The Rossem Project

Haven - Part 7

     There was a trog sitting opposite him. Rankail Werm, whose family had been friends with the Daliris’ for several generations. Rankail, a fold of cloth pulled away from his face to allow him to eat, leaned forward across the table to offer Thomas his own congratulations and they asked after each others’ fortunes and families. Then the trog, whom Thomas had only seen a handful of times since coming to the valley, seemed to lose interest in him, though, and struck up a conversation with Master Gammon instead. Thomas found himself talking to Flindar, another of Lirenna's cousins, and they exchanged trivialities for a few moments until Rankail asked the shae man for his opinion on something and Flindar was sucked into his conversation with Master Gammon.

     Left temporarily without a gossip partner, Thomas watched the three of them for a few moments, letting their conversation wash over him without the meaning of their words registering on his attention. A shae, a human and a trog. All friends of each others and chatting as casually and comfortably as though they were all the same race. As if race just didn't matter. Thomas found himself watching them with a sense of wonder that hadn't begun to fade despite the years he'd been here. How many places were there in the world where members of these three races could live together in peace and friendship like this? Not many, he was sure, and it was even possible that Haven was unique in this respect.

     He looked up, and wasn't surprised to see Kronos speeding across the sky, its movement easily perceptible to the naked eye against the few tiny wisps of cloud that were beginning to appear. He suddenly felt a deep sense of guilt and shame that he was among those who'd re-discovered the observatory, leading to the terrible threat that now hung over the secret valley. What would he do if an army of prospectors suddenly turned up, intent on tearing the valley apart for its wealth of iron and jewels? How would he be able to live with himself? And yet, what else could he have done? The observatory had been instrumental in the victory over the Shadowhordes, and in the wars against the Rak Kings that had followed. Without it, all of Tharia, including Haven, would probably be under the Shadow by now. He knew his feelings of guilt were irrational, and certainly neither the Queen nor the Elders blamed him for the situation, but even so they were still as strong as ever and there was nothing he could do to rid himself of them.

     “Penny for, er, your thoughts?” said Master Gammon, and Thomas was jolted out of his gloom and back to the party. Flindar and Rankail were still chatting, he saw, but the conversation had drifted into an area in which the human had little interest. Gammon had seen Thomas looking up at the smallest moon, though, and followed his gaze up to it before looking back at Thomas and smiling ruefully. “What will happen will happen,” he said. “Sufficient unto the day are the, er, the troubles thereof.”

     Thomas stared at him in astonishment. “Then you know about…” he said in a low voice, his eyes flicking briefly upwards.

     “Her Majesty occasionally asks for my advice on various matters,” Gammon replied in an equally low voice while glancing around to make sure none of the other guests were listening to him. “She does not hold you responsible for the present situation and neither do I. You played a part in defeating the greatest evil this world has ever known. Without you, this valley and everyone in it would be, ah, long dead by now.”

     “I know, but it doesn't help. Thanks for saying it, though.”

     “Just telling the truth, dear boy. Just telling it as it is.”

     Thomas smiled his gratitude and found himself beginning to relax. He was surrounded by friends, and so far none of them had asked him to make a speech. He decided he should circulate, so he stood and walked among the other guests. He came across some of Lirenna's more distant relatives, some of whom he’d only met once or twice since coming to the valley and some of whom he’d never met at all. The numbers of shae folk, all of whom bore a striking family resemblance to Lirenna, only highlighted the absence of Lirenna's parents, though. Cenna and Tiberion had both fought in the Second Shadowwar and had both been killed, by the same Shadowwizard, when their daughter had only been a child. A painting of them had been hung on one of the wooden supports of the canvas awning shielding the baked potato pit, though, and Thomas lifted a glass to it as he passed it by. He remembered Lirenna telling him that Tiberion had loved his buttered and spiced baked potatoes.