"Jess! You ate a thousand souls?" Her sister's look of concerned confusion was echoed throughout the table. Lord Turnsby looked a bit embarrassed by the conversation, and with an apologetic grimace went back to his meal and the wax tablet of figures he was studying.
Jess sighed and shook her head. “It's ridiculous!”
“What is?” Onnika queried, and Jess scrunched her eyes before opening them again.
"Twilight. He says that I somehow managed to kill a prince of Hell and wrest free his captured souls, so they could be reborn once more." Jess forced herself to laugh. "Tell me that doesn't sound just a bit far-fetched?"
The room remained unnaturally still. Quietly Karine passed Jess an exquisitely bound tome. Jess blinked and whistled in awe. It was a book chronicling her adventures as a Delver so far.
"The bards were here when you returned from your expedition, Jess, with my sister and your shieldbrother by your side," Karine said solemnly. "They chronicled your adventure, as told by yourself, Malek, and my sister. Since the Guild thought that perhaps you had already passed on, they took the liberty of combining the tales of your various trips to the Shadowlands together and dubbing it ‘The Adventures of Lady Jessica de Calenbry and her loyal Brother in Arms, Malek de Sousel.' Or ‘Jessica's Journey', for short. The Guild is renowned for its scribes, and almost every bookbinder in Erovering is in awe at the speed with which they can publish their works, grateful beyond measure that they stick to adventurer's tales almost exclusively. Your tome, like all their works, was produced with a grace and efficiency otherwise unheard of, at a price that near anyone of even modest means could afford." Karine flashed an awestruck Jess a playful smile. "It is even rumored that one of the treasures the Guild recovered from the Dreamrealms is a magical device that will replicate any story spoken to it in printed form. Perhaps that would explain the real reason why the Guild's tomes are so prevalent, perfectly made, and affordable by all."
Karine's eyes twinkled with mirth as she chuckled softly. "Pure conjecture, of course. Still, it would explain why the written accounts of Delvers are so prevalent and well-known in Erovering. Almost everyone in the capital who can read owns at least one such tome, and the glory and renown of the Adventurer's Guild is only heightened by the fact that their works are among the most popular and well-read of any collection of tomes in the kingdom."
Karine smiled. "It is brilliant politically, as well. For only Guild accounts are this prevalent, many families read the tomes as bedtime stories for their children, perhaps the only written work that they own. Never do we see books with such fine lettering used in any other area of knowledge. If the Guild does indeed have such an artifact that allows them to magically make copies of their works, they use it only for transcribing the accounts of their heroes. I can only guess how many grateful scholars there are that would otherwise be out of business. And it would explain as well why any man of letters is emphatically opposed to writing anything bad about the Guild, ever. In any case, Jessica, your story is already quite the popular read in certain circles, from what I am given to understand."
Jess just shook her head, slightly awed, as she glanced through the finely illustrated pages, her breakfast forgotten. "Father was adamantly opposed to stories and faerie tales, for all that he allowed me free reign of the library even as a young girl, saying that history was a far better teacher than legend. Even at Highrock, I had no idea that these tomes were so popular. So common." She laughed softly. "To think that Malek and I thought that pursuing the life of a Delver was a bold venture few would consider, let alone dare. Now I have no doubt that half the children in the kingdom fantasize about becoming adventurers and escaping their lives, at one time or another."
Karine nodded sadly. "Ironically, Guild tomes are far more common in the homes of city dwellers than nobles, for a variety of political reasons, so it is not surprising that you and Malek found the accounts so fascinating when you uncovered them at Highrock. It was the first time you had read them, even if they can be found in half the houses in the capital. And I thank all the gods that so very few have the ability even to see the signs of overlapping worlds, flickers of fantastic castles and bone white fortresses wavering like distant mirages, let alone the gift to actually walk within realms of living dream. For I ask you, Jess, how many boys and girls hungering for adventure would survive even that first step?"
Jess shivered, the haunted gaze of a ginger haired boy flashing before her eyes, and then she blinked, and it was gone. "The oddest thing about all this is? I don't remember any of it! The first two tales, yes, but only because I've read them before. I only remember their telling, not their living. And… by Justice… it does say that I…" Jess just stared at the text, rendered speechless for a moment. "I actually fought and slew a prince of Hell? Scared off a dark coven of Fallen angels with the shining presence of my paladinhood?"
Onnika smirked. “It was more like you defeated their champion, and they agreed to leave to avoid a bloodbath on both sides.” She shrugged. “I took the liberty of asking Karine to keep a copy of the notes and jottings, so I would never forget what happened.” Her lips firmed. “I told her everything that happened to me. Everything.” She shuddered. “Before I finally collapsed. So I wouldn’t forget.” She paused for a moment, her wan expression touching Jess’s heart, as troubled blue eyes gazed off through the patio windows, as if her inner turmoil could be soothed by the gentle sound of birds chirping away on that lazy autumn day.
“I wanted to make sure I would never forget who had saved me, and what I had endured. That I wouldn’t forget what was real and what wasn’t.” Onnika sighed. “At least the pain has faded, so it really doesn’t feel any worse than a dream I had survived.”
“Onnika, I’m sorry.” Jess’s voice was tender. Even with what little she had read, she sensed that for Onnika, it had been a terrible ordeal.
The young woman’s gaze was heartfelt, and Jess felt herself blush with its intensity. “Don’t feel sorry, dear Jess! You are the one who saved me, after all. For which I will always be grateful, for as long as I live.” She laughed gently. “Besides, for the most part, the bards have it completely right. They just don’t want to hear about how you grew fangs and sucked that demon dry. Or maybe you didn’t think to mention it, but that’s what happened according to my sister’s notes, so I’ll assume that’s the truth.” She flashed Jess a sad smile. “And the bards, honorable as they are, were gracious enough to write absolutely nothing regarding the humiliations I had suffered, noting only that I was helpless, and in agony.”
“Fangs?” Jess blinked, finding that a bit hard to believe.
“Yes. Something that goes way back on your mother’s side,” Twilight quipped, spitting out a final bone. “But don’t say that aloud to Agda. She’d feel a bit flustered, and let’s just say it goes a bit further back than that. Now ask them to get me some more fish! Kitty is still hungry.”
"Twilight would like some more fish, if that's possible," Jess sighed before resting her head in her hands. "I just can't believe this."
Jess heard the slight tinkling of a bell and Karine's quiet request for a fresh platter of poached fish. She smiled at that, well aware that her Twilight rarely bothered to interact with other people. Save for having an unusual rapport for kitchen staff, people would almost never sense his presence except when he occasionally jostled things, or quite deliberately scared whoever was handling fish that day, and those instances were few and far between. All in all, she decided, that was a good thing. But something about Karine's eyes, the slight tremble she tried to hide, made Jess wonder just how much Karine saw.
“Let me take that,” Jess heard Onnika gently insist to the servitor, feeling the beautiful girl gently brush her back in passing as she filled what Jess surmised was Twilight’s plate with a fresh helping of perfectly poached whitefish. “Here you are, beloved Twilight. We apologize for not filling your plate in the first place, forcing you to trouble yourself with knocking the lid off that tureen.
Enjoy the fish, and thank you again for being such a true companion to Jess.”
Jess lifted her head off her arms then to see Onnika gazing fondly at Twilight who was at that very moment happily devouring his weight in fish. Twilight, for his part, was looking particularly smug.
“Can you see him, Onnika?” Jess asked breathlessly.
Onnika smiled and shook her head. "I'm afraid not. But I know he's there. It's strange. When I look at the plate, I can tell there are less fish than what I originally placed there, but it's like I can't sense where they went. So I assume that's just part of his mystery." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "I do remember, quite distinctly, a strange dream I had. A fragment of it, at least. I was in a garden. Oh Jess, what a garden! A riot of flowers of such beauty, a rainbow of colors giving off the most divine scent. It was heavenly."
Onnika sighed, gazing raptly at a vision within her mind's eye. “I remember seeing a perfectly formed cat of midnight black, yet so glossy was his coat that it shimmered like a thousand stars. He had the most knowing gaze, with eyes that glittered like brilliant sapphires. He looked both wise and terrible. I felt frozen where I stood. He was perched atop the shoulders of a young girl who looked a bit like you, but her hair was like spun gold. She had your mother's eyes, and she couldn’t have been more than twelve or so.” Onnika laughed. “A strange dream, but I remember him telling me his name. Twilight. Or Midnight." She shrugged. "For some reason, I'm just not sure. But it was a dream, after all. Anyway, he told me to make sure we had plenty of fish prepared for your familiar for when you awaken." She smiled. "So tell me Jess, when you were a child, were your eyes and hair a mirror of your beautiful mother's?"
Agda smiled at that, though her expression was also one of worry.
Jess nodded. “Yes. In fact, my coloring matched my mother's for most of my life.”
“And then you started adventuring, my brave daughter, and everything changed after that.” Agda sighed, gazing forlornly at her daughter.
Apple shrugged, giving her sister a discerning eye. “I think red suits her, Mother.”
Agda smiled. “I’m not saying we can’t work with her coloring. Merely that your sister’s journeys have changed her. And as noble and virtuous as your acts have been, I worry, as any mother would, that your body is paying a price for what you have been forced to endure.”
“I’m fine, Mother, really!” A mildly embarrassed Jess protested even as her mother, eyes flush with unshed tears, reached over to grab her hand, clenching tightly.
“You were gone from my sight for three months! That is not fine! The bards themselves were afraid you had made you last journey.” Agda fought to hold back her sobs, and Jess was hit with a sudden wave of guilt. She could only imagine what it would have been like, wandering empty halls for three months, every day having to survive the weight of her own despair as anxiety and fear washed over her, day in and day out, wondering if her hope was fruitless, wondering if her daughter would ever return from the land of dreams and awaken once more into the land of the living. Jess couldn’t imagine the constant state of dreadful anxiety her mother must have endured every day for months.
Not caring that she was formally dining with friends all about, she got up and went to her mother’s side, hugging her fiercely, but carefully. “Oh Mother, I’m so sorry,” Jess said softly, wiping away her mother’s tears. She felt her own eyes grow hot and tried to hold back her own.
"It's all right, my Jess. You are here now. That is all that matters, but by the gods, I worried so much!" And now Agda was crying helplessly against her daughter's shoulder, and Jess desperately fought to hold back her own tears, feeling an ache deep in her chest as a fierce, quiet sob escaped her. She loved her mother so much, and felt so terrible for what she had endured on Jess's behalf.
“Ye gods, you two are going to make me weep!” Apple tearfully declared, smiling and crying at the same time. “For three months we’ve been haunting the Turnsby halls, worried silly, hoping that it would be exactly the same as when you slept by that great tree on top of your college that the herbalists care for, gone but a season and no longer.” She shook her head. “We never gave up. Even when the Guild representative who was staying with the Turnsbys and cataloging everything, interviewing everyone, even he said after a month that if Jess were to return it would be a remarkable end to a remarkable story. He tried to be polite, but we knew that he thought it was the end, and had simply been gathering up as much detail as possible to finish his ‘Jessica’s Journey,’ and what a self-important title that is! I’d be embarrassed if I were you, sis!”
Jess laughed at the thought and so did her sister, and with a gentle kiss to her cheek, her mother eventually regained her composure, giving her oldest daughter a final squeeze before letting her go. "I was worried to the brink of death, my daughter. Please don't ever do that again!"
Jess grinned. “I promise I’ll do my best not to sleep in for any more seasons. I’ve already lost half of this year! But hey, at least now you know, I’ll always come back, right?”
Her mother squeezed her eyes shut and sighed, looking strangely lost, a prisoner of her own anxieties. At last she braved a shaky smile through her tears. “There is that, at least. You are strong, my daughter. Very strong. But please. Please try never to do that again.”
Jess, knowing better than to answer, just gently squeezed her mother’s hand and sat back down, noticing her family’s eyes were not the only ones holding back tears.
21
It was after everyone had had a moment to compose themselves and laugh at the good fortune of the day, getting back to the all-important business of eating, as Twilight would say, when Jess was alerted to Onnika’s gentle touch. “Jess? There is something my sister and I want to show you. Will you come with us?”
Apple nodded. “Oh do come, Jess. You will like this.” Her grin was mischievous.
Bemused, Jess nodded, and they all walked out the patio doors to the beautiful garden it overlooked, and Jess felt herself tremble with wonder at the sight before her. She turned to her sister, mouth agape. “That is one big tree!”
Apple grinned as they all gazed in rapt awe at the massive tree towering over the Turnsby’s residence. “Isn’t it? Strange thing is, sister, it started to grow beside the house gardens right when you went to sleep, and has been growing every day since. “
Jess just shook her head. “I would not think such a thing would be possible but… the evidence clearly shows otherwise.”
Onnika gave a bemused chuckle, gently grasping and squeezing Jess's hand, her head comfortably leaning against Jess's side. Jess felt her face growing warm as she caught her mother's arched gaze. "The stories I hear about my paladin include tales of wood obeying your every command," Onnika said. "No door will open unless you will it, and no barrier of wood is ever locked to your touch. From what Malek told us, no one even bothered using polearms against you in melee combat at your college, because somehow the wooden shaft would warp and twist, such that the metal head would never be allowed to hit you. Are you saying you don't have the power to make a tree grow a bit faster than usual? I'd think that a small feat for someone who had journeyed into the very depths of Hell to save me." At that, Onnika squeezed Jess fiercely, her head firmly against Jess's chest, and Jess found herself gently squeezing Onnika back, kissing the girl's lemon scented curls.
“And glad I am that I did, having rescued such a precious jewel as yourself, my dear Onnika. But it was in dreams we Delved, no deeper or darker a realm than that.” Jess allowed herself a smile. “Still, it does sound nicely dramatic, doesn’t it?”
Jess’s mother cleared her throat. “In any case, my beloved daughter, the Turnsbys are now the proud owners of quite the largest apple tree anyone has ever seen!” She gazed wistfully up at the towering branches. “In truth, it was always a source of solace, seeing the tree grow and bloom, literally before our eyes. It gave me hope. Hope that my beloved daughter would one day finish her journey and return to u
s. And now you have.”
Jess gently wiped away her mother’s tear. “Of course I have, Mother. There was no doubt. I always return from the realm of dreams, and my body always recovers from the Delving.”
Agda nodded solemnly. “So it has always been, my daughter. Though I do hope, perhaps, life’s storms will have abated sufficient for you to enjoy peaceful seas for the rest of your journey through life.” She gently brushed a stray lock of hair resting on her daughter's cheek, for all that Onnika was in the crook of Jess's arm, smiling fondly. “You have done enough, dear one. It is time, I think, for you to relax and rest a bit, don’t you?”
Jess looked away at that, suddenly uncomfortable. Her mother’s words were gentle and filled with an aching love, but she feared another meaning lay just beneath the surface. She would choose to examine it in detail at a later date. For now, there was the tree. It almost seemed to call to her.
Giving Onnika a gentle kiss on the forehead, Jess let her go and found herself walking, step by solemn step, to the base of the great apple tree. The vast limbs of the tree arched out high overhead, as if to embrace the hill and mansion both with its gentle shade.
Bemused, Jess noted a profusion of bright gold apples overhead. At that very moment one fell from the vast network of fruit-laden branches, and Jess found herself smiling at the curious sight of the apple spinning downwards, its decent slowed by the great leaves still attached to the golden fruit, reminding her of birds' wings, or a miniature windmill, as the spinning fruit gently soared down into her upraised hand. "Remarkable." She found herself at a loss for further words as she gazed intently at the fruit. She could just tell it would be at the peak of ripeness, exquisitely sweet.
“Indeed it is,” Karine said softly behind her, gently touching Jess’s shoulder. “And I believe it is you we have to thank for it.” Jess turned around, charmed by Karine’s wise and tender smile. “I did my best to put your mother and sister at ease, dear Jess. I could feel your essence all but coursing through this great tree before us. And the day it blossomed I knew you would soon be coming home. Just this morning the golden apples you can see before you in the grass had started to fall, and I knew today would be the day you would come back to us.”
Paladin's Oath Page 24
