He paused in his stirring, his attention divided from the meal, “Interesting. I myself could never agree to love only one person. But we do have a similar concept, where two people agree to be partners and lovers for the entirety of their lives. We call it bonding.”
I have to say, that my stomach kind of flipped when he said that he could never commit to one person. I know guys are generally sluts, but I don’t like to think about it. I’ve never been really taken by a smooth guy who is so romantic you think you’re in a movie. I would much rather a fumbling klutz who has to run to a roommate to borrow a condom than the one who can reach under the bed or into the side table and produce one so magically you’re not aware of the escalation of events until it’s almost too late.
But, what you will. As we all know, even major flaws can be overlooked, ignored, or just swept under the carpet of our conscience when the guy is attractive enough.
“Do your people just stop loving your parents and your friends when you meet your mate? Is that how you know?”
“Oh no, no. That’s not,” I groaned, “that’s a different kind of love.”
I am so prejudiced against men. Still. I hate myself when I remember how I treated him those first couple of months. I was so attracted to him in that first instant I knew he had to be an asshole. In fact, I was just about to wise up, renege on my offer, and sneak off to Denver without him when Sensei gave me his approval. So I took him. But I was a cold-ass traveling companion. I have to remember Geoffrey is one of the good guys.
He looked about to question me further so I pointed out that his stew was burning and I bent down to scoop the bread out.
“Okay, so you’re ruled by a bonded couple.”
“Actually, the first queen and partner to bond were the fourth kimoet, Freyel and Geonn who bonded after thirteen seasons of rule.”
“Kimoet?”
“The ruling couple.”
“But the partner’s kids get shafted. What makes the queen’s daughter any more likely to be a good ruler than the partner’s?”
“Nothing ensures that she will be a better ruler. That’s why we have a publicly approved partner to balance her if she’s not good. We believe that uncontested rule is more important to secure peace and limit the natural hunger for power.
“But you are right, if I understand your meaning. The partner’s kids, if he has any, are generally deserving individuals. Laurel’s partner, Browm, was the first to have kids and when she died in one seventeen, her chosen successor, Frell, gave the second son permission to take a party and build a third castle; this one.” Geoffrey put a hand on the stone wall of the oven. “One hundred and thirty-eight frseason later, Browm’s great great great," he counted on his fingers, “great grandson, Stedon, moved back to Voferen Kahago as partner and seven seasons later bonded with Laurienel.”
I swallowed my mouthful of wine as the word association jumped from the tip of my tongue where it had been resting, into my brain. “Laurienel is the queen in the tapestries! The queen with the son who’s going to save the world!”
“That’s right.”
“And this,” I raised the bottle in triumph, “is her harvest!”
“And she,” he brushed his hands off on his jerkin and raised his own glass, “was my mother.”
Half my swallow went down the wrong pipe.
A prince.
I was cooking— living— with an honest to god prince!
Ha! Faite had told me as much when we were still in Colorado.
-ting-
“It’s about time you two moved indoors,” Faite said when we'd finished the dialogue of the scene.
Parry high prime. Bind, keep the points above our heads. Twist the wrist and glissade into a thrust to his left flank.
-ssskrinng-
“Oh? Are you giving me a raise?”
Follow his beat away with the dagger. Avoid the backdrop. His rapier point at my belly and lunge. Stop. Retreat, sweep away his point with dagger and rapier. Hold his rapier up, punto reverso to stab him in the kidney. Stop. Detour, block his dagger to my armpit.
-ting, sskring, & tink-
“No. But I’ve found you an affordable one-bedroom.”
Pommel attack to my chin.
-tink, clatter, slap-
Dagger on his blade. My sword to the ground. Hand on his hand.
“Two-bedroom, you mean.” I clarified.
“There are no two-bedrooms you could afford in Denver.” Faite lowered his steel. “You know, scrap it all, let’s go back to Consort. What, dost thou make us.”
He walked away to stage right.
I stood there and watched him walking away. I wanted to run him through. I was only sharing my tent with Geoffrey because he had nowhere else to go. Besides, he was company. But I wasn’t giving him any more than company in return. I figured I could be unhappy anywhere. Why not living celibate on a mountain with an amnesiac?
“Faite,” I bent to grab my rapier, “I am not sleeping with Geoffrey.”
“Damn shame, he’s a real prince.”
I crossed to Tybalt’s position. “You’ve never met him.” Steel at my sides.
He smiled, the white corners of his goatee raising, “I will have done. En Guarde!”
He lunged. Parry high prime. Bind. Keep the points above our heads. Turn the wrist and glissade into the thrust.
∞
Geoffrey rushed over and whacked me on the back a few times until I elegantly coughed up some of the rich golden wine. He gathered the vegetables from the floor again, turning his back on me while I wiped the cutting board. I blinked my eyes clear and stared at him as he dumped the veggies into a strainer and poured most of a pitcher of water over them.
“You’re supposed to save the world?”
He balanced the strainer on a bowl of water he had on the simmer square and smiled. “Everyone has to have something to do.”
“Geoffrey,” I handed him the rest of the vegetables from the cutting board, “there are tapestries and songs and legends about you. There are,” I stopped, remembering the question that had prompted this story, “there are five men trying to kill you.”
“I know. What do you think, more nutmeg?”
I tasted the spoonful of stew he offered me. “Absolutely not. What good would it do them to kill you? Who succeeds if you die?”
“Well, the tricky bit is that no one officially knows where I am. Mobious is authorized to rule until my return. If I don’t return—”
“Maybe Mobious wants to continue ruling.”
“No!” The fire sizzled at the dollops of stew he sloshed out of the pot. “Mobious raised me to be a good partner. He taught me everything or found the best people to teach me everything. It’s not him.”
He walked away. Customarily we set two places in the great dining hall with plates and knives and cups and then take the meal up in big bowls that we can serve ourselves from. Geoffrey stalked around the kitchen gathering these things on a tray. The stew bubbled at me and the little potatoes, pardon me, earth apples hissed and popped in the fire. He wandered slowly back to me at the hearth, setting the tray on the counter as he passed. One glance at me and he was away again to gather our wine mugs. He refilled mine and offered it to me in lieu of an apology.
“I did consider that. But it’s not him. He’s got plans. He very definitely has his own plans, but they include me with the circlet.”
“And you love him.”
“He’s the closest thing to family I’ve got.”
“But your Aunt Fierell is still alive isn’t she?”
“You pay attention. I’m impressed.” He scooped the pan of potatoes out of the fire and dumped them into the stewpot. “Stir that.”
I did. He took the steamed veggies and arranged them around the upper shelf of the tiered dishes. He lined the central bowl of the dishes with large green leaves I have yet to identify and sprinkled a little salt on top of them.
“So, what about Fierell? Ma
ybe she’d inherit the rule.” I swung the iron arm out of the fire and took the pot off its hook.
Geoffrey took the ladle from me. “Surely she would have tried for the rule when I was a kid. I know Fierell attended my parents’ funeral, but for safety Mobious had me isolated from everyone so she and I never met. Also...”
He fished two earth apples out of the remaining stew with a knife and set them on top of our full dishes. “Also she is supposed to be living here.”
“What?”
“When old Forte died, my father, Stedon was unable to leave Kahago so he gave the rule of Forte to Mum’s aunt Turenel who actually left the duties to her foster child, my aunt Fierell. That was twenty-three frseason ago. Obviously something has happened since then.” He popped a potato in his mouth to accent his words and fell to the ground in pain from the burning on his tongue.
A prince. And a boy.
I rinsed his mouth with cold water. We ate. He told me family history. I unflatteringly compared the artist’s renderings of him as a baby to his current appearance. After dishwashing, he pushed me out of the hall and up to the fireplace room, hoping to change the subject, but I improvised a couple obnoxious folk songs about Kaveg’s hidden prince until he obliged me.
“I didn’t know I was in any immediate danger until the five actually jumped me.” He was stretched out on the bear rug, refilling my mug. “I had finally left Stray Tor for the Dormounts after avoiding them for the past seven frseason. For being the second best fortified shale and nearly the furthest away, the people in Stray Tor are obsessed with the dragon’s activities. Distanceseers make a healthy living in that shale.” He rolled to his feet. “I decided it was time for me to go when a guarde told me that Tgeha was sending out dragon hunting parties from his guarde and requesting emergency guarde from Voferen Kahago to replace the many who never came back.”
He wandered over to the narrow window. The sliver of a moon gave off little light, but I could see it and the more distant second moon he calls the bondstar from where I sat. The purplish sapet flew up from where she was lounging beside me, leaning on the guitar-like instrument I’d commandeered from a higher-level room, and soared over Geoffrey toward the stars.
“Is it there?”
“Yeah,” He pulled his head back out of the moonlight. “And the lamp is moving.”
We’re being watched. For several weeks now. We haven’t seen any people, but out of our windows at night we can see fires and torches at the edge of the woods. Purplish flew back into the room and circled Geoffrey as he crossed back over to the rug.
“The lamp is moving sunwise, but it’s staying at the edge of the forest.”
“What if it isn’t the five, Geoffrey?” I strummed a d minor seven and looked at my nails. “Isn’t there something you need to be doing? Do you need to get to the Dormounts?”
He swallowed a mouthful of wine, wiped his chin, and looked me straight on, “I’m scared. Not here. Here I’m happy. I’m scared of climbing back over that wall and being killed by the five. I was just hiking along. Had been for moons with no stop-offs or detours in villages or at gypsy camps. I was just a few megg from Sapproach and out of the trees at the edge of Battlescar these five men appear. They were playing with me, nicking my arms, clipping off bits of my hair and beard, just teasing me until I spoke up. I asked them why they were breaking peace. I told them I had nothing of value. The leader laughed then. He said we just want you. I asked why? He responded, ‘My lord, ask your mother.’ Then they attacked for true and I would have died had you not appeared at my back.”
I looked at him, standing there, his hair down about his shoulders, his doublet undone, a mug of Emjae in one tense hand, defying and admitting his own fear. The fire reflected a feverish glow in his eyes. He would have died?
I set aside the guitar and stood. “I’m happy then, lord prince, that I’m here. I’ll help you get rid of the remaining four and get to the Dormounts or Voferen Kahago or wherever it is you need to be.”
He smiled, bending to kiss me on the cheek. Then he picked up the empty wine bottle and wandered to the door. “No rush.”
Mmmmm. That kiss could almost be enough for me. I'm happy here too.
I do wonder sometimes what my friends might think must have happened to me. Except, I didn’t really have any local friends in Colorado. Mama would be upset at my not having called. Maybe Eva would have noticed a lack of e-mail. But really the only person who might miss me in any significant way was Faite. I tried to miss Geoffrey for a while. But I found it difficult to think, ‘Poor Geoffrey, what must he think has happened to me?’ when he kept wandering into the room.
Ten
∞ Edling Geoffrey of Kaveg’s journal ∞
Denver, America
We’ve been in Denver for a quarter now. This too is a strange place, though not as frightening as Chicago. Also the air does not sit on us so much here and it smells less. I can see earth and sky even when I venture down into the city. Nanda is still afraid that we’re going to have to pay retribution for the thief she killed in Chicago, so we stay away from civilization as much as possible, much as we did that first month out of Forte.
∞
We couldn’t face people then. We couldn’t speak even with each other as we marched through the countryside. Nanda was changing by then and I feared that the shock had done her damage. She wouldn’t look at me. I admit I had moments too. She'd reach out to push aside a branch and I’d watch her bicep flex and see the flesh burn back to reveal muscle rotting with maggots crawling out and up her arm to where her fingers would taper off the meet the branch as crumbling bones. I could smell the stench of death. And I could hear, I could literally hear like an ocean in my ear, the rats running over around under through in and out of the bodies and the horrible munching chewing crunching when they stood still.
∞
I don't have such hallucinations here. We sleep in the fresh air on the side of this immense rock formation as close to the peak as we can drive. When I look around I imagine that the peaks I see are as high as the tip of the biggest dragon’s curved back. If we’d had to climb him to find the dTelfur village, we would never have gotten there. I've tried hiking up to our peak here and haven't yet succeeded.
Nanda is much as she was those first days out of Forte. She gets up in the morning, folds her sleeping gear and takes off for the river to freshen up. By the time I’ve stoked the fire enough to make coffee, she’s grabbing a travel-bar of breakfast grains and hopping into the car to head down to meet her teacher, Faite.
I don’t have a lot to do. Except dwell on everything I can’t do. So I’ve been hiking up and down and around this mountain. There are legends the callers sing about fabulous mountain ranges in the old land. Some so tall that a person could climb for a day and still not be able to even see the top. But these mountains are not much larger than our sleeping Dormounts.
That’s not to say I wasn’t impressed by the Dormounts as we approached them. I am familiar with the concept of ‘big things look small from far away.’ It’s called perspective. And when I got close and saw how big the Dormounts were, I wanted to put them back into perspective. I had been measuring my expectations from the size of the only dragon I’d ever seen. A pile of creatures that size wouldn’t amount to the unfathomably huge formation that greeted Nanda and I two days after we left Sapproach.
∞
“Look up Geoffrey.” Nanda startled me out of my thoughts.
“What?”
“You’ve been staring at your wrist for two days. The bruises will go away.” She took my hand and twined her fingers in mine, which was no way to pull me out of my distraction. “Look up.”
We were ten paces from a dragon’s foot. I was so distracted by the bond ring that I had forgotten where we were going. A clutch of castle-sized lizards is a hard thing to forget. Especially when they’re getting bigger with every step you take.
The dragon that had scared the smile out of Nanda on the plains was bi
g. Its front feet were about the length of a large horse and half as tall. The grayish-green foot in front of us with three nails as thick as oak trees was nearly as big as that entire dragon. Despite a grayish tinge to the scales and a thin mist hovering around it, this did not look dormant.
Its back was dusted with a light layer of soil and its eyes were closed. But it was breathing. It looked like the creature had just curled up for a nap surrounded by hundreds of others. They were alive and looked like they could wake at any moment.
“One hundred and thirteen frseason."
“That’s how long they’ve been asleep?” Nanda put a hand on her belly.
"So I'm told."
She looked around, mostly up, but around.
“Should we look for the village?”
“Sure. Yeah.”
After a few moments she spoke again.
“So. You want to go first?"
We didn't move. We stared at the dozen or so castle-sized creatures close enough for us to study. We compared the different colors and scale patterns, noting their faces had subtle individual markings.
We tried scoping out a path from where we stood. Eventually we managed a couple steps forward. Then I took a couple more, but one of the creatures exhaled and the warm draft made me jump back. Nanda giggled. As did another voice.
“The longer you stare at them, the harder it will be.” A small figure stepped out of the trees behind us, dTella’s teenage son. We had met him in the burrow after the Battlescar fight with the five the very night that Nanda appeared.
“Yenay!” I was thrilled to be distracted. “What are you doing here?”
“Your mother will be a wreck!” Nanda rushed to hug him.
He blushed at her attention. “She’d be here herself if it weren’t for the little ones. We heard you were headed this way and thought you could use some help.”
“How can you help us, Yenay?” Nanda asked.
“I know more about the dragons than you do.” A shadow crossed his face, “And even I wasn’t prepared for this. I got here when the moon was new and the bondstar yet a sliver, but I was circling north to where dTella said the village would be closer to the outside edge of the dragons and I happened upon, excuse me my lord, the remains of that... party your parents led. There were only metal and leather pieces and some clothing left, and it was all arranged in an X. As a warning I’d guess. I buried it.”
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