The Guided Journey (Book 6) (34 page)

“Good night Kestrel,” Lucretia told him.  “I’m going to go home and fill pages of my diary with our story; either that or I’m going to fall into an exhausted sleep that will last for days!”  She kissed his cheek, and continued with Aurelia to the door, while Kestrel and Putty went up to the room they shared with Hampus, the room they hadn’t spent an actual night in.

The furnishings in the room had been added to in the interval of Kestrel’s absence, with a second bed provided to end any dispute about which of the elves would sleep on the floor, and so they settled in for the evening, and slept soundly, knowing that for the time being, they had no pressing duties, no impending battles, no stalking enemies to haunt their sleep.  Putty slept on the floor next to Kestrel’s bed, until he stepped on her in the morning – when he belatedly realized she had stayed in the same spot the whole night through – making her roar, and awakening Hampus as well.

They all went to the palace that morning – Ripken, Aurelia (both nominally hidden in layers of heavy clothes), Hampus, Kestrel, and Lucretia, who returned to Ripken’s manor early in the morning to rejoin the group.   Kestrel was greeted warmly by the king and queen, who were still appreciative of his victories the previous year, victories in the tournament, over the Viathin-influence of the banished nobleman Exmoor, and over the strange illness that had threatened to take Aurelia’s life.

They spent the morning recounting tales, alerting the royals to the renewed threat of Viathins returning to the land, and they in turn promised to be ready to fight in any way possible.  During the mid-morning, Aurelia sent for the keg that had been delivered to her at the palace on behalf of Kestrel; it was stoutly constructed, built sturdily to contain the large hoard of gold and silver coins shipped inside.

“I believe I know how to use part of this,” Kestrel said thoughtfully.  “I’d like to leave most of it here in your care, if I may.  It’ll be too heavy to carry with me,” he said, as he sorted out a stack of coins to take, then returned the rest to the keg to be stored in the palace vaults.

“We have a guest who arrived for the wedding who would appreciate the opportunity to meet you,” Aurelia’s mother said after much of the conversation concluded.  Kestrel was escorted to a small sitting chamber, where he met Count Stelten, Moorin’s father.  Kestrel spent a long time telling the Count about his daughter’s new life and surroundings, and her hope to make the future better for the southern elves.

“You should be proud of her,” Kestrel told the nobleman.  “She’ll be a leader and an inspiration for her new people as they live through the years of waiting for a forest to regrow in the southern lands.”

Afterwards, Kestrel and the others left the palace and returned to Ripken’s manor, where Kestrel went to talk to the humans.

“I am going to run to North Harbor tomorrow, and from there I’ll catch a ship to Seafare,” he told Raines and Orren.  “If you want to go to either city with me, I would welcome you as companions.

“I have this to give to you, to help you both with the start of a new life,” he placed a pile of gold coins on the table.

“My lord, I’ve never seen so much money at one time!” Orren exclaimed.  “I cannot accept this; I haven’t earned it.

“You should take
it, to start your new life,” he told Raines.

“I don’t have any more claim to it than you,” she told the former miner.  “But I will share it with you.

“I will go to Seafare with you, my lord,” she told Kestrel.  “The farther I go from my old life to start a new one the better.  I can work as a seamstress and own my own shop with this amount of money,” she smiled at the thought of starting a new life of independence.

“I’ll go to Seafare too,” Orren decided.  “I’m sure there’ll be something I can do to make a living, with such a generous stake to begin.”

“You could work in any blacksmith’s shop, with your strength,” Raines assured him.  “There will be endless possibilities for you.”

“I will talk to the prince and ask him to recommend you to anyone he thinks would be good,” Kestrel promised, and so they all agreed to make the journey to Seafare together.

The next morning, they stood in the courtyard of Ripken’s manor, ready to depart.  Raines and Orren were on horses, while Kestrel, Putty, and Hampus were on foot.  Aurelia, Ripken, Tewks, and Lucretia were gathered to see them off.

“Kestrel, you make life interesting.  It seems that more happens in one week with you than happens during the rest of the year!” Lucretia told him.  “I’ll forever be asking future boyfriends what they have planned to make a date interesting, and comparing them to you!” she laughed.

“We’ll miss you,” Aurelia told Kestrel.  “And I hope that when we have our exchange of ambassadors with the Eastern Forest, we’ll have the opportunity to see you visit us on more peaceful terms,” she told him.

“We’ll make a point to come to the Eastern Forest to visit someday, and see your home,” Ripken pledged.  “Though only Tewks is likely to cause the kinds of adventures you’ve shown us!” he made the boy grin.

And with that they were off, the yeti in the party drawing stares and screams, but no further attacks from the newly-informed patrols in the city, who let them pass unmolested.  They left the city and ran through the forested countryside throughout the day.

“Elves travel at this speed all the time?” Orren asked in astonishment.

“When we can,” Kestrel affirmed.  It felt good to run; the journey through the mountains had been over such difficult terrain that the only time they had run had been atop the rivers, in short stretches.

They slowed from time to time to let Putty catch her breath, as the yeti found the elves and the horses to be tough competition to keep up with, even though her appearance regularly cleared the road of oncoming traffic, creating a clear path for the travelers to follow.  They reached a village as night fell.

“You two get rooms at the inn for the night,” Kestrel told the two humans, “and order enough food to feed all of us, then bring it to the woods outside of town.  The three of us will meet you there and eat, then we’ll spend the night in the trees.”

The next day the group entered the city of North Harbor shortly after lunch, where they encountered the same attention and hostility they had faced in every other city that Putty had entered, and Kestrel again raised his blue dome to protect them from attack.

“Something has to change!” Kestrel said in exasperation.  They stood in the afternoon sunlight, in a street on the outskirts of the city, the crowd around them loud as it expressed its fear and outrage at the sight of the yeti walking through the city.

“Kestrel, you were scared when you saw a yeti in the wilderness, and you knew how to fight one,” Hampus reminded him.  “You can understand what these people feel when they see one in front of their homes.”

“Then we won’t let them see one,” Kestrel replied irritably.  He looked at the dome, focusing his attention on it, then waved his hand over his head as he altered the energy he used for the dome, and it changed from a transparent blue configuration to a translucent blue one – allowing light but not images to pass through.  The crowd beyond it was momentarily silent, then gave a collective gasp, then began to shout all the more loudly.

“Putty,” Kestrel said reflectively, “what are we going to do?”

“Should you return her to the wilderness?” Hampus asked.

“She’s not old enough,” Kestrel answered defensively, though that was not his main concern.  He found that he was simply too fond of the creature to be parted from her.  “I just wish those people could see her for what she is, a young girl who needs to grow up before she goes out on her own.”

“Can’t you just make her into a girl?” Raines asked.  “We heard about how you made those patrol men into statues; can’t you do something like that for her?”

“How could I possibly?” Kestrel let his question of protest hang unfinished, as he felt Raines’s suggestion resonate within him.

He had made the patrol into statues, but hadn’t really understood what he was doing at the time.  Then Kere had shown him the means of applying his energy in a way that had made it possible to reverse the change, and he had comprehended the principle of aligning his energy and his focus and the matter he was addressing in a way that produced the desired change.

And he thought of Lake, the prince
of the southern elves, the Tyndall Span, who had possessed the ability to change his own appearance.  It was possible to do, and he thought he might know how.

“It might work,” he said out loud.

“Really?” Hampus asked in astonishment.

“Do you have something she can wear?” he asked Raines.  “Any clothes?”

“Nothing that will fit a girl that big,” Raines replied immediately, “as I would think you could tell by looking at me,” she added in a tone of reprimand.

“She won’t be that large,” Kestrel said absentmindedly, focusing all of his attention on the yeti.

He heard Raines begin to look in the small pack of belongings she carried, as he walked over to Putty and put his hands on either side of her face, making the two of them focus on one another.

“Putty, I’m going to change the way you look,” he said.  “I think you look lovely just the way you are, but the other elves and humans out there,” he motioned around them with one hand, “they are scared because they don’t know what a sweet girl you are.  It’s causing us problems, you know, like all those arrows they shoot at you,” he explained to his companion.  He wasn’t sure how much she understood his words, but wanted to tell her as much as he could.

“You will feel the change, and it may not be pleasant for a few moments,” Kestrel warned her.  “But you’ll still be the same sweet girl.  You’ll still be my friend, and I’ll be able to go more places with you by my side,” he assured her.

“Will you trust me to do this?” he asked.

“Rress,” Putienne spoke with the clearest articulation Kestrel had heard her utter.

He smiled, and patted her cheek.

“Hold my hands,” he told her, as the others within the dome looked on in fascination.

Kestrel removed his hands from Putty’s cheeks, and lowered them, as the yeti placed her paws atop them.  Kestrel looked up into her eyes, a dark brown color that he had never noticed before, and he wondered what her expectations were for her new appearance.  Her age, her coloring, her hair, her build – all the features that would define her, the looks by which most folks would judge her: they were all going to be decided in the next few moments.

He closed his eyes, and focused on the touch of her fingers against his, noting how soft the warm flesh felt.  It was a perfect metaphor for the yeti, he thought; while the back of her hand was hairy and rough to the appearance, the palm was so much gentler and suppler.

Kestrel looked inside himself, into the place where he remembered his powers were located, and he began to pluck out the strands he would use to effectuate the change in Putienne’s appearance.  The power began to rise, to emerge from its resting place, and as it arrived into his control, he began to manipulate it, to interweave the strands so that they interacted with each other, and began to develop new potential prospective outcomes, and then he let the energy flow through his hands into Putty’s.

The task was both easy and difficult.  The difficulty lay in the fact that he already was using his power to maintain the protective shield around them; using his energy in both endeavors was complex and wearing.  But using the energy for Putienne’s alteration was a relatively simple job, as his preparation of the energy beforehand, treating it as Kere had shown him, so that it would alter the flesh before him, was relatively simple.

He heard a gasp from Raines, but still he kept his eyes closed, letting the energy and Putty and himself subtly interact with one another.  Her hands against his began to change, growing more slender, and even softer, though they trembled in reaction to the transformation that was overtaking her.  The angle of her arms lowered, as she shrank in height, and Kestrel heard Orren mutter something in a soft and respectful tone.

The energy began to resist flowing out of his hands, and the resistance rapidly increased, telling him that there was no further need for it.  Kestrel cut off the flow, gently tapping the well within himself to cease the use, as he realized that Putienne’s transformation was complete.

“Oh Kestrel, she’s beautiful!” Raines said.

“She is exquisite,” Hampus murmured.  “The best of both races.”

Kestrel was afraid to open his eyes.  The feeling of using his power to alter Putty’s appearance had been tranquil and wonderful; without even knowing what the power had done, he had felt fulfillment and satisfaction.  But Hampus’s comments about both races was puzzling, something he hadn’t expected.

He opened his eyes and stared ahead, his hands still holding Putty’s, and his feet moving to take a step back, to put them at arm’s length so that he could view the new exterior that Putty now resided in.

“Oh my,” he said instantly, his eyes studying the flawless face across from him, then roving down and up.  He stared at Putty’s new face once again, his eyes large as he recognized the young face across from him.  Kestrel saw the perfect features, and then he honed in on the bright brown eyes – the yeti-colored eyes that had not changed color, not altered to mimic the original beauty now recreated as a younger version of the most beautiful woman Kestrel had ever known.