s so sweet!” she unexpectedly transformed into her yeti shape, then hugged Kestrel in an enveloping embrace.
Soon thereafter, Kestrel was on his way, running out of Oaktown and on his way along the first leg of the journey, the trip to Hydrotaz. He looked forward to seeing Lucretia and Giardell together again, and seeing Yulia and the others in the palace. From Hydrotaz, he hoped to embark on a ship that would carry him to Lakeview, the Inner Seas kingdom closest to Uniontown. Lakeview had been under the sway of Uniontown when the Viathins had ruled the land, and Kestrel had passed through the city. He had met Hierodule there, and her sister Hye, then known as Hiram. They had been companions on a perilous journey, one that had ended with the two sisters choosing to live among the southern elves in the wilderness beyond Uniontown, in the land where Moorin had become the queen of the elves, the Tyndall Shail for Lake, their ruling prince, the Tyndell Span.
He shook off those memories, the painful dwelling of his heart and his mind, the remembrance of the extraordinary elven beauty he had pursued, and rescued, guided and known, and been tricked into believing he knew – the beauty whose flawless blending
of human and elven traits had been recreated in Medeina and Putienne.
A long day’s trip took him to the human village where Glaess the innkeeper now knew him.
“You’re not bringing an army of elves through the country, are you?” the man had asked when Kestrel appeared.
“No, I’m traveling alone this time,” Kestrel had assured him.
“They still talk about you and those elves and that magic you used, up to West Flat Hill,” the innkeeper referred to the small city that had launched an unsuccessful assault upon Kestrel’s forces. Through assistance from Medeina, Kestrel had successfully defended his force from harm. Now, he reflected, as he climbed the stairs to his room at the inn, he understood his powers and how to use them much better, thanks to instructions he had received from Medeina, and he’d be able to defend such a force on his own.
In the middle of the next day he arrived at the embassy in Hydrotaz, and was quickly admitted to see Lucretia.
“Kestrel! Giardell has such extraordinary stories!” she gushed, as the three of them sat together. Kestrel greedily ate the lunch she provided, the two of them having eaten earlier. “You can do extraordinary things now it seems? Like the gods?” she asked curiously.
“I’ve learned to control some powers,” he agreed. “But not quite like the gods. They would overpower me.” He thought about his brief godhead among the Skyes, when he had imprisoned the Kovell, and been able to recreate the original elements of creation. It had been an extraordinary effort, one that far surpassed him now. While a god would be able to do something like that, but he could not delve into such powerful currents with his present abilities.
“What happened to the princess? Did you hear any more?” Lucretia asked.
“The rumors are that she and the surviving stranger may have fled all the way back to his unknown land in the east. They were seen going through the villages towards the frontier,” he passed along the last he had heard. “Hampus told me that once they have things settled down around the kingdom, they’ll send patrols out towards the east to start to watch for her potential return.”
“So he ends up ruling the country, and he’s on the lookout for his finance, who’s the rightful heir to the throne, and on the run?” Giardell phrased things nicely.
“And based on what she was doing, he’ll be a much better ruler than she was, at least until they find the king, if they do find him,” Kestrel said carefully.
“They’ll find him, surely?” Lucretia asked.
“There are guards who reported seeing him in different spots,” Kestrel said. “Miskel has his best folks tracking the king down, so that he can return to the throne. I don’t know what happens after that; the Eastern Forest will face a succession problem before much longer.”
“There shouldn’t be a succession problem here,” Lucretia said slyly, causing Kestrel to cock his head and look at her inquisitively.
“Yulia and Philip have announced a wedding date!” she explained. “They’ll be married on the day of the summer’s first full moon.
“I know you’ll come back over for that,” she said.
Kestrel looked up at the ceiling as he tried to estimate his upcoming calendar.
“Actually, I’m on my way to Uniontown right now,” he said. “But I’ll do everything I can to be back here by then. That’s more than three months away.”
Three months. In three months, the year of the Rishiare Estelle would be over. The imps would be traveling once again. Assuming that he hadn’t alienated his blue friends somehow, they would certainly carry him from Uniontown to Hydrotaz for the wedding.
“Uniontown? Haven’t you had enough of that place? There can’t be any pleasant memories there,” Lucretia protested.
“I have a friend, and her father needs help,” Kestrel said.
“Her father? Her? Are you in love with another human already? What happened to that beautiful mixed race girl you were here with?” Lucretia asked.
“She’s gone,” Kestrel said. “She was just visiting, and she went home.
“And I’m not in love with ‘another human girl’. I’m simply going to help her father. I was with some of his guards, and his daughter, on my last adventure, and they need help,” Kestrel said with dignity.
“If anyone can help someone in a tight place, it’s clearly you,” Giardell said complacently. “Have I told you about the glowing energy he uses?” the guard asked Lucretia.
“Blue, glowing, powerful – yes, you brag about him every day,” she said with glib dismissiveness. “So, shall we get you down to the palace to say hello to Yulia before you ship out of the port?” she asked Kestrel.
The three of them walked through the city streets, the sight of elves no longer the out-of-the-ordinary sight it had for so long been in Hydrotaz. They were admitted at the palace gates, and Kestrel was soon reunited with the ruler of Hydrotaz, Princess Yulia.
“There is peace in the Eastern Forest?” she asked after greeting Kestrel.
“All seems secure and comfortable once again. Thank you for the privilege of passing through your land – it helped us a great deal,” he told her.
“I hope you will be available on my wedding day; has Lucretia already told you?” Yulia gave a girlish smile as she mentioned her wedding day.
“Philip is a very lucky man,” Kestrel said. “I will certainly make every effort to return by then. I expect the imps will help me if needed, even,” he assured the bride-to-be.
“Return?” she asked alertly.
“Our hero is going to Uniontown, to meddle in affairs there,” Lucretia spoke up. “He hopes to ship out from your port straight away.”
“We need stability in Uniontown; the reports of the civil war are upsetting,” Yulia replied, “If they can restore order and end the civil war, then we’ll finally feel like the last problems created by the Viathins are over.
“Greysen will accompany you to the docks to find a ship, and give the royal seal of approval to carrying you,” she told Kestrel, as she waved one of her young protégés over to join them.
“We’ll save a room for you in the palace for the wedding, so be sure to be here!” she told him sternly, then laughed with sparkling eyes. Greysen arrived, and Kestrel said his farewells to Yulia, Lucretia and Giardell, then followed his young friend through the city, down to the gritty area around the docks, where they went up and down, looking for ships bound for Lakeview. Two were outward bound that night, and one agreed to take a passenger, as a favor to the palace. By nightfall, Kestrel was at sea.
The journey by ship was seven uneventful days. Kestrel spoke little with the crew, except one morning spent in reminiscences over the sea monsters that had formerly inhabited the Inner Seas, especially in the vicinity of Lakeview. The crew members had heard stories of the period when the sea monsters had inhabited Last Sea in particular, though they’d never seen any. Kestrel’s discreet stories of the monsters that had attacked the ships he’d been on had enthralled his listeners.
The journey went through the East Sea, where Hydrotaz was located, and passed through the Great Junction, where all four of the Inner Seas intertwined, before passing into the Last Sea. The winds blew strongly in their faces, forcing the ship to tack back and forth until the wind changed after the vessel had been stalled for two days in the Junction, and then they made good progress towards the Lakeview docks. They arrived in the middle of the night, and anchored off the port until the next morning, when the pilot from the harbor brought their ship into a dock.
“Good luck, sir elf,” the captain told Kestrel as he prepared to step off the ship with his small collection of belongings – a knapsack, his knife, and a walking staff. The captain was pleased to see the elf leave his ship; he’d never have accepted Kestrel as a passenger had there not been a palace representative firmly making the request for the journey.
Kestrel nodded his thanks, then pulled his cowl up over his head and departed, sliding around the stevedores and merchants who populated the docks s
o that he could get into Lakeview City and start to engage in the purpose of his quest.
Lakeview was the Inner Sea kingdom that had been first conquered by Uniontown when the Viathins had gained control of humans and started their quest for control of the lands. Lakeview had shared the closest ties of any Inner Sea land with Uniontown before the conquest, and now seemed likely to have good sources of information that Kestrel could rely on to learn what to anticipate in Uniontown.
He had almost devised a momentary plan when he had seen Alicia in Center Trunk – he had considered asking her to change his ears and eyebrows surgically, as she had done so many times before. An appearance as a human would give him a much easier trip to Uniontown, and allow him easier interaction with the humans of that land. But he decided not to follow through, for many reasons – pride and practicality, the realization that most humans from the western end of the Inner Seas were less prejudiced against elves that the eastern humans were, and his desire to be himself, known for who he was.
But as he walked away from the docks, he prudently kept his cowl up and his face down. He headed south through the city, and stopped once to look at the ruins of the Viathin temple. He had met Hierodule at that temple, and had taken her, initially against her will, away from her life there. He had no desire to enter the black building, and so he continued on further south.
He saw the riverside docks, where shallow draft shipping along the Gamble River transferred cargo that traveled to or from Uniontown. He was not far from the slums where he and Hierodule had fought the leader of a criminal gang, when they had sought to rescue Hiram, the woman who pretended to be a man, Hierodule’s sister whose real name was Hye.
Kestrel passed through the noisome section of the city, and as he reached the southern edges, he stopped at a market where he began to shop for supplies. His journey to Uniontown would take at least four days he reckoned.
Some of the vendors he bought from said nothing to him – they merely asked for coins, and took their payment. Others looked at him inquisitively, or even spoke up.
A Marriage of Friends Page 17
