by M. M. Perry
“So just me and Chort then?” Viola wasn’t certain she found that prospect much better than being left with nothing to do on the ship.
“No. I think Manny should stay too. And while we’re gone, I figured you’d be perfect for trying to wheedle information out of the stubborn god. It might even be a good idea to try and get Chort in a room with Manfred. Get them talking. After all that stuff he said about the djinn, I’m betting Manny might elicit some interesting discussion. And…”
Cass had been staring across the deck at the worn out looking djinn.
“Manny. Has he seemed out of sorts to you? I mean aside from our, oh let’s just call it a disagreement.”
Nat and Viola looked across at the djinn, who noticed them and waved while sporting a silly face. Viola grinned, then turned back to Cass.
“I didn’t want to say anything. I thought it was just because you told me you didn’t think he’d be going back to Xenor. That he might be conserving his powers. But he was doing that on our way to find the dragons, and he never looked so… so…”
“Threadbare,” Nat suggested frowning. “Yeah, he never failed to look impeccable while we were out there, even after the fight with the kraken.”
“Well, that settles it. Manny definitely stays too. No need to wear him out,” Cass said with finality.
“About getting Chort and Manfred together,” Viola began. “That might be dangerous. What if they start to fight? Chort did say he had the cane that created djinn. Manfred being weaker… he might think he can use it on him or something,” Viola said.
“I think Manny will keep things civil. And of course you will be there to lead the conversation. Just steer it clear of dangerous waters.”
Viola had a sudden realization.
“You’re willing to take the nightmares on again, then?”
Cass closed her eyes, letting the sun beat through her eyelids and create stars in the red blackness.
“Yes,” Cass said, eyes still closed as if she were drawing strength directly from the sun. “We cannot become used to the things Chort may give us. If we rely on him too much, he’ll use that against us. I’ve been through this much, I can handle it a little longer. Soon enough I expect Oshia won’t be able to single me out for his torture anymore. He’ll have a war taking up his attention.”
Cass opened her eyes to find Gunnarr approaching. A group of warriors and the Cartan, Droog, were gathered behind him, but they did not come close
“A few of the men are going to go ashore as well,” Gunnarr said when he reached them. “They’ll go in shifts to make sure the ship has a strong compliment of men, lest any ambitious pirate consider raiding the Serenade while we are gone. It might prove too tempting for some, particularly since Callan wasn’t quiet about loading it up so richly.”
“Pirates?” Viola asked, adding that to the many reasons she’d rather not be left behind on the ship.
“It’s the Cartan’s fault really,” Gunnarr said with more than a little irritation in his voice. “They could protect the ships they force to moor so far away from shore. They enjoy the trade well enough; they could certainly do their part. They choose to put that burden on the ship owners. Don’t worry, though. Most of the warriors will stay aboard. And of course Manfred isn’t likely to go down without a fight.”
Viola was unaccustomed to hearing Gunnarr talk so passionately about something. She wondered if the Braldashadians had to deal very frequently with the Cartan trade issues for him to have such a strong opinion on the matter. The thought didn’t last long as her attention was diverted by their own Cartan crewman, Droog, heading toward them. She noticed how everyone else looked away from him, so she mimicked them but listened intently to the conversation, eager to learn more about the Cartan customs.
“The inspectors have arrived. I suggest we trade with them, and lean the exchange favorably in their direction to ease the negotiations. They will not be eager to let you travel freely, but they will respect your desire to do so much easier if they get something from the exchange. Grains and oils are low this time of year in Ledina. That would be my recommendation.”
“Thank you, Droog,” Gunnarr said. “Your aid in this mission is invaluable.”
Droog looked the group over, then nodded and walked off towards the gangplank that was being lashed between the ships. Gunnarr turned back to the group.
“Well, we should prepare to depart. Viola, Laota keep you safe.”
Gunnarr and Nat moved off to join the inspection line. Cass stayed behind and when they were alone, spoke to Viola.
“I’m trying to trust Manny, trying to trust he has my best interest at heart when he says he can’t let me remember all of my time on Xenor. But… and maybe this is a mistake…”
Viola cut her off.
“Hey. You don’t have to say anything. I’m on it. I’ll see what I can find out.”
The inspection went as smoothly as possible. There was some discussion among the Cartan about Cass travelling ashore, but luckily one of the inspectors was aware of Cass’ special distinction among women—that the elves had no effect on her—and they let her pass without too much fuss. The long, tedious, and thoroughly discouraging presentation on the dangers of elves which females wishing to land on Ledina normally had to attend was eventually dismissed as unnecessary by the Cartans. Cass was relieved.
“I’ve had to sit through it several times already. I’m not always lucky enough to find a Cartan on the inspection ship who remembers anything about me. It’s very dull. And of course you have to constantly be careful not to look them in the face. And they bring you to a female Cartan who counsels you on what you are about to endure. I suppose it’s not bad as a deterrent. I have seen some women turn back after the orientation despite the starry eyed dreams they arrived with of what it’s like to live among the elves.”
Once they finally boarded the Cartan inspection ship, everyone was so busy trying their best to keep from making accidental eye contact with any of the Cartans, or in any other way offending them, that the trip passed in relative silence. To the relief of all the passengers, the journey was brief, and they soon felt the grind of the dock against the hull of the ship as they stopped. The gangway was extended and within moments, they were in Ledina.
“This is my first time here,” Nat said.
“We won’t have much time to explore, I’m afraid,” Gunnarr replied. “We don’t want to stay too long. Some things you should keep in mind at all times while here, though. You have to be careful of where you go so as not to upset the Cartans. They are easily insulted. They don’t like outsiders and most of them only tolerate visitors grudgingly, because they want the items we bring in trade. They are a little more hospitable to warriors since more often than not we’re here to retrieve some lost human, which means one less outsider for them to worry about. And on rare occasion, we do come here to help them out.”
“Do they worship the gods here? I don’t see any temples or statues,” Nat said, scanning the skyline.
“They do. But quietly. You’ll find a much subtler approach to worship here.”
Droog came up beside them and pointed to a large building adorned with beautiful geometric patterns.
“Come. Let us seek permission to leave the city now.”
Gunnarr and Droog strode ahead while Nat and Cass lagged behind.
“I didn’t realize they were so strict with where you could go. The way you both spoke of women heading out to live with the elves here, I assumed it was pretty free,” Nat said quietly.
“Oh, you don’t need permission to get with the elves. If all you’re looking for is elves you don’t have to go far to find them. The Cartan aren’t worried you’ll go where you aren’t wanted if all you seek are elves. You don’t see any here in the city because the extermination efforts are diligent and unrelenting. Trust me, if we are here at night, you’ll hear the extermination squads out killing elves who are attempting to move into the city. Every single night,” Cass replied.
“Then why is such formal permission required for us?”
“Because we want to go deep into their territory. They have these kind of, I’m not really sure of the best way to describe it. I’d say sacred grounds, but that’s not really right. They are areas that are supposed to have been given directly to the Cartan by the gods. Gifts to the Cartan to show how favored they are. The areas are not to be touched by any other race. And they are serious about it. If we wandered near one without permission, we’d be killed pretty quickly. And if you think they’re serious about keeping elves out of Tendo, well, that’s nothing to how ferociously they protect those areas… Once I was camped near one of these sacred sites, and the sound of elves dying was so loud and persistent I could not sleep even for a second.”
“That’s very… odd. I mean the deadly serious ‘this land is our gift from the gods and only ours’ thing. Not the killing of the elves. I imagine they are awful from what you’ve said,” Nat stammered.
“Well, people have some strange ways of worshipping the gods. You won’t find temples here. No statues or symbols in any of the houses either. But those ‘gifts’ from the gods are patrolled every minute of every day.”
By then, they’d reached the building Droog had singled out. Nat noticed that as they got closer, the geometric shapes were far more intricate than they seemed from far away. It was a pleasing optical illusion and Nat realized as gruff as the Cartan seemed, there was much more to their culture than he thought. He would never have guessed Cartan, who for all he’d ever witnessed seemed very rigid and structured, to have something as beautiful as the geometric art covering the walls of the building he was entering.
Nat saw a steady flow of Cartans coming and going from the building as they’d approached, but could see no other humans besides themselves inside. Most of the activity in the room was centered on several areas where Cartans were seated on one side of broad tables, listening to other visitors to Tendo across from them. Droog led their group to the largest table. Three Cartans wearing robes that made them look even more officious than any Cartans Nat had seen so far were seated there. The robes had symbols embroidered down the front of them in gold thread. The deep forest green color of the fabric stood out starkly against the short red fur covering the Cartans’ skin.
Nat used his trick of looking at the Cartan’s chest when he approached, mindful of the lessons Gunnarr had given him about approaching Cartan people during their voyage. The Cartans gestured for the group to sit. Nat claimed a sturdy wooden chair and sat quietly while Droog did all the talking.
“I am called Droog. My party wishes to travel to the south,” Droog said.
His voice was clipped and official sounding. Very little emotion escaped him.
“What is it you seek in the south, warriors?” one of the three Cartans asked.
“We seek the seer who has taken up with the elves. We wish to ask for his aid,” Droog replied.
The three Cartan seemed greatly affected by the answer. They turned to each other and began speaking animatedly in another language, the rough guttural sounds animal like to Nat’s ear. Nat wondered if any human had learned to speak it. After a few minutes the trio of Cartan turned back to the group. Nat thought he detected a snarl on the face of one before he realized he had been staring directly at the Cartan. He quickly dropped his gaze.
“We have several problems with this. Of course you would have to travel very carefully to avoid our lands. Second, the seer whom you seek has very recently made the elves strange. We do not wish their influence spreading. We are ourselves currently devising a way to approach this seer to remove his influence from the elves. And finally, this is very close to Sanctum,” at these last words, the Cartan who was speaking looked pointedly at Cass. Cass noticed but continued to avoid direct eye contact.
“We have no intention of entering Sanctum,” Droog said simply.
“Maybe not, but we may upset the worshippers of Porl for even allowing a woman to get that close. We cannot take the risk. Long have we been at peace with Sanctum. We will not allow that peace to be threatened.”
Droog started to stand. It was clear to Cass that Droog felt there was no appealing the decision, but she could not allow the trip to be in vain. Quietly, but firmly, she began to speak.
“Council, have you heard of the dragons who wake and prowl the skies of Tanavia? Of the old god’s return?”
Droog tensed and Cass could see she had angered him by speaking after he had made the decision to leave. She knew she would have to deal with that when they left the council chambers, but for now Cass was fairly certain Cartan protocols would keep Droog from open hostility. The council members were as shocked and upset to hear Cass speak as Droog was, but her words were of more interest to them than decorum.
“We have.”
“Then you know something will happen soon that will affect all of us.”
“We do.”
“Our quest to visit with this seer, it is to determine the fate of the mortals in this war. We do this with the dragons as our allies.”
Cass placed her travel pouch on the table and dug a large, flat item, wrapped in cloth, from it. As she unfolded the cloth wrapping and revealed the ebony scale it contained, the lights from all around the room were drawn into the dragon scale, transforming its surface into a small piece of the night sky. Stars and galaxies glittered in the depths of the impossibly black surface, casting a soft glow over all present at the table.
The Cartan’s were struck speechless, though they clearly had no doubt about what the object was. One of them reverently reached out to touch the scale before stopping and looking at Cass instead. He addressed her softly.
“May I?”
At these words, Cass looked up automatically, not thinking of the custom at first. She realized then that she was being accepted as an equal. The feeling around the table changed completely. Nat and Gunnarr could sense it and looked up as well. They were the allies of dragons. They were on equal footing with the Cartan now. Out of the corner of her eye, Cass thought she saw Droog’s lips curl up in a snarl for just a second.
Cass handed the scale over to the Cartan who took it from her ever so carefully. The awe in his eyes was reflected in his fellow Cartans’. After gazing at the scale for some time, the Cartan handed it back, his eyes reluctant to leave it. He opened a drawer and pulled out a rolled up piece of cloth. He unrolled it on the table before them. It was a very intricately embroidered map of Ledina. As with the building they were in, the craftsmanship of the map was impeccable.
He pointed at a spot very close to the southern edge of Ledina. The spot was encircled in gold thread, as were several other spots on the map.
Nat leaned in to get a better look at the map. He had become accustomed with cartography and the rough shape of the world during his years as a warrior, as all warriors must, and he was fairly certain he could pick out the location of Tendo, as well as a handful of other major Cartan cities on the map. Where he looked, expecting to find them, he found names embroidered in silver, not gold.
“There is where the seer is,” the Cartan said.
Droog gasped. The sudden outburst startled the whole group.
“That is our land!”
The way Droog said “our” confirmed Nat’s suspicion of what the golden circles were. Those were the Cartan’s gifts from the gods. The seer, likely a human, and his elven followers, had somehow taken over one of the closely guarded lands of the Cartan.
“Yes,” the council member said solemnly. “Yes, it was.”
Droog was in a foul mood as they gathered supplies for their trek deep into the forests that covered most of Ledina. He stomped around the square looking even surlier than normal. Cass rubbed her eyes and sighed. Droog had still not indicated any of them were his equals yet. Unlike the council members, he didn’t seem to think knowing dragons was very impressive.
“You know, when you first brought a Cartan to the ship, I was pleased. I thought he’d
be really useful negotiating rights to travel wherever we needed to go. I wouldn’t have expected the most stubborn Cartan ever to find being a warrior his true calling,” Cass said sighing.
“He’s a fool,” Gunnarr grumbled. “You had to speak up when you did. The council was clearly not going to grant us passage otherwise.”
“Maybe,” Nat suggested, “it has nothing to do with Cass. Maybe he’s just scared. You said the lands that the Cartan consider a gift from the gods have been untouched by others for as long as the Cartans have been around. Maybe it’s really frightening to him that somehow that has changed. That a bunch of elves and a single human did this thing.”
“Could be,” Cass said nodding, “but I suspect it won’t matter much why he’s acting this way. He’s going to take out his feelings on us, I fear. We may have to defeat him.”
“Defeat him?” Nat asked.
“When a Cartan feels as if his authority is challenged by one he considers lower than himself, they fight for dominance,” Gunnarr explained. “It is a bit like dogs. You’ve seen them in groups before. One is a leader, the rest follow. Cartan society is a bit like that. Usually it’s female Cartans who lead. That’s why you almost never see a female Cartan outside of Ledina. They are the leaders and do not leave their cities or homes. It’s the males who are off trying to prove themselves, or performing tasks.”
“Then he’ll challenge Cass?”
“No,” Cass said shaking her head. “He’ll challenge Gunnarr. The men don’t challenge the women.”
“So the females don’t fight the males, ever?”
“No. As best I can tell, and I’m not really an expert on this, in fact I believe most scholars find the Cartan society to be a great mystery since they are so insular… but no, as best I can tell the ritual challenge in Cartan society is solely to be undertaken between males. Mind you I’ve only met a couple female Cartan. They might have a similar way of sorting out differences among themselves. If so, I’ve never seen it or heard of it. I’d be surprised if they did, though. They are very different from the males. They don’t require the deferential treatment, though they do still obviously view themselves as superior. They just don’t feel the need to force you to show it,” Cass said.