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Ceridor (Danubian #4) 22. Chapter Twenty-Two 73%
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22. Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Two

Johann

Back at the inn, I helped Effie with some cleaning while Ceridor hung up our towels, and then we followed that with a long round of cuddling in bed and me pampering him.

Ceridor came out and sat at the counter. I took him in: cozy in my orange sweater and some loose pants, his elbows on the counter and chin in his hands, though he looked like he was about to fall asleep.

" Müde? " I asked whether he was tired.

He nodded. "I want to nap, but I'm afraid if I do in the bed then I won't be able to sleep tonight."

"How about we get set up on the sofa? I'll read through one of my books and make sure you don't sleep for too long."

He nodded. " Ja, das klingt gut ."

Effie returned to making dinner and we got set up. Ceridor was out in no time, draped across my lap while I read through one of the magical textbooks I'd been working through in the curriculum from Diana Monastery.

An old woman came in who was staying at our inn while she visited her sister. She greeted Effie and was passing by the sofa when she paused, staring long and hard at Ceridor.

Alerted by her interest, I stuck my thumb in the book and looked up.

"Is that Prince Regent Christian?" she whispered.

"It is," I answered, gently petting his hair and impressed with how deeply asleep he remained.

"He looks so much like his mother," she remarked, the tone in her voice conveying how so many people felt around here, that Ceridor and Magnus's mother had been a truly wonderful representative to her people and was dearly missed. "I haven't seen him in years."

"He works as a traveling ambassador these days," I replied. "His brother Magnus plans to take over as Regent once their father retires."

That was the story we told the citizenry, though in truth Ceridor engaged in outright espionage.

She smiled and nodded. "I hope it goes well."

She shuffled along and I returned to my book, continuing to pet my lover's hair. The old lady was singing softly to herself, and only belatedly did I realize the little tune was about lanterns.

Johann

One week later

After we firmed up our plans, preparations to leave moved quickly.

"I'm sorry to see her go," said Effie, watching with a soft sadness as I scrubbed the chewed-up corner of the counter clean.

I nodded. "Just in case this is connected to larger things, better that the Mulberry Inn isn't involved. Let me go do this first, then I'll come back."

"Okay," Effie said, her voice watery as her eyes brimmed with tears.

Sure enough, my lighting and then extinguishing the candles had triggered Dunu to come visit. She showed up at the door, this time thankfully without a fish. As planned, I grabbed the basket of dinner rolls that Effie had prepared.

"Bye, honey!" Effie called, then buried her face in her apron and wept. Thankfully Magnus had offered to come over to comfort her, so Effie got a big hug.

My heart melted, but I needed to focus on the task at hand.

Dunu's eyes widened when she saw not only the candles not lit but totally gone, the counter clean. Her lips pulled back to reveal her sharp teeth.

But before she could think to lunge at me I brandished a dinner roll and held it right in front of her.

Dunu glanced at my sister, then to the roll, then to me, and like a human child she seemed to piece together that I expected her to come with me when I stepped through the door. She was still a sprite, but her behavior had gotten more human-like the more time she'd spent with Effie.

I stepped out of the inn and turned around, holding out the roll. Dunu came with me and said " Danke "—Effie had lovingly taught her to not abbreviate it—and crammed it in her mouth.

Dunu followed me as I walked through town, accepting each new roll I'd offer up once she finished eating the prior one and grew impatient.

Ultimately Dunu wasn't very communicative—we could assume she'd come from the Danube river, and thus that her mother could be the Danube river goddess that Ulbrecht was wedded to, but in the end we didn't know what Dunu's objectives were. Ceridor worried over the ramifications of lighting Dunu's candles in Helvetican territory. If her rosary chains that held candles were connected to the lantern gods that protected Ulbrecht, then they needed to be in Danubian territory and out of Helvetica, lest it start a transnational power struggle between two neighbors.

So Dunu had to go, at least while we still knew so little. And while Dunu had not given us any reason to think she was sinister, we were erring on the side of caution.

Ceridor had taken the rosary beads that held the candles, and said he'd explain things in more detail on the road.

We came to the creek where she'd first found me. Dunu looked at the creek and then at me as I knelt to her height. Though her Helvetican German was only sparse, she clearly had a sharp intelligence. I therefore spoke to her in hopes that even if she didn't understand everything I said, that someone close to her would translate.

"Thank you for coming to visit us. My sister Effie has loved spending time with you. We will take the beads you gave us, and light the candles, but over there."

I pointed along the creek, where it met with the great river and ran due east, straight into Danubian territory.

"If you have more candles you want us to light, we'll do it there," I said, making it really clear that not here, but far in that direction, we'd give her what she wanted.

That was what Ceridor had insisted we tell her, because somehow these beaded chains and candles were connected to the lantern power in Danubian territory that my lover suspected was dangerous enough that it could spark wars and invasions on its own. Better to keep it out of Helvetican territory completely.

Dunu ate the last of the rolls, then she stepped in close and in surprise I realized she was coming in for a hug.

Wishing Effie could see this, I gave her a hug, then flinched when the little girl turned her face to the meaty juncture between my neck and shoulder and fucking chomped me.

I gasped and grabbed at the spot, shocked it didn't draw blood with how much it had hurt. Dunu stuck her nose in my hair and took a big whiff, then stepped back with a satisfied look.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what she'd done: she'd scented me so she could follow us. Though she'd bitten Ceridor's arm a while back, maybe she was smart enough to know that my lover could evade her more skillfully than I could.

I had half a mind to kick her into the water, frustrated she'd bitten me, but Dunu still looked enough like a young girl—albeit a kelpy, creepy one—that even after the chomp I just didn't have it in me.

Dunu sank into the water. Once her face submerged she hovered there, watching me for a moment. I pointed downstream, toward the river, out of Helvetica, through the Alps and into the central Danubian plains.

Ceridor's theory was that the power these beads and candles connected to was not necessarily on the side of humans and certainly didn't seem to care about human political borders. Since no less than the High King of the Danubian region was tied to that power, it was extremely unwise to have anything connected to it also cropping up over the border with his neighbors.

Dunu pointed just as I did, her image wobbling with the water, then shot down the stream, out of sight.

Not for the first time, I wondered whether the old innkeeper Hilda had been a witch or some kind of magic practitioner, though there was virtually no evidence for it. Why else would Dunu seek us out to light the candles for her?

Ceridor had been taking pains to make sure the lantern's power never crossed the border into Helvetican territory, only to have Dunu undercut his efforts and have Effie and I do it anyway.

Peter—Marit and Corbi's new partner—had also met Dunu and had been given a candle rosary like we had. In fact, as it was adorned with red jewels, it was likely exactly the one we had first lit at the inn. Peter and the monks were very careful to not light any candles in the rosary until they crossed into Danubian territory, but unbeknownst to them, my sister and I had already done it.

Including Ceridor and his apprentice Awariye, plus Marit the librarian and his partners Corbi and Peter, a group of monks was coalescing around this mysterious power, because the now-deceased mystic who had brought the power to Danubian territory had claimed that the power would protect Ulbrecht the High King. Since Ulbrecht had imposed a feeble peace on my blood-drenched homeland for eight years now, that absolutely sounded like something worth protecting, for the sake of Helvetica's stable border if nothing else.

I touched the water in the creek, reveling in the chilled temperature, and wondered—not for the first time—why on earth a creek sprite would be eager to spread fire around.

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