He grinned at her. “I did something similar once near Uniontown,” he told her, remembering the village of redheaded residents he had created.
“They’ll learn something from this; how long will it last?” she asked.
“I only created the effect to last for a day or two. Some of them will learn a little. Some of them will just keep finding someone to hate,” he shrugged.
“My name is Aster,” she introduced herself. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, and to see you’re humane enough not to punish those who deserve worse treatment,” she told him.
“I’ve seen you before this, of course,” she added.
“At the temple, I’m told,” Kestrel replied politely. He wondered why she was squinting as she spoke to him, then belatedly realized that he was still glowing with a bright blue light. He dowsed the glow, returning the exterior of the inn to night time darkness.
“Oh my, that’s a difference,” she said. “Now I can’t see a thing!”
“Here,” Kestrel reached out and took her hand. “Let’s go back in and join the others.”
Her fingers closed tightly around his, and he led her a few steps back to the door of the inn, then opened it, and followed her into the building.
“Is everything okay?” one of the Hydrotaz noblemen asked.
“He made them all look like elves!” Aster said loudly. The room was silent for a moment, then burst into laughter and groans, as even the local occupants appreciated the humor of the gesture. The rest of the meal was eaten with a buzz in the room but no further violence, and there were no activities at the inn that night.
“I’m mostly a follower of Shaish,” Aster told Kestrel the next morning, as they rode next to one another on the entry into Graylee city. He chose to ride with his hood up, not wishing to draw any attention away from Yulia as she entered the city where she was destined to be wed to the ruler.
“But that morning I decided to look in on Kai’s temple, because I was curious to see what reconstruction had taken place so far. And I saw all this dust flying in the air around the statue, with no workmen present, then stones would rise and set themselves in place, and finally I saw you, standing with your head thrown back and your eyes closed, your arms raised up in the air – an elf in a human temple,” she told him. “I thought it was fascinating – I stayed all morning watching you work, then I had to go.
“You’re not like most elves, are you?” she asked.
He turned his head to grin at her. “No, I don’t think I am.
“See that road?” he pointed to an elegant side street. “I lived there with Philip, before he was the prince, and his sister, and their two friends. They thought I was a human back then.”
“You looked like a human?” she asked in astonishment.
“I’m partly human to begin with,” he told her. “To most elves I don’t look like a full elf.
“And this is the promenade, where the fashionable young nobles walk up and down the street and socialize and shop during the summer,” he pointed out as they continued to advance into the city.
“We don’t have anything like that in Hydrotaz,” Aster pouted.
“You aren’t as ancient a city as Graylee, where they used to be an imperial capital. And they’re a larger city here too,” Kestrel offered his observations. “Perhaps after the wedding, when we return, you can take a stroll on the promenade and enjoy it.”
“Let’s do that!” she said enthusiastically, just before a flourish of trumpets sounded from the front of their group.
Kestrel looked up and saw that Philip and a group of his guard members were waiting in ceremonial dignity to welcome the arrival of their neighboring sovereign, who also happened to be his fiancée.
Kestrel watched from the back of the Hydrotaz entourage as Philip and Yulia spent minutes in a formal exchange of greetings on behalf of their two countries, then hugged and kissed to enthusiastic applause from the watching crowd.
“Let us go to the palace and spend the evening at banquet, before we depart tomorrow for our journey to Seafare,” Philip proclaimed loudly. “We will welcome all our guests there.” He turned his horse, and the enlarged group rode to the palace.
They entered the palace, riding through gates that Kestrel had entered many times before. He thought of the times he had been at the palace in opposition to the former prince, Namber, times he had fought, hidden, been captive, and escaped. It was Philip’s palace now, he told himself, a better place, and he shook off the haunting memories while they rode through the grounds.
Each member of Yulia’s party was led to a separate room to spend the night, and Kestrel only put his hood down when he was in the privacy of his own room. “You’ll have two hours until the reception begins, my lord,” the servant who was his guide had told him when he had been led to the room. “I’ll be back to fetch you then.”
Kestrel lay on his bed and relaxed. He looked forward to seeing Philip again, though the setting would be too public and formal for real conversation. He thought about the trip from Hydrotaz, and the simple pleasure he had enjoyed in riding a horse again; it was a human practice, one he had often considered trying to introduce to the Eastern Forest, despite the elvish prejudice against horseback riding.
There was a knock at the door, and he realized with a start that he had dozed on the comfortable bed until it was time to arrive at the reception. He jumped out of bed and raised his hood, then accompanied the servant to a small room where the other members of the Hydrotaz delegation awaited.
Yulia was led from the room, and Kestrel heard her loudly introduced to the reception attendees, and greeted with thunderous applause. After a prolonged round of clapping died down, the next pair of members of the Hydrotaz visitors were introduced, and every minute afterwards, a new pair of visitors were led to the door and introduced to the crowd.
Countess Aster maneuvered her way around the waiting room to stand with Kestrel at the back of the room. “I’d enjoy being introduced with you, if you don’t mind,” the serious-eyed woman requested, and Kestrel only shrugged his acquiescence.
They were the last pair to be introduced. “What names?” the palace servant asked as they approached the small stage at the top of a short flight of stairs.
“The Duchess Aster of Tyraz, and the Warden of the Marches of the Eastern Forest, Kestrel,” the duchess glibly answered before Kestrel could even open his mouth.
The servant nodded, and motioned for them to step forward. Aster reached up and pulled Kestrel’s hood down, then linked her arm through his, and they stood together as the names were announced.
A round of clapping began, then stopped, dropping off instantly to only a few pairs of inattentive hands, as the reception attendees looked up at the elf who was standing among them.
“Kestrel! Kestrel’s back!” a voice shouted.
“Three cheers for Kestrel!” someone on the other side of the room shouted, and the room broke into jubilant greeting of the elf who had fought so hard on their behalf during their civil war and the war against the Viathins.
“Yulia! You didn’t tell me you were bringing Kestrel!” he heard Philip laughingly chide his future mate as Kestrel and Aster started to descend the stairs. Philip took Yulia by the hand and led her over to the foot of the stairs to meet his elven friend as he and Aster reached the floor.
The two couples met in a group embrace, Aster caught up in the affectionate reunion of Philip and Kestrel and Yulia.
“I thought you’d enjoy having a friendly elf along for the journey,” Yulia laughed, as she kissed Philip’s cheek.
“And who is your fetching companion, Kestrel?” Philip asked as they separated.
“This is the Countess Aster, who I just met on the trip from Hydrotaz,” Kestrel explained.
“Well, go about and meet your friends who are here, just as delighted to see you as I am,” Philip said. “We’ll have several days to talk while we sail east.”
Kestrel left the royal couple, Aster stayin
g in his tow, and he circulated around the room, receiving a warm welcome from several of the veterans of the civil war that had brought Philip to the throne, all of whom remembered Kestrel’s work to defeat the Viathins, in both his human and his elven guises.
By the end of the evening, Kestrel’s face was in a continual smile, delighted with the friendly reception by so many people, people who didn’t consider his extraordinary powers as part of his attraction.
“I’m ready to go upstairs to bed,” he told Aster.
“I’ll go with you,” she quickly said.
“Upstairs, I mean,” she blushed. “I’m ready to go upstairs as well.”
Kestrel walked her to her room. “It’s funny, isn’t, that you’re such a hero to these people of Graylee, but not the ones we saw last night?” the countess asked when they stood outside her door.
“It’s one of the things that makes the world interesting,” she told him.
“That’s one word for it,” he gently agreed. “You get a good night’s sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow.” He held her hand for a moment, then left her to return to his own room.
As he went to sleep that night, his thoughts turned to Aster, wondering why she had spent so much time with him. He found no conclusion, and soon fell asleep in the cozy bed in the palace at Graylee.
Chapter 29
The next morning they departed from Graylee in the hours after breakfast, a relatively early start for a royal party, Kestrel thought.
The weather was cloudy, and Kestrel was prepared to provide shelter if needed, but the rains held off all day long, as they rode through the city to the docks, then climbed on board a pair of ships that carried them on the journey through the Mountain Sea, then the Last Sea, and finally into the broad river that connected the Inner Seas to the Great Sea in the east. They were on board their ships for seven days, until they reached the docks at Seafare. During the journey, Aster pursued Kestrel to the point that he took to hiding in his tiny cabin.
A royal greeting party of Ruelin and Picco, and including Creata and Wren arrived at the docks as the horses and gear were being unloaded from the ships. The party of nobles quickly left their ships to step onto land to receive their welcome by the Seafare hosts.
Philip was welcomed first, and his lifelong friendship with Creata and Picco provided an easy and warm greeting, then allowed him to introduce Yulia as his own fiancée.
“Kestrel come up here!” Philip called, and Kestrel was next to be welcomed back to Seafare.
“Where are all your imp companions?” Wren asked after they hugged, as Aster once again came to join him.
“They’ll be here in time for the ceremony, and the party afterwards,” Kestrel promised with a grin, “especially if you serve mushrooms for the entrée.”
“And is this your guest?” Wren asked. “Another conquest to add to your list?”
“No,” Kestrel said in some confusion. “This is the Duchess Aster, a guest of Princess Yulia,” he nodded his head towards the Hydrotaz sovereign.
“Who will be your guest then?” Creata asked.
“What do you mean?” Kestrel bluntly asked.
“You’re entitled to bring a guest of your own, your companion at the wedding and reception, and anything else you wish to attend, of course,” Creata explained patiently.
“I can be your guest,” Aster chimed. “I’d be happy to; I’d hate to see you be alone.”
“Let me think about it,” Kestrel said thoughtfully, though he had someone immediately in mind to be his escort.
“You ungrateful, weak, cur!” Aster hissed in a voice that was full of venom. Creata and the others in the vicinity looked at Aster first, then Kestrel, in surprise.
“I have practically thrown myself at you, though I’m better than you, superior to you, stronger and shrewder than you,” she told him, her face raised to his, her eyes blazing. “I want one thing from you, and if you aren’t going to give it me the easy way, I’ll do it the difficult way.” She slapped his chest vigorously, then stepped back from him, as the surrounding crowd began to back slightly away, making space around the confrontation that was unfolding.
Kestrel simply looked at the woman in astonishment, then in horror, as her appearance began to change. She grew shorter and thinner, and her features morphed into a completely different face, one that was familiar, though he couldn’t place it.
“Kestrel, great gods!” Wren screamed. “It’s one of the Triplets!”
Kestrel stared in astonishment, as he realized that the face was the face of the girl he had fought when he’d been at Fields’s fortress, helping Wren and Lark to escape.
The figure of the girl shimmered, then suddenly widened, and in an inexplicable manner, turned into three figures, all three of the Triplets, alive, and spreading apart, grinning as the encircled Kestrel, while the crowd on the dock screamed and scrambled.
“You won’t fight them alone!” Wren screamed, as she pulled a small, ceremonial knife from her bodice and dove at the original female figure.
The woman turned casually and fired a bolt of energy at Wren, stopping her in midair, then throwing her backwards forcefully. Kestrel’s cousin collapsed in a motionless heap.
“Stillwater! Mulberry! Odare!” Kestrel screamed. “Imps! Come help me!”
The Triplets turned to look at him, and a moment later, Stillwater arrived in the air.
“Stillwater! It’s Wren, she’s injured. Take her to the healing spring, then carry Alicia there as well!” he shouted the order, then fired a series of bolts of power at the three Triplets to draw their attention, and distract them from the hurried rescue mission. The other two imps arrived, looks of alarm on their faces.
The Triplets looked at him, and each of them fired bolts of their own power at Kestrel, who threw a circular wall of energy up in a protective tube that surrounded him, and absorbed the impacts of the blasts, while fading from his pure sapphire blue to a sicklier green color under the duress of the assault.
The imps dove at Wren and threw their bodies on her, then disappeared.
Kestrel redirected his power, and created three constraining tubes, one around each of the sorcerers that had diabolically appeared.
The original sorceress, the leader of the three, laughed, as she caused herself to shine with a brilliant glow that caused the observers to squint their eyes, until her glow blossomed in a brilliant flash, then faded away, revealing that Kestrel’s container had been evaporated. The other two did the same thing, freeing themselves, and the four powerful beings stood alone on the dock, eyeing one another.
“Why are you here?” Kestrel asked. “Leave these people alone. They have nothing to do with you.”
“You care for them, do you?” the second sorceress asked with a sneer.
She looked over at where Yulia and Philip stood with a group of retainers, then raised her hand and fired a bolt of energy at the noble humans.
Kestrel raised a shield to protect his friends, deflecting the shot of light up into the sky.
The male Triplet took advantage of Kestrel’s distraction to fire a bolt at Kestrel, striking him in the leg, and knocking him to the ground in an explosion of fire.
“Kestrel!” Picco screamed in terror.
A wave of imps suddenly appeared in the air, and dove at the three attackers, diving at them while carrying long, deadly spears.
Kestrel raised his head, while his hands grasped his shattered leg, and he raised his hand to fire weak bolts of his own energy at two of the Triplets, the second girl and the boy, striking them both while they prepared to fire their own energy at the imps.
The original sorceress though was unimpeded, and raised a sheet of green fire in the air, one that singed the diving imps as they struck it, killing some and injuring others.
“Stop!” Kestrel shouted. He raised himself to one knee, wisps of smoke rising from his charred clothes. “Why are you here? Why are you doing this?” he shouted.
The standing Triplet looke
d at him, as her two companions lay on the ground, victims of Kestrel’s unblocked attacks.
“I am here for you,” she said with a malicious grin.
“Then kill me if you can, but don’t harm all these innocent people!” Kestrel protested.
“I don’t want to kill you, simple fool,” the sorceress said. She motioned towards her two fallen siblings, who woodenly arose to their feet, their eyes vacant, then walked towards her.
“I want to mate with you,” she told him.
He slumped slightly, unable to believe what he had heard. He watched as the two wounded Triplets reached the unharmed one, and stood on either side of her. She put her arms out wide, as though embracing them around their shoulders, and then absorbed the other two back into herself, in a process that sent shudders through the shocked Kestrel.
She began to walk towards Kestrel, and he felt paralyzed as she suddenly emitted a cone of energy that struck every inch of his surface. He struggled against the force that constrained him, willing himself to find a way to move, to protect himself.
With a mighty effort he willed his energy to erupt outward, to produce a protective shell around his body, so that he could move.
“I can crush you, you know,” she said as she approached him. “Or I could kill all of them,” she waved her arm around at the assembled humans who were watching the clash. “But all I want is to mate with you, to have your child, one that will bring together a mixture of your abilities and mine. That child will be the ultimate mortal, able to rule all others, and to challenge the gods themselves!” she exulted.
There was a loud crack of thunder, and a flash of lightening, then a sudden, instantaneous appearance by Kai, who stood on the dock, as tall in person as she was in Kestrel’s statue, an imposing figure that towered over the scene.
A Marriage of Friends (The Inner Seas Kingdoms Book 8) Page 35