Card Tales - 4. Tale 4

Cardanniel woke up slowly to the low hum of voices in the darkness around him. "I think he's waking, Dart. You really shouldn't have brought him here," came an angry female whisper.

"Where else was I supposed to bring him? He risked his life for Riva."

"She would have survived the bite once her system had time to rid itself of the poison."

"He didn't know that," Dart whispered back. "Just like he didn't know better than to try and heal me. He just did it. He's a good man, mama, and he bought me for the night. I owe him the whole night."

"It's shameful what you do. Your sisters… well, they understood their part of the bargain, but you, Dart?"

"Nel is dead mama. He would have us all dead. We can't stay here."

"I can't leave. Don't you understand that? The curse your father put on me keeps me here until he returns. I have needs Dart."

"Riva doesn't have to stay, nor do I. I don't know what you did to papa to make him tie you to that tree, scrawny little thing that it is, it's amazing it still lives."

"Just go! You and Riva both you ungrateful brats," she screeched.

Cardanniel moaned. His head ached. Dart was by his side in a moment. "How are you feeling?"

"Been better, been worse, but definitely been better," Cardanniel attempted to make the boy laugh.

"You scared me. I didn't know which room was yours and I didn't know if you registered under your name or another so I didn’t dare ask. It's nearly morning now, but if you want I can help you to your room."

Cardanniel attempted to sit up and his head spun a little before clearing. "Yes, I think that would be best. I have things I must attend to in the morning." With Dart's help, they walked back toward the Traveler's Inn. Dart had taken him behind a little used storage shed to recover. The only thing that niggled his mind was how the boy got him there without anyone helping. Cardanniel knew he was not light by anyone's measure. They paused at his door and Cardanniel checked the wards and the tell, everything was as he had left it, so they entered. He only needed a little help undressing to lay on the bed and Dart took a blanket to lay by the door.

"Lay here with me, it's big enough."

"Are you certain?" Dart asked shyly.

"I am," Cardanniel said soothingly, "you can not help how the goddess chooses to bless you, Dart. You heal quickly, it's not such a bad thing to be able to do."

"Thank you," Dart sighed into Cardanniel's chest as he snuggled up to sleep for a while.

"Anytime," Cardanniel murmured as he drifted back off to sleep.

It was midmorning before they woke again. Cardanniel rubbed his fingers along the rough stubble on Dart's jaw line, forever amazed at this basic human need. His stomach rumbled and Dart opened his eyes. "You wouldn't happen to have a shaving kit would you?" he asked sleepily then caressed Cardanniel's cheek with his lips. "True-blood?"

"As true as it gets," Cardanniel replied, "but you are in luck, I do have a kit, even if it's never been used."

Dart extracted himself from the bed and began his morning absolutions as Cardanniel found the kit and began his own morning ritual. When he finished, he sat and watched Dart shave. "I will be leaving sometime today. Meet me in the common for lunch and I will let you know what arrangements I have made for you and your sister."

Dart put the items back in the kit and looked at Cardanniel, "I will speak with Riva, she may have her own plans."

"May Meliae guide and protect her," Cardanniel said almost out of habit as he dressed again as a member of one of the mountain tribes, this time tying a scarlet scarf over the tips of his ears and letting his hair flow loose down his back under it. Over his eyes, he placed a white mask with two scarlet stripes.

"I've seen that design before, what does it mean?"

"It means it is best not to speak to me in public," Cardanniel said to him in all seriousness as he slid his sword in place. He knew from experience he looked nothing like the priest who arrived yesterday, yet he was still a priest. "The life-giver sees all, knows all, and metes out the same justice to all." He leaned over and kissed Dart before picking up his empty wineskin. "Lock the door behind you," he said as he exited via the window in broad daylight.

Dart watched him go, yet wondered if he had seen him at all.

At lunchtime, Cardanniel waited in a small room off the common dressed in his normal priestly attire, cowl and all. It was time to move on. He sat composing his mail to his mentor at a writing desk with stylized ravens carved into the wood. It was a pretty piece for an Inn, and probably belonged to the owners. When he finished delivering the news he had to impart, he sanded the page before rolling it tightly and sealing it with wax. Then to let his mentor know the letter was authentic, Cardanniel pressed the pommel of his heart-dagger into the hot wax leaving the impression of a dragon in flight. The letter then went into a brass tube, which he sealed separately, this time with the sigil of his 'order'. When he was finished, he handed it to the merchant with whom he entrusted his 'special order' of two hundred candles, very special candles; light them and run for they would explode when the wick ran short. Cardanniel grinned. The merchant would not steal from a priest and live to tell about it.

Finally, it was time and he still had not decided exactly what to do about Dart and his sister. He could secure them passage anywhere they wanted to go, but where would they want to go? He ordered a bottle of rum and sat in the corner thinking as a goat turned on the spit. Soon he was not sitting alone.

"He paid us. For all our work, for the three of us," Dart said as he slid along the bench next to Cardanniel. "We aren't rich, but it's enough to start over."

Cardanniel poured them out each a measure of rum and toasted their success. "Now where would you like to go?"

"Where else is there?" Riva asked. She was the younger of the two sisters, yet still older than Dart.

"There is a whole world out there," Cardanniel waved his hand.

"A world that would accept people like Dart and I?" Riva asked plainly.

"If you learn how to walk the path the goddess lays out before you, anything is possible," Cardanniel said with a smile, "what is it that you want to do, Riva?"

"I want to see the ocean."

"Then see it you shall."

"I want you to take me there."

"Me?" Cardanniel asked, surprised.

"Is it an impossible task for one as talented as yourself?"

"My path may not lead me to the ocean."

"Then… a river. A large one though."

Card thought about it and it seemed to him that there was a river of sufficient size several days walk to the west. "To the river then," he toasted.

Dart smiled and asked, "So what all do we need? I'm sure we can get outfitted for just about anything with the caravans still here."

"Did you attend to Nel's last rites?" Cardanniel asked suddenly.

Riva glanced at Dart then met Cardanniel's eyes. "Our custom dictates the dead be burned as life-giver goes down. I asked the gnomes to tend to it tonight. They were worried about finding sufficient wood though for a proper pyre, but I helped them remember that scrub behind the old storage sheds."

Cardanniel felt Dart tense up as his sister spoke, but he did nothing to speak against her. Blessed Aglaia, the children were going to sacrifice their mother to give their sister a proper burial.