"And second?"
"Jet took over management of a nice estate on his father's death. With Melina's death he will inherit in full. However, the property needs work and Jet is required to provide a marriage portion for each of his three sisters. If Citrine was adopted, he would not need to provide for her, but if Grateful Peace was willing to supply funds…"
"Perhaps specifically earmarked for the marriage portions of Citrine's sisters, Opal and Ruby?" the Healed One interjected delicately into the pause.
"That would be nice," Elise said. "I don't trust Jet not to spend anything he can lay his hands on for his own purposes."
"Then a present to him as well," Toriovico said, "would be wise."
"Don't make it look like Citrine is being bought," Elise hastened to add. "Our people aren't as easy about slavery as are yours."
"We will consult Ambassador Redbriar," Toriovico assured her. "She is well versed in our ways as well as yours."
Elise nodded.
"Then all we need is a legitimate excuse for me to leave Citrine behind, since in doing so I would be in violation of my guardianship."
"Citrine told me," the Healed One said, obviously a bit uncomfortable with what he was about to say, "that one of the reasons she accompanied you on this journey was to enable her to regain health she lost when she was captive of some pirates…"
Elise appreciated his not mentioning precisely what type of health Citrine had lost.
"Yes, that is true."
"Then perhaps you could suggest that Citrine is remaining where she can be in her physician's care," Toriovico suggested, "and continue the healing this journey has begun."
"Her physician?" Elise echoed blankly. "Do you mean Grateful Peace? His kindness has certainly done a great deal to heal what ailed Citrine."
The Healed One frowned slightly.
"I meant Sir Jared Surcliffe," he said. "Hasn't he told you and your companions that he intends to remain in New Kelvin after the Harvest Festival?"
I WON'T STAY FOREVER," Doc said when Elise found himùby good fortune aloneùin the main room of the suite he shared with Edlin and Derian. "Though it sounds like it's convenient that I decided to stay."
Elise stared at him, disbelieving.
"But you are staying?"
"I am."
For all their mutual attraction, Doc had rarely touched Elise and then such contact had usually been in the informal context of work or the formal one of dancing.
Now he reached out and took her hand with such contained intensity that for the first time Elise realized that she'd stormed in here without a chaperon.
How I have changed! she thought. Maybe Grandmother Rosene was right all along and I shouldn't have been let out alone. Certainly, it never occurred to me to find Wendee.
"Elise," Doc said, "we both know that I love you. That hasn't changed. I also know what you told me last Wolf Moon outside the Smuggler's Light, that I had your affection but not your promise."
Elise nodded, thinking how cold those words sounded. She knew, too, that she had been cool to him since they had re-met at Duchess Kestrel's dower house. What she hadn't realized until this moment was how cool she had been to everyone. Even Citrine, who could have deserved better of her, had suffered under her disapproval.
I can't seem to do anything halfway, Elise thought ruefully. Either I'm an idiot flinging myself at Jet or I'm some parody of my father, commanding and rebuking. What's wrong with me that I can't find a balance?
"You're young," some kinder part of herself answered, but Elise shook her internal colloquy away and gave Doc the attention he deserved.
"Go on," she prompted, offering his hand a gentle squeeze.
Doc relaxed.
"You also told me something else, something your mother said."
Elise tilted her head, trying, then remembering Aurella Wellward's words, and blushing at the cool cruelty that she could have repeated themùand thought them a kindness.
Doc clearly thought she didn't remember, and went on:
"Lady Aurella said that I would never be so impolite, so unaware of the differences in our stations, to propose marriage to you. She said that burden would be on you."
Elise nodded, unable to speak.
"I accepted that then," Doc went on. "Sometime during this trip I realized that I was indeed what I had named myself half in jest then. A coward."
"No!"
He waved her protest aside.
"I put the burden on you, the burden of proving to your parents, to those people who will rely on you when you are Baroness Archer, that you had chosen your husband wisely. I did nothing to prove myself."
"You're a knight!" Elise burst out. "A healer."
"Past deeds promising perhaps present patronage," Doc replied levelly. "I want to offer you more than that, but I know my strengths and weaknesses. I am not a warrior. My glory in battle was accidental."
Elise didn't agree, but held her tongue. It was only fair to give Doc a chance to say what he'd obviously been thinking about for a long while.
"I am not a merchant. I am, however, more than the healer you named me. I am a doctor. I have studied the workings of medicine and the body. The talent my ancestors were kind enough to pass on to me enables me to save those I might otherwise lose, but it is not all I have."
"I didn't mean," Elise said hesitantly, "to imply that."
"I know," Doc assured her. "You meant to offer me a compliment. The fact is that in this past year of blood and battle, I started to forget I had more than the talent. What has been needed from me was that quick ability to keep the breath in the body. My more painstakingly acquired skills came into play later, if at all. Do you want to know what started me thinking I might have overlooked something?"
"I do."
"On my way to meet you at Duchess Kestrel's, I stopped to help one of her tenants, Widow Chandler. My talent helped, but it was the ointments I could leave behind me that I knew would assure her recovery."
Elise, remembering her flash of jealousy at Doc's tending this woman, had the grace to blush.
Doc, intent on his own memories, didn't question her.
"I thought about that. I thought about Sapphire's pregnancy and how we all wish there were some ointment that would assure a healthy child. I thought about how Queen Elexa sacrificed her health to bear the kingdom three living children."
His voice dropped and now he flushed dark red.
"I thought how your mother is Elexa's niece and how she, too, carries that weakness. How the only thing your father could do to help Aurella was insist that she have no more than the one child. I thought how you, too, might carry that weakness. I realized that as a doctor I would not want to stand by and watch you transformed into a frail wraith by the natural act of bearing a child."
He took a deep breath.
"I'd feel that way even if I wasn't your husband. I'd feel it even more if I was."
Elise nodded.
"And so…"
"I'm staying here to study everything I can lay my hands on regarding what the New Kelvinese know about pregnancy, childbirth, and its aftereffects. I have been promised the cooperation of several sodalities, all of which want a chance to study my talent.
"I have promised the Healed One a copy of my results, but what I plan to do with what I learn is to come homeùhopefully before Sapphire's child is born, but if I cannot to send what I can to the Royal Physicians in both Hawk Haven and Bright Bay."
"And?"
"And to your parents as well, for if I find a way to overcome whatever it is that plagues the Wellward women, I will have something to offer House Archer in return for the privilege of marrying its heir. And then…"
He paused for so long that Elise thought he was going to leave the thought unfinished.
"And then I am going to ask you to marry meùand I hope you will consider me worthy."
Elise knew she couldn't promise, couldn't even promise to wait, for she knew enough about medicine to know that the
research Doc was hoping to complete in a few moonspans might take years. Still, she hoped that her smile would give Doc the encouragement he needed to carry on.
THE NEW KELVINESE HARVEST FESTIVAL was something that Derian knew he would be telling tales about not just this winter but for winters to come. Their position as the Healed One's guestsùand the heroes who had saved the land from Melinaùmeant that they were welcome wherever they went. He took advantage of this freedom to escape the formality of Thendulla Lypella and join the townspeople, who proved, despite their robes and masks, not too different from their counterparts in Eagle's Nest when it came to enjoying a public festival.
Indeed, as Derian joined the crowd in Aswatano, he found it hard to believe that not too long ago he and Doc had hardly escaped that very crowd with their lives. The butcher who had been so cruel thrust a sausage on a stick at him by way of apology and Derian accepted with a grin. His waistcoat pockets bulged with the lucky sweets shaped like fruits and vegetables, until he started handing them out againùan act that made him very popular with the children.
When the dancing started, Hasamemorri and her maids undertook to teach him the steps until Derian felt confident joining in. After a few rounds, he felt a tap on his elbow and there stood the little spice vendor, smiling up at him.
Later that evening, Derian discovered just how successfully he could communicate even with his limited New Kelvinese, for the spice vendor had only a few words of Pellish, but a considerable amount she wanted him to learn.
Derian couldn't say he was sorry to leave Dragon's Breath when the time came. Indeed, he was eager to tell his family more than he could ever remember to put into letters. Still, it was hard to leave Citrine and Peace behindùeven though he was assured that he would see them both again. The spice vendor hinted that she might visit Eagle's Nest someday, and made him promise to call on her if he came back to Dragon's Breath.
With an escort provided by the Healed One and captained by Brotiusùthough Derian wasn't certain whether this was a reward or a punishment for the man whose sense of duty had given them so much troubleùtheir small party made good time. Grateful Peace had taken charge of their budding business, saying that it really wouldn't be a bad idea for House Kestrel and House Archer to set up tradeùand that now he was no longer in government, he needed a new venture.
They reached the Gateway to Enchantment and, leaving Brotius and his guard company behind, crossed into Stilled. There the innkeeper at the Long Tail Winding had heard rumors and wanted facts. They provided them willingly, having decided that secrecy would serve no one, themselves least of all.
On a stretch of road between Stilled and the Kestrel estate, Firekeeper suddenly spoke, raising her voice so that everyone could hear her clearly.
"Here we leave you," she said, taking a small pack down from one of the mules.
"Leave?" Derian said.
"I say, leave?" Edlin echoed.
"I'm going home," Firekeeper said. "Too much has happened. I want to see my packùmy parents. I want to learn if they think I have been right in what I did."
Her posture left no room for argument, but Elise tried.
"You know you did, Firekeeper. Come back with us, share the celebration."
Firekeeper shook her head.
"You eat my share. I… we… want to go home. The weather will be kind for a time. The deer fat. There is a litter of pups that will hardly know us."
She paused and Derian thought of the other things she would want to see: the gatehouse going up at the gap through the Iron Mountains, proof that New Bardenville was indeed gone. It was one thing to be told, another to see. And she would want to tell her parents, those impossible wolves he still hardly believed in, about everything she had been through.
"And I think," Firekeeper added, almost as if she had been reading his thoughts, "that I want to ask the Ones about dragons."
His voice sounding rusty even to his own ears, Derian said, "Tell Elation hello for me."
Firekeeper smiled.
"I will, and I think that if life stays with me I will come see you all again."
She held up one foot, showing Derian that she still wore bootsùa necessity, for the skin had not yet toughened after the obsidian cuts had healed.
"I have learned many good things."
With the same rambunctious spirit that she had heretofore reserved for her romps with Blind Seer, Firekeeper gave everyone hugs and planted enthusiastic kisses on both Derian's and Edlin's cheeks.
Blind Seer wagged his entire body with such energy that Derian knew without translation that the wolf, too, was saying good-bye and wishing them all the best.
Then wolf and woman ran ahead down the road a short distance, before darting into the forest. Even the sound of their feet vanished after a few paces, but a high clear howl, two voices raised as one, called back a final farewell.
THE END
Glossary Of Characters
Agneta Norwood: (Lady, H.H.) daughter of Norvin Norwood and Luella Stanbrook; sister of Edlin, Tait, and Lillis Norwood; adopted sister of Blysse Norwood (Firekeeper).
Aksel Trueheart: (Lord, H.H.) scholar of Hawk Haven; spouse of Zorana Archer; father of Purcel, Nydia, Deste, and Kenre Trueheart.
Alben Eagle: (H.H.) son of Princess Marras and Lorimer Stanbrook. In keeping with principles of Zorana I, he was given no tide, as he died in infancy.
Alin Brave: (H.H.) husband of Grace Trueheart; father of Baxter Trueheart.
Allister I: (King, B.B.) called King Allister of the Pledge, sometimes the Pledge Child; formerly Allister Seagleam. Son of Tavis Seagleam (B.B.) and Caryl Eagle (H.H.); spouse of Pearl Oyster; father of Shad, Tavis, Anemone, and Minnow.
Alt Rosen: (Opulence, Waterland) ambassador to Bright Bay.
Amery Pelican: (King, B.B.) spouse of Gustin II; father of Basil, Seastar, and Tavis Seagleam. Deceased.
Anemone: (Princess, B.B.) formerly Anemone Oyster. Daughter of Allister I and Pearl Oyster; sister of Shad and Tavis; twin of Minnow.
Apheros: (Dragon Speaker, N.K.) long-time elected official of New Kelvin, effectively head of government.
Aurella Wellward: (Lady, H.H.) confidant of Queen Elexa; spouse of Ivon Archer; mother of Elise Archer.
Barden Eagle: (Prince, H.H.) third son of Tedric I and Elexa Wellward. Disowned. Spouse of Eirene Norwood; father of Blysse Eagle. Presumed deceased.
Basil Seagleam: see Gustin III.
Baxter Trueheart: (Earl, H.H.) infant son of Grace Trueheart and Aim Brave. Technically not a title holder until he has safely survived his first two years.
Bee Biter: Royal Kestrel; guide and messenger.
Bevan Seal: see Calico.
Blind Seer: Royal Wolf; companion to Firekeeper.
Blysse Eagle: (Lady, H.H.) daughter of Prince Barden and Eirene Kestrel.
Blysse Norwood: see Firekeeper.
Bold: Royal Crow; eastern agent; sometime companion to Firekeeper.
Brina Dolphin: (Lady or Queen, B.B.) first spouse of Gustin III, divorced as barren.
Brock Carter: (H.H.) son of Colby and Vernita Carter; brother of Derian and Damita Carter.
Brotius: (Captain, N.K.) soldier in New Kelvin.
Calico: (B.B.) proper name, Bevan Seal. Confidential secretary to Allister I. Member of a cadet branch of House Seal.
Caryl Eagle: (Princess, H.H.) daughter of King Chalmer I; married to Prince Tavis Seagleam; mother of Allister Seagleam. Deceased.
Ceece Dolphin: (Lady, B.B.) sister to current Duke Dolphin.
Chalmer I: (King, H.H.) born Chalmer Elkwood; son of Queen Zorana the Great; spouse of Rose Rosewood; father of Marras, Tedric, Caryl, Gadman, and Rosene Eagle. Deceased.
Characters are detailed under first name or best-known name. The initials B.B. (Bright Bay), H.H. (Hawk Haven), or N.K. (New Kelvin) in parenthesis following a character's name indicate nationality. Titles are indicated in parenthesis.
Hawk Haven and Bright Bay noble houses both follow a naming system where the c
hildren take the surname of the higher ranking parent, with the exception that only the immediate royal family bear the name of that house. If the parents are of the same rank, then rank is designated from the birth house, great over lesser, lesser by seniority. The Great Houses are ranked in the following order; Eagle, Shield, Wellward, Trueheart, Red-briar, Stanbrook, Norwood.
Chalmer Eagle: (Crown Prince, H.H.) son of Tedric Eagle and Elexa Wellward. Deceased.
Chutia: (N.K.) Illuminator. Wife of Grateful Peace. Deceased.
Citrine Shield: (H.H.) daughter of Melina Shield and Rolfston Redbriar; sister of Sapphire, Jet, Opal, and Ruby Shield; aka Rios.
Colby Carter: (H.H.) livery stable owner and carter; spouse of Vernita Carter; father of Derian, Damita, and Brock Carter.
Columi: (N.K.) retired Prime of the Sodality of Lapidaries.
Culver Pelican: (Lord, B.B.): son of Seastar Seagleam; brother of Dillon Pelican. Merchant ship captain.
Daisy: (H.H.) steward of West Keep, in employ of Earl Kestrel.
Damita Carter: (H.H.) daughter of Colby and Vernita Carter; sister of Derian and Brock Carter.
Dawn Brooks: (H.H.) wife of Ewen Brooks, mother of several small children.
Dayle: (H.H.) steward for the Archer manse in Eagle's Nest.
Derian Carter: (H.H.) also called Derian Counselor; assistant to Norvin Norwood; son of Colby and Vernita Carter; brother of Damita and Brock Carter.
Deste Trueheart: (H.H.) daughter of Aksel Trueheart and Zorana Archer; sister of Purcel, Nydia, and Kenre Trueheart.
Dia Trueheart: see Nydia Trueheart.
Dillon Pelican: (Lord, B.B.) son of Seastar Seagleam; brother of Culver Pelican.
Dimiria: (N.K.) Prime, Sodality of Stargazers.
Dirkin Eastbranch: (knight, H.H.) King Tedric's personal bodyguard.
Donal Hunter: (H.H.) member of Barden Eagle's expedition; spouse of Sarena; father of Tamara. Deceased.
Edlin Norwood: (Lord, H.H.) son of Norvin Norwood and Luella Kite; brother of Tait, Lillis, and Agneta Norwood; adopted brother of Blysse Norwood (Firekeeper).
Eirene Norwood: (Lady, H.H.) spouse of Barden Eagle; mother of Blysse Eagle; sister of Norvin Norwood. Presumed deceased.
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