Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 5)

"Wick told me he'd offered to give you a free tailoring," Gaius mused. "He must know a tanner somewhere. And really, tanning would remove all this nice fur. You might want a more thorough curing of the hide but tanning might not be the way to go."

Ky nodded. "I don't know anything about any of that -- we don't really use furs where I'm from -- but I'm happy with whatever you think is best."

"I'll talk to my people about it," Gaius promised her. "I'll find the best person to turn the hide into a blanket, probably in the East but perhaps here. Unless you want it done fast."

Ky shook her head. She'd rather have quality over speed, especially when it was something as important as this. "I'm patient." Not by nature, certainly. But she'd learned to be the past few years. Patience was a virtue, and she wasn't allowed to be anything but virtuous as Aleth's property. "Although I don't want to be too much trouble. Whatever's easiest."

"I'll see to it the hide is treated like a blanket fit for a queen," he promised. "You tell your friend that; he'll be glad I hope."

Ky grinned again. "Perhaps he'll remember the rest of his name, and I can tell him when he comes to tell me."

"Perhaps so." Gaius had been running through different Nortung names that started with R for the better part of the night and none of them quite fit the voice he had heard. He wished he could have seen the Marrow Man. "What does he look like? I know he's goatlike but what are his actual features?"

"Much like the stories say," she answered. "He's like this tall." She gestured approximately how tall he was. "And has horns on top of it all. And he's got hooves but his toes are curled around on the side of them -- they look very painful. And he's got square goat pupils and square teeth and he's not very good at smiling but he tries."

Much like Gaius, now that she thought of it. But Gaius was still better at it.

"Intriguing," Gaius mused. "And you said he wears a cloak. That's in the stories. A black cloak."

"It's very, very ratty," she said with a nod. "But he said it was a gift so it matters a lot to him -- that's why I thought he might like a new gift, too. For the sentiment, or whatever."

"You seemed to be right. Gifts were as important back in his day as they are in ours." Gaius shivered as he had last night. "I'm still in shock, I think. This is utter madness, Ky."

Ky hesitated, then nodded. She couldn't argue with him there. It really had been a bizarre week. A bizarre two weeks, really. She'd been unsettled ever since the attack during the ceremony. But interacting with Ruh was somehow even further on the scale of absurdity. "I don't know why he likes me, but it's very good that he does, I think."

"Definitely." Gaius could imagine how things might have gone if he hadn't had the bear, if he hadn't been as kind as he was. Ky wouldn't be here talking to him, that was for sure.

Ky nodded, vaguely aware that she'd stared death in the eyes and somehow come out on top. She wasn't sure what was going on. But she was growing increasingly more convinced that she was unkillable. Aleth had failed. Nyler had failed. Jaerek and Wyl had failed. Ruh didn't want to kill her. Tomhas and Gaius and the king were on her side. For all the pain the gods had put her through, perhaps she'd been made immortal. Even she herself couldn't seem to kill herself. Perhaps she should find a way to make full use of it. "... Tadaaki woke up."

(Oh careful with immortality Ky)

Gaius blinked, tensing. "And what did he have to say about it? Did he hear?"