GROUNDLING 3: THE TAKING OF NAMES

by ardavenport

- - - Part 11

Luba was there in the entryway of the House of Healing the next evening. She warmly greeted her and then immediately ushered Onie downstairs to the kitchen to collect their dinner. The kitchen was different from the one in the Collegium. There were no firepits for roasting meat, but lots of extra stoves and boiling pots. Onie supposed that most people sick enough to have to stay in the House of Healing would likely need simple, more boiled and plain foods to eat. They got a dinner of smoked meats, dark bread, boiled greens garnished with chopped nuts and roots. Carrying a tray, Onie followed Luba down through the labyrinth hallways until they reached the same door they had been to a few days ago. Balancing her tray, Luba knocked and after a voice replied from behind the door, they went inside.

Chellie stood at attention, wearing the same dress and head scarf, plus a string of blue glass beads hanging around her neck. They matched her blue eyes. She immediately had to step aside so they could put their trays on the table next to the bed. There was barely enough room. Chellie took the chair while Luba and Onie sat eating with plates in their laps. For a while, everyone kept their noses down toward their food, the sounds of eating the only ones in the room.

A sideways glance toward Luba told Onie that the Healer was prepared to eat the whole meal in silence.

"Ye been eatin' plain fare like this tha whole time'ere?"

Startling, Chellie froze, then gulped. "Yes. It is plain. But the Healers say it is . . .healthful."

"Of course it is. We would not serve anything else here of all places." Luba took another bite of boiled greens as if it was cake.

"They say how long ye's s'posed ta be'ere?"

Chellie lowered her eyes. "They say that's my choice. But I don't know how I can go out. People will just look at me, like what's 'he' pretending to be, going against nature. And people here have seen me as a boy. They won't believe that this is how I'm supposed to be." Ashamed, she looked down at herself. Unfortunately, Onie had to agree. She still looked like a boy in a dress.

"Well, maybe when yer hair grows out. . . . " That would take months. Would the Healers let her hide out in their House for that long? And if she was physically a boy, she was just going to look more and more like a man as she got older. Her shoulders were already too broad. And other things would develop. "I mean, on ye head. Not . . . anywheres else."

"We've been giving her special herbs to stop any of that," Luba said, "some of the same ones that we women take to control our moons for when we don't want to have a baby. It's just a different mixture. And Chellie has been very conscientiously taking them," she complimented, but Chellie just looked more miserable.

"They help, but they can't change the way I look. Everybody here's seen me as Roston! That's all they'll see! My cousin back at the house, I swear he'd probably slit my throat in the night if I ever came back there like this." Tears welled up in her eyes as all her fears came out. "And I've been gone so long, he must have written back home to tell Lord Drogon that I'm sick. They'll send someone, if they haven't already before winter comes."

"Now, you wrote a letter to your brother's wife right away and that would get there first. And she'll do what she can to stop it."

"But her father won't listen to her." Tears ran down her face. "He keeps her chained to that house all the time. It would have been fine if she could have come with me; he wouldn't have missed her. It's just spite that he keeps her there. And my brother won't help." She picked up a napkin and wiped her face, blew her nose.

Luba turned to Onie. "Her brother's wife knows about Chellie's true nature; she's the only one in her family who knows, and accepts it. And she was the one who arranged for her to come to the family house in Haven, hoping that she might find some help for her 'condition' here."

"I'm supposed to be learning how to trade for the Manor from my cousin. But he doesn't want me. He likes it here and he doesn't want the heir's younger brother taking his job someday. So, I thought I could maybe meet one of the Hawkbrothers here at the Collegium," Chellie admitted, choking back more tears, "Everybody knows they do everything. And they have Magic; I thought maybe . . . they could change me. Make me right." Her eyes were bright with hope.

"I've seen that look before," Luba added. "Most people when they ask after Hawkbrothers like that are just looking for a little adventure. But a few think they can find help for something more important."

"She says Magic doesn't work that way," Chellie told Onie.

"No, it doesn't. Quite a lot of it - more than people think - is just tricks and illusion. And after the Mage-storms, even the best adepts won't be able to do the things they used to. Not for a long time."

Chellie hung her head. "I can't go back and be Roston again. Not after all this. I'll take vows at one of the Temples before I do that. I swear it."

"It has not come to that," Luba assured her sternly. She put her mostly empty plate on one of the trays. "And even if I or Ingress thought that you were suitable for the cloister, it's not as easy as they say in the ballads." She stood and laid a comforting hand on Chellie's shoulder. Touching her face, her hand pushed the scarf back from the still-short hair. Even if it was long, people would still likely look at her twice and wonder.

Onie had no idea how to make Chellie look more feminine. Onie had never been pretty, but she wasn't ugly either and she had never, ever had trouble looking like a woman no matter what she wore, even in her Grays, wearing pants and boots, the curves of her hips and bosom clearly showed. In fact, she had to stitch in extra folds in places, just to make things fit better. The dress Chellie wore just hung down off her shoulders. She could have been wearing jeweled, blazing colors like Sunwing and she still would have looked no more womanly than he did.

"Aye." Her brow furrowed with the beginning of an idea. "Ye might get somethin' out o' those Hawkbrothers other than Magic. An' more import'nt, too. They knows how ta dress in what they is. Like women an' men."

She only got puzzled looks back. "Sunwing would dress in sleeves, an' colors an' jewels that ye only see on a court lady. But 'ee ne'er looked like na woman. An' I seen a woman Mage. She wore all that stuff an' still looked like a woman. An' she was straight as a stick. But I ne'er had doubt abuot her bein' what she was."

Chellie smiled. "Oh, their clothes are so beautiful. But I couldn't walk around in anything like that." There was just a hint of hope in her eyes.

"Hmmm, their hertasi servants make all their clothing for them. I'm sure they could make something a little plainer than the gaudy clothes they like to wear all day. And they are very skilled. And quick. There are two in the Palace who tend to any of the Tayledras there."

"Really?" Hertasi were supposed to be small lizard creatures who served the Tayledras, but Onie had never heard of any living in the Palace. But she had not heard of Gryphons or dyheli staying in Valdemar either until she was introduced to them.

"They're very shy and they prefer living below ground, but they have a small cellar suite. And I would expect the other Tayledras must be feeling guilty - at least they should be - about what Sunwing did; I'm sure they owe us a favor. Yes, I think they will." Luba looked down with confidence. "I'm sure they can help. I will ask them. Their Healers at least are every bit as good at keeping confidences as ours. But I can't promise anything until I've spoken to someone," she warned and Chellie nodded up at her, holding back a hopeful smile.

"Thank-you, Onie, that was very clever of you to think of that. We Healers are not well versed in fashion. Our clothes are generally already decided by our calling." She swept a hand down over her long green tunic.

"Aye. Glad I could help."

"Yes, thank-you. For helping. And for believing me," Chellie added.

"And now, Chellie." Luba nodded down at the girl. "Onie has some questions to ask you."

Sitting up straighter, Chellie's expression turned serious. "Luba told me that you wanted to ask me something. About my family."

"Aye. Did they tell ye what?"

She shook her head, her eyes flicking up to the Healer. "No, they wouldn't say. Just that it was important."

Onie sighed. Finally, she could ask, speak the question with good hope of an answer. "More'n ten years ago, me older sister come ta Haven, lookin' fer a better life'n what we have back home." She shook her head. "We come from a good town, wi' good folk an' all. But it's always tha same. An' ya hear tales from the Bards an' travelers an' traders comin' and goin'. An' ye jus' hope that some'o those stories might come fer ye. Tha good ones, na those nightmare things that scratch on people's doors durin' tha' Mage-storms." She shuddered. "But things jus' stay tha same, season in an' season out. An' dreamin' don' put food on tha table, an' ye gots ta get on livin', an' ye never gets ta goin' anywhere 'cept fer festivals an' such. An' na very far neither. But Mec, she planned and saved'er coin, an' just up an' did it, without askin' permission o' noone an come up'ere. . . ."

Chellie's face had changed to complete shock.

"Mec? Your sister is Mec?"

Onie nodded. "Aye," she answered cautiously. "Ye knows'er then."

"I-I-I don't know her. But-but I know about her. I mean, everybody . . . I mean that's why Delias's father hates her so much." She gulped.

"Well." Clearly pleased, Luba looked down at them. She started collecting the dishes and cups and the remains of their meal, stacking the two trays on top of each other. "It looks like you two have a lot to say to each other. I'll just take these back to the kitchen and leave you alone. Onie, just let me know when you're finished. Just have someone come find me; I have to stay tonight anyway." She picked up the trays and let herself out.

Onie and Chellie looked at each other in the lamp light.

"Sami, do you know where she took him?" Chellie breathed.

"Aye. He's growin' up in'a same house I did."

She gasped back and just stared in wonder for a moment. "Delias and Kendron never knew where she went, I mean, my brother and Lord Drogon's daughter. She never even told them her family name; she was just 'Mec'.

"Ye see'er then?"

She shook her head. "I was just a little when it happened, back at the manor. But everyone heard about it when they heard that a servant ran off with Lord Drogon's grandson. And then it came out that it was the maid who had him. And he was Kendron's bastard."

"So, that's Sami's father's name, then, Kendron. Kendron Jestren? An 'ees yer brother?"

Chellie solemnly nodded.

"Mec wouldna say nothin' 'bout'im 'cept'ee didna disgrace'er. An' our mother did ev'rthin' she could ta worm anythin' out 'bout 'im an' why she come back home with a baby an' na father."

Chellie's brow creased with puzzlement. "Then how did you know?"

Onie smiled back. "It was Sami who tol' me that Mec once said'ee looked jus' like'is father. An' even if she hadn't, I'da just had ta look at ye once and wonder meeself. Sami looks a lot like ye. But smaller. Ye looks like yer older brother then?"

"Uh, yes." She nodded, her expression turning thoughtful, her blue eyes concerned. "Did she ever say anything about Delias?"

Onie shook her head. "Ne'er heard tha name afore now. Mec sent na more'n a half-o-dozen letters tha whole time while she was in Haven. Said tha' she got along real well wi'tha lady of tha house she was servin', but nothing past that. Guess we only asked abouts Sami's father. Didna' know'ee already had a wife. So, Sami's this Lord Drogon's grandson, is'ee?"

Surprisingly, she shook her head back. "No. Lord Drogon is Delias's father; she's his only blood heir. He had a son who died; they said he drank too much with his friends and fell off the manor wall one night. And there was a younger son who didn't live after he was born. Lord Drogon's got brothers and they have sons, but he doesn't like them; he says they'll divide up the land. So, when Kendron courted Delias he adopted my brother and me and made him his heir, even before they were married, just to keep the others away."

For the next candlemark, Chellie told Onie about all the Jestren family secrets that she knew.

For her own part, Chellie had always known that she was a girl for as long at she could remember in her small village on the Terilee River, Haverfort. But when she announced this when she was very small, she got a beating along with the severe warning to never, ever tell that to anyone. Her brother held her arm over the fire until she promised, swearing on her mother's safe afterlife that she would never again say she was a girl. And when she cried later about it, her mother pulled her hair and told her never to speak blasphemy. Being the much younger sibling of a brother and a sister more than a decade older made it easy for her to hide in their shadows and watch and see how true it was that she should never tell anyone else her secret. Girls kept house and had babies and boys worked outside and brought home meat from hunting. Any other life was for lazy outsiders who had wild ways and would cheat and steal from the land and from people who worked hard to mind the gods' law and keep the land whole and healthy.

Soon after that, Chellie's world changed. First, their father died at the beginning of one winter, his heart giving out as he was shoveling the first snow of the season away the path to the home they shared with their mother's sister's family. The next spring, when the ground un-fronze enough for them to finally dig a proper grave for their father's body, Kendron arrived with Lord Drogon's daughter, Delias, as his traveling companion. She was a red-haired beauty with a reputation for being as opinionated and arrogant as her father and who, for reasons that no one would speak of at the time, left her father's manor to be a camp follower for the Guards who patrolled the Terilee River, normally for bandits, but during the Mage-storms much more dire threats. Everyone deferred to her, bowing and addressing her as 'Milady' and she was allotted a special private place to sleep in a house crowded with two families.

Lord Drogon arrived and apparently liked what he saw in Kendron. They relocated to the Lord's manor house, leaving behind Chellie's older sister who had married into the Greenleaf family the year before. Kendron and Delias were married the following summer and soon relocated to the Jestren family house in Haven. The Jestren lineage as minor nobility was only a few generations old, so the Haven house was relatively modest with only a single servant and cook. It was maintained partly for status, but also because they did far better custom with their own man dealing with the merchants in Haven for their land's furs and hardwood lumber than they ever did through third parties.

Lord Drogon's home, Munthunt Manor, was a house of Men. Men worked in the fields and minded the trails; they cut down trees, hunted, fished, and trapped animals for fur but only when the earth-wise Gifted gave their blessing for the land's abundance. And when the men were not working, they played rough; archery, fighting practice with swords and wrestling; they drank and sang rough songs. The adult women and men lived separate lives, coming together at meals, at festivals or funerals and to share a marriage bed. The boys among the younger children could not wait to escape the guardianship of their mothers, maids, and the Manor tutor, to leave behind the minor chores assigned to the littles and join the adventure.

Then word came from Haven that Kendron and Delias were to have a child late that fall. At winter festival, word came that it was a boy. Lord Drogon lusted after a true male heir who would properly displace his younger brothers and their issue and any other Jestren cousins with an eye on his title. After the winter snows and then the Mage-storms that made travel perilous and forced Drogon to stay and defend his lands for the unnatural horrors they spawned, the Lord of Munthunt Manor went there himself. A little more than a two moons later he was back from Haven along with Delias and Kendron and news of disaster.

Onie listened to this part of the tale intently; this was the other half of the story that Mec would never tell. The baby was revealed to have been born to the household maid, who abscounded with it after Delias tried to pass it off as her own. At first, Lord Drogon demanded they find the maid, Mec, and put her to the sword, because he thought she had taken his only grandson. But a Midwife stepped forward and revealed the truth, fearing that the true mother of the child would be punished just for trying to keep her own son. More questions revealed that Delias had likely tampered with Mec's moon-powder, tricking her into the pregnancy. And the final truth came out that Lady Delias though young and healthy was barren and incapable of bearing a child.

"But," Onie wondered aloud, "wouldna Lady Delias be mindin' Mec bein' wit'er husband. I mean, mos' women do."

Chellie hunched her shoulders. "Not if she was with them, too."

Eyes wide, Onie stared back. Her sister, Mec, had done that? "I kin see why she wouldna tell Ma 'bout it." Onie had heard plenty of raunchy tavern songs that came out after people had consumed enough ale, but she had no first or even second-hand experience with couplings beyond the ordinary man-with-woman. She would never have expected her boring home town (let alone her own family) to be capable of producing anyone who would even think of really doing such things. Until now.

"Lady Delias, she . . . likes to be with women," Chellie finished quietly.

It had been Lady Delias's preference for women that had drawn her to the Guard camp - over her father's loud objections - where there would be women soldiers. She struck up a steamy relationship with a young Sargent, who was a friend of Kendron, which was how they met. The relationship fell apart about the same time that Kendron went to his father's burial which was why she came with Kendron; she simply wanted an excuse to get away. When her father saw her in the company of a man he found acceptable (and who was even a descendant of the first Lord Drogon Jestren and a distant cousin), he did everything he could to encourage a match. Heartsick and angry over the breakup with her female lover, Delias took the path of least resistance with her parents. Kendron was happy to become Lord Drogon's heir and gain a better position for his widowed mother and young brother. And he knew about Delias's appetite for women and accepted it as long as she did her duty to produce an heir and grandson for her father.

"Ye knows an awful lot about Lady Delias's doin's."

Chellie nodded. "I was her servant. After she came back from Haven in disgrace, and after losing Mec and the baby, she didn't have any choice but to live in her father's house. She wouldn't talk about everything that happened in Haven but . . . she wasn't the same. She used to defy her father as if it was nothing, but not after everyone knew what she did."

After Lady Delias took up with a house maid who wanted to be a lady of the house, too, Lord Drogon forbade his daughter from ever having a women serve her.

"They were already calling me 'little-heart' in the yard because I was still doing little's work just so I wouldn't have to go out on the hunting parties. I didn't care; I was never one of them anyway."

The candle on the table crackled and flickered, catching their attention. Chellie hastily went to a chest to get another. Onie stood.

"Ye give me a lot ta think about. An' thank-ye, fer tellin' me about where me nephew comes from. I jus' gots ta think abouts how ta tell'im."

"Could you come tomorrow?" Holding the new candle over the old one, Chellie looked up, her blue eyes pleading. "Tell me more about Sami and where you live? Delias . . . she knows what she did was wrong. That she wronged Mec. And Kendron. She just never knew until then that she wanted to be a mother so much. And . . . she can't."

"I gots kitchen chores t'morrow dinner, but I kin come after," Onie agreed. Chellie relaxed and Onie smiled. "I'll see ye t'morrow."

Chellie smiled back.

- - - End Part 11