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Loose Threads
One Hundred Fourteen
Wearing the regalia of a courtier of the Kingdom of Keltormir along with a badge that showed he was from a remote province, Iain walked with the early morning rush of servants and visitors into the castle and past the guards. Moving as if he knew his way around the castle, he kept going past the line of guides and finally stopped in a quiet area to cast his location spell. As he’d expected, the indicated direction suggested that Shatris was in the garden where she liked to break her fast. He knew how to get there and headed off at a brisk walk, whistling Lou Bega’s Mambo Number Five.
He paused at the entrance to the garden and checked the area with his perception. Shatris was at her regular table and eating her regular breakfast of fruit. She wasn’t alone, which was to be expected, but the only person with her was her maid, a green elf Iain had seen before but never been introduced to.
Iain headed for her, stopping on the other side of the table from the princess. She glanced at him, noting the regalia as well as the badge, before returning her attention to her meal without ever really looking at his face. The badge was an affectation of the outer provinces and marked the wearer as a newbie to the castle and fresh meat for its predators. Most people figured this out quickly and discarded the badge within the first moon. “What is it,” she asked as she speared a piece of melon with a small metal skewer that the Keltormir elves tended to use instead of a fork.
“Good morning, Your Highness,” Iain said affably. “I have been sent to tell you that Iain Grey is here. Will you see him?”
She lifted her eyes and really looked at him for the first time as, behind her, her maid grinned. “Iain!” She looked his outfit over again. “Why are you dressed like that?”
“I didn’t want the way I found out your brother had revoked my visiting privileges to be by having guards surround me with spears and demand I go peacefully along with them to the dungeons after I announced who I was and asked to see you. Nobody really pays attention to the household staff in a place as large as this so I dressed up as one and,” he touched the badge, “absolutely nobody wants anything to do with the new people since they’ll just get pestered with questions or asked to help them.”
“Raloric has been too busy dealing with the nobility and preparing for the coronation to concern himself with someone as lowly placed as he sees you as being,” Shatris said with a smile. “But if someone sees you masquerading as a member of the household, you will be arrested.”
Iain’s clothes shifted to the comfortable linen and low boots he usually wore while visiting. “Better?”
“Yes. Please sit.” Shatris looked at the piece of melon and shuddered with revulsion. She dropped the skewer on her plate and shoved it towards the center of the table. “Iain, can I ask you for a favor?”
“You may,” Iain said cautiously.
“I haven’t been hungry since my father’s death and I’m tired of hearing the servants telling me I need to eat and then asking me if I need to see a healer. Would you please eat some of this for me?”
Iain looked into her eyes. She looked exhausted and she’d lost a little weight. “I will, but there’s a condition.” He pulled a great grape from his pouch and put it on the table between them. “I want you to eat this instead.”
She frowned, staring at the fruit. “You want me to eat a kobold berry?”
“It’s called a great grape. Where did you hear that name?”
Shatris shrugged. “I saw some mining kobolds eating them while I was staying with you. I asked them about it and they pretended I didn’t see what I saw and so I didn’t know what it was called. I had to call it something and that’s what I called it. Why do you want me to eat it?”
“You do need to eat and this single berry will give you the energy equivalent of eating a day’s worth of food. The juice also has healing properties if applied topically, but I want you to eat it.”
“That explains why the kobolds were eating it.” She picked the grape up and sniffed it once before popping it into her mouth and chewing. She swallowed and blinked. “This is good. Do you make wine out of these?”
“We’re experimenting with the idea.”
The maid bent down and looked closely at Shatris before straightening up. “You look much better, Your Highness. You look,” she paused, “better than you have in days.”
Shatris eyed her. “Did I really look that bad before, Fara?”
Fara nodded. “Yes, Your Highness, you did.” She turned to Iain. “Sir, could I get a few more of those for the princess?”
Iain produced five more berries from his belt pouch. “Here’s all I have. If you need more, you can send me a letter.”
“I will need more, sir,” Fara said she pulled a small pouch from somewhere inside her bodice. The grapes went into it and the pouch was returned to its hiding place.
“I’ll arrange for a moon elf named Selsharra to deliver some tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Fara,” Shatris said grumpily. “Stop mothering me.”
“Someone needs to, Shatris,” Fara said primly. Her eyes flicked to Iain. “I mean, Your Highness.”
“I won’t reveal anything I hear today between you two,” Iain said as he picked up the skewer and ate the melon on it. “Shatris, I’m sorry about your father’s death.”
She nodded. “He died in the saddle and defending his people. I think he would choose that way to die if he’d been given the chance to decide.” She sighed. “I’d like to get justice for his murder, but nobody knows who the dragon is. And, of course, my brother would really like the crown returned. He’s even offered a huge reward for it.”
“The dragon’s name was Karamoth.”
Shatris’ eyes shot up to bore into his. She frowned slightly. “Was?”
“Was.”
“You killed him.” Iain nodded. “That is marvelous to hear.” She swallowed hard. “Did you find my father’s,” she hesitated, “head?”
“No, and I searched everywhere for it. I’m sorry, but I think the dragon ate it.”
Shatris took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I understand. What about my father’s crown?”
“Helesatra.”
The half fiend sun elf appeared behind Iain. She was back to masquerading as a normal sun elf and she stepped around Iain to present him with a small metal coffer. “My lord.”
Iain took it and offered the strongbox to Shatris. “We recovered it from Karamoth’s hoard.”
She took it with trembling hands and laid it on the table. It wasn’t locked and she lifted the lid to look down on the crown of Keltormir where it lay in a nest of linen. Iain had cleaned it and it shone brightly in the morning sunlight. “Iain, we owe you a great debt of gratitude for this.”
“Thefaren was my friend,” Iain said quietly. “There was no way I was going to let his murderer get away unscathed and, even if he’s your brother, the king of Keltormir should have the proper crown of Keltormir to wear.”
She nodded. “My father always liked you and he treasured your friendship with him. You honor his memory by doing this. As I said, there is a reward for the recovery of the crown.”
Iain shrugged. “I did this for you and Thefaren. If your brother follows through with the reward idea, if you’re willing to do the work, you can accept it for me if you can and give it to the needy.”
“Part of the reward is a landed title, Iain. It’s a county.”
“You can accept that too. It’ll give you an income that will be harder for him to cut off from you.”
“You don’t want it?”
“I’m not swearing any oaths to the ruler of Keltormir, which any title would require. I wouldn’t do it for Thefaren and I won’t do it for Raloric. Honestly, I’m not even sure I want him knowing I’m the one that gave the crown to you.”
Shatris gave him a flat look. “I have to tell him something. He’s not going to believe that the dragon that killed Father just returned it anonymously, right before he killed himself out of remorse for his actions.”
Iain had to take a few seconds and keep from laughing in her face at the idea of a green dragon feeling remorse. “I was kind of hoping that in the years since our one meeting, he’d forgotten all about me and I was concerned that this would bring me back to his attention.”
“The only way that my brother is exactly like my father is in in that he never forgets an insult, Iain, and he feels you deeply insulted him in front of his friends and companions. He’s never forgotten about you. Besides, the clan is a major trading partner with Keltormir. You now provide almost a third of our iron and some claim your steel is better than what the dwarven kingdoms produce.”
“My steel isn’t better than the best dwarven steel,” Iain said with a smile. “It’s just consistently better than their regular dwarven steel and mine sells for pretty much the same price as they charge for their regular steel, so it’s a better value for a better product.”
Shatris nodded. “And that’s why my brother’s companions want that production brought under the kingdom’s control. Each of them hopes to be the one who is given the valley and told to keep it profitably operating. And some think you’re being very mercenary with your business because weapons made with Grey steel, which is what it is called, are sometimes seen in captured equipment from Vyshaantar’s armies. The tangs have the dragon mark your clan puts on its sword blanks.”
The dragon mark was a stamp that the kobolds had made to mark their products. It was a silhouette of Iain as a dragon, sitting upright with his wings extended as if he was about to take to the air. Iain didn’t really like it, especially since dragons could not take off from a sitting position, but they didn’t tell him when they started using it and he hadn’t found out about it for several years and, at that point, had decided it wasn’t worth the fight. Now the dragon mark was put on pretty much everything the clan produced, including being stamped on its bolts of linen and silk, when they were available for sale.
Iain shrugged. “I don’t sell to the empire. I do sell to Shanatar and the dwarves will sell to anyone with gold that they’re not at war with. Right now the only elves they won’t do business with are the drow.” Iain ate more melon. “And you’re right about having to tell Raloric at least something. I’m not hiding the fact that the I killed Karamoth. And if you make it sound like I’m a really awesome fighter who took down a dragon single handedly, maybe it’ll give him a bit of pause about whatever plans he has for me and the clan.”
Shatris’ eyes widened. “Did you kill this dragon by yourself?”
“I did.” He looked at Helesatra. “Can I have the map, please?” She handed him a scroll of parchment. Iain unrolled it out on the tabletop. It was a map of the part of Keltormir and the surrounding land where he’d recovered Thefaren’s crown. He used the skewer to point out a spot on it. “Here’s the location of where Karamoth’s cave is. He had a tribe of lizardfolk worshipping him and they’re understandably excited that their god got killed, so if he sends anyone to investigate the area, be warned they’re kind of unhappy right now and they’re going to blame any outsiders they see.” He rolled the map back up and handed it to Shatris. “Here.”
She gave him an odd look before putting the map down next to the coffer. “Thank you, Iain.”
He was busy eating fruit. He swallowed to clear his mouth. “You’re welcome.”
“Will my brother’s forces find that this dragon’s cave has been emptied of all valuables?”
Iain smiled and nodded. “Right in one.” He ate a grape. “Is this enough?”
Fara chuckled. “You’d better stop eating, sir. She doesn’t normally eat half of what you’ve already consumed.”
Iain looked surprised. “You ate more than this while visiting us.”
“I spend a lot of my day right now working with the High Wizards and they’re not as active as you and yours are,” Shatris said with a quick smile. “Sometimes I miss the valley.”
“It’s still there and you know where it is,” Iain pointed out as he pushed the plate out of reach.
“I can’t. I have too many people like Fara, all of whom I am responsible for. I can’t abandon them to whatever changes are going to happen when Raloric becomes king.”
“If it comes down to it, we can accommodate a reasonably sized entourage, but I understand. Just remember you’re always welcome there.”
“I’m glad to hear that, Iain.” She stood, tucked the map inside the coffer and picked it up. “I should get this to Raloric immediately, Iain, and you should leave. If my brother’s first official action is to try to force you to accept a title, I’d worry that it wouldn’t send a good impression to the rest of the kingdom of what their new king’s rule is going to be like.”
Iain nodded and rose. “I understand.” He watched her walk away. “Shatris?” She turned and looked back at him. “I’m actually more concerned that such an action, which I can easily see him doing, would send an accurate message of what the kingdom’s future is going to be like.”
Shatris sighed. “I’m worried about that even more.” She squared her shoulders. “The kingdom will endure. It has always done so.” She turned and left, followed closely by Fara.
Iain watched her leave and shook his head. Helesatra raised an eyebrow. “What is it, my lord?”
“She’s wrong. No nation endures forever and Keltormir is not going to prove the exception.”
The sun elf lich nodded. “My lord, understand that I am very grateful for what you have allowed me to do so far, but I will understand if your friendship with Shatris as well as considerations about the Kingdom of Keltormir in general means that our operations against my family are over.”
Iain took her hand. “Take us home.” She muttered a spell and suddenly they were standing outside the greenhouse. Nearby, string had been laid out to mark where another greenhouse was going to be placed. “Do you want to stop what we’ve been doing?”
Helesatra shifted to her true form as her eyes blazed with golden light. “I do not! I hate them all!”
“What about their children?”
Helesatra froze for a second before nodding and continuing in a calmer voice. “A wise question, my lord. I have nothing against their children, but I also have no qualms about orphaning them to get my revenge.”
“We’re not done with your family yet, but the break we’ve taken will last for a while longer.”
Helesatra bowed. “Yes, my lord.” She grinned. “I can be as patient as death.”
Iain groaned. “That’s terrible.”
She laughed. “Yes, but it is accurate.”
He shook his head. “Well, I’m done with needing a visible bodyguard, at least for now. Do you ride me or are you off to Chult?” She grasped his left wrist and turned to red smoke that flowed onto his skin. “That answers that.” He opened the door to the greenhouse and went inside.
***
Xune stepped through the portal from Chult and halted at the sight of Iain. “Father, is something wrong?”
“No, I just wanted to be here to welcome you back.”
She laughed and grabbed his hands. “Thank you, Father. I missed you too.” She released his left hand. “Can I stay in my old room or have you given it to someone else yet?”
“It’s still waiting for you.” Iain let her pull him down the passageway. “You don’t live here anymore but I won’t reassign your room for a while yet. We’re not that strapped for space.”
“My room isn’t is large as yours is,” Xune teased. “Yours would be turned into a dormitory.”
“There might be a god somewhere who has a bedroom bigger than mine, but other than that I don’t think anyone has a bedroom larger than mine.” Iain looked around deliberately. “So where is this friend of yours I’m supposed to meet?”
Xune grinned mischievously. “She’ll be here late tomorrow morning.”
“Then I guess I’ll meet her tomorrow evening,” Iain replied.
Xune’s smile vanished. “I want you here when she arrives.”
“Then you should have scheduled it with me,” Iain replied. “Your coming back to the valley to visit for a bit is great, but my work doesn’t stop just because you’re here.”
“Don’t I get to spend some time with you?”
“I’ve freed up the entire day for you in three days.”
Xune sighed. “Is it your mission or the clan?”
“It’s both, of course. Oh, and plan to be here after moonrise in four days. Eilistraee wants to see you again and she’s bringing Mielikki for you to meet.”
“Can Ari,” she blinked, “I mean my friend you’re going to meet tomorrow come?”
“Right now, the answer is no. You can ask me again after I’ve known her for a few days.” Iain glanced at her. “Why are you keeping who she is such a secret?”
“She asked me to, Father.”
“Well, during her invocation of privacy, did she happen to mention why? I realize that if she did you couldn’t tell me, but I just wonder if you know why she wants this.”
Xune grinned with a shrug. “She did not.”
“Whatever. She’ll either tell me or keep it a secret. And here’s your room.”
“Is Zilvra here now?”
Iain pushed her door open. “You have a twee so you should know she’s in the Sanctuary of Eilistraee.” He paused when she looked down. “What is it?”
“This isn’t my home anymore, Father, and I don’t want to act like I presume it still is.”
Iain pulled her to him and looked down at her somber face. “Xune, you may not live here right now and you may not ever live here again, but, as long as I live here, this is your home in addition to the place where you live. Even if all I can offer you is a sleeping pad on the ground, probably not far from mine, that will always be true no matter where I live.”
His daughter looked up at him and smiled. “Thank you, Father. It makes me very happy to hear you say that and to know it’s true.”
“Tomorrow I was going to go flying for my morning exercise. Care to join me?”
Xune eyed him suspiciously. “Is this a leisurely flight you’re planning or is it like the one where you pushed until I threw up in midair?”
“I should point out that you ate five mountain sheep right before that flight and, at the time, their combined weight was more than yours. Until you vomited, you looked like a beer keg with wings.”
“Father!”
Iain laughed at her admonishing tone. “It’s more than a leisurely flight and less than an endurance run. I’m planning my first town outside the valley. I want to start scouting the region for a good place to put it, but I still want to be back fairly quickly before I head off to Shanatar.”
Xune frowned. “Why?”
“The valley is getting a little crowded. We’ve taken in a lot of elves from Keltormir now that Thefaren is dead and his son, the king, is still being a tyrant.” He shook his head. “His father left him a stable kingdom and was beloved by noble and commoner alike. While many of the nobles support Raloric because he panders to them, his commoners have learned he is nothing like his father was where they are concerned. There haven’t been any revolts, but that’s in part because the disaffected tend to flee here instead.”
“Do they all become clan?”
“Somewhere between a third and half of them have chosen to become clan so far. The fact that we treat them decently helps a lot of them decide to stay. They mostly just wanted to live their lives without being oppressed. The rest we help move on to one of the other elven kingdoms where, hopefully, they can find some peace.”
“I see,” Xune said thoughtfully. “I would like to go on this flight with you.”
“Good. I’ll have my twee send you the time we leave.”
***
Iain appeared with Helesatra. “Thank you,” he said as she released his hand.
“You are welcome, my lord.” Her teeth gleamed in her smile. “I must admit, I had never seen such a grossly fat dwarf before.” Her smile widened. “It’s good for him that his throne is made from the skulls of four ancient blue dragons. Anything less than dragon bone might not support his weight.”
“Yeah, the Kingdom of Shanatar has fallen a bit from its zenith when Taark Shanat won the Cloaker Wars by killing all four of the dragons that make up the throne.” Iain untied his ponytail and shook it loose before running his fingers through his hair. “Thank you for taking me there and guarding me while I was reassuring King Dwylarric that we’re not evil.”
Helesatra shifted back to her true form with a chuckle. “I cannot see how they could ever come to that conclusion,” the half fiend sun elf lich said in a voice rich with irony as she spread her wings wide and snapped them closed with a crack of displaced air.
“Why would they think we were evil,” Xune asked from the doorway. “Welcome back, Father.”
“One of their merchants reported that there were drow here and, according to Dwylarric’s limited understanding of the universe, all drow are evil. It’s a common misconception.”
“Why do we care what they think about us?”
“Honestly, I don’t. However, they’ve taken up most of the drop in our export sales that was created when Keltormir deciding to stop buying from us. I had to talk to Dwylarric because I’m the closest thing to being his equal that any dwarf might think an elf can be and for some reason he seems to think we’re friends.”
“They want our iron and steel because it’s better than theirs,” Xune noted. “They keep our metals and sell what they produce to everyone else. We could be feeding people into our furnaces and they wouldn’t care as long as it didn’t lower the quality of the iron that we sell them.”
“They’re not quite that callous,” Iain said mildly. “And they produce a lot more iron and steel products for sale than we do. In the meantime, I’m trying to get Illefarn interested in our wares, and they seem to be very much so, but they’re on the other side of Vyshaantar. To get goods to them we’ll have to put a portal between our lands. Our end will have to be somewhere nearby in the Underdark and I need to find a good place for it. And then I have to go to Illefarn and find a place for the other end that’s safe from an invasion should the Empire turn their attention on Illefarn.”
“Is Dwylarric being enough of a jackass that you’re finally ready to do that, my lord,” Helesatra asked.
Iain pursed his lips as he thought for a moment. “Yes, he is. I’ll move that search much higher on my priority list.”
Xune took his hand. “Helesatra, I don’t think Father needs you right now.”
“That is not your decision, Xune.” Helesatra turned to red smoke and flowed under Iain’s shirt.
Xune glared at his shirt. “Bitch,” she muttered.
“Helesatra is one of those things I’m not going to let you change my mind about,” Iain said quietly. “So,” he said as Xune stuck her tongue out at him, “did your friend arrive?”
Xune smiled and tugged on his hand. “She did. Come on.”
Iain had let her pull him along like this since she was a baby and he let her pull him this time, too. “Why are you so insistent that I meet her?”
“She lives in the mountains around the valley and I hope the two of you get along.” She glanced back at him. “She doesn’t have a mate.”
“You’re matchmaking?”
“I’m doing what April would want me to do.”
Iain had nothing with which to rebut that statement. “I should point out that you know quite well that Zilvra and I are in a relationship.”
“I know, but you need a dragoness in your life. Zilvra can’t fly with you or hunt with you.”
“We hunt together regularly.” Iain pulled to a halt. “Look, I’ll meet your friend, but don’t expect sparks between us. I won’t be looking for them.”
“I’ll accept that for now, Father.” She led him into his bedroom. Waiting there was a middle aged moon elf with shoulder length silver hair and blue eyes. “Father, I’d like you to meet my friend, Arithallos Brightwing. Ari, this is my father, Iain Grey.”
That name is familiar, his twee noted as Arithallos looked evenly at him, her face and eyes clear of all expression. I’m checking the database now. Found her. Fuck. Information flowed into Iain’s consciousness.
Iain’s eyes narrowed slightly and stepped past Xune so she was behind him. “We’ve never meet, but I know who you are. Did you make friends with my daughter just for this moment?”
“I didn’t know that she was your daughter when we first met and became friends,” Arithallos replied. “And I didn’t know who you are until later when she asked me to come here and meet you to see if we could be friends. She showed me what you looked like and that’s when I knew who you are.”
“If you want to fight, we can go outside so nobody else gets hurt.”
Arithallos was staring directly into his eyes. “I don’t believe that will be necessary, at least not yet.”
Xune was looking from Iain to Arithallos and back. “Father, what’s going on?”
Iain didn’t take his eyes off Arithallos. “Your friend here is unmated, but that’s not the whole story. She’s a silver and she did have a mate once. He attacked me and I killed him. I’m not going to apologize, Arithallos. He attacked me without provocation. I defended myself. I don’t normally hunt metallic dragons. Are you here for revenge?”
Her eyes searched his for a long moment. “I believe you. He was almost killed in a battle with an invading red dragon that attacked our lair after we met. He took a horrific wound to the head that penetrated his skull and I don’t think it ever healed properly. After that, he would fly into terrible rages without warning. Even I stayed away from him during those times. But I loved him and I wasn’t going to leave him. He’d had another episode and left. I followed him at a distance because I was worried about him. I saw him stalk you and attack.” Tears trickled down her face. “I saw you kill him.” Her face twisted. “I could eventually accept that. But then you butchered him out and took him away!”
“I didn’t know you were there, and I didn’t know then that he had a mate. If you’d announced yourself I’d have left you his body. But you didn’t and I didn’t.” He hesitated. “I still have his head, if you’d like something you can bury.”
“What did you do with the rest of him?”
There really wasn’t any way to say it nicely. “I sold it.”
She stared at him. “Why?”
“I was building my hoard from scratch and I needed money.”
She folded her arms. “I want his head and I want whatever you were paid for his body.”
Iain’s eyes narrowed slightly for a moment before he relaxed and nodded. “Done. I can have everything delivered to your lair, unless you’ve moved.”
She looked surprised. “You know where I live? You said you didn’t know he had a mate.”
“I said I didn’t know then about your existence. Later I found out more about him, which led me to you. I checked on you, you weren’t in any distress that I could do anything about and so I went on to other things. I was not going to approach a dragoness in mourning and tell her I’d killed her mate, even if it was in self defense. That would have just provoked you into attacking me and joining him in death. I’ll go gather everything and deliver it later today, if you would like.”
“I would like that very much,” Arithallos said.
“Then I’ll go take care of that right now. There is one other thing.”
“And what is that?”
“Your mate attacked me. I defended myself and you demanded recompense for his death. I don’t really feel you deserve anything from me in compensation for my killing in self defense, but I have agreed to your demand because I don’t want to have to kill you too and, also, because you are Xune’s friend. She may wish to keep you as a friend. Until she rescinds her offer, you are here as her guest. Please remember our rules regarding hospitality and don’t bother anyone here. There are kobolds and drow here and they are not evil. They’re also not yours to deal with.”
She looked surprised again. “You would let me stay?”
“You asked for recompense and I gave it. That is supposed to end the situation between us. Under our rules, once that is done, it’s a bygone and we let it go. You told Xune that you were considering becoming clan. Whether that’s true or not, you should have had some basic information about what it means to be clan.” He looked at his daughter. “Do you want her to stay?”
She was watching the silver. “She and I need to have a long talk about what she’s done, to me and to you, but so far, yes.” She turned to him. “I am sorry for not realizing that she was coming here under false pretenses.”
“We don’t apologize for the actions of others,” Iain said gently. “And we still don’t know that she was lying or pretending to be your friend. Until we get proof, we presume she wasn’t. She loved her mate and she’s angry that he didn’t win the fight, even though he was wrong to attack me without provocation. That’s understandable. I’d feel similarly if you attacked someone for no reason and got killed. I’d want them dead, but I couldn’t justify killing them if they acted in self defense.”
“What would you do?”
“I’d watch them like a hungry wyrmling watches a rabbit and if they ever gave me a reason that the women I love would accept, I’d kill them in that instant. But if they didn’t,” he shrugged. “I’d be very angry for a while. Now,” he gave them a half bow, “if you ladies would be so kind as to excuse me, I need to arrange for some items to be delivered to Arithallos’ lair. If you don’t mind, I’ll put everything in the side cavern in the second chamber. It should be safe there until you return home.”
The silver’s mouth dropped. “Have you been in my home?”
“When I checked up on you, I did a thorough job of it. The only reason I didn’t recognize you today is because I’ve never seen you in any other form except as a dragoness.”
“How did I never know you had been there?”
Iain smiled. “Now that’s an operational secret and you don’t get those. Arithallos, Xune.” He turned and headed for the trophy room.
***
Xune rang the little silver bell that had been hung just inside Iain’s door many years before by Solnys when she’d still been worried about accidentally seeing her master nude. The bell was to warn him that she was entering his chamber so he could scurry around wildly and throw on some clothes before she entered.
Having no intention of scurrying for anyone, Iain had removed the bell nine times and hammered the tenth one flat but left it in place. Solnys had hung a new one each time until he’d gotten tired of the game and just ignored her ringing if it suited him. Having become something of a joke between them, it had never been taken down, even though Solnys hadn’t used it in decades.
Iain looked up from his reading and closed the book automatically. It was early morning and he was getting in a bit of research using his truewizard tome as a resource before meeting Zilvra for their daily training session. “Yes?”
Xune walked over to the table he was sitting at. “I want to apologize for being deceived by Ari and letting her come into our home and behave so rudely. I’ve learned my lesson and I won’t let an outlander invoke privacy ever again. They’re not clan and she shouldn’t have abused our ways to get close to you.”
Iain’s tome vanished onto his arm as he pointed at the nearby sava board area. “Grab one of those chairs and sit down, Xune.” She did and Iain poured her a cup of tea. “First of all, you have no reason to apologize to anyone. You didn’t do anything wrong. Second, it would be a mistake to try and deny someone their privacy for any reason, and especially because they’re an outlander. Prisoners don’t have privacy, but everyone else should.”
“I don’t see it that way, father.”
“Xune, we’re supposed to be, as much as possible, the good guys. We want outlanders to want to be clan so we can grow, and the ability to invoke privacy and have it not be arbitrarily ripped away is a powerful tool in our arsenal towards that. Nobody in Keltormir except Raloric has any real privacy and even his is sometimes just an illusion of privacy. It’s the same way in the drow cities and pretty much in any other governmental form on this planet. Everybody except us has some kind of special or secret police and nobody has any right, whatsoever, to any expectation of privacy if the government deems it necessary. Technically that’s true here too, since I can override an invocation if I decide its justified, but in practice it would have to be a clan survival issue for me to even consider doing so. Prisoners are considered a special case, but that’s because the situation which would make us take someone prisoner is almost always, in addition to anything else, something that touches on the survival of our clan.”
He smiled. “So Arithallos was within her rights to use privacy to get close enough to me to do whatever she wanted to. It was actually pretty cunning and, in a different situation, I’d be trying to figure out how to recruit her and bring that kind of cunning onto our side. But if she hates me there’s not a whole lot I can do towards that except not let her hang around and see my cheerful face every single day. Eventually she’d try to do something about me and then I’d kill her.”
“I hadn’t thought about it that way, Father. I’ll have to keep that in mind when I’m back home in Nambale.”
Iain always had to try not to smile at the name of the colony. He’d been pressed to come up with a name for it when it had been settled and had reached into his vault of trivia and pulled out the name of a small township in Kenya that had the dubious pleasure of infamy from being smashed completely flat during the first battles between pokegirl forces and humans during the wars James Scott had started. “You should. You’re my daughter and the ruler of Nambale, and I don’t want to have to remove you for cause.”
Xune grinned. “I don’t want that to happen a lot more than you don’t want to do it.”
“And that’s the smart way to want things.”
“When are you going to take the stuff to Ari’s home?”
“I already did.”
Xune frowned. “Father, I was just in the trophy room. Her mate’s head is still there.”
Iain grinned. “I had a replica fashioned after her request and used it in place of the real head. The real head and the money I got for his parts is in her lair. I dropped them off before I went to bed last night. I’ve talked to the artists who do the work in the trophy room and they’re going to put up a new plaque explaining the situation in a few days. That way I don’t have to listen to a litany of ‘that skull isn’t real’ from people.”
“How do you know how much money you got for him?”
“We keep a careful log of what we sell, where we sell it and for how much it sells so we can analyze for trends and anticipate our customer’s wants. That lets us customize our merchant’s loadouts to try and maximize sales. We also track what their merchants are selling so our people walk in the door with an idea of what we want from them and what our drop dead price for it is, even if they haven’t been there before.” Iain grinned again. “There are some deep gnome merchants who have come to despise the words ‘that’s a lot more than the last merchant paid for this and she was here only last month’.”
It’s time to go meet Zilvra for training, his twee whispered.
Iain stood. “I’m sorry, but I’m meeting Zilvra for training this morning and I’ll be late if I stay here any longer. I know Arithallos stayed the night. Will I see her at breakfast?”
“I’m headed to see her next and I’ll let you know what her plans are.”
Iain nodded. “I’m not going to try to avoid her in my home, but neither am I going to chase her around to try and provoke a reaction.”
“Good. I think she’ll go home today, if only to see if you’ve done what you said you would do. I’ll keep you in the loop.”
“You have learned entirely too many of my odd sayings.”
Xune grinned, stood and kissed her father. “We all have, Father, and they’re not odd to us.”
He just shook his head as he headed for the training rooms.
***
Year Seventy Five
Iain’s wings bit heavily into the air with each powerful stroke as he shot through the air, just above the surface of the tiny canyon he was flying through. It twisted and turned, and Iain agilely followed it without rising out of it or touching either of the sides or the bottom. For several miles he stayed in the canyon until it opened into a wider area up ahead.
In the center of this area was a small stone building with no windows, doors or roof. Iain popped up a dozen meters as he burst into the clearing and lobbed a large rock he’d been carrying in a forehand. It sailed neatly inside the building’s open roof and rattled around inside the walls as Iain twisted violently even as he dropped back down to the deck and shot into a second canyon, this one leading away from the clearing at an angle nearly perpendicular to the first one.
He laughed as he sped away. “And the exhaust port takes a direct hit! This Death Star is doomed! The Empire sucks again!” He followed this canyon for another couple of miles before lifting out and slowing to a more leisurely pace as he turned and flew towards the beginning of the run, looking for another appropriately sized rock as he went.
When the adult silver dragon dropped out of the clouds and dove in his direction, Iain slowed even more and turned to meet it. He didn’t recognize the dragon, but that was not unusual. Even with Laraxithious supposedly singing his praises in the metallic dragon community, most of them avoided him whenever their paths crossed. A few not only avoided him, they actively fled as fast as they could. And, finally, one or two metallics would bellow a greeting from a distance before continuing on with whatever they were engaged in doing. Their behavior didn’t bother him much. This behavior, however, was different and different was always something to be aware of.
This dragon dropped past him and turned to come back up, slowing as if to join him. Iain caught its scent as it went by. It was a dragoness and familiar. It took only a few seconds to identify it. Arithallos. He was a little surprised since hadn’t seen her since the night Xune had introduced them and knew she didn’t live in this part of the mountains. Still, dragons had large hunting territories and often overlapped with other friendly or neutral dragons.
She flew alongside him and he nodded politely. “Good afternoon, Arithallos.”
“Can we land and talk?”
Iain folded his wings and dropped. Motion to the side drew his attention and he snapped his wings open and turned, going into a dive that dipped into some heavy bushes. Iain pulled up, holding a struggling owlbear in one hind paw. His foot flexed and the owlbear shrieked as his claws drove deeply into the monster, killing it. He landed, dropping the owlbear just before he stalled out and fell the last few feet to the ground.
Arithallos landed in front of him and he tossed the owlbear carcass to land in front of her. “Here, if you’re hungry.”
She looked at the carcass and up at him. “You caught this for me?”
“I try to be a civilized being and, if you’d come by my house to visit, I’d have offered you a refreshment. Granted, this isn’t the usual cookies and tea, but it’s what I could find on short notice since I wasn’t expecting company. You may accept it or refuse it without offense being given.”
“What were you doing?” She sank her teeth delicately into the owlbear and jerked her head to tear loose a large piece. She gave one snap to reposition it in her jaws and then gulped it down.
“I take free time at the end of every tenday. Most of the time I use it to do goofy things to relax from the stresses of my normal day and that was one of them.”
“I am not familiar with that word, goofy.” She tore loose another piece of owlbear.
“It means silly. Recreating an X-wing run on the Death Star is pretty silly, but it lets me test my maneuverability and it’s kind of fun. So, is this a random meeting or were you looking for me?”
The rest of the owlbear vanished down Arithallos’ throat. “I was looking for you,” she said when her mouth was empty again.
Iain waited a few seconds as she licked her mouth clean. “You found me,” he prompted.
Arithallos glanced at him. “This is hard to say.”
Iain cocked his head. “Does it have to with your pride?” She nodded. “Then it’s not surprising that it’s difficult for you. Overweening pride is something that all dragons seem to have to one degree or another. How about you just tell me what is wrong and we’ll take it from there?”
She looked at the bloody spot where the owlbear had been for a moment before looking up. “I was there when my mate attacked you. I saw it from a distance.”
Iain waited a moment for her to continue. “I remember you saying that the last time I saw you.”
She twitched in surprise. “I did tell you that, didn’t I? I’d forgotten.” Her sigh gusted breath on his face and she looked back down at the bloody dirt. “I behaved poorly the night that Xune introduced us and I am ashamed of my behavior. I practically accused you of doing terrible things to my mate’s body.”
Iain dropped his head down where it was in her line of sight and looked up into her eyes. “I did do terrible things to his body. That’s why I agreed to the price you demanded for restitution. If hadn’t agreed with your assessment, you’d have gone away empty handed.” He lifted his head back to its normal position.
“Xune doesn’t agree,” Arithallos said quietly. “She gave me quite the severe tongue lashing that night about betraying her trust and how rude I was to you. We haven’t spoken since I left your home. I miss her.” She sighed again. “She was right, too. I knew who you were the instant she showed me your image back when she asked me to meet you and see if I might want to seek you as my new mate. I should have told her no and explained why instead of allowing her to bring me to meet you.”
Iain stared at her in sock. “Xune asked you to do what?”
“I’m an adult dragoness and I’ve been without a companion for a while. Xune knew I was lonely and she said you were lonely too, not having a dragoness in your life. She wanted to arrange a meeting between the two of us so you’d have a dragoness around after she left. That was when she showed me your image and I found you weren’t the gold dragon I thought you were. It’s also when I realized you were the elf my mate had attacked that turned into an unknown dragon and killed him,” she paused, “because if you hadn’t, he certainly would have killed you. I’ve seen him do this before and he would have cannibalized your corpse if he’d won. I realized after a couple of weeks of mulling over my last words with Xune that what you did wasn’t any worse than what he’d have done to you.”
“Predated.”
She looked up at him, her eyes confused. “What?”
“I’m not a silver dragon and so his eating my body would be predation, not cannibalism.”
Arithallos nodded slowly. “I suppose that is true.” She fixed him with a glare. “But it isn’t important. I believe Xune was right and my behavior was inexpressibly rude. I want to apologize for it. Will you accept my apology?”
Iain partially unfolded and refolded his wings as he spoke. “I will tell you first that I’m not sure you have anything you need to apologize for. You took advantage of an opportunity to confront your mate’s killer. As I told Xune at the time, I think you were very crafty when you did so and that’s something to be admired. However, you feel you need to apologize to me. It would be impolite of me to refuse that apology because I think it’s unwarranted and so I accept it. I’ll also let Xune know I’ve accepted your apology and remind her that she doesn’t have so many friends that she can afford to dump you like she did over something so minor.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Arithallos said quickly.
“No, I don’t have to do it, but I like to try and help my daughter by pointing out when she’s being an idiot.”
Arithallos surprised him with a soft chuckle. “I sometimes forget just how young she really is.”
Iain snorted. “I don’t. She’ll always be my little girl and I will always love her, but there are times.” He growled.
Arithallos was watching him curiously. “Dragons are not usually so emotionally invested in their offspring as you seem to be.”
“I can’t really help it. While dragons tend to be partially k selected as a reproductive strategy with somewhat limited parental involvement, I think more like humans, elves and dwarves do with much more and higher quality parenting being the rule for me and not the exception.”
“I don’t understand everything you just said, but I do understand you want to be more involved with your children than you think most dragons are. I think that’s admirable. Can I come to visit in the valley? I want to learn more about being clan.” She took a step towards him. “And I want to learn more about you. I want to find out if I can work past my feelings for you for acting to protect your life just as I would have done with mine.”
“You will have to spend time with the clan to learn more about us. And I’m in a relationship with someone.”
“Yes, Xune told me about her, a drow named Zilvra. She also told me about the drow and kobolds in the clan. Xune told me Zilvra would appreciate me becoming involved with you.”
Iain shook his head. “She said that? That’s not something I’ve ever heard before.”
“I’ll ask Zilvra and see what she says.”
“You know, whatever. I need to be going.”
“Thank you for speaking with me.”
“You’re welcome. When you come to the valley, ask for me and I’ll show you around.” Iain watched her take to the air and wing away towards the north. “Zilvra did not say that.” He shook his head and vaulted into the air.
***
Zilva gave him an amused smile before kissing him gently. “Yes, I did tell Xune that I would welcome this dragoness into your bed if you did.” Iain’s eyebrows rose and she chuckled. “You are a good lover and a good man, but if you have one glaring fault, it is the fact that you are sexually insatiable. I can’t handle you alone. It didn’t take me long to understand why there were so many women in this harem of yours back where you come from. You’ve explained a little about why they can’t come here, and won’t be able to for several centuries, but that doesn’t change the fact that you need more lovers.” She slid from the chair next to him and into his lap. “Iain, I’d even tell you to spend more time with Laelra, but I don’t like the fact that she doesn’t want you to spend any time with me. I’m not going to give you up in order to make her happier, especially since it won’t make her happier with me. It’s your fault, by the way. You should have never told her that we are lovers.”
“I don’t like lying to her. Eilistraee doesn’t want me to, remember? She said so.”
“I’m sure that Eilistraee would forgive you that particular lie if she only knew the truth about your sexual hungers.”
Iain chuckled softly. “Well, unless she spends more time in my head than is healthy, she doesn’t know anything about that, and that’s a very good thing.”
Zilvra straightened up in his lap. “Iain Grey, do you want to fuck our goddess?”
Iain gave her a wary look. “Maybe.”
“Would she enjoy it?”
“I believe so. I’d certainly do my best to make sure she did.”
“Then perhaps I can beseech her direct aid with you,” Zilvra said with a grin. “I certainly could benefit from some divine intervention.”
“You are a horrible high priestess.”
“If that were true, the Lady Dancer would have replaced me by now with someone else, probably with you.” She draped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his waist. “Now take me to bed.”
Iain stood, holding her in his arms. “I thought you said you couldn’t handle me sexually.”
“I can’t. But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do my best to help the next woman survive you,” she said archly.
Iain laughed and headed for his bedroom.
***
Year Seventy Seven
Arithallos slid under the bar and put her hands carefully into place on it. “Spot me?”
Zilvra chuckled. “I can’t lift that much weight, even to get it off your chest. Iain will have to spot you.”
Iain was on the inclined bench, doing crunches. “I’ll be there in just a minute,” he said without pausing.
Arithallos turned her head to look at Zilvra and lowered her voice. “I know he exercises in more gravity than this when he’s alone. I hope that’s why he doesn’t sound out of breath when I’d be gasping for air.”
Zilvra glanced back at Iain and spoke just as quietly as the silver dragoness. “I don’t know what his maximum is. You’ll work up to three times gravity with me soon and hopefully we’ll both reach four times by the end of the year, but,” she shrugged. “I don’t think we’ll ever catch him. So long as I’m still getting stronger and he still works out with me, I’m content with the situation.” She sat down on the weight bench next to Arithallos. “Now, Ari, when are you going to finally go to bed with Iain? And if you tell me you’re waiting for him to make the first move, he already has and he’s waiting for you to clue in on it.”
“Xune asked me the same thing the last time I visited her,” Arithallos grumped. “I haven’t recognized this first move of his.”
“You’re here,” Zilvra said simply. “Iain invited you to join us and this is part of our private time. I pushed him to invite you, but the final decision was his. You wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t interested in you.” She glanced back at Iain. “He’s not really showing off for you, but he still kind of is showing off for you. That and I know he’s surrounding you with his scent, which Xune tells me is important for dragon courtship.”
“It’s one of the ways we assess a potential mate’s health. A sickly drake can’t hunt or help with the children.” She flashed a grin. “He smells very healthy.” Her smile faded. “I am concerned about the fact that drow are very fertile and Xune said you have had children before you came here but Iain hasn’t gotten you pregnant yet.”
“Iain is currently infertile,” Zilvra said. “He believes that children should be the product of love and raising a child should be done by all of the parents. Where I come from, that isn’t the way and the man has little input in the raising of children. I’ve seen the results of his philosophy here, both with the children of the dwarves and, of course, Xune, and I want to try having children this way. I want them raised clan and not as I was, which is drow.” She shrugged. “But I’m not sure what I feel for him is love. I don’t know what love feels like. Until I know for sure that I love him, I’m content to wait.”
Arithallos looked past Zilvra where Iain was starting to extract himself from the inclined bench. “We’ll talk about that later since I know what love is like.”
“I’d like that.” She smiled at Iain as he positioned himself at the head of the weight bench. “I want Ari to join us in the shower after we’re done.” Her smiled widened. “It’ll save water.”
“We can’t run out of water and we usually have sex while we’re washing up.” Iain looked down at Arithallos, who was staring openmouthed at Zilvra. “Is this something you’d like to do or is this Zilvra being the pushy drow bitch that we all know and love?” He chuckled. “I see from your expression it’s the latter. It’s cool.”
Arithallos looked up at him. “Yes,” she said faintly.
Iain raised an eyebrow. “Yes to what?”
Arithallos swallowed hard, “Both,” she said louder. “She’s being a bitch and I want to join you in the shower.”
“You want to join me in the shower. What about Zilvra?”
Arithallos glanced at the drow and smiled widely. “I’ll let her watch, this time.”
“Then I’ll let you watch,” Zilvra retorted.
“I haven’t had a male in a while,” Arithallos said. “He’s likely to be of little use to you today.”
Zilvra started laughing. “You’ll learn.”
Iain shook his head and looked down at Arithallos. “Are you going to lift these weights or not?”
She tightened her hands on the bar. “Lifting!”
***
Year Ninety Five
In the form of his dragon horse, Iain raced across the field with Eilistraee on his back. She’d taken the form of a normal sized drow and wearing was clothing that wouldn’t be unusual anywhere in the region. She realized they were headed straight for the woods at the edge of the field and tucked herself down close to his neck as he plunged into the trees, sinuously weaving his way through them and out the other side.
Surprised, the ogres camping on this side of the woods stared for a few precious seconds as Eilistraee threw herself from Iain’s back, her living sword gleaming as she landed in front of the closest and chopped off his leg. As he fell, she disemboweled him and then ripped out his throat with her third cut before running for the next attacker.
The ogre at the back of the group wore the holy symbol of Vaprak the Destroyer on a leather rope around her neck and carried a club engraved with mystical symbols. As she began to chant some spell, Iain dodged through the group and leaped into the air in front of her in an upwards lunging thrust that buried his horn in her chest and pierced her heart with an impact hard enough to launch her backwards, pulling Iain’s horn free as he recoiled.
He shifted to his elven form as he landed, summoned his living sword and sliced the ogre in front of him down the inner thigh and through the femoral artery, in one long cut that opened the artery for at least a foot. Blood poured down the leg as he threw himself sideways to avoid a spear thrust from the ogre standing next to his victim.
A few minutes later, Eilistraee watched as Iain moved from ogre to ogre and stabbed each one in the brain, either through an eye or the back of the neck. “You are very efficient.”
“I’ve had them play dead before and attack me from behind when I was tending to wounded or when I was looting the bodies,” Iain said as he stabbed the last one. “I didn’t enjoy it very much and this keeps that from happening ever again.”
Eilistraee’s sword vanished as she returned it to her forearm. “Thank you for inviting me on this hunt. It was fun.”
He gave her a brief smile as he returned his sword. “Sometimes it’s nice to get away from the stress of the office and go killing evil. So when I realized some ogres had entered the area around the valley, I sent you an invitation via twee.” He shifted to his dragon horse form. “Shall we head back to the mine?”
“Wait.” Iain turned his head at the voice to see Mielikki standing not far away. “Iain, I need to talk to you.”
He recognized the look in her eyes and shifted to his elven form. He smiled and held out his arms. “Come here.”
Mielikki almost threw herself into his arms. He held her tightly as she pressed her face against his neck and inhaled deeply. “Thank you,” she murmured as he felt tension in her body draining away.
“What’s been going on,” he asked quietly.
She looked up at him. “I was a goddess and I had many servants and worshippers, but as a goddess, I was always alone, even while I was surrounded by them. Then catastrophe hit and I fled to the forest. The herd accepted me and worshipped me and I wasn’t alone anymore because there was always a unicorn around to give me her love. Then the herd came to your world and brought the forest and me with it. I became clan and met you and the others, who wouldn’t let me be alone. And then you gave me the goblins, who worshipped me and were around me all the time. Then I came here and I was alone again. I have a few servants now as my power begins to grow but it was like before and I hate it.”
Iain looked at Eilistraee. “I hope you don’t mind, but this is important.”
The drow goddess nodded. “I think I understand. Help her if you can.”
“Thank you.” Iain looked at Mielikki. “You’ve been an idiot and I want you to stop.”
Her eyebrows rose and she regarded him with a mixture of curiosity and annoyance. “And what have I done that is so idiotic?”
“I can’t feel your presence, which means you’ve cut yourself off from me.”
“Iain, I told you that I want you to focus on Eilistraee. That makes it easier for you to do so.”
He gently bonked his forehead against hers. “Woman, you know better than most that I can multitask with the best of them. My relationship with Eilistraee isn’t going to have problems because of my relationship with you unless you two decide to have a spat. You are spending time with her, right?”
“I am. I wanted to see if she is like the Eilistraee I know and am friends with.”
“How’s that working out?”
“She is not her, but she is well worth knowing in her own right. We haven’t known each other for very long, but we are already fast friends.”
Iain smiled. “That’s good. Do you see anything you two could seriously disagree over?”
She nodded; her eyes serious. “You.”
He grinned. “There’s more than enough Iain for the both of you.”
She gave him a flat look. “Iain.”
His grin vanished. “Mielikki.” His arms tightened around her when she tried to push away. “Stop that. If, and I mean if, you two decide that you both have something that’s critically important at the exact same time, a neutral third party will provide some unadulterated dice and we’ll roll them. The winner gets me to do her job,” his grin reappeared for an instant. “First. As soon as I’m finished with the first job, then I’ll do the other mission. If it becomes necessary, I’ll cheat.” He shrugged. “And let’s be objective here for a moment. Your philosophies are fairly similar, so much so that if you two were to show up and demand I drop everything and attend to some super time critical mission with the fate of something important in the balance, more than likely we’ll all quickly discover that you both want me to do the same damned job.” He kissed her on the forehead and let her go. “In the meantime, Eilistraee has her link with me, her priestess, so she can know my heart and much of my mind no matter what I try to do to keep her out. You had that link with me and you need to open it again. Let yourself know you’re not alone.” His voice dropped until it was almost inaudible. “Feel the love I have for you.”
“It’s not fair to Eilistraee.”
Eilistraee frowned. “I know that Iain loves me, Mielikki. I can feel it even now.”
Mielikki looked at her with an amused smile. “Iain loves you as a priestess loves her goddess. He loves me as a man loves a woman and I love him the same way. You have never experienced that love and, until you do, you can’t understand the difference.”
“Then show me.” Mielikki stared at her and Eilistraee laughed briefly. “I can see his heart and his mind, Mielikki. Let me see what the two of you share.”
Mielikki looked from her to Iain and he watched as a calculating look appeared in her eyes. Do you think you can ensnare her like you did me, she asked with her twee.
Did I really ensnare you?
You did.
Iain nodded unconsciously. I didn’t set out to do that.
He heard her laughter in his head. Of course you didn’t, Iain. If you had, it would never have worked. Her eyes cut towards Eilistraee. Will you do what I tell you to without question?
I did when you wanted me to worship her, I’ll do it again.
“Iain, release all of your true feelings for me.” Good. She smiled. Kiss me and let me feel everything that I’ve missed out on for the last forty nine years, Iain.
It’s been ninety five years, three months and seventeen days, Mielikki. Iain took her head in his hands and kissed her as he unlocked the emotions for her that he’d locked away when starting this mission and let it all come pouring up and into him. He felt the link between her and him reappear and he shoved all of that emotion into it and the link to Eilistraee. He misjudged and felt himself get sucked into the swirl of power until everything spun away.
***
Iain’s eyes slowly opened and then drifted closed. A few minutes later they slowly opened again. They looked from side to side for a few seconds before closing again.
Two hours later, Iain’s eyes opened. They were gummy with sleep and he blinked them several times before reaching up and wiping them clean. Someone shifted against his left side and made a soft protesting sound as he moved.
Welcome back, his twee said. I wouldn’t move or make noise just yet. You’ll disturb them.
Iain frowned slightly as his brain sluggishly started working. He was lying on some furs but whatever was under the furs was solid and unyielding. Where am I?
You’re in a cave. GPS from the constellation says the cave is within the central portion of the Earthspur Mountain range. One of your bedmates brought the three of you here.
I don’t remember this.
You will. Your memories are intact. They are just currently inaccessible because you locked them away. You gave me the key and you can access them when you’re ready.
Iain frowned. Why did I lock them away?
His twee made a sound suspiciously like a snicker inside his mind. Embarrassment. Mielikki told you to do something incredibly stupid and you did it.
Fine, be cryptic. Give me the key.
His twee snickered again. You have it now.
Memory flooded into Iain’s mind. Him, Mielikki and Eilistraee. Raw emotion. Sex. Lots of sex. “Oh, fuck,” he muttered.
The fucking part is over, his twee noted. Now it’s on to the cold gray light of dawn.
My lord? Helesatra’s voice sounded in his head. Matilda says you are awake again. Has your sanity finally returned?
As much as I’m ever sane, yes.
I, Matilda and Sorrel have been watching over you, my lord. We have food for you.
Iain was suddenly ravenously hungry. Thank you. Please hold it until I call for it.
Yes, my lord.
Iain rubbed his eyes again and the person laying against his left side raised her head. Meilikki gave him an impish smile before speaking in a low voice. “That was,” she paused, “unexpected.” She leaned down and kissed him gently. “What was that?”
“That was a century of built up horniness for you, all released,” Iain replied. “And Eilistraee is awake too.”
“I am not,” came a muffled voice from where she was pressed against his right shoulder. “This cannot have happened so I must be dreaming.”
Meikikki chuckled. “Is this why April, Sofia and, recently, Bellona, have all looked very content with the world after they test you on your returns?”
“Yes.”
“How do they survive this? I would think it would kill any mortal.” She smiled lazily. “I am actually sore.”
“This is the longest I’ve ever been gone,” Iain pointed out.
Mielikki nodded. “And you still have four hundred years left.”
“Six.” She looked surprised and he nodded. “I went back two hundred years so I could build the infrastructure I’m going to need in order to do this job right, so the total time I’ll be here is seven hundred years.”
Eilistraee propped herself up on her arms and gave them both a mock glare. “My dream was going very well until you two started talking.” She was back to her normal form, which meant she was three feet taller than Iain or Mielikki. She looked from Mielikki to Iain. “What just happened?”
“You wanted to share what Mielikki and I have and she told me to just release it all. I haven’t seen her in a century and that’s a lot of lust.”
“I wanted to feel your love for her.”
“I don’t know how it is for gods, but I am not one and my love for her is jumbled up with all of my other feelings for her,” Iain said. “That includes frustration, annoyance, admiration and desire.” He reached up and touched Eilistraee’s cheek. She leaned into his palm for a second before pulling away with a glare. “I’m sorry, but it was a lot more than even I thought there would be and I lost a bit of control.” He looked at his hand and dropped it onto his chest. “I am genuinely sorry and, I’ll do anything reasonable in return if you wish.”
Eilistraee frowned. “What is unreasonable?”
“I’m not going to try to choke a manticore to death with my torso,” Iain replied. “That or anything else that would obviously be suicidal.”
“I am not going to send my Chosen off on a suicide mission,” Eilistraee said pertly. She shifted to a sitting position and pulled her hair up and out of the way as she did. “Mielikki, did you expect that to happen?”
“I did not.”
Eilistraee looked at Iain. “So this is your fault.”
Iain shrugged. “I didn’t expect what happened either, but if you wish to blame me, so be it.”
She gave him a worried look. “Can we stay friends?”
“We are friends, Eilistraee. That isn’t going to change unless we decide it is and I am not going to end our friendship.”
“Iain and I are still friends,” Mielikki said. “Our friendship is what let us develop the feelings we have for each other. So how was it?”
Eilistraee looked confused. “What do you mean?”
“You wanted to experience our feelings for each other. How was it?”
Eilistraee glared at her for a second before giggling. “Fun. I haven’t had anything like that for a very long time.”
“I won’t be able to do this very often,” Mielikki said, “but as long as you remember he’s mine too, I am willing to share him with you.”
“Iain is not the kind to let others command him, so you can’t share him without his permission.” Eilistraee looked at Iain. “Would this be agreeable with you? And what about Zilvra?”
“Zilvra has made it clear that we are not exclusive,” Iain said as he sat up. “She sometimes sleeps with someone else and she encourages me to do the same thing. Arithallos also understands that although she’s only interested in me, I’m not faithful to her. To be honest, she thinks it’s funny, at least as long as I’m not with another dragoness. But then, to many dragons, other people aren’t, not really. Ari’s not that way, though.”
Eilistraee nodded. “I wasn’t sure if you knew.”
Iain cocked his head. “Do you tell those little lies so you don’t appear to be omniscient? I know you’re not, but I also know you must have been aware of what Zilvra and I both have been doing. You’ve already proven that before.”
“I don’t know every second of every moment of what you or any other priestess of mine does or thinks,” Eilistraee said. “I pay particular attention to you, and because of you, Zilvra and Laelra. But you’re right. I tell that lie because not even my priestesses like thinking about how much about them I can know if I decide I want to.” She poked him in the chest. “And you, once again, did not answer my question.”
Iain grinned. “Yes, this is very agreeable to me and I would repeat it, with one of you or both, in a heartbeat.” He sat up. “Now, some of my people are nearby, they have food and I am very hungry.”
Mielikki smiled. “I’m hungry too.”
“Helesatra, could you bring the food, please?”
She came in with Sorrel. The sun elf carried a tray that held platters with bread, cheese and boiled eggs while Sorrel carried a tray with various kinds of drinks. “My lord.” They laid the platters down on the ground at the foot of the pile of bedding.
Eilistraee was watching Helesatra with narrowed eyed. “Iain, this one’s blood is not pure.”
“No,” Iain replied, “it’s mixed, it’s not her fault and there’s nothing impure about her. Helesatra is a good person and has been very valuable to me.” He looked at the two women. “Thank you very much, Helesatra, You too, Sorrel.”
“You are welcome, my lord,” Helesatra said. Sorrel winked. “Call us if you need anything else.” She and Sorrel withdrew.
Mielikki looked at Iain. “How many did you add to your undead harem?”
Iain grabbed some cheese and bread. “It was more than I wanted to add and a lot less than Eirian wanted me to add. Most of them were thought necessary for me to carry out my mission and, for the most part, they are. This place has no pokegirls and the newest additions don’t draw attention like they would. And I had one loss, that being Geraldine, my analog.”
Mielikki took some food and passed it to Eilistraee before takings some for herself. “What happened to her?”
“Irreconcilable differences. She was planning to break free and murder my family in various gruesome ways and I wasn’t going to let her do that.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” Mielikki poured mugs of tea for everyone. “We have been here for three days, Iain. I need to leave soon, so eat up.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Iain Grey
Harem
Ninhursag Grey - Elfqueen & maharani
April Grey - Duelist & beta
Dominique Grey - Blessed Archmage
Pandora - Fiendish Archangel
Zareen - Nightmare
Sofia - Ria
Vanessa – Evangelion
Lucifer – Megami Sama
Ganieda – Snugglebunny Splice
Heather - Elfqueen
Marguerite – Unicorn
Scheherazade – Dread Wolf
Irena – Sanctuary Goth
Lynn – Dire Wolf
Rosemary – Mistoffeles
Dianthus – Elfqueen
Candace – Nurse Joy (kami)
Bellona – Dragonqueen
Elizabeth - Vampire
Outer Clan
Golden Cloud – equine unicorn
Arianrhod -Fey Goblin Female
Satellite Clan
74 male Goblins
89 female Goblins
Queendom / Outer Clan
73 Elves
Dionne - Elfqueen
Adrianna - Elfqueen
Heltu - Wet Queen
14 Wet Elves
Dead Harem
Eirian - Silver Dragoness
Aurum - Gold Dragoness
Skye - Blue Dragoness
Emerald - Green Dragoness
Beryl - Red Dragoness
Julia - human
Ling - Cheetit
Matilda - White Tigress
Liadan - Twau
Sorrel - Armsmistress
Natalie - Blazicunt
Maria – Slutton
Rhea Silvia – Chimera
Alabaster – Dragoness (white)
Onyx – Dragoness (black)
Lapis – Dragoness (blue)
Garnet – Dragoness (red)
Iolite – Dragoness (purple)
Malachite – Dragoness (green with white swirls)
Dabria (was Loviatar) – Dark Queen
Omisha (was Hel) – Demoness
Viersunuth great wyrm blue true dragoness
Helesatra Vyshaan half pit fiend (fiend) half sun elf. Princess of the Vyshaantar Empire.
Talyl – drow commoner
Zarza – drow commoner
Sabrae – drow commoner
Sintree – drow commoner
Alyfaen Dinaen – drow, matron of House Dinaen
Phaerxae Dinaen – drow, former matron of House Dinaen, mother of Alyfaen
Selsharra of Evermeet
Mother Children
Vanessa
Myrna (Age 4)
Saoirse
April
Dorothy: Duelist (Age 3)
Meara: Duelist
Regan: Duelist
Lucifer
Olivia: Megami Sama (Age 6)
Seraphina: Megami Sama
Miram: Angel (Age 5)
Zareen:
Caltha: Nightmare (Age 0)
Kim: Nightmare
Xanthe: Nightmare
Epona: Nightmare
Philippa: Nightmare
Nott: Nightmare
Nyx: Nightmare
Sofia
Anna: Ria
Esmerelda: Ria
Monica Chambers
James: Jamie Harris kid (Age 2)