The Ritual (42 page)

“I’d have thought she would just make them illegal,” Mior remarked.

I shook my head. “They’d just spring up underground, because there’ll always be whores. Elves don’t just love humans, the humans love ‘em right back. They think they’re handsome or something. I once overheard this woman talk, and she’d have given her right arm to fuck an elf.”

“So there will still be half-elves then,” Shani said.

“Unless she’s planning some other way to eradicate us,” Zash said morosely, and we turned away, lost in thought.

We spent only a few days in Fennar, then turned south as the hot days of summer began to fade into autumn. It took us four days to get from Fennar to Kovis, and when we got there the notice boards were covered to the point of overlapping, all with fresh messages from Queen Timaniel. We read them with growing astonishment; she had dismissed old advisors and appointed new ones, had implemented new laws and abandoned many existing ones. We had little knowledge of legalities, but the communal opinion on the street was that she was trying to balance out power, taking some away from the elves and giving more to the humans. It baffled everyone as much as it did us, but the humans did not seem inclined to complain, and we never heard the opinion of the elves.

The notice that caught our attention the most, however, was the one announcing that all men would be held responsible for the upbringing and education of all their children, legitimate or no, and that no man could refuse to acknowledge a child if two trusted witnesses and the child’s mother said it was his.

“
All
children?” Zash wondered. “Even if they’re half-elves?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t say so, but it doesn’t specifically exclude them either,” I said. We looked at each other, then shrugged in unison. It was a puzzle, and it kept us thinking for a long time.

Kovis was a pleasant town, but again we lingered only a few days before moving further south. We spent three weeks on the road in miserable rain and biting wind as autumn hit in full force, and the bath I had when we reached Innamar was the best one I’d had in living memory, aided in no small part by Zash joining me in it.

Afterwards we went to our room, warm, clean and feeling lazy. We were wearing the barest minimum of clothes – me in a tunic and Zash in just his trousers – and we lay down on the bed where Zash nuzzled my neck and I began to draw trails through his chest hair with great concentration. It was a perfect moment, rudely interrupted when Mior burst through the door without warning, closely followed by Shani.

“Hey, a knock is generally considered polite, you know,” Zash reproached them mildly.

Mior shook his head, plunged down on the bed next to us and shoved a piece of paper under our noses. Zash accepted it, and as we both began to decipher it Shani settled next to Mior, and he hugged her close to him. They looked shaken and confused, and apprehension took hold of me as I read the notice:

Citizens of Arlennis,

During his reign as king of this country, my father committed many acts which I consider distasteful and not fit for a monarch, whose task it is to look after their citizens. One such act was to outlaw and victimise the people known as half-elves, whose only crime has been to be born to mixed parents.

I have made many changes to Arlennis and its laws in the past months, since it is my sincere intention to work for the betterment of my country and all its people. These people include half-elves, and therefore from this day forward, half-elves will be considered full citizens, with the same rights and responsibilities as elves and humans. All half-elf slaves are free with immediate effect. Any person or family in possession of half-elf slaves have the choice to either let them leave, or to offer them full employment terms and a fair wage for the work they are doing already. My Royal Guards will travel throughout Arlennis to enforce this, and any people found breaking this new law will find my retribution to be swift and without mercy.

The transition will no doubt be difficult, but I am sending representatives to all magistrate towns and cities in Arlennis to deal with any issues that may arise. These representatives will aid elves, half-elves and humans alike.

I trust you will all rejoice as much as I do in the redressing of this gross imbalance in our society, and will offer your fellow citizens as much help and support as you are capable of doing.

Timaniel Mo’hanna

By the Grace of the Gods Queen of Arlennis.

I was still reading it when Zash let his hand drop, too stunned to say anything, and I snatched the paper away from him to finish it. When I had, I fully understood why Shani and Mior looked shaken, because I didn’t feel too steady myself.

“Full citizens,” Zash finally managed to say, his hand creeping around my waist.

“No more raids to avoid,” Shani said, her voice shaking a little.

“No more staying at rogue taverns,” Mior added. “We can stay in the ordinary ones now if we want.”

“No need to dress down,” Shani said, looking at him. “I could wear jewellery.”

“We could buy a house, if we had the money,” I said, looking at Zash.

His eyes widened and he shifted uneasily. “We’d have to save up for it.”

“We could get a job,” I said, and then as it occurred to me I added, “we could get married.”

The look he gave me at that was almost panicked, though he didn’t loosen his grip on me, and I suddenly felt a laugh bubble up inside me. I kept it in with difficulty and moved to sit inside the circle of his legs.

“We could get married first, then apprentice ourselves somewhere,” I suggested, running my fingers through his hair. “We’ll pay our taxes, and when we’ve saved up enough money we’ll buy a nice little house. It should only take a few decades or so.”

He closed his eyes and swallowed, and from the corner of my eye I saw Mior’s incredulous look. I winked at him, and he dissolved into a coughing fit which he tried to smother on Shani’s shoulder. Zash, meanwhile, took a deep breath and opened his eyes again, his face resigned. “Is that what you want?” he asked quietly.

“It’s a possibility,” I conceded. “It depends, really. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

He peered at me, finally noticing how I was fighting to keep my face straight. “I don’t know,” he said warily. “What are you thinking?”

“Fuck that for a bag of testicles,” I said, and burst out laughing when I saw his expression.

“You horrible little bitch!” he finally said as a grin curled around his mouth. “You had me believe it for a moment! You honestly had me think that you wanted to settle down!”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him long and tenderly. “Settle down? And kill you? I love you, remember?” I murmured. “You need danger like other people need food, Zash. You’re a born thief. If I took that away from you, you wouldn’t be you anymore.”

It was worth it just for the look of sheer love in his eyes. “And you’ll stay with me? You don’t mind? The same laws, she said, so we’ll still be outlaws.”

“But by choice rather than by birth,” I said. “Zash, I’ll be with you, and that’s all that’s important to me. We’re good at what we do, so it won’t be a life of hardship.”

He hugged me tightly, then turned to look at his brother. “And you two? What will you do?” he asked, worry in his voice again.

Mior shared a look with Shani, then they both grinned at him and Mior said, “We’ve always followed you two. Why should that suddenly change?”

“I don’t know,” Zash said, clearly choked up. “You’re sorcerers, you could earn a fortune anywhere.”

“Well, as Rin so eloquently put it, fuck that for a bag of testicles,” Mior snorted. “You can’t get rid of us that easily. Besides, you’re my twin. I’ve never been away from you, and I don’t intend to change that.”

Zash held out his arm, and Mior clasped his wrist with a grin. Then Zash yanked him forward and he was hugging us both, almost smothering me between their bodies. I nearly choked when Shani also piled on top of us, but for a few heartbeats we just hugged each other, our family complete and unchanged.

“Thank you,” Zash murmured to me when our siblings had left again. “I owe you for this. I’ll take you anywhere you want to go, will do anything you want me to.”

I kissed him deeply, then smiled at him. “You owe me nothing, Black Eyes. Do you know why?”

He shook his head, his eyes still full of wonder. “No, I don’t.”

“Because you considered it. Because for me, you would have tried to settle down.”

He gave me a nod and a slow smile. “Yes, for you I would have tried.”

“And that’s why I’ll never ask you to. But I’ll take you up on your offer. There is at least one place I want to visit, and some ideas I want to try out.”

“Really? Well, I’ll be glad to hear about it,” he said, caressing my face. “Anything, anywhere, my Little Firelocks. Always.”

“Always,” I echoed, and knew it was the truth, and that no one could take it away from us.

EPILOGUE

“Gods, I hate the night shift,” Belder said to his fellow guard, taking up position beside the door to the pillow room. “Nothing ever happens, hardly anyone ever comes here at this time. At least on the inside you’ve got something to look at. Wouldn’t you agree? What’s your name anyway? Are you new? I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”

“Call me Shosher. And I wouldn’t know, really. This is the first time I’ve been put on watch, and I’ve not been inside this room yet. What’s in it?”

“Oh, you’re a novice,” Belder said disdainfully. “Glad
I’m
not one anymore. Just you wait until you make it to full vows, my friend. This room is better than the right side of Eternity.”

“Is it? How so?”

Belder sniggered. “Women, my friend. The pillow room is full of women. Half-elves, the lot of them, pretty as anything and all of them here for one thing only: so we can fuck ‘em.”

“Truly? And they’re here voluntarily? Half-elves are free now, aren’t they?”

“Allegedly,” Belder said with a guffaw. “Except no one’s told them, so how would they know? Timaniel tried her tricks here, sent her guards over, but we chased them off. Bloody woman should keep her nose out of our business. What’s a woman doing on the throne, I ask you? Like they’re fit to make decisions. You need a man for that kind of stuff. A man wouldn’t have given up either, like she has, but we’ve got savvy anyway ever since those bastard thieves tried to cut us off last year. We won’t be surprised so easily anymore.”

“I’ve only been here a few days. What happened last year?”

Belder grimaced. “Shit, I’m not supposed to talk about that, should have kept my gob shut. You’ll probably be told when you take full vows, so just work towards those. Then you can go in here too – the women are an absolute Gods-given. There’s this pretty little brunette, tight as anything, and then there’s a blonde with tits like melons… I fucked her between those tits once, came all over her face. Gods, it was glorious.” He rubbed his crotch, then cocked his head. “Hey, you couldn’t keep guard on your own for a little bit, could you? I’ve got hard just thinking of her, and she’s right inside.”

“No, I don’t think so,” came the quiet answer, and Belder blanched at the sound of a blade being drawn, taking a step back.

“Hey, what’s going–” he began, then froze when he felt steel against his throat.

“Hello, Belder,” I said in his ear. “Remember me?”

He whimpered, and I smiled as he stretched out a hand. “Shosher, help,” he squeaked.

“No, I don’t think so, and my name is not Shosher,” Mior said as he let the glamour drop from his face and moved closer. Zash stepped out of the shadows and joined him, and Belder whimpered louder. I wrinkled my nose as I smelled something, and saw from the spreading puddle on the carpet that he had pissed his pants.

“You know, I’ve always loathed people like you,” I said. “Little bullies, full of big talk but shitting themselves the moment things go against them even a tiny bit. Well, guess what? Today is not your lucky day, because first of all you’re going to open this door for us, and then you are going to help us free every single one of the women inside. We’ll give them the option to stay, like Timaniel wants, but somehow I doubt that there will be many taking us up on that offer.”

“All clear,” Shani said as she came around the corner, her arms full of monk’s robes. “There’s no one between here and the exit now. Well, no one awake anyway,” she added with a grin.

“Good, let’s get started then,” Zash said.

“You’ll never get away with this,” Belder whispered, and I pressed the dagger against his skin a bit more firmly.

“You’re thinking that your fellow monks will come to help you, I suppose,” I said. “Except we’ve locked and warded them all inside the dormitories. Oh, I know you have sorcerers in there, but I doubt there’s many thieves among your ranks. Even if there were, we’ve broken those locks beyond repair, and left a few surprises besides. So don’t expect anything from them. Now, where are the keys?”

“I’ll… I’ll get them,” he stammered, but I tickled him again with my dagger.

“Uh-uh, hands where I can see them. Zash?”

Zash walked up and began to search the pockets of Belder’s robe, and I smiled at him when he glanced at me. “Hey, Belder, meet my… What did you call him again? Ah, yes, meet my bastard whoreson lover. He’s been dying to meet
you.
”

Zash drew a bunch of keys out of a pocket and raised his eyes, and Belder began to yammer when he saw the look on his face. “No, no, no!” he wailed. “I never did nothing to her!”

“Shut. The fuck. Up,” I hissed in his ear. “Not one more fucking word and we might just let you live.”

“Hey, that was my choice, you promised,” Zash said.

I grinned at him again. “Of course, sorry. He’s all yours, Black Eyes.”

“Thanks. H
old him still for a moment.” I clamped Belder’s head back against my shoulder, but he began to struggle, and even with the dagger at his throat I was beginning to have difficulty. Mior quickly stepped forward and grabbed his arms from behind, and between us we kept him steady as Zash brought his face to less than an inch away from Belder’s. “You touched her,” he said menacingly. “You touched her and you threatened to rape her. If you had, I’d cut off your cock and make you eat it. I might yet. Got anything to say for yourself?”

“No, no, no, no,” was all Belder managed to bring out, and Zash reached out at around crotch height.

“Not so hard now, are you?” he said, and twisted. Belder’s eyes rolled up and his mouth opened in silent agony, then he went limp and slid bonelessly to the floor when Mior and I let go.

“Ew,” Zash said, pulling a face. “You could have warned me he’d pissed himself.” He bent over and wiped his fingers on Belder’s robe, then stepped over him and unlocked the door. “Do we kill him now?”

“I don’t know, I rather wanted him to be awake for that,” I said.

“Fine, we can wait for him to wake up.” He pressed his ear against the door, listening before opening it, and a thought occurred to me.

“How about we leave him with the new abbot, and let the ladies inside decide what to do with them?” I suggested. We had left abbot Tialev like we had left Siander so long ago – tied hand and foot and hanging upside down out of a window above the deep ravine.

Zash smiled and stepped back over Belder to take me into his arms. “I adore your devious mind, my Little Firelocks,” he said, and kissed me deeply. “He’ll have a harder time with them than he would have with you.”

“Which is exactly why I’m leaving him to them,” I replied.

He ran an affectionate hand through my hair. “Adorable,” he murmured. “Come, we have work to do.”