207) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 39 -- A Gift of Love

Throughout Juanita’s excellent breakfast the next morning, a steady trickle of well-wishers came to thank them for what they were doing for the town. 

Kohra slipped into the kitchen to talk to Juanita, who was at that moment in mid-stir of a very mushroomy risotto. Juanita reassured her right away. No matter what, she would help them, and as Kohra tried to apologize for bringing so many problems into her life, she waved her away. “Oh pooh, Kohra, I’ll hear none of that! For one thing, you didn’t bring problems into my life. You just brought yourself, and whatever comes along with that wonderful gift, I accept.” 

Her smile was so warm and reassuring, Kohra’s knees melted a little. She wanted to tell Juanita what the woman meant to her, how inspiring she found her, how…oh Hells, she just wanted to hug her. Instead, she blushed furiously, then as she saw Juanita noticing, blushed even more furiously. 

“Anyway, it’s not IF you come back, but WHEN you come back. You got that? You take care of this thing and you come back. If you need a quick escape, I will personally make sure you’re packed and ready for a long trek into wherever you need to go next. I’ll get Klardynne on it right away. It’s the least the town can do for you.”

She reached out and hugged Kohra, tightly. She smelled like lilac and strawberries. 

“I cannot thank you enough. Everything you’ve done for us, it’s….” Kohra spread her hands, shrugging like it was just too much to put into words.

“We’ll celebrate when you return.” Juanita smiled.

Kohra wanted to say more. She wanted to rush the words out of her mouth and declare her love right then and there. But instead she found herself unable to say anything at all. She felt like she was going to explode. She started to salute, the way she’d seen Captain Klardynne and Melkorn do it. But she caught herself partway, felt ridiculous, and stopped, awkwardly turning it into Gorb’s sign instead, raising her hand high into the air, first like a fist, then fingers wide. The sign of the Light. 

Juanita threw back her head and laughed. “You’re no LightSinger!” She gave her a high-five instead, wrapping her up in another hug. Kohra felt sure that her knees would never be solid again. All she wanted in that moment was to be held. Forever.

Instead, she fell back on humour. In a deep, solemn voice, she intoned, “Miss Juanita, Master of the Kitchen, Secret Ally of the Northern Realms, you are now an official member of the Master Blasters.”

Juanita laughed. “You are actually going to call yourselves that?”

Kohra laughed as well, shrugging. “You know Lenny, once she gets her mind set….”

Juanita bowed. “I am honoured to be invited into such esteemed company.” Then with a sly smile, she added, “And now that I’m an official member, you cannot refuse this.” 

“What? You —” but Juanita cut her off.

“Now listen, there is NO arguing about this! I have held onto this since a lifetime ago. I figured if I was ever in some kind of danger, I would use it. But you know, now I feel like I was saving it all this time for you. I just hadn’t met you yet.” Her eyes were so wide open, blue, like Kohra’s mother’s.

Speechless, Kohra nodded. 

From a wide pocket in her apron, Juanita pulled a silky, deep-wine-red cloth, the material light and slippery. It was a cloak, magnificently stitched with a flame-like pattern that shimmered as it caught the light.

“Oh, wow. Oh Gods. Juanita, it’s, it’s beautiful! I’ve never…. Oh, wow. It must be worth, oh, no! No! I…I…you can’t….”

Juanita placed a finger on Kohra’s lips. “No arguing, remember? As an official member of the team, it’s my duty to do what I can to help. You must accept.” As she spoke, she reached behind Kohra, placing the cloak around her shoulders and affixing the clasp around her neck. 

“My great, great grandfather — his name was Theophilus although everyone called him Phil — was the first in my family to get this Cloak, at great peril to himself, and it’s been mostly unused ever since. Although one of my uncles, Uncle Jorges, used it for robbing banks, years back.” She laughed heartily, wiping tears from her eyes. 

“Other than that, it’s been hanging in closets. So use it. According to the instructions he left, you can safely use it once a day. I’m not sure what happens if you use it twice.” She smiled even more broadly, nodding. “Yes, this feels so right. Maybe this will make it more likely that you’ll come back some day and tell me your stories. But yes, this is right. Ol’ Phil would approve.” She placed her hands over Kohra’s, pressing her fingers into the silky cloth. 

“It’s so beautiful,” Kohra breathed, watching the sleek fabric ripple as she moved. She twirled, bursting out into sudden laughter. “This is the most beautiful cloak in the worlds! I feel like a princess! Gods, Juanita, now THAT is one thing I never thought I’d say!”

Juanita laughed. “You look like a noblewoman, out traveling the countryside.”

Kohra stared at the cloth, rubbing it between her fingers. “Um, what did you mean, ‘use it’?” 

Juanita leaned even closer, whispering into her ear. “Kohra, this is known as a Cloak of Nether. It folds space. When you’re wearing it, you can take a single step forward, and travel instantly to any spot you can see, or clearly imagine, if it’s not too far away. I think it’s about a half-mile at most. But only one time each day. It’s…it’s very old, Kohra.”

Kohra was, once again, too dumbfounded to speak. Finally she stammered, “F-fold space? You mean…you mean like…I don’t get it.”

“It’s like traveling from here, where you are right now, to over there.” She pointed at the other side of the room. “But without traveling the distance in between; you kind of fold up the space in the middle into a doorway, and step through the door. Then space unfolds again and you’re on the other side.”

“This is…I’ve never seen…Juanita, ohhhh, wow.” Suddenly her eyes widened like she was afraid. “I can’t accept —”

Juanita interrupted smoothly, placing her finger again on Kohra’s lips. “It’s mine to give. And I’m giving it to you.”

“B-but I don’t know, I don’t, like, how….” Kohra looked down at the iridescent cloak, which seemed to swirl in its depths as it caught the dim light. It was mesmerizing. She took a deep breath. Then another. “What do I say? What’s the right way to accept something like, this? Juanita, I, I’m overwhelmed. It’s too much.”

“Your way,” Juanita replied, eyes sparkling.

“What?”

“The right way to accept such a gift, is your way. Maybe it’s just this — telling me you’re overwhelmed.” Juanita smiled again, that unguarded, impish smile. “It’s your openness, Kohra. It’s how you show people your Real Self. That’s what sets you apart.” She leaned in close, kissed her on the cheek, then the other, and turned back to her risotto. “Oh! I’ve got to get back to this. Good risotto is extremely unforgiving of negligent cooks.” But it was obvious that she was barely attending to what she was doing.

“Go, Kohra.” Her voice was cracking. “Go now, ok? Or I’m never gonna let you.”

Kohra stumbled through another round of thank-yous, hugged one more time, and then, somehow, despite her brain’s fierce protests, her feet managed to walk her out of the kitchen. She stopped immediately outside the door and brought the Cloak to her face, inhaling deeply. Strawberries and lilac. 

Then she bolted for the bathroom, locked the door, and leaned against the wall, holding the silky material in her hands, then against her cheeks. 

She couldn’t believe what had just happened. This Cloak! It was the most incredible, most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. It rippled like the purple surface of a lake at dusk. And, it had been hers.It even smelled like her.

She leaned against the bathroom wall until she heard the others calling. It was time to go. But she stayed a minute longer. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy. And she could barely remember ever feeling this sad. 

* * * * *

Melkorn was waiting outside when they all emerged from the Inn. 

“Damn, Melkorn, you look like a beast!” Lenny cried. He was fully decked out in leather-and-wood armour, lashed together with thick cords. It looked like he’d made it himself. He’d also strapped a large wooden shield to his back, and a short sword to each leg, like daggers. In his hands, he hefted a humongous battle-axe, shining blade shaped at each end into an elegant spike. He grinned. 

Behind him stood Captain Klardynne, trying not to look too conspicuously grumpy, although he had made no secret of the fact that he disagreed with their decision. He’d eventually relented, mainly because of Lenny; she could be very persuasive. To his credit, he had assigned a squad of twenty cavalry to accompany them, each soldier heavily armoured, carrying wicked-looking pikes, and the hammer-and-anvil flag of the Hammerites. Their instructions were to serve as escort, dropping them off at one of the outlying farms, not far from the Reaper’s last kill. 

For Dominic’s plan to work, they needed a field with a big tree near the center, and a barn close by. Klardynne had said he knew of the perfect place, about a half hour’s ride out of town. He’d assured them they would “probably” encounter no trouble, not with a group that size, and traveling fast on horseback. The Reaper never attacked recklessly, especially against well-armed squads. Instead, it stalked its prey, biding its time, waiting for the right moment when people were distracted or otherwise vulnerable. Kohra didn’t feel even marginally relieved by his meagre reassurances. Once they got to their destination, the cavalry was going to leave them, and they would be alone. And Klardynne had no reassurances about what would happen then.  

Not only Klardynne, but everyone else had tried to talk them out of it. It was kind of them; it was clearly in the town’s best interest if someone slayed the beast, and they still begged them all not to go. 

Telling the truth, especially against your own interest, is the mark of true friendship. 

Somehow, convinced that Dominic’s plan would work, that Gorb’s now-unresponsive Light would protect them, that this was all part of their sacred Quest, they didn’t back down. Each of them privately wanted to, and on their own would surely have changed their minds.  But there is a strange, idiotic magic to groups; they all too readily make decisions no single person would make on their own. And once made, it’s perversely difficult to change the group-mind. 

As they rode out of town, Kohra didn’t look back. She was on the verge of absolute panic, and didn’t want Juanita to see her fear. So she stared straight forward, nudging her mare to move alongside Dominic’s. About a minute later, they veered off onto a narrower path and then into a wide field, covered with flowers. It was beautiful, but Kohra knew the only reason they were taking it was to stay in the open. Once in the field, the soldiers pressed their horses hard, keen to spend as little time out there as possible. Within twenty minutes, they were in the field Klardynne had chosen, and the soldiers were wishing them well and saying their abrupt goodbyes. 

Kohra watched the dust settle as a sinking feeling settled into her own chest. Twenty minutes wasn’t very far from town. That’s how close the Reaper’s hunting grounds had gotten to the town itself. It was shrinking the circle of the Hammerites’ little society, making it smaller and smaller as the outlying farms became untenable, until they were all together, all in one place. Almost like it was planned.