by Andi Van
“Well sure, it’s probably a beautiful, liberating experience. Do you know what fish do in the water?”
Tasis laughed even harder, holding his sides as he rocked back and forth in mirth. “That’s disgusting,” Tasis chortled. “And hilarious. I’m going to have to ask Triv if she’s ever considered that.”
“Just don’t tell her it was me,” Kelwin said, the grin on his face more relief that he’d made Tasis laugh than anything. “I rather enjoy living.”
The trio settled into a companionable silence then, though it was occasionally marked by a random giggle from Tasis. They stood there leaning against the railing, reflecting on their own thoughts, when they heard a chatter down below. They looked down to see the pod of dolphins trailing close behind, leaping into the air as if trying to join them on deck.
“What in the Maker’s name are they doing?” Zaree asked. “I’ve never seen a pod act like that before. They’re going to get hurt if they’re not careful.”
Kelwin had been thinking the same thing, but before he could remark, one of the largest of the dolphins gave a mighty leap that brought him nearly face-to-face with them. He flung his head to the side, and something came flying out of his mouth, heading directly for Kelwin. He caught it out of reflex, and looked down in surprise to see he was holding something that was neither shell nor stone but had the appearance of both.
“A fossil,” Zaree said in surprise. “That’s unexpected. I wonder why he decided to give it to you.”
“I don’t know, but these things always seem to end up important later. For all we know, the old dragon sent them.” He waved his thanks at the pod below, and they chattered at him before flipping around and heading in the other direction. “The question is, should we be worried or not?”
“I vote for not,” Zaree said. “Come on, let’s get some fishing in. Someone has to catch our dinner.”
Chapter 5
“WELL, YOU’RE a fair sight better than the donkey was,” Jorget said the next day, as he rode astride one of Arin’s horses. The horse was named Zephyr, and was as swift but gentle as the soft breeze that had inspired his name. He was an older fellow, but he still had plenty of life in him, and Jorget had found himself enjoying that morning’s portion of the journey. It was a beautiful day, and he wasn’t having to fight with some stubborn beast to keep it moving.
Zephyr flicked his head back and continued his forward march with gleeful steps. Arin had warned him that the horse hadn’t been out for exercise in a few days, and Zephyr’s obvious delight made Jorget grin. If he were a better rider and had a more solid idea of where they were going, he’d let the horse run as fast as he wanted. Alas, Jorget was following a map he barely understood and directions that weren’t much better. He’d managed to find what he hoped was the stream the directions told him to follow, which meant he was nearing the road leading to the giants’ village. Arin had told him to stay overnight. “After all,” the baker had said, “if you’re taking one of my horses, you’ll get to Inafain a day early. The innkeeper there is well-known for overcharging guests, and that town as a whole has gotten less friendly to strangers since Tasis and Zaree made their rather spectacular exit with Kelwin.”
“But….” Jorget wasn’t sure staying in a village full of giants he didn’t know was much better.
“If you’re hesitant to stay with the giants, there’s a rather nicely situated cave nearby,” Arin assured him. “In fact, that’s near where Kelwin found his wolf.”
That was enough for Jorget to opt for staying with the giants. The last thing he needed was to be attacked by wolves because he was in their territory. The giants seemed to be the safer bet.
When it was midday, he reached a clearing that seemed safe enough and headed for a nice shady spot under a tall tree. The day had started to grow warm, and he and the horse could probably both use the break. Zephyr hesitated when they neared it, though, and Jorget saw that there was a woman resting in the shade he’d been aiming for. She opened her eyes and gave Jorget a startled look when she saw him.
“Don’t worry,” Jorget said immediately. “I’m safe. I wasn’t expecting to see you here either. I was hoping for some shade.”
The woman looked at him for several silent seconds before nodding. Jorget took it as permission and started to dismount the horse, only to get his foot caught in the stirrup. Instead of the graceful landing he’d hoped for, he ended up on his face in the dirt. “Ow.”
“Are you all right?”
Jorget startled at the soft voice, and looked up—and up—at the woman who was now leaning over him, worry creasing her brow. “You’re very tall.”
The woman frowned at him. “You’re making fun of me.”
“Um, no,” Jorget promised. “I’m not, actually. You seem very tall to me.” He untangled himself and tried to stand, swearing when he realized blood was dripping from him somewhere.
“Your nose,” the woman said, offering him a handkerchief. Jorget wasn’t sure where she’d been carrying it, but he was grateful for it as he shoved it under his nose and let the woman help him finish standing.
“Thank you,” Jorget said, though it ended up sounding more like “thag oo” with his nose the way it currently was. He looked up at the woman again and smiled, measuring what he could of their height difference with his hand. “See? You’re quite tall compared to me.”
She looked down at him, one hand playing with one of her sable locks of curly hair, and Jorget realized that her stature had distracted him from how beautiful she was. “I’m sorry,” she finally said, her voice still soft, and Jorget realized she probably always spoke that quietly. “I didn’t mean to assume.”
“Are you Emlynn?” Jorget asked. He’d bet the old slowpoke donkey that she was, and it explained why she’d thought he was teasing her.
“Yes,” she responded. “Are you the one who is to lead me to my new home?”
“Yes,” Jorget agreed with a smile. “I’m Jorget. I’m an orphan, so no family name. Just Jorget. I’d shake your hand, but I’m kind of trying not to bleed everywhere.”
Emlynn’s mouth twitched up into a small, brief smile. “I understand. It’s okay.”
“But what are you doing down here?” Jorget asked as they both took a seat in the shade with Zephyr grazing nearby. “I don’t think you were waiting for me, or you probably wouldn’t have been so surprised to see me.”
“No,” Emlynn agreed. “I….” She hesitated, then took a deep breath. “I don’t like it in the village. Even most of the children are taller than I am, and I am an adult now. They make fun of me and call me ‘useless runt.’ But I am seventeen summers now, and I have climbed to the top of the mountain to speak to the spirit bird who lives there. He gave me one of his feathers as proof.”
Jorget was more than a little confused by this, but he nodded. “And this is what happens when you’re an adult? You climb a mountain after you’ve reached your seventeenth summer?”
“Yes,” Emlynn confirmed. “The spirit bird often gives tokens other than his feathers as proof that you have succeeded, but he saw me and said he knew my soul. I wasn’t certain what he meant, and he wouldn’t explain, but he plucked one of his own wing feathers and gave it to me.”
“The bird speaks?” Jorget asked, hoping he wasn’t being offensive.
Emlynn nodded and pointed at her head. “He speaks to us in our minds.”
That sounded suspiciously like a certain weird purple cat he’d seen twice through a magic mirror, and Jorget hoped he’d remember to mention the bird to Tasis at some point. It sounded like it could be the same type of animal.
“So you’ve gone through all that, and come home with a token that no one else has been granted, and you’re being made fun of?” Jorget asked. “Sounds to me like they’re jealous, in all honesty. They all still have to go through this, after all, and you’ve raised expectations impossibly high without meaning to. Doesn’t make it right, but….”
Emlynn seemed to consider his
theory, then nodded. “Perhaps.” She tilted her head and gave him a look of concern. “How is your nose?”
Jorget gingerly pulled the handkerchief away to touch under his nose with the back of his hand. When he pulled it away, there was no blood, and he sighed in relief. “It looks like it’s stopped.” He looked at Emlynn’s handkerchief and winced. There was no way all that blood was coming out. “Sorry. I’ll replace your handkerchief.”
Emlynn shook her head. “That’s what they’re for, yes? Don’t worry about it. I have plenty.”
Jorget could feel the awkward silence coming, but it was interrupted by a booming voice calling Emlynn’s name. The small giantess sighed and stood. “My father,” she explained. “Come, I will introduce you. The path is quite steep for someone not twice my height, but we’ll make do. You should bring the horse as well. He will be well cared for during your visit.”
Jorget nodded and stood, careful not to fall on his face again. Once was bad enough.
The trail up to the giants’ village was indeed steep and rocky, and Jorget was mortified when Emlynn finally told him to get on the horse. He did as she suggested, though, and they reached the top without any further incident.
Except, well, having a twenty-foot giant standing at the top of the hill, hands on his hips and glaring. That was definitely an incident as far as Jorget was concerned.
“Father, stop,” Emlynn said with a sigh. “You’re going to scare him.”
The glare on the giant’s face deepened, and he leaned in to get a good look at Jorget. Or possibly to eat him. Jorget couldn’t decide. The horse seemed unconcerned, though, so he took that as a good sign. “And who are you?”
Jorget swallowed. “Um, I’m Jorget, sir? Tasis sent me to—”
The change in the giant’s face was immediate and a little overwhelming. It brightened into the biggest smile Jorget had ever seen—literally, as the giant’s face was far larger than any he’d witnessed before—and he half expected songbirds to swoop down from the trees to sing merrily around the fellow. It was… well, it was weird. But it was better than wondering if he was going to be eaten. “You’re the lad who’s going to escort my Emlynn, then? Tasis said I could trust you with my precious daughter.”
Somehow Jorget felt like there was an “or I’ll crush you with my bare hands” implied at the end of that statement, but he let it go. “Yes, sir. We’ll be meeting up with him in Inafain.” Hopefully that would assure the overprotective father that his daughter would be in good hands. He certainly seemed to like Tasis, at any rate.
The giant made a face. “Why in the Maker’s name would he want to go back to that festering boil of a town?”
Jorget snorted a surprised laugh. “I actually asked something similar. He said something about his mother’s library.”
“Ah.” The giant reached out a massive hand and gave Jorget a genuine smile. “My apologies, I’m being rude. My name is Whogs. I’m one of the chief’s guards.”
“I’m, uh, Jorget,” Jorget answered as he took hold as best he could of one of the giant’s fingers and shook it. “But, uh, I said that already. I’m apprenticed to King Archai’s head priest, Denekk. And, um, I get myself stuck to ceilings?”
Whogs gave him a bewildered look for half a heartbeat before letting out a hearty laugh that threatened to make the ground quake. “I like you,” he said. “You’re a good lad. Come. Chief Brolt will want to meet you.”
Jorget let out a squeak of surprise, but Whogs paid it no mind and turned to walk toward the largest of the buildings in the village. Jorget chased after him, Emlynn striding next to him. “How did you get yourself stuck to a ceiling?” she asked, curious.
Jorget could feel his face flush, and gave a little shrug. “Tried a levitation spell,” he admitted. “It didn’t go as planned.”
“Ah,” Emlynn said sagely as she gave him an understanding nod. “Good thing you were inside, then.”
Jorget grimaced. “Yeah, that occurred to me later. It’s a bit terrifying to consider after the fact. Have you tried it?”
“Oh no,” Emlynn answered, sounding more than slightly scandalized and making Jorget wonder what he’d said wrong this time. “If I’d known how to do that when I climbed the mountain, the others would have told me that I didn’t actually climb, that I flew up and cheated instead. I couldn’t afford to give them any reason to doubt me.”
It made a sad sort of sense, and Jorget began to realize how lonely Emlynn must have been growing up. “I understand,” he said. “But I don’t think it would have made your feat any less. I mean, how many of us can actually levitate? And it’s not like magic is any less physically taxing.”
The giantess gave him a shy smile, and Jorget felt his face grow even warmer. “Thank you,” she said softly.
“I’m being honest, that’s all.”
“And that’s why I’m thanking you,” Emlynn answered.
Jorget opened his mouth to respond, but his words were silenced before they could even begin when Whogs called for them, his voice booming so loudly that Jorget had to wonder if they lived so high up on a hill so the people around them wouldn’t hear them. “Come on, you two,” Emlynn’s father called, and they sprinted to catch up.
Whogs was waiting for them in front of what was clearly the largest building in the village, though it was as ordinary-looking outside as the rest of them. Another giant stood sentry at the door, and Whogs nodded at him as they passed. When they’d stepped into a perfectly normal, if large, entryway, Whogs called out, “Chief Brolt? The one Tasis told us of is here.”
“You all know Tasis?” Jorget asked. “I mean, I assumed you knew of him, but….” He winced a little at his own words, realizing how stupid they sounded.
Whogs, though, seemed to know what Jorget had been trying to say. “He’s been in our village,” he said as he ushered them into the next room. “More than once. He’s a friend to the giants, here and in every neighboring village.”
“He’s a good lad,” said an older, slightly softer voice, and Jorget finally looked across the room to see an elderly giant sitting on what might have been described as a very plain throne. Or possibly merely a well-cushioned chair. “And family, in a way.”
Jorget tilted his head, eyeing who he assumed to be the chief with confusion. “He didn’t look like a giant.”
Both the chief and Whogs chuckled. “I’ll go get some chairs,” Whogs offered before heading into an adjacent room.
The elderly giant gave Jorget a kind smile. “I am Brolt, in case you hadn’t figured that out,” he said. “And your guild leader is family here.” The chief patted his chest over his heart. “His great-aunt is a dear friend.”
Jorget chewed his lower lip, trying to figure out if it would be impolite to ask the question he was dying to have answered, and finally gave in. “Was she really there when it happened? Denekk said as much, but….”
“But it seems like such an impossibly long time to be alive when a human’s life is so short in comparison?” Brolt asked. When Jorget nodded, he smiled again. “Ah, lad. The things that await you. You’ve so much to learn.” He leaned back again, and nodded his thanks when Whogs came back in with the chairs he’d offered to fetch.
The chairs were as massive as everything else in the village, but Jorget managed—barely—to climb onto one without assistance. “What do you mean?” he asked once he was seated.
“Magic will change you the more you use it,” Brolt explained. “Did your mentor not teach you this?”
“Maybe,” Jorget admitted with a grimace. “Or he probably tried, at any rate. I… don’t always pay attention to what he’s saying.”
The chief let out a laugh and shook his head. “I wouldn’t be horribly surprised if you and Tasis ended up good friends,” he said. “Magic soaks into things and people. Mages are affected by this, especially these days when no one can use magic freely. It holds the world together and preserves life.” Brolt chuckled. “I believe we’ll have to revisit this con
versation in a couple hundred years, assuming I’m still around then.”
“A couple hundred?” Jorget asked, his voice a slightly higher pitch than he’d intended it to be. He cleared his throat, and tried to speak normally. “You’re joking, right?”
“Oh no,” Emlynn said softly from her chair. “Magic preserves all life, but especially those who can wield it to protect the world that relies on it. Human mages were said to live quite a long time, before the mad king started the war.”
“Oh,” Jorget said softly. Perhaps Denekk had tried to tell him this, but if he had, he’d never explained it like the giants had. In a way it sounded as if such a long life was given in exchange for protecting the world. “Is that what the guild was about, then?” he asked. “To protect the world? Not the creatures who inhabit it, but the world itself?”
Chapter 6
JORGET DIDN’T sleep well that night. It had nothing to do with the fact that he felt like a toddler sleeping in an adult’s bed, though it was a little unnerving to be sleeping in a bed that could probably have fit six of him. No, it was the earlier conversation that concerned Jorget, and he spent a large part of the night tossing and turning as he tried to figure out exactly what the king would get out of destroying the world. There was no personal gain to be had. If the world ended, the king himself would die along with everyone else.
Somewhere just after the sun was up, there was a soft tap on the door of the room Jorget had been given in Whogs’s house. “Are you awake, lad?” Even the giant’s whisper boomed, and it was oddly cute.
Jorget found himself biting back a laugh. “Yes, I’m awake,” he managed to say in a normal voice.
“You have guests. Come on down when you’re ready.”
“Guests?” Jorget asked, surprised and confused. It couldn’t be Denekk, because his mentor couldn’t leave the castle for fear of someone getting killed. And it couldn’t be Arin, because he had a bakery to run. Or could it? “Is it Arin?”