“Maybe Fato has a point.” Monika said. “We do have different powers. Let’s put it to the test. Basha, bring out the Black Sword. We’re going to see who gets shocked with what.”
Oaka got burned with both the Black and Blue Swords. Monika got burned with only the Black Sword, and somehow Gnat and Basha didn’t get burned at all.
Gnat did mention she’d felt a sense of unease touching the Black and Blue Swords, like they didn’t belong to her. Basha felt the same with the Blue Sword; he could hold it, but it didn’t feel right to use.
“What does this mean?” Oaka asked.
“Basha and Gnat can wield both Swords without getting shocked, and I’ve a feeling that if we get more Swords of Arria, the results’ll be the same for them.”
“This is ridiculous.” Basha insisted. “We should just eat something, and go.”
“I agree.” Oaka muttered.
“I didn’t ask for this. We didn’t ask for this, right, Gnat?” Basha turned to the younger girl. He wasn’t alone at least, that would’ve frightened him. But how did Gnat also have this ability? Perhaps she’d inherited it from her parents?
“I don’t know what your problem is, but I like this power!” Gnat cried.
“What? But don’t you understand that what we’ve got, it’s out of our control?”
“It’s our control, Basha, that’s the whole point. We can control the Swords of Arria! I’ve never been able to control anything in my life before.”
“But where does it all come from? How did we get this ability? What about your parents?” Basha asked.
“Who cares? All hail the great and powerful Gnat and Basha!” Fato laughed.
“Shut up!” Basha cried, picking up a pebble to throw at him.
“Cut it out!” Monika grabbed Basha’s hand.
He stopped, staring at her. The past couple of days had been hectic, yet Monika had kept calm and adapted to everything with ease, not afraid or not showing it, anyway. She was in control while he was falling apart, yet he wasn’t afraid in that moment when she held him.
It was just a light grip, yet they were facing each other, perhaps closer than they’d been since reuniting at the Walking Duck. Ever since then, he’d been thinking more about her as the days went by and they traveled together, moving further away from Coe Baba and Jawen, deeper into an unknown adventure beyond his quest for Tau’s Cup.
Her knowledge, reasoning, command, and presence held them together when everything else was confused. He wanted to confide in her as he hoped she’d confide to him. He wanted to know everything about her, to understand where she’d come from, what had happened to her, and where she thought they might be going. For she might understand and know more than he possibly did.
Monika held onto Basha, restraining him, yet at the same time she couldn’t hold onto him. For things were changing and moving beyond their control, and Basha had to change, too.
She remembered meeting him for the first time, and maybe she hadn’t thought much of him at first, yet she’d warmed to him as well. Despite the pain, grief, and fear that plagued him and afflicted her, too, he’d been looking forward to a future with his girl, Jawen. He was kind and considerate, curious as well when he’d never left Coe Baba and still wanted to know more about the world.
She sometimes wondered how he held onto his innocence for so long with all the strange things that surrounded him. Yet there was also a darker, rougher, dangerous side to him, the tiger of light that had apparently been stirring inside. She’d seen it in the brawl, at the warehouse, and now as they were on the run again, the ferocity starting to emerge as they were threatened and challenged.
Despite what happened with Renrawr, she was drawn to that force inside of him that could wield the Black Sword as she wielded the Blue. Peril surrounded him now and she wanted to hold on and protect him, and maybe be protected in turn.
Yet at the same time, his heart belonged to another and he would go back to Jawen with Tau’s Cup, leaving her alone once more. She had to brace for that heartbreak.
“No, keep doing it,” Oaka laughed, the spell of the moment broken.
Monika said nothing as she let go of Basha’s hand, turning away from him, but Basha blushed. Fato and Oaka started arguing again before the falcon flew off.
“I’ve never had any parents. I never knew them.” Gnat continued the conversation they were having. “I was left outside the gates of Coe Aela as a baby, or at least that’s what they told me. I’m not certain if it’s true or not.”
Basha stared at her, shocked at their similarities. Parents who’d abandoned or left them after birth, missing or dead, as they were raised by others, often forced to deal with hard tasks and face questions they’d no real answer to.
“I’m sorry, Gnat,” Basha said.
“They’re the ones who should be sorry, Lord Fobata and Captain Goga. They named me Gnat to let me know how insignificant I was. For a while I did believe that, but then I realized they lied to me. I kept up the pretense, knowing if I acted dumb, inconspicuous, and humble, I could avoid their notice. It worked for the most part. I survived, no matter what they threw at me, and now I’ve shown what I really think of them.”
“We should get going before Goga and his men catch up with us.” Monika crossed her arms, uncomfortable.
But nobody moved as they didn’t want to leave just yet, tired from last night and this situation. “What bothers you, Basha, about the Swords of Arria?” Gnat asked.
“I don’t want to be powerful.” Basha said. “I’m an orphan like you. My birth mother died bringing me into this world, I don’t know my real father. I was raised by Oaka’s family. We’re practically brothers, but not the same. I didn’t know the truth until I was eight years old.”
Gnat gaped at him as Basha said, “Sometimes I felt helpless and wished I could do something great enough for Jawen’s attention, but this is beyond anything I could’ve imagined.”
“Ugh, the same old tune.” Oaka rolled his eyes.
“Quiet.” Monika hissed at Oaka.
“Who’s Jawen?” Gnat asked.
“She’s the one I wanted to marry. I started out on this quest to get her Tau’s Cup. I didn’t want the power of the gods, the Swords of Arria. But now we’re veering away from that. The farther I get from Coe Baba, the more involved I seem to be in some crazy scheme with Doomba’s Followers and Swords of Arria and…oh no.” Basha laughed, slapping himself in the face as everyone else stared.
“What?” Gnat asked, worried.
“This sounds ridiculous, but it’s like a legend the Knights of Arria would be involved in.”
He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen this before. It was obvious if you paid attention to the legends. But real life wasn’t like the legends. Once you got distracted by mundane concerns, like keeping yourself alive, you forgot about legends. But the legends, the stories Old Man had told him and he’d read in books for years, were locked away inside his head, only to be revealed when they were needed, ready to come out of hiding.
Oaka, Monika, and then Gnat stared at each other like when they believed Fobata and Goga were Followers of Doomba. They couldn’t believe this was possible. Yet here he was standing before them with the Black Sword in his pack, not to mention the Blue Sword in Monika’s pack…no, it couldn’t be true.
“Could it be?” Gnat asked, excited.
“It might be.” Monika said morosely.
“No, we can’t be Knights of Arria!” Basha cried. “They were myths, legends from thousands of years ago, beings of enormous strength and magic. Heroes of the past, not the present! We’re nothing like them!”
His whole world was unravelling like when he found out he was adopted. The hard truth won out against the soft lies that had protected him all of these years.
“Face facts.” Oaka said. “The possibility does exist. I’ll admit it’s far-fetched, but if these Swords of Arria do belong to you and Monika, and Doomba, who has ‘power over man and beast,’ is tr
ying to stop you, then something is going on here beyond this quest. Or Fato’s message about Lord Fobata.” Oaka chuckled. “And here I thought Monika was a Follower of Doomba.”
“You thought what?” Monika said, offended as Basha flinched.
“I knew you knew more than you were saying and weren’t telling Basha everything you suspected. I was even suspicious of Fato. I thought it made sense. I’m sorry.”
Monika grimaced. “I suppose it makes sense, if you were thinking that way, and were trying to protect Basha. Even if you kept secrets from him as well about your fire magic.”
“That’s true, I wasn’t completely honest. None of us were.” Oaka said.
“Okay, let’s get this settled. Oaka, I’m sorry if I doubted or ignored you at times. You were right about some things, but wrong about others, you have to admit.” Basha said.
“Fine, I concede that.” Oaka said.
“Monika, I’m sorry about the way Oaka acted towards you. I know you’ve your reasons for concealing the truth, and Oaka’s just the same. Can’t we get along?”
“I’m sorry,” Oaka and Monika both said at the same time to each other, then frowned.
“Wow, this is so exciting,” Gnat said.
“That’s better. I think we should just forget about all of this Knights of Arria nonsense,” Basha said.
“Here you go again, denying it,” Oaka said.
“What do you mean by that?” Basha said.
“All along, you’ve wanted to believe that the Black Wolves weren’t chasing us or you, or that the Swords of Arria hadn’t fallen into our hands, or that the Followers of Doomba weren’t after us, too. You’ve been denying it for so long, like I did when Old Man saved us from that gruelmoff that attacked us when we were kids.” Oaka gasped. “That gruelmoff, another Servant of Doomba. Old Man’s been involved in this from the start, wasn’t he?”
“Night of the Courtship ritual, Old Man came up to me, after telling the story of Tau’s Cup, and asked me if Tau’s Cup was worth more than anything else in the world. I said no to him, thinking of Jawen,” Basha said.
“He planted the seed, the germ of your proposal to Jawen with Tau’s Cup. He knew you would, you’d nothing else, he practically suggested it to you.”
“There’s something else! Old Man said I should go see the Oracle of Mila, and when he accompanied me, he said the Knights of Arria, when they arrived in this country, first came across Coe Baba.”
“He knew about the Knights of Arria after all. He must’ve met them when they passed through Coe Baba, or maybe he was even one of them! Basha, this is crazy.”
“I know, yet I’m starting to believe it.”
“What’s this all about?” Monika asked as she and Gnat stared at them in shock. “Old Man was just a storyteller you told me about, right, when I passed through your town?”
“But we think he’s key to all of this.” Basha turned to her and Gnat. “The way things were set up, it was as if the Old Man knew I would go on this quest for Tau’s Cup all along. He suggested it and made certain I would go. Possibly so that I would get the Black Sword and become a Knight of Arria?” He laughed. “A Knight of Arria, this is ridiculous.”
“But how could he’ve known you’d get the Black Sword? It doesn’t quite connect! Why speculate about this now when we’re in such grave danger?” Monika asked.
“Because speculating might just save us, and lead to new ideas.” Oaka said. “It’s the one thing we can do, here and now, to understand this mess we’ve gotten ourselves into.”
“I don’t know. Maybe he asked the Oracle of Mila, or he’d some sort of knowledge of his own, possibly being one of the Knights of Arria himself? Old Man’s ancient, he’s been around for as long as Coe Baba existed, yet he once fought off a gruelmoff that tried to attack me and Oaka when we were young. The strength he’d shown then was impossible if he was completely old and frail. Never had he shown himself capable of something like that, before or since. It was like he was protecting us from Doomba,” Basha said.
“This is confusing,” Gnat muttered.
“I know! Basha, if Old Man knew all of this time, ever since we were children, that you would be carrying the Black Sword or one of the Knights of Arria, he must’ve known we’d be in trouble because of Doomba and his minions chasing after us. But how could he’ve known that? What did he know? And why would he protect us?” Oaka asked.
“I don’t know, but what if Nisa has been following me as well?” Basha asked. “Following me until I needed some help. What if that was her back at Coe Aela, in the grand banquet hall, and then helping Gnat get the Black Sword back? What if she’s been following me for a long time as well? Not just since I left Coe Baba, but since I was living there, like Old Man.”
“Old Man was following you?” Oaka asked.
“How else could he’ve known about the gruelmoff attack unless he was right there, watching or waiting for us?”
“This is disturbing.” Monika shook her head. “This Old Man following you your whole lifetime, and now Nisa, without your knowledge? No one should be allowed to do that, not even your parents. Who knows what else they might’ve seen?” She asked. “They might’ve been following us together back in Coe Baba, when you were showing me about town. No wonder I felt so strange there. I don’t like being followed.”
“I know.” Basha blushed, remembering a few embarrassing moments he’d experienced that he’d never wanted anybody to see. “No one should have that kind of freedom when it takes away from your own, disturbing your privacy.”
“Does Old Man or Nisa have your best interests at heart?”
“If they knew I’d be risking my life and never told me…they could’ve at least warned me.” Basha grimaced. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“And what if Nisa was Old Man’s daughter?” Gnat asked, wanting to get involved. Everyone stared at her. “Nisa did tell me she’d heard about the Black Sword from her father.”
“Eeewww.” Oaka said, shaking his head. “Imagine a three-thousand-year-old man sleeping with Brigga, with a daughter coming out of it.”
“Don’t even think about it.” Basha shuddered.
They heard wings flapping, and looked up as Fato returned. “What’s going on here?” the falcon asked, and then seemed nonplussed as everybody else started laughing helplessly.
Part Three:
Coe Wina
Chapter 14
Together Until the End
Whatever happens, I’ll be with you. Whatever happens,
You can count on me to be your friend. Whatever happens,
I won’t desert you. Whatever happens, you can
Count on me to be your friend until the bitter end.
~ Friendship song, Arria
Janus sat on the barrel and waited as people walked in and out of Coe Aela’s keep until one person in particular came out. Janus stood as she shaded her eyes from the sunlight and approached, wobbling a little. He met her halfway as she seemed about ready to collapse.
“How’re you?” Janus wrapped his arms about her to support her.
“Fine, thanks. It could’ve been worse. They didn’t suspect me.” She pushed herself away from him. “I need to get out of here.”
“I don’t think that’s possible. The guards are watching us closely. If a servant, especially a woman, tries to leave Coe Aela, they’ll probably kill her.”
“They’re getting away. I need to catch up with them. I haven’t exactly been the best bodyguard. I stayed behind to help Sir Nickleby, then I was told to go on ahead to infiltrate Coe Aela. I missed whatever happened in Coe Anji, and now they’ve got this girl Monika, the falcon Fato, and the Black Sword with them. I’m a complete wreck, I’ve messed things up completely.”
“They got away. I don’t know how, but with Gnat by their side, they got away. At least they’ve got the Black Sword with them. I think it’s for the best. You had to let them go sometime, and with what you’ve done, I think they’ll
be ready to face whatever lies ahead.”
“But I want to be certain. I’ve got to catch up with them.”
“Wait just a few days, and then you can go with me by your side, and all of the servants.”
“What’re you talking about?”
“This is the final straw for the servants’ rebellion.” Janus grinned. “With the way Goga, Fobata, and the guards treated the servant women, they won’t tolerate this. They’ll stand and fight if they have to, leave Coe Aela and go all the way to Coe Kiki. Your group’s going to Coe Kiki, right?”
“Yes, but they’ll be too far ahead.”
“Perhaps not. They’re on foot?”
“So are we.”
“Ah, but they’ll be stopping at Coe Kiki and other places along the way to resupply or rest. Though we’ll be a large crowd with elderly and young alike slowing us, we may have horses. That’ll make traveling easier for you.”
Nisa groaned and threw her hands up, but it was her best chance. And perhaps she didn’t mind so much if Janus was with her.
* * * *
“Pack everything you need!” Goga strode through the barracks as his men rushed about, gathering weapons, clothes, and sundry items. “We should’ve been gone by now! We leave in an hour!” He sniffed. “Be prepared for several days’ worth of travel. I don’t care how long it takes! I don’t know when we’ll be back, but not without the heads of those youths.”
“Are we going to kill them?” Hava asked.
“I’d much rather kill them.” Goga wiped his nose. “Makes things easier. Fobata wouldn’t like it, but that’s why we’re in this mess.” Goga turned to one of the soldiers who didn’t seem busy. “You, go to the kitchen and confiscate as much food as you can. Take three of the men with you, and don’t be afraid to use a little force if a servant tries to stop you.”
“Sir!” One of the guards came up to Goga. “We need more horses.”
“Confiscate them!” Goga cried. “All of the horses in the stables! We’ll pay back their owners later! Why can’t you men think for yourselves?” The guard went off.
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