carefully slathering a pot of ointment on the handprint that was burned into his shoulder blade.
“Were you at the palace yesterday afternoon?” she asked as he raised his head.
“Yes,” he grunted. After the shock of the chill from the ointment, he felt relief, as the substance numbed the painful evidence of his encounter with the divine.
“There are strange stories in the city today,” Merilla told him. He heard her clamp the lid back down on the ointment jar, and he sensed the strain in her voice.
With a grunt Kestrel raised himself up on his elbows and twisted himself to look at his caregiver. She gasped as his chest came into view, and stared silently for long seconds, then tentatively reached out her hand and touched the vivid, shiny crest emblazoned on his left side.
“They say a goddess came to the chapel in the palace and worked her powers on the champion of the people,” Merilla said. She raised her eyes to look at his face. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
“I’ve never experienced anything like it before,” he replied, turning further to sit up straight and face her directly. Her eyes were glued to his chest, flickering back and forth from one side to the other.
“I’ve met one of the Elven goddesses, and I didn’t even know she was a goddess at first; she tricked me. But Kai was overwhelming; I went blind from looking at her face, my mind is still scrambled from her words, and you see what her touch did to me,” he tried to organize his thoughts, for he knew he had to talk to her.
“Thank you for treating my back,” he added. “It hurts, but your ointment made it much better.”
“That’s my mother’s own special brewed painkiller,” she said.
There was silence between them.
“I am going to go to Castona’s this morning, and find out how the auction did. I’ll collect your funds and deliver them to you,” he told her. “Then, I need to go someplace and think.
“The goddess has laid a charge on me, and it frightens me. I don’t know what to do,” Kestrel said.
“Kestrel, you must do whatever the goddess told you to do,” Merilla said softly. “You don’t have a choice.”
“I, I know,” he stuttered. “I just don’t understand where I must go, or how many masters can give me orders. I don’t know who I am any more Merilla,” his voice almost broke.
She sat silently and waited for him to say more.
“I’m going to go back to the forest to think. I don’t know what makes me so special; I don’t know how to be a champion. I know the goddess says I am one, so I must be, but I am scared and confused, not proud, not confident, not comfortable,” he said.
“Are you going to leave today?” Merilla asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
“Do you,” she hesitated, “Do you need a companion to go with you?” Her eyes stared at his.
He knew what he wanted to say, but he sensed that the goddess did not foresee the same thing. Dewberry’s untimely appearance had made that clear. “I want a companion, but I do not think I should have one right now,” he told her.
“I understand,” she said bravely. “In that case Kestrel, I am going to start packing the boys and myself up, so that we can move into my parent’s home, while we wait to buy the home with the leather shop. My mother does not think it is proper for us to be sharing this hotel room, and there’s no need to spend further money at the inn.
“Could you come there to meet us when you return from the merchant’s shop?” she asked, with eyes that were bright with unshed tears.
“I will bring everything directly to you,” he assured her. He rose from the bed and began to gather his own belongings. “Merilla?” he asked, as they each silently went about their packing, “Would you help me put this shirt on over the ointment on my back?”
She walked over and placed a patch of gauze on his back, then stood in front of him, carefully tugging the cloth down over his raised arms, their eyes constantly staring at each other’s as she fixed the shirt in place. They each seemed on the verge of saying something as they stood, then there was a racket in the other room, and the boys came bursting into their room, breaking the moment.
Kestrel picked up his knapsack of supplies, and carefully slung it over his right shoulder, along with his bow and quiver of arrows. “I’ll see you in a little while,” he told Merilla, and was quickly out the door without a backwards glance at the rooms that had been a family home so happily but briefly. And just like that, Kestrel felt they had parted ways.
On the streets his still bandaged head drew attention, but he suspected his fancy court hat would also garner looks were he to use it to hide the bandages, so he stopped and bought a plain, ordinary slouch hat, one that covered the material around his skull, and thereby allowed him to walk inconspicuously to Castona’s shop.
When he entered the shop, he immediately heard Castona call, “Kestrel!” loudly, and he saw the merchant waving at the end of the counter.
“I have worked long and hard to help the elves, you know,” Castona told Kestrel when he reached the merchants spot, speaking in the Elvish tongue.
“And I work to help my own people too,” he continued to speak Elvish. “I’ve never felt that I was betraying one to help the other.
“But I’ve never been appointed by a goddess to be the champion of one. Do you know what you will do someday if the goddess tells you the Elves are a threat to the humans of Estone?” he asked.
“I do not know,” Kestrel replied in the same language, the others in the store looking at them blankly. “I am going to take time to think and to try to understand what has happened to me.
“If you think you have an answer, Castona, I am willing to listen. Do you have an answer — can you tell me who I am?” he asked.
“You are someone who is destined for two things — greatness and trouble,” Castona said. “And I am glad that I will not have to suffer either situation!”
“Now,” he switched to the human language, “would you like to come back to the office to talk about business?” The merchant led the way to one of the rooms in the back.
“May I see it?” he asked. “May I see what a goddess does to mark her favors on her champion?”
Kestrel was happy to unload the many items he had slung over his right shoulder, though less willing to display the left-side results of his time in the chapel. As he removed the straps across his shoulder he realized that he had two full skins of healing water from the spring in the Eastern Forest, and he no longer cared if his ears grew out; he was leaving the city that afternoon, and had no reason to worry about his appearance henceforth.
He raised the front of his shirt, showing the tattoo and the divine sign to Castona. “Extraordinary,” the trader breathed. “I’ll go get your funds,” he said as he stood after crouching and studying the artwork for several seconds. With that he was out of the room, and Kestrel began to dribble a light stream of water from the skin onto the front of his body, unconcerned about soaking the material of his shirt, some water on the tattoo on his chest, some on the handprint on his back, and a little that he drank for good measure.
He sat down when finished, as he heard the approach of someone down the hallway. Castona came back, accompanied by a bearer, and each of them placed a heavy bag on the table. “Your share is fifty golds! The auction was an incredible success! I appreciate the opportunity you gave me to share in this. Geile is here to help you carry your money to whatever safe spot you have in mind,” he gleefully told Kestrel, his previous seriousness erased by the reminder of the huge profit he had received from the auction.
“There’s also the matter of your income from the palace. They want to know when you’ll come by to pick it up?” he added.
“Would you just ask them to open an account for me at the bank, and deposit there? I won’t need the money any time soon,” Kestrel had forgotten about the stipend he was entitled to as a Captain of the Fleet.
“Which bank?” Castona asked.
“Is there a bank that I will be able to access in other lands, such as Graylee or Hydrotaz, or elsewhere?” Kestrel asked.
“You will want to use the Bank of the Inland Seas,” Castona said promptly. “I’ll make arrangements. Just come by here first before you try to go to the bank and I’ll have the paperwork you need for opening the account.”
