He reached the top floor, and found Chion on duty, standing alertly in front of Silvan’s door. “Is Alicia here?” he asked the guard.
“I can inquire within if you’d care to wait,” the guard calmly answered, as he shifted his position and posture to guard the door from Kestrel.
“Canyon, go in there and tell Alicia to come out here this instant,” Kestrel stopped just inches from Chion, face to face, ready to confront and attack the man.
Two seconds later the door opened behind the guard, who stiffened as his face turned red.
“Kestrel?” Alicia stepped around Chion’s back and stepped into a hug with Kestrel.
“I need your help, urgently,” he growled in a low voice in her ear.
She stepped back to look in his face, bumping into the disregarded Chion. “What’s wrong Kestrel?”
“Is Silvan in there?” he asked in response.
“Ask him to come with us down to your operating room and I can tell you both what’s happened in the past few days,” he urged her, making her study his face closely.
“Chion,” Alicia reached into a coin purse on her belt and handed the guard several small coins, “go across the way and get two – no three – bottles of wine for Kestrel, then bring them to my operating room,” she commanded. Chion’s face grew red, then he departed without comment.
“He’s a nice boy, but he takes himself so seriously!” Alicia linked her arm in Kestrel’s as they started downstairs.
“Oh, Odare, would you go tell Silvan to come down and join us in the operating room?” she asked the female imp.
“It is the operating room, right? You want me to make you look human again, don’t you?” she asked Kestrel.
“I do,” he agreed. “I thought I’d never do this again, but I have to.”
“Why? Where are you going?” the doctor asked.
“Uniontown,” Kestrel cut right to the chase.
Alicia stopped in the middle of the flight of stairs, one step above Kestrel, so that they were nearly eye to eye.
“What are you saying?” she asked carefully.
“If I have to, I am going to go to the city of Uniontown itself,” Kestrel replied. “Moorin has been kidnapped, and taken to Uniontown, we’re told,” he explained, as they started walking again.
They reached the empty downstairs operating room, and Alicia began lighting lanterns to brighten the space, while Silvan came into the room moments later and embraced Kestrel in an affectionate hug. Kestrel studied the spymaster closely, thinking that the elf looked older, seemed to be showing his age. Chion arrived with the ordered bottles of wine, then wordlessly took up his duty outside the door of the operating room, as Kestrel started to drink the wine and tell the other two everything he could think of about the ongoing war against Uniontown and the Viathins.
“So they were clever enough to steal the water skin,” Silvan mused after listening to the various elements of Kestrel’s monologue. “That’s more important that taking the girl.”
“Not to me,” Kestrel replied.
“When you finish the operation, ask the imps to take me back to the Graylee ship we were on, and instruct the captain to take me to Lakeview,” Kestrel referred to the city, formerly an independent state, at the mouth of the Gamble River, where the river joined the Last Sea. It had been near Lakeview’s waters that Kestrel had fought the sea monster Viathins. From Lakeview a traveler could follow the valley of the Gamble River to Uniontown in the south.
“And what will you do? Go through the whole city looking for Moorin?” Silvan asked.
“I don’t know,” Kestrel admitted, looking down into the glass of wine he held. “But if I’m not there, I can’t do anything.”
“And your imp friends will not be able to come rescue you or wisk you away after the next couple of days?” Silvan looked up at the idly floating blue figures.
“That is correct, elderly elf,” Canyon agreed.
Alicia hid a smile as she cleaned her tools and laid them in place. Kestrel continued to drink the wine.
“I’m going to go now Kestrel,” Silvan said as he saw that his protégé was nearly asleep, slumped over in his seat. Silvan took the empty wine cup from Kestrel’s hand, then patted Alicia on the back as he passed her. “Good luck,” he said. “Good luck to both of you. I’ll see you upstairs,” he told his wife, then left her alone to carry out her operation.
Alicia stood over Kestrel as his breathing grew steady, then laid him on the operating table. The sky was dark outside now, and the illumination came only from the lanterns in the room, which she brought together in close proximity to Kestrel’s head. She carefully applied the straps to hold his body in place, and to hold his head still, then looked down at his still-natural face.
“Poor Kestrel,” she sighed, “you’re going to be running errands to save the world or save your true love for most of your life, I suspect,” she gently shook her head, thinking of the innocent boy she had met when he had first arrived in Center Trunk just three years earlier. And then she began to work on his flesh.
Three hours later, she called upon Odare. “Go to the ship and let them know he’s coming soon, so they can have a bunk ready for him. And tell them he wants to go to Lakeview,” she added, then watched the imp disappear.
“Their leader says he’ll believe anything about Kestrel, especially when delivered by a pretty imp,” Odare returned minutes later to report. “Those were his words, not mine. He’ll be ready,” she announced.
“Here,” Alicia presented a small skin of water, “is healing spring water for Kestrel to use on his ears when he awakens. He’ll know how much to use.
“I wish you could go with him on this new chapter of his unending quest,” she added wistfully. “I know you have to return home soon. I just worry to think about him out there alone in the world, though I shouldn’t. He’s been out there often enough, disappearing for months at a time, then showing up again in control of some new situation.
“Good bye Kestrel,” she said softly as she bent over and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I hope I never have to cut your ears again, because you’ll have solved all the world’s problems and you’ll be sitting peacefully at home enjoying your well-earned rest.
“He’s all yours,” she told the imps, then watched them gather around the unconscious elf.
“We’ll let him know you took good care of him,” Killcen assured her, and then they pressed themselves against him and disappeared.
Alicia stood alone in the room for several slow breaths, then began extinguishing the lights around the room. When she was done, and the room was dark, she closed the door behind herself and went back upstairs to see Silvan again in his office. She went around his desk and sat on his lap and asked him, “Hold me, please. I have a feeling we may have to wait a long time before we ever see him again, if we ever do.”
“Kestrel will come back,” Silvan assured her as he stroked her short hair. “That boy carries so many hopes and dreams that I can’t believe anything can stop him now.” And then they sat silently together and thought about their departed companion.
Chapter 9 – The Priestess’s Leap
Kestrel awoke the next morning in a bunk in a cabin in the ship they had captured.
“My lord, are you well?” a crewman asked with concern as Kestrel started to stir. The crewman was assigned to tend to Kestrel, and noted the heavy bandaging that covered the top of his head. The crew viewed Kestrel as indestructible, based on witnessing his successful battles with the horrific sea monsters that had attacked the ship, including his ability to emerge unscathed from being swallowed by one such monster.
Kestrel’s hands gently probed the gauzy material that wrapped around his skull. “I believe I’ll be fine,” he reassured his nurse, “other than a bit of a hangover. Are there any imps still with the ship?” he asked.
“A pair remains here, out sunning themselves as they float among the sails,” the crewman answered.
“Stillw
ater?” Kestrel called, then waited for the imps to come floating in through the open window.
“You are awake, I see, Kestrel,” the imp squad leader said, as he and Canyon arrived.
“I am, and thank you for delivering me here. Was everything well when we left Alicia?” Kestrel asked. “Did she have any message for you to deliver?”
“She bade us give you that skin,” Canyon pointed at the healing water that was on a shelf.
“Ahh,” Kestrel knew instantly what it was. “That may prove useful.”
“Is the captain available?” he used the human language to ask the crewman, who was raptly studying the magical creatures in the cabin.
“What? Yes,” the man replied, his fascination interrupted by the question. “I’ll go get him,” and the man was out the door.
“Stillwater, the time is almost here for the start of winter?” Kestrel asked.
“Tomorrow at midday we will enter the unhappy season,” the imp agreed.
“Are you ready to spend the winter in one place? Where do you usually stay, Blackfriars?” Kestrel wanted to know.
“Virtually everyone does,” Stillwater affirmed, “but I like to spend the season away from the crowd. I usually volunteer to go out on patrol, to travel the Morass and keep the peace.”
“I don’t want to keep you here with me for the winter,” Kestrel responded. “You and your squad have been the best allies possible this year, and more than that, you’ve been good friends.
“I want all of you to go home tomorrow before the deadline, and rest and relax and enjoy your well-earned break while you’re grounded,” he finished.
“You do not want us with you?” Canyon asked for confirmation.
“I want you, but I do not wish to imperil you, or waste your abilities,” Kestrel assured his companions. “If we come within sight of land today, I’ll ask you to transport me from the ship to the land, and then you’ll be free to go.
“So let’s go up on the deck and find out if we’re going to be close to land,” Kestrel suggested. He rose from his bunk, then slowly ascended to the deck, blinking in the sunlight as he left the dim interior of the ship’s hull.
“My lord, it’s good to see you,” the ship’s captain greeted him. The sky was clear, with few clouds, and a mild breeze blew across the ship’s deck. “Are you well?” he asked, looking at Kestrel’s bandages.
“Thank you, I’m doing well, and getting better,” Kestrel replied.
“Where are we?” he asked.
“We’re on our way in the direction of Lakeview,” the captain responded. “The imps told us that was your wish.”
“They are correct,” Kestrel assured him. “Are we close?”
“Jenkins,” the officer called, “go aloft and tell me if you see any sign of land.”
The crew member who had been watching over Kestrel in his cabin promptly climbed up the mast easily, as those on the deck looked upward.
“There’s something on the horizon,” Jenkins called down after several suspenseful seconds. “It could be land.”
“It’s only mid-morning,” the captain told Kestrel encouragingly. “We’ll be in the harbor by nightfall.”
Satisfied, Kestrel returned to his cabin and lay down to rest and reflect on what he was going to do. He had made no plans; he had simply reacted by impulse upon learning of Moorin’s abduction, and thrown himself into the preparations for his journey to Uniontown. He hadn’t given any real consideration to the details of such a journey, and only now did he realize he was going to have to resort to reliance on the spying skills he had been taught during his apprenticeship in Firheng.
He dozed into an uneasy slumber until mid-afternoon, when Jenkins the crewman awoke him. “We’re at the mouth of the harbor, sir,” he informed Kestrel.
Kestrel gathered up his bow and the small pack that had been sent from Center Trunk with him, then climbed back up to the deck, where he watched as the ship slowly entered the harbor, while a small boat with eight men rowing it rapidly approached. Kestrel and the captain stood side-by-side as a harbor master climbed up the side of the hull and came on board.
“Papers,” the official said abruptly as he walked up to them.
“Which papers do you need?” the captain asked.
The official looked at him incredulously. “Do you want to dock here or go down river? We have to see your papers.”
“I’m at fault.” Kestrel spoke up quickly, recognizing the trouble they were about to get into. “I’m the ship’s clerk, and when I hurt my head,” he pointed to his bandages, “I didn’t get everything organized. If you’ll let us move out of the harbor for a day, I’ll put the papers in order and we can come back tomorrow,” he proposed. He had used their brief time in the harbor to see enough to make him think he could enter Lakeview, and there was no further need for the ship and its crew to be exposed to the place.
“If I were you I’d give the boy a dozen lashes,” the harbor official told the captain. “It’s up to you; go out of the harbor and try to get your ship in order, or I can have one of our men come look over your paperwork and find what we need.”
The captain looked at Kestrel. “We’ll leave the harbor. I can’t lash the boy; he’s my sister-in-law’s son, so I’d hear an earful about it if I disciplined him.”
“We can make things look like an accident; we’re good at that,” the official offered one more time, hopefully.
“We’ll let you go, and be back tomorrow,” the captain ignored the suggestion. “Raise the sails,” He shouted to the crew.
With a snort of disgust, the harbor official turned on his heel, and went to the side of the ship, he started to climb down, then looked at Kestrel one more time, and his eyes widened. He paused and stared, then hastened down the ship’s ladder.
“We probably need to leave as quickly as possible. I didn’t like the look he gave me,” Kestrel told the captain urgently.
“Stillwater,” Kestrel called his escort, “do you see that building?” he pointed to a tall building set in the city, away from the waterfront.
“Kestrel guide, I may not have elven vision, but I am not blind,” the imp replied. “Of course I see it!”
“Good,” Kestrel said. “Tonight, after dark, I would like for your squad to take me to the roof of that building,” Kestrel explained.
“I will go explore the roof now, so that we know where to go,” Stillwater told his friend, then flew high up into the sky, becoming an indistinguishable dot as he began to float towards the shoreline, joined by other specks in the sky that Kestrel assumed were the other imps, going along to reconnoiter their next mission, which would also happen to be their last mission for him before their return home.
The ship was gently turning as the sails caught more of the breeze and the rudder directed the ship’s forward motion away from the mouth of the harbor. Kestrel watched the shoreline as they passed it, a collection of small fishing piers, boats pulled up on the rocky beaches, and occasional beachcombers lolling along the waterline examining and picking items from the flotsam that washed ashore.
The scene was peaceful, and Kestrel idly wondered if the people walking and working on the beach felt the strain of Uniontown’s rule, or if they managed to remain beneath the notice of the monsters, free from the dangerous attention that the Viathins and their followers turned to the people they sought to control.
The ship gave a sudden shudder, and Kestrel’s hand lashed out to grab hold of the railing nearby, as he looked at the captain. The officer was looking just as startled, and a man atop the mast, still Jenkins serving as lookout, was shaken loose from his perch and plummeted to the surface of the sea.
Jenkins hit the water and disappeared beneath, as the ship gave another lurch. Kestrel looked at the harbor they were leaving, looking to see how close the ship was to any potential pursuers. They had satisfactory distance that if anyone happened to see him running atop the water, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. He took a skip,
then plunged over the side and dove into the water near where Jenkins had entered.
Kestrel drove deep under the water, and saw a vast darkness nearby. His body sliced in a steep arc that let him rise rapidly to the surface, and he pedaled his legs rapidly to pick up speed, allowing him to start to run atop the water, heading for the spot where Jenkins had disappeared into the cool water.
Jenkins’s arms appeared momentarily, waving weakly, and Kestrel went in a straight line directly towards the man. As he did, there was a horrific roaring noise, a clashing and rending sound mixed with a monstrous scream behind him, and he looked over his shoulder to see one of the enormous Viathin sea monsters rising from the harbor waters directly below the ship, lifting the entire hull out of the water as it broke the keel and shattered the vessel.
Kestrel turned around to face forward, stunned by the sight he had witnessed, then bent down with both arms extended and grabbed hold of Jenkins’s arm. He immediately slowed down from the added weight and drag, and his momentum slowed, so that as he ran in the water it began rising up past his ankles, while he no longer had the safe haven of the ship behind him to head towards.
“Stillwater!” he called out desperately, hauling the feeble Jenkins up over his shoulder.
“Kestrel water feet!” the imp appeared within seconds. “What is happening? What calamity is this?” Stillwater asked as he floated in front of Kestrel moving backwards so that he could look at the running elf.
“Bring the others! Take this man to the roof on the land! I just pulled him from the sea,” Kestrel explained. “I’m going to go see if there are other survivors, and then I’ll need your help for myself.”
The three other imps arrived at that moment, and carefully surrounded Jenkins, as he bumped along, unconscious, atop Kestrel’s shoulder. A moment later they all were gone, and Kestrel’s feet rose to the surface of the water again as Jenkins’s weight lifted from him. He turned sharply, and headed back to the scene of the ship’s demise.
A large piece of the hull was still afloat as Kestrel raced towards it, surrounded by a spreading carpet of debris that floated in the vicinity, but before Kestrel could arrive to help his shipmates, the sea monster rose from the water next to the hull segment, then smashed itself down on top of the still-intact portion of the wreckage.
The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 05 - Journey to Uniontown Page 9