Wing & Nien

by Shytei Corellian

  “And still, I keep my people in the dark,” SiQQiy said, her dark gaze on the floor. “Only the men who traveled here with me and a small contingent assigned to my coadjutant know; with only those few have I shared my concern and how close the threat may come.”

  “No sense in stressing your people over conjecture and speculation. Your messenger and mine will rendezvous at the Tu’Lon Confluence,” Monteray said. “Between now and the time of their return, I am planning on sending a messenger to Jayak. Eventually, I will go myself and speak with Jiatak.”

  “I can send an envoy to Preak.”

  “Excellent,” Monteray said.

  “What about the brothers? Now that I’ve met them, I see why you and Commander Lant thought so much of them.”

  “They are not ready — not yet. But we have a little time. I have opted for patience with them. If our timing is right, we can perhaps get them back.”

  SiQQiy knew what Monteray meant. She had seen the shadowy, dark places warriors and survivors of catastrophic events could go to.

  Monteray continued, “If the Ka’ull are using Rieeve as a staging area and base for provisions, outfitting, and ordnance, then cutting off the supply line into Rieeve and seizing those supplies could be decisive, SiQQiy. It could turn the tide of the invasion.”

  “Then your thoughts bring more urgency to the matter than I had supposed.”

  “A little, yes. But before such a move is made I feel it imperative that we have the Cawutt brothers with us. Something tells me they are the key.”

  Like Kate, SiQQiy had learned to trust Master Monteray’s intuitions. She nodded her lovely head. “Then I will see if I can set aside the shadow and pass some time here with you as I’d hoped to. Meanwhile, we can write out our endorsements of Lant’s Plan to send to the other valleys.”

  The two sat in silence for a time before SiQQiy said, “Master.”

  Her voice was soft and fragile, very female in its tone. Gone was SiQQiy, ruler of Quieness and Commander of the largest military on the continent. Sitting beside Monteray now, she was that little girl who’d so often run the palace halls in the middle of the night, looking for him, hoping he could chase away her nightmares. “When messengers arrive at my palace — especially strange ones like the young man from Rieeve — on the heels of dark rumour and missing ships, and all I have to greet them with are old maps and ancient stories of war…”

  Monteray placed his hand upon her knee. “We have a little time, SiQQiy,” he said, his voice soothing in the blue light of the room. “Let your mind rest. Let your men rest. Let’s take this deep breath before the descent into lower things.”

  Chapter 68

  Who You Are, Really

  “T hank you for your help,” SiQQiy said in perfect, unaccented Fultershier as Nien started out the door the following evening after dinner.

  Nien stopped and glanced back at her.

  Removing her apron, she said, “Would you like to take a walk?”

  Nien’s face revealed his surprise. Though he’d spent the whole day on the roof wanting to talk with her, he’d not expected her to ask him.

  “The sun’s setting. Wing and I usually go out to the river in the evenings, but he’s off somewhere.” He motioned with his hand. “If you’d like...?”

  “I would.”

  Laying the apron over the back of a chair, she followed him out. Two men of her guard made to follow her. She dismissed them with a signal.

  “Perhaps you should — ” Nien said.

  “I will be safe enough with you,” she replied.

  Nien flinched. Safe enough with me…

  As the thought clanked around in his brain like an alarm, he felt SiQQiy at his side and looked up to see that her guards had already disappeared back into the house.

  Turning, they walked together into the slanting, misty rays of the sun that shone over the river.

  As they made their way through the tall, velvety grasses, Nien wondered at the great oddity that was a Preak-born Rieevan and the Empress of Quieness strolling side by side in the valley of Legran.

  Legran, he said silently to himself. A place that, because of the embargo set between Legran and Preak had made it both difficult and even dangerous for any Preak to set foot in the valley, was now refuge for them both.

  “I’m sorry about the awkwardness of our introduction,” SiQQiy said. “Monteray can be far too generous in his opinion of me.”

  “I must admit,” Nien replied, “even though I knew you were coming, I would not have expected to find the Empress of Quieness in the Monterays’ kitchen doing dishes.”

  “And I would not have expected to see a Rieevan warrior of Preak origin working on their roof.” SiQQiy grinned. “The lengths they’ll go to get a little help around here.”

  “Well, I know who you are, but how do you know so much about me — unless Monteray’s been talking.” He smiled.

  SiQQiy nodded as if accepting a challenge. “You have the bearing of a warrior, the mind of a Quienan, and the soul of a Rieevan.”

  Apparently, she’d thought a bit about it. Nevertheless, if the setting sun had turned to rain and showered about them in hot flame, Nien would have been less impressed.

  “That, and I queried Monteray about you,” she added with a wink. “Forgive me.”

  A corner of Nien’s mouth tipped shrewdly. “Still, your skills are remarkable, for I have never told Master Monteray that I’ve been to Quieness, unless of course, Wing told him.”

  “Ah, that...” she said. “Well, the word you used at the dinner table: tisquiata. Only one who has spent time in Cao City could have known that.” They took a few more sauntering steps before she asked, “And about me. You my title. What else do you know?”

  Nien thought for a moment. “That your father married a Preak woman, that you are the first Empress of Quieness with Preak blood, the people love you, and you have the most beautiful gardens in the known world.”

  SiQQiy tilted her head to him. “You are even more astute than I.”

  Nien chuckled. “I would love for you to think so, but I cheated, too — I read Commander Lant’s individual profiles in the Plan.”

  “And your Commander included information on my gardens?”

  “Well, not exactly that. Those I saw for myself.”

  “And that my people love me?”

  “Well,” Nien said, “in the time I lived in Cao City, I never heard a word that was not in your favour; perhaps though, that you were spoiled.” He grinned.

  “Most likely, I was,” SiQQiy replied.

  Arriving at the riverbank, they sat down together, SiQQiy removing her sandals and hanging her feet into the water.

  They sat for a time in silence, watching the sun dip closer to the mountaintop.

  “So, when did you first visit Quieness?”

  “I’ve only been once; that was two revolutions ago.”

  “Would I be safe to assume you liked it?”

  Nien nodded. “You would. It’s very beautiful. It was a lot to take in — at the time.”

  SiQQiy glanced at him. Nien was looking out over the river.

  “I imagine nothing overwhelms you anymore,” she said softly.

  “Nothing,” Nien admitted. “And everything.”

  Studying his face for a moment, SiQQiy changed the subject. “How did you come to be brought up Rieevan?”

  Nien shrugged. “I don’t know, other than I was abandoned on the edge of the Cawutts’ fields. It was there Joash Cawutt found me. He and his wife raised me as their own. I remember only brief flashes of the time before.”

  “Monteray said you were Commander Lant’s First.”

  “Commander Lant,” Nien said, his voice a blue note. “Yes, I was.”

  “Monteray and I both loved him dearly.” She paused. “I must confess, I recognized who you were when Monteray introduced us.”

  “Recognized?”

  “The name — from Commander Lant’s son, Pree K, when he came to Quienes
s to deliver Lant’s proposal.”

  “I don’t believe I was to be mentioned in the message he delivered,” Nien said.

  “I’m thorough,” SiQQiy replied. “Especially when it could involve my people or my armies. I asked him many questions regarding your Cant, its leaders, and Rieeve in general.”

  “Pree K was a special young man, and gifted.”

  “I was impressed by him. Our conversation was heavy on my mind when I received a messenger from Monteray requesting that I come earlier than I had intended for this trip.” SiQQiy smoothed the hair away from her face. “I try to come as often as I can. That used to be about once a full cycle. Since my father’s passing, it’s been considerably less.”

  “I am happy to be here this time,” Nien said, wanting, but unable to speak the rest of his thought.

  But SiQQiy took his meaning, replying, “I’m happy as well — that you are here at this time.”

  Nien met her eyes, knowing that had his wish to see her been granted when he’d been in Quieness it would have been from his knees; not that he would have been allowed an audience in any case.

  As if reading his mind, SiQQiy said, “The walls that surround me in Quieness are necessary.” She kicked her feet in the water. “But when I’m here, I’m with family. I am simply SiQQiy.”

  “It’s hard to imagine what that would be like.”

  “You were close with your family, weren’t you? I can see it between you and your brother.”

  Nien nodded, but couldn’t think of anything he could add. Having Wing back was a miracle; still it felt as if he, Wing, and Carly were alone in the world when he thought of their dead families and people.

  “I’m so sorry,” SiQQiy said, her voice soft with feeling. “Their loss is unimaginable, but it doesn’t have to be in vain.”

  “No, it was in vain,” Nien replied, surprised at his honesty. “Good intentions only get one so far.”

  “Because of your Commander and the efforts of yourself and Wing, we may be able to save the rest of the valleys from such a calamity. I believe in the Plan. So does Monteray.”

  Her words helped as much as any could, but his skin was cold, as if numbed from the heart out and he could not share the strength and determination he saw in her eyes. As neither of them could find more to say about it, they watched together as the sun closed the day, completing its descent toward the crest of the mountains. The song of the night bugs along the river’s edge soon began to fill the air.

  Pointing to a canyon far down the river from them, Nien said, “I conducted training camps in that pass.”

  SiQQiy’s eyes traced the rocky silhouette of Vilif Pass’ sloping ridge. “I’ve often come that way myself. It’s beautiful, but...a little ominous.”

  “It can be,” Nien agreed.

  “I’ve watched my guards at times, wondering how they feel, if perhaps theirs is not the loneliest profession they could have chosen.”

  “Offers its share of introspection,” Nien replied. “On the other hand, I treasured the camaraderie. I was only lonely with those who were unfamiliar with the life.”

  “I imagine you were quite the novelty in Rieeve.”

  Nien chuckled. “A novelty, yes, but not like you. I was accessible.”

  “I thought Rieevans were leery of outsiders.”

  “Well, they are, but not for the reasons you might suspect. To Rieevans it was a matter of philosophy, not skin colour that determined prejudice. Also,” and he laughed sardonically, “racial variance never came up that much in Rieeve — nobody left and no one else wanted to come in.”

  SiQQiy’s smile was brief. “It’s all ugly,” she said.

  Nien nodded his head and let his breath out into the evening. “I didn’t tell the Monterays’ who I was when I came. I’d only heard tales of violence between Legranders and Preaks. So, I was unsure how I’d be received.”

  “When Monteray came back to Legran I wondered if problems would arise by my visits, but so far none have. That he’s so isolated at this end of the valley has made a difference I think, though I doubt anyone would confront him either way. His reputation is a large one in Legran.”

  “And you, being Empress of the largest valley on our continent,” Nien said to her with a wink in his eye.

  “And that,” she admitted with a quick upturn of her mouth. “But Monteray’s influence is greater than my own with the inner Valleys. You might be surprised at his legend.”

  Nien glanced at her. “I always wondered what happened during the time Commander Lant was gone from Rieeve, when he met Master Monteray.”

  “Quite the tale,” SiQQiy said. “And I have the feeling I only know part of it myself, the part they spent with me.” She looked out over the river. “But Monteray loves Legran. I think there is a part of the randomness, even the low-life of its people that intrigues him. It is his homeland, and no matter its faults, will forever be so. Change begins one at a time. Monteray is a good start here.”

  “I have found him to be everything Lant said he was, and Kate — Kate saved my life.”

  “Saved your life?”

  Nien’s eyes traced the river into the distance, possibly to the place where he had crossed that day. “I don’t know how I made it to Legran,” Nien said honestly. He could still only remember brief flashes, moments.

  Beside him, he felt a strange quiet come over SiQQiy and briefly thought she was about to reach out and touch him.

  “I had come in the very hope of finding Monteray,” Nien continued. “I was grateful when they accepted my offer to work — for the chance to repay what they’d done for me.”

  SiQQiy looked over her shoulder at the house. “It’s been a work in progress for many revolutions now. He’s done a beautiful job. None of Quieness is so fine.” Turning back toward the river, she withdrew her feet from the water, and sliding back, started to dry them with her sleeve. Nien reached forward, having only his own sleeve to offer, and they both laughed.

  Watching as she patted her feet dry in the grass then folded them beneath her, Nien looked over the river, thinking, Don’t do it! even as he found himself saying, “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.” On the other side of the obligatory awkward moment, he shot her a glance. “Sorry.”

  “Taking it back?”

  “That would hardly be possible.”

  Amused, SiQQiy said, “You make me feel rather conscious of myself.”

  “Is that a good thing?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “And no.”

  Uncertain which reply to go with, Nien said instead, “So tell me about this spoiled childhood of yours.”

  SiQQiy, still smiling — it seemed — from his compliment, replied, “It was good.” And then, as if agreeing to the sentiment for the first time, continued, “I was a quiet child. Having no siblings, I was accustomed to playing alone, to being alone, until Master Monteray and Commander Lant showed up. They were like the older brothers I never had. After they left, I was alone again. And then I became Empress. Since that time, having so much need around me, so much responsibility has been an adjustment.”

  “Did you play ‘SiQQiy, Queen of Quieness’ as a girl?”

  “No. Believe it or not, before I understood what my life was meant to be, I wanted to be a weaver. I dreamt of making quilts in a thousand different colours and textures and then traveling far and wide in a merchant caravan to sell them. My goal was to do this until one hung in every house all over the continent. I’d get to do what I love, sell my wares, and see the world.”

  “Sounds adventurous,” Nien said. “And perfect.” And then a realization dawned on him. “The shag rugs and the other large quilts on the wall and floors in Monteray’s house, are they — ?”

  One of SiQQiy’s eyes gleamed beneath a perfectly sculpted eyebrow.

  “Well, your dream has made its start,” Nien said with a smile. “They’re beautiful. I think there’s one of yours in our cabin, too. Sorry to say it’s on the floor. Wing uses it as he
and Lucin’s bed.”

  “Good,” SiQQiy said. “They’re meant to be used. I told Monteray to stop displaying them on the wall like paintings and to take them down and give them use. I make them strong, he treats them like fragile works of art.”

  “And you’re not like that,” Nien said, drawing the parallel.

  SiQQiy glanced at him. “No,” she said.

  There was a moment and for the first time Nien had the inclination that maybe what he felt being near her, what he felt between them, wasn’t common, wasn’t an effect of their positions in the world but who they were as Nien and SiQQiy. “Commander Lant had one in the front room of his home. It saw lots of use,” Nien continued, grinning at her. “In fact, one night, two very drunk members of the Cant got rather tangled in it. Unable to bear the potential of the event, I forced myself to look away. Can’t say whether they ended up having sex purely out of proximity, but by the sound of things…”

  SiQQiy laughed out loud, and flushed. Nien gave her a smile full of white teeth.

  Through Nien’s mind flashed the memory of Teru and Mien’k in a drunken wrestle on that rug the night Lant had given him the leather shoulder mantle with the symbol of the Cant upon it. The replay warmed and scalded his heart in turn. He had to clear his throat before he continued, “Meanwhile, your reality is probably dreamed of by some little girl in Cao, prancing around in her mother’s robe, pretending to be you.”

  “Probably so,” SiQQiy admitted. “And you?”

  “Me?”

  “Childhood dreams?”

  “Other than flying?” Nien asked.

  SiQQiy laughed.

  “Of course, dreams change,” Nien said, his eyes taking respite in the gloaming. “The Cant and the school were my ultimate dreams.”

  “I was told you were a teacher.”

  “You are thorough, aren’t you?”

  “Hazard of the job, I’m afraid.”

  “Yes, well, I was — if you could call it that. I had about thirty students for a very short time.”

  “And you taught…?”

  Wondering why the Empress of Quieness would have any interest in what a Rieevan might teach a few young people in a classroom that was no more than a section open fields, he said, “I had some books I’d refer to and read from. We would discuss ideas, philosophies, as well as the politics, commerce, history, and beliefs of the other continental valleys. They had so many questions. Questions we never got to answer.”