Flash Fiction #543: The Long Way Home/42 (END)

 

They were in a carriage, and he lay on a bed of soft pillows. Eket sat beside him.

"Awake now. Good," Eket said. "I cannot stay. There is no telling what Aien is up to. Humans are odd creatures, you know. Fascinating. I don't understand half of why you have done what you did."

"Right thing to do," Rory replied as if this made any sense. "Pyrida?"

"He will be a long time trapped in his nightmare and no more sane for it. That will not help when you fight them in the future. However, it was the best choice you could've made. Also, he put a spell on the Temple and library -- it went up in flames. You will find no answers there, but neither will anyone else."

"The others there --"

"All safe. They will rebuild and be better for it with Pyrida no longer in charge."

"Good," Rory said. Talking to Eket made no sense, but he somehow didn't doubt it. He worried about his other friends, but they didn't seem to be here with them.

" They're in another ..." Eket waved his hand around them.

"Carriage?"

"Reality."  Eket paused and then looked back at him. "You needed time and peace to begin your recovery, and now it is time for you to return."

"Can you tell me --"

Eket had disappeared. The carriage bounced over a rut, and Rory grimaced before he noticed Zorian, Keltrina, and Jamison staring at him.

"You are back," Zorian said.

"Ah.  Eket had me for a while."

They all nodded as if any of this made sense. Zorian finally moved from one side to sit by Rory. He looked him over with a nod.

"You look better. Eket did us a good deed there, even if we were afraid we had lost you. It was a very nice act of human kindness in its own way."

Rory could tell that the words pleased Eket.  Why the God should want to be more human-like escaped Rory, but he did appreciate that they understood each other better for it.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"In the middle of nowhere, as far as I can tell," Jamison answered with a quick glance out the window in the door. They hit another bump, and Rory wasn't the only one to feel it. "The Queen and Prince Palkin are in the carriage behind us. We have a Sciwhen escort under Andora's command."

"We should not have gone. There was so much still to do --"

Zorian patted him on the arm. "There is always more to do, but that doesn't mean it is our work. Unanik has taken on the duty of destroying The New Order of Man and was doing an excellent job before we left. The Dragons are taking turns guarding the door. I could wish for Pyrida to come back out to that homecoming."

"We are all stepping back and letting things sort themselves out," Jamison added. He looked remarkably relaxed.

Out of their hands?

Rory sat back and closed his eyes.

It took them five miserable days to get to Sundry and two more to reach the capital. They stayed in whatever reasonable inns they could find each night, and none of those housed the Queen and her more immediate guests for an entire night. They always left early, and since the beds were always lumpy and the rooms drafty, Rory never complained.

He thought about the odd journey he had made to Sciwhen and now Sciwhen home to Sundry. Gods hovered nearby but stayed out of human business for now.   Rory tried not to be obvious about how relieved that left him.

Eket still seemed amused.

They traveled through fields, over wooded hills, and across streams on none-too-safe bridges. They avoided any settlement of more than a few hundred and kept well off the main roads.

And yet, the word that the Queen had returned had raced ahead of them.

Rory hadn't been home for a long time and was glad to see so little change. There might have been a few more buildings outside the gate, but they were well-kept. The castle towers rose above the walls, a beacon to welcome them home. People lined the road inside the entrance all the way to the castle. Rory thought he would go deaf at the sound of their cheers.

While Queen Calledona went to her throne room without even so much as changing, the others were hustled off into her private office. Rory didn't even argue about taking one of the chairs. It was, by far, the most comfortable place he had sat in far too long.

He slept for a little while, not an unusual occurrence. Rory stood, though, as soon as the Queen entered the room. She waved them all to sit, and Rory obediently dropped back into his chair. Four members of the Queen's guard had shown up to keep her company, and they all but glared at Rory. He had been one of them.

No matter.

"People are arranging for your rooms," Queen Calledona said as if that were the only trouble she needed to deal with now that she was back. "Rory, Zorian -- I would like you two to take the rooms up at the archive. You needn't worry. Lord Cardman retired a few months ago."

"I wasn't worried about Cardman," Zorian said, and Rory nodded. "Well, not much. But yes, that is a good place to start our work. Do you agree, Rory?"

He thought of making some rude remark about not having asked him until now...

But an odd feeling came over him when he thought about staying here and not returning to the Temple of Eket -- at least not yet.

Stay here and work in the archive.

He smiled. "Yes, that works well. It is good to be home at last."

The End