Not that there weren’t some differences, of course. There were slightly fewer pine trees in the forest and there were fewer hills in the region, but otherwise it felt a lot like the countryside around Mellesyn. Aside from the road, anyway, because Ruethwyn had long since realized that the roads around Mellesyn were small and neglected in comparison to almost anywhere else.
“We’re almost to the enclave!” Korima said, almost bouncing as she looked out the window. An instant later, her tail swished a bit too far to one side, thwacking Sella in the face.
“Ack! Watch your tail, Korima!” Sella exclaimed, sputtering as she recoiled.
“Oops, sorry! When I get excited, I swear it can have a mind of its own. I shouldn’t have let it out today, really,” Korima apologized, giving a sheepish grin as she quickly turned to get the tail out of Sella’s face. Ruethwyn suppressed a smile as Tadrick calmly, wordlessly leaned to the side to avoid the tail as it came at him.
“It’s alright, but it was just really unexpected,” Sella said, relaxing slightly. “How can you even tell where we are?”
“Well, maybe other people couldn’t see it, but for me? I grew up around here, you know,” Korima said, gesturing outside and smiling. “Besides, I traveled with the troupe, remember? I was with them for, oh… eight seasons on the road? Something like that, anyway. Still, with that many trips, I got used to picking out the landmarks when we were approaching home.”
“Hm… I suppose. I never really left Mellesyn, so I’m not sure I could do the same…” Ruethwyn murmured, but she wasn’t sure if the others heard her, since Tadrick spoke up.
“Yeah, I’m about the same with the Daskar estates. I can tell when I’m within about a half-mile of any of the borders, with how familiar I am with the area,” the young man said, looking outside and considering it before adding. “This does look remarkably well-kept, though. Does your clan patrol the area a lot?”
“Mm, I suppose?” Korima said, shrugging and carefully turning to sit. “We’ve got a lot of foresters, and some of them like taking the doras out hunting. I don’t really deal with that sort of stuff, so I suppose part of it might be patrolling the area.”
Ruethwyn glanced over at her, hearing a slightly darker tone to the kitsune’s voice, and her eyes narrowed for a moment before she asked, “Is there something more to it, Korima? You sounded a little unhappy when you talked about the patrolling.”
“Well… yes, I suppose so.” Korima nodded and sighed heavily before explaining, her ears drooping a little. “What happened with Mother isn’t exactly uncommon. Kitsune are rare, and some people… well, they want rare things. Attempted kidnappings aren’t unknown, and I heard that a band of slavers tried to attack the clan a few years back. We dealt with them, and we have contacts with the nearby army posts, but it doesn’t make me happy to think about. Things have gotten worse ever since Palto fell to demons, though not enormously. The branch of the Thorned Wood on the southern border helps keep things safer, but even so, there’s been a lot more bandits and the like.”
“I hadn’t heard much about that. I knew that there were the worries about Palto, of course, but with the Thorned Wood there, I wouldn’t think it’d be that dangerous,” Sella replied, frowning slightly.
Ruethwyn opened her mouth to speak, but Tadrick beat her to it as he shook his head. “If the branch of the Thorned Wood was wider that might be true, but it isn’t the case along the southern border. From what I learned while studying to be a knight, along most of the border the wood is only a mile across, or maybe two. Plus, there’s one section where it goes underground, beneath a fair-sized mountain. There are a couple of paths that people occasionally use to attempt crossing, and there’s a fortress that guards the path over the mountain, but with sufficient flight magic, or demons capable of flight, it isn’t too difficult to cross from Palto.”
“Yeah. Plenty of refugees have made the attempt, but there are also the more unsavory types who’ve fled the cult of Larimos as well,” Korima agreed, shivering. “That causes unrest, and it’s made the southern parts of Selwyn a lot more precarious than they were.”
“Ah. I… didn’t have any idea. I’d wondered why there wasn’t a greater response to Resvarygrath’s attack on Selwyn, but I suppose this might be part of it,” Ruethwyn murmured, realization dawning on her. She hadn’t realized there were problems like this, as insulated from things as she’d been in the academy. “I wonder why it isn’t talked about more…”
“Probably because it is just unrest right now. More bandits doesn’t mean that there are a lot, and those dealing with it don’t want to cause a panic,” Sella said, her voice a bit sad. “So if the word doesn’t spread, no one realizes there’s a huge problem. Father’s talked about it a few times with me. I didn’t realize that was happening down here.”
“I’ll bet that the incident with Mother put a lot of focus on this, though. There hadn’t been any indication that Palto was trying to infiltrate Selwyn before that, at least that I know of,” Korima added, her ears flicking nervously. “I sometimes wonder how safe it is for the enclave… but I’m sure that the council has been taking that into account. We believe in protecting our homes, and the ancestors won’t take attacks laying down.”
“They won’t? How would your ancestors even help?” Tadrick asked, blinking, and at that Ruethwyn smiled.
“Tad… she’s talked about the spirit foxes and elders before. I’m not sure how many of them her clan has, but if they’re around, they won’t sit idle while the clan is attacked,” Ruethwyn said gently, then looked at Korima. “Is that right?”
“Exactly. They don’t show themselves all the time, instead preferring to stay in the deeper woods, but they’re rather protective. I got lost in the woods when I was young, once, and they found me within a couple of hours,” Korima confirmed, smiling slightly. “I’m sure that they’ll help where they can. It’s why I’m confident one of them might be willing to form a contract with Rue, too.”
“Ah, well that does explain a bit,” Tadrick said, smiling wryly. “I didn’t think of them when you said ancestors. I’ve heard some dwarves truly have their ancestors spiritually guard their enclaves, so I wasn’t sure what it would be.”
“Fair! I’ve heard of those, too. Some of them inhabit golems in the stories I’ve heard,” Korima agreed, her smile broad. “It gives them a way to interact more directly when guarding their holy places.”
Sella opened her mouth to say something, then paused, looking out the window, and smiled broadly as she exclaimed, “I think I see a town ahead of us. Oh… those are a different style of building than I’m used to.”
Ruethwyn leaned over to try to look, bumping into Sella as she did so, but the angle was wrong for her to see anything. Frowning, she instead leaned to the other side, and Korima giggled as she leaned into Ruethwyn in turn.
“Korima, I’m just trying to get a look at the town!” Ruethwyn protested, looking at the kitsune in exasperation.
“Well, I just wanted to cuddle!” Korima retorted. “You’re going to see the town soon enough, so you can stand to wait just a few minutes.”
“Korima…” Ruethwyn began, then sighed and slumped back.
While she’d been dealing with the kitsune, Tadrick had peeked out the window, and he murmured, “Huh, interesting. That’s a more human-like style of building, but I think it has some elements of Kalpher’s construction, along with a few other styles.”
“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never seen that type of building before,” Sella said, shrugging slightly and leaning into Ruethwyn pointedly as she looked at Korima. “Do you have any idea, Korima?”
“Well, I do know that some of the first kitsune were said to be colonists from Kalpher, though records of that time are kind of sparse. We’ve taken some ideas from elves, some from humans, and still others are just traditional,” Korima said with a shrug. “I don’t think it much matters, other than that we’ve taken to building our houses to last a long time. That much we got
from you elves, I know, since I hear that some human cities burn with depressing regularity.”
“How so? I don’t…” Ruethwyn began, but paused as she finally was able to see one of the houses, despite the two women doing their best to pin her between them. “Ah, I see.”
The house she could see wasn’t huge, though it was larger than most she was used to. A single story tall, the walls of the building were made of finely squared off stone blocks, and ornately shaped, metal-reinforced shutters were in each window. The roof was made of curved red ceramic tiles that overlapped and was mostly flat, at least until it came near the center, where it ascended abruptly to a peak above, and there was a metal-reinforced window there as well, with the eaves helping shelter it. That would be an attic, she supposed, though what the window was for somewhat puzzled her. It seemed a little large for providing light, and it looked like there might be one on the other side.
“Pretty, isn’t it? I know elven cities are pretty and all that, but the rooms are usually so cramped,” Korima said, grinning broadly. “Plus, the houses here always feel more solid to me.”
“I guess they might, at that. Plus, stone and ceramic likely are more resistant to fire, should a particularly nasty mana storm roll through,” Ruethwyn agreed, looking thoughtfully out at the building. She saw a kitsune in a straw hat leading a cow toward another building which she suspected was a barn from the size of the doors.
As she watched, more buildings came into sight, and most of them were in the same general style as the first, though they were spread out a fair bit. She noticed that each had a cobblestone fence demarking a garden behind the house, though she couldn’t see any crops, just some bushes and the like. It was still spring, though.
“Yeah. When a mana storm decides to rain fire… well, that’s a really bad time to live in a wooden house, I’d say,” Korima agreed, then glanced at Tadrick and grinned. “It startled me when I saw how many buildings in Tyrness were made of wood!”
“That’s where you’d be wrong. As a matter of fact, I suspect it’s something that we’ll be learning about in the fall,” Tadrick said, smiling in return. “The academy is responsible for the defense of the city in the case of a mana storm.”
“Wait, what? I hadn’t heard anything about that!” Sella said, quickly turning away from the window. Ruethwyn was surprised as well, but she bit back the words and listened, expecting Tadrick to continue. He didn’t disappoint her, fortunately.
“I’m not too surprised, since it doesn’t come up often,” Tadrick agreed, stretching. “I don’t know the particulars, but the basic idea is that the academy has a massive spell set up that can shield the city from raining fire, ice, or the like. It takes an enormous amount of mana, so they just… store up what they need, and it remains idle until there’s a mana storm. Since they aren’t that common, it’s easy for them to give it time to recharge. In the case of an emergency, I suspect they’d ask everyone in the academy to charge it, I’ll bet, but who knows for sure?”
“Ooh… that does explain why someplace like the Ivy Vines could exist. I did wonder what’d happen to them under those circumstances,” Korima murmured.
Ruethwyn cleared her throat and smiled. “I didn’t know about the shield, but it explains a few things. I’ll bet that the elemental towers are part of the shield enchantment, but I don’t know enough to be sure. As for the Ivy Vines, Korima, I’m sure that as wealthy as their patrons are, that they’ve enchanted the walls to resist fire. Why wouldn’t they, really?”
“True enough, but even so, it’s weird to me,” the kitsune replied firmly, then her eyes brightened as the carriage slowed. “Ah, we’re here!”
Before the carriage could quite stop, Korima pulled away and opened the door, hopping out of the carriage and folding down the steps. Ruethwyn blinked, then began standing. As she was reaching the doorway, though, she heard a high-pitched chorus of delighted exclamations.
“’RIMA!”
The outcry was almost deafening, and Ruethwyn gawked as Korima spun to face a living tidal wave of young kitsune and at least three foxes. As she watched, Korima laughed as she was almost knocked over by the children as they hit her, rubbing ears and grinning broadly. It took a moment for Ruethwyn to realize there were only eight or nine children, but as active as they were, and with three of them in the shapes of foxes, it was hard to tell, even with the variety of colors of hair and fur they possessed.
“Um, Rue?” Sella prompted, causing Ruethwyn to start slightly.
“Oh, sorry, Sella. That’s just… unexpected,” Ruethwyn said, then slowly smiled. “Adorable, but unexpected.”
“Agreed. They’ve got quite the, um, variety, don’t they?” Sella said, shaking her head slightly.
“Yes, they do,” Ruethwyn said, then stepped down out of the carriage slowly.
As she did so, a pair of the young kitsune stopped, their eyes going wide. One was a sable-haired young boy, while the other was a blonde girl. Both looked stunned, then the boy asked, sounding awestruck, “Are you an angel?”
That made Ruethwyn pause, then she laughed and shook her head. “No, of course not. I’m Ruethwyn, and I’m part fey.”
“Really? ’Cause you look amazing!” the girl chimed in, her eyes huge. “I’ve never seen such red hair before!”
“Really,” Ruethwyn said, stepping away from the stairs and crouching near the two. She could see other kitsune approaching, these ones adults, but she focused on the two nearby as she offered a hand to each of them, and they quickly grabbed her hands. “My hair is this color because I’m part fey. It matches a giant, red flower that I saw once, too.”
“That’s right!” Korima said, hefting a squirming brown fox as she tickled it, grinning as she did so. “Ruethwyn’s a good friend of mine, and she’s really nice, so treat her well, okay? Her and my other friends, here, Sella and Tadrick.”
“Okay!” several of the children chorused, and moments later, one of the adult kitsune got there.
They were in the middle of the town, which looked much larger than Mellesyn or Waterstone had been, at least to Ruethwyn. Some of that might have been just how much more prominent the buildings were, with some of them sprawling across even more ground than Waterstone’s manor had covered, and the buildings were immaculate. The most surprising feature of the town square was a nearby pond fed by a short waterfall, one which was constrained by carefully fitted stone blocks to form a near-fountain, and Ruethwyn wondered briefly how the pond drained, since she didn’t see an outlet, and the pond wasn’t filled with moss or the like.
“Welcome to the Lightweaver Enclave, all of you!” the nearest man exclaimed, an attractive, brown-haired man with a long, waxed mustache and a dagger beard.
He had a forester’s hat on, complete with earholes, as well as the worn leathers of an experienced herdsman, while a huge dora trotted along at his heels, the pony-sized dog’s tail almost corkscrew shaped as it wagged and its tongue lolling out. In all, it was a sight that made Ruethwyn smile.
“Hello, Evan!” Korima said cheerfully. “It’s good to be home! These are Ruethwyn, Sella, and Tadrick. I’m sure Mother and Father already told you a bit about them.”
“That they did. Hello!” Evan said, grinning as he nodded. “I’m Evan Lightweaver and am the head dora trainer in the enclave. We’ve heard a bit about you three and have been looking forward to meeting you!”
“I’m glad to meet you, Sir Evan,” Tadrick said, offering a hand to the man, who shook it firmly. “I’m Tadrick Daskar, and it’s a pleasure to be here. I must say, this is quite different than what I expected.”
“Hah! I’m no sir, just call me Evan,” the man replied. “And that’s a common refrain. Despite everything we’ve done, a lot of people seem to think that kitsune live like nomads, in tents or the like.”
Ruethwyn looked up, listening, but the two children hadn’t let go, so she slowly stood, allowing them to hold onto her as she did so. Sella was the one who spoke next, though.
“I didn’t expect you to live in tents, it’s just that this is… well, not like any other buildings I’ve seen before. Maybe Rue or Tadrick have seen things like this, or at least seen them in books, but I’m used to elven architecture,” Sella explained, smiling warmly at Evan. “I’m not sure what I think of it yet, but it isn’t bad, just different.”
“True, true! Well, it’s a pleasure to meet all of you, even if some of you have changed,” Evan said cheerfully. “So, how much trouble has Korima gotten you all into? Please be honest, since we’re all aware of her proclivities.”
“Hey!” Korima protested, but the swarm of children took advantage of her distraction to almost knock her over.
Ruethwyn laughed, then spoke gently. “Honestly, aside from dragging us to the troupe’s performance and thus getting us involved in the kidnapping, I don’t think she’s caused any problems for us. If anyone has caused issues, it’d be me. Midwinter wouldn’t have been a problem if someone hadn’t stolen my notes, and it was me heading into the Frostglades that prompted them to follow me, so she really hasn’t caused many problems.”
“True, but I think it’s more that you’ve kept things exciting enough she hasn’t felt the need to cause trouble,” Tadrick said, glancing over at Korima.
“Traitors! It’s all lies, lies I tell you!” Korima said, shaking a hand in the air, then getting yanked off her feet and sending up a dust cloud as she was swarmed under.
Ruethwyn laughed, then smiled more as she looked down at the pair of children, asking softly, “May I have my hands back? I need to get my luggage out of the carriage.”
“Aww… do I have to?” the young girl asked, giving Ruethwyn the same look that Korima did when she was trying to be all pitiful. The boy didn’t let go either, but he didn’t say anything yet, instead still staring at her.
“Let go, Annabelle,” Evan said, his voice kind. “You’ll have the chance to talk to Ruethwyn later. I’ve heard they’re staying for at least a few days.”
The Obsidian Palace (Through the Fire Book 3) Page 15
