Hammer and Feather Ch. 22-32

Cyran pushed the flap open, "Tear down her tent and send her priestess across to the soldiers she has chosen to support. When you have cast her out, I should be able to wake the other priests."

"I have not!" Eristien lurched to her feet.

"Do you serve Rielle or do you choose now to shun her and see her worship ended?" Cyran spoke with a finality that rang in Syvezar's ears.

"I will never shun-"

"Then you have chosen to betray your people as your goddess has. I leave you to decide her fate, Fainor, but I cannot wake the others unless Rielle and her priestess have been cast out."

The elf drew himself up as the woman looked at him pleadingly. "Tear down the tent and march her past the maimed so that she can see what she has chosen to serve. I want all that belonged to Rielle burned and broken. May Nimphon take her and see judgment passed."

He stepped out and Vedhethrah snarled at the stunned priestess startling her and driving her out of the tent. It came down and as it lay in a heap it burst into flame.

"If you cast her out she will burn you all! She has-"

Fainor stepped forward and struck the woman knocking her to the ground. "She betrayed us all, she threatens us and our children for being angry at her betrayal, and she attacks those who have come to help us? May her name be struck from mouth and memory. Get out. Go plead for mercy from the humans you have chosen to serve."

The woman was grabbed and dragged away as Syvezar and Vedhethrah both turned their attention to the raging fire. It wasn't dragon's fire but it had power behind it.

"Seal it in." One of the mages who had followed gave them a look. "Seal the flames in and let them burn out."

"We are not elven gods and unlike Syreilla we have not been invited or offered-"

"Hevtos' scaly balls," the mage muttered and then began to pace around the flames, "I need some of the others. We were commanded to use the power she gave us on her behalf and if we let you all burn she'll make us wish we'd told the False Rook to dance in a bonfire."

He began murmuring as he circled and quickly the elves brought the others. All of them took up places around the tent and the flames didn't spread outside of their circle. It burned ferociously but not for long, petering out as Cyran began to wake the priests one by one.

As Edun woke, he looked around in horror. "Nali?"

"She's vanished, I-" Cyran tried to say more but the priest cut him off.

"Baduil?" Edun lurched unsteadily to his feet, "Baduil?!"

Vedhethrah inhaled and began to stalk around the tents. "Here! Her raven is here."

Syvezar felt a chill at his unhappy tone. There was a crumpled heap of black feathers that didn't look like a living animal near the dragon's feet. "Did the elf kill it?"

"Baduil?" The priest sounded stricken, running to the bird. He lifted it gently and took off running through the tents.

"He shouldn't waste his power trying to heal a bird." One of the elves looked after him disapprovingly.

The low rumble from Vedhethrah's chest made the elf turn in fear.

"That raven belongs to our treasure. She loves it dearly." Syvezar tried to explain.

"They're building shrines to her, the offering is food for birds. They've been feeding the rooks mostly, but Kwes says any bird." Fainor smiled faintly. "Helping the bird may be helping Lady Rook."

*Twenty-four*

Syr stood in the etched circle with her arms folded. "You couldn't kill me before, you can't kill me now, Isca."

"My daughter is dying." The goddess hissed and drew a blade. "I wasn't trying to kill you before but I will rip you to shreds, girl. I am older-"

Her mirthless laughter cut Isca off and Syr gave the fuming goddess the widest baring of her teeth that she could manage. "Even in a cage, I'm more dangerous than you are."

Elvish laughter filled the room for a moment. "Are you? Then prove it and spare your priestess."

Rielle dragged a limp form in by its beaded beard and left it lying in the middle of the floor. With her good eye, Syreilla could see that the dwarf girl was bruised and would be hurting when she woke but she wasn't badly injured.

"If anyone kills her priestess it will be me." Isca advanced on the limp form with her blade at the ready.

"Orsas Fellforger is fond of her, if you kill her you'll have his anger to deal with as well as mine." Syr hoped he was listening for his name.

"She's your only priestess. When I kill her it will break your power."

Putting on a wide grin again, Syr spoke in a reasonable tone, "I had power before I had a priestess, but I'll make a wager with you, Isca. Let her wake and give her the choice. She can stay by me or she can go safely to Orsas Fellforger and return to her life in the mine. If she chooses Fellforger I'll pour my life into your girl as Vezar once did for me, but if she chooses me, your daughter will go to death and I'll intercede on the girl's behalf as I do for my thieves."

"I would win either way." Isca's eyes narrowed. "What do you gain?"

"Nali Rookfriend lives and comes to no harm, either way. She's a child and I protect children. Besides, it's mostly your fault that your daughter came at me with a knife thinking I was weak."

She could see the goddess considering it.

"Kill the dwarf and be done with it," Rielle scoffed, "You can have another daughter."

"Shut up, elf. I agree to the wager Rook." Isca made a gesture and the back wall rippled, "Orsas Fellforger, I will allow you to open a door and hang two banners, one for you and one for the Rook. A wager has been made. This dwarf child will be allowed to choose. Be prepared for her to come to you."

Against the wall a door opened, the view inside it was clear, it was a dwarven home, comfortable and warm. Above the door stood a black banner bearing crossed silver hammers and a maroon shield with a gold flame upon it. Next to it, with no door at all stood a pale blue banner bearing a wreath of forest green leaves around a crossed hammer and feather, the feather stitched in gold and the hammer in black.

"His banner is far more impressive and what child wouldn't choose to return home after she's seen her goddess fail." Isca smirked and bent, touching Nali's face. "Wake, Nali Rookfriend. You have a choice to make."

The dwarf girl shuddered as she woke and sat up looking around in a daze. Syr felt her jaw clench as Nali was yanked abruptly to her feet and pointed at the banners.

"There on the wall are two banners. One for Lady Rook, and one for Orsas Fellforger. Choose him and go home in safety to your kin, choose to stand beneath hers and embrace uncertainty. Lady Rook is powerless and caught in a trap. She won't be able to help you and you no longer have her feather to draw her out. The goddess of vengeance is going to die and leave you utterly unprotected. Choose wisely."

Nali stepped forward and glanced at Syr. Putting on a gentle smile, she inclined her head. "I didn't want the choice to come so soon, but it's come now. Choose, Nali Rookfriend. I will bear you no ill will whatever your choice."

"No plea to remember her faith? No reminders of your strength?" Rielle sneered.

"No." Syr gestured at the banners.

The dwarf girl walked slowly forward, unwaveringly toward Orsas' banner and the open door and Isca began to grin. Some steps away she stopped and looked up at the banners, glancing in the door. It felt like a small eternity.

"She's going to choose the dwarf, push her in the door and be done with it," Rielle huffed, growing annoyed with the child.

"Let her take her time. When she chooses to walk through the door and abandon Lady Rook I want the agony of it to be unrelenting. Her defeat should be unequivocal."

Syr saw Nali's shoulders roll back and her bearded chin come up. Her face was grim as she made her way to stand beneath the banner of the hammer and feather.

"I stand with Lady Rook whatever comes. I'm a dwarf and we don't break and run."

The proud smile that broke over Syr's face was nothing she could keep in, it was so wide it hurt. "Thank you, Nali. Orsas, it would be kind if you'd let her go home. She was promised safety. I'll owe you a favor."

"You gave your word as well, Rook." Isca spun on her heel with a scowl.

"And I keep it. You can rely on a Rook. You on the other hand are less than reliable, Isca. Let her go first."

The banners faded into nothing but the door remained open. Giving the girl a firm nod, she smiled as Nali hesitantly went through it. It closed behind her.

"She's safe and with the dwarves, keep your word."

"Let your daughter hold my feather."

Isca held out her hand and Rielle grudgingly handed the golden feather over. The burned young goddess was visible through a door Isca opened. With her good eye, Syr could tell the difference between that place and the one she stood in. That place was Isca's; this place was some sort of neutral ground. The goddess of war and hunting went through it, pressing the feather into her daughter's hand.

"Ahevhethrah, Grandfather, I ask you to be gentle and fair with this child-"

"Itia. Her name is Itia."

"Be gentle and fair with Itia. Hold her mother accountable for the worst of her misdeeds and let her have some peace."

The burned figure shivered and then seemed to grow smaller. The golden feather returned to inky black.

"See her buried or burned with the proper rites, Isca, with the feather in her hand. The feather is as important as the grave goods that let him make her comfortable. It gives me the right to intercede for her no matter what she's done and after all you've done, he'll make her show it as proof."

The goddess turned slowly and then gave her a small but respectful nod and the door closed leaving her in the circle, alone with Rielle.

"Didn't you say there was nowhere you couldn't get out of? And now look at you, poor, pitiful, trapped, little thing. Barely a goddess and already a failure. You can't even keep your priestess safe without begging for favors."

Syreilla ignored the smirking goddess, instead, she studied the writing in the circle around her. With one eye it was a baffling scrawl, and with the other... the writing became clear. It wasn't so different from the ward she'd put around the camp once to catch the power from an attack.

"You look so confused!" Rielle laughed and clapped. "You can't even read the divine tongue can you?"

She gave Rielle a wide mirthless grin and turned her back on the elf.

The old man had picked it up for her; she hadn't needed to test the old mage's caution about picking it up with something dead, a big stone or a stick, something that wasn't alive and had a little reach. What had he done? He'd used a stick and muttered something, a dispelling if she had to bet her life on it. There weren't any stones or sticks handy but... she did have her pants and the shaped bar in them. Those would give her some reach and as long as she tied it in securely the bar shouldn't go flying. It would give them just enough heft to disrupt the markings. If she was lucky.

Syr started to pull her tools from her lower pockets and tuck them into anywhere else they would fit. Finding one of her sausages, she stuck it in her mouth and chewed while she unfastened her pants and pulled them partway down.

"What are you doing?" Rielle walked around and gave her a baffled look.

"Having a meal, what does it look like?" She grinned with the small sausage sticking out of her mouth, stripping off her boots while standing. "Care to join me? I may have a spare sausage in one of my other pockets."

"You're as ugly and unrefined as a human and your manner is dwarvish. Did Vezar Edra tell you that he called me 'most beautiful'? If you hadn't been born half-human perhaps you might have rivaled my beauty."

"How badly did it hurt to be rejected by someone you felt was so far beneath you?" Syr didn't let her grin falter. "Every inch of him was a perfection you'll never know."

"It's a shame I can't prove you wrong because he destroyed himself."

"Not destroyed, just changed." She took off her pants and tied the ankles. "No one has ever loved you so much that they weren't whole without you, have they? What a poor imitation of a goddess of love you are. Do the elves know that you were only ever a goddess of desire, vanity, and deception? Someone should tell them." She pulled the rest of the sausage into her mouth fully and chewed it.

Rielle's hands curled like claws and her face flushed with fury. "For that, I'll make another blade for Isca so that she can sever every thread that ties you to your loved ones before she does to you what you did to Itia. You can die knowing that they're suffering, feeling your loss as agony and emptiness."

Syr swung the pants and the bar made a solid clunk as it struck and slid across the markings. It didn't, however, wipe them away or disrupt them at all. The elf goddess laughed mockingly.

"That was your plan? Wipe the ward away with cloth and a worthless piece of mortal-made steel."

"My nephew made it, it's not entirely..."

The elf's words and mocking laughter gave her another idea. She reached into her front pocket and pulled out the old sigil, giving Vezar's side a kiss before dropping it down the other pant leg than the shaped bar. Rielle was still laughing as Syr swung them again. This time the words smeared. Quickly, she did it again and murmured the dispelling and the rest faded from sight.

The laughter stopped.

*Twenty-five*

Nali stepped through the doorway into her father's house. Immediately, she turned and tried to go back but the doorway was gone. Had she done well? Was she supposed to stay by Lady Rook? Was that part of the test?

Her face hurt as if someone had been pulling on her beard and her chest ached as if she'd been kicked hard by heavy boots. It was all too much. She couldn't stifle the sudden burst of tears.

The sound brought Razi running.

"Nali! When did you get home?! Oh, my girl-"

She was crushed into the dwarf woman's embrace. The tears came out like a small flood before she got control of herself and gently pulled away.

"I'm sorry I-"

"There's nothing to forgive. Your father said he knew when you stopped arguing that you were going to borrow a few things and go off on your own. The two of you are so alike I could swear you weren't adopted."

That made her laugh as she rubbed at her eyes. "Where is he? I need-"

The door flew open and Sirruil came in at a trot with the circlet on his head. "The Eye was suddenly very insistent that I needed to go home." He grinned but it faded as he seemed to take a better look at her. Murmuring something under his breath, he came closer and touched her face.

The pain in her chest and face melted away.

"What happened? How did you get hurt?"

"I don't know. I was... I was at the encampment with the elves and then... I think we were attacked. The next thing I knew I was in some strange place with strange people. Lady Rook was-they said she was in a trap, and someone had stolen the feather from me. There were two banners on the wall and a door that opened into our home." She took a breath. "I chose Lady Rook's banner, they thought I wouldn't. She looked proud, but she told me to go through the door. Orsas Fellforger brought me home so that I would be safe."

"What kind of trap?"

"I don't know. It looked like a circle made of some kind of writing."

"Would you know it if you saw it again?"

"I-I think so."

He started to pull her along and Razi stopped him.

"She was hurt and she just got home from Orsas only knows where! You are not dragging this child off to look at the tomes. Look at her! She's half-starved!"

Nali grimaced and inclined her head, "Elvish food is as bad as Lady Rook said it was. The cheese is soft and sweet, and the bread dissolves in your mouth. They didn't have much for themselves but they tried to feed me... I promise I tried to be polite about it, Father."

Sirruil kissed her head and laughed. "I'll make them bring the tomes here. You get this girl fed, Razi." Grinning, he hurried out.

°°°°°°°°°°

While Razi was cooking up more sausages, Nali was having a feast in the dining room. Raduil peppered her with questions between bites. She'd apologized to him as she laid out the tools she still had in her pockets, some were bent and several were missing.

Father had told him he'd lent them to her, not that she'd borrowed them without asking, and he'd already begun replacing them in the chest. The tools she'd taken were common tools and the least valuable of them. Her brother wasn't concerned about them.

"The elves have rooks? Hundreds like Baduil? And Lady Rook has a dragon for a husband?" He leaned on the table.

"He's a god of punishment. He was sweet to Lady Rook but he was scary. The sounds he makes chill you to your bones. Orsas Fellforger was a lot nicer."

"You met ORSAS FELLFORGER?!" Raduil's eyes were as large as saucers.

"He fussed at me about borrowing your inheritance but Lady Rook defended me." She chewed a large hunk of bread for a moment, "He was right, and I felt bad about it. I'll try not to ever do it again."

"What did he look like? Was he hideous? Did you see the Nightforged?"

"He was handsome. And the Nightforged..." She gave him a look, "There were hundreds and hundreds of them. Dwarves made of steel and their eyes follow you. They stood where he told them to and moved where he told them to. He wasn't frightening but they were."

Someone laughed as they came in and she looked up to see a vaguely familiar stranger grinning at her. "He's fond of Lady Rook and I think he'll make certain you live a long life, Nali Rookfriend, if you keep flattering him."

"Who-"

"No one looks at Syreilla Hammersworn's tomes without my permission."

One of the higher priests at the temple, it must be. She felt her face flushing.

"Though I've learned you've gotten around that."

"I only read a few of them. They left them out on the table."

"Your father has been ripping their sense of security to shreds since you left. You might find it more difficult to get to them now, but I wouldn't place a wager on it. Lady Rook doesn't like to lose."

"She was in a trap-"

"I need you to come with me to look at some special books. I think I know the trap they have her in but I need to be sure."

Nali nodded grimly and got up from the table. "I'll be back, Raduil. Tell Razi to hold the sausages for me."

The stranger chuckled and held out his hand. She wiped hers clean on her pants and came to take it. To her surprise, they stepped out of the house but not into the mine. This looked like the library in Bhiraldur, but the shelves weren't right. Whoever this was wasn't a priest. The dreamlike memory of watching Lady Rook get her talons came to mind.

"Are you... Are you Khiril Orefinder?"

He laughed and didn't answer.

The strange dwarf led her to a table that had a few large books laid out on it already open. Looking into them, two of the circles that were drawn seemed similar but not quite right.

"No. These two are almost right... But..."

He turned a few pages and she saw something that sent a shock of recognition through her.

"That! There!" She stopped him, pointing it out.

He began muttering under his breath about beardless women and rusted steel.

"What's wrong?"

"They want to try to take her power before they do anything else. If she tries to cast anything across that circle it'll drain her."