Farrin missed the helm and her hammer struck the anvil full on. She flung the hammer to the ground and helm against the wall. Koll and Nava were in the common room behind the forge playing Tower and Lightning, slowly finishing the last of their luncheon and jesting about seemingly anything. Their laughter died away when the helm hit the wall. Koll came into the forge. “What ails you love?” his voice was so tender. “Is it the note nailed to the door last night? I promise you I’ve survived worse than…”

“Yes, I know,” she fought back her anger as best she could. “Shrykes, and rockworms, and abyssals… but that doesn’t matter up here. Koll, why are we so marked? Why are we not allowed a simple life? Why have we been deemed unworthy of happiness or, or peace? I’m sorry. I’m simply awful. I have you back and I gripe over trifles.”

Koll came close and took her in his arms. She stiffened, but did not pull away. He let her go, but not without putting his lips on her neck. Why is he kissing me? I’m covered in ash and sweat, and I’ve done nothing but winge all day.

“I’d hardly call a threat on my life a trifle,” he said. “I know I was just about to, but I was wrong. Please forgive me.”

She felt a tear escape her eye to cleave a path through the film of dirt and metal shavings on her cheek. “I’m the one who should ask for forgiveness. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” But I know what’s wrong with Thrond.

“Nothing, Farin. That’s what’s wrong with you. Other than the obvious things of course. Burning our bacon when we broke fast, being taller than me, how profusely your feet sweat while you sleep…”

A second tear escaped, followed by a sniffle and a laugh. “I just…” she lowered her voice, “when can we talk about him?”

“Him? You mean the King? Or Buri? Or Prince Ror? Has one of our patrons harassed you?”

“No. Miser.” Her voice was almost a whisper.

“I can still hear you,” Nava said from the other room. She came into the forge. “I can leave if you need to speak prively. I’ll be sure to go far. My hearing’s sharper than most, on account of these serving platters on the sides of my head. I saw an ancient painting of a serpent bull in the Guild archives. He stood on two legs and had ears like the sails on a Seabear clipper. The name Taur Hili was carved on the painting’s placard, but the Guild renamed him Nava after I joined up.”

Another laugh and sniffle came from Farin. She wiped her cheek with her wrist. “I don’t mean to shoo you away.”

“Of course you don’t. It’s just a reflex, and one I’ve grown quite used to since the calamity of my birth. I’d blame dad, but I’d say ten years in the Underguard is punishment enough for inflicting the likes of me on the world. Alright now, you two prattle on about this secret Miser fellow. I'll go inflict myself on the garment stalls in the Grand Bazaar. Someone in Ormazzum must make a bonnet big enough to fit over these city gates I call ears.”

Farin and Koll shared a laugh after Nava left. “She’s grown rather dour over the years,” Koll said.

“She used dolorous humor to hide her tears after you were taken. It’s become part of her by now. My sweet husband, please forgive me for being so…”

He put his finger on her lips, then moved in to kiss her. She caught him by the shoulders. “Koll! Not now.” He winced as if he’d been stabbed, then backed away. Another tear broke free and trickled down to her chin. “Blast it! Just… I should be the one to leave, not Nava. She makes you laugh, and never lets anything worry her.”

“She has no cause to worry. If she knew what we thought we knew, her temper might be different. But Farin, there's no need for you to worry either. Miser is nothing.”

“How can you say that? He’s never left me alone since he had you sent to the doomed. And I won’t believe for one instant that these men shouting against you in the streets aren’t his creatures.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Koll went into the pantry and took an earthen bottle off the shelf, uncorked it and poured a stream of dark liquid into a cup.

“What’s that?” she asked. “Is that more of the Prince’s drink?”

Koll nodded, then downed the glass. “It calms me.”

“It puts you in a stupor some times. It's far stronger than any human drink. There’s still much of the day left, love. Might you wait until we go to bed?”

He shrugged, then recorked the bottle and put it back. “I need it to sleep anymore. I’m tormented by dreams of the underlands.”

“I know. I hear you cry out some times. Did you have such dreams when in the doomed?”

“No. I was tortured by happy dreams then. Dreams of you and Nava.”

“Did you ever dream of Duna?” Koll never spoke of his first wife, unless Nava mentioned her. Farin knew she must have haunted his thoughts from time to time, and it had bothered her that he never spoke of such thoughts to her. She would never begrudge Koll if he still held love for his first wife in his heart. It almost felt that he mistrusted her by keeping that love secret, if he indeed felt any.

Koll sat on a padded bench against the wall by the pantry. His eyes drifted away, looking into the same room from a different time. “Duna? No. I never dreamt of her. I did think of her though, for the first time since we wed. I suppose I thought of everything I’d ever lost. Now I dream of waking back down there. Farin, when I say Miser is nothing, it’s because he is in truth nothing. Miser is just a name, and no more. Many of his brigands were down there with me. They spoke the truth to me then, having no cause to lie. There are countless shopkeeps and craftsmen who cheat people out of coin with forged goods made of cheap alloys. Miser is no more than a wraith called from air, a name our colleagues blame their crimes on.”

“Then why did they threaten us? Why did they have you falsely convicted?”

“Simply because we continued to sell honest wares. Whenever I consigned other makers’ goods I was careful to label them according to their quality. People saw the difference when they bought from us. With me gone, you went back to selling only what you made yourself, and people only expect the best metal to pass through the Iron Maiden's smithy, so they thought nothing of it when other smiths' steel was noticeably worse. They kept their false profits, and you continued undeterred. If they pressured you after I was gone, I suspect it was pretense. If they were to suddenly stop then that would be suspicious.”

Farin sat down on a nearby stool and leaned against the wall. “I don’t understand. Are they using the open market to test their technique? Why else go through the trouble of passing cheaper metals as mass forged steel? Would it not be simpler to do honest business?”

“Yes. It would. But some fruit is rotten when still on the vine. I never could learn why so many iron mongers had fallen onto such a treacherous path, so I suppose I judged them all to simply be foul hearted people.”

Farin could not accept what Koll was telling her. The practice of forgery becoming commonplace was believable to her, but it was all too well organized not have an orchestrator. “You’re certain Miser was conjured up, as a distraction? Forgive me, my golden sun, but I doubt the honesty of your your doomed companions.”

Koll smiled, the smile that had first melted Farin’s heart, and it was melting it again. “Your golden sun. I’d almost forgotten that name. And I called you my green gem.”

“Your smile is warmer than the sun. I’d always found myself lost in a fog when those sweet lips of yours lifted in that precious grin.”

Koll laughed. “I thought you were speaking of the old tale of Ferenrar and Aeris.”

“Oh my, all those times I called you that, and you thought I meant the golden ram? And you called me the green gem, the one they fought over for eternity. I thought…” She put her hand to her face and laughed hard. “I thought you were calling me green because I was inexperienced at selling my goods, and calling me a gem was to soften the jibe.”

“Farin, my green gem, I propose we call each other by these names anew, now knowing what they truly mean.”

She smiled. Those names were spoken early in their marriage, back when their love was fresh and Farin’s heart had not yet begun to doubt the happiness she’d found. “Why did we ever stop using them?”

“I don’t know. There were many things we stopped doing. Sweet things. Kind things. Let’s vow never to stop being sweet or kind ever again. Farin, the worst pain I felt when they took me from you, was that I had pledged within my heart to right the wrongs that were growing between us, but I was taken before I could. My greatest wish, save being sent back of course, was that I’d had the time to rekindle the fire of our early years together. Against all doom I now have that time, but I can’t stoke this ember alone. Will you help me regain what we'd begun to lose?”

Farin rose and walked to her husband. She held her hands out to him and smiled. “‘Til the last dawn breaks, and the tides run dry…”

Koll took her hands in his and pulled her onto his lap. Their noses touched and his lips brushed against hers. Their faces were too close for her to see his mouth, but she could tell from the bunching of his cheeks that he was beaming. “I will be yours,” he said in his celestial voice, “and you will be mine.”

Their lips met, then his arms wrapped around her waist and hers around his neck. Farin yelped when he stood. She feared that he would drop her, but she was quickly reminded of how savagely strong he’d grown. He laughed at her surprised laughter, then tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of grain and carried her into their bedchamber.