“And this is where we produce our food, master.” Two had assumed tour guide duties and frankly fell into the role with a good deal of skill. She was far more beautiful than any tour guide I’d ever seen before. Perhaps the loincloth and bandeau top contributed.
I found it easy to ignore their bodies once we began. The room Two swept her hand over stopped any question I might have raised and arrested my wandering eyes. Vegetation hung from every nook and cranny in the wall. Streams of tiny waterfalls cascaded down levels from planter to planter in a descending network of running water. Elves flew between plants, armed with clippers and various gardening implements.
Many of them sported natural-looking angel wings that attached to their upper shoulders. Most of them had pale white wings, but a few were colored like eagles or falcons with bright reds and deep browns between them. I did not see a single raven-winged elf among them.
At the room’s base the elves herded a fantastic variety of beasts. Some of them were easily recognizable as cows, chickens, and sheep. A few were more exotic natural varieties: yaks, ostriches, and shaggy goats. But most of them bore wings of their own and looked like slightly altered versions of the earthen types. Winged goats, massive chickens with alien color schemes, and cows with great furry manes mingled with even more alien beasts with six legs and spiky hair on their backs. All of the beasts on the ground had four or more legs, save only the avians.
“This is amazing!”
Two arched her eyebrow at me, but shrugged. “If you say so, master.”
One and Three giggled at me behind their hands. After this much time with me, the veneer of respect had begun to wear off. I couldn’t blame them, I stared open mouth like a yokel visiting the big city, I would have probably laughed at myself if the positions were reversed.
“What’s next?” My hands fluttered at my sides, unable to contain my excitement.
“The librarian or scriptorium, or we could visit the kitchens if you’d prefer.” Two motioned with her hands as if to indicate the different directions.
“How much longer before you need to rest?”
Two eyed her companions, but said, “we would need to depart soon, master.”
“Fine. Don’t wait for me to dismiss you, I might wander the ship for a while before I retire myself.”
Again, my three Ualno exchanged surprised glances between them, but they didn’t speak up further. We walked together back to the room I shared with Yierie — I wanted it to be “our” room — and I sent my three Ualno away the moment I arrived. I did not require their help with changing or whatever else servants might have been for and I honestly found their bare bodies distracting.
I fell onto Yierie’s bed that night and into a deep sleep. I dreamt of Malia. Fear of what might be happening to her gripped my chest. Aside from abandoning this place and having them send me back where they found me, I could only conceive of one way to find Malia. With a good deal of luck, I could bring Yierie with me.
My unconscious mind had set itself a task in my dreams and as I pondered over the course I would set, a knock sounded on my door. As I sat up in Yierie’s bed to answer the knock, I found my feet sunk into a swamp of mud and muck. Try as I might, I could not escape the sucking floor. In fact the harder I struggled to free myself, the deeper my feet sank into the mud.
Halfway to the door, from which the knock continued to sound, I’d fallen into the mud well up to my shoulders. Soon, I would drown in the floor and die alone in Yierie’s room. My dream-addled brain chose that moment to recall that single people could die from choking on a piece of meat without anyone there to slap their back or perform the Heimlich maneuver.
The knocking would simply not stop, so I growled and tried to pull myself out of the floor. With the mud covering my head, I was sure I would drown there in the floor of this crystalline ship alone. As I struggled to gasp at the last vestiges of air, I shuddered awake.
The knocking continued.
I kicked myself out of bed and checked the floor out of instinct before I set my feet down. Sure enough, the ground was solid. With a sigh of frustration on my lips, I stood and padded to the door with a grumble.
“Who is it?” I opened the door as I asked the question.
A finely attired elf with close-cut blond hair stood before me. He wore a crimson vest made from a soft hide and a long while billowy shirt I would have enjoyed trying on. For pants, he wore a long kilt-like skirt that covered his feet. The plaid color stepped and moved by squares as he looked over me imperiously. “You are the foul beast who claims my daughter as Ualno?”
I took a step back from this elf. In addition to his garish outfit, he wore a massive sword on his hip. He was even taller than my Ualno. That sword was longer than I was. “That depends on who your daughter is, sir.”
He sneered at me. “Do not address me as sir. I am Lord Elerren Kincaid. You address me as milord, nothing else.”
“What do you want?” I was tired, he’d woken me up before the sun rose and I was a little bit grumpy from my mud dream.
“I want to see the face of the brazen fool who would claim my daughter as a prize!” He stepped into Yierie’s bedroom through the door I’d kept partially opened. With his strength and mass, I had no hope of stopping his advance. He poked a finger into the center of my forehead and said, “You dress like a Fen Dancer or a whore. Is that how you acquired this magnificent room?”
The poking, so close to how Malia had treated me enflamed my ire. “You are out of line, sir. Leave my… this room at once. I’ll not have you slandering Yierie!”
“I said address me as “milord,” or nothing else!” He slapped me across the cheek then, not hard enough to leave a mark, but enough to feel it in my toes. “I challenge you for your ship-right, disgusting child! And for my daughter’s honor!”
I took several steps back and faltered. Did I have to accept his challenge, how did this even work? “Look, you need to leave.”
“If you do not accept my challenge…” Lord Elerren Kincaid wound himself up for some diatribe only for all three of my Ualno to burst into the room.
Though they were all shaven and wearing the same clothes, I could tell them apart. One grabbed at the tall elven lord’s sleeve. “Father, stop this, the council sent us to Ms Yeshe and you’re making it worse!”
The Lord turned his anger onto One, pulling his sleeve out of her grip and striking her across the face with his backswing. She fell like he’d tapped her off switch. He lifted his foot as if to kick her while she was already down.
At long last my own switch had been thrown. I danced over to One, putting myself between the elf’s raised boot and the fallen elf woman on the floor. “You are a villain, sir. And I accept your challenge. I feel like kicking some arrogant ass today, pity for you!” With those words, I pushed him away, lamenting the fact that I didn’t know any good elven insults. They would have helped me vent my anger.
One grabbed my should as she pulled herself up. “You fool! My father is a duelist extraordinaire! You don’t even know how to walk properly.”
Lord Elerren ignored his daughter’s words. “Name your time and I will name the location, bitter little egg.”
Cursing inwardly, I said, “In three months hence on the night of the new moon.”
Lord Elerren eyed the windows of Yierie’s room. “In ten weeks then. Fine. I choose the Athenaeum.” He looked over my shoulder. “Do you witness this, servants?” He spat the word at the three girls cowering behind me. They burbled out acquiescence in response.
“Great, get the fuck out of my room, you enormous ass.” My hands shook at my side. I couldn’t believe Lord Elerren struck his daughter like that. As bad as my own parents had been, they were only crazy. They never once struck me, they hardly ever raised their voices.
Lord Elerren lifted his nose into the air and walked out of the room with a haughty step. “I will see you in ten weeks, vermin. Enjoy your last three months aboard our ship.” He slammed the door and got the last word in.
As soon as the door closed, I turned to One. Her cheek was red from where her father had hit her. I let my gaze lose focus and for the second time set about healing her. The image I saw of her in the void was smaller than I remembered it, as if her mental state had shrunk somehow. Ignoring that problem for another day, I sent part of my energy into her.
The last time I’d healed them, I’d noticed that my energy had expanded somehow, but had not really let the fact sink in. I’d been desperate to keep the elves from dying of magic I’d inflicted on them. But this time, I could not help but notice how much more energy I had to spare for the women. I felt like a massive rushing waterfall diverting a trickle of her incredible flow to slake the thirst of a passerby.
With a blink of my inner eye, One’s cheek healed. A second blink and I could have sworn her figure was larger in the void. Looking over the other two Ualno, they were shorter than I expected in the void. I sent tendrils of Roo over to them and filled them with energy as well. Both of them expanded like ballon people in the void.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
When I opened my eyes all three of them huddled around me weeping and begging for my forgiveness. With them wailing as they were, I had no way to find out what they were talking about, so I let the waterworks continue and waited for a break in the weeping.
The tears did not abate for several minutes, with the girls alternatively begging for my forgiveness and thanking me for my assistance. I couldn’t stay on the floor like this forever, so I stood and pulled them over to the bed. They clung to me like children, which poured a cold bucket of water over my former distraction with the three.
Eventually, One and Three collapsed onto the bed, curled around me. One laid her head in my lap. Two sat the foot of the bed looking up at me with tears gathered in the corners of her eyes.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on now?”
“I am so sorry, we didn’t know…” Two spilled the proverbial beans in their entirety.
Lord Elerren was an enemy of Yierie and her faction. I didn’t care for the specifics of Elven politics aboard the ship. The three girls had been sent to Alaric to pull information from him or to at least find a way to make trouble for Yierie.
When they’d attacked me — One had been the chief instigator there — she’d intended to murder me in “self defense” and then throw me overboard. The chances the three elves would be fingered for my death were exceedingly small. But she’d blown it by underestimating my magic and cutting me in anger the way she did. Apparently, I’d successfully provoked her back then. When her father found out, their noble patron and the one who’d initiated this plan, he was livid.
He’d all but disowned One and cast her from his side. The rest of the girls’ allies had turned their heads away from the three and essentially cut them loose. All three were less than a thousand years old and this had been their big play to work their way into the core of elven society. And they’d blown it.
A year ago, heck a month ago, I would have cut them loose too. I didn’t need three servants of dubious loyalty attached to me. While they wept now, it would only take the suggestion of elevation to their previous ranks to turn them against me once more. At the same time, I’d touched something in the centers of their soul. One was the darkest of the three, and most of the shadow cast over her heart came from her asshole father. The others were basically caught up in his scheming.
“I am so sorry,” Two sniffled, “master.” She swallowed and focused her eyes back on mine. “If you inform the council of our perfidy, they may be willing to release us from your service and rescind Lord Elerren’s challenge. This is all our fault.”
I had to give Lord Elerren some credit for turning a loss into a potential gain. Without knowing the beef he had with Yierie, I couldn’t say what made him so gung-ho to kick me off the ship personally. But I bet his daughter knew the full extent of his abilities.
Besides, after Two’s story, the sun had started to rise. I didn’t want to be late for my meeting with Garaghan, especially as he was going to help me with this new problem.
“…and that’s what happened.” I finished my explanation while my three Ualno stood behind me with their heads lowered. Shame drifted off of them in waves that chilled my back. Strange how the climate did nothing to me, but emotional distress affected my sense of warmth.
“You are as big a fool as those three behind you.” Garaghan clicked his tongue. “Might as well throw yourself from the ship at this point.”
“Wait, what do you mean, sensei?”
Garaghan swore and shook his head. “Elerren Kincaid is a legendary swordsman, older even than I am. Don’t mistake me, I could beat him, if I was willing to kill him. But I would bring magic to bear in order to do it.” He pointed at me. “But you… your magical potential is greater than most elves, but that won’t mean squat. Elerren used to be a hunter. He’s accumulated a wardrobe full of magical items and various weapons. And based on the stories, he’s beaten more than anyone’s share of haughty magic users, despite his lack of aptitude.”
“Crap.”
“Indeed. If we had a solid ten years, I might be able to train you up to the point where you could last a few minutes against him. But that’s assuming he had no magical assistance and no items. With his full arsenal…” Garaghan shook his head, “you were such a promising pupil, too. Damnit.”
“Wait, don’t write me off so quickly, sensei…” There had to be something we could do, but the way Garaghan spoke...
Behind me a voice cleared her throat and Garaghan lifted his head. Three had her hand raised. I looked over at her and swung my hand in acknowledgement. She said, “Master, I chronicled Lord Elerren’s possessions. I know the full extent of his magical hoard.”
I opened my mouth to thank her, but Garaghan said, “Really?”
“Oh yes sire, I could make you a list.”
“Do it now.” He fingered his chin while Three dashed out of the room. “What about you other two?”
Two raised her hand. “I chronicled Lord Elerren’s exploits, sire. I know which legends are true and which ones are false.”
“Which list is longer, girl?”
She bowed to Garaghan. “The false ones, sire.”
A smile spread over his face. “Then make that list for me.” He pointed to One. “What about you girl. Who really trained you?”
One raised her head with a flush and said, “My father.”
Garaghan smiled and looked between the last of my Ualno and me. “Then… rotten leaves and cankers, we might have a chance here.”
“Really, sensei?”
He shook his head. “Not really, no. But I can’t stand your sulking and Yierie would thrash me something good if I broke her lover’s heart. Now you need to get back to walking before we can start your real training. And I want you to seriously apply yourself now. You have ten weeks to learn what I’d want to jam into you over the same number of years.”
Garaghan gave a terrible pep talk, at least by my standards. But I felt a slight bit of hope when he sent me off to my exercises.
Two and Three returned after they retrieved paper and sat in the corner of the room madly writing while One sparred and consulted with Garaghan. He had enough attention to spare to occasionally look up and bark a correction at me. From my perspective, he was giving One the quality attention. But his purpose with her was the same as with the others: information gathering.
We ate a quick lunch together, or rather I ate a quick lunch and Garaghan and the girls continued to sup while I resumed my walking practice.
Learning how to walk again was easily the silliest thing I could have imagined doing aboard a magical elven ship. But the more time I spent under Garaghan’s tutelage, the more I realized how badly I moved, how much of my momentum and energy were wasted.
I practiced into the night, after a short dinner and stopped only after Garaghan ordered the girls to pull up a cot for me to sleep in. They brought out three small mattresses for themselves and slept next to me on the floor. Garaghan vanished out of his room and didn’t return until I woke up.
Without windows to give me a sense of time, I had no idea how long I’d slept. The old elf didn’t give anything away. He set me back to walking while he pored over the reports Two and Three had written from him. His intermittent laughter was almost as distracting as my Ualno’s nearly-naked bodies. In an odd way, the distraction helped me focus. Each time he barked out a laugh, I forced myself to redirect my attention to the task at hand.
He interrupted me for breakfast. To my surprise, all three of my Ualno had risen and retrieved food for us. I ate with haste, the urgency of my upcoming duel bore down on me with incredible force. This was only day two, but if I wanted to stay here on the ship with Yierie, I would have to defeat Lord Elerren. I was motivated.
The pattern repeated for two days before Garaghan stopped me in my constant walking. I’d heard him approach, just as I could hear the girls moving about the room. I turned instinctively upon Garaghan’s approach and continued moving forward. “What is it, Sensei?”
He grinned at me and nodded to my legs. “You might be acceptable now. Let’s try some footwork.”
I almost spat a laugh in his face. All I’d done since entering his training had been footwork. After the last few days, I’d started dreaming of walking and standing to the point my ankles exploded and my feet ran off on their own. Instead of laughing, I sighed. “I thought that was what I’ve been doing.”
Garghan shook his head. “Not like this. Trust me.”
My sensei was short on speeches and verbal instruction. But today he stood across from me wearing his black robes. He’d insisted the girls don the same clothes as me while they were in the training room. They flanked him and I felt as though I faced off with some kind of martial artist gang, the kind that might be found in the climactic end of a Chinese opera.
“Fighting begins with the feet.” He pointed with his staff at my bare feet. “And victory is decided by the feet.” As he spoke, the staff darted at my toes and I hopped back, stumbling as I did. Garaghan nodded. “Now you need to learn to integrate your walking into your defense. Starting right now.”
The girls darted to the sides of the room and picked up staves from somewhere. I didn’t want to know what they intended with those staves, but I found out quickly as they joined in Garaghan’s trying to hit my feet. Each of them balked at first, but Garaghan yelled at them, “you’re helping her learn. So trying to hurt her is necessary. All four of you must try your best.”
An hour later, I didn’t feel like I’d made much progress with my footwork. But I’d taken leaps and bounds in terms of quick, off the cuff healing. One rarely managed to strike my feet, but she made a good distraction for Two and Three, both of whom committed to bruising if not outright breaking my toes.
Garaghan had vanished to conduct other business, which made me wonder what he was doing just long enough to have my foot bashed again.
Two grinned at me and chortled. “Your attention wanders so badly, it might as well be a cat.”
“Thanks…” my words drifted off as I let my focus go and reach out with Roo. If I wasn’t careful, the injuries would accumulate and I would end up getting struck several times in quick succession. I learned I could watch them move in the void and their mystical forms gave a good indication of where they were aiming.
Three staff strikes rained down at my feet and I felt like I’d performed my swiftest series of dodges yet. One of the few lessons I recalled from elementary-school martial arts was not to watch the staff, but to stick to a point right in the center of my opponent’s chest. With three opponents, I left my gaze more or less in the middle of them and dodged without staring at the ends of the sticks.
“You’re getting better at this, master!” One bent her legs, pressed her arms between her legs and flashed a full view of her décolletage at me.
I stumbled backwards, windmilling my legs as Two and Three pressed me. They both got successful attacks in and I had to drop back into the void to heal. This time I stayed there. Though I could see my Ualno in the void, I couldn’t make out the details of their features; they looked more like mannequins or dolls in this world. Healing my feet as I danced away and shuffling made for complicated work. But here in the void I managed without much difficulty.
“You’ve already dropped into the Space Between.” Garaghan’s voice called out to me from the other side of the room. “Good work Harriet.”
His words destroyed all sense of balance or accomplishment I had. Rather than shuffle backwards like a ninja, I tripped over my own feet and ended up on my backside. Staves rained down on me with a vengeance. Thankfully they aimed at my now elevated feet rather than my body, or my Ualno might have injured me. At the same time I fell, I dropped out of the void and into the blackness of Garaghan’s training room.
“That’s enough ladies.” Garaghan waved them off as he walked over to help me stand. “How many times did you take a hit?”
“I honestly lost count.”
“47, sire.” Three spoke up without being asked directly.
“You healed them all?” The lifted eyebrow broadcast a warning not to lie to Garaghan.
“Yes sir.” I stood and bowed to him. “Was I not supposed to?”
He shook his head and sucked on his teeth. “That’s better than I expected, but for now, it’s more important that you learn to avoid the blows and focus on your posture.” He clapped his hands. “Resume!”
Hail struck the floor in the form of the butts of staves as I danced away. At the same time, a staff tapped me on the backside, warning me about my poor posture. Garaghan folded his arms and leaned against the wall as my three Ualno took turns assaulting me. Thinking about Yierie and my half-formed plans for Malia kept me from complaining about the treatment. Though I’d known him less than a week, I believed in Garaghan, I believed he intended to help me best Elerren. A good deal of my belief was based on the fact that my sensei hated the elven Lord.