CHAPTER FOUR—CALDER FEV’ROSK

“Did she write back yet?” I asked, pacing where I stood by the open door of Anesh’s rover. The sun was beginning to set, and with it, the temperature was dropping by degrees every passing moment.

But she had written to me, my Lorelei. She had written to me to tell me that she regretted leaving me and that she would come back. So Anesh would take me to the rover each and we would read Lorelei’s message, and I would write one in response, and sometimes we would catch her where she would write back straight away. But today’s message had been different, somehow. Cryptic.

Dearest Calder, We have enlisted the aid of unlikely compatriots as we move forward. You won’t have to wait long now.

Love always, Lorelei

So I sent one off straight away:

Lore, does that mean I can expect your arrival? When?

But she had not responded. “Not yet, your highness,” Anesh said, as she crossed her arms tightly in front of her. “But the day is drawing to its end. Perhaps we can go back inside now?”

I was about to protest, to ask her to wait a few more minutes, but then I saw how she trembled where she sat, and my expression softened. She was my friend, doing me this great favor. I would not have her suffer for it. “Yes,” I conceded, “let us return to the Spire.”

We walked in companionable silence until we reached the dining hall, which was a bustle of activity. The village had gotten into the habit of gathering for the evening meal, the way they had when my mother ruled. It was a habit I encouraged, as it staved off the loneliness that often set in at the onset of the Winternight.

Anesh joined me at my table, and she poured me a cup of panyan liquor, which I sipped in as tempered a manner as I could muster. My soul did not feel rested; there was an anxiety that accompanied the unknown. When would Lorelei return to me? And how might I help her? I felt useless, impotent, unable to participate in the reunion of my family.

Never before had I given our relative disadvantages a second thought. I knew that our ancestors had come from a place of much more technological advancement, and that the relocation efforts had necessitated a bit of a setback. And many of the Qulari priests who had trained me in the spiritual world of my people had claimed that it had allowed us to get back to the Gods, when we were not so distracted by the glitters of science.

But now, my mind was a roiling sea, and it was impossible for me to catch one thought before being overtaken by the wave of another.

“Your highness seems ill at ease tonight,” Anseh remarked as the meal was beginning to draw to a close. The dining hall smelled of snuffed candles and roasted meat, and the members of my tribe were beginning to abandon their seats and head for home before it got too cold. “Would you care to unburden yourself?”

I pursed my lips and looked up at her; she wore an expectant expression, and I felt so grateful for her newfound friendship. Even still, I was not certain I could put what I was feeling into words. “I was a priest before I was a king,” I said instead. “Did you know that?”

“Yes, sire,” she said. “I was informed of that prior to my arrival here. It was one of the things that drew me to you.”

I leaned forward with my arms on the table. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “Prior to my coming to Qetesh at all, I was interested in Qeteshi religions. They are beautiful, your pantheon. With some of the most dynamic stories in the history of the universe.”

“I have struggled,” I remarked, “to keep my relationship with the Gods. Through the loss of our women, my mother in particular. Through the loss of my wife, and my inability to go after her due to our lack of technology.”

“But the Gods are not to blame for these things, sire,” she said, leaning forward and placing her hand on mine. “Allow me to remind you that Qi’Toraq, the God of Death, had to come for Ur’Tesh before she could bloom into the Goddess of the Moon. She was a young Qeteshi maiden, was she not? Full of promise. The loveliest in her village. Everyone thought she would bear great Qeteshi kings. Instead, she bedded Qi’Toraq, and when she did, she died, and in her death, she gave birth to the moon instead.”

“I am familiar with the tale.”

“Well, but do you not see?” She asked, withdrawing her hand. “We must give up everything, in order for our true purpose to come through us. Just as you have, sire. You have lost all, but you still have much to gain.”

I grumbled my understanding and excused myself, leaving Anesh looking a little stunned or frustrated behind me. I could not decipher her look for I was too turned inward, too consumed with this notion that one must lose all in order to be what one must truly be. And so I did something that I had not done for quite some time. I walked through the blistering Winternight to the temple—the self-same temple where Lorelei and I had been married—and I knelt down at the altar of Te’Ovid, and I prayed.

I prayed for the wisdom to understand what lessons the All Father was trying to teach me; I prayed for my people, prayed for them not to die out in a generation; I prayed to return to the silent memory of the Gods, to return home to this temple, if not literally then spiritually. But mostly I prayed for Lorelei’s safe return to her adopted home. I prayed and I prayed until I fell asleep with my forehead pressed to the stone floor of the Qulari temple.

~ * ~

The next morning, I awoke on the floor where I’d drifted off to sleep. Some gentle soul had draped a fur over me, but I had otherwise been left undisturbed, using my arm as a pillow. The strange thing was that it was the most rested I’d felt since Lorelei had left me. I sucked in deep gulps of air, like a drowning man, and pushed myself to sitting. I peered up at the temple of the All Father, a totem with the many faces of Te’Ovid carved in Panyan wood, and smiled. “Good morning, All father,” I said aloud, my voice ringing off the great stone walls of the temple. A few candles glowed, freshly lit, and I know that the Qulari priests who called this temple home had been forced to step over me all morning. I chuckled wryly and folded the fur, before rising to my feet to make my apologies to any of the Qulari who were nearby. I searched through the space, from office to nave and down each pew, but there was no one there. The daystar was high in the sky, and it cast glittering colored light through the stained-glass windows at the front of the temple, and yet there was no priest about his business. Strange, I thought, and pushed out of the temple and into the morning.

After my eyes adjusted to the glare of day, I saw why there was no one inside the temple—or another other building for that matter. All of the people of the village, the natural-born Qet and their Human or Europax companions—were standing where the air was most open, their eyes trained at the sky.

For there, shooting out a tail of smoke as it went, was a shuttle, weaving its way across the sky.

I was looking up as I began to walk toward the center of town, toward the spire, and the shuttle was getting lower and lower in the sky, growing in size as it made its way down, down. By the time it was level with the top of the spire, I went running, top speed, as fast as I could toward where I thought it would touch down.

And just as I reached the open courtyard between the market and the spire, I saw it land and cut its engines. My people were gathering around it with me, and there was much curious conversation about what we should do. Because it was clear that it was a Quarter Moon ship, and we’d had problems with them before, of course.

But no sooner did it land and cut its engines did it start them back up again and shoot blasts of hot air into the dirt between it. The heat made the air tremor, and we all looked away, holding our hands up to our faces to shield ourselves from the air and dirt and debris from the space craft. It shot up into the atmosphere and headed off again, and we blinked to understand it.

But there, several meters off, was my Lorelei, standing with a bag gripped in her fists. Three other people were with her: the Europax Tierney, and two aging humans, who were glancing around, nervous and unsure.

But Lorelei saw me, and I saw her, and she darted forward, so I could do nothing but run forward to meet her. We crashed headlong into each other, and I swept her up into my arms, immediately overwhelmed by the solid, familiar feeling of her body against mine. H was clinging to her, and her to me, with her face tucked near my neck, her legs wrapped around my ribs, her arms squeezing me about the neck, and my hands beneath her bottom, holding her up.

She lifted her face and kissed me, and I kissed her back, and she pulled away and smiled. I could see where there were tear streaks up and over the apples of her cheeks, and I felt where my own had wetted my skin.

“You have come back to me,” I murmured, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair.

“I promised you I would,” she said. “And I have.” I rocked her gently from side to side, not willing to let her go, fearful that this was all some sort of teasing apparition. But no, she was here, in my arms, and I was clinging to her like my life depended on it.

But eventually I had to set her down, and she turned, taking my hand in hers, and led her back to where Tierney and the two other humans were standing. I examined them: the male was very short and had hair growing from his lip. The woman was pretty, and I could see that she must have been Lorelei’s mother, as they shared a similar look, a similar spark.

“Calder Fev’rosk, these are my parents, Jack and Cora Vauss.” I reached out and gripped his father by the arm, then bowed low to her mother. “Mom, dad, this is my husband, Calder.”

“It is an honor to meet you both.” But her mother darted forward and hugged me, catching me quite off guard. I hugged her back, and when she pulled back, I could see that she was weeping as well. An emotional day for all of us.

“Oh, Calder,” she said, and that was all.

I sniffled, clearing my mind of all sad things, and turned to face my people, who were gathered with similarly dubious expressions.

“Ladies and gentlemen, friends all,” I said loudly to the crowd, my voice booming across the market. I took Lorelei’s hand in mine and held them both aloft. “Your Queen has returned!”

A cheer went up across the expanse of the village, and I beamed, turning to see Lorelei smiling at my side.

“You must have a feast!” someone shouted from the crowd.

I grinned. “Oh, must I?”

“To welcome the Queen home again!” another voice suggested.

I gave a wave of my hand. “Very well—it is the will of the people!”

Another cheer went up through the crowd and I turned to Lore and Tierney and her family. “Come,” I said, “we must get inside before we are positively mobbed.”