Chapter Thirty Nine

If Cinna had visited Dame Stenberg’s town before confronting Lilia about her abilities she never would have set a single foot inside it, let alone approached the central keep. She’d already been badly injured by the time she met the necromancer, so a fight with one of the most feared duelists in Selkarc would have been more than she could handle.

Unlike Cinna, Dame Stenberg hadn’t won her reputation and status on the frontlines. Stenberg had been a tournament fighter through and through. She had never concerned herself with studying tactics or strategy and rarely spent valuable time on campaign that could have been used on training. Instead Stenberg had left the management of her domain to her husband and trained relentlessly for the chivalric competitions she’d built her name off of. Count Keller, her feudal lord, even exempted Stenberg from the usual levies in recognition of the prize money and honors she regularly brought home.

So Cinna had no doubt that even as a draugr, Dame Stenberg would have been an intimidating foe. As someone that had risen to the rank of general…Cinna wasn’t confident that she could have defeated Stenberg in single combat. Rising in rank came with many additional responsibilities and things to learn. Cinna had a great deal of pride in her skills as a fighter, but she could recognize the fact that there were those that surpassed her. She couldn’t be the best at everything all at once.

Stenberg hadn’t died easily. She must have been equipped with an enchanted weapon capable of cutting through metal judging by the sheer quantity of dismembered draugr decorated the courtyard of her keep. In fact, she seemed to have put up so much of a fight that whichever necromancer passed through her, presumably Javert, had given up and left rather than lose more draugr trying to kill her. That was the only reason Cinna could think of for why Javert wouldn’t have raised her immediately and taken her with him.

Eventually she succumbed to her wounds anyway. When Cinna and Lilia arrived they found Dame Stenberg, now risen again as a draugr, standing alone in the courtyard of her keep with a chipped and broken greatsword clutched in both hands. A third of the sword’s blade sat embedded in the paving stones nearby.

It hadn’t come to a fight. Lilia had just severed the fallen knight’s soul from her corpse and that had been that. One of Selkarc’s greatest warriors collapsed to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, going to her final rest without a chance to fight back. Cinna thought it might have been better that way. Now she could be remembered for her last stand against the invading undead and not a climactic battle against her own countrymen.

“Thank you,” Cinna had said as she walked past the corpse and into the keep. She knew Lilia hadn’t understood why she’d thanked her for that particular act, but she suspected explaining it would have accomplished little.

Some hours later Cinna hunched over a boiling pot, stirring the contents with a ladle. She tasted the stew and then offered the ladle to Lilia. “Well?”

Lilia leaned forward and licked the edge of the ladle tentatively. Her eyes widened and she tried to go back for more, but Cinna pulled the ladle away. “Hey!”

“Ladles are for serving and tasting, not eating. Give me a moment to put some in a bowl,” Cinna admonished, grabbing a bowl with her free hand and ladling a serving of stew into it before handing the bowl to Lilia with a spoon. “Eat slowly. You’re probably not used to food quite this rich. It might give you a stomachache if you eat it too quickly.”

With an exasperated expression on her face, Cinna watched as Lilia shoveled spoonful after spoonful of stew into her mouth without any regard for the warning she’d just received. Granted, she’d probably never eaten a meal this heavily seasoned or with this much meat in it before, but Cinna had no intention of comforting her later.

“I suppose I should just be pleased you’re enjoying it so much,” Cinna said with a sigh. “I’ll pack enough stasis crates into Dame Stenberg’s coach to last us until the Warm Roads, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to eat like this going forward. Don’t treat it like a once in a lifetime meal.”

“Butit’ssogood!” The words spilled from Lilia’s mouth so quickly it took Cinna a half-second longer to parse them. Then she went back to devouring her food so rapidly that, if Cinna hadn’t known better, she’d think the woman hadn’t eaten in days. Though she hadn’t eaten much more than foraged fruits and vegetables in the time Cinna had known her, so perhaps that wasn’t too far off from the truth.

“It’s already well past noon, so we’ll stay the night here and head out tomorrow morning,” Cinna told Lilia as she served herself a bowl. “You can take Lady Stenberg’s bed. I’ll take one of the servant beds.”

Lilia stopped eating, tilting her head to the side.

“Why? That bed looked big enough for both of us,” Lilia pointed out innocently. If she were speaking to anyone else Cinna might have taken that as an invitation. By now she thought she knew Lilia well enough to guess she’d only meant for them to share the bed in the most literal of senses.

Cinna sighed. “Lilia, are you familiar with sex?”

“Of course. But we’re both women. Everyone knows if two women want to have a child they have to go to the temple!” Lilia replied. Quite honestly, that level of knowledge came as a surprise to Cinna. Maybe it should have, though. By the time Lilia left her home village she’d been close to adulthood. Her parents must have explained reproduction to her at some point, either because she’d witnessed a pair of animals in the act at some point or simply as a part of her education.

Even then, though, Cinna wouldn’t have expected her to know about the services that used to be available at Temples of Fertility. Perhaps there’d been a couple in Lilia’s village that had taken advantage of them. That wasn’t uncommon. Cinna had expected to do so one day herself, but…the departure of the gods had deprived her of that option.

Cinna grimaced. It was a bit self-serving, but one of the lesser reasons she hoped Dalton would still return one day was that his survival would save her from worrying about matters of succession. She had no intention of taking a male spouse or producing an heir with one. That wouldn’t have been an issue a year ago, as Farar’s priesthood had access to miracles that could allow two women to bear a child entirely their own. Now her best option would likely be to designate one of her siblings as her heir.

“What’s wrong?” Lilia asked. Cinna blinked, realizing she’d gotten distracted.

“Sorry, it’s nothing,” she said, shaking her head. “Lilia, sex isn’t only done for reproduction. It can also be done for pleasure.”

“Okay…but we were talking about sleep,” Lilia pointed out. “I still don’t understand why we’re talking about sex now.”

“If you invite another person into bed, it carries the implication that you wish to have sex with them,” Cinna told her bluntly. Dancing around the subject wouldn’t be of much help with Lilia.

“Oh,” Lilia uttered softly, her cheeks turning red. “Uh, why?”

“Both are activities one does in bed. One may used to allude to the other,” Cinna explained. Lilia went silent as she processed that, leaving Cinna wondering if she’d ever inadvertently made an advance on someone else the same way. Slowly, Lilia raised her spoon towards her mouth. It was empty.

Suppressing a smile, Cinna went back to eating.

“Um, so, to be clear…” Lilia said eventually. “I didn’t mean it that way, but I’d feel bad if I made you sleep on one of those straw beds. You’re injured! So, uh, I really don’t mind sharing the bed. Just to sleep, that is.”

“Very well. Thank you,” Cinna replied.

Once they finished eating, Cinna stored the rest of the stew, pot and all, in one of the enchanted crates used to preserve foodstuffs. Considering the very real supply issues faced by Selkarc right now she had questions about why Dame Stenberg had so many crates of fresh food in her keep, but it seemed a moot point now. She made a mental note of the cache for later, though. If Selkarc ever reclaimed the area the crates she and Lilia couldn’t take with them might be useful.

“You can do as you like for the rest of the day, but please keep an eye out for other necromancers or their familiars,” Cinna requested as she went to take a crate out to the coach.

“Okay. Do you need any help with that?” Lilia asked, her eyes drifting to Cinna’s broken arm. Even with only one hand, though, Cinna had enough strength to carry these crates. She shook her head.

“It will take me a handful of trips but I can handle it on my own. You’re welcome to try, though,” Cinna replied with a smirk. She left the kitchen with a crate under one arm. Behind her she heard sounds of frustration as Lilia tried and failed to lift a crate of food.

Once the supply situation had been sorted, Cinna decided to pay a visit to Dame Stenberg’s personal armory. The knight had taken her best equipment into battle with her, but that hadn’t been everything she owned. As Count Keller’s vassal, Dame Stenberg had been responsible for outfitting a certain number of men-at-arms in the event she was ever called upon for service.

But Dame Stenberg had been exempted from the last several such instances. As such, Cinna hoped the knight might have skimped on maintaining her private soldiers. She wasn’t disappointed. For the most part the armory had been emptied out, true, but several sets of armor and a few racks of weapons remained. It seemed Stenberg had released some of her retainers and hadn’t been able to call upon replacements before her home fell under attack.

Armor typically needed to be fitted properly for it to provide proper protection. That wasn’t to say it had to be, though. Many poorer knights couldn’t afford a full set of fitted armor and assembled a suit of whatever they could find. In much the same fashion, Cinna tried on the various helmets on display and took one that fit her relatively well. A simple armet with a larger than usual visor that wouldn’t obstruct her vision too badly if it were knocked out of place.

Among the weapons, Cinna first selected a new war hammer. Not her favorite weapon, but one that had proven effective against the undead so far. She passed over the bows—these were of little use against draugr and even less against skeletons. A sword she already had. What remained was a single weapon. A double-headed battleax.

Lifting it, Cinna couldn’t help but recall the weapon she’d lost fighting that first necromancer back at Storrhamarr. This one couldn’t possibly replace her old weapon. That one had been forged to her specifications, not to mention enchanted.

And yet…with an ax in her hand, Cinna somehow felt complete again.