Book III
Chapter Twenty-Two
A WAITED-FOR WISH
Pa’ka was not there when the Lich was defeated.
As he had been every night and every day, for six moons now, he was reading.
He sat in the half-organised story room, surrounded by scrolls.
The door opened, and closed. People left. He did not look up.
After a time, he slept.
He woke to the same sound : the door opened, and closed.
He could tell by the limp it was Kaye, though in his stupor, Pa’ka didn’t know if the human was coming or going.
He tried to sleep some more, but couldn’t.
So he got up, began organising, and (like always) got distracted.
The next thing he knew, the room was even worse than before. Scrolls everywhere. Little particles of claydust were all over his dark blue hands, and his pants, and his sleeves.
Pa’ka was a healthier weight now. Six moons of eating can really change a person.
The door opened and closed again, and Pa’ka kept reading.
“Back already?” he muttered.
“I am,” said Rowan.
Pa’ka’s heart leapt up into his throat. He looked up, eyes wide.
There she was.
Standing in the doorframe.
Nal’kuth’ra had been the one to open the door, and stood just in front of Rowan.
“Here we are,” said the goblin. “You’ll be safe here. I’ve got to be getting back to Brun, but really, you have nothing to worry about. No one’s here but Keeper!”
Rowan nodded, but she wasn’t listening. She stared at Pa’ka as she walked into the room.
Nal’kuth’ra shut the door behind her, and the wand shop was once more filled with that cosmic silence Pa’ka had come to cherish so dearly.
“Your eye,” said Pa’ka. “You’re bleeding.”
“Not anymore,” said Rowan.
She didn’t smile, but… there was emotion in her eyes. Her voice had a tremor to it.
Forgetting about the scroll that was still in his hand, Pa’ka hurried to the back of the shop, to the kitchen.
Rowan waited there, listening. There was much to look at, but she just looked after Pa’ka.
When he came back, he had a bowl of water, a cloth, and an empty bucket.
“Here,” he said. “I know you can’t… I know I can’t touch you. But that really does need to be cleaned up. I’ve been reading all these… Well, I’ve been reading everything. Huh.”
Pa’ka chuckled as he set down both the empty bucket and the full one. He dipped the rag and swirled it around, then pulled the cloth and wrung it out.
“And one of them is this, uh… Well… Sorry, hah. Uh. There are lots of… That’s the story room, is what Keeper calls it, but there’s also… There’s so much writing. In there. And some of it is medical in nature, because… Here you go.”
Rowan took the wet towl. Pa’ka was so careful, not to make contact with her hand.
“City of humans, right?” Pa’ka went on. A smile was growing on his face, just to talk to Rowan. “So magic doesn’t work on them. They’ve done all this, uh… All these… Well. Hah. Nevermind, uh. Stupid. Are you okay?”
Rowan looked up at him.
Tears were streaming down her face. The tears on her left eye mingled with her own blood, on just one side of her face.
His eyes were fixed on her eyes. He looked so sad.
“Stupid question, huh?” Pa’ka muttered. “Of course you’re not okay. But you’re… Uh. How are you feeling?”
Rowan smiled, and it made her start to sob.
“No!” Pa’ka said. “No no, I’m so sorry! I wish that I c—”
Rowan threw her arms around him, and threw her lips onto Pa’ka’s lips.
In the kiss that lingered, a kiss she chose…
She lived their whole life together…
From beginning to end…
In real time.
At the end of that vision, she stayed in that kiss.
He was holding her.
“I feel,” Rowan said, “safe.”
That’s when Pa’ka started to cry, too.
And they kissed again.
And Rowan almost wished that she could have more than one Dust Touch from Pa’ka’s lips. From her forearms on his neck. From his hand in her hair.
And they kissed again.
And they kissed.
They talked all day, and all night, and all day again.
The rest of their lives had finally begun.
* * * * / * * * *
Kaye had seen.
He seethed, unnoticed.
Silently, he limped to the kitchen, and then out the back entrance.
Kaye never went back to that wand shop again.
* * * * / * * * *
Link to Orcish-English Dictionary
Wanna hear the music of NALA SAGA?
* * * * / * * * *
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