An instant after it vanished, it reappeared outside Galaeron’s shadow net, scattering across the pond in precisely diced squares. Takari caught much of the spray square on and emerged with a cube of phaerimm flesh hanging from the end of a thorn lodged in her shoulder. Not seeming to notice, she charged over to the hedge still holding Kuhl’s darksword and slipped through to the other side.
Keya rushed to Galaeron's side.
"How bad?"
"Not bad," he said. "IT! survive."
"You'd better." Keya extended her hand, and Dexon's darksword flew back into her grip. "The baby's going to need an uncle."
She smiled and slipped through the hedge to join the others. It was not until she was gone that Galaeron realized what he had seen.
Takari had been holding Kuhl's sword. Her hand did not look cold.
No wonder Kuhl had been unhappy to see him.
Galaeron looked back into the pond and saw the Vaasan floating on his back, a pink cloud haloing his head where a long gash was pouring blood into the water. Kuhl's head had been propped on a log. His chest was rising and falling at regular intervals, and his eyes were already beginning to flicker open. Leaving the Vaasan to awaken on his own, Galaeron flew over the hedge. He nearly lost his leg when a warrior of the Cold Hand rose from the other side, and mistaking him for the enemy, reached for his borrowed darksword.
"Spare your fingers," Galaeron said in Elvish. "I'm our thornback."
The elf flushed with embarrassment. He let his weapon slip back into its scabbard.
"Sorry for the mistake, Lord Nihmedu."
Though hardly the first time Galaeron had been addressed by his formal title since returning to Evereska, it made him feel more remorseful than respected. Lord Nihmedu was his father. That he carried the tide now only reminded him that his mistake had cost his family as dearly as his city.
Galaeron acknowledged the warrior's politeness with a dip of his head-disk, then continued across the garden's formal access path into the open woods beyond. The fighting there was over as well, with Vala and the others poking around the bushes in search of stragglers. From the looks of things, the fight had not been a difficult one. There were no more than a dozen mind-slaves scattered among the trees, most of them bugbears. Galaeron saw only two beholders and a single illithid.
Whatever the attack was, it was not the preventive strike he had feared. Galaeron extended a finger and whistled. Manynests dropped out of the bluetops, whistling nonstop about how close he had come to being blasted into feathers and how fast he had flown to avoid it.
Galaeron let the bird peep himself out, then said, "Now you must fly to Cloudcrown Hill. Khelben is expecting you, and hell worry if you don't show."
Manynests peeped a question.
"I know I'm bleeding," Galaeron said, "but there's no need to worry him about that The attack continues as planned."
Manynests peeped another question.
"Yes, I did see how fast you flew," Galaeron said, "but no, I don't think all the thornbacks are after you now. They have other quarry to hunt Now, off with you."
Galaeron raised his hand and launched the finch, which vanished into the forest canopy.
"Takari!" an angry bellow erupted from the hedge behind Galaeron.
Galaeron twisted around to see Kuhl's burly form pushing through the duskblossoms. A steady cascade of blood was pouring out of his head wound, concealing his sunken eyes behind a red curtain and filling his bushy beard with thick, steaming crimson. Somehow, he saw through the torrent clearly enough to locate Takari, who was using his darksword to poke through the snarled stems of a giant bell-bramble.
"Thief!" Kuhl staggered forward, his hand rising to call his darksword. "My sword!"
Takari's knuckles whitened as she fought to hold the weapon.
"Let me use it a while. You can barely walk."
"Elven trollop!" Kuhl continued forward, not seeming to realize that in the case of a wood elf, at least, that was a little like calling a snake a reptile. "It was never me you wanted. I see that"
That’s s not true." Takari wrapped her second hand around the hilt "I wanted you, too, sometimes."
She began to back away. Though it looked like she was retreating, Galaeron was astonished to see Takari holding the darksword tip down, grasping the hilt in a double-hand stack and keeping a half-open stance. She was trying to look helpless and unprepared, inviting Kuhl to charge.
And charge Kuhl did, leaping forward with all the power and speed of a wounded roth?. Even flying, Galaeron knew he would never intercept the man in time to save his life. Instead, he flicked a strand of shadowsilk in Kuhl's direction and spoke a quick incantation, catching him in the same shadow net he had used to tangle the phaerimm.
The net appeared around Kuhl a mere three steps from Takari, and his momentum carried him forward another two before he crashed to the ground. Worried that Takari would go ahead with her plan anyway, Galaeron used the trailing line to pull the kicking Vaasan safely out of harm's way.
Kuhl rolled around so he could face Galaeron.
"And you are her panderer!" the Vaasan shouted. "This was your-"
Galaeron pinched his fingers together and uttered a spell, and the Vaasan fell silent He handed the trailing line to the warrior who had addressed him as Lord Nihmedu with instructions to keep Kuhl safe but bound, then turned to deal with Takari.
Vala was already handling the matter. She had crept up behind Takari-no easy feat-and plucked the wood elf off the ground. Vala wrapped a burly arm clear around her body and grasped her sword arm just above the elbow. With her feet off the ground, Takari had no way left to defend herself except drop the darksword and cast a cantrip, and she was not dropping the sword.
Vala wrapped her thick fingers around Takari's wrist and slowly twisted it back toward the thumb, and the darksword dropped free. She passed her captive to Burlen with instructions to choke her unconscious at the first sign of trouble, then she picked up Kuhl's sword and used it to slash open the shadow net holding Kuhl.
"Here's your sword," she said, returning the weapon. "Put it away and get that cut attended to, and don't even look in her direction."
"But she-"
"Kuhl! I'll take care of it" Vala shoved him toward the hedge, then turned granite-hard eyes in Galaeron's direction and said, "We need to talk."
None to happy to see Kuhl free and Takari restrained, Galaeron dipped his head-disk in agreement
Vala led the way to a small hollow where they could speak privately.
"I should have known this would happen." Her tone was angry, but not accusatory. "You'll have to take one of them with you."
"Why?" Galaeron asked. He was still unhappy with-and a little suspicious of-her decision to free Kuhl and restrain Takari. "Because you're jealous of her?"
"You think this is about you?" Vala rolled her eyes. "Get over yourself. Takari is carrying Kuhl's baby."
"I realize that," Galaeron said, "but I am not enough of a human to be jealous-"
Vala brought a hand up and managed to find Galaeron's head through his disguise and cuff him-more or less gently-above his ear.
"Are you listening?" she demanded. "We can sort that out later, if we live long enough. We've got a problem with Takari and Kuhl."
"That much was apparent," Galaeron said, finally overcoming his initial reaction to how she had handled Takari. "Perhaps you should explain the rest"
Thank you," Vala said.
Before she could begin the explanation, Keya appeared at the edge of the hollow and came down to join them.
"I sent Burlen to watch Kuhl and put an elf in charge of Takari."
Keya was informing, not asking permission, and Galaeron was again impressed with the commander she had become. Her arrangement was both more secure and likely to raise less resentment in the rest of the company.