The Guided Journey (Book 6) (15 page)

Kestrel could not comprehend what he had heard.  “He is going to marry you?” he asked in befuddlement, all the r
est of the discussed issues dismissed from his attention.

“Kere has smiled on me,” Hampus spoke up.

Kestrel looked at the elf, then looked at the princess.  He had come to the capitol thinking that he would face pressure, or at least questions, regarding becoming the consort of the princess.  He did not wish to be her consort – he felt no love for her.  But he had not anticipated that his place as the potential mate for Elwean would be so readily supplanted.  He was relieved that he had been spared his expected embarrassment of having to reject the union with the royal heir, but at the same time he felt unsettled by having been cast aside so casually, without a conference of any kind.

He looked from the smug princess back to the smug hero of the east.

“So Kestrel, will you agree to take Hampus to the Northern Forest, as his guide?” the king asked.

What reason could he find to make him feel motivated to want to lead someone he didn’t know on the long journey to the Northern Forest?  Kestrel felt no desire to travel with the Hampus p
erson who sat across the table.

“Well Kestrel, will you do this for your monarch?” the king repeated, a faint note of dissatisfaction in his voice.

Miksel’s foot slid beneath the table and urgently tapped his.

He could go to the North Forest; he could take Hampus there, but then he could see his own friends, and renew acquaintances.  He could even send Hampus home after the mission was complete, while he would go on, perhaps to Seafare to see Picco and Ruelin and his daughter.  And then, after that, he could go on to Graylee again, or he could go south to see Moorin and the Southern Elves.  The trip to the Northern Forest could be simply one stage of a longer trip, a trip that would ultimately be enjoyable and rewarding.

“Of course, your majesty, I would be happy to go to Kirevee, and introduce Hampus to my friends.  The Princess Aurelia and the King Winche would welcome anyone I vouch for,” he threw out a jab, to let them know of his own prestige in the kingdom of the Northern Forest.

Even the journey to Kirevee offered opportunities, he realized.

“Well said, Kestrel,” Elder Miskel spoke up first.  “I expect the king will need a day or two to allow his ministers to prepare the treaty that Hampus will carry north, and I am sure that our hero will need a day or two to prepare himself for the upcoming trip.

“Why don’t you and I go now to the guard base and begin to plan the best route to follow to reach the North Forest?” the military leader proposed.

“With your permission, majesty?” Miskel sought permission to depart.

“Certainly, Elder.  Lord Kestrel, it’s so good to see you back with us.  I hope you’ll not deprive our court of your company for so long after you
r next return,” the king told the pair.  Miskel stood, and Kestrel followed his lead as they bowed, then exited through the door.

“Follow me,” Miskel said, and he started walking at a quick pace, through the palace halls and then out into the grounds.

“You had me worried there for a moment,” he said once they were out in the open.

“Excuse me sir, I don’t understand your meaning,” Kestrel stated.

“I thought you were going to turn down the King’s request in there,” Miskel stated.  “The last thing we need right now is for you to make him think he’s the last acorn on the tree that no one wants to pick,” a phrase elves commonly used to indicate someone not popular.

“He’s the king,” Kestrel protested.  “No one’s going to make him feel that way.  I just paused because I wasn’t expecting the request.  There’s a lot going on back home in Oaktown that I need to attend to, and I just had to think about missing all of that.”

“And wonder why you weren’t being offered the ambassadorship yourself, since you’ve been to the court at Kirevee?” Miskel saw through Kestrel’s excuse.

“Do they know who they want to be ambassador?  Why are they sending this Hampus?  Who is he?” Kestrel asked.

“The princess is controlling her father on this.  They both want to see her married and ready to produce an heir; it’s grown increasingly important for them in the past several months since you saved her life from the rebels,” the Elder answered.  “He has accepted her urging that they start to build up Hampus with assignments that will expose him to the world, and expose the members of the court to his name.

“This journey will make him appear to be a statesman, when all he’ll really be doing is delivering papers,” Miskel explained.

“Why is he a hero?  All he did was come back from an expedition?” Kestrel asked.

“In a word, yes.  The Earl of the Far East is growing very old, and perhaps senile.  He asked that the crown explore the eastern wilderness to learn what lives out beyond the end of boundaries of his authority.  So the king ordered us to send a squad, and we did, mostly a collection of misfits and ne’er-do-wells,” Miskel said as they walked out of the palace grounds and down the city street.  “No one had any idea of what they would find, or any expectations.  But three months later this soldier shows up all alone, with a story of seeing tracks they believed were centaurs, and having a mysterious rock slide in the mountains kill everyone but him.

“So the court thinks he’s a hero.  The princess became smitten with him, and he’s now the consort in waiting, something you could have had if you’d have come to the palace immediately upon returning to the Eastern Forest, instead of doing whatever you’re doing down there in Oaktown in the middle of nowhere,” he said it in a tone that Kestrel knew meant that he was joking, but that there was truth behind the words.

“Do you think he really climbed any mountains?” Kestrel asked.  The itinerary for his journey was forming in his mind.

“We have no idea.  Absolutely no idea.  We’d have to send a squad out to try to find his route and locate the remains of his companions, if it was even possible, but now he’s the pet of the palace so we can’t actively discredit him, and he’s doing things like going to the North Forest,” Miskel answered, “to demonstrate his leadership.”

“If he were to falter along this journey, it would not be harmful to our land,” Miskel said bluntly.  “If your journey – and I believe that you could withstand any rigors – were to prove so challenging that Hampus could not complete his task, but came home instead, perhaps the princess would not follow this infatuation and choose him as her mate.”

“Shall I take Grenwort as well?” Kestrel asked lightly.  “Would you like to put him under my command in this upcoming trip?”

“The dowager Duchess of North Brook is his aunt, which is why he is an officer.  We can’t afford to displease the duchess and the princess at the same time,” Miskel disappointed Kestrel by answering.  “You just take Hampus this time.”

Kestrel accepted the advice.

They entered the gates of the military base.  “When can you be ready to leave?” the officer asked Kestrel. 

The Warden of the Marches considered the question.  He could go back to Oaktown for the night, thanks to the imps, and then return the following day.  And there might be a chance to do one other thing as well.

“I can leave tomorrow,” he replied.

“Excellent!  What route do you propose to pursue?” Miskel asked.

Kestrel considered; they could simply go north to Estone, and take a ship to North Harbor for the simple route, but Miskel did not want him to take Hampus on the simple route, and he had friends he might visit that were not along such a convenient journey.

“I thought we could go up to Firheng, then travel towards Green Water, then work through the Water Mountains to reach North Harbor, and work our way up to the Northern Forest.  If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to find the gnomes of the Water Mountains, and I can pass along news to them about the gnomes in the south,” Kestrel answered.

“That seems very ambitious,” Miskel said doubtfully.

“I’ve made it over the mountains, and lived with the gnomes.  It’s possible to do, but it is a challenging route,” Kestrel agreed.  “It’s not even summer now, so we’ll have the best season ahead of us.”

“If you want to try that route, be my guest,” Miskel said.

“Very well.  I’ll plan to leave tomorrow morning.  Will you send word to the palace, and would you provide passes so that we can stay in Firheng?” Kestrel asked.

With Miskel’s agreement, Kestrel walked away, going back to where he knew he shouldn’t go – back to visit Alicia once again.

Kestrel strolled across the base to the building where Alicia’s practice was located, and he climbed the steps.  Down the hall he passed the doorway to her bedroom, and paused outside her medical room door, then opened it.

Inside he saw her standing over an unconscious patient, a nurse standing beside her.  Among all the times she had operated on him, he couldn’t remember a nurse, he thought, and he wondered if this operation was unusual, or
if her handling of him had been unusual.

She glanced up from her work and saw him standing.  Her eyes grew wide as her hands hung motionless in the air.  He stood and stared back, giving no sign of moving.

“Have a seat,” she said after a moment, her head nodding slightly towards a chair in the corner.  Kestrel acquiesced, sitting in the chair as Alicia returned her focus to her work.

Half an hour later she finished, and the nurse called in two orderlies who carried the stretcher with the unconscious patient out of the room.  Alicia took off her bloody gloves and apron, then stood and looked at Kestrel as the nurse closed the door.

“I apologize for last night,” he said as he stood and faced her.

“That squad of guards with that officer stayed at my room for an hour looking for you.  It was ridiculous and unnecessary,” she told him.

“Are you busy for the rest of the day?” he asked.

“I have appointments,” Alicia said firmly.

“Can you change them?” he asked.

“I’m going to go away tomorrow on an assignment.  Unless I use the imps, this is the last time I’ll be in Center Trunk for a long time.” He told her.  “I’m sorry about interrupting things last night.”

“No,” she sat down next to him and seemed to relax.  “It was best that you provided a reason to end the night with Gandel when you did.  I could have used less drama after you left though,” she smiled gently.  “Let me make arrangements to take the day off,” she said, and she walked out of the room.

A minute later she was back, holding her infant son and a basket of items to tend to him.

“Where shall we go?” she asked.

“Stillwater, Mulberry, Acanthus,” Kestrel called, and moments later the imps appeared.

“Would you be willing to invite a friend to carry us to Oaktown?” Kestrel asked his friends.  “And then afterwards we can go to the healing spring.”

“Doctor-friend, we are so happy to see you.  You are coming on an adventure?” Stillwater spoke.

“Apparently so,” Alicia replied.  “Thank you Stillwater.  It’s good to see you too.”

“Is she the one the queen talks about?” Mulberry asked.

“She is one of the ones the queen could have talked about.” Stillwater replied to his companion.

Alicia looked at Kestrel, who blushed lightly.

We’ll need others to help us carry more than one person,” Acanthus commented, and seconds later, as Kestrel looked about expectantly, Odare appeared.

“Doctor-lover friend!  So good to see you,” the imp said immediately, as soon as she realized who was with Kestrel.

“And a baby!  He has Kestrel-tomcat’s eyes, I see,” she commented as she hovered into position to observe the infant in Alicia’s arms.  “Let the queen come see!”

“No, this is not my baby,” Kestrel protested.

Dewberry arrived, along with Jonson.  “You’ve had the Kestrel hero’s baby, Alicia-fertile-doctor?” the sprite queen of the imps shrieked.  “This is such a blessing, if the baby grows up to look like you and not like its father.

“I told Kestrel-seducer the very first time I met him that if I had his baby the poor child would be so ugly it would be an outcast.  Fortunately,” she looked primly over at Kestrel, “he did not have his way, and no such baby was born.

“Perhaps,” she mused, “as I see your baby, I wonder if perhaps the gods simply will not allow such beautiful mothers to have ugly babies from such fathers.”

“This is not my child!” Kestrel huffed.

“That perhaps makes more sense,” Dewberry spoke in response.  “That helps to explain why the baby is so beautiful.”

“Thank you, Queen Dewberry,” Alicia said with a smile, as she looked over the sprite’s head and made eye contact with the fuming Kestrel.

“Kestrel has offered to take me to see his home in Oaktown.  I believe that is near your home, your highness?” the elf doctor asked Dewberry.

“It is,” Dewberry agreed.  “It is a humble little place.  We take pity on Kestrel-beggar for having to live in such a desolate place.”

“My home is not desolate,” Kestrel argued.  “It is the place where the imps were formerly invited to come to purchase mushrooms, although perhaps we will cease to have such a market,” he said ominously.