Griffin's Daughter (45 page)

When the doctor at last departed, she left behind three vials of medicines and instructions on their use. Kami was to be kept warm and the room quiet and dim. Gendan left briefly to shed his armor, and Aneko went to fetch them all some dinner. For a while, Jelena sat alone with Kami, who looked so small and vulnerable beneath the blankets. Kami might be small, but her size misled many. Jelena had seen her friend’s skill at arms, had witnessed first-hand the strength of her sword arm.

Kami is a fighter. She’ll survive.

“
You have to live, Kami!” Jelena whispered fiercely.

I need your friendship!

Kami sighed, and her eyelids fluttered. “Gendan,” she murmured. “Sweetheart, where are you?”

“
Gendan will return soon, Kami,” Jelena replied softly.

“
Jelena…You’re here.” Kami smiled weakly. “I’m so glad.” Abruptly, her face crumpled. “I’m scared!” she sobbed. “My baby…”

“
Do not worry, Kami. All will be well.” Jelena made no effort to hide the tears streaming down her cheeks.

When Gendan returned, he found Jelena huddled beside Kami on the narrow bed, holding her friend in her arms.

~~~

For three exhausting days and nights, Jelena remained by Kami’s side, leaving only to tend to the most basic needs of her own body. She slept very little and ate and drank sparingly, ignoring the aches in her own barely healed arm and side.

Kami alternately burned with fever and shivered with chills as the illness raged through her body.  Jelena could do little to ease her friend’s suffering, other to than bathe the sick girl’s forehead with cool water one moment, then pile on more blankets the next. When Kami writhed with nausea and retching, Jelena held a basin to her cracked lips and wiped her mouth afterward.

Gendan came in the evenings after the end of his shift. Lovingly, he massaged Kami’s back and limbs with sweet almond oil; his touch seemed to do more to relieve her pain than anything else. Jelena had never witnessed such a tender display of love and devotion between a man and woman before, and she slowly came to realize that, beneath Gendan’s gruff exterior dwelt a soul perhaps as kind and good as Ashinji’s.

Ashinji came to the barracks each evening to check on Kami and to personally bring Jelena her dinner. He didn’t stay long; he seemed to sense that Gendan preferred the nobles not to make a lot of fuss.  Lord Sen paid a visit only once, and Gendan seemed greatly relieved when he had gone.

“
Don’t get me wrong,” he’d said. “I ‘preciate my lord’s concern, but Kami’s ours to take care of.”

Jelena understood his meaning. Gendan believed that the lives of noble and common folk should intersect only in carefully prescribed ways. He considered caring for his sick sweetheart a private matter, one in which his bosses had no reason to involve themselves.

Four days after she’d first fallen ill, and after having spent the past night in restless semi-consciousness, Kami at last lay sleeping. Groggy from fatigue, Jelena rose from the chair she’d occupied since sundown and stretched her aching limbs. She shuffled over to the open window and peered out, shading her eyes against the sunrise with one hand. Behind her, Gendan’s rough snoring rattled the stillness. Drawing in a deep breath of the fresh morning air, Jelena rubbed her eyes and then returned to the bed, where she laid a hand on Kami’s forehead. The girl’s skin felt cool and dry. Jelena nodded in satisfaction.

It’s over
, she thought.
Kami and her baby will survive.

The room had gone quiet. Jelena looked up to see that Gendan had awakened and now silently watched her. The expression in his eyes confused her, and she covered her discomfiture by fussing with Kami’s blankets. Gendan rose from Aneko’s bed—she had relinquished it to him so that he could stay by Kami’s side—and padded over to the window. He, too, took a breath of the cool air, then came over to stand beside Jelena.

“
Jelena,” he murmured. “I don’t know how t’ thank you for what you’ve done.”

“
Please, Captain, do not thank me. I did this for my friend,” Jelena replied softly. She had returned to her chair and now gazed fixedly at Kami’s sleeping form.

“
I…I’ve treated you…well, if I’ve treated you…less than kindly…”

“
No, Captain, you have always been polite,” Jelena insisted.

“
But, I haven’t… not really.”

“
You have, Captain.”

“
Goddess’ tits, girl!” Gendan exclaimed. He laid a hand on her shoulder, and Jelena looked up, surprised. “Will you please let me apologize to you?”

Looking into Gendan’s eyes, Jelena could see his contrition and something else as well.

“
I was unfair to you, Jelena, because of… well, because of the way I was taught as a boy t’ see things…and people, as one way or another. I’m beginning to understand now that sometimes, old ideas need to be let go of, that not everything we’re taught as children by our elders is right.”

Jelena swallowed hard against the lump in her throat and nodded. She now knew that, from this day forward, she would be able to count Gendan Miri as one of her friends.

Kami moaned softly and stirred beneath her blankets. Gendan immediately moved to kneel beside the bed, where he tenderly stroked her cheek. “Kami, my precious girl, my precious, lovely girl,” he whispered into her ear. “I love you…so very much. You and our baby.”

Jelena yawned and rubbed at her stinging eyes.
If I don’t sleep soon, I’m going to collapse
, she thought. Aloud, she said, “Captain, can you stay with Kami for a time, so I can sleep a little?”

“
Ai, Goddess! Of course!” Gendan rose to his feet, shaking his head in chagrin. “You must be exhausted, and I’ve been completely selfish not t’ see. You sleep now, as long as you need to. I’ll watch Kami until Aneko comes.” He added with a gentle smile, “Call me Gendan, please.”

Gratefully, Jelena rose from her chair and went to lie down on her bed beneath the window. She sighed, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

~~~

Jelena awoke at sundown to find herself alone. She sprang from her bed in alarm and hurried out into the common room to find Aneko sitting at the long table, sipping from an earthenware mug.

“
Oh, good. You’re awake,” Aneko said.

“
Where is Kami?” Jelena gasped, her entire body tingling with near-panic.

“
It’s all right, Jelena,” Aneko assured her. “Gendan just took Kami down to the bath house. She woke up feeling much better and begged Gendan to help her…now let’s see, how did she say it…‘wash the stink off me.’ She was very insistent.” Aneko smiled at the memory.

“
Oh, thank the gods…I mean, the One,” Jelena breathed. Her knees wobbled with relief. She plopped down on the bench beside Aneko, who poured her a mug. Jelena accepted it gratefully. She took a long swallow of the spicy beer, and as the drink hit her stomach, it began to growl with hunger. She tried to remember when she’d last eaten and decided that it had been two mornings ago. The stress of dealing with Kami’s illness had totally killed her appetite, until now.

“
Lord Ashinji was here, asking for you,” Aneko said.

Jelena looked up sharply. “When?”

“
About an hour ago. I told him you were still sleeping. I asked him if he wanted me to wake you, but he said no, to let you sleep.” Aneko paused and patted Jelena’s hand. “Tradition be damned, Jelena,” she murmured. “You and he belong together. I can see it in his eyes, how much he loves you.”

The time had not seemed right before now, because of Kami’s illness, to tell her friends of her betrothal to Ashinji, but now that Kami and her child were out of danger, Jelena could no longer hold back the news. She threw her arms around Aneko and cried, “Aneko, the most wonderful thing has happened! Ashinji and I are to be married!”

“
Oh, Jelena! Truly?” Aneko exclaimed, then stammered, “But…but, how? How did Lord Ashinji get his parents to agree to such a match?” She pulled away from Jelena, shaking her head in wonder.

“
Lord Sen was not very happy about it,” Jelena admitted, thinking back on the tense scene in the family room five days ago. “But Lady Amara and Ashinji, both, convinced him.”

“
Lord Sen obviously thinks very highly of you, Jelena. You saved his life, after all. If not for your arrow, that boar would have killed him, and we’d all be living under Lord Sadaiyo now. He didn’t need too much convincing, of that I’m certain.”

“
I am not a foolish person, Aneko,” Jelena sighed. She took another sip of her beer, a small one this time, for she still felt a little light-headed from the first swallow, and added, sadly, “I know I am not what Lord Sen would have chosen for his son. He wants, how do you say,
okui
grandchildren to raise in his house, not mongrels, like me.”

“
Don’t talk about yourself that way, Jelena,” Aneko admonished softly.

Jelena stared intently at the older woman, and a question she’d always been reluctant to ask stood poised on her lips. She let it go. “Why were you and Kami friends to me from the start? You and she…not once have you said anything unkind, never made me to feel…less than…you because of my human blood. Why is that?”

Aneko lowered her eyes and a little smile played about her generous mouth. “Kami and I are both Kerala born and bred, from long lines of border folk on both sides. Out here, most everyone has a little human blood in them, even if some folk refuse to acknowledge it openly. It hasn’t always been so unfriendly between our two homelands, you know, and we get regular trade from the human nomads that live out on the steppes beyond the mountains.”

Aneko leaned in close and whispered, “My great granddad was a steppe chieftain, so I’ve been told. My great grandma fell in love and ran off with him…lived with his tribe for over forty years. When he died, she and her four kids came back home to Kerala where she married a rich farmer and lived out the rest of her days.” She sat back, grinning. “So you see, my girl, I’m as much hikui as you.”

Jelena’s eyes widened with shock. “Do others know?” she murmured.

“
You mean others like Anda and Gendan?” Aneko shook her head. “No. I pass for okui very well. I’ve kept it to myself, mainly because no one’s ever asked, but if someone should, I’ll not lie. Here in Kerala, all folk have equal rights under the law. It’s not so in most other places. I’d have to lie if I ever went to live somewhere else, so it’s a good thing I never want to leave Kerala!”

“
Thank you for trusting me, Aneko. I will never tell anyone, I promise,” Jelena swore, grasping the other woman’s hands and squeezing.

Aneko’s strong hands, callused from years of weapons handling, squeezed back. “I trust you completely, Jelena, but don’t fret. I’m not ashamed of my blood, any more than you should be. By the way, Gendan told me what he said to you. He’s a good man, our captain. You can count on him, Jelena. He’ll be a true friend to you.”

“
No, no, no, you stubborn girl! I’ll not hear any more of this foolishness!”

Both women looked up in surprise as Gendan swept through the common room door, cradling Kami in his arms. He paused to look beseechingly at Aneko, then at Jelena. “Will you please tell this pig-headed girl that she’s in no condition to go back to work tomorrow?” he cried in exasperation. Jelena leaped up and ran over to embrace Kami as Gendan gently set her on her feet.

“
Thank you, Jelena,” Kami murmured, her voice still weak from illness. “Gendan said you stayed with me the whole time. You must be exhausted.”

“
I am much better now,” Jelena replied, wiping away tears of relief and happiness with the back of her hand.

“
Gendan won’t let me go back to work tomorrow,” Kami complained, her pale lips in a pout, but Jelena clearly saw the spark of resurgent mischief in her friend’s eyes. Jelena laughed and hugged the other girl again, and her heart swelled so full of joy, she marveled that it did not burst.

“
Maybe he’ll let you go back the day after tomorrow,” Aneko said.

“
P’raps,” Gendan replied, smiling.

A True Family, A True Name

It has begun.

Tell me what happened.

The girl came to me last evening. She had a strange dream, a nightmare, really. Some…thing stalked her, something she couldn’t name but knew was evil. She is afraid it wanted what she harbors, but, of course, she doesn’t understand why.

Nor can she, not yet. What did you tell her?

I explained it away, attributing it to unspoken fears about her Talent. I’m certain that she didn’t fully accept it, but she chose not to press me. She is a highly intelligent girl. It will become more difficult to conceal the truth from her as time passes and she grows stronger and more confident.

Did you scan her?

Yes, and I found the energy residue of a magical attack.

Then there can no longer be any doubt. The Nameless One is awake, and he has located the Key. How much time we have before he is strong enough to come after it is anyone’s guess, but we must assume that it will be sooner rather than later.

I think it’s time for a council. We can no longer sit on our hands, hoping and praying that this will go away.

I agree. You will accompany your husband to Sendai, then?

Yes. Ordinarily, he would expect me to stay behind to run things in his absence, so I must come up with a good excuse; also, there are my three youngest children to consider. It’s a very long journey.