Page 42 of Potions & Pints
Maybe he could say something to make the chief change his mind, or at least to show that all Pili had said was true, all he had done was in the service of his people.
Tan glanced up at the chieftain, at the expression of disappointment and anger that was still etched on the water elf’s face. He didn’t know if anything would come of it, but he had to try.
Tan dared to stand, and stepped forward, opening his mouth to the cool seawater to say something. Before he could though, Pili caught his eye. The water elf shook his head with a degree of dignity that even Tan could admire.
“So be it,” Pili said solemnly.
It was almost as if by submitting himself to this unjust fate, Pili would not be a victim to it. This was not an attribute Tan was especially familiar with — honor wasn’t much of a concept where he came from, and he certainly hadn’t striven to foster such a thing in himself — but he could see it ran deep in Pili.
He watched sadly as the water elf held his head high, ready to be taken to whatever horrors awaited him.
“You know the way,” grunted one of the soldiers, prodding at Pili’s back. With one last glance at the group, Pili was led out of the Library and into the unknown.
Tan swallowed hard, turning his eyes away from the door and bringing them to meet the chieftain’s stare. To his surprise though, the scowl that had colored Sinifris’ face when he’d addressed his son had been replaced by a warm smile. Tan almost did a double take.
“The rest of you may rise,” the chieftain said. He raised his arms graciously as if pulling the ragtag crew up from the Library’s floor with his very own will.
Tan could hear the shuffle of feet behind him as the rest of the crew stood, apparently as unsure of what was happening as Tan himself was. Tan had dealt with royalty before — he knew they were fickle folk, that their whims guides their paths and with them, the paths of nations.
Still, there was something about the way Sinifris addressed them now that was odd even to Tan. He’d expected more or less the same reception that the chieftain gave his own son, and was waiting, at any moment, for them all to be sent to The Abyss along with Pili.
The order never came though. Instead, the chieftain continued smiling graciously upon them.
“My apologies,” Sinifris continued. “You should not have had to see that. My business with Piliphre is between him and I — you all were simply unfortunate enough to have witnessed what was intended only for the inner sanctum.
“But as you’re here now, let me take a good look at you.”
The chieftain peered across at them, lingering on each of their faces, one by one. In the background the Librarian shifted, almost uncomfortably. Tan figured he couldn’t possibly be as uncomfortable as the rest of them were right now.
Finally the chieftain stepped back and smiled again, apparently pleased by what he’d seen, though Tan couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what the water elf had been looking for.
“Well, I see you’re a band of fine men. You are all welcome here in Laeve Taenis, even if it was not my son’s place to bring you.”
“Uh, thank you Chieftain Sinifris,” Tan managed. He still wasn’t sure what to make of the chieftain, or of the situation unfolding, but he wasn’t about to turn down the welcome. It wasn’t as if they had anywhere else to go.
And whether the chieftain would have agreed to it or not, the fact was that his people had saved them. If not for them, Tan and the rest of the crew would have all been asleep on the shores of Gamlin Ait by now, destined to become just another set of skulls on the island’s walls.
But despite the chieftain’s welcome and the gratitude Tan felt, he also needed to know what was going to happen to Pili — he hated the thought of the water elf being punished because of them, even if he got the distinct feeling this was much bigger than Tan’s and the crew’s involvement with the tribe.
“Chieftain, what will happen to Pili? In the Abyss? Will he be killed?” he finally ventured.
He hated to hear the answer, if only because he knew there was very little they could do about it if it turned out to be ‘yes’.
Tan was tense all over but to his surprise, the chieftain just laughed — a great throaty rolling laugh that sent a mass of bubbles floating up from his mouth.
“Oh no, no,” said the chieftain when he’d finally recovered. “Of course not. That’s not how we do things here.” His face suddenly turned serious again. “But he is imprisoned. That is his punishment. There is no coming back this time.”
Tan nodded thoughtfully.It could be worse, he supposed. At least the water elves of Laeve Taenis didn’t punish their members by cannibalizing them, unlike some other people he knew.
Tan heaved a sigh of relief and a stream of bubbles emanated from his gills. There was still plenty of fear in his chest though. As much as he’d been worried about Pili, the majority of his thoughts had been on Vir. It seemed that now was the time to bring it up, since the chieftain appeared to be in a good mood. Relatively speaking.
“And what about Vir?” he asked, looking at the chieftain again. “Where has he been taken?”
Tan felt the fear rise in his chest again as he remembered Vir collapsing, slipping into unconsciousness, of his limp body being carried away by a band of water elves. He hoped the water elves had some way of healing him.
But the chieftain was smiling kindly. “Ah yes, the sleeping orc. He’s been moved to the healer’s cave. He can stay there until he recovers.”
Another mass of bubbles left Tan’s gills at the news.
