"Hey, stop! Who goes there?" blustered one of them.
"I don't think she's going to stop, Darian." The tall, thin guard squinted at the rider swiftly approaching.
The shorter guard swore. "Why do we always get the weird shit on our watch? Damnit, stop, whoever you are!"
"Doesn't look like she's listening." The horse, wearing a saddle but neither bridle nor reins, passed through the crossed pikes without even pausing, his outlines blurring a bit but otherwise not even seeming to notice them. The rider, did, however. The woman on the horse's broad back looked down at the Darius and gave him a look that he could feel penetrate into his soul.
She held his surprised eyes for just a moment, and then gave him a small, sad smile. Then she put a hand on the horse's neck, seeming to speak a word that neither of the guards could hear. The horse snorted soundlessly and gathered itself, curveted in a manner more suited to a light palfrey than a draft horse, and then stretched itself into a gallop, vanishing from sight in short order.
Both of the guards stood openmouthed. Finally, Darian turned to his tall friend. "Tell me, Gara. Have we been drinking?"
Gara shook his head, his beard waggling under the cheekpieces of his helmet. "Not that I recall."
"Is anyone going to believe that if we tell them what just happened?"
"I don't think so."
"Let's not, then. Agreed?" The tall guard nodded, and both of them resumed their posts, one at each side of the gate.
Callas phased back into the material at the stable doors, and then dismounted and walked inside, Dream at her shoulder. She reached up to scratch under his jaw. "You have an interesting sense of humor sometimes, love. 'Let's give them something they won't forget', indeed! I *am* the Headmistress of the Order of Epona. It's not like they wouldn't have let me in."
This was faster. Besides, did you see the looks on their faces?
She rolled her eyes at the draft horse, beginning to unsaddle him. "Showoff. Also, vain. Very, very vain."
He snorted at her, swishing his tail. And those are only the beginning of my sterling qualities.
Callas laughed a little and set to drying off the sweat from their run. When she finished, she scratched him behind the ears. "I'll see you soon, Dream."
I think you may sleep without dreams tonight. I'll wait for you, but don't be surprised if you don't see me.
She nodded and set off for the Temple proper. She guessed it was about fifth candle, about two o'clock in the morning. As she passed the common room, she saw a light; stepping inside, she saw Gavião sitting alone, looking at some papers that were spread out before him on the table. "What are you doing up?"
He looked up, then shoved back his chair and rose, walking towards her. "Waiting for you to get back. Matthew said you'd gone out with Dream. Given the things that have happened in the past few days, I wanted to make sure you were back safe before going to bed."
She gave him a small, weary smile. "I couldn't stay still, after hearing about Aru. I just couldn't. It was just too much. But you didn't have to wait up."
"Actually, Callas, I did." He gave her a measuring look. "Did you find what you were looking for?"
"Some." She looked down at the patterns of the tiled floor. "I had a talk with my mother. And I think I'm all out of tears for now." She raised her eyes, meeting his. Gavião's face was marked with fatigue, grief, and worry. She closed the distance between them with a single step and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder. After a moment, Gavião returned her embrace, cradling her shoulders in his sword-calloused hands. For a moment they stood there, Gavião remembering suddenly why he loved his volatile and occasionally impossible charge.
Callas stepped back and looked to at him. "I'm all right, Gavião. For the moment, at least. Go to bed, I'll go find Galvin. Any idea where he might be?"
He shook his head. "Not really. Last I saw him, it looked like he was heading towards one of the small chapels downstairs."
"What on earth would he be doing there?"
Gavião's smile was wry. "He is a priest, Callas. Do you forget?"
The astonished look on her face told him that, indeed, she had done exactly that. She put one hand to her forehead and began to laugh ruefully. "By the Name, it's been a long day. Get some sleep, my knight. Tomorrow, I'm afraid, we do this all again."
He chuckled at her consternation, and said, "You find Galvin and get some sleep as well. Note," he said pointedly, "that I said sleep."
She wrinkled her nose at him. "Yes, Father. Dream even said that I'd probably have the night off. A good thing, I'm not sure anything would come but nightmares tonight."
He waved at her and said, "Good. Shoo, Callas, go find your pirate and I'll see you in the morning." She laughed a little, turned and left.
Callas found Galvin, as Gavião had theorized, in one of the small chapels on the main floor of the Temple that were used for private meditation. The candles on the altar were lit, the white stone altar itself covered with a cloth dyed a rich green. She paused in the doorway and watched, listening to Galvin's tenor voice chanting a familiar prayer. The prayer was a traditional one for the recently dead, one of the several prayers for speeding the soul of a cleric on its journey into the afterlife.
Galvin was cross-legged before the altar, head bowed, saying the lines of the prayer with a heartfelt force. His hair, loosed from its usual queue, fell over his face, obscuring his expression. Callas walked quietly up behind him and sank into that same cross-legged posture. When he began the prayer over again she joined in, raising her voice against his, matching his rhythm and tone. Together, they finished one more repetition of the prayer, and then both fell silent. Galvin brushed his hair out of his eyes, looked at her, and said, "You're back."
"Just got back. Gavião told me you might be down here."
Galvin studied her for a moment, her red-rimmed eyes and the way her shoulders drooped telling him what she'd been doing in the time she was away. "I decided that, for once in my life, this was the correct occasion to offer up one of the traditional prayers. I'm not usually much of one for them, but..." He glanced at the altar, with the candles burning low. "It felt right, this time."
Callas said quietly, "He was a good man. Good dragon. One of the best. And he was one of Epona's, even if he wasn't officially a cleric of hers. It's only right that we offer the traditional prayers for him."
"It is, at that." A thought occurred to him, and he frowned. "He wasn't officially a cleric? Then how did he resurrect me? I would have noticed if he'd used a potion, and there's no way he was...er...hiding an artifact. All I remember is Nik's lightning coursing through me, and then I was waking up. I have no idea what happened between the time I died and the time I woke up."
Callas looked away from him, her mouth twitching as she decided how best to approach the subject. "Epona was there, and she worked through him. He asked for a miracle, and she granted one."
"Aru told you that?"
Still looking away, she said, "Ah...no. I witnessed for myself."
Galvin's eyes widened as he swiftly put some details of things she'd said over the past couple of days together. "You were there?"
"Till the very end, Galvin, in dreams. I saw you die, and I witnessed Aru's prayer. And saw you return from the dead." She looked towards him, meeting his eyes.
The look on Galvin's face was indescribable, and he was blushing. Callas tried to remember if she'd ever in her life seen the normally unflappable Galvin blush, and as the tips of his ears turned bright red decided that she actually hadn't. She asked, "What's wrong?"
He choked a little. "You saw...to the very end? You saw me wake?"
She told herself, don't smile, don't smile, he'll never forgive you if you laugh, and said, "Right up to the point where you opened your eyes. Sitting in Aru's lap. It's, ah, too bad he didn't have the time to put some clothes on after he transformed..." Her mouth was trembling as she tried to hold back her smile. "What's wrong with that?"
She hadn't known it was possible to blush any brighter than Galvin already was, but somehow he managed it. He said, in a mournful voice, "I, ah...seemed to be rather happy to be there..."
Callas tried to hold back her smile, covering her mouth to hide the fact that the corners of her mouth were twitching. He lifted his eyes to meet hers, wondering how she would take this news, and the pained look on his face was the last straw for her. Behind her hand, a muffled snicker escaped, the corners of her eyes crinkled up, and she lost her battle and finally started laughing. Startled, he met her impish eyes and in that instant, he, too, dissolved into laughter. Together, both of them roared, Callas pounding the stone of the floor with her fist. Every so often, their laughter would die down, and then one would look at the other and they would begin again, helplessly. They laughed until tears ran down their faces, clinging to each other, convulsed with belly laughs, the stress and grief of the past few days transforming itself into a single moment of utter absurdity.
Finally, they leaned against each other, still giggling. Callas said between fits of laughter, "Love...that wasn't the fact that you were sitting in Aru's lap. That's a side effect of being raised from the dead." She grinned, shaking her head. "Didn't you see Seraphim today? He was in approximately the same state. Tamsin's a lucky woman."
Galvin raised his eyebrows, snickering still. "You looked? Isn't that impolite?"
"Impolite, schmimpolite! Contrary to popular opinion, Galvin, I am not a prude, just picky. Of course I looked. How are you ever going to see interesting things if you don't look?"
He ruffled her hair, wind-tangled from the ride she'd just returned from, as the last of the laughter made its way through him. "It's still somewhat embarrassing to have woken up in the lap of a naked white dragon. Even if there was good reason."
"Obviously. I don't think I've ever seen you blush before." She snickered. "Don't worry. I promise I'll never tell another soul. They'd give you a bad time, considering you're a sailor and all."
"I think Gavião's angel is providing enough fodder for perverse speculation at the moment. Maybe that's why he never got married, he just never met the right extraplanar creature." His wry tone caused Callas to dissolve into helpless giggles once more. Galvin pulled her into his lap, and she nestled against him, siding her arms around him.
Finally, both of them were quiet. Callas asked, "Should we head to bed? Gavião told me in no uncertain terms that I was to get some sleep. And that floor cannot be comfortable." Galvin nodded, and the pair got to their feet. Each of them blew out a candle on the altar, and they made their way upstairs.