By Moonlight Wrought (Bt Moonlight Wrought) (50 page)

         “I won’t do it anymore, but I do like my
clothes.  Please.  Many don’t look like...well, you know,
those
kind of
dresses.  Please.”  Dirk nodded his consent, happy that she, unlike Cinder,
would give something, probably anything, up simply because he asked.

         “I’ll bring a horse and cart,” he said. 
“Be ready; I’ll be back.”  Tallow nodded and smiled.  Dirk hurried home and
hitched Candy to a cart in which he had lain several blankets to keep Tallow’s
garments clean against the soiled wood, then he led the wagon back to the
house. 

         When he walked inside, Vanna and Beatrice
were sitting alone in the room.  They looked strangely at each other then
bounced over and each took one of his arms and guided him to the couch.  “Hi
Dirk,” Beatrice said.  “How are you tonight?  How about all the snow we’re
having?”

         “Yes,” Vanna added.  “Strange, isn’t
it?”  He looked at them, growing naturally suspicious.

         “Where’s Tallow?” he asked.

         “Oh, she’s packing,” Beatrice said.

         “Yeah, packing,” Vanna said.  Dirk heard
Tallow’s voice from up the stairs.

         “No!” she said.  “Not anymore,” then
there was a pause:  “Since now.  I quit.”  Dirk rose like an enraged bull.

         “We didn’t want you to see her with him,
Dirk,” Beatrice pleaded, grabbing him vainly.  “She was packing.  Don’t be mad
with her.  He forced his way upstairs just before you got here.”  Dirk shook
the girls loose and shot up the stairs in two great leaps.  He threw the door
open and crossed the room in another two strides to where a man of surly
appearance, his forehead low and heavy, was shaking Tallow by her shoulders.  He
let her go and stepped back in fear as Dirk approached.

         Dirk shoved him, knocking the man with
incredible force back into the wall.  As he bounced off it, Dirk raised a great
gauntleted fist and punched him in the jaw, knocking him out cold and down onto
the floor.  Dirk went to pummel him again, but Tallow grabbed his arm with both
her hands, begging him to stop while nearly being hurled forward by his
strength.  Dirk stopped and looked about.  Her clothes were scattered around
the room, as if thrown there.

         “I’ll pick it all up.  Go downstairs and
wait,” Tallow pleaded.  Dirk nodded with a grunt and threw the man over his
shoulder.  He carried him down and to the front stairs, where he hurled him
face-first into the snowbank below.  Vanna and Beatrice giggled.  Beatrice,
spurred by an idea, walked over to him.

         “Maybe you’d like to protect us all?” she
asked.

         “What do you mean?” asked Dirk, slowly
calming, his breath coming in short, angry pants.

         “You see, that’s what he does, or did, if
you
want to know.  We could give you a percent of our earnings.  We’ve
all been forced or stiffed on our fees by jerks, even threatened.  You would
just make sure that they behave by doing things like
that
to them,” she
said, pointing to the front door.

         “I don’t think so,” Dirk said.  “If you
don’t like those things to happen to you, then quit what you do and get a real
job.”  Beatrice’s eyes flashed.

         “Why don’t you wake up and realize life
around you, Dirk.  People like sex and they always, always will.  Why can’t you
see that?  Great gods, it’s human nature!  And do you think you’re gonna pay
her what she makes here?  I don’t think so.  What she gives is needed by every
person alive; some more than others.  That little girl makes more than thirty
crowns a month.  Can you pay her that to do whatever it is she’s gonna do?  No,
I didn’t think so.”

         “Well,” he said, “if she wants a place to
stay, food to eat, and her body as her own, she’ll take a pay cut.  But, if
it’s money and dirty sex she wants, she can stay with you.”  He stepped past
Beatrice and paced impatiently around the room.  Tallow had her garments neatly
stacked on the bed, and Dirk began the task of shuttling them down to the
cart.  Tallow soon joined him.

         “I’ll go get my cosmetics and paints,”
she said.  After several minutes, he heard her saying good-bye with promises to
visit and invitations for her friends to visit her, which Dirk was plainly not
thrilled about.  Then she came out carrying a pillowcase which made scratching
and clashing noises (filled with jars and bottles) and she placed it gingerly
with her clothing then took Dirk’s arm.  He used his other arm to lead Candy
along, and the three walked the route back to the store.

         Dirk stopped the cart outside the back
door and took Tallow inside.  He left her in the store proper, while he walked
into Jenderson’s office.

         “Yes, Dirk?” Jenderson asked.

         “I need to give a friend a job.”

         “Doing what?  We don’t need anyone right
now.”

         “I’ll pay her from my own salary if I
have to, just find her something important, or at least something she’ll think
is important.”

         “Well,” said Jenderson, pondering, “I
don’t know.”

         “Teach her how the store runs.   Not the
details, but the general stuff.  She can help, I know.  She’s smart and can
take care of some of the smaller stuff for you.”

         “All right.  I’ll put her on payroll and
see what I can do,
tomorrow
,” he said emphatically.  “I’m swamped right
now and as it looks, I won’t be leaving on time.  I’m going to be here awhile,”
he sighed as if to himself.

         “Thanks,” Dirk said downheartedly.  “I
really appreciate it.”

         “Dirk,” Jenderson called as he was about
to leave, “I’m sorry, again, about Cinder.  She was a sweet and charming girl. 
How did things go today?” 

         Dirk shrugged and looked down to the
floor.  “Okay” he said.  “I mean, not good.  You know what I mean.”

         “Yes.  Yes, I think I do.  If I can do
anything at all, do let me know.  I mean it wholeheartedly.”  Dirk nodded and
smiled, remembering back to several months earlier when he absolutely hated
Jenderson.  Now the man was so understanding and, though Dirk hated to admit
it, nice.  Dirk walked out, smiling to Tallow.

         “All right.  You start tomorrow,” he
said.  Tallow screamed and jumped on him, squeezing his neck as tight as she
could, kicking her feet up behind her, unable to restrain her joy.  She nearly
cried, both in joy and in sorrow, sorrow over the fact that if she had gotten
that job when she first came to Andrelia, she might have been able to win
Dirk’s true and lasting love.  “Let’s go unload your stuff up to my room, and
then,” he said, jingling his purse, “go and buy you some work clothes for
here
.”

         “Oh, how can I repay you?  You are so
sweet, Dirk.  I would do anything for you,” Tallow said, smiling ear-to-ear. 
“What will I do here?” she asked excitedly, and Dirk led her out, explaining to
her what he thought she might learn, as he carried her garments up to his room
to store them.

         Selric was sitting at the foot of
Cinder’s tomb when he heard the far-off mausoleum doors open and the soft, slow
click of a woman’s shoes coming down the distant hallways, this way and that. 
Eventually they led his direction.  Soon, Alanna came timidly around a corner,
holding a single violet in her hands:  she looked as if she were searching for
something, but relaxed with a look of compassion when she found Selric sitting
alone in the long, seemingly endless passage.  The hallway was lined with holes
for the coffins, spaced three feet apart, most sealed with blocks of stone. 
Magical portals of soft light were set in the ceiling at regular intervals,
giving the immaculately maintained halls an otherworldly, almost heavenly,
quality.  Alanna walked to him and Selric rose, wiping his eyes.  She placed
the single flower in the deep steel cup attached to the seal on Cinder’s
niche.  Alanna kissed Selric on the nose and took his hands in hers.  “Come
home, Darling,” she said as she looked lovingly into his eyes.

         “How did you know I was still here?” he
asked.

         “I didn’t.  I just had a feeling...” she
said sweetly.  “Cinder was very nice,” she said, letting go of his hands and
touching the grave.  “I wanted to bring her a flower.”  Alanna gently touched
the seal, as if communing with her brief acquaintance and feeling a tug of an
unknown nature, one that none of her compatriots would feel from the cold
stone.  Alarmed, she pulled away and refused to explore any further, haunted by
the huge, looming shadows she felt within that brief glimpse.  She quickly
turned back to Selric and took his arm.  “Say good-bye and come along.  It’s
time for Cinder to be alone.”  Selric smelled the violet and touched the stone
as well, but he felt nothing.

         “I hate the thought of her being alone,”
he began, then he looked at his love and nodded.  “You are wonderful,” he said
to Alanna as he kissed her curving cheek.  Selric led her away, glancing back
at Cinder’s new home as he rounded the corner toward the exit.  “How did you
know that Cinder’s favorite flowers are...I mean...were violets?”

         “I didn’t.”

         “Oh,” he said.  “She had told
me
in
private after I introduced her to my mother.  Cinder thought the coincidence
was funny.  I thought I told you to stay at the villa?” he said, quickly
changing subjects.  Alanna looked ashamed and offered no defense.  “Please
don’t do it anymore.  I couldn’t lose you too.  Stay where it’s safe.  Now, I’m
taking you home:  I have to meet my friends at
The Unicorn’s Run
.” 
Selric escorted Alanna home, his arm around her slender shoulder, trying to
keep Cinder off of his mind.

         Selric and Alanna—along with Mendric at
the head of the household table as usual—ate dinner, with the young couple
sitting across from each other.  Though Alanna tried to cheer the boys, they
spoke very little.

         “Did you find anything yet?” Mendric
asked.

         “I haven’t had a chance,” Selric replied,
not looking at his brother.

         “Well, make a chance.”

         “I’ll do what I can,” said Selric
angrily, pushing his half-full plate away from him.  “I gotta go.”  He rose,
walked over and kissed Alanna’s cheek briefly.  “I may be late, I love you.  Good-night,
brother,” he said without looking at the other Stormweather as he left the
room.  Alanna picked feebly at her food while Mendric, disgusted, slid his meal
away after his brother had gone, then stood up, walking towards the door as
well.

         “You know he is hurt at this loss.  Very
hurt.  He wants nothing more than to catch this villain,” Alanna said.  “Don’t
take your frustrations out on your brother.”  Mendric stopped and whirled
around to face her, an angry look on his face, but Alanna was not intimidated. 
Instead, she looked back defiantly at him.

         “Oh, really?  What do you know?” he asked
most unkindly.  Alanna stood up proudly, hands on her hips, her small mouth
drawn up tight.

         “I know you want me, for one thing.  So,
take me.  Do it!  Get it the hell over with, so you can be civil to me, or at
least try not to be an ass to me all the fuckin’ time.”  She fell silent,
huffing and puffing at her own rebelliousness, staring coldly at Mendric, he
who would be a noble prince in any other kingdom.  Mendric sighed, his
shoulders slumping.

         “I’m sorry,” he said, unable to look at
her.  “I’ll try to be more kind.  I’ve forgotten my manners,” he said briskly
and businesslike.

         “What about me?” she asked, puzzled.

         “I’d never do that to Selric.  Never.  Maybe,
if we’d met under different circumstances, or if things did not work between
you.  But no, you’re wrong, I do not
want
you.”  This time, he did look
at her:  very convincingly.

         Alanna’s green eyes wavered and she broke
his stare.  Now, she was the one who could not look at him.  “Good-night
Alanna,” Mendric said as he turned and walked out.  She sat once more and ate a
few more bites, before she too pushed her plate to the center of the huge
table, near Selric’s.  She went and sat before the fire in the guest chair,
where she soon fell asleep, wondering how he could possibly not want her and
how she could have possibly been so wrong about a man. Will watched closely
from where he had been peering in the doorway.

         Selric opened the door to
The Unicorn’s
Run
and stepped in, standing for a moment in the doorway.  He felt ill, his
stomach nauseous.  Glancing over he saw Fiona, Melissa, and Dirk sitting at
their table.  No one sat in the deepest corner of the booth:  Cinder’s seat
remained empty.  With a forced smile, Selric walked over.  Carah, one of the
wenches, brought him his ale without command.  This was the first time any of
them had come here since Cinder was murdered.

         “Hi,” Selric said, trying to smile
genuinely.  They half-heartedly bade him “hello.”  “What’s going on?” Selric
asked without expecting a reply, trying not to look at the empty space.  He
drank his ale down quickly and called Carah over, asking her to bring four wine
glasses.  Selric reached inside his cloak and pulled forth a bottle:  Cinder’s
magical wine bottle she’d received as her share for catching the temple thief.   He
had fought with himself, trying to decide if he should bury it with her, finally
concluding that he would keep it.  He pulled the stopper and filled their glasses. 
Dirk looked almost angry, seeing Selric with Cinder’s most prized possession.