Lawrence Watt-Evans: Taking Flight

Just then the arm-wrestling match ended, amid shouts and cheering.

“He got you good, Kelder!” someone called, and Kelder of Shulara growled to himself.

“Best two out of three?” another voice asked.

“That was two out of three!”

“Three out of five, then!”

“Done, for another copper.”

“You’re on.” The huddle, which had shown signs of dispersing, coalesced anew. Thetta disappeared back into the kitchen, or whatever lay beyond that door; Valder turned, exasperated, then shrugged and gestured to the chairs.

Gratefully, the four travelers settled into the proffered seats, Irith in the center, Ezdral on her left and Kelder on her right, with Asha on Kelder’s right. They sat silently for a moment, warming hands and feet, while Valder poked at the fire and shouted for more wood.

Thetta reappeared with an armful of logs, and close behind her came a boy bearing a metal tray that held a teapot and half a dozen cups.

“You didn’t say how many, sir,” the boy said as he approached. “Is it enough?”

“It looks to be,” Valder said, taking the tray from him. Thetta dumped the logs on the hearth, and began placing them, one by one, onto the flames. Valder put the tray on the table he had moved aside, then poured tea, and distributed cups to the four new arrivals.

Ezdral didn’t see his at first, and when it finally registered on his consciousness he glanced away from Irith long enough to look at it with mild distaste.

“You wouldn’t happen to have anything stronger, would you, sir?” he asked. “A little oushka would warm me better than that, I’m sure.”

Valder glanced at the others, and Kelder caught his eye. The lad shook his head. “I’m terribly sorry,” the innkeeper said, “but these drunken louts over here have cleaned me out.” He waved at the party around the arm-wrestlers. “Not a drop of strong drink do I have until the next cartload comes.”

Irith smiled over her tea at him.

Ezdral reluctantly accepted a teacup, just as Thetta dropped the last log into place and headed back toward the kitchens. Valder took a cup himself, and pulled up a chair beside Asha, turned so that he was almost facing Irith and Ezdral.

“Now, Irith,” he said, “tell me how it is that you came in here soaking wet, when it hasn’t rained for a sixnight.”

“Yes, Irith,” Asha said, “how’d you get all wet?”

“I turned into a fish,” she said.

“But when you turned back,” Kelder began, “isn’t this an awful lot of water…”

“I did something silly,” Irith said, giggling slightly at herself; the hot tea and warm fire had done a great deal toward improving her mood. “I turned into a fish to swim the river, so I wouldn’t have to pay the toll, right?”

Valder and Kelder nodded.

“Well, I got into the water just fine; dove in and changed in mid-air, so I was a fish when I landed. And I swam right across, following the bridge piers-it’s dark down there in the river, and fish eyes aren’t any better than human in the dark!”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Kelder said.

“That’s all right,” Irith told him. “Neither had I, and I’d been a fish before, and you never were.”

“Go on,” Valder said. “It was dark…”

“Right, it was dark,” Irith agreed, “but I found my way across by following the bridge, and just by sense of direction-fish can feel the currents, and even when there aren’t any currents you can sort of tell directions. It’s hard to explain, it’s just something fish do.”

Kelder could believe that. Everyone said that different animals had different senses.

“And I got to the other side,” Irith continued, “and suddenly remembered why I hadn’t been a fish for a hundred years.”

She paused, relishing the suspense she had created.

“Oh, come on, Irith, tell us!” Asha begged.

“Fish can’t get out of the water,” Irith said.

For a moment the others all sat, thunderstruck; then Valder burst out laughing uproariously. Kelder and Asha joined in; Ezdral simply stared at Irith.

The shapeshifter smiled at the amusement to her right, then turned left and noticed Ezdral. She stared back at him, annoyed.

“So you were sitting there in the river?” Valder asked, distracting her. “You had to turn back under water?”

“Not sitting,” Irith said, regaining her good humor. “When I turn from fish to human I come out lying face-down. So there I was, lying in a foot of cold water, fully dressed.”

Kelder stopping laughing to listen.

“So I got up, half-drowned, and I waded ashore, and there these three were wondering what had happened to me,” she said. “And would you have said, ‘Oh, I forgot fish can’t climb out of the water, so I spent ten minutes trying to figure out how to do it’?”

Asha giggled hysterically, and Kelder chuckled.

“Listen,” Valder said when the laughter had subsided, “you aren’t much bigger than Thetta; why don’t you see if she has some dry clothes you can wear, and we’ll hang yours by the fire?”

“Oh, please,” Irith said, “that would be wonderful.”

“Fine,” Valder said. “Thetta!”

While they waited for the servant to appear, Valder asked, “Have you folks eaten?”

“No,” the younger three chorused.

“We’ll take care of that as soon as Irith’s back, then,” he said. Thetta emerged, and he called to her, “Tell someone to bring dinner for four, and while that’s fixing, take Irith here upstairs and find her some dry clothes, all right?”

Thetta turned and leaned through the door, calling something to someone else, then came and waited.

Irith rose, put her tea on the table, and said, “Lead the way.”

A shout rose from the arm-wrestlers once again as the other Kelder was defeated for the third and final time, and this time the group began to disperse. A couple of the men eyed Irith with interest as she passed, but no one did more than look.

Once the two girls were gone, Ezdral announced, “I think I … I think I’ll go see if I can help with supper.” He rose, and shambled toward the kitchen.

Valder looked questioningly at Kelder, who sighed and shrugged. “He’s looking for liquor,” Kelder said, “but I don’t know how to stop him, short of locking him in somewhere.”

Valder sighed. “Let him go, then.”

That left three of them, Asha, Kelder, and Valder, sitting in front of the fire.

“Tell me,” Valder asked, “who are you people, and how do you come to be traveling with Irith?”

Kelder had been made so comfortable so quickly that he had forgotten that Valder had no idea who he was. “I’m Kelder of Shulara,” he said. “That’s Asha of Amramion, and the man cadging oushka from your kitchen help is Ezdral the Sot. I met Irith on the Great Highway, and we just decided to travel together. We bumped into Asha in Angarossa, after she ran away from her father and her brother got killed, and we found Ezdral in Shan on the Desert.”

Valder considered that. “You seem pleasant enough, and I can see why Irith’s traveling with you,” he said, “and I suppose she felt sorry for the girl.” He nodded politely at Asha, who smiled. “But why in the World would Irith put up with the old man, or he with her?”

“She enchanted him,” Kelder explained, “a long time ago, when he wasn’t much older than I am now. She put a love spell on him, and then didn’t know how to take it off.”

“And she didn’t just fly off and forget about him?” Valder asked, startled.

Kelder was equally startled by accuracy of the innkeeper’s guess. “Well, actually,” he said, “she did, but then we ran into him in Shan, and he followed us, and when I found out why I said we should try and find a cure for him, not just leave him there.”