Tivi's Dagger Page 18

  “It has made me very happy to hear that my grandson has embraced the world at last,” she said, sipping from her glass. “Those who have seen dragons will always carry the fierce and wonderful vision in their hearts. And he also tells me that you’re planning to stay here among us. Is it true?”

  “True,” I said cheerfully. “I have naught but the clothes on my back, and I’ve never been happier.”

  “Well, you will need to feed yourselves,” she said. “The small home where I lived before taking the silver is not far from here. In return for its upkeep and donations to the temple, I sometimes allow the dwarven traders to use it when they cross the border. You may make it your home, if you wish. But as for how you earn your keep, that is up to you.”

  “Grandmother,” Kari slurred, hugging the old woman tightly. “I could not adore you more.”

  Mother Kiti laughed and unwrapped her grandchild’s floppy arms from about her person. “I do not believe you will be able to make the journey to the sleeping quarters tonight. You may rest here on these cushions, and I will see to it that your vestments are washed and packed for you to leave in the morning.”

  “This may sound like an ignorant question,” I ventured, emboldened by all the wine to voice the deepest fears in my heart. “But the people of Methar…two men living in the same home, must we…?”

  She waved her hand at me almost dismissively. “Child, in all your time in our land, have you not noticed or learned that Mata is blind? Who are we to question to whom she bestows her gifts? If she has smiled upon you, then you must be thankful and that’s all there is to it.”

  With an unexpectedly loud belch, the old woman got to her feet and tried to wrap the silver about her face and head. It hung for a moment in a strip over her eyes and she flapped at it for a moment then giggled like a girl. Her weathered cheeks were almost the same reddened color as her lips. “I will retire,” she announced. “This is holy ground, so I expect you to behave accordingly. Some blankets…somewhere. So! To the dawn, my children.”

  “To the dawn,” I murmured, and sprawled out on the cushions, relieved and almost ridiculously happy.

  Chapter 13

  Some nights later, after much backbreaking labor, Mother Kiti’s spartan little home was finally fit for habitation.

  I speculated that it had been some months since dwarven traders had stayed there, so dusty were the surfaces and filthy the floors, and Kari had discovered a scrawny black tom cat sleeping in one of the kitchen cupboards. Spiders’ webs stretched from doorknob to wall but Kari reassured me that they belonged only to the tiny sort which lived unnoticed in a home. The kitchen reeked of the tom’s spray and it took many hours on my knees with a scrubbing brush and buckets of water before the odor faded. I had little aptitude for such work and I felt a nostalgic appreciation for my servants back in Azmara. But apart from the ordeal of learning to use household implements, I did not miss our mansion much at all.

  Much to my dismay, Kari seemed disinclined to throw the feline out into the wild, so the house acquired a third resident, who deposited a dead rat at my feet the next day. I scratched the tom’s head and thanked him for his efforts, and he seemed content to be rewarded with a strip of dried meat before dragging the corpse off somewhere outside to feast upon his main meal.

  The yard outside our new home was a tangled mess of high grasses and blue flowers, nettles, prickled bushes, and some thick-trunked apple trees which stretched out their branches to tap against the walls of the house as if demanding entry. There was a small stable floored with decaying straw and months-old evidence of horses, and beside it an empty chicken coop. The house itself was small, comprised of a mere three rooms on one floor with a peaked roof and a stone-lined chimney, raised above the earth on sturdy stilts. Creepers were growing up the side and were beginning to bloom with bell-shaped orange flowers. The area inside was smaller than my former bedroom, but I quickly realized that without my vast array of clothes I didn’t need much space. The walls were constructed from an ancient, dark wood which was thick and warm to touch and I often found myself stroking the gnarly surface, idly contemplating the lives the eyes in the grain had observed over the years.

  When all the work was done — on the inside at least — I flopped down on the mattress to rest my back and aching arms and knees. My hands were red with scrubbing and the wringing of rags and I observed with some pride that I was becoming more accomplished in the realm of housekeeping than I had ever imagined I would. I was hungry but we had little food, although we had already planned a trip to a nearby village to get some supplies which would use up the remainder of our coin.

  Kari did not seem perturbed by the thought of being penniless, and joked that my remaining clothes would fetch a tidy sum if I were content to remain naked about the house, something that appealed to me much more than our next task, which was getting the yard into some sort of order.

  It was growing dark outside and the insects were singing in the grass. Kari came finally to join me, holding his palm before a stubby candle. He set it down on the floor and rolled over to face me. “I think it’s time we made this bed truly ours,” he said with a soft smile. “Don’t you think?”

  I stroked a finger down his stubbled cheek and over his lips. Then I replaced my finger with my mouth, and kissed him gently. He’d been sucking the last of the sugar root and tasted warm and delicious. “As you wish, my love,” I whispered, and when he reached for the little vial of oil I knew I was finally ready to give myself to him fearlessly and completely.

  He took his time shedding my clothes and worshipping my entire body with his mouth and tongue, teasing at my nipples and belly button, and I laced my fingers through his thick curls and sighed with contentment as he trailed his tongue upwards once more to claim my mouth with some vigor. In the end he took me as he had done that night beside the river, stretching me and filling me and torturing me with long, leisurely strokes. Through the fog of arousal I had to give him credit for his stamina and staying power because he kept it up until sweat began to trickle from my brow and my prick was like heated stone lying against my belly. He wouldn’t let me touch it, and kept me at pleasure’s peak until I began to beg him mindlessly for release. “By the Gods,” I breathed, overcome, “fuck me harder. I won’t break.”

  “As you wish, my Ned.” He kissed me once more and began to slam into me so hard that the mattress began to inch toward the wall. Our moans and grunts made a sweet music with the chirruping of the insects outside and I almost screamed with ecstasy as my seed shot out of me, so hard that it decorated the wall behind my head. Kari did not last long after that and emptied himself inside me with a shuddering groan before collapsing into my arms.

  I lay there panting for a while, stroking his hair and his back, not wanting to let him out of my grasp. His body shook slightly and I realized, when I came back down to reality, that he was chuckling.

  “You have a novel approach to painting the walls, my Ned.”

  I glanced back at the wall and began to laugh. “I suppose I will have to start scrubbing once more.”

  He kissed me and rolled onto his side, and drew the scratchy blankets up around us. “It can wait until morning.” Then he snuggled against me and I closed my eyes. Even though I was hungry, and would sleep on the floor for the rest of my life, I knew I’d made the right choice.

  Chapter 14

  Some months later, our little home had become an almost fully functioning farm of sorts. Winter was approaching and I’d traded my leathers — worn as they were — for a pregnant goat, some scrawny chickens, and a belligerent black rooster who strode around the yard as if he owned it. The cat, by now sleek and over-fed, eyed the birds idly from his usual position in a plant pot of crushed stems beside the door. I was now slim enough to wear Kari’s winter furs and scratchy woolen tunics and we made do with what we had, although I could not help secretly mourning the loss of my fine clothes.

  One day as I was on my knees in the yard trying to rob t
he chicken’s nest of eggs, a courier came calling. He knocked on the door then shouted over to me, wiping sweat from his brow as it was a steep climb from the border road to our home.

  “Do I have the pleasure of addressing Nedim Melchion of Azmara?”

  It was strange to hear my full name once more. To our neighbors I was just Ned, a poor tiyal from Lis who couldn’t cook and was frequently attacked by cockerels. I straightened up and ran my hands through my hair. “That’s me.”

  “Finally. I’ve been sent from Azmara with a delivery for you, courtesy of a Kelthras Amillian, and I wanted to make sure this was the right house before having my men cart all this stuff up the hill. Some correspondence for you also, from your home.”

  I went over and received the scrolls from him, noting with a sinking feeling that the slimmer of the two bore my father’s seal underneath the blue ribbon. I signed the delivery invoice and took my correspondence inside, opting to open the less enticing one first.

  “Notice of Disinheritance,” it read at the top, just under the crest of the Melchion house which had been painted in fine detail: a white lion on a blue flag with a sun rising behind. “For flagrant disregard of family duty and immoral behavior, it is with great regret that the House of Melchion will no longer acknowledge any claim from second son and former heir Nedim to the title, fortune, or lands associated with the House. Nedim remains entitled to bear the name of the House for any legal actions arising from this decision of the Divine Court of Lis.” The date — some two months before — was carefully printed below, and I recognized my father’s illegible scrawl just underneath.

  No personal note inside, no inquiries about my health, nothing.

  It was nothing more than I had expected, but it came with a sour taste of disappointment and rejection all the same. I read the beautifully printed words over and over, struck with the realization that I was unlikely to see my father again. And if I did, he would not acknowledge me as his son and likely shame me in front of whoever was around to emphasize his distance from me. I shook myself and tried to forget it. What difference did it make, anyway? I was living with a man I adored and making my own way in life for the very first time. That was something to be proud of, surely.

  From outside came the squeak of a crooked wheel and I surmised that a cart of some kind was being pulled into the yard.

  I turned my attention to the second scroll just as Kari came inside, clutching the eggs that I’d abandoned at the entrance to the chicken coop moments before. “What are you doing, Ned? Why are those couriers unloading so many trunks into our yard?”

  Our yard. Those little things he said made me happy all the time. I pointed to the notice of disinheritance beside me and focused my attention to picking out the tightly bowed ribbon on the second, thicker scroll. “It’s a delivery from Azmara, along with this merry correspondence. Read it, if you like.”

  When I finally unrolled the second scroll — a gold-trimmed parchment decorated along the edges with intricate paintings of stars and bright blue birds and leaves — I let out a gasp of surprise. A small scrap of a note fell to the ground but I was fixated by the gold-lined letters of the parchment before me.

  Nedim Melchion and Guest are cordially invited to the marriage of Lana (House Destar) and Brindar (Formerly of House Melchion) at the Destar Mansion in Azmara, Lis.

  Wedding invitations in Azmara were simple — everyone knew the sort of functions they were, and coming in one’s finest clothes went without saying. The date was set to the first day of the first month of the spring. Lana…and my brother. I shook my head in wonderment and a growing happiness. I should not have doubted her, but as I thought back to our pilgrimage I could see how Brin had ever so slowly fallen into her clutches. Or perhaps they had simply fallen into each other’s. I was thrilled beyond measure that my best friend was happy and that my brother had found the new life he had sought. It seemed, as I re-read the invitation, that my brother had already given up his name upon the announcement of their engagement and I was suddenly so proud of him for turning his back on the Protectors, who’d ruined his life after all, that tears gathered in my eyes.

  Poor Kel — no doubt he was cursing us to the stars but I had no doubts that my cousin would see the benefit of the situation once my father entrusted him with the key to the collection of rare tomes and scrolls he — and his father before him — had gathered while they were still working men and out in society.

  “Are you all right, Ned?” Kari put his hand on my shoulder.

  I picked up the note that had fallen at my feet and grinned widely as I saw Lana’s poorly spelt chicken-scratch looping all over the paper.

  Ned I am sorrie!!! I did not know Kari’s Full Name. But the Prynt Maker did NOT accept only one. I had not missed the PEDANTRIE of Noble Life for sure!!! Brindar and I are Happie but he is a Gentle Man and will not allow me to begin his TRAINING until OUR WEDDING NYGHT. Your Father was Most upset to loose his sons but He has gained Kel and even found him a STURDIE WENCH to marrie when he has finished his studies so Kel can DISPENSE with his WOOING BOOKS thank the Gods! Azmara is KAYOS as always but the Common People are happier because of LESS PROTECTORS PREACHING all over the Place because They are in another Fyght for Leadership.

  Kel wants to write our Storie!!! He says it is a PROFOUND TREATYS OF LOVE and worthie of POETRIE or some such academic non sense! Didn’t the Dragon bring us all GOOD LUCK!!! ? I hope you are reading this whyle sitting on a WELL FUCKED BACKSYDE. PLEASE come to our WEDDING!!! — Your Friend evermore, LANA DESTAR.

  I looked up at Kari with a smile. “What is your full name? I must confess I’m embarrassed to ask it after all this time together.”

  “I was a monk, Ned. I’ve never had a family name until now. Yours is now mine, as you are, although I’m sure the lawmakers of Lis would burn their books rather than note it.”

  Mine. I took his hand and squeezed it, then re-read Lana’s note and chuckled. “Definitely. But nonetheless, we have a wedding to attend in the spring.” I glanced outside, recognizing the trunks that had been piled up in the yard as my own. My clothes! I sighed with happiness, my vanity sated for the moment. “And by the looks of it, we’ll have plenty to wear.”

  END.