Pouring out of the doorway behind her came a host of urZrethi. They crowded around the cart that had once been Peri’s home but had been given over to Sulion-Corax for the remaining journey. The urZrethi babble, which he could not understand, rose and fell with joy and sympathy, and was shot through with mourning for those who had fallen. As per urZrethi custom, the bodies were left where they fell and while the place of their passing would be noted, their bodies would not be recovered nor venerated.
Other urZrethi, to the last all male, came out to take the horses and guide the sleighs. They moved sluggishly and timidly, but went about their tasks efficiently. One even approached Bok to relieve him of his chest, then stood blinking when Bok growled. Silide-tse called that male off and gave him another assignment, which he undertook impassively.
Silide-tse drew the core company aside while other urZrethi directed the Lancers and Freemen to the billets awaiting them. The warden led them down well-lit corridors that were remarkably tall for so short a people. The illumination came from fat candles perched on metal stands. The reliefs carved along the walls were interspersed with colorful mosaics, all of which depicted men and elves in scenes with urZrethi. Kerrigan faintly recalled stories that might coincide with some of the scenes, but it struck him that these must have been taken from the urZrethi versions of the tales, since the urZrethi seemed to have the others at a disadvantage—which was seldom the case in man-tales.
Silide-tse led them to an inordinately large and oddly shaped room. A low, rounded corridor—low enough that both Resolute and Dranae had to duck their heads and Lombo was forced to crouch—opened into the first of two spherical chambers. The second chamber was smaller than the first, and its floor was set three feet higher, though their ceilings reached the same height. Opening into both spheres, small, round entrances led to other rooms, and just to the left of the corridor entrance the larger chamber had a huge hearth.
Silide-tse moved to the hearth and whispered a word, which started a pile of stones in it glowing like embers. She squatted before the fireplace, with her back to it, and opened her arms.
“This is a cork, and this is how we live. The lower chamber here is the common room and off it are the sleeping chambers for a family’s males.” She shot a hooded glance at Bok, who immediately retreated to a sleeping room near the entrance. “Male visitors, especially those who have come to get a daughter with child, are usually housed closer to the upper chamber. That is where our women reside. The Coraxoc, or matriarch, would have that central chamber. Her fecund daughters would have the chambers either side, and then the rest of us occupy the others.”
Will counted heads. “Three women, eight men. Six chambers down here. It will get crowded.”
Silide-tse shook her head. “The male chambers comfortably sleep six.”
A snort sounded from within the hole housing Bok.
Qwc landed on Will’s shoulder. “Qwc takes up no room. No snoring, either.”
The urZrethi frowned. “You are guests. You are free to do as you please. If you wish to observe our conventions, this would please us.”
Crow nodded. “We understand. Perrine, you shall be given the Coraxoc chamber.”
Silide-tse’s face brightened. “You do understand. Splendid. You will excuse me, then. I shall let you get settled and shall return with provender for all.”
Kerrigan opted to share a chamber with Bok. The long, narrow room had a low, arched ceiling and no decoration at all, unless one counted unintended patterns worked at random in the plaster. He chose the stone pallet on the right and snatched a second straw-filled mattress to insulate him from the bed’s chill.
Bok had shrugged the chest off and had set it at the head of his bed, while he curled up on the lower half of the bench. He’d already fallen asleep and Kerrigan was tempted to drop off as well, but a sudden clapping sound in the main room caused him to squat-walk over to the entrance and peer out.
Silide-tse had returned and had already shifted her shape back into something decidedly more human. She led a troupe of urZrethi who brought in a bunch of wood that was quickly fitted together into a low table. Others brought pillows to ring it. After that bowls, plates, cups, forks, knives, and spoons appeared, and every place was quickly set with far more utensils than any one person would ever use. Silide-tse, watching over the whole proceeding barked an order, and yet one more of each utensil was set out.
The urZrethi waved all of the guests into the main chamber and appointed them specific places around the table. As they sat, male urZrethi filed in, two behind each member of the company, and yet more came bearing tureens of soup and steaming platters of meat and heaping baskets of bread. Kerrigan’s stomach immediately started growling and his mouth watered.
He and the others fell on the food as if they’d not eaten in a month, which they had, but only tavern fare and road rations, which might well have been mud in comparison. Oddly enough, Kerrigan noted that while spoons, forks, and knives were whisked away between courses, the plates and bowls remained. The servants shifted their hands to serve different courses, then retreated to wash their hands between courses. Kerrigan began to wonder if the urZrethi had little use for utensils since they could shape their own. As a result they supplied many and took them away between courses in lieu of having their guests wash their hands—which made no sense since they were not eating with them.
That sort of idle speculation was the height of Kerrigan’s intellectual activity. He ate a great deal and drank more, since each dish seemed more delicious than the last, and each new wine had nuances he’d never tasted before. The food kept coming and in such quantities that even Lombo leaned back from the table and patted his distended belly right before letting loose with a belch strong enough to make the dinner table vibrate.
That did not so much end the meal as cap it, and everyone laughed aloud, including Silide-tse.
She clapped her hands and the servants departed, but the table was left as set, with enough food still there to feed the Freemen. She glanced at Kerrigan. “I shall leave this for your servant to clean up.”
The mage nodded. “You are very kind.”
“You are owed a debt. This is the least we can do to repay it.” She smiled. “I shall return in the morning. Sleep well, all of you.”
38
Erlestoke wasn’t certain, but he almost wished the day had not dawned clear and cold. The cold he could have done without. The frigid air managed to work itself into his clothes, and no amount of movement seemed to warm him. But then again, he wasn’t moving all that fast.
That first night they’d found the storehouse that Verum had mentioned. The Draconis Baron had managed to scatter caches of firedirt and other supplies around Fortress Draconis, less against the need to retreat from it than for forces operating behind enemy lines.
Well, we’re certainly behind the lines.
In that storehouse they replenished their supplies and drew winter clothing. The storehouse did contain a number of draconettes, but none of the latest variety. Still, the shot and firedirt worked in their quadnels, so they loaded up with enough for two hundred shots each. With clothing, food, and weaponry, every one of them moved out with an average of sixty pounds of equipment.
Only Erlestoke had been exempted because his chest still ached from the blow he’d been struck. Jilandessa had performed some simple spells and determined that nothing had been broken, but his ribs had been loosened in his breastbone. She offered to spell him back into shape, but he’d refused, figuring that if he lived long enough, he’d heal naturally.