by Greg Curtis
She was sitting up in a bed when he got there, a confused look on her face. But at least she was awake and no longer moaning in pain.
“How are you?” He went to her side and sat down on the side of the bed beside her. He even took her hand in his.
“I don't understand. They're saying –.”
“It's alright Carrie.” He quickly stopped her from saying the one thing that could ruin his plan. “I've told my father, and your grandfather is beyond caring. It’s time we let the world know about our marriage.” Edrick raised her hand to his lips and kissed it, looking into her eyes meaningfully.
“What? No! I mean you're alive!” She stared at him, as if unable to believe what she was seeing.
“Oh, that!” He'd actually forgotten about that. “I'm fine. It was a little bit rough for a while. But I got through it. And then I rebuilt the gate from Faerie and finally escaped earlier today. I'll tell you all about it on the trip home.”
“Home?” Her confusion seemed to grow.
“Do you want to stay here?” He arched an eyebrow at her.
“No!” That Carrie clearly wasn't confused about.
“Good. Then we can leave shortly. After I've dealt with the soldiers who dared to imprison you and interrogate you – as if you were a commoner! As if they had the right!” Edrick raised his voice a little as he added the last, letting them know he was still angry. Angry as a husband should be in his situation.
“You two!” He turned and snapped at a couple of soldiers standing by the door. “A stretcher, at once! My wife does not walk in this condition!”
“Wife?” Finally, his ruse was getting through to her.
“Hush!” Edrick put his finger over her mouth. “You have been through far too much and you need to rest. And now that I'm back, I will deal with this matter personally. You have my word that the soldiers who dared to lay their hands on you will be punished harshly. No one touches a Baraman! After that, we will leave.”
Carrie's eyes widened when he said that, but she didn't argue. She might not be as alert as she normally was, but she understood what he was doing. Or maybe she just understood that she was getting out of this place and that was what mattered.
So she held her tongue and let herself be transferred on to a stretcher and then carried outside the dungeon. Outside they found a dozen men lined up waiting for them. They were all standing at attention and were clearly terrified – which was probably why they were unarmed while other soldiers had weapons trained on them.
“Sir!” The Commander stepped up to him and stood rigidly to attention in front of him. Edrick noticed that he was fully dressed at last. “All the men you requested to see have been assembled.”
“Good.” This was the moment Edrick realised, when he had to finally be who he pretended to be. He could not afford to be lenient. Nobles were never that. But he didn't want to kill the men either. He was angry, but there was still some core of decency in him that said that it would be going too far.
He stepped up to the soldiers, straightened his shoulders and took a deep breath.
“You men are lucky. Lucky that my wife is a merciful woman. And lucky that she is still alive. Were she not, I would see you d all hanging from a rope! And if it was only me who made this decision then you would truly have been cursed by Andal. The Lord of Misfortune could not have found a worse fate for you than me. But because I must listen to my wife's wishes, I will let you live.”
“Inquisitors, step forward!” He raised his voice and three frightened men took a step toward him.
“You dared to lay a finger on my wife! On a Baraman! That cannot stand!” He turned to the Commander, a man who was looking more than a little frightened himself.
“These men will be taken from here to the stocks. There they will be stripped, chained and soundly flogged. Then when they have recovered sufficiently they will be chained into a work gang to begin their lives as slaves.”
The three men gasped and tried to protest, but they were swiftly dragged away by the other soldiers, and were beaten when they tried to resist. Edrick felt no sorrow for them. He thought they truly deserved their fate. Not just for what they had done to Carrie, but to so many others. And for what they would have done to so many more in time. He wasn't one to accept the excuse that they had just been following orders. Not when it came to committing such violations against people.
“For the rest of you, you have all participated in the imprisonment of my wife. Commander they will each receive ten lashes and be reduced in rank and pay to the lowest there is.” He didn't actually know what that was, or if any of them were actually of any higher rank to begin with. But it sounded good. And while he heard some gasps and groans, none of the men dared to protest. They knew it was a light punishment and they didn't want to share the fate of the other three.
“As for you Commander, you have allowed this injustice to occur under your watch. Your men have grown fat and lazy. And you have appeared before me in a state of undress. You too will receive ten lashes and be reduced to the lowest rank there is.” Edrick nodded to a couple more soldiers who were standing to attention and they quickly grabbed the Commander and started rushing him away before he could object.
Maybe he would feel regret for this later – Edrick didn't know. But just then he didn't care that he had ruined the Commander's life. It had had to be done. And everything he had said was true – save for the part about Carrie being his wife. Getting her out of this place had to be his only concern. And he could only do that as Lord Baraman's son.
Edrick waited until they were marched away, before turning to the other soldiers holding Carrie’s stretcher.
“To my wagon, and take care that you do not jostle my wife too greatly. I will take it amiss!”
With that he set off back through the camp to his wagon, while the soldiers followed barely a step behind. And any who were in front of them made sure to stand rigidly to attention until they passed them. Edrick didn't look back to see if that changed after they'd passed. But he could imagine that they all breathed a heavy sigh of relief once he had passed them by. The gods alone knew what they'd heard, what gossip had spread among the men, but they could surely tell he was not a man to upset. Then again, the silence of the night was being broken by the distant cries of the interrogators as they were already being flogged. That surely motivated them.
They made it to the wagon in short order, and then Edrick carefully wrapped Carrie in some blankets and lifted her into the seat while the soldiers stood at attention. Edrick ignored them. They were just soldiers after all. Beneath the notice of a noble.
After that he climbed on to the wagon, released the brake and engaged the flywheel and they were off, leaving the camp and shortly the city far behind. But a part of it he knew, would always remain with him. Not the guilt for what he'd done to the interrogators – they deserved their fates as far as he was concerned. Perhaps he felt a little guilt for what he'd had done to the other soldiers and the Commander, most of whom probably didn't deserve their fates. But mostly he hated the ease with which he had slipped back into the role of a noble. It was something he had left behind a long time ago. Adopting the behaviour once again had left him with a bad taste in his mouth.
But as Carrie collapsed against him on the seat and he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, he told himself it had been necessary. And praise Sirtis it would never happen again. He hoped.
Chapter Twenty-One
Edrick found the sound of gentle summer rain splashing down on the slate tiles of the roof was distracting him. But then his reading wasn't very productive anyway, which was why he'd already put the book down. There was absolutely nothing in any of the books, scrolls or journals that could explain what Wilberton was doing. There was no spell that could even come close to doing what he had seen or been told about. He wasn't even sure if it was a spell. Wilberton had cast magic – but it was wild magic. That storm above Coldwater was completely uncontrolled. In fact, it was the exact opposite
of what a spell should be. It looked like he’d brought some form of living chaos to Coldwater.
Truthfully he'd known that that would be what he'd find in the books from the instant he'd seen Coldwater. There were no books that could explain what he'd seen. So it hadn't really been a surprise to find nothing.
Still, he felt guilty for sitting there on his porch, a book lying forgotten in his lap as he planned on his next construction project. An awning for his outdoor seating area so that he could sit out in the rain and read. Something similar to the one on the steam wagon perhaps, though he saw no reason for it to be able to be pulled up and folded down. Maybe something bright and colourful?
Unexpected sounds from inside the house suddenly made him look around.
“Carrie?” He called out, knowing it had to be her since she was the only other person here, but worried that she was up. It had been less than two days since they’d arrived back at his home, and despite the healing spells she still needed to rest.
“Who else?” She appeared in the doorway and smiled at him, before heading over with a mug of tea in her hands. “You haven't got any other guests, have you? Or any other wives?”
“Not that I know of,” he smiled, happy to see her up and about even if she shouldn't be. “But you should rest. You need to recover your strength.”
“Huh! You came back from being killed. Compared to that I barely suffered anything at all!” She sat down on the bench beside him, and took a sip of her tea.
“I wasn't dead, just hurt, and it took me three days just to recover the ability to walk more than a few steps. A further week to do it without wincing with every step. Even now I'm still working on the scars. Two days rest is not enough for you.” But he didn't try to order her back to bed. He already knew she wouldn't go. And really he thought, though she'd lost weight and suffered a lot of bruising and broken skin, the worst of her injuries weren't physical. They were emotional. He could see it in her eyes, even though she said very little about what she had suffered. It would take her a long time to come to terms with what his father and her grandfather had done. Resting might not help with that at all.
And then there was what he had done. They hadn't talked about it, though she'd just hinted at it before. He'd made her his wife. Whether it was a real marriage or not, it would seem that way to the rest of the world. That was an important thing to a woman. But he wasn't sure what he should do about it – or even what she wanted him to do about it.
“I'm sorry.”
“You don't have to be,” he quickly told her. “None of what Wilberton did is your fault.” But he knew she would keep blaming herself no matter what he said. He suspected that that was a large part of what ailed her – guilt. It didn't matter that she was innocent.
They sat in silence for a while after that, staring out at the rain, each of them adrift in their own thoughts. Meanwhile the griffins were out, soaring through the sky as they played together. For some reason they loved flying in the rain. He also spied a silver tailed fox running between the buildings as she hunted. Like the griffins she also couldn't get into the new chicken coop, though he'd caught her several times trying to dig her way under the chicken wire.
“You know, this really is a strange realm. Beautiful, but so odd,” Carrie broke the silence. “Strange. Uncomfortably so. You are the only person ever to set up a home here. I checked.”
“This place speaks to me.” Edrick shrugged. He didn't know how else to describe what he felt here. “I'm more at home here than anywhere else.”
“I know. But no one else is. Every wizard who has ever spent a lot of time in Faerie, has left. They arrive through a gate, stay for a time and explore, and then leave. Some stay a few hours or days. Some months. But no one before you has ever decided to live here. Then again, no other wizard has ever had unicorns or silver tailed foxes routinely walk up to them. And they all say the same thing about this realm. It is beautiful, wondrous and they are in awe. But they never really feel welcome here.” Something about you, Edrick, is decidedly odd”.
Edrick didn't answer her. He knew she was right. He'd read some of those reports by other wizards too when he'd first arrived, wanting to know more about this magical realm. But he didn't know what it meant. Was he different in some way? Or had this land for some reason decided to welcome him? The latter seemed more likely to him though why the land had accepted him he didn't know. And since he didn't know the answer he decided it would be best to talk about something else.
“You should know that we're going to have visitors in a little while.”
“Who?”
“Mostly the Guild wizards. Maybe a few others, I don't know. When I was in Miston speaking with Marshan I told her a little of what I'd learned here. She wanted to hear more and said the others would too.”
“And should a wife be concerned that her husband is meeting with strange women in different towns?” Carrie arched an eyebrow at him.
Edrick just laughed when she said that. It was good that she could find a little humour in the situation. Strange too. What he'd done in declaring her as his wife was a big thing for a woman. At least he would have thought so. But after what she'd been through, maybe it wasn't. She simply too much else to come to terms with. He decided not to press her on the matter.
“Your clothes have been washed and are on the line under the eve of the back porch. You might not want to greet them in a bed robe.” And really, he thought, if she was going to stay here for a while as she probably should, she'd have to get some new clothes.
“A husband who washes clothes – truly I married well!”
Two jests about their supposed marriages! Did this mean that she was ready to talk about it, he wondered? Awkwardly he asked.
“No.” She held up a hand. “I'm not ready for that. I know what you did and why you did it. And I'm grateful. But I don't know what to do about it.”
“As you wish.” Edrick quickly turned back to the subject of laundry. “I was just planning for the future. If the silver ever runs out I thought it would be best to have a second skill to fall back on – I could have a job as a washer woman!”
His joke, poor as it was, made her smile and Edrick was pleased by that. He was pleased too that after she'd finished her drink she went inside to get changed. It said something that she wanted to meet with the other Guild wizards. Especially when they both knew that what would be discussed wouldn't just be about a world of magic with veins of silver laced rivers. It would also be about her grandfather. About how to fight him. And how to kill him. He couldn't imagine how she was going to deal with that discussion. But it was no wonder that the subject of their sham marriage didn't rate when that was on her mind.
Carrie was back perhaps half an hour later when the first of the wizards arrived. Master Thatchwell and Marshan came through first, with a dozen or so members of the guild following on behind. He also saw Py with the group which greatly pleased him. The Argani were as much victims of Wilberton's madness as anyone else. And she was the closest thing their people had to a wizard. But more than that, it occurred to him that she might have a different view on things. That could be useful.
“Master Thatchwell, Marshan. It's good to see you again.” He greeted them as they dismounted in front of the house.
“It's good to see you too,” the wizard replied. “When Marshan came to me and said you were alive, I wasn't sure I believed her.”
“For a while there I might not have believed it either.” He nodded politely, only too willing to agree with his old tutor. “There are refreshments in the house for all. And this time you can simply let your horses wander.”
“Which raises a point.” Another of his visitors spoke up. A man with a crusty looking beard and a gravelly voice. “What happened to the horses we left behind?”
“Last I saw they'd gathered together into a herd about four valleys up.” Edrick pointed up the chain of valleys. “You're welcome to go search for them.”
The wizard looked at him
, then in the direction of the valleys, and made an untranslatable sound. From the look on his face Edrick guessed he thought it looked like a long walk for not much hope of a reward.
“Aghh, I never wanted to come back here again. It's so … uncomfortable.” An older woman with a face like a wrinkled prune and hair that was somewhere between grey and white, spoke up. She had an expression on her face that suggested she had seen too much pain to ever remember how to smile again.
“Uncomfortable?” Edrick didn't understand.
“Unwelcoming then.” The woman marched off towards his house, leaving Edrick with that.
“Mistress Renata Yolande,” Carrie whispered in his ear. “One of the heads of the Guild. She's not an easy woman to know – and she likes to be called Mistress Yolande. Don't get that wrong!”
The others at least were happy to wander inside, some shaking his and Carrie's hands on the way, others just nodding. And then when the last of them seemed to have arrived, he and Carrie followed them into the house.