Kirin dreamt of roots dragging him under the earth. In his nightmare, he was trapped there, gasping for breath, unable to see anything in the cold darkness, and wishing for the relief of death. It didn't come.
He woke, choking on air instead of dirt, flailing upward as though the roots still held him. The cloak someone had used to cover him was tangled around his legs.
For a moment, he could not remember where he was, only that it was not safe. But why?
The forest clearing was peaceful. The fire he'd slept next to was still burning, giving off a pleasant warmth. The birds had taken up their usual dawn melody.
It wasn't the place that was dangerous. It was the company.
He glanced at the ash tree a few feet away. The demon was sitting there, his body completely at ease against the trunk, eyes closed. Kirin leaned forward to study him.
When he was a little boy, his master had taken over a villa abandoned by the Romans. A statue of one of their gods still stood in the atrium. Kirin had never learned which god it was.
Still, he remembered standing before it and offering the kind of prayers a child thinks might be heard. They had never been answered. It was just an empty husk, carved from pale marble, its surface worn smooth by wind and rain. Every line, every proportion had been chosen to please the eye, not with warmth but with a perfection that admitted no weakness.
The demon looked like that now. Yet, unlike the colourless god, this one appeared so vividly alive. The long lashes resting above the high cheekbones were darker than the hair that fell to his shoulder blades like a velvety curtain, shimmering with golden and auburn accents in the rising sun.
The full lips looked redder than yesterday. Kirin's overactive imagination instantly went to blood, but then he saw the shiny red berries piled up in a strange metal container in the grass, and he exhaled in relief.
The demon's eyes fluttered open, and the red mouth curved into a smile.
"Have you seen enough?"
Kirin felt his ears heat up, feeling caught. Still, he didn't look away.
"You look like a painted tavern wench out for suitors."
The grin widened, revealing straight, impossibly white teeth.
"You look like a virgin robbed of his virtue."
The bard realised he was clutching the cloak to his chest and quickly let it go. He glanced at the tents a few yards away.
"Why are you sleeping outside? Did you think I'd run away during the night?"
"I don't like confined places," the demon said.
He got up and handed Kirin a white tunic. "Go wash up. You look like someone dragged you through a fireplace."
"You did!"
"That should teach you not to attack innocent strangers."
Kirin scoffed, but went to the river anyway. The water was cold, and the bank slippery, but he managed to wash. The cooling water helped ease the throbbing in his burned hand.
He looked ruefully at his torn and burned tunic, then discarded it into the bushes. The new one felt light but warm. It was a bit too broad at the shoulders, and the material was finer than anything he'd seen before. Kirin just hoped the demon wouldn't want it back, since he had a talent for ruining clothes.
When he returned to the clearing, the demon wasn't alone anymore.
Kirin's mouth fell open in awe. The woman facing him was as tall as him and dressed like a man. The leather trousers and belted red tunic clung to her curves in a manner that made him speechless. Hair black as raven's wings fell over her shoulder in a braid as thick as his underarm and ended at her perfectly shaped waist.
The demon nudged him and cleared his throat.
Kirin straightened and returned his gaze quickly to the woman's face. The storm grey eyes regarded him with the expression of a goddess looking at her worshippers, before she inclined her head slightly.
"I am Elinor, daughter of Isandor, of the House of Morwen."
"I am Kirin", the confused bard managed to say.
Elinor kept looking at him expectantly, so he added sheepishly, "I don't know who my father was, and we don't give names to our houses here."
It was her turn to look confused.
"What was your mother's name?" she persisted.
"I am not sure. I never met anyone from my family," Kirin admitted, feeling nervous under the scrutiny of those intense eyes.
"Lucky you," the demon muttered behind him.
"Valerien!" Elinor protested.
Kirin glanced over his shoulder, then asked her, "Is that his name?"
The woman blinked, then turned on her companion. "You dragged him along without introducing yourself?"
The man gave her a blank look. "He didn't ask."
She sighed like a woman forced to deal with idiots.
"He is Valerien, son of Morien, of the House of Astir. Eat while you can. We leave when the sun clears the trees."
Kirin's stomach rumbled as he saw the food next to the dying fire. He thanked her, but she had already turned her back and was heading for the tent.
The demon snapped his fingers in front of Kirin's eyes and said, "Keep staring like that, and you won't live to see the sunset."
"But she… uh… Why do you allow your wife to dress like that?"
"It takes a braver man than me to allow or forbid the commander anything."
"She is your commander?"
"Not mine exactly, but she is one of the best warriors I know. When I was very young and foolish, I asked her for a kiss. She said she would give me one, if I could beat her in a fair fight. I lost miserably. And she only got better since then."
Kirin's eyes widened. "You lost to a girl?"
The demon raised an eyebrow. "You lost to a man who lost to a girl."
Kirin felt he had been shut up effectively, so he just bit into the bread, feeling ravenous. It was not dark, sour and dense like the one he knew, but white, soft and mild. He tried the unfamiliar shining berries next, and a sharp explosion of sweetness filled his mouth.
He wiped a trace of blood-red juice from the corner of his mouth and then froze as he saw the demon's fixed gaze. This was exactly what the High Warlock looked like when he was conducting his experiments. They usually ended in an explosion or, worse, with everyone's magic destabilised for days.
The berries turned to ash in his mouth. What a fool he was to just stuff himself with food from the Otherworld.
"Are you testing if these will kill me?" he asked.
The demon smiled brightly. "I bet Elinor a barrel of wine that they won't."
Kirin stared at him. He could never quite tell when this madman was joking.
"Then I should get half the barrel," he finally said and continued eating.