“Marry a Beguine! Are you mad? Your entire family would expire of shock!”
Arna shrugged. “It’s Uncle Bron’s idea. Or possibly Nicol Beguine’s. I don’t know who had it first. Not many, not even our trading allies, know about it, but we and House Beguine have been in negotiations for at least a year to bring an end to the feud.”
“But the feud has lasted for centuries!”
They were near one of the many alcoves scattered throughout the Jadaren Hold tunnel system, crafted for the convenience of any who desired to step away from the human traffic that sometimes streamed through the passageways, busy as any traveler’s path on a sunny day. Arna pulled his friend aside as yet another linen-laden servant-it must have been one of the twice-tenday cleaning days his aunt mandated-went by, glancing at them curiously.
“Yes, it has,” said Arna. “But can any tell why?”
“Well …” Vidor furrowed his brow in thought. “There was the matter of House Andula’s entire season of cider shipments being undercut, with House Beguine having a stake in it. And the disagreement with the Jeweler’s Guild. And that ship at Mulmaster, with Clan Testra’s half stake in it, burning after the crew fought one of House Beguine’s.”
“Yes,” Arna interrupted. “And we both could point to a double handful of fights, and raids, and downright sabotage throughout the years without even thinking hard. Some of them are even legendary, and the subject of songs and ballads-very dirty ballads, I might add. But is there a reason for them?”
“Pursuit of profit,” answered Vidor, with the confidence of a merchant’s child.
“Ah, profit, the blessing of Waukeen,” said Arna. “But does this bickering profit anyone in the end? We do dirty by the Beguines because they do dirty to us, and each expects it in return. The only reason for the feud is the feud itself. But the lives lost, people injured, and the good-gods! — the goods that might be sold or traded, wasted for the mere satisfaction of hurting an enemy. What’s the good of it?”
“There must have been a reason for the feud once,” said Vidor.
“Oh, likely. A very good reason, I would guess, considering the strength of the hatred, and how long it’s lasted. Even through wars and Spellplague and the fall and rise of cities. But does anyone remember it now? It’s buried beneath the fall of the years, forgotten, and it’s time we forgot the feud it spawned.”
“So you agree with your uncle, and with Nicol.”
“Of course. Why should a baker in Sespech have her flour spoiled by beetles because a Jadaren is trying to ruin a deal? Or a sailor’s wife be widowed because a Beguine mage cursed his ship and her load of Jadaren lumber? Why, in fact, should my beauteous self be endangered by a forgotten wrong?”
“Or my beauteous self for that matter, for the sin of being your friend?” said Vidor.
Arna grinned. “Correct entirely. Oh, Uncle Bron is wise as a serpent in this matter. But there is a complication. He and Nicol want a public testament to the end of the war. They want the advent of a new harmonious era to be crystal clear to everyone, family and ally as well as stranger. And what better way to do it than to marry the children of both Houses together?”
Vidor leaned against the polished stone wall and folded his arms, regarding his friend with sympathy.
“And what do you think of being the sacrificial ox?”
“I am of two minds. One agrees with Uncle Bron. An alliance with House Beguine will mean a new era of prosperity, and linking our two Houses together through marriage is a small sacrifice to pay-and no sacrifice at all, really, since the Beguine daughter would come to Jadaren Hold to train as its chatelaine.”
Vidor nodded. “That makes sense, since House Beguine has two daughters and a son to manage their affairs. And your other mind?”
“My other mind is selfish, and concerned with my own comfort, and would like to see my proposed bride before I commit myself for life. Sad, and I blush to admit it, but true.”
Vidor laughed and gave Arna a light shove.
“So you would like to come with me and spy out whether the Beguine girl is pretty enough for your exalted tastes, is that it?”
“Alas, but I am flawed. And think of this: it’s not fair for her to have to marry a man who doesn’t find her to his liking, is it?”
“Ever the gentleman,” said Vidor. “Very well, pack your gear and meet me in the caverns. We have to leave soon, and I won’t wait for you. And I expect you to do your share to sell my cantrips, by the way. None of these snide comments about quality and shoddy goods.”
The sun was just shy of being overhead by the time Vidor Druit and Arna Jadaren, accompanied by three seasoned guards, who had served the Druit household for a decade, and a pair of laden mules passed Jandi’s Oak. Over the years the way to Jadaren Hold had grown from a barely perceptible path to a wide road, capable of letting a small army pass. The long tongue of trees that once reached out from the branching of the Chondalwood and Thornwood had been pushed back, cleared for its wood and to allow the road to expand.
The great oak, so alien amid the other trees, was spared, and now grew flourishing and massive-trunked by itself, standing like a gigantic rooted guardian overlooking the road and the distant anthill of Jadaren Hold. Beneath the stretch of its branches was a small shrine, waist-high to a human, made of stacked lava stones. Before the shrine was a circle of similar stones, making a small fire pit that was now filled with cold black char.
“Wait,” called Arna, sliding off his horse. The horse, a short fat draft form, which Arna had tumbled off on a regular basis since the age of nine, snorted and rooted for grass at the stones at the side of the road.
“We’re late enough,” called Vidor.
Arna waved back in reply, but didn’t pause on his way up the slight slope to the shade of the oak above.
Under Jandi’s Oak it was very quiet, as it always was. Even when the road was busy, all sounds seemed to be muted to those who sat under its branches, and today, with the Druit party the only travelers nearby, the sole sound was the faint twitter of finches, invisible between the dark green leaves.
The black lava-rock shrine was little more than a simple pile of rocks, fitted together without mortar, and topped with a big geode that was broken open at one side, leaving a hollow area lined with a haze of tiny gray crystals. It was likely formed at the same time as the Giant’s Fist, in the same frenzy of volcanic activity that had made the black river of lava at the bottom of the valley.
Inside the crystal-lined hollow was a tiny figure, like a small doll, exquisitely braided out of dried grass stems or fine wooden fibers. Knotted around its neck was a length of green thread with three knots at the end. Arna ignored it and pulled out a small round of copper from an inner pocket of his jerkin. The tiny coin was pierced through, and a length of red string threaded it. Arna quickly tied a square knot in the middle of the string and laid it inside the geode, next to the straw figure.
From the road, Vidor gestured impatiently. Arna waved again, but he placed his hand on the rough bark that girdled the immense trunk of the tree, over a scar that looked as though it might have been a carved letter before age and growth had obscured it.
Briefly he bowed his head. “Guard my days, Jandi,” he breathed. The words felt strange. He hadn’t uttered them since he was a child, and he was a little embarrassed at saying them now. Jandi’s Oak had always been here, and it was a tradition for travelers to ask the protection of the nymph, or dryad, or whatever fey creature Jandi had been-if she had ever really existed.
It was also a tradition for the local folk to leave a tribute in the shape of small coins when they were about to embark on great journeys or changes of life. Girls from the local farms would leave their coppers, marked by a uniquely knotted or colored thread, to ask if they would marry their lovers, or leave their homes to find their fortunes, and were answered by the appearance of tiny works of intricate craftsmanship, designated with the same thread they had left with the coin, which were supposed to be signs from the spirits of the nearby forest.