by H. A. Harvey
“Anyway,” Eulalia cleared her throat, snapping Nian’s attention back to the little Sattal. “I will be staying at the farm down the mountain. The owner is a Cousin of mine and I’m sure his kits will be grateful to have someone that can cook about the house. Oh! That reminds me, if you see anyone coming up the trail, look to the farmhouse. If you see anything but black smoke coming from the chimney, then make yourselves scarce. If need be, the mine has a shaft that broke through the far side of the mountain that should still be clear. The Dwarf should be able to find it.”
Eulalia nodded and started working her way back down the mountain. Nian watched the Sattal stroll along casually and thought of Lorin the carpenter, back in Longmyst. He wondered if the quiet, polite, gent had ever housed fugitives or sent signals for nearby ‘kin’. Autumn poked her head around his side and scooped his arm around her shoulders.
“What are you thinking about, husband?” She asked playfully.
“I’m thinking Sattal are scary, in their own polite, hospitable way.” Nian answered, “And I’m wondering if there are messages worked into the crossbeams of half the houses in Longmyst.”
“Well,” Autumn said as she drummed her fingers on Nian’s ribs and ventured a glance at her ring, “I’m thinking that Lally and I could be twins, if it weren’t for the fur and tail.”
“Don’t forget whiskers and pointy ears.”
“I have pointy ears, just not kitty pointy.” Autumn laughed, “Still, she’s pretty don’t you think?”
Nian paused, “I think you’re pretty, and I don’t think I want to walk into that trap.”
“What?”
“You just said she could be your twin.” Nian retorted, “So if I say yeah she’s pretty, I lose for thinking somebody else is pretty, but if I say no, then you’ll get mad because she looks like you.”
“What do you think you get for trying to outsmart me?”
Nian sighed, “Can we just stick with I think you’re pretty?”
Autumn laughed and kissed his cheek before tugging him along the overgrown trail toward their ramshackle cottage. They’d only gotten a few yards when a racket erupted from the old workshop. He heard the crash of things being thrown and Dwarven curses being answered by what were likely Njordic for the same thing. Kaesa had been quick to dust off the old smithy that had served for making and repairing miner’s tools, and at the time, Nian had thought it a good idea for Xain to work on rebuilding a crossbow in the tool shop. Now, it looked like he’d have to play peacemaker before they tore the rickety old building down around each other’s ears. He sighed and started toward the workshop, but Autumn pulled him back.
“Let them work it out. I’ve got something important to discuss with you.” Autumn smiled at him and, when he seemed to hesitate added a purr, “I can do fur and tail if you want.”
Nian turned and nearly jumped out of his skin to see Eulalia pawing at his arm. “Stop that!”
Autumn was back to her normal self in a blink. Nian could see in her eyes that his shouting had upset her. “I’m sorry. You’re all I want, alright? Just you.”
“My masque is still me.” Autumn muttered, “I was trying to be playful.”
Nian started to reply, then realized he wasn’t sure what to say to that. Finally, he just decided to think out loud and see how much trouble that got him into. “It might take me a little while to get used to masques. I’m thrilled just to see you for now, but I guess if I’m married to a Fae, I will get used to that. Just if you feel like being different when we’re more situated, can we keep away from copying people we know?”
Autumn nodded and then inclined her head toward the cottage. Nian gave one last look at the workshop then turned and followed Autumn. Only about two steps later, the giant form of Axios appeared out of thin air in front of them both, followed in quick succession by Rowan and Malor. Autumn groaned and gave Nian’s hand a regretful squeeze before releasing it. She walked around the new arrivals and gave Nian a wave as she headed into the cottage. Nian waved back dejectedly. He was pretty sure this was the first time in history he wasn’t glad to see Rowan.
“You guys are late.” Nian grumbled irritably. It didn’t really matter. They were waiting for word from the Sattal anyway, but Nian felt a bit of personal displeasure at the wizard’s timing.
“We missed something?” Malor asked, a little out of breath.
“You did,” Nian was glad to have something to come back with. “Eulalia lingered for a while. She said she had something to discuss with you that might help with getting us out of Baeden safely, and her in the process. She wouldn’t say more until you got here, but said it could wait.”
Malor nodded, “We are a ways from needing to get out yet.”
Nian looked over his shoulder as a new barrage of exclamations erupted from the workshop. “In that case, Kaesa had said to send you to see her when you showed up. Good luck. Axios, Lally brought a dozen mattress pads up by mule to give you someplace comfortable to sleep. She set up your quarters in the old foundry over there.”
Axios grunted, “Un ogre sized bed? Diz I gotz ta seez.”
Rowan trotted to catch up with Axios as he marched toward the foundry. Nian looked at his friend oddly, more than a little confused.
“What?” Rowan laughed. “Axios didn’t bat an eye at the dead dragon, so if this bed is something he considers worth seeing, it’s gotta be worth a peek.”
Now that Rowan put it that way, Nian grew curious himself. He realized he hadn’t poked his head into the foundry since Eulalia had led them up with her mule train of supplies. She’d refused any help unloading things, saying it was the least she could do since they hadn’t been able accept her invitation to stay at the inn. Still, the path to the cottage was at last clear.
“They’re here!” Riona cried as she darted out of the lodge wearing her fairy gown. “Quick, Nian, get Autumn!”
Nian paused as Riona twirled her way across the yard to the dazed pair of Axios and Rowan. He sighed. Apparently, she interpreted having the wedding when they reached Dante’s hiding place as the moment they were all there. Nian shook his head and chuckled as he finished trudging toward the cottage. He paused inside the doorway, but before his eyes adjusted to the dim light, Autumn snagged his arm and drug him against her, pinning her to the wall as she stood on tip-toe to kiss him. Nian took a moment to return the kiss and softly caressed her face with his fingers. Finally, he drug himself back a few inches.
“Everyone’s here, so apparently it is time for the wedding.” Nian murmured.
“I heard. Somehow, she’s louder than the ogre.” Autumn nodded and tickled his sides, “But I need your help getting ready.”
Nian gently caught her hands and drew them up to a soft kiss. “I think Riona will burst in here if we’re not out there in a minute. At least I think they’re supposed to leave us alone for a while after the wedding.”
“We already had our wedding, this is just for them.” Autumn pouted, but sighed after a moment. “Alright, go fix your hair and I’ll be out in a sec. I don’t have a decent gown, so I’m going to try my hand at masquing clothes . . . tell Axios I want him to punch anyone who laughs.”
. . .
Autumn perched on a small boulder and shared its ration of shade from the gnarled pine tree growing beside it. She rested her elbows on her knees and propped her head on her fists as she stared out over the valley below. After two days of ‘honeymoon’, Nian had decided he needed to be responsible and make preparations to move as soon as they received word on Karen. She wanted to hate him for that, but he was right. She’d begrudgingly assented to let him go do some planning with Malor, and decided to take a shift on watch. Autumn only felt marginally guilty about hogging Nian, the others didn’t know they’d be stealing him from her soon enough. Then she’d be here all alone . . . maybe the Sattal would keep her company.
As she sat, mostl
y counting the minutes until Nian was done with whatever official business he was doing and could get back to more important things, Riona walked up beside her with something too long and thin to be her egg wrapped in her travel cloak. The dancer gave Autumn a smile as she drew near.
“Hey.” Riona joined Autumn on her perch. “David pointed out that we’d insisted on a proper wedding but not bothered with proper wedding gifts. So . . . here. It’s from the rest of us, not much of a market around here so we just all chipped in as we could.”
Riona passed the bundle to Autumn, forcing her to replace her elbows with the cloak. Autumn blinked at the dancer briefly.
“Maybe we should wait for Nian.”
“That was the original idea.” Riona admitted. “But he’s busy with Malor, and it looked like you could use a bit of company and maybe something to distract you a bit.”
Autumn nodded gratefully and unhooked the cloak pin that held the bundle together. As the bundle fell open, Autumn gasped in surprise. Inside lay the bow of living aspen Rowan had woven for her but had been dropped in the drake fight, two beautiful pieces of armor and two blades. There was one Njordic-style long blade with a hand-and-a-half grip, and a thin, slightly curved small blade, both composed of beautifully worked mythril. The drake’s milky white hide had been cut to wrap the handles and make scabbards for both blades as well as a hooded long coat, greaves, bracers and a bodice similar to Autumn’s old leather armor. The articles of clothing were covered with overlapping blue-green scales.
“How did you work the mythril?” Autumn whispered as she traced the blades and armor with the tips of her fingers. “I thought you need a forge heated by fire-gems to even try.”
“Or a sprite with dragon-fire and a bored wizard.” Riona giggled. “Kaesa made the blades, and showed us how to pattern the scales. I did the sewing with a mythril needle while Rowan, Xain, and David riveted them in place. Axios hauled the stuff, so since his hands are too big to really help with anything, that’s his part. We all . . . okay well they made me agree, but pretty and practical was what they were thinking, considering the circumstances surrounding the wedding. I thought that since Nian already has a sword and you can’t use one until you’re better, we should have done something more home-y, like some never-wears out cutlery or something. I guess they had a point though, Nian has to return that sword eventually, and you won’t be a pacifist forever.”
Autumn sat silently and traced the beautiful items with her fingers. She lifted the bodice and watched the light glint off of the drake scales. The garment was light as a feather, despite the densely layered scales. Her old leather bodice had easily been twice its weight.
“What’s wrong?” Riona asked suddenly, snapping Autumn out of her thoughts enough to realize she was weeping. “You hate them, right?”
“No, they’re beautiful. Thank you, and the others too.” Autumn wiped her cheeks with the corner of the cloak. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“You didn’t even shed a tear at Adair’s grave.” Riona observed Autumn for a moment before she asked softly, “Does Nian know yet?”
“Know what?” Autumn blinked at Riona. “About the gifts? Not unless Malor told him just now. I think he’d have told me.”
“No, you idiot.” Riona chuckled then paused and looked at Autumn again. “You haven’t figured it out yet? You’ve been acting like a different person since the party, floating around and hanging off of Nian like a butterfly chasing a moving flower. Now you cry for the first time since who knows when and it’s over a present?”
Autumn shrugged.
“I guess mercenaries don’t hang out with many women who are expecting.” Riona laughed. “Remember Malor said you can’t hurt things because unicorns are sentinels of Life? What do you think is probably a guarantee in your current condition?”
Autumn blinked, “You mean I’m . . .”
Riona nodded, “I’d bet anything on it. Especially since . . . black smoke.”
“What?”
Riona leapt to her feet and pointed down at the distant farmhouse. “Black smoke from the chimney! Lally’s coming! I’ll get the others.”
Autumn caught Riona’s arm as she turned back toward the mining camp. “Not a word to the others! Especially not Nian. He needs to be focused until this is over.”
Riona looked back at Autumn, then smiled and gave a nod. Autumn released her to go gather the camp while she turned back to watch the trail. It wasn’t long before she could make out two figures winding their way up the trail. One on foot led another seated on a pony or mule. Soon enough, Autumn could make out the white arms and head of Eulalia leading a mule bearing a larger grey figure on its back.
Most of the others had joined Autumn by the time she could make out that the second person was another Sattal, this one much more heavy-set with short, silver colored fur. The pudgy newcomer was the first Sattal that Autumn could remember seeing dressed in rags. David stepped forward eagerly as Eulalia arrived with her guest.
“You brought news of Karen?” David asked hopefully as he helped the guest down from the saddle.
Eulalia’s ears flattened a little. “Yes and no, I’m afraid. Corina here works in the baron’s keep of Kadis City.”
Autumn stepped over to Nian’s side and took his hand, bracing for bad news.
“Thank ya kindly, good master.” Corina gave David a grateful bow before looking toward Eulalia. “As I tol’ Miss Lally. There be a girl that was in tha keep that matched tha one tha Family’s lookin’ fer. They called her the Raven, I think ‘cause o’ her pretty black hair down past her haunches, but she showed up about tha right time alright, an’ she was Tyrian fer sure.”
“What do you mean was at the keep?” Nian asked apprehensively.
“I mean, up until a lil’ less’n a week ago, she was.” Corina said with a shrug. “I gave her a bath, an’ she had a chat with Lady Ourei, then asked me ta wait in her room till she got back from supper. Terrible nice, Miss Raven, she made me rest on her fluffy bed while I waited.”
“Ourei was taken there as well?” Malor asked eagerly.
“This was a week ago?” David prompted in frustration.
Autumn felt the story was missing something. “What sort of village prisoner has her own room and comfortable bed?”
“The cap’n set her up after he bought her. Had her in nice dresses an’ all.”
Nian coughed in annoyance, “Can we get back to the was part?”
“Oh yes, o’ course.” Corina nodded, “Well, she ne’er came back from supper. She was s’posed ta ask tha cap’n to have dinner with Lady Ourei tha next night, but she never showed there neither. Some say she musta run off, but tha soldiers’d have been out an’ about sure as stone, what with how tha cap’n doted on her.”
“If she didn’t leave,” Nian pressed, “Where would you guess she’d vanished to?”
“Well,” Corina shifted awkwardly, “I hate t’ think of it, but there’s that horrible burnt-up Falon, tha baron’s new right hand they calls him. He’s got tha whole o’ tha old keep to himself these days, an’ they say lotsa young, pretty girls get hauled in there, but nary a one comes out.”
Rowan quickly tugged the doll of roper’s vine out of his satchel. The small figure was intact, but her dress and hair were drooped and wilting.
“She’s alive,” Rowan frowned, “But not well.”
Malor’s face darkened. “Falon? A Steelwing, with scars covering one side of his body?”
Corina nodded, “Yessir! That be tha monster, Tyvus by name. Anyone with a lick o’ sense keeps clear o’ his path, ‘cept tha cap’n. He seems ta like pushin’ back anytime tha wicked creature tries ta throw his weight aroun’.”
“I’ve met this Tyvus before.” Malor looked at Autumn. “And we dealt with his apprentice once as well. They are dabbling in something old and dark that is not part of Cr
eation.”
“We’ll find her at the keep.” Nian nodded with certainty. “Let’s gather what we need to travel quickly.”
“Wait,” Autumn hurried to retrieve the bundle she’d set down by her post. She passed the bundle to Rowan on her return and extracted the long coat. “Our wedding gifts, you should take this with you at least.”
“Wedding gifts?” Nian blinked in surprise as Autumn helped him don the regal armored coat. He eyed the golden-hilted, mythril blade. “This . . . this is too much. You had to have used all of the mythril from the dragon’s hoard for those.”
“Almost,” Xain nodded. “But there are some scraps left. Abomination included one of her father’s arrows in each blade. One dug from beast’s throat, other from her shoulder, she said to give portentous origin.”
The mention of the arrows Autumn had used on the drake seemed to shift Nian’s outlook. He stepped over to Rowan, picked up the long sword and turned it over in his hand. Autumn picked up the scabbard and held it out to him. Nian eyed the others uneasily.
“You’re all okay with this?”
“We all helped put it together, Ni.” Rowan laughed, “There’s enough gold and gems left for anyone that wants treasure, and the few scraps of that metal that are left leave Kaesa with more than she had before. Now stop being an ass and say thank you.”