The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 02 - The Yellow Palace

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Alicia held out her hand to shake, only to be surprised and blush brightly when Moresond bent over her hand and kissed it.

  “Please tell her that I am enchanted by her exotic beauty,” Moresond told Kestrel.

  “He says he is ‘astonished by your otherworldly looks’,” Kestrel failed to translate correctly.

  “Is that good?” Alicia asked, looking from one of them to the other.

  “Yes. I think I mistranslated; I’m not used to doing this. He was using smooth, elegant words, you know, the kind I never speak,” he grinned, and she grinned back. “Let’s see, I think he said he is attracted to your unusual splendor. Well, that’s not quite right either, but he thinks you’re very pretty.”

  “Please tell him thank you for the compliment,” Alicia told Kestrel, looking at Moresond.

  “She thanks you for your kind words,” Kestrel told Moresond.

  “Please forgive my manners. Would you like to come into the palace?” Moresond asked.

  “Yes,” Kestrel answered. “I’d like to show Alicia my chambers here at the palace,” Kestrel explained, and then the three of them left the crowded gatehouse to cross to the main entrance to the palace.

  “Would it be allowable for Alicia to stay in my room here at the palacefor a few days?” Kestrel asked as they began to walk the corridors of the palace. “While I am gone on an errand?”

  “That would be unusual, but acceptable for you,” Moresond answered. “The Doge would be delighted to be her host.”

  “Is there anyone in the palace who speaks her language, Elvish?” Kestrel asked in addition.

  “No one I know of,” Moresond said, which Kestrel translated to Alicia.

  “Take me to your room, Kestrel. It’s so beautiful to see this building, and I want to see your room. The elegance of this setting is so foreign, yet so alluring,” Alicia spoke hesitantly.

  “But when I listen to you speak their language, it sounds so foreign that I think maybe I don’t want to try to stay here after all. I would feel so isolated without anyone to talk to or stroll with. I wouldn’t even know how to ask for food or directions to the wash room,” Alicia said as they began to climb a set of stairs.

  “I’m so sorry for bringing you all this way up here!” she murmured.

  “It’s better to find out now that later, after I leave,” Kestrel answered. “Moresond,” he switched languages, “Alicia has decided she’s not going to stay here. We’ll travel on together for now.”

  “The Doge will be most sorry to hear that,” Moresond said diplomatically.

  “But we ought to go ahead and show her how marvelous the room is that the Doge has so generously given me,” Kestrel added, and so they walked on together, then suddenly took a turn Kestrel wasn’t expecting.

  “Is this the way?” he asked, puzzled.

  “I thought you might like to show your friend the spot where the goddess touched you,” Moresond indicated the chapel building that came into view as they turned a corner.

  “This,” Kestrel turned to explain to Alicia, “is where the goddess Kai came down to earth and touched me. This is where I received the shield on my chest,” he told her as they arrived at the doors to the chapel. As they stood there the doors swung open, and a group of several people emerged.

  “That’s one of the parties of pilgrims,” Moresond explained. “We’ve had to accommodate the wishes of the public to see this site,” he held the door open for Kestrel and Alicia to enter.

  The stone floor in the center of the chapel still held the footprints of the deity, the narrow, feminine prints of the goddess’s bare feet clearly visible in the paving stones that approached the altar in the far end of the building. Kestrel explained the scene to Alicia, as Moresond slowly walked around the perimeter of the chapel.

  “It really happened to you here,” she said softly. “A goddess came and touched you and talked to you. That is amazing as a story, but to see this place, to see these footprints as evidence, it makes me feel scared and in awe at the same time. Kestrel, you are doing such great things,” she said. “While I managed to screw up my own life and two other people’s as well.”

  Kestrel listened to the wistful longing in Alicia’s voice, the regret she expressed in her tone and her words. Moresond had moved politely away, even though he wouldn’t have understood their conversation in any event. Kestrel was about to answer, to try to offer some words of comfort and encouragement to his discouraged companion, when the sky seemed to darken outside, and the light coming in through the windows lessened dramatically, so that more illumination within the chapel came from the few candles that were lit than came from the sunlight beyond the walls.

  “Kestrel,” Kai was suddenly standing before him, appearing without any notice, and appearing haggard, if it was possible to say such a thing about a goddess. He instantly dropped to his knees, and Alicia also fell into a supplicant’s pose beside him.

  “You have done great works on my behalf, and for all the peoples you serve, human and elven alike, but your duties are only beginning, and your challenges aregoing to grow harder,” the goddess said. “I am weakened by the desecration of my temples around the Inner Seas, but I still have abilities to aid and protect you, and I will do that while I can.

  “I am going to grant you a boon today, Kestrel,” the goddess’s voice said. “You are two races united in a single person, and you are a splendid blending of the best of both races. But we all know that your racial identity aids at times and hinders at times your ability to pursue the goals you seek to obtain.

  “Take this ring,” Kestrel saw a hand in front of his downturned face, holding an elegant golden ring that had an intricate woven design encircling it. “Place it on a finger on your left hand, and you will appear to everyone who sees you as though you are the race your heart believes you are. If you place it on your right hand, you will appear to others as though you are the other race whose blood you have inherited.”

  Kestrel reached out and took the ring, lifting it off the palm of the hand that he saw. The hand was flawless, without lines, a beautiful, unearthly shade of soft white, yet when his fingertips brushed against the deity’s flesh, it felt as warm as the flesh of any living being, while it transmitted to him a sensation of vast abilities, and great affection for him.

  “Thank you, my goddess,” Kestrel said quietly. “I hope that I can meet the expectations you have. I do not want to fail you, or Kere.”

  “We know that in you we have chosen our ablest champion,” Kai said gently. “Now I must go, and you must resume your journey. There are many twists and shadows on the road ahead of you, but I believe you will arrive in a land of sunshine at the end. It may be painful, and you may lose something, a part of yourself, as a sacrifice you make on behalf of us all; you may come out the other end of your trip a different person, but I foresee a future in which you will come out.”

  “You are beloved for your great heart and brave soul Kestrel. Go with our love,” Kai told him in a voice that was little more than a whisper.

  And with those words the presence of the goddess was gone. The sky outside grew immediately brighter, as did the interior of the chapel.

  “Kestrel,” he heard Moresond’s shaky voice call from across the chapel. “That was extraordinary – indescribable!

  “The goddess herself came to talk to you as her favorite! And I saw it and heard it!” Moresond was overcome with the power of being in the presence of the divine.

  Alicia was still kneeling next to Kestrel, and as he stood upright in a daze, he saw her still kneeling, now kneeling to him. “Come on, get up,” he urged her, lowering his hand to help her rise.

  “Kestrel, you’re divinely appointed to do great things. You’ve told me before about the goddess visiting you; I’ve seen the crest on your chest, but here I’ve experienced this visitation, and words can’t describe it!

  “With the goddess on your side, who can resist you?” she asked.

  “Do you remember hea
ling me a few weeks ago, after they tortured me in Graylee?” Kestrel asked quietly. “Having the goddess is great advantage, but it doesn’t protect me from making mistakes.”

  “What does this great ring look like?” Moresond asked as he came over to see them.

  Kestrel held out his hand and opened his palm, where the golden ring glistened in the light.

  “Put it on,” Alicia urged.

  Kestrel held the ring up at eye level to look at it closely, then held it in his right hand and slide down onto the middle finger of his left hand.

  “You look like an elf, even more so than usual,” Moresond appraised.

  “You are more elfish than ever before,” Alicia said in her language. “Now, put it on your right hand so that we can see you as a human.”

  Kestrel removed the ring, then transferred hands, and slid it down the fourth finger of his right hand. He felt no different, but saw the awed expressions on the faces of the others.

  “Kestrel, it really works,” Alicia spoke breathlessly, “just like the goddess said it would. You look more human than I could ever make you appear.”

  “Did you understand the things the goddess told me?” Kestrel suddenly asked Alicia.

  “Of course I did. I was right there next to you,” she replied.

  “Did you understand the goddess’s words?” he asked Moresond to confirm his sudden realization, as the herald nodded yes.

  “Both of you understood her words,” Kestrel said first in human, and then in elvish. “And I understood them too. But I couldn’t tell you what language she spoke in.”

  “That’s a goddess,” Moresond said. “I presume you intend to leave immediately to follow her wishes?”

  Kestrel looked at the herald, and then at Alicia. “I’d like to show Alicia the rooms here in the palace anyway, since we’re here, and then we’ll be on our way,” he said, searching for a way to return to the world of normalcy, beyond the overwhelming power of the divine visit.

  Moresond led them away from the chapel, as they wordlessly wended their way through a crowd that had gathered outside the chapel, drawn by the darkened skies. “Tell no one what the goddess gave me; just mention that she was here again and communicated with me,” Kestrel told Moresond.

  They walked the palace halls, until Moresond stopped at a doorway on an upper floor. Kestrel was silent as he tried to understand all that was implied by the words of the goddess. “These are your chambers, for as long as you liveand visit,” Moresond told Kestrel, as they stood in the hallway outside an elegant, imposing door.

  “I believe that we will leave directly from here, my friend,” Kestrel said. “We will ask the sprites to help us return to our next destination.

  “Thank you,” he shook Moresond’s hand heartily, then opened the door and followed Alicia into the plushly furnished space.

  “Kestrel, if you didn’t have a goddess commanding your destiny, I’d tell you you were crazy to ever leave this place,” Alicia said as she stood in the center of the entry hall and looked about.

  “What did the goddess tell me?” Kestrel asked, as he slouched down on a large, over-stuffed sofa in the next room they entered.

  “She said she was proud of you, and that you were the best champion she could have found,” Alicia answered, as she came to sprawlupon him and the furniture. “She made me feel so proud to be your friend, and to know that you trust me. I know that wasn’t easy at first.”

  “She also said that I would have to sacrifice something,” Kestrel added.

  They lay there silently for several seconds.

  “So what are we going to do with you?” Kestrel asked at last. “If you don’t want to stay here at the palace, where should we go?”

  “I can’t tell you. I don’t know,” she answered in an anguished tone. “Kestrel,” she said at last, “if the goddess trusts you, then I should too. I’ll put my fate in your hands. You decide what I should do, where I should go.”

  “Stand up,” Kestrel told Alicia, as he slide his arm beneath her and pressed her upward, then stood alongside her; he took her to the window that looked out upon the busy market square in front of the palace. “Look at all those people out there. If you asked them what should you do, what would they say?” he asked.

  “They would say that I need to go face Silvan and Giardell, and that I should try to fix the relationships I’ve betrayed,” she said slowly.

  “And that’s what you would tell me to do as well, isn’t it?” she turned from the window to him. “But can I fix them?”

  “Not if you don’t go see those two. You have to make up your mind which of them you will choose, because I don’t think either man will accept living in this limbo of uncertainty you created,” he told her.

  “Could I choose you instead, Kestrel? Could I just travel with you, and serve you?” she asked in a tone of desperation, startling Kestrel.

  “That won’t work either,” he said. “I won’t be able to explain why I have an elf woman with me,” he paused, “and there is a woman I hope to see in Graylee.”

  “A lover?” she asked, studying him intently.

  “No, not yet. Maybe never,” Kestrel answered. “But I will find out if the time ever comes, and it’s less likely to come if there is a beautiful elven woman accompanying me.”

  “Well, I had to ask,” Alicia said in a small voice. “It feels to me as though you are a solid rock, a foundation I need right now, so that I can set myself on a proper path again.”

  “There was a time when you and I might have been able to find something deeper with each other,” Kestrel told her. “But it’s past, and we both knowwhat you have to do.” He knew that he believed Alicia had to settle her relationship with Silvan, to make it possible for the spymaster to return to Center Trunk without the distraction and turmoil of a wayward wife. Kestrel was convinced that Silvan needed to participate in the leadership of the elves, to help make them an effective tool in the fight against Uniontown.

  “Are you ready to return to Lucretia’s home?” he asked. “We need to see if Center Trunk is settled and ready, so that we can start our journey.”

  “Let’s go,” Alicia said simply.

  “Reasion, Reasion, Reasion,” Kestrel called, and they waited only moments for the blue sprite to appear. He hadn’t seen Merilla, Kestrel realized. And that was perhaps as important a milestone for him to pass as Alicia’s recognition was that she needed to see Silvan; they each had to either confront or move on from their past relationships. He was now able to put Merilla, and the one-time potential path that his life could have been, had he settled into Estone with her, aside, as he focused on the missions that called him.

  “We’d like to go back to Lucretia’s home. We’re done here,” Kestrel told the sprite. “Would you and your friends carry us back?”

  Reasion smiled, winked, then disappeared. A minute later the sprite was back, with four other sprites. “Hello healing spring friends,” one of the sprites said. “Reasion wants us to carry you back to the place in the cities of the elves. Is that where you want to go?” he asked.

  “It is,” Kestrel agreed.

  “We decided that if the two of you would stand together, and travel as one, fewer of us would be needed to carry you,” the sprite explained.

  Alicia edged over to Kestrel, who put his arms around her, and felt their bodies press against one another. She had asked if she could be his companion just minutes ago, and he wondered what had been implied. She had been the woman who had been a constant in his life these past several months, and he at times had pined for her, while knowing that she was untouchable, married to Silvan. Now, out of desperation, as he knew, she had offered to travel with him, and he had rejected the offer. And with the goddess’s ring now on his finger, his need for her surgical skills would diminish dramatically as he would soon start on his trip back among the humans.

  He would no longer need her help for cosmetic purposes; with a substantial amount of good fortune, he might not need
any surgery for medical reasons either. He would still trust Alicia as a friend who understood his destiny– one who had seen a goddess speak to him; he would still rely on her to receive any messages that he asked the sprites to carry. But having turned down her offer of companionship, he knew he had severed the infatuation he felt towards her, and henceforth wouldn’t lust after her again.

  The sprites arranged themselves around the couple, then the journey began. They momentarily found themselves in the foreign dimension the sprites traveled through, and then they were in Lucretia’s front room.

  “We thank you for your aid today,” Kestrel told the small swarm of blue that spread out around the room.

  “And we thank you for having let us enjoy the spring waters last night. The village is astonished at the thought of spending a whole night in the waters!” one of the sprites said.

  “Have you heard from Dewberry? Do you know when she will be back?” Kestrel asked.

  “Hello?” he heard Lucretia’s voice coming from her bedroom. “Is that you Kestrel?”

  “No, there is no word from Dewberry,” the sprite answered in a more somber tone. “We expected to hear from her by now. The king of the imps is going to send new travelers to try to find his son and Dewberry and the others.”

  “We will pray that she is safe,” Kestrel replied, as he heard Lucretia climbing out of her bed, and Alicia started to walk down the hall towards her. “Go now and enjoy yourselves,” he urged them, and watched them disappear en masse.

  “Alicia, I thought you were going away?” Lucretia spoke as she came into the hallway.

  “I decided to go with you and Kestrel out east, and then down to Oaktown, if I’m allowed,” the doctor explained. “Technically, I’m still an escapee from prison.”

  “Kestrel? You look different,” Lucretia said as she walked out to join them in the front room.

  “It’s the ring,” Alicia said helpfully, seeing the puzzled look on his face.

  “Oh,” Kestrel reached over and untwisted the ring from his finger, drawing it away, and watched the expressions change on the two women’s faces.