Lawrence Watt-Evans - Relics of War

“I wanted to be sure Tesk was all right!” Ishta whispered back.

“He looked fine to me , the way he went jumping through the trees. Why didn’t he see Father coming and get away sooner, before he was spotted?”

“He thought it was you ,” Ishta said. “He said it was you. With the snow and everything, I thought it was you, too-you’re more like Father than you think. I didn’t know it was him until he started shouting.”

Garander was not sure what to make of that. He asked, “So why did you stay out here once you knew he was safe?”

“We were talking!”

“You shouldn’t have been! Not when you’d left tracks.”

“ I didn’t know anyone was going to come looking for me! Why did he, anyway?”

“Mother wanted you for a fitting; she’s cutting down one of Shella’s dresses for you.”

Grondar’s voice interrupted. “What are you two whispering about?”

Garander looked back to see their father catching up. “Ishta was wondering why you were looking for her. I told her Mother wanted her for a fitting.”

“That’s right, she does! I’d almost forgotten about that; she’s going to be annoyed it took this long to fetch you.”

“Then I’ll hurry!” Ishta broke into a run.

Garander ran after her. Grondar, he noticed, did not; their father was not as young and energetic as they were.

That was fine with him. That would give them another chance to talk.

The two burst out of the woods into the farmyard, leaped across the snow-filled ditch, and veered leftward around the woodshed. Beside the barn Ishta abruptly slowed, looking back to be sure they were out of their father’s sight, and ahead to see that no one had come out of the house to see what was taking so long.

Garander came up beside her, and matched her pace.

“Ishta!” he said. “Maybe we should tell them the truth.”

She glared at him. “Are you crazy ?”

“He saw that cloth! He knows that’s magic. You think he’s going to believe you went into the woods in the snow for no reason, and just happened to find a mysterious stranger sitting under a magic tent?”

“It’s not a tent.”

“Well, whatever it is, that’s not the point! The point is that he won’t believe it if you say that’s what happened.”

“All right, fine, but we don’t need to tell them he’s shatra , do we? Can’t we just say he’s a magician?”

Garander hesitated.

“I mean, how would we know anything about shatra ?” Ishta said.

“Because Father told us about them, silly! You think he won’t remember that?”

“Maybe he won’t!”

“You’re being ridiculous.”

“Well, you…you…you’re right.” She sighed. “But I’m not going to say the word until someone else does.”

Garander glanced back to see Grondar rounding the bushes. “Fair enough,” he said. “Now, come on, let’s get inside where it’s warm.”

Together, brother and sister trotted toward the house.

Once inside, there was a brief dispute over priorities.

“Ah, there you are! Get over here and try on this dress,” their mother said, looking up from a jumble of green fabric.

“There’s something I need to discuss with these two,” their father answered.

“It can wait,” the elder Shella said, raising a needle and thread. “I want to get this done, so we can eat lunch!”

“I think-”

“You can talk while we’re working. Ishta, put it on!”

Ishta threw her father a quick glance, then began taking off her coat. She didn’t hurry.

Grondar fumed while his children removed coats, scarves, gloves, and boots, and put them all neatly away; he rushed to strip off his own outerwear, and stood waiting as Ishta ducked into the room she shared with her sister and changed into the green dress.

Garander, once he had his own gear put away, looked out a window. The snow was still coming down; the overcast so thick it was hard to believe it was midday. Quite aside from delaying any discussions of Tesk, he was glad to be safely inside; this snowfall was turning into a far worse storm than any of them had anticipated, worse than it had any right to be so early in the season.

He hoped the shatra would be all right, out there in the snow-but Tesk had lived alone in the wilderness for twenty years; he must have survived worse storms than this. And he could safely retrieve that magical cloth, now that Ishta and her family had gone.

That cloth had been a surprise; Garander had never seen anything like it. His father had guessed it was wizardry, but from everything he knew, Garander thought it must be sorcery-all of Tesk’s equipment appeared to be sorcerous, not wizardly in nature.

Then Ishta emerged, the green dress hanging loosely on her. She stepped up on the stool as her mother approached with a mouthful of pins.

“Now,” Grondar demanded, “how did you meet this Kelder of Tesk?”

Ishta glanced at Garander, then said, “I met him in the forest.”

Her mother had been pinching in the fabric under Ishta’s left arm; now she held that with one hand, took the pins from her mouth with the other, and asked, “Who’s Kelder of Tesk?”

“Someone our daughter has been meeting in the woods.”

“A boy?”

“A grown man, from what I saw of him,” Grondar replied. “Not that I got a good look.”

Ishta saw the stricken look on her mother’s face and said, “It’s nothing like that! We just talked. He never touched me.”

“You’ll swear to that?” Grondar asked.

“Of course I will! He didn’t, I swear by all the gods!”

“Then why was he talking to you at all?”

“He was lonely, I guess.”

“All right, then I’ll ask again-how did you meet him?”

“I…I was wandering in the woods, and there he was, sitting on a branch.”

“What were you doing in the woods?”

“Getting out of the sun. I knew if I went in the house Mother would find something for me to do, and if I went in the barn you would, and besides, I liked being outside in the fresh air. It’s nice in the woods.”

Grondar frowned. “Out of the sun? When was this?”

“A couple of months ago.”

“Months?”

Ishta nodded.

“You’re forbidden to go into the woods!”

“I know.”

“And you went anyway.”

She nodded again.

“And you’ve…all right, so you met this Kelder of Tesk in the forest, and you talked to him?”

“Yes.”

“What did you talk to him about?”

Ishta turned up an empty palm, which tugged at the fold her mother was pinning. “How the trees grow, and what colors the leaves were, and what animals lived in the trees. Things like that.”

“Did you ask him where he was from , and what he was doing in the woods?”

“He wouldn’t tell me.”

“You did ask?”

She nodded again.

“You didn’t think that was suspicious ?”

“I like him!”

Grondar growled. “Of course. So you met him in the woods, and you talked, and then what?”

“Then I went home for supper.”

“And what did he do?”

“ I don’t know.”

“But you saw him again?”

“Yes.”

“How often?”

Ishta looked decidedly uncomfortable. “A few times.”

“Every day?”

“No!” She hesitated. “Maybe once or twice a sixnight.” Garander thought it had probably been more often than that, especially before they had realized he was shatra , but he didn’t say anything.

“How did you know where to find him?”

“I didn’t always; sometimes he’d find me . Sometimes he’d mark a trail for me, though.”