The Inner Seas Kingdoms: 04 - A Foreign Heart Read online

  I think it was the right thing as well. You’ve got a good heart. I miss you. Come visit (quietly) when you can. Love, Alicia

  PS – Your cousin is quite a tender nurse, and so kind to the human. You’re both lucky to have her.

  Kestrel folded the note and stuffed it in his pocket, appreciative of Alicia’s warning about Silvan’s simmering unhappiness, and puzzled by her description of Wren as tender. The girl had clearly been a different person around Alicia and Creata than she had been around Kestrel, and he wondered if he would ever get to see her alleged tender side.

  “How was the doctor elf while you were at the spring?” Kestrel asked Killcen.

  “Kestrel friend, the doctor elf was there mostly while I was in the water, or carrying people, so I did not observe or talk with her very much,” he replied, and the other imps concurred.

  “Queen Dewberry said to call when you want her services,” Odare added.

  “We’re going into battle tonight,” Kestrel told his imps. “Will you be ready?”

  The quartet of blue fighters increased the speed at which they circled the room. “What shall our role be? What is our mission?” Stillwater asked.

  “Something that I think an imp can appreciate,” Kestrel told them all. “We’re going to go with many humans to the palace of their bad prince, and we’re going to steal his throne!”

  The room exploded in gleeful laughter, and several of the rebels opened the door to look in. “There are real sprites in there!” one of them called loudly.

  “Imps! We’re imps!” Odare shouted loudly, and flew out into the astonished room full of fighters. “Have you no eyes? Do you not know the difference between an imp and a sprite? You,” she pointed to the man who she thought had called them sprites, “probably can’t tell the difference between day and night, or even a man and a woman? And why should you? No woman is ever going to come close enough to you to let you learn the difference!” With that expression of her indignation, she flew back into the room where Kestrel and the other imps waited, as the men laughed aloud and jibed their compatriot.

  “You probably get along with Wren pretty well, don’t you Odare?” Kestrel asked drily.

  “The warrior human woman is a good person to be friends with,” the imp agreed.

  “Well, I expect Wren with be with us tonight. We’re going to sneak into the palace, and some will open the gates so our companions can enter with a wagon. They will take the throne from the palace, while others of us kill monster lizards, and then we will all leave,” Kestrel offered a quick explanation.

  Two hours later Kestrel, Wren, the imps, and a half dozen rebels climbed up the tree by the palace walls, the tree Kestrel had used in earlier times, then climbed back down to earth in the tree on the other side of the wall, with Wren and Kestrel providing assistance to the humans to help them make the tenuous trip from one tree to the other. They all were dressed in the uniforms of the guard members Kestrel and Wren had beaten in the fight to save Creata, and they walked across the palace grounds fearlessly, the imps flying high above them to remain out of sight of the guards on duty in the palace.

  The palace was lightly populated, and many of the walks and gardens and buildings they crossed were empty of people, so that they reached the gate by the stables without incident. They silently captured the surprised guards on duty at the gate, and tied them up to hold them captive in the stables, as Creata rode in through the gates, atop the wagon they planned to use, followed by scores of rebel guards, who began to set up defensive positions and filter out into the palace grounds.

  Philip marched at the head of the squad that went straight towards the main palace building, the combination residence and public function building that was ornately built of marble and fine woods.

  Kestrel led Wren and the imps on a separate mission, towards the glass-enclosed building behind the palace, a building ringed with hedges, one he had visited on his last trip to Graylee, when he had taunted the Viathins in the building’s pool. “These are the enemy,” he told Wren, as they stood in the doorway surveying the movements in the large pool.

  “The imps know what evil these creatures bring, don’t you Stillwater?” he asked.

  “They have tried to destroy our land, and hurt our people terribly,” the imp agreed.

  The Viathins were silent, floating in the water, but Kestrel could see the glint of reflected moonlight on their eyes. He pulled his bow from his shoulder, and fired his first arrow at the closest of the monsters; as soon as his shaft struck his target there was a tremendous roaring noise, as the other monsters broke into roars of challenge, distress, and fear.

  “We need to kill them as fast as we can,” Kestrel told Wren. “Take up your bow.

  “You can start at the other end of the pool,” he told the sprites.

  Kestrel heard a noise behind him, and saw a squad of guard members approaching rapidly along the path towards the pool enclosure, drawn by the Viathin’s command to protect them. Kestrel swung the door shut behind him, and threw a heavy bar down into the brackets to lock the door and stymie the rescue, then resumed firing at the monsters.

  The surface of the water in the pool grew dark with blood, while the noise in the house slowly faded away as more and more of the Viathins died, until the only noise left was the pounding and shouting of the guards who were breaking windows to try to get into the building, too late to carry out their mission.

  “This is for you Kai,” Kestrel said when he was sure the last of the monsters was dead.

  “Thank you, Kestrel,” the goddess’s voice filled the room, and a glowing apparition appeared above the water. The dim light, an amorphous blob, seemed to swirl and dance in place.

  Kestrel looked on in surprise, and the pounding and the shouts of the men outside the building ceased, as they stared inside in astonishment.

  “What is this, Kestrel?” Wren asked, as she came over to stand next to him.

  “I think it’s Kai,” Kestrel fell to his knees, and watched, while Wren joined him.

  The patch of light grew brighter, and denser, while its shape began to draw inward. Within seconds it became a human figure, then it clearly became Kai, standing just above the water, and starting to walk towards the two watching supplicants.

  “Don’t look at her face,” Kestrel whispered to Wren.

  Kai came to a stop at the edge of the pool, standing atop the dark liquid.

  “You have a companion, I see. She will serve you well,” Kai spoke. “Though not so well as you have served my needs.

  “Your words here just now have unlocked an opportunity, Kestrel,” the goddess said. “Watch what comes next,” she commanded.

  She waved her hand, lowering it towards the water, then raising it upward slowly with her hand held open, as her palm rotated from facing downward to upward. As her hand moved, the shapes of the bodies of the Viathins began to faintly glow, illuminating the interior of the pool room with light that was dappled and uneven, due to the gentle rocking motions of the water and then – just as had happened in the ruined temple in Hydrotaz – streams of energy, faint tendrils of light, began to rise from the dead villains, and streamed towards Kai, flowing into her body, feeding energy to her.

  For several minutes the streams of energy seemed to flow towards the goddess, giving her figure more and more solidity, while the Viathins slowly grew dimmer. Some ceased to glow, and ceased to feed their energy to Kai, and then when only two last faint bodies glimmered, Kai gave a seemingly careless wave of her hand, and the diminishing streams of light redirected themselves, no longer targeting Kai, but heading instead towards Kestrel for a pair of moments, while the last drained Viathins flickered into darkness and the last ragged end of the flow of energy reached Kestrel. As the glowing courses entered his body they left the room without any source of light except the glow that emanated from Kai herself.

  Kestrel could not speak. He did not know what was happening, and could not describe the strange feeling that coursed t
hrough his body. He suddenly felt like his soul merely occupied a body that did not report to his own mind, a body that was different from the one he had known all his life. There was nothing he could do except feel the body stiffly maintain its kneeling posture as it struggled to adjust to the arrival of the small dash of cosmic energy that had flowed into it.

  “Breathe, Kestrel,” Kai ordered, and the inexplicable barrier between his body and his soul dissolved, so that once again he felt as though he were in his own body, and in control of his own body as the various elements – body, soul, mind, and energy – began to integrate with one another. Except something was different, something that was not physical, but relevant and extraordinary.

  “What have you done to him, goddess?” Wren broke the silence with her question.

  “I have given him a gift, beyond what has ever been given to any mortal before,” Kai answered.

  “There is now a spark of divine power within my beloved Kestrel. As he learns to use this spark, he will find opportunities that I trust his heart to grasp and turn into victories for the forces of goodness and light,” Kai looked down on Kestrel, then placed her hand upon his head fondly.

  As she did, the space above the other end of the pool began to glow as well, with a ruddy, reddish illumination that contrasted with the pale yellow light emanating from Kai. The glow drew slowly closer to Kai and took form as it approached, a form that Kestrel recognized before any of the other mortals.

  “Growelf, my lord,” he gasped, and heard Wren’s sudden intake of breath when he mentioned the name.

  “You go too far, Kai!” the human god of fire thundered as he fully materialized and came to float in space directly beside his spouse. “This is a mortal!”

  “He’s more than a mortal,” Kai said evenly, turning to face her divine mate. “He has achieved great feats beyond my expectations. He is keeping this world’s hope alive and he has single-handedly kept me alive; I believe that the spark within him has to be more than mortal.”

  “I’ll grant you he has done more than he appears capable of, and is perhaps worthy of exceptional trust. But you cannot allow him to receive the great energy of creation! No mortal has ever been directly granted such power,” Growelf protested. “What will he be capable of? What will he do with the energy?”

  “I do not know,” Kai said softly. She reached out a hand to calm Growelf. “He may not ever come to understand the ability that he has been given, and the amount he received was a small trace in any event. This may come to naught, but it gives him some additional potential, and you know what challenges he may yet face,” she rebutted.

  “You have certainly given more to this one than any mortal you’ve adopted before,” Growelf chastised her.

  “He has given back more in return, and in greater reward than even a demi-god might have been expected to,” Kai continued to stand her ground. “He has journeyed beyond our realm on behalf of friends, and such loyalty is a rare strength.”

  “I suppose you’ll continue to promiscuously conspire with these gods from other races – or from other lands even! – to use him to fight this battle?” Growelf challenged her.

  “You should never think you have the right to accuse me of promiscuity in any way!” Kai answered with a threatening tone, making Growelf momentarily flinch away, as his glow dimmed at the rebuff.

  “You be careful; don’t grow too proud, or I’ll be forced to act against you,” Growelf redirected his attention and looked at Kestrel as he spoke.

  “I’ll do you one more favor before I go,” he said, then waved his hand negligently towards the pool. The surface of the water flared with a blinding brightness and a sizzling sound, then the room was filled with the sour odor of burnt flesh.

  The water in the pool was clean, cleared of the dead Viathins and their pools of floating black blood.

  “It’s on your head,” the god told the goddess, and then he disappeared.

  “It always is,” she replied softly.

  “You men,” she looked up and out at the men who stood outside the building, waving her hand towards them, “you shall obey this acolyte of mine, or you shall perish.”

  “Kestrel, let the goodness of your heart guide you, and do not flinch from the great challenges. You will be rewarded when all of this is over. You have pleased me greatly,” she said, and then she was gone, leaving the pool house in darkness and silence.

  “Great goddess!” one of the men outside the pool house swore.

  Wren was staring at him with eyes as big as dinner plates, Kestrel saw. He imagined his own face might have an expression just as dumbfounded as hers.

  There was no way to express the multiple clashing emotions that stormed through his soul in the aftermath of the revealing deific conversation. A goddess had come to thank him for his help, and then blessed him with the boon of transferring divine energy to him, only to receive a reprimand from another god. Kai had revealed that great challenges were ahead of him; that frightened him, for he felt sure that the challenges he had faced already were at the very utmost limit of his ability to endure.

  “Kestrel? What are you now?” Wren’s shaken voice squeaked from her lips.

  “Should we be scared of you? Should we worship you? Are you going to throw fireballs at us?” the girl asked.

  “No. No. No. I don’t know; I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what just happened,” Kestrel answered, the appearance by the gods overshadowing the victory over the Viathins.

  “Let us in master. We are yours to command,” one of the guards outside called through a broken window.

  Wren leapt up unexpectedly and ran to the door, lifting the latch bar to allow a score of men to shuffle into the area, forming a semi-circle around Kestrel. He looked at their faces, and saw the looks of awe and fear that were present on each. Beyond them, in the darkness outside, he dimly saw two bodies lying prostrate on the ground.

  “What happened to them?” he asked.

  “They fainted,” someone answered, followed by a smattering of nervous titters.

  “I about fainted too,” Kestrel told them. The area grew silent. “What are your intentions?” Kestrel asked.

  “We are here to serve you now, my lord. We will do as the goddess bids us,” a sergeant answered.

  “Here,” Kestrel lifted his skin of Decimindion’s water, and handed it to the closest man, “I want each of you to drink from this.”

  “Stillwater,” Kestrel called as he watched the skin being handed from man to man, “Go find Philip, and tell him that we have a score of guards who will be loyal to his cause. Go find out where he needs us to go,” Kestrel told the imp, then watched the guards duck as the blue imp went flying directly over them, nearly at head level, out the door and into the palace grounds.

  “Shall we worship you?” one of the soldiers asked.

  No,” Kestrel answered firmly. “I’m just an elf, and a human. No more than that,” he affirmed. “What I want is your help. We’re here to set Graylee free from the Viathins and Uniontown’s influence. We’re here to overthrow the prince’s evil ways, and make life better throughout the land.”

  They all stood in silence for moments digesting Kestrel’s manifesto, when Stillwater appeared overhead. “Great Kestrel, Philip is under attack in the palace! He needs your help in the throne room!” the imp sounded alarmed.

  “All of you, take us to the throne room!” Kestrel shouted. The whole collections of guards, imps, Wren and Kestrel ran through the shrubbery towards a small door in the rear of the palace.

  “Stillwater, go tell Philip we’ll be there shortly,” Kestrel told the imp, who disappeared immediately.

  “We should split up in two groups,” the sergeant who had spoken earlier suggested. “One can go to the front, and the other can go around back.

  “Wren, you go with the sergeant and his squad, I’ll go with the others,” Kestrel said, as they came to an intersection of corridors. The sound of conflict was plain to hear, and the two
groups split apart, Kestrel and his group going right as the others went left.

  His men led him around a corner, and they ran into the rear of a heated battle taking place as Philip’s men were trapped by attackers on both sides. “We’re here on behalf of Prince Philip!” Kestrel called loudly, and he heard his men call out loudly and continually “Prince Philip!” as they approached and engaged in the battle.

  The battle was taking place in a narrow hallway, one that constricted the fighting to only a pair of men who could be engaged from each side, and the battle was fierce, as Philip’s rebels found they had attackers on both sides, while a portion of Namber’s loyal assailants found the arrival of Kestrel’s squad similarly sandwiched them between two hostile groups.

  Kestrel pulled his bow off his back, and notched an arrow, trying to find a clear shot, a way for him to add his fighting ability to the fray even though he wasn’t on the front. The battle was too close-fought, the combatants too intermingled in their clashes, to allow him to confidently choose a target, so after several seconds he slammed his bow to the ground on frustration, and pulled his knife from his belt.

  He held the weapon behind his ear, ready to throw it at the first opportunity, then waited in further frustration as no opportunities emerged in the midst of the swarming battle before him, until one momentary window opened, and his muscles grasped the chance, flinging the knife with a sudden snap of his wrist that sent his blade whirling through the air, to land solidly in the chest of one of the soldiers who faced his rebels.

  The man sank to the ground, but another guard stepped up into his place, and the battle raged on. “Curse it!” Kestrel muttered aloud, “I wish Lucretia was still enchanted!” he whispered to himself, wanting to use the knife as he had when Kai’s power had made it unerringly strike the targets he picked, and caused it to return to his hand after every throw, an incredibly lethal weapon that had helped him beyond measure in numerous battles.