She was clearly just learning and after she explained how she came by the motley assortment of knives and how she felt obliged to use them against the people who had killed their owners she clearly impressed the others. Some of the knives she even called by names—when she knew whose blade they had been before she gained them. Basil and Ayesha quickly set to work teaching her. It seemed that both approved of her motives heartily.
It also seemed to her that everyone was trying hard to impress the others with their efforts. It was clear that Bianca would be their weakest in battle while Hulagu and Theodora were perhaps the strongest. Astrid took consolation from the fact that none of the others could come near to touching her when they were on foot and she had just her spear while they had swords and maces and hammers and shields. She could fend off their attacks with ease. She undertook to show Father Christopher how to defend himself better with his staff—not that she used a staff, but it was not too different to her spear when it was used just in defence.
~~~
That afternoon, after practice and a bath, but before dinner and starting to entertain, Ayesha and Theodora installed themselves in their meeting room and started reading, or rather Ayesha found that she was looking over what was there that she had not already seen and pointing out things of interest while Theodora was browsing the shelves, picking up and putting back books. Behind them Astrid and Bianca were sitting chatting in chairs. Around them was the slightly dusty smell of old leather chairs and they were beginning to relax into their conversations.
“How about that book on the top?” Theodora suddenly asked.
“What book on top?” Ayesha asked in return.
“It is on its side, right on top of the case. Its leather is the same dark colour of the wood and there is no writing on its spine.”
“Most noble, I hadn’t even noticed it,” admitted Ayesha. “You are taller than I am after all.”
“Help me with this chair,” ordered Theodora. They pushed a chair over against the bookcase and Theodora climbed up. Reaching past the empty shelves she came down with a small book completely covered in dust. It had obviously lain there for some time untouched. Theodora carefully shook the dust off the book and blew more off, to the accompaniment of several sneezes from those clustered around. Letters appeared on the cover, long hidden by dust.
“It is in High Speech,” said Theodora. She continued, “My Travels Over the Land and Beyond. That is a strange name for a book.”
“There is a beyond?” asked Bianca.
“Of course there is a beyond,” said Astrid in a seeming aside. “I have been to at least a part of it.”
Ayesha joined the others in looking at her.
“I have,” she said as she looked around at the faces looking back. Her voice sounded defensive.
It seemed to Ayesha that she didn’t like being challenged when she stated something.
“There is the frozen north for a start and there may well be more. The people in the north generally live in houses made of snow and ice. I have heard there is a warm area, near some hot springs, like the one here but much bigger, where water sprays into the air and where they live in houses built into the hillsides, like beavers do in dams, but I have not been to that part of their land, and most of them live in the snow and the ice.”
Everyone was still looking at her and after a pause she sighed and continued, “They ride in boats with sails that go across the ice on runners, like our skates and they pull up the runners when they go in the water. The boats are made mainly of bone and leather as they have no trees and must buy wood from us.”
“You are making that all up,” stated Theodora. “I would have heard of such a land.”
I was right, thought Ayesha. Astrid clearly looked quite indignant and spoke in reply in a tongue that none of them had ever heard before. It was obviously a language, but not like any she had heard before.
“What was that language?” Ayesha quickly asked. She was sure she sounded far too eager. She had thought that she at least knew the sound of all of the tongues spoken by living men and what she had just heard was very different to anything that she had ever heard before.
“What did you say?” said Theodora, at almost the same time. Her voice was very puzzled.
Astrid changed back to Hindi. “I said ‘And if I was, would you know?’ See, I even speak some of the Inuit tongue!”
Ayesha thought she now looked smug as she looked around at the expressions around her. Her voice now changed to be less defensive.
“I really only speak a little of their tongue and they try and be polite at my accent, but my town trades with them. Much of the oil, ivory and dohl that we sell in fact come from them. I am a ship-owners daughter and I had begun to sometimes help in the trades. Their land lies far to the north, past the northern islands that none dare set foot on and past the floating mountains of ice. In winter the sun never rises there and in summer it never sets. The people only dress in fur or leather, or what we sell them. They like bright threads and embroider everything including the leather. Their houses really are made of snow and ice, but they are warm inside. They need to be. It is colder there than on the highest mountain. We call their home The Northern Waste. They call it The White World. We sell them lots of timber as no trees grow there.”
“All right,” said Bianca. “Does this book mention your White Waste?”
“Northern Waste,” corrected Astrid.
Theodora brought the book over to the table and opened it. The spine was stiff and creaked faintly as it revealed its contents. The pages were of vellum, scraped thin and close written. Theodora, pointing to the right bits, announced that the front page that the book was written by Simon of Richfield and that it dated from well before The Burning.
“There is no such place as Richfield,” said Bianca. “There is a Brickshield, but that is all.”
“Places often change their names,” said Theodora. “For instance, the town we in Darkreach know as ‘Antdrudge’ was once known as ‘Amtrage’ and ‘Axepol’ was called ‘Erskine’ so long ago. Usually only scholars and bards know of these changes,” she concluded in a smug tone.
Father Christopher then entered the room with the other males. Ayesha could hear that he was explaining Christianity. She might be interested in one day listening to his theology, but she could see that Hulagu looked stony faced, Thord had a very fixed smile and only Basil was paying him any real attention.
Astrid interrupted him excitedly, “Father, you are talking and they are not hearing you. Come and look here. We have found an old book. It is about a traveller and what he did. Theodora was just about to tell us where he went. Maybe this is a sign and will tell us where we should go.”
Suddenly all four men were paying attention to the one thing. Theodora started to turn the pages very carefully lest they break or tear or stick together. Ayesha hung back a little and moved to the other side of the table so that she could watch the people and their reactions.
“He starts from Goldentide and he states that his Metropolitan there blessed his travels.”
“Metropolitan? There is a Bishop of Goldentide. Metropolitans are for the heret—” Bianca remembered who was here and stopped herself.
“We are not the heretics,” said Father Christopher patiently. “Once there was an ecumen, a whole community of Christianity. Then one day the Metropolitan of Trekvarna, at the urging of King Roger the Third, declared himself supreme Metropolitan, and said that all others must obey him and do what he said was right. The eastern part of the ecumen refused and there was a schism. His successor now calls himself the Pope. We still hold to the original teachings, but yours have changed.”
“That is not what we are taught,” said Bianca stiffly.
“None the less,” said Theodora, looking up, “it is true. I have studied many books from that time and they all say the same—even the ones written in Freehold.”
Astrid interrupted them impatiently, “Can we get back to hearing what he w
rote and you can argue about theology and old tales of who did what to whom later?”
Most nodded and all of them turned back to Theodora. She started turning pages carefully, quickly scanning the words written on them. “He starts by travelling though Freehold.”
Small maps were starting to appear and Theodora was soon showing them around. “Many of the places he went to no longer exist. He then went to, what he calls the Northern Reach…oh…it is the land of The Brotherhood.”
She kept turning pages and talking about the Dwarves of the south west. “They are still there, the Khitan, the southern towns, Haven.” She coughed and then stopped and pushed the book across the table to Ayesha. “Can you continue? My throat is getting dry with this dust and I still have to entertain.”
Ayesha took up the book and continued. She decided to keep just scanning the pages. Detail could come out later if they needed it. The book mentioned the Swamp, Bear Land, Lake Erave and then went on to talk of the mountains south of the Darkreach Gap. She stopped.
“He went to Dwarvenholme, look, here is a map around the gate.” She pointed. This was interesting.
“T’ere be no maps left to Dwarvenholme,” said Thord. His voice showed his excitement and he had jumped up out of the chair he had been sitting back in. He was even shifting from one foot to the other as he tried to contain himself.
“There is now,” replied Ayesha. She kept looking at the next few leaves. “The next few pages detail his journey.” She decided to read some of it out.
A landslide had destroyed much of the road and we had to make a new…
“Is this word ‘route’?” she asked Theodora, as she lifted the book towards her. Theodora nodded.
…We came to the doors. The landslide had almost hidden the doors from the road. She turned another page. “Look, another map. This one says on the top:
Our path from the old road.
“There is no indication of distances,” said Theodora.
“Why should there be?” asked Hulagu. “You just look for hills and rivers. We find our way by how long it takes to ride. Two places may be the same distance apart, but one may take twice as long to reach as the other.”
“Not every person moves at the same speed, even on flat ground. If you know how far away a place is, a good map will let you know how long it will take you to get there,” replied Theodora.
“The map is no use anyway. We don’t even know where this old road is,” said Hulagu.
“No we don’t,” replied Ayesha, “but he says how far they were south of the Gap when they took a wrong turn in the dusk and found the road.” She turned back a page and pointed at the book. “If we go along that road and follow where he says he went, then we should find it if we look. The only problem is for me. The men of the Caliphate cannot find me. If they do I will be punished.”
“Such a search could take a very long time,” said Father Christopher. He sounded cautious.
“You, at least, have a full two years of exile from the monastery ahead of you and as yet there no plans to fill them up,” pointed out Astrid dryly, and then added more cheerfully “and I have forever and no plans at all.”
There was no vote, but it already seemed decided, thought Ayesha. She noted that Theodora had forgotten she was not a princess and slipped out of her character and was now giving orders. She sent Astrid and Bianca, both of whom had experience with buying and selling things to Master Nobah to see if they could buy the book from him. They took Father Christopher with them for support. They were given money to do so. Thord was willing to give everything that he owned including his sheep and armour and perhaps all of his future children. The others went away to start their preparations. It was decided that they should take a few more days to prepare and then they would leave.
Personally she thought that it would have been worth a lot more than they paid, but the two women must have done what they were supposed to. Astrid later confided that she was impressed that she had, with a lot of hard bargaining, just bought a book for two of the local gold talents, three gold hyperion and five silver milesaria. Apparently that was nearly a quarter’s earnings for most people with a trade around here and Astrid had never had to buy a book before. Apparently few people in her village had them.
Chapter XXVIII
That afternoon everything changed. Stefan came running excitedly to where the others were. “T’ere be troop of Haven cavalry approachin’. T’ey should be here in hour. I be off to t’ wall now to see ’em arrive. We see lots of t’eir traders, but t’ey rare send military force up t’is far unless it be very important.”
By the time everyone reached the river wall above the dock, the cavalry could be clearly seen. From down river, where they had come from, a small plume of smoke was visible on the riverbank. People on the wall were discussing what they may have taken their time to burn.
Stefan looked at the riders as they approached. The troop of riders was largely clad in mail with helmets that fitted close around their heads and then rose to a point. They must be coming in peace as all of them had the camails of the helms held up at the front by their sliding nasals. Green cloth was wrapped around the helms, with the point emerging from the top and with a short ‘tail’ of cloth coming down the back. Most of the riders had the bamboo lances of the south, the butt in a rest beside the stirrup. All of the lances were held at precisely the same angle and had small pennons flying from below the head. Among the riders was one who was dressed just in riding clothes, another with a helm, but just wearing padding and a young Orthodox priest in armour.
“Two mages,” said Hulagu from beside him. “You sometimes see their patrols visiting the villages along the south coast. They always have one or two mages with them. One looks to be a man, the other, a woman. She is the one with the padding and with a bow through her saddle girth.” They watched the troop approach, riding in pairs. The last pair led packhorses, one of them a giant beast.
The cavalry stopped at the ford and, after talking to the woman mage, a rider from the middle broke off and splashed though the ford to the gatehouse island. He had a short conversation with the guards there, before turning in the saddle and waving the troop forward. They advanced and splashed through the ford, their horses almost in step as they moved, despite the water. On one horse there was an empty saddle and a lance was stuck through the saddle girth. Other riders showed bandages. It was obvious that they had seen serious combat on the way here.
They moved up the ramp and entered the gate island. The troop crossed the drawbridge into the foreshore enclosure, towards the actual entrance to Evilhalt. Stefan joined all of the other onlookers who were moving down the wall to the entrance courtyard to overlook them as they came in. As the troop passed below them the female mage gave a sudden start and looked up along the row of watchers.
~~~
Rani had Sanjeev ride over the ford to negotiate entry for them. After all, these small towns were supposed to sometimes be prickly about allowing the armed forces of their larger neighbours to gain entry. He soon waved them over. Many times before now she had seen plans of this town in classes. What the plans did not show so well, she realised as she looked up and down the river, was really how well it did control the crossing point, the first ford along the long river that led down to Haven.
Small and large ballistae were mounted on the towers and rumour had it that there were many potent magical devices in the town arsenal as well. As they rode they gradually rose from the river on a ramp that seemed to have a far better footing than wet cobblestones should have. She was quite sure that this could be quickly reversed at need—at any rate, that is what she would do if she were a water mage charged with defence.
A group of idlers watched them from above on the wall. She started—idlers. One was Khitan, one was a heathen priest like Father George, another, sitting in an embrasure, was a Dwarf. A woman from the Caliphate was visible and the others could be from anywhere. One woman had hair as pale as the sand on Adeela Strand
while another had raven-black. What was more was her senses were prickling. Some of the onlookers carried much magic. Were these the group of strangers that the university seers had mentioned? She looked from man to man along the wall seeking to see golden eyes and was vaguely disappointed not to see them as if her prophesy had failed her. The column started to move on into the town itself, following one of the guards.
“We are being taken to see the Baron,” said Sanjeev as he rejoined her. “Once we have explained the problem of the caravans then we will go to the inn and tomorrow will say our farewells. Then you are going to be on your own. Are you still sure that this is what you wish to do?”
Rani nodded, trying to look determined, even if inside herself she was full of doubt.
~~~
Stefan realised that, depending where they ended up, he might be fighting people just like these in the future. As he thought about this the others offered their observations on what they had seen.
They watched the cavalry enter the town and move towards the Guild Hall.
“They look serious,” said Bianca, “and very disciplined. Our knights do not ride like that. They each travel with their retainers and servants, not in straight lines. I do not understand why they have one of the other Christian priests with them.”
“That puzzles me as well, but the Haven cavalry are very serious,” said Hulagu. “They lack bows, but they are determined and do well in a charge with those light lances. Most of their infantry are not impressive, but their cavalry, and their elephants and chariots, are very dangerous. Their mages are very, very dangerous. A Havenite battle mage is most formidable. They train to do little else but kill as a part of their army. Killing in battle is their whole life. It is unusual for a group that small to have two of them.”
Intimations of Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 1) Page 30