Hammer and Feather Ch. 22-32

Baduil flew from her back to Edun's shoulder.

"Look after each other a while longer, dear ones. None of this is over yet."

"Who will look after Nali?" the priest asked curiously.

"Her family will. Dwarves look after each other."

"Will they be coming to our aid?" one of the elvish priestesses asked with a frown.

"If I ask them to. I want to see what we can do on our own first. Part of looking after each other is not dragging those you care for into matters you can handle yourself. I won't call them unless I'm sure we need them."

"There are soldiers between us and them," Vedhethrah spoke grimly, "They would have to fight their way to us."

The elf gave a nod of understanding. "It would be cruel to allow them to be destroyed as well."

She spoke firmly, wanting to be clear, "Neither the elves nor the dwarves are going to be destroyed. I'll try to keep as many of you all alive and well as I can while I break the huntress' hold on her people and end this war. Who do you serve?"

"I'm Eithagar, I serve Gruithon the-"

"Gods of war are too ambitious. He wants to take everything up to the Acrine for you and I'll have no part of those plans. We'd get along better if he stuck to wine."

The elf laughed. "It would be easier to protect us if our border were a river."

"If that's why... Why not move the river where you want it?" She stretched, mulling over the idea, and then brought her attention back to the stunned elves in front of her. "What?"

"Move a river?"

"Why not? Ask the dwarves nicely and they may be able to help with that."

"The course of rivers has changed before." Edun stared at her as he listened to something only he could hear. "Your grandfather thinks the idea may have merit. The river could be split if not moved completely."

"Name it the Acharn," another of the elf priests spoke up and received appreciative looks.

"The river Vengeance," Vedhethrah purred the translation into her ear.

She broke into a grin, "Let's get the river in place before you name it, but I do like that. There may be a more fitting name, though. Ask Fainor."

A few of the elves chuckled.

"He's spoken of the winter river. Amathring would also be a fitting name."

Her dragon nipped at her neck.

"I need to go speak to my dragon and some of you might consider going to help Cyran and Syvezar. Your gods might like to help with the healing now that they have some of what was taken back in their hands."

The elves bowed and filed past her. She gave Edun and Baduil both warm smiles before she slipped out, taking Vedhethrah with her.

*Thirty-one*

Vedhethrah kept her close as he escorted her back to the tent they'd shared. The elves they encountered bowed respectfully and it helped to soften his annoyance in her lack of remorse for separating herself from him.

"I think they were bowing to you, beloved." Syreilla grinned at him, turning to embrace him as they entered the tent.

"Perhaps. I prevented them from being overrun when they were distracted by the return of the captives."

"Mm, I-"

She stopped speaking as he backed her forcefully toward the bed.

"You agreed not to leave your dragons and you did so deliberately. I am as sour with you as I am pleased that you've returned to me, Syreilla. You bring a gift of power for Syvezar and none for me-"

"That was from-"

"You gave them some of your own as well. I can see..." He frowned at her as she dipped her head and then sighed leaning forward and pressing her forehead to his shoulder.

"Yes. I didn't think about the fairness of it and most of the gift was from Nimphon."

It was impossible not to pull her closer and breathe in the scent of her hair. His relief to have her back by his side was echoed by her pleasure to be touching him. Her contentment hummed over the threads as he touched them lightly. It was a reward of its own.

A low growl of annoyance escaped him as the tent flap opened cautiously.

"Lady Rook has returned?"

"She has." Vedhethrah turned to give the human mage a black look. "I am speaking to my wife."

"About what she promised?"

Syreilla started to laugh. "You need to learn when not to approach him, Likras. He's in a sour mood."

"What did you promise?" Narrowing his eyes at her, Vedhethrah followed her to the bed.

"She promised..." Likras stepped in fully followed by a few of the other mages, "and we only want to have the matter settled because we spent the power you gave us on your behalf, Lady Rook, keeping the disgraced goddess from burning the camp to the ground." He straightened the brown robe he was wearing. "She promised that you would give us access to the dead mages-"

His growl cut the mage off and the smell of fear filled the tent as he rounded on Syreilla. She was smiling wryly and giving the mages a peeved look.

"You promised them I would-"

"I promised them I would speak to you and have you offer them a way to-"

He cut her off with a furious growl of warning.

"It's not only for their sake, beloved. Let me explain it to you. Give me the chance to show you why I gave them that promise. If you're still unhappy about it and you don't want to offer them a way to speak to dead mages, I will release them from their word to me." Syreilla rose and held out her hand.

"Why would you offer them such a thing? My task is to punish not to help living mages summon dead mages for their own ends." Vedhethrah folded his arms.

"Because, my dragon, the old ways they had of gathering magic to themselves may never work as well as they used to again. There were dozens of different ways to reach for the magic in the air around you before it was dried up. How many will still work when the gods all try to secure their power and keep this mess from happening again I don't know.

"But you and Syvezar are in a very advantageous position. Hevtos was devoted to his duties and now that he's become one with Atos, his attention is divided. He relies on his children to perform their tasks. Two are gods of rest and reward, the gods that mortals will offer things to so that their loved ones can have as much comfort as they can be offered in death. Mages are far too vicious to end up with them.

"You're the god of pain and punishment, dead mages are in your domain. Syvezar, the god of purification and rebirth is tied to you. You can both become gods of magic. What you offer the living mages is beyond price. Knowledge and a reliable way to reach for magic. They can reach in your names with prices you set."

"Lich cannot be permitted." Vedhethrah studied her face contemplating her words despite himself and she began to caress his arms.

"No, they can't. But Syvezar is the god of purification and rebirth. If anyone is clever enough to remake themselves with determination and power, calling on the correct names and paying the right prices, it would be mages. With your favor, both of your favors, they can remake the world of magic use. I'm not giving anything away for free, beloved. Mages understand that there's always a price, always a risk, but if you can pay, if you can bring your will to bear, you can accomplish things no other mortal ever dreamt of. If you give them the possibility, you stand to gain at least as much as they do."

He nodded slowly. Her words made a great deal of sense and he would have worshipers of his own. Something he had never expected to have.

"My treasure, at times you remind me of the girl we met outside the Nameless who saw endless possibilities in the gifts that made other mortals flee in terror."

"I thought you were a mage when I first met you, who else could drain the life from someone else and use it to heal themselves?" She grinned and the mages who'd been watching chuckled, getting Vedhthrah's attention.

Likras gazed at her admiringly, his eyes straying over the golden goddess' form as he spoke. "You should have been a mage, Lady Rook. I would never have suspected teaching a thief piecemeal would result in such an extraordinary-"

The dragon growled and leveled a dark look at the man.

"They taught me things they wouldn't teach their apprentices, partly because if I died it was no great loss, and partly because I had no reason to use it against them. If anything I had an incentive to let them live to get more work." She caressed Vedhethrah's shoulder and he turned his eyes to her again to find her looking only at him as she spoke. "I like mages. They're useful and I firmly believe that malevolence is an asset if you use it properly."

"I will discuss their desires and the price for such things." Vedhethrah inclined his head and shifted his gaze over the nervous men. "But when the war is finished, Lady Rook is owed your service for the moment."

"I never expected to find a goddess I enjoyed serving." Likras cleared his throat and looked down as the dragon fixed him with a furious glare.

"Let me have a little admiration, my dragon, you know where my heart and my desire lie." His treasure caressed the threads that bound them and let him feel her desire.

Vedhethrah purred, pulling her closer and she pressed her face to his.

"They may admire you as long as they remember that you are mine."

"No one can forget it, Lord Vedhethrah." Her words were both proud and teasing.

His hands began to roam of their own accord as a pleased sound rumbled from his chest. The mages slipped out as she grinned and started to kiss him. Having her properly was at the forefront of his mind but this form would suffice.

"Undress, Syreilla, I have punishments for you." He purred the words, pricking her gently with his claws through her clothing.

She laughed softly, stepping back and unfastening her knives. "I was worried you'd be sour about sleeping apart tonight."

"We will not sleep apart." Vedhethrah took the belts from her and laid them on the low table. "I sleep atop my treasure."

The slight frown as she slowly began removing her kit made him peer into her threads. Syvezar had asked to have a night alone with her as well.

"He left your side. His punishment-"

"No. You will not punish him for trusting me, beloved."

"You were told not to leave us and he allowed it."

"I'm not used to being restricted and I wasn't thinking. He trusts me and he-"

"You will return with me and remain if you cannot-"

"I was never the stay in the mine type, Vedhethrah! All of this is still new and we'll get it figured out but don't threaten to confine me-"

"As I was confined?" He snarled and stepped closer. "In your absence, I was confined to my chamber. I should have been free to hunt the mines and find that dwarf to make her summon you."

"Don't you dare go after my dwarves." Her voice was frigid but fire flickered in her eyes. "If you try to confine me I will leave. I've been offered a home among the elves."

He didn't need to look into her threads to see that the threat wasn't hollow. If he tried to confine her she would leave him and never return. Vedhethrah was torn between his desire to shake her and make her understand his pain and his need to crush her close until she relented. She didn't melt against him as he held her tightly and he keened against her hair.

"My dragon, I love you but I am who and what I am. I need to be free to come and go. I will always return to you, but you have to allow me that. For your comfort, I will remain with one of my dragons as much as I can but this is more delicate than I realized. I ask you to understand and to trust me."

The keening stopped and he held her a moment longer before leaving the tent.

*Thirty-two*

The offered aid from the elvish priests was welcome, even with the power given by Nimphon, Syvezar was growing more tired with each elf he and Cyran healed. As the keening started he lifted his hand and turned toward the sound.

"What is it?" Meldir asked with a frown.

"Vedhethrah. He's quarreling with our treasure."

"Do they need me?" Cyran smiled faintly.

"No, but... I think I may be needed."

"Go. The two of you should rest." Therioron inclined his head. "Your miracles are deeply appreciated and you've done more than anyone could have asked."

"I..." Ninnien tentatively stepped toward Cyran, "I'd like to remain with you both to help in any way I can."

"I welcome your help." Cyran smiled warmly.

"There is a place free..." Celair smiled and glanced at the others. "They don't have any priests yet, but giving them a tent with us would be permissible, I think. She could help them gather what they need and heal that breach."

"I wanted Lady Rook to take that place." Eithagar frowned.

"Lady Rook will be content with the shrines they're creating." Syvezar smiled. "Her audience chamber is a shady space in a small forest at the edge of a long drop and her throne is a forked tree. She would prefer not to be in a tent or a temple."

"She's a bird." Ninnien laughed. "I'll see if a flap can be kept open for birds to come and go in the tent I find for Lord Cyran and Lord Syvezar. Lady Rook can use it if she pleases."

The keening stopped. Syvezar glanced at his cousin and received a nod. "Excuse me. I need to go to Lady Rook."

As he made his way there, he found Edun standing outside of the tent speaking to an elf. The woman hurried away as she saw his approach.

"Edun?"

"Baduil was worried at the sound. Lord Vedhethrah has stepped away but I haven't yet entered, we were stopped."

Syv pushed open the flap and peered in, Syreilla was sitting on the bed with her head in her hands. She glanced up and offered him a rueful smile.

"Come in."

"Edun is here..."

She beckoned and sat straighter patting the bed next to her. "We need seats if we'll be entertaining but-"

"I'll get something." He turned back and chuckled as Edun came in with one of the elvish folding stools. "You heard?"

"Baduil suggested a perch. I asked Tandil for one when she stopped me."

"He's a clever bird." Syreilla held out her hand and the raven flew to perch on her wrist. "There's nothing wrong, dear one. I love my dragons but I need to be trusted. Things will even out."

"He worries." Edun took a seat across from her. "He's a lot like you are."

She laughed and kissed the bird on its head. "He is. Baduil is a good friend."

Syvezar settled next to her and leaned against her side, "The elves have said more than once today that you're a bird."

Edun laughed as she grinned widely.

"I've heard it said that you choose to take the form of a half-elf but your true form is a bird made of flame." Edun shook his head with a smile, "And they're carving elaborate birds to put next to your shrines."

"My shrines?" Syreilla looked at him in surprise.

"They're making places to feed birds and dedicating them to you."

"I like that." She leaned against Syvezar, stroking the raven, and he put his arm around her.

"How will you choose priests, Lady Rook?" Edun gave her a curious look.

"I'll ask Finwion to help me understand that part of it. I have an idea..."

"Nali suggested you might want the troublemakers and the restless dwarves. And that you might have mercenary human priests or mages."

She broke into laughter. "Maybe, but elves will be different. I suspect that Finwion claims the ones I would like to take so he and I will need to talk about it. If he'll share, I'll take them as children and they can grow into being his." Her face grew more serious, "I'm not certain how well received I'll be by humans at the end of this. When you're at a disadvantage you can't hold back. They'll be afraid of me before I'm done."

"She said your priests won't be men you go to for petty things." Edun studied her with a faint smile, "Some of them will understand you, Lady Rook."

"Tell me how I can help you, Edun. There's something, I can feel it. You don't want me to burn anyone but..."

"Perhaps, when all of this is over, you can help me get my home back." The priest looked down at his hands. "My family is buried there."

"When this is done, we'll go and take it back. I'll try not to harm anyone if that's what you want, but I'll send them running if they won't give back what was taken."

Baduil flew back to perch on Edun's shoulder and he looked up with a smile. "Thank you, Lady Rook. They are... family of sorts."

She tilted her head and the man continued, "My mother chose to remarry. Her new husband wasn't any crueler to me than he was to his own children but after my mother died he allowed me to bury her and threw me out of my home.

"Odos collected me and I traveled with his songbirds for a time before I spent a few years in solitude learning from Ahevhethrah. Now..."

"You'll have your home back, Edun." Syreilla rose from her seat on the bed and knelt in front of the priest taking hold of his hands. "I'm truly sorry I wasn't able to come to you when you needed me."

"Perhaps... Perhaps some things needed to happen, no matter how unpleasant. I needed to leave home but it should still belong to me. I trust you to put things right."

"You can rely on a Rook."

Edun rose from his seat and slipped out with the bird, leaving his seat and Syreilla still kneeling.

"So much..." she murmured before sighing and then heaving herself to her feet.

"Come here, my treasure." Syvezar pulled her into his lap as she returned to his side. "The weight of the world isn't on your shoulders. Let the rest of us carry some of it."

The way she sighed and melted against him was a reward in and of itself.

"Beloved..."

"Tell me what weighs on you. Vedhethrah will calm. I may have taken the reasonableness with me when we parted."

She laughed softly. "I think you did. You're both so different and still... both part of my Vezar. I need all of him and I need all of both of you."

The words made his heart ache and he peered into her threads. "You grieve his loss."

"I do, you had twenty years of mourning, beloved, I wasn't allowed a single moment. That I have both of you, part of me feels like I should be able to let it pass, that I've lost nothing, but part of me aches because my Vezar is no longer here."

"You should have allowed us to become one again." Syvezar stroked her head. "We would have, for you."

"I know, but it would have been wrong." Syreilla curled closer and sighed. "Having my eye is... I feel like I'm juggling. I see the shape of events in motion, Syv. If I look directly at them things will go wrong, my hands will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have to keep my focus up like I'm juggling, only look at the point everything comes together. It's..."

"It exhausts you." Holding her close, he kissed her head.

"Yes. But I catch glimpses, Syv. If you and Vedhethrah become one again, things will go wrong. I'm reaching my hands in and juggling events, a push here and catching a blade there. I can see a way through but I have to keep things in motion. I'll be pushing my luck as far as it will go."

"My treasure, I'll help you in any way I can. So will-"

"He wants to restrict me, to confine me. That was what we argued about. I had to make him understand that I will leave if he tries. I'll stay with one of you as much as possible but I need to be free to come and go."

"I know. I'll help you, sweet Syreilla, and I'll help him adjust." He felt the ripples of desire as she caressed his threads.

"Syv..."

Her kiss was pure, tender, and brimming with an aching longing that left him breathless. As he helped her undress, stealing kisses and caressing her skin as she bared it to his touch, he felt her attention get pulled away by Vedhethrah. Syvezar stopped and gave her a curious look.

"He wants to know how I take power for my mages and give it to them. I need to talk with you about the mages too..." Her brow furrowed. "He won't let me see why he wants to know."