There were three humans still left, blindly thrashing about in the forest. One was clearly running away, he could tell by the receding sounds, while one was still approaching the fire, and one was near him. With one hand holding his injury, he dropped the staff in the other hand and pulled out his sword, then snuck beside the human closest to him and stabbed the man in his kidneys. His victim gave a loud, sobbing scream of pain as he fell, and Kestrel administered a lethal blow out of mercy.
The bow sounded again, and Kestrel heard the final human hunter fall among the leaves on the forest floor. “That’s all of them,” he called out to the other two elves, “ and I’m coming in to the fire now.”
The other two returned to the fire as well, and met him there. “Kestrel, you’re hurt!” Hinger exclaimed as they came face to face. “Do you want to drink some of the healing water?” he asked, preparing to go in search of the water skin.
“No,” Kestrel answered sharply, and they both looked at him in surprise. “If I touch it, my ears and eyebrows will start to grow back to elven form,” he belatedly explained. “I’ve learned that the hard way, and had to undergo surgery twice to look human.
“’I’d rather not have a third surgery,” he added with a grin. “Hinger, you’re on duty now,” he told the elf, and he went to his bedroll to lay down. He slept uneasily that night, as the pain of the cut across his stomach troubled him, but awoke shortly after dawn nonetheless, and helped prepare the camp for their departure. He went out into the forest and raided the packs and pockets of the dead men, then they resumed their journey, and he jogged alongside the horse with its double load of elves into the southeast.
That night they had another fire to provide some warmth as the evening grew cooler, as Hinger and Termine debated whether their feet were healing, or if it was just their imagination. By the third evening of their journey they concluded that they were regrowing the lost limbs, and they mounted no watch as they decided they were beyond danger of discovery.
Seven days later the group reached Firheng, a return to the Elven nation that made the two former slaves cry with appreciation. They walked in through the city gate with less in the way of a limp as their feet continued to regenerate, and Kestrel led them into Belinda’s office to report to Commander Cosima.
“Kestrel! My husband whispered my name this morning!” Belinda cried tears of real joy when she saw him. “I’m really going to have him back!”
Cosima listened in amazement to Kestrel’s story of rescue. “I had no idea you would do any more than see the edge of the city and return,” he exclaimed when Kestrel was finished recounting the tale.
“Colonel Silvan will want to hear your stories,” Cosima told the two returned guards. “He’ll ask you so many questions you’ll discover that you know and remember things you couldn’t possibly be aware of during your time in captivity.”
“And his wife will have more of the healing water, to help your feet grow back further. You’ll not need anything else,” Kestrel assured them. It was true that their sores had disappeared and the scars they bore had shrank and faded into relative obscurity. “When you see Alicia, tell her Kestrel says thank you.”
They drank ale that night and talked with Arlen over dinner to celebrate their safety back among elves. “You know,” said Termine, “after a while I didn’t even notice he looked like a human,” he observed late that night, as he placed a hand on Kestrel’s shoulder. Kestrel grinned at the backhanded compliment.
The next morning Termine and Hinger were given a messenger tube to take to Colonel Silvan, and they left Firheng to make their way back to Center Trunk, the first elves to return from their captivity among the humans. After he watched them limp away from the gate of the guard base, Kestrel went back to see Commander Cosima again.
“You made more of your training trip than I expected Kestrel, and you did great work that was good in more than one way — it was good for those two men, it was good for our people, and I suspect it might even have been good for you,” Cosima said.
Kestrel nodded his head in agreement. It had been an eye-opening trip. He had started the trip with his memories of the prejudices that elves had shown against him because of his human characteristics, and questioning the moral values of elves versus humans. The decadence he had seen in Green Water, particularly the practice of slavery, showed him that humans did not occupy a moral high ground versus elves. And the eye-opening exposure to seeing elves as slaves had awakened a passion in him to achieve another goal while he infiltrated the humans — he would seek to rescue other elven slaves as well, if they were to be found.
“So, the seasons have moved along, and we need to get you up to Estone so that you can sail out before the shipping lanes freeze closed for the winter. Here are your orders from Silvan, with details on how you should plan to send messages back to our side once you’re over in Hydrotaz,” Cosima passed a folded sheet of paper to Kestrel.
“You’re good to go as of now,” Cosima rose. “And I don’t know if we’re likely to see you back here in Firheng again for a long time. I know you’ll have to be back in the Eastern Forest within a year and a half, as your ears start to grow back. I hope we’ll get a chance to see you pass through here. I’m sure you’ll have some interesting stories to tell,” he said as he walked towards the door and opened it.
“And you’ve got some friends here who will want to see you again,” he added. The commander held out his hand and shook Kestrel’s. “Go with the peace and protection of the gods.”
“Thank you, commander,” Kestrel replied as he felt the strong grip. “I look forward to seeing you again with some entertaining stories to tell.”
He turned to see Belinda, who was standing and facing him as he heard the door to Cosima’s office close behind him. “Oh Kestrel, come back to us safe and sound!” she said as she hugged him. “I want you to have dinner with Ranor and me.”
“I look forward to that,” Kestrel said gently. They pulled away from one another, and stared into each other’s eyes, then Kestrel stepped back. “Good bye, Belinda,” he said softly, as he left the room. His pack was in his room, ready to go; he soon picked it up, and put all his weaponry on, then left Firheng on his way back to Estone.
Chapter 30 — Jonson’s Needs
Kestrel stood on the road, looking at the walls of Estone not far away, as they glowed red in the sunset’s light. He’d taken three days to travel this far from Firheng, three days that he had spent scrubbing his mind of his feelings that he was once again an elf pretending to be a human. For the next several months, he knew he had to convince himself that he was a human — he needed to feel it in his heart and be able to convince everyone around him that there was nothing elvish about him. The words of the blacksmith in Green Water still replayed in his memory — “Are you a human or an elf?” Even when he looked and acted most human, the smith had found something about him that raised the seemingly preposterous question.
Those circumstances had been unusual though, and he didn’t expect to see another elf for many weeks or months to come. And starting with his passage through the walls of Estone, he would have to put his Elven identity as deeply under cover as possible. He took a deep breath, then resumed his journey towards Estone, and half an hour later he passed through the gate.
He needed to find a place to spend the night. He had spent the whole journey north thinking about that question more than any other. He wanted to go see Merilla first — first and foremost — to see what reception he would receive, and what feelings might be ready to flare up between them, if the gods were to capriciously decide their romantic timing was allowable now. But he knew that he was only going to be in Estone for one or two or three nights, until he had arrangements to sail away, and he would be treating Merilla in a manner that was callous if he simply visited her briefly to satisfy his own desires, then left.