A few days after Finchley, Catalinna and the others had set off to Fornost, Xanderian, Calidis, Eduwiges and the enigmatic Daedre prepared to ride back for Tol Lochul.
As they prepared their mounts in the courtyard, Xan spoke quietly with Addie.
The elleth smiled at her bond sister. “Keep track of Unhooded Ryn despite her changeable nature. As for Elsa, I suspect that our newest friend is not done with confronting whatever it was that happened to her in Arnach. I know from experience that once Desad has his claws in a person, they are hard to shake. She will need your stable guidance.”
The blonde woman shook her head. “Xanderian, I am anything but stable…I may be the worst possible person to be of aid to her.”
Rian shook her head too and reached to set a hand on the other woman’s shoulder, but stopped herself just in time. “Nonsense, you are far more stable than you know and I depend on you for far more than you see. You, who have endured so much and see so clearly the encroaching shadows of your own mind, are the IDEAL person to comfort dear Elsa. As for Ryn….I cannot fully see the demon which harries her, but I know we will need confront it in time. learn as much as you can of it.”
Near the stairs back into the Pony, the man Leon of Baril sat, watching the crowds with a sardonic expression and smoking a long pipe of strange design. As he was distracted by a group of children playing nearby, his pipe went out. He glanced at the carved bowl of the pipe, shaped like the head of a lizard and snapped his fingers. The tobacco lit again with a soft “whoosh”. Addie looked at him ruefully and then back at the elleth. “Speaking of demons, can you not take mine back to Gondor with you. Supposedly this Leon came hunting Finch but has now hung himself about me like a lamprey. Can he not see I do not WISH to learn to control this curse of mine, and would rather it just faded away?”
“He sees it, my sweet sister, but he does not accept it…” Xanderian smiled at her again. “...and in truth, his lessons in what he calls The Arts of Cinder may serve you well, at least a little. One person’s curse is always another’s blessing, after all.
Addie was not comforted. “Well then I wish to leave this to that other person, if they think it such a blessing. But enough of that…travel safely, all of you. We will pursue our researches and should Nethrida send us word, we will aid them how ever much we are able. I hope we are all together again soon, around a table well stocked with dwarven cooking.” Her eye went wistful, remembering the pleasant days recently spent with their Dwarrow allies, when the most serious problem to confront was how long to bake the pastries.
And so, with waves and heart felt farewells, the small company set out towards Gondor once again.
The trip home took the companions longer then they were used to, riding slowly due to the fact that Daedre was still regaining her strength. She was not talkative during the journey, keeping to herself much of the time, as Eduwiges busied herself with camp duties, as if to avoid having to confront this woman who claimed to be her real mother directly as of yet. Yet whenever the woman fell into restless sleep, clearly haunted by nightmares, the tall warrior sat beside her, tending her in protective silence.
Finally they arrived at the House of Three Graces, and after greeting an overjoyed Nimlindir and visiting the two guardian trees, Tuile and Endian, the companions showed Dee around the manor house.
Daedre the Shadowslip, master thief formerly of the Blood Eye raised her eyebrows, admiring beautiful tapestries and artifacts, as well as maps and racks of weapons. Smiling to herself, she muttered. "Back in the day, with three men and three hours I could have had this place down to the wallpaper and no one would a been the wiser. Good times.'
Calidis tilted her head. "What... does that mean? Down to the wallpaper?"
Eduwiges looked at Cal and said sotto voce, 'Stealing everything to where only the wallpaper is left.' Then Edu chuckled, raising her voice. 'Those must have been exciting times.'
Dee picked up a small silver ornament from the table, admiring it with a professional eye before the watchful Calidis calmly took it out of her hand and replaced it on the table. Dee smirked and looked up at Edu. "Exciting? The early days, sure I guess, but excitement was a luxury we didn’t have a lot of time for. I was younger then you, when my mum died. Papa seemed to think I could take her place, in all ways if ya catch my drift, as soon as I cut my pigtails but I was too savvy for him. I was out of there so fast with a boot in his gut and a “fare thee well, ya bastard”. I hooked up with the others soon after.'
Eduwiges frowned at the thought.
Daedre shrugged. "The early days were heady times, yeah. We were living our own way, no rules, no responsibility, didn’t have to touch our cap or bow and scrape to nobody. For a bunch of street waifs and runaway farmboys, that meant all the world and that world was ripe for the taking, or so we figured.'
Eduwiges bit her lip, and pausing, spoke the question that had been tormenting her the entire journey, 'How could you put yourself into something so evil as the Cult of the Blood Eye, mother?' She stopped herself, realizing she had called Deirdre mother and blushed.
Dee smirked and ignored the larger woman’s blush…and the word Mother. "Evil is a mighty big word, girl. When we started we were all kids. We weren’t evil, we were surviving. We were a bunch of roustabouts...Me, Taro, Ord, Gater, Rolf… a few others....then we crossed paths with Sarick....and that was that. He taught us a thing or two, showed us the ropes…and suddenly we were thieves. We were a gang and before long a damn good one.'
The woman sighed, running a hand through her graying hair. “Hell, if we had been a little worse at what we did, Gondor wouldn’t have had to eventually pick it's knickers out of the crack and bring down all that heat and we wouldn’t have had to..well...be stupid.'
Calidis watched the woman closely, her dark eyes impassive, 'Would you say then that you regret it? Or do you only regret how it turned out?'
Dee looked back at Cal, making a small hand gesture common in the hinterland of Rohan against evil spirits. She was obviously a bit uncomfortable with elves and their spooky ways. "Regret it? What do ya mean by IT?'
Calidis thought for a moment. "Do you regret the life you chose to live? Or do you only regret where it led you in the end?"
Dee shrugged again. "My life was my life, regrets are for high born fools, too costly for my kind. I did the best I could. Yeah I was a cutpurse, but I can’t say I stole a copper from nobody who couldn’t afford it. Yeah I was quick with a dirk at times, but I never went for nobody that didn’t have a blade in their own hand, and knew what they were getting into. Where all that led....that was...well....a bigger mistake then I thought possible but we had no way to know that when we made it. Just like at the start, we just wanted to survive.'
Eduwiges’ eye went cold, 'Survive? Whatever deal you made to survive got father killed, and nearly us as well. But we took the bastard that did it. Didn't we Lethy?' Xanderian nodded softly to her in agreement.
Dee tilted her head..."Ya mean...Knockdoor?'
Eduwiges frowned and said quietly, 'Alfara, who you called Knockdoor…my father.' she crossed her arm over her breast in quiet yet defiant salute. 'I did not get my way and like a little girl I ran out on him. Had I stayed, things might have been different.' a tear rolled down her cheek.
Calidis looked to Edu with no small amount of sympathy but Dee just shook her head harshly. "Yeah, thing’s woulda been different, you'd be dead too. Now stop that boohooing. The Blood Eye don’t cry for our dead, we get even...and just cause you got the bastard that held the blade don’t mean shite. We learned that the hard way.”
Eduwiges got her muley look on her face, rising up to her full height. 'I’d be dead too? You misjudge this daughter of yours, It is not easy to slay her!'
Dee smirked, but her eye now darkened with something like sorrow. "So it was easy to slay Alfara, is that what you’re saying? Old Knockdoor was just a cupcake in the end?'
Calidis glanced over at Dee. She looked like she wanted to say one thing but instead said, "That is unkind."
Eduwiges stepped up to Dee, towering over the older woman. 'Be careful what you say next woman, we may be blood, but HE raised me after you gave me up. You have no say in that.' she slowly cracked her knuckles.
Dee laughed and held her hands up. "I am just saying if something killed Alfara Knockdoor, it would a killed you or most folks too...and even if you had been there he would have dodged you to go take care of business, left you there crackin’ your knuckles wondering where he was off to.'
Eduwiges visibly relaxed and turned away. She headed to the table of liquor bottles and pours herself a glass of something dark and tossed it back. She brushed away tears and locked eyes with Dee.
Daedre the Shadowslip looked back at her, eyes hard. “You don’t know why he died do ya, jumped by orcs all by his lonesome where no orcs should a been from what you said...you got no idea, nor do these two fairies...no offense meant.'
Calidis glanced at Xan, one brow raised. "Fairies?" Xan just smiled.
Eduwiges chuckled despite herself, 'Fairies. Well perhaps it is time for you to unravel the mystery for us. Why was he killed?'
Dee put one foot up on the map. "Well, I'll tell ya, girl...I got no fecking idea. Other than the fact that Angmar bastards are lying shitecakes.'
Eduwiges threw her hands up in the air out of frustration. 'Of course they are lying shitecakes, they are of Mordor. Did you ever think otherwise Daedre?'
Dee looked at Edu, her eyes suddenly flat and emotionless. "Everybody lies, girl....every...single...body. Never trust em, none of em. The Angmarim foxed us but good, but they just are the filth they were born to be. We should have cut and run, we should have gone underground and waited out the Doves....but liars is just what people are.'
Eduwiges frowned, 'Maybe in your world of chicanery, murder and theft, but out here we take care of each other like family. I trust these women with my life, as I do the rest of my comrades.'
Dee looked confused for a moment, before she realized “these women” meant Calidis and Xanderian...then just shrugged.
Calidis seemed to fidget with a small trinket between her fingers as she kept her silence once more, her other hand holding Xanderian’s. Clearly there were many thoughts going through her mind but she was not sure she should voice them.
Eduwiges sighed and looked to Xanderian, 'Lethy, where do we go from here?'
The elleth shrugged slightly, 'For now..we await word from Fornost'
Eduwiges sighed again. 'Always waiting…' She began to pace the room. 'So tell me about this Sarick, my real father. What is he like?'
Dee smirked with dark humor. "What is Sarick like...currently probably half rotted with a serious hunger for brains...'
Calidis cleared her throat, '... If it is alright with you, Eduwiges, though I am no healer, I should like to... personally see that Miss Daedre here recovers in full safety and security while staying here.' Calidis fixed Dee with that dark, black, and unreadable stare of hers.
Eduwiges looked over at Cal, 'She is as bloody cryptic as elves. I have lived with you so long you are no longer mysterious, but this?' she gestured at Dee, 'Is beyond my ken.' She looks back at Dee, 'Look here, you are no longer being hunted, you are safe and you may trust me to die for you, just as I would for them. Please tell me true, my heritage, my history, especially since it isn’t what I thought it was. You have uprooted my entire world. You owe me this.' She poured another brandy and sipped at it this time.
Dee glared defensively. "I owe you what I gave you girl...a chance not to be dead before ya could even walk. I never asked you to die for me...I don’t want ya to die for me. I am just the woman who happened to grow you until ya were born, ain’t nuthing special about it...dogs do it, wargs do it, same as us, and probably a lot better too. Your heritage ya say? Your grandmother was a Rohan mattress who finally settled on the last rider in the saddle when she got knocked up. He married her despite being a drunk and a poor excuse for a soldier cause married riders got easier duty. Eventually she died under him like a poorly bred horse, intentional or no, then decided to start on me so I left...'
Dee took a breath, calming herself as she realised how loud and emotional her voice had become 'I got no idea who Sarick's parents were. He never mentioned, I never asked. He was a glib bastard with a gold coin where his heart shoulda been but he was handsome and generous and cut quite a figure especially when he….”
Calidis cut her off abruptly, '... Correction. I'm afraid you DO owe her, seeing as she and all of us saved your life. If you will not be her mother then perhaps try to be forthright and more generous with what you do know, whether it be the answers to Eduwiges' questions of her heritage or the answers to what you know of the Cult of the Blood Eye... Thank you.'
Dee glanced at Cal then looked down. "Yeah...that's true enough...I do owe ya for that...and maybe somethin else...'
Eduwiges moved forward once Daedre has stopped speaking, her eyes flashing with anger. 'You were right about what you said before, what you did was nothing special. What my mother did, my father, they made me what I am today. I am no knockabout wastrel taking from others like carrion in a field the way you are, my heart is not “a coin” like whoever it was got you with me in some flea ridden cot in a bar. I am Eduwiges of Faldham, Shield Mistress of Rohan, Rider of the Elfgard, Guardian of Lorien and Imladris and Defender of Dol Amroth. I am the Lynx of Tol Lochul! That is the cub you sired but they made! I have been forged in the fires of a goblin sword, of the deathless that stalk us like prey, I have the love of my Lethy and Calidis. I would share that with you if you would have it, if not then Bema take you!' she drained her glass, smashing it against the flagstones and stared defiantly at Dee.
Xanderian seemed to glow with pride as Eduwiges spoke, one hand covering her mouth gently as if to keep from crying.
Dee was suddenly speechless. She just stared at Edu, her normal smirk wiped away. Finally, she looked down. "Yeah, I guess you are all of that...so I did alright by ya in the end...a lot better then my Ma did by me...I....I am glad Ro and Knockdoor raised ya. They did a good job I guess, better then Sarick and me ever could. I...I know I should go. But the thing is....I still need your help.'
Eduwiges nodded firmly, 'Be straight then, cease this crookedness and tell us true.'
Calidis nodded as if she had been expecting the older woman to make such a request "... Understand then, that any help we give to you is not given lightly. Betrayal is something we do not condone. We have too much at stake. You said that everyone lies. Here there can be only truth."
Dee shrugged again, now careful to avoid Edu's eyes. "I don't know too much of the truth...I know that when Sarick went to beg Angmar to take it's foot off our neck, they…they mocked him. They turned him into one a those gaunt men...or something like one.'
Eduwiges went pale, 'You mean like the one we saw in the spider's lair or one of the wraiths?'
Calidis tilted her head, 'Or a wight...'
Dee sighed, feeling helpless and now suddenly out of her depth here after Edu’s out burst. She knew nothing of such dark creatures, for her the world had always been the next meal, or the next job. 'I....I don’t know....I don’t know nothing about this…maybe your friends do...I just know....I can’t leave him like that. I can't get to Angmar all by my lonesome' She glanced at the wrapped arrow on the table which they had brought back from the Donjon. "We gotta find Sarick, and bring him back'
Eduwiges turned to look at Calidis and Xanderian, 'Can such a thing be unmade or is true death the only freedom for him?'
Xan thought carefully, 'We saw what this enchanted arrow could do....it seems it is intended to return such creatures to as they had been in life…however finding him, and no doubt using this effectively, will not be an easy or a painless task.'
Eduwiges grimaced, 'Sarick is my blood it seems, honor dictates I do something to save him or end his suffering. How do you want to do this Lethy? Cal?' She looked at Dee with pity in her eyes, for all her brusqueness and hard shell she could tell Dee still loved the man.
Calidis looked at Dee, '... You said Sarick had a... gold coin for a heart. Why then do you wish to save him if it will be so arduous? Sentiment? Honor? Duty?... Or something else?'
Dee looked uncomfortable..."It's stupid, and damn unprofessional....when we were kids...we promised that we would....well...always come to the rescue. He saved my ass enough times...figured I better do it at least once'
Eduwiges stifled a grin and Calidis’ black gaze softened a little though it was clear she would still be keeping her eyes on the woman.
Dee noted the soft glances and bristled. "Don’t get me wrong...he was a bastard and led me a merry chase. I had to drag him out of more strumpets beds..and more strumpets..then I could count. He was a lying, thieving dog who would sell his own grandmother for a warm ale and a plate of cold beans. But..I was a kid...at 17 he was everything a street girl dreamed of...handsome, virile, generous to a fault, didn’t dive two damns about anything…and he had the best lines I ever heard...and everything else in a skirt wanted him. So I spent the one coin I had, made him my first and got him good. He would wander, but he always came back to me.'
Eduwiges thought about some lines she had used in bars and wondered if it ran in the family.
Xan nodded, unrolling a map across the table, 'Our steps will soon return to Angmar at any rate, assuming our compatriots are successful...but where in Angmar is Sarick, or what is left of him, that is the question. If you are correct that he was made into a gaunt man....then he is somewhere in Imlad Balchorth'” Xan put a marker in one especially grim looking part of the map.
Eduwiges shivered, 'Angmar is filthy place.'
Dee peered at the map. "You all would know better than I would...only other thing I learned were two words..or one, I ca’;t tell...Dor Gul'
Calidis furrowed her brows and looked to Xan. "Dor Gul?"
Xanderian nodded thoughtfully. "It is an ancient library deep in the city of the dead. Once a placed of learning, now crawling with horrors. If will not be easy to reach.
Eduwiges raised her hands in frustration, 'It is always the dead with us, why can it not be dourhands or good old fashioned orcs?'
Xanderian nearly laughed, 'Be careful what you wish for, my lynx'
Calidis smiled just a tiny bit. "Give it time, Eduwiges….give it time"
Xanderian moved the marker to a small point deep in Imlad Balchorth, high in the brutal cliffs, 'So another task to consider then...'
Dee had recovered her bravado, smirking again. "Well, if you do save his ass, you will be quite a surprise to him girl. I didn't know I was knocked up until well after he had left for Angmar...in fact, you wouldn't be here at all if I hadn’t gotten reckless. I took no care at all...just threw on a bit of Gondor silk and whispering "Don’t go...let me show you what you will be missing" in his ear. Not that it did no good…he just left with a smile on his face…”
Eduwiges sighed, “Well, you were quite a surprise for me too... and Dee, I’d rather face the dead than hear those details if it is all the same to you.'
Dee shrugged and glanced at the two elves. "Yeah..it appears your tastes run...elsewhere.'
Eduwiges just laughed and refilled her brandy.
