“Wait a minute.” Lord Lagotaq held a hand up. He stared at Basha with an intensity to rival a stone’s face. “You said your mother’s name was—”
“Kala, yes, do you know of it?” Basha asked, curious.
“Never speak that name aloud the farther south you go, especially in Coe Kiki. It’s too dangerous. If you must, say it in private amongst friends, where it’s safe and secure.”
“How harsh can you get?” Fato muttered.
“What’s wrong with saying her name?” Basha asked.
“Did she die giving birth to you, or because of her pursuers?” Lagotaq asked. “Was she weakened by the chase?”
“She died because of me, it was my fault!”
“Not necessarily,” Oaka interposed. “My mother and father, Habala and Geda, raised Basha alongside of me. They were there on the night Kala, Basha’s mother, arrived at the inn, as were many of the townspeople. There’s rumors that Kala came to the inn with a bloody sword, half exhausted, and a man’s body was later found in the snow.”
“Those were just lies!” Basha cried, facing Oaka as the others gaped at him. “She couldn’t have killed a man.”
He’d never wanted to believe those rumors, if it was true that his mother might’ve been a villain of some kind. But this talk of pursuers unnerved him even more.
“They chased her, the Followers and Servants of Doomba, all the way north,” Lagotaq said, turning Basha’s attention to him. “Hundreds of miles, across the roughest terrain, into the coldest months of the year, carrying you inside her belly. They practically chased her until she died, but she got away, didn’t she? She survived long enough to deliver you. That was what she wanted.”
“How do you know that?” Basha asked. They chased her until she died, just like they’d almost chased him and the others to death.
“This is disturbing,” Fato said.
Lagotaq hesitated. “Never mind that. Corr wielded the Black Sword as a Knight of Arria before he became the first ruler of Arria. Some say he was a squire, responsible for caring for the others’ weapons when they weren’t using them, which is why he could handle all of them. As for the others, not all of the ancient Knights of Arria are known or remembered, but it’s possible a few weren’t Corricans. That’s all you need to know about for now.” He abruptly rose. “Anything more could put you all into even more jeopardy. I suggest you all drop the matter entirely until it’s safe to talk about Basha’s mother and the Knights of Arria further.”
“When will that be, your Grace?” Basha asked moodily.
He’d never expected answers of any kind about his mother Kala, but now that they were being hinted at, he wanted more. How could Lagotaq know so much about her and about the Knights of Arria, too, that he wouldn’t share?
“Complete the task you all were sent out to perform, and then we can talk to your hearts’ content,” Lagotaq huffed. “It isn’t safe for you all to linger anywhere for very long. Restock whatever supplies you need, rest here for a couple of days, and then continue. I don’t wish to make you go, but it’s the only way this can work out for me.”
“Are you in danger too, your Grace?” Monika asked.
“Yes, so we must keep apart. We can’t possibly meet again like this in private, without drawing some attention to ourselves. I’ll probably not speak to you all again.” He opened the study door with the guards waiting outside. “Goodbye, my friends.” He bowed his head and gestured for them to depart before they could protest.
“Goodbye your Grace,” the group muttered in different tones.
They trooped out of his study and Lagotaq instructed his guards to take care of his guests before he closed the door.
“Do you think he was lying about Corr and everything?” Oaka muttered.
“Maybe you should give it a rest when it comes to suspecting everyone,” Monika remarked.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what to think anymore!” Oaka sighed. “Everything I’ve ever known has been turned upside down with this trip, and too much has happened that I can’t even think straight. I’m frightened, I suppose, and I try to be brave and stand on guard, alert to any threat. Maybe too hyper-sensitive over here.”
“It’s okay, Oaka, we’ll protect you,” Gnat said, hugging him, and then Basha, Monika, and even Fato joined in, the bird clinging onto them.
“Group hug! That’s just what we need!” Fato said.
“Ah, thanks, everyone,” Oaka said, a little awkward as they parted.
“You’re welcome.” Basha grinned. “In any case, he seemed knowledgeable and honest. Though he didn’t explain enough, maybe not even half of what he really knew, there’s got to be a reason why this is all going on.”
“You believe in a reason for everything, don’t you?” Fato asked.
“I agree with Basha,” Monika said. “There’s got to be a reason, even if it’s a fluke that all of this has happened to us. Lagotaq might have reasons of his own for why he doesn’t want to tell us more. It might be totally random on his part, but it’s still a reason.”
“I didn’t mean for this conversation to get philosophical.” Fato said.
“We could be descended from Corr, Basha,” Gnat hissed. “That’s royalty, nobility. Good grief, so could Goga!”
“That’s just what Goga needs.” Fato shuddered. “Imagine, Goga on the throne, what could be worse than that?”
“Nonsense.” Basha shook his head. “How could my mother die alone far to the north, without anything, if she was descended from Corr? And Goga? How can it be possible?”
“She might’ve fallen on hard times, out of favor with the court.” Oaka shrugged. “Don’t ask me, I don’t know.”
“Perhaps she might be distantly related to Corr, like I’m distantly, distantly related to one of the Knights of Arria,” Monika said. “Perhaps centuries ago, same with Goga, and maybe you and Gnat.”
“The one thing that gets me, though, is how Lagotaq could’ve known they chased my mother so far north.” Basha grimaced. “Though I don’t believe she killed him, the man they found in the snow soon after I was born apparently wore southern clothes unsuitable for the north. Perhaps she did come from so far away as Coe Kiki, but why, and how did Lagotaq know that unless he knew her?”
The others gaped at him as Monika said, “Perhaps we should avoid Coe Kiki as well if it’s so dangerous.”
“No, this may be our one and only chance to see Coe Kiki before we go into the Wastelands. In any case, my mother might’ve come from there, I could find out more about her. Lagotaq said we should only avoid saying her name in Coe Kiki and other places. Otherwise, it might be far safer for us than in Coe Aela. Surely, we shouldn’t be afraid of everything? Plus Fato has to deliver Janus’s message about Fobata.”
“Don’t try to make us into your excuses,” Fato muttered.
“I believe Janus might be heading in that direction as well,” Gnat added.
“Exactly!” Basha cried, as Fato glared at Gnat. “If Janus and the other servants get free, that’s where they’re heading. Gnat, do you want to reunite with Janus and the rest of the servants?”
“I wouldn’t mind seeing him again,” Gnat said.
“Maybe Nisa’s with them, too,” Basha said.
He hoped she was okay, and hadn’t been found out by either Fobata or Goga while she was still in Coe Aela. Would she still have been able to follow them?
“Are we supposed to trust a woman who indiscriminately uses knives to threaten people like Janus, a spy in service to the crown?” Fato asked.
“She might have a perfectly good reason to do so, if she suspected him of wrongdoing.” Monika sighed. “All right, I suppose we can’t avoid Coe Kiki, much as I wish we could. Why do we have to do so much?”
“It’s just the way things are,” Basha said.
“Do you want me to leave when we get to Coe Kiki?” Gnat asked.
“No, it’s up to you. But we’ll be going into dangerous territory, and you’ll be much
safer there.”
“Can I stay in Coe Kiki too?” Oaka joked.
“Coward, through and through!” Fato laughed.
“If you want, but I’d be going on, with or without you,” Basha said.
“All right, I suppose I’ll go on too. Don’t want to break my promise either,” Oaka said as the others nodded.
“That settles it? Good,” Basha said. “We can do this.”
“Or die trying!” Fato cried and the group moaned.
* * * *
“The poor fools.” Goga spurred his horse to flight, this time away from the ravine and massacre.
He couldn’t sacrifice himself as his men had, for he knew the best way to repay the Coe Wina guards in kind was to survive. He’d return with a force that’d crush and overwhelm Lord Lagotaq and his men.
Unlikely as that was in his current condition, believing he was the last one alive, and perhaps he’d be chased until his death by the Coe Wina guards. But he could hope, the cruelest thing of all, how he despised it in that moment.
Some time later, Goga opened his eyes, and groaned. “Where am I?” He tried to peer about, but he could barely lift his head.
“You’re in my cave,” A husky female voice replied. “Your horse was scared when I saved you, and you suffered a great fall.”
Her voice seemed as lined with dripping stone as her location, though it was difficult to discern her figure as she bent down, and arranged a few pots atop a grille. Dark, matted brown hair covered up her face and form, shadows overcoming the light.
“That was you?” Goga gasped.
He remembered part of what had happened. The Coe Wina guards chased him into the foothills southest of the fortress as he attempted to escape the valley. They were gaining on him as his horse was far from rested, and unaccustomed to hilly, rocky terrain.
Goga tried his best to encourage the beast, but it was no use. Suddenly, dark clouds gathered in the sky, rent apart by lightning flashes as a spectre appeared before him and the others. A crow it seemed to be, with dark wings spreading out and talons spearing at them.
With a thunderous screech, it swallowed him up whole as the Coe Wina guards fled with their animals panicking. That spectral crow had been a conjuration of sorts, an illusion, such a fiendish thing that he couldn’t believe she’d created it.
“My name’s Yaggee. I saved your life. You owe me for that, Goga, at great price.” She turned to him with a pot in her hands.
He winced as she put the pot down and submerged her hands into it. “How do you know my name? And what sort of a price?” he asked. “I’ve little money with me, and you don’t interest me.”
“Oh, Goga,” She removed her hands from the pot, now covered in a gooey, muddy substance. “I’ve no need of your money. Not that you ever had enough you could’ve given me to satisfy your life debt. As for your other suggestion, I’m not cruel. I wouldn’t have forced you into anything, though we’d be excellent together. You’d have been first among my pairings.”
“What does that mean?” Goga shifted away from her.
“Nothing, just a phrase. I can be reasonable.” She smeared the muddy substance onto his head and rubbed it in. “What I ask of you now is more than enough to pay off your debt to me, and you can put yourself in higher standing, because currently, baby, you’re low, am I right? As low as you’ve ever been, and you work for your brother.”
“So what do you want out of me?” he asked, perturbed.
Though the massage to his scalp felt nice and soothing, easing the pain and weariness he’d felt these past few days. He wondered what was in the healing salve she was using.
“I need a military man for my mission, one I hope you’ll enjoy as well. You’re just the man I need, especially with your connections.”
“What sort of connections?”
“Don’t make me laugh. I may live in a cave, but I know enough about you and your family that I’m liable to want to be a part of it, to know the advantages you and your connections have brought you, and you don’t even make use of half of.”
“What do you want?” Goga grimaced.
Yaggee flicked off the last of the healing salve back into the pot. “I want you to revolt against King Sonnagh.”
“Usurp the throne? How? With what?” Goga gestured around at the cave she lived in, void of anything except her supplies, and himself. “As you may have noticed, I don’t have an army with me, not even a platoon.”
She picked up the pot, carrying it back off to the side. “That’s where we’ll come in. We’ll join forces and work together to achieve our goals.”
“It’s going to be near impossible.”
“That’s the way it should be.” She smiled in a manner too devious and calculated to be called true or warm.
* * * *
That evening, after settling down into their quarters and eating, Basha stared out one of the many windows in Coe Wina’s Great Hall. He looked across a rugged landscape full of hills and mountains in the distance, with so many ‘dips’ or vales in between.
On top of Old Smoko, everything had looked so much smaller, but now that he was closer to the ground on top of Coe Wina’s motte, he could see how far he’d have to go to traverse its length. So many heights and falls they’d have to travel, and he still didn’t know if they were going the right way.
They couldn’t go back after everything they went through, yet part of him wondered if he made the return journey to Coe Baba, accepted defeat in getting Tau’s Cup and blame for the loss of Sir Nickleby…would that be worse or better than what they were about to face? Because he feared the journey ahead would make these days seem like an idle dream.
He heard footsteps behind him, and turned around to face Monika. “Hello, nice evening.”
“I suppose so.” Monika stared out the window as well.
He was stumped about what to do or say at this point with Monika. If it wasn’t for Jawen, she could be someone he’d want to know very well. She was very beautiful, yes, but so fierce and intelligent as well. Yet she restrained herself so much and kept such secrets about herself and what she knew that he’d no idea if he knew the real Monika yet.
Could she be someone he’d want to spend the rest of his life with? Yes, part of him knew that was true, no matter how short his life might be with her. For they were facing such perils and dangers together that their lives might be very short indeed, but at least she was by his side.
He couldn’t say the same about Jawen in that moment, much as he wished, once, not that long ago, that Jawen would be his beloved. It might be embarrassing how quickly his feelings had turned, yet at the same time, he couldn’t help it. He still cared for Jawen, but that passion was slowly seeping and ebbing away, especially with Monika standing next to him.
“What are you thinking about?” Monika asked, staring at him now.
“Jawen,” Basha said, definitely not lying as he stared into Monika’s eyes.
“Mm-hmm, she must be really special for you to go through all of this trouble for.”
“You’ve no idea,” Basha said, looking out the window again. “Jawen was my obsession for years now. I’d been in love with her ever since I was a child, though I didn’t know what true love was. She was the first person to tell me the truth about my birth. She was honest and smart, perhaps the smartest, most honest person I’d met up to that point.”
Maybe he was a true balnor who didn’t deserve Jawen, with the way his heart was changing towards her.
Monika rolled her eyes. “Right, go on.”
“We were friends until our fathers feuded, then broke apart for years, seeing other people until finally we kissed each other for the first time ever last Suma.”
“You hadn’t kissed each other before then? And it’s been less than a year since you first started dating?”
“It’s true. I felt something in that moment…” Basha tried to grasp that moment, recall the sort of feeling he’d experienced when it was so long ago, and he felt
like a different person now. “I was there, yet I wasn’t. I was inside myself, letting go of something bigger than myself, something more furious and ferocious when I was timid and scared.” He laid out his hand. “I was alive for the first time ever. I could feel my breath race inside and outside my body, feel my heart pounding like the ocean overflowing the shore.”
Monika listened, fascinated as she laid her hand next to his.
“It was fantastic. I was so alive and happy then that I could roar, and leap up into the air if I wanted to. I wanted that moment to last forever, be with her forever, Jawen and me.” He sighed. “We were so happy together.”
He found himself clutching Monika’s hand and she was holding onto his, as they’d subconsciously reached out to each other. Basha blushed and tried to speak as Monika shyly looked away, smiling weakly.
She spoke up first. “Good. Glad to hear that. Good night, Basha.”
She let go of him, and before he could grab onto her again, she walked off.
“Good night, Monika. So happy,” he murmured, shaking his head.
Maybe he should avoid her if he wanted to stay strong on his quest to retrieve Tau’s Cup and bring it back to Jawen. He hated to abandon his quest, which he couldn’t fail in now after all they’d gone through, lost, and what had to lie further ahead for them, because of him, he feared.
Yet at the same time, things seemed to be changing for them, and if they were the Knights of Arria, then what did this mean for his quest? Had their purpose and goal already changed, was there a reason for why all of these Followers and Servants of Doomba were after them?
He didn’t want to see the horrors of the Wastelands, the traps set out for him by the minions of Doomba. But if every step took him closer to finding out the truths of the tiger of light, his mother Kala, or even their purpose as Knights of Arria, then perhaps he could stand the rest of the trip.
Even the falls they might have to take along the way, especially if they were together. He stared up at the moon, and wished that it wouldn’t fade away this night. He couldn’t face the dawn by himself.
Servants and Followers Page 29