Quaint Escapes for Traitorous Bastards: Chapter 9, Part 1
Notes: Let's have some memories, shall we? Damn, am I bad at keeping things fluffy. I swear this is going to stay a cozy and low-angst fantasy!
Title: Quaint Escapes for Traitorous Bastards, Ch. 9 Part 1
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Chapter Nine, Part One
Photo by Preston Goff
Take Me To Church
To be honest, Hiram almost forgot about the issue of showingup at the Temple of Melemor on Lares. He had a lot of work to do before thenext market day, after all; his entire stock was gone, and in the days sincethen he’d had numerous clients come to his home in hopes of getting more ofwhatever curative he’d sold them before market day.
“Worked a charm,” the woman who’d come to him all bound upsaid as he sat with her at his table, dicing prunes. Her name, he learned, wasMistress Erine, and she owned one of the largest flocks of sheep in town. Herworld was focused on caring for her family, her sheep, and her herding dogs tothe detriment of caring for herself, hence lots of easy-to-carry food to lasther the day that led to, well…issues. “Had to spend a whole evening on thelatrine, but it was worth it. Now I want to be prepared for next time.”
“You should take dried plums with you when you go to work,”Hiram suggested. “They’ll get you ahead of the problem.”
“They’d be eaten right out of my satchel before I made itten feet by one of the little ones or their pa,” she said with a shrug.“Medicinal tea, on the other hand, is avoided like the plague.”
“It’ll have the same effect, as long as you’re regular withit,” Hiram said. “Just one cup a night, brewed fairly weak. You can make one sachetlast three or four days that way. Or, give me a few more weeks and I’ll have atincture of this made up that you can add a bit of to water. That might beeasier for you in the long run.”
“Very kind of you, Master Emblic.”
He smiled as he handed over a new sachet of tea. “It’s mypleasure.”
It was, too. This was good, simple work that was satisfyingto complete and helped build a solid reputation for him in Lollop. It also gaveLetty and her brother something to do once the garden was built—he sent themout to forage for rarer ingredients, confident that Esme would watch from adistance to ensure they didn’t get into any tangles they couldn’t handle. Theyreturned with chokecherries, kingslip and queen’s lace, five different kinds ofbark, and mistletoe (he discarded the mistletoe immediately), and smiles ontheir faces after spending hours traipsing through the woods, eating the lunchhe packed them and spending time away from their demanding father.
Hiram forgot all about Lares, in fact, until Letty remindedhim of it. “We won’t be in tomorrow,” she said as she wrapped her shawl aroundher shoulders. The evening air was beginning to get a bit nippier, and theleaves were beginning to change color. Soon the apples would be ripe forharvesting, and then the squash, and then… “Because of Temple.”
“Oh yes, of course.” Hiram smiled a bit absently at her.“Enjoy it.”
Letty frowned. “I’ll see you there, won’t I? High Priest Velagroshas been telling everyone that you’ll be there.”
Shit, right. “Ah.”
“You forgot, didn’t you?”
He sighed. “I did. But I’ll be there.”
Letty paused, fidgeting with the hem of her scarf. “MistressTate isn’t happy about it.”
Oh, she must be raising hell in town. Hiram was a bitsurprised she hadn’t come to him with her concerns, but odds were she washoping to handle it without him knowing. Kind of her, as ever, but unnecessary.“If you would do me the kindness of finding Mistress Tate and letting her knownot to fret, that I’m perfectly fine with a ritual cleansing, I wouldappreciate it.”
“I’ll do that,” Letty said. “See you tomorrow morning,then.” She grabbed Rickie by the hand before he managed to dart away, then closedthe door behind her.
“Perfectly fine, hmm?”
Hiram rolled his eyes. “Oh, stop.”
“No, I don’t think I will. Melemor isn’t some localpushover you can dodge with cleverness; he’s a major member of the pantheon.”
“I’m not going to dodge him!” Hiram insisted. “I’m justgoing to show him what I prefer him to focus on.” He scraped up the last of theherbs from his cutting board and poured them into the compost bucket, then putthe kettle on. It was time for a cup of tea himself—a very specific one.
“For all that his high priest is a loathsome bottomcrawler, Melemor is a god of truthfulness,” Phlox snapped. “Heprizes honesty from his worshippers, and a cleansing implies being forced tospeak the truth whether you want to or not. If you give yourself away—”
“I won’t,” Hiram insisted. “Look, Melemor is a balancing act—truth,yes, but he’s also a god of healing, whether physical, mental, or spiritual.All I’ve got to do is give him the proper bit to focus on and I’ll be right asrain.” A quick glance at his store of spices showed he’d need to make a specialtrip upstairs to find what he wanted.
It felt odd to go up to his bedroom while it was still lightout. It was a comforting place, but one that had more memories associated withit than the rest of the house. Here was where his former life still shonethrough, and nowhere was that more obvious than in the special satchel he’dwarded to all the hells and back that contained his most magical potioningredients.
“Psybane, psybane, psybane…ah.” There it was, a thorny,prickly ball of herbs that sported a most arresting shade of blood red. Hetried not to be disappointed by finding it.
“Psybane? Are you mad? Do you want to be able towalk tomorrow?”
Phlox was too loud in his ear, and Hiram flicked himirritably as he wrapped some of the thorns in a scrap of cloth and carried itback downstairs. The kettle was bubbling by then, so he took it off the heat,put the psybane in a bowl, and poured the water over it. A minute to steep, nomore, or he really wouldn’t be able to walk tomorrow. He timed it to thecadence of his own pulse, and then decanted about half the water into a smallcup.
“This isn’t smart, Hiram. Just find a spell that can doit.”
“Spells are a bad idea for me, you know that. And so isfighting the tide of the town,” Hiram said, turning with the cup and carryingit back up the stairs. He toed off his house shoes—boots were firmly left bythe door—and sat down in the middle of the bed, making sure his pillow wasready behind him. Psybane hit differently every single time, but Hiram hadn’ttaken it since he’d left Galenish. He wasn’t sure what it would do to him thistime around.
“Hiram…”
He smiled a little. “Are you worried for me, Phlox?”
Phlox sniffed. “Only worried who would find your rottingcorpse and take control of me afterward.”
“It’s all right, my dear. I’ll be fine.” He drank the teadown in one long swallow, then—
The psybane grabbed him like a hand to the throat and threwhim down into memories. His vision went hazy, then dark, and Hiram’s mentallandscape flickered and reformed over and over again. A cave, a dungeon, abarren mountaintop, a fiery plain, a sumptuous bedroom—
“—think you can get away with this?” Andy raged at him. “Weneed an alliance with the Sharivath, Xerome, and Misha is how we get it! Youcan’t hide her from me, I’m her father. Where is Misha? Where is mydaughter?”
“A marriage alliance to the Sharivath isn’t worth it,” Xeromeinsisted, unwilling to back down from his enraged lover. He’d done that toomuch lately, given in to Andy when he should have pushed, should have foughtback. He loved the man, but he was getting harder and harder to deal with. “Notfor your only child. She doesn’t want that kind of marriage anyway, you knowthat.”
Andy sneered at him, his handsome features contorted bydisdain. “Her wants are secondary to the needs of the kingdom.”
“She is your only heir! Don’t set her up to play second bestwhen anyone she marries ought to be begging for her hand. ”
The blow came out of nowhere, so hard that Xerome fell tothe floor from the force of it. He stared up at Andy, incredulous and feelingfar more hurt than the strike warranted. There was nothing in Andy’s eyes toshow he regretted it, nothing of repentance or shock at his own actions, athitting the man he professed to love—just anger, anger, anger. “Bring her backbefore the week is out, or I’ll—”
The scene shifted, dragging him into a new vision. This onewas Misha, garbed in a loose black robe and holding perfectly still as Xerome poureda dark, shimmery oil over her head as he spoke an incantation that would hideher from her father, and any other magic user who Andy could hire to do hisdirty work. When it was done and he’d wiped her face clean, she opened her eyesand looked at him. “Come with me.”
Xerome shook his head, feeling his limbs tremble. The spellhad taken a lot out of him. “I can’t hide myself this way, sweetheart.”
“So choose another spell for yourself.”
“Spells are the whole problem,” he said tiredly, handingover a towel. “I need to turn my magic off for a while, Misha. Your father willtry and track me by it, so it’s best I don’t use it for the foreseeable future,other than laying some false trails.” He sighed. “No, we need to go ourseparate ways, for your own safety.”
Misha grabbed his hand, oil be damned. Tears welled up inher eyes and spilled over her cheeks. “What about your safety?”
Oh, baby. “I’ll be fine.”
“I’m afraid for you.” She bit her lip. “And I’m afraid to bewithout you. Please, just—isn’t there some way we can stay together?”
And risk her father’s anger turning physical on her? Mishawas a fine warrior, but she didn’t have her father’s skill or guile. “No, mylove,” he said, squeezing her fingers in his. “I’m so sorry, but this is forthe best.”
“It’s just for now, though.” There was still a hint of hopein her voice, and it made his heart clench with self-loathing. “Right? Just fornow. You’ll find me later.”
Your father would have to be dead, and he might never dieafter what I’ve done for him. To him. “I’ll try,” he promised, andit rang false in his mind like a bell, tight like a noose, clawing out of hisgut like a—
Hiram rolled onto his side and threw up the remnants of thepsybane tea, gasping for breath. He shivered in the wake of his violentvisions, and every part of him ached with longing for a life he’d never haveagain, and people who were lost to him forever. His family, his dearest ones…
“Are you all right?” Phlox asked quietly. “Thattook a long time, it’s almost dawn.”
It felt like no more than a few minutes…and an eternity.“I’m all right,” Hiram said, his voice rough from dryness. “I just need tosettle a bit. Then I’ll clean things up and we can go to the Temple.”
And if this doesn’t work, then I’ll figure something elseout on the fly.
