'You don't have to be a wizard.'
She smiled, winced with pain. Behind them, Greensleeves bustled, shifted boxes. 'And a bird with wings needn't fly? Gull, when that giant wave hit us, I scrunched down and prayed not to die. And something-some tingling power-enwrapped me like a mother's arms. And I didn't die. Though I-ow ow ow-didn't protect myself that well. Still… oh, I love you so, but I can't marry you just yet. Do you see why?'
'No.' He sounded petulant.
She sighed a feminine sigh, and suddenly Gull felt like a boy addressing a woman. 'I need time. To think.'
'You'll adopt wizardry, then.' He was bitter. 'And leave us mortals in the dust.'
She shook her head, grunted as her arm moved. 'No. I'll leave Lily in the dust, and find who I really am.'
It was Gull's turn to sigh. 'And that's not my wife? Ah, well. I shouldn't have let you dangle all this time. I should have reeled you in when I hooked you.'
She chuckled, put a finger to her lips and kissed it, laid it against his lips. He smiled down at her.
Greensleeves crawled backward out of the wagon. Skirts more mud-stained and tattered than ever, she looked like a six-year-old making mud pies. But beholding the two lovers, her gaze became a woman's calculation. She offered an unstoppered beaker. 'P-poppy seed e-extract and feverfew, I th-think. 'Twill e-ease the pain.'
Lily nodded, drank the whole beaker. Before long, she nodded off and snored gently.
Greensleeves rummaged, found some slats, used scissors to cut a blanket. She handed them all to Gull. 'Wh-while she sl-sleeps, you must s-set-s-set-'
'I know,' said her brother. Strongest of the family, he'd been the one to set broken bones. 'I'll tend her.'
Late that afternoon, Lily lay in the shade of a chestnut tree while Gull and Greensleeves toted food and supplies.
Salvaging the wrecks, including Gull's woodcutting tools, they camped a half mile from the wagons. They couldn't bury the bodies today, so needed to move off before nightfall brought wolves and coyotes and raccoons. And ghosts.
As Gull arranged rocks for a firepit and Greensleeves aired blankets, Liko joined them. They'd heard a tremendous crash when he awoke and tumbled from the treetop. The earth shook as he staggered up, leaning to the one-armed side, sail clothing trailing in rags. Saying not a word, he flopped on his back, dozed off again. The humans had to talk above his dual snores.
Once the fire sent up smoke, thick gray because the branches were damp, a duo of voices hallooed. Helki and Holleb the centaurs trotted up, their shiny finery clattering, unaccustomed grins on their grim faces. Gull was so pleased to see them alive, he hugged each one, lifted clean off his feet by the forbidding Holleb. Everyone talked at once, including Greensleeves, and it was some while before the stories became clear.
But simple enough. From their greater height, the centaurs saw the water recede, and having lived near the sea, knew what it meant. They'd galloped inland, raced into the forest fast enough to burst their hearts. Seawater had lapped at their heels, but they'd topped a ridge and escaped harm.
'So we celebrate victory!' growled Holleb in his harsh accent.
Gull shook his head. 'There's no victory, not with Towser escaping, not with all these dead. We survived, is all.'
'We see. Is true,' said Helki. 'But where are others? Your friends who help you?'
Gull nodded down the tree line. 'Stiggur has been digging and prying all day, trying to reach the controls for the clockwork beast, to see if it still works. Or is still alive. As for the others, there aren't any.'
The centaurs looked around, saw only Lily, Liko, and Greensleeves. Helki said, 'Oh.'
By sundown, Gull had a meal together. He'd rescued an iron pot and unbroached cask of salt pork, put it on to boil. He'd found some flour, salted it, twined the dough in strips around green sticks to roast. They'd found several barrels of beer in the women's wagon, and crocks of Felda's pickles.
There was also plenty to feed the giant. Liko sat cross-legged and gobbled raw horseflesh while the centaurs nibbled from Towser's silver plates and tried not to watch. Greensleeves used twist bread to sop gravy. Gull fed Lily with clumsy fingers. She used her good arm to sip brandy for pain. Her other hung in a sling. Stiggur wolfed pickles and sniffed, remembering Felda's kindness.
After a night and day of privation, heartache, struggle, and sadness, it was a feast, though a quiet one. Everyone felt the absence of friends.
When people were sated, had fathomed one beer cask, Gull leaned back on his elbows, stared at the dancing campfire. 'So what's-Hey!'
The woodcutter snapped down his flagon, hopped around the stack of supplies. Stabbing into darkness, he grabbed something that squealed, hoisted up the goblin thief, Egg Sucker. 'What are you doing here? I threw you off the cliff!'
'Aye! And near broke me head!' Dangling again, the little pest rubbed his skunk-striped hair. 'But you can let go, kind sir! I wasn't stealin'! I only saw a rat digging at your sacks, and-'
'Oh, hush up. Don't give me any stories. I should have let the elves feather you with arrows. Come here.'
Back in the firelit circle, he propped the goblin on his feet, handed him his beer mug. Confused by kindness, Egg Sucker could only clutch it like a cask in his small crooked hands. Gull gave him a hank of salt pork, which the goblin tore into. But as soon as Gull sat down, he dashed into the night as if beset by dogs.
Gull sighed, reached for his mug, remembered it was gone. 'Well, never mind. Where was I…? Ah. So, what do we do tomorrow? After burying the dead, that is.'
'We need get my clockwork beast upright. I tugged a lever and his leg kicked.' Stiggur mumbled around a mouthful of bread, added suddenly, 'I'll name him Knothead, if that's all right with you.'
'It's fine,' Gull chuckled. 'If he has a name, he must be alive.'
'We must find town,' said Holleb. 'Not much food here.'
'Aye,' Gull agreed. 'There's somewhat else, too. Greensleeves or Lily, someone with magic, should figure how to conjure, or summon, or whatever you call it, to fetch Tomas and Neith and Varrius and that paladin Bardo, and even those miserable orcs, off that tropical island. They deserve a chance to walk home, if they can find it.' The women agreed.
'Home,' sighed Helki. 'Holleb and I need learn where is so can go there. Have been away long time… We miss it.'
Greensleeves arose, walked over, laid her small callused hand on Helki's shoulder. 'D-don't be s-sad, Hel-ki. We'll f-find your h-home. Y-you too, Li-ko.' The giant nodded both somber heads. 'M-maybe some of T-T-Towser's booty will h-help us.' Probing the wagon, they'd found many bottles and artifacts smashed, but still acquired a stack of magical-seeming books and whatnots to study.
'Greenie's right. We'll see you all get home…' Gull was quiet a while, then murmured, 'We lost our home… A whole village wiped out… in a quarrel between two wizards out to steal each other's power. They didn't care who they stepped on, as if we were ants on their battlefield… That's what we should do! We should stop all wizards from running roughshod over common folk!'
His voice had grown more animated, yet taken a hard edge.
Helki looked puzzled, as did the rest. 'How?'
'I don't know.' The woodcutter stared at the fire. 'But there must be a way to halt them. If you could- assemble an army, and keep it together-a volunteer fighting force, not slaves-we could track these wizards down, somehow, then scatter their makeshift armies and make them submit. Then if you could, what? take away their power…? I don't know. But there must be a way…'
Greensleeves had been toying with the pink stone box, which glinted in the firelight. Now she stopped. 'I'll h- help, Gull.'
Lily put her free hand on Gull's. 'And I.'
'And us!' shouted Holleb, as if accepting a challenge to a duel.
'Aye! Us too!' screamed Helki. The two sent a rollicking whinny war cry to the heavens.
When the echoes died, Liko's two heads spoke in unison for the first time. 'Me too.'
'Can I help?' asked Stiggur. 'I can bring Knothead!'
Gull tousled the boy's hair so hard he fell over. 'Of course, Stiggur. And bring your whip. We'll need that too.'
Lily nodded toward the darkness. 'What about Egg Sucker?'
Gull laughed. 'Oh, aye. We'll need him for-something. But I wasn't proposing we form an army to stop
