The Tattooed Woman Pt. 13

Dana chuckled, "Well, aye, that is the sort of thing one might make mention of, but I am sure it was not there before."

She watched as the man pondered; his face furrowed with thought. She'd not served him for very long but he'd never so much as tried to lay a hand upon her, nor any of the other women sellswords in his company, and this was odd, especially as he wasn't exactly an ogre to look at. He was no beauty, but he was handsome enough in his way, with a lined face and blue eyes. He had an easy-going temperament as far as she could tell, though he did not suffer fools well and he was as deadly a fighter as she had ever seen. She had met other Captains who would have taken advantage if they could, but not him, and she could not help but wonder why.

"Captain?"

He looked up as she broke his train of thought, "Aye lass?"

"Might I ask you something, personal?"

His eyes narrowed but he smiled as he replied, "Well you can ask. I make no promises to provide answer though."

She blushed, "Uhm, why have you not, well," she gestured to the bedroll where Magda was sleeping and back at herself, "you know."

It took him a moment before she saw his eyes light up in understanding and he nodded, "Ah, why have I not tried to sleep with one or even both of you?"

She looked at her hands and nodded.

The man chuckled and her blush deepened, "Dana, one day you might command your own Company and so I'll offer what poor wisdom I can. Some Captains rely on fear and harsh discipline, while others prefer to be loved by their troops. But I have always thought that gaining the respect of those you command gets better loyalty. Towards that end, such a Captain plays no favourites and needs must remain somewhat aloof. Also, if a Captain takes a lover from among their own it can do that person a great disservice, not always to be fair mind, but often enough."

Dana was fascinated for most Captains did not talk so to their soldiers, making effort to explain their motivations, preferring only to be obeyed, and so she listened keenly as he spoke.

Gorsini gestured to the sleeping northern woman, "Take Magda there, now don't tell her I said this but she's as good a second as any Captain could want. She's as easy on the eye as you are, but more importantly, she's brave, loyal, and clever enough. She's almost as good a tracker as yourself, and near enough my equal with a sword..."

From under the blankets came a mutter, "I'm better with a spear, but keep going, I'm enjoying it so far..."

Gorsini groaned and rolled his eyes, "Anyway, she's also respected by the soldiers under my command, and they accept her as Sergeant, but if she was my lover many would wonder if she had earned her promotion on her back, and not by any other merit, she would lose their respect, and so might I. It might spread dissension and disgruntlement and those can be costly traits in the long run, so for my part, I avoid the risk and keep my hands to myself, regardless of temptation," he gave the woman a deliberately comical grin, "though I do sometimes peek and dream, for I am only a mortal man after all and not a bloody saint."

Magda rolled over to face them with a laugh, "Well in that case we best watch where we flash our tits when we're bathing eh Dana, or we'll set this leering jackanapes to drooling."

The scout grinned, "Maybe it might be him that needs to watch where he flashes his manhood when he gets to bathing, for a girl has her needs no?"

Magda laughed, "Ha! My eyesight is good, but not that good. Besides the smelly bastard hasn't bathed in days."

"Hey!"

Their laughter was interrupted by a rustling on the barrier at the mouth of the cave and a rusty voice called out, "Hello, is there anyone in there?"

Drawing his sword Gorsini carefully approached the cave mouth and looked down in surprise to see the old woman from the shrine standing before him, still dressed in her simple garb with a black woollen shawl wrapped about her head. She was as hunched as he remembered and peered up at the man suspiciously. He looked about a moment and then down at the woman before calling back into the cave.

"T'is the crone from the shrine," he looked back at her, "how the Hell did you find us, woman?"

She cackled and pointed towards the tracks in the snow with the gnarled-looking shillelagh she was leaning upon, "Oh, t'is yourself, I thought it might be when I spied yon pixie eared ragamuffin skulking about. I remembered your fine stew and followed her tracks here."

Gorsini laughed, "Well I have no stew today woman, but if you can stand my cooking there may be some rabbit broth left in the pot and you're welcome to it, it's hot at least. Come on in out of the cold and heat yourself by the fire while you tell me why you came."

She laughed as she shuffled inside, "Oh, it wasn't so far, I've been here a long time and I know this cave well. More than once I've been gatherin herbs, berries n roots and found myself sheltering here from foul weather. But you asked why I came?"

The man ladled the last of the broth into a bowl and wiped his spoon for her, "Aye?"

The old woman blew on the hot brew and took a mouthful before nodding merrily at him, "T'is fine broth you make good Captain, you'll make some lass merry and fat with cooking like this," she chuckled, "assuming she's not fat already for some other reason of course."

Magda laughed as she pulled a chunk of bread from her rations and passed it over to the woman, "It's a funny thing but we were just talking on a related subject, so we were."

Grinning the old woman nodded her thanks for the bread, but she sobered as she looked to the man, "T'is a gibbous moon this night Captain and all wise folk know that fell things can be found roaming abroad on such a night as this. Might it not be better if ye came to the shrine, where it will be warm, and safe? It is not so far off after all."

Gorsini smiled at her, "Well in truth woman, I fear we may be hunted, and I did not wish to lead our troubles to your door. It might be safer for you if we slept here, we will be gone come the morning and bother you no more."

"No bother Captain, no bother at all, and the Goddess will watch over us I'm sure. Besides," she smiled and happily held up her bowl of soup, "my motives are not entirely unselfish, for there may be a breakfast in it for me if you come."

He frowned, "I don't want to put you in danger crone."

"Oh, I doubt there would be much harm in it."

The man nodded with a sigh, "Very well then, I will be glad of the shelter, and glad to share our breakfast with you. My thanks to you."

The old woman ate her soup with a smile and said nothing.

...

Cassie wrapped her arms around her knees and wept, tears trickling down her cheeks. Sensing movement she looked up as Muriah slid down to sit by her side so nimbly that the manacles around her wrists barely made a sound, "What ails you, Cassie?"

The young slave wiped her nose with her sleeve and looked at the woman with red-rimmed eyes, "It's a silly thing."

"Well, humans are silly folk, but try me, and we'll weigh the severity of your concerns together."

Another tear trickled down the girl's face, "She's leaving."

The Dark Elf frowned, "This is a human sentiment, isn't it? I'm... not good with such things so you might have to explain it to me, I'm not trying to mock I swear, it's just... our nature I suppose."

The young woman turned to her, "I'll miss her is all, and... well my ma left me on the steps of the kirk, and I'm just afraid is all. It's silly."

"Silly? How so?"

Cassie looked down at her hands as she wrung her fingers in front of her, "It's just, well, I keep thinking she'll leave me just like my ma. It's daft, I know it is. In truth, I've only known her for barely ten days and here I am weeping like she's really my kin, and I know she said she was, but them's just words surely. Nobody would really want to be kin with the likes of me."

"Hmm, Maggie would."

"Aye, she's always been good to me."

"Nyx would."

The girl stared goggle-eyed for a moment, "That's just daft. Now I know you are jesting."

"Am I now? Do you not know that it is her daughter who owns this tavern you are to go to, and that Nyx loaned her the money to buy the place?"

"How do you know these things?"

The woman grinned, "I am a Dark Elf, I make it my business to know, and besides, it was no secret, I imagine Varoona would have told you if you had asked."

"Even if it is true that won't make us kin though?"

"Oh? You think not? Tell me, what happens when in due course you buy your freedom, assuming you ever do? Will you head back to human lands or are you like to stay? Maggie is middle-aged for a human, she will die soon enough if she goes back, while in the Fae she might live for another hundred years or so. Which then do you think she'll choose when the time comes?"

"T... to stay?"

"Obviously. She does not strike me as foolish after all. So how then does she stay? She might marry I suppose, but I suspect, based on probability, it is more likely she will seek adoption into a House, and which House is the more likely? The woman would be a fine addition to the household of a Dark Elf trying to build up a hostelry business. I would bet a gold dragon that in a decade Maggie will be adopted by the daughter of Nyx, I don't even know her name, but I make the prediction nonetheless, and I cannot but think Maggie would insist that you are similarly treated. Now it doesn't make you sisters or anything of the sort, but it makes you family of a kind at least, and such things are important to us."

Cassie looked perplexed, "But how...?"

The Dark Elf laughed a silver musical laugh, "Cassie, Nyx is eight hundred years old, and she might play the rough and rugged simpleton, but she is as cunning and devious a creature as you, or I, will ever meet, do you really think she has not explored this problem thoroughly, from every angle, looking at it as only a Dark Elf can? Seeking and measuring advantage and cost? I tell you the woman has worked this out far in advance. Which means she would have you as adoptive kin."

The Dark Elf regarded the human and she smiled, "And I will tell you something else if you will. Sentiment is not something I can fathom Cassie, but deception, ahh, now there's a thing I have more than just a little familiarity with."

"Deception?"

"Oh yes, for like all of my kind I have learned to practise and recognise it since before I could walk, and if you allow I will tell you this. The one who says she is your sister, in truth she's fiendish hard to read, but I sense no deception in her. I would say that when she says she considers you kin, she means it. Now I know her even less than you do, but I do not think I would care to hazard calling her false on this. I suspect it would vex her, and while I have only heard stories, I'm not sure vexing her so would be wise. In truth, I think there is as much chance of her abandoning you as there is of me growing wings and flying up for a chat with the Moon Goddess."

Cassie sniffed, "You mean it don't you?"

Muriah almost doubled over laughing, "Oh Gods Cassie, truly I cannot quite believe it's me that is saying this, but you'll have to trust someone someday. Do you think her a liar or no?"

"Well, no."

The Dark Elf stared at the girl with her unblinking dark eyes, and her voice was almost... sad, "God's Cassie, how I envy you."

"Envy me?"

"Yes! I would swap my life for yours in a heartbeat. Your life has been 'hard but soft', mine the reverse."

"I don't understand."

"You are penniless, abandoned, and have worked hard all your young life for a pittance, and yet you have someone who loves you as a mother. I am rich, my life one of luxury, yet my mother sees me only as a thing she can use for the betterment of our House. For as long as I can remember she would use me, have me seduce, murder, or spread my legs for any if it bring her advantage or leverage. She loves me as much as I love the log we sit upon."

"But you said family was important to you. How can she treat her daughter like that?"

"Family is important. If I were killed, she would avenge me, but out of family pride, not sentiment. I am enslaved now, but my mother will have me home and free, provided such is to the advantage of our house. It would cost me some hide I suspect, and a mountain of shame and embarrassment, but if she simply abandoned me, it would in turn make her look weak to our rivals. Maggie over there, for all she is but a cook, would give her life for you. I have nothing that can compete with that."

"You sound sad."

The woman smiled and shrugged, "A momentary weakness Cassie, nothing more. It will pass."

The two sat for a moment looking at the fire, each lost in thought.

"Didn't I promise you another part of my story Cassie?"

The little slave looked up at the tattooed woman as she moved from the shadows to sit across from her.

Adair looked at the Dark Elf, "Muriah, you are welcome at my fire, even if my story might bore you beyond tears."

She looked at the manacles fixed to the girl's wrists and frowned slightly, "Why do you wear those?"

The Dark Elf smiled and held them up, so the metal links shone in the firelight, "I fear the good Captain does not trust me."

Adair stared at the girl and Muriah swallowed as those strange golden-flecked eyes transfixed her own for what felt an age, then the woman blinked and looked away with a small smile, "I do."

The tattooed woman leaned across and before the Dark Elf thought to move, she slipped the manacles from her wrists and placed them on the ground at her side, "You'll not make a fool of me will you child?"

"N... No."

"Good enough, so Cassie, where were we?

Cassie stared at the manacles and shook her head, "You had gone home with the man who kept you prisoner?"

"Oh yes, so I did. Well, I was not truly his prisoner by then, for things were coming back to me and I could have left if I wanted to force the issue I suppose. But I stayed, and he was kind to me, for I think he could sense my loneliness. And so, after a while, we fell in love, and he courted me as was proper. Now I confess I did not make the courtship simple or easy, for if I might say I think I am worthy of effort, no?

"Anyway, eventually we were wed. It was a small ceremony and I remember wearing the wedding gown I had made, and he gifted me the ring he had forged. Neither of us had kin, for mine were gone and he was estranged from his, and so only Rhiannon and the woodland creatures were our witnesses, but we spoke the words and we became one.

"I stayed with him, and we were happy for a long while, but I was ever restless, and I would explore any rumour of my family, but he loved me for all that, and tolerated my wayward habits.

"One day I had been lured away with a false tale when enemies of my mother came to our door and tried to make a pact with him, as they thought my blood and kinship could be used for their purposes. My husband refused them. They tried bribery, but he claimed he had already had the greatest treasure that could ever be found, they tried persuasion, but he refused them, saying their promises were worthless glamours, they tried seduction, and he laughed at them, so, of course, they tried murder.

"When I returned home, I found my husband dead, and our home in ruins. He had not gone quietly, and the murderers had crawled off to lick their wounds. I was filled with wrath, a fury to rival even Babd, and even when the shade of my husband appeared and spoke to me, I would not be calmed. I hunted the murderers for an age, and ever they fled from me. Eventually, it felt like I had hounded them to the ends of the Earth and there at the very last they turned at bay.

"They had gathered a host around them for protection, but I was enraged, and I gave battle."

Cassie swallowed, "What happened?"

The woman looked up from the fire and her golden eyes burned, "I smashed their army to bits and when my husband's murderers finally fell before me, I took them alive and put them to torment. I salted the Earth of that battlefield with their tears ten times over before I was done and finally allowed them to die, for I was vexed beyond reason."

Muriah looked away and whispered, "Queen of Night."

Adair chuckled softly, "Not quite."

"Then what happened?"

"My rage left me and I surveyed the battlefield. It was a scorched and blasted ruin of a place, and even to this day, nothing will grow there. I was ashamed of my rage, I was alone, and desperately miserable and I must have stood there for an age.

"Eventually I went home, knowing that there was nothing there but bitter memory, the barrow I had raised for my husband, and the ruins of the home we were building. On my way there I was attacked by two brothers, older kin of the murderers I had already slain, and we fought.

Cassie shook herself free and asked, "Did you win?"

"No. My heart was not truly in it and my rage was gone. Even so, we all but destroyed each other and in the end, the three of us were but scorched and shattered husks who barely managed to crawl from the field. I slept for a while I think, and not long after I was found by the Dark Elves. Afterwards, I was all but lost in my memories and dreams, sorely hurt and lonely beyond words. Then something... woke me."

"What?"

"You did Cassie."

"Me?"

Despite the tale terrifying her almost beyond words, the cold, ruthless nature of the Dark Elves could not be denied, and Muriah frowned, "So, your enemies yet live?"

"The murderers of my beloved I rendered nameless. They will never return, but their kin yet live, Demeritus and Typhonos, but I do not doubt that one day, perhaps soon, we shall meet again. And this time I will be done with this."

Muriah looked quizzical, "Typhonos? Was that not the name of a Dragon?"

Adair looked at her through the flames, "Yes, my husband was Eber, Dragon of the North. Typhonos was his brother."

...

Far to the north a thing shaped like a mortal looked down from a blackened hillock across his army of Drow as the burning ruins of another estate lay before him. To his left were the shattered remains of a broken keep, and to his right was a field filled with prisoners, shrieking and crying for mercy as they were massacred to the last.

Turning his mount he spared a glance downwards as a twisted figure approached, "Demeritus, you have news?"

The creature paled and shivered as its master regarded him, "Dread lord, it seems the hounds we dispatched were destroyed."

The thing sighed, "They failed?"

"Y-yes my Lord."

"Do you offer excuse?"

"No, my Lord, the failure is mine, I should have sent three times their number and made sure."

"Indeed, mayhap we will discuss this further, but for now it appears I have a quandary."

"My Lord?"

"Oh yes. The spirit to which I previously referred appears to have moved from the shrine and even now approaches the boundary with the Fae, but curiously I still find my sight thwarted when I look upon the shrine. I find this a curious thing. Do you have opinion?"

Demeritus considered, "There must be something still there then, some object or force, either active or passive, that obscures the place from sight."

The thing smiled, "Most astute, curious is it not? Perhaps I was hasty in my earlier approach. Dispatch some stealthy creature to go there and investigate. I would know what it is that does this thing."

"At once My Lord, ah...?"

"Speak."

"What of the troublesome spirit you mentioned? Shall I send a heavier force against it?"

"No, not yet. Now that I see the thing, I think I may be able to make some use of it. Soon enough it will come to me and then we shall see."

Demeritus bowed low and grimaced as he stood. The creature looked at him, "Are you still in pain? Even now, after so long?"