“Harriet!” A shrill voice intruded on my dream, emanating from the grotesque face of Lord Elerren Kincaid. “Come play with me?”
“Oh gods, what have you done with Tia?”
I pushed at the elven lord as he leaned over me and said, “I’m right here you big silly!”
I screamed as I woke and found Tia looming over me in Yierie’s bed. She screamed back at me and flopped off the side of the bed in shock. “Tia, are you alright?!”
Diving over the side to find her, she lay on her back and laughed with the unrestrained joy the providence of children and the insane. “That was so funny! Ahahahaha!”
I had to join her. My horror at the terrible wrongness of Lord Elerren’s voice combined with Tia’s mirth had given way to gaiety once I found my kid sister in my room. When we both finally settled down, I looked about the room. “Where’s Alaric?”
“Oh, he found some new girl.” Tia waved off in the direction of the door. “So he sent me to find you. Pleeease play with me!”
“Don’t you have other kids closer to your age to play with?” I ruffled her hair and stood.
Tia stuck out her tongue. “There’s some holiday thing today, no one is willing to play with me.”
It was news to me. My weeks had bled into each other, each day filled with learning to keep one step ahead of a quartet of slamming staves. At this point, I would have to hope Lord Elerren favored foot attacks. If he did, I felt as though I would be able to duel circles around him. If not, I was in a good deal of trouble.
“I need to stop by Garaghan’s so I don’t get in trouble.” Roo wrapped itself around me without a conscious thought from me and I stepped out of my room with Tia in tow.
“I don’t know who that is, but okay!” Tia filled the time between Yierie’s room and Garaghan’s with reports from Madame Renrara’s class. Her vocabulary had improved to the point where we both spoke Elven about as well as older children. Apparently, there were two other human kids in the class now, but neither of them wanted anything to do with Tia. It was fine with her because she’d already made friends with the elves, so the stinky humans could go soak their heads — her words.
When we reached my sensei’s class, I bent down and lowered my voice for Tia. “My new teacher is kinda grumpy, so you should try to keep it down while we’re in there. If he yells at you or is mean to you, I’ll get him for you later, okay?”
A mask of fear covered Tia’s face. “Is he being mean to you?”
“Oh no, he’s just stern and grumpy, but no sense in provoking him, okay?”
“Yes, Harriet!” Tia nodded and puffed out her cheeks as if she were about to roll her sleeves up. “I will be very, very good!”
Her words were utterly unreassuring, but I was already committed. Aside from introducing my kid sister to my sensei, I would also be asking the irascible old man for a day off. With my impending duel, it might not have been the best idea. At the same time, this would be my first day off in weeks and Tia was on her own. I just had to hope Garaghan wouldn’t mind.
I knocked on the door with a light rap. After a few seconds, the door flew open and a tall elf with a bird mask answered the door. “Who knocks on Raggle’s door this Fasinmas Eve?”
Tia screamed and kicked the figure right in the shin before I could stop her. For my part, I shuffled back as if I were expecting staves to hit my feet.
The bird-masked man raised his foot and intercepted my sister’s kick with a “keh, keh, keh! Raggle is too swift for plump little girls! Keh keh keh!”
When I recovered my balance and dropped my focus, I saw Garaghan’s shape in the void. I rubbed my eyes and peered at him. This bird-masked figure was definitely my teacher, according to my magical sight. But Garaghan had never once wore pastels that I’d seen. Aside from the colorful mask, he work a full body robe of light green.
“Sensei?” I asked with a raised voice. Tia had taken several steps back to stand behind me.
The masked figure sighed and pulled of his mask. “No one has the Fasinmas spirit anymore, not that I expect a pair of humans to understand.”
“What in the name of the root and stem is happening, sir?”
“Kwee! Kwee! We are the three birds of fate, kwee! Kwee!” Three women with feathers on their arms and brightly covered bird masks danced out from the back of Garaghan’s room. Each mask featured a single color prominently over the others, with blue, pink and yellow as the dominant hue.
“Oh, hello Master!” I recognized Two’s voice.
“You three are into this too?”
One pulled off her mask and shrugged with the bird hand in her arms. “Master Garaghan insisted and I haven’t participated in Fasinmas like this since I was five hundred.”
My mouth dropped open. Not only were they wearing masks, but they each sported brightly colored make up and jeweled beads on their faces.
“I feel like I must not have woken up this morning.” I pointed between the three Ualno and master Garaghan. “I mean, you three, I guess I could understand. But him. Did someone drug my dinner?”
One of the still-masked bird ladies covered her face and laughed at me. The other said, “you are definitely awake, master. You just happened to join us for the feast of Fasinmas. It’s…” I recognized her voice as Two. She put her finger to her mouth while she thought. “I am unaware of an equivalent human festival. Perhaps Faschings?”
I shook my head. “Sorry, but I don’t know what that is.”
Two shrugged. “Then I don’t know a simple way to explain it. It’s a big costume party with drinking and food. Traditionally the People visit relatives they haven’t seen in many years or leave offerings to the departed.”
“And the bird thing?”
Two shrugged. “It’s hard to explain…”
I opened my mouth looked over at Garaghan and then back at Tia. After a few turns, I finally bent down and faced her. “I didn’t think they’d go crazy in such a short time, want to play with me and my sensei and the three… birds of fate?”
“Sure!” Tia pumped her hand. “Do I get to wear a costume too.”
Fasinmas turned out to be one of three major Elven holy days. Few people spoke about their religion, but the festival itself sounded like a weird mashup of Halloween, Christmas and Easter. No one distributed candy or gifts, but family was a big deal as well as some religious mystery that even my Ualno refused to divulge.
In my short time among the Elves, I’d noticed how few of them ever brought religion up around me. The subject wasn’t exactly taboo, but they definitely didn’t care to speak of it most of the time. Raggles, the bird king of fate was something like a Krampus figure, who visited ill fortune upon any elves who refused to visit their family on Fasinmas and good fortune on those who dutifully checked in on their family, or left offerings to the dead. I got the feeling talking to Garaghan that Raggles was more important than I’d understood.
My three Ualno spent the time I chatted with Garaghan chasing Tia around the room. When she finally caught one of them, they produced a pile of clothes for her to play in, which established the three as friends for life.
“Why do I have the feeling today is an off day?”
Garaghan snorted at my question as he held up his Raggles mask. “Because the King of Fate squawks in your ear.”
“You’re seriously damaging my image of you right now.”
He laughed this time, hard and bright with his head tilted back. “Good, Fasinamas is all about shattering the shells that bind us, among other things.” His laughter lingered until he finally calmed himself. “And yes, you are free to play with your sister and your Ualno the whole day…” He eyed me and said, “about those three: traditionally you release them from their duties for the day. If you’d showed up alone, I would have suggested it already.”
“Tia’s pretty diverting, right?” As if she heard us talking about her, Tia roared and burst out of the pile of costumes with scarves and feathered boas trailing after her as she raced after the three Ualno.
“No, she’s…” Garaghan cleared his throat and rubbed his eyes. It was the closest I’d ever seen to him being sentimental. “She reminds me of Yierie in her youth.”
“Have you heard anything about her?”
Nodding, he said, “yes. Don’t take it personally,” Garaghan headed off my brief surge of jealousy with a wave, “the Orchid puts her hunters to work and things outside are rougher than anyone expected. I believe she may be back in a week or two.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I ran my fingers through my hair. “Gods, I don’t even know how long it’s been anymore.”
“Three weeks and two days since she left. Just under three weeks since Elerren issued his challenge.” Garaghan looked over his shoulder at the door as if he expected the Elven noble to make an appearance then and there.
“Wish I hadn’t accepted his duel?”
“All of the time, my apprentice. But wishes and farts weigh the same.”
I gawped at him. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
He hopped to his feet with preternatural quickness. “The spirit of Raggle has taken me firmly in hand. Now no more pouting and talk of absent friends.” He cackled at me. “Have you left an offering to your honored ancestors this day, little girl? If not, Raggle is going to gobble you up and use your bones to crush his food in his gullet!”
Tia squealed as Garaghan hooked his hands into the image of talons and turned to race after her. His words recalled Gramps to mind. He might be gone, but I could still remember him. An Elven holiday was as good as any, especially as I had no idea of the date.
Rather than chase an exuberant seven-year old around the room with the others, I sat on a bench and watched. The scene played out like a three way tug-of-war. Garaghan would take turns giving chase as Raggle, then my Ualno as the Birds of Fate, and then Tia as Wondergirl. None of the elves could know who that was, but it did nothing to stop them from fleeing from her.
Food arrived with a knock on the door. Garaghan raced to the door strides ahead of the others and threw his door open. A vast platter awaited outside the door heaped with all manner of foods. By then I’d learned that elves considered honey, raw sugar, and other sweets rare luxuries. A good deal of the food piled up outside had been made with variants of the same. I disdained the sugary confections, but indulged in the meade. By then the shock of Jeremy and his dastardly behavior had faded.
“Master, are you having a good time?” I sucked down the last few drops of meade and flopped my head over to look at Two.
The ridiculous bird mask made it much harder to take her seriously. Still, I managed. “Garaghan told me… told me about Fasinmas. You don’t need to call me master today. You’re free or whatever for the holiday, right?”
Two looked down at the small plate in her hands and then back at the others, who giggled with Tia and Garaghan. “You mean if I wished to visit with my family?”
“Yeah, or if you just don’t want to be my servant for the day.” I shook my head to try and clear the drunken fog. “In fact you should tell the others too.”
Two sat down next to me. “Shall I tell you a secret, mas… Harriet?”
“If you want, sure.”
“Neither Three nor I have living family to visit on this day.” She grinned beneath her curved beak as she stared at the other two women. “The only family we have sit in this room cooing at each other.”
“What about One… oh.”
“Indeed, Harriet. Elerren is her only living relation. And he is…” Two shook her head. “All three of us will be leaving offerings at the Shrine of the Ancestors this afternoon before the sun reaches meridian height. I would be honored, we would be honored if you came with us.”
“You don’t resent me…” I opened my mouth and Two chuckled.
“When I found out I had to serve Ualno under a human, I considered throwing myself from the ship. Fara… One stopped me.”
“Gods, I am sorry…”
Two cut me off with a quick circle of her fingers. “Do not apologize. You showed us kindness when you did not have to. Not once have you made us clean anything foul. Nor have you abused our service. I… deeply regret the circumstances which led to our service, but I would not trade these past few weeks for my previous station, even elevated as Elerren promised.”
“I’m so… thank you.”
“As thanks, come with us to the Shrine of the Ancestors tonight. Toss flowers upon the graves of the lost and join us in mourning. And tomorrow we will resume our service as before.”
“It doesn’t bother you, I mean…”
Two patted my shoulder. “Ualno is meant to be a learning experience for us. And I think all of us have learned more serving you than we have in a thousand years of life.” She giggled as she rose. “To think, I’ve been taking lessons under the great Garaghan this whole time! My mother would be as proud as my father would be scandalized!” She lowered her hands to me. “Come and dance with us, play with your dear sister and count each day a blessing from Fasinmas to Fasinmas. Come!”
I let her pull me up and away from the food and joined in with the riotous cavorting.
As Two had explained, all three of my Ualno appeared genuinely happy, happier now than they’d been when I first took them into my service. I had no idea what I’d done to produce this outcome, and I was afraid to look into it too deeply for fear I would ruin it later. So I raised my mouth to the ceiling and crowed with the rest of the elves until noon began to approach.
Garaghan clapped his hands and ended our games. “Midday cometh, fellows. Now we race the sun to be the first to wish our dead farewell! Grab a cake, cup a dram and run! Run for the fates of the dead!”
I’d been wondering about the mass of sweets and food the elves left on the floor unattended. I would have worried about ants, except that I’d never seen so much as a fly in one of the elven rooms. As the three Ualno ran about the room, they scooped up sweets or liquor and carried them out of Garaghan’s room. He waited for me and Tia to do the same, so I grabbed a small tin cup filled with wine while Tia grabbed a sticky cinnamon bun and he proceeded to chase us out, hooting and cackling as he did.
Skipping, spinning, and shouting, we made our way deeper into the center of the Crystal Orchid. I’d been near this place on various occasions, but I’d never gone in the precise direction Garaghan herded us. A perverse thought made me wonder if Tia and I might end up being the sacrificed for Fasinmas. As I laughed that thought away, we reached a willowed hallway. At first, I thought the leaves carved as the rest of the apparent foliage had been. But as the drooping branches brushed over my face, I felt their vibrant softness in their leaves, the way the thin branches traced lines across my skin.
A lone trail split the branches and led ever deeper into the darkness. With every step the laughing, gay air faded and grew more subdued. Other elves joined us on the trail, most of them adorned with bird masks like the three Ualno, always with one dressed in pastel green like Garaghan. Everyone we encountered bore some sweet or cup as a sacrifice. The deeper we walked, the more subdued and somber our procession grew until we walked on in silence.
At the end of our trail a massive line of elves had formed. He fell in rank with them, the three Ualno at the head of our own line with Garaghan at the caboose. Hundreds of elves, perhaps thousands lined up behind and before us now. All of them walked into the grove ahead, now in silence. I might have worried about Tia, but my little sister clutched her sweet bun to her chest and walked on in silence. To my utter shock, she hadn’t touched the sweet or nibbled so much as a corner.
Around us, soft chanting lilted into the air. It started as something akin to humming, so quiet it blended into the footsteps and susurrant hiss of cloth against skin. When it grew loud enough to make out, I realized it was in a language I could not parse. Garaghan and the Ualno raised their voices in the chant, but Tia and I did not join them for we knew not the words.
Unable to resist the call, I hummed along with the tune, following the strains of the slow music like a musician with an unfamiliar melody. Our steps matched the rhythm of the chant and soon we all but danced along with the chant.
Tia yawned, covering her mouth, and I scooped her up into my arms. We hadn’t been at this for that long, but then again, I’d lost all sense of the passage of time. Here in the heart of the elven ship, we could have walked an hour or a day for all I knew.
A large stone pillar rose into view as we made a final turn in our course. Tia had gone limp and begun to snore, her sweet bun forgotten and passed to me to steward. A few other small children dozed in the arms of adult elves around us. None of the others rubbernecked the way I did, but nether did they glare at me to warn against the staring.
A few dozen yards from the pillar of stone in the ship’s center, my eyes lost their focus and I fell into the void. The thousands of elves around me glowed with an argent light, the first of its kind I’d seen in the void. Garaghan and the three Ualno glowed along with them, as if mere proximity to the stone had changed the content of their souls. Their forms wavered and danced in time with the chanting, specters capering silently to the whispered words.
When I turned my gaze upon the stone, I hesitated for the first time since joining in the elven ritual. Fires blazed from the stone, silver flames flickered and popped as if the whole mass had been doused in kerosene and some other chemical which gave it the argent glow.
Eyes stared back at me through those flames. No other gaze pierced my being or watched me from the confines of the void. I’d long known Garaghan capable of detecting my entrance into this pseudo-realm, but I’d never before been seen by something in the darkness. Fear invaded my heart and paused yet again in my course. No one bumped into me or tried to hurry me along. Despite the fear that wrapped its fingers around me, no one chastened me for freezing.
“What are you?” The words slipped out of my mouth in the void, escaping as so many others had before them, unbidden by my mind.
“WE ARE THE ORCHID AND THE FLAME.”
I’d no more expected an answer to my question than to discover I’d asked the wrong question. This stone, the fires that burned from within were no what but rather a who.
“Do you have a name?” What the hell was I thinking? My reason and speech had been torn from me, words ripped out of my center as if the fires burned a whole in my chest. I could no more stop myself from questioning the pillar than I could lock my legs in place and refuse to proceed.
“WE DO, BUT NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR YOU TO LEARN OUR NAME.” The voice paused, waiting for my feet to carry me closer. “YOU COME WITH GIFTS, A PRICE FOR THREE QUESTIONS, A DEBT ONE THIRD OWED.”
I didn’t try to quibble with the voice. I dropped the bun and upended the tin of liquor at the base of the pillar. Instinct, this time born of my own free will, drove me to send the end of Roo into the fire and with her a sliver of my own energy.
The fires rose and the silver color grew so dense as to block out the stone entirely. “PAID IN FULL, ANCIENT BORN OF EARTH. ASK YOUR QUESTION AND RECEIVE A FOURTH, UNASKED ANSWER IN RETURN.”
“Can I defeat Elerren?” The flames dimmed a fraction and the voice chided me.
“A FOOLISH QUESTION FOR ONE OF YOUR HERITAGE AND WISDOM. THE PETALS OF FATE CLOSE ABOUT YOU AND THE THORN OF KINCAID SHALL PRICK YOU TRUE.”
I cursed myself for the fool the fires had named me, I should have asked how I could defeat Elerren. Bowing to the fires, I passed them and whispered thanks for the service they offered me.
“WHEN THE THORN’S SCAR IS MENDED, SEEK YOUR LOST COMPANIONS. ONLY WITH THEM WILL YOUR FAMILY KNOW PEACE. SEEK THE LOST ROSE OF YESHLIE ERE HER FINAL END ARRIVE.”
Tears filled my eyes. The voice suggested I would meet my defeat at the hands of Elerren Kincaid and that I had neglected the people I loved. As I passed the fires and resisted the urge to look back I prayed for my grandfather, that he would rest in peace and for Malia and Kain, that I would find them both again soon.
When I blinked and dropped out of the void, I’d passed the stone. Slowly, matching the pace of the soft chanting, our progression left the boundary of the grove. White petals covered us like ash and the elves around me carried their masks and garish costumes folded over their arms. None of them bore their sacrifices in hand now, all of them having deposited the same.
The chanting faded and our course returned us to Garaghan’s training room. Only when he stepped within did I feel as though I could question him. “What happened back there?”
Garaghan quirked an eyebrow up and flashed a lopsided grin. “You met the Ancestors and they answered your questions, yes?”
“They said I would lose to Elerren.”
Garaghan returned my words with a Gallic shrug. “Perhaps they did, perhaps they did not.” Before I could raise a protest, he cleared his throat and added, “the words of the Ancestors should not be taken as prophecy, but rather as advice. If they indicated you would face defeat at the hands of Lord Elerren, that could meant your current preparations are insufficient.”
“Who is the Rose of Yeshlie?”
Garaghan’s head shook as if I’d stabbed him in the groin. “The Rose of Yeshlie is my daughter, where did you hear that title?”
“I need to find her. I need to find her now.”