13.2

The trip up to and back down from the sky way was surprisingly gentler and less severe then they had to suffer on the way to the capital.

The Valley of Man’s side in general seemed to have a gentler transition regardless of the time of year but well into autumn the Ridgetail side seemed to be somewhat calmed for the day they made their crossing and descent.

Jewel was thankful for it.

She didn't like being swaddled like an infant and then further wrapped in what felt like an entire bolt of heavy wool and fur before being squeezed into the space in front of Paul. Oxhoof had not complained but she imagined the extra weight was not something the mare appreciated either.

Both her selves could hear the heavy nicker whenever they stopped for the night and undid her saddle.

But as much as the clothing against the biting chill of the pass was annoying, the cold was so much worse in her smaller body.

No matter how much wyrmflame coursed through her flesh the terrible wind could sap every ounce of strength out of Gem. She was also thankful for the opportunity to be away from the capital and all the direct vassals and their preening and false (or even genuine) dotting on Jewel as her spawn.

It had been a great boon to the work and training her mother gave her.

No one expected even a wyrm spawn child of Gem’s stature to listen quite so intently or understand so clearly.

Nevermind that her snout was not just for show and mockery (or in a few peculiar cases actual praise and admiration). She lacked the full capacity of her larger mother-self’s senses. But even diminished, she thought she probably had a better nose than a cat.

Definitely better than some of those ‘court hounds’ some of the ladies in the capital carried around like surrogate children.

They way some of them acted with the beasts Jewel might have thought they were some kind of accursed offspring of the poor women. But no her nose was quite clear on this, the dogs were simply dogs.

A few of them seemed as tired of the whole affair as Jewel was with her own showing as a court child.

They seemed to appreciate how Jewel as Gem gave them the benefit of their consent before she tried to touch them. Which had earned her praise from their ‘owners’ and snide remarks how a beast-touched child would get along with beasts.

There had not really been many children in the palace itself.

And the ones that Jewel knew of were far too close to the terrifying monster of a woman-corpse-thing her larger self had interrogated.

And Jewel knew she could not tell the children why she didn't want to go anywhere near the ‘nice red haired lady and her son’ so she just played at being shy and stuck close to Smithson or Paul when she didn't need to be seen with her family somewhere for proprietary reasons.

Was this how Alexander felt?

Was this what Gwenn was going through already?

She’d put in the work to ask her sister/aunt/twin about it when they got back to Rochford.

For now her larger self sighed heavily.

“It would probably be for the best that all of you learned the Valasect Cants.”

Muriel raised a brow while soaking her travel bread ration in the trail-stew that Dariusz had taken to making when their route would not make it to a halfway-house or otherwise provide full kitchens for preparing the meal.

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It was surprisingly good and rich although apparently required some considerable preparation before departure to make it ready for travel. It allowed a good meal on the road.

Paul and Smithson only nodded along. Although the count consort was more hesitant.

Jewel explained as she shifted her coils nearer their campfire.

“It’s so you can better communicate with Gem when we are apart. I can understand your words perfectly fine, but speaking is hard.”

Her husband looked over at Gem. He’d been a bit more distant with her since fully realizing the connection between wyrm and spawn. Not cruelly so, but it made Jewel miss when he readily embraced her without any hesitation.

The way he touched Gem now was always with a near flinch, like she would burn him or something. The thought of it brought tears to her smaller self’s eyes when she was alone.

“Wouldn't it be better to further practice speech?” He turned to Jewel’s larger self when he spoke. Even when he was ostensibly talking to Gem. Which was another thing that made something ache in her chest.

Her fingers found their way to the gesture for ‘stupid mean oaf’ before she even could realize it was happening. Finding her smaller self was on the verge of openly wailing, Jewel focused on squeezing her eyes shut to try and hide the welling tears as she spun in her place in Smithson’s lap and pressed her face against his chest.

Jewel had to keep her tone even and calm in her larger throat.

“We will keep practicing Gem’s speech, but it’s not hard to learn a cant, and if you three know it we can begin teaching it to the Valasect footmen and perhaps even the Kaeketeh Guard.”

Smithson considered Jewel. His hand gently rubbed her spawn’s back.

“This is for more reasons than just so it's easier for Gem to communicate.”

Jewel nodded her larger head, letting her frustration with Paul stay hidden on the smaller face. They could have words in private about this, but the road was not the time or place for it.

“The Children in Valasect are using the cant to pass messages silently while in the woods, during hunts, and to gossip across entire farm fields without having to use their voices. They can have entire conversations even when non-fluent adults are among them.”

Muriel hummed at that and nodded along.

“The ability to pass words silently has a lot of potential, Scouts definitely would have a use for it.”

A voice that Jewel had completely forgotten about picked up from the place she had been sitting to the left of the wyrm’s coils.

Adelyne had completely slipped Jewel’s mind. So quietly she was sitting there.

“I’d like to learn this hand-talk the dragon’s git uses too. Could be useful for my brats on the street as well. If country-softies can learn, it can’t be too hard.”

Paul huffed and glared at Jewel’s bond servant.

“Teach this to those rats and they will be using it for thieving somehow before the day is out.”

The maybe-still-thief snorted and flipped her nose at him.

“Course they will! Make em better at it too. But that’s good! good silent thieves all over Kaeketeh working for the Lady’s interests? All official like.”

Jewel stared down at the probably-still-but-also-loyal-thief and sighed heavily.

“I was joking when I said Kaeketeh probably had a thieves guild.”

Adelyne’s grin in the dark somehow caught the firelight just right to make her teeth look sharper and her eyes almost seemed to have a waifish shine to them.

“Now that you’ve brought it up my lady”

Paul glared at Adelyne.

“This is absurd! A Guild is a prestigious and most importantly recognized and legal institution! You can’t have an officially recognized Guild for Thieves! They're a myth! A Tavern story!”

Adelyne nodded solemnly.

“Of course there ain’t no guild for thieves.”

Jewel relaxed a bit at the admittance the world was not entirely insane.

Adelyne’s voice however froze her still.

“That’s why we should start one!”