12/16
Sherwood Forest
We've been on the run (literally!) for a few days and I haven't had time to write. It's December now, and though we have our pick of anywhere in the world to be, we had to go to Bucharest. And then Copenhagen, which was, if anything, colder. I'm getting used to not feeling my toes. I have to learn how to knit so I can make covers for the horses' ears. You know you're in sad shape when you start wondering if full plate armor would be warmer than chain. Obviously, the cold has driven me mad. (Plate mail is *heavy*. And awkward. and more suited in general to people Gavião's size than mine, really, even when it's made out of mithril. Also, it's not all that much warmer. I asked.)
I have to ask Gaius to figure out somewhere warm we could go for a few days. Preferably warm and without orcs or werewolves or crazy unkillable werewolves who are TORTURING MY FRIENDS. Um.
About a week ago, I was named Headmistress of the Order of Epona. Gavião killed Ulan, the old Headmistress, and then I executed Nara, an old enemy of mine and Ulan's named successor. That was the first time I'd ever killed a human being in cold blood instead of in battle. It was easier than I thought it would be, but I still spent some time afterwards curled in a ball, sobbing.
Seeing that Gavião had killed Ulan at my command, and I'd killed Nara, that made me the new Headmistress, under the rule of the strongest stallion leading the herd. And I'm not just any Headmistress, but the lead one-there are regional Headmasters, but the Headmaster position I now occupy is the head of the Heads, the one who has the final say in things. The head and the heart of the Order.
I am terrified of this. I didn't ever want to be anyone important, and now I am, and I am very afraid that I'm not up to carrying this burden.
My friends don't treat me any differently now, and Gavião's always acted like I was important even when I was just a plain old novice priestess. Come to think of it, I'm *still* pretty much a novice priestess. I'm still pretty useless for the first five minutes or so of a battle.
Also, Elowyn stomped off for what appears to be the last time a few days ago. Perverse as it might sound, I sort of miss him. Sort of.
Let's see if I can remember what's happened in the last few days. First, Sucellus was killed, and we found out that we do have a friend (of sorts, anyway) on the other team. One of the members of the council not only inherited Sucellus' powers but also his conscience. Then we went to Bucharest and found an army of 10,000 orcs waiting for us. And several red dragons.
Jamaica's nice this time of year, isn't it? That's an island, right?
Anyway, controlled my panic and wandered bravely (stupidly?) over to investigate several new and reopened gates.
Turned out to be a trap. Nasty snake-person named Caul figured that we'd come looking, and when we did, he could put the smack down on us. He brought along an army just to make sure, it seems. The problem with having 10,000 orcs is that only 20 at a time can fight us. Seems like sort of waste, really.
But on our way there, we found an amulet. It hooked me into the strong emotions of two of our enemies, and Galvin. (Galvin's officially my second-in-command--I'd sent him to check out some weird ship movements, and I *thought* he was doing just fine for himself. I thought it was a low-risk assignment, purely investigational. I am trying not to feel guilty about sending him into what turned out to be a very bad place. But I'm getting ahead of myself.)
Anyway, I could tell a few things right away--namely the fact that Galvin was being tortured. And that there was a very nasty person named Malik who was torturing him--and who'd put an emotion-linking amulet on him like the one I was holding, just so he could feel every moment of pain he was causing.
Malik was not a very nice person. At all. Unfortunately, he was also very far away at the time, and we had a couple of large, red, fire-breathing problems to deal with. We managed to get control of the one, and bought off the other. Riyor said he would have asked Arnie if he could use the fortune in gems he was hauling around if there'd been time, and maybe if the dragon had been a little smaller. I have to admit that it was fun to watch the dwarf turn purple when he'd found out that Riyor had promised to give the dragon every gem Arnie had.
And then the trees started whomping orcs for us. Turns out the oh-so-mysterious druid who'd been keeping us company was actually a Very Powerful Mysterious Druid. Daffodil (my new horse; I seem to be collecting them) is now nervous every time we ride through trees.
Quite possibly for good reason.
Anyway, nasty slimy snake-person bit the dust. The trees mostly quit whomping. We found a nice little cave to curl up in for the night, and then I had the most awful dream that wasn't a dream. I think these amulets have more powers than Arnie said they did, as I was treated to a scene of Malik ranting and raving at a werewolf named Jaenus, as well as proving that he was immune to silver (he was a werewolf) and well-nigh unkillable. Also, torturing Galvin. Which made me very, very angry. I've been friends with Galvin for almost the entire time I've been in the Order, and learning that he was being tortured was...I can't really explain it, but it was as if I was hurting along with him.
Jaenus said something which has made me wonder exactly what's going on with Galvin. But that's a musing for another time.
And when I woke, the amulet was hot, almost too warm to touch. I think that's when I realized it wasn't actually a dream. I think I said something like, "oh, crap."
I managed to convince the others that rescuing Galvin would be a wise course of action. We took a detour through Bucharest and armed ourselves for werewolves, and Gaius ran into an old...something or other (friend? Enemy? Difficult to tell) named Valin. Whose dagger Riyor stole.
And then it was off to Copenhagen. Which was cold. Very, very, very cold. I saw Jaenus on what looked suspiciously like Galvin's ship, with the identifying markings removed. (I recognized the holes Riyor made with his knives when he did his spider impression on the side of the ship a few weeks back. I'd almost suspect Riyor of being a cleric of whichever god controls luck, which is so very clearly a silly suspicion that it refuses to leave my mind. He's too good a rogue to be a cleric, I think. Unless he's *lots* older than he seems. Anyway.)
We did find where all the werewolves were hanging out, and then Arnie decided to kick the proverbial wasps' nest full of werewolves. Actually, I'm pretty sure that was Aidan. Arnie does value his neck at least a *little*. Aidan, being both off his rocker and basically dead, doesn't. We were doing all right (I went all wispy and was flying down the tunnel at the time, so I only have Gavião's word on this) and then Malik and about a hundred werewolves came charging out of the tunnel. Oops.
Everyone but me was captured, which turned out to be all right, because Jaenus and her daughter were put in charge of us, and Jaenus is actually not really a bad sort at all. I didn't know there were werewolves that were focused on something other than killing all non-werewolves. We got Galvin down from where he was hanging and Gavião healed him enough that he wasn't teetering on the brink of death. We found out that when Sucellus (the plant god which is why I now can talk to horses *and* the grass they're eating) was killed, Malik had his mortality removed and put into eight other people, each of which represented a section of his body. Unfortunately, the two people we didn't want to kill, the people who'd been nice to us...were his head and his heart. The only two parts that killing would actually kill him.
Nobody ever said this job was going to be easy, after all.
We finally decided to try to just go mess things up by killing the person who represented Malik's, uh, pelvic region. and if I never ever have to think about Malik's pelvic region again, I will be VERY VERY HAPPY. Ew.
Unfortunately, Malik beat us to the gate. Things got messy. Fortunately, though he wasn't actually dead by the time we got done, he was immobile. I was good and didn't go beat on him for torturing Galvin. Mostly because he'd probably have liked it, he was that kind of crazy.
We sent him somewhere he couldn't cause any trouble. Not that he was much with the causing trouble with four limbs that didn't work, but with the unkillable it's really better to be safe than sorry. Then we went and killed the nasty witch we were gunning for in the first place, which actually appeared to do the trick.
Unfortunately, with every one of these folks we kill, the remaining ones get nastier and stronger. Joy.
We're also apparently removing all of the magic in the world by using the artifacts to destroy the magic-sucking globes the drow have been making and sending up to the surface. Damned if we do, doubly damned if we don't.
But! Galvin's all right and not being tortured any more. I'd like to see if I can't convince him to stay with us for a while so I can make sure he heals fully; unfortunately, it's not like being around us is exactly safe. Being trouble magnets, and all. None of us got killed or even very badly injured, so I think I'm going to count this outing a success. (Despite, you know, the damned guilt that I probably shouldn't be feeling but I am anyway. I think it just hit home that I'm now *responsible* for an entire *order* of clerics. Shit. Whose bright idea was this anyway?)
Oh, gods. I just remembered that I have to go be High Priestess for the Solstice ceremonies soon--we ought to leave in the next couple of days, if we're going to get there in time. Not looking forward to this. At all. If we're *lucky*, then it'll just be a very long week or two of dressing up and pretending to be statues.
Unfortunately, we're not usually very lucky. Except for Riyor, really. I have a feeling I'm going to be glad for my right to have Gavião with me all the time, as well as Galvin.
Now I'm thinking about that thing that Jaenus said again. I should really stop that.
If it wasn't revenge....then, who?
I think I should bury these suspicions in the back of my brain and leave them there. They're unlikely to do me any good at the moment, even if I'm right...
Goodnight, diary. With any luck, I'll live through tomorrow.
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