Chapter 9
Chapter nine
Lenna
Getting her legs working again was difficult. As Merrick waited on Lenna to take his hand, she noticed a thin, delicate golden ring on his finger.
It seemed such a jarringly odd piece of jewelry for the rugged gargoyle to have, that Lenna focused on it a beat longer, until her mind buzzed her back to the present with the knowledge that she was irrevocably changed.
Down to her core. From magic imbued in these lands.
Now, her life stretched out in front of her–seemingly endless and overwhelming.
With one last glance at the bright gold ring, Lenna reached up and gripped his hand. He hoisted her out of the dirt easily, before resuming his silent walk towards where-ever-he-said they were going.
As she brushed herself off, Lenna mulled over everything Merrick revealed, ruminating most on his comment about her new lifespan in a land of magic. If she was unhappy with how the last thirty years of her life played out… How was she supposed to fill the next seven hundred?
Merrick seemed quieter after their short conversation, the uneasy silence prompting Lenna to continue her monologue about her past life.
She wasn’t going to walk for gods knew how long and be alone with her jumbled-up thoughts.
As they trotted down the road, jovial music began trickling towards them.
Lenna could make out tall, dark stone walls in the distance, an obvious confirmation that they were nearing some sort of civilized town.
As a thought niggled to the forefront of her restless mind, Lenna caught up to Merrick, hurrying her steps as she fell into place beside his brisk walk. “How long were you watching me in Doortan?”
Merrick raised an eyebrow, his brown hair swinging into his face with the movement. He met her eyes briefly before replying, “A while.”
“Days? Weeks?” Lenna pushed, continuing to match Merrick’s long strides.
Merrick sighed, looking back towards the city sprawled in front of them, before admitting, “About a month.”
Lenna slowed. A month. Her headaches had started a month ago, right when Merrick began watching her. Merrick, realizing she had once again fallen behind, slowed his steps. “Why’d you stop?”
Shaking her head, Lenna plastered a fake smile on her face.
“Nothing. I just feel like you could’ve saved us both some trouble by announcing your presence sooner, rather than later.
” It was an uneasy feeling, knowing that Merrick had been in Doortan for a month.
She wondered if the gargoyle had been privy to the tears that she shed, the sadness she had been encapsulated in, the nights she woke in a cold sweat from her nightmares.
She wondered why, now, he bought her here.
Was it a test?
Did she pass?
She felt guilty, as if she let him down by being bedridden for so long. Had he waited for her to begin feeling better before taking her here?
Merrick grunted, averting his eyes from hers. Lenna watched him fiddle with the golden ring on his finger, but he provided no more information. Lenna fell silent as they walked the last few miles towards Spinella.
As she crossed through the town’s gates, she felt the transition from dirt path to slick cobblestone under her boots, the city alive and thrumming in front of her.
She had a quick moment to drink in the bustle, the bursts of new sights, music and color, before Merrick stepped into her field of vision.
“Keep your hood up and your head down,” Merrick advised quietly, gently tugging her hood over her hair. “We don’t need to draw any attention to ourselves here.”
Lenna swallowed. “I thought you said Spinella was safe?”
Merrick bent down, adjusting her cloak so her curls stayed put behind the heavy fabric. “We are going to meet my friend. He is safe, and there are protection wards around our meeting place, which is very secure. I just want to make sure there is no trouble getting there.”
Lenna took one more longing-filled look at the city alive around her.
Colorful flags dipped and danced from two-story stone and wood buildings, merchants shouted above the din of musicians and shoppers, naming their wares and prices.
The overlapping chatter sunk into Lenna, and she shrunk closer to Merrick as they hurriedly wove through the shopping district.
Merrick’s large body half covered hers as they made their way past carts of oddly smelling meats and cheeses, weird fruits that Lenna peeked at from under her hood, and garments ranging from silk robes to shirts with holes in the backs for wings.
A merchant shouted near her, and Lenna quickly averted her eyes, panic rising, as she suddenly felt very small.
Her mind wanted to ask why they were avoiding the townsfolk, why Merrick was so guarded and on edge, but she wasn’t sure she was yet ready to face those answers. Merrick had said he would tell her. A small piece of her trusted that.
They passed through the shopping district quickly, and she breathed a sigh of relief as they entered a less occupied part of Spinella. Lenna raised her head a fraction as the voices and noise dimmed behind them. They were on a side street with sleepy looking shops lining the cobblestone path.
A bell tinkered, and before Lenna could look away, her breath hitched.
“Fae,” Merrick said under his breath catching Lenna’s reaction to the svelte body, the almost feline eyes, the delicately pointed ears of the strange woman that exited the bookshop in front of them. “These lands, on the continent of Irridessen, are home to humans, gargoyles, and the fae.”
“I’ve never seen a woman so beautiful,” Lenna whispered as Merrick half-dragged her past the store.
Merrick dipped his head. “Female–not woman. With the motley of beings who live here, we go by female, male or just species name if one does not identify to one or the other. And the fae have excellent hearing,” he muttered as the female giggled in their direction. “And are always annoyingly beautiful.”
“Oh.” Lenna paused, blush creeping up her neck as she realized the fae female heard her compliment. Merrick steered her away as the fae smiled again before disappearing in a flash of blue light. Lenna stopped dead in her tracks, gaping at the place where the fae had stood a split second before.
“They also have magic. Some fae can disappear from one spot and reappear a half second later someplace else, like that fae just did–it’s called waning,” Merrick continued, pulling Lenna with him.
When Lenna didn’t so much as turn her head to acknowledge she heard him, Merrick stopped and put his hands on either side of her shoulders.
She jumped out of her trance and stared up at him with wide eyes.
Merrick seemed to stare at her for a long moment. Then, he took a deep breath and rubbed his beard with his hand. “I’m sorry, this is all so new to you, and I truly keep forgetting how much of these lands are not spoken about in the Slate Kingdom.”
Lenna stayed quiet, chewing her lip until Merrick began walking again, slightly slower than before as they wound their way through alleyways and buildings. As they left the rest of the shops behind, Merrick quietly explained the basics to Lenna, in a voice barely above a whisper.
Merrick spoke of gargoyles first, not to Lenna’s surprise.
He described how the horns of a gargoyle were typically passed down through heritage, how gargoyles were blessed by Alke, the God of War, who gave them gifts of agility and strength.
He explained how he could use his wings in this form as well as his sentry form.
Then he went into fae. Glossing over the ridiculous beauty and the pointed ears, their superb hearing, and their physical strengths–less than that of a gargoyle, he noted as a smug smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
Lenna tried to follow the flurry of information, grateful that Merrick had begun to open up as he explained the complex history of the fae–noting that even he didn’t fully understand how gods chose to bless different lineages with differing powers.
Some gods and goddesses could grant fae the ability to bend elements to their will, conjure up a storm of rain to water their fields, start a small fire to light kindling for cooking.
Some fae could wane from one side of the continent to the other, others could only manage a few miles.
Other gods could gift unique, more deadly magics, though those were few and far between.
The God of Water, Beyos, could bless you with a trickle of control over water, or the ability to influence the tides.
The Goddess of Destruction, Aella, could give you the power to start a forest fire or to shape lightning to your will.
He noted that all fae had some type of magic, though there was only a small percentage that held anything extraordinary.
And some gods did not bless anyone, preferring to keep their magic to themselves, never to be shared with those who walked the land.
He grumbled under his breath that there were darker gods, like Phades, the Goddess of Death, who preferred to keep their powers under wraps, not trusting any beings with their unknown gifts.
He made a small gesture of reverence, that Lenna mirrored, as he spoke of the Goddess of Death who ruled the afterlife from the god realm, Minmere.