Elizabeth Kerner - Redeeming the Lost

Fighting past the wonder, I managed to say, "What think you, love? How could it happen? Did the Winds and the Lady have pity on you? On us?" I laughed. "Goddess, do you think they actually did something for us?"

Looking a little self-conscious, my husband said, "Not precisely. At least, not in the way you mean." He thought for a moment, choosing his words with great care. "You know how deeply you were changed when Vilkas saved your life?"

"Of course."

"Well—I appear to have undergone something of the sort when—when Shikrar and I changed places."

I stared at him, waiting. "Well? What? How are you changed?"

"The Gedri chose choice itself, did they not, my heart?" he asked in truespeech. His eyes blazed, now that he was come to it. "I am of the Gedri as well, now, but for me, I am changed to— change itself ."

Bloody dragon.

"Would you kindly stop blethering and tell me exactly what you mean before the children are old enough to walk?' I said, exasperated.

He grinned like a maniac. "I'd prefer to show you, but there isn't room in here," he said. He was practically glowing. "Lanen— I can change. At will. Entirely at will." He laughed with the wonder of it. "I did not believe it when I woke. I was terribly confused, and consciously thought, I should bear the shape of the Kantri. Within the quarter of the hour, I was changed back. I have done it several times since, to make sure. Kantri or Gedri, whichever I like, when I like." He barked another little laugh. "I'm my old size, too, not as vast as Shikrar. Name of the Winds, how he ever managed to move on the ground I'll never know."

I had finally managed to find my voice.

"Bloody hellsfire!"

I think I yelled that a touch louder than I meant to, because there was a brief thunder on the stairs and Will, Maran, Aral, and Vilkas all piled into the room, the Healers with their coronas blazing, Maran with a hammer in her hand, Goddess only knew where she kept that hidden.

"All's well, all's well, my friends," said Varien, grinning like an idiot. "There's nothing to see. Not just now. Though I will give a demonstration later for those who are interested."

He told them then, in so many words, what had happened.

I will never forget the stunned amazement on all of their faces. Vilkas was the best. I never thought to see that self-contained soul so lose his composure, he was an absolute picture.

"Varien, you're not serious," I said finally. "You—I mean, it's not possible—"

And Varien laughed, a great hearty laugh from his belly that woke the babies.

"Lanen Kaelar, you never cease to amaze me. Of all that has happened to us in the last year, how much is even faintly possible?"

I smiled slowly. "Very, very little, to be sure," I said, kissing Irian, who yawned and went back to sleep.

"Quite right," he replied, far more softly. He gently rocked Trezhan until our son fell asleep again.

"Sweet Lady, Varien," I swore quietly. "What in all the world and time are you meant to do with that gift?"

"I have no idea," he said, his face transformed by utter joy. "But it will surely be a great adventure to find out."

There is so much yet to say about those times. The world and everything in it was changing around us, faster than we could keep up with it. It took a very long time to truly understand all that had happened.

The twins were born when the harvest was ripe and the light was warm and golden, a little more than a moon before my own birth-day at the Autumn Balance-day.

Despite all my fears they did not have either wings or soul-gems, but they did each have a tiny bump in the centre of their foreheads where a soulgem would have been. Believe me, I thought long and hard about that over the next few years. And I only ever told Varien about this, but—a few weeks after they were born, when we all were sitting outdoors and it began to be a little chilly, I was sent what Mirazhe calls "a picture of their thoughts," in this case a sudden feeling of cold and fear, from the children. Just like young Sherok's first efforts. Perhaps he is not strictly the youngest of the Kantri anymore, I thought very quietly to myself.

The news from all quarters was good. Kedra, away in the SuJkith Hills with his dear Mirazhe and Sherok and that contingent of the Kantri that chose to remain with them, bespoke us one day with the news that Kretissh and Nikis had arrived. We laughed heartily, though I felt sorry for poor Nikis. It was not her fault that she had been caught in the Weh sleep when the rest of the Kantri had flown the Great Sea! Still, Nikis the Weary she was and remains. The others have found chambers near the sea, and have tended the lansip trees on behalf of our whole people. Farmer Timeth takes lansip leaves for his rent, plays with Sherok, and bids fair to become quite disgustingly wealthy in a few years, when the trees have grown a little more.

Idai left Beskin soon after the twins arrived. She and a contingent of the Aialakantri have been working almost constantly since the day of Shikrar's death, seeking out the soulgems of those who died in and around Lake Gand. It took them three years, but they eventually found every last one. The first, of course, was Shikrar's, lifted from the midst of Berys's cold ashes and cleansed with dragon fire. It gleams now a brilliant, untroubled red. His soul rests upon the Winds, and hardly a day passes even now that Varien and I do not miss him.

Varien has been much involved with the resettlement of the Kantri throughout Kolmar. Idai consults him regularly, and from time to time she comes to visit. When she arrived with Will and Aral and stayed until the babes had been born, she of course wished us joy of our younglings, and told us some of the best news yet. A number of the Kantri and the Dhrenagan had taken mates in the last few months, and there were already several younglings on the way. "We have even found a hot spring in the mountains above Castle Gundar," she said happily, "and are digging out a birthing pool. The high mountains are riddled with caves perfect for Weh chambers for those who require them, and there are many who do. All is well. Oh, Akhor, all is well at last!"

"It is indeed," he had said, smiling up at her. I remember that daft grin of his. He had barery looked away from the twins since their birth, I practically had to tear them from his arms to let them sleep in those first weeks. I recall being heartily grateful to Idai, who at least forced his eyes to focus on something more distant.

Before she left, though, she reminded him that no matter what his shape, he was still their King. "Do not think that you are released from your service just because the Winds have given you this astounding gift," she said, pretending to a severity she did not feel in the least. "You are still our Lord and King, by acclamation, and you will not slip out of your duties so easily."

"You are Eldest, Idai," he said. "This is foolish. Let you call a full Council of our people and choose a new leader from among you." He grinned up at her. "Perhaps it is time that we had Queen Idai to turn to, rather than King Akhor."

She hissed. "Very well, Lord, if you so command. A full Council must be attended by two-thirds of the Kantri then on live. I suspect that enough will have wakened from their Weh sleep in, oh, perhaps twenty or thirty winters. I will do my best to remember your wishes at that time."

Things had changed by then, of course—but that is another story. Ever since the Kantri came to Kolmar they have insisted on calling Varien their King. When the bards came to hear the tale of the wild adventures of that time, they soon heard that part of the story, and the idiots assumed that that must mean that I should be Queen Lanen. Ha! Never trust the bards, for they will always change the truth to make a good tale.