Guild Mage: Apprentice-168.

Chapter 168: Aira Tär Keria

The rooms they were given were warm with the glow of carved and polished wood. Not only the furniture, but the panelling of the walls and the boards of the floors, had been smoothed by hours of labour and years of guests. To Liv’s surprise, the hallway of the guest wing squeaked with every step.

“Nightingale floors,” Saana Tär Taavetti explained, waiting in the open doorway while Liv turned about to examine the guest room. The bed and the windows were hung with diaphanous, brightly colored curtains, and they glowed in the light of the sun through the glass.

“They’re meant to make noise, then?” Liv asked.

“Supposedly they make it more difficult for assassins to creep through the hallways in the middle of the night,” Saana observed, a smile curling her lips. The older woman raised a hand to brush back one of the innumerable braids in her dark hair. “When I first came here, they kept me up to all hours - whenever the wind blew and the tree swayed, the floors sang, and I could hear everything.”

“You didn’t grow up here?” Liv wondered how many settlements the descendants of the Lady of Thorns controlled.

“West of here is a lake on a high alpine meadow,” Saana told her. “That is where I grew up. It’s all dry earth and pebbles, low shrubs and flowers and sharp grass - nothing like these trees. You can’t even see the streams from more than twenty feet away - they’re hidden by wrinkles in the land. But the air always tastes and smells of meadow flowers, purple and yellow and white.”

“My parents fished the lake - char and catfish and trout. It’s cold and shallow, and the bed is this sort of crusted brown clay that crushes under your feet and turns to sucking muck. I used to swim in it with my brothers and sisters.” Saana shook her head. “There’s no place to swim here, really, but you’ll find enchanted pipes from Lucania in your bathing chamber. I trust you know how to use them.”

“I do. I suppose it makes sense you’d have guild pipes; so much trade comes through here,” Liv mused. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. You’re an investment, Livara. My daiverim told you so, didn’t he?”

Liv nodded.

“Good. And one thing you’ll learn about my family is this: we always come out ahead. I hope that comb I sent you was useful.”

“It ended up not mattering in the end,” Liv admitted, with a sigh. “It all came out anyway. And people died.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Go and get yourself cleaned up,” Saana said. “You’ll find a clean dress on the bed. It was difficult finding a color that wouldn’t make that pale skin of yours look washed out, but I did my best once I knew you were coming. You and your friends are all welcome to join us for an evening meal, if you aren’t too exhausted.”

The Elden woman slipped out, closing the door behind her, leaving Liv alone. She crossed the room to the bed, where there was indeed a dress of blue cloth so saturated by dye that it reminded her of the mountain sky. Liv unbuckled her belt, then dropped it and her sheathed wand on the bed next to the dress. Her boots from Lendh ka Dakruim she pried off, and left on the polished wood floor by the foot of the bed. Her armor she set on the floor, piece by piece, all nicked and coated in grime. It needed hours of work with oil and a clean cloth.

The enchanted pipes and the tap worked just as they had at Acton House in Freeport, and Liv set the tub to filling with steaming water. She left her clothes in a heap on the floor, ragged and filthy - save for one button, the one at the top of her dress. That one, which Liv knew was enchanted eel bone wrapped in cloth, she pulled off, snapping the threads that had held it in place, and set aside.

When she lowered herself into the water, a cloud of muddy filth lifted off her skin, floating up like smoke from a hearth. Where the tub had been clear and spotless before, Liv immediately felt like she’d ruined it. Rather than luxuriate - she couldn’t bear to be in that dirty water longer than necessary - she stood in the tub and scrubbed herself with the soap furiously. Even after she’d pulled the drain, the brass bottom of the bath was covered in a fine grit.

The dress was almost as much a robe as anything else, it turned out, with nothing like the boned bodice Liv was used to wearing. She couldn’t put her roadworn boots on with it, at least not until they’d been cleaned, but she found a set of matching slippers that had been left for her. She used the enchanted comb not as an ornament, but to work out her wet hair until it fell straight down her back in a smooth wave.

When Liv finally stepped out of the guest room into the hallway, she wasn’t surprised to see Wren waiting for her. The huntress leaned against the wall, and she’d gotten herself a small flask of oil and a cloth from somewhere, which she was using to clean her hunting knives. Etchings in the steel caught the light of the lamps in the hallway.

“Jurian made these for me,” Wren murmured. “After the first time I beat him.”

“I know you spent a lot of time with him,” Liv said.

“Every morning, training down in the yard. He was the closest thing I’ve had to a friend in a long time,” Wren admitted.

“We aren’t friends?”

“You’re more like a little sister I need to keep out of trouble,” Wren told her, with a smile. “The first day we met I had to chip you out of ice so you wouldn’t freeze to death, Liv.”

“I suppose that’s fair.”

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By the time the evening meal was served, all of Liv’s friends looked like they had been reborn. Hot water, soap, and clean clothes had done wonders for them, though only Arjun looked comfortable in the bright colors they’d been given.

They were led to the high table, up a center aisle that led past groups of Elden warriors, men and women both, who looked like they had just come from the walls of the city. Saana stood up at the high table when they approached: she was sitting with an old woman that Liv remembered seeing among the council of elders, as well as a young man who reminded her a great deal of Airis ka Reimis, who Liv had not seen in many years.

“Thank you all for joining us,” Saana greeted them, speaking in Lucanian. “This is my daiverim’s grandmother, Aira Tär Keria.”

“Yes, they named the boy after me,” the old woman said, raising her hand to her mouth and lowering her voice as if she was sharing a secret. Her hair was no longer dark, but rather than being the white of new-fallen snow, like that of Liv and her family, it was the dull pale gray that came naturally with age, bound in braids and tied back into a sort of bun.

“It is an honor to meet you,” Liv said, inclining her head. By the elder’s name, she would be the daughter of the Lady of Thorns herself, and as old as Liv’s grandfather.

“And this is my son, Vari,” Saana continued, introducing the boy.

“That one, they named after your aunt,” Aira said, and Liv could see the young man cringing.

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“To my everlasting embarrassment,” he said. “I still can’t believe my mother agreed to it.”

“I made out better on that bargain than your father did,” Saana said.

“These are my friends,” Liv said, indicating each in turn. “Sidonie Corbett, journeyman of the mage guild. Rosamund Lowry and Arjun Iyuz, both apprentices of the guild. And Wren Wind Dancer, of the Red Shield Tribe, from Varuna.”

“You’re the one!” Vari exclaimed, his eyes focused on Wren.

Liv could feel Wren tense at her side, so she reached out and took the huntress by the hand, giving the other woman a quick squeeze.

“I mean,” the young man said, “that we would never have gotten the help of the Red Shield tribe without your name. We met your cousin: Calm Waters?: and her husband, Soaring Eagle, was our guide upriver. They gave us a message for you.”

“Why don’t we all have a seat and eat, before you continue,” Saana chastised her son gently. “Wren, can you eat food with a high mana density? I assume all of the mages can handle Elden recipes.”

Wren shook her head. “No. Our bodies weren’t designed to handle mana like that. What I could really use:” she took a deep breath. “What I really need is fresh blood. If you have a butcher, or someone like that. I’ve done a lot of changing forms and flying since we left Coral Bay.”

“We shall see what we can do.” Saana nodded to one of the servants waiting at the walls of the hall, and the man promptly disappeared, presumably off to see his mistress’ will done. Liv and her friends took their places at the table, which seemed to be the signal for dishes to begin emerging from the kitchen, carried one after another to be placed before them.

“You’re Valtteri’s informant, then,” Aira said. The old woman peered across the table at Wren, with the attitude of someone examining a particularly interesting beetle they’d found in their garden. “Auris told the council about you, at the Hall of the Ancestors. Your information has been useful, I’ll give you that. Though I’m not certain it will be enough for anyone to forgive the attack on Soltheris.” freēwēbnovel.com

“Wren is my protector and my guest,” Liv reminded them. “Whatever else she may have done, she’s fought at my side for the past year, from the Well of Bones to the Foundry Rift. I think that is more than enough to prove where her loyalty is now.”

Vari stirred at his mother’s side. “Soaring Eagle asked us to tell you that, if we met you before he did, you were welcome to return,” he explained to Wren. “And that they would welcome anyone who turned away from the Lady of Blood.”

“I’m glad they’re well,” Wren said, looking down at the empty table before her. In front of Liv, and everyone else, the plates were filled: venison and fish, asparagus and onion, all brimming with mana. There was a blackberry jam, and their goblets were filled with a sweet, golden drink that tasted of honey, but warmed the body like wine.

“We wouldn’t have made it to the bridge without them,” Vari said.

“I haven’t heard from my father in months,” Liv said. “Can you tell me what’s happened, please? Is he safe?”

“Safe is debatable,” the young man answered her. “But when last I saw him, he had more than enough warriors to fortify the waystone.” He took a drink, presumably to wet his throat. “Let me start at the beginning. We sailed to Calder’s Landing, where Keri made contact with an Elden innkeeper named Taika.”

“Taika tär Eliel, of the Unconquered House of Asuris,” the old woman broke in, nursing her own drink. “Who would have thought that a runaway would come in so unexpectedly useful.”

“She was able to send us in the right direction to find the Red Shield,” Vari continued. “And then they carved us riverboats, and Soaring Eagle led us to the ruins of an old bridge. Though it isn’t quite a bridge,” he admitted. “Something of a combination bridge and dam. In any event, there was a functioning waystone there, and once we’d defeated the Antrian guardians that Ractia left behind, we were able to use it to bring in reinforcements from here.”

“That’s one of the places we stopped on the way west to the mountains,” Wren broke in. “But there weren’t war-machines there last I knew. She must have either found more, or sent some of the ones from the Foundry - but I don’t think the timing lines up for that.”

“There were six,” Vari told them. “We managed to destroy them, but I hope she doesn’t have too many.”

“Her Elden forces made off with at least seventy from the Foundry Rift,” Sidonie said, speaking up for the first time. “Possibly as many as eighty. There won’t be any more from that source, however, as our Rosamund wrecked the entire thing rather handily.”

Rose shrugged when the eyes at the table turned to her. “An avalanche will do that. And Liv did for their leader, that mechanical Eld with the green eyes.”

“Calevis,” Liv said. “Of House Iravata.”

“You killed him?” Aira said, turning to Liv.

“We did.” Liv nodded. “He was already crippled, but they used the rift to build him a new set of legs, like the Antrian war machines have.”

“Well,” Vari said, “we were just moving troops and fortifying the waystone in Varuna when the Garden of Thorns erupted. No warning, and no sign of subsiding. Valtteri stayed in Varuna to hold the bridge, while Inkeris, my father and I came here to deal with the eruption.”

“It’s a distraction: it has to be, doesn’t it?” Liv said, turning to Wren.

“She can essentially cause whatever rift she wants to erupt, whenever she wants,” Wren confirmed. “What better way to make you all split your forces, than force you to deal with an eruption here? It means you can’t send as many troops through to Varuna, and you can’t get organized to push further west. She’s tying you down. This is Manfred.”

“The Lucanian mercenary?” Aira asked.

Wren nodded. “He’s her commander. The others are all fighters, but he’s the one who understands tactics. He’ll apply pressure here, to keep you off balance somewhere else.”

“We could help,” Arjun spoke up, turning to look at Liv. “We can’t stop it from erupting, perhaps, but you could do what you did in my homeland.”

Liv frowned, then quite deliberately took a bite of venison and chewed it while she thought. Since Pandit Sharma and General Mishra had confirmed that that ancient rift had been reduced in power, she’d always considered in the back of her mind that perhaps she could subdue other rifts in the same way. But she’d also paid a heavy price - without Arjun’s skill, she wouldn’t have survived.

“What did you do?” Vari asked.

“We were able to reduce the Well of Bones from a greater rift to a lesser.” Liv noticed that the young man’s mother had been letting everyone else talk, while she sat back to listen.

“How?”

“That is a conversation for Livara and the elders,” Aira broke in, the old woman’s voice suddenly as hard as iron. “Some things are not to be spoken of in such an open setting.” She waved her arm, goblet in hand, to indicate the lower tables, and all the soldiers eating there.

“Of course. In this matter, we all listen to the wisdom of the elders,” Saana said. “While our guest meets with the council, my son and I will host the rest of you. Wren Wind Dancer, I cannot speak for our people as a whole, but while you are a guest in our home, I pledge your safety. You and your people have been an aid to my son and daiverim while they risked their lives across the sea, and to my mind that counts for something. A debt that I hereby repay.”

“Thank you.” Wren inclined her head. The servant who had hurried out of the hall earlier returned with a goblet and brought it to the huntress.

“Stag’s blood,” he murmured, then bowed and retreated. Wren brought the lip of the cup to her mouth, tipped it back, and drank.

“Thank you,” she said, and licked the blood from her lips.

“Have you eaten your fill, then, young one?” Aira asked Liv.

“Yes. I’m ready to speak to the council now,” Liv said. The old woman stood, and Liv did as well: without thinking, she hurried around the table to Aira’s side, and offered the elder her arm.

“Thank you, dear. I’m glad to see your father has taught you some manners,” the elder said.

“I’ll come and find you all in your rooms when we’re finished,” Liv told her friends, looking from Wren to Arjun, then to Sidonie and finally to Rose.

At Kelthelis, Liv had never had cause to appear before the council of elders, though she had been shown the council chambers once, as part of a tour of the palace. That single occasion was enough to instantly recognize the building that Aira brought her to, for while the two chambers were made of different materials, they were alike in function and design.

The council hall was round, with a great set of double doors carved with all manner of creatures: wolves and bears, lynxes and foxes. “My father taught me that I was not permitted to enter without an invitation,” Liv said.

“Tonight, you have an invitation,” Aira assured her. Above them, the green needles of the great trees rustled in the cold winter wind. Liv shivered, but once they’d entered the hall, a great fire blazing in the hearth drove away the chill.

A dozen elders were already waiting, and their conversation died as Liv escorted Aira over to her seat. The older Eld all sat on a raised, semi-circular dais, looking down at the circle of bare wood floor in the center of the room. Once the old woman was seated, Liv stepped back down, into that open space, all alone.

“Livara Tär Valtteri, of the line of Celris,” Aira began, her voice filling the chamber. She spoke in Vakansa now, Lucanian discarded in the absence of Liv’s companions. “You are called to testify before the council of elders of Al’Fenthia. You will answer us truthfully, holding nothing back, or you will be judged. Do you understand?”

Liv swallowed. “I do.”