The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1)

by JF Smith

  “I doubt he realizes he is doing this, but he is not holding me to his standard of right and wrong, Thaybrill. He is forcing me to hold myself to my own standard. If I expect the thief today to make amends for his crime, then I must somehow make amends for my own. I have ignored my own crimes long enough. I must take my place in irons in front of the throne as the thief today did, at least figuratively.”

  The patriarch took Gully’s hand and said, “Saving the throne and saving the Iisendom should count well enough towards that, my young king!”

  “Yes, precisely!” agreed Thaybrill.

  “But it does not,” said Gully miserably. “I can sense how I am torn in these ways, by everything that is expected of me, and I do not know how to be all these things. I should not be king.”

  “But!” said a voice behind them, surprising them all. They turned and saw Wyael looking on the verge of crying at the comment he had overheard. “But... but I like you being king, Gully! You’re a good one!”

  Gully forced a half-hearted smile to his face again. He pulled Wyael around to the front of him and sat him upon his lap. Those gathered around him, including Gallun and Gellen now in human form, watched for his response intently.

  “Even today, the merchant Allerdaain came begging for indulgences, more favorable terms for borrowing money so he can have leverage over his fellow merchants in Lohrdanwuld. He has the nerve to ask me this in Mariealle’s name! Mariealle would have been horrified at such a request in her name,” said Gully, remembering how he had fought hard to hold his anger in check at the bald audacity of the merchant.

  “Ignoring the insulting use of his dead daughter’s memory to curry my favor, I have no idea what is the right answer for something like this. I have no experience in these kinds of dealings. I sent him away, but was that really the right thing to do? It certainly displeased him, and I’m sure he thinks I do not honor Mariealle’s memory after this.”

  “As horrible as the Domo Regent was for all the crimes he committed, at least he knew how to run the kingdom,” said Gully softly.

  “You misunderstand your position,” said the patriarch emphatically, “and you most definitely misunderstand what Iisen needs! Krayell was an administrator. What Iisen needs is a king! This land needs a leader that all will look up to.”

  Gully rested his chin on Wyael’s head and said, “Then I have already failed. People are angry and dissatisfied with me and I cannot seem to make them happy. I make decisions and they sit around with their arms crossed, nursing their mugs filled to the rim with mead and grievances.”

  “Your Highness,” said the patriarch, “you are not here to please them! They follow your lead, not the other way around! You cannot lead by pleasing others; you lead by doing right in your own heart and soul.”

  Gully sighed and closed his eyes. The patriarch had spoken true. The problem that the patriarch did not recognize was that Gully did not know what was in his heart and soul.

  “You must decide on that, and the kingdom will fall in line behind you,” finished the patriarch.

  Gully said helplessly, “I no longer know whom I am. I think that there are too many me, patriarch. Di’taro, the Gully Snipe, Bayle, Thayliss... I am drowning in all of these people. I am drowning like a soul at the bottom of the Ouleand Sea.”

  Gully fell into a morose silence, holding tightly onto Wyael.

  The patriarch cleared his throat and said, “You are right, Your Highness. You are saddled with many expectations. Many identities have been thrust upon you, including by me. The rest of us have a simpler path before us. Ours is largely, but not entirely, determined by our birth and our family. For you, fate has heaped all of these people that you are onto your conscience, and I do not believe it to be coincidence. We have spoken of fate before, and you know my beliefs. I think that many lines of fate have been working for a very long time to converge on you this way, Gully... the thief of Iisen. You have seen the problem... it is not to satisfy the petty, daily demands that a line of people thrust at you. It is not to pick which side you prefer in any given meaningless argument. The problem... the gift you are given... is to decide whom you are. Not whom others want you to be. You decide whom you are.”

  “Once you decide that, everything else will fall into place,” said the patriarch.

  Gully still felt like this was an overwhelming problem. Pick? How could he pick? It wasn’t like walking up to a pear tree and deciding which one was the ripest and choosing it.

  “And your choice, so long as it comes freely from inside yourself, will change the world as we have known it for generations back,” added the patriarch.

  ~~~~~

  Over the rolling farmland that stretched out beyond Lohrdanwuld, the twilight of the moongloam began to lessen. The faint halo of sunlight around the trickster moon drifted lower, becoming more pronounced on the bottom rim and less at the top as the sun slipped closer to emerging from below for its final dip into sunset for the day. Indistinct, gray clouds seemed to be gathering in the north, beyond Thayhold and Kelber Peak.

  Gully watched from his room’s balcony and guessed that, as Pelaysha slowly sank in the west, it would only be a few more weeks before the bottom of the moon and the western horizon joined. There would be no more moongloams for the year then and there would be only sunset as soon as the sun sank behind the trickster moon.

  The conversation that afternoon in the orchards had only served to muddle Gully’s mind even more on the matter. Running the land was difficult enough without the patriarch demanding he lead it as well. He wasn’t sure what that even meant. What else was there besides deciding on these issues that came before him?

  Down below, in the inner bailey of the Folly, he saw Thaybrill and Roald walking closely together and talking. It looked like they were going towards the stables next to the Kingdom Guard garrison house, a place that Gully had not frequented because he did not know how to ride a horse and had little inclination to learn.

  The sight of the two of them together, Roald gesturing animatedly with his hands and Thaybrill nodding, did little to help Gully’s mood. He did not feel jealous of them, and was quite glad they had each other’s company. He already felt alone, and seeing Roald put his hand in the small of Thaybrill’s back as they walked did little to increase or lessen that feeling. He wondered if he would feel this detached if Mariealle were still alive. It both hurt and felt warm to know that she would have no end of opinions about his current situation.

  He heard a noise in his room and saw through the oriel window Gallun and Gellen entering. He shook his head a little at how they refused to leave him for hardly more than a few minutes at a time now. If he had not insisted they start sleeping with him in his bed, he believed they would simply never sleep again, and instead stand watch outside his door until they dropped from the effort.

  He waved at them to come out onto the balcony with him, and they did.

  When they joined him, they looked like they were about to transform into wolves but Gully asked them to stay in their human form a moment longer.

  He asked them, “Is the only reason you refuse to leave my side from some sort of duty to which you feel bound? Is it because I set you free that night, and now you have set for yourself some sort of obligation towards me?”

  He paused a moment and the two twin brothers exchanged a quick glance.

  Gully continued, “You know I would never demand anything of the sort from you. You owe me nothing and, unlike me, you are free to live any life you wish to live now.”

  He expected the usual superficially irritated response from Gellen, but that is not what he got this time.

  Gellen gestured all around him, indicating all of the Folly, and then shook his head no. Gellen then pointed at the crystal pendant beneath Gully’s tunic and shook his head no again. Finally, Gellen stepped forward. His dark eyes, which were so normally hard and moody and fierce, were gentle this time. He took Gully’s hand and placed their palms together.

  Gully nodde
d his understanding. They did not do it because he was the king of Iisen. They did not do it because he was the last emperor of a dead empire. They stayed with him because they considered him family.

  Gully said, “Aye, thank you. I probably overreact, and I beg your indulgence with my moods. My foster brother, Roald, is very special to me, and I should have made that more known in the past. His formality around me, almost like he no longer knows me, is very difficult for me. I am not sure...” Gully sighed, “Never mind...”

  “I should not make the same mistake with you,” he said more firmly.

  Gully grabbed Gellen and embraced him tightly, then repeated it with Gallun.

  He said with more of a smile than he had managed all day, “My beloved brothers.”

  Chapter 37 — The Recompense

  The next morning, Gully woke early and his mind was too active to let him go back to sleep. He put on his robe, left the wolves sleeping on the bed and went to sit in a deep chair of soft sheepskin in front of the cooling embers in the massive fireplace.

  At first he studied the pannyfruit trees carved into the stone that served as the pilasters on either side of the fireplace. He even noticed a tiny fuss finch carved into the branches of one of the trees that he had never noticed before.

  His eyes settled on the embers of the fire and his mind went back to the thief that had been brought before him the day before. He had thought hard about what the patriarch had said, the encouragement that he and Thaybrill, and Wyael even, had given him afterwards. In his heart, though, he knew he could not sit in judgment of people when he had done worse. Everyone else seemed willing to ignore the crimes of his past, except for possibly veWarrnest. And Gully, himself. Certainly not while condemning others. Having a conscience and finding himself in the position he had been in the day before was not something he was able to, or willing to, endure.

  His mind turned to how to make reparations for his crimes so that his conscience could be cleared. That was where he bogged down, and he spent a long time, staring into the softly glowing embers of the waning fire, wondering how best to do that.

  At some point, he heard the door to his chambers open, and a chambermaid he had not seen before came in. She stopped suddenly when she saw the king there. She looked like she had no idea what to do and settled on dropping to one knee with her head lowered.

  “Forgive me, Your Highness,” she said softly, “but I was told to come and collect the spent candles in your chambers and replace them with fresh ones. I did not know you were still here. I will come back later.”

  She stood and turned to leave, but Gully said, “You do not need to leave. I’ve been sitting here for a while, unable to sleep.”

  He glanced out of his massive window and saw how light it had grown outside while he had been thinking. He had been there longer than he realized.

  “You aren’t disturbing me, so please go ahead and do what you need to do,” he said.

  She dipped her head in acknowledgement and began collecting the candle stubs quietly. She made her way over towards the far side of the room and Gully went back to thinking, his eyes focusing back on the fireplace.

  Barely a second later, Gully almost jumped out of his robe at the blood-curdling scream that came from behind him.

  He looked around and saw the chambermaid flattened against the wall in horror. Across from her, and standing on the bed where he had finally awakened, was Gallun. Gellen, startled by the scream, jumped up so that both wolves were now standing on the bed and trying to understand what the screaming was about.

  The girl stood, candle stubs scattered at her feet, and begged breathlessly, “The wolves, Your Highness! Please do not let them eat me! I beg you!”

  Gallun and Gellen looked around, puzzled, almost as if they expected to see some other wolves in the room with them.

  Gully said, “The wolves?”

  “I had heard you surrounded yourself with the monsters from the Ghellerweald, but I believed them to be silly rumors, Your Highness! Please do not let them kill me!” she begged with a trembling voice.

  Gully said, “What is your name?”

  “Sire?”

  “You’re perfectly safe, you have my word. What is your name?”

  “It’s Merta, Your Majesty.”

  “Merta, come over here and sit down for a moment,” said Gully, pointing at the deep couch next to the chair he was in front of.

  She slid along the wall while keeping a wary eye on the wolves on the bed, then ran over closer to Gully as fast as she could.

  Gully gestured to the couch again, but Merta shook her head and said with a slight curtsey, “Your Highness! I cannot sit in your presence! It is not allowed!”

  Gully shrugged and said, “And a few weeks ago, I was the thief of Lohrdanwuld and you would have been offended if I had spoken to you in the street. Please, Merta... sit.”

  Her eyes darted mistrustfully from Gully to the wolves still on the bed and back, but she slowly sat on the couch as asked. Gully sat down on the edge of the chair he had been occupying.

  “I have not seen you in the Folly before, Merta,” he said.

  “Oh, uhm... Your Highness, if it please you... my father has gotten behind in paying our taxes, and a cousin of mine works in the kitchens here in the Folly. She helped get me a position as a scullery maid so that I could help. Yesterday was my first day.” She gave a penitent smile, as if she expected to be sacked immediately for causing so much commotion on her second day. She pulled discretely at her white coif hat to make sure it sat correctly over her blond hair.

  “Oh, I see,” said Gully. “Gallun, Gellen, will you please come here?”

  Merta started shaking so much she looked like she might shake herself to pieces. “Please, Your Highness! I’m sorry for making such a mess, but do not turn me over to the monsters!”

  Gully waved at Gallun and Gellen to come over and said to the girl, “No one’s turning you over to anyone! And Gallun and Gellen are not monsters! What makes you call them monsters?”

  Merta paled, afraid she had now added insulting the king to the list of terrible mistakes she had made that morning. Her mouth opened, but nothing more than a squeak came out.

  Gully said, “I’m genuinely curious as to what makes you think of them as monsters, that’s all.”

  She gave another glance at the wolves, who were now sitting in front of the fireplace, a few feet away from her. Gallun was yawning again. Gellen was looking rather testy that anyone would call him a monster.

  “I... I heard you somehow could control them. We all have heard about the monsters in the woods, the ones that would take people and eat them after doing horrible things to them. The rumor is that you have somehow mastered them and turn them loose on anyone that crosses you. People, out in the city, have even started calling you the Wolf King! And then there are stories that it wasn’t them, but our own people, nobles even, that were stealing people! But yet, here you are with these creatures from the woods, creatures that were once men and now are cursed! I no longer know what to think!”

  “Ah,” said Gully. He sank into silence while he tried to decide the best way to sort out all of the rumors and stories the girl had in her mind and replace them with the truth.

  Gellen snorted a muted “Mrph!” indignantly at Gully when he didn’t speak quickly enough. Gully said, “Yes, Gellen, just a moment. I’m thinking!”

  Merta’s eyes got wide and she said, “They’re true! The stories are true! You can speak to wolves!”

  “Hmm?” said Gully, pulled from his musings. “Oh, not really. I just know them quite well, and Gellen can be a little impatient.”

  Gellen growled slightly and shifted his weight on his haunches. His ears pulled back as if offended.

  Gully looked at him tartly and said, “Oh, do you deny it? Even now?”

  Gellen sank down so that he lay on the floor and refused to look at Gully.

  “They are not monsters, Merta, and they were not once men. They are men
, even now. These are good people. They are good men that have had terrible stories told about them to scare everyone from the truth behind the disappearances. I know all the stories you’ve heard about them. I’ve heard all of them as well, and I believed them as you did, but none of them are true.”

  “The gypsies from the woods that you’re thinking of are real — they’re called Balmoreans. They are a kind and moral people, Merta. Some, like Gallun and Gellen, are exceptionally well-trained fighters, but they are not wantonly violent.”

  Merta nodded that she understood, even if she still wasn’t fully convinced.

  Gully said to the wolves, “May I impose on you to transform for her so that she will see that you are indeed men?”

  They both transformed into humans, and Merta gasped when she saw the two men standing suddenly before her. Then she realized they were both naked and she gasped again and cast her eyes aside.

  Gully laughed and said, “Because of their ability to change between animal and human form, they do not concern themselves over their naked forms as much as we Iisenors do.”

  Merta was unable to keep from looking at them. She slowly looked up at them again and asked them, “Does it hurt to change like that?”

  Gallun and Gellen looked embarrassed and said nothing.

  “They cannot speak. The criminal allies of the Domo Regent cut their tongues out. These two men, just like many Iisenors, were to be sold into slavery to the Maqarans. But to answer your question, no, changing from one form to the other does not hurt at all. It is in their nature to do so. It is much like an Iisenor with a beautiful voice desires to sing, to use her gift.”

  Gallun smiled at her and reached out his hand in a polite greeting to Merta.

  She blushed fire-red to do so with a naked man, but hastily shook his offered hand before jerking it back.

  Merta asked, “How did they come to be your pets, Your Highness?”

  Gallun frowned, and Gellen growled low in his throat. Merta seemed to realize her mistake and gave a pained look to Gully.