The Companions of Tartiël (31 page)

Caineye fell back onto his rump after washing his hands in a bowl of clean water. “Whew. I’m beat. Good work, Master Kaiyr.”

Kaiyr, still crouched on the balls of his feet, nodded back. “Likewise, Master Caineye. Is our work here done, or will she need more attention later?”

*

Xavier snorted. “You know how she is with attention.”

“Always craving more,” I agreed.

“Hey, I’ll give her a little attention,” Matt offered, swinging his arms in a lewd motion. “I’ll give her all the attention she wants!”

The room resounded with our laughter.

“I think she’ll want something a little more fun than two and a half inches, halfling,” I shot back cordially.

“Ooh, it’s on now!” Dingo decreed, watching both me and Matt.

Matt just shrugged. “It’s not about how much you have. It’s about what you do with it, and you, Mr. Blademaster, don’t seem to be doing a whole lot with yours.”

I chewed on my lip, then nodded. “Touché.”

*

With a sigh he used to blow some of his lengthening hair out of his eyes, Caineye responded, “I think we’re through. I’ll come by to check on her tomorrow, after I get up. For now,” he grunted, pushing himself up, “I think I’ve had enough excitement for one night of rudely interrupted sleep.”

“I understand. I shall keep watch over her,” Kaiyr told the druid, settling into a lotus position on the floor.

Caineye nodded. “Good. I’ll see you in the morning, Blademaster.” He opened Kaiyr’s door, exited, and closed it silently behind him. The elf was left with his thoughts and the nymph on his bed and a barely-suppressed, nagging urge to glance back at her every few minutes that did not abate even when he let his consciousness rise to the level of meditation.

XXIV.

“Kaiyr?”

Swiftly but gently ending his train of deep thoughts and dreams, the young blademaster rocked forward onto his knees and pivoted to face Astra in one smooth motion. “Lady Astra. Good morning,” he greeted her quietly.

“Hey,” she croaked, her voice dry. Kaiyr jumped to his feet and brought over a waterskin when she was wracked with hacking coughs. After he helped her sit up, she eagerly accepted the drink, even though it tasted like leather. “Thanks.” She passed him the skin as he looked on, concerned. But she ignored his gaze, instead inspecting herself and her bandages. “Did you patch me up?”

Kaiyr nodded, setting the waterskin back on the dresser. “Caineye deserves most of the credit; it was his expertise that let us heal you.”

Astra paused, then looked up at the elf. “Knowing you, you’re probably understating your contributions, K—Master Kaiyr,” she told him with a smile.

Bowing, the blademaster replied, “Thank you, Lady Astra.” He straightened but did not say anything; a silence stretched out between them for several heartbeats as he searched her eyes for something and she searched his for something else. But then they both realized their mutual stare and looked away, unable to keep it for much longer.

Astra giggled nervously but then sobered. “I… sense you have something you want to say.” Kaiyr looked back at her. “Yes, it was that obvious.”

“I was not trying to be subtle,” he admitted lightly. “But yes. I merely wished to express my concern for your well-being, my lady. Your encounters while away from us become more and more deadly, and it pains me to see you return to us in such a condition.”

Determined to be in denial, Astra scratched her head. “What condition?”

Kaiyr’s gaze drew her to her hand, which came away covered in dried bits of crusted blood. He gently disentangled her fingers from a few stray strands of her raven hair then smoothed the rest back as best he could. “This condition,” he told her gently.

Astra’s expression soured. “I’m not a damsel in distress, Kaiyr. I can take care of myself. For the most part,” she amended after a moment’s thought. Kaiyr’s raised eyebrow may have had something to do with her compulsion to rectify her statement.

Crouching down before her, Kaiyr locked gazes with the nymph again, beautiful despite the bandages and the dried blood and the purple bruise on her cheek. He wanted to tell her to stay with the friends she had here, to include them in her misadventures, to allow them—and in particular, him—to know her, to truly know her.

But he could not. He had not the heart to order her about, to take away the freedom that came with being a creature of the wild. And so, he merely closed his eyes and nodded. “Very well,” he said, his voice heavy.

*

“What’cha doing?”

Wild jumped at the sudden voice—decidedly female—right next to his ear. But even that did not last long as the halfling covered up his expression. “Oh, I was just curious,” he said, turning and facing Thelia, who hovered over his right shoulder.

“Curious?” she asked, following as he turned and led her away from the door where he’d just dropped more than a few eaves. “You looked like you were going to knock, but then stopped to listen.”

Wild smiled back at her. “Yes, well, you see, I wanted to see how Astra was doing, but when I got to Master Kaiyr’s door, I heard their voices, which means that she’s all right, but then I wanted to know how the two of them were doing, you know, if Master Kaiyr could convince her to stay with us, which apparently is a resounding, ‘no,’ and so I was curious to find out whether the two of them would get over this drama and just kiss already.” He took a deep breath to replenish the air in his lungs after his rambling run-on.

Thelia blinked, processing the long sentence. “Oh. I, uh, see.”

“So, Pr… ahem, Miss Thelia, what brings you to Master Kaiyr’s doorstep?”

A sly grin settled over the elven woman’s features. “Oh, I was just curious,” she told him.

“Really?” Wild asked ingenuously. “Then we’ll get along like two peas in a pod!” He extended his ring-laden right hand in a gesture of friendship, and Thelia took it. When his hand came away, however, Thelia sensed that something was amiss. Staring at her finger, she realized that her ring was missing.

“Wild,” she said crossly, “you wouldn’t happen to have just taken my… never mind.” She saw him admiring her ring in the open palm of his hand.

“Oh, this? Is this yours?” the halfling asked, turning the simple but elegant gold band over in his hand. “I’m terribly sorry. It just seemed so loose on your finger that I was concerned you might lose it, so I thought to keep it safe for you. I do hope you don’t mind.”

“Not as long as it doesn’t happen again,” she said, taking her possession back from the short fellow and slipping it on her finger. It struck her that the ring was not at all loose on her finger, but she made no mention of it. “Say,” she said in a conspiratorial tone, “you wouldn’t happen to be interested in a little game, would you?”

*

Xavier and I watched, amused and concerned at the same time, as Dingo and Matt both leaned forward in their seats. “
What kind of game might you be talking about, Miss Thelia?
” Matt asked, speaking for his character.

Dingo crossed his arms and then waved one hand dismissively. “
Oh, the kind where you ‘acquire’ more things the longer the game goes on.
She starts walking toward the stairs leading to the upper deck.”

“I follow her,” Matt replied. Then, roleplaying Wild’s emotions, he frowned. “
I’m rather insulted, Miss Thelia. I’m no thief.
”

“Thelia laughs as she leads you up to the open deck.
I’m not calling you a thief, Wild. But wouldn’t you be just curious to find out exactly what’s in, say,
that
man’s pouch? He’s looked like a sourpuss the whole trip. Who knows? Maybe he’s hiding something.
”

Matt sighed. “I’m going to have to roll a Sense Motive check, Dingo. It sounds like she’s trying to fool me into doing something stupid.”

“All right, go for it,” the DM told him, picking up his d20 to roll the appropriate, opposing Bluff check. Their dice clattered across their respective table and book.

Matt shook his head. “No good. Eight.”

Dingo nodded. “Well, you don’t sense anything amiss. It seems that Thelia really is just out to have a good time playing a… an acquiring game.”

*

“Take, for instance, that man over there,” Thelia was saying as she led Wild onto the upper deck of the
Flaring Nebula
. The soon-to-be thieving game victim leaned against the rail, watching the passing clouds and the landscape slowly crawl by far below in the light of the morning sun. His rune-covered, black robes marked him as a wizard, and he stood oblivious to the pair talking about him. “He probably has more money than he knows what to do with. I mean, look at that ring he’s got. That had to have cost him at least a hundred platinum. What if he were to lose it? That’s a thousand gold right in the chamber pot and out the window.”

“It would be a terrible shame,” Wild agreed. He looked at Thelia, who responded with a sly grin. “Well,” the halfling said, clearing his throat, “maybe it would be in his best interests for someone else to look after his valuables, at least for the time being. If any of it goes over the rail, it’s history.”

With a little bow that evoked a giggle from Thelia, Wild scampered off to approach the wizard from a different angle. The nymph faded into the shadows of the stairwell and watched Wild’s exchange with the man, a budding smile on her lips when, after the two of them shook hands, the taller human’s hand came away devoid of its burden. Wild held himself high, with his chest puffed out, and he had untucked his shirt a little to give the impression of a little more weight to his figure, possibly as some kind of traveling businessman.

When Wild returned, he did so bearing the fruits of his labor. “You’re right,” he said, “it’s probably worth at least a thousand and a half on the market.” Turning the ring over in his hand, he admired the braided patterns in the gold and the ruby set in the jewelry like a half-opened eye.

“That’s quite the catch,” said the deposed elven princess, “time to see if I can one-up you.”

*

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Astra told Kaiyr, sitting up and wincing suddenly. “Ooh, wow, that really hurts. Let’s not do that anymore.” She gingerly lowered herself back down onto the bed. “Could you, ah, hand me my bag over there?”

Silently, Kaiyr reached over and passed her the leather satchel. Astra took it and rummaged through it by touch, since she couldn’t tip it over to see inside without dumping everything onto her face. “Ah, here we go,” she said, pulling out a fine gold chain from which hung a small, crystal charm in the shape of a magnifying lens. “This is something along the lines of what you requested. As my contact who found this for me described, these sorts of things are used by clergy members of goodly faiths to aid in rooting out corruption within their ranks. I assume you have other designs?”

Kaiyr grimaced. “The ‘ranks’ I must learn to judge number much more than those in the average religious organization, I imagine.”

Laughing, the nymph replied, “I suppose they must, indeed, Master Kaiyr.” Then she looked stricken for a moment before lying back down. “I’m… really not feeling so well, yet. If you see Caineye and Wild, would you tell them I have a magic necklace and ring for them, respectively? I’m going to rest some more.”

Leaning over, Kaiyr nodded as he tucked her back into the sheets on the bed, noticing as he did one of the starburst scars on her arms. He was not certain why he felt compelled to “accidentally” brush it with one finger, but he did so. Their breaths caught in their throats, and when their eyes met, their gazes locked for several long moments. Coming to his senses at last, Kaiyr let out his breath. “Sorry,” he said, uncharacteristically informal and intimate, as he drew his hand away.

Astra, too, relaxed. “It’s all right,” she said tiredly. “I’m all right.”

Kaiyr nodded and turned to leave the chamber, but she caught his wrist, and he stopped in his tracks, looking over his shoulder at her. “One more thing,” she said, her eyes fluttering closed. Her last words, when she spoke them, were whispered on the brink of unconsciousness and barely loud enough for the blademaster to hear: “Thank you.”

XXV.

Over the next three days, Kaiyr, Caineye, and Wild kept eyes on Astra to track her recovery. Her wounds had been extensive, and she spent much time bed-ridden. True to her word, she had procured some items for the human druid and halfling rogue, including an amulet that sharpened Caineye’s senses and a ring that generated a field of deflection for Wild. She had picked up some other knick-knacks for the party she had deemed useful, including more healing potions to replace those the party constantly used, despite their other healing abilities and items.

Kaiyr spent nearly an hour with his own amulet on the first day, getting a feel for the way it transmitted auras to his senses. Upon activating it, he could catch a vague tingling sensation in his mind whenever he faced certain people on board the ship, and if he focused on those persons for a few moments, the sensation would sharpen almost into a headache. He supposed it was fitting that evil creatures should cause him physical pain to detect, and he was almost surprised at how few of them there were aboard the
Flaring Nebula
; there was a man in black robes whom Wild claimed to have witnessed Thelia robbing, though this man’s aura was rather weak. There were two nobles who gave him a slight twinge whenever he faced them, but what really concerned him was the room only five doors from his. There was no one individual inside that triggered the splitting headache he got from using the spell embedded in the amulet. The entire room illuminated his mind so brightly that he could not focus on it for more than a moment before his vision blurred and he was forced to his knees.

“Are you all right?” Caineye had asked Kaiyr earlier on the third day when the two of them were roaming the halls as the blademaster grew accustomed to the amulet’s input. The elf had assured him that he was well, but when Caineye, somewhat more accustomed to such magic, tried the amulet and faced the room, the sheer sense of evil radiating from it concerned him as much as it did Kaiyr, after he recovered from the shock.