“This will be the true assignment,” Silvan began.
“I’m sorry Kestrel; I didn’t mean to say it offensively,” Alicia interrupted, returning to hand her patient a small mug of painkiller.
“It’s okay,” he muttered in reply, then began to drink from the mug, and looked at Silvan for more information.
“We will assign you to travel up to Estone, to take a ship from there to the Great Sea, and then back through the Inland Seas to Graylee. We want you to learn what is happening in Graylee and Hydrotaz; they are the ones attacking us,” Silvan told Kestrel. “With the seasons starting to change, we’ll want to get you moving before the shipping lanes close down, and we’ll want to get you into Graylee in time to join their forces before they begin attacks next spring.
“I’ll write most of this up and send it with you in a messenger tube to Firheng. You can spend a few days there practicing your skills, while I put together more details and plans that I’ll send up to you in the next few days,” Silvan explained.
Kestrel nodded his head as he finished sipping the bitter drink Alicia had prepared.
“Let’s let Kestrel get some sleep,” Alicia suggested. “We can send him on his way in the morning.”
Once they all departed, Kestrel lay back on the thin cushion of his cot and thought about his return to human form. He’d have to skulk along the roads for the next few days to get to Firheng, and he’d need to keep a hood up at all times, as well as sleep in trees, no matter what the weather. And he’d have to remember to take another skin of healing water back to Belinda, he decided, so that she could continue to treat her husband.
Amid those random thoughts, sleep overcame him. He awoke the next morning to the sight of Alicia, dressed and active, preparing another dose of willow bark for him to take. “And here are the powders for three more,” she gave him a small leather pouch.
“May I have a skin of healing water?” Kestrel asked.
“What for?” Alicia asked, examining him.
“There’s a woman who works at the base in Firheng. Her husband was badly hurt years ago, and I’ve been trying to give her some of the water every chance I can so that he can recuperate,” Kestrel answered.
Alicia bent under a cabinet, and rose holding a skin. “Here’s your skin for your friend; you’re the one who brought it all, so you ought to take what you want. Just be careful about exposing yourself to the water, you know.”
She quickly began to examine his ears and eyebrows again. “You’re cleared to go,” she told him. “Be careful Kestrel. I can’t do anything for you once you’re on your way, but I’ll think about you and pray for you.”
“Thank you, Alicia,” He said as he stood. “Do you have something with a hood I can wear to go see Silvan?” he asked, looking around.
“Of course! I didn’t even think about the fact that you look human again. Let me run and get something,” she exclaimed, and left the room for several minutes.
“I hope we part on better terms this time than we did last time,” she told him as she handed the cowl to him minutes later.
“We do. I understand better this time, and you didn’t try to trick me this time, I think,” he replied. He pulled the cowl around his shoulders and lifted the hood to cover and shade his face and head, then walked to the door and turned. “Farewell,” they each said at the same time, and smiled, before he left the building to return to his quarters and get his belongings.
Minutes later he was back in the building on the top floor, passing Giardell as the guard held Silvan’s door open for him.
“Here are your orders,” the colonel said as he held out a blue taped message tube. “Commander Casimo will put you to work fine-tuning your training and giving you more time to spend with horses; depending on what happens in Graylee, you could ride a horse quite a bit. They keep very large herds on the plains,” Silvan said. “I’ll send more information about your future within a week, so you won’t be trapped in Firheng too long before you can get to Estone and visit your human friend on your way to the docks,” he smiled gently.
Though Kestrel wasn’t sure what he would do or who he would see in Estone, he nodded politely. “I’ll do my best. I never thought I’d become a spy,” he said.
“None of us do, Kestrel. But I think you’re making the adjustment as well as can be expected. We wouldn’t want to have you as a spy if you were too interested in skullduggery and deceit,” Silvan replied. He rose and walked Kestrel to the door. “Put your hood up and have a good trip,” he said, then watched Kestrel leave, and went to the window to watch him walk away from the building, on his way to becoming a spy for the Elven nation.
Chapter 29 — The Gamble
Kestrel felt that he spent his entire journey to Firheng walking into a blustery autumn rainstorm. His journey started out in nice weather, but after half a day the clouds rolled in, and his first night in a tree was when the rain started. After that the rain continued for the next three days, so constant and cold that Kestrel decided to forego a tree one night and built an impromptu shelter in a small gulley, letting his hair dry that night out of the rain. Nothing else ever got dry for the rest of his trip, and he was exhausted by the time he arrived at the gates of Firheng at sunset of his fourth day on the road.
The woods had been crowded with elves all along the route of his journey, leaving him in constant fear of exposure to the workers among the trees. It was nut harvesting season, and every elf that could be spared in every small village throughout the Eastern Forest was at work, gathering bushels of nuts that would be roasted, ground, treated, baked, and used in every way possible. The elves loved the robust flavor of nuts, much preferred it to grain, as a source of food that could be shredded into flour or otherwise processed. Kestrel kept his hood tightly bound upon his head as he passed the forest workers who walked and bent over throughout the forest, who left great bushels filled with nuts along the roadside, waiting to be carried back to the silos and storehouses where they became the property of the elven people.
Upon his eventual arrival at Firheng Kestrel went to his usual room and undressed and unpacked, spreading items out to dry, as he found a few dry items in his things that been left behind in his fourth floor bedroom. After pulling those clothes on he went to the commissary and picked among the leftovers for dinner, then went back to his room and slept soundly through the night.
When daylight came he was glad to see that the rain had finally stopped. Kestrel picked up his messenger tube and the skin of healing water, then went to Casimo’s office. He arrived before either Belinda or the commander, and sat down on the floor outside the office door, awaiting the arrival of someone to receive him.
Belinda arrived first. She walked the dim corridor towards him, unable to tell who was at her office until she was close and he rose to stand. “Kestrel!” she greeted him with a friendly laugh and a hug.
“Here,” Kestrel told her, before she had even unlocked the door for their entry. “I brought you more water,” he held the skin before him.
She looked at him with grateful tears in her eyes. “Thank you Kestrel. He continues to regrow his hands and his eyes. I dream at night about maybe having a talk with my husband again someday, and when I wake up I think it could be possible.”
She stood for a moment, overcome with emotion. “Goodness! Here I am keeping you standing out in the hallway while my mind is a hundred trees away! Let’s go in the office,” she said as she juggled the items in her hands and brought out the keys that unlocked the door.
Within the office Kestrel took a seat and watched as Belinda bustled about, preparing the office and putting things in order for the day. “Was it worth it?” he suddenly asked as he watched her.
“Pardon me?” she asked.
“Was it worth marrying someone who hasn’t been a partner for so much of your marriage? If you had it to do over again, knowing that Ranor would be like this for so many years, would you still marry him?” he wanted to know. He wanted to know if a happy marriage with a partner for a short time was worth giving up so many other long years.