The Witcher

A SHARD OF ICE II

"You stink, Geralt," Yennefer frowned, not turning from the mirror before which she removed the make-up from her eyelids and lashes. "Take a bath".

"There's no water," he said, peering into the tub.

"We'll sort something out." The sorceress stood up and opened wide the window. "Would you prefer seawater or fresh water?"

"Sea, for a change."

Yennefer quickly threw open her arms, then cast a spell by performing a swift, intricate gesture with her fingers. A strong wind blew through the open window, cool and damp. The shutters rattled as an irregular green sphere burst, whistling, into the room, disturbing the dust. The tub foamed with water, heaving restlessly, beating against the edges and splashing out onto the floor. The sorceress returned to her original task.

"Did it go well?" she asked. "What was it?"

"A zeugl, as I thought." Geralt pulled off his boots, threw off his clothes and plunged a foot into the tub. "Damn, Yen, it's cold. Can't you heat it up?"

"No." The sorceress said. Bringing her face nearer to the mirror, she placed a few drops of something in her eye with a pipette. "That type of spell is terribly exhausting and makes me feel sick. Anyway, after the elixirs, the cold water will do you good."

Geralt did not argue. Arguing with Yennefer was pointless. 

"Did the zeugl cause you difficulty?"

The sorceress plunged the pipette into the bottle and moistened her other eye, grimacing comically.

"Not especially."

They heard a loud noise on the other side of the opened window, the sharp c***k of breaking wood and a slurred falsetto voice, brazenly reciting the chorus of a popular bawdy song.

"A zeugl." The sorceress grabbed a second bottle from amongst the imposing battery of containers that stood on the table and drew out the cork. The smell of lilac and gooseberries filled room. "You see, even in the city it's easy for a witcher to find work. You don't have to roam the wilds. Istredd maintains that after the extinction of a forest or marsh creature, another one always replaces it; a new mutation adapted to the artificial environment created by humans."

As usual, Geralt frowned when Yennefer mentioned Istredd. The witcher was starting to get fed up with her going on about the genius of Istredd. Even when Istredd was right.

"Istredd is right," continued Yennefer massaging her cheeks and eyelids with the potion that smelt of lilac and gooseberries. "You've seen it yourself: pseudo-rats in sewers and cellars, zeugls in the refuse, platocorises in filthy ditches and drains, giant molluscs rampant in the mill ponds. It's almost symbiotic, don't you think?"

And ghouls in the graveyards devouring the dead a day after the funeral, he thought, rinsing the soap from his body. Utterly symbiotic.

"Yes..." The sorceress pushed back the bottles and jars. "Even in city, there's work for a witcher. I think you'll eventually settle down permanently in some market town, Geralt."

The devil take me first! he thought, but kept it to himself. To contradict Yennefer would have inevitably led to a quarrel and quarrelling with Yennefer could be dangerous.

"Have you finished, Geralt?"

"Yes."

"Get out of the tub."

Without getting up, Yennefer casually waved her hand and cast a spell. The water from the tub, along with that which spilled onto the floor and dripped from Geralt came together in a translucent sphere, then flew, whistling, out of the window. There was a loud splash.

"A plague upon you, you son of a w***e!" came an angry shout from below."Don't you know where to chuck out your piss? May you be eaten alive by lice! Until you are dead!"

The sorceress closed the window.

"Damn, Yen," the witcher chuckled. "Couldn't you throw the water away somewhere else?" 

"I could have," she muttered, "but I didn't feel like it."

She took a lantern from the table and approached the witcher. Her white nightgown, clinging to every slight movement of her body, cut an incredibly enchanting vision. More so than if she were n***d, he thought.

"I want to examine you," she said. "The zeugl could have wounded you."

"It didn't wound me. I would've felt it."

"After the elixirs? Don't make me laugh. You wouldn't have felt a fracture unless the bone was poking out and catching on things. And the zeugl could have given you anything including tetanus and blood poisoning. You have to be checked. Turn around."

He felt the warmth of the lantern on his body, and the occasional caress of her hair.

"You seem to be alright," she said. "Lie down before the potions knock you down. Those potions are terribly dangerous. They'll eventually kill you."

"I have to take them before a fight."

Yennefer did not respond. She sat before the mirror once again, combing her long, black, shiny curls. She always combed her hair before going to bed. Geralt thought it strange, but he loved to watch her do it. He suspected that Yennefer knew this.

He suddenly felt very cold, the elixirs making him shiver violently. His neck grew stiff and the effects finally settled in the pit of his stomach in swirling eddies of nausea. Her swore under his breath and collapsed on the bed, his gaze still on Yennefer.

A movement in the corner of the room caught his eye and he looked closer. Nailed crookedly to the wall were some deer antlers, covered in cobwebs, atop which perched a small black bird.

Turning its head sideways, the bird fixed the witcher with a yellow, unmoving stare.

"What's that, Yen? Where did it come from?"

"What?" Yennefer turned around. "Oh, that! It's a kestrel."

"A kestrel? Kestrels are speckled russet. That one's black."

"It's a magical kestrel. I made it myself."

"Why?" 

"I need it for something," she replied coldly.

Geralt didn't ask any more questions, knowing that Yennefer would not answer them.

"Are you going to see Istredd tomorrow?" 

The sorceress pushed back the bottles on the table, placed her comb in a small casket and closed the leaves of the triptych mirror.

"Yes, I'm going in the morning. Why?"

"Nothing."

She lay next to him without putting out the lantern. She was unable to sleep in the dark, so she never put out the light. Whether the lamp was a night light or candle, it always had to burn to the last. Always. Another eccentricity. Yennefer had an incredible amount of eccentricities.

"Yen?"

"Yes?"

"When are we going back on the road?"

"Stop going on about it." Yennefer pulled on the eiderdown roughly. "We've been here three days and you've already asked this question about thirty times. I told you: I have business here in the city."

"With Istredd?"

"Yes."

He sighed and embraced her without concealing his intentions.

"Hey!" she whispered. "You took the elixirs..."

"So what?"

"Nothing." she giggled like a teenager.

She nestled against him then wriggled around so that she could remove her nightgown more easily. Delighting in her nakedness, as usual Geralt felt a shiver go down his spine and a tingling in his fingers as they came into contact with Yennefer's bare skin. His lips lightly touched her breasts, rounded and delicate with n*****s so pale they were only apparent by their prominence. His hands got lost in the tangle of her hair, sweet with the fragrance of lilac and gooseberries.

Yennefer gave herself up to his caresses, purring like a cat, wrapping her legs around his hips.

The witcher soon realised that he had, as usual, overestimated his resistance to the elixirs and had forgotten their negative effects on the body.

Maybe it's not the elixirs, he thought. Maybe it's down to battle fatigue and the ever present risk of death. It's a fatigue that's so routine, I often forget about it. My body, even though it's enhanced, can't fight that routine. It reacts in the usual way, but the only trouble is that it happens when you don't want it to. Damn it...

As usual, Yennefer didn't allow herself to lose heart over such a trifle. He felt her touch and heard her soft murmur in his ear. As usual, he thought of the countless number of times she'd needed to use this very practical spell. And then he thought of it no more.

As usual, it was extraordinary.

He gazed at her mouth, the corners quivering in an involuntary smile. He knew this smile well; more a smile of triumph than happiness. He never asked her about it. He knew that she wouldn't have answered him.

The black kestrel, perched on the deer's antlers, flapped its wings and snapped its crooked beak. Yennefer turned her head and sighed with great sadness.

"Yen?"

"Nothing, Geralt." She kissed him. "It's Nothing."

The lantern shone with a flickering light. In the wall, a mouse scratched and a beetle rustled quietly and rhythmically in the chest of drawers.

"Yen?"

"Hmm?"

"Let's get away from here. I have a bad feeling about this place. This city has a malignant effect on me."

The sorceress turned on her side and caressed his cheek, pushing away strands of hair. Her fingers slid lower, touching the calloused scar that ran across his neck.

"Do you know what the name of this city means? Aedd Gynvael?"

"No. Is it the language of the elves?"

"Yes. It means 'Shard of Ice'."

"That's strange, it doesn't suit this disgusting hell-hole."

"Amongst the elves," she whispered thoughtfully, "there is the legend of the Queen of Winter, travelling across the country through a blizzard on a sleigh drawn by white horses. 

She sows hard, sharp, tiny shards of ice as she goes and woe betide he should one of these shards pierce his eye or his heart. That someone is lost forever. Nothing will be able to cheer him, all that is not the pure white of snow will become for him ugly, hateful, disgusting. He will not know peace and, forsaking all, will follow the Queen in pursuit of his dream and his love. Of course, he will never find it and will die of sorrow. Apparently in this city, in ancient times, such a thing happened. It's a beautiful legend, isn't it?" 

"The elves know how to dress everything up with pretty words," mumbled Geralt sleepily, tracing her shoulder with his lips. "It's not a legend, Yen. It's a beautiful way to describe the terrible phenomenon called the Wild Hunt, a curse apparent in certain lands. An irrational collective insanity drives people to follow the ghostly procession racing across the sky. I've seen it. Indeed, it's not uncommon in winter. I've been offered a lot of money to end the curse, but I didn't take it. Nothing can stand against the Wild Hunt..."

"Witcher," Yennefer murmured, kissing his cheek, "you possess not one ounce of romanticism. I... I love the legends of the elves; they're so beautiful. It's a pity that humans don't have such legends. Maybe one day they'll create some? But what will their legends be like? All around, everywhere you look, is dullness and uncertainty. Even something born of beauty soon leads to boredom and banality, commonplace, the human ritual, the tedious rhythm of life. Oh, Geralt, it's not easy being a sorceress, but in comparison with ordinary human existence... Geralt?"

She laid her head on his chest, feeling his slow, rhythmic breathing.

"Sleep," she whispered, "Sleep, witcher."