Jack's Viking Sky 3

Shadow

by Mitch H

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asm/mitchh/jacksv03.php
Summary: A terrible betrayal of Daniel's sanctuary brings prosperity, a conflict he can't cope with. Jack uses every scrap of his tattered strength to help him deal with the cost of being a Sky. A desert friend and a Champion pledge fealty to Jack. Amid anguish, the great Highborn House of Ondeil is born
Info:

Series Summary: Stranded on an unknown world, Jack and Daniel struggle to survive the harsh environment and the crushing confines of a Viking society corrupted by the dead goa'uld, Nirrti. Jack has been poisoned and Daniel must find a way to exist and prosper within the remnants of Nirrti's destructive laws in order to preserve his lover's life, and to get them to a possible gate home.

Additional Author's Note: Jack's Viking Sky is an 8 book series. An index of words and names can be found at the end of each book. Many authentic Viking cultural and language references have been used in this story and are noted in the index. Alpha, research and betawork by Rosie. Additional betawork by Saladscream. Remaining errors by Mitch, and no, he doesn't want to hear about them. Trust me on that.

Chapter 10 - Betrayal

Five months ago Daniel and Jack had been marooned on Nortvegr, and for the past two months Jack healed in the comfort of the Ram's Head Inn of Brooksmeet. Brynvold Halfdain and his Sky left Brooksmeet a week ago and that visit had left Jack and Daniel in a hopeful mood. They were determined to find the stargate and get home.

Daniel smiled to himself as he took the stairs up to the second floor two at a time. Jack was ensconced by the smaller fireplace downstairs in the great hall of the inn, listening to another tall tale. This was the third day in a row Jack felt strong enough to be carried down to the great hall for a short respite from his bedroom. He was rapidly getting to know the villagers of Brooksmeet, getting to like them too.

The cheerful sounds of the people drifted up the stairwell behind Daniel. Yes, definitely getting to like the people, and they liked Jack immensely. Daniel turned left, away from the smaller rooms at the rear of the inn toward the shadowy front hallway.

Jack looked so healthy today! There was a definite fullness to his cheeks now, and Daniel was so grateful to see it. They'd even taken a stroll outside this morning. About ten yards to the corner of the Ram's Head Inn where a small open-air market was held during the mornings when the wind died down. They'd had something approximating coffee at one of the stalls there, then Daniel and Tal had carried Jack back to the inn for a mid-day meal and for Jack to watch Daniel do a little scribing work.

Daniel tucked his veil back into the side of his bucca and pushed the front hem of the head covering back up his forehead as he hurried along the dark hall. The hall--with no windows in it--was dark day and night. Drafty always; it chilled his ears, so he hugged the bucca to his skin. This chill felt different though, more biting than usual. Could someone in one of the upper rooms have left a window open? But it wouldn't matter that much. Jack was healing so well that the curtains trapping moisture in their room had been removed last week, and Jarngerd had finally found a buyer for the cloth. The room would be warm enough for Jack tonight.

He let the thought go and hurried along past the two rooms that had stayed empty since he and Jack arrived; Odamari and Brynvold had never left Jack's bed, had never used the front room on this end of the hall that Brynvold had rented.

The extra quills Daniel needed were in a bundle on the table in Jack's room. He pulled the latch on the door, and hurried into the room. He hadn't locked the door. In fact they'd never used the key since arriving at the inn. No one would steal from a Highborn.

One step into the room Daniel came to an abrupt halt. He felt someone in the room with him, someone who'd been standing in the room behind the door. Before he could turn he felt a huge arm encircle his chest, squeezing him like a vice back against the body of the intruder. A hand pushed his head forward, knocking the bucca back over his face. The hand came down further and wrapped around his mouth. He heard the door being kicked shut, blocking out all but an occasional shout from the happy revelers in the great hall below.

Daniel yelled into the muffled hold, kicking and trying to wriggle free. The hold the big man had on him shifted. A rope was being wrapped around his throat. Daniel got his right hand free and grabbed at the rope, while delivering another sharp kick to the shins of the man struggling with him.

With ease, the man trapped Daniel's freed hand against his own throat, wrapping the rope around that wrist too. Daniel's own wrist aided in the choking hold on him. The rope was looped around his hand and pulled into a knot.

His air was half cut off by the tension, and adrenalin surged through Daniel, helping him redouble his frantic efforts to kick backward at the behemoth towering behind him. He stomped as hard as he could on the man's instep and felt his foot slide ineffectively off a heavy boot. Daniel tried to bang his head back, hoping to hit the man in the face but his attacker was tall. Even among the working caste men of Nortvegr, this man would stand out. The top of Daniel's head came to the lower part of the man's chest. With his right hand trapped against his own throat, Daniel jerked hard in a failed attempt to free his left.

Feeling rage at his helplessness, Daniel kept kicking. The man pushed him away, grabbing him by his left, untied wrist. The rope was wrapped around it and Daniel was pulled toward the bed.

"Have ye now, high. Have ye," Thaid's slurred voice hissed. "He wouldn't take Thaid's impart, wouldn't bless Thaid, the Sky one. So ye take it. Sleep with him, they say ye do. Then he'll get Thaid's seed and Thaid'll get the blessing."

A cold chill enveloped Daniel, flushing away his rage and replacing it with the clammy feel of fear. Thaid, the brain damaged giant of a man was his attacker. Feeling like his esophagus was being crushed, Daniel tried to sink to his knees to escape Thaid's grasp.

"Jack. They call ye, right?" Thaid asked. "Ye get to sleep with the Sky all nights. Not fair, Master Gunnlaug says."

Thaid thought he was Jack? Couldn't he tell the difference? Oh God! What if he did, and then went after Jack? His rough handling would kill Jack easily. A burst of laughter from the great hall below caught Daniel's attention. Jack was safe for the moment.

The rope around Daniel's neck jerked as Thaid dragged him by his left wrist to the bed. He gasped through the bruising crush of the rope, trying to form any sounds at all. He had to get Thaid to stop this attack. Thaid might kill him by accident.

With a powerful jerk, Thaid sent Daniel sprawling face-down on the middle of the tall bed he shared with Jack. The rope was then looped around the corner post and tied with a hitch knot. Daniel tried to get up, but Thaid knocked him flat with one cuff to the back of his head. Daniel's vision, already obscured by the bucca, danced and grew fuzzy.

The bedding shifted as Thaid knelt on it. He jerked Daniel's legs apart and tore at his robes, ripping the rough cloth easily. Thaid pushed the ripped material up around Daniel's shoulders.

"This one gives ye what the Sky refused," Thaid said, louder this time. He grabbed the linen trousers and jerked at the waistband, hurting Daniel's stomach as the material resisted, before it finally tore away. The underwear came away in tatters.

A strangled scream escaped Daniel's throat past the terrible pressure of the rope. He struggled, trying to crawl up the bed.

"Stay, high. Stay with Thaid." He jerked at Daniel's hips, easily lifting him half off the bed.

Face down, Daniel was stretched between the rope around his neck and wrists and the giant's hands digging into his hip bones. His right wrist was trapped against his throat and Daniel clenched that hand, trying to take the tension off his esophagus, trying to take the strain off his neck. He got a lung-full of air.

A bubble of panic burst in Daniel's throat as he felt the giant's cock push against him. Thaid was hard and slick with oil. He'd been prepared for this. He'd planned it. Daniel had not thought Thaid capable of this, the vile act, or the planning of it. But he thought he had captured Jack. If Daniel could knock the bucca off his hair, if Thaid saw he was preparing to rape a Sky caste, would he stop? Surely he would.

Thaid pushed forward, pushed the blunt tip of his cock harder against Daniel's opening.

"Ssss," the giant hissed. "Let Thaid in, bad high. Open. Open for Thaid."

The giant swatted him on the back of the head again and stars of pain circled Daniel's consciousness. He felt bile rise into his constricted throat. Thaid's casual swat felt like the blow from a sledge hammer.

Daniel bucked and felt the giant's fingers dig into his hips deeper. Despite the pain, he twisted to the left, feeling the bucca slip to the side a little. It was off his face now, but Thaid had him face-down. He wouldn't see Daniel's blue eyes. If he could get the bucca off further, Thaid would see the white veil, see his light hair. The room was well lit; the shutters were open.

"Take Thaid's offer. Nirrti says it," the big man insisted.

Suddenly the door opened. From under the draping edge of his bucca Daniel caught a fleeting glimpse of Gunnlaug entering. Gunnlaug, the dirty-minded bastard reminded Daniel too much of Kinsey.

"Got him, did ye? Tied up nice and tight, I see," Gunnlaug said, keeping his voice low as he closed the door firmly behind him. "And the blindfold too? Don't need him pointing me out later."

Gunnlaug knew! Gunnlaug knew what Thaid was doing in here? Daniel writhed under the giant.

"Thaid gives his seed to the high," the giant said to the new arrival.

"Fine, fine," Gunnlaug said gleefully. "But let me loosen him up for ye first. Ye be so big ye'll rip the Highborn. He'll not be able to take ye imparting then." Gunnlaug came to the bed and began unbuttoning his jerkin.

"Nay. Thaid imparts to the high," the giant insisted as he pushed forward, his cock missing the opening to Daniel's body and sliding down to plunge against the soft sack of his balls. Daniel gasped at the wracking pain.

"Fool. Say no names. He'll know ye then," the master miner exclaimed, too enthralled to notice Thaid had already said his name earlier.

Gunnlaug thought he was Jack. Jack wouldn't know the master miner's voice. Daniel's vision faded for a bit, but then he was able to focus and he saw Gunnlaug's crotch as the man leaned over him. Daniel tugged at the rope binding his left wrist.

"Off, Thaid. Get off him and let me fuck him."

"Nay. Imparting the high," Thaid insisted, his voice thickened with sexual arousal. He was humping against Daniel now, his slick cock still pressing into Daniel's nuts.

"Get off him, ye daft moron," Gunnlaug swore as he pushed at the giant. "I want to fuck him before his Sky caste comes up here looking for--"

The bed rocked violently as Thaid lurched forward, crushing Daniel beneath him. Thaid struck Gunnlaug. The room echoed with a sickeningly wet crunch.

As Thaid shifted again, rising off him and pulling his hips up again, Daniel saw Gunnlaug lying against the far wall, his neck at a terrible angle. Gunnlaug was dead. Fear blasted through him stealing away his last bit of breath. Daniel stopped struggling. Thaid had killed Gunnlaug with one quick blow.

He had to stop struggling. He had to or Thaid would kill him. Daniel was certain of that one fact. He fought his panic.

He felt the bulbous head of Thaid's cock at his opening again. Daniel clenched his teeth and tried to prepare himself for the invasion. All the times on Nortvegr that he'd taken the invasion of these huge men had not prepared him for this. On his back, facing them, there had been that human connection. He'd seen their reverence, their lust yes, but at the same time their iron control, their all-consuming desire to do the act with as little pain to Daniel as possible.

No such restrictions seemed to be working in Thaid. And he was huge. The head at Daniel's ass felt as big and hard as a balled fist, trying to punch into his guts. Thaid made another stab at it and managed to breach Daniel's opening. Even this fraction of an entry was overwhelmingly painful. Daniel's throat burned as he screamed.

Thaid hunched over him, wrapping a hand across his mouth, now only supporting Daniel by one hand digging into his hip. He pushed his hips forward, driving more of that fist-sized cock head into Daniel's body.

Daniel cried out against the hand muffling his anguish. His heart felt like it was going to burst from the pain. Thaid invaded him more. The huge man's cock head was half in him. Then he heard Thaid groan out in lust. The man's body tensed against Daniel.

Pain, sharp and jagged burst up Daniel's spine. He felt the giant flex, then thrust, and the entire cock head was shoved in him.

Daniel hung from the rope around his wrists and neck, from Thaid's grip on his hip, and now, from the head of the cock impaled in his body. He convulsed with pain, his eyes briefly rolling back in his head.

A high pitched scream shattered across Daniel's awareness. It sounded like a child. He realized the door was open again and Daniel saw a tilted image, a surreal flash of Asny standing there. She screamed again, then ran down the hall leaving the door open.

The man on him thrust deeper and Daniel's eyes rolled back into his head again.

Asny burst into the great hall of the inn, her high pitched, wordless scream shattering across the boisterous tone of the story teller, and the merry laughter of the men gathered. A sea of faces turned toward her.

"S-sky! H-help!" she screamed, pointing back up the stairs. "Thaid ... hurting him!"

Her hysteria, her naked fear, shot through the souls of the men and women in the room.

"Daniel?" Jack shouted as he pushed himself from his chair.

Steins fell to the floor as men clambered past the screaming girl and up the stairs. The Sky caste was in need.

Adrenaline flooded through Jack as he crossed the room. At the base of the stairs he hit the floor before he realized his legs were giving way. He looked up, seeing three men ahead of him turn from the top step and run down the hall.

Jack was scooped up, an arm under each of his and carried up the steps.

Upstairs in the room Daniel felt Thaid rock into him, the giant's cock getting no deeper than the head. Daniel heard more screams from Asny, then shouts of male voices from downstairs in the pub. Thaid fucked forward hard, and Daniel lost focus on anything but the all-consuming pain the giant was causing him.

Men. The shouts of men filled his head. Daniel tried to open his eyes again.

"Odin!" the shout rang out repeatedly, echoed and built on by one after the other of the men who poured into the room where Thaid held Daniel on the bed. The shocked cry became a crescendo of horror as more men saw the blasphemy before them.

Hands pulled at Thaid, fists smashed into him and arms encircled his neck, pulling him from the body he was defiling. He was jerked away so hard and fast that his grip on his prisoner snapped free, jerking Daniel hard against the rope around his neck.

Consciousness left Daniel and he fell bonelessly to the bed.

Nortvegr men, brawny, strong and muscular, battled the brain damaged giant to the floor. Thaid screeched at them, swinging his meaty fists, striking, breaking bones with his adrenaline fueled blows.

"Mine to impart!" Thaid shouted. "Before his Sky comes for him, Thaid must finish!"

Across the room, Ulfrik knelt by the bed. His eyes were wide with horror. "He be without air! The rope!" Ulfrik glanced around for a woman, but saw only the brawling men. He wasted no more time and pulled out his prized knife, the one his beloved wife had given him with coin she'd earned from Daniel. Ulfrik sliced the rope between Daniel's left wrist and the bed. With his bare hand, he touched Daniel's cheek and pushed his head to the right. He slipped his knifepoint under the rope. He cut it quickly, nicking Daniel's skin as he did so. Then he tugged the rope away and straightened out Daniel's neck. Ulfrik sank back on his haunches, staring at the drops of Sky caste blood on his fingers. He looked up at Daniel, assuring himself the Sky was breathing clearly now.

The battle with the giant raged as two more people shoved their way into the room.

Tal squeezed through the knot of new arrivals at the door and jumped into the fray. Standing with one foot on Thaid's chest, and another on one of his attacker's stomachs, she swung an iron skillet high, then smashed it into Thaid's right temple. Instantly, his body went limp. It took a moment for the men on him to realize he'd ceased struggling against them.

The room fell into deadly silence. The men carrying Jack arrived at the doorway and all eyes turned to Daniel's still form with Ulfrik hunched in shock by him.

"Daniel!" Jack called, frantic to get to him. He struggled, trying to escape the help of the men who supported him, but his feet weren't even on the ground. They carried him, stepping over two who'd been injured in the battle with Thaid, and they seated Jack on the bed by Daniel's hip.

"Daniel?" Jack said, just as frantic as he had been the moment Asny had burst into the pub screaming for help. He touched Daniel's chest and felt him breathing. Gently Jack pushed Daniel over the rest of the way onto his back. The bucca and the thin, white veil under it fell away, revealing his face, more pale than ever, and revealing his sun-bleached hair that neither Thaid nor Gunnlaug had seen.

"Danny?" Jack felt for his pulse, found it, strong and steady, but kept the fingers of his left hand there. He smoothed Daniel's robe down over his half-naked body, too aware that some behind him had seen Daniel completely naked before. There was blood on the bed by Daniel's hip, and blood on a cut on Daniel's reddening neck. The rope, now severed and laying on the bed, had left horrible purpling marks on him.

Jack scooted up the bed and pushed one of Daniel's eyelids open. The pupil contracted. He checked the other eye and got the same response. His pulse was steady.

"Tal," Jack called. "Water. Wet a cloth with cold water and bring it to me," he said, not bothering to look and see if she was obeying.

Tal dropped the skillet to clang on the floor by the knot of men and fetched what Jack asked for. As she moved to the bed, injured men rose slowly to their feet. It took several of them to lift Thaid's unconscious body and carry him out.

Ulfrik rose and, holding his blood-stained hands before him, walked silently from the room. His prized knife lay on the floor behind him. Ulfrik walked as if he felt the weight of death on his chest.

Gunnlaug's lifeless body was hoisted over the shoulder of one of those who'd battled Thaid and carried out of the room where the master miner had died so unceremoniously.

"Water, now," Jack said as Tal handed him the wet cloth. "A cup," he clarified. The cloth was pressed to Daniel's forehead, then pushed under his neck. "Danny?" Jack called, forcing calmness into his voice.

"Highborn," Tal whispered, her voice shaking and weak. The adrenalin that had given her the strength and bravery to wade into the battle of the big men still coursed through her veins. Her hands shook as she held the ceramic mug out to Jack.

As Jack looked up to take it he caught sight of the innkeeper at the door. He was shoving Asny inside. The little girl was being silently hysterical.

"Here, Highborn. To help," the man explained.

Asny was frozen in terror. Jack turned back to Daniel. "Let Asny go back downstairs. Tal is helping me."

"Another w-woman to ... " Tal started to say, but her voice failed her.

"Jarngerd be downstairs. She'll come up to help," the innkeeper said, and didn't wait for a reply. He pulled the nearly catatonic Asny from the room. The child stumbled and the man picked her up, tucking her under his arm like a sack of grain.

"Highborn," Tal whispered. "There," she said, pointing to the blood that came from where the giant had raped Daniel. "He dies?"

"Let me ... see." Jack gritted his teeth as he began running his hands down Daniel, checking for breaks, checking for any sign of heat or swelling.

"He could have internal injuries. Thaid doesn't know his own strength."

"Thaid knows nothing any more," Tal whispered.

Jack spared her a quick glance, then turned back to Daniel. "He's torn. The blood seems to be stopping on its own, though. I don't think Thaid got in him very far. Danny?" he said, insistently. "Danny?"

"He doesn't die?" Tal asked.

"No. I think he'll be alright."

Somehow the sunlight streaming in through the thick panes of glass seemed wrong to Jack. Daniel lay in their bed, bloody, half stripped and unconscious, and somehow the warm, cheerful sunlight made it seem unreal.

This act was one for darkness, for dank dungeons, or gloomy back alleys in noisy cities. It didn't fit with their comfortable room, their bright place of solitude where Jack had done so much healing.

"Tal, a healer. Surely there's someone around here, someone who sets broken bones? I know you people don't get diseases but there's gotta be someone who stitches the deep cuts? We have coins."

"Aye, Highborn. The old wise woman. Her and the two who apprentice to her. Her daughter, she be not in the village today I don't think. One or the other'll be brought here right quick. I'll go looking, send up Ulfrik's woman if ye can accept her help? Ye be weak, Highborn."

"I don't need reminding of that," he snapped. "I know how weak and useless I am every time I try to draw a deep breath. Go. Just go. Get the old woman."

Tal ducked her head, seeming to shrink some of her tall frame down as she hurried to the door.

"And don't send up Ulfrik's wife," he shouted at her. As the door closed he turned back to Daniel. "I can take care of him myself. I can clean up his blood. Oh, Danny."

Several minutes later, Jack had cleaned Daniel, had inspected what he could and found a tear that was still seeping a little blood. He didn't push anything against it. Nothing in this place would be sterile enough. Better to let the blood dry and seal the wound, what of it there was outside Daniel's body. The tear that went up in him, that would seal on its own. Jack did know what to do, he just didn't have the right medical supplies.

He could have bought exactly what he needed at any corner pharmacy in Colorado, which was a galaxy away, for all he knew. So he did what he could, rolled Daniel onto his side into the recovery position, got him as comfortable as possible.

There was a lump on the back of his head and Jack feared Daniel might have a concussion. He'd been hit hard, and despite using the cold, wet towel and calling his name, he couldn't rouse Daniel. He checked his pupil response again and found both eyes equally responsive to light.

The rope burns around his neck and wrists were nasty. The giant had put a lot of pressure on him. Daniel might not regain consciousness for a long time. Jack pulled Daniel's boots off and checked his reflexes by running his thumbnail up his arches. Daniel's toes curled and Jack sighed heavily in relief.

The small knock at the door startled him. His leg muscles screamed with the strain of making it across the room. "Back with the medicine woman?" he asked as he reached for the door knob.

Tal was on the other side, a small, wrinkled woman at her side. "Wise woman, Highborn. Come to offer what she can."

"You want coins first?" Jack snapped.

"Nay," Tal answered softly for the woman.

"Nay," the old woman said more assertively. "Village pays. Sky be hurt? Truth as she told," the old woman said as she peered past Jack. "Him this one comes to see, not ye, Highborn. Move."

Jack backed away in surprise as the old woman came in. She carried a large satchel clutched to her chest, its sides, a soft carpet. The handles were well-worn leather straps.

"Sky," she said, as if uttering a prayer. She stood at the side of the bed, gazing down.

She was the same height as he was, Jack realized. Stooped with great age, the old woman was barely over six feet tall, short among her people indeed. She was dressed in a long, black skirt and wore a dark shawl over a brown blouse. Her hair hung in long, gray braids that reached past the small of her back.

"He's ... " Jack turned back to Tal and shooed her from the room. She was crying silently when she left. Then he tried to explain again. "He's ... "

"Bad, the girl said. Bad what happened here today. Council be called." The old woman set her bag on the bed and opened it. She removed a parcel and began unwrapping it. "Him, the Sky, he had blood, she said. He had rope on his neck, she said. Rope on his wrist, she said. No air, and blood from his body, she said. Can't happen to a Sky. Never. Except aye, it did once, long ago. Far from here."

She pulled a bag of powder from the parcel and used it to wash her hands in the water basin on the table. "Not so old as I don't remember then. Them, all too young to remember. Sky, they all be human too. Ye know that. I tell ye nothing new."

"Yes. He's human." Jack watched her. "You understand about germs? What's that you're washing your hands with? You folks don't get viruses, I know that, but you know about bacteria? How a wound needs to be cleaned to heal well?"

"The powder to kill the little sprites. Make all Highborn sick. But seldom make us normal size folk feel bad. Still, ye think I'm not knowing about the little sprites? I know well enough. Clean. Boil water. Boil the bandage. Clean the wounds before sewing up. Boil the catgut before sewing. Boil the needle too. Makes for pretty scars that way. Not big. Not angry. Some men, they want 'em angry. Show they be tough."

"Daniel doesn't need scars in order to be tough."

"Skys don't be tough." She nodded her head to assert her point. Then she finished unwrapping the parcel, bringing out bandages, needles and the catgut she'd mentioned earlier.

"I don't think there'll be anything to stitch," Jack said hastily. Maybe bringing her in here was a bad idea. "I wanted to know if you have any antibiotic ointment."

She squinted at him.

"Something to kill the little sprites," he said reluctantly, "until he heals on his own."

"Aye. Mind if I see the injuries, Highborn? Ye grant the right to touch what belongs to ye?"

Jack drew a deep breath, then nodded. He hovered anxiously as she examined Daniel's wrist, throat, chest and then, lower down. She removed the torn remnants of his clothing. Jack went to the other side of the bed and sat, watching her closely, and trying to ignore his exhausted state. He was shaking almost to the point of losing control of his body.

She was silent, and efficient, examining the back of his head, looking closely at the bruises appearing across his chest and hips. She poked and prodded, feeling the bones beneath each darkening patch. There were marks encircling Daniel's upper arms, fingerprints from immense hands that wrapped all the way around, and matching fingerprints bruised into the hollows of his hips. She draped a sterilized cloth over Daniel's abused orifice, then sprinkled the powder on the cloth and poured water from a small glass bottle on it to let it soak down onto his skin. "Clean as we can get him now. Do this again a few times. Three, four. The Sky will wake on his own. When the gods deem it time."

"I think he was choked pretty bad."

"Aye. Rope mark says so here," she said, touching Daniel's throat. "Blood from a knife cut?"

"I don't know. Oh, yes. Someone cut him free of the rope. They might have cut him a little."

"Blood on 'em?" she asked sharply.

"I don't know."

She shook her head, making tisking noises. "Shame. Still, an honor to help the Sky. An honorable way to die." She removed the remnants of Daniel's tattered cloak and shirt.

"Daniel's not going to die," Jack said angrily.

"Not the Sky. Nay, Highborn. Do not be angry at this old one. She means no harm. No harm. The Sky, he'll not die, just as ye say."

"Then what the fuck ... What were you talking about?" he asked, fighting with his own anger and frustration.

"The one who cut the Sky. He be dead by now, most likely."

"Why? Daniel's blood isn't poisonous."

"Fate, Highborn."

"That makes no sense. Just because he might have ... " Suddenly Jack felt very dizzy. He grabbed at the poster at the foot of the bed and tottered around it to the door. "Tal! Tal!" he shouted as he threw the door open.

Asny sat in a miserable heap, her face pressed to the floor. She jumped to her feet, tears streaming continuously down her now-dirty face.

"Go get Tal, Asny. Go!" he shouted, and before he could draw another breath the child was fleeing down the hall.

The inn felt eerily silent. He'd never felt total stillness in this building before, day or night. Jack looked back over his shoulder to check on the old woman. She was draping another, larger sterile cloth over Daniel's hips. She had another around his neck.

"Ice, some from the cold lock under the inn," the old woman muttered as she worked on Daniel.

"Highborn Jack?" Tal called frantically as she raced down the hall to him.

Jack held onto the door and the jamb as he turned back to her. "The man who cut the rope off Daniel, Ulfrik?"

"Ulfrik, Highborn? Him? He says his farewells now."

"Fucking hell! Get him up here. Right now! And alive, damn it!"

He didn't wait to see if she moved fast enough to suit him. Today, nothing was going to suit Jack. Nothing. As he leaned against the door he saw light glint off a knife on the floor by the bed. Ulfrik's knife, probably. Or one someone tried to use on Thaid.

Jack felt his knees buckling. He sank to the floor and winced at the pain in his hips and tailbone.

Ulfrik was being pushed down the hall by Tal. The gentle weaver was weeping audibly.

"High ... " he started as Tal let go of him. Ulfrik dropped to his knees by Jack. "High ... " he tried again.

"You helped save Daniel's life," Jack said. "If you hadn't cut the rope off him when you did, he might be dead now. You know that?"

"Aye," Ulfrik said, ducking his head.

"I wanted to say thanks. I want to make sure you're okay with what you did, not gonna go do something stupid just because Daniel was bleeding when you got through helping him."

"Aye," Ulfrik said, still holding the same posture.

"You aren't really hearing me, are you?" Jack asked, feeling more dizzy by the second. He had to get this man to understand him before he blacked out.

"Aye," Ulfrik answered.

"Ulfrik, when Daniel wakes up he's going to want to talk to you. Understand? You owe him that much. You have to be here, to let him see you and talk to you, understand?"

"Nay, this one doesn't understand, Highborn. None of it."

Jack felt more lightheaded. "Daniel requires-- The Sky caste requires, that you be here, alive and well when he wakes up. You understand that? Tal, you make sure, make sure he's alive and well when Daniel wakes up. Understood?"

Tal interjected, "Highborn Jack, Ulfrik follows the Nortvegr--"

"Daniel-- The Sky caste requires, he ... he has decreed that Ulfrik be alive and well. He's indebted to Ulfrik. It would be charity if Ulfrik were allowed to die, understood? Charity to the Sky caste?"

Tal blinked and looked from Jack seated on the floor to Daniel unconscious on the bed. "Indebted?"

"Yes!" Jack said, his patience gone. "That's his way. You honor him, right? He's the whole damned Nortvegr, isn't he?"

"Aye. If he says there be an indebtedness, then it would be charity for Ulfrik to die before it can be repaid."

"Fine. Then that's settled. Get out. Both of you."

"Aye. But Highborn, there was no indebtedness to him that be already gone, was there?" she asked in a harsh whisper.

"Who?" Jack asked, his vision beginning to black out.

"The one whose name be not spoken again. The one who hurt the Sky."

"The big guy? No. No," Jack said. Then he leaned his head against the wall and blacked out.

The first thing Jack felt when he woke up was the softness of the bed under his ass. He had no padding yet, no muscle mass, and sinking to the hard floor by the door had hurt him. "Daniel?" he called as he opened his eyes.

"Highborn Jack," Asny said, her voice squeaking like a little mouse.

With an effort, Jack pushed himself up onto one elbow. "Daniel's asleep?" he asked, seeing the man curled by his side.

Asny had been seated on the floor by the door. She rose quickly and tiptoed over to Jack's side of the bed. "Sleeps," she whispered, still managing to sound like a mouse-girl. "Cold ice on his neck, old woman says."

"Water. Please," he mumbled.

She was back quickly with one of the fired-clay cups he preferred. They were not glazed, so water seeped through them over time. But they didn't add a metallic taste to the liquid as the steins did. Usually, Jack shook too much to keep a good grip on one of the few real glasses Daniel had managed to scrounge up.

Asny held the cup, helping him support it to his lips. She was a child, he knew that, with the soft, round features and full cheeks of a young girl. But she was easily five feet tall. On Earth she'd be mistaken for a young teenager. By the age reckoning of the working caste, she was barely ten years old.

She supported Jack effortlessly. He felt his back muscles, the scraps and strings he had left, give way. He collapsed into her arms and she laid him down gently.

"Sleep too?" she asked.

"No. I need to tend to Daniel. The old woman left some powder here, right?"

"Aye. Medicine for the Sky."

"Asny, are you all right?" he asked, flat on his back, his eyes closed.

"Aye. Asny be fine, Highborn. Asny be fine." Her voice was trembling, belying the strength of her words.

"You did good today," he assured her. "You did good."

"Aye. Tal, she says so. Master, he says so."

"Okay, can you help me get up?"

"Highborn, the Sky would want ye to rest. He tells me make Highborn Jack rest."

"Did he wake up while I was asleep?"

"Nay. Need ye to touch the Sky?"

"Yes. So help me up," he said, a little impatiently.

"Aye," she replied, putting an end to her very unusual chattering.

The first thing Jack checked was Daniel's pulse. It was still strong and steady. Then he checked his pupils.

"Daniel?" he called softly as he shook the man.

"Mmm," Daniel groaned a painful protest, but didn't open his eyes.

There was a wad of wet toweling on his neck. It was wrapped around a chunk of ice. Jack put it back. Then he rolled Daniel onto his stomach and used the powder, hopefully killing whatever harmful sprites were lurking around. He imagined them, winged, nasty little beings with pointy ears, flitting off Daniel and screeching in fright as they flew up the chimney.

He soaked the toweling the old woman had slid under Daniel. Asny helped exchange it for a clean one, then had to catch Jack as he collapsed by the bed.

"Sorry," he mumbled to the child as she easily hoisted him up and supported him as he got back in bed. "Cover Daniel up."

"Old woman comes back now," Asny said.

"How do you know?" Jack said, flat on his back again, his eyes closed against the throbbing in his temples.

"Hear her. The door needs opening," Asny said, and was gone from his side.

" ... might be soon, child. Sky might wake soon," the old woman said, her voice scratchy but strong.

Jack rolled his head away from the light of the candle she held to examine Daniel. The shutters were closed but he could tell it was night out.

"Don't let the ice melt all gone. Get new when ye see it grow small. Ye master gives all ice the Sky needs. Poor man. Dark deed under his own roof. Nasty, dark deed. He'll pay more'n he can, he will. His roof."

"Ice," Asny said, sniffling as she spoke. "Sore afraid. Don't leave me here alone. The Highborn Jack be angry. He might kill me. Then who'd change the ice? Someone to stay, please old woman. Someone to change the ice should he kill me."

"Child, he'll not. This one, Highborn Jack, he be an honest man. Ye saved his love, ye did--"

"Nay. Just come in when I heard the noise. Better if I'd stayed here in the room to tend the fire all day. No other chores are more important than tending the Sky's love. None. Should have been here."

"Him, he say ye do wrong?" the old woman asked.

"Nay," Asny said reluctantly.

"He say ye do right?"

"Aye," Asny said slowly.

"Then that be all of it, child. He has spoken. The Highborn do things that way. Say it, leave it, they do. And won't let the weaver slit his own throat yet. I wager he'll make the weaver live too. Wants it, wills it. The Highborn find a way to make things happen good. Sky, he done something here awful good. Good for the orphans. Good for the whole of Brooksmeet. Then we repay him this way. Dark, nasty deed." She tisked. "Might be the whole village never survive this curse."

Jack swallowed, feeling a dry pull in his throat. Asny must have been watching him and seen the slight movement.

"Water, Highborn Jack. Please, drink. The Sky tells me, make Highborn Jack drink. Please," she said with a little sobbing hitch to her voice.

"Asny," Jack said, his voice croaking and dry. He sat up and leaned on one elbow. She held the cup for him and he took a sip. "It seems like you do a lot for Daniel. Make Jack rest. Make Jack drink water. Will you promise to do something for me?"

"Aye, of course," she gushed.

"Okay. I want you to stop worrying. I'm not angry with you." He scooted to sit leaning against the headboard, a pillow behind his lower back. Jack ran his hands over Daniel's hair. "I'm angry at what happened to Daniel. I'm angry about him being hurt. But that wasn't your fault. Not at all. Understand?"

"Aye. Say it, leave it." She nodded, but her lower lip was trembling.

Jack put his arms under Daniel and tried to pull him into his lap. He felt an absurdly strong need to hold him and rock him. Asny climbed on the bed and helped him. The old woman helped too, turning Daniel so he was resting between Jack's spread legs, his back slumped against Jack's chest.

Jack kissed Daniel's cheek and smoothed his long hair back. "Asny, where's Tal? Where's the innkeeper? I want to ask him some questions. How did Thaid get in here?" Jack continued to brush fingers through Daniel's hair. Asny ran from the room, probably to get the people he asked about.

Jack studied Daniel's placid face, and watched as the old woman repositioned the ice pack on the purple marks coloring his neck. He looked pale.

"Danny?" he said as he stroked the man's arm lightly.

"Sleeps. Eyes fluttered once," the old woman said. "Good sign. Doesn't sleep too deep."

"Okay. I guess that means he's not in a coma?" Jack asked, his voice flat.

"Coma?" the old woman said as she eyed him hard.

"Never mind."

Tal came through the open door, followed by the innkeeper. The paunchy man dropped his gaze to the floor and only then did Jack realize Daniel was unveiled. He glared at the man, then pulled the sheet up higher over Daniel's naked, bruised chest.

"Tal, I want to find out what happened. How did Thaid get in here?"

"No one knows, Highborn. No one alive. Perhaps the master miner knew. Seems he was in Thaid's way. Got himself killed, he did."

"The master miner? That old bastard, Gunnlap?"

"Gunnlaug, Highborn. Dead. Was using a room down the other end there," she said pointing behind her. "Brought his entertainment for the evening with him. Then he ends up here, dead." She pointed at the corner where Gunnlaug's lifeless body had been found.

"Thaid killed him?" Jack asked as he looked at the spot. There was no sign of violence in the room now, of course.

"Must be. Neck broke."

"All right," Jack said. "Then what do you intend to do about Thaid?" he asked the innkeeper.

"Ye. He speaks to ye." Tal elbowed the man.

"Do? Highborn, here inland we burn the dead that dies honorably. The one whose name will not again be spoken, he--"

"Dead?" Jack interrupted him. "Thaid's dead?"

"Aye," Tal said. She blinked as she stared at Jack.

"I didn't realize," Jack said slowly, as he shifted his hold on Daniel. He really wasn't supporting Daniel's weight, but it felt good to have him in his arms. The old woman leaned over him, checking to make sure the ice hadn't been dislodged.

"And Gunnlaug too. So did anyone see either of them come in here? Anybody hear anything? Anybody besides Asny?"

"Nay. None that we know of, Highborn."

"Okay. Go on. Bury them or whatever you do. Leave us alone."

Tal and the innkeeper backed out of the room, curtseying at the door before they left.

"Me too?" Asny asked.

"Yeah, for a little while," Jack said. "Go get something to eat, or sleep or something. You can come back later."

Asny bowed her head and left. Then the old woman crept into Jack's line of sight. "What do ye need, Highborn? Ye seem at such a loss, not knowing things ye should know."

"Yeah. You got that right. Come back later tonight, okay? I'll pay you then. Coins," Jack said.

"Nay. Village owes the Sky its all."

He didn't bother to puzzle over her words. He didn't care. She shut the door and Jack laid his hand on Daniel's cheek.

"Daniel? I'll call you honey until hell freezes over if you'll just open your eyes. Daniel?"

He got a moan and a slight head shake out of his lover and Jack felt elated. "You gonna wake up for me? I promise not to call you dumpling, even on your birthday. It's honey forever. Daniel?"

"Mm Ja-- Jack?" Daniel said, his voice painful. He was squinting.

"You need some water. Of course. Water." Jack leaned over and got the ceramic cup Asny had left for him. He held it to Daniel's lips, shaking water out of the rim as he did so. "Sorry. Shouldn't have sent the pint-size helper away I guess. Just wanted you all to myself for a while."

Daniel sipped at the water, and winced as he swallowed. "Hurts," he said, his eyes still screwed shut.

"Yeah. Bet it does. You got a hell of a bruise across your throat."

"That big ... Jack, that ... big ... "

"Don't worry about him. He's not here anymore."

"Bastard ... killed ... bastard."

"No need. I think it's already been done." Jack said as he took the empty cup and set it on the bed beside his hip. He brushed Daniel's hair back again.

"Thaid killed ..." Daniel's voice drifted off.

"Thaid killed the bastard?" Jack prompted Daniel, but got no response. Daniel was asleep in his arms. Rapidly Jack's legs fell asleep too and he longed to call out for Asny, or Tal, or the old woman to come back and help him reposition Daniel in the bed. Instead he held himself still and kissed Daniel's temple. As his own head sagged back against the headboard there was a scratching at the door.

"Come in, Asny," Jack called.

Together they got Daniel back on the bed, straightened out and draped with the pack of ice. He slept a very long time.

Jack mused over what Daniel had said. Was he calling Thaid a bastard? It sounded more like he'd said Thaid killed a bastard. The only one Thaid had killed was the miner, Jack thought. Or had one of the men who'd pulled him off also died? Jack realized he hadn't even asked if anyone else was hurt in the fight. He hadn't even asked Tal how she was. She'd just killed a man, killed him with her own hands.

"Go get Tal," Jack said, this time managing to keep his voice soft as he spoke to Asny. "And stay downstairs and have some dinner, then come back up here."

"No food, Highborn Jack. No. Please let me stay here."

"We'll compromise. Get Tal, get yourself a plate of food, and then come eat it out there in the hall where the weavers usually sleep."

"Aye. Share the space with them," Asny said with a nod.

As she left the room Jack leaned forward and peered into the dark hall. He saw people kneeling, their faces pressed to the floor. "Who's out there?" he called.

Asny darted back in the room. "Any that ye wish, Highborn Jack. Weaver servants. Council. Fighters for ye too. Which do ye need?"

"Just Tal. Is she out there?"

"Comes," Asny said and stepped aside for the wench. Then she closed the door.

Jack scooted to the edge of the bed and steadied himself with a grip on the tall poster. "Tal, I'm sorry you had to be the one to kill that man, Thaid. It's never an easy thing to do."

"Not me, Highborn. Brooksmeet. Council did. He never woke. Done it right quick. We follow the Nortvegr."

"The council?"

"Aye. Right quick. Never opened his eyes. Best for him not to know what was coming, or that it was the Sky he touched. Wouldn't have helped no one for him to know."

"My God," Jack swore. "They executed him? How the hell could they do that? For rape? Or ... for killing the master miner. Yeah. I forgot about that."

"For touching the Sky. The rest, what he done ... to force an imparting, there be no punishment. None beyond touching be necessary, ye know this, Highborn."

"I don't understand." Jack felt his frustration growing again.

"How can ye not? For touching the Sky as he did. Force. He loses his life. That was done. The other, the ... . trying to ... an imparting ... for that there be nothing for the man. The village now be cursed for that. His family loses his lineage. If there were sons and daughters, they'd die also. But for the man, nothing beyond his life. Other matters ye'd be seeing the council for. Them that has what the curse done."

"What curse?" His frustration gave way to his anger.

"This one does not understand, Highborn," Tal said, sounding anxious. She dropped to her knees and pressed her face to the floor. "The curse."

"Yeah, that's what I said," he snapped at her.

There was a rapping at the door, not Asny's usual scratching sound.

"Who is it!" Jack demanded. "No men!" He was surprised when Asny stuck her head around the door.

"Old woman comes," she said meekly.

Jack frowned. He'd scared the kid again and felt angry at himself for doing so. Maybe he should have Asny come back in. As hard as she was to talk to, he'd probably get better answers out of her. But he only motioned for her to send the old woman in anyway.

"Go, Tal. Let the medicine woman tend to Daniel. Go on." He shooed her out of the room.

Just as she had the first time she'd come in, the old woman toted her bag, which looked too heavy for her frail figure. She stopped by the bed and stared at Daniel, again, as if to make sure he was real.

"Go ahead," Jack prompted her. "Check him out."

"Will, just so, Highborn. But ye too. This time, ye too. Been powerfully sick, they say. Not knowing things ye should. And now, seems ye are again. Shock, some say. Happens to the Highborn, them being delicate little things and all."

Jack pursed his lips and looked up at her. Then he realized she was squinting suspiciously at him. What would happen now if she began to suspect he wasn't one of their precious Highborn? Or that Daniel was an imposter Sky caste? Things were rapidly going from disastrous to really ... not good.

"I was very sick for a long time. Highborn sickness," Jack said. "Venom that was full of a digestive enzyme, like a type of spider we have back home. Digests a guy's muscles until they're jelly. Later, spider sucks the jelly out, or in my case, I piss the protein from my body out, till the enzyme dissipates. But," he paused and took a breath, "I'm well now."

She shook her head, clearly doubting his word. "Them that don't understand the ways of the Highborn, they get scared easy. Think they know the Highborn. Think they know all because we come from the Highborn. But our goddess Nirrti, she had strange ways, it be written. Glowing eyes that saw all, as a goddess should. And she lay with Highborn men, mortal men, as a goddess should not. Know this, I do. Know that ye don't remember what maybe ye'll never know again."

"I have no idea what you're saying, either. Are you going to look at Daniel?"

"That be one thing ye act as if ye never knew. Them all, they think, fine, he says the name. His Sky allows it. Strange, they know, and forgive ye for it every time, as the Sky seems to think it be ye right, being near to death sick and all. But it be not the Highborn way. Say not his name to such as them. It be as foul as fucking him naked in the street, understand?"

Jack flinched back, shocked at the dirty image she put in his mind.

"And there, ye face now shows another. Fucking a Sky be not as foul as it be for the same to be done to that child, Asny. That would be a wrong. But for a Sky, it be duty. Fucking. And ye see it not that way. Then ye let him be seen, unveiled, by the innkeeper this very night. The Sky asleep and ye let a man see him. Testing, they say. But they be not right, eh, Highborn?"

She stepped closer and whispered, her voice ominous and dark, "Ye know not the Nortvegr. Ye follow not the Nortvegr."

"I just forgot. I was in shock. I was upset over Daniel--"

"Ach!" she interrupted him. "Foul. For this old woman knows ye say his name not out of sickness! Filthy."

Anger burned Jack's cheeks to a deep red. He felt weak and dizzy again and hated himself for it. "Desire. Desire! My desire!"

"Sky," she challenged. "No veil. Sky. Put it on him."

Jack glared at her, then looked around for the scrap of fabric Daniel hated so much. He snatched it up from the shelf by the bed, winding himself with the too rapid movement. He grabbed at the bed and took a slow, deep breath. Then he draped the cloth over Daniel's upper face, just barely down to his eyelids, the beads resting on his pale cheeks and across his nose. He didn't tie it or tuck it in place.

"There," he said, keeping his back to her.

"Aye. Highborn, now. Desire be only for when ye speak to him or others of ye kind. Sky the same, when ye speak to him or other Highborn. To us, ye say only Highborn, unless ye wish to warn us off, have us take note, or the veil be off, then it be Sky, ye say to us.

"Ye've heard how we call him. Listen and go back to the Nortvegr, Highborn Jack."

Jack clamped his lips and studied Daniel's still form. Then he turned back to glare at the woman, but found himself sinking onto the bed. His legs were done for the day. She rushed forward and caught at him, helping him to ease back beside his lover.

"Aye. Done well, Highborn. Much to relearn if ye wish to make the best of the blessing he has given this village, these people. The blessing has been taken from them now, against his will. I know also, he would not want it. Watched him, this old woman has. Sit in the great hall, drink, listen, watch. The people here are blessed. And him, he be like ... " her voice faded softly as she studied Daniel. Then she turned back to Jack.

"I say true. Ye Highborn mate be like a miracle. If there were a prophecy of a god to come walking among us, it would be me thinking that time has come, and him descended from the heavens. Treats men and women as a Highborn's equal. Justice. Fair, not only in trade but in treating men one to the other. He insists. Blessed all the orphan children of the village, and saved starving ones with swollen bellies. Saved a child from ruination. Saved an old man's life, one not long for the world at his own hand. Ye blessed mate, him gifted the man with a will to live. How many? How many souls has ye beautiful mate given new time on this, Odin's world? Yon weaver couple starving to death, eating dirt and maggots until he come. Ye must know these things. Ye must know, where he goes, comes the gentle weather, the flocks grow fatter'n ever before. Wool thicker, coal more a plenty, forest trees fall easier to the woodsman's axe. Folks feel it, Highborn Jack. They feel the blessing of having the Sky among them."

She squinted and peered intently at him. "Count the glory stars, this old woman says, count the glory stars on his crown. More than Nirrti herself. More.

"And the hearing of that, shows again, ye know not the Nortvegr. Ye do not call for my death. I place him, a mortal man above the goddess, Nirrti and ye do not demand my head. Highborn Jack, ye follow not the Nortvegr."

"You're just confusing me. Back off, old woman, or I will call for your death if you endanger Dan-- my desire. I mean, my mate, the Highborn."

She cackled at him, her scraggly line of teeth glinting in the flickering glow of the candles. "The Highborn be safe from me. Be he safe from ye addled head? Best see to it. Leave off calling him naught but Highborn or Sky when my kind are about." Again she leaned close and whispered. "Follow the Nortvegr."

"Okay, you're right. I don't know. Da-- He, my mate, he took care of things like that. He made sure we followed the Nortvegr. He has been doing that for me for years, wherever we go. I rely on him for it. So, sure. I'm at a loss here. But give me time. I'll figure this out."

"The child will help," she said as she began to unwrap a chunk of ice. She broke it into little bits and then made a new cold pack for Daniel's abused neck. "Always, say Highborn, if not sure. Always close ye mouth instead of saying his name. Ye own all, him included if truth be not hidden by the Nortvegr. But by the Nortvegr, all ye own be his as he wishes. All ye Highborn have, all ye possess, come from the Sky caste. As far back as Nirrti herself ye owe all to the Sky caste, so ye must use all ye have for them. Never forget that. The way to the gods, through the Sky caste. Treat him as such. Sacred above all else. Treat him as such. Never forget."

"Okay," he said readily, wanting to end this lecture, but she didn't seem to be winding down.

"In comes the child soon. Best let me tell her. Ye need rest, Highborn Jack. One thing ye keep in mind most, this Highborn be worth all the lives of every man, woman, and child in this village. If he'd died today, all would perish. Understand? All would perish before the sun set. A great responsibility ye took when ye hosted him, understand? Lives. Many."

"You'd all commit suicide? And kill your children if Daniel had been killed today?" he asked with gut-wrenching distaste. He would never tell Daniel that. Never.

"Filthy," she swore under her breath. "Filthy, foul mouth on ye, Highborn Jack."

"Why!" he spat angrily. "I've been saying his name in front of Asny and Tal for weeks now. Why do you react--"

"Because I know! Ye do it not because ye are ill, but because ye do not even now hold him as among the most sacred beings on this world Odin made for us. Girl and wench, even weavers too, done the best they could these past weeks. Knowing ye love him, they forgive, ignore, try not to hear, say what they can back to ye to let ye know. Poor child. Poor wench, ye abuse them so in such sexual depravity. And ye," she paused and curled her lips in a nasty sneer, "filthy!"

He flinched back and shook his head. "Saying his name is filthy? It makes no sense. If he's--"

"Ach! Close ye mouth, Highborn Jack. Close it. This one has seen another glory star in his crown. It be his caring for ye. Pitiful excuse for a Highborn as ye are, it would take one such as him to give ye love."

"That, you've got right," he grumbled.

"This one tells ye again, like ye were a small babe to be told again and again. Say only his name when ye are alone, or with others of ye kind. Never, never when my kind are about. Say Sky to him as ye please. To call him Sky be the right of ye kind at all times. Use it. Honor him with it. Understand?

"Maybe," Jack admitted. "Tell me what the Nortvegr has to say about the punishment for the ... the big guy, I forget his name."

"Well done. Aye, ye are a fast learner. His name be no more. His fate, sealed by his own hand on ye Highborn. Dead now, done by the council of elders here. Me among them. Miner, crafter, fielder, smith and shepherd. Done and carried out swift so that he never woke. Was a mercy we showed him, that. Never woke. No babes, he made. Right glad I was of that. Never one much to see a babe put to death. Never was," she said, shaking her head.

"All right. And tell me what the Nortvegr has to say about this curse on the town."

"As it should be. All here forfeit their lives if he dies, ye love. If he dies, which he won't. The curse owes as a debt to him. Comes to him the inheritance that was owned by the nameless one. His lands, his flock, his hold, hall and everything in it. Comes to him for the harm being done under this roof, all that the innkeeper has, except his life and his future. That the man keeps and can take with him from this place."

"Comes to him? To ... " Jack stopped and squinted, pressing his finger and thumb to the bridge of his nose. Soundlessly, he formed Daniel's name on his lips, then he looked up at her. "To my Highborn?"

The old woman sighed resignedly as she tucked the cold pack firmer around Daniel's bruised skin. "Ye say Highborn, fine. Ye love him, this, we all know. Easy to say after a while, Highborn, and maybe doesn't vex ye as Sky seems to."

"Okay, what I'm asking is, does Daniel--"

She whirled on him and slapped his face. Jack flinched back, shocked at the power behind the old woman's blow. She was old, wrinkled, stooped. She should be in a wheelchair or leaning on a cane. She was ancient! And she probably had a right hook like a longshoreman. He'd forgotten that she was also worker caste. He held his hand to his abused cheek, his eyes watering. Daniel'd be really mad at her he realized, and then chided himself for that absurd thought. He'd fallen into a state of laxness, allowing Daniel to take care of him, defend him, coddle him. And he wasn't pulling his weight even now when Daniel needed him desperately.

With his hand still covering his stinging cheek Jack glared at the old woman. She was glaring back so hard he was surprised his skin wasn't peeling off. "What I'm asking is, does my ... Highborn," he said, stressing the word loudly, "have to do anything to lift this curse?"

"Aye, ye ... Highborn does," she echoed him just as loudly. "He must accept what be owed."

"That's all he has to do?"

"Aye. Now, as to ye, young Highborn Jack, ye need more meat on ye bones. Nigh on to collapsed from that simple little swat. Soup, thick with meat, as the Highborn has been commanding them to feed ye. Then sleep. The child and I will watch ye Highborn as he sleeps too. Some day soon, if he wishes, the curse goes lifted. Till then, all can hold themselves still as they do now."

"Still. You mean everyone is at home resting," he asked for clarification.

"Nay. Here. Still. Out in the hall, the stairs, the great hall below, and the road out yon. Down from here to the market all of the village are gathered, under blankets to keep the wee ones warm enough, on the ground. They wait, faces to the earth, and there they stay until he says die ... or live."

Jack sat up, his mind spinning with the thought of all those people he saw gathered in the hall. There were more on the stairs? And the great hall? She'd said outside. It was damned cold out there. And children too? His back muscles stung as he pulled himself up in bed and clambered awkwardly to the side. This bed was so high and he regretted it now more than ever. His feet would sting as he hit the floor if he didn't ease himself down carefully.

"Help me," he commanded her. "To the door." He held his arm out to her and she put her stooped shoulder under him. For all her seeming advanced age and frailty she hoisted him effortlessly, as if he were a child and she truly that envisioned longshoreman. He shuffled beside her to the door. "Asny!" he called, knowing the child was out there. "Open the door!"

It opened, and yes, there before him, packed wall to wall in the wide hallway were people bowed down. He shuffled out among them. There was a path left through them, and he urged the old woman down the hall. At the top of the stairs Tal stood, holding her hands out as if to catch him.

He looked past her down the long flight of stairs. More people. All the way down. He could even see some in the great hall. They covered the floor from wall to wall.

"Back to the room," he said to the old woman. She turned and Tal took his other arm and lifted him. Jack sagged in their embrace. "The window," he wheezed the words out. "In the room."

Tal held him by the window as the old woman opened the shutters. It was dark outside, but he could see dozens of lanterns glowing below. The dark shapes of people faded in and out of the little pools of light. Everyone was bowed down, facing in the direction of the inn.

"Crap," he whispered. "Crap." He twisted in her embrace, looking back at Daniel unconscious on the bed, the white veil draped over his hair and eyes. "Worth all their lives. He'd hate that so much."

As he tried to turn further his left arm cramped. Jack cried out at the sharp, sudden pain. Tal got him to the bed and the old woman was there rubbing the cramp away.

"Asny," he protested. "She'll do it righ-- That hurts."

"Close the door, child. Ye Highborn Jack needs ye," the old woman said. "And Tal, go. Go, wench. More ice for the Highborn, yon. Time for me to scare the sprites away." She stepped back as Asny took her place at Jack's side.

As Tal left, the old woman locked the door and began cleaning Daniel's wounds.

Jack groaned, but in relief as the girl worked at his arm. She knew what to do. He closed his eyes and laid back on the bed.

"Child, ye Highborn Jack needs ye more than ever now. With his Highborn mate so ill, ye need to help the Highborn Jack remember to follow the Nortvegr. Mustn't tell anyone ye help him thus. Mustn't ever say. Ever. Understand?"

"Aye. He forgets, be all. Asny helps. Help the Highborn Jack, he says. Make him rest. Make him drink water. I can help him remember too. Not say the name be most he forgets. But he doesn't mean to be dirty. Doesn't mean to. Veil, most time he remembers, he does," she said, nodding vigorously as if to defend Jack's inadequacies. "Doesn't mean to be dirty."

The old woman eyed Jack as she worked on Daniel. "Child loves. Not sure which most, though. Ye or him. Forgives much, she does. Do ye deserve it, Highborn Jack?"

"I'll remember," he said through gritted teeth as Asny worked to relieve the cramping.

"Aye. Maybe ye will."

"But ... ouch ... this has to stop. This kneeling stuff. How do we make them get up and go home? Get their kids out of the cold?"

The old woman's eyebrows rose. "They show ye that they honor him," she stressed. "Do ye not want the honor for him? Think he be not deserving of it?" She draped Daniel in the sterile cloths, then pulled the sheet over him.

Jack caught himself before he blurted out Daniel's name. This was going to be painful! He hated not using Daniel's name! Hated it! "He wouldn't like the children to be cold. You know that about him. Think. Would he? He gave all that money to the children's hall to feed them. Do you think then that he'd want to see children freezing in the cold because he was asleep?"

"Hmm. If ye say it, Highborn Jack. Then it be so. But they will not leave until he awakens and decides for himself if the curse might be lifted."

"Then let me try to wake him up." Jack pulled away from the little girl and rolled toward Daniel. "Baby. Honey, wake up. Wake up just for a minute, please honey?" He glared up at the old woman who hovered close. "Go away for a minute. Daniel?" he whispered in his lover's ear.

Daniel moaned and brought a hand up to swat at Jack's face. He flinched back in time to avoid contact with the skin on his cheek that still stung from the old woman's slap. "Daniel?" he said, just a little louder.

"Mm Jack. Throat."

"Yeah. It's pretty bruised on the outside. Bet it hurts on the inside. Asny," he said louder, "bring some water, please."

She held the cup to Daniel's lips spilling liquid down into his ears until the old woman helped her lift Daniel a little. He swallowed and winced, swallowed again, then pushed the cup away.

"Hurt. What? Big ... and that bastard ... " His eyes drifted shut.

"Okay, that's awake," Jack declared. "They can go home now."

"Council must come in. They have it." The old woman patted a clean cloth at the drops of spilled water. "Veil on proper, of course."

"Can Asny do that?" Jack asked. "My arms ... "

"Just so," the child said. "Can touch what be his, Highborn Jack's. Gave the right to me, said, for all time, to touch the Sky."

"Lucky girl," the old woman muttered. "And when council be in the presence of the Highborn, Asny child will help Highborn Jack follow the Nortvegr. Catch him, make it go right, child. Seen a life payment done before? Aye. Good. Ye be his steward now like never before."

The old woman tucked the veil back, hiding all of Daniel's hair. It fit tighter and hid more of Daniel's face, Jack realized, more the way that Odamari had worn his when he was here. It looked okay, so Jack left it alone.

"Okay, now what? Wait. If they're coming in here, help me ... " he insisted as he tried to pull Daniel into his lap again. "Not gonna let him feel alone. Come here ... Come here, honey."

They helped him as they had earlier. Daniel was groggy this time, but still no help as he was slumped in Jack's lap. Again, the veil was adjusted by all three of them, tugged here and there and draped well.

"Council?" Asny asked the old woman and got a nod. The little girl opened the door and held it wide.

The old woman went into the hall, tapping a few select shoulders as she passed among those bowing to the ground. Those she touched rose and followed her back into the chamber.

"Make it quick," Jack muttered under his breath.

Most of those who entered were men, huge seeming to Jack, but when he compared them to the old woman he was forced to reevaluate them. They were each quite elderly like she was. He watched as they got down on their knees again, their stiff joints obvious. The old woman got down with them. One held a sheaf of parchment out over his bowed head. He waited silently.

Jack glanced from the old woman to the silent man, completely at a loss.

"I be steward to the Highborn Jack. Ye come to my master's Highborn?" Asny asked.

"Aye, steward," the elderly man said, his head still bowed.

She took the sheaf and brought it over to Daniel. Jack felt his breathing, deep and steady and realized Daniel had fallen back asleep. With the veil down, no one would know that but him. He cupped his hand under Daniel's and lifted his arm. Daniel woke.

"Wh-- what," he asked, seeming startled. "Don't let him ... Oh ... Hurts."

Asny laid the paper in Daniel's palm, then peered up at Jack. She whispered. "Ye Highborn gives this paper to ye. As he can not own it." She nodded down at the paper, then pointed at it.

Jack stared at the paper, then at the little girl. "Okay."

"Take it," she whispered. "Read it."

"Oh, crap," Jack whispered back to her. "I can't."

"Can. Highborn all read."

Jack gave her a sarcastic glare, but took the paper from Daniel's slack hand and opened it. He scanned the markings on it, symbols that looked like little men, dashes, some scattered little houses. It all looked like doodles. "'Do I thank them?" he asked softly.

"Nay," she said, her eyes wide in dismay. "Ye take it, then after reading, give it to ye steward, or refuse it and cast it on the ground."

"And it says here," he muttered loudly, then mumbled nonsense for a moment. "And down here, I see. Ah. Uh huh." He arched one brow at her and got an inkling of a smile, so he folded it and handed it back to her. "Steward, take this."

Asny took it and turned back to the others. "My master, the Highborn Jack has been given, and accepts the life payment from his Highborn. Go now."

The old woman stood and addressed the little girl. "Has the Highborn Jack any use of us this night?"

"Nay. Except ye, wise woman. Stay. All others, go about his business."

"His business?" Jack whispered. "I hope she means Odin's business."

"Oh, Jack, help me," Daniel murmured in his sleep.

"Daniel," he said, his lips on Daniel's ear. Then he looked up at the slowly shuffling elders and heard many people rising to their feet outside. "Hurry up. Go on. Go home. Shut the door."

Asny and the old woman returned to him.

"Help me lay him down. He's having a nightmare. Daniel, wake up," he said and then quickly raised his hand to block the old woman, but she hadn't raised a hand to him.

"Forgiven, Highborn. It be necessary now. Ice, child. And we'll try a new powder for his head. Hurting, it must be."

"Hurts. Eyes," Daniel murmured as he tried to pull the veil off his face.

Jack slumped to his side, lowering Daniel back to his cushions. He untied the veil and threw it off. "Too bright in here. You got a headache, Daniel?"

Asny snuffed out the candles by the bedside, leaving the room lit only by those on the mantle, and the low burning fire. Shadows danced on the walls and across their worried faces.

"Better, baby?"

"Oh. Don't let him come in here."

"He won't," Jack assured him. "No chance of that ever again. Just relax. Relax."

"Killed that bastard," Daniel whispered. "Broke his ... "

Jack touched Daniel's chest, feeling his heart beat, feeling it steady and strong.

"He's asleep again. Let's leave him alone now. Just the ice, okay? Let him sleep. Getting choked out can cause big headaches."

"Ye too, Highborn. Over tired, ye are and might grow sick again. That would be bad," the old woman said, "bad because ... he loves ye."

"My one redeeming quality," Jack said.

He slept fitfully. Jack slept curled against Daniel's side, waking when he thrashed or moaned. Daniel's sleep was troubled all night. Dawn came, Jack knew, when he saw light appear under the crooked shutter. A seam of light grew across the bottom and his thirst, combined with a need to pee, drove him from the warm bed.

"Asny," he called to the wide-awake girl who was nestled with the sleeping old woman on his divan, "chamber pot. Water. Please." He got his feet on the floor, and gripped the bedpost. "You give Daniel any water? Check his ice pack?"

"Say Sky, please, Highborn Jack," she whispered, trying not to wake the old woman. She crept from under the shared blanket and brought him the chamber pot, then turned her back.

"Just did, for the Sky, him some water. Ice be cold, be fine. Old woman says take it off today. Let the skin warm and see if it doesn't puff up."

Jack was long ago resigned to his loss of privacy and the depletion of his modesty. In military infirmaries all across Earth he'd urinated with female nurse's assistance, with male nurses' hands on his body, with a ward full of wounded around him. He finished, and gave her the pot. "I'm still in my day clothes. Need to change. These are ripe."

The child helped him. He managed a sponge bath by himself, shrugged into a nightshirt and clean socks, then nearly fainted while standing by the bed wiping Daniel's skin. "Too much on my feet. Not enough sleep. Get some of that soft mush stuff, would you? Let's wake Da--"

Asny put her fingers over Jack's lips and shook her head. Her eyes flicking over to the sleeping old woman.

"Okay," he said against her fingers. "Let's wake our Highborn, and get him to eat. Put underwear on him. Then I'm going back to bed."

"Aye," she said, flashing him a pleased smile. "Sky when not veiled, though. Remember?"

Daniel woke and sat groggily in the bed eating the mush that Asny kept spooning at him. Jack lay on his side holding Daniel's hand. Both men were silent. The young girl finished her work, helped Daniel as she had Jack earlier, then woke the old woman to tend his wounds. Jack ate as he watched her work. She pronounced him healing well and left supplies for more treatments to kill the sprites. Then Asny led her from the room, closing the door firmly behind her.

"Got a headache?" Jack asked as Daniel slumped against him.

"Yeah."

Silence stretched between them. There were none of the usual boisterous noises from the inn's great hall either. The fire crackled low. Jack looked at the closed shutters, then back at his lover. "Want to talk about it?"

"No," Daniel answered. "Sleep?"

"Yeah."

Wordlessly Daniel burrowed into Jack's right armpit, his right arm draped over Jack's chest. Jack stroked Daniel's long hair for a moment, then closed his eyes.

"Highborn Jack," Asny shook him awake. "Water. Broth."

He sat up, leaving Daniel curled asleep at his hip and took what the child pressed on him. "What time is it?"

"Time to eat," she answered.

"Ah. Of course," Jack said, feeling foolish. "Going to get Da--" He stopped himself.

"Can say it only to ye steward if ye wish," Asny told him. "Had to ask the old woman that. Some of the ways of the Highborn, I'm not knowing yet. But know how to do life payment, worker caste way. Saw a life payment done once. Worker caste man killed another's child. Accident, though. Life payment was offered, but not accepted. Terrible thing. Hacked the man's head off, the da did."

"You saw that?"

"Aye. Sore afraid. Highborn Jack, will ye hack off the weaver's head?"

"No. I don't want to hack off anyone's head. What happened to Daniel was a terrible thing, but it wasn't ... The man who did it, and I won't say his name, he wasn't really responsible, not like ... I don't think it's right to kill someone who's got problems the way the big guy did. Or children. Never children. It's never, ever right to kill children. Ever."

"But ... we follow the Nortvegr. There was nothing else for it. Council didn't even need to say, it would have been done anyway. Terrible thing, still. He wasn't a bad man most of the time. Some men are bad."

"Like the other guy who died? The miner?"

"Him, aye. Bad through all the way. Does bad things to who he beds. Marks 'em. But he pays well."

"Have you had lunch today? Eaten?"

"Aye. All in the kitchen, whatever the steward wants, cook says. Never had that said to me before. Showed me cakes and pies, she did. Said take whatever, even all! Strange," she said softly, shaking her head. "Take all. Ale, if I want."

"Oh, don't drink ale. You're too young," Jack instructed her sternly.

She grinned at him. "Could take, but then give to Tal. She be sore nice to me all the time. Hid me once, she did. Was nice of her to do. Though, Tal don't care for ale. Maybe a cake?" she asked him.

"If you think she'd like it. But Asny, why is the cook giving you cakes?"

"Whatever the steward wants from her master's kitchen, she gets, cook says."

"Has it always been that way? I mean, the cook giving away food to his steward? And I thought you were my steward."

"Am. And the kitchen being yours, and all in it. All the cakes and pies be yours, Highborn Jack. Ye Sky, he gave the inn to ye. Do ye not want me to have the cakes?"

"Wait. All the stuff? Daniel gave me the inn? I think I must have been asleep for that."

"Nay." She giggled at him. "Took the payment, the village, to use as ye need. The inn. All be Highborn Jack's to use. But the inn, his to own."

"Uh. The village?"

"Brooksmeet, and all here, servants to the Highborn Jack now. Inn, roof under where the deed was done, forfeited to the Sky, who gave it to ye last night."

"Okay, so I own the inn now?" he asked, surprised at how calmly he took that. But of course, he'd sat knee to knee with Daniel while he'd been given a chieftain's daughter as a wife. He should be able to roll with this. No problem. "And all the cakes in the kitchen," he mused to her.

"Aye. Tal likes cake."

"So that's what was on that paper I pretended to read last night?"

"Tal says so. Innkeeper says so. Council says so. Says if Highborn Jack wants, he burns the inn to the ground to mark out where the deed was done. Will ye do that? Burn it down?"

"No. How did you know what to do last night?" he asked her, then handed her his cup to put away.

"Saw it before, I did. Was very young." She returned to his side and handed him a damp cloth to wipe his hands.

"And you remembered it that clearly? It must have been terrible, to stay with you that clearly."

"Aye. Then went to live in the children's hall. My ma, she'd died the winter before. My da dead, I had no one left."

"Your da? Was the man who ... got beheaded ... was that your da?"

"Aye."

Jack reached out and brushed his hand along her dark braid. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"Done now," she said quietly. "Done. Ye think a cake for Tal be all right, Highborn Jack? Or a pie?"

He clenched his teeth, working his jaw muscles as he watched the child. She'd seen horrible things in her young life. "Whatever you think she would like, I'm sure will be fine with Tal. And you can have all the cakes in the kitchen that you want."

"Stop!" the word burst from Daniel, startling Jack and Asny. His eyes flew open and he jerked out, pushing at Jack's hip.

"Daniel! It's just me."

"Jack?" Daniel pushed himself up, peering about the room before letting his gaze rest on his lover. "Oh." He scooted up in the bed and leaned against the pillows at Jack's back, resting on one hip, his knees tucked up close.

"Want some water? You've been asleep quite a lot. Don't want you getting dehydrated."

"Mmm." He nodded. "'kay." He rubbed his hands over his face.

"Feel like talking about it?"

"No," he answered crisply, curling tighter to Jack's side and closing his eyes.

That set the tone for their conversations for the next few days. Daniel slept a lot, ate and drank when Asny brought things to him, and stayed curled against Jack's side. Finally Jack had enough of it.

"We're going downstairs for a meal, Daniel. Get dressed."

"No." Daniel closed his eyes and turned his face into the pillow.

"I need the exercise. You need to get up and move around." Jack pulled at his lover's shoulder. "Gotta wear the veil."

Daniel went with Jack's tugging, rising out of the bed. He stood quietly as Jack summoned Asny from the hall.

"Help ... " He stopped and made sure the door was closed. "Help Daniel get dressed, please. We're going downstairs for a meal." Jack struggled into his pants, pretty pleased that he managed to get them on without toppling on his face. Then he tottered over to his divan and slumped onto it. "Good thing we're moving around. I think I've lost a little stamina."

"Cake, Sky," Asny said encouragingly to Daniel. "Never did see the innkeeper make so pretty a one before. But Tal says to put the shine on it from the heated honey. Ever see such a thing before?"

Jack stopped trying to struggle into his boots and looked up, seeing Daniel sitting on the side of the bed, his head down as the child laced his boots for him.

"Pie too, Sky. If ye prefer. Apple, the kind with the sweetener baked in. Ye like that kind? Crunchy."

"Daniel?" Jack spoke softly. "Asny, get his veil."

The child held the fine, beautiful cloth out to Daniel, waiting patiently by the side of the bed. The gold beads Daniel had sewn on the edge glinted in the sunlight streaming through the unshuttered windows.

"Come on, Daniel," Jack spoke a little firmer. "Can you help me up after you get that on?"

Daniel looked up at him for a moment, then nodded. He sat there, staring at Jack's feet.

"Yep. Got my own boots on. Asny, help him with the veil."

The child stretched up on her toes and draped the supple, white cloth over Daniel's head. She pulled the ends around, smoothing them over his hair, then tucked them to the back to be tied in place. Daniel pulled the front beaded edge down lower, and bowed his head.

"Cloak, Highborn," Asny said. "Instead of the robe this eve, it will be warm. To make it easier to move down the stairs, Tal says. No color on it." She fetched a new garment from a hook by the door and draped it over his shoulders. It had a cowling around it, adding warmth for his neck. She fastened it at his neck with a toggle and loop.

"And for the Highborn Jack, his now. Same. No color. Why not, Highborn Jack? Ye did not choose color from the weaver when these were made. Ye household colors are not pretty?"

"My house colors?"

"For the trim," she explained as she laid a cloak about his shoulders and fastened it the same as she had done for Daniel.

"Help me up, Daniel. Please," Jack called to his lover.

Daniel didn't stir, so Asny tried to hoist Jack to his feet. She got him upright, but he felt very unsteady as he moved over to Daniel's side. "Come on," Jack said softly. "I need your arm."

Daniel stood and put an arm around Jack's waist. Together they left the room.

The hall was dark and deserted, the young weaver couple's things mere shadows in their alcove.

"They sleeping there all the time now?" Jack asked.

Asny took a moment to figure out what he was asking. "Oh. Only the woman."

Going downstairs was a bit painful. His tendons protested, and Jack gritted his teeth.

"Bet we get our usual table," he muttered in Daniel's ear. "Though, I didn't make a reservation."

Daniel nodded, then kept his head down, his gaze locked on the floor. Jack shifted, putting his left arm farther around Daniel and took ahold of his right hand. He was leaning a lot of his weight on Daniel, but encircling him protectively at the same time.

The great hall was full of people, as full as it usually was, but all were very subdued, very hushed and Jack stopped for a moment to look around the room. Daniel didn't look up. As Jack watched, one by one the people went slowly to the floor, kneeling, their foreheads to the sawdust-strewn surface.

"Crap. No more of this," Jack muttered.

Daniel turned to him, leaning until his cheek was pressed against Jack's collar bone.

"S'all right, Da--"

Asny prodded Jack in the ribs.

"It's all right. Sorry. Didn't mean to sound upset, Da-- Honey. Let's go sit down before I fall down."

Jack shuffled to the table, his grip tight on Daniel and sat with Asny's help. Daniel stayed glued to his side, his head bowed.

"Okay?" Jack asked him. "You okay?"

Daniel nodded. He was seated with part of his right leg on Jack's chair. Any closer and he'd have been in Jack's lap.

"Then, I'm gonna yell at some people for a minute, okay? I mean, just ... didn't want to startle you." He patted Daniel's hand. "Okay!" he said forcefully as he turned back to the room. "Get up! That's enough of that. I won't put up with any more of it, understood? Get up! Go on. Eat your dinners. And talk, for crying out loud."

His command was followed, if slowly. The people rose and went back to their tables, back to their meals, but the conversation was even more subdued now.

"I said talk!" He glared at them.

Tal came in from the kitchen carrying a platter of food. She led a short line of others also carrying platters. There were a lot of them, more than any other meal he'd had here. There was a variety of foods, he noted. He dismissed the other patrons from his mind and began to examine the food presented to him.

"Send it back," Daniel said softly.

Jack formed the D of his lover's name with his lips, then stopped himself. "It's okay. I can put just a little stuff on your plate for you. What would you like?"

"No. Save the coins."

"This isn't--"

"No, Jack. Don't think I can ... get ... more ..." He twisted away from Jack's hold on him.

"It's not coming out of our stash of coins."

"Charity?" Daniel asked, his head still bowed low enough that the veil hung down far enough to obscure his whole face.

Jack studied Daniel's posture, realizing he should have talked to him about this upstairs, in the privacy of the room. "I made sort of a deal with the elders of Brooksmeet. The food and room isn't costing us anything now. As to getting some horses, I think we'll have the money for that pretty soon. Don't worry about it."

As he waited for any other questions from Daniel, Jack noticed that the patrons were making an effort to talk among themselves.

Daniel sat there silently for a few moments longer before he spoke. "I'm not hungry."

"Okay. I am. Pretty hungry, really. Gonna eat some of this turkey or whatever it is. And Asny says they have great pie. I haven't had any pie here yet. I figure tonight's a good night for me to start eating dessert. You could just have pie if you want."

As he pulled bits of juicy meat from the bird carcass Jack glanced at Daniel's veiled head. "I can't see any of your face."

Daniel nodded, but didn't look up.

"How about we go down to that bathhouse tomorrow? I could get a couple of the guys to help. Carry me maybe, if it's too far."

He took more bites of the fowl and shoved the rest away. "How about it? They have big tubs there? Big enough for these people?"

Daniel shrugged.

"You gonna talk or do I have to yell at you too?"

Daniel looked up at him, but Jack couldn't see his eyes, and realized he had no way to judge what Daniel was feeling. He reached up and touched Daniel's veil, pulling it away from his face on the right side, which was hidden from view of the great hall. Then he leaned over and kissed Daniel's cheek, and peered under the veil at his eye. "Talk to me?"

Almost imperceptibly Daniel shook his head. "Tired."

"Okay. Want some pie?"

"No."

"Okay," Jack said, then pursed his lips tightly. "I don't want to put this veil down."

Daniel stared at him, his expression haunted and grim.

"Okay then. I guess, maybe we should go back to the room."

With a little nod, Daniel let out a quiet sigh, then bowed his head.

"Okay then," Jack repeated as he reluctantly let go of the hem of the veil, watching as the delicate gold beads slid along Daniel's cheek. He took Daniel's hand with his left and used his right to push himself up from the table. "Let's go."

Daniel stood up, scrunching against Jack's side. The walk back to the stairs was hard. Jack really had lost a lot of stamina and flexibility in bed the past few days. Coming on the heels of his overexertion the day of Daniel's attack, he was in bad shape. A soak in a hot bath sounded damned appealing right now.

At the bottom step Jack paused and looked up the long flight of stairs. He never thought about it before. These people were tall. The ceiling was high, which made the flight of stairs damned long, and on top of that, each step was taller than what he was used to climbing on Earth.

How had Daniel handled getting him up these stairs so easily? Jack turned and hugged Daniel. "You don't feel like carrying me up tonight, do you. I can get some help from Tal, or maybe from Ulfrik. He's supposed to be around here somewhere." Jack twisted a bit, looking for the weaver.

"Ulfrik?" he called out, keeping his grip on Daniel, though the man was standing perfectly still.

"There you are," Jack said, stating the obvious just to fill the tense silence around him and Daniel. "I need your help."

Ulfrik had been sitting on the floor by the hall leading to the kitchen. He'd stood up the second Jack called his name, and was at the Highborn's side quickly, curtseying in that absurd manner all the worker caste used. Jack hated that silly move. He needed to teach this guy how to bow instead.

"I need help getting up the stairs. Da--" Jack clenched his lips closed. "The Highborn isn't going to lift me tonight. Can you help?"

"This one be not deserving of that honor," Ulfrik said with conviction.

"Yeah, well, stop dicking around and get on my other side. My legs are killing me. So is my back. Move it. Take my arm. Ouch. Just lift me easy," he said directing Ulfrik to get him in a carry hold. Jack vented at the man, running down a list of sore muscles the higher up the steps Ulfrik took him. On the third step Jack stopped him and had him go back down. Daniel hadn't climbed with them.

At Daniel's side Jack reached out and took his hand and pulled him along back up the stairs.

"Don't put me down, Ulfrik," he said as they reached the top of the stairs. "I'll just end up in a heap on the floor. We're going to have trouble getting in the door of the room, though. I think our number one helper is downstairs pigging out on my pie. I should have brought it up with me. Remind me to tell her the rhyme about Jack Horner, would you?"

Daniel walked along beside Ulfrik as the big man carried Jack effortlessly.

In the room, Ulfrik laid Jack on the bed and Daniel stood by Jack's side.

"Come on, climb in here with me. Honey?"

A quiet rapping at the open door caught Jack's attention, because Daniel startled so sharply. He jerked several steps past the foot of the bed before turning back to the door.

The old woman stood there, stooped, clutching her large bag to her chest. She waited patiently, a placid smile on her face. Jack wasn't convinced that the smile was genuine. Absently he rubbed at the cheek she'd bruised with her little reminder tap. "What?" he said gruffly.

"This old woman means no harm, Highborn Jack. She merely comes to offer services to the Highborn, and ye too, if need."

For a moment Jack couldn't decide if he wanted to send her off or let her come in. She'd been helpful, he was sure of that, but she was also keenly suspicious of him. "Come on," he waved her in, regretting it already. Daniel was probably as physically well as he was going to get, but still, it was important to make sure.

"Ulfrik, you wanna take off, I mean, go now? Uh, things okay with you?" Jack asked the silent man.

"Aye," he answered.

"What? Yeah, you wanna go, or yeah things are good with you?"

"Highborn, this one does not know. This one has no place to go, or things to be okay."

"Hang on, I think maybe I should check with you later. Let me talk to the medicine woman first, okay?"

"This old woman has come to help the Highborn Jack," she said, sounding meek and respectful. "His steward sends her to finish the Highborn's wishes with the young weaver lad. His life was forfeit--"

"Hang on." Jack held his hand out to stop her, then scooted back until he could rest his burning back muscles against the headboard. "Honey," he was careful to call to Daniel. "Come here. Sit with me." The old woman was doing a great impression of meek and respectful, but Jack had a very vivid recollection of just how meekly she could hit.

Daniel had wrapped his arms around himself. Jack peered at him, hating again that his expression was hidden behind that damned veil. "Come on. Climb up here."

The old woman sat her bag on the floor in the doorway and curtseyed low to the floor. "Steward says, help. This one can help the Highborn to the bed."

"Huh?" Jack said in annoyance as he glanced back to the doorway at her, then turned back to Daniel on the far side of the bed. "Come on, honey. Do you need the medicine woman's help?"

Daniel took a halting step toward the bed, glanced up toward the doorway where the woman stood. Ulfrik stood between the door and the bed. Daniel's gaze caught on the big working caste man. Staring at Ulfrik, Daniel got on the bed and crawled over against Jack's side. He curled up, his cloak draping over his body as he huddled against Jack and turned his face from view.

"That's better," Jack said as he put his arm around Daniel's shoulders. "My back is killing me. Damned glad I'm not coughing on top of all this moving around we did today."

"Best young weaver goes to his pallet in the hall, Highborn. Eh? Him not having slept in a few days."

"Okay. Okay. Come on in and let Ulfrik out of the room, will you?"

She stood aside as the weaver stepped out, then she closed the door firmly. "Young steward child didn't want to wait downstairs. Best, though, this old woman thinks. The Highborn has healed well?"

"Yeah, I think he's doing fine," Jack said. "But you should check since you're here. Make sure none of the bad fairies set up housekeeping on his skin. Baby? Honey? Feel like letting her take a look at your wounds?" Jack peered down at Daniel's veil covered head nestled against his shoulder. "Honey?"

"Ye be a smart, nasty man, Highborn Jack. Smart for one so foul mouthed. Make up a new name, ye did. Trick this old woman, eh? Think none of us will realize ye changed it to the sweet drip we use for cooking. Cake, ye'll be naming him next. Ye like to be hit by old women? Feel the sting of my hand again, till ye learn to keep him safe?"

"Not his fault," Daniel whispered. "He didn't know the miner was here."

"The miner?" Jack asked, ignoring the menacing approach of the wrinkled old crone.

"Not Highborn Jack's fault. Leave him alone. Sick."

"Aye," she agreed with Daniel. "Ye love him. Ye love Highborn Jack. Some say the Sky, they don't feel as we, don't love or hate or need as we. But this old woman knows the truth. Love him, ye do."

Daniel pressed his face further against Jack's shoulder. "Leave him alone."

"Aye, as ye wish. None can go against ye wishes, Highborn. None. Even this old woman, who probably could teach him to follow the Nortvegr. Maybe if her arm were stronger."

"Look, I'm being very careful here--"

"Calling him for the sweet drip be not careful. Why, Highborn Jack? Why try to go another way? The Nortvegr be the right path to follow."

"Okay, I didn't realize the rules were that strict. I'll watch it. I didn't know. Is that why you came up here?"

"Aye. Heard it downstairs, as did many others. Bad thing. Nasty. And the weaver, his business brings me up here. Him, he needs to be released. His forefathers call to him to join them, as be honorable. Sky blood on his skin from his knife. Nothing for it but ye allow him to die or ... whatever ye wish of him. Be done. Show mercy. He cannot last much longer, sitting down there, staring off, waiting to end his business. Debt owed to him by a Sky is a terrible thing for a man to have over his head."

"I'm not going to hack off his head. You can tell Asny--"

"Nay. Steward can't clear this debt. None but the Highborn who be master of a House host to the Sky can. Say he be free to die, or what ye have planned. But don't make him sit down there longer, Highborn Jack."

"He cut Daniel by accide--" Jack flinched away from her oncoming hand, half squashing Daniel under his shoulder. But she stopped short of smacking him.

"Ah, ye did not change the name to the sweet drip. Keeping some private. An improvement! This old woman thinks a little better of ye, Highborn Jack."

"Jack?" Daniel asked, as he struggled to push the man off him.

To Jack, it didn't sound like Daniel felt scared to have someone on top of him. He sounded more irritated. He pulled back from Daniel and lifted the veil, giving in to his frustration at not being able to see what Daniel was feeling. "Sorry. I'm just a little twingy. Sorry."

"'kay," Daniel said quietly, his eyes not meeting Jack's.

Jack loosened the knot of Daniel's veil and pulled the cloth back to hang loose around his neck. "I didn't know the miner was here. I'd never seen him. I wouldn't have recognized him even if he'd walked right by me downstairs."

Daniel nodded.

"Miner's son, he be down there since he was summoned. Asks always to see ye. Steward won't let him."

"Good," Jack said. "We don't need to deal with him right now. We're going to get some sleep."

"Another day then for the weaver boy to keep breathing?" she asked.

"What?" Jack turned to her. "He's not going to be killed. I need to find out what to do about him." He turned back to Daniel. "What do we do about Ulfrik? He got a little of your blood on his hands when he cut you free."

"He cut the rope?" Daniel asked, his head bowed low. Though the veil lay about his shoulders, he still didn't turn his face to Jack.

"Yeah."

"Touched me?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Guess he did, got the rope off, and straightened you out so you could breathe."

"Should die," the old woman said.

"No." Daniel shook his head. "No."

"There," Jack said to her. "You've got your answer. The Sky says he doesn't die, he doesn't die. Got it?"

"Aye. Never go against the wishes of a Sky. That way be not the Nortvegr," she muttered, seeming unhappy still.

"Yeah. So, go tell him to chill out. I mean, to relax and get back to his wife. Do what he needs to be doing."

"Highborn Jack, ye do not do ye duty. This weaver boy be nothing. Ye Highborn yon, he spoke. He will be obeyed above all else. The weaver boy may not die. Ye must make him live as ye Sky commanded it."

"Make him live?" Jack asked indignantly. "How the hell am I supposed to do that? Just how the hell--"

"Give him a way to live. Truly, know ye not what the Nortvegr decrees?" She squinted at him, leaning closer.

Jack studied her. One thing Jack was good at was reading the enemy. This old woman had gone from a benefactor, to an enemy, and back to a doctor for a while and now to a threatening menace. He knew she was trouble, possibly deadly trouble. He had to get on the defensive and stay there, then turn the game so that he was on the offensive with her.

"Old woman," he said calmly. "You forget yourself. You are in the presence of ... the Sky. He has decreed that Ulfrik will live. I will make this happen because he has said it must be so. Ulfrik will need certain things to happen, to change, in order for him to live. You, since you have pushed your way into this affair, will now tell me the simplest way that you, with your elder's wisdom," Jack faded for a moment, a bit lost in the web of bullshit he was spinning. He wrinkled his brow and frowned. "You will tell me how this might be done, and I will tell you if you're being wise or not."

For a very long moment, silence reigned in the room. She cocked her head to the side, one of her gray braids falling forward over her shoulder. She squinted one eye almost closed and glared at him. Finally she rolled her lips inward, then opened her mouth. "Aye. Ye'll do." She nodded. "Young weaver has no life now. Gone, all. Gone, marriage. Gone, home. Gone, work. None will treat with him, buy from him, trade with him. He be naught. Waits to die.

"Highborn Jack has what the weaver needs. All Highborn who have in their household a Sky have what Highborn Jack has. The power of belonging to the household with a Sky gives life. Always has. Always will. Take him and wife, as ye bonded servants, not just a trade servant, like the child. Give weaver lad a life. Give him work. Give him back himself so he can make his own home. Give him back his marriage and that sweet young wife. Be the servant in the household of Highborn Jack, him and his wife."

"Ah. Yes. That would be one way," Jack said slowly. "Of course. To be my servant."

"Of ye house," she clarified. "Titled servant."

"Yes, like Asny."

"Nay," she said, shaking her head sadly. "Of ye house. Ye property. Asny child, indentured. Not property. Acts she does, as the steward. But does not belong to ye to do with as ye please. May not kill her without reason, though she fears it so. May not trade her to another house."

"No she doesn't. Doesn't fear me. Not any more. And what other way can you come up with to solve the weaver's problem other than turning me into a slave owner?"

"Not slave. Not slave, stupid Highborn Jack," she sneered at him. "Of ye house. Servant of ye house."

"Yeah. Of my house. Fucking hell." He turned from her and snuggled Daniel closer to him. "Baby, you got any ideas on this?"

Daniel pushed his head into the crook of Jack's neck and stayed silent.

"Fine," Jack murmured. "Just ... fine." He glared over at the old woman, then nodded. "Get the ball rolling on it. Get it done so he can do what he needs to do to take care of himself. I'm busy here. Get out."

"Aye," she said with a satisfied nod. "Tell the steward, this old woman will. Then be back when the Sky feels more like having his wounds tended."

She picked up her bag and left. Jack glared at the door for a long time until he realized Daniel was asleep in his arms.

The next day did not dawn with a bright and cheery sun. The sky was hazy, though the wind took its customary time off. Jack felt very edgy. He sat on the divan, Daniel hunkered on the floor by him, and tried to stretch his leg muscles by himself.

"I'm too stiff. What muscle that has regrown is damned tight," he complained. "I've got to move. Maybe a soak in a hot bathtub like I mentioned yesterday. What do you think, Daniel?"

"They killed him, didn't they?"

"No. Ulfrik's fine. I talked to Asny this morning. There's some paper to sign. I need you to draw the symbols for our names on it, okay? It's over there--"

"They killed him. I want off this planet."

"Daniel, he's alive. I told you--"

"He didn't know it was me. Thought it was you. If it had been, he'd have broken your neck. Crushed you. When he grabbed me so hard ... "

"You talking about the big guy? Thaid?" Jack pushed himself forward and leaned over Daniel's huddled form. "I didn't know what the ... council of elders were going to do. You're right--"

"Wasn't his fault. Wasn't his fault." Daniel pulled his knees up tighter to his chest, and wrapped his arms around them.

"Yeah. I'm sorry this happened." Jack laid a hand on Daniel's shoulder. "He break in here?"

"Behind the door."

"And the miner came in?"

"Bastard."

Jack puzzled over Daniel's anger for a moment. "You called the miner a bastard right after it happened. Was he up here trying for Asny? I've been wondering what was up with him. None of the villagers seem to wonder, but ... "

"Bastard," Daniel swore, shaking his head. "Cost Thaid his life."

"He didn't kill Thaid. It was Tal who hit him with the skillet. He never even woke up--"

"He thought it was you. He didn't know it was me. He ... It wasn't his idea. Thaid died because that bastard ... "

"The miner? It was him? He attacked you? Oh, shit." Jack sat back and braced himself on the back of the divan.

Daniel shook his head. "No."

"Then, I don't understand." Jack really needed clarification on this. He was feeling more confused by the minute.

"Thaid came here because the miner sent him."

"Oh. Hell," Jack swore harshly. "And he's dead because of the miner."

"He's dead because I wouldn't let Gunnlaug ... I wouldn't let him ... "

A heavy sigh rolled out of Jack's tired body. "No. He's dead because Gunnlaug wanted what he didn't get.";

"I was too proud to lift my legs for him, Jack. I should have--"

"That bastard wanted to rape a child and you stopped him. He ... Asny told me Gunnlaug cuts the women he uses. He might have killed that little girl. He caused Thaid's death, and would have killed me too."

Daniel hunched over, hugging himself tightly. "Thaid shouldn't have died!"

"I know that!" Jack tried not to yell, but his nerves were frayed. He clutched the side of the divan and steeled himself. In moments of chaos amid battles where men and women were dying, the one trait Jack counted on in himself was the ability to remain calm. He'd lost that calmness only a few times in his life with Daniel. He'd raised his voice to the man once long ago when Daniel became addicted to the regenerative effects of a sarcophagus. And he'd done it again when Daniel held the lifeless body of a young android woman. When Daniel was in pain Jack seemed to lose something of himself.

To the person he should be most understanding with, be most loving with, Jack lost his rigid, military control. He allowed his anger to best him.

"I know," he tried again, finding that calmness as he had when Daniel sat on the floor of the gate room, crying, and holding Reese's lifeless body. "Thaid shouldn't have died. He should never have been used by Gunnlaug, or put to death by the council of elders. The way these people live is harsh, inhuman compared to the laws and morals of our society. And we can regret it, mourn him, mourn the senselessness of what happened. Daniel?"

"I know," Daniel whispered. "I know."

Jack bent over and put his arms around Daniel's slumped shoulders. He felt tremors in his lover's body. "Daniel." When his lover had held Reese and cried for the lost life, the spark of humanity the android girl had possessed, Jack had felt it was his duty to show Daniel how the world worked, how justification of actions was sometimes never possible. He felt he had to explain to Daniel that sometimes things were done that weren't right, but that humanity had to live with those happenings anyway. And Jack hated taking away Daniel's innocence that way.

"I know. But, Jack ... "

"It hurts," Jack said softly. "It hurts deep inside you, Daniel. Come, sit here. I want my arms around you."

Daniel crawled up onto the divan and sat in Jack's embrace as the morning sun warmed them.

Finally Jack spoke. "It was a terrible thing, but we have to deal with the results, the here and now. We have to do what we can to get through this, and past it."

"I know."

"Yeah," Jack said, brushing his fingertips along Daniel's unveiled face. "You do. You just need a little time to deal with it all. Daniel, you were raped."

"No," he said, shaking his head vigorously.

"Okay, you just need time to set it all straight in your head. You need time."

Chapter 11 - Spa

He gave Daniel time, gave him another day of cuddling on the divan and hiding in their bed until Jack's back and legs were beginning to feel like jelly. Daniel had worked so hard to keep him alive, to nurse him back to heath, so very hard, that his withdrawal now showed how deeply the shock had affected him. Jack was worried like he'd never been about Daniel before.

A little withdrawal was normal for Daniel. He was used to being self-reliant. Having lost his parents, then been abandoned by his grandfather to be thrust into the foster care system, Daniel became self-reliant at an early age. It was his way, and Jack normally accepted and welcomed that about his lover. Jack was a reserved man himself, which made the two of them a good fit. But this, this emotional shut-down wasn't working. Daniel wasn't making progress. He was sleeping almost constantly and shunning all contact except mute, physical cuddling.

"Okay, get out of bed, Daniel. I stink. You stink. We're going down to that bathhouse. Get the soap you bought, that stuff that smells like mint. I'll get Asny to carry that and some clean clothes for us. They have towels there, you know? Huh? Get up and dress warm. I want to get there before the wind picks up this morning."

Jack rolled himself off the high bed, getting to his feet and scrunching his bare toes against the cold floor. Then he tugged at Daniel's bare leg and got the man out of bed. "Get dressed before Asny gets back up here. She went to fetch water."

Daniel got dressed without further prompting, then began to help Jack into his pants and a long, knitted sweater that Jarngerd had sent up to the room yesterday. It was dyed a deep green and was made of very soft wool she'd gotten in a trade recently. The pattern knitted into it was of little raised diamonds.

"I look like a wrinkled pea," Jack complained as he folded the high neck down. He squirmed around on the divan, trying to get the sweater neck to stay low off his chin. "Hey, we should have put on dirty clothes, changed into clean after the bath."

Daniel got Jack's new cloak and held it in his arms as he stood watching out the window, waiting for Jack to finish smoothing down his rumpled hair.

"There. Ready, Danny?" he asked as he twisted around to look at his lover. "Uh. Daniel? Your veil."

Mutely, Daniel nodded, then dropped his gaze from the brightly lit window to the dark, polished wood of the floor. The sunlight glinted off the moisture in the corner of his eyes, then his head was too low for Jack to see that pinprick of light any longer.

"Veil," he prompted softly.

There was a soft knocking at the door, then Asny called out asking for permission to enter.

"Yeah, come on in. Ya know, kiddo, you used to kind of scratch at the door. Now you knock. You notice that, Daniel? I gotta say, Asny, I like the knocking better. We're going down the street to the bathhouse and I want you to bring us a clean change of clothes, okay? Daniel, your veil."

Daniel still hadn't moved. He held Jack's cloak bundled in his arms. The veil had been washed recently by Asny and it was still draped over the back of a chair at the little table in the corner by the fireplace. She brought it to Daniel and held it out.

"Sky?" she asked softly. "Highborn Jack wishes ... " After a moment she draped it over his bowed head, looping the ends under his chin and laid them back over his shoulders. She climbed up on the divan behind him and tied the ends together, and then pulled the fall of the veil out over the knot. The white cloth draped gently down the sides of Daniel's face, and flowed over his shoulders down his back several inches. The beads on the front hem lay gentle on Daniel's cheeks, their gold coloring a muted contrast to his pale skin. Asny smoothed the veil in back, letting it fold over Daniel's cloak. "Ready now, Highborn. Ready."

"Okay then, let's move out. Ulfrik downstairs, Asny? I want him to help if he's not too busy."

"Never busy, Highborn Jack," she said as she helped him to his feet. "Always there when his master needs him. Nothing to do other than serve his master."

"Thanks. That creeps me out really nicely, kiddo. You saying he just sits and twiddles his thumbs when he's not toting me up and down stairs?"

"Nay. No thumb thing. He does his master's work all the time. Spinning, weaving. All of it. Master's work. Yesterday counted the sheep too, like them of the council. All went out again to the holding to count the sheep and take stock of the land, barns and fine cot. Been working at it many days. And the scribe hall did the work on the parchment. Parchment says how many sheep, ram and ewe. Says how many fields, the cot, what be in it. And his wife, Jarngerd? She says much in the cot be useless. Food gone bad. Jars with a seal broke, or chair back broke off. Says much work to do in that place. Cleaning. So, she says Highborn Jack's servants will be a happy lot to have much to do, unless Highborn Jack says torch it all. Best ye do read the parchment this time, though, when Council gives it to the Highborn. So ye know how many sheep there are. Ulfrik, he'll be happy with wool to spin in the spring.

"Council waits on ye, downstairs they all be. Wait until ye wish to grant them a moment, Highborn Jack."

"Whatever," Jack said as he reached out and grabbed Daniel's hand. He tugged him along as Asny got the door open. "Move it, Daniel. I'm going to have to get to the bathhouse quick or my back is going to start burning again."

Daniel came with him and at the top of the stairs they met Ulfrik.

"Master," the weaver greeted Jack. "Ye servant wishes to carry ye down the stairs."

"Yeah, okay. Then we're going to the bathhouse. You got time to come with us? Help me in case I get too tired between here and there?"

"Master, there be no other duty higher for this one."

"And don't curtsey," Jack complained. "That squatting thing. Don't do that. In my ... house, we bow. Bend at the waist just a little and kind of nod your head. That's what we do in my house. Good. That's close enough."

Daniel followed down the steps. Though he did it slowly, he did it without prompting, which delighted Jack. Ulfrik set him on his feet and he held his hand out to Daniel. Asny took his cloak and settled it about Jack's shoulders, fastening the catch for him. Then she went back to the room to get the requested clothing and soap.

"Okay, let's get this show on the road." Jack shuffled across the great hall and was brought up short near the door by the old medicine woman.

"Highborn, ye steward has too many duties. She was to bring ye greetings from the council of elders this morn. Here we be, all," she said as she swept her hand wide to indicate a small group of wizened, old people at her left. "Come we have, to deliver what be due the Highborn." She nodded in Daniel's direction.

"You want to deliver something to ... A paper?" Jack asked, remembering what Asny had said upstairs. "Yes, my steward did mention it. But we're going to the bathhouse now. No time to deal with paperwork."

"Bathhouse," Jarngerd exclaimed in a very loud whisper.

Jack flicked his gaze to the right. He hadn't realized she was there and as he watched, she grabbed up her outer robe and hurried from the inn.

"As ye wish, Highborn. We shall wait for ye return. Here," the old woman said with her usual gap-toothed smile, then leaned closer and dropped her tone to a quiet whisper. "All standing here, waiting on the whim of the Highborn to do his duty to the one we worship," she said, her eyes cutting briefly to Daniel before she continued, "to show decent respect, to follow the Nortvegr."

This brought Jack's full attention to her. She was willing to challenge his adherence to their laws here in a room full of the village leaders who had just days ago ordered the death of a man who hadn't followed the Nortvegr. He studied her intently. Yes, she was deadly, and she was trying her hardest to help him.

"I follow the Nortvegr," he said in a tone so low that only she and Daniel would hear. "What do you need?"

She nodded, then stepped back a respectable distance. "Highborn Jack, as ye steward was to inform ye, the council has the parchment to present to ye Highborn." She again nodded in Daniel's direction.

Asny, caught up with them then, carrying the clothing in a tuc hung over her shoulder. She quietly slipped in between Jack and the old woman, molding herself to Jack's side, she gazed up at the two.

"May this old woman approach?"

Jack leaned in and whispered against Daniel's veiled ear. "Is it okay for her to approach you? I think we need to make a show of doing what they want."

"I don't care," Daniel whispered, his tone flat and listless.

"Yes," Jack said to her, thinking it was best to keep his responses simple.

She smiled anew and then laboriously got down on her knees in front of Daniel. She held a folded parchment up and bowed her head respectfully.

Asny took the offering then held it out to Daniel.

After a long hesitation, Daniel took the parchment. He unfolded it, scanned the contents then laxly held it out toward Jack, keeping his head turned away.

"What is it?" Jack said as he took the paper. It was covered with more little doodles. He turned it left and right, trying to make sure he had it right side up. Daniel took a step toward the front door and Jack grabbed his sleeve. "What is this?"

Daniel turned back to him, his face bowed, so that it was completely obscured by the veil. "Thaid's holdings," he answered weakly, and then turned back to the door, slipping from Jack's grasp easily.

Jack blanched and almost crumpled the parchment in his hand. Daniel was leaving. "Asny," he said sharply. The child was at his elbow instantly. He thrust the parchment at her then tottered after Daniel, ignoring all others in the great hall. Daniel had almost reached the door.

"Wait," Jack called, but Daniel took another step.

"Sky," Jack called.

Daniel jerked to a stop and turned around. He brought his head up and, like he used to do, tilted his head back far enough to let his eyes meet Jack's under the edge of the veil.

Jack froze, his dark eyes locked with Daniel's blue, pain-filled gaze. "I'm sorry ... " Jack stopped, at a loss for the right words to say to his lover. He pressed his lips into a thin line and met Daniel's gaze steadily. He took careful, solid steps to reach his lover and took both of Daniel's hands in his. "I'm sorry."

Silently, Daniel bowed his head again, putting the barrier of the white veil back between them. Jack reached up and lifted it, shielding Daniel's face from the people at their back. He came in closer then, and raised the edge of his cloak to hide them. Then he pushed the veil up a little higher and ran his fingertips across Daniel's face. "I don't know what to say."

With a little shake of his head, Daniel caused Jack's fingers to brush across his cheek lightly. He stared mutely at his lover.

"Yeah, you're right. There's nothing to say that'll make this any easier. I do love you though. Remember when we were sleeping in the pit you dug for us in the sand? I told you then that I loved you. You haven't forgotten, have you?"

His gaze dropped to the floor, then Daniel looked back up, meeting Jack's dark eyes. "Never."

Jack swallowed, then licked his lips. "We should get down to the bathhouse before my back gives out. Feet too, okay?" He tried to soften the grim expression on his face when he got a nod from his lover. They left the inn side by side, slowly inching down the side of the cobblestone street.

The night they'd arrived here Jack had made it from the wagon to the door and almost collapsed inside. Today he managed to get several feet down the roadway before the muscles in his legs protested too greatly to carry him along. He leaned against the stucco front of a shop and Ulfrik was at his side, positioning a chair for Jack to sit on. Gratefully he slid down onto the seat, gripped the chair arms and worked to stay upright.

Daniel stood quietly at his side.

"Not gonna make much progress this way. But the chair saves my dignity. Thanks, Ulfrik."

"Master, ye have no need to thank this servant for performing his duties."

"Yeah. We do things a little differently in our house, right, uh, Highborn?" he said to Daniel.

Daniel stood mutely at Jack's side, his hands resting on the side of the tall chair.

"Master, yonder comes my wife. She and I can carry the chair as ye sit. Will this please ye?"

"To ride through the streets like a sultan in his chair? Not really, no. But let's do it anyway. And ... I appreciate your initiative."

"It be this one's duty to think of his master's comfort."

"My comfort would be greater if you'd speak to me like you used to. I'm just a man, same as you."

"Ah, nay. But a servant may not disagree with his master. What do I think, master? Tell me what to think."

Jack scowled up at the big man. "Think the same thing you did before you became my servant. You'll upset the Sky if you start talking like a slave. He doesn't like that. You ought to know that by now."

He shot a quick glance at Daniel's bowed face, but couldn't read any expression. "We follow the Nortvegr, right ... Highborn?" he said to Daniel. "And our house does things a little differently."

"Aye, and ... nay, master. Ye house alone. It be ye house I am servant to. It be not our house. Ye alone. Or, do ye test me even now?"

This was too much for Jack to contemplate while sitting in a chair in the middle of the roadway. "Let's get our asses down to the bathhouse. My back is killing me. Want to soak in a hot tub of water. Move it, Ulfrik. Let's get this chair taxi going."

Ulfrik and Jarngerd carried him effortlessly, one on each side of the chair gripping it by the seat bottom and back. Asny walked along before him holding Daniel's hand. Jack surveyed the neighborhood, realizing he was reconnoitering as he would any new place. He wished he had Carter and Teal'c here. Someone needed to run a perimeter check, flush out any old medicine women lurking around. They were the dangerous ones on this planet. But the old woman had worked pretty hard, risked a lot to help him get a grip on things. He fumed over that fact as he watched Daniel being led by the child.

They made quite a pair, Daniel and the little girl. She wasn't so little, really, not by human standards. Just young, innocent. Just like Daniel was, a million years ago when Jack had first met him deep under Cheyenne mountain. Daniel had been brought in on the stargate project, knowing nothing, kept in the dark about what he was really working on. And in two weeks he'd bested the whole team, had solved the secrets of the ancients and opened up the galaxy.

Daniel's bravery, his unwavering push to do what he felt was the right thing to do was what captured Jack's heart. He revered life, wasn't ... what had Daniel said to him in Ra's ship so long ago? Why are you so eager to die?

He wasn't. Not any more. Daniel had given him something in that ship, the same thing he gave to many other people since then. It seemed small, just a word, a touch, a piece of hope that always turned out to be the size of the universe. The old woman saw it in Daniel, that ability to give people back what they'd lost, give them back the will to live.

Teal'c saw it in their first meeting, Daniel's willingness to risk himself for Sha'ure. It had shaken Teal'c down to his core, caused him to question, and to risk himself too.

Being led along by the child he'd risked his safety for, Daniel had his head down, and Jack knew he'd have to find a way to give Daniel back some of what he shared so readily with others.

They put his chair on the rough cobble stone street outside of the bathhouse. Jack walked in, arm in arm with Daniel, and found that they were expected. Jarngerd had been here before them, and the proprietor and her family were ready to receive the master of Brooksmeet.

"Master of Brooksmeet?" Jack said, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead. "Great," he sighed the word in disgust. "Just what I needed to hear. Will it get me a hot tub to soak in any quicker?"

"This way, master," Jarngerd said, taking the lead from the proprietor.

These people took their baths pretty seriously. This place was fantastic, with every possible accommodation Jack could think of. Mild heat permeated the stone and wood building. Glowing lanterns lit the hallways well, and every wooden surface was smooth and polished with wax. The ceiling was surprisingly low, and Jarngerd had to duck to get through the doorways, but not Jack or Daniel. There was a central, communal shower area with warm water, and an open communal hot tub, which was now completely empty. Little benches in open areas were intended as scrubbing stations, where a person could sit beside a bucket of warm soapy water and scrub their skin before soaking in the big tubs. But the place was completely empty now. Apparently all the villagers had been rousted by Jarngerd.

She led the party to a short hallway which had a solid door at the end. Private bathing areas, she explained to him, and Jack was carried in by Ulfrik. The room he found himself in had wooden benches lining two walls, hooks for clothing, and towels draped over gratings that had warm air rising from them. The tub was a square, wooden structure, extending a couple of feet above the floor, and a couple of feet sunken down. The heat was supplied from under the tub's metal-clad, wooden bottom, she explained to him, serviced through an unseen passage below. There was a very tall, and narrow bed in one area of the room. He assumed it was a massage table.

Daniel sat on a wooden bench in the private room as Jack, naked now, was lowered by Ulfrik into the hot tub. Jack had sent Asny and Jarngerd out of the room, yelling at them pretty harshly, and wasn't feeling any regret about that.

"Now, you too, Ulfrik, because the Sky is going to strip down and join me. Get out and shut the door. Don't come back until one of us calls you."

Ulfrik obeyed instantly, seeming frightened half to death at the thought of Daniel being naked.

"Okay, babe. Daniel? Get your clothes off and get in here. It's hot and my bones are going to melt pretty fast."

Apathetically, Daniel obeyed him, and Jack studied his lover with trepidation. "Feels good in here, doesn't it? I had no idea this village would have something like this."

"It figures," Daniel muttered as he removed the last of his clothing.

Jack smiled up at Daniel as he stepped into the tub. "How?"

"Their culture. I mean on Earth, Scandinavian spas are the best--" Daniel gasped as the warm water reached his balls and cock. "Kind of hot."

"You'll get used to it. I already am."

"You can't stay in here long. You'll pass out." Daniel sank into the tub up to his chin, then scooted down the low bench to nestle against Jack's side.

"You're right. But this is great. I'll stretch a little after I get out. Just a little. This is loosening everything up."

"Yeah," Daniel said, growing silent again.

"Highborn Jack?" Asny rapped at the door and called softly.

"Go away," Jack shouted back to her, using a cheerful tone. "Go grab a bath yourself, kiddo. Soak up some heat and have a ball."

"Aye, Highborn Jack."

"Tell Jarngerd and Ulfrik to do the same thing."

Daniel began to lightly rub Jack's shoulders. "I don't remember you getting the paper from the village elders, the one that gives you dominion over them."

"You were kind of asleep. I faked it a little, with Asny's help. There was a little ceremony and she walked me through it. The way I understand it we get privileges here but don't own anything outright except the inn, right?"

"And now Thaid's place. That's not ... right. It's wrong." Daniel stopped massaging.

"I know," Jack said with a heavy sigh. "We'll figure out something to do about it before we leave here."

"No other family?"

"No, apparently not. The old medicine woman said there wasn't. By the way, she's really been a big help. Covered several of my blunders in their customs. I've got to stop making those, because I have a feeling it would be deadly to be caught breaking the Nortvegr around here."

"It would have been in the low desert," Daniel said. "We would have frozen to death, starved if I hadn't found a way to work within their customs. If I go against them too much the people start pretending like we're both invisible. They'll forgive a lot when a Highborn is injured or ill but," he paused to shake his head, "I've seen some moments when things got pretty risky, where I couldn't get customers or make trades for food or water. It scares them away. I suppose that will just get worse the farther north we go."

"Yeah. We've got to blend in better. We did all right with Brynvold and Odamari, I think."

Daniel snorted. "If you call blundering into an orgy all right, then ... I guess so." He moved from beside Jack on the bench, sliding behind the man to and started rubbing his shoulders again.

"Blundering?" Jack twisted around and smiled at Daniel. "I seem to recall that I knew perfectly well I was inviting them to have an orgy with us."

"Perfectly well? By saying what?" Daniel challenged him.

"By saying, sure, go ahead. Strip my lover naked and entertain me by doing a sixty-nine with him. Right here, right now, buddy boy. What? You don't recall me saying that?" Jack turned back around and stretched forward as Daniel rubbed on his upper back.

"I recall you saying, yes, you can visit, something along that line. See what I mean? We agree to what we think is a little chatting, and it actually means a full out orgy."

"Well, I'm not complaining. That Odamari is one hot little number."

"You cad," Daniel said.

"Uh huh," Jack said with a satisfied nod.

"And what do you mean, the wise woman has been covering blunders for you?"

"She gave me a lecture while you were sleeping," Jack said, absently rubbing his cheek as he recalled her stinging slap. "Told me I wasn't treating you right, and that I was insulting the village, pissing on their religion."

Daniel bowed his head and rested his forehead against Jack's upper back. "She made you call me that, didn't she," he whispered.

Jack rolled his lips into a thin, tight line.

"She made you call me Sky."

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Daniel. I hate it, hate this barrier between us. The veil. All of it. I can't see your eyes. I can't say your name. It's like ... like being on Earth in a way, because there, I can't reach out and hug you. I can't touch you too much, or kiss you in front of anyone. I can't take you to bed each night and hold you. But here, I can do all those things, but ... I can't even look you in the eye. It's ... "

"Like we can have a little happiness but never enough or the gods will smack us down," Daniel finished for him.

"Gods. Which ones?" Jack hung his head too, feeling Daniel's forehead against his naked flesh. "I love you, Danny."

"I love you too, Jack."

Drying each other was fun. The towels were really lousy, but warm. Jack sat perched on the massage table while Daniel dried his dangling feet.

"We gotta do this again," Jack said.

"Not too often, unless we find a way to make the proprietor keep the rest of the place open for business. Or figure out when her slow time is; come then."

"Yeah, cause she's not getting paid out of our stash of coins. Services, we get free, right? But soap and food and anything not in the inn, we have to pay for. Could we sell the inn and buy horses with the money? Maybe sell it back to the innkeeper?"

"I'd feel like an ass for doing that, Jack." Daniel shook his head as he moved up Jack's legs, drying him more thoroughly with the second pass of the towel. "I can't take anything from these people. Using the bathhouse, that doesn't cut into her profit, because her business will pick up when we leave. Though," he stopped to look at, "it bothers me to think of someone using this hot tub after us. They'll want to ... I had my veil off in here, so they'll want to ... " He clenched his jaw muscles.

Jack saw the muscles along Daniel's jaw jump. "Danny," he said softly as he stroked his lover's face. "Let it go."

Mutely, Daniel shook his head, then closed his eyes.

"I'll ... Let me think a minute," Jack said. "You're right. Her business will pick up. I'll tell Jarngerd to tell her I'm using this room around the clock until we leave Brooksmeet. It's off limits to anyone else but our servants."

"Your household," Daniel corrected him. "Your servants are of your household, or House, so you say it that way."

"That old woman, she keeps trying to teach me things, and I'm getting it, but without you to catch things like that, I make big blunders. But, how did you learn to say household?"

"I listened and watched how Brynvold handled his servants, his steward."

"Then you've got to teach me," Jack said.

"That's a first," Daniel said, his smile returning. "Jack O'Neill wanting to learn a foreign culture."

"Will wonders never cease," Jack said, matching his lover's smile.

"Ready to go back to the inn?"

"Yeah. But first, kiss me while I can see your whole face."

Daniel flinched away and dropped his gaze to the floor.

"What?" Jack asked quickly.

"Eyes. I ... love looking at you, Jack," he answered, still staring at the floor. "But they all ... that's part of the bargain I have to ... was ... was doing. I had to keep my eyes open and look at them the whole time they're on me."

"Baby, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. I know they're not supposed to look at you, but--"

"When they fuck me, I have to let them stare into my eyes. I have to. I ... It's not the same with you. Not the same, of course. And to not ... not look at you, it's ... Thaid had me face down. He never saw my eyes. But all the rest of the men ... I have to let them ... My eyes ... "

"God," Jack swore softly. He took Daniel's hands and pulled him into an embrace. "I don't think I realized what you've been going through. My God, Daniel." As he held his lover he felt Daniel's breathing hitch. "I didn't realize that part of it."

"Had to ... What they pay for is to stare into my eyes while they fuck me. Can't close ... "

"Baby." Jack held him tighter. "I didn't understand what I heard said about ... You told me ... I didn't understand. That's why the veil is so important. What the old woman said ... Duty. God, we've got to get off this planet."

"Yeah," Daniel whispered, his voice breaking. "I'm sorry, Jack. Sorry."

"Nothing for you to be apologizing to me about. I didn't realize that was part of the bargain."

He rubbed his hands up and down Daniel's back. All the men who'd taken Daniel to bed with them, all the strangers between here and the low desert, Daniel had to let them see his eyes, had to stare at them, stare into their faces while they used him, while they pumped their cocks into him, while they spewed their cum into his body. He had to face them through the whole ordeal, see how they felt, see their arousal, their naked lust for his body. Those strangers got to see what they were doing to him, got to see into his eyes, his soul. Jack felt sick in his heart.

"Let's go," Jack said.

"We'll come back tomorrow?" Daniel asked.

"Yes. Tomorrow."

The trip back to the inn was a bit spooky to Jack. He rode in the chair again, carried by the young weavers a few steps behind Asny and Daniel. Too many people were on the streets, all being so solicitous to him and seeing right through Daniel as if he were a ghost. Had it always been that way with these people? Had they always looked through Daniel to him?

He studied Daniel's posture as the veiled man walked along, Asny's hand protectively around Daniel's arm.

It was hard to remember specific times and instances of people treating Daniel this way. Jack was so rarely awake with Daniel in public places. Usually he'd come to in some little hovel somewhere or under a stretched tarp, Daniel spooning soup into his mouth. Yes, there was that time in the tinsmith's horse-drawn wagon. The guy kept asking Jack something, and Daniel had to answer but the guy never even acknowledged that Daniel had spoken. And here that first night the innkeeper had addressed Jack even though Daniel was speaking, he'd addressed all his answers to Jack.

Daniel had been walking through this world like a ghost. Daniel, who loved immersing himself in new cultures, new languages, was being pushed away by these people; pushed away and treated as if he were invisible. Unless that damned veil was off, then it was truly hell for Daniel.

"You need to do some scribing," Jack said suddenly. "Maybe tomorrow. Down in the great hall. I'll sit with you again, like we did ... " The day Thaid attacked him. Jack slumped in the chair that swayed gently in Ulfrik and Jarngerd's hands. "I'll sit with you while you scribe," he insisted. "Tomorrow, okay?"

He saw Daniel nod, or at least, he thought it was a nod. The veil moved.

"Highborn Jack," Asny called over his shoulder to him, "Tal come to the bathhouse and said some news. Said there be a man at the inn searching for his master. Says he be of ye household. Servant. Looking all over the land for his master. Tal makes him wait at the inn. Maybe more of ye servants come now? More so as ye don't need me no more?"

"Ha! You're my number one helper, kiddo. And whoever this guy is, he's a little confused. We don't have any servants here. I mean, they all died in the low desert. I told you about the crash, remember?"

She twisted around again, and winked at him. Then she held her free hand in the air like an airplane and made a zooming noise as it spiraled down.

Jack thought he heard Daniel chuckle. He winked back at the young girl who giggled, then tightened her grip protectively on Daniel's arm and skipped a few steps at his side.

The weavers sat his chair down at the entrance to the inn and Jack took Daniel's hand and led him inside. "I'm hungry, how about you?" he asked Daniel.

Mute again, Daniel nodded, and stood still as Jack was helped out of his cloak by Jarngerd.

"Master," she said as she bowed and stepped back.

Jack looked from her to Daniel, realizing the young woman was waiting for something.

"Do ye not wish yet to have the duty of taking ye Highborn's cloak?" Asny whispered to Jack. "Ye be well enough yet to take on some but not all duties to him?"

"Duties?" Jack leaned over a little bit as he spoke to her. "I'm supposed to take his cloak? Why doesn't Jarngerd do it? Never mind. If I'm supposed to, then I should do it. I do feel well enough, and I think everyone can see that, can't they?"

"Aye," she said solemnly. "Ye are doing so good today, Highborn Jack. Not saying the name, and bringing him in the door as ye did. This be the way to do things, and not make the old woman give ye the glare."

"You're right." He turned back to Daniel and began to fumble with the latch on his cloak.

"What are you doing?" Daniel asked.

"Apparently my duty." Jack squinted at the loop and toggle. "Least, I'm trying to."

"I can take off my own cloak--"

"Apparently not. You're not supposed to."

"Oh. I remember Brynvold ... You're right. I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed to stand here, and you decide if I'm cold, or if my cloak needs to come off, and you have to seat me, order for me, pick my food for me." He sighed.

"Yeah, well at least I won't pick fruit loops. Know you hate those. And I guess I won't be doing anything for you that you haven't been doing for me for the past--"

"Master!"

Jack had finally gotten the toggle through the loop and the shout startled him so much that he dropped Daniel's new cloak. Jarngerd caught it before it ended up completely on the sawdust covered floor.

"Master!"

Jack steadied himself against Daniel's solid figure and turned to see who was shouting.

"I found ye! I had thought it was never to be!"

Hurrying across the great hall toward them, Jack saw one of the big worker castes. This man was broad featured, and fairer than the average man. His traveling robes were dark and well worn. He dropped to his knees at Jack's feet and tried to kiss his boots.

"Stop that," Jack said warningly as he pulled Daniel back a step from the young man.

"Lemmel!" Daniel exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Lemmel," he repeated, his voice bright with delight.

"Lemmel?" Jack asked, looking between Daniel and the groveling young man. "You know this guy?"

"Yes, and so do you. This is Lars' son. Remember him? From the caravan we found in the low desert."

"Lars, the first ... Yeah. Hey, stop that and get up," he snapped at Lemmel.

"I follow the Nortvegr," Lemmel protested. "My da, he sends me as payment."

"Lemmel," Daniel began and tried to bend down to take ahold of the young man. Jack grabbed Daniel's arm.

"Eyes, Da--" Jack snapped his mouth shut. "Sky," he said, to bring Daniel up short, to make him realize where he was and who might be watching. "Sky, I remember now. I was very ill when we were with this boy's caravan. I remember him now. Thank you." He held Daniel tightly.

"Lemmel, get up. My Highborn and I just got back from a hot soak. We need to sit and have a meal, something to drink. You can follow us ... me. Follow me." Jack slid his hands from Daniel's arms and just took one hand. Daniel had bowed his veiled head, so Jack led him to the table and seated him as he'd just been instructed to do. Then he sank gratefully into the chair at Daniel's side. Jack sighed at the temporary relief of the pain in his legs and belly.

Tal rushed to the table with wine and ale. "Food, Highborn Jack. Comes fast as ye'd wish it. The wild bird and pie. Ye steward says to bring pie so it'll be done right quick."

"Thank you," he said, his eyes on Lemmel who'd dropped again to the ground by Jack's feet. "And you, I don't think we can have a good conversation unless you get your face off the floor."

"Aye, master," Lemmel said as he looked up and gave Jack a toothy grin. "Da sends me," he said and pulled a folded scrap of leather from his tuc. He held it out to Jack. "Them here said it was one of ye kind, name of Highborn Jack, but I'm not one to believe I've finally found ye until I see ye. And there, there right in front of me. Never thought I'd find ye. So many villages in this part of the world. And the wonderment of people. So many. Never knew there were so many. More in the north they say."

Though Lemmel kept his face turned to Jack, his eyes kept sliding to the side toward Daniel. Then he'd startle and redirect his gaze to Jack. Studying the kneeling young man, Jack didn't see lust in the flickering looks. He saw adoration. He saw puppy love. Jack stole a glance at Daniel too, but all he caught was a vision of a man under a sunlit veil.

"Come up from where nothing but sand covers the world. I walk so far that I find drinking water, free, out running in lines on the ground. Rivers, and creeks they be called. Then walk more and I find the earth covered by trees. Green and tall with wood all in them, wood for burning or making furniture and wagons and wheels such as can be used down home. A wonderment.

"And still I did not find ye. Me, I was fearing each day that passed I'd have to go across the great divide not knowing if ye were there or behind me, or even not alive no more. And here ye are!"

"Yeah," Jack said, hoping that Daniel would be able to condense that speech for him later. "Wonder where he learned to talk so damned much and so damned fast?" he whispered aside to his silent lover. "You set him a good example? Teach him anything about power point presentations while you were at it?"

He caught a glimpse of a little smile on Daniel's face and that made Jack feel pretty happy that Lemmel had arrived. "Okay, so what's with this piece of leather?" he asked as he started to reach for it.

Asny darted from behind him and deftly blocked Jack's reaching hand, seeming to do so by accident. "Steward of his house," she announced herself to the kneeling man.

"What be this?" Lemmel asked. "A babe? Surely ye are only days old--"

"Steward I am, to the Highborn Jack, and ye be coming to speak to my master, then ye do so right. Have ye something for him?"

"Steward?" he asked, his gaze flicking between the child blocking his way and Jack's smiling face. "Aye? This one be sorry, steward. When last I was with my master he had no servants alive."

"Then what do ye claim to be? Dead?" she asked boldly.

"Nay. Newly now his servant. My da sends me. Owes the Highborn a boon, he does. Needs paying the biggest way, by the service of his son for a span of years, or all my life. The Highborn's choosing," he said, nodding in Daniel's direction. "All my life if he wills it, or years. The final bargain to be decided by the Highborn himself." He then held the scrap of leather out to the child.

She took it and handed it not to Jack, but to Daniel, then backed away. Jack admired her for her confidence that Daniel would always do the right thing, would follow the Nortvegr. Was her confidence well placed? Daniel had been so withdrawn. Jack was worried as he watched Daniel examine the doodles burned into the scrap of leather.

"Ask him," Daniel whispered, "ask him to tell you what Lars found that was worth his son's service."

"Lemmel, tell me what your father, your da, what he found that was worth so much."

"Ah, Highborn Jack, I mean, master, be so good to see ye again, well and hearty and breathing too. The story ye Highborn told, how the cuts came to him-- My ma, she kept saying the story was not part of the dreamland. It was real, she made my da see that. The cut socks she talked about and would never not talk about. Day and night. He grew sore mad at her, he did. So then there was nothing for it but to go trek the way the Highborn'd said where the crystal flow was, what cut his-- We did find it, Highborn Jack, master. There stretching up and down for more than a day walk, a thin line of it. Right laying on the sand, the crystal rock. Wealth! Wagon loaded and pockets and tucs and in hands we bring it out. Now then Thorbalstead my Da, he comes there with the crystal and then north again to Coldback and then Snowfell before we sell even a tenth. More my da will trek back for with the new wagon and him having a hired servant now. Wealthy now.

"So Ma says, pay the due. But the Nortvegr has to be followed. No bargain was struck for the crystal, Da says. So Ma says it must have come to us through the blessing of the imparting, and such a boon be beyond what was bargained for, can't be paid with coin. So here I am, given as payment for the boon. The Highborn will say, Da decided, the Highborn will say if my service be for life, or how long. Da says the Highborn be the best bargainer on all of Nortvegr. He does. So here I am. Payment."

"Your mother sent you as payment?" Jack asked.

"Course not. Not hers to give. Da, he did. Not releasing me from my obligation to carry on the family line, though. I still have to mate and give him a grandchild, even here in the north. Male or female, he cares not which. Ma, she cares for a girl child, having none in the family. She wants. But after that I'm free to choose a mate more to my liking."

"Okay, you're really losing me here, Lemmel."

"Da says first I have to have a wife, have a baby, then I can find me a mate."

"Okay," Jack drew out the word. He turned to Daniel who was fingering the piece of leather thoughtfully. "You get any of that?"

Daniel nodded. "They found the crystal flow we crossed. Apparently the crystals are valuable, and they've made an unexpected and very large profit. Damn. What if I'd broken off some and taken them?" He shook his head. "I don't think I want to sit here and consider that twist of fate. Really don't."

"So they send him up here because they found some crystals you told them about?"

"Yes. There's an unpaid debt."

"We've got to stop letting people get indebted to us. It's going to end up costing us in the long run, isn't it? I can't imagine how much it costs to feed this big guy."

"They pay their own way, Jack. Just like the weavers have to. And Asny, she keeps working, you've noticed. She still does her job here at the inn. They're responsible for their own food and lodging, clothing, whatever else they need. You can give them things, money, but they have to be self reliant."

"Okay, but that's really not my main objection."

"I didn't think it was," Daniel said as he shook his head. "You have to accept his service. To refuse it isn't following the Nortvegr. Or rather, I have to accept, and then give him to you. I can't fit him inside my imparting cloth. Can't keep him."

Jack glared at his lover, but for his effort only got a shrug out of the veiled man. "I can't tell if you're loving how uncomfortable this makes me, or if you're really just as pissed off as I am." He waited for a moment but got no reply from Daniel. "Okay, how long?"

"Five years. Lars got a wagon and a servant out of the first load and no telling how much more. But that was a long trek so going back for more will be pretty arduous. Five years should sound like a fair deal to Lemmel. And we'll stipulate that his contract ends when we-- How will we explain our disappearance when we gate home? Tell him, five years, or such time as you return to ... the home of your forefathers. Your forefathers, the SGC, that house. That sound good? We have to stick to this story."

Jack mulled it over for a moment. Tal returned with food and he pondered the roasted bird, then he looked from Lemmel's excited face to Daniel's veiled head. Finally he leaned against Daniel and whispered. "Yeah. I think that'll work. Always try to stick as close to the truth as possible."

Daniel folded the scrap of leather and handed it to Jack.

"So do I have to pretend to read it?"

"Yes."

"All right, and I know the rest of the routine." He examined the doodles for a moment, then called for Asny, who was right at his elbow, squirming and shifting her weight from foot to foot. "Steward take this. My household has a new servant for the next five years, or until I return to the home of my forefathers, whichever comes first."

Lemmel jumped to his feet and let out a cheer, his fists high in the air. "I now be the new servant in the house of the Highborn Jack!"

Some of the inn patrons joined him, cheering and slamming their steins down on the wooden tabletops. A few stood on the benches calling out Lemmel's name. The young man was pulled back among them and received hearty slaps on the back.

Jack winced as he watched the congratulatory celebration, glad his bones weren't being subjected to that. He felt a tickle in his throat and coughed, feeling the pressure build further. His head was starting to ache.

"Privy, please, Highborn Jack?" Asny asked.

"Bathroom break," Daniel whispered.

"Oh. Go, yes. Take off, kiddo." Jack rubbed his temples. "I don't think I can eat. My head's killing me. Guess I overdid it today. Been up a whole hour probably."

"Master," Jarngerd was back at his side, kneeling low so she could peer up into his face. "Do ye need to go up to ye room? Rest time now?"

"Yeah. Let's go. I gotta lay down. Whew. Headache." Jack began to cough again. The room grew dark. He felt Jarngerd lift him but wasn't awake by the time she got him to the top of the stairs.

Daniel scooted past Jarngerd as she carried Jack's unconscious body into their room. He folded back the bedcovers and helped her get Jack on the high bed.

"Go help Lemmel get settled, please. Find him a place to sleep and make sure he has food and whatever he needs."

"My glad duty, Highborn," she said softly. "Ye need not say please to a servant of the household. Always, my duty and glad of the honor. It ... it pleases me to no end to be of the household. Such an honor was never in my family before, to serve a House with a Sky. I cannot tell ye how much ... " her voice faded as she sniffed. "Honor."

"I see," Daniel said with a nod. "Highborn Jack is very fortunate to have you in his household, Jarngerd. Very fortunate." He stopped when he saw that his words were distressing her further. "Thank you--" He was just upsetting her further. "Well done," he tried and was glad that didn't upset her. She'd just carried a full grown man up a very long flight of stairs and Daniel couldn't send her on her way without some kind of acknowledgement. He'd have to learn how to do that in an acceptable way.

"You've served your ... master ... " he managed to not choke on the word, "served your master well. Now go and see to the newest member of his household."

"Aye," she said with a tearful, but sincere smile, then curtseyed and left.

Daniel removed Jack's boots and outer clothing, stripped himself down to his long, loose shirt and his underwear, then snuggled under the covers with Jack.

The shuttered room was dark and quiet, lit only by the blue flames of the coals in the fireplace. Water steamed in the two large kettles. Daniel dozed fitfully.

"Mm no!" He jerked awake, rising up on one elbow. The room was still dark, and Jack was still asleep at his side. No light passed under the crooked shutter. They'd slept away the day. Daniel pushed himself up, trying not to jar the bedding. He slipped from under the covers and down to stand on the cold floor by the bed. His hands shook as he pulled the covers back up to keep Jack warm. Daniel passed a hand over his forehead. He was wet with sweat. Quietly he crossed the room to the table and scooped water from the basin onto his face, then he shrugged out of the sweat soaked shirt and used the tail of it to wipe himself dry. He tossed the shirt on a chair.

The fire had burned a bit low so Daniel scooped new coal onto it. He stood before it, one hand resting on the mantle and gazed down into the low flames. The blue and yellow flickers danced shadow and light patterns across his naked skin. Thaid had died a senseless death. He grimaced as the big man's innocent face swam before the flames. What happened to Thaid was cruel and senseless. Daniel clenched his hands into impotent fists. His chest ached as he took several deep breaths.

A rustling behind him had Daniel spinning around and jerking to his left beside the fireplace. His bare back was against the wall, his fists raised. Jack had turned over in his sleep, rustling the bed covers. Wide eyed, his breathing out of control, Daniel stared at the sleeping figure. He clenched his fists tighter, bringing his hands against his chest. He blinked away the tears that blurred his vision and then sank to the floor, crying silently.

Daniel slumped on the cold, bare floor, his knees drawn tight up to his chest. The silent sobs broke into quiet shudders and gasps of emotional pain as the tears ran between his fingers that were pressed over his clenched eyes. His body shook.

A soft warmth enveloped him and with a great effort he lifted his head off his knees to see Jack settling a blanket about his nearly-nude form. Jack held onto the wall at Daniel's back as he slid slowly down to the floor to sit against Daniel. Then the older man pulled the blanket up around Daniel's shaking shoulders, tucked it tight and wrapped an arm around Daniel's neck and head.

As his lover pulled his head down to his shoulder, Daniel gave up trying to stifle his sounds and wept deeply in Jack's comforting arms. The stillness of the night slept on about them as Daniel poured out the pain and anguish he'd kept so well in check, the dread he'd existed under for too long, the pain of isolation and the fear of losing Jack to a horrible, wasting death.

Out came the guilt that burned him over Thaid's unjust death, and the anger and helplessness he felt over the attack and Gunnlaug's monstrous manipulation.

After despair had washed through him, Daniel began to rage at the injustice of it all. Then he felt like a limp rag in Jack's weak arms. Jack murmured sounds of comfort, no words, just little sounds that meant more because they were a way of communicating on a more visceral level.

Finally Daniel turned his head up to his lover, feeling the coolness caused by the tears on his face and chest. Jack's warm, dark eyes gazed solemnly down at him, and Daniel closed his eyes and let Jack wipe the tears away, let Jack smooth the pain from his face. Jack knew, Jack understood. Nothing else could help him as much as the sweet understanding he got from his lover. Though he was painfully isolated, though he was living in a terrible state of solitude and sexual slavery among these huge people, Daniel knew he would survive it all because with Jack he had a limitless, unending love.

Chapter 12 - A Champion's Oath

At Jack's stern insistence Daniel went down with him the next day, his scribing supplies being carried by Jarngerd. At their table in the great hall, Daniel refused to unfold the cloth, so Jack called for ale. "We'll just sit here a while and talk, okay?"

"Not really," Daniel whispered. His veil shone white in the shafts of sunlight gleaming in through the high window.

"Yeah, well there's a little business we need to think about. Damn, you're right about trying to talk down here. It's crappy trying to talk when I can't see your eyes. Sorry." Jack scrubbed his hands on his face and coughed. His head was hurting already, and he'd only been out of bed a few minutes. He sighed heavily. The air felt too thick in the great hall, smoky from wind gusting too hard on the chimneys, and the room was too full of people. The weavers had established themselves in the center of the hall, a table in full time use for their handiwork. There were villagers all around the two talking, exchanging greetings.

Lemmel was nowhere in sight. The young low-desert youth was probably off exploring the sights, checking out the largest village he'd ever seen in his young life. Jack needed to talk to Daniel, ask him if he realized the boy had a crush on him. Daniel could be pretty oblivious to people falling in love with him, even under the best of circumstances. Among all the people who were leering at him, jerking off in front of him, what would Daniel do about how Lemmel felt? It wasn't the same as the other men who used Daniel. Would Daniel see that? Would he be able to appreciate the difference?

Jack sipped some water and cleared his throat. "Asny says we need to talk to the old woman again. Something about what we want done in the village. I think it'd be best to just hear her out and then take her lead."

Daniel nodded.

"Okay, you know I could just send a message through Asny. Tell her to say the council should continue as before because my House requires free will and all that from servants and subjects and see if that works."

"Yeah. And the same with the innkeeper."

"Oh, yeah. I hadn't thought much about the inn. It's just been running the same as always, I guess."

"Talk to Tal," Daniel suggested. "She's really the one who runs the place."

"Okay."

Jack thought about cutting their downstairs visit short. His throat felt scratchy and Daniel seemed so withdrawn that it wasn't worth the effort to try to talk while seated among the worker caste. He sipped his ale and studied Daniel's veiled profile, his tight posture. He wasn't slumped, but he was holding himself almost as if he were trying to shrink away to nothing.

There was a shifting of the sunlight glinting off Daniel's veil. Then it happened again and Jack realized it was because Daniel was occasionally darting a glance at one corner of the great hall. Then he did it again and Jack tried to follow what he thought was Daniel's line of sight. That was not an easy thing to do, considering Daniel was veiled. He should be able to look anywhere secretively. But he was turning his face back to the ground after each glance. Jack frowned.

"Something up?" Jack probed. "See someone?"

"No. It's not him. It's just ... his son looks like him. The miner."

"Looks like him? The dead guy?" Jack peered hard into that corner of the hall. He saw a kid, gangly and kind of bedraggled. He was slumped over a table, staring off into space. Jack shuddered. The vacant look on the kid's face reminded him of how Daniel'd been looking recently. "The kid, that the one you're talking about? Looks like he's in serious need of a bath and a meal?"

"I'm ready to go the room, Jack."

"What's he doing here? Looks like he's been camping out in that corner. Why's Tal letting him do that?"

"Take me to the room."

"Yeah, in a minute. He looks like crap. Is that the kid Asny said wanted to talk to you?"

With his head bowed Daniel turned to Jack and through clenched teeth whispered harshly, "I said I need to get out of here! You know I'm no longer supposed to get up and walk out on my own. You have to take me. Now."

"Danny?" Jack turned in his chair and reached out for his lover. Daniel hunched over, his arms clenched tight to his sides and his hands knotted together in his lap. With his arms around Daniel, Jack was shocked to feel tremors running through the man. He pulled Daniel's face to his chest, feeling the softness of the white veil against his neck. "We can leave. But, what's going on? Tell me. This silence isn't helping anything."

"I already did." Daniel pressed his cheek against Jack's chest, his veiled face turned away from the room.

"The kid looks like his father? That set you off."

"Oh fuck you, Jack. Set me off? Fuck you," Daniel swore, and brought his hands up to clutch at Jack's shirt.

"Okay, the kid looks like his old man. That's creeping you out--"

"He caused it. That bastard."

"All right." Jack tightened his hold on Daniel.

"I won't speak to him. I don't want to hear ... I won't accept a payoff for what that bastard did."

"Payoff? Like the innkeeper, and Thaid's--" Jack bit off his words, but Daniel didn't seem to be hearing him anyway.

"I won't let them put any more deaths on my conscience. That bastard ... The council will kill the son. They'll kill him, Jack. I can't--"

Jack rubbed his hands up and down Daniel's back, trying to comfort, trying to ease some of the unfulfilled sobs building in Daniel.

"I won't let them kill that kid for what his father did. Take me out of here--" Daniel's voice broke.

Jack rubbed Daniel's back and held him tight. He had to get himself under control before Jack could get him up and walk past all the eyes in this place. The old woman was probably lurking somewhere, her and the rest of her old cronies. As if pulled here by his thoughts Jack saw her approach and kneel before his table. He glared at her but she just bowed her head and waited.

"Asny!" Jack bellowed. "Steward! Anybody seen the kiddo?"

"Highborn Jack," Tal called as she came swiftly to his table. She curtseyed low, and waited.

"Tal, you know where my little steward's gotten herself off to?"

"Market, Highborn Jack. Some new leather for slippers, the girl said. Boots too. For ye Highborn. A better fit he needs."

"Okay, then you'll do. Tell the old woman that I'm not open for business today. No council business today. Send her packing. And then kick that kid out of here." He pointed toward the miner's son.

"Him? Aye, Highborn Jack. Been trying for days to. Him, he be grieving deep. Says nothing for it but him to speak with ye Highborn." She nodded at Daniel. "Some say the lad's gone crazy with grief. Want him dead?"

"Hell, no!" Jack swore. "Send him home. Shouldn't he be out running the mines now, or something? Best thing for grief is to get busy. Work." He eyed Daniel's scribing supplies on the table. That was one good idea gone bust.

"Aye, just as ye say. Mine's been shut since ... " her voice trailed off and her eyes flicked briefly on Daniel's huddled figure again, and then she met Jack's glare. "Just as ye say, Highborn Jack. Men not working, families go hungry. No coal comes up, and we get cold soon. The lad won't go back home. The mines can't be worked with the new master miner not chosen yet. Lad was expected to follow his father. Now that he dies of grief the mine guild waits on him to expire. Then they can choose a new master miner, one who can do the job right, maybe. Keep men from dying down there so much as they did before."

"Talk to him," Daniel whispered against Jack's wet shirt. He lifted his face enough to rub his eyes with his hand, and then pushed himself back against Jack's shoulder. "Tell him to go home, go to work, Jack. Maybe he'll listen to you. Men do listen to you."

Jack rubbed Daniel's veiled head, then glanced up at Tal. "Take the old woman away and I'll be back later to talk to the boy myself."

"Aye. Though, he swears only ye Highborn." Again she indicated Daniel.

"Go on, Tal," Jack commanded harshly. Jack turned his head away from them, concentrating on Daniel as the two women withdrew. "I'll talk to him, baby. I'll try to get him to get back to the mines and ... Hell, I'll see what he has to say. Take it from there."

In his arms he felt Daniel draw several deep breaths. "I'm okay. I ... I ... "

"You're okay," Jack agreed with him. "The little dynamo will be back with that leather soon, and I'll get her to sit with you up in the room while I--"

"No. Jack, I'm ... okay."

"Yeah, you--" Jack saw the old woman again, this time, she was glaring at the miner's son as he shuffled his way toward Jack's table.

Asny chose that moment to make her reappearance. She swept in the door, her new cloak, the one that matched Jack and Daniel's, swirling behind her. If it had been a red cloak Jack would have called her Little Red Riding Hood. Only this little girl, when she saw the miner's son nearing Jack's table, looked like she was going to chop the wolf into bits.

"Away!" she shouted. "Steward says none of ye to do with my master. Away! Ye ask an audience and none has been granted yet. Take such liberties and the council will hear of it!" She stood with her fists on her hips blocking the bewildered young man's way.

Seeing his path blocked, the youth sank to his knees, misery expressed in every line of his body.

"Asny. Steward," Jack called to her. "Come tell me what that boy wants."

She turned to Jack, but shot a glare back at the kneeling youth before going to Jack's side. She touched Jack's sleeve and then looked at Daniel's bowed form. "Highborn Jack, has he hurt ye Highborn? This be a terrible thing. Terrible."

"No, kiddo he hasn't hurt ... the Sky. He's ... he's sad right now. But the boy didn't hurt him. Tell me what's up."

"Up? In the room?" she asked, glancing briefly at the ceiling. "Nothing right now. I have leather here," she said, holding up her tuc.

"I mean, what's with this kid on the floor here? Why's he so dead set on talking to Da--"

She clamped her fingers over Jack's mouth. "I know what ye ask. Steward knows, Highborn Jack. Him, he looks like the bad man. He looks like that one who hurts girls. I don't want him near ye Highborn."

"I don't either," Jack agreed with her. "So tell me what he wants, so I can send him away."

"Can't. Says he must speak with ye Highborn. Won't say nothing else. He looks like the bad man. I don't like him."

"Asny," Daniel whispered, his face still pressed against Jack's shirt. "We should never hate people because of how they look. That's wrong. We should look for what's inside the person, what they are inside, how they treat others, how they act. Like Tal, she treats you well, and we'd love her for that even if she were ugly."

"But, Highborn, she be beautiful. All say she be."

"We know, sweetie," Jack said. "But the Sky is right. Just because the boy is unlucky enough to look like his da, that very bad man, that's no reason to assume he's a bad person too."

"But, don't we love how a person looks? We all love ye, Highborn," she said to Daniel. "Ye be so beautiful. None more beautiful in all the land. Be that not a good thing?"

"No. It's not." Daniel grew silent.

Jack brought his right arm up and stroked Asny's dark braids. "How a person looks doesn't determine if they're nice or bad. If our Sky was ugly, would you still love him?"

"Can't be ugly. He be of the Sky caste."

"If he were less ... beautiful," Jack said with a little smile. "Would you like him less?"

"Nay. He gives blessings to any and all. Gives freely. Touched Tal all on his own first day he met her, he did. Saved me." She bowed her head and swayed against Jack. "Saved me from the bad man. Then he done and give to them who still live in the children's hall. Give food, clothes. Lots of coal bought for the fires there. Sleeping better, there, they all be. I go and visit. And now I don't feel so guilty. I got a bed and got warm clothes and them that was still in the children's hall, cold and hungry and it made me feel bad. But ye Highborn, he done for them something grand. So I love him for it, no matter even if he were less beautiful than he be, I'd still love him, Highborn Jack."

"Then we should hold off hating the miner's son unless he does something bad. Has he? Has he hurt any children?" Jack asked her. "Or has he done bad trades, cheated anyone?"

"Nay. Him, he's got always a smile, most he does. Before his da was killed, he did. I seen him two times before then. He wasn't mean. I never heard of him cutting anybody the way his da did. I'm glad he didn't get to cut me."

"We're glad too," Jack said. "We're very glad."

"Council says lad got some luck, cause his da, he died honorable. My da, he didn't die honorable."

"I know, and I'm sorry for you, sweetie," Jack assured her. "But that doesn't make you any less of a really great steward. You're my number one helper. And the Sky, he thinks so too, don't you, babe?" Jack squeezed Daniel.

"Yes." Daniel pulled himself from Jack's arms and turned to look at Asny. "And Jack has given you the right to touch the Sky, hasn't he? So that means he trusts you above all others and he doesn't judge you based on your father's actions."

Jack could see that this rocked Asny's belief. She peered intently at Daniel's veiled face. Then she turned to glance at the boy slumped on the floor. "Highborn Jack, ye steward says a villager wishes to speak not to ye but to ye Highborn. Him, he be," she paused to think for a moment, "name of Herger, Herger Gunnlaugson. Master miner, he should be. Will ye grant him come into ye presence?"

"Yes, little red riding hood. You can send the wolf in, and if it'll make you feel any better, get a woodsman to watch the wolf for you. Go get Ulfrik to stand guard over Herger while he's talking, if that will make you feel better."

"Aye. Will," she said, then curtseyed and announced that Herger could approach.

The young man jerked up a bit, then walked on his knees until he was about an arm's length from Jack's feet.

"What do you want?" Jack asked him.

"Herger, Highborn, Herger, son of ... was great ... w-- was ... Herger, Highborn. There was a b-- bad thing."

Jack shifted to accommodate Daniel as he buried his head against Jack's shoulder. "I know about that. Why do you want to talk to my Highborn?"

"To say ... I f-- fear ... the whole of it be not known. They say my da ... they say ... I fear they speak wrong." Herger's voice dropped to a whisper. "Him, they say, he d-- died honorably. But I fear ... "

"Hang on," Jack finally said. "Asny," he called to the child softly. "Go tell Tal to make everyone move to the other end of the hall. I want some privacy. Make it quick, please."

She dropped her tuc to the floor by the table, then scurried off, shooing patrons to the other end by the huge fireplace and enlisting Tal and Canlith in the task too. The patrons moved with no protest, carrying their steins, food, tucs and trade good with them and settling into the tables nearer the great fireplace down there. Then Asny returned with Ulfrik at her heels.

"You two can stay over there a ways," Jack instructed the girl and the weaver.

"Okay, kid, uh, Herger. What do you have to say?"

"Highborn, they say ... when the b-- bad thing was done, they s-- say he died honorable, my da. But-- but, Highborn, he ... he wasn't one to do honorable things ... He was not a kind man ... I fear he ... They say--"

Jack interrupted the stuttering youth. "I know what they say about your da, that he was trying to stop Thaid. Why do you think the Sky needs to hear it from you?"

"Nay." Herger shook his head vigorously. "Nay. They be wrong, Highborn. I feel it in my heart. I feel it. Him, he was ... bad. Did bad. Wouldn't ... risk himself to save ... Wouldn't. Him, he said bad things, Highborn. Spoke bad words about people. Had in his heart bad things, bad wishes he'd say in our cot in the evenings, talk of bad deeds he'd do ... I think, Highborn, I fear there be a reason for me to ... I fear there be a reason for ye Highborn to have m-- my death too."

"Your death? Have your death?" Jack asked, frustrated and growing angry with the young man.

"Aye. I fear my da done it, some of what he'd say in the evenings when the ale was filling him," Herger began to cry. "I fear he ... And if he did, then I must be put to death." His face was wet with tears that tracked through the grime on his skin. He clutched at his stomach. "I must bring myself to be killed."

Daniel began to breathe too fast and too deeply. Jack hugged him again. "No, kid. No, you're not going to be killed," Jack said softly, but firmly. "The Sky isn't asking for your death."

"Nor-- Nor-- Nortvegr," Herger stumbled over the word.

"Yeah. I know. If your da had done it, then, yeah. You'd be put to death. And, you're right about the villagers getting it a little wrong. He wasn't coming to get in the way of Thaid hurting the Sky. He just stepped into the wrong place at the wrong time. That's all. An accident. Not honorable, or dishonorable. Just stupid," Jack said.

"But, my da, he was bad--"

Daniel interrupted Herger, "He was a bad man. He did bad things to people. He wasn't coming to rape me that day. He wasn't coming in to attack me. And Jack is right, he wasn't trying to stop Thaid from attacking me either. You're not deserving of death, by the Nortvegr."

"Wh-- Not?" Herger asked, looking up at the two Highborn for the first time. He stared open-mouthed at them. "But ... "

Jack looked sternly at the young man. "The Sky said your da was killed by accident. He wasn't trying to hurt the Sky, and he wasn't trying to stop Thaid either. He stupidly blundered into where he didn't belong. That's all." Jack coughed, feeling a tightness in his chest. He was getting tired.

Daniel cleared his throat. "He was a bad man. He showed you how a bad man lives, so now you know what not to do, how not to live. You can make a choice here, a change in the lives of the miners of Brooksmeet. Be fair, make their work as safe as possible. Pay an honest wage and treat them with dignity. Or live and die like your da. Do to your sons what he did to you. Make a choice, Herger."

The young man knelt there, his mouth gaping open as he blinked rapidly. "Choice? I can ... choose?"

Daniel turned back to Jack again, laying his head on Jack's shoulder, and sighed heavily.

"I can choose?" Herger repeated. "Make things better. Change the way ... Change it all? But how?"

Jack studied the young man, seeing him trying to grasp what Daniel had told him. There was a light dawning in Herger's eyes that Jack had seen before, a light Daniel put there and that he himself had put in people's eyes. A new realm of possibilities was dawning in the young man. He'd need time, and he'd need help. He'd need wise council to help him think through changes for the better, and help to implement those changes.

"Steward, summon the old woman," Jack said. He kissed the top of Daniel's veiled head as she was brought to him.

"Get her a chair," he said to Ulfrik. "She's too old to be down on her knees-- I mean, she's an honored elder and deserves to sit down."

She glared at him, but sat when Ulfrik gently pushed the chair against her legs.

"The miner boy's gonna reopen the mines. He's got some ideas for changes he wants to make, and the Sky thinks they're great. Gonna be a safer mine, better working conditions. But the kid needs wise council. I figured you'd have some idea of who could be his right-hand man, or woman, as the case may be."

"Aye, Highborn Jack. This old woman be not so feeble that she doesn't know who's got a mind to think with, and who's got a mind made for naught but dung hauling."

"Yeah? Well?" he prompted her impatiently. "Who?"

"Hacklang, was miner till Gunnlaug sent him packing. Da was a miner before him. Knows the ways of the black coal veins. Knows how to keep a tunnel from falling in. Knows a miner loves family and wants to come up to be with them in the evening."

"Hacklang!" Herger exclaimed. "I know him. Da hated him powerful much. Said he was smart."

"Can you work with him? Have him help you make those changes the Sky talked about just now?" Jack asked.

"Aye. Just so," he answered promptly. "But first, I want Hacklang to know, my da, he just died from being stupid. Not honorable. Wasn't trying to be brave. He was just being stupid. A big lie, them thinking he was honorable. He was stupid. If he still wants to work with me then ... aye. But ... if not, then it be best they not think Gunnlaug was what he wasn't. Stupid he was."

"What be this?" the old woman demanded, glaring first at Herger, then at Jack.

After he squared his shoulders, Jack gave Daniel a firmer hug, then he addressed the old woman. "The Sky has spoken to the boy. It was misunderstood, that the dead master miner was trying to stop ... he whose name is not spoken. The master miner accidentally stumbled into the ... bad deed, and died by accident, not because he was trying to be honorable. He stepped into the wrong room and was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was stupid, not honorable. The Sky has spoken, and will hear no more of it."

"Ah," she said softly. "Dark deed." She stared at the floor for a moment, then looked over to where Herger still knelt on the sawdust. "Ye be brave, lad. To set the truth out so plain, to take away ye da's honor that way. Ye be a brave, honest lad."

"Yes," Jack said, now growing impatient. Daniel was too silent and Jack's chest was hurting. "Now, go, both of you. Go on about your business and leave us alone."

They withdrew, and Asny said she'd bring some milk and pie for Jack and Daniel. Ulfrik returned to his work with Jarngerd at one of the long tables and a very enthusiastic and happy Lemmel returned from his explorations to join the weaver couple at their table. Jack coughed for a few moments, feeling a burning in his throat from all the talking he'd done.

"You realize, that just further condemns Thaid?" Daniel said, his voice muffled against Jack's neck.

"In a way, yeah. It doesn't put blame where it should be. But it clarifies that Thaid didn't kill someone who was coming to rescue you."

"Yeah, I suppose. Still, it makes me sick to think of the lie. It wasn't his fault."

"And it wasn't that boy's fault either. He stays alive this way, Daniel."

"I know. But I hate it."

"Oh God," Jack groaned as he looked at the door. "What now? Can't we even have pie without someone--"

"What?" Daniel asked, sitting up and turning around to face into the room.

"Look at that, will ya?" Jack said heavily.

A new arrival at the inn was presenting himself before the isolated duo. The inn patrons had stayed bunched up at the other end of the hall, but now began to drift back to get a closer look at the man standing before the table.

He was tall by worker caste standards, and dressed in a floor length cape made of finely woven wool. It was a light tan color and flowed in thick gathers over his shoulders. He threw the sides back to reveal his body armor. He was dressed head to toe in leather armor, thickly brown and gleaming with polish. Each piece of leather was molded to his muscular body. His shins and knees were covered in pieces held together with metal rings and strapped to his boots. Around his waist was buckled a skirting and codpiece, with thigh guards that had creaked with each step he took. His stomach and chest plate were made of articulated slabs of thick leather, overlaid like scales of a fish. His shoulder plates were wide and cupped around to the back. The tips of his shoulders were decorated with lengths of black fur. His arms were encased in leather bracers of a matching tone, covered with interlocking rings of shiny metal. On his head was a metal helmet, crested with two short, curved horns that had gold tips.

The man withdrew a sword that was easily five feet long. It sent out a singing tone as it was pulled from its metal and leather scabbard.

Jack tensed, grabbing Daniel and preparing to push back, to knock the table over to block the man's advance. Then the man dropped to one knee and held the sword out, blade resting across his metal-gloved fingertips. He bowed his head.

"Balin?" Daniel said.

"Okay, don't tell me, let me guess. Another son of somebody who owes you big time?"

"No," Daniel said, shaking his head. "He's ... uh. I think he's a tanner. He bought me a drink once."

Jack's left eyebrow shot up. "I didn't think that was possible. Charity and all that."

"It's not. And he started the thing, sort of, the servant presentation thing with all the others when Brynvold and his Sky were here. This is Balin."

"Wait. This the guy who tells those tall tales? I've seen him before, haven't I? Here in the great hall. Okay. So what's your take on this, other than it being one other thing to prevent me from having pie and cold milk?"

Asny's timing proved again to be remarkable. She came toward the table, concentrating on balancing a tray with a pitcher of milk and two uncut pies on it, when she caught sight of the kneeling swordsman.

"What!" she screeched, dropping the tray.

Jack sighed with longing when he saw his pie smashed on the floor. "Think a little ale-soaked sawdust will hurt the flavor much?" he asked Daniel.

"Come ye to my master?" she asked as she rushed up to the kneeling man. Her face was all smiles as she danced around him. "Him, ye wish to serve? Come ye with sword offered in service? Oh, what honor! What honor!" She rushed over to Jack's side and clutched at his sleeve. "He comes to present his sword for service. I never did see this before! Heard it only in tales. Tales of grandeur such as be found only in the City of the Highborn. But ye know that, Highborn Jack. Ye been to the city many times, of course. Oh, but this be so grand. Him with his sword out. Look how it shines, Highborn Jack. And for ye, he presents it. Oh, take, please take him, Highborn Jack. Such an honor. Ye lost all of ye swordsmen in the crash, I know and now look! One comes to ye here. Such a great honor. Him, he has even the horns of a Champion. Honor!

"Seen many with horns, Highborn?" she asked, and in her excitement reached across Jack to tug at Daniel's sleeve too. "I know ye seen many fighters in the City of the Highborn, them with their swords and lances and how they fight and win the gold coins and marks of the big Houses where other Sky be hosted. But I never seen one offer his sword. And ... that be ... but it be only our Balin. How come he got horns ... Him be a real Champion swordsman, and living here among us plain folk?"

She went boldly up to the kneeling man and squatted down by his face. "Balin, how come ye be a Champion swordsman and living here among us as a tanner? Ye lying to us? Laughing at us behind our backs, thinking to make us take ye for a simple tanner? Ye got horns, man."

The big man brought his horned head up far enough to meet the confused, scowling gaze of the little girl. "Steward," he chided her. "Comes now to ye master, a swordsman, displaying his horns so all who didn't know him before, know him now to be a Champion as he truly be. Comes now a Champion, master swordsman to offer oath of fealty to ye master. Present him as such, as be ye duty, child." Then he bowed his head again, his sword never wavering on his outstretched fingertips.

Asny smacked her lips and stared at him a moment longer. Then she stood and flicked sawdust off the hem of her skirt. She shook her head, but turned back to Jack and Daniel. "Master, ye steward here," she paused to look back at the kneeling man, then turned back to Jack again. "I've never seen it done before. I'm not knowing the right words to say."

"Don't worry," Balin whispered to her loudly. "Tell him only that a swordsman be here to offer his oath of fealty, to serve under him, and that will do."

"Master," Asny began again, "Comes to ye a swordsman. Him, he wishes to offer his services. A master swordsman comes. Horns, Highborn. Him with the sword presented be Balin, now revealed to not be a tanner, but that was a lie, because now he shows that truly he be a master swordsman, a Champion and should not be living among plain folk pretending to be one of them."

Jack shook his head at her, squinting one eye in disapproval.

"Sorry," she said meekly.

Jack grinned at her, and she grinned back, then scampered off to clean up the spilled milk and ruined pie.

"I think our little steward is spending too much time with that old woman," Jack said quietly.

"Mm hmm," Daniel said.

"Okay, so now what?" Jack coughed into his fist.

"Ask him to explain himself," Daniel whispered in Jack's ear.

"Simple as that?" Jack whispered back.

"Yes, and don't appear to be asking me anything."

Jack rolled his lips in and blew out a long breath. He shifted his grip on Daniel to something that wouldn't hurt his straining muscles, then had to let go completely and sit back as his back cramped painfully.

"Balin," Jack said calmly. "Explain yourself."

The kneeling man smiled and nodded. "Comes now before ye, Balin, master swordsman, late of the House of Ostergott on the western shore of the uplands. A free Champion, I come to offer fealty and would pledge my sword to ye house."

"Why did you leave the House of Ostergott?" Jack asked. He felt on firmer ground questioning this huge warrior than he did when speaking to the wizened old crone.

"My allegiance to the House of Ostergott was won in a Championship Duel. I bested his master swordsman to take the position, to teach, and enjoyed that for two hands of years. Then Highborn Ostergott fell while on a sea voyage and I was free to seek my fortune elsewhere instead of serve his son. I chose to travel the road and learn the ways of the southern worker caste. My Champion claim, do ye wish to know?"

"First, tell me why you wanted to teach."

"I know the ways of the sword, the infighting ways as well as the handling of lance, bow and arrow. I wanted to train men to be proficient in all, as I am. Highborn Ostergott was well known for his forward thinking. We were a good match."

"And do you think you and I will be a good match?" Jack asked.

"I think I will be a good match with ye household, Highborn Jack."

"With my household," Jack said thoughtfully. "My House is a bit ... small."

"Aye," Balin said, "as be ye steward."

Jack smirked with the man. He liked Balin. "How many men did you train?"

"Under the old Ostergott the House maintained two rounds of arms. I trained both, of course."

Jack spared Daniel a glance, looking for some kind of clue to what a round of arms meant. He got no help. Daniel had said not to look to him for answers. He looked back at the kneeling man and nodded sagely.

"That sword must be getting heavy," Daniel whispered.

"I expect it is," Jack said. "And I expect that he's conditioned to hold it out in a whole bunch of different positions for hours on end."

"Ah," Daniel said, nodding slightly. "Like Teal'c and his staff weapon."

"So, Balin, explain what you offer to my small house."

Balin smiled broadly. "I offer my sword to defend ye and all that be of ye household. I offer arms training to any who come under ye service. I offer to tote water, fetch slippers and cut asunder any man who crosses ye. I offer to cook porridge at ye campfire, and hunt the claw beasts for a soft rug for ye Highborn if ye so demand it. I offer to serve in the smallest of ways and swear by my life blood that none ye send me to battle will best me."

"All that and fetch slippers too. So, for this service, what do you want in return?"

"From the Highborn Ostergott I received two rounds of arms to train as I saw fit. It was an honor. From ye, House, I seek another honor, to serve one who be like no other. Never have I seen or heard tell of one of his kind wielding a blade. It has eaten at my heart since the day I saw it. I cannot go from this village unless it be in the service of the man who has made this possible. That be ye, Highborn Jack. I have watched since ye left ye sickbed. I know it to be so. The way ye carry yeself when the ache be not too strong. The way ye--" Balin glanced behind him at the others who stood close now, then turned back to Jack. "For private ears, Highborn Jack."

Jack glanced up at the people who had crept back to his end of the great hall. "Back! Shoo," he said as he waved his hand at them. He nodded as they scrambled to obey.

"Highborn Jack," Balin continued after the other worker caste had backed away, "I have noted the way ye scan the room when ye enter. And being carried down the street in a chair even, half worn out, still ye check the doorways for swordsmen, the windows and rooftops for archers. Ye know the ways of warfare; unheard of, for a Highborn to know such things. Ye guard him all the time, watching and seeing. Not just looking as Highborn do. Ye see, see as only warriors do. Ye know the way to move through the dangers our world has to offer. It must be ye who taught him how to wield a blade, as a Sky should not ever know. It troubled me at first, it did. I had to think a long time on it, because it be so strange. But then, I realize why ye'd do such a thing, and then I know there be nothing for me but to serve ye. It be what be right for me. I will fit with ye household as no other Champion can."

"My household is a little different than what you're used to." Jack realized the difficulty of having this man too close. He could cause more problems than the old woman.

"Aye, Highborn Jack." Balin leaned forward and spoke in a tone of confidentiality. "As different as night to day, I know. I've seen. And ... heard," he added reluctantly. "And ye love him. He loves ye too. There be nothing else I need to know. Nortvegr be followed above all because ye do not merely worship him. Ye love him. For this love I will swear to ye my sword, my life until ye never need me no more. Highborn Jack, I will take my own life before I will cause any harm to come to ye or to the sacred one at ye side."

"Then I accept your offer, Balin. I accept your oath."

Balin drew a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "Aye. Then, come, take the sword from my fingers as a Highborn should. Then as expected, I shall stay here until ye hold it high and name me as ye Champion, as I am; Balin, Champion, master swordsman. I'll have ye household colors on my cloak before the sun sets, Highborn Jack."

"That means I have to stand up, doesn't it?" he asked Daniel. As he pushed himself to his feet Asny came and helped him rise. He felt ridiculously unsteady as he approached the kneeling man. When he got there Jack had a nasty realization. There was no way he could lift that huge sword by himself. "Okay, tanner who's not a tanner," he whispered to Balin, "how am I going to lift that heavy sword?"

"Pardon, Highborn Jack," Balin answered in as quiet a voice. "Ye steward might help if she were a man, but not a girl. The only thing for it be ye Highborn to hold ye wrist, but he may not touch the metal as it be not seemly. There being no other Highborn here, and ye not having another Champion, another who be my equal at hand that be the way of it, or we wait for ye to heal."

"No, I might need someone to fetch my slippers later tonight," Jack chided. "D--" He clenched his teeth. "I can't believe how hard that is. Sky," he called, then turned and held his hand out to Daniel. "Come--"

Asny poked Jack firmly in the side. "Need him, send me for him. Ye tend to forget," she paused and glared at Balin, "he tends to forget me, because I am so small, does Highborn Jack." She turned back to Jack. "Steward can get ye Highborn because he doesn't walk alone if ye can help it. Don't forget me. I promise to grow taller so ye won't."

"That's right," Jack said. "And I can balance all by myself while you go. Fast now."

And she did. She scurried over and solicitously helped Daniel to his feet, and then held his hand high, as Jack had seen Brynvold hold Odamari. But she also held tight to Daniel's arm as Jack had seen her do in the streets walking to and from the bath house. Jack had thought she did it just to keep Daniel company, to make him feel less lonely.

Now at Jack's side, Daniel stood close, turned halfway between Jack and the kneeling man. Asny resumed supporting Jack on his other side.

"I have to lift the sword," Jack said, managing to stop himself from saying Daniel's name again. "I have to hold it up overhead and you have to support my wrists. Please. If you would care to, that is, Sky. Just my wrists, arms. Don't touch the sword, okay?"

"Yes, desire," Daniel said softly.

"Oh," Jack said. He gazed at Daniel's veiled face and saw his lover tilt his head back so their naked eyes could touch. Jack felt a shiver run up his spine. He was standing, hand in hand with Daniel, in a great hall filled with onlookers, preparing to conduct a ceremony before them. Daniel was in a flowing long cloak, with a white veil. And he himself was in a long cloak. Jack felt dizzy for a moment, as if time froze and the universe wheeled three hundred and sixty degrees in the blink of an eye. "Desire," he whispered, then reached up and stroked Daniel's smooth cheek. "Can I get away with kissing you right now?"

"Yes," Daniel formed the word soundlessly, and parted his lips.

Jack ran his hand around to the back of Daniel's neck, feeling the veil slide over his fingers. He drew Daniel to him, and leaned in to meet the man. Their lips touched and Jack drew a breath, chilling their mouths. Then he closed his lips to Daniel's and brought a new warmth to the two of them. The delicate beads of Daniel's veil brushed over Jack's cheek and nose. He moved his mouth, seeking and tasting more of Daniel's sweet flesh. He felt Daniel's hands tenderly embrace his wrist and neck. Jack swooned against his lover and felt Daniel's unyielding strength, felt Daniel's hold shift down to his waist to keep him steady on his feet. Jack broke the kiss, drawing in a ragged breath of air as Daniel held him upright.

"Love you. Desire you," Jack whispered against Daniel's bare cheek. "Thank you."

"Love you, Jack. I love you," Daniel whispered.

Balancing himself more steadily on his feet, Jack turned back to the kneeling man. He gripped the sword handle, feeling the immensity of its girth. He used both hands around the leather grip, positioning his hold forward on the handle against the guard to try to get as good a balance on the massive piece of metal as possible. It was huge. "Okay," he said.

Daniel slid his hands down to Jack's wrists, one under each, and wrapped his fingers around Jack's hands. He took a half step forward to get his point of balance more firmly under the weapon, and he lifted. He didn't wait for Jack to signal, but took the initiative to hoist the weapon himself. "Rotate your wrists," Daniel whispered.

Going with Daniel's guiding movements, Jack concentrated on keeping his grip tight. The pain lancing through his fingers was sharp but he knew he could complete the task. Daniel had grasped him in such a way that he was keeping Jack's fingers closed.

"Balin," Daniel prompted Jack under his breath.

"Balin," Jack repeated loudly, as the sword was lifted, point high up into the air.

"Master swordsman, and Champion,"

Jack repeated the name and title, again speaking loud enough for most of the onlookers in the great hall to have heard him clearly.

"I accept you and your sword into the service of my household."

Jack repeated the final phrase quickly as Daniel brought the sword back down in front of Balin. He really needed the man to take the weapon quickly or it was going to end up clanging on the floor. Very tacky military protocol.

Balin took the sword and Jack sagged back against Daniel. Then the tanner who was not a tanner rose to his feet and sheathed his sword. Jack was taken aback when the man stood to his full height. With his thick boots and his horned helmet he was damned tall. Damned tall.

"Got you," Daniel whispered. "Arm on my shoulder, Jack. You're going to bed now, no arguments. I don't care if the roof caves in next, you're going to bed."

"May I, Highborn?" Balin asked. "I might carry you up the stairs?"

"No," Jack insisted as he and Daniel shuffled toward the stairs. "Got what I need right here. We're gonna make it up together ... "

As Jack passed out Daniel slid around and had the unconscious man draped over his back as he had the first night they'd climbed these stairs. Jack weighed a couple of pounds more, but Daniel wouldn't relent.

Asny scurried past Daniel and climbed the broad staircase. Balin followed behind Daniel and his unconscious burden.

"Turn the bedcovers down, Asny," Daniel said as he reached the top step. He followed the child down the hallway and past the weaver's alcove. In the room, he backed Jack up to the tall bed and hoisted him onto it. Asny climbed up on the other side and worked with him to get Jack situated. Then she began to remove his boots and cloak.

"Boil water again, Highborn? He need the wet air? Coughing some, he was."

"Yes. That's a good idea." Daniel moved swiftly about, working well with the girl to get things done for Jack. He glanced at the door, saw Balin on one knee in the opening and stopped. This wasn't a man to be dismissed as Ulfrik was so easily, or sent on a sight seeing excursion like young Lemmel, giddy with the sights of such a large village. This was a seasoned warrior, much like Jack himself. Daniel regarded the man solemnly.

"Highborn Jack is very ill, Balin. He'll sleep for several hours now. If you need anything the weavers downstairs, or ... What do you need now?"

"Is it permissible to speak directly ... The steward has the duty to see what I need," Balin said, his head bowed in respect.

"Highborn Jack's steward is very young. She doesn't know the ways of the Highborn well, but we'd have none other than her serve us. What do you need?"

"It be permissible for a warrior to speak to the master's Highborn only if the master grants it. Has he granted this even to me?"

Balin would know perfectly well Jack hadn't granted such permission. "Yes. He grants this. I speak with anyone who serves the Highborn Jack when he is ill. I'm sure you can see the necessity of that."

"Aye." Balin nodded thoughtfully, then rose to his full, intimidating height. "House colors, Highborn. What are the colors of Highborn Jack Ondeil?"

"Ondeil?" Balin had bastardized Jack's last name, made it something that fit with the culture more. He'd heard it spoken only once, Daniel realized, down in the great hall the night Odamari and Brynvold had arrived. Daniel had said it to them. Balin must have been near enough to overhear part of the conversation, but not clearly. Maybe that was a good thing.

"The House colors," Daniel said thoughtfully. "I ... I think that's something he will wish to tell you himself. I'll speak to him about it before dark, though. When he wakes, I'll let him know you wait for his answer, then send Asny down to you in the great hall or wherever your home is."

"My home now be here, Highborn. As be right, I will have the room that guards this entrance as my own. The weaver couple must move from their alcove so as not to be between my sword and the sleeping Highborn. I will find a proper place for them, help the steward set the household in order, Highborn. And, if ye need slippers fetched," he said with a little smile, "it be something too, that I do."

"Good. And before you go, tell me the colors of your last Highborn."

"Of House Ostergott I wore flaxen and red."

"Ah. I see. And did you note the colors of our recent Highborn visitors?" Daniel asked, digging for hints of what would be appropriate colors for House O'Neill. Or, that would be House Ondeil. He wondered what Jack would think of suddenly having his family history shifted north and west? Perversely, Daniel realized his Dutch grandfather would be delighted to think that Daniel had settled down with a nice, Scandinavian life partner.

"Aye. House Halfdain showed to be green and burgundy. Good, strong colors, those."

"What other Highborn have you met here below the divide, and what are their colors?"

"Why, there be House Hrafknel, burgundy and gold, a household of traders. Then there be House Sturluban, with black and brown. They be a fierce household of good archers who mostly hunt the stags in the edges of the great divide."

"I see. You may go now. Help the steward in whatever way you can. But remember, she is the steward. Always, Balin, always in matters of Highborn Jack's health, obey Asny if I am not present. Understand?"

"After ye, Highborn, in matters of health, obey the child. In matters of defending the household, that be now my responsibility, and I will do so with my life."

"Okay. And Jack is going to really get off on that."

Balin smiled at him and left, his cape a swirling mass behind him as he strode down the dark hall.

"Close the door, Asny. We need to make it a bit more humid in here."

"Aye. What be the colors of Highborn Jack's household?"

Daniel pulled his veil off and draped it over the chair back. "I'm guessing blue is not a good color. He'd love air force blue. But probably we'll go with something like cammo."

"Cammo be a color, Sky?" She pulled the second kettle out and filled it too. "I'm not knowing all my colors."

"I mean, brown and green," Daniel said as he hung up his and Jack's cloaks. "Let's close the shutters to make it warmer and darker in here. Jack really needs to sleep."

"Aye. Brown and green. I know them. The new sweater knitted for him, this be green. He like it?"

"Hunter green, yes. Said it makes him look like a wrinkled pea," Daniel said as he sat by Jack and brushed his long hair back. "I think that means he likes it a lot."

"Aye. Balin, he was a good tanner. Think he can sew slippers?"

"Maybe. Do tanners make slippers?"

"Aye. Course they do. Boots too. Think he made that fine armor? I never did see such before. Finer even than the ones with Highborn Brynvold, his swordsmen have. And horns, he has horns. Did ye hear the others talking downstairs when they seen them horns, Sky?"

"No, I didn't. What did they have to say?"

"Lots of sounds, like oohhhh. And then some say, that it be Balin and some say it can't be and some say they knew all along. Though, I'm not believing them. Do ye believe them, Sky?"

Daniel laughed. "I really can't say. How about we build the fire up a bit and then wash up? Wash Highborn Jack's hands and face too."

Daniel slept deeply, curled tightly against Jack's side. He woke feeling like someone was creeping up on his back and he jerked up in the bed, only to find himself alone with Jack. The room was dark, lit only by the flickering light from the fireplace. The shutters were closed against the daylight, and the candles were all out. His throat was dry.

"Jack?" He reached for the sleeping man and felt his forehead. There was no fever and he was breathing deeply, with no rasping or wheezing. They'd overdone it in the past few days. Getting out to the bath house, then all that time talking downstairs, it had been too hard on Jack. They needed to take things slower. Jack had done it, he knew, to push past the pain and anguish Daniel had been feeling since the attack happened.

He sighed and slumped back against the headboard. He was hungry. Jack hadn't gotten his pie, so Daniel decided it was time to go do something besides hide under the covers. Jack would wake with pie warming by the fireplace, no matter what obstacles popped up in Daniel's way.

Determined now, he dressed in new linen pants and his white shirt. Hanging on the peg by his new cloak was a tunic. Asny had mentioned something about Jarngerd finishing warmer clothes for him. She must have brought this in while he and Jack were asleep. He pulled it off the peg and examined it. The garment was made of a thick wool, dyed a deep, hunter green, the same shade as Jack's new sweater. The tunic felt heavy enough to keep him nicely warm. The sleeves were loose; he'd be able to move in them well. The sleeve cuffs and bottom of the tunic had a shiny, rich brown ribbon threaded through, looped inside and out about every inch along the bottom. He shrugged into it, feeling the sleeve ends strike across the middle knuckle of his fingers. He could easily keep his hands out of sight in this tunic. It would be very warm and cover his pale flesh nicely. It hung down mid thigh on him. Daniel liked the feel and the fit. Last, he tied the veil on.

Slipping out the door, Daniel pulled it shut noiselessly behind his back and came up short, shocked at the change in the hallway. There were two glowing lanterns hanging from the exposed beams overhead. To his left the room that had always been vacant and closed now had a dark curtain hanging over the doorway. Daniel took a cautious step to his right, his eyes firmly fixed on the curtain.

This wasn't a good development. Anyone could be behind that curtain. And the weaver's things were gone from the alcove. A large chair occupied that space now, with a short table beside it. A glowing lantern sat on the table.

"Highborn," Balin said as he stepped from behind the curtain and knelt on one knee with his head bowed. "Of what service may this one be?"

"Uh. What happened out here? Where did the lanterns come from?"

"From my old home. I brought with me things to make the household secure, as be my duty, Highborn."

"And the curtain across the doorway? Did Asny decide you need moister air in there?"

"Air moisture be of no concern, Highborn. The door had to be removed, so as to prevent it from being barred to keep me from defending ye and Highborn Jack. None may pass here that I will not hear their footsteps."

"Oh. Okay. Um," Daniel rubbed his hands down the wool tunic and glanced again into the weaver's alcove. "Where are Jarngerd and Ulfrik? I don't want them to have to sleep down in the great hall. Did you send them away from here? I want them to have some place of their own."

"It be done, Highborn. They have the room yonder to call their own with a door to sleep behind. They may close it when not in or needing privacy and open it as needed to listen when ye or Highborn Jack may call. The young one from the low desert will make his bed in here with me. Him, I may train to carry a sword if he proves himself worthy."

"Oh. And you made these decisions yourself?"

"Not until after the child, the littlest steward gave me the colors of the House. Now it be my duty, Highborn." He lifted his head and pulled the dangling edges of brown and green ribbons away from the elbow of his right sleeve to show Daniel. "I wear the colors of House Ondeil, and am here for ye to command. How may I serve ye?"

"I'm going downstairs to get some pie and milk for Highborn Jack."

"Ye fetch food," Balin said. "As ye have in the past, still ye do it."

"Yes. I want him to have something to eat when he wakes up. Asny is off somewhere, and ... it's time I got out of bed and did things again."

"As ye wish, Highborn. Then young Lemmel sits his post." Balin pulled the curtain aside, hooking it behind a peg to keep it open, and Lemmel came from the room.

Daniel caught a flash of the room as Balin stepped aside. It had a double bed, huge enough to hold two of the worker caste. He saw Balin's armor in the far corner, a couple of bundles, and clothing on wall hooks. Then he realized the former tanner was wearing leather pants and a leather jerkin of brown with green piping. Had he gotten it somewhere just to complement the household colors on his arm?

Lemmel stepped out in the hall and bowed, his toothy grin very wide. "Highborn! Told him, I did, how ye accepted me from my da. Payment. Honored I am. He said it was good, and said he'd heard it when it happened. I don't remember seeing him among them there but still, I like the telling--"

"Post," Balin said. "As discussed."

"Oh, aye," Lemmel said, slipping into a curtsey instead of a bow. "Forgot. Not too much talking, but duty first. Aye. Sorry, Highborn. I will learn."

"That's all right." Daniel studied the happy young man. He was dressed in new leather pants, a long sleeved light beige muslin shirt and a wool jerkin. The jerkin was a warm brown with green piping which ran along the shoulders, down the placard and around the bottom hem. The colors matched Balin's clothing. Lemmel also had ribbons of matching brown and green tied on his right bicep. He looked taller than he had before. It was the absence of his desert robes, Daniel thought. Then he wondered who had bought the clothing for him.

"Lemmel, you know I like it when you talk. Don't stop talking to me. Don't stop, understood? It's the household way."

"Aye," he said, grinning again. He slipped by Daniel into the alcove and stood in front of the chair. "Watch whenever master swordsman be away, that be my job too. Grand. My da, he'd be right proud. Now I hush. Ma would be agog to see me dressed so."

Balin held a finger to his lips, then nodded approvingly at the youth. Then he turned to Daniel and stood quietly, his head bowed. "It be proper for me to clear the path and for another to lead ye, Highborn. But ... I know that be not ye way. Wish me to clear, or lead?"

"I'm going downstairs for pie, Balin. You've seen me go downstairs and get food maybe a hundred times all by myself. This time is not going to be any different."

"Aye, Highborn. And a Sky be never wrong. Now, of course, the Highborn, House Ondiel be well enough to command his servants to do their duty. All know this. The old wise woman who controls the council knows this. And my job be to keep the household safe from any harm, from any threat."

"Uh huh," Daniel said as he mulled over the warning. "So you want to go down the stairs hollering Sky, Sky and make everyone scramble out of my way. Well, they've been scrambling away pretty successfully for a damned long time now without the warning. I think they can do it a little longer."

"Then ye choose for me to lead ye, yet I have not the right to touch ye. This, I did not consider," he said, his brow furrowed. "Ye ways are more difficult than I had thought."

"Lead me?" Daniel took a deep breath and glared at the man. His glare, he realized, was useless. It was unseen behind the veil. "Okay, clear. But do it so softly, so damned softly that no one more than a foot away can hear you. That's my requirement. Go on. Get going."

As the big swordsman moved down the hall Daniel stole one more glance through the open curtain at the man's room. The bed was rumpled and it was the middle of the day. Daniel squinted at the tangled covers for a moment, then glanced back at Lemmel. The young man's lips were red and slightly swollen. Daniel arched a brow, feeling he was missing something here.

He trailed behind the big man, pausing every few feet in the vain hope that Balin would keep going and Daniel could make his own way. The big guy seemed to have eyes in the back of his head. That was an expression Daniel had always hated. He hated it more now. Balin stayed almost the same distance ahead of him all the way into the kitchen.

"Hey Tal. What kind of pie do you have today?" Daniel asked as he found her in the bustling kitchen loading a tray with fresh baked bread.

"Highborn! Well come. The kitchen misses ye. Pies? Meat pies, we have. But do ye mean the fruit? Have one here just fresh. Got the red berries baked in. Sweetened with honey and be right good. That one for ye? Asny bring it up, or me if ye wish."

"I'll take it myself, thanks. That and some milk too."

"Aye. Cold now, but fresh from the goats this morning. Too cold if ye want some that way. With frozen bits around the edge. Sat a pail in the cold lock this noontime. It or warmer, or of course, both."

"Give me the really cold stuff. Highborn Jack's still asleep. I'd like it to be still cool when he wakes up."

"Aye. Carry it for ye, Highborn? Please?"

"I can handle a pie and a pail of milk, thanks." He gave her a warm smile and felt good when she matched it. He still had his connection with Tal. She still treated him like a human being. Daniel reached out and squeezed her hand.

"Gods," she swore with a sweet smile. "Bless me too much and I might fade to nothing, Highborn."

"Oh, don't do that, Tal. Asny and I would be lost without you. By the way, Highborn Jack was going to talk to you about how the inn is running. He expects things to go along as they have been. Understood?"

"Aye. Give two rooms in the front end this noon to Highborn Jack's Champion, Balin," she said coyly and nodded her head at the big man at Daniel's back. "Took them for House Ondeil as be proper. All the inn belongs to the House now. But Balin, he says only two more needed so that all the front be used only by the House and no one else may enter that part of the inn now. Rent out all the back ones. Make 'em all use the back stairs what me and the others use going up to the attic at night. Front stairs are only for House Ondeil.

"Champion, Balin be," she whispered to Daniel. "Always did think he cut a fine figure in the robes of a tanner. Now, though ... And Canlith right sad she never had a chance with him. He, not even once with a woman in his time in Brooksmeet. I like him for that."

"I see," Daniel said with a little grin. "And the innkeeper?"

"Him, he sure took it hard for a bit. Drank a lot of ale, and so me, I let him. Then up he gets and starts cooking. Him still having the back rooms be okay, Balin says, until the new master sets some changes. I'm glad for his time to adjust. He be a good old man. Never too smart, and pinches a penny. Wants what he pays for as he done with Asny and girls before her. Pay their way out of the children's hall, he expects they do as they must. Still, he be not that bad. Asny could have starved in the winter cold, her too timid to grab when things got lean at the children's hall. Here, she had a chance to eat good and sleep warm. He be not an evil man."

"By the standards of this world, I'm sure your assessment is true."

She tilted her head and regarded him silently for a moment. "Aye," she said slowly. "A Sky be never wrong."

Daniel knew she was humoring him. He let it go. "And that reminds me. No one who works for the inn may be used by the guests as a privilege with their room rent. No children may be used here for bed companions, under any conditions. Highborn Jack will not allow it."

Tal blinked at him and Daniel watched her fight with herself, resisting saying something to him.

"You disagree?" Daniel asked, dampening his surprise. She'd risked a lot to hide Asny in the past.

"I cannot," she answered in a hushed tone. Then she leaned her head closer to him. "It be not allowed, ever. Ye say it was the decree of the Highborn Jack, then thus it be. Even as he sleeps, not speaking, it be a decree because ye say it be."

He tilted his head and studied her for a moment. Tal knew him, and he wanted there to be trust between them, not lies. "It would be his decree if he were awake," he whispered.

"Aye, Highborn. Seen the way ye care for the young, I have. Know from ye heart this decree comes. I know where it comes from."

"You don't know him yet, not like you know me," he said, matching her honesty. "But when you do, you'll see that Highborn Jack would do the same thing for any child that I would."

He gazed solemnly at her, then he straightened up and spoke loud enough for Balin to hear. "All right. I'll be back for some supper this evening. Highborn Jack will be staying in bed for a while."

"Aye. He will. A Sky be never wrong."

As he left, Daniel pondered that little bombshell Tal had just dropped at his feet. He had to start being incredibly careful what he said to these people. He knew he had the power to make them turn away from Jack. If, in his own fevered state in the low desert he had forbidden them to touch Jack, they'd have obeyed him and let Jack die. What if he said Jack could not get out of bed now, and he needed to for some reason? Would they take it upon themselves to force Jack to comply with any off-hand comment Daniel made? The more Jack recovered, the more careful Daniel would have to become. His world was not getting bigger, it was getting smaller.

Suddenly he felt a pressure, a deep depression weighing him down. At the top of the stairs he turned toward the room and stopped short. Balin was at his back now, guarding Daniel from anyone who might come up the stairs, or down the hallway from the back of the inn.

It was a little cold here in the hall, drafty with just his new tunic on instead of the long robes and bucca. He remembered being unusually cold in this hall when he'd gone to the room to fetch extra quills the day of the attack. He shivered, sloshing the milk in the covered pail. There'd been an open window up here that day. Had the master miner opened the window in his rented room to let Thaid climb in?

Daniel turned to Balin, tilting his head back to look up at the big man. He could see him clearly even through the veil; the hall was well lit now.

"How did Thaid get in?"

"Window, Highborn," Balin answered solemnly. "Window on the back. Climbed up over the goat shed, then come in through an empty room. Only one back there with a window. It happened to be big enough for him. Had no glass. Outside shutter'd been opened, but inside shutter was broke off its hinge."

"Has it been fixed? Locked up?"

"Aye."

Daniel looked down for a moment, deep in thought. "The shutter was broken off its hinge. Pried from the inside, or out?"

"Know ye of such things, Highborn? A Sky should not trouble himself with the trickery ways of men."

"Inside or out?" Daniel asked again, looking up at the big man.

"Inside," Balin whispered. "As ye thought. As ye knew, Highborn. Ye told it to Highborn Jack. But the break in the wood no one but me noticed. Wood brace splintered across one end. If it had been done from the outside, say, he pushed in hard, it would have broke in the middle, made a loud bang when the shutters swung open most likely. Pry marks on it. Someone inside the inn pried with a bar, to make it look as if the nameless one broke in."

"Someone." Daniel pursed his lips, then looked around Balin down the dark hallway leading to the back of the inn. "He planned it well. But he missed his intended target. It would have killed Jack, being handled that hard." Daniel studied the dark passage for a moment then looked back up at the swordsman. "I don't want you telling anyone else of your findings. Understood? The matter is settled."

Balin bowed his head, then knelt on one knee. "Know what ye done for the miner's lad. Heard it after I took the colors of House Ondeil. Know it for something that be in keeping with what else ye have done."

"You found out about the young man after you put the colors on your arm. But you knew the rest before?"

"Aye. Old woman said ye charged her, charged her for the Highborn Jack not knowing that the master miner was here. Ye words made no sense to her, so she come ask me. Knows well I have served in Highborn houses. Asked me why ye say this. I say it be because ye judge her to be damaging Highborn Jack and ye will stand not for it. Some Skys love their Highborn mates, I say. I say she should leave him in peace or ye may have a Champion some day to cut her head off, lest she go too far."

"Cut off her head? You will do no such thing."

"Aye. A Sky be never wrong. Just so. And know ye too, that the old woman may grow to suspect that the household goes against the Nortvegr, that ye have lost sanity. Then she may call the council who, by rights must see ye taken to the City of the Highborn to be judged safe to continue to serve the goddess, or judged unsafe. It be often whispered that them judged unsafe are made unwhole, lest they serve the goddess wrong. But the truth be harsher. I know full and well the truth of a judgment.

"I will not see that happen, Highborn. I will do what needs doing so ye are not taken away never to be seen again."

Daniel rocked back on his heels. Made unwhole? "Unwhole?" he couldn't prevent himself from asking.

"Aye. Rumor only. Truth be judgment can mean death."

Daniel clamped his lips together and nodded solemnly.

Chapter 13 - Servant's Quarters

Less than a week later, things had changed upstairs in the Ram's Head Inn. With two kettles boiling in the fireplace and the coals blazing, Jack shifted restlessly on the divan and began to complain of the sauna-like feeling in the room.

"Am I overdoing it a bit?" Daniel asked. He folded the thick fur covering back off Jack's legs and got him a mug of water. "Hydrate yourself a while. I'll open the door, let some of the cold air from the hall drift in."

"Do that. And then get a meat thermometer and stick it in me. I'm done."

Daniel padded in his new leather slippers across the bare wooden floor. They were lined with the same kind of fur as Jack's cover. Asny had done a trade for the fur; pies from Jack's kitchen for the leather and the fur. Balin had stitched the slippers for her then she'd presented the items to Jack and Daniel. It was very resourceful of her. Jack added trader to her title of number one helper and she'd giggled about that for hours.

Quietly, Daniel lifted the door latch and swung it open, peering cautiously into the well-lit hall. He was unveiled and wanted to stay that way. It was a late night hour, and the inn was as silent as it ever got.
The other end of the hall, the part that used to lead to the back rooms was boarded up. Balin had sealed it off just that morning, insisting that no one should have the unfortunate occurrence of accidentally seeing Daniel while he was in Jack's private chamber.

The top of the front stairwell now had a door in it. It could be closed with a sturdy lock when need be. With the new wall and door in place the upstairs room and hall were very quiet. No noise drifted up through the thick floorboards.

Still, Daniel felt too exposed. He studied the well-lit hall. The weaver's door was closed. They were probably asleep or just having some private time, a luxury they hadn't been able to afford in a very long time. Across the hall from their door was the curtained doorway of Lemmel and Balin's room. Light shone under the bottom of the dark curtain. Daniel could hear Lemmel talking. He leaned against the doorframe, catching the low-desert youth's words.

"Then the Sky appeared from out of a swirl of sand, me being the first to see him. Was my da who believed his eyes first. Ma thought them landvaettir, but Da, he hushes her. Me I thought them children. Never had seen Highborn before. Da, he'd seen two. A Sky too. Though, never close, he said."

"Children, eh?"

It sounded as if Balin was chiding the younger man and Daniel almost went to the room to tell the big man to not upset Lemmel. But Lemmel would have to learn to take care of himself here among people who lived by different ways than the low desert traders. So Daniel glanced back at Jack, then rested against the doorway in the cooler air and listened to see how Lemmel would handle himself.

"Children, aye. Small ones. Frightened me, it did. To think of young lost in the low desert. Full grown men die there, what get lost. Seen it. Seen the dead that's been done in by the cold and dry."

"Aye. Suspect ye have, lad," Balin said soberly.

"And then to learn they was Highborn, and one a Sky. It was more than scary. Was for me."

"It would have been for me too," Balin admitted. "For me too."

"Sick. Highborn Jack, he was sore gone, not able to stand even. Not able to speak more than a few words here and there."

That was also because he didn't know much of the language, Daniel remembered. Jack had picked up a working knowledge slowly, as he listened to conversations around him, and as Daniel spoke to him as he slowly sank into a coma.

" ... brave beyond any story I ever heard of any Sky. We didn't know how, master swordsman, but he walked by the wagon that carried Highborn Jack for half a day until he could get up no more. Me, then, me, Ma says, will carry the Sky. I was close to peeing my pants, I was," he insisted. "Here she be, placing him in my arms and me, having to carry the Sky. Him with a veil on then, as best my ma could fashion for him, she done. So I'm carrying him and that night ... oh, that night, master swordsman ... "

"Lad, if it grieves ye so, leave the tale for another time. I'm not needing to know. I'm not one to pry into anything about--"

"Nay," Lemmel insisted. "Nay. Someone should know. This I cannot keep in me. For these uncounted miles I traveled to find him, never saying anything of him to no man along that trail. Da, he charged me, don't speak of the Sky to any who are not of him. Don't speak, or ask or tell no one. And I didn't. But ye be of his household so my da, his charge be kept if only it be ye I tell."

"Be this something that may endanger him? Why would ye da charge ye so?"

"Sky business be Sky business, he says. Speak never of what goes on behind the veil. Never. And my da doesn't. Speak never to no man what be seen behind the veil. Ma says to see him that way be behind the veil too. Not meant for men to see a Sky ill or asleep or ... as he was. Hurt. Hurt, master swordsman."

"The Sky was hurt? Lemmel, ye heard he was hurt here in Brooksmeet?"

"Here? Nay. I speak of him in the low desert. Are ye not listening?"

"I listen, lad. I listen," Balin said solemnly.

Daniel heard rustling of cloth and he almost drew back for a moment, thinking Balin or Lemmel might be coming out of the curtained doorway.

"Comfortable, having ye under my arm this way, lad. Sit easy against me. Sit easy."

"Aye. Feels good. I ... Ma, she said lay him down, so I put him on the blanket beside my master. Him, he calls for the Sky, Ma says. Fevered, mostly, speaking in a way that sounds like nonsense. She says ignore it, so I put the Sky beside Highborn Jack. Ma then done something that makes me cry. I ... I am ashamed for ye to see, master swordsman."

"Be not feeling that way, lad. Ye've a man's heart in ye. Here. Better now. Save the tale for another day?"

"Nay," Lemmel protested. "I tell it right quick now so I can get it out. Ma, she says the Sky's boots come off now. So she takes out the laces, then I'm tending the fire but she cries out. Da, he spills his water jumping up to see if rimthurses have sailed in from the icy sea to kill us all.

"Ma cries then, and it was a sound I never did want to hear. The boots are off and the socks of the Sky and she sees here, here master swordsman. Soles of his feet. Bleeding, cut bad. Bad ... "

"Cut? Blood even?" Balin asked, his voice sounding awestruck now.

Daniel shifted uncomfortably in his soft slippers. He closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around himself.

"Blood, and so many cuts. I saw the Sky's blood. I saw more cuts than I could count. Heels, toes, everywhere in between. Cut. He kept it secret, hid from us how hurt he was, how bad hurt. Ma starts rolling out her medicine pack and goes to tending him as if he were just a man. I was right proud. Can ye ever imagine such a brave woman as my ma?"

"I can't imagine, Lemmel. I can't. Ye have a fine ma, ye do."

"Aye. She cleans and puts the salve on, what be used when an ordinary man gets burned or a cut too deep on him. She puts it on the Sky, on both his feet. Then she wraps him and wants him to drink something, and some he does and some he spits out."

"Both his feet?"

"Here be the tale of how the cuts came to him," Lemmel said slowly. "Across the low desert the Sky had been carrying my master, the Highborn Jack. The Sky was carrying him. Not boots, not cloak or robe or even bucca. Freezing and starving. Carrying my master in the cold, to save his life--"

As Lemmel's voice choked off in a sob, Daniel looked back at Jack. He'd fallen asleep on the divan, his face slightly flushed from the heat in the room.

"... carried ... days, ye realize. With no servants, no water, no food. Carrying him and ... "

"Sweet lad, he be safe now." Balin's voice drifted through the curtain.

"... was ... He was weeping as I carried him. I ... My ma, she ... "

"Lemmel. Lad, here. Here. In my arms, lad. Ye sweet lad. The telling of it rends ye heart. And no one else must ever hear this tale of how dangered he was, or how impossibly strong. No one, not even the weavers, or the littlest steward. Understand, sweet lad? Ye da be right. No one. Even if ever there be a new steward, or anyone, even another Sky comes to visit the house. Never no one else must hear it."

As Lemmel's voice broke down into sobs, Daniel stepped back into the room and closed the door softly.

Lemmel had seen the cuts on his feet? Daniel stood against the door watching Jack sleep. He remembered Lemmel carrying him but not crying in the strong, young man's arms. What he did remember was Lemmel's graceful gait, the way he seemed to glide across the sand, dipping and rising like a ship in a gentle swell. Lemmel had spoken to him honestly, bravely. Like he was a person.

"Oh, that's what it is," Daniel whispered. "He spoke to me. He cared. Well, they all care, but Lemmel, he went against his mother's wishes and spoke to me when she couldn't see. He talked to me, not above me, or near me, but to me. Warned me. Lemmel risked himself for us."

Daniel walked softly across the spacious room and sat on the floor at the end of the divan nearest the fire. He reached under the blanket draped over Jack's legs and began to softly massage Jack's feet. "He treated me like a human being, Jack," Daniel whispered to his sleeping lover. "When I saw him downstairs that first time, I just wanted to touch him, one human being to another."

In his sleep, Jack cleared his throat and shifted his head. Daniel lightened his touch on Jack's feet, then began to speak softer. "I had lost the ability to even walk at your side, Jack. I was devastated. Lemmel held me, carried me and whispered to me. I only remember some of the things he said. He'd look to make sure no one was close, then he'd talk. That meant so much to me, Jack. It was hard to leave him in the desert."

Jack stretched his legs, pulling one foot from Daniel's fingers. "Danny?"

"I'm here, Jack."

"Oh. Had a dream. You okay?" Jack turned onto his side and peered down the divan at his lover.

"Yeah. I cooled the room off some. Does it feel okay to you now?"

"Still a little stuffy. Open the door again?"

"Well," Daniel said as he looked over his shoulder toward the door, "Lemmel and Balin are up. Their curtain is closed, but they're talking and I ... Well, it'll probably be okay now. They're probably through talking. It's late."

"Then ... could you?" Jack asked. "Hot in here."

"Okay." Daniel rose nimbly and trod lightly back to the door. He opened it with both hands, moving it slowly to avoid any squeaking of the hinges. Then he stepped through and listened intently. He heard a rustling of cloth again, and peered back at Jack. His lover's dark eyes were on him, questioningly.

Daniel held his finger to his lips, and then took a step into the hall, and then another step. He could hear sounds. Were they still awake? Then he heard a rhythmic squeaking. The sound continued and built in speed until the rhythm was undeniable. Sex! Balin was having sex in there with someone ... someone ... Daniel took a couple hasty steps closer to the curtain. Was Lemmel still in there with him? Was Balin making the young man do something he didn't want to do?

"Yes," Lemmel hissed very quietly. "Lift ... there higher. I want ye ... deeper in me. Oh."

Daniel's eyes widened. He froze for a moment and then turned, taking a step back to Jack's room. Suddenly the curtain at his back flew open and he twisted halfway back around. Balin barged into the hall, naked, wielding his great sword.

Daniel darted sideways several steps, grabbing for the door jamb of Jack's room and wheeled around to face the huge swordsman.

Lemmel dashed out past the curtain, sliding to a stop a step behind the armed man. Lemmel was as naked as Balin. The young man grabbed at the curtain, pulling the trailing end of it around his hips. He peered at Daniel's unveiled face, and then grinned sheepishly. "Pardon, Sky."

Balin blinked at Daniel, his gleaming blade held at the ready. Slowly he brought the sword down to his side, then nodded at Daniel. "Heard a step, Sky. Need something from the kitchen? House Ondeil need anything from his household?"

"N-- no," Daniel said, working hard to be as nonplussed as the naked, very erect swordsman. He straightened and stopped hiding behind the doorjamb. Daniel smoothed his hands down his shirt and took a casual step backward into Jack's room. "Just allowing cooler air into the room. I didn't mean to disturb-- I require nothing from you. Either of you, at this time. You may return to what you were ... to your ... room."

The two naked men stood there.

"Go on," Daniel said.

"Aye," Balin said solemnly, bowing as Jack insisted his household do.

Lemmel bowed, a quick, jerky imitation of the master swordsman, but kept his grinning face turned to Daniel the whole time.

The young man's grin was infectious. Daniel grinned back at him for a moment. Then he sagged against the doorpost after Lemmel, and then Balin stepped back in their room and let their curtain fall over the opening. Daniel turned to Jack and saw a look of surprise.

"They doing what I think they were?"

"I think so," Daniel answered as he returned to his lover. "I thought I was missing something going on between those two. Happened pretty fast, didn't it?"

"You upset that the puppy love has run its course?"

"Puppy love?" Daniel asked.

"Lemmel. Don't tell me you hadn't noticed that boy adores you."

"No," Daniel said indignantly. "I noticed he treated me like a human being, a friend."

"Yeah," Jack answered hastily. "He doesn't see you like the others do. It's not the ritual lust thing. He really likes you. Admires you. Puppy love," Jack declared.

Daniel shook his head and stared doubtfully at Jack. "He's a good kid."

"I'm not saying he's not a good kid. I'm saying he has a thing for you."

"I think his thing is for Balin," Daniel retorted saucily.

"Saw that too, did you?" Jack asked with a grin.

"You saw it all the way from over here?"

"Kind of hard to miss," Jack said frankly.

"Earlier they were talking. He was telling Balin about how we crossed the crystals and my feet got cut. Then he talked about the days he had to carry me."

"I remember you tying your jacket on my foot. Don't remember walking across the crystals at all. Hurt you, didn't it."

"Yes. I was so cold, though, I hardly felt a thing by that time."

"The desert, the walking, and it being so dry? I remember you arguing with me. I wanted you to go on without me. I knew I was dying," Jack said calmly.

Daniel shut his eyes and leaned his forehead against Jack's hand. "I was so scared half the time and so emotionally numb the other half. When I listened to Lemmel tell Balin about it, I swear I could feel my own fear in his voice. I was so scared for you. Then when I was so worn out that I couldn't even walk beside you, couldn't reach out and touch you ... I ... "

"Danny," Jack whispered softly. He brought his other hand over and ran his fingers through Daniel's tousled hair. The strands were silky, thick and sun-bleached. He looked shaggier, but thinner than he had when Jack had returned to Abydos for him. "Danny," Jack repeated his lover's name, savoring the sound. He stroked the light strands as he felt Daniel's tears run down onto his hand.

Chapter 14 - Village Life

Rays from the yellow sun spilled in through the two windows and set Jack's room glowing. Bundled in a blanket, Jack was comfortable on his divan with the map spread before him on the small table that had been by the door. The parchment drooped over the sides and Balin lifted a corner to explain another area of the continent to him.

"Here, on the western shore my last House stands. House Ostergott. Them, they have sailing ships that move whatever needs moving north and south. The old ways were to trade to the south mostly with House Hrafknel. Though Hrafknel not be as rich in ships, relying more on their fields and them that crop on Hrafknel land in the long summer."

"Want to go down to the spa, Jack?" Daniel asked as he gazed through his veil out the window. There was no wind this morning. It had been unusually still and Daniel felt an odd pull to get out of the inn.

"Could," Jack said. "Ride in the chair again. Again," he said, frustration flattening his tone. He pushed the bed covers down. "I'm sick of this being toted around everywhere."

"What?" Daniel asked, turning from the window. "There are a lot more people on the street today. I think the weather is warming up. We may need to revise our ... " Daniel paused and pursed his lips as he glanced behind him at the two men. It wasn't right for him to be interrupting, interjecting his opinions and thoughts on House business when the head of the household was speaking with his Champion and master swordsman. He figured that out from the shocked look he got from Balin.

The man had spent almost two weeks in intimate contact with he and Jack. He'd been allowed in the room, and given the privilege to sit in Daniel's presence, to touch him if absolutely necessary and during that time Daniel had become efficient at picking up clues of when he was acting in private in a way that shocked Balin. Nothing he did in public shocked the swordsman any longer. He'd known Daniel too long.

But now that Daniel had made a blunder, he couldn't apologize. Skys never apologized. They could do no wrong. So where did this leave him? How did that explain or excuse such social blunders? Ah, need. He had the right to interrupt at any time if he had a personal need. He came to the divan, standing by Jack's side.

"I have a need, desire," he said quietly, his head bowed to let the veil hide more of his face.

"Dismissed," Jack said to Balin. "That means you should go,"

Daniel almost flinched back when the huge swordsman stood quickly and backed away, out the door. Balin was a big man, but not as tall as Thaid had been.

"I think we need to revise our estimation of travel time. I've figured out something from listening to Balin these past few days. What the tinsmith said about travel times makes sense now. I think this planet-- You know this is Sam's area of expertise. I really miss her."

"Carter's area? That covers a hell of a lot, Daniel."

Daniel chuckled and pushed the beaded front of his veil up on top of his head. In the room he'd taken to wearing it all the time, but tied looser so he could keep the front pushed up on top of his head. Then he only needed to tug the front down when Balin or one of the other men entered. With Jack's improved health, Daniel had lost almost all of the privacy he had.

"I'm talking about the length of a year here. I think this planet may have a similar orbital length as Mars. I mean I think we're probably more like one and a half astronomical units from this system's sun."

"One and a half? That's ... that's like two years," Jack said slowly.

"But the rotational speed seems to match Earth as far as I can estimate. We have close to a twenty-four hour day here."

"Two years?" Jack repeated himself. "Their winter is damned long. And, summer too. What does that do to our idea of getting through the great divide range while the bears are still in hibernation?"

"I don't think it's going to happen this season. The seasonal change here happens rapidly, and I think it's almost here. There's no way we'll be ready. We might be able to make it after the bear-like animals go back in hibernation before the snows get too deep. But the other problem is that we're below the equator. Summer will come from the north."

"Two years ... Crap. So we'll be heading into winter if we wait until then. We'd have to drive hard and fast to make it through to the northern part of the continent before the snow gets too deep."

"And we'd be arriving at the city of the Highborn in the middle of winter." Daniel tapped the map where the city was marked. "I don't like that idea. It'll be much harder to blend in with less people on the streets, less traders entering and leaving. We'll stand out and have a higher risk of getting stopped before we reach their stargate."

"Crap," Jack swore again. "Two years. I'll miss another season of the Simpson's."

Daniel scrunched up his nose and squinted at Jack. "I'm sure Teal'c's taping it for you. After the fit you threw last time you missed a few episodes? He's taping. Trust me."

"I do. I trust you. You say he's taping, then he's taping. And if not, he can buy me the seasons on DVD when we get home."

"Oh, God," Daniel swore, then let out a long groan. He sat by Jack's side. "I see a hell of a lot of Simpson's marathons in my future."

"But I think there's still a good chance we could make it at the beginning of this summer season if it doesn't come too soon."

"Jack, even if it's a temperate zone, if the equator really does run through this mountain range, it's not going to be all that much warmer. This planet never gets what we think of as hot. Not from what I've seen of their idea of summer clothing, or from the depth of the snow on those mountains. So let's say we get a few days travel up into the mountains and you start coughing again because you're not completely healed. We set up camp so you can rest, and then we have to turn around and come right back out of the mountains because we lose too much time to make it through to the other side."

"That won't ... That's probably what will happen, yeah." Jack slumped beside his lover. "And I can't risk you and whoever else ends up going with us. I have no intention of facing something that sounds like a Kodiak on steroids with nothing but a flimsy piece of steel and a bow and arrow. I don't even think I'd feel good about it with a fully loaded P-90. Did you see the two claws on the top of Balin's scabbard?"

"No. I didn't notice."

"How could you miss those damned things? I thought surely they were fake. Carvings or something. I asked to see them up close. The damned things are real. Look like dinosaur claws. A T Rex'd be proud to own 'em."

"Claw envy. So the bears here are size queens. Great." Daniel went to the table and got Jack a mug of water. "So I'll have Balin come back in and we can discuss distances--"

"Uh. I have to call him back in. Or ... or you can just open the door, but ... don't call."

"I'm perfectly capable--"

"Daniel, you're ... I know .... I'm sorry. I know how hard this is ... Least, I think I have an idea of how hard this is on you."

Daniel wrapped his arms across his chest and slumped down lower on the divan. His jaw muscle jumped as he ground his teeth together. "I have got to get off this planet. I'm endangering you because I can't control myself, can't just let things go."

"So what else is new?" Jack said flatly. "You think I don't know that about you? You never let things go. You never ... " He tilted his head and studied Daniel's posture. "It's something I love about you, so I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it."

Daniel lifted an eyebrow and glared sternly at Jack. "Suck it up?"

"Hey, I suck," he protested with great indignity. "I'll have you know I have a grade A mouth. Get up here. Kneel over me and let me have it, baby."

"Very seductive," Daniel scoffed, his grimace slipping into a smile. "Yeah, that's got me turned on."

"Come on. Knees on the couch. Hop to it, baby."

Daniel grimaced and leaned away from Jack.

"Sex, Daniel. Just fun, simple sex."

"I know."

"Do you?" Jack asked solemnly. "Odamari was fun, wasn't he. And Brynvold."

"I suppose."

"Those guys know how to party."

"I'm going to get Lemmel and Ulfrik. It's time to go to the spa." Daniel got up and tugged at his veil, getting it in place.

"Daniel, if spring is coming quickly we need to make some plans. I need to start stretching, exercising." Jack's tone became firmer, his light bantering manner gone.

"Then a trip down the street to the spa--"

Jack set his mouth in a firm line. "You need to sit down and wait until I finish going over this map with--"

"You too? Great, Jack!" Daniel barked. He grabbed a clay cup from the table and threw it at the fireplace. "Going to start treating me like a brainless whore? Like I don't have any say in--"

"I'm going to start treating you like a member of my team, Daniel!" Jack pushed himself upright, letting the blanket fall away. "Like a member of my team who is expected to--"

"To sit down and shut up? Be a good little whore and keep my mouth shut? My head covered?" He pushed the veil back completely off his head. It hung loosely around his neck.

"Daniel!" Jack bellowed at the top of his weak voice. "I need to make some plans with—Can't you just sit down and--" Jack snapped his mouth shut and shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said in a calmer tone. "This isn't helping. You're on edge. It's been stressful, dealing with the rape and--"

"I wasn't fucking raped! You can't rape a whore!" Daniel shoved everything off the table, then grabbed his cloak and ran from the room.

"Daniel!" Jack shouted frantically as he struggled to his feet. "Ah, shit! Balin! Jarngerd! Somebody get--"

"House!" Balin called as frantically as the man ever got. He swept into the room, not bothering to bow or kneel. "The Sky leaves! He be uncovered!"

"We had a figh-- Go get him."

"Stop him? I ... By force?" Balin asked, his eyes wide. "If someone sees him out like that ... If the council sees him act so ... I will stop him for you. I will return him to you."

"Shit!" Jack swore angrily. "You can't. Is Jarngerd out there? Or Tal? Crap. Wait, send Asny. Go find Asny and send her after him. She's the only one he'll listen to."

Balin tore from the room, his boots hammering a loud beat down the stairs. Jack gripped the edge of the divan, trying to rise. He wanted to see out the window, see if Daniel had left the inn. He'd taken his cloak. Jack couldn't fool himself. Daniel was probably already outside, uncovered, angry and hurt. What if he blundered into one of the village men? What if they reflexively grabbed at Daniel to steady him? Would they have to die?

"Shit," Jack swore softly.

Asny knelt on the chair that had been shoved against the kitchen work table, her new apron dusted white with flour. Gleefully she rolled the wooden dowel across the dough ball. "He'll like this crust, won't he? Apple pie be his favorite. Might be we put extra apples in? And more cinnamon too. My master likes cinnamon--"

Balin knocked the cook out of the way, sending the ample woman sprawling on her ass as he snatched Asny from the stool. With her tucked against his side he fled back through the inn and out into the street.

"Master!" Asny screeched in fright.

"Hush, child! Ye master sends ye on House business." Balin paused to look left and right. To his right villagers were going about their business. People were scattered on his left, now plastered to the wall, or busy picking up goods and packages that had been dropped. Balin turned left. "Sky be out, steward. Not well, he be. Not well in his heart. Hurt from feelings about the bad thing that happened to him. Our job to go find him, clear the way."

He began to run along the street, jostling the child in his arms.

"Cloak! Master swordsman, my new cloak."

"Aye. No time for it. Cold, though," Balin said distractedly as he scanned frantically through the crowd for some sight of a blond head. The Sky was so much shorter than the average worker caste. He'd be hard to find.

Balin weaved through the milling, shocked villagers, moving through them as fast as possible. He passed into the open-air market, seeing signs of chaos, but not of the Sky.

"Where?" Asny asked, gripping the arm he had across her chest so tight. "The bath house?"

"Nay," Balin answered her as he stepped quickly over a toppled cart load of seed stalks. The farmer gaped at him, his fists full of his precious crop. Balin squashed several as he passed.

"Down to ... forest edge?" she asked, her breath jarred from her by Balin's big strides.

"He goes in a straight path. Nothing this way, though. To the edge of the village? Nay, he just goes to be going, I think."

"Balin, he ... Put me down. I can run fast as ye."

"Hush. No one here be disturbed," he said as he slowed to a quick jog. "Not like in the village center. He ... still, he was here. See how they look down the road as if surprised? But not frightened. He be covered now, I think."

"Let me down. I'll find the Sky. Balin--"

"There!" he said urgently but with a hushed tone. "Ahead he be, child. At the forest edge as ye thought. He ... " Balin suddenly dropped to a very slow walk, but still kept Asny in his grasp. "Aye, he stops," he said as the veiled man ahead fell to his knees. Balin glanced around to see who might be watching. They'd left the villagers behind them, but on the path following he saw a stooped figure making her way toward him as fast as possible. "Oh, gods, child. Old woman comes. If she sees ... "

"Let me down, quick," Asny whispered harshly. "Now, stupid Champion! Now!"

Balin let her fall to her feet. She grabbed at his tunic, tugging hard.

"Give! Give!" she said in the same hushed tone.

Balin slipped the clasp on his belt and shucked out of the tunic. He let the child take it and she scurried down the narrow path toward the Sky, slipping into the huge tunic as she went. He buckled his belt back on as he watched her. On the little girl, his tunic reached the ground, the sleeves hanging far past her hands.

Balin saw her reach the spot where the Sky was kneeling, crumpled to the soft ground by the small, forest path. The ground was covered in bent, dried grass, long dead by winter's cold chill.

As the child approached the Sky, Balin heard the old woman at his back. He fixed a stern scowl on his features, planted his fists on his hips and turned to face her.

"None pass here. Master of Brooksmeet will have none approach his Highborn this day."

"Master says this?" she asked sharply.

"Aye. Question not House Ondeil business or I take ye heart from ye chest. The House has forbidden me to take ye head. But heart, he said nothing about."

She glared at him, her mouth drawn tightly closed. Then she leaned past him and peered down the path.

"Old woman, ye best keep ye eyes from what House Ondeil says be private." Balin laid his hand on the pommel of his sword.

"Aye," she said slowly, then looked back up at Balin. "As be right. Hard on the fragile ones, that dark, nasty deed. Even on one such as us, it would be. But for them, they'd need time, respectful privacy. All in the village know, master swordsman, know to mind their own, and leave privacy to the blessed one. Healing of the soul as well as the body must take place. Ye think I would even now ask for him to be judged sound or unsound? Nay. Think not that of me. They call me wise woman. Not for no reason am I called such. Lose the grip on ye sword, child. Foolish child.

"House Ondeil does well today," she said sternly "He stands his servants to do as they should for the blessed one. Highborn Jack follows the Nortvegr. House Ondeil be a sound household, fit to serve the blessed one."

"Blessed one," Balin repeated her, suspicion darkening his tone.

"Aye. Something about him ... " she paused, shaking her head. "Find nothing in the sacred writings yet. But ... must be ... something." She squinted around Balin again, pursing her lips tight. Then she grimaced up at the big swordsman. "Tell me, ye will, if something occurs. Some miracle ye might see him do. Never did the goddess Nirrti say she might come among us as a man, and never would she do the works he does, but ... something about him ... "

"Ye push into House Ondeil business, wise woman?"

The old woman gaped at him, then cackled softly, shaking her head. "Surely I would never. House Ondeil business for them that be of the household, master swordsman. This old woman withdraws, and leaves where them that are not of House Ondeil should not be."

Balin crossed his arms and stood blocking the path until she was well out of sight. Then he turned around. Asny knelt on the ground before the crumpled form of the Highborn. He was safely veiled now. The white cloth stood out in the drab hues of the winter-ravaged forest, as did the green trimmed cloak he wore and the great tunic covering the girl child so thoroughly.

Balin tightened the laces of his linen shirt against the biting cold and stood guard.

Daniel breathed too fast through his nose, feeling the cold air chill his sinuses and lungs. He tried to slow his breathing but he felt too light headed, too oxygen starved. He pressed his face to the crumpled cloak draped over his knees.

It all seemed like such a waste, such a crazy waste. He'd worked so damned hard, so fucking hard just to keep Jack alive. He'd fought daily to get enough food into him, just to keep the spider venom from eating him alive. The poison had robbed Jack of everything. Everything! He'd lost the ability to walk, to stand, to sit up, speak, or even see. Jack had been pulled down into a horrendous hell, Daniel knew. His own body had been taken from him as effectively as if he'd been taken as a goa'uld host.

And Daniel hurt. He hurt too deeply thinking of the torture Jack had been put through since the day of the crash. Unending hours of lying there helplessly as his life drained away. Slow, agonizing torture is what Jack had endured.

Daniel hated what he'd done to himself. He hated it. He'd turned himself into a whore in a desperate effort to save Jack, but the poison had eaten his lover away until he was almost gone. Despite his best efforts Daniel was unable to stop the destruction of Jack's body, and now he was unable to stop himself from destroying what little Jack had regained. He was unable to control his own, selfish behavior.

Jack needed him to sit down and shut up, and Daniel was unable to do even that for him. That was what he should have done. Sit there and shut up. How hard could it be to sit down and be nothing?

And raped? Of course he had been raped. He'd been taken against his will. He'd been taken without getting paid for it. He hadn't been paid. First. First. Paid first. He'd taken the master miner's money, so that meant he should have let the man fuck him. The man had the right to fuck him. He'd paid. He'd paid first.

He wasn't paid to be nothing. He'd been paid to be a whore. He could go on dealing with things if he could go on being a whore here. Then he wouldn't be nothing.

What a stupid thought. What stupid thoughts. He knew better! This was absurd. He was wallowing in self-pity. He'd thrown a hissy fit. He'd acted like a baby and he'd thrown a little hissy fit.

Daniel groaned and pulled his arms in tight to his sides.

"Winter grays the forest. I seen it three times, winter come. Takes leaves away. Color all away."

Asny's quiet voice filled his mind. Daniel pushed up and wiped at his wet eyes. She was sitting on the ground beside him, gazing calmly at the bare branches overhead.

"Most of last winter, when I was so small, most was bad in the children's hall. Cold fierce in the sleeping rooms. Floor be cold. But now I have a bed, blanket, all for just me."

He sat back on his heels and looked at the branches where she gazed.

"In the children's hall, we had good mats of straw to sleep on. Helps much against the cold floor unless the straw be soggy. Be too cold in winter, and got no socks, no shoes, the small ones might get a foot turn black and has to come off. Happened when I was there. Or a babe get no milk, they die in winter. Seen that too. Cold and stiff in the crib come morning. Touch 'em, and they be cold and stiff."

Daniel shifted, sitting cross-legged beside her.

"Still, winter comes anyway, whether we wish it or not. Comes. Goes too. Seen summer, I have. Remember summer from before I lived in the children's hall. Great days of light and warm and fruit growing on trees to eat. Hard to remember them days after I went to the children's hall. Hard to remember what warm was like. Or food so big it fills ye stomach.

"Then, me, I go to the inn 'cause Canlith comes and chooses me to work for her master. And food, and warm, and a blanket around me and I'm sore in awe. But back in the hall," she paused and took hold of Daniel's hand, her bottom lip quivering, "babes got no milk and some die. Cold on the floor sleeping still, the ones left there. Starving." A tear tracked down her cheek.

"You felt bad for the children you left behind," Daniel said softly.

"Did. Deep bad. Them that I slept with, being still there. But me, having food and a blanket. I think on them every day and cry all the time until Tal says, how does it help them? Me, she says, could grow up, become a cook or a tanner and bring one or two from the hall and pay with food and a warm blanket."

"Help someone the way you were helped," he said.

"Aye," she said wistfully, turning her gaze from the bare trees to Daniel's face. "Help others."

Daniel touched her wet cheek, rubbing his thumb across the glistening tear track. "Yes. Like you help me."

"Ah, silly! Asny be too small to help ye. A child help the Sky? Nay!" She stood and pulled at him to get up.

Daniel rose, pulling his veil on straighter as he did and Asny tugged him hurriedly back down the path he'd fled on earlier. He was surprised to see Balin standing on the path. Wordlessly the big swordsman stepped aside, out of the child's path and bowed low.

As she pulled him pell-mell past the swordsman Daniel realized the big man was not dressed for the chill of outdoors. Asny wore his great tunic, the green trimmed hem brushing the ground as she dashed along heedlessly. One long sleeve flapped at her thigh and the other ran up over Daniel's clutched hand.

Daniel had to jog now to keep up with the giggling child. She glanced back at him and he caught her infectious grin.

Balin strode quickly after them, one hand keeping his sword from bouncing against his hip.

When the girl reached the first cross street in Brooksmeet, a wide dirt path, she pulled Daniel left down the narrower lane, slowing to a brisk walk. They passed cots with thatched roofs hanging low over the brown, stucco walls. Then they went on through another turn, Balin now at Daniel's right flank. Asny shifted her hold--taking Daniel's more willing gait in stride--to hold his hand properly, high and reverently.

But she began to skip every few steps, and pointed out a few game hens clucking in a fenced yard here, a young child chasing a pig there. Then she pulled him to an abrupt halt and made sure he saw a woman hanging out a row of brightly dyed cloth. It was cherry red. Winter berries, Asny explained. She'd learned from Jarngerd that many berries were used to dye fabrics of all types.

Then she tugged him on, skipping and chattering about her village. At the next corner they entered a more populated area and she slowed to a sedate walk. Balin took his position ahead of them, as was seemly. He glanced back frequently, trying to guess their course. As the big Champion passed a low, beige structure Asny pulled Daniel toward the door. Balin jerked to a stop and wheeled on the couple, his eyes wide in alarm.

She ignored the swordsman and opened the wooden door of the modest dwelling. "Come. Time to eat, I think," she said to Daniel.

Puzzled, Daniel followed her in and stopped just inside the door. They were in a small vestibule and Asny shrugged out of Balin's warm tunic. She hung it on one of several pegs by the door, one empty among many that were supporting cloaks, robes and wraps of all kinds. Then Asny tugged Daniel in the second entry.

Daniel found himself in a great hall, similar to the one at the Ram's head Inn. But this one was full of children. They were tall, some as tall as he was, but still, children. The room bustled with activity. It was mealtime in the hall and the two long tables were very crowded. Each child hovered over a bowl of food, shoveling the contents in and chatting noisily with their neighbors.

When Asny was noticed a hue and cry erupted in the room. Her name was shouted by every child in the place, most voicing it more than once.

"Aye, lot of ye, it be me! And what I don't want? To be deafened! Quiet now! Guest comes to see ye. Stay at ye table to greet him, or lose ye share of berries this meal. Now say a greeting to him who we call Highborn. Go on!" she said, wagging a finger at them.

"Highborn!" Shouts of the title rang back and forth as children banged on the table or stood on the benches. Some merely grinned, their mouths full of food.

Daniel smiled and waved. He tilted his head back and gazed under the beaded edge of his veil at the busy eaters. One very small child climbed down from the bench and began to totter toward Daniel.

Balin stepped hastily in front and put his arms out as if to block the tottering youngster's advance. Before the child got too close a teenager scooped him up and deposited him back on the bench.

Asny laughed, and the child resumed digging his fingers into his food.

"Them, they won't stray from the table soon, Highborn. Not had berries yet. Berries every day now at the day meal. Not at the night meal, though. Come. Come," she said as she tugged him to the right and through a low doorway.

"Steward," Balin called nervously. "Be not seemly--"

"In here be one sleep room. Sit in it any time, that be allowed. Be warm most when I was here in the back room by the kitchen ovens when the night be too dark. Sleeping in here be good now, Highborn. See the blankets? So many. So very many," she said, shaking her head as she pointed around the pallets lined along the four walls.

"I see," Daniel said. He looked at the hodge-podge of coverings. They were piled on thick pallets. "The straw pads?"

"Oh, nay! Nay. Them, they be under these fluffy, thick, soft things," she said, drawing out the words to emphasize them. "Thick!" she pronounced as she pulled up a corner of one pallet. Under it was a gray mat that looked about an inch thick. It was made of some type of woven reed. "Slept on this alone. Now, though, these," she said as she fluffed up the mattress. "In it be full of wads of feathers from the guinea fowl. Just stuff it in, Jarngerd said. Stuffed be good she says. Or put the mat on top if it might get wet. Mat dries by a fire before the next night.

Her voice grew softer as she continued. "Coal, heaps and heaps keep fires burning all night. Warm pots for the rooms. Food. Milk for babes."

Then Asny came back and stood quietly by Daniel's side, holding his hand between both of hers. "See," she whispered. "No dead babes here, now. Things change, Highborn. Things change for the better.

"And time to go!" she said as she pulled Daniel hastily back down the hall. "Berries! Want some, Highborn? They be right good. We could bring some to Highborn Jack. Wait by the door?" she suggested as she stopped him back by the front door where the toddler had first taken an interest in him.

"Balin, wait here too," she said to the big swordsman, and didn't wait for his agreement. She dashed off across the hall past the tables and out of sight.

Daniel smirked up at the master swordsman as the big man shifted nervously from foot to foot. Before he could say anything Asny was back, a little cloth bundle clutched to her chest.

"Berries! Come, Highborn. Will he like them, do ye think? Balin, I'm sorry if I get some berry juice on ye new fancy tunic. Should ye wear it yeself now? I'll hold the berries away from ye." She opened the outer door and led Daniel outside. "Fast we go, with me no cloak on. He'll like the berries, Highborn? Think ye so?"

"Steward," Balin said sternly. "Give the berries to me and put this on. It be not seemly for the steward of House Ondeil to be seen shivering in her apron. Go at a pace suiting the dignity please, the dignity of the Highborn when ye get to the village proper."

"Aye, Balin, master swordsman," she said, buttoning his warm tunic on herself. "And ye hand, Highborn. I've no berry stains to worry about. Still, back at the inn I wash with soap. Plenty of soap. I make a pie for the Highborn Jack!"

"I'm sure he'll love it, Asny." Daniel gave her his hand and let her lead him to the inn. "Berry pie?"

"Aye. But thick crust be hard to lay in the pan. Never knew cooking was such a job. Never did know that. Tal says if I want, maybe I be a cook some day. Or a weaver, Ulfrik says. Or a tanner. But a true tanner with not lying and saying I am when I'm not." She glared briefly at Balin, then ignored him and continued her chatter.

"And to think only a few weeks ago it was rare that I heard more than a squeak out of you," Daniel said with a smile.

"-- with a fine, red feather in his cap! Then his wife, she come running in and said ... What, Highborn? Me ye want to hear squeaking?"

"What did the man's wife say?"

"Ah, she was sore funny! Sore funny ... "

Asny was back in the kitchen working on Jack's pie and Daniel climbed the stairs behind Balin. At the top, the big swordsman stepped aside and bowed low. Daniel took the last two steps slowly, then turned right down the well-lit hall. He watched the golden hue of the oil lamps shine off the highly polished floor as he walked along, Balin a step behind him.

The weaver's door was closed and they were nowhere in sight. Past the doorways to the smaller rooms Daniel saw Lemmel sitting in the alcove. The big youth stood and bowed as Daniel walked by.

"Lemmel," he said softly, but didn't stop. He opened the door to Jack's room and went in, closing it firmly, locking the watchdogs out.

Jack had sent Balin after him, sent Balin to come fetch his run-away. The big swordsman had done an excellent job. He'd marched Daniel all the way back to Jack's side, and Daniel couldn't decide if he was angrier than he was sad at this moment.

Someone had been busy in the room. The broken pottery had been removed. New dishes, a full pitcher of water and a white basin sat on the table.

He pushed the veil back up off his face and met Jack's eyes. Reclining on the divan, Jack hadn't moved from where Daniel had left him. He was staring, silent, unwavering.

Daniel stood with his back against the locked door, his cloak heavy about his shoulders. He met Jack's intense eyes, then shamefully, Daniel dropped his gaze to the floor.

"I love you," Jack said softly.

His eyes began to sting. Daniel blinked, blinked and realized he was crying. Again? He clenched his fists, angry at his own weakness.

"I'm sorry," Jack said. "I'm sorry for not paying attention to what was going on with you this morning."

Mute with anguish, Daniel shook his head.

"I wasn't paying attention to how you were feeling."

"No," Daniel insisted, shaking his head more. "I should have ... "

"Can you come to me?" Jack asked. "I can't get up again today."

"I ... " Daniel cleared his throat and blinked back the tears, refusing to wipe his face. He walked over to the divan and knelt at Jack's side.

Jack reached out and unfastened his cloak, letting the garment fall around Daniel's legs. "If it was a way to show you that I love you, I'd take your cloak off for you for the rest of your life. If it let you know how much I need you, I'd pick your food for you, cut it up, spoon it onto your plate. If it showed you how much I want you, I'd never have you take a step without my hand supporting you. If you needed any of those things to know that I loved you, I'd do them, and gladly. But you don't. You don't. Those things mean nothing of value to you. What you need is to hear me say it, and to feel and see and experience the respect I have for you, who you are, what you do and how you feel. I do, Daniel. I love you. I respect you. I always will." Jack cupped his hand against Daniel's cheek.

"Jack," he said, then tilted his head into Jack's palm. He closed his wet eyes. "I don't need to hear it all the time. I know it. I just ... "

"You were hurt, Daniel. What happened to you, on top of all the hell you've been going through? You need time to heal. Inside," he added, touching Daniel's chest. "Let me give you that time."

"Just give me you," Daniel whispered, his voice deserting him.

"You have me, baby. You have me."

Daniel sagged against his lover, resting his face against Jack's chest. He felt his lover's arms around him. "I do, don't I. I know. I get so angry, Jack. So angry. It's hard, dealing with them, facing this ... what they expect of me every day. I feel like a whore half the time, and I feel like a ghost the other half. I'm not human. I'm a thing. I hate what it's doing to me."

"It's got to be the hardest thing to endure," Jack said.

"It's hell. I don't know how any Sky endures this life. I could never live here for long. Couldn't do it."

"We won't have to. It's a working gate. It is. The description can't be anything else."

"We just have to get there," Daniel said sadly. "I don't know how the hell I'll make it that far on this planet."

"You'll make it with me, that's how," Jack declared. "And when I act stupid, when I say something stupid to you, let me know. Tell me, because I love you, and I should be the one you come to, not run from."

"I'm embarrassed about that," Daniel said against Jack's stomach. "Acted like a child."

"Did you? I didn't notice. I was too busy watching my lover show me how hurt he was, how in pain he was."

"I ran away like a child who--"

"Daniel, the cold hard truth is you were attacked, raped and choked unconscious. You came within a hair's width of dying. No sarcophagus handy nearby. No 911 team within calling distance. No backup. You never stood a chance. And before you protest, the reality doesn't make Thaid any more guilty, or less guilty. Doesn't condemn Gunnlap to hell any more or less. It happened. Doesn't matter how or why or who. It happened. Let's deal with that, deal with the pain and the fear. Let's deal with you jumping out of your skin every time someone startles you. Let's deal with the nightmares and the cold sweats and the anger."

"I am angry."

"Stop trying to pretend you weren't raped. Be angry at the act, at the harm that was done to you, not some person."

"Jack ... "

"At the harm, Daniel. Be angry at that. Stop trying to hide from it by focusing on the miner and how he victimized Thaid. Let them both go. See yourself and what was done to you, not them."

Daniel sat up and sighed. He looked up at his lover. "What was done to me is, someone used me without paying first."

Jack blanched, clenching his jaw muscles tightly. He shook his head. "By the customs, customs--your area of expertise--by the customs of this society, the miner came here and paid to screw that little girl. He paid for the privilege of using her. Paid first."

A shiver ran through Daniel and he blanched, looking away. Jack grabbed at him and Daniel faced him again.

"He paid first. So, by the standards you're measuring yourself by right now, he should have gotten to fuck her, cut her up, mark her. You know what she says about him? That he paid well. Paid well when he marked up a girl. That what you're beating yourself up about?"

"God," Daniel swore softly.

"Yeah," Jack agreed. "I hate this inn. It's the payment for what was done to you. And that place with the sheep. Payment after the fact. That's the difference. Innkeeper got paid before the miner was going to use Asny. You got paid after he caused what happened to you. Like we took 'em to civil court and won, but that doesn't make me feel better about the inn."

Daniel turned and stared up through the thick panes of the window. The sky was still clear outside. The sun shone brightly. "I do get startled when someone surprises me. But the nightmares have just about disappeared."

"You think about it a lot."

"Yes. I have trouble remembering all of it now. Like I'm subconsciously trying to forget."

"But your reflexes remember it clearly," Jack said.

"Yes, I guess so. And when I have to sit here with the veil down and be a wall ornament it slams it all home to me. I feel angry."

"I don't know what we can do about that, Daniel, about you having to be a wall ornament. We need information. Before this happened we both knew I'd be the one gathering the information. That hasn't changed."

"You're right. I don't need to have input. You were also right when you said you were treating me like a team member. This is how we've always worked together. Butting heads a lot too, of course. But you have your area of expertise. I have mine. I need to start doing my job, learn the Highborn customs better and teach you what you need to know."

"I need to learn more about the continent, the weather. If the seasons here are twice as long as we're used to, I need to know if that means we could get through the mountains this fall."

"And if not?" Daniel asked.

"There have to be alternate routes. Highborn travel down here. They have to get here with a reasonable expectation of getting back north safely. By sea, I'm sure. This is a Viking culture. The sea is their history."

"Yes. When the ice recedes in summer."

"And the truth of it is, I know I'm not going to be well enough by fall," Jack said flatly as he lay his head back and stared at the ceiling. "I know it, and I've got to face that reality."

"Why do you say that?" Daniel asked, rising to his knees and peering down at Jack's strained features.

"My coughing," he answered solemnly.

"Your heart," Daniel whispered with dread. "It's your heart, isn't it."

"No," Jack said, shaking his head certainly. "I'd know if it were. I'd feel a fluttering or get dizzy spells from it. I know coughing can be a sign of heart trouble, but this ... this is a pain ... " He paused and looked his lover in the eyes. "Across here," he said, running his fingers across his upper abdomen. "When I stand or even when I sit up for a while it feels like my lungs are falling into my stomach. I can't draw a deep breath without a burning sensation ripping me across here."

"Diaphragm?" Daniel asked. "You've had such trouble breathing ... " He ran his fingertips alongside Jack's, feeling his lover drawing breaths.

"Think it is," Jack agreed. "If I'm laying down I can draw in air by raising my shoulders; relieve some of the pain. But that wears me out after a while. It hurts, then it starts to burn and then it gets so intense that I can't think clearly. I get confused because the pain is so bad. Sleeping helps."

"You need to stay in bed more. We're pushing it too much. Maybe already did. If you've strained the regrowing muscle too much then the healing will be set way back."

"All that coughing really tore me up I think. And the more this muscle hurts the more I cough."

"Then stay flat," Daniel said. "Balin can hold the map up for you."

"But it feels good when I'm in the water at the bath house. Feels good to have it support me. I don't want to be carried flat, Daniel, but I think that's the way I need to get there."

"We could get a tub here ... " Daniel looked around the room. "Put it where the big table is. Get more kettles in here to heat water and--"

"I like the bath house tubs with the fire underneath. Very warm. I can soak as long as I want to without it getting cold."

"Then I'll talk to Jarngerd and Ulfrik. See if we can come up with some way to get you between here and there without parading you through the streets on a stretcher."

"And Balin can hold the map up for me." Jack smiled up at Daniel. "We'll get through this."

Ulfrik had an easy solution. He showed up that afternoon with a large hand cart similar to the one Lars used in the desert, but this one was lower to the ground, and had two wheels and two legs. A man could stand between the spars and pull it along easily. It was used for hauling wool to market.

Daniel stood outside the inn door, Asny's left hand extended, palm down, with Daniel's right hand resting on hers. He inspected the cart as Ulfrik explained the vehicle's features.

"Handles be of a good height," he said, standing between the very tall spars. "Balance be good. Won't turn down and dump anything out. Least of all a man as light as a Highborn be. Ye and my master ride there."

Jarngerd hurried from the inn, directing Canlith and one of the boys who worked the great hall to clean the cart, though to Daniel it looked spotless. Ulfrik had already cleaned it once. The cart had short sides on it, wooden planks that stuck up about a half a foot on all four sides.

Then Jarngerd laid a thick mattress on the wagon and another of the boys who cleaned the tables appeared, his arms heaped high with blankets and pillows. These were arranged by Jarngerd, who knelt in the middle of the mattress now. She fussed about one pillow not being soft enough and sent the boy packing to replace it. Next she called for the poles and Asny pulled Daniel aside as Ulfrik removed long wooden dowels from under the cart where they'd been inserted in leather sleeves affixed under it. Jarngerd and her husband began fitting the poles into cups on the four corners of the cart. Then rods were attached along the sides at the top of the poles, held in place by removable leather cups.

Ulfrik helped Jarngerd from the cart and together the couple tossed a covering over the poles and secured it down on the sides and rolled it up along the back.

"A little covered wagon," Daniel said in delight. "Highborn Jack will love this. He'll be out of the wind if we can close up the back and front.

"Just so, Highborn," Jarngerd said. "After he and ye be safe inside, as be proper. A Sky caste should not be in sight of the people as he goes about his business. We close it, then to the bath house the household goes?"

"Yes," Daniel said, nodding decisively. As he turned to go back inside, Daniel noticed two wide stripes painted on the door of the inn. They were brown and green. He backed up a step and scanned the front of the inn. On the carved Ram's Head sign overhead two more stripes of color had been painted over the figure, deep brown and that rich green that Jarngerd had made Jack's sweater. They were the colors of Jack's house.

Jarngerd wore a laced bodice today, brown with forest green trim. It went well with her long brown skirt. Daniel took a look at Ulfrik, and realized he wore a sleeveless jerkin exactly like Lemmel's new jerkin. The man also had colored ribbons tied on his sleeve. Jarngerd had matching ribbons braided into her hair.

"Where's Lemmel?" he asked Jarngerd.

"Gone back he did, Highborn. From the barn where the master's cart was, he said the roof leaked. He repairs it with shingles, and will be at the inn by dark."

"That's nice of him. Payment for borrowing the cart?"

"Nay," she said, sounding confused at his question. "His master's work, to repair the roof. Can't allow a leak in any of the roofs belonging to our master."

"Your master? Highborn Jack," he prompted. "His roofs?"

"Aye. By the cot, the big barn that has this cart and the other one, too large, my husband says. Be for pulling big and slow. Too rough a ride for our master. This cart be best, he said. So here he brings it, and Lemmel stays to fix the roof."

Daniel turned back and eyed the cart suspiciously. "Where did the cart come from?"

"From the Meadows Holding, Highborn. Master's land."

Jarngerd looked troubled. Daniel studied her for a moment. "The Meadows Holding," he said. Then he tilted his head and swallowed roughly. "Is this cart from Thaid's--"

Asny touched her fingers lightly across Daniel's lips. He startled and looked down at her. She met his gaze, her dark eyes wide and soulful. As he gazed at her, the child's bottom lip quivered. A tear of fright slid from her eye. She was frightened of her actions. She'd dared to stop him, dared to prevent the Sky from speaking. Daniel turned to her. Taking her fingers gently in his hand, he kissed them, then pulled her into a hug.

Jarngerd's head was bowed. Ulfrik stood a few feet behind his wife, his head down also. Daniel looked around further. No one else was still outside with them. The only ones within hearing distance were servants of Jack's house. He swallowed the lump in his throat. "Let's go get Highborn Jack," he said, his tone flat and lifeless. "The cart looks great. You've all done a great job."

"... from the village, House Ondeil. Best to give him time away, as I fear--"

"Jack," Daniel called as he swung into the room. He stopped short, letting go of the beaded edge of his veil, letting it fall down over his eyes. Balin sat by the divan, deep in discussion with Jack. Daniel backed up a step, dropping his arms to his sides. The long sleeves of his tunic hiding his hands. He bowed his head and the dangling veil edge hid the last bit of his exposed skin from Balin's sight.

"Da-- babe. Uh, Sky, you ... What is it?" Jack asked. "Come here. I mean, if you want to ... What is it?"

"They've got a cart for you to ride in. Your servants have a ... Your household waits below."

Asny caught up with Daniel and stepped through the door. She looked up at Daniel's closed features, then over at Jack, reclining flat on the divan, then she bowed. "Highborn Jack, ye steward comes to say the household be ready to bring ye to the bath house, the place ye Highborn calls a spa. Be ye ready?"

"Sure, kiddo. I just need to get some pants on. You skedaddle out of here and I'll be along in a bit."

Asny bowed again and paused to give Daniel's hand a quick pat, then left.

"Babe ... "

"What is it that your master swordsman fears?" Daniel took a deep breath then looked up at the two men. "Highborn Jack," he prompted.

"Danny--" Jack clamped his lips closed. "Well, that's probably one thing, though he didn't say it. My inability to keep my mouth under control."

"And what exactly was it that he did say?" Daniel asked. "Highborn Jack," he repeated the formal title.

"Don't," Jack said, shaking his head.

"He said I'm endangering you because I'm acting more out of control than that little ten year-old girl?"

Jack sighed and glanced briefly at Balin. The huge, muscular man had his head bowed.

Balin slid slowly from the chair and knelt on one knee. "My life, Highborn. If it be forfeit ... the words still had to be said. For the protection of the one who be of the Sky caste."

Jack glared at Balin. "You've got to stop ... No, I guess you don't. And I know you shouldn't." He turned to Daniel and regarded his lover levelly.

"Yes ... Sky. He said you were ... and then he suggested you needed a break from the crowded village. Skys aren't expected to have to put up with so many people talking to them all the time, you know. This has been hard on you, having to act as my servant for so long. Having to take care of things that ... a Sky shouldn't have to ... "

"Yeah. So much thinking," Daniel said, his tone flat.

"Right," Jack answered him, staring unwaveringly at Daniel. "So he suggested we take a little jaunt into the country, stay at the Meadows place a while."

Daniel stiffened, "I won't--" He broke off his near-shout, then turned away.

"I know," Jack said calmly. "I know you won't want to leave here, leave Asny and Tal and the inn's great pies. But it'll only be for a while, and Jarngerd and Ulfrik can go ahead of us and get the place ready. Balin says there are a few things that need to be fixed. Some blankets from the inn, and a good bed put in the place."

"Asny has to stay here?" Daniel turned back to Jack.

"Well ... Sky, if you desire ... " Jack paused to glance down at Balin kneeling on the floor. "Balin, the Sky wants the little steward to be happy. What would you suggest?" He tried the same tactic with the huge man that had worked with the old wisewoman.

"The household be best served if ye Highborn be happy. May this one suggest the child accompany the household until such time as she might return to the inn, where her service be owed. Her indentured status does not permit her to travel with the household for extended time. Unless ye wish to transfer her to the household proper?"

"Let's leave things as they are," Jack said cautiously. He had no idea what ramifications would come from putting Asny in the household like Jarngerd, Ulfrik and Lemmel. "Sky, you want to let the kiddo know? How about we take off tomorrow? Let me soak tonight, and then again tomorrow before we hit the trail. I mean, before we leave for the country place."

"I don't-- You need the spa tub. You need the deep, warm water."

"If I may?" Balin asked Jack, and waited until he got a nod. "The Meadows cot has room for such a tub in the back kitchen. The holding be extensive, House. The land was worked well in the past. Was a rich holding at one time. There be ample room for all the household to abide under the main roof, and outbuildings a plenty. Some as was used for grain storage and some as was for lambing in the spring, shearing, wool storage. Some cropping was done in past years, so there be tools at hand. Such as the ... spa has, a tub could be placed on blocks, the heating done under as she does there at the ... spa. Deep tub, Highborn, and there for ye night and day, only a room or two away. Easy to be carried there and then to bed."

Daniel walked over to the divan and sat by Jack's legs, and addressed Balin. "The tub could be elevated so hot coals could be kept under it like they do at the spa?" He turned to Jack. "It would be nice to have it in the same building. You wouldn't get chilled. We could get you in it twice a day that way. Really rest your lungs."

"I like that idea. I hate being carried up and down those stairs," he said to Daniel. "Balin, does this place have stairs?"

"Nay. Only up to the porch on front and side. None in the cot proper. Stairs from the back to a cook stove outside. Big oven and a roasting pit which hasn't been used in many a year. Needs some work. If ye wish to move the household tomorrow evening that will give the village time to set out there, do the things that need doing, to do their duty."

"I don't think we need to turn everyone out to rush out there and work for free," Jack protested.

Balin's face showed his shock at Jack's words. "Duty. Brooksmeet master be owed the labor of all."

Jack regarded him for a moment, then pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Just go do what you need to get done. But ... " Jack put his hand down and reached for Daniel. "That okay with you? We head out there tomorrow? He says it's only about an hour's walk, him carrying me. He probably walks pretty fast."

"I imagine so. As fast as Lars, most likely. And I get to use my own two feet? Trust me to follow?" Daniel asked with a hard smirk.

"We'll head out there tomorrow. Go on, Balin."

"Wait," Daniel said, his sarcastic tone gone now. "They have a covered cart downstairs for you. Balin can carry you down wrapped in the blankets and put you in the cart that way. Then you ride to the spa in the covered cart and come back here the same way."

"With no pants on?" Jack complained.

"You'll be wrapped in a blanket, desire. No one will be able to appreciate your pants anyway."

Jack smirked at him, then gave in to the smile that tugged the smirk away and laughed. "But I miss out on the fun of having you strip me once we get there."

Daniel rose and got the larger fur-lined cover from the bed. "I promise to give you lots of wolf whistles once you're naked and in the water. Cross my heart."

"I'm holding you to that," Jack said as he struggled to push himself upright.

Balin rose swiftly and supported Jack effortlessly, getting him on the edge of the divan. Then he helped Daniel wrap the blanket around him, careful to avoid touching Daniel.

"We're ready?" Daniel asked. "Soap and everything we need is already there. And that new good straight razor Brynvold gave you."

"Good to go," Jack declared. Balin lifted him and Jack groaned a little. Daniel walked ahead of them, being joined by Asny at the stairs.

"And when we get there, Balin, you can finish with that report from the council. Desire, seems our big friend here ... " Jack hushed as they moved through the great hall past any listeners. Then once he was comfortable in the cart, Daniel seated behind his head and Balin at the back pushing, Jack picked up his thought again. "At the spa, Balin, you can give me the lowdown on the village news." Then Jack looked up at Daniel "He's managed to convince the old woman that he can pass on her messages about any stuff we're supposed to be taking care of."

"You are supposed to have a say in the running of the village?" Daniel asked.

"As master of Brooksmeet," Jack said warily.

"I did no convincing, House. Ye did. Running ye household as it should be. She sees we of House Ondeil follow the Nortvegr. We honor he who be of the Sky caste."

"Balin, it's hard on ... on ... Now I'm doing it, talking about him like he's not here. Shit." Jack twisted his head around and looked up at Daniel. "How do I do this? Seems this Highborn illness I caught has made me forget how to address you when you're here and I'm talking about you to someone else."

Daniel leaned over Jack's face, letting the veil dangle from his forehead to obscure Balin's view of him and Jack. "Just use that word like it's my name, like you would my name, and simply add the in front of it, like I add Highborn in front of your name."

"That makes you an object, Daniel," Jack whispered. "The Sky? Not just, Sky. Like, hand Sky that cup of coffee. Or, did you see what Sky just did? I can't do it that way?"

"No. That's not right. You're bucking the system, trying to find a way to not treat me like an object, and that's not going to work."

"Even with these guys? Balin and Ulfrik and Jarngerd?"

Mutely, Daniel shook his head. The veil waved back and forth, the small beads producing little clicking noises as they touched.

"So basically, you're saying I can't get him to talk about you like you're here, right?"

Daniel nodded. The beads danced. "You need to stop talking anyway. We'll be at the spa soon, and you'll have moister air to breath."

"You telling me to hush?"

"I don't think I have the right to, but yes."

"Should I ask Balin if you can?" Jack asked with a little grin.

"That would be a no. Now hush." Daniel contemplated the loopholes in the system. If he told Balin that Jack was not to be listened to, then a Sky was never wrong. Jack would not be heard. And if he didn't use that loophole in what everyone perceived as a sane manner, eventually Daniel might be carted off to the north and have his nuts chopped off or whatever judgment really led to. So, that was a loophole he intended to not use.

At the spa, Balin carefully picked Jack up out of the cart. Daniel stayed seated until Jarngerd assisted him out. She held his hand and led him into the spa and past Balin down the back hallway. Their private room door was painted with House Ondeil colors and Daniel ran his fingers over the stripes.

"I see the colors, Sky. And I've been meaning to ask you how the apostrophe disappeared and a D got wedged in my last--"

Daniel shot him a cautioning shake of the head, then moved aside as Balin carried Jack inside. When Balin had stepped back Daniel whispered in Jack's ear. "The name thing, that was Balin's alteration of your name. Accidental, I think. Making it fit the culture better, so leave it, okay?"

Then he turned and dismissed Jarngerd, sending her to join her husband. Even before Jack was placed on the high, padded table there was a loud knock at the recently closed door. Daniel opened it, then realized it wasn't his duty but it was too late. Thankfully it was Lemmel.

"Back, I am, and then out there Jarngerd says to go back again. The Meadows cot needs some doing. She goes to the Meadows now instead of taking a soak, and says since I be here, Ulfrik goes with her unless the master says no, because if he doesn't say no then I stay and pull the cart back to the inn and she and Ulfrik go with them that does for putting the cot in order."

"Come in, Lemmel," Daniel said with a little grin. "I think Highborn Jack will want a translation of that." He shut the door and turned to Jack, watching as the big swordsman knelt and began to remove Jack's slippers and socks.

"Jarngerd and Ulfrik are leaving with some others to go out to the house in the Meadows. He wants to stay here and pull the cart for you later. Is that all right?"

"Sure," Jack said. "Tell Jarngerd to go for it."

Lemmel must have understood Jack's agreement to the plan because he ducked out the door and was back within two breaths. "Going now, they are and here I am to help. What needs doing?" he asked, flicking his gaze between Jack and Daniel.

"Get yourself scrubbed up," Jack told him. "That basin and sponge over there. Then when you're all spiffy, slip in the tub with us and have a soak. Tub's big enough for eight. We could swim laps in it. No sense in letting that extra room go to waste. You too, Balin."

"But ... But Highborn!" Balin sputtered. He stood by Jack's prone form, holding the blanket edge.

Daniel slipped by Lemmel who was already stripping himself down and began to remove Jack's night shirt. "Great plan there, desire. Give the big bad ole swordsman a stroke, why don't you?"

"What? He's military. Communal bathing is ... Okay, he can keep his boxers on."

"I don't think he's wearing boxers," Daniel chided. He set Jack's nightshirt aside and began working the man's own underwear off. They were definitely not boxers. They were a fine, soft cotton short with a drawstring waist.

"Yeah, okay whatever he's got on. Leave 'em on, Balin, if you're too shy."

"Not me, House. But ye wish to bathe with ye Highborn. It be not seemly--"

"My household does things differently. The Sky will leave his on, won't you, babe?'

"It won't make a bit of difference. I could be stark raving naked as long as I keep the veil on." Daniel began to unfasten his cloak but Jack reached up and stopped him. Calmly, Daniel leaned over and let Jack slip the clasp open. Then Daniel laid his cloak over the table by Jack's head. He pulled off his boots and the soft cotton socks that were so precious to him, then shucked his tunic and shirt. The shirt got tangled in his veil and in frustration Daniel slipped the knot open and pulled the veil off too.

"Oh, glory," Lemmel swore under his breath. He stood by the end of Jack's table, completely nude.

Daniel glanced at the big youth out of the corner of his eye, then tried hard not to smile. Lemmel was agog.

"Ever wonder what a picture dictionary would display under the word agog, Highborn Jack?" Daniel asked, wiggling his eyebrows and tilting his head at Lemmel.

"Please, Sky," Balin whispered hoarsely. "For the household ... "

Jack sighed impatiently. "It's just us guys, Balin. If you're going to be of any use to me you're going to have to get over a few things. Got it?"

"If I were steward of ye house, and mind ye, a Champion cannot be reduced to that rank, then I would not be so in a fix, House. But, as things stand ... " He shifted his stance uncomfortably, brushing one wrist across his groin to reposition himself.

"Okay ... I don't really see anything wrong with getting a boner for a buddy every now and then, unless the buddy says fuck off."

"House?" Balin asked, his voice very shaky now. Suddenly he turned his back on the two smaller men. "If ... the master of the household has granted some right for his Champion to look upon the Sky, and the Champion was unaware ... that such had been granted ... But I know none has been. That be not something any breathing man would likely forget, House Ondeil. Not likely, if there be any breath left in him."

Jack pursed his lips and snorted in disgust. "Not likely, huh? Okay ... Sky," he whispered, "you got a problem with them seeing you in the buff? No big holy thing, just naked guys soaking in a hot tub. Am I being thickheaded here? Am I ... "

"Not taking into consideration that I might feel a bit ... "

"Yeah, I thought I was. I don't think I'm all that tired, that I shouldn't be thinking clearer than I am--"

"I can put the veil on and they won't ... Really, Jack. They won't ... " Daniel stepped out of his pants and draw-string underwear.

"Yeah. What if I tell 'em it's ... I'm really screwing up here, Daniel."

"I don't care about Lemmel being in here. He's seen me ... I mean, in the low desert there were times when ... Lemmel isn't a problem. He's a friend."

"Truth, Daniel? I really do think he's got a huge case of puppy love for you."

Daniel's eyes widened.

"What?" Jack asked with a little whining protest in his voice.

"You just had to say huge, didn't you. Just had to get that in there somewhere."

"Uh, I mean ... You know perfectly well what I mean. I hope." Jack tried to sit up on his elbow and Daniel caught at him quickly, easing him up on the padded bench. "And I want to get in the hot tub and soak away some of this soreness now. If they're naked or not, I'm going in.

"Balin," Daniel said sternly. "Help me get him in the tub, or go wait in the hall."

Lemmel jumped forward. "Me? Highborn, I mean Sky, me? I be ever so strong," he insisted.

"His other arm," Daniel urged the naked young man. "Let's do this before Highborn Jack hurts himself."

Balin stripped so fast Daniel was shocked there wasn't a sonic boom in the room. The master swordsman hurried around the two men of such unequal height, as they lifted Jack toward the hot tub. Balin stepped hastily into the water and got his arms under Jack. He gently lowered the man, taking his weight effortlessly from Daniel and Lemmel. Balin took a step back into the center of the huge square tub and sank onto his knees, cradling Jack's body just under the surface of the water.

"Ahh. Ohh. Yeah. Feet lower, Balin. Yeah. Oh man, my legs feel good."

"We forgot to scrub off first," Daniel said as he stepped into the tub and sank onto one of the submerged ledges."

"Just because we didn't, that's no reason for you and Lemmel to not-- Well, never mind now. You're already in the water." Jack shook his head, then closed his eyes, letting his neck and head rest firmly in Balin's supporting hold.

"You'd already dirtied up the water, desire. No reason for Lemmel and I to stand around freezing our asses off while you float here in this luxury."

"I love you when you're snarky, Da ... desire." Jack smirked, showing his satisfaction at side-stepping that blunder so easily.

"You wouldn't have made that miraculous save just then if I hadn't seconds before, seconds, mind you, reminded you of that term."

Jack lifted his eyebrows, but didn't bother to open his eyes. "Probably so. Now ask me if I care?"

"Highborn Jack," Lemmel said as he pushed off the ledge and sank until just his chin was above the water's surface, "do ye care? And what be it that ye do the caring for?"

"Lemmel," Balin said sternly, "he was not addressing ye and it be never permissible to ask a question of ye master unless it be in concern of his health, his well being, or in protection of the household. This ye were reminded of yesterday and the day before. Why are ye forgetting it so often?"

"I care," Jack interjected, "for someone to rub my legs. But lightly, if it's you, Lemmel. Very, very lightly. Like a little bird. Like a feather."

"Get on his other side," Daniel directed the big, low desert youth. "I'll take his left and you get on his right. That way I'll be farther from the master swordsman and hopefully that'll make him less likely to have that stroke Highborn Jack seems set on giving him."

"Like I said, I love you when you're being snarky." Jack let his left arm float out from his side, then cupped it around Daniel when his lover got close enough. Jack's right arm was tucked over his side, and Balin was in the way. "How will we get a tub like this and haul it out to the cottage in the Meadows?"

"The task be not a hard one, House. The spa keeper has one ordered from the smith who finished it within the month. It was not to be installed until after the weather warms. We take it for House Ondeil and in exchange the smith gets back from the House mutton come spring as he would have gotten coins from the spa keeper."

"You've already thought this through?" Jack asked. "And how is it that you knew this?" He flexed his knees as Daniel and Lemmel worked their way up his calf muscles.

"Tanner's business to know what goes on in the smith hall. Mutton be to the smith's liking, as be a few skins that will come with it. Those skins cured by the tanner hall at no charge because the service of any hold or hall or cot be due the master of Brooksmeet."

Daniel shook his head. "I don't like the idea of taking her tub from her."

"Kind of ye, Sky, to worry about the business, but she'll have another by spring's end. Smith has time to make it as he's got a debt lifted from him. He owed and was working off a debt that now needs no repaying."

"Who lifted the debt?"

"Innkeeper cannot collect on what was owed. When House Ondeil took the inn, debts owed or due did not come with it. Only what was under the roof. Smith has a powerful thirst for ale. Now that ye steward named Tal to run the inn for House Ondeil, Tal says no more than a stein a day and he pays up front or he gets none."

"Oh. Sounds like good business practices to me. And my steward named Tal, did she?"

"I think I recall you telling her that she could, Highborn Jack," Daniel prompted. He began to work on Jack's left thigh, and Lemmel had to reach through the master swordsman's arms to match Daniel on Jack's right side.

"That Tal could run the inn?"

"You told her she could give Tal whatever she thought would make Tal happy. She told me you said that. Didn't you mean it?"

"Oh, shit," Jack said as he chuckled. "I meant pies or cakes. Bless that child." He grinned.

"Has already been done, House. Ye Sky has many times over. That child be so blessed that now she has but one worry, and that be the envy of the old wisewoman." Balin smiled. "That Asny child," he said, shaking his head and widening his smile.

Daniel glanced up at the big man cradling his lover. A smile on Balin was a rare thing lately. Daniel was starting to like the man. He'd liked him well enough as a storytelling tanner. But the moment he'd shown his Champion's horns he'd become somber. Daniel liked a smiling Balin better.

He glanced over at Lemmel and saw him gazing at the big master swordsman with a look of adoration. "Puppy love doesn't last very long, Highborn Jack," he whispered.

Jack opened one eye and peered at Daniel, who met his squint and motioned with his chin for Jack to look at Lemmel. He saw the way the young man was gazing up at his master swordsman and Jack snickered. "You don't sound very disappointed about that, desire."

"No. It makes me feel pretty darned good."

"But what would his father say about this? Am I going to be accused of corrupting him?"

"Speak ye of who?" Lemmel asked.

"Young one!" Balin growled out the rebuke.

"Sorry, master swordsman. Forgot again, I did. Sorry." Lemmel ducked his head.

"Careful," Daniel cautioned Lemmel to lighten his touch. "Let's give Highborn Jack a rest for a bit, let Balin shift his hold. In fact, Balin why don't I take him from you, and let him rest in another position for a while."

Daniel slipped his arms under Jack, brushing Balin's naked flesh as he did so. The big man gasped and stiffened, holding as still as a statue.

"You're going to have to stop doing that, Balin," Jack said. "I gave you permission to touch ... the Sky. And if I didn't, you got it now. You can touch him, and see him naked and talk to him any time he wants or any time you need to. Not just to save the House or whatever. Understood?"

"Ye grant me a great honor and me here naked in a bath with ye when the honor be given. Truly, House Ondeil, there be no other households such as this on the whole of this world."

"You got that right," Jack muttered.

"The honor be for bestowing in banquet halls before elders and masters and other Highborn. To touch a Sky in ways other than defending the House be a rare honor granted only to a few worker caste. Stewards and Champions most all, surely. But still, the honor to be bestowed in a bathhouse ... spa, be almost ... "

"Unseemly?" Daniel asked. "The right to touch also extends to Lemmel, who's already handled me in more ways than I can honestly remember. I don't see why he should have to stop just because he's not getting coins to tote my sorry ass--"

"Sweet ass," Jack interjected. "Sweetest ass in this or any other galaxy, and I won't stand for any argument on that subject. Got it?"

Daniel rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"Truly, master? I have the right too?"

"Yeah, Lemmel. You can touch the Sky and I want you to keep talking to him. But Balin's right. You have to remember to do it like he says. You have to do it formally, and use the right words, and don't manhandle him in public. In private, you take your cue from Da-- the Sky, understood?"

"Aye," Lemmel said, nodding vigorously. "And remembering to say the good words in the publics, where the old woman might be listening. And the old men and that other old woman who be village council of elders. Them that knows who be good and who does not follow the Nortvegr."

"Right," Jack assured him. "You got it right."

Daniel held Jack against his chest, letting his lover's legs float out in the warm water. "You okay, Lemmel?"

"Aye. Course I be fine, Sky." Lemmel was squirming on the bench beside Balin.

"Be still, young pup," Balin admonished him. "No waves in ye master's bath."

"Aye," Lemmel said, and slid closer to Balin.

"Go ahead," Jack said idly, his eyes half closed. "If you can touch the Sky, surely you're not going to freak out over touching each other, are you? I'm not going to sit in the Sky's lap and come anywhere near keeping my hands to myself just because you two are here. Go on, if you want to."

"Highborn, it be unseemly--" Balin broke off with a yelp of surprise.

Lemmel turned sideways on the bench, bringing his body forward to follow his hand which was obviously gripping Balin's cock. "Fine staff," Lemmel said huskily. "Never did see one finer. Though, truth known there not be that many I laid eyes on in my life. Sky's, I did. Him needing to make water--"

"Speak not of ... " Balin's head fell back and he groaned. "S-- speak not of the Sky's ... of behind the veil we never speak."

"But are we not even now behind the veil? To speak of it now be this an affront?"

"Nay," Balin answered, his voice rough and low. "Not an affront, but ye have ye hand on ... Oh, sweet lad."

"As I did last time the Sky was naked with my master. I cannot think it be a bad thing to take delight when the Sky and my master do."

"Hush, whelp."

Lemmel was very quiet, very quiet as he stood to face the swordsman. He straddled Balin's lap and sank again into the water, his back to Jack and Daniel.

"Whoa," Daniel whispered into Jack's ear as he cradled his lover against his body. "That ... looks kind of ..."

"Hot," Jack said. Languidly he reached one hand back to rub Daniel's hip. "Like fun. I'd like to get up to that kind of fun with you. If I weren't so sore everywhere."

"Sit on my ... lap like that?" Daniel asked, his lips brushing Jack's ear.

"Not on your life, Danny boy. My butt is strictly an exit zone. Exit only."

"Some day, Jack, some day you really have to try it."

"We are so not going to have this discussion again. Some guys like it, some guys do not. You knew which kind of guy I was when you ... God. I almost said married me." Jack shook his head.

"Yeah? Freudian slip?" Daniel pulled Jack tighter against his chest, letting his cock lull against Jack's ass.

"Freudian wish. No. Freudian mix-up of terms. We are already as committed a couple as any two married people are." Jack pulled at Daniel's hip, trying to turn himself to face his lover.

Effortlessly, Daniel shifted his hold, floating Jack around sideways on his lap. "I did know, and I'm very happy with the kind of man you are. It fits just fine with the kind of man I am. I like the way we make love. I like what we do. It suits me. Gives me what I need. I'm not bugging you to change things."

"Good. Cause you know I'm a one-trick pony. But I was gonna say, when we were holding Balin's sword in the great hall, all those onlookers, you in that getup, it kind of gave me a feeling ... "

"Like?" Daniel prompted.

"Like a commitment ceremony or whatever it is two guys do these days."

"Like a commitment ceremony," Daniel echoed. "I see. Guess it was like that. Taking care of House business, family business together. Neat," he said with a grin.

"Neat?" Jack asked, a little frown marring his features.

"Yeah. Neat." Daniel nodded.

"There you go, using all those linguist skills."

"Don't look now but Lemmel's making waves," Daniel chuckled as Jack turned quickly.

"God. I so wanna make waves with you, but I'm not even gonna try in this water. I'll drown."

"But if we have our own tub in that house, eventually, you're going to feel up to it."

"Ohh, yeah!" Jack chuckled low and seductively. "Yeah." He caressed Daniel's hip again. "Look at them go."

"I am. Believe me, I am."

Back in Jack's room at the Ram's Head Inn, Daniel placed the open tuc on the table and carefully packed his scribing supplies. They'd be leaving the next morning after Jack had another hot soak.

"Puppy love aside, Balin has a hero fixation on you, Jack. But he's more scared of touching me and breaking me than he is in lust with me."

"Yeah," Jack agreed, turning his gaze to the fire too. "I wish he'd loosen up around you, let you be who you are more."

"That'll happen eventually. I think it will," Daniel said.

"Maybe. Maybe after he gets a taste of your sweet ass. But then, maybe not. Maybe that'll just convince him further that you're unbelievably, incredibly, the most fantastic piece of ass in the universe."

Daniel shot a sour look over his shoulder at Jack, and shook his head when the man grinned boldly back at him. "I'm not sure if that was a compliment or an insult," Daniel said. "I don't think I've ever been called a piece of ass before. Not sure how to respond. It's a far cry from geek."

A little laugh rolled out of Jack. "I think you're supposed to respond by promising to let me suck you off later. Tonight. In bed. Promise?"

"Promise?" Daniel repeated, then he looked up at Jack, his face solemn and thoughtful. "You were right. You were right when you tried to get me to go back to scribing. And you're right about Balin and Lemmel. When Lemmel was looking at me today it wasn't like some sacred object. It was sex. What we did with Odamari and Brynvold was sex."

"Hot sex," Jack interjected. "Whew. Hot sex."

"Yeah," Daniel said with a grin. "Let me just get a handle on this, okay? I'll work through it."

"I know. We're leaving in the morning after the sun warms up a bit. Balin says it'll only take a couple of hours at a fast walk, says the cart's going to make it a fast, easy trip out there. Tal and Asny are going to start out a bit before us, bringing out food and some kitchen stuff. She's planning to bring pies out every other day. Said it was Asny's orders. I said roasted guinea fowls and eggs would be more appreciated, so she's slipping that in under the pies."

"That kid will have you fattened up in no time," Daniel said. He began folding their accumulation of garments and bundling them in a sheet. "But you have to eat the meat first."

"Yes, nurse," Jack said flatly.

Daniel ignored him.

"You did promise to let me suck you off later, right? I'll eat my peas and carrots before my desert if you do."

"Bribery?" Daniel snorted.

Later that night Jack asked again and got what he wanted. It wasn't easy. He was flat on his back in bed, with Daniel straddling his head. His back hurt. His neck hurt.

Daniel was so worried about Jack's aches and pains that he kept losing his erection, even though his cock was in his lover's mouth for the first time in an incredibly long time. He kept freezing, holding onto the headboard afraid to move much. But working together, they achieved what Jack wanted, a taste of Daniel's sweet nectar.

Climbing off the bed, spent and breathless, Daniel padded naked to the table by the door. "I was too loud. Lemmel probably heard me, you realize." He got a wash cloth and dipped it in the basin of water.

"Yeah?" Jack asked. He grinned broadly, then called to Daniel in a stage whisper, "Check out the door. What do you hear?"

"You, pervert," Daniel shot over his shoulder. Then he stealthily stepped against the door and pressed his ear against the wood. "Yeah, they heard. They're just outside the door in the alcove, I think. Yeah. Houston, we have liftoff."

Jack gave a low, evil chuckle. "Let's try banging the bed against the wall later."

"And," Daniel said, his ear still against the door, "twin rockets, Houston. From the sound of it ... No. One's blasting off right now, but the other ... Oh!" he said, and pushed away from the door.

"What?" Jack called, insistently. "What? Somebody still on the launch pad?"

"Oh, one of the rockets called out the other rocket's name and then said something about love." He stared wide-eyed at Jack.

"Which rocket-- Hell, who said whose name? Whose name got called out?"

"Your master swordsman. Your Champion's name."

"Anything else?"

"No ... Shush a minute," Daniel said as he pressed his ear back to the wood. His eyebrows rose up his forehead as his mouth formed a big O. Wide eyed, he turned to Jack. "Uh. I think rocket number one is kissing rocket number two."

"Kissing? Kissing?" Jack demanded. "I ... That's a lot different than just jacking off with a buddy. That's a lot beyond being turned on by a little hanky panky in the hot tub. That's ... "

"Kissing," Daniel said with a nod. "I hear kissing. And ... yeah. The second rocket just fired. Well, so much for the duration of puppy love."

A breathy, deep laugh rolled out of Jack. "You ... " he gasped for air, "you sound really relieved about that."

"Oh, definitely," Daniel assured him. "I'm perfectly happy to have Lemmel following Balin around with stars in his eyes. Fine by me."

"Good. I'm gonna hit the sack now. All suck and no sleep makes Jack a dull boy."

"Grouchy boy," Daniel corrected him, then blew out the candles.

Daniel had enjoyed the long days of sunlight in the comfortable room, benefiting from the warmth and light it had brought back into his and Jack's relationship. The sunlight had improved Jack's health, shining on him through the two large windows as he would rest on the divan. And now their life was going to take another change. They'd leave this room of sunlight for another temporary home. The days would grow longer now. Summer was coming.

Chapter 15 - A Highborn House

Mid morning found three of them at the Spa, dressed warmly and ready to leave for the Meadows Cot. Just inside the vestibule of the spa, Balin in full leather armor knelt on the floor by Jack's prone figure where he rested on one of the massage tables, comfortable in his blankets. Daniel was veiled, dressed in his new tunic and leather pants and covered by his fine cloak of House Ondeil colors. They waited on Lemmel to return from the Ram's Head with a final bundle of Jack's things. Lemmel had said he'd only be a moment longer. The cart was ready and waiting by the front door of the Spa, and Daniel was impatient to be on his way.

Balin shifted his horned helmet from his knee to rest on his folded cloak, then pointed on the map to the eastern edge of the continent. He ran his finger down past the great divide mountain range. "Here, this port be where House Halfdain were bound for. His father's holdings, ye say?"

"Yeah," Jack said thoughtfully as he studied the map. "Sky-- Highborn, that's what Brynvold said?"

Daniel nodded, and fought the temptation to pull the map closer to himself. He listened to Balin's description, but kept his pale hands folded together and covered discreetly by the long sleeves of his cloak.

Odamari had kept all of his skin covered, except his lower face. When he'd come inside, he'd been draped in the great cloak, marked with the colors of the master of House Halfdain. Under that he'd worn a softer cloak that had draped gracefully and caressed his skin. And his final layer of clothing was something that looked like it belonged in a brothel in a blue district somewhere on Earth. Then Daniel realized why the suede clothing seemed so familiar. He'd seen something like it once on a young man in Amsterdam. The young man was a prostitute, selling himself in a display window in one of the more exotic, gay whore houses there.

Daniel shifted restlessly.

"Sailing north along the coast here, traders work the spring after the ice sheet recedes. Then summer gives a good ocean voyage for any not hearty enough to take the spring time extremes. Skys go north in summer along here, them that need to. Few come down past the great divide, so going north, as ye know, won't be many for ye to encounter."

"Fine. You've traveled this route before?"

"Nay. Lived all my days in the north. Working first as apprentice to a master swordsman. Fifth Champion he was, of the great House of Gaerhialm. Them be found here by the city of the Highborn, as ye knew most likely. Known to all, that fine House be."

"Yes," Jack answered with his usual calm face. "By the city. Can't miss their lands, right?"

"Cannot. True. Never been with a Highborn passing through, though. Not before I took my Championship, so never had to pay the tribute of a Highborn. Think ye it be fair a Champion has also to pay the tribute of crossing Highborn land? Ach! Forgive me! Taking after that young whelp, I am. Asking questions." Balin shook his head vigorously. "Pardon, Highborn. Pardon. Such liberties. Unseemly. Unseemly."

"Not a problem, Balin. The tribute ... " Jack said slowly, trying to figure out a way to ask without seeming to need to know. "I suppose it's fair. How was it for you before you took your Championship?"

"Never harsh. The pittance charged to the worker caste be so small. A token. Not at all like what ye Highborn charge each other to cross posted land. Brooksmeet will make ye a nice profit next time the Highborn Brynvold rides through. Unless, of course ye join in an alliance with him some day, and neither pay the tribute to the other. A fine man. His swordsmen were right smart. I saw working arms about them, not the glinting stuff that's only for show. Nicks and gashes on sheathes. Lances with marks from use. I like his household."

"Me too. Yeah, the tribute Highborn charge each other ... that's something to consider when we plot our route north to ... my forefather's land."

"Aye. Passing House Halfdain in the east, be a fair route. Don't know who lies between here and there, as I've not gone that way, but only heard stories from them that has. Now, to the north from the eastern port-- tribute in that port, I'll wager. Can't imagine no Highborn not owning land in such a place. Maybe some be master of the whole port, as ye are master of Brooksmeet. Could always land south of the port and wade ashore. Make a trek north and stay as ye have in the past at the inns. Highborn do. Or come calling on a Highborn House there. Might be even more than one House to choose from."

"More than one. That would be unusual."

"Right so. Not unheard of in the north. Some Highborn don't never see another of their kind outside the city for a span of years. Isolation. As must be the land of ye forefathers."

"Kind of. Pretty far north."

"Ah. Then thus it be why ye survived such cold in the low desert."

"We survived because Daniel knows how to--"

Daniel tilted his head back and shot Jack a worried look.

Jack met his gaze and then tried to turn the conversation back to travel. "If we meet Brynvold again I'll speak to him about an alliance. I don't want him to have to pay if he comes through Brooksmeet again."

"Aye. Then ye'd not pay him too, for passing through his port. Course, there be them that avoid the exchange of money, way old Ostergott done. Him, having a Sky caste under his roof. Ach. Ye know what I mean," Balin said, his voice dropping to a whisper.

Jack peered intently at the big swordsman kneeling at his side. "Avoid the tribute? Ostergott did that how?" he asked.

Daniel frowned and shook his head almost imperceptibly. Jack shouldn't risk showing his ignorance so much.

"Ach. Best not to speak of that practice in front of ye Highborn. Some ... some consider it to be behind the veil, giving a Sky's use as payment."

Daniel's eyes widened suddenly. He opened his mouth, wanting to demand clarification. Had Balin meant that his old master traded ... for payment of passage ... Did he use ...

Jack touched Balin's arm. "Your master used his Sky, used him to pay ... "

"Most times he did. Take his Sky traveling, most times when not going to a port he had an alliance with, his Sky went to pay off his tribute to the Highborn who owned the land, or to pay use fee to a worker caste Champion. Always took him on trips to the inner part of the north country. Many Highborn lands around the city. Then of course, there be payment due to enter the city. Steep cost, that. Days, the Sky would spend in the temple servicing those who come to pay homage to Nirrti, while Old Ostergott did his business--"

"Odamari," Daniel gasped the name. "When he ... Did Brynvold think ... Oh, my God," Daniel swore, his voice breaking. He jerked to his feet, pulling at the neck of the restrictive cloak. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't stand it in here. He had to get out, get away from this hell. He pushed past Balin, almost knocking the brawny man off his knees. Daniel fled from the Spa.

House Ondeil's Champion found him far past the village edge marker stones. The stones had just recently been painted with the colors of House Ondeil.

Exhaustion had slowed Daniel from his mindless run to a brisk walk and he moved almost blindly down the middle of a two rut road headed west. It was wide enough and smooth enough for carts to traverse it at a good clip and he'd made a considerable distance along it when Balin caught up with him. He'd have saved them a lot of travel time, but unfortunately he was going in the wrong direction. The Meadows land of House Ondeil was northeast of Brooksmeet. For several yards Balin paced beside him silently.

"Highborn, the child, Asny be not here. She be at the Meadows. I cannot bring her to ye to aid in the hurt ye feel. The House sends me to ye. He says to say, there was no tribute due when House Halfdain come through here. There was no payment. It was friendship alone. He says to say this again and again until ye hear me. He says to let ye run until ye realize it be he ye should run to, not from."

Daniel kept swinging his arms, kept pushing himself in long strides. His breathing was ragged, and his sides ached. His mind was numb to almost everything but the pain in his lungs and his legs.

"And the House says, do not fetch ye. Do not bring ye to him. The House says ye have free will, and ... and I am to say—It be hard. Oh, truly. I am to say ... Jack loves ye."

"Oh, God!" Daniel swore, his voice rough and almost powerless. He dashed tears from his eyes, getting his long sleeves wet. The veil was wet and that made him angry. He pushed it up and off his head, keeping his gaze straight ahead down the path.

"House sends me to ye. I am not to take ye, but to leave ye have free will. House says ... no tribute was paid. None was posted as due. I am to say, no tribute was paid by House Halfdain. What else, I am to say? Friendship was offered by House Halfdain, nothing more.

"Please, Sky. Jack loves ye. Please, it hurts me to say his name so, but thus he said I must. He's charged me to say it. Jack loves ye."

"How do you know!" Daniel demanded. He stopped in the middle of the path, and shook his fist up at the huge swordsman. "How do you know it wasn't a tribute payment? Brynvold never said ... How do you know, Balin? How do you know Brynvold didn't consider it a tribute payment?"

"Sky," Balin said softly, in a strong contrast to Daniel's angry demeanor. Then the big man dropped to one knee, but instead of bowing his head like he always had, he peered up, straight into Daniel's blue eyes. "Ye have things confused. Life payment was not made until after House Halfdain left. It be understandable. Was a bad time for ye, Sky. Bad time. The colors of House Ondeil were not posted until after House Halfdain left. I swear to ye, Sky. I saw to the posting of the House colors myself. I saw to the inn sign being marked as House Ondeil property. I saw to the village boundary markers being given the colors so all who enter would know a tribute was due, even before they might step foot in the village. No mistake, Sky, I swear, no mistake was made on the part of House Halfdain. None. My life on it, Sky. My life."

"Markers," Daniel said, clutching at his cramping stomach now. "He wouldn't have seen them at night."

"His steward would never pass without inspecting. And the inn, Sky. The sign, the door. He'd have seen. And House Ondeil steward would have made sure the tribute was asked for."

"Asny's too young. She doesn't know of such things."

"Surely ye are as Highborn Jack says. Ye reason and think on things not likely for a Sky. Troubling yeself so."

"She wouldn't have known."

"She was not the only one to answer needs of the household at the time, Sky. I was there. Innkeeper would have to have said. If tribute were due and no steward to step up and ask, the innkeeper would have demanded it before a room could be given. Otherwise it would have come from his own pocket. No innkeeper would risk such a debt. None in no village nowhere."

Daniel closed his eyes and turned his face to the sky. In all the tiny mud holes he'd stayed at, the dingy, cramped inns, little villages, none had been owned by a Highborn? None south of here? Maybe there were villages along the coasts that were owned by Highborn, but none of the insignificant little spots he and Jack had traveled through to get here from the bottom of hell.

He'd never been asked for a tribute. He'd never traded his body for a tribute. He'd bought room and board with his body, but no one had ever said, part of the bargain was a tribute, had they? He'd remember that. He would. He hadn't let so many of these people fuck him that he could forget something like that.

Could he? What if he hadn't understood?

"Tell me," Daniel began, then had to swallow past the lump in his throat. "Tell me how I would have-- Tell me how such a payment goes."

"Speak of how a Sky be used to pay?" Balin asked, his voice rising in fright. "Is speaking of things behind the veil ... As ye wish, Sky."

Daniel looked down at him.

"Sky would be brought in and his Highborn, the head of his household would ask for the House who owns the land. He would come, then they bargain, and the visiting House offers the ... bedding of his Sky in payment. If land be owned by a working caste Champion such as myself, then they come, and the Sky be offered to them, though a Champion only charges a mere pittance for crossing his land. All accept. Always."

"Shit," Daniel swore. He closed his eyes. "What next?"

"If accepted, and it always be, then the House, or Champion takes the Sky to his chambers and leads him back to his household when the bargain be complete."

"Have you ever heard of them all doing it together?"

"Nay." Balin shook his head vigorously. "Nay. Payment of tribute be not that, Sky. I know the difference. I do. I understand. Ye were just confused and I swear my remembering of the time when House Halfdain were all here, it be clear. It be. This I offer to ye. My word on how it was when the Halfdain was here, my word that it was no tribute or my life be forfeit."

Daniel took several deep breaths. Odamari hadn't been acting against his will when he stripped down. He hadn't done it because Brynvold was selling him for the night. It hadn't been because he had no choice. It had been ... as Jack was trying to tell him through Balin, it had been friendship. It hadn't been rape.

With a shuddering breath Daniel sank to his knees and buried his face in his hands. "I had it wrong. Remembered it wrong, Balin. I though it was ... If he had no choice it would have been ... rape."

"Oh, Sky," Balin whispered, sinking onto his heels and bending low by the weeping man. "He charged me ... I say it as he charged me to. Jack loves ye."

Daniel fought the sobs tearing his throat. He reached out blindly, groping for Balin. The big man met him with a calloused, meaty hand. Daniel felt his fingers, his whole hand engulfed completely in the big swordsman's hold. He crawled the two feet separating himself from Jack's Champion, clutching at Balin's wool tunic.

"I'm sorr-- I ... I got it mixed up. Forgot when things h-- happened. Balin. I ... need to go back. Where's Jack? Where ... "

"In the cart at the Spa, Sky. Him, he waits with the young lad. Waits in comfort on the soft cushion, wrapped in warm blankets and ... and surrounded, he be, surrounded by soft pillows to ease him. Water plenty by his side, Sky. He rests well under the fancy cover to keep the breeze away. And Lemmel be at hand to fetch should he need anything else. Ease ye mind about Highborn Jack, who loves ye. Ease ye mind, Sky."

"I thought ... I got confused. I thought when we'd done that, if it hadn't been his choice, that makes it rape, Balin. Rape."

"Aye. Ye got confused. Remembering the bad thing that was done in that room on a few days hence. Only a few days, Sky. Any could understand how such a confusion could occur in ye mind. Please, ease, Sky."

Daniel took deep breaths, his face pressed against Balin's tunic. Balin's big arms were around him, and Daniel realized that neither one of them was panicking. He tried to sit up but his head was throbbing. He stayed slumped half in the swordsman's lap.

"I want to go back to Jack now."

"Aye. Help ye stand, Sky? Highborn Jack says let ye come as ye wish, but not to force or make ye."

"Help me up." He clutched at Balin, busy pushing images of Thaid's innocent face from his mind. "I ... I ... " He clutched at Balin's jacket. "I feel sick." Thaid was dead. Babies were surviving in the children's hall now, and Thaid was dead because he'd raped Daniel. He leaned heavily against Balin, keeping his eyes shut tightly. Daniel couldn't bring himself to take a step back into that village where it happened, but the only other place to go was to Thaid's house, the house that had been taken from an innocent man, an executed, innocent man. Daniel shivered. "Can't ... "

"A far run for a delicate little one such as ye, Sky. If the cart were here, or our young Lemmel, as he carried ye in the low desert. He spoke of it to me, he did. If I could ... Highborn Jack has given me the privilege ... "

Daniel reached his arms up around Balin's neck and the big swordsman lifted him gently, cradling him as Lemmel had through the pain-filled days in the frozen, low desert of Nortvegr. Balin shifted him, moving Daniel's arms off his neck to rest against Daniel's own stomach. He felt Balin push the cowl of his cloak up, and Daniel welcomed the cover, the darkness. He rested in the big man's arms, and fell asleep on the long walk back.

Through the village Balin walked softly, noting how the villagers hushed and backed away respectfully as he carried the Sky through their midst. None could see that the veil was back off his head. The cowl hid him as effectively as the bucca had when he'd first arrived among them, this blessed being. Balin adjusted his hold, making sure all of the Sky's skin was covered from their sight, as was proper.

Lemmel saw him coming and hopped a few steps toward him. Balin shook his head, silently admonishing the lad to restrain himself. Lemmel backed up to the rear of the cart and unlashed the cover. He rolled it up and stood aside.

Balin stepped to the back and leaned in, placing House Ondeil's lover beside him on the padding.

The master of Brooksmeet peered hard at Balin, then gently pulled the cowling away from the Sky's face.

Balin whispered quietly. "He tried to come of his free will, House. But his eyes troubled him, and he felt ill. I offered to carry him and he accepted, with his free will to refuse or accept."

"You explain the marker stones and all that to him?" Jack said softly as he stroked Daniel's hair.

"Aye. Just as ye said. Just as ye charged me to say ye name, I did manage it."

Jack nodded.

Balin withdrew and lowered the rear cover of the little cart. It was small. He could see over the top of it if he stretched. And he could reach his arms out straight from side to side and touch the edges, yet it was roomy enough for the two Highborn to lie side by side in comfort. They were so small!

"Right. Now, lad, who've come saying they will be the ones to pull the cart?"

"Them three," Lemmel said as he pointed out two stout villagers hovering across the roadway, along with one elderly man who stood puffing his chest out to show his strength.

Balin nodded at them smartly then called softly. " Isleif, Gaerimund. Come and be pulling ever so gentle. And mind that ye keep a soft tone as to not wake the Highborn. Helf, as much as we have helping, ye might come in case some needs spelling on the journey."

"Aye," Helf whispered and nodded vigorously. His gray braids swung wide as he took long strides to position himself to the rear of the small band.

"On with ye, lads," Balin said softly to the two holding the spars, then he took up a position by one of the rear corners, with Lemmel on the other.

Jack lay sprawled on his back, gasping with each cobblestone the cart bumped over. When they left the village proper and got on the even, dirt track he sighed in relief and rolled onto his side. The soil was sandy enough here that the tracks stayed smooth. No pot holes formed, and no mud ruts formed along the roads leading to and from Brooksmeet.

He rolled to face Daniel and saw that his lover was awake. "Danny," he said.

"I'm sorry."

"You just got a little upset about Odamari, I guess."

"Yeah. I thought for a while that Brynvold had used him, made him do what he did." Daniel blew a long breath out of his mouth, trying to ease the tension in his body, the ache in his chest. "I can't imagine ... how it must be to live with someone who sells you over and over like that. Travel around with someone only so they don't have to pay a toll to get through some place. Balin says they get given to whoever owns the place, and they get used ... "

"Pimping," Jack said harshly. "Sounds like nothing more than pimping. Not anything to do with their religion, is it? No imparting, or worshiping. It's prostitution."

"Rape. Formalized rape," Daniel said. He stared at the roof of the little cart as it swayed along the lane.

"Is it all that different than what you've had to do these past few months? I mean, you had no choice."

"I could have let us both die. Could have frozen to death. Or starved. Thirst. That was a big possibility."

"Maybe those are the choices Odamari has if he doesn't do what Brynvold says."

"You think so, Jack?"

Jack shook his head. "No. Brynvold ... what I saw of that guy, it was honest. He and Odamari were like lovers. Maybe all Highborn are that way, and Balin just doesn't see it."

"No." 'Daniel shook his head slowly. "I think ... in House Ostergott, no. The way he talked about the Sky in that house? He was definitely an object. Definitely not loved. Wonder what happened to him when the one Balin worked for died? Did the son inherit the Sky along with the property?"

"I don't know. I thought they had free will to leave if they wanted to."

"If they want to walk out in nothing more than a veil and an imparting cloth stretched across their groins maybe. I never thought about it, but maybe an imparting cloth can be big enough to be worn as a sarong? Or a veil be big? You know, Odamari had gold sewn on his veil. Like I have my beads? The hem of his had the oblong marks, the gold ones, the valuable ones. He had a small fortune sewn on it. Guess that makes the stuff legally his, if it's just decoration. And an imparting cloth could be sewn like a bag, stitched so it could hold a lot of coins too. A Sky could buy food each day, rent a room one day at a time. Technically a rented room isn't owned. I think that would still fit in the rules."

"Your brain's back in gear."

Daniel glanced at him, then looked up at the roof again. "Odamari's inner robe almost looked like an extension of his veil. I think a veil could be large. Or maybe, they find someone who agrees to loan them their clothes for years at a time. So, while they don't own the clothing, they have the reasonable expectation of having something to cover themselves with from day to day."

"But just can't get anything new, like if they need new shoes or something, right?"

"Yeah. That makes sense." Daniel turned to face Jack. "You should roll onto your back. Relax."

"Mother-henning me again," Jack protested. He rolled onto his back and let Daniel straighten his covers. He was warm enough. "You're right. Spring is coming fast. There's hardly any wind anymore."

"And if they make a deal with someone to loan them clothes, they don't necessarily have a time limit on it. Remember at Lars' camp that first day the blanket was a loan, something to cover my head with until she found something to use as a veil which she also specified was a loan, remember?"

"No, not really. I don't remember much about that meeting. Don't remember much at all."

"You were lucid for part of the time. You knew when I ... went ... You told me not to do it, not to go with Lars."

Jack groaned and laid his hand over his eyes. "I'm sorry. That must have made it so much harder on you."

"It did," Daniel said wistfully. "Made me face the reality of the situation. Made me more conscious of making a choice. I made a choice."

"No, you didn't," Jack said, his voice low, but harsh. "Dying is not an option, therefore it's not a choice. You haven't had--"

"Jack!" Daniel gritted his teeth and rolled away from his lover.

"God, I'm sorry. I'm being an asshole. I'm sorry. I know you're hurting and all I'm doing is dragging you through it all again."

"I had a choice. And no, what I've been doing isn't the same as having no choice like those guys who are used to pay tributes. I could say no any time. I could refuse an offer. I did--"

"What?" Jack prompted after several tense moments of silence.

"I refused Gunnlaug."

"Danny." Jack stroked his lover's arm.

Daniel shook his head, but kept his back to Jack. "Can we talk about what you picked up from looking at the map this morning?"

Jack was silent for several moments. "All right. All right. I think the trail through the great divide is pretty hazardous and with the planet's orbit, we're looking at spending another two years waiting for the next spring to roll around. We could try going east late this fall. If we can make it to the eastern coast before it gets too cold out on the trail, the ice sheet thing doesn't come that far north, so we can go around the great divide in winter if it's safe enough, or right at the beginning of spring and be up on the top of the divide before we'd have been able to leave here next year, or what's really two years from now. Then go in from the coast up there during summer, make it to the city of the Highborn hopefully by late fall."

"What if we get to the coast and it's too cold or icy and no one's sailing north?"

"We hit up Odamari and Brynvold for a place to stay."

"Brynvold. It'd be his house, his land, his holdings." Daniel turned to stare at the roof again.

"House Halfdain," Jack said.

"And what about the Highborn holdings we run into on the way? We have to bring enough coins to pay the tributes."

"I wonder what they do when, say like at Brooksmeet, if someone arrives tomorrow and the place is marked as mine, and I'm not there. Do they have to pay? And what if it's someone who wants to pay by offering his Sky caste lover?"

"That's obscene," Daniel whispered.

"Yeah."

"Don't say lover. You don't love someone you take along just to use as payment."

"Yeah. Some of the holdings will not have a Highborn in residence. I get the impression most of them spend the winter months up north in the city. So we're likely to come across land and towns with nobody home, but Balin seemed to be saying we'd need to pay anyway. So ... a lot of coins."

"I can't earn any more for a while, Jack. I need time--"

"You're not earning anymore that way ever, Daniel. Just stop--" Jack coughed. "Stop thinking that you have to get over that so you can start doing it with them again. Not gonna happen."

"How--"

"Not gonna happen. We have options now. We have the inn and this land out in the country. There has to be a way to sell it or trade or something. Balin said the land was worth something at one time."

"I can't think about selling that land and using the money--"

"Then don't. Let me start doing my part of the team work. My guts may be falling into my shoes every time I stand but let me do what I can, all right?"

Daniel was silent for a while and finally Jack reached out and stroked his arm. "Danny?"

"There's got to be something I can do too, Jack. I mean besides go slowly crazy hiding under a white veil all damned day." Daniel rolled onto his back and stared up at the swaying canopy again.

"There will be, and you'll find it. You will."

They rode in silence for several minutes, Jack toying idly with the veil hanging loosely around Daniel's neck and shoulders. "I really meant it when I asked if Lemmel's father is going to think I corrupted his son."

"Why you? Why not me?"

"Why did you ask that?" Jack laid his hand on Daniel's arm and tugged, but got no response. He coughed, pressing his face against his outstretched arm to dampen the coughing sound.

"I asked because you say that like it's understood that I have no affect on anyone, or anything. It's like you're starting to believe all this ... the way these people respond to me. It's like now that you're up, awake and interacting with them, their ideas and beliefs about me are poisoning the way you treat me too."

"No I'm not. No." Jack shook his head and tugged harder, but Daniel remained unmoving, flat on his back. "Am I?"

"God," Daniel swore. He threw his arm over his eyes. The tunic sleeve draped down, covering his face and muffling his voice. "I don't know any more. My reactions are all screwed up. If someone looks at me in just ordinary friendship I start calculating how much they'll give me if I let them fuck me. It's making me sick. Sick of myself."

"How many times have you done it while I lay sleeping in some comfortable bed? How many times have you gone out when I was unconscious and unknowing?"

Daniel clenched his jaw and struggled to breathe calmly. "I'm not going to tell you. Can't tell you. Don't know. Honestly, I've lost count, Jack. I don't remember. Tried to think about ... whether I've ever struck a bargain for ... tribute. God damn. I knelt out there on that road trying to remember, trying my damnest to remember if I'd ever let someone fuck me for a room and, yes. There were a lot of times I let some innkeeper do that to me in exchange for the cost of the room, and I ... don't think it was ever just for tribute. I don't think ... But the nasty truth of it is that I honestly don't know for sure. And the longer we stayed in one place, the cheaper I'd sell myself."

"Okay. Then being out of the village and away from all the people is going to be very good for both of us, not just me."

Daniel chuckled dryly. "I know what you're trying to do. We're leaving Brooksmeet for me, not for you. Your Champion told you to get your little scatterbrained Sky out of Dodge before sunset or else, didn't he?"

"Yes. I'm not hiding that from you. You're not scatterbrained, though. You're having PTSD, which, I'm sure we both agree, I know a hell of a lot about."

Daniel pulled his arm from his face and rolled against Jack's side. "I'm sorry."

"For what I've been through in my past? Thanks. I need your love and I need your understanding. Now, can you accept both of those from me?"

"Of course. Of course I can."

"And can you tolerate me making stupid mistakes like assuming Lemmel's old man would only want to stomp me if his son came home a fruit?"

"First, I can tolerate anything you can dish out, Jack. I always have, and I'm not such a basket case that I can't keep on doing it, minus the occasional bitching like I just did, and ... I mean, but you need to know something about this society. You remember finding out that the Highborn women never leave the city? I think they live in similar isolation even within the city. Even the ones with dark eyes and dark hair. I have a feeling there's very little interaction, very little freedom outside of their confined space. So, think about it for a minute. Any Highborn man who wants to leave the city, his only companionship would be a worker caste, or a Highborn man."

"So? I'm not following you. Wouldn't that just make them more likely to have worker caste women as wives?"

"No. I don't think I've ever heard of a Highborn man with a worker caste woman. I think that's the taboo in this culture, not homosexuality. Tal, Jarngerd? They've both been around you and me in various stages of nudity and not even once has there been any kind of sexual tension from either one of them."

"But the innkeeper offered Asny to me--"

"A prepubescent girl. Yeah. That's the twisted side of it. A girl who's not able to reproduce yet, who's not fertile yet, is considered acceptable for Highborn to sleep with. I think that's why Gunnlaug was drawn to young girls, and may be why he damaged them too. It's what he couldn't have, what's behind the walls in the city of the Highborn. Highborn women."

"That's pretty sick."

"He was a sick individual. I don't think either one of us doubt that. But of course the attraction could be nothing more than the size difference. Highborn women are small, like prepubescent worker caste girls. It could have nothing to do with age."

"So how does this keep me safe ... us safe from Lemmel's father seeking revenge for his son turning into a fruit?"

Daniel sighed in exasperation. "In this society homosexuality is the norm for Highborn men who live outside of the city. It is the norm, because there simply is very little other option. And that lifestyle is perfectly acceptable to the worker caste because it's the basis for their religious conduct. Understand? Religion and sex have always been very closely tied, Jack. Throughout Earth history there's always been a close tie. Either by edicts prohibiting, or dictating how it is to be done, when, with whom, for what purpose. There have been religions that incorporated sex acts into their ceremonies. Hell, the biggest religious ceremony in Christianity is a wedding ceremony, the purpose of which, is to prepare a man and woman to have sex together. It's written in the Christian bible that a woman's duty is to submit sexually to her husband."

"So you're saying it's all about sex? I'm not buying that."

"Yeah? Nobody ever accused you of being ... "

"Sharp. You were gonna say sharp, weren't you?"

Daniel merely shrugged, but then a little smile flitted around the corners of his mouth. "But this is all irrelevant. Lars knows his son wants a man as a mate. He told us already. I just wasn't listening at the time."

"And what? You have that internal tape recorder on? Played it back later and found out? I hate how you can do that. It's very annoying when you do it during briefings, come out with some bit of something you heard or read or saw weeks or months earlier and suddenly, bam. There it is and you solve whatever problem is on the table. It's creepy."

"Pardon me for creeping you out," Daniel said lightly.

Irritated, Jack waved his hand as if to wipe away Daniel's apology. "Give. What did the kid say?" Jack started a coughing fit and had to sip some water to get it to quit.

Daniel rubbed Jack's arm, then took the water flask from him. "Lemmel said that his father required he find a woman to mate with before he settled down with a man. He has to produce an offspring. I would imagine that kind of edict is probably pretty common in this society."

For several moments Jack was completely silent. Daniel watched him.

"Oh. So, the kid and Balin, they both ... probably ... So it's not just because they want to imitate us, right? That's a good thing."

"Yeah. I agree."

Jack began to cough again.

Outside the private canopy over the Highborn's cart Balin strode along in guard position on the right to free his sword for easy access. Lemmel matched his long stride and Balin glanced at the boy in approval. They'd begun to meet returning villagers a few minutes earlier, workers returning from the Meadows cot.

Some carried empty baskets or pulled carts. A couple rode the little pale horses that faired so well in the sandy soil of the southern continent. All stepped off the path to clear the way for the Master of Brooksmeet. They waited silently, respectfully along the sides for the household to pass.

The little party met the smith hall workers, with their horse drawn cart, empty now. The tub had been delivered and installed. The cart was pulled by a matched pair of the big black horses so favored by hunters and Champions who ventured into the great divide. They had thick necks and sturdy legs. Balin nodded somberly at the smith hall workers, meeting their respectful gaze, their acknowledging nods.

His golden-tipped horns blazed in the sunlight. He regretted the distance these people kept from him now. Being among them as just a tanner had been good.

"Markers," Lemmel said softly.

Balin looked ahead and saw the standing pale stones that marked the beginning of House Ondeil land. From here the road split, one going off between the twin markers into House Ondeil land, which stretched north more than half a day's ride on horseback, then east to the beginnings of the black forest, the thickly wooded land where nut-bearing trees with black wood grew so tangled that a careless man could get lost and never find his way out if the sun and moons were hidden by clouds for too long. The Meadow's cot and out buildings were no more than a short walk down the road now, through a grove of trees that would bear apple fruit come the summer time. Water was plentiful on the land when it was warm enough to flow.

There were seven large meadows, stretching out in a web from this point to the northeast corner of the marked property. Balin had walked two of them when the town council was taking stock of what was to be turned over to House Ondeil. He'd judged the soil to be rich, the grazing good. A man could do very well producing wool and mutton here, could make a good, peaceful life.

"Not long now," Lemmel said.

"Aye. Next rise, then down a ways. Cot's entrance way be in a bit of a valley, but well drained there and around out the back way, ye noticed? We'll have no problem come the wet season."

"Never saw a sheep farm before. Ma, she told of how sheep got the fur on. Had me a thick fleece skin once. Soft."

"Mind ye way there, lad. See to the lane, and be watchful of the hills round as we pass through."

"Aye, Champion. But, none would dare pass on this land to harm my master. Why must I be so watchful?"

"None would. Not in their right minds, lad. We watch also for those that are not knowing this be the land new of a House who hosts the Sky, and we watch for those that follow not the Nortvegr. We do our duty, lad." Balin kept his voice low, so the Highborn would not be disturbed.

"Aye. Proud, I am. I have a duty. Not many that can say that. I serve a Highborn. I serve a House with a Sky. Not many say that."

"Not many who can say that have what ye have. And to that end, know that ye are doubly charged to uphold the honor House Ondeil has given ye. Not many on the whole of this world can say they serve directly a Sky. Most who serve a Highborn never set eyes on the Sky, never serve him directly, never see or hear him even."

"But many bargain with Sky caste, right? Them that sit across table and ... "

"Aye. I know what ye say. But to serve a Sky be not the same. Not the same. Ye serve, lad. Not the same as seeking a bargain. Them that seek, they do never see as we do, the Sky. They never see the ... They never see that a Sky be alive and breathes and lives, ye understand?"

"They don't see a Sky as a real being?"

"Aye. Speak no more of it. Not today. This be a day for new beginnings, not for pondering old puzzles."

"But of course he be real. How can they not see this?"

"Hush I said," Balin whispered harshly. He walked along watching the coming rise, and then caught sight of the cluster of structures that were now House Ondeil's newest holdings. "They do not see because they do not look past what they want of him, what he might give to them. They see only their wants and needs, as be proper, as Nirrti decreed it. They follow the Nortvegr, as far as they need to, as far as Nirrti's temple guardians teach that it goes. But, for some, the Nortvegr path goes farther. Our House Ondeil, he knows the path goes on. I'll follow him on that path as far as he will lead me."

"I follow also, Champion, master swordsman. I will follow my master, House Ondeil."

Balin gave Lemmel a piercing look, then nodded approvingly. "Then best ye be on guard as I have said. Watch the wayside and the far hills. But now we are there. Yonder I see the littlest steward running to greet us. Our House be truly an odd one."

End of book 3

INDEX THROUGH BOOK THREE -
Asny - young upstairs maid of Ram's Head Inn, Brooksmeet, number one helper and First Steward to the Highborn House of Ondeil
Balin - Tanner, Champion, master swordsman in sworn fealty to the Highborn House of Ondeil
Brooksmeet - a southern divide village
Brynvold Halfdain – Highborn, host to Sky Odamari, master shipper, Fairwood
Bucca – detachable hood
Canlith - bar maid at Ram's Head Inn, Brooksmeet
Gunnlaug - Guild and master miner, Brooksmeet
Harv - Ram's Head Inn patron, Brooksmeet
Helf – elderly resident of Brooksmeet, daughters Kagain, Lyda, son Timmon
Herger Gunnlaugson - son of master miner, Brooksmeet
Hulda – caravan leader, Low Desert
Jarngerd - weaver of cotton and wool, wife of Ulfrik, Brooksmeet
Landvaettir - an authentic Icelandic term meaning land demons
Lars - caravan leader, Low Desert
Laxdale - Highborn, Northwestern House where Champion Balin served
Lemmel Larsson – caravaner from the Low Desert, recently indentured to House Ondeil
Nortvegr - an authentic Icelandic term meaning the northern way, used in the story to mean a religious way of life, and the name of the world.
Odamari - Sky hosted by House Halfdain.
Odin - Father of all gods, the allfather
Rimthurses - an authentic Icelandic term meaning ice demons
Skagg - western port city, authentic Icelandic village
Skeld - caravan worker, Low Desert
Spider venom – digestive or salivary enzymes of the common tarantula is injected into their victim for external digestion before consumption
Tal - serving wench at Ram's Head Inn, Brooksmeet
Thaid - brain damaged shepherd, Brooksmeet
Thorbalstead - most southern village on Nortvegr, authentic Icelandic name
Tuc - a shoulder bag
Ulfrik - tanner turned weaver, husband of Jarngerd, Brooksmeet
Various Ram's Head Inn patrons - Hacklang, Herstein, Isleif, Gaerimund, Arnfenn

Next: Summer