Before he could say anything further, Dewberry’s friend Reasion awoke. The blue sprite sat up and looked around with a slightly dazed look on her face. Reasion had a more androgynous figure than Dewberry, and cheeks that were merry little apples in shape, giving her a perpetual happy expression. Without a word of comment, Reasion flew through the air to retrieve a pile of clothes.
He woke Dewberry next.
“I feel wonderful!” she said with emphasis on each word, letting the sounds explode out of her mouth with delight. She stood and looked at her pile of clothes on the far side of the pool of water, then rose and flew through the air to where they were, and dressed herself.
Sensing that the time at the spring was coming to an end, Kestrel swam lazily across the pool of water and grabbed his own clothes, then carried them above his head as he waded back to where Alicia sat. He dressed as the other sprites and imps began to awaken, and within a half hour the whole group was dressed.
“Dewberry,” Kestrel called as the whole group prepared for the end of the outing, “is there some way to carry some of this water back to our city?”
“Let me go get a skin for you,” Dewberry’s brother spoke suddenly, and he popped out of existence.
“I feel better than I’ve felt in months,” one of the imps said. “We’ll have to come back and do this again sometime! Kestrel, will you keep an eye on us again?”
“I would be delighted!” Kestrel grinned at the thought.
“Just remember, he’s my elf first, so you need my permission to use him,” Dewberry said possessively, floating over to wrap her arms around one of Kestrel’s arms. “Except you of course, Reasion,” she smiled at her friend.
It suddenly occurred to Kestrel that he hadn’t heard Reasion say a word, and wasn’t even sure if the sprite was a male or female. “Dewberry,” he said quietly, “is Reasion a boy or a girl?”
Dewberry drifted over to lean upon his shoulder. “Reasion is neither. My friend is the sweetest and truest of all the sprites, but a unique individual in many ways. Reasion has no gender, and has no voice. In fact, although I call Reasion ‘her’ in my own mind, and maybe aloud from time to time, there’s no truth to that.
“We don’t even know Reasion’s mother,” Dewberry added. “She was left as a baby in a basket at the gate to the palace, and my father of all people chose to adopt the baby as a resident of the palace, a playmate who has grown up with me.”
Her brother returned just then with the skin, a smaller skin than the elves typically used. “I think it will hold enough,” Alicia said as she examined it. “We don’t even know for sure if this will do any good for us away from the spring.” She took it to the edge of the water and plunged it in, pressing the air out and pulling it open to draw in the healing liquid, then plugged it closed.
After that the sprites and imps arranged themselves in circles around the elves, and transported them back to the bleak apartment in Center Trunk.
“This was great fun,” Jonson told Kestrel as they returned and ended their traveling embrace.
“I don’t know why we don’t get along with the elves better, and do more things with them,” his sister spoke up in agreement.
“Perhaps because we’re at war with them from time to time at the edge of the swamp,” her other brother suggested, “where the bad elf Chandel tries to hunt our people for sport.”
“No, this works for all of us because there’s something special about Kestrel,” Dewberry interrupted them. “He has the grace of the gods upon him. I trust him. And if he trusts another elf,” she looked over at Alicia, “I’ll trust that elf too. Like that other maiden you were with last time I saw you, the one with light hair. I could tell she was trustworthy,” she said to Kestrel.
“Thank you Dewberry. This was a good way to use one of my three favors! It worked out well for everyone,” he said.
“Oh, this doesn’t even count as a favor. You ended up doing as much for all of us as we did for you,” she responded carelessly. “You just call me again when you need me.”
“I suppose we have to go back to court and get teased now,” she sighed soulfully, turning to the other members of her posse.
“Let’s go to the western mountains instead,” her brother suggested. “I haven’t been there in ages.”
“Do you remember what happened the last time you were there?” Dewberry responded.
“Oh I know, but they’ve surely forgotten that by now, and besides, I feel so good from the spring water I’m sure I’ll be better behaved!” And with that promise he blinked away, and so did the others, one by one, leaving Alicia and Kestrel alone in the apartment just a moment later.
Phew!” Alicia said as she leaned back against the wall. “Who will ever believe this?”
“Alicia, please don’t tell anyone about this,” Kestrel asked earnestly. “Most folks won’t believe it, and Colonel Silvan wouldn’t want more stories about me and sprites circulating around the city, I’m sure.”
Alicia stood straight as she pushed away from the wall, and she walked over to Kestrel. She looked directly in his eyes, and he thought he detected a warmth and kindness that he hadn’t seen her exhibit at any prior time during the day. “I won’t do anything to hurt you Kestrel, don’t worry. Your little blue amoretto was right in saying there’s something trustworthy about you.”
That seemed to break some barrier between the two of them, and they enjoyed the rest of the day, full of banter and pleasure in one another’s company. They went on to see the palace, and walked all the way around the perimeter of the grounds, viewing the towers and the trees from multiple angles.
After that it was very late in the afternoon, and they agreed that they both were famished, having missed lunch, so they stopped at a café and ate ravenously. Alicia insisted that Kestrel try a variety of local ales, to sample the flavor of different brews, and she began to lead him from tavern to tavern during the early evening, though she seemed to drink very little herself.
Somehow the conversation seemed to focus on Lucretia and Cheryl. “They were both such good people; Lucretia was gorgeous too, and somehow that’s something I associate with people who have a high opinion of themselves. I never would have expected her to talk to me the way she did after she saw Dewberry,” Kestrel told Alicia as he drank his third ale. “Then she talked, and she was full of questions, and I learned she was such a good person really, someone who just wanted to taste more of life, and see excitement.”
“Was she prettier than Cheryl?” Alicia asked.
In his state of growing inebriation, Kestrel pondered his answer as though his life depended on the answer he gave. “Lucretia was glamorous pretty; Cheryl is warm and friendly pretty,” he intoned solemnly. “No man wouldn’t say Cheryl isn’t pretty, but they’d all appreciate Lucretia more on first glance.”
“What about me? Would you say I’m pretty?” Alicia asked as he sipped more ale.
He sputtered in his mug, then wiped his face on his sleeve.
“I’ll take that as a polite no,” Alicia said laughingly.
“You? You’re very pretty, in an exotic way,” Kestrel answered. “Most men aren’t going to forget those eyes of your once they’ve seen them,” he said, then laughed as she coyly batted her lashes.
“You’re not just saying that because you’ve seen every square inch of my skin there is to see, and had your hands on a fair amount of it too?” she asked with a wicked sparkle in her eyes.
“No, heavens no!” he protested. “Although that may have helped some, for a little while,” he added after consideration.
“No, when I first saw you with that big, impressive uniform, and that hair thing, I didn’t think you were drop dead gorgeous, but even then you were nice to look at,” he explained. “And now, wow!” he looked into her eyes. “You’re something special! Every elf here is jealous that I’ve got you here at our table all to myself, I’m sure,” he said valiantly.
“Why did you wear all that stuff this mor
ning?” he asked.
“I didn’t want men to have the wrong impression of me. I want them to take me serious when I work, so I try not to dress like a pretty maid,” she answered.
“Well, if there are any of them bothering you, let me know before I leave, and I’ll straighten them out for you,” he offered immediately.
“Thank you, Kestrel. That’s very gallant of you,” she said gently, placing her hand atop his on the table, and squeezing it with friendly gratitude.
Kestrel was not used to drinking ale; it was something that he rarely did, and he began to feel woozy as soon as he drank his first mug. Before long it grew difficult for him to easily follow the conversation as Alicia talked to him about Colonel Silvan, and how brilliant the man was.
“I do anything he asks me to, anything!” she said emphatically, as they sat in their fourth tavern of the evening, drinking once again. “He only wants what’s best for elvendom.”
It was the first time Kestrel had thought about Colonel Silvan in hours, the first time he remembered the request that he allow his ears to be butchered.
“I’m afraid he’s asking too much of me,” Kestrel said. “I don’t know if I can do the things he wants me to.”
“You can Kestrel,” Alicia said comfortingly, placing both her hands atop his on the table top. “He wouldn’t ask anything of you that he didn’t believe you could succeed at. And look at all you did today! You single-handedly beat two elves at once, using just a broomstick! You healed me of my wounds, you carried out favors for sprites and imps; you can do so much! You could do great things to help every elf in the kingdom if you listened to Silvan!”
“You think so?” Kestrel asked carefully as another mug of ale arrived at the table. “I’m afraid of what he wants of me.”
“Do you trust me?” Alicia asked suddenly.
“I do,” Kestrel said sincerely, and felt a glow of warmth when she squeezed his hands tightly in appreciation.
“Then trust Silvan. Do what he wants. Let him use you to protect us from these new human tactics,” she urged.
Kestrel closed his eyes, and felt his head spinning. He opened them again, and saw Alicia’s large eyes staring intently at him. “Alright, I’ll do it,” he agreed.
“Good choice!” she replied. “Here drink up your ale,” she nudged the new tankard towards him. “I’ll be right there with you,” she said as he tilted the latest mug of ale upward and threw his head back, letting the bitter brew flow readily down his gullet.
He felt dizzier as he finished the ale, and dropped the mug on the table.
“Here, help me lift him up and carry him out,” he heard Alicia tell someone, and then arms were grabbing him and raising him from the tavern bench.
“You can trust me, Kestrel. I’m the best surgeon Silvan has,” he heard a voice say. He vaguely understood it was Alicia talking to him, and then he knew nothing as he passed out, intoxicated from too much ale.
He slept in a drunken stupor, one filled with nightmares of knives and great pain and voices speaking distantly. But he never awoke completely, intoxicated as he was from the great quantities of ale that Alicia had urged him to drink.
Chapter 14 – A Changed Countenance
When Kestrel awoke he couldn’t see, and he couldn’t move his head, which was enveloped in something that seemed to include a dull cloud of pain. He found that not only was there a wrapping around his eyes, but his head was held immobilized by blocks and straps, and his arms, legs, and torso were all strapped down as well.
“Where am I?” he asked aloud. “Is anyone there? Let me free!”
“I’m here Kestrel; relax, my dear,” he heard Alicia’s voice.
“What’s happening?” he asked, confused by a foggy, incomplete collection of memories.
He felt hands gently touch his head, then fingertips barely tapped his face, until there was a change in the weight of the bandages he felt on his face. The light penetrating to his eyes increased as well.
“You’re in my clinic,” Alicia spoke softly and distractedly. Another layer of bandaging lifted from his face, and then the swaths of cloth on top of each eye were lifted away.
He blinked his eyes open, feeling their crusts give way to his efforts, then suddenly he grunted in surprise as drops of water fell onto his eyes. “What are you doing?” he sputtered.
“Close your eyes,” Alicia said, and then a cloth dabbed and wiped at his eyes.
He looked up and clearly saw her, hovering directly over him. “What’s happening?” he asked plaintively.
She looked down at him with an expression of complete concentration, then delicately removed a bandage from his forehead.
“Outstanding!” she whispered. “Let’s look at the real challenge.”
Her hands began to remove bandages from the sides of his head. “Alicia, set me free; tell me what happened. I don’t understand,” Kestrel begged. “Please release me. Untie me.”
“I will, sweetie, I will,” she muttered absently as she focused on his head, her face only inches above his. More bandages came away, and she raised her head, smiling down at him beatifically. “This is extraordinary, Kestrel,” she said, her gaze at last moving to his eyes.
“Here,” she did something that removed the blocks from the sides of his head, then unbuckled a number of straps across his chest, then from his arms. He heard a movement behind him, and a man in a uniform suddenly came into his field of vision, carrying a disk.
Alicia thrust her arms beneath Kestrel’s back and raised him up to a sitting position. “Go get Silvan,” she said to someone, then took the disk from the orderly and held it up in front of Kestrel’s face.
It was a mirror, a highly polished disk of metal.
“Look at how well it worked!” Alicia said, one hand holding the disk as the other hand pointed to the features on his head. “Look at these eyebrows!” her finger stroked the nearly horizontal stripes that now replaced the previous rising arches that had framed his eyes.
“And look at these,” her hand gently grabbed his chin and turned his head slightly to the side, then her fingers drew a lingering trail up to his ear on the side if his head, a small ear with a rounded top, devoid of the whorls and ridges that were the classic ornamentation of elven ears. He had human ears on his head, and human eyebrows. She had made him look completely human.
“Does this hurt?” she asked as her fingers gently traced and probed every crevasse and rise on his ear.
“No,” he mumbled, staring at the mirror in horrified amazement.
“It was that spring water! It made the incisions and changes heal overnight! That was so amazing when you took me to the spring. I almost gave away the plan, when I realized what the water would allow us to do,” she spoke directly to Kestrel.
His legs were still strapped to the table but his hands were free. He looked down and saw a tray of knives beside the mat he lay on.
With his right hand he grabbed the mirror out of Alicia’s hand and smacked it hard against the throat of the orderly who stood beside her. His other hand reached out and grabbed her hair, jerking her violently against him, in front of him, while his right hand darted and snatched up the largest knife on the tray and brought it to rest against her bare throat, pressing tightly against the pale white skin.
“What have you done to me?” he wailed in anguish. “You’ve turned me into a monster! I look just like a human now!
“Oh Alicia, how could you do this to me? I thought I could trust you after all we went through yesterday! I thought you would look out for me, the way I tried to take care of you,” he felt tears of anger and sadness falling freely down his cheeks as he resisted the impulse to press and slice with the blade, to empty her body of life in retribution for the damage she had done to his.
“She cares for you so much that she would let no one else do anything at all on the surgery table,” Kestrel looked up at the sound of Silvan’s voice in the hallway, Giardell and another guard standing in front of him.
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“Unbuckle the straps on my legs,” Kestrel hissed at Alicia.
“I can’t. The blade is too tight,” she gasped at him.
He slightly released the pressure he exerted on the knife, and twisted her lower down his body, so that she could reach the straps that still held him to the operating table.
For thirty seconds nothing happened until she had set him free, then he maneuvered down off the table, holding her in front of him and holding the knife against her throat, as he backed into a corner.
“Look at that,” the unknown guard said as Silvan and his escort entered the room. “Make him look like a human and he starts to act like a human too.”
“You piece of dung!” Kestrel shouted in fury, and he used his human combat training to flip the blade away from Alicia’s throat, towards the guard who had spoken. The blade whirled momentarily through the air, then landed solidly in the guard’s shoulder, making his scream in pain.
Kestrel wrenched the crook of his elbow up around Alicia’s throat in place of the blade.
“She was as careful and gentle as I’ve ever seen her,” Silvan said, coming a step closer. “She clearly felt very close to you and wanted to make the operation as successful and painless as possible.”
“She tricked me! She was another one of your spies! Another manipulator!” Kestrel shouted back.
“I really care for you Kestrel,” Alicia spoke up suddenly, her voice only a croak as he kept pressure on her throat. “You made yesterday unlike any day of my life. You were not at all what I expected, and you reacted so wonderfully, so thoughtfully and kindly, toward me and towards the sprites and the imps. If I weren’t married, I might have tried to seduce you a time or two!
“I gave you the best opportunity anyone could ever ask for to pass as a human, so that you can help Silvan save us from the next attack,” she pleaded. “I know it seems like a trick, but I did what I could to do everything in my power for you!”
“Let her go Kestrel,” Silvan said firmly. “She’s not the one you’re angry at; I am. This is all my doing. You know that. Let her go. I told you this was my plan yesterday; you know it wasn’t her fault,” he repeated, and Kestrel saw what seemed to be genuine concern in Silvan’s eyes, anguish over the danger he had put his subordinate in.
The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 01 - The Healing Spring Page 16