“The sprites danced for humans?” Gail asked, shocked.
“It only happens once in a hundred years,” Silas assured her.
“But you can do everything I’ve seen you do? Travel about between places, fly through the air?” Silas asked.
“Yes, I am sure I can do what I do,” Stillwater said earnestly.
“Well, you go on into your dream world now,” Silas told the honest imp. “Thank you for your honesty. I’ll awaken you in the course of time.”
“And then we’ll carry you home,” Stillwater agreed. Silas dipped him down into the water, and the imp fell unconscious.
“Now that the imps are settled into the water, would you mind putting on some pants?” Gail asked, as she studiously looked at the trees around the spring. “I have some for you here on the shore.”
Silas blushed, then waded over and pulled the ready clothes onto his wet flesh.
“I’m dressed now,” he informed Gail as he adjusted the shirt that was sticking to his skin.
“What can you tell me? What’s going on? Why did the sprites – I mean the imps – bring me here?” Silas asked as Gail turned to face him. “Is there someplace we can go? I’m a bit hungry.”
“Oh heavens! Two humans walking about in the Eastern Forest seeking food? That would start a riot, none the better for us,” Gail firmly stopped the talk of leaving. “I have a basket of snacks I can share, and Kestrel will return soon. Besides which, in a little bit you can awaken the imps and then have them take you home.”
“Home,” Silas repeated. “I’ve been gone for weeks. What will they think back home? What should I tell them? What are the conditions there?” he posed the questions to himself more than the woman nearby, who was opening a hamper.
“Have I been sleeping in the spring water all this time?” he asked Gail
“Here, have a snack. I made sure Kestrel didn’t drop any crickets into it,” Gail assured Silas, who froze his motion of raising the sandwich to his mouth and looked at her in alarm.
“It’s something elves do. I’ve very firmly insisted that humans, meaning myself, will not eat any crickets,” Gail calmed him. “That sandwich is safe.”
Silas bit into the food hungrily.
“I think I’ve met your husband before, here at this spring,” Silas tried to be conversational.
“You have. He mentioned it at the time. It was quite unusual for a human to appear at the spring. But if you have the blessing of the goddesses,” Gail paused, as something tried to rise up in her memories, something about goddesses. The memory struggled to rise, surrendered, and sank back into her unplumbed depths. “Well, you seem to be allowed to be here.”
A rustling sound on the approach trail sounded, and then Kestrel came lopping into the clearing around the spring.
“Our visitor is awake! That’s a relief,” Kestrel spoke in the human language. “And the imps have been summoned already, I see,” he glanced over at the small blue bodies in the water.
“What happened to you that you were in the waters of the spring for so long?” Kestrel asked Silas.
“I’m not really sure what it was. I was fighting a battle against an invasion fleet, and I used my powers to create a storm to scatter the invaders,” Silas explained. “It was a big storm.” He paused as he recollected the terrible scene, the last thing he remembered, standing upon the broken-topped tower and seeing the air descend from the high heavens to sweep down upon the Ivaric fleet.
“And the goddess, Kai, let me use some of her power,” Silas added as he recollected the way his own powers had accepted and manipulated the power that Kai had released to bolster the storm. The sensation of working with the power of the goddess had felt overwhelming, and he had not controlled it as well as he had intended.
The Ivaric fleet had suffered because of his lack of nuance in controlling the storm. Silas had expected to blow the fleet away, but instead he had sunk it, sending thousands of men to watery graves, he believed. Ships had sunk out in the deep waters of the sea.
“It’s not easy to handle a deity’s power,” Kestrel sensed the brooding reflection Silas had entered into. “That’s probably why you’ve been here, to let your mortal body recoup from the strain of the goddess’s energy.”
“And so now you’ll go home?” Kestrel asked. “Wherever that is.”
“Someday I’ll ask Kai where we are in the world compared to each other,” Silas promised. “I really want to know.”
“And then maybe we can see each other without you having to be injured, or being the babysitter to the imps,” Kestrel smiled. “Speaking of which, you can probably awaken them now. They’ve had a good little stretch of nap time.”
“They’ll complain when I wake them up,” Silas noted.
They always do,” Kestrel agreed. “Now, if you’re ready to return to your home, Gail and I will be on our way back to our own home. We want to see that daughter of ours!”
“Kestrel,” Silas spoke up. “I have one last question; how did you happen to find me here and take care of me for so long?”
“The goddesses told me to,” Kestrel replied. “Kai and Kere instructed me to be here, and I brought Gail along.”
Gail started to say something, as a memory seemed almost within grasp, a memory that was relevant to the topic, but then it faded away, and she remained silent.
“Hmm, I see. Thank you,” Silas answered.
Gail and Kestrel hugged him and waved, then departed from the spring, leaving Silas alone at last.
Chapter 4
Silas stood alone, deep in thought, staring at the imps in the water without actually seeing them. He was trying to accept all the news that Kestrel and Gail had given him and put it all in place before he took the brief journey with the imps back to the island of Amenozume.
He had been delivered to the healing spring and left in its waters for more than a fortnight. He knew how powerful the spring water was, how well it healed injuries of all kinds, usually with only doses of water, small doses. To have soaked for so long indicated that he had needed exceptional healing. He must have truly suffered more damage than he realized in the process of creating the storm that had destroyed the invasion fleet.
The goddesses had interceded on his behalf. What an extraordinary thought! They were not finished with him apparently; there was more work to do, work that would be his to carry out.
And he had no idea what work remained in Amenozume. There had been fighting in the streets of the city when he’d passed out. If any invading Ivaric soldiers had managed to survive their shipwrecks and float to the island’s shores, they might have combined with the Ivaric soldiers already ashore, and wreaked havoc across the island.
Silas felt a sudden anxiety, a desperate need to return to the island and learn what had happened. There might be friends and loved ones who were in trouble during his long absence. He wondered where Mata was and how she was doing, and then he wondered where Princess Lumene was, and how she was doing.
He’s seen little of Mata since the two of them had traveled separately to Amenozume – they’d had a few hours together at most, a time or two. But they’d always had to go in different directions, mostly because of him, he knew. He was the one who was called, or driven, to go off on some mission tied to the war against Ivaric’s occupation of the land of Amenozume.
Silas removed his pants and splashed into the spring water once more, ready to begin the trip back to Amenozume immediately. He lifted the imps up onto the shore line, then put on his pants again and waited for the imps to awaken. He thought about Mata and the princess, wondering where they were, and he let his memories of the two women roll through his psyche, a parade of images and thoughts that initially focused on Mata, but came to focus on Princess Lumene to a greater and greater degree.
Silas felt a sudden snap in his soul.
“Oh goddesses!” he exclaimed. He’d thought about Lumene so much, he’d activated his Tracker capability and made her the focus of a search. He
closed his eyes, and tried to find a trace of the princess, at whatever distance she was from his location in the elven forest. There was a sense of her presence somewhere, so very faint that it would prove difficult to follow if anyone were ever to try to home in on the target from so far away. It felt as though it were coming from over his left shoulder, he decided.
“Friend Silas, are we already removed from the waters that we barely entered moments ago?” Odare asked.
Silas opened his eyes and saw that all four of the imps were awakening. Odare was pulling her blouse over her head as she spoke to him.
“I thought that we all had spent enough time in the water,” Silas answered with a grin. “I’ve been here for many days. If you take the average of our visits, it’s much more than anyone else is likely to enjoy.”
The imps all looked at him with blank expressions, then grumbled in low tones.
“I do not like these averages,” Odare told the others.
“Can I ask a question?” Silas posed a question.
“We may not choose to answer, or you may have to take an ‘average’ of our answers,” Odare promptly replied.
“Who told you to bring me here from Amenozume? That’s where you found me, right? On the tower in Amenozume?” Silas asked.
“We were told by Queen Dewberry,” Odare answered.
“She was told that the request to bring you here was exercised as part of the treaty with Faralag; the first time anyone knew that the treaty had ever been used by the humans!” Stillwater added excitedly.
“What? Faralag asked that I be picked up in Amenozume, and brought to the elven spring? That doesn’t make any sense,” Silas replied as he scratched his head. “How would Faralag know anything about where I was, or the healing I needed?”
“You were resting in bed when we took you, in the middle of the night. The girl next to you didn’t even notice we were in the room moving you,” Stillwater answered. “So, there was time to put you in a bed and clean you up; maybe there was time to let Faralag know you needed help,” he concluded.
“We need to go back to Amenozume and let me find out what’s happening there, and maybe I can straighten this mystery out,” Silas decided. “Are you ready to travel?”
The imps gathered around him, giving him time to take a deep breath, and then feel the strange sensation of moving through a passage that was not part of the world, a passage that delivered him to a dark bedroom.
“Farewell Silas; call us when you need us,” Stillwater whispered, while Odare placed a dainty kiss on his cheek.
“I’m glad you are healed,” the small blue figure said softly, and then all the four travelers were gone, and Silas was nearly alone. There was a woman sleeping on a cot next to a bed in a large and luxurious room.
When he had heard Stillwater claim that the unconscious Silas had plucked him away from a sleeping girl, he had assumed the girl to be Mata, resting next to him in bed.
The girl on the cot was not Mata, it was Forna. Mata was nowhere to be seen.
Silas stood still and silent, listening for sounds, letting his senses adjust to the new surroundings. His vision still gave him an enhanced ability to see in the darkness, but there was little in the room to see besides the luxurious furnishings. He heard no sounds out of the ordinary, no evidence of strife or conflict afoot in the capital city that night. Nor in the palace, where he assumed he was located.
He felt an urge, a powerful one, to leave the bedroom and go out into the hall. It was his Tracker sense, adjusting to his new location and his proximity to Princess Lumene. He was within yards of the princess, a sure sign that he was likely to be in the palace, and she must be too.
He let out a soft sigh. The city and the palace were at peace. That was good; it indicated that he had destroyed enough of the Ivaric fleet to thwart the invasion, and the uprising in favor of the old order in Amenozume must have succeeded.
“Who’s there?” Forna’s voice was sharp as she sat up and looked at the figure in the darkness.
“Forna, it’s me, Silas,” he answered simply.
“Who?” Forna asked. “Silas?”
“Yes, Silas,” he answered, and immediately realized that the obvious next question was going to be to ask where he’d been. And he didn’t know how to answer, how to avoid all the conversations about sprites and imps and elves, the answers that would damage his credibility and raise further questions.
“Are you okay?” Forna asked. She rose to her knees, and then to her feet she stepped forward through the darkness and flung herself against him, wrapping her arms tightly around him. “I’m so glad you’re back; I’m so glad you’re alive and okay. You are okay, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I didn’t know what happened to you; one night you were here in bed, still unconscious, and the next morning you were gone. I thought maybe the gods had taken you, and I was afraid they might not give you back to us,” she told him. Silas could feel her voice as much as hear it, as her jaw rested against his chest, sending the tremors of her voice through his flesh.
“Where have you been? Are you okay?” she asked for a third time.
Silas had his arms around her, comforting her. “I’m okay, completely recovered and healed.
“It was the goddesses,” he answered. “They took me to be healed. It took a long time, I guess.”
“We need to go spread the word,” Forna suddenly decided. She released her grasp upon him, then took his hand in hers and pulled. “Come along, we need to let her know immediately; she’s been worried sick about you.”
“Who? Mata?” Silas asked, sure he knew that they were on their way to see his lover.
“The princess, Lumene,” Forna answered. She opened the door as they reached it. “She’s just down the hall.”
Forna pulled him out into the dimly-lit hallway, then stopped and turned to look at him. “There, I can see you now! It is you. You look good; a little shaggy, but good,” her fingers combed through his hair for a moment.
“Come along,” she began to pull him again.
“Where’s Mata?” Silas asked as they strolled down the hall.
“She’s somewhere else in the palace. I’m not sure where,” Forna said hesitantly. “The princess’s suite is around this corner,” she turned and reached the guard on duty outside the door of the suite. “He’s back!” she exuberantly told the guard. “We have to take him to the princess!”
The guard looked at Silas skeptically, until he saw the purple and yellow eyes. He stiffened at attention, in awe of Silas’s legendary powers. “Take him in,” the man said.
Forna led Silas into the sitting room.
“Who is coming in here? There better be a very, very good reason,” Gwen’s deep voice growled from the next room in the suite.
Forna put her finger to her lips to quiet Silas, then answered, “it’s me, Forna, I woke up. May I enter?”
“Sure, come join the party,” Gwen’s voice relaxed.
Forna grinned at Silas. “This will make their hearts race!” she whispered, and they passed through the door into the princess’s own chamber, pulling Silas behind her.
Silas was familiar with the room, and for a moment, he thought about how familiar – and in a way, comfortable – the room felt. Then he came in sight of the large bed he had slept in once upon a time, and he stopped in his tracks.
Gwen was sitting comfortably in a chair in a corner of the room, while the princess sat upon her bed, her legs crossed in front of her as she was focused on an assortment of jars on her bedside table. “This is always so confusing, and I don’t know why the maids insist on buying all of these in the market places – I think half of these are useless anyway,” Lumene commented on the cosmetics she was applying to her face. She didn’t look up immediately.
“Have you ever used anything like this, Forna?” Lumene asked as she dipped a finger into one pot of cream.
“Oh, gods of all the elements!” Gwen swore loudly and rose to her feet as she looked up f
rom her state of boredom and spotted Silas.
“It’s truly almost bad enough to swear at,” Lumene philosophically agreed, assuming that Gwen was commenting on the cream. Lumene’s face was coated liberally with a variety of creams and ointments, in a variety of colors, on different parts of her face, while her hair was pulled back and forced into an unnatural shape by a cotton band tied around her forehead.
“My princess,” Gwen squeaked in a voice that was octaves higher than usual, odd enough to draw Lumene’s attention. The princess looked at her bodyguard, then followed Gwen’s gaze to the entrance to the room, where Forna and Silas stood.
“Your highness, I thought you should immediately know,” Forna sounded apologetic as she tried to explain why she had brought Silas into the room.
Silas stood grinning, staring at Lumene, who he didn’t truly recognize behind the mask of creams, but whose identity his Tracker ability affirmed.
Lumene stared back in shock.
“You’re alive,” she spoke the words with a soft, heartfelt emotion.
Her hand unconsciously went to her face as she stared at Silas, and her fingers touched her skin and felt the cream upon it, she lifted her hand and stared at the patch of color on her fingertips, then looked at Silas again, observing his grin.
After a moment, she grinned back. “Come here, my champion. I know you’ve seen me in every state of dress and undress; this probably doesn’t do anything to raise or diminish my status in your eyes, does it?” she asked as she grabbed the towel off the bedside table and imperfectly wiped much of the cream off of her skin.
Silas advanced past Forna, watching the lovely princess. She wore a shapeless gown, but his imagination remembered the litheness of her body, and he saw the warm smile on her face, as she unfolded her legs and rose to stand on the floor, just before he reached her, and found himself embracing her affectionately.
He felt another snap within himself, a comfortable one, as his Tracker sense was satisfied he’d found his quarry.
“Most courtiers simply bow on their knee when they address the princess,” Gwen commented drolly.
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