Graves of the Gods, page 17
“It is good to see you,” she said, looking carefully at him.
He appeared recovered from the battles, his black hair held back in elegant braids behind slightly pointed ears. His pale skin had the slightest touch of a tan, now, no longer pure white. Green eyes stared earnestly at her, obviously studying her in return.
“It is good to see you as well. I wasn’t sure I’d make it in time, before you left,” he said as he led the way for the marketplace, for them to both break their fast. “I arrived late last night.”
“I am supposed to be leaving this evening,” Tanelith said. Though it would have possibly been safe for me to travel during the day, it was still easier for the Egarlorsar to travel at night.
“I know,” he said. He sighed. “I know that Galote has already asked you to stay.”
“I know. Or at least return with Olin. We’re traveling together back to Alath, for him to get his books and properly close up his shop, then he’ll return.”
Mironor gave her a mirthful grin. “They make a cute couple.”
“They do. I didn’t know Olin had such skill with a blade,” Tanelith commented.
“He didn’t want you, or anyone, to know,” Mironor said seriously. “What will you do in Alath?”
Tanelith couldn’t help her sigh. “I don’t know,” she said softly. “Figure out how to be a person again? Instead of a Champion, or a warrior, with such a great cause?”
“You won, you know,” Mironor said.
“I know. There’s still work to be done,” Tanelith said seriously. “People who need to recover. Some who will never recover.”
“What will you do?” Tanelith said after they’d picked up small bowls of fruit with fresh bread.
“Be part of Galote’s school. Train the next generation of guardians,” Mironor said, then he looked down and sighed. “There’s a part of me, though, that wants to explore Ithlond. To go up to the Broken Mountains. To see the Blasted Plains. To travel back through the desert, maybe find this Rytha of yours.”
Tanelith nodded. “I need to go home, first. I need to see my family. I plan on staying and never leaving. But…”
Mironor gave her a soft smile. “I know. But…”
They left all talk of their possible future hanging in the air, like morning fog that would eventually melt away.
Chapter
Thirty-Four
It was so much easier traveling with Olin, being able to skim over the tops of fields and trees on their way back to the Blasted Plains. Plus, though some of the people in the Ilburh towns they passed through gave them dirty looks, they could buy food legitimately, and not have to rely on what they could glean, or on Tanelith breaking into more root cellars.
The last of summer was on them by the time they reached the parts of the Blasted Plains that they recognized. Tanelith knew that groups of the Egarlorsar, from Vallethlar, who would be visiting the ruins, seeing what they could identify, what they could salvage.
Lasirinth would never live again. But maybe, with some time and some care, a type of city could rise up.
Tanelith and Olin reached Alath early one morning. While most of the trees still bore their summer greenery, a few had already started decking themselves out for fall. The air was crisp, and promised much more heat that afternoon.
Tanelith stood outside of Olin’s shop with him. They had left the door unlocked on purpose, so that no one had to break in to see what had happened to the old man. They both breathed a sigh of relief when he opened the door, realizing that no one had disturbed anything. The scent of dust lay heavy in the air.
“You should go see if your parents have returned,” Olin said. “And if they haven’t, if they’ve left any word on where they’ve gone.”
“I know,” Tanelith said. She looked around. “This was always more home to me.”
“I know,” Olin said. “Should I deed it to you? For you to look after when I’m gone?”
Tanelith was touched. “Thank you, but I don’t think so. It’s the past,” she said as way of explanation. “And I’m still looking for the future.”
“I’ll be here when you need me, for the next week or so,” Olin promised.
“I’ll come see you before I go, if I find my parents are in another town,” Tanelith said.
She left the store and walked down the cobblestone street, following its gently winding curves along the Dorwin. Everything here still looked the same.
Was still in the past.
Tanelith shook her head. There were parts of her past that she still needed to find, to reconnect with.
She made herself turn off the main road and through the smaller neighborhoods, to her parents’ house.
The downstairs was the shop they kept, her mother selling her weaving and her father taking in old clothes to be mended, or transformed into something new. The family had lived in the rooms behind the shop.
Tanelith stopped in front of the store. It didn’t have the feeling of a deserted place, no, someone was still living there, though the shop door and front windows were currently closed. The little herb garden in the front had been well-tended all summer, and lovely morning glory vines decorated the front of the thatched roof.
It took some courage to walk right up to the door and knock. She hoped that whoever had taken over the shop could give her a clue about where her parents had gone.
She was not expecting her mother to open the door.
“I’m sorry, we’re not open yet,” her mother said. “Can you please come back later?”
Tanelith opened her mouth then shut it again. This past year and a half had aged her mother greatly. White tinged the edges of her mother’s long black hair, and her gray eyes had faded. While Tanelith had grown past her mother’s height early, now, her parent seemed shrunken in on herself, at least half a head shorter than she’d been.
“Mother, it’s me, Tanelith,” she said when her mother stared at her, but still didn’t seem to recognize her.
“Tanelith? Tanelith!” her mother finally said, throwing her arms around her and hugging her tightly. “Tanelith! Tanelith!” she called over her shoulder through her tears.
Tanelith found herself in the center of a massive pile up, the twins coming up the hold her on either side, and her father wrapping his arms around his entire family.
“You came back. You came back!” Father murmured.
“You’re all lumpy,” Indulote complained, backing away. “What is this?” she asked, reaching for the Dissolving Blade hanging on Tanelith’s belt.
“No,” Tanelith said. She moved instinctively, grabbing her sister’s wrist and pulling her hand back abruptly.
Everyone took a step back and looked shocked.
“Don’t touch my things,” Tanelith said after a few awkward moments. “Brat.”
That broke the tension, and Tanelith happily followed the others in, through the shop, back into the kitchen. She gladly accepted the offer of tea and fresh bread as she took off her pack and stashed it to the side.
“Before we start, and I have as many questions as you do, you need to see something,” Tanelith said. She stood in the middle of her family’s kitchen—a place she’d frequently dreamed of, and worried that she’d never see again—and called up the armor, as well as extended the Dissolving Blade into its short sword form.
“There are reasons why you can’t go through my things,” Tanelith told her sisters firmly. “I have items you aren’t familiar with, magic you don’t know how to use.”
Tanelith didn’t know if the warning would take hold with her sisters, but at least they only had themselves to blame if something in her pack bit them.
“Now I understand why I didn’t recognize you at first,” Mother commented. “Though you’re dressed plainly enough, you had the feeling of a warrior, standing there.”
Tanelith nodded. “I’ve been a warrior. And a Champion. As well as a slave. I’ve been in Dwarven mines under the Nyramukz mountains. Traveled through the Tumenzir desert, as well as Gishem Woods. I’ve flown on the last of the floating cities, on Vallethlar, ridden it down to the edge of the Blasted Plains. And now…well, now I’m home.”
She dismissed the armor, attached her blade back on her belt, and sat as the silence gathered and father finished making the tea.
“I would have come to see you when I fetched Olin, but he said you were gone,” Tanelith said, figuring that might be an easier place to start.
Mother grimaced. “Those fools on the Council of Elders. Thought they could bargain with slavers. I knew they lied, talking about trade with the Dwarves. We stayed for a while with a friend of your father’s in Belorond. Then word came of the great battles. You were there for those?”
She waited for Tanelith’s nod, then continued.
“Those fools tried to explain away their actions, that they’d been keeping us safe. Too many had lost daughters and sons by then, though. We actually stormed the council meeting one night,” Mother said. She reached across the cozy table and squeezed Father’s hand.
“After all the shouting was over, those old elders were all encouraged to retire. Spend more time in their gardens, or some such nonsense. An entire new council was recruited. One who won’t have any dealings with the Dwarves,” Mother said smugly.
“We should still trade with them,” Tanelith said. “They are still people.”
“Dwarves, yes. Slavers, no,” Father clarified.
Tanelith nodded. “And you didn’t stay there to become an elder, Mother?” she teased.
Her mother just laughed. “No. Not yet. Though I may, some year.” Mother sighed, looking at her daughter. “Tell us where you just came from, and work your way backward. That might be easier.”
“Aye,” Tanelith said, as she filled in her parents and sisters on what she’d been doing, how she’d been traveling, the great wonders and horrible battles that she’d seen.
They didn’t open up the shop that day, instead, spending the time sitting in the kitchen, talking and eating and crying and laughing.
Though Tanelith couldn’t tell them everything, she still ran out of words eventually. Plus, she’d been traveling all night, which she was reminded of as she felt more than one yawn try to crack her face open.
The family hadn’t kept her separate bedroom. Mother had already moved two looms in there. Still, they put together what they could for her to sleep on, some pillows and some blankets, promising to get her a proper bed soon.
Tanelith lay on the floor and looked up, out through the window, toward the blue sky.
She was home. Finally. Home.
Sooner or later, she’d feel settled there.
In a week’s time, Tanelith went to say goodbye to Olin. Another shopkeeper would take his store, a younger man who specialized in rich beeswax candles.
The smells of the shop were already changing, the musty smell of the artifacts disappearing under the heavy scent of honeyed wax.
Olin had a cart that he planned to carry with him as he walked back to Vallethlar. He’d actually bought a tiny ox for the journey. There weren’t always roads, but Olin assumed he’d be able to lift the cart up with his magic on the occasions when it got stuck.
At least the cart bore no resemblance to the Dwarven slaver carts, though it was four wheeled. It looked like a traveling box, the top and sides of it all wood, with decorative pieces in the corners, obviously carved by the Egarlorsar.
“I’m going to miss you, my friend,” Tanelith said. She still wasn’t settled in Alath, but she honestly didn’t know where else she wanted to go. Or what she wanted to do. Besides sleep. And spend time just looking out the window at things.
“I got news of a wedding, while I was here,” Olin said. “Are you familiar with Earatus?”
“I am, Tanelith said, nodding. “Be sure to give my congratulations to Mironor.”
Olin looked at her puzzled. “Earatus didn’t marry Mironor,” he said. “She married one of the elders from the Broken Mountains. Plans to make her home there.”
“Why do you consider this news?” Tanelith said, confused.
“Earatus was supposed to become one of the Elders for Vallethlar,” Olin explained. “It means that Vallethlar might be in need of more people to step in, to become elders.”
Tanelith shook her head. “That isn’t what I want,” she said. She hadn’t been certain before, but she was now. “I’m much better with a sword than with negotiations,” she added after a moment.
“Hmmm,” was Olin’s only response.
Finally, everything was packed up and the old former shopkeeper was ready to go.
“I hope to see you back in Vallethlar someday,” Olin said before he climbed up on his cart. “You know that Galote and I are now promised.”
“Really,” Tanelith said. “You don’t say.”
“We’re thinking of a new year’s wedding,” Olin added. “It will be more difficult for people to travel at that time, but we could also all celebrate the coming new year together. We’d love for you to be there.”
“I’ll think about it,” Tanelith said, nodding. “It’s just—right now—not only my body needs to recover, but my soul as well. I need to heal.”
“I understand,” Olin said. He sighed. “Sure I couldn’t talk you into coming back to Vallethlar with me? It would sure make the travel easier.”
“I know,” Tanelith said, laughing. “But I can’t leave. Not right now.”
“I know,” Olin said. “Hopefully I’ll see you New Year.”
“I’d like that too, my friend.”
Tanelith stayed in the center of the road, watching the little cart trundle away.
Her friends were moving on.
When would she?
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Summer finally ended, and with the fall came crisp morning air and gentle rain. Tanelith felt as though the trees had decked themselves out in more color that year, than in previous seasons.
Tanelith woke one morning, laying in her bed, listening to the twins complain about something or another, and realized that it would be all right for her to go someplace again.
First stop would be Vallethlar, to see how her friends were doing there. Visit with Olin, roll her eyes at Galote, maybe talk with Mironor for a while.
Then maybe she’d go to Gishem Woods, see what Vyncis and Abas were up to. As well as the Broken Mountains.
And maybe, after all that travel, she’d be able to come to a decision about what she wanted to do next.
Mother sat at the front of the shop, the door open to the cool autumn breezes, the sun shining through the windows, making dust motes dance. The shop smelled of the lanoline in the wool of the heavier clocks and shawls that her mother made, the inventory changing as people got ready for the fall and winter.
Tanelith brought her mother some tea, as had become their habit, then she stayed in the shop, sitting next to her mother’s loom, watching her skillful hands throw the shuttle back and forth.
“I could never do that, you know,” Tanelith said.
Her mother gave her an amused look. “I know. Just as I know you’re not skilled with needle and thread. Your path has always been different than ours.”
Tanelith nodded and sighed. “But I’m still not sure what I want to do,” she complained.
“I think that you should learn more magic,” Mother said.
Tanelith gave her mother a hard look. “Why would you say that?”
“I think that’s always been your path,” Mother said after a few moments. “You were always much better at it than anyone else.”
“I’ve wondered, if I’d been raised on the Broken Mountains, if I would have been trained in magic, become an Elven mage.”
“That’s a possibility,” Mother said. “What will bring you joy?”
Tanelith nodded, not really replying, and they fell quiet again, the only sound the shifting of the loom.
After a few peaceful moments, Mother spoke again. “I don’t know if you were always meant for bigger things. That was never something that I hoped for you. You were raised in the shadows, like all of the Egarlorsar of the Blasted Planes. I get the feeling, though, that you, in particular, no longer need to hide.”
Tanelith thought about her mother’s words for the next few days as she made quiet plans.
It was difficult to tell her parents that she was leaving again, as well as that she didn’t have any idea when she’d return.
But while Alath was her home, it was never going to fit her as well as it once had. She’d grown, or changed shape, or something.
She set off at night less than a week later. Already, things had changed. There appeared to be people actually living among the ruins of Lasirinth. They had come from Vallethlar, she learned, and were intent on making their homes there.
Tanelith didn’t stay in any of the villages. She came and went, just stopping for supplies, preferring to spend her days alone in whatever grove of trees she could find.
While it was delightful to be traveling again, Tanelith understood rather quickly that she preferred traveling with a companion.
Maybe she could find someone in Vallethlar who wanted to go with her.
She stopped just short of the city, getting up early the next day so she could reach it before sunset. She wanted to see the city under the full moon, which would be rising that evening. Plus, the winds smelled of rain, and she wanted to be someplace dry.
The city itself didn’t have tall towers or a mountainous presence. It did arise up off the flat plain out of nowhere. The rocks on the lower level raised the base of the city, up about on story of a house. Then, the buildings on it were rarely three stories tall, mostly one and two stories.
Tanelith approached slowly, the sun already low in the sky, clouds turning pink and gold. Banners were arranged on either side of the gate leading up to the city. They appeared to be different symbols, like a large metal hammer, a tree, a sword, and a mountain peak. One was even a crescent moon, set against a black sky with five stars.
