Frank, Janrae - Wolves Of Nakesht

by Wolves of Nakesht (lit)

  Wolves of Nakesht

  by Janrae Frank

  Oil-fed torches mounted on walls or atop street posts broke the dark streets

  into patterns of bright orange and deep shadow. Few people traveled the streets

  of Aekara at that late hours, and none walked boldly â save two plainsmen, one

  scarcely more than a youth, the other, his lean, weather-worn mentor. A slender

  girl waltzed between them, watching the swirling folds of her mid-calf skirt

  turn orange and red, then black as they passed from light to shadow and back.

  The elder warrior wore a lion's black-maned pelt as a jerkin. She slew the beast

  with a dagger, so the Euzadi called her the lion-hawk, Chimquar. All believed

  Chimquar a man.

  The ringing clash of steel ended the quiet. The handful of people abroad halted

  to mark the direction of the sounds. Their errands would not bear close

  inspection and the fight meant first brigands, then guardsmyn. Chimquar and her

  wards suddenly became the only people on the streets for many blocks around the

  clash.

  Chimquar paused, listening to the sound of fighting coming from the direction in

  which they traveled.

  "Do we go on?" Hazier asked.

  Chimquar nodded, her hand resting on the hilt of her Sharani longsword. Her

  wards dropped back a short way as she had taught them. Makajia produced a long

  dagger from beneath her skirts.

  A Sharani war cry carried down the street. "Aroana God defender!" Chimquar

  halted. It had been several years since she heard that cry on any lips save her

  own. For the first time she hesitated to answer it. She planned to join her

  sister, ending her long exile. Anaria, alone, would understand her concealment

  in men's raiment, first of her race in the far lands of men. The others would

  not, and Chimquar would once more be the scarcely tolerated outcast in their

  midst. Chimquar longed increasingly to see her homeland.

  "Aroana! Aroana!" The cries came again, insistent, desperate. The Sharanis had

  no allies, no aid. Chimquar drew her sword, thrusting aside her concerns. They

  would have aid.

  Chimquar saw three women at bay near an alley, encircled by swordsmyn. The

  Sharanis had taken toll of their attackers, their swords gleamed red in the

  torchlight. Yet they could not hold much longer against so many. One woman fell

  as Chimquar reached them. The remaining pair moved to stand over their fallen

  comrade. A man lunged in; one Sharani shifted slightly avoiding his thrust and

  opening a long gash in his side.

  "Aroana!" Chimquar shouted, entering the fray. The first male to turn died.

  Momentary confusion ensued among the men at the unexpected attack by Chimquar

  and Hazier. Makajia darted about, wielding her dagger to great effect. Three men

  fell in the first minutes of surprise. Chimquar's sword whirled in a circular

  motion, parried the attack of two foes, then slashed out, felling one. She

  eluded a thrust and lunged in under the man's guard; the dagger in her left hand

  catching the returning move of his sword and she sent her own blade home.

  Chimquar moved on another man. She had neither time nor light enough to mark the

  nature of her foes, yet she recognized the moving patterns of their attack. She

  fought Euzadis â renegades.

  Hazier stepped back, giving ground. His shoulder struck a wall and his backward

  step came short. A sword arched at his head. He ducked forward, lashing out with

  his own weapon. The man sprang back, another rushed in. Hazier moved sidewise,

  his foot stuck something and he fell backwards, frantically blocking the rain of

  blows from his opponents with his sword and dagger. Makajia darted out of the

  shadows where she had hidden knowing herself overmatched by the warriors. Her

  dagger flashed. One man no longer endangered her brother.

  "Renegade!"

  The second man turned to see the tall man with the lion mane about his

  shoulders. His surviving companions were already in full flight. "Chimquar," he

  snarled, then fled.

  Chimquar let him go. She stood nearest the fallen Sharani whose companions now

  stood off in the wake of their fleeing foes. Chimquar knelt, cradling the

  Sharani's head and shoulders, and glanced briefly at the returning pair.

  Makajiatore a strip of cloth from the bottom of her white blouse and pressed it

  to the wound in the woman's ribs. The womangazed up at Chimquar, astonished to

  behold a plainsmon. Pain deepened the lines in the Sharani's weathered face;

  herbreath came in ragged pulls. She and her companions all wore the Sharani

  Saer'ajan's livery and Chimquar marveled that they had come so far into these

  lands. The double-axe embroidered above the unicorn blazon marked the woman as

  ha'taren, paladin of Aroana, one of the elite from which captains and generals

  rose. Chimquar had been ha'taren, hence her greeting came automatically, "Kalur

  Aroana bai ew, ha'taren," she murmured.

  "Kalur Aroana widare ew, Euzadi," the woman returned hoarsely. Her eyes clenched

  shut as a wave of pain tookher.When it eased, she gazed again at the nomad.

  "Tamlys Lodarien." She forced the words out, indicating herself.TheSharanis

  dropped to their knees beside her. Chimquar sat back, allowing them to bend

  nearer. One warrior clasped Tamlys' hand mutely.

  "Meadusea." Tamlys named her first, then the younger one: "Katalla Maelistya."

  Hazier joined his mentor. The lingering excitement of the battle and the

  nearness of members of his mentor's legendary race gave Hazier's face an

  expression disrespectful of the dying Tamlys. Katalla favored him with a savage,

  withering stare. Hazier dropped his eyes quickly. Chimquar caught the exchange

  of glances and their portent of trouble.

  "The farther eastâ we go," â Tamlys struggled with her words â "the fewer allies

  we find."

  "Chimquar is ever the Sharanis' ally."

  "So." Tamlys sighed. "We have found you."

  "No words," Meadusea said, concerned. "Rest, Tamlys."

  "My time nears." Tamlys' voice steadied as though she found strength with

  acceptance. "I must speak. Jalaia Torrundar's daughter saidâ" Her voice dwindled

  off into silence. Then she spoke again, "She said: 'seek Chimquar.'"

  Chimquar tensed, wondering how much they knew of her. Her left hand closed on

  the leather pouch at her side and the lump of the crest ring it held. Ending her

  exile meant facing the nobles and ha'taren that had made her outcast. If these

  women knew that Chimquar and Tomyris Dovane de Danae were one, what would they

  do? But the Thunder God's daughter would never have betrayed her. Chimquar

  looked up. Katalla and Meadusea stared at her as if awaiting some response she

  had not given.

  "Jalaia said you would aid us." Meadusea's soft, gave voice took the strands of

  the tale from Tamlys."A storm separated us from our company. We could find

  neither them nor the object of our quest." She was older than Chimquar and no


  less proud. Chimquar saw the brief passage of doubt and confusion mingling with

  the sorrow in Meadusea's face. The ha'taren had never before encountered

  hostility as unreasoning as in the eastern Lands of Men. Chimquar averted her

  eyes. Meadusea's distress provoked memories best left alone. "Hazier." Chimquar

  spoke Euzadi. "Pile some bodies across the alley. They will return that way."

  Katalla's hand went to her sword, her black eyes narrowed. Hazier moved to his

  tasks and Katalla watched.

  Tamlys opened her eyes and clasped Chimquar's hand. "A plainsmonâ I did not

  believe. But you will aid them. You will!" Tamlys' eyes searched the nomad's

  face, seeming to reach her soul (as some ha'taren could) and Chimquar tasted the

  full, bitter cup she had brewed in her youth. Chimquar beheld a great strength

  and gentle wisdom in equal measure in those searching eyes, provoking memories

  of her shield-sister, Shayla Odaren, who had not survived the Great War. She

  felt alone, walled out by her own choices. "I will aid them as far as it is in

  my power, Tamlys," she murmured. "I swear it! By the Powers of Earth, I swear

  it!"

  "Jalaia spoke true," Tamlys whispered and died.

  Meadusea slipped her arms under her shield-sister's body, took her from Chimquar

  and rose. "Those men will return."

  "Yes." Chimquar scanned the street as she spoke. "How far are your horses?"

  "Four blocks," Meadusea replied, calm despite the tears running down her cheeks.

  "Makajia will take you to our meeting place. Go quickly."

  "What about you?"

  "Hazier and I will distract them. You get clear of the city." Chimquar gestured

  and Makajia moved to Meadusea's side.

  "Meadusea!" Katalla cried angrily. "You listen to him? What more harm do we

  need?"

  "Jalaia trusts him," Meadusea turned away, walking beside Makajia. The Euzadi

  girl's step had lost itsgaiety.

  Katalla faced Chimquar, her expression an open challenge. The brooding power in

  Chimquar's eyes forced Katalla to drop her gaze. The Sharani cursed under her

  breath.

  The sound of footsteps mingled with shouts. "Chimquar," Hazier warned, "they

  come."

  Katalla raised her eyes to Chimquar's again, held them a moment, then she set

  off after Meadusea and Makajia.

  Chimquar removed a torch from a wall, scanning the bodies. Katalla needed to

  learn the lessons of those lands, as Azkani, the old Euzadi seer, had taught

  Chimquar. Anger casts a spear without gauging the distance. A half-smile crossed

  Chimquar's lips, remembering the hunched, arthritic old man that had taught her

  the Euzadi ways, making possible her concealment.

  "Chimquar?" Hazier stood beside the bodies piled across the mouth of the alley.

  The shouts and footsteps neared.

  Chimquar glanced up and down the street, wondering how much more shouting it

  would take to draw the guards. She could not wait for them. "Torch the pile,

  Hazier," she said, quietly.

  The youth wrestled a torch from its wall-mount, and they emptied the unguent

  contents from the hollow bases upon the bodies touching the burning end to their

  lacquered, leather armor. The flames licked up, greater and eager, filling the

  air with stench. Men in the alley howled in rage and frustration, turning back

  to find another path. Chimquar ignored them. Some bodies still scattered in the

  street wore Euzadi headbands of worked leather, the tribal marks obliterated

  with blood and black paint: Renegades, followers of Bakran, Chimquar's bitterest

  foe. Asking after her, the Sharanishad drawn Bakran's attentions. A cold rage

  kindled within her. Cautiously, she walked down the west end of the

  street."Bakran! Bakran, do you hear me?"

  "I hear you!" a male's deep voice answered east of her.

  Chimquar's keen ears heard the movement of his men. At the end of the first

  block she trust her torch into the southopening of the cross street. It was a

  dead end. "Bakran?"

  "Speak one, Chimquar." He sounded pleased. "I have you this time."

  Nay, Bakran. You do not have me. She spied an iron gate in the middle of the

  next block. A narrow balcony jutted from the stone mansion half a spear's length

  above and beyond the gate. Lit windows shove around it. She walkedslower with

  Hazier at her heels. She heard men moving at either end of the street. "Hazier,

  that gate, the balcony,then the roofs. Confuse the Sharanis' trail when you find

  it."

  He hesitated and she shoved him. "Go!" He gained the gate. Chimquar ran behind

  him, gauging the distance of the closing warriors. One reached her and she

  hurled the torch in his face, climbed the gate, and sprang at the balcony. Her

  hands caught the edge. She pulled herself up, swung one leg over, then the

  other. Chimquar stood silently before the closed glass doors. A soft harmony of

  lute and pipes came from within the room. Hazier waited on a sturdy vie-covered

  trellis beyond the balcony. Chimquar turned from Hazier to see a renegade

  climbing the gate. "Go on,"she ordered the youth.

  "Chimquar," he protested.

  "Nay! Go on." Her voice rose slightly. "Go after your sister."

  "You're going to get yourself slain." His words came bleak and drawn out.

  Chimquar smiled at his concern. "I won't Hazier. Now, go!"

  "Aroana defend you!" He swarmed up the trellis.

  A thud, and the scrape of a scabbard on stone, turned Chimquar. The man had

  gained the balcony. She sprang before he could get both legs over, seizing his

  sword arm and jerkin with a twist that hurled him through the fragile glass

  doors. The tinkling clash of falling shard of glass preceded the woman's scream.

  Men's shouts followed immediately. Chimquar bounded across the balcony and went

  up the trellis to the roof. A man emerged onto the balcony, sword in hand,

  glanced about, and reentered the manor house. The garden below filled with light

  as men and servants poured out bearing weapons and torches. Chimquar crouched in

  the shadows of a chimney, watching until the confusion died down, then she

  crossed the roof, and sprang onto the next. She made her way from roof to roof,

  leaping the narrow streets until she reached the stable.

  Chimquar dropped silently from the roof behind the stablemon, startling him. He

  eyed her doubtfully. She threw a handful of coins at his feet. He stooped to

  retrieve them and she slipped into the stable after her horse.

  She rode quietly to the west gate. The guardsmon there, accustomed to the

  strange comings and going of the nomads, let her out a narrow, postern gate. The

  morning sun rose on her right hand as she turned her little plains-bred mare

  north.

  Makajia heard the peace bells jingling and sprang to her feet. "Chimquar!" she

  cried joyously, then paused to ascertain the direction and raced off. Her skirts

  swirled around her legs, scarcely hampering her stride. "Chimquar!"

  A slow, shy smile tickled the corners of Hazier's mouth. He glanced at Meadusea,

  who sat across from him, then leaned and picked up a silver bracelet set with

  turquoise stones, which Makajia had dropped. The girl had been polishing and

  adding the last touches to her handiwork.

  "You are fond of your mentor," Mead
usea said.

  Hazier watched Makajia running. He could barely see Chimquar. "When I was a

  child, I ran to him like that."

  "Little flower," Katalla said sarcastically. She stood beneath the cottonwoods

  lining the stream bank, pulling a cream-colored shirt over her mail. She flicked

  her wet braids out and laced the cuffs tight. Then she picked up her brown

  tunic, stalking to Hazier and Meadusea.

  "I did not understand Chekaya's words," Hazier said, shaking his head.

  "You insist on that name." Meadusea grinned wryly.

  "Chekaya," Hazier struggled silently with his common. "A swift cat â dog footed.

  Chekaya Tamures' powerful Chekaya."

  "You can quit calling me that," Katalla said with asperity.

  Hazier dropped his eyes, his mouth twisting petulantly.

  "What goes here?" Chimquar drew rein near Hazier. Makajia slipped off behind

  Chimquar and took the reins close to its head like a squire for a knight.

  Meadusea had seen squires, pages, stable hands, and nomad boys hold or take a

  horse for warriors and nobles, but never before a non-Sharani girl.

  Meadusea rose with Hazier. The youth clasped Chimquar's arms in brief greeting.

  Chimquar turned to Meadusea. "Kalur Aroana bai ew, Meadusea." Chimquar's soft

  accent mingled Sharani and Euzadi.

  "Kalur Aroana widare ew, Chimquar."

  Katalla stood mute and hostile behind Meadusea. Chimquar reminded herself of her

  promise to the Tamlys, refusing to be provoked, yet denying Katalla a proper

  greeting. The young Sharani was slender, promising more speed than strength.

  Meadusea had shorn off her umber braids as a sign of her sorrow, tying a suede

  band around her head. She was the same height as Chimquar, large-boned and

  powerful where Chimquar was lean and long-muscled.

  Chimquar ran her thumb and forefinger down her seamed, sun-battered face. A

  score of years on the Great Plains of Murshay'di had burned her darker than the

  Sharani, aged her face to match her years in a way that the long-lived Sharani

  did not. "You buried Tamlys?" she asked tersely. She walked past them, heading

  for the stream. Hazier walked beside her.

  "We did." Katalla stalked after the Euzadis.

  Makajia led Chimquar's horse beneath the trees, tethering it with her own.

  "You're not a friendly one, are you?" Meadusea said, her words milder than true