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THE CORONATION WAS everything you might have expected, as was the wedding of King Parick the Second and his lady, now Queen Veresa. With great pomp and circumstance the weight of a kingdom was set on the head of a young man, in the form of an ancient and glittering crown that looked like something out of a fairy tale. The head under that crown would never bow, I knew. This young man and his queen would be equal to the tasks ahead, of that I had absolutely no doubt.
There were festivals and parties throughout Morvain, ranging from fancy royal balls to wild scenes in the streets. Veresa took Sid in tow and dressed her appropriately for the coronation and the celebration that followed, something I thought would put my Island warrior seriously off the mark. I should have known better. Sidraytha wore that dress and the hairdo like she was of royal blood and born to such things. We danced the old formal dances as we helped our friends celebrate ascension and marriage, and Sid was simply magnificent. She seemed to think I looked pretty good in courtly fashions as well.
Trey sat back in robes of white and blue, sipping wine, watching us with a look of fondness on his pale, elegant face. You’d never call him a party animal, but he seemed quite pleased by it all the same.
Two days after the coronation, Parick summoned Sid, Trey, and me to accompany him on an outing. With Veresa on his arm he hustled us out of the palace, his personal guard ahead, around, and behind our party. The royal couple, followed by his champions and an Alvehn, surrounded by liveried soldiers with polished ceremonial breastplates and rifles, can’t be expected to go anywhere unannounced. There were happy crowds around us, as word spread, and so the players when we found them were anything but surprised to see us. Master and Mistress Malley had them set up in a large park not far from the palace, with a good crowd gathered for the evening’s performance. They were at first shocked and then delighted when their old friend, now their King, didn’t join the audience, but instead laid aside his robes and dressed to fill a part in a well-known play.
He was a pretty good actor. I guess he’d have to be, to play the role of a King.
When the excitement in Morvain began to ebb, Sid and I made our way to a modest inn near the University. There we met the parents of Willame. They’d long since heard of Willame’s death from Tensta, though they were anything but reconciled to that reality. At first, they were just barely civil toward Sid, but as Sid spoke to them they saw the pain she endured, a grief they shared. In the end they embraced her, for Willame’s sake.
One night, shortly after that encounter, I wondered aloud what the future would bring. Sid and I were in bed, becoming drowsy, talking softly as lovers do. The task was done, and justice was restored for the time being. Trey had decided to stick around and continue the work of the Alvehn in advancing the civilized regions of this world. It was time for me to decide where to go next. I was certainly in no hurry to go home, and I said as much to Sid. It was an unsubtle hint, of course. Sid became very quiet, then said she was too sleepy for such weighty matters, and with a yawn faded away beside me. I agreed that it could wait, settled an arm around her, and fell asleep.
When I woke up she was gone. Not just gone from the bed, but packed and departed. On the nightstand by the bed, she’d left that little crystal pendant she’d worn through it all, the one with the paired colors representing her God and Goddess. I held it before my eyes a moment, letting a ray of early morning light shine through it, then put the chain around my neck. How she’d managed to slip away without waking me was baffling, but that barely registered when I realized what she meant to do.
I dressed quickly and bolted from the room. As I followed her trail using the directions of palace staff who had seen her pass by not too long ago, I started to feel as foolish as I did confused. We’d agreed to make no commitments, and I damned well knew it. She was free to go wherever she wished, with or without me. But to leave without saying goodbye? That was the confusing part, almost as confusing as how upset I was at the thought of her going. So when I caught up with her in the courtyard, readying a borrowed horse, I had no idea what to say.
“I thought you would sleep later,” was all she said. Preparations complete, she turned to face me, holding the reigns in one hand.
“You could have waited and said goodbye.”
“I thought it would be easier for both of us this way, under the circumstances,” she said. “Perhaps there’s no easy way. But...” Sid shrugged a little. “Daffyd, I will never forget you and the adventure we shared. But it’s time for me to go home. I have, after all, found what I came here for, the strength of this land.” Then she gave me that smirk I’d grown so fond of. “Though strictly speaking, it wasn’t the strength of this land.” The smirk faded into a fond smile. “I will always be grateful to you for that.”
“I’ll go with you, if you like.” The words seemed to fall out of my mouth, as if my lips had gone numb. Even as I spoke I could see in her eyes what her answer would be.
“There is no need,” she said with a gentle smile. Was it my imagination, or was there a hint of sadness in her eyes? “But you are a good man for offering. Thank you, Daffyd Outworlder, for letting me be part of your legend, if only for a little while.” She made the sign of the Two, got on the horse, and rode away toward the harbor without a backwards glance.
“Just like that,” I said as my heart turned to stone. But what had I expected? What did I have a right to expect?
With a sigh, I turned around and found Trey standing there, still in the Alvehn robes that seemed to impress the locals so strongly. “Surely you are not surprised?”
“Shouldn’t I be?” The words came out rather harsh.
“She is of the Isles of Wulde, after all,” he replied, as if that explained everything.
“We did have an agreement,” I muttered. “Time to live up to my part of it, I suppose.” Even then, there was the unsettling sense that I’d missed something.
Trey laughed quietly and said, “There are times when you are too noble for your own good.”
“Me, noble? Don’t make me laugh.”
“Come,” said Trey, putting his arm around my shoulders. “Let’s see about breakfast, and think about our own plans.”
“I don’t really have any, right now.” We strolled together into the castle, headed for the dining hall.
“I will go north and help heal the rift between Morva and the Sobrans,” Trey said. “As part of that process, it’s been decided by the Council to introduce radio to Adrathea. You’re welcome to come along, of course.”
“Diplomacy isn’t my strong suit, old friend.” I drew a breath and sighed. “I’ll just go home and pretend to be retired again.”
“Pretend?”
“Oh, come on! You’ll get into trouble again eventually,” I replied with a smirk. “And you’ll know where to find me.”
“As likely as not, on both counts.”
I packed later that morning, and rode away, bound for the Rip Station. I took only my sword and some food in the shoulder bag, along with a few odds and ends. On impulse, for memory’s sake, I tossed the goggles into the bag, and thought of Ironwing, now on her way back to the Gryphon Heights. Two of the three I loved most on this world were going back to their lives; the third was on a new mission. I was just going home, and I’d begun to wonder what that really meant.
By midday, that feeling of having missed something important was growing and gnawing away at me. As I rode, I figured out what it was. Our parting words replayed in my memory, and I was appalled what I’d said. Or rather, failed to say. Had I really let her ride off like that, without telling her how I felt?
Could I just let her go?
I told myself it was a moot point. We’d gone our separate ways, and there was nothing for it. Sid was on a ship and well out to sea, on her way back to the Islands and her people. I couldn’t follow; you didn’t go to those Islands without permission. There was no ship that would help me catch up to her, no captain who would take the risk, if I lacked that permission. I’d have to swim after her.
I was riding through woodland, on the lightly traveled road, going barely fast enough to reach Kalerain before sunset. Suddenly, none of that mattered. I was going the wrong way; I could feel that right down in my soul. I turned the horse around and started riding hard back the way I’d come. It was hopeless, and I knew it, but I couldn’t just leave. I had to try — something.
As I broke from the woods and into open country I heard, high and shrill and thin, far overhead, the cry of a gryphon.
In that cry, I heard my name.
A moment later, I heard it again, louder and much closer. Almost too late I kicked my feet free of the stirrups, and huge claws plucked me from the saddle. Loft made my skin crawl, and the world seemed to drop away from my feet. The horse I’d ridden was dashing away in panic, the poor beast. Ironwing pushed me up and over her feathered mantle and mane, onto broad shoulders and a powerful neck. Great wings beat as we rose, and we picked up the speed she’d lost dropping down to sweep me out of the saddle.
“Ironwing!” I shouted. Of course it was.
She soared away and west, to where a tall hill rose from the wooded commons near the road. Ironwing landed on the broad rocky dome at the top. “From whom do you flee?” she demanded, peering down at the road below.
“What? I wasn’t running from anyone. I was just in a bit of hurry. And I thought you’d gone home?”
“Not yet,” Ironwing replied.
“So you’re watching over me again?” I couldn’t help smiling through the sadness that had grown in me. “And thought I was in need of rescuing?”
“Someone must.” She paused, looking back at me. “You could have asked. There was no need to ride a horse when one of us would gladly bear you wherever you need to go.”
“I wanted time to think,” I admitted. “I needed to figure something out.”
“Sidraytha.”
“I let her go, Ironwing, and I didn’t try to stop her. Now she’s on a ship sailing away, and I can’t stand it!”
“On a ship that left this day?”
“This morning,” I replied.
“Ha! She can’t have gone very far. Not in a boat. Come. We will find her!” Ironwing lofted and beat her wings, cut to one side and grabbed an updraft, swiftly rising high into the air.
The goggles I’d stuffed into my shoulder bag were now over my eyes. I couldn’t think of a thing to say, and my feelings were badly and deeply mixed. If Ironwing thought we could catch up with Sid on her ship, then we would do so. But what then? Would my confession change Sid’s mind? What if I laid it all out there for her to see, only to find out the feeling wasn’t mutual? I was making a hell of an assumption. After all, she’d tried to ride off without saying goodbye. And yet there was that strange feeling, like I’d missed something vital. A dozen times the words were right there, to tell Ironwing to turn around and take me to the Rip Station, if she really wanted to help. But I didn’t say it — I couldn’t — and the gryphon Queen flew resolutely to the east, passing over Morvain and its harbor and out to sea.
The shore was well behind us when she cried out in triumph. “I see a ship. I see her!”
After all I’d experienced since Trey pulled me out of retirement, I was suddenly frozen by doubt and anxiety. But I could see the tall ship of the Islands, sailing steadily between the shadows of the clouds through which we flew. Ironwing angled downward, quickly gaining on the ship, and cried out the name, “Sidraytha!”
We circled the ship twice, and watched the crew scurry about. Sid was there, all right, watching us with her hands on her hips. Beside her stood a tall, broad-shouldered man with a bearing that marked him immediately as the master of the ship. On our second pass, the Captain raised an arm and beckoned. Permission to come aboard was granted. Sid was at least willing to talk.
All I had to do was figure out what to say.
The crew quickly trimmed the sails, slowing the ship, a great courtesy on the part of the Captain. Ironwing came in, slowed, and found space aft to land. As soon as she did, I slid off to face the Captain. I unbuckled my sword, pulled the sheathed blade from around my shoulder, and set it on the deck between us.
“Keep it, sir, and be welcome,” he said in a loud, rough voice. “You’d be Daffyd Outworlder? My niece speaks highly of you.”
The ship’s Captain was her uncle? That was a lucky break; we might have been waved off by anyone else. “I am, Captain. And I apologize for this intrusion.”
“No need,” he said. “You do us a great honor. And you,” he added, turning toward Ironwing, “are Ironwing, the gryphon Queen? Aye, a great honor indeed!”
Ironwing acknowledged this with a nod, but said nothing.
Sid came to stand by the Captain, who gave her a nod and took a few steps back. There was no real privacy, with the crew all around us and above us in the rigging. This seemed not to concern Sid, who crossed her arms over her chest and said with evident patience, “Daffyd, why are you here?”
There were so many ways to answer that question. I’d thought about it all the way across that bit of ocean, passing between and through clouds, all the while wondering, what could I say that wouldn’t just screw things up worse?
I met her eyes and said, “I love you, Sidraytha. That’s why I’m here.” Because it really was that simple.
She gave me a patient look and sighed, shaking her head a little. “You are a good man, Daffyd, and an honorable one. I will never forget the time we spent together, or regret the adventures we shared. I know you believe this is the right thing to do, but there is no need. The choice was mine, and mine alone. You have no obligation...”
“Obligation? What the hell are you talking about?” I was aghast and baffled all at once. “Sid, listen to me. I’m in love with you and I don’t want to lose you!” I waved back toward the now barely visible coast. “That’s what will happen if I step through that Rip and return to the world of my birth. In no time at all you’ll be someone’s grandmother, telling tales of the Outworlder, and I’ll barely have aged at all. Time isn’t the same, where I come from. There’d be no turning back, no second chance, and I can’t — I can’t do that again!”
“Daffyd...” Her eyes had widened as my voice rose, and I tried to rein in the sudden desperation that filled me.
“Tell me the feeling isn’t mutual,” I demanded. “Look me in the eye and tell me you want me to go away and leave you alone. I’ll do that, if it’s really what you want.”
Sid stared at me, wide-eyed. I honestly couldn’t tell what she felt from looking at her. She opened her mouth twice as if to speak, but said nothing.
“Niece,” said the Captain.
She made an abrupt half turn and snapped, “What?”
The Captain was looking at me over her shoulder, one eyebrow raised. “He doesn’t know.”
“How could that be? How could he not know?”
“Not know what?” I demanded. “What the hell is going on here?”
“He is not of this world,” was her uncle’s reply.
Sid whirled back to face me, an open-mouthed, wide-eyed study in frightful realization. I’ve seen that look on people who’ve just heard a bullet zip past one ear. It seemed wildly out of place, this time, but there she stood. “Oh, Daffyd, forgive me. I assumed and — I am such a fool!” She closed most of the distance between us, then reached out and grabbed my right hand between both of hers and pressed it against her belly. “Obligation,” she whispered. “This.”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. Just as well. With breath in my lungs I would surely have said something stupid.
“I told you, once, that I’d come to the mainland to find its strength, and you were puzzled by that. What I found was you.” Her voice was softer and her eyes glittered. “This is how we keep our people strong, you see, by bringing new blood home with us. For a man, it would be a wife. For a woman, sometimes a husband, but often just the child. I assumed you knew, because here on this world when a woman conceives, the man knows. He just knows. So I thought you knew I was with child and I was afraid you would stay because you felt you must, out of a sense of duty, and not for love’s sake. And I — didn’t want that from you.”
“Sidraytha...” That was all I could say. It seemed sufficient.
“You see truly,” she went on, her voice still low, and barely audible over the sounds of the sea and the ship. She was holding both of my hands by then. “I do love you. And yes, please stay with me!”
A second later we were holding each other. There was no kiss at first, just an intense need to hold on, to know that it was real and we were together. It had been such a near thing. And then we did kiss, and it was greeted by shouting, laughter and — no kidding — applause from the crew around us. Ironwing let go a shriek of triumph, as if she’d won a great battle. The kiss lasted long enough that the response faded to self-conscious coughs and the shuffling of feet on the deck.
And then we were laughing as we held on to each other.
Ironwing made the whistling noises of a gryphon greatly pleased by what she had seen. Sid turned to her and hugged her neck, and in a voice muffled by feathers said, “Thank you, dear sister. A truer friend we could not know!”
“You fill my heart, the two of you,” Ironwing said. “And I am honored to have been a small part of your story.” As Sid stepped away and took my hand, Ironwing shook her wings and said, “I have a mind to see these Islands of yours, where once upon a time my people had an aerie. Do you think I might be welcome there?”
“You would, indeed,” said the Captain.
“Good! Then with your permission I will take these two and fly to the Isles.”
“May the Two give strength to your wings and guide you safely across the sea,” the Captain replied with a bow.
We left Sid’s belongings on the ship, except for her sword and the goggles that she had kept — for much the same reason I’d had. We climbed to Ironwing’s back, Sid in front with me holding her from behind, and Ironwing lofted into a sky clouded with puffy white. Below us the crew of the good ship waved and cheered, then we were among the clouds high above, and headed due east. We were going...
I made a mental note to have a message sent to Jorge about the ranch. It was his, now. I wouldn’t be needing it anymore.
I was going home.
