The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1)

by JF Smith

  Gully reached over and placed his hand on the bear’s shoulder, then in the center of his chest. Every bit of his childhood training told him it was a dangerous thing to do and that the bear would try to attack him, but Raybb let him place his hands upon him freely.

  Raybb said proudly, “Oh, the very best part of being a familiar, especially a bear, is that I can scratch my own back anytime I like!”

  Gully chuckled and agreed with him that it would be a marvelous ability indeed.

  He then said, “Tell me about the skirts, ‘kilts’ I believe I heard you call them, that many of the men in the clan wear. It would be strange for an Iisen man to wear a skirt.”

  Raybb’s eyes twinkled merrily and he said, “Yes, I know. You are right, though, we call them kilts and not skirts. They are not just for males, but more particularly are the most practical article of clothing for transmutes, male and female, who must be able to undress quickly before they change form.”

  Gully glanced down at the charcoal-gray kilt of a nubby fabric that Raybb wore. “You wear one and yet you are not a transmute.”

  “I find them to be more comfortable, especially in the summer. There are other men in the clan that like them as well. Because of the transmutes, Balmorean society has never had a strict taboo on nudity in public like the Iisendom does. It is still polite to be dressed when convenient, but no one would think twice about being unclothed otherwise. And our animal forms go unclothed all the time. You’d never see a bear in breeches, that’s for sure,” said Raybb with another deep laugh. “I have never understood that taboo among Iisenors anyway. Everyone knows what the male body and the female body looks like, so why such a fuss over it?”

  As Gully sat back down next to Raybb, a small girl, probably aged seven or eight years, came racing up behind his bear form, leaped upon him, and started climbing all over him as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  Raybb’s human half grunted from the attack and said, “Maarbeth! Not so rough, please. You’re not as small as you used to be! And heed your manners while we have company!” The bear grabbed her off his back, carefully because of his claws, and set her down in front of them while she continued to squirm and laugh. Exoutur approached at a more leisurely pace after the girl, greeting Gully with a “good morning.”

  Raybb said, “Bayle, this is Maarbeth. She is my daughter, and Exoutur’s, too. Maarbeth, this is our new friend and fellow Balmorean, Bayle.”

  The small girl stared at him with wide eyes, her black hair a tangled mess from wrestling with her father. She pulled nervously at the skirt she wore over dirty breeches. She said, “Hello, sir,” while biting at her lip so that the words almost did not make it out of her mouth.

  Gully said, “Good morning, Maarbeth. I know of a bear that’s been hard at work making breakfast for you.”

  Exoutur sat down on the ground next to the bear and leaned against him. He pointed over towards a nicer hut and said, “Maarbeth, it’s time to eat. Go and fetch four bowls, please.”

  Maarbeth ran off to do as she was told and Gully asked, “She is the daughter of both of you?”

  Exoutur said, “She is, by adoption. Her parents disappeared almost four years ago and she has been with us ever since. In less than a year hence, we will perform the blood seal with her and she will be permanently ours. Unlike the blood seal you went through, we are waiting until she is nine, as is customary, so that she will understand the meaning of the act. We will have many witnesses to it, most of the clan in fact, and it is always cause for a celebration.”

  Raybb added, “Unlike in Iisen, and the cities in particular, an orphan child is never left to want and to fend for itself in our culture. It is a privilege, a sacred honor and duty, to step in on behalf of parents that are gone and to take a child and raise it. The patriarch has a hard time deciding whom to allow to have a child unlucky enough to lose his parents since there are always many that would gladly take him. You were lucky, Bayle, to have had a family in your city of Lohrdanwuld take you in when Ollon disappeared. If I am not mistaken, many orphans in the city go without. It is shameful how Iisen treats its most helpless.”

  Gully nodded, “Aye, you are correct, and I was lucky. Astrehd, my foster mother, was very kind and good to me, even though all I wanted was to have my father, Ollon, back. She gave up trying to keep me from wandering and looking for him. And Roald, my foster brother, continues to love me and welcome me as his brother even though his mother passed into her nighting a year ago now.”

  “Ah, you were doubly blessed in your life,” said Exoutur, very pleased, “to have had Ollon, and then the Delescers, take you in when you needed family the most.”

  Gully was far luckier than most, and he felt a little ashamed of himself for not showing the gratitude to Roald that he deserved for accepting him so completely and sharing with him so freely. Gully merely nodded to Exoutur in response.

  Gully asked, “Forgive me if the question is improper, but the two of you live together as a paired couple, openly, even raising a daughter together as one?”

  Exoutur laughed and said, “Yes. We know full well how Iisenors view such inclinations, even using such crude insults like ‘swayed’ and ‘knockered’ to refer to people like us. For those with Balmorean blood, though, it has always been accepted as no different. We do not even really have a word to describe it, one that makes it separate from attractions to the opposite sex.”

  Raybb said, “The closest we have is to sometimes refer to it as same-attracted.”

  Exoutur frowned and said, “I hope our relationship does not offend you, but here, amongst our people, we have no inclination to behave—”

  Gully interrupted, “Oh no, no! Not at all, actually! I mean, you are right that many in Iisen see this kind of attraction as unnatural, and it is looked down upon as perverse, and railed against by almost all if it becomes public, but I have never felt that way.”

  He thought for a moment about how much to say, but his Iisen upbringing would not let him betray Roald’s trust, even among people that would accept it without question. He said, “In Lohrdanwuld, there is someone I’m close to that has confided in me that he is this way. He is a good person, someone I very much respect, and it matters naught to me.” He chuckled and added, “But to be honest, to know Balmoreans accept this so readily is probably the least unique thing about your culture.”

  Raybb laughed again as he stood to receive the bowls with which Maarbeth had returned.

  Exoutur raised his eyebrows at Gully and scolded him amiably. “Our culture, Bayle.” He pointed at Gully’s left hand and said, “The blood seal cannot be undone. Remember whom you are.”

  Gully nodded and said, “Yes, you are right. But tell me, how is it that you seem to know so much about Iisen culture? How have you learned all that you have?”

  Raybb began spooning up what looked like a porridge made from pannyfruit into the bowls. He said, “Oh, we go into the cities, Lohrdanwuld and East End, quite often. We have even gone as far as Wilch’s Post on a few occasions.”

  “You do?” asked Gully, surprised to find out that the Mercher clan had moved so freely among the cities and people of Iisen.

  “Of course we do. We trade for things that we cannot make ourselves, and the only place to do that is to go to the nearby cities,” said Raybb.

  “We only go in very small groups,” added Exoutur. “A large number of us at one time would draw attention because of our appearance. But if there is just two or three of us, we blend in easily enough that no one in the cities thinks anything of it. Maarbeth is quite fond of the fountain in the Bonedown Square in your home city. Raybb is, too, but he doesn’t like to admit it.”

  Raybb frowned at Exoutur for telling on him as he handed a bowl of porridge to his husband. “I’m merely curious as to how the mechanics of such a fountain work!” grunted the big man.

  “Of course, Raybb, of course,” said Exoutur with a knowing grin.

  Maarbeth had settled in Raybb’s be
ar lap and was rushing through her breakfast like it would be taken away from her at any moment. Gully had not realized how hungry he was until he took his own first bite of the porridge and discovered how good it was.

  As they were finishing, and after Gully had turned down a third helping of the porridge, the ocelot half of the patriarch arrived. Exoutur said to him, “Father, we have some porridge left over if you have not had breakfast yet. You are welcome to it.”

  Gully watched as the ocelot bowed his head a moment, then shook it. It was unmistakably a polite way of declining the food. What was so remarkable was that it appeared exactly as the kind of mannerism he had previously seen from the patriarch. The ocelot turned and bowed his head at Gully and then nodded towards a specific direction away from Exoutur’s and Raybb’s hut. Gully was unsure what the ocelot was telling him, but Exoutur interpreted for him.

  “My father is probably still having his breakfast, but he’d like for you to come and join him when it is convenient. I’m sure he has thought of more questions during the night to pose to you,” said Exoutur.

  Gully said goodbye to Exoutur and Raybb and followed the ocelot back to the campfire around which he and the patriarch had had their conversation the night before. Wyael was there with the patriarch, putting away the last of his breakfast.

  Aian greeted Gully and told the young boy, “Thank you, Wyael. You may go play or see your parents if you like.”

  “Please, patriarch, may I stay and listen?” asked Wyael.

  “Of course you may, but after you finish the last bit of tidying up, please.”

  Wyael ran off to finish his remaining chores. The patriarch smiled warmly after the boy and told Gully, “He is quite fascinated with you. Along with many others in the camp, as a matter of fact.”

  They made themselves comfortable, the patriarch in his chair and Gully leaning back against a log. Gully said, “I’m not sure what would be so fascinating about someone like me, patriarch.”

  Aian studied Gully with very sharp eyes for a moment before he answered, as if his response required much deeper consideration than most. “Oh, many things, I expect. Anyone brave, or likely foolish, enough to thieve from ruthless forest robbers would be interesting. The fact that you are the one who saved Gallun and Gellen and then appeared on our very threshold days later. That you are Iisen, and yet have just found out you are Balmorean, too, through very curious and remarkable circumstances. You grew up amongst the very bogs and marshes that are so dangerous for all others. All these are things that many in the clan find very interesting, especially when it all comes to rest in a single person. Our conversation was supposedly private last night, but words among the clan sneak around faster than scared little pip mice.”

  Gully did not know what to say, and was more than a little uncomfortable that the fact that he had acted as a thief in the past had come up again, and worse, had spread among the whole clan. He wished he had not admitted that fact in front of any of the Merchers. But it was too late to take the truth back now.

  “I count myself among them, young Bayle,” added the patriarch, his human eyes and his ocelot eyes watching Gully without blinking. Gully was so caught up in his own reverie that he didn’t even hear the comment.

  Gully decided the best approach was to be even more honest.

  “Sir, you should know—” Gully stopped as Wyael came racing back to sit near them, afraid that he had missed something. He was immediately followed by two large black and gray wolves loping along behind him. Gully stammered for a second as Wyael sat on a nearby log and Gallun and Gellen sat on the ground close to Gully, tongues hanging out and panting from their run.

  “You were saying?” prompted the patriarch.

  Gully looked at the new arrivals uncomfortably and wished he had not started to speak now that there were so many ears listening. But then he decided perhaps it would be best to be honest anyway. If they turned him out because of whom he really was, then so be it. It would be better to find out now than later. So he forged ahead and said with a heavy effort, “I must be fully honest with you.”

  The patriarch’s eyebrows raised in curiosity, but he waited patiently. The wolves’ ears perked up at his statement.

  “It is not strictly true that I have been a thief in the past.” Gully took a deep breath and continued, “The truth is... well, the truth is that I am nothing but a thief and never have been anything else.”

  The patriarch watched him solemnly for a moment, then he asked, “Oh, is that a fact? Have you stolen from us since you became our guest?”

  “No! I have not, and that never was—”

  The patriarch held his hand up and Gully stopped speaking. The patriarch gestured towards the wolves and asked, “Was it your intention to steal from Gallun and Gellen that night, instead of freeing them?”

  Gully was taken aback by the question some and he said, “Stealing from people held captive? Absolutely not!”

  The patriarch smiled easily again and said, “Then your statement is inaccurate. You may be a thief, but it is quite obvious to me, if not you, that it is not all that you are. May I ask why you became a thief?”

  “It was the only way to have some kind of living and still allow the time I needed to search for my father. My first few crimes were committed out of desperation, but I found I had something of a natural talent for it. Then it became more of a convenience. Criminal gain was the only method I could devise to have some kind of income and yet still spend as much time as I could time combing every spot of the bogs and marshes looking for signs of him, or signs of his fate, at least.”

  Wyael piped up, “Can you teach me to be a thief?!”

  The patriarch scowled at him and said, “This is your only warning, Wyael. You must not interrupt or leave.”

  Gully added sternly, “I will not, Wyael! It is a terrible and shameful way to live.”

  “Perhaps a dishonorable choice of careers, and yet it was made for a very honorable purpose, Bayle,” said the patriarch. “I have told you before how convinced I am that your father loved you beyond any other person, and now I find that same love returned to him from his son. And I am still amazed that there is a person so utterly comfortable wandering around in the deadlier portion of the woods south of here. I absolutely forbid the members of my clan from going there.”

  Gully scratched at the back of his neck and begged, “Please, sir, if you would... call me Gully. That is really the name that fits whom I am.”

  “Gully? A strange name, by both Iisen and Balmorean standards. How do you come by this name?” The patriarch’s curiosity was piqued yet again.

  Gully sighed, “In Lohrdanwuld, I have something of a notorious reputation as a thief, not for stealing great sums of money, but more for my boldness in often acting in total daylight, and then also for how often I evade the swords and irons of the Kingdom Guard. I am known as the Gully Snipe among the Kingdom Guard and the people of the city.”

  “I accept responsibility for whom I am and I accept the name given to me. It is fitting for someone of weak scruples such as myself. I will almost certainly hang someday for my crimes,” he said, glancing at Wyael to make sure the boy heard the end result of his choices, “but in the meantime I can search for my father.”

  His eyes darted to the wolves, who had sat up and had what could only be described as a questioning look on their faces as they stared at him, something Gully never thought a wolf would be able to express. He diverted his eyes and tried to read the look on the patriarch’s face. He hastily added, before his admission did too much damage, “And if it troubles you, I give you my word that I would never act as such amongst—”

  The patriarch held up his hand to stop Gully yet again. He said, “I believed you last night when you said that was not your intention, and nothing in my opinion has changed. I worry little about you plying your professional trade among the clan. My sense tells me that you are not the kind to turn on the people you put yourself at such risk to help.”

&nb
sp; The patriarch nodded and said, “And if you prefer the name Gully, then Gully shall it be.” He smiled slyly at him. “But please humor an old man that would very much like to be able to call you Di’taro on sparing occasions.”

  “Thank you, patriarch,” said Gully. Then he added without thinking, “Even my foster brother, Roald, calls me Gully.”

  “Your foster brother is aware of your ways?” asked Aian, keenly.

  Gully realized in horror, but too late, the betrayal he had committed.

  The patriarch asked, “He is a swordsman in the Guard, is he not? Did I not hear you say that last night?”

  “Yes, patriarch... he is.” Gully wanted to kick himself for the blunder.

  The surprise in the patriarch’s face was almost tangible. “And he knows of your crimes?”

  Gully chuckled nervously. “Yes. There is not much we keep from one another. But he knows I take little, and what I do steal is usually taken from crooked merchants or men so wealthy that they never even miss it. It has caused many interesting encounters between us, to be sure! At home, we are brothers. Out in the city, he is a guardsman and I am a scofflaw, and he would not hesitate to slap me in irons.”

  “Remarkable!” exclaimed the patriarch.

  “He has not managed to catch me yet, although there have been quite a number of close calls! He is one of the better swordsmen in the city,” said Gully with a hint of pride and a smile that felt surer on his lips.

  “My brother is a good and honest soldier, a man the crown of Iisen can trust with unwavering conviction. And so do I. He is helping me to try to bring justice to the people behind the slave trade. But because they are powerful, I was hoping I could find you, Gallun and Gellen, and have you testify as to what happened. But that was when I assumed you were men of Iisen. I cannot and will not do that to you now since it would put you, and the clan, in an exposed position. I am now not even sure what I can tell Roald, if anything. I would like to tell him about meeting you and what I’ve seen, but I don’t want you to think that I would ever do anything to put you or the clan at risk, either.”