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When Zelda awoke, she thought she was still dreaming. She was wearing a long white nightgown and was lying on a beautiful four-poster bed, in a vast bedchamber, with a fire blazing on the hearth opposite the foot of the bed. The four-poster curtains were a pale green against the dark wooden bed posts, and they were partially drawn, so that Zelda could not see the entire room clearly. She could see silhouettes through the vaguely transparent curtain and realized she wasn’t alone in the room.
“Where am I?” Zelda croaked and was met immediately with the sound of boots thumping. The curtain was ripped back to reveal the Knights of Falcon, all in boots and trousers, grinning down at her. She was touched to see the tears in their eyes. They practically converged on her from all sides, hugging her with trembling arms, kissing her cheeks and her lips. Zelda giggled girlishly when Calain and Selene kissed her cheeks playfully hard from either side, and her cheeks flamed red.
“All right! All right!” Zelda squealed. “Do release me before you break me with your mighty strength!”
The knights laughed and pulled their weight off Zelda. Calain sat on the bed and happily gathered Zelda in her lap, while Selene sat beside them, and Cassandra and Gweneth knelt before Zelda on the floor. Zelda reached out and touched Cassandra’s cheek (Cassandra kissed her fingers) and smiled at Gweneth when she playfully set her chin on Zelda’s knee. Selene dropped her forehead against Zelda’s hair in relief, and Zelda turned to her and kissed her on the lips to sooth her. Selene’s dark eyes were warm when they looked at her.
Zelda’s heart was racing so hard, it almost hurt, and she realized it was the combined strength of the knights. Their joy was overwhelming her. She couldn’t pretend she wasn’t touched.
Zelda glanced around, remembering she was some place strange. “But . . . where are we? The last thing I remember . . .” She hesitated. The ogre. The horrible, ugly ogre and its club. It had slammed the club on the temple, widening the hole in the ceiling and sending down a hail of broken stone. She remembered a sudden burst of pain on her crown and then . . . nothing.
“We are in your home,” said Calain warmly. She was stroking Zelda’s hair and looked down at her with soft green eyes. Zelda thought she looked as proud as if she had built the place herself.
“What do you mean ‘my home’?” Zelda asked, baffled.
“We built it for you, sweet Zelda,” said Calain. She hesitated. “Well, my sister did build it. She’s a sorceress.”
Zelda’s brows went up.
“That’s right,” laughed Gweneth. “Calain’s father was banging elves. She's got two half-sisters that hail from Honione, and the queen—”
Selene held up a hand. “Let us not overwhelm her.”
Gweneth rolled her eyes but didn’t continue.
“But I wished to show Zelda the castle,” Calain complained, glaring at Selene.
Selene’s lips tightened. “Zelda only did just wake from a head injury! She should not move about—”
“I can carry her!” Calain snapped.
Calain and Selene were glaring across Zelda at each other when Zelda suddenly burst out laughing, causing everyone to look at her. Zelda laughed on. It was so like Calain and Selene to start arguing that it had become something familiar and good that made her only laugh when before she would have screamed at them.
The knights watched Zelda laughing, their eyes soft with affection.
“I am fine, sweet Selene. I am certain Calain will look after me,” said Zelda soothingly. She closed her arms around Calain’s neck. “Come. Show me the castle, then, my love.”
Calain lifted Zelda in her burly arms and actually stuck her tongue out at Selene as she carried her away, so that Zelda heard Gweneth and Cassandra laughing as Calain carried her from the room.
They descended a stair that was lit by torches in brackets on the walls, and Calain’s arms were strong and yet gentle as they cradled Zelda carefully to her chest. At the bottom of the stair, they came to a long stone hall, also lit by torches, its floor lined with red carpet. Zelda stared in amazement. The hall was immense, and the doors lining the walls either side were huge, likely because they concealed immense chambers. Zelda wondered just how big the place was. It seemed endless.
Calain carried Zelda throughout the castle, showing her different rooms and even bringing her to the kitchen, where they paused to share cheese and wine and playfully peck each other on the lips. The larder was full to bursting with food, though Calain warned it was enchanted food summoned by her sister and was meant for temporary consumption, until Selene could head out to hunt again.
Zelda was amazed. The castle was beautifully designed with elven architecture, even the wooden furniture, which had been engraved with delicate flowers and leaves. Calain brought her at last to a room at the top of another tower, and nudging the door open with her boot, she said, “And this is your study!”
As the wooden door slowly swung wide, Zelda’s mouth fell open in amazement. It was a vast study, with many bookshelves loaded with old tomes, a great wooden desk, several davenports with deep red cushions, armchairs beside a blazing hearth, and little tables loaded with empty glass vials waiting to be filled with potions. There were also utensils for making potions—little knives for cutting the herbs, a ladle for stirring, scissors – and stores of herbs were in bowls and bundles on the shelves. Sunlight was streaming in beams through the high arched windows and across the room, falling pure and pale over a world globe showing all of Vallinwir.
Zelda wanted down so that she could explore the room, and sensing this, Calain gently set her on her feet. Her hands hovered anxiously around Zelda, as if she thought Zelda might fall, but Zelda walked confidently forward, her long golden hair falling almost to her bare feet as she moved in her white nightgown. She went to the world globe and reached out and touched it with the tips of her fingers, spinning it on its stand. It rolled to a smooth stop on Honione.
“Do you like it?” asked Calain a little anxiously.
Zelda wondered how she could even ask! She looked up and smiled to find Calain watching her so hopefully. “Yes,” she said happily. “It’s wonderful! And you say your sister built it? She must be quite the sorceress.”
“Well,” said Calain, irritable as she came to Zelda across the room, “I designed it for you! I told her what to build!”
Zelda turned to Calain and looked up at her dotingly. “You had your sister build all of this? For me?”
“Of course, I did,” said Calain softly. She frowned. “I love thee.”
“Oh, Calain!” Zelda bounced up and pecked Calain on the cheeks and hugged her neck tight, and Calain laughed under the affection and closed her arms around Zelda.
“And now you have a home,” said Calain, taking Zelda’s hand and leading her to one of the davenports. They sat, still holding hands. “And it is enchanted. No one shall ever hurt you here, even if I abandon you, you shall be safe.”
Zelda frowned and touched Calain’s face. “Oh, Calain! I have forgiven thee! If only you would forgive thyself.”
“I shall never forgive myself, I fear,” said Calain heavily.
Zelda turned her eyes happily over the room again. “It’s perfect,” she said breathlessly. Her eyes darkened sadly. “It just needs Aereth. She is probably a woman now. I do miss when she was little. The sound of her small feet running through this place would have been so welcome each morn.”
“She will visit, I am certain of it,” said Calain soothingly.
Zelda held back tears. “Y-Yes, she will visit . . . one hundred years from now? Two hundred? A sorceress can only live three hundred years, but tis rare to exceed two hundred. Melvalda . . . she was ancient, but it was due only to the jewel she wore. It ceased her aging so that she could be with Talaedra.” Zelda laughed sadly. “I should have asked her to make me such a necklace, so that I could wait for my babe to return.” The tears finally came, and Zelda cast her pale lashes down as Calain frowned sadly and caught one with her kerchief.
Calain rubbed Zelda’s hand. “Dear Zelda, do not weep! It breaks my heart so. What if I . . .gave thee children?” she asked tentatively.
Zelda looked up, staring at Calain intently. There were ways, of course, and she had wanted it, but she didn’t think Calain had felt the same. And there was the fact that it was a complicated spell. Meddling with procreation had always been considered a Dark Magick to the Order of Vira. They had not taught such spells at Vira’Toss. Zelda wouldn’t even know where to begin.
“I was speaking with my mother,” went on Calain. “She lived with a sorceress for years, they were lovers. And she learned that it was possible for a sorceress to have children with another woman, without the use of a potion. She wished to have children with Eachna, but she was too old at the time. Her thin blood hadn’t the strength to bear forth.”
“But you are sterile,” said Zelda uncertainly.
Calain smiled and shook her head. “That won’t matter. You would only need my hair and my blood. You wouldn’t even have to give birth. You would . . . grow the child, in other words.” She laughed. “I suppose like a carrot.”
Zelda laughed as well but stared at Calain, intrigued. “I must hear more of this from your mother,” she said. “It sounds like a complicated spell. I am not so great a sorceress as you like to boast.”
“You are,” said Calain, looking down at Zelda with a doting that made her blush and look down. “But you needn’t ask my mother. She hath told me all that must be done . . .” Calain rolled her eyes to the ceiling and said irritably, “Me thinks she doth desire grandchildren.”
Zelda laughed. “Hath she been pestering you, my knight?” she asked sympathetically.
“A little,” said Calain, smiling. “But she never thought she would have grandchildren or that she would even see me again! No doubt she thought my anger was eternal, and that I would never come here.” She frowned at the place on Zelda’s head where the brick had hit her and reached out and cupped Zelda’s face. “Perhaps we should not have.”
Zelda tilted her head against Calain’s warm touch. “We had to come here,” she gently reminded Calain. “The Rose Guard would have slain us!”
“Yes,” said Calain, sadly remembering. “Still, at least we are safe now. The queen of Honione has been slain.”
Zelda’s eyes grew round.
“There is war brewing now between human and elf, and Queen Cilia has forgotten about us for the moment.”
“Mayhaps she’ll be slain next, and then we can go on with our lives,” said Zelda, remembering how greatly she had disliked the young queen, who had sent her into Eido Loth, likely with no intention of her return.
Calain laughed softly at Zelda’s words.
Zelda looked up. “So what do we need to create this child?”
Calain’s eyes brightened. “Then you are willing?”
Zelda nodded and squealed with laughter when Calain shouted and hugged her tight.
***
WHEN CALAIN AND ZELDA approached the others about having children, they were ecstatic. Calain was surprised. She had thought that – after the stress of raising Aereth, everything that had happened with Queen Anindel, and with the war between elves and humans looming on the horizon – the other knights would be firmly against bringing more children into the family. But Selene, Cassandra, and Gweneth were all enthusiastic about the prospect. Selene didn’t just want one child, she wanted three, while Cassandra enthused about having a child to sing to again, and Gweneth brightly anticipated having a new audience for her rambling stories. And so, with the blessing of all four knights, Zelda began the process.
According to Lowri, creating a child would require blood, hair, and a Crystal of Indiris. The crystals often grew in wetlands and riverbeds, which meant they could be found there in Honione, in the Aelwith Wilds. Calain did not relish the thought of venturing out among minotaurs and ogres again, but she wished for Zelda’s happiness to be complete, and while no child could replace Aereth, she thought more children could sooth the wound.
As Zelda prepared their blood and hair for the creation of the child (apparently, it had to be “fused”), Calain donned her armor and ventured into the swampland with Selene. Gweneth and Cassandra had volunteered to come as well, but Selene cautioned them to stay behind, reasoning that two knights on foot would draw less attention than four.
As much as Calain resented it, Selene was right about yet something else: because it was just the two of them traveling on foot, the creatures of the swamp largely let them be. Sleeping ogres stirred, stared at them a moment, and then lazily turned over, deciding they weren’t worth the trouble, and minotaurs sat on rocks and picked their noses and also ignored them.
“I do believe these beasts were drawn to our horses,” said Selene quietly as they passed two female ogres, who watched them grimly from the trees, their great breasts sagging in bras made of fur. “The horses would make a fine meal for any one of them, and they would likely wear the bones.”
“And Zelda,” said Calain darkly. “I do believe the minotaur did lust for her. She was the reason it chased us so.”
“Yes, I had suspected that as well,” agreed Selene, thinking angrily of the creature. “Here . . .” Selene pointed.
Calain looked and saw a cluster of crystals growing from a puddle just beneath a barren gray tree. She took a knee and pried them up carefully, then placed them in her satchel. Then she stood, and they continued walking, their eyes searching the damp earth for more.
“Do you think of having a child with Zelda?” Calain asked. “We could grow as many as we like.”
Selene hesitated and admitted, “All the time. But she was your lady first, and so the two of you shall have the first children.”
Calain looked at Selene fondly as they walked. “You know,” she said, “I do believe she was both our lady first. This life we are living now was always meant to be. Or so it seems.”
Selene laughed. “Aye. Who would have guessed journeying here would grant us a beautiful enchanted castle? The gods doth smile on us.” She hesitated and frowned as she said, “Or perhaps tis too good to be true. Come clean, Calain . . .”
Calain tensed.
“Zelda did tell me that she sensed an odd magick about you, a magick that was not her own.” Selene paused, and when Calain didn’t speak, she went on, “What price did you pay for the life we now live?”
“I paid no price,” lied Calain at once. “As ever, you worry too greatly, and your suspicion is for naught.”
Selene was not convinced. “Whatever it was, you should not have made the decision alone. And yet, you would scold Zelda for doing the same –!”
Calain looked around.
“Yes, she told me. You scolded her for running off to Melvalda and sacrificing herself,” Selene sounded angry now, “and yet you—!”
“Zelda gave herself to Melvalda because she loves me,” said Calain calmly. “I know that now. And I did give myself to Brigid because I love Zelda.”
Selene sighed. “You gave yourself how? Not that it matters, as I shall not be able to protect you from it!”
Calain paused. Selene was furious, and Calain was realizing with a happy little skip that it was because she cared.
“And you need not look so pleased with yourself!” Selene snapped when she noticed Calain smiling. “Here—there are more of them.”
They knelt to collect more crystals.
Calain straightened up, carefully dropping the crystals in her satchel as she confessed with a deep breath, “I did pledge myself in service to Brigid—”
“Calain!”
“—and she may summon me as she pleases, when she pleases.”
Selene grabbed Calain’s arm. “Thou art a fool! An utter fool! Do you not think this sorceress will abuse this power over you?!”
Calain tensed. “It matters not! Zelda was nearly slain because my actions hath dragged her from danger to danger! She needed a home! She needed security! And I gave it to her the only way I knew how—”
Selene bitterly shook her head and kept walking – very fast now. Calain followed, annoyed – but not surprised—that Selene had not supported her decision.
“Brigid may be thy sister,” Selene said darkly, “but thou art strangers, raised many miles apart, having never lain eyes on each other until mere days before—"
“She will not do anything to upset my mother!” Calain insisted, walking fast after Selene, who—.in her anger – was marching ever more rapidly.
Selene suddenly stopped, took a breath, and said gently, “Your mother will not live forever, Calain. Why did you not come to me? I am more thy sister than Brigid!”
And suddenly Calain understood: Selene wasn’t just frightened for Calain, she was also jealous of Brigid.
“I acted alone to protect all of you,” Calain said. “This way, none of you shall be hurt.”
Selene sighed and wearily shook her head. “Calain, dost thou truly believe none of us would be hurt should you perish?” She didn’t wait for an answer, instead turning to face the castle. “Come. If we linger, the others shall miss us and believe we are in peril.”
Excitement leapt in Calain as she realized: it was time for the final step. She was going to be a parent.