Cutting a long story short, I assume places like the forests were renamed based on the language used over a millennium ago.”
He seemed happy.
“You certainly know a lot!” he beamed as we continued to walk. “I love to listen and learn more about the evolution of language.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s all I know. But don’t worry, we are sure to find a language specialist on the way.”
“Really! Let’s do that!” said the naïve man, all excited. Then, suddenly his excitement vanished, replaced by a sullen, determined look. “But only after I get to those two.”
It was sad for me to see the kid react this way. He was just a young, innocent man, who had taken on this unimaginable burden of finding and killing two well trained assassins, travelling across the entire continent, which was completely unknown to him. And he had to do all this, alone. I was glad I found him when I did. I would help relieve some of his burden along the way.
This thought process and discussion was getting a little too heavy for me. So I decided to change the topic.
“We also definitely need to buy you a horse. There will be enough for you to buy from. Don’t worry about the money, I have some,” I wasn’t going to walk any more than needed.
The journey which would have taken us a half a day on a horse at a leisurely pace, took us a day and a half. I was done with all my food, because I had to share it with Dev. We both entered Nuevida, the village of thieves, starving.
The village was chaotic as usual. I had probably added to the chaos by “incapacitating” at least half of the village’s troops since my arrival a couple of weeks back. But it was always a pleasure to see this chaos. It brought back memories of the High Seat, its order and cleanliness, which I had grown to hate. Dev seemed quite taken aback. I could understand why. Even for a normal citizen, Nuevida was a difficult village to navigate. This kid was coming from a village completely isolated from the world. He was sure to struggle.
“Be wary, Dev. This village is full of criminals, some of whom are not nearly as nice I am. Make sure that the medallion is not seen. And stick close to me… And please for the love of god, stay quiet and don’t tell anyone anything.”
We entered the closest tavern, for a drink and some food. There I discovered that my naïve new friend was also a vegetarian, which meant he ate only plants and vegetable based dishes. I didn’t even know there were vegetarians in our world. There obviously weren’t any vegetarian dishes there. So I ordered what I thought was the least non-vegetarian dish, which was rice and chicken steak, with no steak. So basically rice. With some sauce. The bar was usually the least chaotic place in the village, as no one wanted to mess up their food. This was contrary to other hangouts of thieves like Amurazon, where bars were the places you were most likely to die.
We then headed out to our main destination in Nuevida, my forger friend, Jakob. He was a nice guy, but his profession had led him to have a nervous disposition. His business was set up in a building, ostentatiously for collecting scrap newspapers, which was a perfect cover. As he saw me enter again, he was irritated. Dev was following me silently, as I had instructed, but clearly interested in what was happening around him.
Jakob almost screamed as I entered. “You! Why are you here again! I can tolerate seeing you once every couple of years not couple of times every week! I don’t care if you have lost your papers, get out!”
Jakob was an interesting character. He was always unkempt, and one of the few extremely obese people in these parts, where if you couldn’t run from your enemy, you probably wouldn’t survive. But he didn’t care that he wasn’t fit. The reason was simple. There was no one who would touch him in Nuevida. There was no other forger in these parts, and not another one like him in the whole country.
My young friend was quite taken aback. I expected it, but played dumb. “Why, Jakob, my dear friend! It breaks my heart to see you this agitated. I thought you would be happy to see me again so soon!”
Jakob was livid. “You promised! You promised that this time you wouldn’t kill anyone! Every time you come, half the police of this town disappears. They are greedy pigs to try and catch you, but you, you know better! There will be riots for at least a couple of days before district sends additional help! I lose business! Everyone loses business! And then there will be an investigation, when I would have to save your ass again! Why have you come again?! To completely wipe out the police force here? District will then shut the whole village down, like they swore to do last time! Get out and don’t come back!”
I silently heard Jakob out, enjoying his harmless anger. My friend couldn’t hold back. “But it’s not his fault! He had to fight eight policemen… he was trying to save me! I am the one to blame!”
Jakob looked nonplussed. No one talked back to him these days. Everyone knew he complained and shouted, but it was harmless. He looked at me and asked. “Who is this idiot? And what is he blabbing about? You saved his life? I am sure you confused this idiot with some dumbass prank!”
It was time to talk. “Jakob, I feel bad that you think so lowly of me! He is right. I was being chased mercilessly by eight policemen. I had just made it to safety when I realized they were about to kill this poor kid. They even took his papers and destroyed them, so that they could justify killing a vagabond. I had to rush back and fight them off singlehandedly. This poor boy also tried to help as much as possible. Look, he even got hurt.” I showed him the bloodied bandage that was wrapped around the bracer.
Jakob mellowed down at the sight of the wound. “I can recognize all your melodrama. So, did they destroy only the idiot’s papers or yours too?” he asked gruffly.
I clutched my chest. “I protected my papers with my life Jakob. I couldn’t let your work go to waste!”
Jakob seemed pissed off again. It was fun to irritate him. “I should break your nose and hand you over the district forces that are here since yesterday,” he muttered.
That was fast. There was no way district could already have recognized that there were troops missing and dispatched their forces so fast. Something was amiss.
“They are early,” I casually remarked.
Jakob also got serious. “I noticed. Not sure why they are this early. Maybe you aren’t the cause this time. Their numbers are also larger than normal. Twice as many soldiers. They are searching the whole town. Not sure for what though. I don’t know what has changed in the last two years since you were here before this… They just came and asked around to see if we had seen anything suspicious,” he said in a worried tone.
It was possible that I didn’t cause this. Either way, it didn’t bode well for me. I didn’t want to end up hurting any more people.
“This accelerates things. Can you quickly work on this man’s papers? We will try and head out as soon as possible.”
Jakob shrugged. “It’ll take me two hours. Keep the money ready. Head to the basement room. Stay there until I open the door.” We both went to the basement room. This was a place where Jakob helped the worst of the criminals, who were criminal only because the Valantian Imperium called them that, hide from the authorities. It was a small room, with a door which Jakob couldn’t even fit through. It was filled up in the front with useless papers, to trick anyone who might want to check.
As we sat there, I saw that Dev was taking this sudden turn of events quite well. He was mildly curious though, about Jakob. I told him his back story.
“He has had a sad life. He had just become one of the youngest bank chiefs ever in Morgenia, when he lost his family in the revolutionary war. Then he was wrongfully arrested for aiding the revolutionaries, having been framed by some jealous colleague. His anger at this injustice changed him from an extremely well-kept man who always thought about helping his country make money, to someone who helped thieves and opponents of the Valantian Imperium stay free.”
Dev was horrified. “How could a country do that? Doesn’t this country have a system which he could have gone to for
justice?”
That made me laugh. “I am not sure what happens in your little village, but what passes for justice here isn’t what rational people would call ‘justice.’ The justice under the Valantian Imperium is simple. If you are suspected, in anyway, truly or falsely, of betraying the Imperium, you are punished. The punishment just depends on the extent of perceived betrayal.”
Dev continued to be horrified. “But….”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “I can spend hours and hours explaining our rotten government and leaders. But then, I would be too depressed to enjoy this town. Nuevida… well it has many pleasures which appeal to a criminal like me, which I would like to enjoy even in the limited time we have here.” I didn’t explain any further. He was still a kid.
We waited for a couple of hours. He seemed back to his full strength. Which was good. I was worried. I wasn’t sure why there was this additional troop movement into Nuevida. It couldn’t be a coincidence that there were large number of troops sent there when I was in town.
I heard the door open, and I let out a sigh of relief. Jakob was done, we could leave.
Jakob had a scowl. “It is done. You better leave… fast. You owe me… uggg….” He stopped mid-sentence.
He seemed to struggle to breathe. His shirt was turning red at the center of his chest. He dropped as he turned. There were two lieutenants, who had stabbed Jakob in the back. He looked at them, with surprise. “Are you guys nuts…”
His last words. A complaint. How apt. I would have smiled, if I wasn’t so angry.
“Surrender, Karn! You can’t…” one of them started.
He would have finished with “run” or something like that, but for my back swords through his throat. The other one met the same fate. I ran ahead, bent down to close Jakob’s eyes. He had Dev’s papers with him. I picked them up, kept them in my belt. I picked up my swords from the soldier’s dead bodies and moved ahead.
We had been found. I didn’t know how. But we just had to fight our way out now. I had to get out of the basement and to the horses. The small space worked to my advantage. There were four people just behind on the stairs, who tried to attack me. I was able to dispatch them two at a time with ease. But then as I reached the entrance, I saw the problem.
There were two score soldiers waiting, ready to attack. They had formed a semi-circle around the entrance of the building. Twenty of them were archers with arrows strung, ready to fire. This was going to be tricky. There was little I could think of doing. My side swords weren’t attached, so I couldn’t draw them without getting skewered by twenty arrows pointed at me.
“We finally have you,” the captain said. “You can’t mess with Morgenia for so long and not face the consequences. District didn’t take any chances this time they saw you near Nuevida. I am not taking any chances with you. These are your last moments.”
He puffed up his chest. This was going to be an achievement for the man.
“But I am a gracious man. Any last wishes?”
I couldn’t take on so many soldiers and archers without even putting my swords together. This was bad—was this to be the end of me?
Dev walked out from behind me. I was going to ask him to stay back. But before I could speak, Dev tapped my shoulder. “Leave them to me, Karn. Don’t waste your strength on them.”
He looked at all the soldiers and spoke, in a loud booming voice. “You don’t know me. So I want you all to have a chance to live.” Saying this, he drew his sword, began to unwrap the sword’s hilt, slowly. He then unwrapped his bracer. The captain seemed apprehensive. He didn’t ask his archers to fire. I was waiting for his bluff to play out. There wasn’t any other hope. Although this didn’t seem feasible either. To be honest Dev looked too young to be intimidating in any way.
He started walking towards a tree, which was located right besides Jakob’s building. I was wondering if this last resort was going to work. As he reached the tree, he turned towards everyone and held his sword with both hands. The sword began to glow and visibly grew. It was impressive. And terrifying for the soldiers. My hopes went up. He might have looked like a kid, but the glowing sword was intimidating. I held my breath as he swung. I didn’t know what he would do after the swing. It was useless if he collapsed immediately after.
He swung his sword. It cleaved right through the tree, as expected. The top part of the tree crashed through Jakob’s building, completely destroying it. It was impressive. I didn’t move a muscle, to show the soldiers that I was expecting it. On the inside I was praying to all the gods I knew, that the tree or the building didn’t fall on me. All soldiers ducked and ran for cover. The archer jumped back as well, removing the arrows from their bows. I just needed that split second. I locked my four side swords together in X formation. Now, I could take them on. But I didn’t. I waited for the scenario to play out. And anyway, no one was looking at me. They were all looking at the man with the glowing sword, who brought down a massive tree with just one strike.
Dev, after the strike closed his eyes, and began to fall back. He was going to collapse, I was sure of it. But instead, he just rested his back on the recently created tree stump. He then embedded his still glowing sword into the ground. It looked stylish, as if he intended to do that. I knew he was just leaning on the sword for support.
“You now see who I am, what I can do,” he said slowly and loudly with his eyes closed. It was as if he wanted them to hear every word. I knew he spoke like that to hide the fact that he was panting. “I will give you all… a chance to live. I have closed my eyes. When I open my eyes, at the count of ten, all those who I cannot see, will live. The others, will all meet the same fate as this tree… at the same time.”
He started his countdown, slowly, loudly, with his eyes still closed and the sword glowing. Every single soldier, including the boastful captain, started to run at the count of ten itself. They didn’t want to die by getting cut into two with a glowing sword of unknown power.
By the time he reached “seeevvveeennnn,” there was no soldier in sight. I walked up to him, waving my hand. “Oh great warrior, please spare little old Karn when you open your eyes.”
He then opened his eyes. He looked at me. “Debt repaid.” He smiled, then collapsed. He released the sword, which instantly went back to its original size and stopped glowing. Before he could fall, I picked him up hoisted him on my shoulder and ran towards my horse, Arion. I was worried about him. His body felt cold, like he had died.
But I could feel his breath and his heart beat. I soon reached the horse stands. Right beside Arion was Jakob’s horse, colossal Dyaus. It was the only beast that could carry Jakob. So I was sure it could keep up with Arion in speed, as its new rider was substantially lighter. And it knew me well, so handling Dyaus would be a breeze until Dev came to.
I placed the now comatose Dev onto Dyaus, climbed onto Arion and rode out. I didn’t know how long Dev’s trick would work. As soon as even one soldier saw him it that state, the gig was up. But we would be safe as soon as we hit the open road. There wasn’t a horse that could catch up to Arion at full speed, although I would have to travel slower as I had to balance Dev on Dyaus.
As further insurance, I rode up first to the village bell, a rarely used entity in this village. The village was always in trouble from its own inhabitants, so it didn’t need any invader to cause trouble. I climbed up to the podium, rang the bell loud and clear, and screamed into the town horn. “Friendly people of Nuevida! Stop your fights! This is your friend, Karn! I have terrible news! The soldiers have killed Jakob! And destroyed his house! Make them pay!”
That would be the end of each soldier in the village. No one in the village, who knew anything about it, could tolerate the death of their beloved forger. Jakob was a savior to everyone. All the soldiers, if they were still in the village, were going to disappear forever, and no one, not the district magister, not the state’s Duke, not even the King of Morgenia could ever figure out what happened to them.
S
ure enough, as I rode out, people saw me and nodded their heads or raised their mugs in a silent toast to Jakob. I saw a soldier running out, with multiple axes in his back. As I reached the town’s southern exit, I saw another being punished rather creatively. Each of his hands were tied to two horses, and they were being attracted to opposite ends using the soldier’s papers on one side, and someone else’s papers on the other side. “Let’s see what these horses like more, Morgenian workmanship or our Jakob’s work.” The horses seeking to eat the papers, where pulling the man apart. Leave it to Nuevida folks to punish people creatively.
I felt bad at having caused so many deaths, but they violated the neutrality of Jakob’s abode. They had to be punished. I hurried out of Nuevida, towards our next destination, the gigantic city of Welehölla.
Chapter 15: The Imaginerium of the man with an unknown name
It was easy going once we exited Nuevida.
The journey ahead was going to be long. I didn’t even have to refer the map. There was only one bearing to be maintained to move towards Üzilis Mountains. Towards the halls of Welehölla, the largest, tallest buildings in the entire continental mainland. They were located over 800 kilometers away. But as we got closer to them, especially the last 100 kilometers,[4] on a clear day, one could easily see them. It was the most prominent landmark from our location, next only to the Anantyas in the west.
The journey for the next 300 kilometers was going to be desolate, marked only by a few scattered trees. Otherwise it was vast, unblemished plains. There would be a few settlements here and there, and some groups of wandering nomads. I truly enjoyed the isolation, the beauty of these vast green plains. I usually covered the distance from Nuevida to Welehölla over many months, a journey I could make in a few weeks, mainly to enjoy the landscape.
To me, this was the most beautiful part of Valantia, far better than the man-made halls of Welehölla, or the High Seat, or the unforgiving but beautiful Anantyas. Personally, I thought they were even better that the sight of the Grand River pouring into the ocean at the Walls of Azon.
Age of Azmoq: The Valantian Imperium Page 16