An Unexpected Deity (Book 7) (7 page)

“That is why I have asked you to come here, to take us away to the healing spring, and then to Oaktown afterwards,” Kestrel agreed.

“Mulberry mentioned a trip to the healing spring, but I do not see her – where is she?” Killcen asked.

“I’m right here, loyally serving our elf-friend,” Mulberry’s muffled voice sounded from behind him.  “I’m ready and waiting to carry our friend someplace warm!” she added.

The imps began to descend around Kestrel.

“Bradstree, trust me, and allow the imps to bring you with me.  We will discuss this later.  I am sure your village elders would not want you to leave me alone on the journey,” he cajoled the gnome.

“This does not seem to fit what you say, but I will go with you for now, and we will discuss it later,” the gnome grudgingly agreed.

The imps surrounded the two, and they vanished from the frozen cave as they were transported through the empty dimension that the imps used.  Moments later they landed on the banks of the healing spring, where the imps immediately began to prepare themselves for immersion in the water.

“I never want to do that again!” Bradstree spoke loudly as soon as the imps ungrappled from him.  “I thought I was going to suffocate!” he exclaimed.

“Why are they undressing?!” he asked immediately afterwards as he observed the imps.

“The way the imps travel will never get comfortable, but it is always the fastest way to travel,” Kestrel answered.

He picked up an imp and laid him in the water.  “Mulberry, where are you?” he called.  “You’ve earned the opportunity to enter the water quickly.”

“You still even feel cold!” he told her as he lifted her towards the water.

“Your flesh did not warm me up as much as you would like for all females to believe!” she laughed, then fell asleep as she entered the water.

“The imps fall asleep in this water,” Kestrel explained to Bradstree, as he continued to lift and soak them.  “We’ll get in the water too, but we will not sleep.”

Minutes later, his labors done, Kestrel removed his own clothes, even though his pants were already soaked from standing in the shallow water.

“Come on, get in.  The water feels wonderful – it heals,” Kestrel urged.  “You might as well get in – we’re going to be here until the imps awaken.  And the water is warm.”

“Where are we?” Bradstree asked with a note of curiosity.

“We’re in the Eastern Forest, the home of elves who live here, far across the Inner Seas from your home,” Kestrel answered.  “If we were to walk back to your village, it would take at least a month, probably much longer.”

“And these imps have traveled here just that fast?” the gnome asked, as he sat down and began to pull his boots off, while Kestrel lazily floated in the water.

“It is the way they travel from place to place, and they are good enough to carry me around as well,” Kestrel answered.  “They have tremendous abilities.”

“This is hot!” Bradstree exclaimed as he stepped into the water.

“You’ll get used to it.  It’s better than sitting in an ice cave,” Kestrel told him.

“Why are the imps sleeping in the water?” Bradstree asked as he slowly stepped forward.

“The water makes them fall asleep and dream wonderful dreams.  It makes them happy.  We can relax over here, on these rocks,” Kestrel swam over to his usual resting place and laid back, finally feeling warmth penetrate deep into his body as it drove out the last of the chill from the mountaintop.

Bradstree floundered through the pool and reached the rocks, then lay in the spring water as well.

“The village elders would say I am lazy if they saw this,” he told Kestrel in a serious whisper after several moments of silence.  “They do not believe in enjoying and resting like this, I think.”

“If they had faced spending the night in the cave at the top of the mountain, they would approve of this,” Kestrel said reassuringly.

“Perhaps you are correct,” Bradstree mused.

They sat in silence after that, while Kestrel watched low clouds go sliding rapidly across the sky, offering no threat of rain, but cutting off the view of the stars above.

“It’s time to get going,” he said after enough time had passed to let the imps enjoy the waters.

“Back to the mountain?” the gnome asked with a hint of a plaintive note.

“No, we’ll go to my home to sleep tonight, and then we’ll all go back to the mountain cave in the morning and hike down to my friends’ village,” Kestrel clarified.

“This will be unlike any journey I’ll ever take over the mountains,” Bradstree mused, as Kestrel pulled imps out of the water, then got dressed.

The group left the spring and arrived in Kestrel’s darkened study, where Putienne and Remy were sitting on a couch together, laughing when the imp-carried travelers appeared.

“My lord, welcome,” Remy nearly barked the greeting out hastily as he leapt up from the couch to stand apart from Putty, who giggled.

“We were just waiting for your arrival,” Remy hastily added.

“Without any candles or lanterns?” Kestrel asked archly.

“I was going to say we should go home for the night, but now I think we should stay to watch Kestrel-father figure handle this,” Odare told the other imps.

“You’re dismissed,” Kestrel told the imps.  “I’ll call you in the morning,” he assured them.

“Remy, you’ll take our guest,” Kestrel began to say.

“He’s…what is he?” Remy asked in astonishment, noticing Bradstree for the first time.

“This is Bradstree, a gnome.  He is my guest tonight,” Kestrel said.  “Remy, take him to a guest room for the night, then come back here.”

Bradstree, follow the boy to your room for the night,” Kestrel threw out one more set of directions.  He was suddenly exhausted once again, feeling the effects of the mountain-climbing day return as the energy from the spring faded away.

“Putty, you go to your room and lock the door,” he said finally, as the others all began to move.

She looked at him with a puzzled look.

“Oh, just go to bed, and sleep well.  Tomorrow you’ll have to tell me all about your day with Remy,” he said in a tired voice as he squeezed her shoulder affectionately, and watched her leave.  That left him alone, the only person in the office, and he shook his head to think that not long before he had been in danger of frostbite on a mountaintop in the high peaks of the southern mountains.

Remy came running down the hall, his footsteps clearly audible, then he paused before he entered the office again in a slow and casual manner.

“The gnome is in his room, my lord,” the elven boy told Kestrel.  “He said something to me, but I don’t know what he said.”

“Did you take good care of Putienne today?” Kestrel asked.

“Yes, sir,” Remy answered enthusiastically.  “We did all kinds of things!”

“You were a proper gentleman to her, I’m sure,” Kestrel kept his expression neutral.

“Oh yes sir, absolutely, my lord, sir,” Remy stuttered over the words of affirmation.

“Good; that’s what I’d expect.  She’s very, very important to me, you know,” Kestrel told the youth.  “Now go to your room and go to sleep,” he ordered the young servant, and patted the boy’s shoulder as they left the office.

He was dead tired, ready to fall asleep on his feet, he decided, but he stopped at Bradstree’s door anyway.

“Do you need anything?” he asked.

“Just tell the boy thank you for leading me here,” the gnome said.

“I’ll wake you in the morning for breakfast,” Kestrel told him, and two minutes later he was lying on his own bed, snoring soundly.

Chapter 5

A yeti was standing beside Kestrel’s bed when he awoke the next morning.

“Putty!” he grinned, happy to see the creature in its natural form, not just because he wanted to discourage Remy’s interest in Putienne, but also because he simply enjoyed the sight of the friendly, furry face.

“I can never scare you!” she pouted as she morphed back into her girlish form.  “Is it time to get up?”

There was sunlight coming in the window, Kestrel saw.  “Yes, it’s time to get up.  Go to the kitchen and see if breakfast is ready.  I’ll go get our guest and join you there, then we’ll go back to the mountain.”

“Can I just stay here and be with Remy while you climb the mountain again today, just like yesterday?” she asked hopefully.

“No,” Kestrel replied instantly.  “I’d like for you to be with me, and see the mountain scenery,” he added after a moment.

“Okay,” she seemed unfazed by his response, and left the room.

Kestrel rose and dressed, then woke Bradstree, and  they walked to the kitchen.

“How many people live here?” the gnome asked as they walked the halls.

“I don’t know,” Kestrel admitted, trying to add up the number of servants who resided in the manor.  “Maybe more than a dozen?” he guessed.

“So few people in so much space?  Did many of your elves die?” Bradstree asked incredulously.

“Well, no.  It’s just not meant to have lots of elves living here together,” Kestrel answered defensively, even as he wondered about how he would have viewed the manor just a few years earlier, before he had been exposed to so many palaces and mansions, and come to take so much for granted.  He was reminded that he needed to think further about how to help the elves around him, in Oaktown and the villages nearby.  And he would think about it, he promised himself, once he finished carrying out his current duties on behalf of the gods.

They entered the kitchen, when Putienne sat at a table with a sleepy-looking Remy.  She was eating toast, and the kitchen was rich with the aromas of food cooking for their breakfast.

“Bernie,” Kestrel said to the cook, “are there any mushrooms left?”

“Sir, begging your pardon, but those voracious imps of your ate up more mushrooms than I’ve ever seen  picked in all my years.  There are a few dried ones in the cellar, but not thanks to those imps you’re such good friends with, cute and interesting as they are,” the cook responded with a burst of long-suppressed aggravation.

“I understand,” Kestrel said as he smothered a smile.  “Could you get a few of those mushrooms and prepare a small omelet for breakfast?”

“It’ll be done in just a second, my lord,” Bernie said.

Kestrel and Bradstree sat down to eat, as Remy overtly studied the gnome, the only member of his race ever to be seen in Oaktown.

“They’re different from us,” he finally said, as Bradstree focused on the food that was offered for breakfast, rejecting the acorns while eating the bacon and roasted tubers.

“On the outside, but not so much on the inside,” Kestrel told the boy.  “I lived in a village of gnomes one winter.  They saved my life.”

“They’re good people; they just don’t mix with other races very often,” he explained.

“Nobody mixes with others the way that you do, my lord,” Remy replied.  “Folks just can’t get over how easily you go from imps to elves to humans for anything you want!”

“Speaking of imps,” Kestrel said, as he saw Bernie the cook finishing the omelet Kestrel had requested, “Mulberry, Mulberry, Mulberry,” he chanted softly.

There was a long pause, and then the imp appeared, still pulling a heavy blouse down over her head as she arrived.

“Must we start so early, Kestrel-sleep-depriver?” she asked crossly.  “Why did you call me first, after all I went through yesterday with you?”

“Because,” Kestrel answered, as the omelet plate was placed in front of him,  “I thought you might enjoy having this special breakfast as my thanks for your friendship yesterday,” he said as he waved his hand over the plate.

“Kestrel-dearest!” Mulberry’s eyes widened, and her face lit up with delight.  “You may call me any time of any morning you have any thing you wish to say…or share!” she laughed, then sat in his lap and began to greedily eat the food in front of him.

“Hurry up and eat that, so I can call the others and they won’t know what you got – we’ll both be in trouble if that happens,” Kestrel urged his friend.

“I am hurrying!” Mulberry said with a mouth full of food, fragments of egg spraying forth.

“Stillwater,” Kestrel called, moments later, as the last bite of food left the plate.  “Stillwater, Stillwater,” he repeated, and then he picked Mulberry up to remove her from his lap and released her in the air next to him, watching her float away.

“Kestrel lord, are you ready to begin our frigid adventure again?” the imp squad leader asked as he appeared.  He cut the sentence off abruptly, and sniffed the air, his head swiveling from side to side, then his eyes settled on Mulberry and he gave her a hard stare, while Bradstree sat and stared in confoundment at the sudden appearance of the imp.

“I confess!  I confess!” she shouted loudly.  “I spent the entire night here making passionate love to the elf-friend!”  She floated next to Kestrel and began to tenderly stroke his hair.

“Mulberry!” Kestrel spoke up, surprised by the dishonest confession.

“He will ask no more questions, Kestrel-beloved, be assured,” Mulberry said calmly, as she watched Stillwater’s face grow bright purple.

“Shall I call the others?” Stillwater changed the topic.

“Would you send some imps to find Wren, and bring her here to join us?” Kestrel asked.

“While they get her, we’ll get ready to return to the mountain,” he added.  He looked at Bradstree and Putienne, who were eating their food and watching.  “Let’s get ready to leave in a few minutes,” he said in both travelers’ languages.  “Go get something warm to wear,” he told the girl as Stillwater departed, on his way to assist in fetching Wren from Seafare.

Three minutes later the kitchen staff and Remy looked on with bemusement as the manor kitchen became the embarkation point for the arriving members of the mountain climbing expedition.

Wren arrived in the midst of a trio of imps.

“It’s awfully early, you know,” she commented to Kestrel.  “The sun’s barely up in Seafare.”

“Do you have a cloak or anything warm to wear?” Kestrel asked in return.  “It’s pretty cold up on the mountaintop.”

“Why do you need us on the mountaintop anyway?” she asked pettily.  “Couldn’t you just go back up there with the imps and the gnome and climb down to the warmth, then fetch Putty and me?”

“If we’re going up there, you’re going up there,” Acanthus firmly answered, settling the question.

“Are you prepared to return to the cave?” Kestrel asked Bradstree.

“With all of these travelers?  Where were they on the way up?  It doesn’t seem fair to let them just climb down the easy side of the mountain,” the gnome groused.

“The sooner we get there and start climbing, the sooner we’ll be done,” Kestrel replied philosophically.

The imps closed in around them all.

“Good bye, my lord,” the kitchen workers all called to Kestrel.

“Good bye Putty.  Come back soon,” Remy said.  “Good bye lord Kestrel, too,” he added.

And then the journey commenced, as the mixed crew left the kitchen.

“Do you suppose there’s anywhere else in the Eastern Forest that sees the things we see?” Bernie the cook asked.

“There’s no place in the all the lands of the entire Inner Seas that sees what we see!” Remy exclaimed.

The travelers missed the conversation as they felt the suspension of sensation while the imps carried them to the heights of the southern mountains, and there were bursts of exclamations as they all arrived in the frigid conditions of the chilly cave.

“Kestrel!  Why are we here?” Wren asked in annoyance.

Because the imps have to know a place to go there, and so far this is the closest place the imps know to Proetec’s village,” Kestrel replied calmly.  He looked at the entrance to the cave, where a pink sky hinted at the arrival of sunrise.  “Let’s get going.”

He motioned for Bradstree to lead the way, then he paused to tuck Putty’s cape around her neck more firmly.  As he did, she suddenly laughed.

“Here, father-friend, give this to cousin Wren,” she told him as she undid his work and removed her fur.

“But you need it!” Kestrel answered.

“Wren needs it much more than I do,” Putienne answered as she handed the cape to Kestrel, and then suddenly morphed into a yeti, with a shaggy fur coat, intact and warm.

Bradstree turned to discover the commotion behind him as he reached the entrance to the cave, they shouted in terror and bolted out into the breaking dawn as he observed the large monster in the cave behind him, while Wren started to laugh.

“Let’s go catch our gnome,” she said to Kestrel, taking Putty’s discarded wrap from him and throwing it around herself as she passed him and headed towards the door.

The imps fluttered out the cavern entrance, and Kestrel followed behind Wren and Putty as they all stepped out of the cave and made a quick journey through the short passage that opened to reveal the heights of the mountain range.  The sun was rising to their left, and there was no wind blowing.  The air was cold, but fresh and clear, so that they could see the mountains that stretched out for miles in either direction.  And directly ahead of them, spread out below them, was a large, green valley, a heavily forested low plateau that was ringed by mountains.  Closer to them they could see Bradstree scampering down the trail that descended on the southern front of their mountain, the trail that would take them to the isolated gnomish village they were intent on reaching.

“Bradstree!” Kestrel bellowed loudly.

“Stop!  Wait!  There’s no danger!” he shouted as he stood next to Putty.

The gnome did stop, already a hundred yards ahead of them.  He looked at them warily, and it took fifteen minutes of cautious approach and constant conversation to persuade him to let them catch up to him.

“Can you blame me?” he spoke with uncharacteristic fervor.  “I turned around and a monster was there.”

After a round of assurances, the imps spoke up.  “Can we just get moving?” Odare asked, and the whole squad set in motion, descending the steep path rapidly, but not rapidly enough for half the imps, who promised to meet the group in the warmer climate below, and went plunging down through the atmosphere faster than Kestrel had ever seen them fly before.

An hour later the temperatures were noticeably warmer, and two hours after that, Bradstree called a halt.   Kestrel was thankful – climbing downward had caused chaffing in unusual parts of his boots, and he felt blisters starting to emerge.

“They’ve seen us,” Bradstree said.

“Who?” Wren asked.

“The villagers – they keep a watch on the trail.  They flashed a light a few minutes ago.  It’s a shiny crystal that reflects the sun.  Someone will meet us further down the trail.  I’m sure they don’t understand what they’re seeing,” he laughed with mirth at the thought of how the assorted group of imps, elves, and a yeti would look from afar.

The resumed their descent, and before midday they reached a leveling off of the trail, where the path was less angled, without switchbacks, and there they were met by Hansen himself.

“I heard there was an elf coming, and I knew it had to be you!” the gnome said ebulliently as he hugged Kestrel tightly.

“It’s so good to see you!” Kestrel replied.  “How’s Greta?”

“You’ll see her soon.  She’s at the village.  I didn’t want to make her climb all the way up here, since she’s expecting our first child,” Hansen said without a pause.

“You’re expecting?  Great news!” Kestrel thumped his friend’s back in joy.

We’re very happy,” Hansen agreed.

“You seem comfortable having a monster with you?” he changed the subject, looking at Putty as he spoke.

Kestrel turned to the yeti, and switched languages.  “You can return to your other shape now, dear.  The weather here is not cold, and you will not frighten our friends if you look like a pretty elven girl,” he told her.

Putienne made the instantaneous change to her other form, and Hansen’s eyes bulged in shock.

“Putienne is a shape-changer now,” Kestrel explained.

“She is pretty as an elf, by your standards?” Hansen asked, eyeing the girl.

Wren snickered before Kestrel answered.  “She is considered young still, but very beautiful,” Kestrel confirmed.

“And are you handsome, to other elves?” Hansen’s curiosity came out into the open.

Wren burst out in laughter.

“I am about average,” Kestrel answered, abashed by the question.

“This is a passing strange group of visitors you are receiving,” Bradstree spoke up.  “Your village will be an interesting place.  I hope you enjoy them.  For my part, I will return to my own village now; with some luck, I can get over the top of the mountain and start back down the other side before night falls.”