Luminous Luxuries Part 3

 

Damlyr D’Shiva, Grace of Yllian watched the scenery rumble past with a distracted lack of interest.  The scenery actually held little to catch his eye; for it was like any other scenery that he had seen in his many years of traveling to and fro.  The usual sights could be found whatever the setting; people and bustling business in the bigger cities, slower and quieter reflections of the same in the towns and villages, and all of it interspersed with farms, and fields and forests, and lakes, rivers and streams, with the occasional shadowy range of mountains off in the distance as a backdrop for the setting.

Damlyr sighed, and wondered if old age was finally getting to him.  He had actually allowed himself to sit through a boring diatribe of Grace Lor’s, with first listening to the man describe the sundry virtues of High Lord Alston Braden of House Braden, whom he knew to be a gambler and a tyrant and maybe even worse though he could not prove it.  That Lor had never actually suggested Alston as Damlyr’s Heir only made it more obvious that having Alston named as Heir would be Lor’s fondest wish.  When Damlyr failed to bite on the topic of High Lord Alston, Lor had moved on to talking about his dear lovely little daughter Brenna, who at fourteen was apparently eagerly awaiting a proper suitor, again nothing was overtly suggested, but Lor seemed to indicate that he would throw Brenna in with Alston as if her title might sweeten the pot, and then on the other hand Lor as much as suggested that Brenna could use an older husband to settle her down and take her in hand, which Damlyr understood to be aimed at him directly.

He did not as of yet have a named heir to take over for him when he ascended to the Havens.  That he had been looking for over ten years suggested to some that he was too picky.  And ruefully he did acknowledge that assessment somewhat; for he wanted to be sure that he picked the right man to lead his country.  If either of his sons were alive than of course he wouldn’t have a problem, but that was not the case.  Both his sons were dead each dying within just months of each other and both in tragic accidents that just shouldn’t have happened.  A capsized ferry crossing a wide swift river had taken his younger son Jerran, and his young family, thus denying him even his grandchildren.  A freak riding accident had taken his older son Eyan.  He had no daughters, and as an only child he had no nephews or even nieces to name as heirs.  It had been necessary to go back to his father’s and his grandfather’s lines to start looking for potential heirs and even though there had been quite a few, one after the other had dropped out of the running due to sudden deaths, or because of scandals, or for their own reasons.  He was down to six Blooded relations whose connections to him were tenuous at best but were still the best that he had to work with.  High Lord Alston unfortunately was one of those six, which showed just how desperate he was getting to name an heir. 

“Jai, do you think that I am too picky?” He asked glumly, directing the question within the interior of the carriage even though he continued to watch the unending monotonous scenery pass by.

“Too picky in what way my Lord?” rejoined a low mellow voice with a slightly slurred accent which made it sound as if the words were almost strung together in a long verse.

He smiled ruefully, and turned to look at his bodyguard, weapons master and occasional personal assistant, though Jai Hun Tay certainly would never consider himself the latter.  Jai was as exotic as his name suggested; he came from the distant shores of Toqar, a mysterious land to the southwest that for the most part was known only in legends and ancient histories.  But Jai’s appearance agreed with him being Toqarian for he had straight glossy black hair that he usually wore in a single braid, tilted lime green eyes and golden-brown skin.  He was tall and leanly muscular with a pleasant face and though somewhat stilted he was not without a sense of humor, and though he was only 22 years old Jai was unquestionably the most dangerous person Damlyr knew.

“Never mind Jai, I’m only ruminating.” He dismissed the question and decided to enlighten Jai somewhat on his conversation with Grace Lor.  “Lor wants me to name High Lord Alston Braden as my heir.”

“Someone should quietly arrange an assassination for Alston.” was Jai’s cool and perfectly neutral reply.

Damlyr barely stifled a half scandalized chuckle, because to even suggest assassinating a member of the Blood was considered an act of treason but since he actually agreed with Jai’s assessment of Alston he chose to ignore the suggestion while continuing.  “Lor also has a fourteen year old daughter hidden away somewhere, probably at some backcountry estate where he can see that she is molded into a proper and biddable wife.  He seems quite eager to offer her up to Alston, thinking that her title will influence me.  Either that or marry her off to me so that I can produce my own heir.”  He scoffed softly at the idea and continued, “As if I want to go through the bother of trying to court some young girl.”

Jai offered, “You do have a lot to offer a wife Damlyr, and you are not too old to marry again.”

Damlyr chuckled, “If and when I marry again I promise the woman won’t be some shy untried innocent.  I want a woman who is lush and ripe like a rose in full bloom, and I have no interest in rosebuds no matter how sweet they are.”

“Still,” he said after a moment, returning to the subject of Lor, “one does have to wonder what he’s working at.  What are his motivations?  He didn’t really bring up any trade issues when I saw him, in fact other then discussing the finer points of High Lord Alston and of course his daughter we didn’t talk about anything significant.  Plans…he wanted to design a new palace based on my secondary Seat at Cliffside…ah well, who can understand the man?  Nonetheless I suppose I really should name an Heir before the next Grand Council of Graces and to stop the Bloods from conspiring behind my back.”

Jai spoke amazingly in defense of the Bloods, which normally he didn’t do.  “It is a worrisome concern for them, not just for Yllian but also for the Graces of the other countries.  Their greatest concern of course is a war of succession, if you don’t have a named Heir that could indeed be the case.”

Damlyr sighed, “I know that, and I have taken precautions if I should die unexpectedly. I do have a named Heir in my Will.”

Jai didn’t ask, and Damlyr didn’t bother to divulge the name.  The agreement was a secret and subject to change if he did publicly name an Heir.  The one named in the Will actually had no wish to rule and was in fact a member of the Temple Order and he would have to give up his vestments if he were actually named as Heir.  But it did allow Damlyr some breathing room, knowing that if something did happen he wouldn’t be leaving his country without a Grace nor risking a war of succession, it also gave him a chance to find an Heir who he believed was suited to the responsibility.  He just wished he had more than the six left to choose from.

He sighed, suddenly feeling rather morose and turned to look out at the passing scenery once again.  He shouldn’t be looking for heirs, what he should be doing is totting his many grandkids on his knees, and preparing his firstborn to assume to mantle of Grace when the time came.  Sometimes, for no reason at all, he thought about his loss.  First Jerran and his family were drowned in a ferry accident.  Then Eyan, just months later, breaks his neck in a freak riding accident.  Finally his wife Merriya died, as some might say, while still mourning the tragic deaths of her sons.  While Merriya had been alive he had never wanted another woman, she had been the light of his light, and when she passed away a bit of his light went out with her. 

Damlyr wasn’t one to brood much though, even about his loss, he was fairly philosophical about it for the most part as the pain was like an old wound it still ached occasionally but it could be ignored usually.  Which he was deciding to do when he felt the carriage suddenly pitch and then shudder to a stop! 

Jai was already asking the driver what was going on.  When the driver reported something on the road Jai of course was suspicious, after all he was paid to be suspicious.  He decided to investigate to determine it wasn’t a threat to Damlyr. 

Jai stepped from the carriage and checked to make sure that the outriders were all in their proper positions around the carriage.  He nodded his approval in seeing that all of them had their weapons drawn and were ready for trouble if it should come.  He headed toward the front of the carriage, beyond the last pair of carriage horses and the first pair of outriders was the thing in question.  One of the footmen had already reached it and was kneeling to investigate, but Jai didn’t need anyone to tell his it was a body barring their way, for he could see quite well what it was.

The footman glanced up as he stopped beside him and said, “It’s a boy Master Jai, and barely alive he is.”

Jai impatiently asked, “And how barely alive is he?” he hated hearing anything described as barely alive, it was as bad as saying nearly dead, which just didn’t say a damn thing. 

“Well he is breathing but that’s about it.” The footman assured, “My guess he’s a runaway bond servant or something.  We should leave him on the side of the road for his people to find.”

Jai looked at the boy, taking in his physical condition, from the blood in his hair and on his face to the blood staining his nightshirt and legs, noted that under the blood and dirt the boy had very fine features and was likely of the Blood.  He doubted that the boy was a servant, everything about him was too fine and delicate to belong to that class, so in a few moments Jai deduced that the boy was more likely a runaway Blood from an abusive House, and from some of the signs he read in the blood patterns on his nightshirt and legs the evidence of what kind of abuse he had suffered made it clear as to why he had run away.  Then he frowned when Grace Damlyr’s voice rang clearly, “What is it Jai?”

Though frowning his disapproval, Jai could see that Damlyr had decided that he was safe enough with a three dozen armed outriders all around him and he had climbed out of the carriage and was even now striding over to where Jai and the footman were with the barely alive boy.  Damlyr murmured, “Goodness, how is he?  Is he alive?”

Jai nodded, “Yes, he is my Lord.”

“Then pick him up and bring him to the carriage, the least we can do is take him to the next village with us.” Damlyr instructed imperiously, and then he waited expectantly for his command to be followed through.

Jai himself bent and picked the boy up.  The youth was so small and delicate that he figured he had to be no more than 12 or so years old, which considering his condition just infuriated him.  The boy did not give any hint of regaining consciousness though.  Damlyr strode ahead of him, and even held the carriage door open for him so that he could climb in with the boy.  But when Jai went to lay the boy down on his seat Damlyr unexpectedly said, “I’ll take him.”

Jai was not really surprised though, for his employer was a gentle and compassionate man and the abuse this boy must have suffered undoubtedly was tugging at his heartstrings.  Damlyr settled the boy on his lap and tucked his face up against his shoulder, and he soothed the boy when he softly moaned from pain or maybe fear but whatever it was that partially stirred the youth out of his unconsciousness he did not come fully awake and after a few moments listening to Damlyr’s crooning the boy relaxed once again.

“Jai, check to see if there is a blanket in your seat’s trunk.” Damlyr softly directed.

Jai slid off his seat and lifted it, which revealed a trunk full of assorted sundry things, including a couple of woolen blankets.  He pulled the plushest of the blankets from the trunk and passed it to Damlyr, who took the blanket and carefully tucked it about the boy so that once he was done only the boy’s face remained visible. 

Next Damlyr asked if there was any water, and once he had that (Jai actually had to ask the outriders if any carried water in the wineskins rather then watered-wine which of course was the standard) Damlyr used one of his silk kerchiefs to clean the youth’s face.

“Jai,” Damlyr murmured breathlessly after he was done (Jai worried briefly that the boy was to heavy to be held that way), “come here, you have to see this.”

Puzzled Jai did as Damlyr bid, and once again he was seeing the boy’s face, he had already recognized the delicate aristocratic fineness of the youth’s features but now that his face was clean it was easy to see that the youth was also quite stunningly lovely.  Jai settled back to his own seat, “Well one can see why he was used the way he was.” He observed in a dispassionate tone.

“That’s no excuse!” Damlyr snarled, actually angry, though not with Jai.  When he looked at the boy though the anger melted from his face and only gentle tenderness could be seen on his kindly face.

Jai watched with growing wonder as Damlyr gently rocked the youth and stroked his dirty reddish-brown hair, he also noticed how Damlyr was very careful about keeping his fingers away from the patch of hair were the dry blood was heaviest.  He knew that Damlyr was a gentle person; he was very fond of children and he had an endless patience for their myriad questions.  But this was different somehow; from the moment that Damlyr had taken that broken child into his arms some other emotion had guided him.  It occurred to him briefly that Damlyr could be looking at the youth in exactly the same manner his abuser had, but then he scoffed at the idea for Damlyr was not interested in men and he certainly wasn’t a pedophile.  No there was something else altogether at work here and though Jai couldn’t be certain it seemed it was almost protective and paternal to him.

Then he recalled about Damlyr’s loss, how his sons had both ascended to the Havens while still so young and he realized that the boy must somehow represent in Damlyr’s mind his late sons.  It was true that both sons had died as young men and this boy couldn’t be much past puberty what with his small and delicate frame, but it was the emotion involved which was the same, not the persons.

With in an hour’s journey, the caravan rolled into a sizable village complete with two modest inns.  The head outriders who had ridden a little ahead had already arranged for a room in the better of the two inns and for a village’s doctor to attend them once the carriage stopped.  Jai once again carried the youth this time to the room that had been set-aside for them.  The doctor was as not yet in attendance because someone had had to fetch him, so between Damlyr and Jai they got the boy washed and redressed in one of Damlyr’s clean nightshirts.  While they had bathed the boy Jai noticed Damlyr’s growing anger as other signs of the abuse the boy must have suffered as more bruises, welts and scratches were revealed.  The bruising was especially evident around one wrist that was slightly swollen and warm to touch possibly indicating a strain or worse.  There was other bruising, especially between his slender thighs, but Damlyr couldn’t look at that at all because it made him so angry.  They didn’t wash the boy’s filthy hair either for concern of breaking open what ever was hidden there; that they left for the doctor to tend to once he arrived.

When the doctor did arrive he turned out to be a wiry old man who appeared to be at least 10 or more years Damlyr’s senior.  He was still fairly spry and his bright blue eyes were as sharp and clear as a child’s.  He barely glanced at Damlyr and Jai, other than to nod at each and introduce himself as Medic Glys Losh, before moving to the side of the bed where the boy was and beginning his examination.  He started by first peering into each eye and announcing as if to the room, “Mild concussion.”  He gently tilted the boy’s head up and from side to side, feeling around his neck and skull looking for signs other than the patch of dried blood in his hair which might also indicate another injury.  Satisfied that there was only one area to check he set about cleaning the blood away and he spoke as he worked, “How long has he been unconscious?”

It was Damlyr who answered, “We don’t know, we found him in the road about an hour or so back.  He’s been unconscious since we found him.”

“Hmmm,” was the old man’s only response for a while, then as he revealed the freshly seeping cut on the side of the boy’s head he murmured, “this injury isn’t very old, I would hazard that it is probably no more than ten or so hours old.  It doesn’t require stitches but I will wrap his head to protect the wound while it’s healing.  Does he have other injuries?”

“His right wrist is bruised and seems swollen.” Damlyr explained, and then he asked, “Do you recognize him?”

Medic Losh glanced at Damlyr as he gently cradled the injured wrist in his sure hands, then he looked at the boy’s serene face and shook his head, “No I’m not familiar with him, and he isn’t from around here.  Besides, he looks like a member of the Blood, my Lords.”

Jai murmured in his accented voice, “That’s what we thought.”

Medic Losh lowered the boy’s wrist and announced, “A bad strain I think, or a mild fracture, a little binding will help that, let me check the rest of his arm for stress.” And he did so with assured confidence, moving his fingers up the boy’s arm, feeling muscles and joints and examining the bone beneath as best he could, “There is more heat in his shoulder and elbow, indicating possible cartilage damage or strained tendons.  I think it will be best to bind the entire arm to protect it as it heals.”

“What-what if I may ask could have caused damage like that?” Damlyr wondered, approaching the other side of the bed.

Glys Losh thought about the possibilities for a moment than pronounced, “I can’t be sure, but if his arm was twisted behind his back, and then pressure was applied that could account for the damage.”

Covered as the boy was in a clean nightshirt the other evidence was hidden and the doctor wouldn’t know to ask about it.  Damlyr wasn’t even sure how best to tell the doctor where else to look, so it was Jai who came to his rescue.  “Dr. Losh, we think the boy may have been assaulted, there are—other injuries.”

The good doctor frowned darkly and muttered angrily under his breath, indicating a true loathing for whoever would commit such a vile crime as he lifted the nightshirt up enough to see what Jai was hinting about.  He looked at both Damlyr and Jai then, perhaps to ask them to leave while he examined the boy, but something in Damlyr’s expression possibly changed his mind, for he proceeded with his examination even with both in the room observing and listening as he continued to mutter to himself while he assessed the damage he found once he eased the youth’s slim legs open.  He sighed when he finished his assessment and as he lowered the shirt’s hem to afford the boy some modesty he confirmed their guess.  “It looks as if he were raped more than once.  And if you wonder why I use rape to describe an assault against a male it’s that I see no difference whether the victim is female or male, rape is rape what ever the gender.”  (In another context the term would be sodomized).

The doctor set about tending to the boy’s injuries and checked him over more thoroughly than either Jai or Damlyr had, he found that the boy’s feet were cut and sore and Jai mentioned that the boy had been bare foot when they found him.  When the doctor asked in what state they found the boy in (whether clothed or nude), Damlyr picked up the discarded nightshirt and passed it to him while saying, “He was wearing this.”

Medic Losh frowned at the filthy condition of the nightshirt, for a moment the blood stains on it that bothered him, however he jumped as if startled when some detail of the shirt itself caught his attention.  “Goodness, this pattern is the Luxor knot, only the royals use it in their clothing.”

Damlyr looked down at the exquisitely lovely boy and said aloud, “I have met Luminous Kelvin, and this isn’t him.  But still…there is something…ah of course.”  Damlyr’s eyes lit with sudden speculation and as he recovered the ruined nightshirt he indicated, “I think that I will be keeping this for the time being.”

When the doctor was done the boy’s head was wrapped in soft white cloth, his arm and wrist was bond securely to his chest, and ointments had been applied to his feet and other more personal injuries.  More ointments and cloths were handed over, with instructions of when to reapply or when to unbind and what to watch for in the case of the concussion since the boy couldn’t be awoken.  The good doctor was paid and he left, and a surprised Jai was left to confront his employer.

“I thought the plan was to leave the boy in the doctor’s care my Lord?”

Damlyr looked compassionately at the boy and murmured, “And risk him falling back into the same pair of abusive hands?  No, I changed my mind Jai, we will be taking him with us to Yllian.”

Jai shook his head and chided, “He isn’t like some lost pet that you can just pick up and take home with you my Lord.”

“Isn’t he?  I wonder….” Recalling a conversation in which he had been a forgotten participant in, one replete with inferences of lost pets and broken toys being thrown away like trash.  He patted the boy’s unbound hand and murmured gently, “No one will ever throw you away again my lad.”

Jai sighed and then smiled ruefully, “What are you plotting my Lord?”

Damlyr gave him a perfectly innocent smile and said lightly, “Why nothing Jai.  Would you please summon one of the footmen to carry him out to the carriage?”

Jai simply dismissed the idea and did the task himself, picking the boy and his blanket up off the bed and following his wily old lord.  Once again when Damlyr was sitting he settled the boy on his lap.  Jai watched as his lord inexplicably stroked the boy’s head and the silky strands of warm cinnamon shaded hair which slipped wildly free of the bandages, and from his lord’s thoughtful expression he suspected that Damlyr was plotting something but how the boy figured into it he couldn’t guess.  Jai did not like mysteries, the boy was one mystery and now his lord’s manner was another.  He was willing to bet that if he solved one mystery that other would resolve itself.

After a time Damlyr broke the silence, “Jai, do you believe in Strange Fate (the theory that all events whether good or ill are set off by other events that occur in ever growing circles)?”

Startled out of a doze it took Jai a moment to recollect the question, then he replied, “Toqarian’s just call it coincidence…but why do you ask?”

Damlyr snorted softly, “You Toqarian’s are too pragmatic…don’t you have any magic, any improbability?”

Jai remained silent, knowing that eventually Damlyr would return to the subject.  And when he was, he was enlightened, somewhat.

“Do you know that I hadn’t even wanted to go to Luxor?   I almost never do, because… well it’s foolish really but since Jerran died in Luxor I’ve never been able to look beyond that detail.  I don’t like Lor either.  This time though I decided to stop at Lor’s High Seat before passing through to Lathry.  I don’t know why I did since Lor is such a natural bore, as it was our meeting was interrupted so that I had to stop on my way back to finish up with Lor which as you know was a total waste of my time.  But as it was I did get to partake in a very unusual conversation between Lor and his son Kelvin.  It was to do with broken and lost toys.”

Jai raised a baffled brow, “My Lord, what—?”

Edam patted the boy’s shoulder, “I think that this is the broken and lost toy they were discussing.”

“Ah, of course, the nightshirt.  But you can’t be sure it’s him, it could just be a coincidence.”

“That’s true, but what I gleaned from Kelvin was that ‘Edam’ wasn’t something that you throw away, Lor of course didn’t share his sentiment and between the two of them they apparently managed to break Kelvin’s toy pretty badly…or at least that’s how it came across to me.  It was only this morning that Kelvin interrupted our meeting and accused his father of setting him up amongst other things.  We were only a few miles outside of Luxor High Seat when we found him, so our ‘runaway’ could conceivably have made it this far before he finally collapsed.”

“Conjecture.” Jai scoffed, “He could be anyone.”

“That is entirely possible, but I think it would be doubtful for him to be anyone other than Kelvin’s lost toy.”

Jai stared at the boy and thought how innocent and vulnerable he looked all bundled in the blanket, with his head bandaged and snuggled safely on Damlyr’s lap.  “Why?”

“Why what?” Damlyr frowned wonderingly at him.

Jai leaned back and folded his arms together, “If he is who you say he is why do you want him?  Do you want revenge or something against Lor?  How?  By denying Kelvin his toy, which I assume he wants back?”

Damlyr looked startled, “I want nothing to do with Lor, and as far as revenge goes…Jerran died in an accident for which Lor holds no blame.  As for Kelvin…would it hurt him so bad not to recover his toy?  Look at what he did to him.”

“If he is indeed Kelvin’s lost toy.”

“Yes…if.”

“Than…again my Lord, I ask you why?  Why take him?”

Damlyr stared at him for a moment, then looked down at the boy.  “If I said I didn’t have a good reason…would you believe me?”

Jai nodded with satisfaction and murmured, “Yes.”

Damlyr smiled wryly and stroked the boy’s wan yet sunburned cheek.  “Something about him…makes my heart light Jai.  I feel somehow that I’ve found something I hadn’t known I’d lost.”

Jai actually understood that, seeing the gentle older man with the hurt youth reminded him very much of a father with his son or grandson. Somehow in the injured boy Damlyr had found someone who reminded him of his lost sons and grandsons.

That thought however produced another, one that arose naturally in his suspicious mind.  “My Lord, forgive me…but considering what I know about Lor…could he be a trap?”

Damlyr didn’t even dwell on the question for a moment.  “For what purpose Jai?”

One reason why did surface, but Jai squashed it down as to nonsensical and lapsed into brooding silence, for he had no good reason to suspect the boy could possibly be a plant.  Indeed, for what purpose. 

²²²

Edam awoke to strange surroundings and strange people, he was lying a soft bed, beneath soft silk sheets and plush woolen blankets in a very nice room that while not exactly luxurious as he understood luxury from living in the Palace of a Grace, was still richly appointed.  A young female in a maid’s gown and cap was tucking a folded article of something that might be clothing away in a carved rosewood wardrobe-chest that was sitting at the foot of the bed.  Another maid was carrying fresh towels and a pitcher to a side table that sat next to one of the two curtained windows in the room.  When Edam tried to sit up, the maid by the wardrobe-chest yelped in surprise and then ran for the door yelling “The young Master’s awake!  Your Grace the young Master is awake.”

Suddenly frightened that Grace Lor was going to come barging in on him and find him this way Edam tried harder to get out of the bed.   However he felt quite weak and he was also surprised that one of his wrists was wrapped and splinted.  He stared the bandage for a minute while trying to remember what might have caused damage to his wrist and when he did he gasped and hurriedly tried to push the memory away.

That was how he was when a pair of strangers let themselves into the room.  One of them was an older man with iron gray hair and gentle brown eyes, who had a very kindly face; while the other male was young and foreign, with long black hair pulled back into a braid, lilted green eyes and golden skin.  The older man was smiling, while the other was nearly expressionless.  Edam watched them warily and wondered what they wanted with him.

The older man came right to the bed and sat down on the edge, while the other stopped a few paces back and merely looked grim and resigned, and somehow Edam knew that it was the old man that was the leader here.  After what he had been through Edam knew that he should be afraid, but for some reason the older man did not scare him, in fact he felt curiously safe.  He settled back in the comfortable bed and didn’t even protest when the man lightly cupped his hand over his forehead.  Once the man withdrew his hand Edam asked, “Where am I?”

The older man smiled encouragingly, “Well that’s better than who am I.  You my fine lad are guesting at an inn just across the Yllian border.”

“Yllian?” Edam mouthed, “How…?”

The man explained, “We found you just outside Luxor High Seat.  I am Damlyr D’Shiva…and the quiet one back there is Jai Hun Tay, my Weapons Master cum Bodyguard, etc., etc. and so forth.  Do you think he’s rather exotic, he hales from the fabled shores of Toqar, remarkable no?”  Edam noticed that the younger man grimaced at the introduction.

“Umm…Sir…Sire?  My Lord…are you…um, why am I here?” Edam asked uncertainly, knowing he wasn’t up for any more disappointments.

Damlyr D’Shiva’s face softened, “Because you are hurt and you need to rest.”

Edam glanced at his bandaged wrist again. Damlyr nodded and murmured, “We just removed the rest of the bindings holding your arm stable…how does your shoulder feel?”

Carefully Edam rolled his shoulder, it hurt a little bit but not to badly, “It’s alright.”  He tried to flex his wrist though and winced before asking, “Is it broken?”

“Medic Losh, who examined you after we found you just thought that it’s a bad strain.” Damlyr explained, then he asked, “Would you tell me your name?  We can’t go about calling you lad now can we?”

Edam blushed, “It’s just—Edam.” Having no last name to give the man, Edam felt certain that he would be exposed as a fraud, although he wasn’t trying to fool anyone. 

But the older man just smiled warmly and patted his wrapped wrist gently.  “Welcome to Yllian Edam, I think that you will be very happy here…and I hope that you will consider becoming my ward.”

“What?” Edam gasped in shock, “But my lord, surely you must know that I am nothing, a-a no-one!  I don’t even have a last name, I don’t have any people a-and I’m just a servant….”

Damlyr cupped the distraught boy’s chin and said, “You are somebody Edam.  You are someone who matters.  And of course the choice is yours Edam, but either way, I will not abandon you.”

“But…but why, why are you saying these things? I ca-can’t take another…I can’t—I don’t want to be ha-hurt again and-and… I can’t ta-take any more…. I just c-can’t—.” Memories of brutal betrayals assailed Edam’s senses and before he could stop himself he was crying uncontrollably. 

Suddenly the man’s arms were around him and he was being rocked gently, and once more that sensation of being safe blossomed in his heart.  The man held him tenderly, comforted him while he cried and settled him back down to the bed once he had gained some control over his crying, he was still sobbing softly though when the man murmured, “I think you’ve had enough to take in Edam.  Jai and myself will be in the next room if you need either of us…so why don’t you try to go back to sleep now?”

Edam closed his eyes and turned his face into the man’s gentle hand, but as the man stroked his hair he remembered something and he spoke in a soft murmur.   “She said…”

“What?” Damlyr queried, for the boy’s voice was soft and breathy.

“She said…the maid said…Grace…She said Grace…who?  Where is the Grace?”

“Oh…that would be me Edam.  Now you go to sleep, I’ve taxed you enough already with all my nonsensical chatter.  Shhh…go to sleep Edam…there’s a good boy.” Damlyr crooned, stroking the boy’s silky hair and watching his face relax.

But as he stepped back, thinking that the boy had fallen asleep, those remarkable lilac colored eyes fanned open and the boy whispered, “Thank you.”

He frowned slightly and asked “For what?”

The boy closed his eyes then and seemed to drift off, but before sleep claimed him he breathed, “For being kind….”

Damlyr actually felt his eyes prickle with tears; he stared at the boy for a long quiet moment watching as sleep took him and enclosed him up in soothing serenity.  When he glanced away it was to look at Jai, who in spite of the vast difference between their ages Damlyr counted as one of his true friends.  “He’s so broken.”

Jai nodded, “That he is, but I think that he’s made of stronger stuff, there’s a solid core in him, but right now he’s so hurt and broken that his spirit is sick.  Time will mend him, and care.”

“He’ll have it.  What ever he needs, he’ll have it.” Damlyr promised grimly.

Jai glanced at him thoughtfully, and then looked past him at the sleeping boy.  Edam had been with them for only a couple of days, he had been unconscious ever since they had found him and it had been a trying task to get food or water into him while he was in such a state.  The awakening of the boy had revealed two things, first that the boy was older then his slight size had indicated, and second that the boy was emotionally broken.  The healing of his body would be easier then the healing of his mind…if indeed he ever completely recovered emotionally from the trauma and pain he had suffered at the hand(s) of his abuser(s?).  But the boy’s recovery aside, the one thing that worried him wasn’t the boy at all, but his lord Grace Damlyr.  Damlyr was bonding with the youth in an almost shocking manner.  That he was a gentle and caring man Jai was already well aware of, but for all that he was a good man, Jai had never seen him the way he was with Edam.  He had barely hidden his shocked reaction when Damlyr had called Edam his ward…. His ward, that meant that he was going to publicly claim Edam and the implications for that could be astronomical.

²²²

The next couple of days traveling passed fairly uneventfully, Edam mostly slept in the carriage curled up on Damlyr’s lap or leaning against his shoulder, at night he always slept in his own bed in a room always off from Damlyr’s whether they lodged for the night at a good Inn or stayed with a member of the Blood, however most nights as Edam physically improved emotionally he did not and he would awaken crying from a nightmare.  People touching him, especially males other than Damlyr or Jai, startled and frightened him and sometimes upset him so much that he would be physically sick. 

Edam did try to cope, he was afraid to be a burden for Damlyr but he was always so frightened when he was alone or with strangers that he couldn’t help getting sick.  He lost his appetite and even though he would eat if Damlyr or Jai pretty much stood over him to make sure he ate every bit of his food he was still noticeably losing weight.  He was still stunningly beautiful and now being even more fragile than ever seemed to only add to his mystique and led to a couple mild proposals that once he could have dealt with but now sent him into shaking tremors which of course most people couldn’t understand as they had no reference to base his reactions on.

The worse came though when the caravan rolled up to a stop at the ferry crossing on the Althea River.  Edam had never seen a river or a body of water bigger than a pond.  Having spent his entire life at Luxor High Seat, Edam had barely ever left the palace grounds and hardly ever ventured into the town around High Seat at all, so he certainly hadn’t seen many large bodies of water. 

Seeing the dark waters of the wide Althea River though had set his heart to pounding and he didn’t know why.  Jai had left the carriage to find out if the ferry was in dock or if they would have to await the next sailing.  Grace Damlyr remained with him in the carriage but was reading the local town’s chronicle.  The town of Althea’s Crossing was a prosperous little community of quaint Inns, charming restaurants, cobbled streets and well tended homes and manors and businesses.  The people of Althea’s Crossing looked as prosperous as their community and also very content and happy which bespoke well of the management of not just their community but also their country.  Edam assumed that the only reason crowds of enthusiastic villagers and townsfolk and farmers weren’t mobbing Grace Damlyr was because the Grace was traveling incognito; that is to say he was using a less well known crest of the Blood to travel under.

Edam, who was beginning to feel a little queasy, glanced away from the wide black river.  He looked at Damlyr who he had become very fond of in these last few days but seeing the man contentedly reading he didn’t want to bother him with more of his problems, so instead Edam tried to look at the town itself, observing the people going to and fro as they dealt with their business even as the day was winding down.  But unfortunately the town nestled in an elbow of the river and he ended up seeing it again where he wasn’t expecting to see it.  Frowning at his reaction to the sight of the river Edam turned back to the interior of the carriage and decided to confine his observations to the dimensions of the carriage itself for the time being. 

Still though the river was out of sight now, his hands still shook even when he pressed them against his thighs to still them and his stomach still felt sick.  He worriedly gnawed at his lower lip, he had medicine to settle his stomach but if he asked for it now then Damlyr would know that something was upsetting him and he’d have to share his childish apprehension about the river.  So he kept quiet and internalized his fears—which a doctor he’d seen had told him he mustn’t do if he were to get better—and he tried not to think about the river at all.

Then Jai returned and while climbing into the carriage he reported, “The Ferry, she is coming into dock now.  We will be loaded and under way in about an hour’s time.”

Damlyr folded the newspaper down and sighed contentedly, “That’s good, I’m looking forward to spending the night at Perthlanding Inn, they have such a wonderful spa there,” he smiled affectionately at Edam, “The spa is said to have healing properties, and it will be very good for you.”

Then Damlyr’s smile faded a bit as he noticed that Edam looked a little green.  Gently he asked, “Is your stomach bothering you again?”

Edam shook his head jerkily in denial, and then he croaked, “Isn’t there a bridge?”

Damlyr glanced at Jai who shrugged and looked thoughtfully at Edam, it was Damlyr who replied, “Well yes but the closest would take us two days out of our way.”

“Oh.”

Jai slipped outside again, undoubtedly to pass instructions to the outriders and left Damlyr and Edam alone again.  Damlyr looked thoughtfully at his new ward and asked gently, “Does the river bother you Edam?”

Edam blushed and ducked his head, hiding his shamed eyes under the silk of his cinnamon bangs.  “It makes me nervous.” He unwillingly admitted.

Damlyr cupped the boy’s chin and raised his face up so that his lovely eyes could be seen, “Don’t be ashamed of that Edam, your probably one of those that gets seasick just looking at a body of water bigger than you can step across in one stride.  I’ve known some great men who were afraid of water, remind me to tell you about my Great Grandsire one day.  The bravest man I ever knew and yet he cried at the thought of crossing a stream in a rowboat.”  He released the boy and smiling fondly he added, “I’ll have Jai send the under footman for some ginger for you to chew on while we are crossing, that will help you.”

Edam looked on his benefactor with gratitude as Damlyr ducked outside the carriage to talk with Jai, a few moments later Edam noticed the under footman, a youth of perhaps his own age head toward one of the local mercantiles with a purse in hand and a outrider followed a step behind to protect the purse and the under footman even though Edam couldn’t imagine any sort of petty crime actually occurring in this charming town. 

Damlyr returned to the carriage before he could attract undo attention, when traveling incognito he tried very hard to remain unrecognized whenever he stopped at a village or town.  If he were traveling in state, which he did for official tours and meetings, then things would be very different of course; for one thing the caravan would be much larger than just his carriage and three-dozen outriders.  He sighed, relieved that this was not the case now.  Twice yearly he toured his country and every stop was timed to the minute, it was so full of panoply and ceremony that by the time the month long circuit returned him back to Yllian High Seat he was exhausted and would need at least a week to recover from it and be lucky if he managed a half day.   He settled down on the plush seat next to Edam and assured the youth that he’d be just fine.

Edam gave his benefactor a dubious look but nodded anyway; hopeful that maybe he would be all right about crossing the river.  Maybe if he got out of the carriage and looked at the river more closely he would be better able to handle his fears of it, after all, it was just a stupid river.  When he suggested that idea to Damlyr though the older man looked rather worried, and indicated that Edam wasn’t really all that recovered yet.

Edam flushed and insisted, “I do feel stronger though, and-and maybe I need to do this.”

Still not convinced Damlyr reluctantly acquiesced to boy’s request, but with one added stipulation, “You will have Jai accompany you and you will return to the carriage if you feel even the slightest bit unwell.”

Edam sighed, he was getting used to Damlyr’s protectiveness even if the unusually stern tone was new.  “I will, promise.”

Still not satisfied Damlyr nodded his acceptance of the youth’s word and then leaned out of the carriage to call Jai back from what ever he was doing.  Jai was talking with a knot of Outriders; he finished up with them and jogged over to the carriage to see what Damlyr wanted.  Damlyr moved back from the doorway to let Edam climb down and he said, “Edam wishes to see the river Jai.  Would you accompany him please?”

“Uh…” Jai glanced from Damlyr to the boy who was standing uncertainly beside him, and then he shrugged, his instructions to the outriders were finished and the ferry wasn’t due to be loaded for while yet (since it was still being unloaded of traffic and supplies), so he saw no reason not to accompany Edam even though the request seemed foolish to him, why bother going to see a river if you could just look out a window at it?  Or better yet, wait until you were sailing across her brooding surface.  But he said none of that as he chided Damlyr, “You stay in the carriage then.”

Edam actually smiled, and it was probably the first easy smile that had graced that beautiful face in well over a week’s time, and because of it Damlyr’s sharp edged concern was softened so that he delivered a light-hearted quip back at Jai, “Yes mother, I promise to stay in the carriage like a good boy.”

Jai barely quirked a smile, but then for Jai that was a big smile, and touching the boy’s elbow he asked, “Shall we?”

As Edam walked Jai observed that that boy was much steadier on his feet and that he had very good posture with his shoulders back and his head high.  Though Edam wasn’t very tall, his slimness added length to his graceful build giving him the illusion of height that would do him very well in the coming years.  Now that he knew that Edam was the lost toy for Luxor High Seat he regularly found himself bewildered by Edam’s contradictions.  The boy was a servant (or at least had been one for the better part of his young life) but he spoke with an eloquence that even many of the Blood didn’t have.  He had excellent manners, and yet never seemed to recognize any one by their proper titles.  He had the same gentle way with both servants and Bloods, in always saying please and thank you so that whatever your rank you felt that you were somehow special when he spoke to you.  Edam was a puzzle, and Jai still hadn’t solved the puzzle of how a boy raised as a servant could be so…un-servant like.  The only piece of the puzzle he was certain about was that Edam had to be of Blooded stock.

Recalling noticing Edam’s apprehension about the river earlier he asked, “Why do you want to see the river Edam when I know that it bothers you?”

The boy silently glanced at him, then he murmured, “Haven’t you ever tried to face a thing that frightened you simply because it frightened you?”

Jai didn’t need to think about that question for even a moment.  He had left his country and his people, sailed across the vast ocean in what had seemed at the time a very small ship all because he had been afraid to leave what seemed safe and secure to venture into what was unknown territory.  His reason’s had been different, but he still understood Edam’s point.  He simply nodded and after a moment suggested, “There’s a bit of a boardwalk and park over by the ferry pier.  So shall we go over there?”

Edam hesitated a moment, then he shook his head, “No…I want to touch the water.”

Jai shrugged and fell into step with the youth, following his lead and somehow sensing that he would be following Edam in one way or another for the rest of his life.  Edam had never been to Althea’s Crossing but the youth still seemed to know where he was going for in a few moments he had found a beach were many fishing boats sat in low berths awaiting their turn to be put out onto the river.  Edam skirted the boats and the men and women working there fixing their equipment or sorting the latest haul from the river. 

Jai idly explained, “Sturgeon, Landlocked Salmon, Trout and Whitefish are a common staples from the Althea.”

Just as casually Edam replied, “I’ve seen a dressed sturgeon once, at one of the banquets held at L-Luxor High Seat.”

“Hmmm.” Was all Jai said, and he stopped to look out over the wide river.  The Althea was so wide here that it was hard to see the other bank.  The elbow of the river that the Althea’s Crossing nestled in made the Althea seem more like a lake than a river, but he knew that further down the Althea narrowed and could only be safely crossed by bridge.  Here the river was wide and slow enough to be safe, and he even knew that during the height of summer people swam and played in this part of the Althea.  The ferry crossing normally took about an hour and if it left on time then they would arrive at Perthlanding just after full dark.

Edam had stopped a few paces ahead of Jai and now he stood with his arms folded together as he looked anxiously out at the dark water.  He nervously looked at the seemingly still surface, noticing little eddies and ripples here and there which maybe indicated a current or something hidden under the surface.  He wondered how deep the river was, for with it being so black it either had to be very deep or very murky…neither of which settled his nerves even a bit.  He swallowed tensely and wondered if he shouldn’t have waited for the under-footman to return with the ginger for he needed something to suck on because he was afraid otherwise he might do something embarrassing like sick-up again.

He remembered saying to Jai that he wanted to touch the water, but in truth he wanted to run so far away from it that he would never see it again.  He didn’t understand why something so innocuous as a river frightened him and he wondered if he really had been a coward all his life.  He knew that he wasn’t particularly brave, and what had happened to him back at Luxor High Seat had revealed how weak he was, but he had never thought himself to be a coward…but then maybe he had just never been forced to face something that frightened him so badly.  But why?  Why did the river frighten him?  Was it just this river or was it all rivers?

“Edam?” Jai asked, after closing the distance to the silent youth and seeing his stricken expression.

Edam hung his head and whispered, “I’m a coward Jai.”

Surprisingly Jai slipped an arm across Edam’s tense shoulders and chided, “You are not a coward.  You are still recovering for something that some men never do recover from.  You aren’t well and you won’t be the first or last person who is afraid of water.” He tipped the boy’s face up, “My Lord Damlyr believes in you Edam.  He cares for you like a son – or a grandson.  If he can believe in you than you should believe in you too.  I’ve never known him to make mistakes when it comes to understanding people.”

Briefly the boy leaned against him, for like Damlyr, Jai always seemed safe to Edam even though Jai was also a lot surlier and more demanding than Damlyr ever was.  It was Jai who said with a challenging grin, “So shall we tackle this river of yours Edam?”

Edam actually smiled again and for a moment Jai was stunned by the force of it, Edam’s smile was like sunshine after the rain and dawn after the longest night possible.  Stunned Jai hung back, realizing with perfect clarity that if Edam ever used that smile as a weapon he’d win every battle he ever fought.

But for Edam the smile slipped when he actually saw the ferry resting at its mooring.  The boy had bent down to actually touch the water but when he lifted his head to smile again and thank Jai for his encouragement was when he saw the ferry.  Everything froze in him, including his heart.  He felt the panic rush up and he spun away to stare in horror at the water.  “Uh…I can’t!  I can’t go…that—!”

Before Edam could actually rush blindly into the water Jai grabbed him and pulled him back.  The panicking boy struggled and shouted, “No!  No…we can’t go that way…it will sink!  We’ll all drown!  We’ll all drown like…uh…uhn—ma...” He flailed for a moment in Jai’s deceptively powerful grip and then his spine flexed so sharply that he practically bent over backwards before collapsing in what Jai could only call a faint into Jai’s arms.

“What is it?  Bright God!  Edam!  Edam wake up!”  Jai yelled and shook the boy, but Edam did not rouse from his swoon.  He whirled around with Edam’s lax body held securely in his arms and then ran hell-bent back toward the carriage and its caravan.  He hardly noticed the outriders that had been watching them at a respectful distance; he suspected that they were there because of Edam and Damlyr’s concern for the boy.  Those outriders now ran toward him and asked him what had happened and one of them even asked if they should find a doctor.  Grimly Jai nodded, saying nothing as he ran past them.  Both of the outriders flanked him, though one did peal off to run into the town to find a doctor once he had rejoined the caravan.

Damlyr was started out of a few years when Jai anxiously banged on the carriage’s side door demanding entry while still trying to wake Edam up.  “What happened?”  Damlyr practically wailed as he all but swept Edam into his arms hugging him briefly before lying him down on the seat. 

Feeling anything but relief, Jai said simply, “He fainted.”  Then as he as watched Damlyr dampen a cloth and pat the boy’s wan face and limp hands with it, he added, “My Lord, Edam is truly frightened about going on that ferry.  The river frightens him it’s true—but it was seeing the ferry that caused this.”

The cool cloth was beginning to revive Edam, but Damlyr continued to wipe his face and pat his hands anyway while asking.  “Why?  What happened?”

Jai bit his lip; to repeat what Edam had said just might upset Damlyr, considering how his son and his family had died because of a ferry accident.  Instead he evaded by saying, “I don’t know exactly…but he was frightened enough to faint on me…” No!  Jai suddenly recalled.  That was somehow different from a simple faint.  Edam didn’t just black out, his whole body flexed as if shot through with a bolt of lightning…Bright God could it have been some kind of seizure? “I sent one of the outriders to find a doctor.  But I wonder—if it wouldn’t just be easier on Edam if we didn’t go this way after all.”

Damlyr glanced at him in surprise and then he explained, “It would take us two days out of our way Jai.  Crossing the river here will only take us an hour.”

“But I don’t think Edam will be able to bear the ferry ride…even a hour could be too long.”

Damlyr looked down at the boy, who was definitely starting to rouse if the slow sleepy fanning of his eyelashes was any indication.  Softly Damlyr murmured, “We’ll see what the doctor says.”

Jai frowned at Damlyr but said nothing as the older man bent down to gently stroke the waking boy’s silky hair and ask him how he was feeling.

Edam blinked dazedly at both Damlyr and Jai then he asked hesitantly, “W-what happened?”

Damlyr avoided the question by asking another.  “How do you feel?”

Edam raised his hand up to his head, touching it were the now scabbed cut was.  “My head hurts a bit…what happened?”

Damlyr glanced at Jai, who by the wondering brightness in his green eyes was probably thinking about Edam’s head injury and relating it to what had just happened to the boy.  Damlyr nodded toward Jai, indicating that he understood what Jai was thinking and turned back to the boy, “Don’t you remember?”

The boy’s hand moved to cover his eyes and he carefully shook his head as he replied, “I don’t remember…did I hit my head…it hurts?”

“What do you remember Edam?”  Jai wondered.

The boy lifted his hand and looked at both of them, “Uh…we just had…uh, country fried chicken for luncheon?”

Luncheon had been over six hours ago!  Jai sidestepped Damlyr while saying, “Don’t you remember walking over to the—!”

Damlyr’s hand squeezing his shoulder stopped Jai from mentioning the river, just barely.  It was Damlyr who fabricated, “Yes, you hit your head and were knocked out for a little bit… I’m going to have a doctor look at you again Edam.”

Edam sighed, and was starting to feel well enough to joke, “Another one?  I never ever saw a doctor when I was in Luxor.”

“Well, now you’re making up for that.” Damlyr teased gently, brushing the boy’s hair back from his forehead.  Then producing a slightly sterner expression he instructed, “Now I want you to just lie here and rest for a bit until the doctor comes.  You are not to leave the carriage and if I see you looking out the windows I will…well I’ll deny you dessert for the whole rest of the journey home.”

He straightened and nodded toward Jai, indicating that he wanted to talk to him outside, he turned again and shook an admonishing finger at Edam, “I have something I need to do so don’t you forget what I told you… You just lie there and rest…and to see that you do exactly what I tell you I will send Brady in to sit with you while I’m gone.”

The boy smiled and closed his eyes, promising, “I’ll be good.”

Damlyr’s face softened and before he left the carriage, he stroked the youth’s smooth cheek affectionately and murmured, “You already are.”

Once Damlyr and Jai were both outside, Damlyr found Brady, one of the footmen who didn’t make Edam feel to uncomfortable and asked him to go sit with the boy for a few minutes while he was on his own and to make sure that he remained laying down and didn’t look out the windows and perchance see the river again.

Once Brady climbed inside the carriage and closed the door, Damlyr and Jai moved a little away from it before Damlyr rounded on Jai to demand what had really happened.  One of the outriders came running up with a stranger who Jai suspected to be this town’s medic just as Damlyr quietly laid into him.

“What the hell really happened?  He’s forgotten over six hours Jai!  What happened?”

Jai retorted, “I told you my Lord.  The ferry scared the hell out of him and he fainted.  Only I’m not so sure that he fainted actually.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Damlyr, who almost never swore—indicating just how upset he was—cussed lividly.

The stranger had quietly appeared at Damlyr’s side, and Damlyr barely glanced at him, he was that agitated.  Jai explained, “I think he had a seizure of some kind.”

Damlyr actually went pale, “W-what do you mean?”

Jai spread his hands helplessly, “I’ve only ever seen his reaction once mind you…but what happened to Edam reminded me of it.  Like he was hit by lightning…”

That was when the stranger interrupted; he was a younger man, of less than middle ages who wore round wire framed spectacles perched on his long thin nose, and a wide flat straw hat on his sparsely haired head.  “Tell me what happened, I’m Medic Shanesh.”

Damlyr explained, “My ward Edam was assaulted a short while back, in the attack his head was injured.  He had a large bruise and a cut over it on this side of his head.”  He indicated the right side of his head, just above and behind his ear and then he added, “He still has the cut though it is scabbed over now.”

“I understood that you seem to think that he’s had a seizure of some kind?” The medic asked Jai.

Jai nodded, “Down by the river.”

“Hmmm…and you think he’s lost 6 hours of memory?”  He queried Damlyr.

Damlyr frowned, “He thinks we just ate luncheon, it’s nearly dusk and he thinks it’s just after lunch time.”

The doctor thoughtfully rubbed his close-bearded chin, “Sounds like short-term memory loss.  A head injury huh? Was he unconscious for very long from the initial injury?”

“A couple days at least, with very little awareness during that time.”

“So in other words a serious crack to his head.  Was his skull broken?  A doctor did check him right?”  Medic Shanesh asked sharply.

Damlyr frowned slightly miffed, “Of course a doctor checked him.  He didn’t think Edam’s skull was broken, just that it was a serious bang.”

The doctor shrugged, “Well, its much too late to do anything if his skull was cracked, and since he’s still alive I have to figure that if he did have a cracked skull it isn’t going to kill him after all this time.  But that could still account for the seizures and the memory loss.  Head injuries can trigger attacks like that.  Let me diagnose him and well talk again later.  Where is the child?”

“Child?” Jai murmured, amused.

Damlyr looked at Jai and acknowledged his analysis of Edam with a slight smile, he knew that Edam was very beautiful and won people over usually with out even trying, which made it all the more sad that the boy was at least for now so afraid of people in general.

“Come with me.” Jai said, “I’ll take you to the child.”

Jai arrived at the carriage first, but Damlyr and the doctor were right behind him, and it was Damlyr who thanked Brady for watching Edam.  Brady shrugged indicating that it hadn’t been a problem, then he handed a small cloth bag to Damlyr and said, “What that lad ain’t no problem…twas like watching an angel iffen you don’t mind me saying so.  Anyhows here is the ginger you sent Yarl for.  Couldn’t find anything but candied ginger but should still work the same for his tummy troubles.”

Damlyr took the offered bag of candied ginger, looked at stern and tough old Brady with something akin to surprise and croaked a thank-you then actually smiled ruefully at Jai as he climbed into the carriage.  If Edam had been asleep then three men entering the carriage woke him up again.  But since he felt safe with Damlyr and Jai he wasn’t worried too much about the stranger with them, thinking correctly that he had to be the doctor.  Because the blinds were pulled down over the windows the two lamps that were mounted on opposite corners of the carriage were lit to illuminate the space.  The doctor was slightly taken aback when he got his first good look at the boy, taking in those remarkable violet eyes, that cinnamon silk hair and that smooth creamy skin in a few long moments that passed instantly but would leave a lasting impression.  Finally remembering his duty Medic Shanesh set to work on examining his patient.

After examining the area around the cut and musing aloud that it was healing normally and that he could detect no other signs of injury, Medic Shanesh then used a mirror to reflect light in Edam’s eyes to judge pupil response, which he found slightly delayed but not worrisome.  He also felt around the boy’s neck and shoulders and finally pronounced that the Edam seemed healthy enough if a little thin.

The doctor also questioned Edam about what he last recalled, and like Damlyr he avoided trying to fill in the gap, suspecting that if it was indeed short-term memory loss that it would return on its own or never at all.  When he asked if Edam had been prescribed any medications for pain or to help him sleep, Damlyr answered, “A tincture of poppy to help him sleep, but I try not to give it to him to often.”

Medic Shanesh pursed his thin lips thoughtfully before replying, “Poppy will work for pain as well, and in moderation as you know it should not be a problem.  I would suggest that you procure some poppy tablets, they being so much less messy and bothersome then a tincture.  However both will work pretty much the same, though how strong the tincture is of course depends upon the grade of liquor the poppy was steeped in.”

The doctor actually patted Edam’s shoulder as he pronounced, “I think you will be just fine, but what you need to do right now is rest and not stress yourself over much.”

“Which means you will lay down and go to sleep.” Damlyr stressed, deciding right then that he would get Edam safely across the river if the boy were asleep for the crossing.  With that notion in mind Damlyr produced the poppy tincture and poured the required measure onto an engraved golden spoon.  Edam didn’t like the taste at all and looked very reluctant about taking the drug even if his benefactor was someone that he trusted implicitly (being that he’d already had one (five!) bad experience(s) because of a drug).  But his head was still a aching and Damlyr looked determined and Edam wasn’t up to a fight when maybe what he needed after all was an undisturbed sleep.  He cleaned off the spoon and lied down on the seat and let Damlyr fuss over him by placing a pillow under his head and laying a plush blanket over him. 

The adults watched as aided by the drug the boy fell asleep.  Once Damlyr was certain that Edam wasn’t going to awaken soon, knowing that the amount he had given Edam would be enough to ensure at least four or more hours of undisturbed rest he gestured for the others to follow him out of the carriage.  The three of them moved a little away from the carriage so that Edam even though asleep still wouldn’t over hear them.

“Well?” Damlyr prompted once they stopped, directing his one word question at the doctor.

Medic Shanesh shrugged, “Being as I didn’t actually witness the seizure I can’t say for sure that is what happened.  However I feel that it is safe to assume that he did have a seizure as indicated due to a couple of responses I noticed.  If that is indeed the case this seizure could be an isolated event and never occur again, or it could simply be the forerunner of more seizures that could be more frequent and more severe.  I would strongly suggest that for the time being the boy should get plenty of rest and that he should avoid all sources of stress.”  He paused a moment looking sternly at both the older and younger man, both who he knew held themselves responsible for the boy’s well being.  Though the older male clearly treated the boy like a favored grandson even though he called him his ward.  The beauty of the boy—no youth really—had thrown him off center for a moment and caused him even now to wonder what the boy’s relationship with either of these men was, but they were both obviously Lords and what they did was of course none of his business.  “And feed him!  He’s much too thin.”

Damlyr puffed up, affronted, “We do feed him; sometimes we have to watch him eat every bite, other times we’ve spoon fed him just to get him to eat something.  He’s lost his appetite due to the atta-assault and it’s all we can do to keep food in him even when he does eat.”  He breathed in deeply to calm himself, “He has medicine to settle his stomach too.”

Jai murmured, “He has terrible nightmares, he’s afraid of strangers, he anxious and always worrying, thinking that he’s a coward and that he should be tougher than he is, but he forgets that he is just a boy and that he was badly hurt and betrayed and that it will take time to mend that.”

Medic Shanesh didn’t ask, though he suspected that what the younger man was alluding too was an assault that didn’t necessarily involve a beating…or just a beating at any rate. It was conceivable to assume a youth that beautiful would be preyed upon in the same manner as a beautiful woman; in fact that boy was easily as beautiful as a lovely woman, which might actually make his life more difficult.

“He’ll have all the time he needs Jai, I’ll make sure of that.” Damlyr grimly promised.

The doctor again looked at the older man, this time with a more contemplative glance; he was rethinking his earlier impression about the relationship between the boy and these two Lords, or at least with the older one.  The older Lord’s manner was more indicative of protection and familial love than of possession and obsession.  The old Lord clearly loved the boy as any one would a son or grandson.  Yet he called the boy his ward?  Medic Shanesh looked to the younger Lord and dismissed him of having any blood connection to either the older Lord or the boy as he was simply to foreign…but looking at the older Lord who was still a handsome man Medic Shanesh saw the fineness of his aristocratic features which was evident in the boy’s younger softer face.  Though the boy did not actually look like the older man it was easy to imagine that there might be a blood connection between them (especially since all the Blood were connected).

“Well, I have done all I could,” which Shanesh admitted sheepishly, was exactly nothing, “I suggest that you get him into a proper bed as soon as you can.”

“We will be staying at an Inn in Perthlanding tonight.”

“Good, very good.  See that he rests and isn’t stressed in any way and watch him for signs of disorientation which might indicate more seizures.”  Shanesh noticed idly that the Lord’s caravan was beginning to move; obviously they were getting ready to board the ferry.  He stepped back and indicated, “You have a ferry to catch.”

The younger male frowned and sent a glare toward the older, but he said nothing.  Still Shanesh wondered what had suddenly roused the younger male’s ire.  But as it was none of his business he was left to wonder as the older Lord ignoring the angry mood the other was displaying, paid out Shanesh’s fee with ten gold chits and then turned away to become engrossed in a quiet but furious argument with the younger male while Shanesh was left to gap at the ten gold chits that glittered on his palm. 

Jai was fuming, “You gave Edam that poppy to make him sleep so you could take the ferry!  He doesn’t need anyone drugging him for their own gain!”

“How dare you!  I didn’t give him the poppy just to make it easier for me!  He needs to sleep and the poppy will assure that.”  Then he flushed and admitted, “But I admit that it will also allow him to sleep through the crossing.”

Jai huffed and seemed about to say something caustic, but then, as was usual for him, did a complete turn about. “You made the good doctor very happy.  You grossly over paid his fee you realize.”

Damlyr shrugged, “It was worth it.”

Jai snorted and turned to following the moving caravan, Damlyr fell in at his side, they paced the slowing rolling carriage, not bothering to have it stopped, for the walk to the ferry was no great distance.  Jai said, “He was a bit of a stiff wasn’t he?”

Damlyr smirked, “Yes, and I fear that for a moment he suspected my interest in Edam was less then platonic.  Do you think my squeaky clean reputation is about to be besmirched?”

Jai glanced at him, but unlike Damlyr he wasn’t smiling, “Certainly when you introduce Edam as your ward there will be speculation about what he is to you.  A boy, looking like he does, taken suddenly under your wing so to speak will be the subject of years worth of intrigue and rumor.”

“You think claiming him as my ward is a mistake?”

Jai shrugged, “Look at me, you took me in when you had no reason to and I had to break a few heads before the worst of the rumors went away.  But you never claimed me as your ward and you set me to work building up the castles defenses amongst other things.  What do you plan to do with Edam?  If you bring him in as your ward but you expect nothing from him than he’ll grow into a beautiful, pampered and probably spoiled but useless young man.”

“Never spoiled,” Damlyr chided, and then held up his hands in protest when Jai seemed about to blast him again, he smiled internally; only Jai ever took such liberties with him the Grace of Yllian.  “I haven’t decided exactly what I plan to do with Edam yet, but I assure you I will see that the boy is not useless nor ever feels useless either.  You must admit everything I have done for Edam has been…well its hard to explain really…has been with his best intentions in mind.  I won’t do anything that will hurt him.”

Jai sighed, “Intentionally no, you won’t.  But loose that beautiful child amongst half the lords of that rotten thing you call a council he’ll end up hurt anyway.  They will be the ones to think the worst of him.  It would be much better for Edam if he were dog ugly and inconspicuous.  But inconspicuous and ugly is something Edam will never be.”

Damlyr shook his head, “Your too hard on the Council Jai, many of them are very decent men.”  There were actually two councils the High Council and the Council.  The High Council was so called because that council could only be composed of the lords of the High Houses, while the other council comprised of both high and low Houses and even commoners.  Many laws were introduced and passed by both councils, sometimes only one council group was needed to pass some laws, but occasionally a law required both councils to pass, and if some one had a complaint they could present it to either council or even challenge one council’s ruling by appealing to another and not all rulings made by the High Council were automatically accepted by the Council.  If satisfaction of course could not be gained from either council he was the last resort, he also had final say in whether he accepted or vetoed any bill or law passed by either or both councils.

“Lord Alston?” Jai rejoined coolly.  He really didn’t bother to hide his dislike of House Braden’s leader.

Damlyr sighed, “As you know Alston isn’t really a member of the High Council, and that he sits in occasionally is only permitted because he is of the Blood and he sits in as another’s representative.”

Jai snorted, “But he could petition for a seat if one of the other Lords abdicates or dies, you know he has sycophants sitting in High Council now trying to sway the votes the way he wants them to go.  And he rules Council as if he’s its speaker, half the councilors believe that it is only a matter of time before you name him as Heir and…and you realize the threat to him that Edam will be?  As your ward Edam will be in danger of disappearing just like some of your other relations have done.”

“You can’t prove that Alston had anything to do with those disappearances.”  Damlyr reminded, “And I know that you will have un-intrusive security arranged for Edam so that he will be safe at all times.”

“But your ward my Lord?  Your ward?  Why couldn’t you just bring Edam in as your personal assistant or as something like to that?  Setting Edam up as your ward is as much as setting him up as your heir, you’ll put the boy at insurmountable risk and Edam isn’t all that strong a person.”

“You told me the boy has a core of steel.”  Damlyr gently reminded him.

Jai shrugged, “Yes but it’s a soft steel.”

“So then he’ll bend rather than break.  Edam will grow a stronger core if he is meant to, and in the meantime we will do what we always do for damage control.  Watch our backs and each others.”

Jai sighed, “You always make sure I earn my income don’t you my Lord?”

Damlyr grinned as he mounted the low ramp that walk-ons used to embark the ferry, “Well I wouldn’t want you to get bored my friend.”

Jai just ruefully shook his head as he stopped in the middle of the shallow ramp to watch the coachmen guide the carriage up the wider ramp that opened on the side of the top deck.  The ferry was a paddlewheel, a fairly recent invention where a great wheel at the rear of the vessel was powered by a steam engine to propel the ferry through the water.  Because it was a transport ferry the top deck that was used exclusively for the transport of people, wagons, carts and carriages was a great open area with the high pilothouse set off to one side.  There were also two covered sitting areas (lounges) where people could get in out of the weather, one for the Blood and the other for every one else.  Because the horses were naturally nervous on a moving deck any loose horse had to tethered and hobbled in a corral designed especially for them and the wheels on all the transports had to have the brakes applied and be blocked in to prevent excessive movement.  The ferry crew was moving about ensuring that everything was secure and assisting the Grace’s people in securing their horses and transports.  Only the horses hitched to transports remained where they were and they would have a groom to mind them during the journey to make sure they were all right.  There was also a pen for live stock, but at the moment it stood empty and since the Grace’s caravan was pretty much all the passengers the ferry could take on in one trip Jai didn’t think that there would be any other animals on board.

“Well Jai, do you plan to board or just stand there in the gangway?” Damlyr gently chided, reminding Jai that he was indeed standing in the middle of the ramp.  Jai sighed ruefully and strode up the plank to join his employer slash friend on deck.  From one step to the next Jai naturally adjusted his stride to match the slight pitch of the vessel, that he did it so gracefully and with out even thinking about it only continued to confirm Damlyr’s opinion of the young man.  There was something very dangerous about Jai, in the way the slender young man held himself, the easy grace of his strides, the nonchalant casualness of his posture and the unconscious but subtle awareness of his surroundings.  Damlyr knew that Jai would have seen in seconds what was the best way to defend his people, where the life-boats were located, who didn’t belong and what areas might pose a guarded risk.  And he noted that the outriders that Jai had personally trained were silently taking up defensive positions in the event they were needed, though Damlyr doubted there was any risk and he suspected that Jai felt the same way.  Still Damlyr knew that Jai took his duty very personally and that was why he knew that when it came time to plan for Edam’s safety he would be able to trust Jai absolutely.

Damlyr glanced thoughtfully toward the carriage; the sleeping youth within its plush interior was rapidly becoming very special to him.  Sometimes he did realize that things were moving faster then he could keep up with and he did even acknowledge Jai’s concerns.  Naming Edam as his ward did place the youth in a tenuous position.  Legally doing it before the High Council would ensure that Edam was placed in danger, for whether he intended it or not, in naming Edam his ward some would infer that to mean he also planned to name Edam as his heir.  He suddenly stopped for a moment as he realized where he was going with that thought….

Jai stopped after he realized that he was no longer accompanying him and turned to look at him with a vaguely puzzled look in his lime green eyes.  “What is it my Lord?  Are you alright?”

Damlyr shook himself and pushed that latest idea from his mind as too nonsensical.  He strolled up to Jai and patted him on the shoulder, “You worry to much.  Shall we go sit in the lounge and let Edam sleep in peace?”

Jai snorted, angling toward the sitting area set aside for the Blood, “Are you implying that I’m noisy?”

Damlyr’s eyes were sparkling as he quipped, “Of course not, I’d never imply such a thing.”

²²²

The carriage pitched, the sensation was different from how a carriage swayed on a road, and something about that motion snapped Edam’s eyes open in a flash.  Wide-awake in an instant Edam lay in the dim interior of the carriage and tried to sort out what had awoke him.  He felt it again, a very slight pitch that should not have caused any concern but it set his stomach to roiling in terror.  He moaned softly in dread, this sensation was somehow familiar to him and it reminded him of something that hovered at the back of his memory like a dark specter just seething to get free and loose all his terrors.

“Please…. Pease don’t be…. Please don’t be….” He chanted anxiously as he sat up and lifted one of the blinds to look out a carriage window.  The day was closing in with the gray of dusk; that dusky shroud dimmed everything, turning shapes that were so easy to discern by daylight into freakish phantoms, but the glassy ripple of the silvery surface passing by could be nothing but a river.  He dropped down to his knees and tightly closed his eyes, trying to tell himself that he wasn’t moving on a river, that the carriage was swaying over a bridge that was hung above a river, but he just couldn’t convince his senses to believe him.

Edam huddled there, desperately trying to control his heaving as every tiny pitch of the carriage threatened to empty his stomach.  He anxiously wished that he had that ginger that Damlyr had sent the under footman for…and a second later he was wondering, what ginger?  A sudden stab of pain in his head had him silently keening into his muffling hand and hunching down over his knees in sharp distress.  The pain in his head grew in intensity until it was squeezing against his skull from the inside; it was a worse pain than what he had suffered when he had first cracked his head on Kel’s wardrobe.

Edam jerked suddenly, he knew what he had to do; he had to get away from here.  The pain would stop if he got away from what was causing it!  As suddenly as that, with the opening of the carriage door and his nearly falling onto the deck from his haste, the pain evaporated, leaving behind a cloudy fuzziness that left him feeling as if his head was stuffed with cotton.  For a moment he leaned against the open carriage door, barely aware of a hand on his arm as he tried to focus and regain some control.  Gradually though he became aware of a worried voice and then the light pressure of a hand on his arm and he jerked, reacting to the touch before he focused on one of the footmen’s concerned faces. 

“Oh!  Uh…? Torvin? I-I….” Trying to appear casual he shrugged out from under the footman’s hand and moved a little away from him while one fear was competing with the other for supremacy within his fearful psyche.

The footman aware of the boy’s sensitivity to touch allowed his hand to fall away but his voice was still tight with concern when he asked, “Are you okay Master Edam?”

Edam didn’t even question the title of master; he just bobbed his head to indicate yes and said as lightly as he could, “Yes…Torvin, I just needed a b-breath of air.”  He glanced about, and had to hurriedly look down at the deck beneath his feet to settle his stomach, for water was everywhere he looked.  “I th-thought I would just take a little stroll a-around deck.”

The footman knew that the boy was not well, and he also knew that he shouldn’t go anywhere, but Torvin also knew that the boy was of the Blood and that he had no place saying what he should or shouldn’t do, so he watched the boy wander off toward the rear of the ferry before deciding to follow him to make sure he didn’t get into trouble.

Edam focused only on finding a way off the ferry, he went to the rear of the ferry and stared out over the churning wheel at the dark water and saw no hope.  The shore was a long way off and he couldn’t swim.  The sides and the front offered the same daunting picture, water water everywhere and no way to get away from it and off this death trap ferry.  He gripped the front rail hard enough to hurt, but the distraction was necessary for he felt that with out that distraction of pain he just might scream in terror and frustration.  He had to get off this boat!

It was at that moment, someone touched him.  It was the worse possible moment to touch him for he was in a state of panic and that one simple touch snapped him right over into chaos.  He yelped and jumped to the side and away from whoever was touching him.  He crouched defensively and peered at the strangers face, and he didn’t recognize him.  Desperately Edam cast about for his parents, and then sticking his thumb in his mouth he mumbled, “I don’t know you.  Are you one of Poppa’s soldiers?  Can you find my momma?  I can’t find my momma.  Do you know where Momma and Poppa went?”

Torvin’s eyes went round with shock, the boy he was watching and worried about, had suddenly reverted into a small boy right in front of his eyes.  Everything about the beautiful boy from his voice to his posture to his questions all said that the Edam he was talking to was a very little boy.  “Surely you remember me Edam, it’s me Torvin, one of His Grace’s footman.”  He explained carefully.

Childishly Edam shook his head and backed away from him, “I don’t know you!  I want my Momma.  Why can’t I find my Momma?”

Worried about a gap coming up in the rail, Torvin lunged at the boy, meaning only to pull him away from possible harm, especially now in his confused state of mind.  But what Edam felt was someone using force to grab him and hold him.  Edam woke up with a yell of rage and terror that was provoked by finding a man restraining him again.  With violet eyes suddenly turned crystalline amethyst with alarm he struck at Torvin while shouting, “Don’t touch me!  Don’t you touch me!”

Others from on deck came running toward them to see what was going on, but what Edam saw were just more terrifying strangers trying to block his way and trying to grab at him.  Panicking he dashed wildly from them, not even knowing where he was going; all Edam knew was that he couldn’t let them touch him again!  He couldn’t let anyone ever hurt him again!

²²²

“So if I understand you right, you want to start investigating Alston?  Jai you can’t investigate a member of the Blood just because you don’t like him.”  Damlyr chided, grinning as he plunked down what he was sure was a winning hand.  “Overthrow!”

Jai snorted and shook his head as he laid his own cards over Damlyr’s, “You never learn.  Two Luminai and a house of Lords never beat a Grace Regent and two pair of high and low Lords each.  Surrender.”

Damlyr laughed, “A Grace never surrenders…besides a Grace Regent is only powerful until the uncrowned Grace reaches his majority.  The Righteous Luminous will always beat the Evil Regent.”  He tossed a Crown card onto the pile, “Coronation.  The Grace Regent is toppled with the crown card.”

Jai tsked, “I think that Alston is a murderer and the only way to prove it is to investigate him.”  He flipped over a card already in the pile, “You forget that I had four Lords in my Surrender hand.  See this is Lord of the Swords and it prevents crown cards and kill cards from being played one round.  You can’t unseat the Regent this round.  I win.  Surrender.”

Damlyr glared wryly at the scattered pile of glossing playing cards that cluttered the small table between them, “I hate that you adapted Blood Reign into a card game.  I always lose to you.”

Jai shrugged and as he began to gather up the cards he explained, “I was always good at strategy my Lord.”

Damlyr snorted, “And you’re not even gloating when you say that…sometimes Jai—.” Before he could finish his reprimand he noticed the hustle of figures outside on the deck and then one of his men burst into the lounge.

“Your Grace!  Come quick, it is Master Edam!” The outrider beckoned anxiously.

Damlyr lunged to his feet, toppling the small portable table and scattering the glossy playing cards to the carpeted floor.  “What?”

Jai was already sprinting ahead of him, but when they cleared the lounge the outrider redirected them from the carriage where both of them had naturally expected Edam to be, what with the poppy tincture Edam had drank just before boarding the ferry.  “No my Lords, Edam ran inside!  We’re worried that he’s going to hurt himself!” The outrider explained agitatedly.

“Wasn’t anyone watching him?”  Jai demanded.

“Footman Torvin was watching the carriage, so he followed master Edam when the boy said that he wanted to go for a stroll around deck.  Then something happened and the boy hit Torvin and then he ran away into the vessel.  We can’t find him!”

“Bright God, he shouldn’t even be awake!” Damlyr groaned.

Jai rounded on him, and snarled, “I told you that Edam might not be able to handle the ride, even drugged up as he was he still woke up!”

Damlyr flushed, remembering quite clearly Jai expressing his doubts about Edam’s stability where this ferry trip was concerned, but he also flushed in embarrassment that his weapons master was berating him in public.  However his worry about Edam permitted him to let the reprimand slide this time, though he promised himself that he’d have words with Jai later, once Edam had been found safe and sound.

“This is no time to be laying blame Jai.” Damlyr said dismissively before continuing, “Anson where was Edam last seen?  Take me there, I’m sure that he was just frightened by something and will be fine when I find him.  And find Torvin; I want to know exactly what happened.”

Of course the ships crew were already in a turmoil because ship passengers were intruding in areas that they were not permitted, but their complaints and restrictions meant little to Damlyr or his men, for they would tear the vessel apart if it meant finding Edam safe and sound.  So as it was, some crewmen learned what the passengers were seeking after while others found themselves being brusquely pushed aside as the steely men belonging in the Damlyr’s employ searched the vessel from tip to stern.  But it was the engine crew who found Edam, when the frightened and shocky youth burst into the noisy room.  They as of yet had no forewarning that the passengers had lost one of there of their own, so when Edam appeared, despite his attire which was rather rich, they took him for a stowaway that was running from a previous search party.  When two of the stocky crewmen made to grab Edam they only managed to frighten the traumatized youth even more.  The engine room was not the safest place for a novice to be, for it housed the massive boiler that powered the props and turbines which ran the pistons that turned the huge wheel that propelled the vessel through the water.  A portion of the massive many bladed wheel was visible at the rear of the engine room and beyond the wheel could be seen the churning waters of the Althea River.

The panicky youth saw that massive wheel and the river beyond and his overwhelmed mind sent of bolt of fire flashing through his body.  Somehow, though blind to them, Edam managed to avoid the crewmen while lurching toward the open rear of the ferry.  The crewmen didn’t know what was driving the boy, they didn’t realize that he was ill and extremely vulnerable they only saw that he was heading toward danger and that they had to stop him.  Part of them suspected that the boy was insane; the other group suspected that the youth was suicidal but all of them knew that they couldn’t let the boy hurt himself on their watch.

That was what Damlyr and Jai came upon when they entered the engine room, a large group of burly men closing in on Edam, obviously trying to keep the youth from harming himself but in the process they were only adding to his distress and trauma.  Before any of the crew could actually touch the boy Damlyr ordered, “Don’t touch him!  You’ll only upset him more!”

The astonished crewmen fell back from the disturbed youth, if only to mutter and grumble about even more intruders in the engine room.  But they could see that the older man was the leader of the new intruders and a few of the crewmen even thought that he looked familiar but could not quite place him.  Like a storm front the man swept toward them, and they wisely parted and let him thru on his approach to the youth who had slid down against a wall and was now staring in a vague sort of way at the great churning wheel.  The older man stopped an arms length short of the youth and went down to one knee; his expression was one of concern and sorrow as he said softly, “Edam?  Can you hear me Edam?”

The youth’s remarkable eyes flickered upon hearing the man’s voice, then whisper soft a child’s voice responded, “Poppa?  I can’t find you Poppa.”

“Oh Edam…I’m sorry.”

Edam huddled down, covering his head with his crossed arms, “I didn’t mean to break it Poppa, don’t be angry please?  I didn’t mean to break it, I just wanted to see it.”

“I-I’m not mad at you Edam, I could never be mad at you.”

Those unfocused eyes peaked up between his sheltering arms.  “You told me I couldn’t see how it worked and Momma said she’d ‘pank me if I was bad.  But Poppa I just wanted to look at it…only it broke Poppa. It’s my fault the ferry broke…I broke it.”

Damlyr’s eyes filled with tears, “No Edam, Poppa isn’t mad at you.  You didn’t break the ferry.  Edam is a good boy, Edam is Poppa’s good little boy.”

But those violet eyes, which were now smoky with distress, filled with tears of shame and grief and then were hidden away behind his sheltering arms again and little-boy Edam cried, “But I can’t find you Poppa!  I can’t find Jogi!  And Momma…Momma let go!   I can’t find Momma!  I can’t find…ahhahn…I can’t find…Ma…. Momma!”

Damlyr couldn’t hold back anymore, even aware he could trigger Edam’s fear of being touched, he wrapped his arms around the boy and pulled him fiercely close.  “Shush Edam.  It’s okay Poppa’s here.”

Edam didn’t react with the feared for violence, instead he curled himself into Damlyr’s protective embrace and cried, “She let go!  Why?  Why did Momma let go?  Was she m-mad at me?  Does Momma hate me?  Is that why she let go?”  The little-boy Edam huddled in Damlyr’s arms, his expression that of a lost and forlorn child.  He shivered then and whispered, “So cold….  The water’s so cold Poppa….” A moment later Edam slumped as he drifted gently towards unconsciousness at last and allayed his guardian’s concerns at least for the moment.

Damlyr cuddled the youth against him and looked up at Jai who was hovering worriedly before him.  “Did I – did I just imagine that?  Was he describing what I thought he was?”

Jai just nodded gravely and looked even more worried, the implications were many here and as Damlyr held the limp youth in his arms his thoughts skittered from wondering if he was seeing real trauma or truly excellent acting and he wondered—as he gazed down into the serene and angelic face—which was the real face of Edam that he was looking at now.

²²²

Damlyr left the room with its sleeping patient as quietly as he could manage, he softly closed the door least the sound of voices might wake the boy up, though the medic they had called as soon as the ferry landed at Perthlanding had stated rather convincingly that Edam probably wouldn’t awake until morning, if not indeed even later.  He had even tentatively suggested that Edam’s regression episode may have occurred while Edam was actually sleeping.

Damlyr sighed, he was too skeptical of what he had heard to want to believe in it, and yet the boy’s childhood memory couldn’t have been more perfectly timed.  Whenever Damlyr crossed a river in a ferry the memories of his loss always hovered close to his thoughts.

Jai was sitting quietly beside the fireplace, staring contemplatively into the cheerful flames.  Damlyr pulled up a chair beside him and said softly, “Could you have been right Jai?  Could Edam have been somehow placed in my path?  Is he a clever trap?  A trickster?”

Jai snapped, “No!”  Then he said more reasonably, “My Lord Damlyr, what we witnessed, and what I witnessed earlier was too real, there was no acting there, no trick.  Something tragic did happen to Edam.  My guess is that the memories were repressed and only came to the fore when Edam saw the river…no…the ferry.  The ferry is what truly terrified him, the river just made him a bit sick, but it was the knowledge that he would be traveling on a ferry that truly snapped him over the edge.”

“Ah…how old would you say he was there?”  Damlyr wondered, remembering holding a very little boy in his arms, at least emotionally.

Jai paused a moment before answering, “Four—maybe….”

“Is it possible that even Edam doesn’t know that he’s a trap?  Could he have been coached somehow, and then made to – I don’t know – repress the memories so that they would seem to occur…naturally?”  Damlyr wondered.

Jai shook his head, “I don’t see how.  Either Edam is for real and his memories are coming to the fore because of recent traumas he has suffered which has left him more vulnerable than he has ever been in his life…or else Edam is a very, very good actor.”

Damlyr looked thoughtfully at Jai, he knew that Jai was very astute and that he could see subtle nuances that could indicate falsehoods or performances.  He also knew that Jai didn’t see that in Edam, which didn’t completely eliminate the possibility that Edam was an exceptional actor, but it did narrow the likelihood down considerably.  And mostly Damlyr just wanted to believe in Edam, first because in the short time he had known the youth he had come to care for him deeply; and secondly because now he was being offered something he had never dreamed of in years…hope.

“Uh…Jai?”

Jai’s lime-green eyes lifted and a lance-straight black-brow rose is subtle question to his enquiry.

Damlyr lowered his head, “You understand the possibilities here…don’t you?” An equally subtle nod was his only answer, but it was enough.  “Forget about Alston for the time being; I want you—no—that’s not right.   I ask you find out who Edam is.  Find out who he is…for me.”

 

End of Part three

 

*Note: Sorry, I was going to include a Kel section but I just wasn’t able to fit it in.  I promise to deal with Kel in Part 4.