A Girl and Her Monster (Rune Breaker) (19 page)

“Oh.” She said quietly. “I lost myself for a moment there. I've never actually had a...” The words died in her throat as she struggled to keep herself from rambling. The woman in front of her was the leader of an entire people. She didn't need to hear about her lonely past.

Clearing her throat, she started again. “That is to say, yes, Grandmother. I would love to become part of the clan, and to become Raiteria's sister. I... I don't know how to thank you.”

Grandmother smiled, the first completely open smile she'd seen from the elder halfling, and put her hand on Taylin's forehead. It took all of the former slave's self-control not to flinch away. Unless it was to receive combat healing, she hated to be touched. “I welcome you home then, child. But don't thank me yet; we can't spare anyone tonight to prepare you a wagon. And there are still so many that need healing... it will be days before I can return your wings.”

Taylin was dumbstruck. She'd actually forgotten about that particular promise in the moment. It was just so unbelievable that...

You are rambling in your head again, Miss Taylin.
Ru intruded.

Oh.

“Oh! You don't have to worry about that, Grandmother. I could wait a year... or a dozen if I need to.” A flat out, bald faced lie, but no one could begrudge her that. “I just... thank you. How can I start helping the clan?”

Grandmother's eyes twinkled with amusement. It was like looking at an entirely different person now that she was speaking with family. “Tonight? Rest. If you cannot bear to stay in bed, seek out and speak with your new family. The Hunters will be at rest once the grim work out there is done and you will at least find time with your brother-by-marriage.”

“Keese Kaiel, how is your injury?” The small moment between her and Taylin was over and instantly, Grandmother was back to business.

“I only ache now, Grandmother.” Said the chronicler. “And most of that is from overextending myself drawing on the Well that last time to heal Meysur.”

“Then you are at your limit for spell work for the day.” She reasoned.

He hung his head. He was far ahead in his studies, but behind in building up his skill capacity in channeling energy from the power source loremen tapped to work their magic. Someone as far along the path of the loreman as he should have been able to call on at least a third more than he had. “That is true.”

“As am I.” the
nir-lumos
matriarch said with a hint of comfort in her voice. “But we all have other things we can do. I wish to have you speak with the captured bandits. The dealings of the King of Flame and Steel concern me. We must know if there were others involved and how many of their number worship the Threefold Moon. Find those among the prisoners and put them to the sword. The rest will be relieved of their weapons and released.”

Kaiel bowed his head. “It will be done, Grandmother.”

“Heh. Putting someone to the sword has the sound of being my area of expertise.” Ru smirked and transformed one arm into a blade of what looked like acid pitted, black metal.

“I believe not.” Grandmother said firmly. “Are you aware, Ru Brakar, that at this moment, you are the only one present who is not family?”

Ru didn't see why he should care and gave a non-committal huff in reply.

“Although you did well in battle, and will for true be compensated, you are also not paying passage with us.” Her hard eyes met his and it was like two swords locking. “However, Keese Kaiel tells me that neither of you has a coin between you. I am prepared to let you work for your debt.” Ru stared to protest, but she interrupted, “Spellwork.”

That got his attention. The tension in his shoulders at some imagined indignation released.

Grandmother nodded as if agreeing with the shift in body language. “Are you at your limit for the day?”

“I rarely am.” He bragged. Taylin felt as if she'd choke on the cloying pride she was feeling from him.

“So I surmised.” said Grandmother. “Then let us see if we can
find
that limit. I've already seen you heal Taylin in battle. My healers have all taxed themselves as I have. Bring your healing to those still in danger, those who still hurt, and I will consider it as good as coin.”

“A bit trivial for my talents.”

“There are lives that may depend on it. There is no such thing as trivial in such cases.”

“From your perspective.” He pointed out, earning him a hard look that seemed to cow him at least in a small way. “But practice in the art is practice, I suppose. I will seek out your healers.” Without another word, he was gone, floating off in search of said healers.

Grandmother frowned at Taylin. “You've chosen a very cold creature to travel with, child.”

“It wasn't a choice that either of us made.” She replied before bowing her head and leaving with Kaiel.

Taylin's tone was unreadable there, even to herself. She didn't know what to think of the Rune Breaker. There was still considerable guilt at enslaving him, even if the fault wasn't her own. And in truth, he scared her, link mandate against harming her or no.

Even
he
called himself a monster, insisted that she not consider him a person. And yet, there was definitely a person there. A spiteful person who delighted in spilling blood, but also a person who was passionate about spellwork, who had a sense of humor, dark though it was, and who suffered pain just like anyone else.

And for now, she wasn't going to be rid of him. A dark specter hanging on the edges of her new and bright life.

But maybe it didn't have to be that way. It occurred to her that Ru didn't have a family either, that he had been a slave not for a few decades like her, but for thousands of years. As much of a toll as it took on her spirit, it defied imagination what it might have done to him. There wouldn't just be a lack of hope, but a vast and hungry void where hope's memory used to be.

It would explain how the lives and feelings of every other living thing could become trivial to him.

As long as the link existed, it was a testament that he would never be free. There was nothing she could do about that. What she could do though was exactly what she'd said only conversationally before: be his friend. She glanced beside her and found Kaiel deep in his own thoughts.

“Kaiel...” He flicked his eyes in her direction.

“I'm concerned about Ru...”

“The way you say that tells me that you're not concerned in the same way I'm concerned.”

“...How are you concerned?”

Kaiel shrugged. “The man's obsessed with death and destruction. Nihilism isn't exactly a quality you want in a powerful wizard.”

She bit her lip. He had a point and it wasn't in her favor. How much could she tell him? How much could he already guess?

“I... have a theory.” She ventured, sounding unfamiliar with the jargon she'd picked up here and there guarding some of the more philosophical or scientifically minded masters. Kaiel raised an eyebrow, intrigued. “Well... some wizards they say can extend their lives quite a bit, yes?”

“Not many are alive today, as they tended to keep such knowledge hidden a secret, but I've heard of lifespans in the hundreds of years, yes.”

Taylin nodded. “Right. And we aren't from this time. Ru could be part of that generation, and he's a shapeshifter on top of that, so it's impossible to tell his age.” She waited for him to nod again. “And you know of the connection we share; how he is bound to be loyal to me.” Another nod. “But I am not the first to hold my end of this link. He's been bound to it for... a very long time.”

Kaiel stopped walking and turned to face her fully. “You mean...”

She nodded.
“Think about it: What if you were forced to fight for other people's causes. Causes you don't believe in, and even if you did, you know for a fact that you'll live to see them become meaningless. Think of going through that for even a dozen years, let alone a hundred or more. It would break almost anyone. But what if it didn't? Maybe the fact that he's cruel and rude, and treats killing like a game is how he kept from breaking.”

The chronicler frowned and turned to start walking again. “Or it might be that he really is just cruel and rude and blood thirsty.”

“It could.” She conceded. “But what if I am right and what he needs is to be treated like a friend instead of a monster. Even if you're right, what are we really losing by doing this? It isn't as if I can sever the link anyway, and even if he really is the monster he says he is, might make him feel less like acting on it.”

Kaiel kept walking, but Taylin reached out and grabbed his shoulder, turning him around more roughly than she planned, but catching his eyes with her own. “Please help me on this.” She looked down at him with a silent plea in her emerald eyes. “As my brother?”

His eyebrow twitched. Coming from anyone else, it would have been transparently manipulative. Based on his time in Harpsfell, he knew that being transparent was often part of a larger manipulation. But Taylin wasn't one of them. She was just desperate and blindly hoping that part of her new-found status among the clan would earn her the help she sought.

“They haven't even made your badge yet and already you're making use of the ties that bind.” He chided lightly, causing her to lower her head. “But there is something to be said about showing you how family behaves and not just in the
nir-lumos
sense. Maybe it's best for me to teach by example.”

Taylin looked up from her tangle of red locks. “Does that mean...”

Kaiel nodded. “It's said that the Loreman Hammond of Hollis Valley went among the ogres and lived for a year. If he can befriend a tribe of murderous ogres, I suppose a hopeful for his title can make overtures of friendship toward one homicidal mage.”

A bright smile spread across her face and before either one knew what was happening, she grabbed him up into a hug, pulling him cleanly off the ground. “Thank you, Kaiel. I.. I'm not sure what I'd do if I didn't at least try...” Something in the back of her head that wasn't the link clicked and she realized what she was doing.

Almost as swiftly as she hugged him, she let go and retreated several steps, looking agog at what she'd done. That was the second time she'd done that in two days after a lifetime of... not. It was like a reflex, ingrained into her just as much as her difficulty forcing herself to sit down completely, or her battle stances. It had just been waiting for a trigger. But where had it come from?

The following three days were full of strange new experiences for Taylin.

Ru was absent for the remainder of the first day. When Grandmother said she intended to find his limit, she meant it. In addition to treating the wounded, she also had him working on raising an earthwork wall to help defend the town when the clan eventually rolled out.

He returned to the wagon, leading a string of horses which were part of his and Taylin's combined spoils of war. The other part: mostly clothes, armor and weapons, were heaped upon the back of the great, black warhorse. And even with that windfall, Ru complained bitterly at how Grandmother refused to allow him to keep the surviving spider, citing how its presence in the caravan would frighten the ponies. That she compensated him out of her own coffers didn't seem to mitigate his temper.

Raiteria appeared at the wagon the next morning. Grandmother had relieved her of her scout duties for the day so that the two new sisters could get to know one another. She was young enough to have the eternally youthful quality most people thought all halflings had, but up close, Taylin could see the telltale signs of years of healed scars. And unlike the other clan members, she kept her straight, black hair cut extremely short to keep it from snagging in brush or falling into her face while aiming.

Unlike her husband, who only knew conversational imperial (a derivation of what Taylin knew as the tongue of the hailene's enemy, which, in the intervening years had become the dominant language), Raiteria was fluent. While all
nir-lumos
, being merchants by trade, knew a usable amount of imperial, scouts were virtual polyglots so as to act as spies.

After breaking the fast, Raiteria helped Taylin choose clothes and armor she had no use for and took her to barter with a hunter who also received a windfall in the previous day's battle. The difference was, that the hunter, a woman named Meerli, made most of her kills among the bandit elite, who as it turned out, were mostly half elves, or at least elf-blooded humans. That meant that they were in general taller than their fellows.

While none were as tall as Taylin, the men's clothing fit her in a way that wasn't indecent, and Raiteria bartered with a tinker to modify one of the women's chain shirts into a leather fronted chain vest to be worn over a hide shirt, which she also commissioned.

Once arrangements were made, she took Taylin out beyond the new walls to a small grove of trees and bushes that hadn't been there the previous day.

They were grown by Grandmother's magic, Raiteria explained, as funeral markers. Fruiting trees were for the fallen clan members, thorny bushes for the lost wolves. By Sylph's providence, the halflings would be able to provide for their family in the future whenever they passed this way again, and the wolves, even in death, protected them.

Standing with Taylin in that solemn place, her sister taught her the prayer for the dead of their people. Together, they asked Sylph to keep the trees green and the One Dice, Pandemos, to safeguard them in the afterlife as he does their living family.

That night, she and Kaiel ate with Raiteria, Bromun and their children. The two halflings regaled the honorary members of their clan with fond stories of the departed, mostly the hunters, whom Bromun knew well.

Ru didn't materialize for the meal, though the link told Taylin that he spent most of that time prowling the perimeter of the new wall. His deep concentration also let her know that he was taking the construction very seriously, even though he had been cowed into creating it.

The following morning found Raiteria dispatched with the other scouts to mark out the best route for the caravan when it got moving again. Taylin spent it with Bromun and the hunters. The salt stocks were topped up with meat after the battle, and their job of gathering bandit corpses and burning them out on the flood plain was done, so they spent the day fishing instead.