The tree branches were dripping when Keri stepped off the waystone at Mountain Home, Kersis’s reins in his hand, and all around the melting snow was turning the over-saturated earth of the slopes into mud. For a moment, before he had to deal with his family, he was able to let himself feel once again the comforting familiarity of the place where he’d grown up.
The halls of larchwood, rising from stout granite foundations, sprawled across the folds of the mountain where the land rose and fell. Rather than building up, Keri’s ancestors had spread out. Over the peaked roofs, designed to send drifts of snow tumbling down under their own weight, rather than allow them to accumulate, rose the sharp figures of the evergreens. The exposed stone of the paths through courtyards and between the buildings, from the waystone up to the hall itself, and leading to the steaming pools where Keri and his cousins had so often bathed together as children, all rose wet and dark above the last of the snow.
Olavi, who had been sent ahead, was waiting for them, along with Keri’s father. Keri’s comrade quickly took the reins of their two horses and led them off to the stables. While Arjun had at least visited once before, this was Ghveris’s first time, and his armor clanked when he moved. The war-machine scanned the mountainside as if searching for enemies, and Keri was certain that he’d made note of the high ground, and fitting places to set an ambush, or fall back and make a defense in the case of an assault.
Ilmari, dressed in a thick brocade robe of white and gold, as bright and spotless as his long hair and beard, stepped forward once the light had faded, and the three men had a chance to step off the waystone. “It is good to see you home again, my son. It’s been too long.” He extended his arms.
“I came to drop Rei off, after we returned from Lucania,” Keri reminded him. He stepped forward, and the two men clasped each other in an embrace.
“A visit that was over too quickly,” Ilmari said, after they’d released each other and each taken a step back. “You should stay for a few weeks - until summer, perhaps.”
Keri didn’t fight the frown that came to his face, or make any attempt to hide his feelings. “No, Father. I don’t think any of us would enjoy that. In any event, I don’t have the time. I need to be back at Bald Peak shortly, or Liv is going to be very angry with me.”
Ilmari narrowed his eyes, and his thick, white eyebrows gathered together like stormclouds. “Is she your taskmaster, now?”
Ghveris let out a hiss of steam and a great clanking, which Keri recognized as the war-machine’s manner of laughing out loud. “No,” the Antrian said, breaking into the conversation. “But any bride would be angry at a husband late to his own wedding.”
Keri couldn’t help but wince; he would have preferred a different manner of breaking the news, but he understood his friend’s instinct to speak up in Liv’s defense. But now, there was nothing to do save to charge ahead. “I’ve come to invite you, Father, to join us in Whitehill,” he said. “Pandit Vivek Sharma will perform the ceremony at the Temple of the Trinity. I would offer to travel back with you, but my friends and I need to continue on to Kelthelis, so that I can speak with Liv’s father and grandmother there. I’d like to bring Rei with us; he’s never seen the farthest north, and I think that it would be good for him.”
Ilmari ka V?inis was silent for a long moment. “He is at his lessons,” the old man said, finally. “And we will not interrupt. Come up with me to the great hall. When everyone has gathered for the midday meal, we can discuss this with his mother.” The old man turned, and began carefully picking his way back up the path, from stone to stone.
“I had hoped to be here and gone quickly,” Keri grumbled.
“Family does not make things so easy,” Arjun said, coming up on Keri’s side. The healer placed a hand on Keri’s shoulder. “We will be gone soon enough.”
Together, the four of them made their way from stone to stone – though, in Ghveris’s case, it took quite a bit more care. Their friend’s massive feet were larger than some of the flat rocks which had been used to make the path, and on more than one occasion Keri saw the edge of a stone crumble under his enormous weight.
The hall wasn’t built for him, either, and Ghveris had to duck his head. It was a sight that Keri had been witness to less and less, due to Liv’s insistence that every part of the keep taking shape atop Bald Peak must be designed to accommodate the Antrian’s body. As a result, the rooms were enormous, with wide doors and great vaulted ceilings, and regularly placed stone benches capable of bearing up under their friend’s armor.
As Keri’s family gathered for their midday meal, it was obvious that Mountain Home had no such seats. The larchwood chairs, finely carved as they were, would have been reduced to splinters had Ghveris attempted to take a place at the table. Instead, he hung back behind Keri, in the posture of a silent guardian.
“I hear that foolish girl is finally taking the offer I put on the table last summer,” his Aunt V?ina declared, sweeping into the room to join them. Her eyes were sharp and her mouth sour. “After spurning my vote at the council, she’s what - decided she needs House B?lris, now, and come crawling back?”
“Sister,” Keri’s father began, from his seat at the head of the table – but V?ina had already gotten the bit between her teeth, so to speak.
“She should have simply taken the bargain when I first offered it; now the price will be higher,” the old woman muttered.
Keri almost smiled at the image of someone slipping a bridle and reins around his aunt’s head, but forced himself to respond calmly. “I’m not here to negotiate with you,” he stated plainly. “Liv and I joining ourselves has nothing to do with this family, save that I’ve come to invite my father and my son to attend as guests.”
“Nothing to do?” V?ina sputtered. “If she was going to take you as daiverim anyway, she should have at least gotten something for it! Is the girl really that witless?”
Rather than let his anger out, Keri clenched his hands into fists at his sides. “Liv is one of the smartest people I know,” he said. “And I’m happy that we’re doing things this way. I wouldn’t want her to take me as part of some political maneuver. We’re doing this because we care about each other, not because it brings some advantage. Something I don’t expect you, or any of this family, to understand.” That last may have been a bit much, he realized, once the words were out of his mouth.
“Daddy!” Rei shouted, from the doorway.
Keri turned just in time to see his son yank away from Rika’s grasp and dash across the hall. It gave Keri just enough time to brace himself before the impact, and then sweep the boy up into his lap. “Hello, Rei,” he said, giving his son a squeeze in his arms. “I trust you’ve been attending your studies.”
The boy leaned his head into Keri’s chest, and gave a little nod. “Blossom said you were going to Godsgrave to save everyone,” he said. “Did you fight mana beasts there?”
“Plenty of them,” Keri assured his son. “And I’ll tell you all about it on the way to Kelthelis, and then on the trip back to Bald Peak.”
“Kelthelis?” Rika interrupted, crossing the room to pull a chair out from the table for herself. “Why in the name of the Trinity would he be going to that gods-forsaken place?” Sohvis, at her side, offered Keri a nod, which he decided to ignore.
“Arjun, Ghveris and I are headed there to deliver a letter to Liv’s family,” Keri explained. “And since we’ll be headed directly to Bald Peak from there, and Rei has never been that far north, I thought that he could ride with us.”
“I can?” Rei squealed, squirming in Keri’s lap.
“Absolutely not,” Rika declared. “That waystone is dangerous, it’s why most people hardly ever use it. There’s more mana beasts there than nearly any other rift in the north.”
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“It isn’t nearly so bad as it used to be,” Arjun spoke up. “It’s closer to minor rift, now, than a greater. When we went back to examine the enchantments the last time, we hardly had any trouble at all, except with the cold.”
Rika and V?ina each turned to fix the healer with cold stares, and Keri could practically feel his friend wilting.
“You need have no fear for your son’s safety,” Ghveris declared, his rumbling voice easily filling the room. “The three of us can easily defeat any mana beast that crawls out of the rift.”
There had been a time when Keri might not have agreed with that, but after facing Umbris, the dowager queen, and everything else they’d fought their way through as a group, he was surprised to realize that it was true. Even the prospect of a great white bear, back lined with mana crystals, just didn’t present the same threat as it once had.
“He’ll ride in my saddle, right in front of me,” Keri said. “I’ve made the trip using that waystone several times before. Arjun can provide mana shields, and Ghveris can deal with anything that approaches long before it reaches us. We will be at Kelthelis before nightfall, and then back in Bald Peak the next morning.”
“I don’t like it,” Rika insisted.
“Whether you like it or not, the boy has a right to be present when his father is joined with a new kwenim,” Ilmari declared, his voice hard. “He can either make the journey directly to Whitehill with me, or he can leave with his father. Make your choice, Rika.”
Sohvis placed a hand over Rika’s; Keri was surprised that the sight hardly hurt him at all, any longer. “Whatever else you may think of our cousin, you and I both know that he would never let anything happen to Rei. And having seen all of them fight against the Lucanians,” he continued, with a wave to indicate not only Keri, but also Arjun and Ghveris, “I can tell you that nothing short of another army would present a risk. I am aware of no armies encamped around the Tomb of Celris.”
?
There followed quite a bit more jawing over the midday meal, but Keri could tell that the decision had already been made. If the day ever came that his father had passed on, and V?ina had the final word at Mountain Home, things would become more difficult; but for now, Ilmari was still head of the council.
Rei found himself wrapped in a sealskin parka so thick that he could barely walk. In fact, Ghveris had to lift the boy up and place him in the saddle, where Keri rode with one arm around his son’s thoroughly padded waist. After one last promise from Keri’s father to meet them in Whitehill, they were off.
Light had returned to the northern plains, sparkling off the packed ice so brightly that it was nearly blinding. Savel provided Keri some protection from that, and Ghveris, relying on enchantments rather than living eyes, seemed unimpeded. Arjun and Rei, however, squinted, unable to stare directly at the vast sweeps of snow for long.
They rode hard until they’d crossed out of the shoals of the rift, which Keri suspected happened sooner than would once have been the case. A pack of wolves, their fur as white as the land on which they hunted, followed them for a short while, but a single bark of Ghveris’s weapons drove them back. After that, they slowed to a brisk trot to cover the distance without exhausting the horses.
“How does it feel?” Arjun asked, eventually, his voice breaking the monotony of the howling wind.
Keri blinked, at first not certain what his friend meant. “The wedding?” he asked.
Arjun nodded, one gloved hand on his reins and the other clutching the hood of his fur-lined cloak close about his face. They weren’t really dressed to spend time in the far north, but they also didn’t plan on remaining for long. “It isn’t your first. And I remember just how much it hurt you when –” he glanced once at Rei, and then stopped. “It didn’t work out.”
“You’re asking how I know this time will be different?” Keri didn’t have to think about it for very long. “Because Liv made me a promise, and I trust her.”
“It must be nice,” Arjun said, almost wistfully.
“I thought you had no desire for a lover,” Keri said, surprised.
“I don’t,” Arjun confirmed. “Not like that. I’ve never really understood it. But I do know what it is to be lonely, sometimes. I see with Liv, and Ghveris with Wren –” The war-machine let out a surprised gout of steam. “– and I can’t help but think it would be nice to have one person, someone I knew would always be with me, for the rest of my life. A companion.”
“You know that I cannot wed Wren,” Ghveris said, a moment later. “There is hardly more of me left than would fit in two hands. I cannot truly be with her.” The war-machine’s great shoulders slumped. “I have thought that I should say this to her, before she makes herself miserable wanting what cannot ever be.”
“If you could,” Keri said. “If Arjun told you tomorrow that he could heal your body, would you?”
“Without a moment’s hesitation,” Ghveris answered.
Keri’s mind drifted to the ring above their heads, the healing enchantments that had kept him alive, had saved Rose’s life, and had later helped Beatrice to bring her daughter to term. It was tempting to think that the ancient tools of the V?dim could accomplish anything – but he knew that if Liv or Arjun had thought they could rebuild Ghveris’s body, they would already have tried.
“Look!” Rei shouted, thrusting a bulky, paka-encased arm out. His little hands were protected by fur-lined leather mittens, but Keri was still able to follow what his son was pointing at. Across the endless plains of ice and snow, an entire herd of caribou ran across the horizon south of them.
Keri considered a moment, and then whispered an incantation. “?n’Bheuvēs ?Kvel.” Blue light sparked around his son’s eyes as the word of perception took hold, and Rei shrieked with joy, practically bouncing in the saddle.
“I can see them! It’s like they’re right in front of us!” Rei exclaimed.
Both Arjun and Keri reined in their horses, while Ghveris lumbered to a halt. They wouldn’t stay for long; it was too cold for that. But for a few moments, at least, he would let his son enjoy this.
?
The frozen spires of Kelthelis, stretching up into the darkening northern sky, were lit by the setting sun by the time the riders approached. Keri knew that, soon enough, the stars would be out, and the shimmering curtains of light which only painted the evening here, at the edge of the world, would drape themselves around the ring.
Syv?n guards hauled the gates open for them, allowing Keri and his friends into the courtyard, where Valtteri ka Auris received them. Keri had not seen the man since the great council at the Hall of Ancestors, and it was immediately apparent how much more at ease Liv’s father was, here in the north, compared to in the jungles of Varuna.
Valtteri had donned a cloak lined in fur, though he did not bother to keep the hood up around his head – perhaps, Keri realized, because Cel seemed to grant increased resistance to cold, the longer one wielded it. He’d noticed that Liv hardly seemed to notice temperatures which would cause Thora or Miina to be rushing to throw another log on the fire. Valterri’s hair was neatly braided, though Keri had the impression that some of the charms at the ends of the braids had been changed out since last he saw the man.
As they swung down from their saddles, and Keri lifted Rei down to the ground, Liv’s grandmother swept out into the courtyard, the hem of her cloak dragging through a thin dusting of snow.
“Inkeris,” Valtteri began. “Arjun. Ghveris – and Reikis. What brings you all so far north? Nothing troubling has happened, I hope.”
“Not at all,” Keri said, though he suspected that if Liv’s family had not yet heard every detail of their adventures in Freeport and Varuna, the older man might be inclined to disagree. “I bring a letter from your daughter, and an invitation to Whitehill.” He stepped across the courtyard, removed the folded parchment, sealed with red wax, from the pocket inside his cloak, and handed it over.
Valtteri broke the seal, unfolded the parchment, and began to read. Eila t?r V?inis approached her son from the side, leaning in to read Liv’s letter at the same time. For a long moment, Keri waited, resisting the urge to look away or to move his feet.
Finally, Valtteri’s eyes flicked up from the letter. Keri met them without flinching.
“I believe that when last we spoke of this matter, I warned you to do nothing which would lose my respect,” Liv’s father said. His tone was as cold as the land and the sky all around them.
Keri held his head high. “I do not believe I have done so, Elder,” he said.
“Have you read this letter?” Valtteri asked.
“No.” Keri shook his head. “Your daughter asked me to bring it to you, and to invite you both to Whitehill for the ceremony.” He hesitated. “I hope you know that I have not pressured Livara into this,” he began.
“Of course you haven’t,” Elder Eila said, with a snort. “She writes here that she’s the one who asked you. Stop trying to frighten the boy, Valtteri, and invite them inside.” The older woman’s eyes twinkled, and she reached out a hand to Keri’s son. “Come along Rei. Have you ever had honey-drizzled ice?”
volume nine is off and running!
here. I am more available there than I am here.
Dramatis Personae
Arjun Iyuz - Journeyman Guildmage from Lendh ka Dakruim; his jati specializes in healing magic. Has been disowned himself, so is sympathetic. [19 Rings of Mana]
Eila t?r V?inis - Mother of Valtteri, widow of Auris, grandmother of Liv. Only truly happy when she has a child to spoil. Peak grandma energy. [30 Rings of Mana]
Ghveris, the Beast of Iuronnath - Formerly a Great Bat in service to Ractia, now the remains of his body form the heart of an Antrian juggernaut. I'm not sure it counts as bragging if you can do it... [Mana Battery: 10 Rings]
Ilmari ka V?inis k?n B?lris - Head of the council of elders at Mountain Home; father of Keri, uncle of Sohvis, brother of V?ina. Utterly failed at matchmaking a throuple. [27 Rings of Mana]
Inkeris "Keri" ka Ilmari k?n B?lris - A young warrior of the Unconquered House of B?lris, father to Rei. Might have a little emotional damage, still. [21 Rings of Mana.]
Rei ka Inkeris k?n B?lris - Son of Keri and Rika. Caribou and treats! [4 Rings of Mana]
Rika t?r Calevis k?n B?lris - A talented dancer of the Unconquered House of B?lris, joined to Keri. Outvoted! [10 Rings of Mana]
Sohvis ka Auris k?n B?lris - Grew up close friends with his cousin, Keri and Rika. Wait, is he actually on Keri's side here? [16 Rings of Mana]
V?ina t?r V?inis k?n B?lris - Mother of Sohvis, sister of Ilmari, Aunt of Keri. Refuses to put down the shovel, no matter how deep a hole she digs. [24 Rings of Mana]
Valtteri ka Auris - Father of Liv, son of Auris and Eila. "What sort of nonsense are you all involved in now - oh, wait, a wedding?" [37 Rings of Mana]
