“Kestrel?” Alicia asked, looking at him as small blue bodies wrapped around her, just before she disappeared.
Kestrel left the room and left the building, then went trotting down the dark, deserted road of the base towards the supply building. There was no one present, and he threw his shoulder against the door, crashing it open. Someone was sure to hear and come investigate, but he hoped to be gone before they found him.
Inside the dark front room Kestrel fumbled with objects on the counter until he felt the lantern that he thought he remembered. “Friend Kestrel?” Dewberry’s voice called him. “Why are you here?”
“Dewberry, I’ve got a lantern. Take it and light it, then bring it back here,” Kestrel instructed.
“I will,” she replied. He couldn’t see her, but he felt the lantern disappear from his hands, and within thirty seconds Dewberry and the other sprites were with her, the lantern providing illumination.
“Good, let’s go get some water skins, so that you can use them for Jonson,” he said, grabbing the lantern and walking into the warehouse in the back of the building. Weapons were to the left, food in the center, clothing on the right. Kestrel guessed that the water skins would be with the clothing, and went down that aisle. He walked its full length and halfway back up the next aisle before he saw the supply of empty skins, piled in a large wooden crate.
There was a sound at the front of the warehouse. “Who’s in here?” a voice called.
Kestrel reached out and grabbed as many as he could, slung them over his shoulder, then grabbed more. “Take me to the spring!” he commanded, as a guard’s lantern light came into view, and the blue bodies carried him away, back to the spring.
Alicia was kneeling in the waters of the spring, next to Jonson, her robe lying abandoned in a white puddle on the ground next to where he stood.
The doctor looked up and saw Kestrel, and he read a sense of comfort in the light that reflected back from her eyes. “Kestrel come here,” she told him.
“No! Wait, I forgot about your ears. Stay there; it’s not important,” she stopped him from advancing. “What do you have?” she asked.
“I brought water skins,” he explained, making a heap on the ground next to her robe. “How is he?”
“He’s alive,” she replied. “And he’s in this water. The immediate danger was loss of blood, but the spring water has sealed off the veins, so he’s not losing any more right now.” She rose and stepped up onto the shore line, then pulled her robe over her shoulders.
“You must have acted quickly. Where were you hunting this monster?” she asked as she stood next to Kestrel shivering slightly in the chill air.
Kestrel pulled her body up against his in a hug that allowed them to warm one another. “I wasn’t with him. I was up in Estone when Dewberry came and got me, and took me to wherever he has attacked. I picked him up and brought him here, then we came to see you. Everything has happened in the last ten minutes or less, I’d guess,” he said, then was silent, as he thought about the fact that ten minutes ago he had been with Merilla.
“What is that fragrance?” Alicia asked, sniffing his shoulder. “It’s delightful.”
Kestrel was glad she couldn’t see his face, as he blushed at the thought of Merilla’s perfume clinging to his body.
“Here, why don’t you get back in the water to warm up, and you can fill the water skins,” he suggested.
She stepped back, then hesitated. “I guess you’ve seen me before; no reason to be shy now, is there?” she spoke more to herself than to him as she dropped her robe and picked up several skins.
“He ought to stay here as long as we can arrange,” Alicia said as she started to fill the water skins and toss them up on the shore. “Given what we’ve seen the water do for you, he should grow his legs back with enough time and enough exposure to the water.”
“Have you received the two elves from Green Water?” Kestrel asked, thinking of the men he had sent hobbling towards Center Trunk from Firheng only days before.
“Who? Where’s Green Water?” Alicia asked.
Kestrel tossed her more of the empty water skins as she finished filling those she had with her, then he told her an abbreviated version of his story about saving the elves from slavery.
“Silvan will be beside himself at the opportunity to question them about the humans,” Alicia commented when the story was over. “You did a wonderful thing to give them their freedom back.”
She looked up at him and saw his eyes studying her closely. “I guess you noticed I was sleeping alone,” she said as she finished filling the last of the skins.
“I did,” Kestrel commented.
“We are husband and wife, and we do sleep together from time to time,” she told him. “I love him so much, but perhaps I was too young and ignorant when I set my sights on him. He’s a very good man, and a very brilliant one, you know,” she spoke in a defensive tone. “I’d do anything to help him.”
“Even seduce another man, get him drunk, and operate on his body without his agreement,” Kestrel said grimly.
“Oh Kestrel, I know. I’m guilty, and it wasn’t fair to you, but it was for a bigger cause. I’m sorry; that’s the worst thing I’ve ever done,” she spoke in a pleading tone. “I wouldn’t do it again, knowing how you think of me because of it,” she added in a lower voice.
“I’m sorry, Alicia, I’ve forgiven you, mostly, and when Termine and Hinger arrive in Center Trunk you can treat their feet with some of this water so that they recover completely, and we’ll all agree that it was worth chopping my ears to set them free,” he leaned back on the grass, starting to feel exhausted. All the sprites but Dewberry had curled up asleep on the lawn, he realized, while the worried bride sat, and looked down at her injured husband.
“He’s going to be okay, Dewberry,” Kestrel told her. “Alicia thinks he’ll just need to soak in the spring water a lot for a while,” he said, as the elf maiden climbed up out of the water and put her robe on again.
“Thank you honored elf healer,” Dewberry said.
“If there’s nothing else for you to do here, we can take you home to your own bed so you can get some sleep,” Kestrel suggested.
“That will be fine, in a minute,” Alicia agreed. She sat down next to him. “So what are you doing in Estone? I know you’re just passing through, aren’t you?” she asked.
“I’m going to go to a reception in the Doge’s palace tomorrow night, in my honor, and then I’m going to take a ship to North Harbor the day after that, to start my journey to my assignment,” he told her. “Have you ever heard of a place called Uniontown?” he asked.
“I haven’t,” Alicia answered. “Why? Where is it?”
“It’s a city that has sent an ambassador to Estone, for no good reason. I was briefly in the same room as the ambassador from Uniontown, and it felt creepy. I don’t know why that seems important, but I think Silvan should know,” Kestrel answered.
“I’ll tell him,” she assured him. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s all for now,” he said. “Go on home and get warm. I’ll see you again in a few months.”
He paused. “I have forgiven you Alicia, just so you know; I felt we could trust you — I sent Dewberry to your room because I knew we could count on you,” he told her. “Dewberry,” he called, “you can take the doctor home now.”
The sprite roused her companions, and they gathered around the elf woman. “Take a water skin back and use it to heal Termine and Hinger,” Kestrel reminded her, handing her the strap for one of the skins in the pile.
“Be careful, Kestrel,” she answered, just as the sprites surrounded her. It seemed she was ready to say more, but instead she disappeared, and a minute later the sprites were back.
“Where are we going to take Jonson?” Kestrel asked Dewberry.
“We can take him to our quarters in his father’s palace,” she answered.
Carefully, Kestrel reached over the waterline and grabbed hold of Jonson’s hands, then lifted him from the water and laid him on the shore line. “Here,” he gave a pair of water skins to each of the sprites, “take these to the place he’s going to stay, to your quarters,” he instructed Dewberry. “You’ll need to use this water to bathe his legs as they grow back, and give him some to drink each day.”
Each of the sprites flitted away, and then returned moments later. “Are we ready?” Kestrel asked.
