The storage rooms were a tactician's dream come true. Kiah felt like she was in a history book, or rather being tested on one, specifically on the chapters concerning what items troops needed most and how far a person of what build could walk carrying how much. She gathered things to one side of the room, then put things back when the pile grew unreasonable, then added to it again. Ilari chirped helpful suggestions from time to time. The cheetah was patient and silently showed Kiah where to find anything specific she asked for, but she had the definite impression that it was rolling its eyes at her.
*I think the cat thinks we're silly,* Ilari whispered to her mentally.
"That's okay," she whispered back. "All cats are like that."
Finally she had a more or less finalized supply list, jotted down on a paper that became dog eared almost instantly. Shiva's new grown bulk would be a blessing when it came to carrying things. Assuming Zeke could talk her into the duty.
Kiah spent the night tossing and turning in bed, waking up every now and then to squint uselessly through the dark at her list. What kind of weather would they come across? What kind of terrain? Ugh, it was so unfair to have to plan without knowing what kind of ground you were covering!
*Kiah?* Ilari whispered in the dark.
Poor thing. He couldn't sleep either. Maybe he was afraid. He was still a very young dragon, after all. "Yes?"
*Go to sleep.*
"...Oh. Sorry."
Breakfast was tense the next morning. Kiah would wolf down a few bites, nerves jangling with anticipation, then catch herself and savor the next few mouthfuls as the last decent meal she was likely to enjoy in a long while. All the food she'd packed was geared toward being hardy and long lasting. Which basically meant a lot of hard dry things. Ilari, who had been there and knew this perfectly well and who had agreed with her that maybe they shouldn't mention this to any of the others until it was too late, ate his breakfast so slowly that it would have raised suspicion if anyone had been paying attention to him.
But Zeke and Shiva seemed absorbed in an unspoken conversation of their own, heads down except for frequent nervous glances up at Misfortune's empty chair. She didn't always join them for meals since she didn't need to eat, so her absence wouldn't have been strange- on any other day but this one.
It wasn't until Ilari had finished his last bite that Kiah caught a flash of deep green out of the corner of her eye. She nearly choked on the drink of water she had been swallowing.
Kiah had grown used to Misfortune. Her hair was frizzy as if she had been caught out in the rain, she padded around barefoot, she never shot up to ten feet tall or made the walls change shape or worked any other frivolous show of power. But now, even though she was doing nothing more than to stand calmly in front of her throne, feet still bare and hair still mussed, something was different. It wasn't visual. It was in the air, on the skin somehow. Something primal in her meat and bones mortality was shuddering with the awareness that something Other was in the room.
How could I have forgotten what she was? Kiah asked herself.
"All of you are ready to leave?" Misfortune said, the sadness in her voice thinning out the spell, though not breaking it. Kiah finished that last drink of water, set the glass down carefully, and nodded.
Misfortune turned to Zeke and Shiva. "And you haven't changed your mind."
Zeke smiled sadly. "No, my Lady."
Ilari shot Kiah a questioning look. Kiah shrugged in answer, wondering what were they talking about herself but not daring to speak.
"I thought not," Misfortune said. "I have a different offer, then. My blessing- if you would have it."
*...Isn't that a bad thing, though?* Ilari whispered. From the tone of his voice Kiah thought it had been for her 'ears' only, but Misfortune looked over at them.
"It is a complicated thing is what it is. Bear with me a while longer. You'll see. If it is accepted, that is?"
Kiah had the feeling that Zeke and Shiva were still talking together, or rather that they had already talked this over before and were now making some final decision. Shiva sat up, shoulders back and head held high as if in respect. Zeke shot her an affectionate look and reached up to ruffle her leg fur before turning back to Misfortune. He nodded firmly.
For the first time since the previous afternoon Misfortune smiled. "Kiah, I can't give you anything," she said, glancing over. "I would. But."
"But it wouldn't agree with you," Zeke explained with a grin.
"It really would not."
Kiah's throat was getting a little dry. She felt like she was just barely stepping out of the range of some supernatural archery target. "I don't mind, ma'am."
They didn't even seem to hear her; Misfortune's grin was creeping wider. "Very well. Zeke, come forward."
He set his shoulders and approached the dias, walking up the first few steps and dropping to one knee at the final one before the throne. It would have looked silly, but the expressions on both their faces were so solemn that somehow it turned into something graceful instead.
Misfortune reached one hand out and the ink black cheetah, always just a moment away it seemed, appeared and passed behind the throne. When it came out the other side it had a long black object in its mouth. As it walked a silver T shaped piece glinted at the top and the shape clicked in Kiah's mind. It was a sheathed sword.
Oh, he must be in heaven, Kiah thought. He's finally going to be knighted. Probably just what he's always wanted.
But when Misfortune accepted it from the cat and drew it from its sheath Kiah was puzzled to see that it wasn't exactly a sword; oh it looked like one, it was the right shape, but there didn't seem to be any edge to it. And the flat sides of the 'blade' were too reflective.
*Oh, it's a mirror*, Ilari whispered to her.
Kiah blinked a double take at the sight. It had been such a long time since she'd seen an unbroken mirror that she'd almost forgotten that they came that way.
"I mark you, my friend," Misfortune said slowly. "Carry this bit of what is mine with you, and do not forget."
Then instead of touching Zeke's shoulders with the sword she raised it herself, looked at her reflection for a moment, and kissed the mirror blade lightly. The instant her lips touched it there was a sharp crackle like ice breaking apart and thick, black cracks shot across the mirrored surface, but none of the fragments fell away. She tilted it his way and that to examine the result, looking immensely pleased with herself, then held it balanced along her palms.
Zeke rose, took the strange sword in his hands, and immediately saluted her with it like a classical knight. Misfortune cackled and slapped her hip. Whatever spell she had been breathing fell away and once again she was their friend, the strange middle aged but pretty woman with bare feet in an expensive dress. She pressed the sheath into his free hand. "It will take good care of you, I think."
Then she ruffled his hair, ran lightly down the steps to where Shiva sat, and reached up to scratch the smug looking bunny-dragon's forehead. Kiah and Ilari gaped at eachother when neither of their friends burst into flame, or whatever awful thing was supposed to happen.
"So...." Kiah tried to phrase the question in a way that wouldn't sound as stupid as she felt. "They're er... protected from the... side effects that come from you being positive around someone?"
"You could put it that way," Misfortune said with a shrug. "It's sort of an... alignment."
"A patronage," Zeke said, rolling it off his tongue as if it was the most beautiful word in the world. "I always hoped I might qualify to serve some good power. Never thought I actually would, though."
Kiah had the distinct feeling that between Misfortune's vagueness and Zeke's insistence on making everything ten times more fantastical than it was, she was never going to get a straight answer on this one, and sighed wearily.
*You do still have a dragon,* Ilari said softly, leaning against her leg a little.
Kiah barked a laugh. "Don't say that like you're some kind of second place prize, my love. You're all I need."
He beamed at that. Just a little. Though the high shine he had taken on now that he was grown made it very hard for him to ever beam 'just a little'.
"Now you're all ready to go," Misfortune said, dusting her hands together.
It was bittersweet, leaving a place that had come to feel so much like home in the midst of disaster, but Kiah knew that was exactly why she needed to go. They all gathered in the wide hallway where those heavy stone doors had first shut them in; now the doors were open to dry grass and tall trees under a bright, unclouded sun.
Fortunately Shiva was in too good of a mood to mind that she was being asked to carry a load on her back. Kiah and Zeke both wore their own (vastly smaller) packs, and Ilari, whose back spines had shot out to a frightening length with his growth spurt, couldn't be asked to carry anything.
More precious than all the food and clothes in the world as far as Kiah was concerned were Nicol's still untranslated books. She had wrapped them in oiled skins to waterproof them as well as she possibly could and they rode in the most secure inner pocket of her own pack.
Kiah looked back at the Lady Misfortune one more time. She gave Zeke and Shiva each a hug, then stepped back to stand surrounded by her three black cats and the bird that perched on one shoulder.
"Thank you again, Lady," Kiah said with a glance around at all their supplies.
"Don't mention it," Zeke answered for her as he'd always had a knack for doing. "We should come back again sometime." Misfortune only chuckled. She kept her arms wrapped tight around herself as if to prevent any disastrous accidental goodbye waves. "And the other thing, Zeke?"
"Oh right. Kiah, don't forget about the things that keep finding you to land on your head," he cautioned as they all marched out into the light.
"Don't worry," Kiah said, reaching into the top of her pack and pulling out a very ugly but very comforting pith helmet that she clapped firmly onto her head. "I planned for that."