Slayers Fan Fiction ❯ Flam Gush ❯ Chapter 4

Flam Gush 4

Lina pushed herself hard for two reasons: she wanted to get back to Gourry as soon as possible, and she was starving, more so than normal. Skipping meals was hardly a new experience, but she struggled recall the last time she had skipped meals, then fought a quick battle, ray winged for a long distance and then cast a heal spell . . . all on little sleep. The closest match was that time she and Zel had been running from Rezo and Dilgear. Of course, that time, there had been a lack of extra curricular activities going on.

Chickens and eggs, and anything else she could get her hands on. Lina landed on the roof of the inn and took a quick breather. Of course, her preference was to liberate food from Deremar's keep itself, since that place seemed to be the source of their current difficulties, but logistics suggested the inn was a safer bet: she knew where the kitchen was, and had a good idea as to the location of the storeroom.

The town was surprisingly deserted, and the few people who were out and about tended to stare at the ground, making her current task all that much easier. After getting her bearings, she cast levitation, and glided to the ground on the back side of the inn, landing on the short path that led from the kitchen to the small separate out-building that served as a store room.

Lina ducked inside and carefully closed the door before anyone saw her. She gave herself a few moments to let her eyes adjust to the gloom, but her nose clearly told her that she had hit the jackpot—not quite the selection and quantity she would expect from a quality inn, but certainly good enough for her purposes. Lina picked up a small wheel of yellow cheese, slicing out a nice-sized wedge and wolfing it down before slipping the rest into a sack. She also pilfered some potatoes, as well as a liberal haunch she carved from a side of beef hanging on a hook. A largish loaf of bread was added to the sack next, followed by some butter, which was sitting in a pottery crock next to a basket filled with eggs.

Eating a hard-boiled egg after sex . . . Lina had to admit that one was original. Maybe it was some obscure custom from wherever it was that Gourry was from. What was it about chickens? In her hometown, women always ate a boiled chicken the day after they had a baby. Personally, Lina preferred her chickens roasted rather than boiled, but boiled chickens were kind of similar to boiled eggs, she supposed.

In the midst of her judicious pilfering, Lina heard the door to the inn slam closed. She dropped the sack she had been stuffing with food into one of the handy pockets in her cloak and quickly cast levitation, hoping that her current luck would hold and that the ceiling would be the best possible hiding place. As she floated over to a darker corner, she heard the crunch of footsteps falling along the gravel path that led from the inn, and within moments, a young girl entered. Lina watched her lean against the door and take a deep breath before she started rummaging through the food.

Only a few moments had passed before Lina once again heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path. The girl jumped noticeably at the sound, and then she started glancing around frantically. Before she had a chance to make any decision, the door to the store room opened and a burly looking man slipped inside.

“Garik! You startled me,” the girl declared in a voice that was stretched with tension.

“I thought I'd find you in here,” the man drawled in response. Then, with a speed that contrasted with the deliberate slowness of his speech, he grabbed the girl's arms and pinned her to the wall.

“Please don't,” she whimpered. “I need to get back soon . . .”

“Don't worry,” Garik replied as he wormed his hand underneath her blouse, “what I want from you won't take long.”

The girl struggled rather ineffectually as the man buried his face in her neck. Watching the scene below made Lina sick to her stomach, and without pausing to consider the fact that she was in a village where the inhabitants had just tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to roast her at the stake earlier that same day, Lina swooped down from her hiding place with the force of a spell gathered in her hand. The girl's eyes widened in shock and she suddenly stopped struggling when she saw Lina approach, but the man was too involved in what he was doing to notice. Lina pulled him off of the girl, using surprise and leverage to her advantage, and before he could react, hit him with a Mono Volt. As he lost consciousness and fell to the ground, she noted absently that he wore a patch over his left eye.

The girl stood staring at her while tears streaked down her face. Suddenly, Lina was just angry. She wanted to slap the girl. Or slap some sense into her. She took a deep breath. “Don't worry,” she said with a sickly sweet smile, “he's not permanently damaged.”

At Lina's words, the other girl crumpled into a heap and started sobbing. If anything, it made Lina even angrier. She clenched her hands into fists. “Stop that,” she commanded in a low voice, almost a growl.

The other girl gulped and hiccupped a few times, but she did stop crying, instead staring up in horror at Lina. “Why did you do that?” Her voice was a barely audible whisper.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” Lina said acidly. “I didn't realize I shouldn't have interrupted.” She grabbed the remains of the girl's shirt and pulled her close. “Next time, I'll just let the guy rape the girl. No big deal right?”

Tears streamed down the girl's face. “I meant thank you,” she stammered.

Lina let go of the girl's shirt and backed up a pace. “This time, you got lucky. Tears and thank yous, though, aren't going to help you next time.”

“But I'm not strong,” she wailed.

Something snapped inside Lina, and her anger drained away. “Look at me,” Lina commanded, drawing herself up to her full height, inconsiderable though it was. “Do I look strong to you?” She paused, and the other girl hesitantly shook her head. “Of course, not,” Lina continued. “I look like a skinny, scrawny kid, right?” The other girl nodded, a bit less hesitantly this time. Lina hunkered down. “I used to be you,” she said in a conspiratorial whisper. “Small. Weak. I counted on my big sister to bail me out of trouble. Want to know what happened?”

“What?” The girl hiccoughed through her tears.

Lina shrugged and continued in a normal voice. “I discovered that strength is more about your attitude than anything else.” She stood up and nudged the body of the would-be rapist with her foot. “He won't be out forever, so I'd get out of here if I were you. Go find the sheriff or something.” As she pushed the door open to leave, the girl muttered something under her breath, but Lina did not stop to acknowledge her.

She felt tired and drained. Too much had happened in too short a time, and she was still reeling. Lack of sleep, food (although the slice of cheese had helped), and continued use of her magic was catching up with her, making everything seem just slightly unreal. Something about her encounter with the girl bothered her, but she pushed it out of her mind for the moment. She wanted to get away from this crazy village and all the problems it seemed to pose. Most of all, she wanted to get back to Gourry. Maybe then she could feel normal again.

*******************

Gourry watched Lina beat a hasty retreat, and wondered what had made him bring up the boiled eggs. He had barely even thought about it—there had been no need, after all—in years. Maybe it was finding the tapestry that had him thinking about his mother and her advice.

She had always been full of advice. In a lot of ways, his mother was like Lina: she had an opinion about everything and there was no skill beyond her grasp. Once, when he had first been learning how to use a sword, she had come to watch him spar on the practice field. And then, to his surprise, she had challenged him to a match. Gourry had stared at her in shock, as she stood there in her formal skirts, a sword held effortlessly in her hand. For some reason, it had never occurred to him that his mother could wield a sword, a misconception that almost cost him the match at the outset. Her sword patterns had been graceful and fluid and she almost looked like she was dancing across the practice field, although he quickly learned that her strokes could effortlessly break through his guard. He had to use all of his concentration to keep up with her, and soon they were both panting for breath, but there had been a kind of joy in sparring with her, something he had never experienced before.

Whenever he was knee-deep in blood, fighting some lord's battle and disgusted by all the killing, he would think back on that sparring match and remember the delight of crossing swords with a skilled opponent. For Gourry, wielding a sword was not about hack and slash, it was about developing skill, and he had found many ways to immobilize an opponent that did not involve maiming or killing.

It would probably take Lina a while to come back, so Gourry took a look around the clearing she had chosen, trying to find some way to kill the time. There was an old scar in the center, indicating that people had camped here before, but not for quite some time. Well, the first order of business would be water and a fire.

Finding water was easy, but it took him longer to gather wood and get the fire going. At first, he had favored his sword arm. Lina was strong enough in healing magic to handle most of their needs, but even so, it usually took a few days for the injury to heal completely, and during that time it seemed like he needed a lot more sleep than normal. But after gathering and carrying back the first load of wood, he realized that his arm felt better than usual. Come to think of it, when Lina had been casting the spell, something had felt different, although he had no idea how to put that feeling into words.

Once the fire was cheerily burning, Gourry pulled out his sword and a whetstone, examining the edge of the blade. As he started honing out the first nick, his mind wandered over the events of the past day. It seemed like everything was happening at once: Lina turning to him after all this time, the whole thing with Deremar and his niece, and finding his mother's tapestry. Sometimes they went forever with nothing interesting happening, but once the action started, it always seemed to lead to some earth-shattering fight to save the known universe. Gourry idly wondered what it would be like to settle down, and he had the curious mental image of Lina wearing a frilly white apron and chopping vegetables while a cluster of children clung to her legs. He snorted. No, he doubted Lina would ever quietly work in a kitchen, tending to children. She would have to be the lady of the castle, like his mother had been, if she could ever settle down at all.

The steely rasp of the whetstone on his blade stopped as he considered the direction of his thoughts. There was no question, never had been really, that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Lina. But, he had never before tried to picture any life with her besides them going from odd-job to odd-job, from adventure to adventure. Of course, that had been before yesterday. Not that he wanted to settle down tomorrow or anything, but it had been such a long time since he had a home and family. The tapestry had brought back memories that he had suppressed years ago, and that, in combination with the added dimension to his relationship with Lina, made him homesick.

No, it was more than homesick. That was certainly a part of it, but there was also the desire to take care of unfinished business, and that surprised him. Maybe once they finished dealing with Deremar and his steward . . . Gourry's mouth hardened into a firm line. He had no clue what was going on with them and why they were murdering young girls and such, but they were involved now, like it or no, and he had never known Lina to back down from this kind of blatant challenge.

When Lina landed at the edge of the clearing a few moments later, Gourry was honing out the last of the nicks in his sword. His smile of greeting quickly shifted to an expression of concern. Lina looked pale . . . kind of thin around the edges, his father would have said. He sheathed his sword, set it on the ground next to him, and rose to his feet in one smooth motion.

“Are you okay?” He asked as he relieved her of a large, and rather heavy, sack.

“Just hungry,” she replied absently as she sank to the ground and started rummaging through her cloak, pulling out a small pot. “Did you find some water?”

As Gourry's mouth was full of the bread he had found in the sack, he gestured at a water skin sitting near the fire.

While Lina filled her pot with water and started skewering potatoes and chunks of meat, Gourry made simple sandwiches with the cheese and bread.

“I found you an egg . . . “ Lina trailed off, staring at the trees on the other side of the clearing.

“Thanks,” Gourry replied, handing her a sandwich.

After a brief pause, Lina took the proffered sandwich and started munching on it absently, looking anywhere but at him.

Gourry watched her eat, wondering what was bothering her. She seemed barely aware of her food, and her brow was furrowed in concentration. After a moment, Gourry shrugged and started eating his own sandwich while holding one of the skewers Lina had made over the fire. Whatever it was, he was sure it would keep until after his stomach was full.

“Gourry?” Lina asked tentatively, finally breaking the silence.

“Yeah?”

He heard her take a deep breath, and when he glanced over at her, he noticed that she was chewing on her lip.

“Do you want me to boil the egg for you?”

Was that all? “Sure, if you want to.” Gourry shrugged and rotated the skewer to cook a bit more on the other side.

Lina started sputtering, although he had no clue why. “But . . . but I thought . . . Oh, never mind what I thought,” she concluded in disgust. She put an egg in her pot of water and placed it at the edge of the fire, muttering under her breath the whole time about eggs and stupid jellyfish.

Gourry had no clue what he had done to annoy her this time, but he did know that if he opened his mouth to say anything, he was likely to make things worse.

They sat in silence (after Lina stopped muttering, that is), roasting and eating their dinner. Lina fished the boiled egg out of the pot and then she glanced over at him with that strange expression again.

“What?” She was making him edgy the way she kept doing that.

Lina heaved a sigh of disgust and handed him the egg without comment. Then she leaned back on her elbows and stared up at the first stars appearing in the sky. Gourry watched her as he peeled off the shell and ate his egg. As he did, he wondered again why he had brought the whole thing up in the first place. Something about it was bothering Lina, and he debated over dealing with it today, or just leaving it until she was ready.

Sometimes, most times actually, it was better to just wait her out. If it was important enough, she would tell him, and if it not she would forget it . . . eventually.

Gourry stood up to place more wood on the fire, and then went over and sat down next to Lina. “Why don't we get some rest? It's probably not necessary to set watches or anything.”

“You're probably right.” Lina leaned into him with a small sigh. “It's been crazy these past two days.”

“What do you want to do?” Gourry put his arm around her, gently stroking her hair.

“Mmmm,” she murmured appreciatively as she leaned into his caress, “that feels good. About what?”

“Everything.” Gourry gestured in the general direction of the village with his free hand. “Deremar and that village and all.”

“Right now,” Lina answered emphatically, “I don't want to think about it.” She pulled away from him gently. “I'm gonna go wash up a bit. Where'd you get the water?”

Gourry pointed out the path to take. “I never did wash your back, did I?” He asked regretfully.

“That's okay.” Lina stood up and stretched. “I'm sure there'll be tons of opportunities in the future,” she promised.

*******************

The small stream was not too far from the campsite and really easy to find. It was just a matter of following the slightly worn path that meandered through the trees. Lina eyed the babbling water with a slight grimace of distaste. It looked really cold. She dipped a tentative hand into the water and shuddered. Cold was putting mildly; frosty would probably be more accurate. Lina glared at the water. Something that chilly had absolutely no right to gurgle so pleasantly.

She briefly considered using a fireball to heat the water, but two things held her back. Although she was confident that no one from Deremar's village would be able to track them to their current location, random unexplained explosions in a peaceful forest could certainly change that. Even more importantly, however, was the fact that the stream was moving pretty fast, which meant that her nice warm water would very quickly be replaced with fresh new cold water. All in all, it was hardly worth the effort.

Well, if she wanted to wash up a bit, this was all there was. And she had never intended to take a full bath at any rate. Lina splashed some water on her face and scrubbed it with her hands. As much as she hated to admit it, there was something invigorating about icy water. At least it had cleared some of the fog out of her head so she could think a bit more clearly. Lina pushed her wet bangs out of her eyes and started back to their camp.

It was still true; she had no inclination to think about Deremar or the village. Not right now. She also wanted to forget about Gourry and his eggs, but for some reason, she just could not get it out of her mind. She had only just realized when she got back to the camp, but when Gourry had asked her to get him some eggs, he had said that his wife was supposed to prepare them for him. Of course, it really seemed implausible to think that Gourry was capable of that level of subtlety. His request for eggs was it . . . no, it could not have been . . . a marriage proposal . . . could it?

Marriage. Okay, so it was kind of the logical conclusion to their relationship, but Lina had never really considered marriage, well at least not seriously. There had been that incident with Hallas and Callie . . . and of course she had talked about finding a prince . . . Not that she could ever consider not being with Gourry. He was too much of a constant in her life. But marriage? There had really been only one way to find out, and so she had asked him if he wanted her to prepare the eggs. And, of course, he gave her that clueless look, making her feel more than a bit foolish for even considering the possibility, but also, a little disappointed.

When the campsite came into view, Gourry was sitting by the fire, poking at it with a stick. He smiled at her in greeting, but his attention was focused on the fire. Lina walked over to her pack and started rummaging around for her brush. “What're you doing?”

“Roasting a pinecone.”

“A what?”

“A pinecone,” he replied calmly. “If you roast them, you can get at the seeds easier.”

“You can actually eat pinecone seeds?” Lina finally located her brush and started pulling it through her hair, yanking viciously through the tangles. Sometimes she wished her hair was straighter, like Amelia's. Not that her own hair was curly or anything, but it had enough of a wave to require regular brushing, and she had mostly neglected to attend to it the past couple of days.

“Haven't you ever had pine nuts before,” Gourry asked incredulously as he nudged the pinecone away from the fire.

Lina shook her head, grunting as she attacked a particularly vicious tangle. “How much longer until you're done?”

“It'll be ready as soon as it pops.” Gourry poked at the pinecone again with his stick. “It's pretty green, so it'll probably still be a while. Why?”

“Just wondering. You're the one who suggested we get some rest, after all. How does your arm feel?”

“Fine,” Gourry replied as he flexed his arm experimentally.

She looked over at him critically. “You should probably change your tunic, you know.”

“I'll just change it in the morning. Now we both need new clothes, don't we.”

“Seems that way,” Lina replied with a sharp grin. “Of course, I won't let you forget that you're going to buy me a new set of clothes.”

“Hmm. And I haven't forgotten that I get to pick them out!” Gourry leered at her in a way that made her question the wisdom of letting him choose her next outfit.

“Well,” she hedged, “only if I like them.”

“That wasn't a part of our agreement,” he pointed out reasonably. “Just that I'd pay if I got to do the choosing.”

“Well, I never agreed to it,” Lina huffed.

“That's too bad, isn't it?” Gourry replied unsympathetically. “If you want me to pay, I get to pick what I'm buying.” He set his jaw stubbornly.

“You're going to insist, aren't you?” Lina stared at him incredulously, wondering why he cared about it so much.

“Yup.”

“Why?”

Gourry looked over at her for a few moments without answering. Then he shrugged. “After all the times you've dressed me up, I'd say it's only fair that I get a turn.”

“What do you mean `all the times'? I only did it twice, and it's not like we had a lot of options either time.”

Gourry shuddered. “That was two times too many . . . No, you dressed me up three times!”

Lina stared at him. “No, it was only twice! Once for the Kingdom of Femille, and once so we could get a ship in Sandoria.”

“What about the time you dressed me up as a mermaid,” Gourry accused.

“A what?”

“Don't you remember? It was to help that weird . . .” Gourry trailed off.

“Gourry, I never dressed you up as a mermaid to help anyone. I'm sure I'd remember that!”

“Actually, I think Amelia did that, now that I think about it.”

Lina's eyes tried to bug out as she imagined Amelia dressing up Gourry, and she felt an irrational surge of jealousy. “When exactly was this that Amelia dressed you up like a mermaid?” And where was I?

“It was on some tropical island where a bunch of fish people lived. I think Amelia was trying to help them find true love, but the guy ended up turning into a fish, and the girl turned into a human.”

Lina shook her head. “Gourry, you're not making any sense, you know.”

“Believe me, it didn't make any sense then either.” Gourry shuddered and then poked at the pinecone again. “I think this is just about ready.” Then he glanced back at her. “Are you done with the brush?”

“Yeah.” Lina tossed the brush in his direction and wrapped her hands around her knees, watching as he started yanking through his own set of tangles. It seemed incredibly unfair that he seemed to have an easier time with his hair than she did with hers. “You know,” she commented after a moment, “I don't think I've ever seen you brush your hair before.”

“Really?” Gourry seemed surprised by that.

“Yeah, really.” The way he pulled the brush through his hair, combined with the way the firelight glinted off of it mesmerized her and made her feel flushed. She moved closer to him so that she was kneeling behind him, and she pushed his hair out of the way so she could kiss the back of his neck.

Gourry sighed, and Lina draped her arms over his shoulders, just enjoying being close to him.

“Lina?” Gourry asked softly.

“Hmm?”

“It's really different from the way I thought it would be.” He tugged her gently around him into his lap.

“What is?” Lina leaned her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

“This.” Gourry gestured vaguely at their surroundings. “You. Us.”

Lina held her silence and waited for him to say whatever it was he needed to say.

“Just last night, I was cursing the fact that you only treated me like a brother.” Gourry paused, and then took a deep breath. “I never dreamed it would be like this.”

“You said that already,” Lina pointed out. And here she had thought he only saw her as a kid sister! “Is that good or bad?”

“I don't know, just different, I guess.” Gourry lifted her chin and kissed her, a kiss that she enthusiastically returned. “I guess I thought you would be more shy.”

“Is that the kind of girl you want?” Lina looked up at him in surprise.

“That's not what I meant. It's just the way you always got so worked up about protecting your innocence and all.”

“I guess,” Lina said slowly, “I just wasn't ready before. That's all.” She paused to consider, but somehow, she could not quite explain her feelings, even to herself. Before yesterday, she had just lacked interest in the whole sordid process.

“So what happened?”

Lina smiled up at Gourry. “I heard you breathing,” she said simply.

“Hunh?”

“It's strange, isn't it? Last night, I heard you breathing, and somehow it changed everything.”

Gourry started muttering under his breath.

“What?”

“Well, it's just that of all the crazy schemes I had thought up, it never ever occurred to me that all I had to do was breathe on you. If I had known that was all it took, I'd have done it ages ago.”

“Crazy schemes? Like what?” Lina's curiosity got the better of her and she struggled to sit up straight.

“Oh, I don't know. If I remember any, maybe I'll tell you about them some time.”

“What do you mean `if you remember'?” Lina huffed in indignation. “You must remember something or you wouldn't have brought it up just now!”

“Hmm,” Gourry murmured as he soothed her with an ardent caress. “I can think of better things to do right now than wrack my brains to satisfy your curiosity!”

*******************

Once again, Gourry woke up with a mass of red threads in his face. This time, however, he smiled instead of panicking. It was a small price to pay to have Lina in his arms. Ordinarily, he would have gotten up right after waking and started setting the camp in order. But today, he allowed himself the luxury of a bit of extra sleep, after pushing Lina's hair out of his face, that is.

The sun was maybe an hour or so higher when Lina started stirring, waking him up yet again. She rolled over to face him. “Sleep well?” She asked as she brushed his hair out of his eyes.

“Mmm.” He sat up and stretched, rotating his head to work out the kinks. “Better than normal, considering we're camping out.” He yawned hugely. “How about you?”

“Well enough.” Lina pulled the blanket they had been sharing up around her with one hand and with the other she snatched up her tunic. “Don't look,” she commanded.

Her request took him by surprise, and Gourry considered saying something, after all, he had undressed her twice now, and he certainly had no complaints from her, quite the opposite in fact. He decided to keep quiet for the time being. For whatever reason, Lina was shy about getting dressed in front of him, go figure, so he obediently turned around, taking the opportunity to pull on his pants.

“Okay, you can look now,” Lina announced.

Gourry turned around just in time to catch her in mid-stretch. She was only wearing her tunic. “Is that what you're wearing today?” He asked mildly. “You might get a little cold,” he added as he eyed her legs appreciatively.

“Stop ogling and help me find my leggings. They've got to be around here somewhere . . . “ she muttered as she picked up one of their blankets and shook it out. When that failed to produce the missing clothing, she tossed the blanket aside with a snort and picked up the other one.

“If you were tidier, you wouldn't have so much trouble finding your stuff,” Gourry reproved as he picked up the blanket she had dropped and folded it up.

“Hey,” Lina objected as she vigorously shook the second blanket. “I'm not the one who took them off last night, remember? There they are!” Finding her leggings seemed to improve her mood dramatically, and she even let him watch as she slipped them on. She looked at him then, her eyes raking over his torso much the way he had looked at her legs earlier, and to his surprise, he felt himself flushing, partly because it was a very odd experience to be sized up so obviously, and partly because he could tell that Lina liked what she saw.

After a moment, Gourry turned away and looked around for his tunic and Lina started rummaging around the fire, getting some food ready for their breakfast. It took him little time to find it, and even less to remember that in his haste to take it off last night, he had ripped the sleeve even more. “Hey, Lina, what'd you do with my spare tunic?”

“It should be around here somewhere,” she replied as she rooted through the meager pile of their belongings. When she found the spare and pulled it out, something fell to the ground. Lina lobbed the tunic in his direction and bent over to pick up the fallen object.

“Gourry, what's this?” She asked, holding up the tapestry he had taken from the room in the inn.

“Oh, yeah. I wanted to show you this.” Gourry took the tapestry from her and carefully unfolded it. “I found this in our room yesterday,” he said as he smoothed it out.

Lina peered at it. “You took this from that village?”

“Yeah.” Gourry watched as she traced the embroidered figure that represented him with the tip of her finger and felt a shiver race up his spine.

“That's you, isn't it?” Lina said it so sharply, it almost sounded like an accusation.

The shiver intensified, but Gourry nodded. “How'd you know?”

Lina tapped the embroidered figure. “You hold your sword the same way.” She paused and glanced over at him. “The long blond hair helped, too,” she added with a grin. Then the grin faded. “Who's this?” She indicated the other figure.

“My older brother,” Gourry replied shortly.

“I didn't know you had a brother,” Lina said thoughtfully. “Actually, you've never really talked about your family at all.”

Gourry dragged his eyes away from the tapestry and looked up at her, noting that she was chewing on her lower lip. It was a habit that made her look about ten years younger. It had never particularly bothered him before, but right now he had no desire to think of her as a little kid, so he reached over and smoothed her lips with his thumb. “About as much as you talk about yours. All I know is that you have a big sister, and that you have merchant blood.”

“Hmm.” Lina sighed a bit at his caress and turned her attention back to the tapestry, this time focusing on the heraldry devices. “This looks a lot like the symbol of the Elmekian Empire, except . . .” She trailed off.

“Except what?” As far as Gourry knew, it was the Elmekian device.

“Well, this is supposed to be you and your brother, right?”

“What's that got to do with the symbol?”

“If this is you and your brother, the tapestry can't be more than twenty years old. Probably more like ten at the most. But this symbol hasn't been used in this form for hundreds of years.” Lina pointed to the eagle with extended wings in the center of the device. “The current symbol uses a griffin instead of an eagle. Once the Elmekians started conquering more territory, they decided that an eagle wasn't impressive enough, so they changed it, about the same time they changed their name from the Elmekian Kingdom to the Elmekian Empire. This one here,” she continued as she tapped the eagle on the tapestry, “is the symbol of the Elmekian kings.”

Gourry squinted at the device, and then tried to picture the standard he had last seen in the Elmekian army. “Yeah,” he replied, vaguely recalling that there was a slight difference. “Doesn't the one you're talking about have a different bottom?”

“Yep. Instead of eagle claws, it has the hindquarters of a lion. That's what a griffin is: the head of an eagle and the back part of a lion.”

“A lying?” Gourry suppressed a grin. Sometimes it was ridiculously easy to get Lina going.

“No, Gourry,” Lina heaved a half-disgusted sigh. “A lion. It's a mythical beast, supposedly very noble and a crafty hunter.”

“Just kidding. I know what a lion is. Still—Hey! What'd'ya do that for?”

Lina had interrupted him by hitting him upside the head.

“That has got to be the most annoying habit I've ever encountered in my entire life!” She spat out from between clenched teeth.

“You take things too seriously all the time, you know.”

“No,” she retorted, “I just take things at face value. It's a lot easier than second-guessing people all the time. None of this explains why this tapestry uses such an antiquated device, though.” Lina turned her attention back to the tapestry with an annoying single-mindedness. “Who made this?”

“My mother,” he replied absently. He was still thinking about her statement that she took things at face value. It certainly explained a lot, like her easy acceptance of people switching sides on her. Xellos had done that a few times, and it never seemed to slow her down. Gourry shrugged to himself. It might save time, but it still made Lina ridiculously easy to tease.

Lina pushed her hands through her hair. “Do you know how it ended up here, then? I mean, we're a long way from the Elmekian Empire.”

“Not a clue.” Gourry shook his head. “The last time I saw it, it was hanging over the mantle in my mother's sitting room.” He had believed that the only things still surviving from Gabriev Keep were himself and the Sword of Light. Unconsciously he clenched his hands into fists. Now that the Sword was gone, the list shrank to just him . . . and this tapestry.

“Well, I don't think we'll be able to figure it out right now. Maybe everything will make more sense after a decent meal.”

“Which `everything' did you have in mind?”

“There are a lot of them, aren't there,” Lina replied with a chuckle that held no mirth as she started ticking items off on her fingers. “Why did Deremar's niece get murdered, why did they try to frame us for it, and now, why is a personal tapestry from the Elmekian Empire all the way down here?”

Gourry shrugged, his attention still focused mainly on the tapestry. “You're the one who loves mysteries.” Lina said nothing, and after a moment, he looked up to see that she was staring at him with a weird expression on her face. “What?”

“I'll never understand,” Lina replied slowly, “how you can remember such minor and unimportant details years later, but can't remember the name of someone who almost killed us a month earlier.”

“There's no mystery there.” Gourry put his arm around her. “I remember what's important.”

“Gourry, how is a minor comment I made at some point more important than Rezo trying to resurrect Shabranigdo?”

“Did he succeed?”

“You were there,” she said accusingly as she sat up straight.

“Then I guess he didn't or we wouldn't be here now, having this conversation.” Gourry sighed. “It's really simple, Lina. Battles are in the past. Won or lost, they're not all that important. That's what you learn as a merc. It's the people you meet, the friendships you make, those are the things that are important.” Gourry paused and looked Lina straight in the eye. “You're important, Lina. And that's what I remember.”

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