26-30 Metisto 3020

The journey back from Joy’s Gate and the hamlet of Wallenwood was uneventful. The Hand and companions were mostly occupied with keeping the wee toddler Aldari distracted and entertained – and preventing him from petting every wild animal they encountered along the way. It was late afternoon on the 27th when they arrived back in Thermexold, but it had been a fairly leisurely, mostly down-hill walk. After a brief rest everyone was ready to help Raven celebrate her 23rd birthday in style.

Once again they commandeered the round bay-window table in the common room of the Inn at Hammerhead, along with satellite tables to accommodate the enlarged party which, besides Raven and Aldari, tonight included Captain K’Jurol, Dr. Ar’Hanol, Master Salvador, pilot Arus Salasin, Domus Biswyk, Jeb and Therok. Korwin had invited the Mate, Yonas Grünby, to join them, but he had politely declined, obviously uncomfortable about socializing with his employers and captain. And with those he thought of as his social betters, Mariala suspected.

“Aye, it’s right kind of you folks,” he’d said when she’d had pressed him on it. “But I’m Officer of the Watch tonight, and I’d not be pushing the duty off on another just so’s I could party. T’wouldn’t be right, m’lady.” The two let it go then, and departed for the Inn and the evening’s festivities.

The party remained relatively sedate and pleasantly convivial while Aldari was awake. He was certainly the center of attention, which didn’t bother his mother in the least. Her tribe took rather a different view of birthdays than her husband’s folk –Golana Rethmani birthdays were considerably more somber, and limited to family and the closest of friends – a time for reflection and taking stock of the year past, and planning for the year ahead. But she was amongst “civilized” folk now, and she did her best to fit in, adapting their ways to her own when she could. The birthday thing was hardly the most difficult adjustment she’d made, she thought wryly… who didn’t like parties, after all… and gifts! And maybe tomorrow she could get some time to herself, to honor her own traditions.

Once he’d finally begun to nod off (but oh, how valiantly he fought not to yield to sleep!), Raven carried him up to the family’s room, leaving him sleeping under the watchful eye of the innkeepers youngest daughter Bethda. Jeb was the one usually tasked with babysitting duties (“I have 12 younger nieces and nephews,” he’d explained when she’d asked if he minded the duty. “I’m used to it, and anyway, I like kids!”), but tonight she’d wanted him at the party, so he could enjoy some time off… especially from Erol!

On her return to the common room she found the celebration had grown more boisterous. It quickly began to remind her of her own people’s celebrations after a successful hunt, when the hunters and fighters of the tribe would drink and dance around the camp fires, and tell ribald stories and outrageous tall tales. She supposed the immense fireplace was a decent enough substitute for the bonfire, and while the beverages were certainly different, the intoxication was pretty much the same.

Sending Devrik off to play some game of throwing skill with the other males, Raven settled in for pleasant talk with Mariala and the new woman who would be sailing with them, Lurin Ar’Hanol. She was a fascinating person, a healer of some repute in her own distant land – even in the Pelon Delta Raven’s people had heard tales of distant and mysterious Kunya-Kesh – and very friendly. They were soon all on a first-name basis, and Lurin was much interested by what Raven could tell her of the Rethmani healing herbs and compounds, as well as by her people’s culture. The doctor in turn shared several tales, some quite harrowing, of being a woman practicing medicine in a strongly patriarchal culture.

As they talked, one or another of the men would occasionally glance over at them, then worriedly whisper something to a companion. Both men would then frown in their direction before being drawn back into their sporting pursuits by the rest. Mariala laughed when Raven pointed this out, and Lurin smiled knowingly.

“They assume we must, naturally, be talking about them,” Mariala chuckled. “And they are desperately worried about what we might be saying about them!”

“Indeed,” agreed Lurin, her smile turning wry, “and males are generally so insecure about… well, about so many things!” With a pointed look towards the crowd of men the three women leaned in toward one another and lowered their voices… as they began a lively discussion on the current political situation of the Ocean Empire vis-a-vis Kunya-Kesh, and its effect on cereal grain production in the Southern Islands… several of the men began to look really worried, and Devrik burst suddenly into a Olvânaali love ballad, which was actually on tune for once, and bordered on actually pleasant! Toran joined him on the harmony, humming acceptably…

Eventually the two groups merged once more, and two bottles of Arkivian sparkling wine, one bottle of Kaluran brandy, and a dozen pints of the Inn’s famed Sea Salt Sour Beer and ThermexBold Strong Ale later, and well after midnight, everyone finally stumbled up to their rooms or back to the Wind of Kasira. Mariala and Erol had both finally joined their companions in taking rooms at the inn, once Master Alvador had made it clear they would be in Thermexold for several more days, at least. He slept aboard, as did the captain, of course, the pilot and Dr. Ar’Hanol. The latter accepted the arm and escort of Captain K’Jorul as they left the inn, and Mariala smiled as she watched them go… did she detect a spark there?

The next day was one spent primarily in recovery for most of the Hand of Fortune, with the exception of Devrik. He had, surprisingly Raven thought, imbibed only lightly the night before – something she had appreciated, too, one they’d retired to their bedchamber. Aldari was a heavy sleeper, thankfully – Devrik was so strangely appalled at the thought that their son might ever hear or be aware of their lovemaking! It was something she had yet to really understand, as Rethmani culture had little concept of what her husband called “privacy,” and all children grew up knowing all about the so-called “facts of life.”

Devrik did, at least, understand her people’s customs involving birthdays, and he surprised her by announcing that Mariala would be watching Aldari and Brann for the morning. He’d had the innkeeper, Quoran Heldmün, pack them a picnic basket and proceeded to take her on a private stroll through the large cliff-top park just northwest of the inn. They talked of not only the year past as experienced with their friends, but of the private years the three of them alone had experienced on that day back in Novara.

“Let us hope that the coming year will be less… eventful,” Devrik laughed, as they ate under a large plane tree overlooking the sea. “Although I’ll not tempt Vandor and Xydona by saying it must be so!”

Packing up after their lunch, Devrik returned alone to the Inn at Hammerhead, leaving his wife to her private contemplations. He found Mariala and Aldari sitting on a bench in the shade of the inn’s courtyard, deeply engaged in what he knew to be a particularly challenging Xavar’nan 3D puzzle of multicolored interlocking metal pieces. It had taken him half a day to solve it, the first time Mariala had shown it to him, he recalled. As he walked up his son slid the final piece into place, and gave it a twist to lock it solid, looking up at his father in delight.

“Look Da! I did it! Mar’la said it was very hard, but it wasn’t really!” His piping voice held both pride, and excitement at seeing his father. He ran to him and leaped up, wrapping his legs around Devrik, who caught him with a woof. “Where’s Mama?” the boy asked, looking around curiously.

“She is taking a little well-earned time to herself for the rest of the afternoon, my lad,” Devrik replied, spinning his son around by his feet, arms outstretched, his shrieks of laughter distracting him from further questions. Devrik glanced at Mariala and raised an eyebrow. She picked up the puzzle and eyed it thoughtfully, giving him a shrug before stashing it back in her scrip. Sh stood up as her friend lowered the boy to ground again and send him staggering dizzily onto inn, still giggling. The adults followed more slowly.

“He seems to have exceptional spatial relationships skills,” she said, shaking her head in bemusement. “Exceptional.”

“How quickly did he solve that infernal thing,” Devrik asked with a grimace, gesturing at her scrip. He still remembered his first go at the puzzle.

“In a little over a turn of the glass, almost as fast as my first time! And I had the advantage of experience with similar such concepts and puzzles… not to mention 15 or so more years of life experience. Well, we’ve known since the beginning that he was no ordinary child, right?”

“Yes, but I just wish there was something concrete to work with… most of the time he seems a pretty ordinary kid for his age – his actual age, not his technical age – but then he does something like this. Or sets off a volcano.”

“Well, to be fair, I’m not sure the volcano was entirely his own doing,” Mariala laughed. “I think Kirdik Hanol, and Alvira Vetaris, deserves some of the blame for that one. But this one was all him, yes.”

• • • • • •

The next day dawned clear and warm, promising to be a scorcher. Korwin insisted that everyone must join him for a trip to one of the city’s famous public baths. At the party both his cousin and Danir Alvador had been going on about the sybaritic pleasures of their own visits to several such establishments, especially the Turquoise Waters of Kalura’s Delight, while the Hand were slogging through the mountainous Argatha Forest. It had certainly piqued everyone’s curiosity, even the somewhat reluctant Mariala.

“It’s not one of the more… carnal… baths,” Korwin assured her, and added to Raven, “In fact, many families come there, and children are welcome in the main areas. Although, come to think on it, Aldari may be a little young to be allowed in the water…”

“It’s no matter, Korwin,” Raven replied with a smile. “ I intend to spend the morning in the park with Aldari… I noticed a great many dogs playing there yesterday, and you know how he loves animals. I think we’ll take Brann, and maybe we’ll make some new friends.”

Mariala offered to join her friend for the trip to the park (not least as an honorable, and plausibly deniable, way to avoid the baths), but Raven demurred. She was still in a contemplative mode, she confessed, and was looking forward to some more alone time, or at least as much as an active eight-year-old might allow. With a sigh Mariala gave in to the inevitable and agreed to accompany her friends to the, to her ear rather floridly named, bath house.

The Turquoise Waters of Kalura’s Delight was not far from the inn, as it happened, just a few streets over in the same district. The group strolled leisurely from the inn to the park, where Raven, Aldari and Brann left them, then continued on to their destination. The bath house was a large, lavish rectangle of pale pink marble overlaid with a riot of carved white limestone filigree work. It stood three stories high, in a park-like setting which occupied two city blocks. Surrounded by a low wall of sandstone, topped with wrought iron in the shapes of interlocking seahorses, the grounds consisted of wide expanses of verdant lawn and a number of large shade trees.

An immense dome of brass and crystal dominated the center of the roof, while two short towers rose on either side of it at the back, each one capped with a dome of warm pink stucco and more white filigree. A similar half-dome covered the grand entrance, whose five-meter-tall bronze doors were flanked by twin red marble staircases which rose to the second floor’s more discreet entrances.

Inside the opulence only increased, with floors of inlaid mosaic, white and rose marble, and complex patterns in wood, walls and doors of a myriad exotic woods in alternating shades of light and dark, gilt detail work at every turn, and warm glowstones set in brass and crystal fixtures and chandeliers illuminating it all. Along the outer wall of the building, to right and left of the main foyer, were the changing rooms, the scraping rooms, the mud baths, various massage rooms, and several steam rooms; on the second floor were a host of rooms and chambers where more intimate pleasures might be discreetly pursued.

And at the heart of it all was the main bath, beneath the great crystal dome. The geothermally warmed main pool was 50 meters long and an average of 20 meters wide, and lined in a dozen shades of blue tile. An immense statue in white stone of Kalura, arm outstretched to release her golden eagle (gilded in actual gold) to seek those of true heart and steadfast love, stood at the center of it all, towering over the blue-tiled pools and luxurious appointments.

Attendants of both genders were waiting to take each person in hand, once Korwin had shown proof that he had already purchased the full Imperial Package for himself and his companions. Each member of the Hand was led to a private massage room, where for the next three turns of the glass they enjoyed deep tissue massages and a final rubdown with fragrant and warming oils. After that, Vulk and Erol sought the upper gallery and its carnal delights, while Toran opted for the full mud treatment Korwin had thoughtfully arranged. The others went for one of the larger steam rooms, followed by an invigorating scrape-down.

Eventually they all ended up in the main pool hall where everyone, with the exception of Toran, slipped into the water. The temperature was perfectly balanced, but if one felt the need there were two smaller pools of cooler water, and two of hotter water, to invigorate or to stimulate. Families, groups of adults, and the occasional lone bather were scattered about the large space, but their numbers were less than a third of what could easily be accommodated there.

“Yes, that’s part of why I chose today,” Korwin said, when Vulk pointed out the relative scarcity of fellow patrons. “I learned that the day before the end of the month was one of the slower times for them, although tonight and tomorrow it supposedly becomes quite a hopping palce. And of course that also helped me get a better deal on the cost of our excursion.”

“Hey, Toran,” Erol called, and sent a great splash of water up toward the Khundari, who nimbly dodged it and continued on to the nearby purple, silk-covered divan he’d had his eye on. “Why don’t you come in? The water’s beautiful, and for Kalura’s sake, it’s only a little over a meter deep! Not even over your head!”

“Why in the world would I want to ruin the effects of the incredible mud bath I just finished,” his friend replied, too relaxed to get worked up at the friendly gibe. “Do you know, they used six different kinds of mud, and three different temperatures? It was the most amazing experience, and I owe you a debit of gratitude, Korwin, for convincing me to come along today.”

Vulk, laying back with a contented sigh, considered his two friends as they bantered. Most of the Hand had seen one another in the buff on occasion, of course, but this was the first opportunity he’d had to see Toran , and Erol in his new body, totally naked. He appreciated the chance to test the truth of some of the old folk stories regarding the endowments of both Khundari and Telnori…

Popular belief would have it that, as some sort of cosmic balance for the strength, extreme beauty, intelligence, facility with magic, and very long lives the Telnori enjoyed, their men were shortchanged in the matter of their private parts. If this was true, Vulk mused, then Erol had enjoyed Kasira’s own luck in landing in that Telnori body, for it certainly gave the lie to the tale! Actually, remembering other bathhouses they’d visited, Erol had come out much the winner in that regard, compared to his old body!

For the Khundari, the popular folk belief held that a Dwarf’s male member was much larger, especially in girth, than the average Umantari’s. Taking Toran as representative, however, Vulk didn’t think this folk tale held up either – while certainly rather wide, he felt it was only the comparison on the smaller body that made it seem so impressive… although his friend was even more hairy than he’d imagined, and with muscles like rocks!

Mariala’s slitted eyes betrayed no indication of where she might be looking…

After some time in the pleasant, soothing waters of the main pool, with occasional trips to the hotter pools and the cold plunges, the Hand were all extremely relaxed, even the still-dry Toran, to the point of limpness. Ambition was entirely gone, and all thoughts of worry or of the future seemed no more than vapor…

Gradually, over the echoing murmur of muted conversations, and the occasional higher-pitched laughter of children (none under 10, Devrik noted), a more disturbing sound made itself heard. Erol noted it first, but the others soon cocked their heads to listen as well…

Coming through the high, open narrow windows that lined the chamber, were the sounds of… a street fair? …an angry crowd? They all stood up, just begining to look concerned. “That sounds like steel on steel,” Devrik suddenly growled, and stepped up out of the water onto the tile deck.

“And those are screams… along with the sound of fires,” Erol added grimly, following his friend.

At that moment the double doors at the north end of the room burst open and the plumb, middle-aged attendant who had first greeted them at the entrance staggered in, wild-eyed and gasping for breath. “Flee!” he cried, making frantic shooing gestures at the patrons. “Out the side doors! The city is under attack… hideous monsters are in the streets, killing and looting! Flee!”

“Where did these ‘monsters’ come from,” Devrik barked over the rising babble, striding towards the man. “Is it an attack by land, or by sea, man?”

“I don’t know, domus” the fellow gasped. “They say they just appeared in the middle of Cliffside Park, as if from nowhere, but they – gurk!” The man looked briefly surprised at the foot of black steel suddenly protruding from his chest… then his eyes rolled up and he toppled sideways, blood gushing from his mouth.

Behind him a Black Gül stood arrogantly in the doorway, his tusks glistening with slaver as he yanked the blade from his victim’s back. With a roar, he motioned forward half a dozen more gülvini, many of them of the smaller nomai breed. People began to scream in terror and stagger out of the water, making for the exits in a chaotic panic. The gülvini surged forward with gleeful snarls and roars, eager to rape and kill.

Time seems to stretch to infinity for Devrik as the words “Cliffside Park” echoed in his ears… the very place he’d left his wife and son! And then it sped up again, and he was racing for the exit. A roundhouse blow from his fist lifted the gül-bogaba in his way off it’s feet and sent it sprawling to the wet tiles, unconscious. With a muttered invocation, he unleashed Arkel’s Fiery Ribbons, wrapping the commanding gül-hovgavu and one of smaller gül-nomai in its searing bands of flame. He barely heard their screams of pain as he bulled past and headed for the street.

As Devrik charged from the chamber, Erol was headed for the changing room and his weapons, when Jeb appeared, carrying his trident. Therok was right behind him, with Vulk’s sword in his grip. Erol and Vulk had treated the two men to their own separate time at the baths, and he was very glad of it now!

“Good man!” Erol cried, catching his favorite weapon as the yeoman tossed it to him. “You two grab the rest of our clothes and weapons and follow us to the park!” Without looking to see if he was obeyed, he cast Asakora’s Veil and vanished from sight. Only because he was looking for it did Jeb catch the wet footprints on the blue tiles, headed for the doors. With a shake of his head, he turned and followed his barbarian friend back to the changing room, to gather up the Hand’s gear.

Korwin, being literally in his element, had summoned up an Ice Needle of Burkon as soon as he’d realized what was happening. He’d impaled one of the gül-nomai clean through the left breast with it, as the creature was pulling a young woman up from the pool by her hair. She dropped back into the water, sobbing, and her would-be attacker toppled over behind her, sending a spray of water upward. As the woman struggled hysterically for the other side of the pool, the gülvini floated face-down in the water, an expanding pool of blood around it.

Realizing they needed one of these things alive, if they were going to figure out what was really going on, the naked Korwin’s next attack was a roundhouse punch to the face of another gül-nomai, which snapped its head back and stunned the creature. Slamming its head against the floor for good measure, Korwin grabbed a clawed foot and began dragging it towards were Vulk, the flickering glow of his holy armor shining around him, was tending to the wounded near the head of the pool.

Mariala, wrapped in a towel, came up from the other side, looking worried. An especially powerful blast of her Fire Nerves had taken out the rest of the invaders, and Toran, dressed now in a rather fetching armored codpiece he’d apparently cobbled together from a towel and a bronze sconce, was quickly and methodically dispatching them with sharp twists of the neck.

“We have to go, now!” she cried. “Raven and Aldari were in that park –“

“I’m well aware,” Vulk snapped, looking harried. “But Devrik has already gone, and – damnit, where the Void has Erol vanished to? Did he go after him? But there are injured here, and I can’t just leave them–“

“Go, I can handle this,” a woman’s soprano voice commanded, and then Dr. Ar’Hanol was thrusting Mariala’s clothes and dagger at her before kneeling at Vulk’s side. She had been trading physical therapy tips with several of the masseuses, until hearing the sounds of fighting. “Go, you’ve stabilized them, I can handle it from here!”

At that moment Jeb and Therok arrived with most of the rest of the men’s clothes and weapons, Toran right behind them, snatching at his own items as they ran and throwing them on. With a grateful nod at Lurin, Vulk also began to hastily dress next to Korwin and Mariala. Ordering Therok and Jeb to stay to guard the doctor and the wounded, in moments the friends were racing for the front doors…

• • • • • •

A few minutes earlier Erol, still cloaked behind Asakora’s Veil, had stepped out the main doors of the bath house and into a scene from nightmare. Thick black smoke was boiling up from a dozen places around the district, darkening the summer sky to almost twilight, underlit by the flicker of orange flames. Panicked people were running screaming down the streets, pursued by laughing, ravening gülvini of at least three breeds. The creatures stopped their pursuits only long enough to smash windows and batter down doors, dragging more shrieking victims out and gleefully torching the buildings.

Erol’s appalled gaze was torn from the carnage by the sight of Devrik, naked and still dripping, on the walk ahead of him just meters from the street. He seemed frozen in concentration, head bowed, fists clenched at his side… but before Erol could say anything there was a brilliant flash of orange light, and suddenly Devrik was gone, replaced by a wraith of living flame in his shape! This fiery manifestation hovered a few centimeters above the stones of the walkway, and as the former gladiator watched it began moving away, out into the street…

A flaming hand reached out and grabbed a passing gülvini by the throat, just before the creature could seize the young boy it pursued. The Deathspawn shrieked in pain, and in an instant its head burst into flames. Wraith-Devrik moved on, drifting at a steady, rather stately, pace towards the park, several blocks away. Erol could see that it would take much too long for his friend to reach their destination in this form, if he was more-or-less at the mercy of the winds…

A sudden burst of insight struck him, then. The spell he’d been working on for the better part of the month wasn’t really ready for prime time… not to move a ship, anyway. But he had certainly mastered a gentle zephyr… at least mostly mastered it… and directional control. And those were all that was needed here and now.

The wind in this coastal city was often blowing inland, as it was now, but he needed it to flow the other way. He summoned the energies of his spell, the Form was perfect… just a modicum of Principal now… he felt the wind begin to shift… a muttering, inconstant thing at first… but then the change came, all at once! Then, with a little push, he increased the force. Not a lot, just enough to move Flame-Devrik forward… at a brisk enough pace, in fact, that Erol had to trot to keep up…

By the time the rest of the Hand of Fortune dashed out of the baths, the flaming figure was nearly a block away and gaining speed. “Wait, is that Devrik?” Vulk asked as they began to run toward the park. “Did we know he could do that?!”

“Yes,” Mariala replied, hiking up her gown and wishing she’d worn her traveling leathers. But who could have predicted this? “He doesn’t do it often, it’s exhausting and very difficult, I believe… but you know Devrik. Nothing is going to keep him from his family!”

A few minutes later the companions bust past the tall hedge that surrounded Cliffside Park, to find the flame-wraith Devrik and a naked Erol decimating half a dozen gülvini. A few citizens, apparently taken captive and dragged back here by the creatures, cowered and sobbed in the middle of the fight. With a Khundari battle cry Toran whirled this battle-axe and leapt into the fray, neatly decapitating a gül-bogaba. Vulk, wielding his Staff, followed him, while Mariala and Korwin provided arcane support. In less than a minute there were no gülvini left alive in the lower end of the park.

“I don’t see them here!” The hissing shadow of Devrik’s usual voice still managed to convey his anguish and fear.

“It’s late,” Mariala assured him. “We were at the baths quite a long time, they probably just returned to the inn, that’s all.”

Her friend’s fiery expression lightened (she winced at her own mental pun) and he turned to head back toward the street. At a gesture from Erol, the wind picked up suddenly, and Devrik raced away from her, streaming flames behind him. fists clenching and unclenching. While Vulk tended to the injured people, the others dashed after their friend, back to the inn.

Gülvini still prowled the streets, but they seemed less in numbers, and the people were beginning to fight back. Armed men, and a few women, attacked individual Deathspawn, or small groups of the things, and the sound of metal on metal from several street away indicated the City Watch was finally rallying. In front of the Inn at Hammerhead, the group found several burning gül-nomai corpses, a few more in the courtyard, and the front doors smashed wide open.

The innkeeper was behind the bar, fending off two smallish gülvini with a long andiron from the fireplace and a flaming brand, while several patrons battled other güls from behind overturned tables. The Hand took the creatures from behind, and in seconds the place was free of living invaders. Mariala drove her Khundari dagger through the neck of the last one, which had been menacing the innkeeper’s wife in her kitchen as she fended it off with a butcher’s knife.

“Say, have you seen Ser Devrik?” Korwin asked the shaken Quoran in a bright, chipper voice, as the man emerged from behind his bar . “Looking a bit flamey and wraith-like just now, perhaps?”

The man, wide-eyed, just nodded and pointed to the stairs.

“Ah, of course, I should’ve guessed,” Korwin said, and headed up the narrow stairs two at a time, the others hard on his heels. But there was little need to rush, as it turned out. Erol was dispatching the last living gülvini with a trident to the back, while a once-more human (and naked) Devrik was pounding on the door to his and Raven’s room. It flew open and Raven and Aldari tumbled out, the latter red-faced and crying, the former pale and sheathing her longknife before greeting her husband in relief.

As Korwin summoned Effluvium to quench the flames on the still-burning gülvini corpses (and patches of carpet) scattered along the hallway to the Askalan’s room, Erol leaned on his trident and smiled at the happy family scene. “This is a very solidly built inn,” he remarked to Mariala. “That door there took quite a beating, and it could still take a blow or two, I’d estimate… still, good thing we arrived when we did.”

Mariala nodded agreement and handed him one of the towels she’d grabbed on her way out of the bath house, while pointedly not looking at him. With a grin he took the proffered bit of fabric and wrapped it around his waist. “Thanks, m’dear, but now that we’re here, I think I’ll slip into something a little more… armored… and go back out to make sure the Guard is really getting things under control.”

He became serious as he turned for his room, leaning down to speak quietly into his friend’s ear. “I suspect Devrik may get the same idea, eventually… you know how he is… but don’t let him. That Immolation spell of his leaves him weak and exhausted, and I have no desire to drag his corpse home to Raven!”

“Ha! Like he ever listens to me,” Mariala snorted. “But you’re right about that spell, its after-effects are brutal. Maybe with Raven to back me up, though, we can keep him inside…”