by Guy Antibes
They rode deeper into the preserve. A large meadow opened up and Rullon let his horse gallop through the short grass and over the occasional rock or stump. As Bellia and Ulu let him lead, Rullon plunged into the thick woods. They heard a cry.
They expected him unhorsed, but Rullon still sat on his horse. His hands pointed into the air as a band of six men sat on their own horses. Two pointed crossbows at the wizard.
“We know who you are. Wiggle those fingers and you are a dead man.” One of the men said. He appeared to be the leader. Bellia and Ulu stopped by Rullon and the men spread out around them. The line of fire of the crossbows now covered them, too.
“A shrimp and we know she’s no wizard.” The men laughed as he pointed at Bellia’s three-fingered hand.
“Watch out for those two,” another said. “One has a plains blade and the other a Wansuan military sword.”
“Put your hands on your heads. Except for you, wizard-healer,” the leader said. “You’ll bring us a tidy sum. You and your guards.”
All of the men laughed. Bellia wondered what she could do. The crossbows stymied her temptation to fight with a sword. They would also stop Ulu before his eyes could even glow.
“Down. Off the horses. Bind the wizard’s hands and don’t forget the fingers.”
As they dismounted one man pointed a crossbow at Rullon’s chest while another pulled the swords out of their scabbards.
“Too bad I can’t use magic on you.” Rullon made as if to curse, but Bellia knew his words weren’t for the kidnappers. “If my friend here was a wizard you all would be a hundred feet in the air.”
“Wish on, magician.” They tied their hands and feet together.
The leader gave a snort, and then pushed the three of them down as the robbers took off their horses’ saddles and began to look in their saddlebags.
Bellia wasn’t keen on using her magic on people but these men might injure Rullon and casually kill Ulu and her. She gathered in the three lines of energy and concentrated on lifting all six.
The men felt something as they looked back at Rullon whose hands were wrapped in rawhide laces. Suddenly they all quickly lifted off the ground together, leaving the saddled horses far below. Bellia looked quickly up as high as the treetops and let the energy stop. The men fell into heaps on the forest floor and Bellia collapsed.
Ulu inched his way to where their swords lay and cut his bonds and then let Rullon and Bellia free.
“I hardly have the energy to sit up,” Bellia said. “I think I tried to do too much with too little energy. I wasn’t interested in seeing their heads explode like that rock I tried in Durnna.”
“Six men dropping one hundred feet don’t look much different,” Rullon said, shaking his head.
Ulu looked over the robbers and pulled out a paper scrap with Rullon’s name scrawled on it with the words ‘Nurlon’s woods’.
“How could they know we’d be here? Only few know I ride this path every time I come here. There’s a lovely little lake that way.” He pointed further on into the woods.
~
The house seemed to be empty. No one answered Rullon’s door. Another band of robbers seemed to have cleaned out the place. Every portable item with a scrap of value was gone.
“Warnt! Warnt!” Rullon ran from room to room. Everywhere it was the same. Rullon walked into his library and screamed. “My books! My scrolls!” Bellia, right behind, peeked in. The shelves were clean. She realized she left the metal book on her dresser and ran up the stairs, two at a time. The book was gone as was the flute.
Bellia went to a potted plant and brushed away the top layer of dirt. Five more of her jewels still lay below the surface. She retrieved them.
“Here Rullon. Take what you need.”
“But the bank?”
“I don’t need any jewels, but I figured I’d leave a few here and a few there in case something like this happened or the bank lost my bag.”
Rullon looked them over. “Perhaps one. It’s not as if I don’t have funds of my own sitting in the bank. If you don’t need one, that is.”
Bellia smiled. “No problem. Do you think it was Warnt?”
“Of course it was Warnt! Who else knew of my riding habits and the value of my possessions? He must have planned this for some time.”
“And my book.” Bellia felt deflated and frustrated. That was a book of the gods and wondered if the Blind God would punish her for allowing someone to steal it. She felt miserable and had to wipe away a few tears at its loss.
“Your book?” Rullon looked devastated. “It had to be him, overhearing us last night.”
“But why? Isn’t he a loyal servant?”
“The man’s only been with me since my wife’s death. Perhaps every person has a price, especially in Togolath. At least the furniture is here and I hope we still have food in the kitchen.”
“We do, Master Rullon.” Ulu said walking in munching on a leg of chicken left over from the night before.
“Your father’s amulet!”
Bellia pulled it out of her shirt along with her plains chief charms. “And my Blind God token’s in my pocket. I’ve learned to keep what I need on my body.”
“But the book.”
Bellia smiled and tapped her head and sighed. “It’s all up here. I really don’t think anyone else can use it. From what you said, I think any wizard is still bound and who else on Gleanere knows the language? Something’s happened to me somewhere that allowed me to unbind my magic. Maybe it was Ned’s flute.”
“I think that’s your youth talking. Nothing in my house had the value of that metal book.”
“My journey’s not over anyway.” Bellia said looking out the window feeling miserable. “Perhaps I’ll seek out Warnt after my business in Grianna.” She wondered she had made an empty promise. What if she took the throne. A queen wouldn’t search out a criminal.
~
Rullon had an emergency patient, so Bellia and Ulu walked down by the wharves that, under other circumstances, fascinated Bellia so much. She looked at the ships hoping to find the one that took her from Flathua to Palubat, but there were too many. Togolath’s docks dwarfed those of Barloo. They spent the afternoon trying to find Warnt or get an idea where he might have gone.
She’d never seen people of the far north before with their black curly hair and bone-white skin. They all had sallow rings around their pale violet eyes. It took a bit for Bellia to cut through their accents but she realized she could speak their language. The syntax was difficult.
“Have you sailed the seas long?” she asked.
“One who speaks my language is one to honor,” the man bowed his head as he went back to mending a sail on his vessel.
An idea popped into Bellia’s head. “Have you been sitting mending your sails for hours on end?”
“Mending, I have, for long hours. Since the rising of the sun yesterday.”
“Could possibly you have seen a short man, gray hair cut like a woman’s brush, bring many small goods to sail away yesterday prior to the zenith of the sun?”
“As one might reflect, I did. With a brush of black here.” The sailor pointed to his chin. It had to be Warnt.
“Ship that took the man with the brush of black did launch for what land?” Bellia tried to make the words land in the right places. The Northerners made do with a different order of words.
“Barloo, the ship made for. Many Kokotan sailors did man the lines.”
“Many wishes of good luck for a remembering so distinctly. My intent for a good day’s work for you to have.” Bellia bowed her head and left to walk with Ulu.
“You look like your mind is worn down.” Ulu said.
“Indeed. I thought singing your language was difficult.” Bellia shook her head. “We need to get back to Rullon. It looked like Warnt might have been in the pay of the Kokotans.”
~
“Kokota seems to be our bane, Bellia.” Rullon said. His new cook brought in a platter of fish fri
ed in a light batter.
“It’s not just mine. Do you know how the Kokotans and the Middab parted?”
“It all boils down to the gods at war. They broke into factions according to their worship. The god who joined with the wizards lured enough of the Kokotans to fight the Guardians. Reberrants.” Rullon nodded to Ulu. “They lost and the Middab cast the Kokotans out. Of course they didn’t call themselves that then. We don’t even know what the gods names were.”
“Did Togolath exist?”
“The Blind God didn’t start collecting records until nearly three thousand years ago. There weren’t many written languages back when the god wars occurred.”
“Still, the Kokotans were a different people, distinct from the Middab. I think they might have been warriors for one of the gods. Wouldn’t the Blind God know?”
“I’m going to tell you something meant for few ears.” Rullon looked behind him to see if the cook was listening in. “The Blind God escaped the prison where all gods ended up. He calls it ‘in-between’.
“In-between what? Who minds the prison?”
“There is one god who Gleanere could never bind. The god of the underworld. In-between is what lies in the middle of the sphere of the living and the sphere of the dead.”
“I’ve never heard of a god of the underworld. It’s not Pollok?”
“No. He or she probably likes it that way. The priests and priestesses talk of hell. Where do you suppose that is?”
“A place where all parents use to scare their children into behaving properly. That is where.”
“Since no one comes back from the underworld, we don’t know what it’s like. But I suspect it is much different than a place of eternal torment, just as I see you do.” Rullon sat back in his chair.
Bellia leaned forward. “But you didn’t finish your story. The Blind God escaped from this in-between place.”
“Yes. He did. When he returned his mind was wiped clean. He knew he had powers, but he barely knew how to talk. That was when Ned found him and brought him to Tuathua, far away from Helevat in case one of the other gods escaped with real knowledge. The Blind God didn’t know enough to even defend himself. He really is blind to his past.”
“Ned was able to borrow his powers somehow. He won’t tell anyone and the Blind God can’t remember. Ned set up the Temple, although it began as a stone house. Ned began to read things to the Blind God to give him knowledge of the world and that continues to this day. He listens to the Readers. I know you just thought that was for show, but it’s not. He only has to take in what is assessed and distilled.”
Bellia’s mouth dropped open. “Then he doesn’t even know which god he was?”
“No” Rullon shook his head. “He doesn’t. He could be the god who started the wizard-war. How many male statues were at Helevat?”
“Seven men and five women,” Ulu said. “We don’t know their names either. It is lost to time. The likenesses I saw on the statues might not even be the same. The Reberrants carved the Statues from blocks in the rubble of our city. It was in the music Bellia played from the book.
“But who wrote the book?” Bellia asked. He looked at Ulu and Rullon, knowing that was a mystery they couldn’t solve that evening.
~
There were so many shops in Togolath. Bellia could buy anything she wanted in the city. She looked in the windows of a shop showing women’s fashions. She didn’t even know what was stylish, here or in Testia.
Did she need to buy a trunk of clothing to sail across the Inner Sea to Grian?
Ride to Grianna, now.
Another nudge. Bellia felt relieved. If they traveled by horse, she couldn’t afford the room to take non-essential clothes. Somewhat relieved, she returned to Rullon’s house.
Bellia and Rullon left Ulu to make the final preparations for the pair’s departure from Togolath. Ulu was intrigued by the cold weather of late fall and would walk the streets of the city in the cold rain. It took a few days for the wonder to wear off.
Practicing more magic didn’t appeal to Bellia. The vision of the falling men produced unexpected nightmares and Rullon didn’t press her. Bellia had witnessed much more gruesome experiences. She only had to look at her hand, but the men’s deaths and her unexplained weakness made her reticent.
Bellia rode Nudge through the sloppy road and back to the game preserve for one last diversion before she left Togolath. While they rode, Rullon spoke of Grianna and her uncle’s reign of terror. They both received word from their bank that the Grian corresponding bank was dissolved by order of the King and the deposits confiscated before the bank could put any of her money there.
“That amulet will allow you to take your uncle’s throne when he dies.”
“How does it do that?” Bellia said.
“The instructions are on the back.”
Bellia pulled it out and looked closely. Magic codes were worked into the decoration circling the picture of an eagle. “And so it does. What does the code do?”
“The code is the only reason for the amulet. The wizard does his codework and a crown appears on the head of any member of the royal family. I saw a crown appear on Norlian’s head one night as he had his wife code the spell. He thought it was a good joke and, indeed we had a good laugh. I do not laugh any longer as it has made your life what it is,” Rullon said, leading them down the lane to the lake they never made it to. Rullon stopped at the same spot where the six men died.
The scene looked much different. Instead of changing leaves still darkening the forest floor, the bare branches extended their myriad fingers towards the meager light of the sun poking through a thin layer of clouds.
“Why nightmares?” Rullon said looking at the spot where the Wart’s hired killers had fallen.
“I don’t know. It’s not the killing. It’s something else. Maybe the use of the magic? Can magic have morals?”
“That’s a novel concept.” Rullon said. He rubbed his face. “If it does, it was suppressed by the god who led the wizards, assuming the legends are true.”
“Who knows what’s true? Not even the Blind God knows.”
“Not even him.”
“Let’s see your lake.” Bellia rode on. She certainly would, unfortunately, leave Rullon with more questions than answers.
~~~
Chapter Thirty-One
Grianna
~
The cold sun played hide and seek, as the weather alternated between snowy and rainy days. They reached the border of Grianna and walked their horses beneath a canopy of naked limbs and branches along a road in a thick wood. Ulu held up his hand. Nudge snorted and Bellia reached up and patted his neck.
The cries of a child cut through the silence. Ulu ran through the woods.
“I have found a child.” Ulu emerged from the brush carrying a young boy. His clothes were in tatters. Bellia saw the boy’s bruised leg.
“I’ll let him ride with me,” Ulu said as he hoisted the boy on the back of his saddle.
Bellia thought he might be eleven or twelve years old. The boy whimpered and seemed disoriented. Ulu wrapped his blanket around the boy and gave him a drink of water. He was thirsty and didn’t want to give it up, but Ulu glared at him in a playful way, bringing a ghost of a smile and the boy handed the waterskin over.
A league up ahead, by the side of the road, a wagon sat upside down a few paces off of the road.
“Let’s get a rope and see if we can lift it upright. The undercarriage still looks sound,” Bellia said. She tied a rope to her saddle and let Nudge do the rest. Ulu stood on the far side and lifted.
The little man gasped as the wagon fell onto its wheels. The boy, sitting on a rock began to wail. Bellia walked over and saw the bodies of a man and a woman covered with clothes and household implements. A strongbox, nearly hidden by the undergrowth, showed the effects of a forced opening.
“My name is Bellia. What’s yours?” Bellia smiled as Ulu worked on the boy’s leg.
“Corl.
” Then the boy went silent and Bellia thought that he needed someone near to him.
Ulu had finished dressing the boy’s leg and searched around the wagon.
“Is there anything of value left?” Bellia said.
“I do not care to touch the dead, Mistress Bellia. It must be the boy’s parents.”
The pair spent the next three hours digging a large grave for both bodies with a couple of shovels found near the wagon. The bodies were wrapped up with a pair of blankets and Bellia and Ulu lowered them into the grave as gently as they could. They let the boy fill the graves up as much as he could stand and then they finished the work.
“These flashes on the trees will lead you to your parent’s’ graves.” Bellia said as she notched out three ‘V’s in the trees all around the site. The flashes reminded her of Menna in the jungle. Death in battle couldn’t touch the tragedy she felt for the boy. “Where were you headed?”
The boy looked at the pair with suspicion, but then looked at the graves and lifted his head.
“They weren’t my parents, but my guardians. They were taking me to my aunt’s a few of leagues further up this road. A gang came and killed them before my very eyes. When Mantrim saw them coming, he threw me off the wagon and told me to run. I hurt my leg when I fell and dragged myself in the woods. I think I heard Lillia scream.” Tears began to flow again. “Then I might have heard laughing. Mantrim thought he could make more money in my aunt’s village. His hobby was woodwork and he was known for his carpentry and furniture making where we lived.”
“I don’t see any carpentry tools. Do you, Ulu?” She continued to walk around where the wagon was upended.
“I’m not familiar with such things, but I only see a few tools a farmer might use.”
“You didn’t see any of them, Corl?” Bellia had to ask, but received the shake of the head… No. Perhaps they were in the strongbox.
Late the next day, with Ulu’s horse pulling the cart and Nudge tied onto the rear, the three made it to the aunt’s house.
“Corl! You’re safe. Village men came by and said my cousin was dead with her husband. A wagon accident some leagues away.” The aunt hugged Corl as if he was her own child. She was somewhat older than Bellia with long auburn hair, perhaps as old as Wully’s sister.