Mercedes Lackey - Aerie

by Aerie (lit)

  Marit nodded, and the diadem of Nebt rose from the box where it had been left. As it neared her outstretched hands, for a moment, it took on a soft, metallic glow.

  All unnoticed, Aket-ten had landed Re-eth-ke and come to stand beside Kiron. The god merely glanced in their direction but said nothing.

  Nofret had helped Ari to his feet again, and the god turned back to them. Make the Two Kingdoms into One. Guard your borders, yet do not expel the stranger. Be vigilant, but not despotic. Remember that the difficult choice is almost always the right one. And now I go.

  With those words, the god vanished, leaving no trace of Himself behind.

  The last trace of the Nameless Ones was gone from the desert outside the cliff walls of Aerie. From where Kiron and Aket-ten had stood on the cliffs in the early morning light, you could not tell there had even been a battle.

  Since the casualties had been relatively few on the Altian side—'Altia" being the name that Nofret and Ari had jointly decreed was to be the new name of their combined Kingdoms—in some ways the war had created a windfall for the desert city. Those horses that had died became dragon food. Those that lived had already been taken off to be traded for more useful asses, donkeys, and camels. The chariots and some of the weapons were already being converted into furniture and hardware, tools and other useful objects. So useful was the detritus of war, in fact, that scavengers from Aerie tracked the fleeing army well into the Anvil of the Sun to loot the fallen.

  And there were a great many fallen.

  And that was where the last mystery had occurred, in regard to all those fallen.

  That first night, one of the things that the weary council that Ari convened tried to consider was what to do with the hundreds, thousands of corpses right on their doorstep. They were dangerous there; besides the stench that would start to arise when they began to decay, there was the disease, the flies, and all that to consider.

  "We can't burn them," Ari had said helplessly. "There is not enough wood in all of Aerie to burn a tenth of them. We can't bury them, we haven't enough hands…"

  And just as he said that, there came the unearthly howl of a jackal cutting across the quiet night air. "Unearthly," because it hadn't come from the desert.

  It had come from everywhere. And nowhere.

  They all froze, then had looked at one another cautiously. An-benis, the god of the dead, had the head of a jackal…

  The howl came again, filling Kiron's upper room where they all sat on mats, like so many scribes, because Kiron didn't have chairs.

  "Perhaps we should sleep on a decision," Ari said after a moment.

  And in the morning, the bodies were simply gone. Not as in "dragged off by jackals" gone either. As in "vanished, leaving even their clothing and armor behind" gone.

  That, thankfully, was the last manifestation of the hands of the gods.

  Kiron had felt very uneasy about stooping to the level of looting the dead so as to make use of that discarded clothing, but others were not so squeamish. After a thorough washing, there were plenty of folk walking about on this day sporting Heyksin tunics. Aside from the garish colors, which would soon fade, they were not so unlike Altian tunics.

  So he and Aket-ten sat on the carved window ledge of his uppermost room, and watched the unaccustomed splotches of bright crimson, eye-searing blue, and acidic yellow moving purposefully beneath them. There were too many weighty matters to be discussed, and they wanted to discuss none of them.

  So, instead, they talked about furniture, of which there was very little here. It was a relief a relief to speak of commonplaces, to debate the type of table, the style of lamp. It meant they did not yet need to think about what all this meant… or could mean.

  Or what it had been like to play host to a god.

  "I should like a proper bed," Aket-ten said at last, speaking aloud. "Raised off the floor, with a real mattress. There are enough rags now to stuff mattresses for every person in Aerie twice over."

  Kiron decided to say nothing of his misgivings about sleeping on dead men's clothing; instead, he suggested, "Don't you think grass would be more comfortable?"

  "Well, so would goose-down," she said, giving him a dubious look, but I don't see any parades of geese in Aerie—nor fields of grass either—"

  "Perhaps the Lord of the Jousters can ask for a mattress to be brought," suggested Marit from the stair. "Ari and Nofret are off safely, which is just as well, considering that it would not be wise for her to be flying soon."

  "Ah, goo—" The implications of that last sentence brought Kiron's thoughts to a crashing halt. "What?"

  Kaleth followed his mate up into the dwelling room. "Oh, do give over. You are not so dense as that, Kiron," the Chosen said with a smirk. He now wore the same sort of robes that Rakaten-te had worn, and carried the very staff the former Chosen had used, but to Kiron's relief he had not been blinded. Kaleth did not explain this, nor did Kiron ask.

  "Why do you think that Seft made the choice he did?" Marit asked, and then at a look from Kaleth, amended, "All right, it was one of the reasons. There will soon be a Haras-in-the-nest."

  "And you will have to give up the honor of being the wearer of the diadem of Haras if there is need," added Kaleth, and snorted at Kiron's expression of relief.

  Kiron did not say what he was thinking, which was I prefer my gods in Their Temples, and not in my head, opting instead for "Why are you strolling about like any baker's son? I thought the Chosen of Seft was supposed to remain secluded."

  Kaleth shrugged. "The god has not told me to scuttle into hiding. I assume that it does not matter here, nor in Sanctuary, which are both cities of the gods. We have tended to live somewhat withdrawn anyway, Marit and I, so I anticipate no great change."

  Kiron was about to ask something else, when a commotion below made all of them turn and stare at the stairs.

  "—I don't care if he is bathing or eating or speaking with the Mouth of the Gods!" said an all-too-familiar, scolding voice. "—I will see my son!"

  Letis stormed up the last few steps and turned to look for Kiron. Since he was hard to miss, she made a little grunt of mingled exasperation and satisfaction, and strode up to him to stand in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest. "I have made enough allowances for you, and I have heard more than enough nonsensical reasons why you did not return. You are my son! It is time you obeyed me. You must return to Mefis now, and get back our farm. Then you can marry Peri, settle down to a proper life with a proper wife, breed me proper grandchildren who will honor their grandmother, and forget all this dragon foolishness." She scowled, and muttered, under her breath. "Wars with the Nameless Ones, indeed!"

  Kiron simply stared at her. First of all, he could not imagine how she had gotten here. Secondly, he could not imagine how to answer her.

  She stood there, utterly recalcitrant, completely unembarrassed. Peri, however, who had followed her up here, was embarrassed enough for three.

  When he did not answer, Letis cast about the room for someone to support her. "You! Priest!" she said, arrogantly. "Tell him! Tell him it is his filial duty before the gods to obey his mother!"

  Kaleth scratched his head. "As I am the Chosen of Seft…" he began. "My advice would be to make the difficult choice to tell you that his duties lie to a higher authority than his mother."

  As Letis' eyes widened, Kiron seized the moment. "I am very sorry for you, Mother, but I have already provided for you every thing that a filial son should. You are well cared for. You have a house, a comfortable life, even servants, which is more than you had when Father was alive. The Chosen is right; my duty to my King and Queen, my land, and my Jousters supersedes any duties to obey you, when you demand things that are not only not possible, but possibly foolish." He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at her. "In a word, Mother, no. No, I will not give up my duty. No, I will not get back the farm. And no, I certainly will not marry Peri." He looked apologetically at poor Peri, caught in the middle and red
as a sunset. "Peri is a very pleasant young woman, but I will marry Lady Aket-ten, and we will train the next generations of Jousters, male and female, and we will make Aerie our home."

  Letis spluttered for a moment, then turned to Peri. "Don't just stand there! Tell him!"

  For a very long moment there was only silence. And Kiron was struck by the uncomfortable possibility that poor Peri—

  She had spent a great deal of time with him. Gone out of her way to keep him company. He had put it all down to just being two people with a very similar background cheering each other up, but what if—his mother hadn't gotten his notion that he would be marrying her out of nothing. What if this was something that his mother had been cooking up all along? And what if that was what Peri wanted and expected?

  "Then I must make a difficult choice, too," Peri said slowly "Because it is more than time that I did so." She turned to Kiron's mother. "Letis," she said forcefully. "Shut up."

  Letis could not possibly have looked more astonished if those words had come from the mouth of Kiron's cat.

  "Kiron does not care for me except as another Jouster," Peri went on. "Nor do I care for him except as he is a kind and generous man. And I will not give up Sutema, nor my position here, nor all the responsibility nor all the pleasures that taking that responsibility brings. Especially not for the life of a farmer's wife, which is better than being a serf only in that I would be free." She snorted, clearly both amused and angry. "Free, that is until the first babies come, when I would be bound more closely than if I had been clapped on a slave coffle. So Letis, I love you as my friend, but no. I will not marry your son. Let him wed his love, and let them live as happily as they can."

  Letis gaped at her, then managed to splutter, "Then you will die a childless old maid!"

  "I think not," Marit said thoughtfully, looking at both Peri and Letis. "But even if so… there are worse fates."

  "Aye, being a farmer's wife," said Peri.

  "It is safe!" Letis cried out, her face reflecting her bewilderment. "It is safe, and certain! Great Mother River rises and falls, the seasons turn and every one is like the one the year before! You know where you are, you know your place, and Great Kings can come and go and it matters nothing at all!"

  Peri went to the window, gesturing out at the dragons, perched and flying, everywhere. "Safe, true, but how boring! How confining! How sad! How could that compare with this? And what is safe? You were not safe on your little farm. War came to you and took all your safety away! If I am to be in this world, I want more than to be a hound upon the game board, tucked away in a corner until the jackals come and sweep all away!"

  Letis looked from one to another of them. "You are all, all of you mad," she said at last. Then mustering the shreds of her dignity, she raised her chin. "I am returning to Mefis and the daughter who appreciates me."

  She stalked off The three Jousters looked at one another, and then at Kaleth and Mark…

  … hounds upon the game board… swept up by the Gods and now…

  And given what Kiron had just been through…

  "She may be right," he said finally. "We may all be mad."

  Kaleth shrugged. "Then I choose to be mad, rather than blind," he retorted, and smiled. "Besides, if it is madness, it is glorious madness, a madness that builds rather than merely endures. I choose to be the hawk, not the calf. And there is a great deal to be said for that."

  The hawk and not the calf… He thought about that, and about something else. As below, so above. If the Gods had moved him on the board… still, the people moved Them. The manipulation, it seemed, went both ways.

  "A difficult choice," he agreed. "But yes. I choose the hawk."

  ^