Chapter Thirty
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“It’s a dangerous situation,” Lucas told Ike. “The children are likely to be skinned alive, hanged, or dragged behind horses. I can’t bear to imagine what atrocities those two elves could perform. They’re beside themselves.”
“They are callous creatures, but I think they’ll cope.” Ike crossed his arms.
“If Iza worries,” Lucas said, “it must be serious. She isn’t one to overly ponder the safely of any two-legged kind.”
I walked to the door to hide my smile. I’d heard every word the queen told her rider. Iza was the one beside herself, with joy, watchin’ elves Braes and Gadewyn cope with two dozen younglings, human, ogre, orc, and daemon, runnin’ around the Inn screamin’, walkin’ the outside rails, racin’ down the boardwalk, playin’ tag between the dinin’ hall tables.
The old troll hag disappeared to her hole in the ground, unable to settle the children, unwillin’ to pull her own hair out. The frail Inn manager, Bick, was useless. He thought reason would calm the tribe of miscreants. The mistreated adults at the Inn needed Glady’s iron hand. But she’s still held hostage carin’ for Aedwin and Asr at the lair.
“Taiz’lin’s on his way back. I’ll be on my way to the lair,” Ike said, ignorin’ Lucas’ continued melodramatic rant. “Can we drop ya anywhere in particular, like down a cliff.”
Lucas hid his smile effectively. He shook his head with undue drama. “I’m good here. Ya don’t need me, and Iza’s busy.” He turned quickly to me. “If my continued company meets yar approval, ogre.”
“Is kickin’ ya out an option?” Sounded like an excellent idea.
Delia glared at me, and I winked at her. She turned briskly back to the stew she constructed.
The roar of air from thrashin’ wings as Taiz’lin descended outside cut off Lucas’ answer. Ike picked up his bedroll, bow and quiver, and rushed toward the door.
“Excited to be away, are ya, ogre?” Lucas challenged.
“I prefer Aedwin’s mug to yars any day,” Ike muttered.
He was out the door without another word, even a wave. I caught Delia’s meaningful eye, and smiled. She would never embrace the straightforward ogre. My amusement ended suddenly. Another emotion flooded in, from outside. I closed my eyes and focused. The dragon. The dragon was upset. I hurried to follow Ike.
Taiz’lin locked eyes with me, but continued speakin’ to Ike, the dragon’s voice uncharacteristically soft. “It must have been an ambush. They carried at least four litters that I saw through the trees. One body lashed to its saddle. Others rode stiffly, as though they bore their own wounds.”
Ike threw down his bedroll. Chest rumbled with anger. He shook his beloved bow, his right hand clenched into a fist at his side.
“The goblins chose not to stay hidden.”
It probably wasn’t necessary to deride the ogre. His assumption the goblins could avoid the human militia was valid. He just failed to anticipate the goblins would turn the aggressors. But they were known for decisive action. That any of the humans within the group survived was a message. But the chance the humans would accept the warnin’ is doubtful. They’d stream to the site of the ambush en masse, and any one-sided skirmish would be reversed.
“If ya hadn’t been so arrogant,” I jabbed at Taiz’lin.
The dragon lowered his head toward me threatenin’ly. His lip on one side rose. The smell of several recent kills rushed out at me. The odor was more repulsive than the benign threat. Thanks to my ogre snout. Not always a blessin’.
“He’s right,” Ike said, slappin’ the dragon’s neck. “I underestimated the will of the goblins. I won’t again.”
“Now what?” I asked.
“Blood has been drawn.”
Lucas’ voice made me flinch. I hadn’t heard the man join us. Delia stood with him.
“The Northerners will be impossible to talk down now,” Lucas continued. “It isn’t just a possible threat, those idjits made it a real one. There’ll be no warnin’s. If they find the goblins, nothin’ will keep them from loosin’ their arrows.”
“Suppose Maertin could talk sense into those crazy goblins?” Lucas asked.
“Yar goblin friend denied this clan a home,” I said. “Doubt there will be much interest in talkin’ between them. Could make it worse. Considerin’ Maertin even came and warned ya about them.”
Ike nodded. His chin dropped, and he seemed to study his toes.
“Not to complicate thin’s,” Lucas said, “but Iza says there’re four new cases, includin’ one of the children at the Inn.”
Delia ran for Taiz’lin without a word. The dragon lowered his shoulder and extended his knee. Her, he likes. Maybe the only other two-legged besides Ike Taiz’lin puts up with.
“Come!” Delia shouted at me.
I nodded and looked at Ike.
The bull shook his head. “Leave me here for now. Don’t want me, newly over the ghoul, at the Hamlet.”
I hurried to retrieve Bacchus. Climbed atop Taiz’lin, my mind still on the new development with the goblins. Could they have found Faeylin’s body? That would be enough for the goblins to transition to the next level of hostility. Could Ike and Lucas do anythin’? Monopolizin’ Taiz’lin the next hour—perhaps it would give the Lake leaders time to generate a plan.
Taiz’lin launched. I slipped against the ridge behind me. Cartilage jabbed into the bottom of my spine harshly. Teach me not to concentrate. The dragon flew hard, gettin’ us to the Hamlet faster than any previous trip. We hardly had time to chill from the elevation the dragon reached, before Taiz’lin plummeted for the lakeshore.
Delia and I were just steps away from Taiz’lin when he went to the air again. He’d be collectin’ Ike and Lucas to rendezvous with Iza, he said. “Be back before ya’re finished with the child.”
I had little time to think about that, though. The human innkeeper, Bick, hustled us toward the Inn, led us upstairs, to the child’s bedside. Her condition was shockin’.
“Ya said she became ill only an hour ago?”
“Her friend said she’d been laughin’ just before she got a funny look on her face. Her eyes stared off, and she hit the floor,” Bick said.
The tot’s lips were already bluish. Grief struck me as I thought back to the first child to die from the outbreak.
“Round up the others and have them rest for a bit. Little ones don’t listen to their bodies when they’re playin’ hard. Maybe—”
“I follow ya,” Bick interrupted. He turned and rumbled awkwardly away on stiff legs.
“How can I help?” the human woman who followed us upstairs asked.
I shook my head. Delia already tranced, kneelin’ by the bed, her hand, holdin’ the glass marble, palm open. The swirlin’ aura from the ethereal grew, danced between the marble and Bacchus’ broad, carved head. I stood, feet shoulder-distance apart, and braced myself for the flow of energy. It came with a rush and stole the air from my lungs.
Delia mumbled, a prayer, a child’s wish all was well, which sounded like one all human children learned by the time they could walk. With her God covered, I thanked the spirits from the other side. They seemed more willin’ to assist than those on our own side. A blasphemous thought. But I didn’t care.
Cared a little. But not enough to feel badly. Not like I had tread to a temple lately. Doubt they’d strike me down, no matter.
The aura ended with an emotional snap, like a fishin’ line breakin’ on a too-large catch. I reeled forward, not expectin’ the transition. I jammed my hand down on the girl’s cot to keep from fallin’. The girl looked up, tears in her eyes. Healthy color had returned to her lips.
“Where am I?” she screeched, and gasped.
The human woman took the spot Delia lurched away from. Delia glared at the child, like it was a creature to flee from. Had she never heard—could she not remember what a child’s cry sounded like? The other woman cooed at the child and wrapped her with a hug. I followed Delia from the room.
Taiz’lin waited for us when we walked down the slope from the Inn. There was another local who needed our help, before we headed for the deeper forest. Taiz’lin stroked his wings a mere four times to get us across the Lake. A group of daemons waited for us on the rocky shore. I had never met or seen one of their kind before, though had of course heard they settled on the banks of the Lake.
I studied the strange creatures, twice the height of the smallish Delia, though she looked past them, eager to be within, to work with the sick one. But I hesitated. Daemons lack the snouts that make ogres so handsome, but wore their hair in the same fashion. They had the build of trolls, without the overlong arms and legs, or bulbous noses. Were graced with generally gentler features, more like humans. Just much taller.
“What you waiting for?” Delia demanded from the long-house steps.
I lurched to join her. A bull daemon with a smile-covered face slapped me on the shoulder in welcome, and wrapped an arm around me to pull me along. He chatted in a formal Standish, a liltin’, poetic song of a voice. Adolescents as tall as me fell beside us, each addin’ to the chorus their own version of how quickly their friend fell ill, doublin’ over and throwin’ up without warnin’.
The longhouse was five times broader and twice as deep than any cabin I ever visited. With the high ceilin’s to accommodate the daemons’ loomin’ forms, the place looked more like a barn. The bedrolls linin’ the wall indicated the place for what it is, a dormitory of some kind, sleepin’ at least twenty younglings. The hearth, centrally located, was built for warmth, not cookin’. That’s obviously done elsewhere.
A young daemon, I couldn’t guess how old, didn’t know enough about their kind yet, sat up from the fur he rested on. Sweat billowed down his face, but the smile present on all the others, made it to his own. The daemons had a darker complexion than other two-legged kind, but paleness still colored the face of this youngling. He was a brave bull, but sick nonetheless.
Delia ignored the introductions and pushed the lad back down. Her aura didn’t come as rapidly as it did earlier. I also struggled to enliven Bacchus. It didn’t portend well for the other patients that waited. I sat behind Delia with Bacchus across my lap. The state of mind I find myself in when we heal took several minutes to reach. I felt my personal store of energy ebb.
When we were done, I accepted help from the bull daemon to stand. We both helped Delia up.
“A cup of tea?” the daemon asked.
I nodded. My knees felt disconnected somehow. Couldn’t walk straight. Delia was doin’ no better. At the three stair treads leadin’ to the ground outside, the daemon gathered Delia in his arms. I sat on the top tread. “Give me a moment,” I said.
“Need help?” the daemon asked.
I shook my head.
“Follow when ya can, then. I’ll set this tiny thin’ down by the hearth to rest.”
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