The Far Side

by Wylie, Gina Marie

  Kris saw it first, and reinforcing Melek’s impression, she told Andie first, but attracted Ezra’s attention as well. Sure enough, Ezra came and sat down next to him. “What that?” he asked, pointing at the patch of misty light, so far away.

  “City,” Melek told him. Well, it was the best guess of the scholars, anyway. Arvala might not show up from so far away, but the cities of Middle Finger were likely visible at night.

  “City?” Ezra seemed stunned.

  Melek frowned and gestured, “You from Big Moon, yes?”

  Ezra shook his head, absently, as if where he was from was of no consequence, mystifying Melek. “How know city?” Ezra demanded.

  “Grows,” Melek told him. Scholars drew pictures of the City of Lights, and true, sometimes years would go by without apparent change, but then there would be changes. Places would go dark, others light up. “Hour,” Melek said, “lights start to go out. Late at night, there.”

  Ezra spoke quickly two his two companions and they too were interested. “What is dark so?” Ezra asked, signing the dark curve that always bounded the City of Light at night.

  Melek chuckled. “Ocean, scholars say. See in five days, when it’s light there. Ocean.”

  “You think we from there?” Ezra went back to what Melek said a moment before.

  “You not from here!” Melek told him. “Even ancients know Big Moon! You not know!”

  Rari had been talking with the other woman and now he came to Melek. “Chaba asks if Ezra and the others are from Big Moon.”

  “Ezra says no,” Melek told Rari.

  Rari made a face. “She says, the Tengri have a prophecy that one day they will travel there and take all those on Big Moon and make them slaves.” He made a cutting motion across his throat. “The Tengri kill escaped slaves -- and one of ten of the slaves of the master who owned the slave who escaped. She thought Kris was an ally of the Tengri.”

  “Kris killed one,” Melek pointed out.

  “Evidently, the Tengri kill each other rather often over slaves. She’s been waiting for Kris to give her a new collar.”

  Ezra had been close enough to hear, and he asked questions until he understood what Rari and Melek were talking about. “You Chain Break,” Ezra told Melek. “Hundred and fifty years ago, my people fight big fight, against chain people. We win, they lose. No more chains in our lands. All of us hate chains. Understand?”

  “Yes,” Melek told him and nodded to Kris. More than ever he didn’t want to get on the two women’s bad side. Andie could make a weapon better than any they had with no difficulty. They had weapons of their own that were infinitely more powerful still. That was the kind of person you wanted for a friend, not an enemy. Suggesting that a Chain Breaker would take a slave was the worst imaginable insult.

  “Rari, you must tell the girl about those like me, about the Breakers. Kris, Andie, and Ezra are Breakers as well. No slaves. Never slaves!”

  Rari frowned. “No tattoos!”

  “And who tattoos a woman? And if everyone is a Breaker, who needs to know?”

  Rari sat back and nodded and started talking to Chaba. Both Kris and Andie watched the byplay between Rari and Chaba with interest.

  Rari turned to Melek. “She says her people have an old story, a legend, I imagine, that one day that Chain Breakers will come from the West and free them. She says, they have waited a very long time and not many still believe. She begs our forgiveness for doubting us.”

  Rari looked at Melek. “Melek... I am Dralka! We turned our backs on the Breakers long ago, to war against our enemies here! We never gave a thought to those we left behind! We are selfish, forgetting why we came and what those we left behind sacrificed so that we could escape. I am shamed, Sergeant! Shamed!”

  There were murmurs from the others, agreeing. Zerga, another of the privates, spoke loudly. “I am of the Wall Guards, Sergeant. We too have forgotten the ways of our ancestors! We were forced to flee, because we were weak! Now, we’re not weak!”

  Collum returned. “They are not within ten miles, Sergeant -- unless they’ve made a cold camp.” He waved around the camp as the men talked loudly of duty, their ancestors and ancient oaths.

  “What’s got them going?”

  “The girl is a descendant of one of those we left behind, Collum. They have a legend that one day Chain Breakers from the West would come to free them. She says her people despair, because it has been so long, and that now few believe in the old tales.”

  Collum sucked a little wind. “That’s a scary thought, isn’t it? We’ve slacked on our duty to those we left behind. We’re beset and besieged here, yes indeed, and that’s taking all of our attention. Just when would we get around to going back? When the last dralha is dead? Later? After the Tengri and the ones we left behind in the East are nothing but dim legends to us as well?”

  Collum reached out and took Melek’s arm in his hand. “Come, Sergeant, we need to walk.”

  Collum’s grip was painful and Melek was positive that Collum was indeed someone sent to watch over him.

  They moved about a hundred yards away from the others. “I saw in your eyes, earlier, that you think you have me figured out,” Collum told Melek.

  “As I was told to check out Menim, I imagine that at some point in time, I’d be checked out as well.”

  “Well, that’s a foolish thought! We marked you for this when you were a corporal! You’ve been checked three times, Sergeant!”

  “Well, I don’t believe you are a private in the King’s Guard, Collum.”

  “Of course I am. I am whatever I wish to be. I am Pallas, Sergeant, Sachem of the Chain Breakers, and the younger brother of our good king Zod.”

  Melek turned green. “Sire...”

  “Don’t! I am Collum here, a private in the King’s Guards.”

  “But...”

  “Melek, you are a fine young man, quite able and intelligent... something I can’t say about your former lieutenant. None of the others can scout at all, much less as well as I can.” He gestured at the fire, where Ezra, Kris and Andie sat to one side.

  “There is no duty that any of us have at the moment that is more important than seeing those three safely to Arvala. The duty involved with returning Chaba to Arvala is only slightly less important. Your duty and my duty, Melek. And the boy, Rari, is right. There is no duty among our people, just now, higher, than seeing that we are reminded of those we left behind and their plight.”

  He touched Melek’s arm and then gripped it like Ezra had the first day, the grip Melek had found so uncomfortable. “This, brother, is the first of many challenges! This is the sign of our brotherhood! We will find a way to return East, and there we will do what we have to do to free those we left behind so long ago. It is a stain on our honor that has to be blotted out, at whatever cost.”

  “The storm, Collum... it will have done great damage.”

  “Then it will have done great damage. Tell me, Melek, do your abilities extend to being able to rub your stomach and pat your head at once?”

  “Of course.”

  “Well, we are now a great people, Melek. We can pat our heads and rub our stomachs at the same time as well. We can prepare expeditions to go East while we work to fix any damage nature has thrown our way. And if Andie’s steel bow is any sign, why, Dralka’s Sachem may find he has some spare men to help! And the Wall Guard Sachem -- and more than a few others.”

  Melek bowed his head. “Yes, sire.”

  “Melek, you mustn’t. You have to lead here, not me.”

  “Why?”

  “My presence must be a surprise at Arvala.”

  Melek thought for a moment and realized that the King’s brother and Sachem of the Chain Breakers probably had more than one duty to do on any mission he undertook.

  “Yes, I will continue to treat you as a private, then, by your leave.”

  “Good!”

  “Collum, may I tell Ezra?”

  Collum looked at Melek steadily. “Why?”r />
  “Surely you know who Ezra is, sir.”

  “A hired bodyguard to two noble young women.”

  “He knew about the weapon Andie built for us. He has shown me the weapon Kris took from the Tengri she killed. Ezra knows about his own weapons, about our weapons and about the Tengri’s weapons. He is more than a simple bodyguard, as you are more than a simple private.”

  “That would be too ironic, wouldn’t it? Two princes of the Realm, meeting, both incognito!”

  Melek smiled. “You should watch their interactions as I have, Collum! Ezra isn’t a prince; he’s more like the King’s champion. Or maybe the crown princess’ champion, because it is Kris that they both defer to.”

  “And Andie? I got the impression that she and Kris are peers.”

  “No. Kris commands and Andie defers... but like a skillful ruler, she rules with a velvet glove, keeping the reins light. I think, I’m not sure, but I think Andie is Kris’ tutor.”

  “She is the same age... who would have a tutor the same age as the pupil?”

  “It is easy to see, Collum, that Andie has a towering mind. One that soars above the rest of us, as high or higher than dralka do. Two friends, two companions, two equals who aren’t equal.”

  Collum chuckled. “I think this comes under ‘You’re guessing.’”

  “Perhaps, but their relationship isn’t simple.”

  Collum patted Melek’s shoulder. “And ours, brother? Is it simple?”

  Melek frowned. No, not particularly. “No,” he confirmed.

  “Being older, and one assumes, a tiny bit wiser, I’m not terribly consistent. Thus, I have two additional tasks for you. Before we reach Arvala, I wish you to talk to Ezra and see if you can get him to accept the Broken Chain tattoo. He’ll get his on his right hand. If you think you should tell him about me, you may, but I think it should wait.

  “Talk to Andie. She is a clever young woman. In order to reach the East we’re going to need a more significant advance in ships than she’s given us in weapons. See if she knows anything about ships. Write it up, if she does, and give it to me.”

  What can one say? Of course!

  For a while, as the fire was allowed to die down, Melek talked to Ezra and both girls. That the girls were interested in the language discussions seemed to Melek to be important, but he wasn’t sure what had changed. Still, he tried to focus on explaining the fighting orders and the importance of tattoos.

  It was significant that almost at once, Ezra was having an easier time understanding and that the young women were the reason for it. They both had quick minds, so much so, that Melek was hard put to say which was quicker. Finally he realized that it had more to do with the topic than anything else. Andie understood technical questions very well, while Kris understood social questions well, and Ezra understood fighting questions well.

  He explained the fighting orders as best as he could. “There are seven fighting orders. The Chain Breakers are the oldest, the Sea Fighters next.” He explained them, and explained the tattoos. “Left hand, second hand,” he told Ezra. “Right hand, first hand.”

  Ezra looked at Kris who said something and Ezra nodded. “Officer is right hand tattoo?”

  “Order officer,” he told Ezra, not wanting to get into how fighting order and military ranks could differ. He himself had never heard of a member of one of the fighting orders without a tattoo at all, much less the Sachem.

  That led him to explain Sachem to Ezra, which was a harder thing, and without Kris’ comments to Ezra, he might have failed.

  When they stopped talking the camp was quiet, everyone asleep except for the four of them. Ezra yawned, and then Kris and the visitors made their excuses and retired. Ezra had made a point of making sure he was included on guard duty, and Melek assigned him to the shift just before dawn with Collum. What that was like, Melek had no idea -- he had collapsed.

  They were ready to move as soon as it was light enough to travel. Again, Collum went ahead for a distance, and then circled around to their rear, before coming forward to the column when they stopped for lunch.

  When they were burying their waste and for the first time Melek saw there was a problem. More than one of his men had eaten more than one meal. He checked with Ezra, and Ezra confirmed it... eating two was a bad idea.

  So, at the afternoon stop, Melek spoke to them, not singling anyone out. “It is hard, I know, to go hungry,” he told the men. “It is hard, I know, to have food on your back, there to be eaten, even if it isn’t wise.

  “The fact that these things are hard shouldn’t be mistaken for their being impossible. There is barely enough food for us for twenty-eight days, eating two meals a day. If you eat more than two a day now, you’ll cure the hunger pangs in your belly now -- but think about what will happen in two weeks. Your pack will be empty and so will your bellies. You will beg and plead with the rest of us to share with you.

  “Don’t be offended when we laugh at you.” His facial expression changed as did his tone. “And we will kill you if you try to take what is ours.”

  He pointed at Chaba. “This woman is one for whom the chains have been broken, as our ancestors promised her ancestors would happen.” He nodded at Collum. “Collum will take the Chain Breaker tattoo. So may others.”

  There was a lot of whispering as the afternoon wore on, but nothing outward beyond that. Melek hoped that the matter was settled.

  As the light began to rapidly decline with the rise of the Big Moon, they found a place to camp. This time there was no good source of water present, and that’s when another problem became evident. The water containers that Ezra and the two women had along were poor. Any sort of hard contact with the ground or a rock caused a leak to appear -- and if there was one thing soldiers were good at, it was hard contact with the ground.

  Collum appeared before full dark and reported. “They are coming now, following our trail. A party of about twenty. They run, where we walk.

  “As well, they have some sort of beasts with them that seem to guide them.”

  Melek considered that while debating what to do, half aware of Rari talking with Chaba about what was being said.

  Her response was a torrent of words, spoken so fast as to be unintelligible, he was sure, even to one of her fellows. Rari slowed her down and made her explain things simply.

  The beasts were “drik,” and they followed scents. The Tengri would have, she told Rari, given her scent to the drik and the beasts would follow her until they caught her and ripped her to pieces.

  Melek didn’t like the thought of that, or men who ran after them. With packs as heavy as they carried there was no way they could run faster than the Tengri.

  He explained to Ezra, curious what the other would propose.

  Chapter 13 :: The Best Defense

  Ezra listened to the description of what was happening behind them and kept his best poker face in place. Finally he turned to Kris and Andie.

  “Okay, the bad guys are coming after us. We are carrying too much to run, and Melek’s best idea is to find a defensible spot and hope he can make it expensive enough for them to make them quit.

  “The problem with that is, with just bows against muskets, the Tengri will just roll over them, taking their lumps. The battle would be nasty, brutal, and short. He would get a couple of them, but they’d kill Melek and his men.

  “So, he’s looking to us, mostly me. The problem with that is that I’ll get exactly one shot at wiping the whole bunch out before they realize I’m the problem. At that point they will start shooting at me -- and like as not, before I finish wiping out the first group of them. Sporty won’t be the word for what happens after that.

  “My best hope would be to engage them at a couple of hundred yards, which makes their aim problematical at best, and mine less so, particularly if I’ve got them in the open, away from good cover. That’s something I can do, and gives us the best shot if we have to fight.

  “There is, however, another way -- excep
t that it’ll be very, very painful.”

  “Painful how?” Andie asked.

  “Painful in that it’ll hurt a lot. We have flashlights and plenty of batteries, enough for three or four of these nights, at least. We have one of you bring up the rear, shining a beam along the ground so that we can see our way, and a scout in front with a light, picking the best way. We go all night.”

  “We go all night?” Andie grimaced. “I don’t get my beauty sleep?”

  “An hour, maybe, just before dawn.”

  “How about sniping at those dogs?” Kris asked.

  “To do that, I’d have to get within a few hundred yards of them. We’re back to a fight then, because with that many people chasing me, they’d do it in shifts and run me down in a few hours. No, if we have to fight, I’ll pick a good spot and we’ll fight. Me and a couple of Melek’s men, while the rest of you keep on making tracks. Odds are they will be seriously discouraged after that.”

  “And we’d be what? Buoyed with enthusiasm, knowing you’re dead?” Kris scoffed.

  “Hey, it’s the code of the bodyguard -- it’s part of the rules. If you’re not willing to take one for your principal, don’t bother taking the job.”

  “How far are they behind us?” Kris asked.

  “At a guess, seven or eight miles. You have to understand that combat soldiers, fully equipped, can cover that much in an hour, an hour and a half. So we have to get moving, and get moving now.”

  “Then let’s get moving,” Kris told him. “And if it gets too bad, we can fight then.”

  They started out, and at first it wasn’t too bad for Kris and Andie. They’d been a little tired after two days of walking with the heavy packs, but once they got the adrenaline rushing the packs seemed to decrease in weight, and they covered ground at something close to a trot.

  After a bit, Melek would make them trot two hundred steps, then walk five hundred. That covered ground fast enough, and the lights weren’t really needed for the first hour. Then the ground grew rougher, and the pace slowed back to a walk.

  About midnight, Collum reappeared. “The ground slopes down here soon. There is a large lake ahead. It is about three miles long east to west, I don’t know how wide. I checked it; the downstream end is relatively shallow, and we could cross it in short order.”