Hammer and Feather Ch. 52-57

"Forests aflame," he cursed under his breath in elvish without thinking.

"What was that?" One of the men frowned coming closer.

"Someone set wards here. That's why it feels wrong."

"Hevtos' scaly balls." The soldiers were now staring at the caves in earnest. "What kind of wards?"

"I'd have to get closer to tell and I don't want to."

"You're a mage?" One of them eyed him coolly. "Or a priest?"

"Neither."

Another of the soldiers drew a sword and a sound came from one of the cave mouths like a hammer striking stone. They all stopped and stared as it was followed by rock crumbling and faint cursing. The wards he could see evaporated. Something about the air changed noticeably.

"What did you do?" Valim whispered.

"Nothing."

Syreilla climbed out of a gash-like cave followed by a large filthy woman wielding a hammer. She dusted herself off and noticed them with a growing grin.

"I was in a bad mood but now I have soldiers to burn. That makes me happy." Brilliant flame leapt to her hand.

"Those three there are with me, Syreilla, don't burn them." He gestured toward the Penna family.

As one, the others frantically groped for their feathers, dropping whatever else was in their hands and brandishing them like weapons once they found them.

She folded her arms, extinguishing her dragon's fire, and turned to give him a sour look, "You told them about the feathers? I don't burn them when they have feathers, Magpie. Now what do I do to cheer myself up?"

The ragged woman with his sister started to laugh and leaned an arm on Syreilla's shoulder, hiding her face in it as she shook with laughter. When she looked up there were tear marks down her face and she took in a deep breath, "Syreilla... He dropped his sword to wave a feather at you!"

"If he'd waved his sword he'd be a pile of ash and I'd be happier." Her expression looked deliberately sulky and the woman broke into laughter again.

"Who's your friend?" Kwes asked curiously, tucking the sigil away again.

"This is Ezphine, the goddess of the forge. Ezphine, that is my little brother, Magpie."

"Call me Kwes, please. Though at the moment I'm going by Edun." He smiled and took a bow.

"What is he the god of?"

The soldiers recoiled in terror, stepping back several paces.

"The elves don't have a god of thieves yet, I think my brother is going to help me with my task and steal a place at their table." Syreilla grinned and he broke into laughter taking another bow, realizing she'd spoken to Orefinder about the conversation they'd had.

"My wife has been nagging me to be more respectable since our daughter was born. I need to prove I can be a respectable thief."

"His wife! She scolds me and says I'm a bad influence on my niece." Syreilla marched toward the fire and dropped herself next to it with a sigh. "Did anyone bring anything to drink? I'd love some mead or a good dwarvish beer."

Evran seemed to shake himself out of his reverie, "I don't have a dwarvish beer, Lady Rook, but I have some honey beer I got as a gift not long ago."

Evecia scrambled to dig something out of the boxes in the wagon.

"You are a bad influence on your niece, but you're also a good one." Kwes came to sit on her right with a smile to Ezphine. "These are my friends, Evecia, Evran, and Valim. They took me in and gave me a place to stay. I was going to send them to Edun's farm."

"Not a bad idea." She was smiling as she looked at Evey. "I promised I would help him get it back after the war is ended and he doesn't want me to set anyone on fire doing it. The ones who stole it are like family to him. His mother's new husband threw him out after her death but he was fond of the other children."

"Maybe they'll give it back when he returns." Valim took a seat nearby staring at her intently.

"I can do a lot more than set people on fire, and I can make them regret every cruel thing they've ever done without spilling a drop of blood. They'll give it back." Her mirthless smile made the man shudder and close his eyes.

Ezphine came and sat next to her on the left looking at the others curiously. "You're not going to ask if you can join them? You just sit at the fire?"

"I never ask. I dislike hearing the word 'no'. Besides, they can share their fire or run screaming into the night, I like to give people a choice." She turned her smile on the others and for a moment Kwes thought they might run.

"Here it is!" Evecia held up a bottle. "How many should I get out?"

"Bring all four." Evran came to sit near Valim. "We can share the fire and a drink with Lady Rook."

"I'd like that." Syreilla studied him in her odd bird-like way and then smiled. "You're a good man. You chose not to learn to use your gifts because you didn't want that to change."

"You can see that?" The older man looked surprised but not afraid.

"I can. You weren't wrong to do it. I've been told that you taint your students with malevolence when you teach them some things and most of what mages teach requires ill-intent. It's hard to find a kind and careful teacher."

He nodded and took two bottles as Evecia brought them, handing one to Valim. Syreilla took the other two and handed one to Ezphine. Kwes gave her an annoyed look but the thought entered his mind almost immediately that Ezphine looked like she'd earned that beer.

"How do you know what mages teach?" The dirty goddess tugged at the waxed sealed top of the bottle and it came free easily.

"When I was mortal, I was sent to learn from the most competent mages my father could find. Vicious and malicious to their cores. The gift Odos gave me was an education and the luck to survive it." Her smile was genuine as she pulled the top off of her own bottle and took a drink. Lifting it, she inclined her head to Evran, "This is good beer."

Ezphine followed suit and closed her eyes, letting a delighted smile take its place on her dirty features. "Very good beer, I like that."

The soldiers settled on the ground nearby watching with awe as Evran and Valim opened theirs and sipped as well.

"Goddesses that drink beer?" One of the soldiers inched a little closer to the fire.

"Truthfully, I'll drink almost anything. I prefer mead or dwarf beer, but a good sharp cider is nice, this may be better than dwarf beer." Syreilla smiled and they seemed to relax.

"When she was mortal she was a legendary thief. If you've heard of the Nameless, she robbed it. Drunk."

"Untrue! I wasn't drunk, I'd been drinking!" She laughed and shook her head.

Ezphine was still smiling, "I think I may make honey beer my drink of choice. I remember... each of the gods used to have one."

Syreilla turned to clink their bottles together with an approving smile before taking another drink.

"What was the Nameless?" Another of the soldiers frowned and Kwes grinned.

"The best prison that the cleverest elves, men, and dwarves could build." Kwes leaned back with a grin.

"I didn't know it was a prison, I thought it was a tomb. It was a maze of traps, wards, and I mean nasty wards. They'd made hollow walls so that the builders could get around without killing themselves and then they sealed the damned things so that the maze went nowhere. You had to get into the walls to get to the middle." She threw up her hands sloshing her beer in the bottle and Ezphine laughed. "I got what I was sent for, and the King Undying's crown. When I'm set to a task I don't fail."

"The King Undying?" Valim looked fascinated.

"He followed me out of his prison and I married him. If you hear any of the old stories about the Golden Rook and her dragon, that's-"

The soldiers shuddered and one put his head between his knees.

"They've heard of Vedhethrah." Kwes stretched his legs toward the fire. "He makes an impression."

"He does. He is beautiful." She took a swig with a wistful sigh. "Where is Itia?"

He glanced at the tree he'd last seen her in and she flew down to perch on Syreilla's knee.

"I was calling her Ilyn so that her name doesn't attract unwanted attention."

Ezphine looked at the bird with an odd expression.

"Itia?"

"Her mother discarded her and she struck a bargain with me. She's going to redeem herself to earn peace and a second chance."

"Second chance to do what?" The goddess' expression was decidedly unfriendly.

"Live. To do things better and be her own person. Her mother warped her and her soul was tarnished, but there was a good core to her. I believe she can redeem herself and become better."

He watched as she poured some of the beer into the palm of her hand and offered it to the bird.

"That's not good for birds." Evecia looked worried but Syreilla smiled and shook her head.

"It won't hurt this one."

"She's already dead." Evran nodded sagely. "She sings beautifully, Lady Rook."

"My Uncle Imos made her into a songbird for me. I had made her into one of my rooks. She can atone for the wrongs she did and become something different now, something more like she should have been. I'm not a goddess of forgiveness, but I leave room for redemption."

He watched the bird drink out of her hand and then it broke into song.

I wasn't kind to Ezphine. I wasn't kind to many people. My faults and flaws leap out at me now. Will you tell her that I'm sorry for what I did to her? And I'm sorry for what my mother did to her?

"Death brings things into perspective. Right and wrong become clearer."

He watched as she looked at Ezphine and the goddess nodded slowly.

"I can forgive her. How did she die?"

"I killed her. She threatened me with a knife that held a certain kind of power and I turned it on her. Stuck it in her belly and released that power along with my dragon's fire.

"I promised an elf child with mutilated ears that I would bring fire and vengeance on his behalf and on the behalf of those who were harmed. I'll bring fire when I'm asked to on behalf of a child, but I bring a little extra for mine. The elven children were given to me."

Ezphine looked as though she were mulling something over, "You killed her and she serves you?"

"You can rely on a Rook. Bargains were struck. She was buried with a feather and her mother had bargained with me that I would intercede on her behalf. Whatever love she held for her child ended at her death. She broke her word to me and discarded this child to punishment and pain. It's well earned, I'll grant you, but the worst of what she did her mother can be blamed for. Because she had my feather, Itia and I struck another bargain.

"If they have a feather and a shred of goodness, death doesn't have to be filled with punishment, those who go before Hevtos can have a chance to earn redemption."

"What do you give the elves and the dwarves, Lady Rook?" Evran sipped his beer.

"I give the elves hope, luck, and protection. I don't have permission to intercede for them with Bone White but he's glad to use me to see righteous vengeance brought. The dwarves call me the Lady of smoke and flame. Anyone attacking a caravan bearing my standard will wish he'd never been born." She took a sip and as Itia flew to land on Kwes' shoulder she wiped her hand on her pants.

"Are you..." A soldier cleared his throat. "Are you going to raise the dead to fight for them? For the elves and dwarves? You have your dead birds, are..."

"That would end the war quickly." She grinned and the hair rose on the back of Kwes' neck. "But I think if I asked to drag the dead out of their graves my Uncle Hevtos might listen to the gods who want to see me tethered somewhere with no windows. My dragon is always happy to sit on me and keep me home in his sunless pits."

The soldiers relaxed, one enough to chuckle.

"I'd come get you." Ezphine lifted her bottle.

"Or I would." Kwes shook his head. "I thought there was no prison built that could hold you, Syreilla?"

"He couldn't seal me in but I'm Hevtos' Golden Rook. I'm bound to his service and he has the right to censure me."

"You serve Hevtos?" Valim's stare hadn't wavered.

"I do. He's a hard judge but a fair one. Usually, the tasks he gives me are to go fetch the lingering dead or to fetch something he wants. I can get into and out of anywhere."

Ezphine made a startled sound and then smacked Syreilla's shoulder knocking her to the side as the half-elf started to laugh.

"You didn't need me to help get us out!"

"I didn't! But you needed to help us get out. We both learned from it and you got a new hammer out of the deal." Her grin was infectious and the goddess returned it before breaking into laughter.

When it stopped, Ezphine sighed and sipped her beer before asking, "Why did you wait so long to come for me?"

"Sometimes the way in is through a cell door. I needed to let her catch me to get to you. She made me do it twice but I made the first time count. I had to go to her city and really piss her off to get her to lock me in with you."

The goddess of the forge broke into a smile, "I wish I could see the look on her face when she goes to gloat."

"I hope she puts it off awhile." The grin on Syreilla's face was wide and toothy, it made Kwes think of Vedhethrah. "I want to see her face when I stroll back onto the field and light her godsdamned army on fire again."

"It may be a smaller army." Kwes shrugged. "There have been a few desertions and she's been killing men who tried and failed to desert."

"They'll be sorted out in death. Trying to do the right thing gets you a little something. A feather gets you further but no one carrying a feather should be in her ranks."

"The gods will just let you kill as you please? They used to want to keep people alive." Ezphine looked at her curiously.

"I was given permission. Until the huntress goes before the King of the gods as a supplicant, I can kill as I please. She refuses and keeps throwing the humans who worship her against the rest of us so I'll just keep killing them." Syreilla upended her bottle, sucking down her beer before wiping her mouth and smiling at Evran again. "I appreciate the beer. My version of thanks is putting you under my protection, do you have any objection to that?"

"No, Lady Rook. I don't." The old man smiled, sipping his beer.

"You should all get some rest. We'll be covering a lot of ground tomorrow."

"We should keep watches," one of the soldiers volunteered and Kwes stifled a laugh as Syreilla turned a wide grin on him.

"I'm keeping watch. Let someone come to bother us. They'll live just long enough to realize they shouldn't have."

Stuttering things that sounded respectful, the soldiers got up from the fire and bowed repeatedly before retreating to their tents. Grinning, Kwes stood up and stretched.

"I wouldn't mind a good night's sleep. I was digging graves with Valim last night."

"Get some rest, Magpie. Is there any water nearby?"

"I can wait to get a bath, Syreilla." Ezphine smiled and shook her head. "I'll stay up with you to keep watch."