“Kestrel, please try. Please find it in your heart. I really admire you. I want to be friends,” she told him.
“There can’t be friendship where there isn’t trust,” he answered. “Is that all?”
“Yes,” she conceded defeat. “Just let me know when you’re ready for the operation.”
He walked out the door without further comment, and went down the way to a large building that held the supplies the guardsmen needed. He walked out five minutes later with a half dozen empty water skins, and carried them up to his room.
Once the door was closed, he sat down on the mattress. “Dewberry?” he called. He reached out with his heart and mind, and repeated the call three times, then waited.
“Kestrel? What are you doing back here?” the sprite emerged from nothingness and promptly questioned him.
“I’m going to have my ears changed again, and I need more water from the healing spring. Would you and Jonson be willing to take me there?” he asked. The sprite was dressed in a bright red dress, one that was very short, and she was the most colorful being Kestrel had ever imagined seeing.
“Jonson can’t come. He’s busy working today on some project his father gave him,” Dewberry pouted. “But maybe I could take you myself!” she said brightly.
Kestrel looked at her doubtfully. “I don’t understand what you do or how you do it, but I have the impression I’m too big for one sprite to carry,” he said.
“Let me go see if my brother wants to help,” Dewberry said, and she disappeared. Kestrel waited patiently, and moments later two sprites appeared.
“He’s willing to go if we get to enjoy the water,” Dewberry told Kestrel.
“I have such wonderful dreams while I sleep there,” her brother explained brightly.
And within moments they were gone, away from the dull sleeping room and returned to the warm waters of the healing spring. The air was appreciably cooler than the air in Center Trunk, and tendrils of gentle steam rose from the surface of the water. Kestrel looked at the pool, mesmerized by the beauty of the sight, then turned to discover that both the sprites were sitting beside the water awaiting his attention.
In took little time to lay them on the shallow beach of the water that Kestrel relied on for resting sprites, and then he turned his attention to industriously dipping each of his skins into the pool, filling them methodically, until he had a pile of finished products and no more skins left to fill. He felt obligated to let the sprites have more time to soak in the warm waters and enjoy whatever dreamlike effects the water had on them, so he sat with his own feet dangling in the water while the rest of him remained in the cool air, and he thought about Cheryl, living in Elmheng without her father.
She had never answered any of his letters, and though that hurt his feelings, Kestrel still speculated about how she was doing, and wondered if he would ever see her again. It seemed unlikely; Firheng and Estone had quickly come to feel more like his home than Elmheng did.
A cloud moved in front of the sun, and Kestrel judged that it was time to awaken his sprite friends. He pulled each out of the water and waited for them to awaken, then received his trip back to Center Trunk.
“I’ll tell Jonson he missed a trip to the spring. He’ll be extremely jealous!” Dewberry triumphantly crowed. “Now, here’s my goodbye kiss,” she pecked his lips with hers, and then Kestrel was alone in his room.
He gathered up his bags of water and walked to the rooms where Alicia had operated on him before, and found her at a desk, talking to an attendant. “Here’s the water,” he placed the pile of skins on a table.
“That’s wonderful! We’ll be able to help so many patients with all of that,” she gushed appreciatively to Kestrel.
“Now what?” Kestrel asked.
“I need for you to get drunk and pass out,” Alicia said. “Same as last time.”
“Where’s the nearest tavern?” he asked.
“Let me take you there,” she said, standing up.
“Is there someone else who I could go with?” he asked stiffly.
“All you want to do is drink a lot of ale in a hurry. What’s the harm in doing it with me?” she asked plaintively.
“You’ll make it taste sour,” Kestrel said abruptly.
There was a long moment of silence, then they each said, “Alright, fine,” at the same time.
“Let’s go,” she said, removing the apron she had been wearing. “Gailer,” she called to a nearby assistant. “Would you tell my husband I’ve gone out for drinks with Kestrel, and we’ll be back soon? Thank you,” she said, then opened the door and motioned for Kestrel to lead the way out of the building.
The tavern wasn’t far from the base; it was nearly right across the street from the main gate. Because it was still only early afternoon the tavern had little business inside, and Alicia took Kestrel to a small table for two, set in a corner away from the other customers.
“Tell me about the yeti,” Alicia asked after the dispirited waiter had placed two mugs of ale before Kestrel and water in front of her.
Kestrel took a long drink from his ale first, then began to describe the battle.
“No, I meant carving it up. I heard that you sold parts in Estone,” Alicia said. “Was it bought for what I think it was bought for?”
“Virility?” Kestrel suggested.
“Exactly!” Alicia said triumphantly. “How much did the men of Estone pay to enhance their precious virility?”
“Well, it wasn’t just men from Estone, there was an auction with traders from other countries too, human countries,” Kestrel explained.
“Well of course, human countries; it doesn’t have an effect on elven men,” she told him.
“It doesn’t?” Kestrel asked, never having considered the difference.
“No. Why? Did you save a little for yourself?” Alicia asked archly.
Kestrel sputtered the ale he was swallowing. “No!” he answered indignantly. “I don’t have any need of it!”
“Well, and proud of it too, I see,” Alicia said simply. “So how much did the human men pay for their virility?”
The waiter responded to Alicia’s signal, and brought another pint of ale to the table, taking the empty glass away from in front of Kestrel.
“The total paid was one hundred twenty golds,” Kestrel gave her an answer as he picked up his drink.
“One hundred twenty golds?!” Alicia’s voice sounded so loud that heads turned. “One hundred twenty golds?” she repeated. “You got that much money?”
“I didn’t get any,” Kestrel said primly. “Castona got fifty for making the arrangements, and Merilla got the rest,” he sighed.
“And who’s Merilla? Why’d she deserve so much? You’re the one who killed the yeti, right?” Alicia immediately asked.
“The yeti killed her husband, and she had two little boys to raise. I took her all the way back to the city from their homestead in the wilderness, and I told her she could have the proceeds from the sale,” Kestrel explained. “She’s going to buy a house in the city around the corner from her parents, so she can raise them close to family.
“There’s a leather shop that rents the ground floor, so she’ll have an income. We thought that was a good idea, before we found out how much total money she’d have,” he spoke expansively between sips of his ale.
“The leather monger seems like a nice human, soft if you ask me, but that’s who her mother wants her to marry, it’s pretty clear,” he added disapprovingly.
“And you don’t think he’s good enough for her?” Alicia asked, watching him closely.
“No, of course not,” Kestrel agreed.
“Is she pretty?” Alicia asked, “For a human woman, I mean?”
“I think she is pretty. She’s not someone a man would drool over, but she’s got a wonderful smile and pretty hair, and you find out her figure is really much better than you realize when you see her undressed,” Kestrel answered. “Human women have a lot more curves and flesh than elven women, and there’s something to be said for that.
“Of course I saw you naked at the healing spring, and you’re good looking too,” he tried to be polite.
