The Witcher

BLOOD OF ELVES V

'Ciri practised for nearly six months without a sword,' said Coen. 'She knows how to move. And we are keeping an eye on her because—'

'Because this is her home,' finished Geralt quietly but firmly. Very firmly. Using a tone which put an end to the discussion.

'Exactly. It is.' Vesemir took a deep breath. 'Triss, you must be tired. And hungry?'

'I cannot deny it,' she sighed, giving up on trying to catch Geralt's eye. 'To be honest, I'm on my last legs. I spent last night on the Trail in a shepherd's hut which was practically falling apart, buried in straw and sawdust. I used spells to insulate the shack; if it weren't for that I would probably be dead. I long for clean linen.'

'You will have supper with us now. And then you will sleep as long as you wish, and rest. We have prepared the best room for you, the one in the tower. And we have put the best bed we could find in Kaer Morhen there.'

'Thank you.' Triss smiled faintly. In the tower, she thought. All right, Vesemir. Let it be the tower for today, if appearances matter so much to you. I can sleep in the tower in the best of all the beds in Kaer Morhen. Although I would prefer to sleep with Geralt in the worst.

'Let's go, Triss.'

'Let's go.'

The wind hammered against the shutters and ruffled the remains of the moth-eaten tapestries which had been used to insulate the window. Triss lay in perfect darkness in the best bed in the whole of Kaer Morhen. She couldn't sleep - and not because the best bed in Kaer Morhen was a dilapidated antique. Triss was thinking hard. And all the thoughts chasing sleep away revolved around one fundamental question.

What had she been summoned to the fortress for? Who had summoned her? Why? For what purpose?

Vesemir's illness was just a pretext. Vesemir was a witcher. The fact that he was also an old man did not change the fact that many a youngster could envy him his health. If the old man had been stung by a manticore or bitten by a werewolf Triss would have accepted that she had been summoned to aid him. But 'aching bones' was a joke. For an ache in his bones, not a very original complaint within the horrendously cold walls of Kaer Morhen, Vesemir could have treated with a witchers' elixir or — an even simpler solution - with strong rye vodka, applied internally and externally in equal proportions. He didn't need a magician, with her spells, filters and amulets.

So who had summoned her? Geralt?

Triss thrashed about in the bedclothes, feeling a wave of heat come over her. And a wave of arousal, made all the stronger by anger. She swore quietly, kicked her quilt away and rolled on to her side. The ancient bedstead squeaked and creaked. I've no control over myself, she thought. I'm behaving like a stupid adolescent. Or even worse — like an old maid deprived of affection. I can't even think logically.

She swore again.

Of course it wasn't Geralt. Don't get excited, little one. Don't get excited, just think of his expression in the stable. You've seen expressions like that before. You've seen them, so don't kid yourself. The foolish, contrite, embarrassed expressions of men who want to forget, who regret, who don't want to remember what happened, don't want to go back to what has been.

By all the gods, little one, don't fool yourself it's different this time. It's never different. And you know it. Because, after all, you've had a fair amount of experience.

As far as her erotic life was concerned, Triss Merigold had the right to consider herself a typical enchantress. It had began with the sour taste of f*******n fruit, made all the more exciting by the strict rules of the academy and the prohibitions of the mistress under whom she practised. Then came her independence, freedom and a crazy promiscuity which ended, as it usually does, in bitterness, disillusionment and resignation. Then followed a long period of loneliness and the discovery that if she wanted to release her tension and stress then someone who wanted to consider himself her lord and master - as soon as he had turned on his back and wiped the sweat from his brow - was entirely superfluous. There were far less troublesome ways of calming her nerves - ones with the additional advantages of not staining her towels with blood, not passing wind under the quilt and not demanding breakfast. That was followed by a short-lived and entertaining fascination with the same s*x, which ended in the conclusion that soiling towels, passing wind and greediness were by no means exclusively male attributes. Finally, like all but a few magicians, Triss moved to affairs with other wizards, which proved sporadic and frustrating in their cold, technical and almost ritual course.

Then Geralt of Rivia appeared. A witcher leading a stormy life, and tied to her good friend Yennefer in a strange, turbulent and almost violent relationship.

Triss had watched them both and was jealous even though it seemed there was little to be jealous of. Their relationship quite obviously made them both unhappy, had led straight to destruction, pain and yet, against all logic ... it had lasted. Triss couldn't understand it. And it had fascinated her. It had fascinated her to such an extent that . . . she had seduced the witcher - with the help of a little magic. She had hit on a propitious moment, a moment when he and Yennefer had scratched at each other's eyes yet again and had abruptly parted. Geralt had needed warmth, and had wanted to forget.

No, Triss had not desired to take him away from Yennefer. As a matter of fact, her friend was more important to her than he was. But her brief relationship with the witcher had not disappointed. She had found what she was looking for - emotions in the form of guilt, anxiety and pain. His pain. She had experienced his emotions, it had excited her and, when they parted, she had been unable to forget it. And she had only recently understood what pain is.

The moment when she had overwhelmingly wanted to be with him again. For a short while - just for a moment - to be with him.

And now she was so close . . . Triss clenched her fist and punched the pillow. No, she thought, no. Don't be silly. Don't think about it. Think about . . . About Ciri. Is she . . .

Yes. She was the real reason behind her visit to Kaer Morhen. The ash-blonde girl who, here in Kaer Morhen, they want to turn into a witcher. A real witcher. A mutant. A killing machine, like themselves.

It's clear, she suddenly thought, feeling a passionate arousal of an entirely different nature. It's obvious. They want to mutate the child, subject her to the Trial of Grasses and Changes, but they don't know how to do it. Vesemir was the only witcher left from the previous generation, and he was only a fencing instructor. The

Laboratorium, hidden in the vaults of Kaer Morhen, with its dusty demi-Johns of elixirs, the alembics, ovens and retorts . . . None of the witchers knew how to use them. The mutagenic elixirs had been concocted by some renegade wizard in the distant past and then perfected over the years by the wizard's successors, who had, over the years, magically controlled the process of Changes to which children were subjected. And at a vital moment the chain had snapped. There was no more magical knowledge or power. The witchers had the herbs and Grasses, they had the Laboratorium. They knew the recipe. But they had no wizard.

Who knows, she thought, perhaps they have tried ? Have they given children concoctions prepared without the use of magic?

She shuddered at the thought of what might have happened to those children.

And now they want to mutate the girl but can't. And that might mean . . . They may ask me to help. And then I'll see something no living wizard has seen, I'll learn something no living wizard has learned. Their famous Grasses and herbs, the secret virus cultures, the renowned, mysterious recipes . . .

And I will be the one to give the child a number of elixirs, who will watch the Changes of mutation, who will watch, with my own eyes . . .

Watch the ashen-haired child die.

Oh, no. Triss shuddered again. Never. Not at such a price.

Besides, she thought, I've probably got excited too soon again. That's probably not what this is about. We talked over supper, gossiped about this and that. I tried to guide the conversation to the Child Surprise several times to no avail. They changed the subject at once.

She had watched them. Vesemir had been tense and troubled; Geralt uneasy, Lambert and Eskel falsely merry and talkative, Coen so natural as to be unnatural. The only one who had been sincere and open was Ciri, rosy-cheeked from the cold, dishevelled, happy and devilishly voracious. They had eaten beer potage, thick with croutons and cheese, and Ciri had been surprised they had not served mushrooms as well. They had drunk cider, but the girl had been given water and was clearly both astonished and revolted by it.

'Where's the salad?' she had yelled, and Lambert had rebuked her sharply and ordered her to take her elbows off the table.

Mushrooms and salad. In December?

Of course, thought Triss. They're feeding her those legendary cave saprophytes - a mountain plant unknown to science - giving her the famous infusions of their mysterious herbs to drink.

The girl is developing quickly, is acquiring a witcher's infernal fitness. Naturally, without the mutation, without the risk, without the hormonal upheaval. But the magician must not know this. It is to be kept a secret from the magician. They aren't going to tell me anything; they aren't going to show me anything.

I saw how that girl ran. I saw how she danced on the beam with her sword, agile and swift, full of a dancer's near-feline grace, moving like an acrobat. I must, she thought, I absolutely must see her body, see how she's developing under the influence of whatever it is they're feeding her. And what if I managed to steal samples of these 'mushrooms' and 'salads' and take them away? Well, well . . .

And trust? I don't give a fig for your trust, witchers. There's cancer out there in the world, smallpox, tetanus and leukaemia, there are allergies, there's cot death. And you're keeping your 'mushrooms', which could perhaps be distilled and turned into life-saving medicines, hidden away from the world. You're keeping them a secret even from me, and others to whom you declare your friendship, respect and trust. Even I'm f*******n to see not just the Laboratorium, but even the b****y mushrooms!

So why did you bring me here? Me, a magician?

Magic!

Triss giggled. Ha, she thought, witchers, I've got you! Ciri scared you just as she did me. She 'withdrew' into a daydream, started to prophesy, gave out an aura which, after all, you can sense almost as well as I can. She automatically reached for something psy-chokinetically, or bent a pewter spoon with her will as she stared at it during lunch. She answered questions you only thought, and maybe even some which you were afraid to ask yourselves. And you felt fear. You realised that your Surprise is more surprising than you had imagined.

You realised that you have the Source in Kaer Morhen.

And that, you can't manage without a magician.

And you don't have a single friendly magician, not a single one you could trust. Apart from me and . . .

And Yennefer.

The wind howled, banged the shutter and swelled the tapestry. Triss rolled on to her back and, lost in thought, started to bite her thumb nail.

Geralt had not invited Yennefer. He had invited her. Does that mean . . . ?

Who knows. Maybe. But if it's as I think then why . . . ?

Why . . .?

'Why hasn't he come to me?' she shouted quietly into the darkness, angry and aroused.

She was answered by the wind howling amidst the ruins.

The morning was sunny but devilishly cold. Triss woke chilled through and through, without having had enough sleep, but finally assured and decided.

She was the last to go down to the hall. She accepted the tribute of gazes which rewarded her efforts - she had changed her travel clothes for an attractive but simple dress and had skilfully applied magical scents and non-magical but incredibly expensive cosmetics. She ate her porridge chatting with the witchers about unimportant and trivial matters.

'Water again?' muttered Ciri suddenly, peering into her tumbler. 'My teeth go numb when I drink water! I want some juice! That blue one!'

'Don't slouch,' said Lambert, stealing a glance at Triss from the corner of his eye. 'And don't wipe your mouth with your sleeve! Finish your food; it's time for training. The days are getting shorter.'

'Geralt.' Triss finished her porridge. 'Ciri fell on the Trail yesterday. Nothing serious, but it was because of that jester's outfit she wears. It all fits so badly, and it hinders her movements.'

Vesemir cleared his throat and turned his eyes away. Aha, thought the enchantress, so it's your work, master of the sword. Predictable enough, Ciri's short tunic does look as if it has been cut out with a knife and sewn together with an arrow-head.

'The days are, indeed, getting shorter,' she continued, not waiting for a comment. 'But we're going to make today shorter still. Ciri, have you finished? Come with me, if you please. We shall make some vital adjustments to your uniform.'

'She's been running around in this for a year, Merigold,' said Lambert angrily. 'And everything was fine until . . .'

"... until a woman arrived who can't bear to look at clothes in poor taste which don't fit? You're right, Lambert. But a woman has arrived, and the old order's collapsed; a time of great change has arrived. Come on, Ciri.'

The girl hesitated, looked at Geralt. Geralt nodded his agreement and smiled. Pleasantly. Just as he had smiled in the past when, when . . . Triss turned her eyes away. His smile was not for her.

Ciri's little room was a faithful replica of the witchers' quarters. It was, like theirs, devoid of almost all fittings and furniture. There was practically nothing there beside a few planks nailed together to form a bed, a stool and a trunk. Witchers decorated the walls and doors of their quarters with the skins of animals they killed when hunting - stags, lynx, wolves and even wolverines. On the door of Ciri's little room, however, hung the skin of an enormous rat with a hideous scaly tail. Triss fought back her desire to tear the stinking abomination down and throw it out of the window.

The girl, standing by the bed, stared at her expectantly.

'We'll try,' said the enchantress, 'to make this . . . sheath fit a little better. I've always had a knack for cutting and sewing so I ought to be able to manage this goatskin, too. And you, little witcher-girl, have you ever had a needle in your hand? Have you been taught anything other than making holes with a sword in sacks of straw?'

'When I was in Transriver, in Kagen, I had to spin,' muttered Ciri unwillingly. 'They didn't give me any sewing because I only spoilt the linen and wasted thread; they had to undo everything. The spinning was terribly boring - yuk!'

'True,' giggled Triss. 'It's hard to find anything more boring. I hated spinning, too.'

'And did you have to? I did because . . . But you're a wi— magician. You can conjure anything up! That amazing dress . . . did you conjure it up?'

'No.' Triss smiled. 'Nor did I sew it myself. I'm not that talented.'

'And my clothes, how are you going to make them? Conjure them up?'

'There's no need. A magic needle is enough, one which we shall charm into working more vigorously. And if there's a need . . .'

Triss slowly ran her hand across the torn hole in the sleeve of Ciri's jacket, murmuring a spell while stimulating an amulet to work. Not a trace remained of the hole. Ciri squealed with joy.

'That's magic! I'm going to have a magical jacket! Wow!'

'Only until I make you an ordinary - but good - one. Right, now take all that off, young lady, and change into something else. These aren't your only clothes, surely?'

Ciri shook her head, lifted the lid of the trunk and showed her a faded loose dress, a dark grey tunic, a linen shirt and a woollen blouse resembling a penitent's sack.

'This is mine,' she said. 'This is what I came in. But I don't wear it now. It's woman's stuff.'

'I understand.' Triss grimaced mockingly. 'Woman's or not, for the time being you'll have to change into it. Well, get on with it, get undressed. Let me help you . . . Damn it! What's this? Ciri?'

The girl's shoulders were covered in massive bruises, suffused with blood. Most of them had already turned yellow; some were fresh.

‘What the hell is this?' the magician repeated angrily. ‘Who beat you like this?'

'This?' Ciri looked at her shoulders as if surprised by the number of bruises. 'Oh, this . . . That was the windmill. I was too slow.'

‘What windmill? b****y hell!'

'The windmill,' repeated Ciri, raising her huge eyes to look up at the magician. 'It's a sort of . . . Well . . . I'm using it to learn to dodge while attacking. It's got these paws made of sticks and it turns and waves the paws. You have to jump very quickly and dodge. You have to learn a lefrex. If you haven't got the lefrex the windmill wallops you with a stick. At the beginning, the windmill gave me a really terribly horrible thrashing. But now—'

'Take the leggings and shirt off. Oh, sweet gods! Dear girl! Can you really walk? Run?'

Both hips and her left thigh were black and blue with haematomas and swellings. Ciri shuddered and hissed, pulling away from the magician's hand. Triss swore viciously in Dwarvish, using inexpressibly foul language.

'Was that the windmill, too?' she asked, trying to remain calm.

'This? No. This, this was the windmill.' Ciri pointed indifferently to an impressive bruise below her left knee, covering her shin. 'And these other ones . . . They were the pendulum. I practise my fencing steps on the pendulum. Geralt says I'm already good at the pendulum. He says I've got . . . Flair. I've got flair.'

And if you run out of flair' - Triss ground her teeth together -'I take it the pendulum thumps you?'

'But of course,' the girl confirmed, looking at her, clearly surprised at this lack of knowledge.

'It thumps you, and how.'

‘And here? On your side? What was that? A smith's hammer?'

Ciri hissed with pain and blushed.

'I fell off the comb . . .'

'. . . and the comb thumped you,' finished Triss, controlling herself with increasing difficulty.

Ciri snorted.

'How can a comb thump you when it's buried in the ground? It can't! I just fell. I was practising a jumping pirouette and it didn't work. That's where the bruise came from. Because I hit a post.'

And you lay there for two days? ? In pain? Finding it hard to breathe'

'Not at all. Coen rubbed it and put me straight back on the comb. You have to, you know? Otherwise you catch fear.'

'What?'

'You catch fear,' Ciri repeated proudly, brushing her ashen fringe from her forehead. 'Didn't you know? Even when something bad happens to you, you have to go straight back to that piece of equipment or you get frightened. And if you're frightened you'll be hopeless at the exercise. You mustn't give up. Geralt said so.'

'I have to remember that maxim,' the enchantress murmured through her teeth. 'And that it came from Geralt. Not a bad prescription for life although I'm not sure it applies in every situation. But it is easy to put into practise at someone else's expense. So you mustn't give up?

Even though you are being thumped and beaten in a thousand ways, you're to get up and carry on practising?'

'Of course. A witcher's not afraid of anything.'

'Is that so? And you, Ciri? You aren't afraid of anything? Answer truthfully.'

The girl turned away and bit her lip.

'You won't tell anybody?'

‘1 won’t.’

'I'm frightened of two pendulums. Two at the same time. And the windmill, but only when it's set to go fast. And there's also a long balance, I still have to go on that . . . with a safety de—

A safety device. Lambert says I'm a sissy and a wimp but that's not true. Geralt told me my weight is distributed a little differently because I'm a girl. I've simply got to practise more unless ... I wanted to ask you something. May I?'

'You may.'

'If you know magic and spells ... If you can cast them . . . Can you turn me into a boy?'

'No,' Triss replied in an icy tone. 'I can't.'

'Hmm . . .' The little witcher-girl was clearly troubled. 'But could you at least . . .'

'At least what?'

'Could you do something so I don't have to . . .' Ciri blushed. 'I'll whisper it in your ear.'

'Go on.' Triss leaned over. 'I'm listening.'

Ciri, growing even redder, brought her head closer to the enchantress's chestnut hair.

Triss sat up abruptly, her eyes flaming.

'Today? Now?'

'Mhm.'

'Hell and b****y damnation!' the enchantress yelled, and kicked the stool so hard that it hit the door and brought down the rat skin. 'Pox, plague, s**t and leprosy! I'm going to kill those cursed idiots!'

'Calm down, Merigold,' said Lambert. 'It's unhealthy to get so worked up, especially with no reason.'

'Don't preach at me! And stop calling me "Merigold"! But best of all, stop talking altogether.

I'm not speaking to you. Vesemir, Geralt, have any of you seen how terribly battered this child is? She hasn't got a single healthy spot on her body!'

'Dear child,' said Vesemir gravely, 'don't let yourself get carried away by your emotions. You were brought up differently, you've seen children being brought up in another way. Ciri comes from the south where girls and boys are brought up in the same way, like the elves. She was put on a pony when she was five and when she was eight she was already riding out hunting. She was taught to use a bow, javelin and sword. A bruise is nothing new to Ciri—'

'Don't give me that nonsense,' Triss flared. 'Don't pretend you're stupid. This is not some pony or horse or sleigh ride. This is Kaer Morhen! On these windmills and pendulums of yours, on this Killer path of yours, dozens of boys have broken their bones and twisted their necks, boys who were hard, seasoned vagabonds like you, found on roads and pulled out of gutters.

Sinewy scamps and good-for-nothings, pretty experienced despite their short lives. What chance has Ciri got? Even though she's been brought up in the south with elven methods, even growing up under the hand of a battle-axe like Lioness Calanthe, that little one was and still is a princess. Delicate skin, slight build, light bones . . . She's a girl! What do you want to turn her into? A witcher?'

'That girl,' said Geralt quietly and calmly, 'that petite, delicate princess lived through the m******e of Cintra. Left entirely to her own devices, she stole past Nilfgaard's cohorts. She successfully fled the marauders who prowled the villages, plundering and murdering anything that still lived. She survived on her own for two weeks in the forests of Transriver, entirely alone. She spent a month roaming with a pack of fugitives, slogging as hard as all the others and starving like all the others. For almost half a year, having been taken in by a peasant family, she worked on the land and with the livestock. Believe me, Triss, life has tried, seasoned and hardened her no less than good-for-nothings like us, who were brought to Kaer Morhen from the highways. Ciri is no weaker than unwanted bastards, like us, who were left with witchers in taverns like kittens in a wicker basket. And her gender? What difference does that make?'

'You still ask? You still dare ask that?' yelled the magician. 'What difference does it make? Only that the girl, not being like you, has her days! And bears them exceptionally badly! And you want her to tear her lungs out on the Killer and some b****y windmills!'

Despite her outrage, Triss felt an exquisite satisfaction at the sight of the sheepish expressions of the young witchers, and Vesemir's jaw suddenly dropping open.

'You didn't even know.' She nodded in what was now a calm, concerned and gentle reproach.

'You're pathetic guardians. She's ashamed to tell you because she was taught not to mention such complaints to men. And she's ashamed of the weakness, the pain and the fact that she is less fit. Has any one of you thought about that? Taken any interest in it? Or tried to guess what might be the matter with her? Maybe her very first bleed happened here, in Kaer Morhen? And she cried to herself at night, unable to find any sympathy, consolation or even understanding from anyone? Has any one of you given it any thought whatsoever?'

'Stop it, Triss,' moaned Geralt quietly. 'That's enough. You've achieved what you wanted. And maybe even more.'

'The devil take it,' cursed Coen. 'We've turned out to be right idiots, there's no two ways about it, eh, Vesemir, and you-’

'Silence,' growled the old witcher. 'Not a word.'

It was Eskel's behaviour which was most unlikely; he got up, approached the enchantress, bent down low, took her hand and kissed it respectfully. She swiftly withdrew her hand. Not so as to demonstrate her anger and annoyance but to break the pleasant, piercing vibration triggered by the witcher's touch. Eskel emanated powerfully. More powerfully than Geralt.

'Triss,' he said, rubbing the hideous scar on his cheek with embarrassment, 'help us. We ask you. Help us, Triss.'

The enchantress looked him in the eye and pursed her lips. 'With what? What am I to help you with, Eskel?'

Eskel rubbed his cheek again, looked at Geralt. The white-haired witcher bowed his head, hiding his eyes behind his hand. Vesemir cleared his throat loudly.

At that moment, the door creaked open and Ciri entered the hall. Vesemir's hawking changed into something like a wheeze, a loud indrawn breath. Lambert opened his mouth. Triss suppressed a laugh.

Ciri, her hair cut and styled, was walking towards them with tiny steps, carefully holding up a dark-blue dress - shortened and adjusted, and still showing the signs of having been carried in a saddle-bag. Another present from the enchantress gleamed around the girl's neck - a little black viper made of lacquered leather with a ruby eye and gold clasp.

Ciri stopped in front of Vesemir. Not quite knowing what to do with her hands, she planted her thumbs behind her belt.

'I cannot train today,' she recited in the utter silence, slowly and emphatically, 'for I am ... I am . . .'

She looked at the enchantress. Triss winked at her, smirking like a rascal well pleased with his mischief, and moved her lips to prompt the memorised lines.

'Indisposed!' ended Ciri loudly and proudly, turning her nose up almost to the ceiling.

Vesemir hawked again. But Eskel, dear Eskel, kept his head and once more behaved as was fitting.

'Of course,' he said casually, smiling. 'We understand and clearly we will postpone your exercises until your indisposition has passed. We will also cut the theory short and, if you feel unwell, we will put it aside for the time being, too. If you need any medication or—'

'I'll take care of that,' Triss cut in just as casually.

'Aha . . .' Only now did Ciri blush a little - she looked at the old witcher. 'Uncle Vesemir, I've asked Triss . . . that is, Miss Merigold, to . . . that is . . . Well, to stay here with us. For longer.

For a long time. But Triss said you have to agree forsooth. Uncle Vesemir! Say yes!'

'I agree . . .' Vesemir wheezed out. 'Of course, I agree . . .'

'We are very happy.' Only now did Geralt take his hand from his forehead. 'We are extremely pleased, Triss.'

The enchantress nodded slightly towards him and innocently fluttered her eyelashes, winding a chestnut lock around her finger. Geralt's face seemed almost graven from stone. 

'You behaved very properly and politely, Ciri,' he said, 'offering Miss Merigold our ongoing hospitality in Kaer Morhen. I am proud of you.'

Ciri reddened and smiled broadly. The enchantress gave her the next pre-arranged sign.