Chapter 6
I came to a sharp stop, part of me shocked by the man’s words and part of me even more shocked that it wasn’t Erret speaking them. I spotted him standing just behind the speaker, though. He gave me a triumphant glance before looking away.
Thone raised his hands. I saw now that the men stood in two groups. Thone stood in the middle, ever the peacemaker. “Let’s calm down and discuss this—”
“No!” another man on Erret’s side thundered. “We knew she was a threat from the beginning. We should have just handed her over to Jennik and been done. We never had this sort of trouble before she came along.”
“Never?” Tarvia spoke softly from just behind her husband.
The man scowled. “They never torched our village to the ground before tonight, did they?”
“Some may have believed Jennik wouldn’t dare attack us with the dragon nearby, but obviously it isn’t true,” the first man continued. “We must hand them over and make restitution before they do even worse.”
“There’s no need for that,” a younger man said from the opposing side, my side, I assumed. “All she has to do is send that dragon to Krenish, and we’ll never have anything to fear from them again.”
The statement left a foul taste in my mouth, and I found myself shaking my head. No matter how great the temptation, no matter how grave the situation, I would never use Axen for massive, unbridled slaughter like that.
“And she refuses,” the first man spat. “She could save us, but is unwilling to do so. We must protect ourselves. Take her!”
A few actually stepped forward as if to do so. Rik and Jec moved in front of me, their weapons ready.
“Hold,” Thone thundered. “You will not act without the agreement of the village.” Thankfully, it was enough to stop them, though they glared at me with venomous hatred.
“Thone is wise,” Erret said, his voice quiet but strong. His calmness chilled me more than his rage. “We must come to the rational, intelligent decision here. We all know why he would hesitate to take any action against the woman. But I fear that these attacks from Krenish will only get worse as we continue to shelter her. We permitted the unnatural and abhorrent to invade our village, and this is the punishment we get for our indiscretion.”
“Unnatural?” Magra snorted. She stood just beyond the men on my side. “Abhorrent? You only say that because you don’t understand the nature of her dragon or their bond.”
“One only has to look at what she holds to see how unnatural, how far outside the proper order she has fallen.” Erret’s quiet voice carried through the entire gathering.
I looked down at my hand and blushed as murmurs spread through the crowd. My sword. I didn’t even have a sheath to put it in, either, so all I could do was lower it to my side. It had been so instinctive to me to use it that I’d forgotten I wasn’t supposed to do such things in this village. Women are treasures. A woman who places herself in danger is one who has rejected her own value and defies her true nature. That was what I saw reflected in the eyes looking at me.
Erret’s expression turned almost smug before he put on a pitying face and turned back to the others. “We have done our duty to this stranger. We have taken her in and cared for her. But she has only brought devastation upon our heads in return. We must not let emotions and sentiment cloud our judgment.”
I exhaled slowly. I couldn’t let myself be handed over to Krenish to die. I hated the thought of abandoning Emsha to whatever vengeance Krenish would unleash—and I had no delusions that the damage they’d done today would be enough to satisfy their bloodlust—but it looked like I might not have a choice. Many eyes glared at me with fury and blame. Others looked away in regret. Erret had won them over.
“I’m not of much importance,” a woman said softly from where she sat at the outskirts of the group, clutching two children close to her. I recognized her immediately as the woman who’d fled the burning building while I occupied her attackers. “So perhaps my words won’t carry much weight.”
Thone moved forward and helped her to her feet. “Speak, raisa. You are just as important as anyone else here.”
She hesitated with all the eyes on her, but plunged forward. “I don’t know much about natural or unnatural. But my children and I would be dead if it wasn’t for her. She bravely faced two men to spare us the chance to escape.”
“She saved me, too,” another woman chimed in. “I was being chased by one of Jennik’s men. If he’d caught me…” She shuddered.
A few murmurs spread.
“I am sure she intends well,” Erret said quickly. “I do not believe she means to bring such troubles upon us. But we must look at the outcome as a whole. We have lost our entire village because of her.”
“No, we haven’t,” Rik spoke up.
Erret looked like he wanted to snort, but managed to hold it back. I would have been impressed by how well he was maintaining the façade of peacemaker and caring citizen if it didn’t aggravate me to see how everyone was falling for it.
Instead, he shook his head. “It’s a sweet sentiment to note that we all escaped alive and thus can continue on as a village, but we may never recover from this. We cannot rebuild an entire village from the ground up while dealing with attacks from Krenish and continuing to support our people.”
“I mean, the village isn’t gone,” Rik corrected. “It wasn’t destroyed.”
All eyes fixed on him.
He shifted his weight. “The dragon returned with water and put out the fires. Most of the buildings survived. I saw one, maybe two that will need replaced entirely, but the rest only need repairs. The village isn’t gone.” He paused. “Muddy and damaged, but not gone.”
More murmurs.
The first man spoke again. “But this doesn’t change the fact that she brought this on us. Erret is right. She is unnatural. She must go.”
“And what’s so unnatural?” Jec said.
Everyone fell quiet at the rumbling voice of the elder.
“It seems to me that the Maker has given each of us a natural instinct to avoid harm, to protect ourselves. What is it to you if this is how the Maker’s natural gift manifests itself in her?”
I tried not to let my jaw drop too far. It was one thing for Jec to make a comment in support of my swordplay in front of Rik in the privacy of the smithy. It was something else entirely for him to publicly declare his support in front of the entire village. I wanted throw my arms around him and kiss that wrinkled, soot-darkened cheek.
He wasn’t finished. “I, for one, am glad she is capable of defending herself. Those men came with the intent of killing her. If she couldn’t handle a sword, she might be dead now. Would any of you declare this a good thing, for a woman created in the image of the Maker to be struck down by those cowards?” No response, just a lot of uncomfortable shifting and glances downward.
“And even if you aren’t so compassionate, then perhaps you can still recognize the importance of her survival for purely selfish reasons.” Jec folded his arms. “If she’d died, would the dragon have returned to extinguish the flames and drive off our attackers?”
I noticed a few red faces on Erret’s side. Embarrassed to be told off by a village elder? Angry at the insinuation that they would only care about a lady’s safety for selfish reasons? Maybe a little of both. I kept my mouth shut, sending silent thoughts of gratitude in Jec’s direction.
No one spoke for a long moment. Finally, Erret cleared his throat. “With your gracious pardon, tabe-da. I’m afraid the larger point is being missed. We have lived for decades without any attack or severe trouble from Krenish. But now, in just a short span of time, our village has been marched upon, one of our children has endured a kidnapping, and our village has come under severe assault, resulting in injuries and damaged buildings. It will take us months to recover, with all the lumber that must be gathered while we maintain vigilance to watch for further attacks.”
He gained momentum. “And it is all becau
se of this woman. It was because of her choice to humiliate Jennik, rather than allowing us to address him diplomatically, that our child was taken and our village was attacked. It was because of her refusal to accept her place in society which created this new hostility. And it was her actions that turned their ire on us in the first place. She was the one who insisted in taking part in a hunt. She was the one who shot the rekin. She brought this on us. If she had simply left the village and allowed us to deal with Krenish, as we’ve always done, none of this would have escalated to this point. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for her!”
Rik laughed. “Is this a joke?”
Erret stared at him, startled.
“You and I were planning on hunting that morning anyway. We’d have gone to the same place and shot the same rekin and brought down the same wrath from Krenish. You know full well this isn’t about her. This is about Krenish and their insistence on fully dominating us, grinding us under their heels and doing whatever they please at our expense—including changing the rules of our peace on a whim. You and I both know we weren’t in their hunting territory when we found that rekin. You can’t pin the blame for that on her.
“As for the rest, you’re right. We could have just knelt down, put our heads on the chopping block, and let Jennik enact whatever violence he desired upon us. Perhaps after he killed a few innocent people, his bloodlust would have been satisfied and things would have gone back to the way they’ve been. But is that what we truly want?” He addressed the whole group now. “For the first time in decades, we have a chance for defense against their cruelty. And what’s better? To die for no reason because they have an insatiable bloodlust and drive to kill the innocent? Or to die while taking a stand for ourselves?”
Several men quietly stepped back away from Erret’s group. The ones that remained kept their eyes on the ground.
“What do you say, Alita?” Thone asked.
The question caught me off-guard. I hadn’t expected to be given a voice in this meeting. Jec and Rik took small steps to the side, remaining close but leaving space for me to speak.
It took a moment to decide my wording. “It was never my intent to stir trouble between you and Krenish. And while I agree that they are wrong in their claims to have been slighted, I still feel some responsibility for their renewed hostility toward you. As such, I wish to stay, to lend Axen’s strength to your defense.” I briefly met Thone’s eyes. “And I hope to help find some agreement or settlement of peace between you and them before I leave. But I respect your leaders. If you wish me gone, I will leave.”
“I want her to stay,” Fasha declared loudly, the child’s voice carrying through the silence that followed. “And I like the raisa-dragon.”
A few people chuckled, more out of release of tension than out of actual humor.
Thone exhaled slowly. “We have much to consider. It would be foolish to make any rash decisions at this point. Let’s return to the village and assess the damage. We will make our decision once we’ve had a chance to think it through.”
Erret was the only one who looked truly displeased with Thone’s choice to delay the decision. He wisely kept his mouth shut, though, and trudged after the others back toward the village.
Rik and Jec stayed close to me, surreptitiously watching the group that had taken Erret’s side. It seemed that none of them were interested in causing trouble, mostly walking in subdued silence. A few quietly murmured, but it was difficult to tell their tone or mood.
Magra joined my side as we walked back to the village. “I’m beginning to give up on the idea that you will ever slow down or take things easy.”
A sharp pain jabbed upward from my leg, reminding me of the still-healing injury. I’d gone and set Magra’s work back yet again. “I would be happy to take things easy. It’s hard to do when one’s lodging catches fire.”
She shook her head. “At least you’re still walking, by some miracle.”
We reached the village near the end of the group. People waded through ankle-deep mud and puddles to cluster around the buildings that had gotten the worst of the fires, some wailing over the damage and others discussing strategy for repair. Several men were pushing at the support poles of the gathering shelter in the center. Between the damage from the fire and the powerful blasts of water, it now leaned heavily to the south, the timbers creaking and threatening to give up entirely.
Erret cast a dark look in my direction. “It will take weeks just to collect the necessary wood, much longer to make the repairs. I suppose the people of Krenish will be honorable and leave us alone as our focus and energy is diverted to this work?”
“We’ll do what we must,” Thone said, rolling his sleeves up.
Axen landed in the road with a ground-shaking thud.
Many villagers gasped and jumped, while others turned with curious eyes. Her head remained low, out of sight on the other side of the buildings, then she leapt into the air and disappeared into the sky.
What are you up to?
Helping.
She hid her mind from me with a childish giggle. Whatever she was doing, it was as much a surprise for me as for the villagers. I sloshed through the mud between the smithy and the inn, then stopped with a smile at the massive tree in the road.
“What is this?” Erret demanded.
“She’s helping.” I waved toward the damaged buildings. “She knew we would need lumber to make the repairs.” Even better, she’d managed to find old, fallen timber. Old enough to be seasoned and ready for use, not so old that it had rotted. Perfect for our needs.
Impressed whispers flew through the villagers.
A gust of wind preceded Axen’s return, and we stepped back as she landed and deposited a second tree beside the first one. She snuffed with pleasure before leaping into the air again.
Thone eyed the trees, then turned to me. “Thank you.”
“It was her idea, actually.” Nicely done, Axen. I felt her giggle again.
Erret still looked sour, his bushy brows hunched downward, but he was the only one showing any displeasure anymore. “We’ll still have to strip off the branches and cut it down to planks. And many of our tools were damaged in the fire.”
“I’m sure we’ll find a way to manage,” Thone said. “Jec?”
Jec nodded. “Most of my tools survived. I’ll have more soon.”
Axen deposited a third tree. More?
Yes, but try something else first. I sent a mental image to her and hoped she understood well enough.
She tilted her head, then slashed at the first tree, raking her claws along the entire length. The tearing, snapping sounds were loud enough to drive the watching crowd to flinch back and cover their ears, children pressing their faces into their mothers’ sides. Branches fell off either side of the trunk.
She repeated the gesture three more times, drawing her fingers closer together with each pass. Instead of a tree, there was a mess of branches, leaves, and seven tree-length planks. Not a perfectly even cut, and perhaps a bit thicker than they might have been if sawed by hand, but more than sturdy enough to do what was needed.
When she stopped, a few men moved forward to inspect her work. They talked amongst themselves for a moment before turning back with nods, though they looked surprised to be approving her work.
I did good?
You did great. I glanced at the smiles around me and had another idea. One more thing.
She leaned over the smithy, planted a claw on the top of the center shelter, and gently tugged at it until it creaked back into its original upright position.
I grabbed one of the larger discarded branches and headed for the structure to brace it.
“Come on,” Jec called as I wedged the branch in place. “Let’s get it secured. Unless you want to leave it up to a dragon and a lady?”
Men immediately rushed to gather more branches and join me. Once it was fully braced, Axen let go. The support beams groaned a little, but h
eld.
I glanced around and saw nothing but grins and nods of approval. Jec shot a wink in my direction. Erret was conspicuously occupied with something else.
We worked long into the night. Axen brought more trees and split them into planks. Some men cut the planks down to shorter lengths while others worked on repairing and rebuilding. Some of the younger women helped carry planks or hammer nails, while others carried tools, brought refreshments to the workers, or cleaned the damaged objects from inside the buildings. Even the children helped, gathering leafy branches too thin for use and scattering them over the mud until they grew too sleepy to continue helping and were shooed to bed by their mothers.
I did the best I could not to make any waves. Once the center shelter was braced, I found the pack I’d left on the ground outside my window, now quite soggy. I stashed my sword in the hidden compartment and tossed it all back through the broken window. Then I joined other women, helping carry planks. I found myself near Thone and picked up a hammer to work on securing a new wall beside him. “I’m sorry this came to your village.”
“I don’t think anyone blames you for this.” He glanced over his shoulder toward where Erret was helping rebuild the damaged support in the center structure. “Not anymore, anyway.”
“I’m glad.” I took a moment to pound in another nail, thinking through my next words carefully. “I’m concerned this won’t be the end of it. I can have Axen stay closer, but Jennik will only escalate matters from here. I don’t want to see anyone hurt.”
“They will do what they think is best, no matter how wrong they might be. It’s how things have always been.”
I pushed as gently as I could manage. “I can’t stay here forever. Perhaps in the morning, you and I could go to meet with Jennik and see if some peaceful arrangement can be reached?”
He sighed. “I already told you, there is no reasoning with that man.”
“He may find himself more reasonable with a dragon looking over his shoulder.”
“Thank you for your efforts, raisa, but it simply won’t work.”
Frustration chomped at my tone. “You won’t even attempt to speak with Jennik and find a way to resolve things with him?”
“Why, of course he will.” Tarvia’s voice came from behind us, sounding scandalized and indignant all at once.
We turned to find her standing with a tray of steaming mugs in one hand, the other hand planted squarely on her hip. Her gaze fixed on her husband. “How wonderful that Alita is willing to help broker some sort of peace between you and Jennik. And if there is even the smallest chance, the slimmest hope that some agreement might be reached, then of course you will pursue that hope, as the wise village leader that you are. Won’t you?”
He shifted his weight uncomfortably. “I…”
“After all, there’s no possible way talking could make matters worse than they already are. And I’m sure that Axen will provide reasonable incentive for Jennik to agree to some sort of treaty. Don’t you think?”
I turned my attention back to my work, not wanting to embarrass Thone by watching him squirm.
“Right,” he finally said. “Of course.”
“Good.” Tarvia sounded pleased with herself. As she should. “Then you’ll leave once you’ve both had a chance to rest, refresh yourselves, and eat.” She shooed us toward the inn. “Go on and sleep. We’ll finish what we can and resume work in the morning. You two worry about bringing an end to this senseless violence.”
I retreated to my relatively unscathed room without another word. It was easy for outsiders to look at Traditional Elf society and feel it oppressed women, but anyone who was familiar with its inner workings knew that it was largely the women, not the men, who wielded the true power. Not that anyone within the society, male or female, would ever admit to such a thing. I had never been more grateful for that fact than now.
Morning came fast with a thump at my door. “Raisa? When you are ready, we will go visit Krenish and see if Jennik is willing to talk.”
Thone. The hint of reluctance hiding under his tone suggested that Tarvia had awakened him and set him on today’s task. “I’ll be out shortly,” I called.
I stretched and sat up, feeling the strain through my entire body. Yesterday’s activity had been a bit much, especially with my still-healing leg. But I didn’t seem too much worse for the wear. Or so I thought until I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the room’s glass. I cringed at the myriad soot streaks and the frizzy mass of hair staring back at me. If I was going to broker peace, I needed to reach a minimum level of presentability.
My thoughts rumbled about today’s task as I worked on cleaning myself up, re-braiding my hair, and changing into my slightly more formal, cleaner attire stashed in the bottom of my pack for the rare occasions I needed to look nice. Broker peace. It sounded so simple in those words, but how was I supposed to accomplish this? I knew how to adapt to my environment well enough to get through trade deals, but I’d never been the best with diplomacy. I didn’t even know where to begin.
Where you always begin anytime you go to a new place, I told myself as I wiped the last of the mud off my boots. Get people talking. Listen. Someone will eventually say something useful.
I just had to hope that the same remained true here.
I lingered in the room a moment longer, debating the merits of bringing my sword, but decided against it. It would look strange to carry my pack, and I had nowhere else to hide the blade. Thone would be with me, and I’d make sure Axen stayed close. I’d be fine.
I stepped out into the main room and discovered the space full of villagers sharing breakfast. Probably the people whose homes had been damaged too much for them to try to cook today. I walked toward an empty spot, but slowed as I became acutely aware of how many eyes stared openly at me. I glanced down, briefly afraid I’d forgotten my leggings or committed some other significant breach of etiquette.
“She looks pretty.” Fasha stared at me in wonder. “Like a girl.”
“Of course she does,” Tarvia said quickly, bustling over to usher to me to a seat. “You look lovely, my dear. Have some breakfast, and then you and Thone can set out for Krenish.”
Her calm acceptance of my appearance broke the spell for most of the diners, and they returned their attention to their food, but others continued to stare a moment longer. I did my best to ignore them as I started on my own meal. Their reaction was ridiculous, nonsensical. It was like they’d never seen a woman with a clean face before.
In fairness, I realized, they’d never seen me looking nice before. I never bothered much with my appearance. I’d arrived travel-worn, and I hadn’t done much to improve that look the following morning, assuming I’d be making a couple of quick trades and then moving on. And since then, I hadn’t given my looks a single thought with all the craziness going on. Still, I must have been a true fright for them to stare at me like that.
I finished my food quickly and handed off the dishes to Luka before meeting Thone near the door. “Ready?”
He looked like he’d rather be doing anything else in the world, but he simply nodded and held the door for me. I stepped out, but let Thone take the lead on the road. The deeper I kept my mind in the Traditional ways, the more smoothly things would go.
Rik jogged up to Thone. “Are you leaving? We still need…” His voice trailed off, his eyes on me. “Wow.” He blinked. “I mean, you look very nice today, raisa.”
Exasperation boiled upwards, but I swallowed it back. “Thank you.” If only Tarvia was there to holler at us to get moving.
“We’ll be back before long,” Thone promised Rik. “Help keep the workers focused.”
“Yes, tabe-ro,” Rik nodded sharply, almost like a salute. He glanced at me again before heading back toward the village.
Thone resumed walking with a sigh. “It’ll take some time to reach Krenish. Are you certain you feel up to it?”
Looking for an excuse to delay. I hid a smile. “I
’m a bit stiff, but walking will do me good.”
He glanced back at the village. “As the leader, I should be helping with the work. This will keep me away too long. I fear my wife doesn’t entirely understand such things.”
She understands too well, I wanted to say, that you just don’t want to do this. Instead, I nodded sagely. “I understand, tabe-ro. Perhaps it would be better if we could get there sooner?”
He paused. “We have no riding sentinals here.”
The long-legged mounts certainly would cut down our travel time significantly, but that wasn’t what I’d been asking. “No, but we do have a flying dragon. She could get us there in minutes, if you would be comfortable riding on her.”
He blinked and stared. “You would allow me to ride her with you?”
Was I imagining things, or was there a note of eagerness in his voice?
He abruptly cleared his throat. “I mean, I’m not certain how proper that would be. Perhaps it would be best if we simply walk.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but a strange rumble caught my attention. The ground shuddered beneath my feet, almost like if Axen was landing behind us, but I knew she was far off in the forest indulging in a hearty breakfast. I spun, my heart in my throat, ready to face a strange dragon, but there was nothing. Nothing but continued rumbles. I kept my weight low as the ground shook and trembled. I’d been in earthquakes before. I knew how to respond.
So why was my heart still in my throat? All I could hear was my heartbeat—my own this time, I knew that for sure. Terror constricted around my chest, making it hard to breathe. One thought dominated my mind, forcing out any chance for calm and reason.
This wasn’t an earthquake.