Hella looked around the fire at the new faces in their company. Its been barely a year since they found Kivi in that field, and up until then, it was a struggle just to keep food on the table. Since that day, except for the odd times when the world wanted to take what they had, their actions felt blessed by a higher power. Or the lower power that cursed their steps had been turned away from them.
New faces meant more swords on their side, and more bows to watch their backs. The cutpurses left them alone, as Kivi always seemed to notice when they were being watched. She remembered the first time they walked through the streets with all that gold from the sale of that stone.
"Fast hand." Kivi cried delightedly. Banus looked down where Kivi had pointed and saw the sack being gently removed from his belt. He broke the teen's fingers for trying to steal from him.
The forest felt restless tonight. A palpable shadow lingered in the air that she couldn't place, but it might also have to do with the exhausted child strapped to her back. His exhaustion could have affected her, but she wasn't sure of much when it came to Kivi. When he was tired though, she felt the weight of that exhaustion just as surely as he did.
"What's the job this time?" Jaana was deadly with her bow, Stelhand, and fiercely loyal to Kivi. After his gift of the bow that he shaped with his own two hands, she stayed as close to him as possible. Even now, she sat beside Hella and gently rubbed his back, and neck. It was like petting a kitten, and something the Mirri did naturally. She loved Hella, Banus, and Mena, but shared a special bond with Kivi that frustrated and angered Mena. Her daughter wanted to be the center of everyone's attention again, even if that meant she had to grab it away from her brother.
Hella commanded the archers, which were primarily women, while Banus ran the swordsmen ragged, though Kivi seemed to find his way into the middle of any group, or fight. They couldn't keep him out of harms way either. No matter how often they told Mena, or even had Jaana watch him to keep him safe, he always managed to find his way to the battlefield. Their fear of those instances always proved to be unfounded. The soldiers never targeted a child, and they always regretted it.
He threw a stone larger then himself one time, and crushed a soldier who targeted Jaana, while a small stone he threw went through the visor of a fully armored knight. He had turned on Hella, and her arrows couldn't punch through his plate armor. The stone took out one eye and gave Jaana enough time to aim Stelhand and punch through his helm.
He was a deadly enemy to have, even if he didn't seem to understand that it wasn't playtime.
"Its not a mop up job this time. We're to go in, disrupt their supply lines, cause some chaos, and sweep back out again. That will allow the bulk of the king's army time enough to hit their lines hard, and reduce the casualties on their side." Jaana grunted.
"But it won't reduce our danger one bit. We are the first strike. They won't be prepared for us, as we don't operate the same as an army, but they will regroup quickly. We'll lead them into the forest, lose them, and draw them back out again. That should give the army enough time to set the field to their advantage." Kivi snuggled in to Hella's neck, as he was being held to her back by a shoulder strap.
"This forest?" Jaana asked. Banus nodded.
"Aye, this one. We'll draw them here and make them pay for it. Those were the instructions we were given by the commander." Kivi sniffed the air, and frowned.
"Bad smell." He sniffed again. "Black. Thick." He laid his head down again. "Bad." Banus frowned, while Hella closed her eyes thoughtfully.
"Bad? Black and thick?" Her eyes opened quickly. "Oil!" She looked around quickly, and pulled some leaves away from the forest floor. It was cleverly poured among the roots of some trees, and covered with leaves to hide it. The commander who ordered the oil poured here knew that they wouldn't light a fire near to the trees. Only a fool would put a fire near so much fuel.
"Bloody hell, we're in a field of fire!" Banus slid his new sword out of its sheathe. It was a gift from his son after their last battle, in spite of Banus's protests, and he had never hefted its equal. The steel was strong enough to retain an edge after many hours of sparring, and had very few nicks after a hard battle. It absorbed the impact of other blades, and stole the force of the strike. It was also why Kivi could barely raise his head.
The cost of this blade was the energy he needed to operate for the week.
"Shh! They don't know we're aware of it yet! They expect us to attack, then retreat to this area! Since they didn't inform us of this plan, I think they plan not to pay us for our work!" Mena watched her mother's face close in anger.
"Momma? What's going on?" Hella looked down at her daughter, and sighed sadly. She was only to be a support for the mainline swordsmen. Mena was deadly with her bow, but she was still only thirteen, and had not yet matured into a young woman. She still had a naivety that made her frightened for her, just in case they got separated.
"Its a trap." She closed her eyes. "This wasn't for them alone. It was for both of us." She hissed. Jaana notched an arrow.
"Ambush?" Hella shook her head.
"Why pay gold when you can take out your enemy, and not have to use your army either?" She pinned Banus with a glare. "I told you we shouldn't have accepted work from this king! He's a double dealer!" Banus looked a little embarrassed. He thought it would be easy coin, but that plan has gone to hell. Then he looked thoughtful.
"So? What's the plan then? Do we have one for treacherous kings and generals?" Mena bit her bottom lip, then smiled.
"Light and run?" Kivi lifted his head.
"Mena smart." He was extremely tired, so that effort was unusual. Jaana smiled and pulled her into a warm hug.
"Good idea, little one. It will spring the trap faster, and alert the king's enemy. Then the king's army will attack, and find an enemy that hasn't been weakened. Nice plan!" Kivi smiled at his sister, then lowered his head to Hella's neck, and snuggled into the softness of her hair.
"That will leave us vulnerable within that bastard's cities once again, but not dead. There is always gold to be had from merchant guilds for guards." Kivi inhaled Hella's scent, which brought him a scowl from Mena, his sister.
"I think we should go north." Jaana said, and after she noticed a few glares from the rest of the group, she sighed. "They don't know our group in the north, and these two kings here in the south seem to want to annihilate each other. There are more Mirri up north too." She turned away. The fact that she was half Mirri didn't sit well with some of the other soldiers, but she was now family. No one would ever chase her away. "We go north, wait until they've pounded each other down, then go back to mercenary work after the winter passes." Hella smiled softly at the young woman.
"Well done, Jaana." Jaana blushed lightly, a little bit in awe of Hella and Banus, and how they treated people. They took her in during the coldest part of the previous winter, when she was starving, and treated her like an older daughter. The slightly pointed tips of her ears, and larger oval shape of her eyes told them enough, while the thick hair that ran down the nape of her neck resembled a mane, just like other Mirri who were full blooded. Jaana thought she was maybe half, but she wasn't quite sure.
Her mother was abandoned by her father when she was born, and her mother died of a broken heart a few years later. She knew what it was like to not have a family, but now that she had one, she would protect it with utter ruthlessness.
"So, what do you all think? Get ourselves north until things cool off, and work some small jobs to carry us through?" The looks were a little bit dark until she laid it out for them. "Either that, or we all split up and go our separate ways. Our larger company has the attention of the king, but smaller pockets will evade him. You guys can go your way, and hope to not be noticed, but you'll be on your own from here on out. If you do, you'll get your cut, and we'll wish you well. If you stay, you'll still get your cut that you're owed, but we'll all help you stay alive."
In the end, only three of the swordsmen left, and one of the archers who was attached to a soldier. Otherwise, their group stayed a good size, with a few returning to their home to retrieve their gear, and anything valuable. Hella assigned the most loyal and nimble fingered of their number to do that.
"Jaana, we'll meet up with you a day's journey north of this battlefield. Be safe." She hugged her, and watched while the woman leaned down and hugged Mena. She then leaned in and laid her forehead against Kivi's cheek.
"Be well, little one." Kivi lifted a hand and laid it on her cheek. She felt her body grow warm, and fill with familiar energy. Her eyes grew wide in shock. The voice that had spoken to her within her dreams since she was a small child rumbled from another's lips. It was clear and not so childlike.
"Come home safe."
"I'm beat! How are you able to run so quickly and for so long?" Her friend asked her. Jaana sat quietly on the stump of a tree and chewed on a piece of dried meat. She thought back to the warm hand on her cheek, and the ages old look in that child's eyes.
"I don't know." She looked up for a moment. "Wait here. Recover and be ready to move." Jaana didn't wait around to give her an explanation. She moved silently and faster then she ever could while trying to be silent in the past. Whatever Kivi had done, it gave her the speed she needed to enter their home, grab what they needed, and leave again, and all before the guards entered. When she was out the window, she watched them cave in the front door, and begin looting it.
On their way back to their company, her companion quietly voiced her thoughts.
"I'm glad we are with Hella and Banus! Any other company, and we'd all be dead right now!" Jaana nodded, and thought back to the small brown haired boy with steel gray eyes.
Just what kind of person can destroy a golem all on their own, mold metal like it was clay, and give her enough energy to make this journey and not feel tired in the least?
Come home safe. A man's eyes hidden behind a child's body. Steel grey eyes that flashed with power. And a voice that rumbled from her dreams for over a decade.
A dream of a stone city ruled by the Stone King of the Elukka. A king with steel grey eyes.
"You've made it!" Hella said, her voice hushed, and a worried look in her eyes. "We weren't sure you got in and out safely!" Jaana sighed, relieved to be back within their company, and that they were safe.
"It was close, but we got in and out before they started to loot our home." Banus came up to her side.
"The king betrayed us from the start then. I'll have to remember to send him a souvenir of our journeys." Jaana smiled, her eyes hard.
"Steel with feathers attached." Banus laughed lightly.
"Aye, that it will have. Go look in on Kivi, will you? He was quite restless after you left, but can't open his eyes. Its like he went through a war of his own." Jaana silently thought about that information, and the dark look in Mena's eyes.
That girl loves and hates him. Poor confused child. Better see what's going on with the little guy.
She followed Hella into the tent she occupied and found Kivi laid on his belly, growling in his sleep.
"He's been like this since you left. He won't wake up, no matter how I try to rouse him, and he won't stop growling! He's angry about something!" Jaana laid down beside him, barely aware of Mena's presence in the tent, and softly touched the boy's cheek. Jaana wasn't quite sure how old she was, but she was nearer to fifteen winters, and had no siblings, or children of her own. When she looked at Kivi, she wondered what life would have been like if she had been human, fallen in love and had children, like other humans.
"Kivi." She called softly. He opened his eyes, smiled softly, and closed them again. He slept on, but stopped growling.
"Ugh!" Mena said in a huff and stomped out of the tent. Hella looked at her, a frown on her face.
"Why did he calm down for you, Jaana?" Jaana stood up and sighed.
"He was worried when I left. He felt the danger I was going to walk into, and didn't like it. He's something else." Hella relaxed when she turned her gaze to her. "I'm glad he has you, Hella. No one could love him more."
"He's my only son. No one will take him from me without a fight." The words were hard, but the look in her eyes was soft. She didn't even consider that Jaana might try to wrestle control of the child from her. She was that confident in her loyalty. And to her surprise, Jaana felt Hella's arms come around her shoulders, and hug her gently.
"You're family too. Never forget that." Jaana sighed, but smiled as well.
You never have to worry about me, Hella. I will never take away your family. I am just a little jealous of the attention you give to them, but not much. You have more then enough love to go around.
"Why does he look so sour this morning?" Jaana asked Kivi's mother. Hella chuckled softly.
"He wants to make me and Mena a bow. She won't let him, mostly from spite I think, and I will not allow him to use his energy up like that." She closed her eyes, and Jaana could see the worry upon her brow. "It costs too much. He....ages."
"I know. Its only been a couple of years since he made me Stelhand, but after he made his father that sword, he grew older, and stronger." Hella lifted her eyes.
"And harder."
"I didn't want to say it, but you're right. He sometimes says strange things I don't understand. Wind whispers? Tasting the air for emotions? And he says that the stone tells him things."
"I think I understand the wind whispers part." Hella calmly replied. "He is teaching me how to listen, and hear things I didn't know were there. I don't know how he tastes the air though. He's not talking about smells, like a snake, but actually flavors that people radiate by their moods."
"He often knows when I'm down, even when I hide it." Jaana looked uncomfortable. "He says its because I stare at him, but I wasn't even looking in his direction!" Hella smiled.
"Were you thinking about him?" Jaana blushed. "You were. Remember that though he's my son, he also is not my son. He's a boy, but not a boy. You've seen his eyes?" Jaana's gaze jerked upwards and locked on her own. "You have then. Steel grey eyes."
"And old. Who is he, Hella?" She asked in a small quiet voice.
"He's my son." She said simply. "Until he says otherwise, it would be prudent to treat him as such. Learn all you can from him, Jaana." Hella captured her chin and forced her to look up into her eyes. Hella was a large framed robust woman, and nearly as tall as her husband. The angle felt more pronounced since Jaana was lean, lithe, and of average height.
"My son is fond of you." She shook her head free of Hella's grip.
"He's fond of Mena." She said a little bit defiantly.
"Mena's a girl. You're a woman."
"And he's a boy." Jaana responded, though neither of them believed it.
"Oh, is he?" She pointed out the window to where her son sat quietly in the shade. When he believed no one watched him, he picked up a stone larger then himself, shaped it with his hands as though he wielded a hammer and chisel, and sat upon the fresh shaped surface.
No boy could do that.
"Its been a few years since we've been back here." Banus growled lightly under his breath. "Why did I agree to accept this job?" Hella put her hand on his arm.
"Things are lean up north right now. The guilds are finished fighting among themselves, so there are no offices to put back on track." He grumbled.
"You mean put back under their control. I still don't like what I'm hearing. New power? Magic? This doesn't bode well for common men." Jaana sighed sadly.
"How are they doing it? And what is magic?"
"Its not magic, Jaana." She frowned and looked to her side. Kivi sat on the cold stone of the floor and looked more comfortable then she did sitting on a chair.
"What do you mean, Kivi?" He turned towards her, and she was reminded, for only a few seconds, of the steel in his gaze. As far as she could tell, it appeared at random, and when she least expected it. Jaana pursed her lips slightly. Whenever she thought about this boy, she grew confused, and felt like a small girl again.
He was no longer the boy she first met five years ago. He had aged nearly twice as fast as a normal human male, and now looked around twelve. But he was no child.
"Magic is what people dream of. Doing impossible things. These people are different then us. Their power is in their body, and they learn to use it over the course of years. But its dangerous, both to the user, and to the target."
"How is it dangerous to the user?"
"If you want fire, you need to figure out how to make it. Fire can appear in nature when things are really dry, and the sun focuses on that dry spot. The spot grows warm, then hot, and there are flames. They can use lenses to focus their heat, not quite sure how, and the lens focuses the power. It creates a burst of fire, or lightning, depending upon what powers it up. Improper use, or preparation, can make it backfire. Also, its quite limited. Only one type of energy per person, and it takes a lot out of them to even use that charge." Jaana sighed.
"How do you know this?" He lowered his eyes.
"I was only young when I first saw them try it, so things might have changed a bit, but the overall memory is there. The guild had developed a new weapon. A new power." Banus grunted.
"Maybe we should acquire one of these lens apparatus. Figure out what they accomplished, and if it could benefit or harm us. But one thing is certain. We need the work." Kivi lowered his eyes again.
He couldn't agree, or disagree with that assessment. Things felt strange right now. He was used to a base knowledge of how things should be, and how they would go. But now, the very air around him felt heavy. Tense. Like a bow strung far too tight. When that happens, the bowstring will eventually break, and cause harm to the archer.
The question wasn't how long it would take for the string to break. The question was would the string break, or would the bow?
"Where are we headed?" One of the archers asked. She didn't appear too interested, but the question was a necessity.
"The edge of the king's lands. The inhabitants have avoided swearing their fealty to our king, so they are being given one last chance to do so." The young man who blended turned his way, but it was one of the female archers who questioned him further.
"I wasn't aware that this area was under the king's command. I thought it belonged to the beast folk who roam the mountains and meadows on the fringes." Mena sounded a little saucy, so Kivi reached out and took her hand. She looked his way in surprise.
"My sister is a smart woman." He said quietly. She looked away, and tried to regain her anger. She didn't want to admit how right it felt to have her hand in his, so she snatched it back when her mind could focus. Once his fingers were gone, she felt colder, and more alone.
"True, but the king recently annexed this area, and wants to turn it into farmland to feed his army." The company looked a bit more interested now.
"Did the king tell the Elukka that?" Hella asked pointedly. The soldier shrugged.
"Does it matter? With no titled ruler, or army to protect their lands, he can take it without their permission."
"But the reason there's been peace for so long is that the Elukka agreed to leave our people alone, if we would do the same. Its been a spoken treaty for hundreds of years."
"You've been hired to do a job! Not to question the king's orders!" The whole company turned to Banus and Hella respectively.
"We wait." Hella said firmly. The archer placed her hand on her shoulder.
"Are you sure?" She nodded.
"Until motives and actions match." The weary soldier shook his head. He couldn't understand the undercurrents within the company of soldiers, but they came highly recommended by the merchant's guild. They could get the job done even when it appeared impossible. The only caveat was that things had to be fair, legal, and without corruption. The problem was that when you deal in politics, all of those things were out the window.
Peasants were jailed, lands confiscated, and bribes given to local leaders for information needed to secure the area. As long as they did what they were paid to do, things would go well.
If they didn't do their job, he had his instructions.
"They smell sour." Kivi said softly. The guard looked at the boy with a frown.
"What does he mean by 'sour'?" Banus turned his way.
"Mind your own business." He said harshly. "And remember my words. If I find a blade of yours turned our way, you'll not make it back to your king to make your report. Are we clear?" The soldier shrugged.
He's been threatened more times then he could count, and it always worked in his favor. They never got the chance to make good on their threats. But his own thoughts began to mirror the boy's.
"This whole job feels sour."
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