Colder than Ice, Hotter than Flame, part 1
This is the first story I completed for Tales of the Tempest and posted to y!Gallery. engine_red pestered me in her nice way to get one done, and it was the closest to being finished of any of the stories I'd yet begun. It takes place about 5 years after Along the Forest Road and brings Kitaro and Tamarick back to Lipak.
It was for exactly that reason that I didn't want to post this yet, since I really want these stories to have a wider scope, but I'm taking so long with the next one that I feel like I need to fill in the time. My readers on y!Gallery have waited even longer, since the last story in the series I posted there was The Shadow Duke.
It's revised somewhat from how it was originally posted, as Tamarick as he developed was a little different from how I'd first written him here. I also got rid of much of the sort of cringe-worthy stuff you normally find in a writer's first longer work, so I hope it's a bit more readable.
Edit: This story received the most serious cuts in the March, 2011 repost. I eliminated much of the introductory material from the beginning including a portion of a scene that was meant to illuminate Kit and Dak's relationship. It always had a "tacked-on" feel to me, so I'm actually glad to be rid of it, and I can't think why I didn't cut it sooner. The story now begins as I originally wrote it, and I added a time-tag to the front.
Part One is now much too short but I don't want to rearrange things too drastically, so I'm leaving it as it stands.
There is now no sex in the chapter so it is no longer marked on the TOC page, but the "Adult Concepts" flag remains for a bit of minor naughtiness.
Midwinter, 2266 AURC
“A curious time of year to be traveling in the mountains,” remarked the old man as he poured the tea. “But I suppose there is some compelling reason, aside from bringing me the pleasure of your company and finally allowing me to meet you, Tamarick. News of Kitaro arrives here with the traders, and never is there mention of one of you without the other.”
We were sitting at table in the house of Wei-fu, Kitaro's old master, which stood all by itself deep in the forest of Kit's homeland of Lipak. Kit had always spoken of him with such respect, bordering on reverence, that I had been expecting a stern, aloof taskmaster. The kind, elderly man before us was not that at all.
Wei-fu looked to be at least eighty years old. His bald head was fringed with wisps of white hair, and the long but scanty white beard and mustache framed a much-seamed face. But the dark eyes were clear, and his movements quick and alert. His manner was formal, but when we arrived at his door he greeted Kit with open joy and welcomed me as if I were a long-lost son.
Kit sipped his tea but made no response to his master's question, so I explained. “The traders’ guild down in Argelia hired us to look into what’s going on with the Dwarves. The interruption in the metals trade has everyone worried. They wanted everything resolved by the time the High Pass opened again in the spring.”
Wei-fu nodded. “I thought it must be so. There is much local concern as well. Without the trade there is little here to live on. Not much arable land, no precious metals. Much timber, but no way to get it to market. Disaster is feared. Kitaro, your father the king will not even acknowledge the problem. He sees rather a conspiracy among the traders to negotiate lower tolls.”
Kit snorted. “And what would he do about it anyway? March up to the Dwarves’ caverns and pound on their gates until they all got headaches? This way he can pretend there’s someone he can reach who’s to blame.”
“He might have hired us himself,” I pointed out.
“No he wouldn’t. He disowned me and wants nothing to do with me. I’d have turned him down anyway.”
“What about helping your friends here?”
“I was going to wait until spring, and then talk you into doing it for free.”
“Free. You are one pathetic mercenary. How could you possibly have talked me into it?”
His sky-blue eyes sparkled at me in the lamplight. “Same way I talked you into winter travel.” Under the table, his foot stroked slowly up my leg. My loincloth was suddenly too snug for comfort, and my face grew hot.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that in front of people,” I muttered.
Wei-fu laughed, and turned to Kit with a stare that might have been aimed a thousand miles away. It was the same look Kit uses to watch a storm blow in, or to examine the sick and injured. “You have changed much these five years,” said Wei-fu. “You are much happier, that is plain, and I rejoice to see it. But you have also advanced more than I imagined possible, even knowing you.”
“Just following your advice,” Kit replied. “I’ve never turned away from any instructive experience.”
I had learned to fear that word. Anything “instructive” was likely to be either excruciatingly painful or so risky to life and limb that only a fool would consider it. Wei-fu noticed me wince. “I may owe you an apology for that,” he said, turning his thousand-mile stare toward me. “It was I who― Good heavens!”
“He’s something, isn’t he?” Kit beamed with open pride.
Wei-fu continued to look me over, and then reached across the table and laid a hand over my solar plexus for a moment. “My apologies, but you are fascinating. I have met only one other like you in my travels. It emerges as a kind of madness in times of stress, does it not?”
The attention was a little disconcerting. “Um, yeah. Or it used to. Kit showed me how to get a handle on it.”
“Is that so? Then he has done well indeed, in more ways than one.”
● ● ●
I rolled off of Kit and lay back on the bed in Wei-fu’s spare room, enjoying the afterglow. Kit snuggled against my chest and pulled the duvet over us to shield against the chill that crept in through the walls, or was blown in through the shutters by an errant gust. It wasn’t long before warmth spread over me from head to toe, and I started to doze.
I forced myself awake anyway. I didn’t want to spoil the moment, but we were setting out for the High Pass in the morning, and any later might be too late.
“Kit?”
“Mmm?”
“Is there anything I need to know?”
“Yeah,” he said to my armpit. “Geometry. Better study up.”
“Oh, come on. You’ve been tight as a bowstring for almost a week. You hardly even cracked a smile since we crossed the border until we stepped through Wei-fu’s door. If you’re expecting trouble, you should tell me about it. And if it’s something else, you know I’ll help you if I can.”
He crossed his forearms on my chest and rested his chin on them to look me in the face. “I guess I should have told you, but it’s kind of embarrassing. It doesn’t show me off in a very good light.”
“You know that doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“I know. All right, then. I’ve been afraid, very afraid, that we might run into one of my brothers.”
To say Kit was not on good terms with his brothers who still resided in Lipak was putting it mildly, but I was still surprised. “You don’t mean you’re worried they’ll get to you again, do you? Because―”
“No, nothing like that. Hells, the only reason they got the drop on me then was because too much happened all at once for me to handle. I was just fourteen, and half-trained. But I am worried about fighting them.”
“Why? What do you think they’ll do?”
“It’s not what they’ll do. It’s what I might do.”
“Besides kick their butts?”
He closed his eyes and frowned. “It’s been years since they were in my thoughts. I believed I was over it. But I’m not.” His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “I’m angry at them, Tam. I think I’m angry enough to kill.”
“Kit... They did try to kill you.”
“Yeah. And if I wasn’t me they would have. It hurt. A lot. But they didn’t manage to do it, and the pain didn’t last. It’s not what they did to me. It’s what they did to Dak.”
Kit had talked about his first love maybe twice since I met him, but I remembered his story. “Wasn’t that the king?”
“Oh, Father held the sword. But he couldn’t have used it if they hadn’t clubbed Dak first, and held him down onto the block. And he wouldn’t have done it if they hadn’t spied us out and told him what we were doing together. They made his death happen for no better reason than to hurt me.” His face displayed no emotion, but his back was hard as stone under my hands.
“Kit, why the worry? I know you’re not like that. You lived here three years after all that happened, didn’t you? If you weren’t that angry at them then, how can you be now?”
“These things don’t go away if you bury them like I did. They grow. And I was that angry then.”
“You didn’t do it, though.”
“No. I almost never saw them. Most of the time I was here, and they never came near the place. I was in the village pretty often, but the people disliked them so much they didn’t dare show their faces too much. Then Tristan came to the inn one day. It was all I could do to keep myself from ripping out his heart and stuffing it down his throat.”
“Kit! You still didn’t!”
“One word from him and I might have, but I saw him before he saw me and I ran instead. I wasn’t even sure why until I sat and thought about it. They may be the kind who would murder their own kin, but I was not. I will not. I don’t want to be like them at all, but especially not that way.
“But what if I really am like them? What if―”
“You’re not.”
“But―” I silenced him with a kiss, and he reacted as if he needed it. When it finished he laid his head back on my chest and sighed.
It was for exactly that reason that I didn't want to post this yet, since I really want these stories to have a wider scope, but I'm taking so long with the next one that I feel like I need to fill in the time. My readers on y!Gallery have waited even longer, since the last story in the series I posted there was The Shadow Duke.
It's revised somewhat from how it was originally posted, as Tamarick as he developed was a little different from how I'd first written him here. I also got rid of much of the sort of cringe-worthy stuff you normally find in a writer's first longer work, so I hope it's a bit more readable.
Edit: This story received the most serious cuts in the March, 2011 repost. I eliminated much of the introductory material from the beginning including a portion of a scene that was meant to illuminate Kit and Dak's relationship. It always had a "tacked-on" feel to me, so I'm actually glad to be rid of it, and I can't think why I didn't cut it sooner. The story now begins as I originally wrote it, and I added a time-tag to the front.
Part One is now much too short but I don't want to rearrange things too drastically, so I'm leaving it as it stands.
There is now no sex in the chapter so it is no longer marked on the TOC page, but the "Adult Concepts" flag remains for a bit of minor naughtiness.
Midwinter, 2266 AURC
“A curious time of year to be traveling in the mountains,” remarked the old man as he poured the tea. “But I suppose there is some compelling reason, aside from bringing me the pleasure of your company and finally allowing me to meet you, Tamarick. News of Kitaro arrives here with the traders, and never is there mention of one of you without the other.”
We were sitting at table in the house of Wei-fu, Kitaro's old master, which stood all by itself deep in the forest of Kit's homeland of Lipak. Kit had always spoken of him with such respect, bordering on reverence, that I had been expecting a stern, aloof taskmaster. The kind, elderly man before us was not that at all.
Wei-fu looked to be at least eighty years old. His bald head was fringed with wisps of white hair, and the long but scanty white beard and mustache framed a much-seamed face. But the dark eyes were clear, and his movements quick and alert. His manner was formal, but when we arrived at his door he greeted Kit with open joy and welcomed me as if I were a long-lost son.
Kit sipped his tea but made no response to his master's question, so I explained. “The traders’ guild down in Argelia hired us to look into what’s going on with the Dwarves. The interruption in the metals trade has everyone worried. They wanted everything resolved by the time the High Pass opened again in the spring.”
Wei-fu nodded. “I thought it must be so. There is much local concern as well. Without the trade there is little here to live on. Not much arable land, no precious metals. Much timber, but no way to get it to market. Disaster is feared. Kitaro, your father the king will not even acknowledge the problem. He sees rather a conspiracy among the traders to negotiate lower tolls.”
Kit snorted. “And what would he do about it anyway? March up to the Dwarves’ caverns and pound on their gates until they all got headaches? This way he can pretend there’s someone he can reach who’s to blame.”
“He might have hired us himself,” I pointed out.
“No he wouldn’t. He disowned me and wants nothing to do with me. I’d have turned him down anyway.”
“What about helping your friends here?”
“I was going to wait until spring, and then talk you into doing it for free.”
“Free. You are one pathetic mercenary. How could you possibly have talked me into it?”
His sky-blue eyes sparkled at me in the lamplight. “Same way I talked you into winter travel.” Under the table, his foot stroked slowly up my leg. My loincloth was suddenly too snug for comfort, and my face grew hot.
“I wish you wouldn’t do that in front of people,” I muttered.
Wei-fu laughed, and turned to Kit with a stare that might have been aimed a thousand miles away. It was the same look Kit uses to watch a storm blow in, or to examine the sick and injured. “You have changed much these five years,” said Wei-fu. “You are much happier, that is plain, and I rejoice to see it. But you have also advanced more than I imagined possible, even knowing you.”
“Just following your advice,” Kit replied. “I’ve never turned away from any instructive experience.”
I had learned to fear that word. Anything “instructive” was likely to be either excruciatingly painful or so risky to life and limb that only a fool would consider it. Wei-fu noticed me wince. “I may owe you an apology for that,” he said, turning his thousand-mile stare toward me. “It was I who― Good heavens!”
“He’s something, isn’t he?” Kit beamed with open pride.
Wei-fu continued to look me over, and then reached across the table and laid a hand over my solar plexus for a moment. “My apologies, but you are fascinating. I have met only one other like you in my travels. It emerges as a kind of madness in times of stress, does it not?”
The attention was a little disconcerting. “Um, yeah. Or it used to. Kit showed me how to get a handle on it.”
“Is that so? Then he has done well indeed, in more ways than one.”
● ● ●
I rolled off of Kit and lay back on the bed in Wei-fu’s spare room, enjoying the afterglow. Kit snuggled against my chest and pulled the duvet over us to shield against the chill that crept in through the walls, or was blown in through the shutters by an errant gust. It wasn’t long before warmth spread over me from head to toe, and I started to doze.
I forced myself awake anyway. I didn’t want to spoil the moment, but we were setting out for the High Pass in the morning, and any later might be too late.
“Kit?”
“Mmm?”
“Is there anything I need to know?”
“Yeah,” he said to my armpit. “Geometry. Better study up.”
“Oh, come on. You’ve been tight as a bowstring for almost a week. You hardly even cracked a smile since we crossed the border until we stepped through Wei-fu’s door. If you’re expecting trouble, you should tell me about it. And if it’s something else, you know I’ll help you if I can.”
He crossed his forearms on my chest and rested his chin on them to look me in the face. “I guess I should have told you, but it’s kind of embarrassing. It doesn’t show me off in a very good light.”
“You know that doesn’t mean anything to me.”
“I know. All right, then. I’ve been afraid, very afraid, that we might run into one of my brothers.”
To say Kit was not on good terms with his brothers who still resided in Lipak was putting it mildly, but I was still surprised. “You don’t mean you’re worried they’ll get to you again, do you? Because―”
“No, nothing like that. Hells, the only reason they got the drop on me then was because too much happened all at once for me to handle. I was just fourteen, and half-trained. But I am worried about fighting them.”
“Why? What do you think they’ll do?”
“It’s not what they’ll do. It’s what I might do.”
“Besides kick their butts?”
He closed his eyes and frowned. “It’s been years since they were in my thoughts. I believed I was over it. But I’m not.” His voice dropped to almost a whisper. “I’m angry at them, Tam. I think I’m angry enough to kill.”
“Kit... They did try to kill you.”
“Yeah. And if I wasn’t me they would have. It hurt. A lot. But they didn’t manage to do it, and the pain didn’t last. It’s not what they did to me. It’s what they did to Dak.”
Kit had talked about his first love maybe twice since I met him, but I remembered his story. “Wasn’t that the king?”
“Oh, Father held the sword. But he couldn’t have used it if they hadn’t clubbed Dak first, and held him down onto the block. And he wouldn’t have done it if they hadn’t spied us out and told him what we were doing together. They made his death happen for no better reason than to hurt me.” His face displayed no emotion, but his back was hard as stone under my hands.
“Kit, why the worry? I know you’re not like that. You lived here three years after all that happened, didn’t you? If you weren’t that angry at them then, how can you be now?”
“These things don’t go away if you bury them like I did. They grow. And I was that angry then.”
“You didn’t do it, though.”
“No. I almost never saw them. Most of the time I was here, and they never came near the place. I was in the village pretty often, but the people disliked them so much they didn’t dare show their faces too much. Then Tristan came to the inn one day. It was all I could do to keep myself from ripping out his heart and stuffing it down his throat.”
“Kit! You still didn’t!”
“One word from him and I might have, but I saw him before he saw me and I ran instead. I wasn’t even sure why until I sat and thought about it. They may be the kind who would murder their own kin, but I was not. I will not. I don’t want to be like them at all, but especially not that way.
“But what if I really am like them? What if―”
“You’re not.”
“But―” I silenced him with a kiss, and he reacted as if he needed it. When it finished he laid his head back on my chest and sighed.