Chapter 18: Season's End

We rode through the Shadar Valley, stopping only infrequently on our way to the Dambro home in Misty Creek. Summer was coming in the southern hemisphere, and we wanted to spend a little time here in the relatively cool and pleasant weather of the middle valley before the dead of summer set in.

We rode for a while with a small party of Sisters who were riding to assist a community suffering from flood damage to their spring crop of pipe gourds and string squash some miles upriver. Nothing could be done for the crops, but there was some urgency to complete some additional planting before summer set in completely. The community would have less cash from their crop, but they might be able to salvage some if they could get in a smaller crop. They crossed the river below the Blackstone Bite, and we made our farewells and kept on riding. Misty Creek was going to be a destination for tomorrow. We'd camp tonight and then I'd jump us to the Dambro's at first light, or rather to a spot just down the road from it that River had shown me in her thoughts.

I was using the gifts more in recent months than I ever had. I was discovering the Light again as well, after almost completely ignoring it since I went through Transformation. I was giving River and Trunk regular Light treatments in addition to the exposure they were already getting when I jumped them. I knew the recognized side effects regular exposure to the Light had on most people. We continued meditating every morning before our exercises, and through it I was noticing a difference in River since we had returned to the Shadar Valley. She seemed less focused, yet at the same time there seemed to be less mental static and less activity in her Light signature. I wasn't sure what was up with that yet, but continued to explore it, rusty as I was.

"This is a good place." Trunk called, drawing me out of my thoughts. I looked around and had to agree.

"Looks good to me." I answered.

"This is a regular stopping point for caravans and travelers." River said. "There's a fire ring over there about fifty feet."

Trunk and I set to getting the horses unsaddled and tended to. It had been a relatively short and stress free ride, but that didn't mean they deserved less than our best efforts. With the horses taken care of, we began to scrounge up some firewood. Because this was a frequently used spot, the pickings were slim. We moved to the river to look for driftwood and fallen river growth. Some trees loved to grow in the sunny flats beside the river, but that left them subject to the inevitable damage caused by the river's seasonal flooding. We found a nice pocket of driftwood in a snarl of dead alders, and were soon making stacks of what we wanted.

River was doing the cooking tonight, but it was really just reheating some goat stew we had brought with us from the tower. The sisters we had parted ways with earlier were probably eating the same thing somewhere on the other side of the river. We had some sugar peas, still in the pods and some young carrots as well, and she trimmed the carrots and the pea pods a little and served them cold and crisp alongside the stew. It was clear, and had been pleasantly warm during the day, but we had been told to be wary of steep temperature drops during the night this time of year, and even some chance of frost if we ventured into the higher elevations along the valley walls. Summer was coming, but it wasn't here yet.

I didn't notice any cold temperatures until morning when it was time to get up. Having River snuggled up against me all night may have had something to do with that, because it did seem pretty cool when it was finally time to leave the bedding and get ready for the new day.

The chill of the morning air made a fire seem tempting, but we would be at our destination well before the chill had a chance to set in and still early enough for morning meal, so I just began cleaning up our campsite, setting aside a little morning fodder for the horses and waiting to see how long it would take River to miss me and rouse herself from her own slumber.

Trunk joined me a few minutes later, and he began rubbing the horses down, getting the night's condensation off of them, getting them ready for the saddle. I was stuffing the last of the cook gear from last night's meal in my saddlebag when I felt River come up behind me, and her warm breath on my neck previewed the warm kiss she put there.

"morning Mat."

"Morning Sparrow. Are you ready to get going?"

"Hmph. I'm barely awake. Let me go take care of my necessaries and we can saddle up and go."

I decided it would be wise to water a nearby bush myself, before giving my kidneys reason to complain in the saddle, and headed off in the opposite direction. I found Trunk coming back from the same vicinity, and gave him a nod.

"River's up and doing the same. We can saddle up anytime."

Saddling up Grinder was physical enough an activity to leave me feeling relatively loose in he saddle. I was still wearing warm weather leathers, we all were, but a little physical activity, even in them, went a long way towards loosening up the leather as well as the muscles.

"Put where we will be going in your thoughts." I said to River, and as she did, I refreshed the image of where we were going from River's memory of it, and jumped us to the flat little piece of trail with the table of rock beside it. I heard her sigh when the scene changed and the rock and trail was under us and suddenly real.

"Home." She said. "Its been a long, long time."

"You were still a girl then. You are a Lady now." I said.

We took the trail slowly, letting the light of the impending day fill things in a little as we rode the mile and a half to the Dambro cottage. We saw the drying shed where Bane Dambro cured his lumber first, and then the barn, with the workshop at the back, which was towards us. Finally we could see the cottage, to the other side of the barn. We crossed a small stream as we reached the base of the small hill we had come in on.

"My spot is up that stream about a mile." River said. "Where I got my necklace."

There was a sudden barking from near the house, and a pair of dogs came around the corner of the workshop, stopping at the corner and marking us with their eyes. A man came around the same corner a moment later, and noting our progress, disappeared back around the corner.

"Dogs?" Trunk asked.

"They're new." River answered. "We never had even one dog when I was growing up."

"Is that a pike?" Trunk said as the figure returned around the corner carrying some kind of instrument on a long pole. "Or a scythe?"

"Its for trimming limbs. There's a heavy blade on the end, curved and serrated. The blade has a nice point as well. It takes a lot of practice to use it effectively at full extension."

"I assume your father has had a lot of practice?"

"Yes indeed."

We all had our hoods up, keeping the chill of the morning off our ears, but as the road took us closer, and we began to close on the cottage, River threw her hood back and shook her hair out. Her father took a hard look and then dropped his long weapon in the grass beside him.

"River?" He yelled across the road.

"Good morning Daddy." She said, then she was out of the saddle and running forward to throw herself into her father's arms. Spark turned back to look at us, as if there was some explanation we could offer for River's affection for this complete stranger.

Bane Dambro hadn't been the only one alerted this morning by the barking of the dogs. The minute River had jumped into her dad's arms the door to the cottage had opened and a woman had come flying towards us. I saw River in her hair, and in her long legs. There was no sign of her being out of breath after running all the way to the edge of the yard where we were, and joining her husband and daughter in their hug.

When things finally broke up, the dogs were circling the three Dambros, excited at their master's excitement, and not really caring why.

"Dogs?" River said. "You have dogs?"

"Your father came back from the market with them one day." Hobby Dambro said. "Barely a week after you last were here."

"The black one is Finch and the speckled brown is Wren. A couple of birds to substitute for our Sparrow." Bane Dambro said.

"You can tell us all about the strays you brought home over morning meal. Wash up and join us. I am calling a celebration day Bane Dambro, and will brook no argument, you hear?"

"The tools are going back in their place and I am switching over completely to Hobby happiness mode." He said.

"We'll get our horses squared away while you're closing up the workshop Dad." River said.

Their barn wasn't really designed to hold three horses, but they had only a single milk cow, and she would spend the rest of her day out in the field contentedly cropping grass. "Tie her off over there in that corner." River said, pointing at a post near the barn door. "We'll milk her after morning meal, and then let her out to graze. All we have to do to get her day started after the milking is to point her out the barn door and make a couple of 'tch! Tch!' sounds." She'll head where she knows to go on her own."

By the time we had the horses settled, and the saddle bags collected, we were laughing over the memories of our cattle drive with Trim Halkin, and how much our hatred of the heat and dust of the high plains colored our opinion of cows in general.

River's dad joined us at the wash basin and water barrel at the side of the cottage. It was conveniently placed for anyone out working in the barn or shop who needed to clean up before going in the house. We followed him and River into the house and it took no time and no encouragement from anyone to find our way to the table. There was a large pile of griddle cakes and scrambled eggs and fried sausage. I could smell freshly brewed Cintosa as well.

The table was barely large enough for the five of us. River's parents sat on one side, nearest the stove and we sat on the other side of the table, with River between us. It was a bench table, relatively long and narrow, which didn't allow for seating at the ends, but which I could see came in handy when working in the kitchen, as it became an extra workspace with the narrow width making it possible to reach everything from both sides of the table without too much trouble.

"Well, we don't eat with strangers at our table, so you need to do some introductions, don't you think, daughter?" Hobby asked once we were all seated.

"Of course." River said. "Mom, Dad. This is Baron Obsidian McKesson and Baron Trunk Gurmot. They are both graduates of the Academy on Silecia. Sid, Trunk, these are my parents Bane and Hobby Dambro."

We shook hands across the table, mindful of the steaming plates of food. I smiled at both of them and waited for River to drop the other shoe.

"Mom, Dad. Sid and I intend to marry."

"Indeed? Then you met a Baron somewhere and have fallen in love?" Hobby said. I watched Bane Dambro's eyes lock back on me with renewed interest. I was glad I had shaken hands with him first. If he still had my hand I might not have gotten free as easily as I did with River's mom.

"Well, I wasn't a Baron when we met."

"I know who gave me my skystone now too." River said, dropping the third shoe. She nodded at me and I pulled my matching stone out as she did hers.

"My father, for reasons of his own gave her his skystone all those years ago. Not too long after, my mother gave me hers." I said.

"Who is your father to be doing something like this?" Hobby asked.

"His father is Weaver McKesson, the High Wizard of Arbor." River answered for me. "I have met him recently, and he foresaw the day when Mat and I would meet and fall in love, and he gave me the stone to protect me until the time we met."

"Mat?" Bane asked.

"I was born Mat McKesson, just as River was born Sparrow Dambro."

"You are Transformed as well?"

"Yes sir." I answered.

"What about you then?" Bane said to Trunk. "Are you some long lost Prince, recently returned to life by some feat of love or magic? This is starting to sound like a storybook tale after all."

"Me?" Trunk said with a snort. "I'm as normal as normal could be. Well, as normal as the third son of a wealthy family can be, I guess. I'm just a friend, tried and true."

"Like in the storybooks!" Hobby Dambro crowed.

So we ate our morning meal and told the story, first the stories of our separate adventures, which took the entire meal. The telling of our combined adventures came while we sipped Cintosa afterwards.

"So are we just a stop on the way to your next adventure?" Hobby asked at the end.

"We're here so you can meet the man I love, Mama." River answered. "From here I think we will go to the Valley of the Wind to meet Sid's mother. There are a few others to meet as well, and some things to see. Then maybe we'll decided when and where to wed."

"Actually, we have to make a report to Trunk's father first." I said. "We were on business for him when we met River in Seacroft, and we do owe him an accounting."

"True enough." Trunk said. "We were employees of Gurmot, Gurmot and Sons too, for, what, has it been close to six months now? Am I counting that right? Well, half a year's pay as troubleshooters for Gurmot, Gurmot and Sons is nothing to sneeze at."

"In the meantime. We hope to spend a few days, maybe enjoy an outing or two — perhaps take a trip to the market so River can show me off to all her childhood playmates."