Torrodil

by Luke Geraghty

  Anna sidestepped the remark to ask who he was.

  ‘Grelv,’ replied Lysander, inspecting Anna closely. ‘We searched the base after you—’

  ‘Had your volcano moment,’ chipped in Kara.

  Monk did not glare, but let a pause rebuke her.

  ‘A missive in his pocket was addressed to Oded, lieutenant of the Grelv. We think we may be able to take him; use him to get out of this place.’

  ‘Won’t the Ilo just kill him?’ asked Anna.

  ‘They said they didn’t want further bloodshed. I may be wrong, but I believe them.’

  The Trickster spun her daggers round her fingers gleefully. ‘Personally I think he’s as good as dead.’

  ‘Thank you, Kara. Your insight is, as always, greatly appreciated.’

  ‘Let me see if I understand this: you defied our orders and attacked the Grelv camp, drugging most of them with a combination of several poisons which either incapacitated them or sent them to sleep; the few that remained conscious through good fortune were assaulted – again by your hand; and then you thought, “Why not lead the lone standing man back to his rival’s base? The Ilo love nothing more than company! They let us seven in with open arms. Fed us. Gave us beds. It’s practically a sin to leave him here.” Am I right?’

  ‘Well—’

  ‘Do not answer. I am not interested. You wake me before dawn. You bring me him. What am I meant to do? Open my arms and pull him close to my chest?’

  Andres and Cesar considered this idea between themselves and then, pleased with their decision, shook their heads ‘yes’ towards Tuoni.

  ‘I cannot believe this. Jor will have my head. Yours first, it’s true, but mine after. Ai ai ai ai.’ Tuoni went on in this way, tapping her hands on the rests of her mother’s throne, running her hands through her hair, staring into space, and ultimately coming back to the hostage in her hall. ‘What is his name?’

  ‘He won’t answer us, but there was a letter in his pocket addressed to an “Oded.”’

  A banshee shriek lit up the ceremonial hall, sentries turning their heads, running to see what was going on, being sent away with a disparaging swipe. Tuoni did not waste her time arguing with the captive in the lesser tongue of Carric, fuming at him in Reyen and straight away getting a heated response back. Held firm by Lysander and an enthralled Kara, whose head darted back and forth between the word-sparrers, the man could not physically act out his anger, but was sure to inflect his speech with it. After a minute or two of the farce, Tuoni picked up the scraps of her poise and spoke to the seven.

  ‘This man you have brought me is Oded, son of Vairne, leader of the Grelv. He has changed much in nine years, haven’t you, Oded?’

  Oded acted mute.

  ‘Do not think me stupid. You have forgotten our Tongue, not theirs.’

  ‘This dispute is ours and ours alone. You dare bring outsiders into this?’

  ‘You have brought worse than they to these lands, chopping down our home, using it to fuel this war. What happened to the boy I knew? The boy that could call to the animals before I could talk? That built a house up in the trees so he could live with the birds?’

  ‘He grew up,’ uttered Oded, taken aback by her sincerity. ‘As did you.’

  Neither said anything for a time and the hall air, previously charged with their passion, grew stale and cold. The band waited for Tuoni to return to them and designate a punishment in her role as judge, jury and executioner. She seemed a seraph in freefall, knowing the flight was not meant to last.

  ‘Yae is dead.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Did you arrange it?’

  No answer.

  ‘Did you know where he was going to be? Did you do nothing to stop it? Did you just accept it when those orders came in from your father? Follow through like the lapdog you are?’

  ‘There was nothing I could do.’

  Tuoni leapt from the throne and announced her arrival in front of Oded with a slap across his face.

  ‘You played together as children. Swam in the rivers; went missing for days, fishing, camping, hunting. Do you remember when you got your foot stuck in the Ibiben River? You said afterwards you thought you were going to drown. You couldn’t bid the animals to come and save you. You couldn’t breathe. But he saved you, didn’t he? He dived in and swam underneath the water to free you.’

  ‘So avenge your brother, blood for blood.’

  There was an anticipatory silence as Tuoni chose his sentencing. To look at that long, slim mouth was to delve into the past and hang onto spent moments. Up went her vision to the eyebrow with the scar from childhood fighting. He had been proud of it, she remembered. ‘No, Oded. You do not deserve death,’ she said, awareness, not sympathy, in her voice. ‘You deserve to live with what you have done forever. And mark my words, if I have any say in it, you will.’ She called to her sentries. When they attempted to inform her there was not room, she told them to make it.

  ‘What are you doing?’ cried Anna as they attempted to drag the seven away. ‘We had a deal.’

  ‘Which you broke. You should have stayed in Carrigan. Who knows what trouble you have caused by coming here.’

  ‘I won’t let you do this—’ Anna was stopped by Lysander, who whispered that it was not the answer.

  ‘My friend is sick,’ pleaded Cesar, looking at Mateo and his sunken eyes. ‘He has walked for hours to return, and needs treatment and a bed and food. Please, you must help him.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘He could die.’

  ‘Then if he does it is your doing, not mine.’

  The seven were yanked from the hall, searched, belongings taken, then thrown into a small prison cell with Oded. Taking inventory of the cell, they found a ring with an aquamarine stone, a spider mother with a brood that had sampled every delicacy but human, and a curious pot in the corner. If they thought it of possible interest for one second, this was soon quashed by that undeniable smell that only ever means one thing: festering, fly-ridden faeces.

  Tired and lying on the floor, the group took stock of their situation: they were trapped in a place they didn’t know and, whether imprisoned or not, they could not get out. Lysander’s resolute sense of direction was severely hampered in the jungle mass, and who knew which paths would lead to salvation and which to extinction. Now should have been a time for desperation.

  But there was no time to dwell on what was and what could be. Mateo was unwell and that was all that mattered. Each of the seven took something to him, be it a smuggled piece of fruit (Kara), or a fantastic tale about a ship-sinking whirlpool (Andres). Tommy looked at his friend, in terrible pain and not complaining, and felt his anxieties driven out.

  Anna did not overstep the line of friendship and let the two Venecians tend to their brother as they knew best. Occasionally she dabbed Mateo’s head when it was required, letting her hand slide into his when he requested it, neither wanting anything more than that. Cesar let his cool feeling thaw and did not move an inch from Mateo’s side.

  The eighth member of the cell kept quiet throughout the ordeal. Oded knew the Grelv were likely looking for him, but they had no idea where the last bastion of the Ilo was. He would not be found and, truth be told, he wasn’t sure he wanted to be. The Grelv had the resources to level this place ten times over and there was nothing in the world his father wanted more. The Ilo had started this feud in an accidental killing, taking the life of Vairne’s brother in a hunting game gone awry. Vairne had given his word that he would not rest until the Ilo were eradicated or he joined his brother in the dirt.

  ‘Your friend is very ill,’ Oded said at last. ‘Let me see.’

  ‘You will stay where you are,’ replied a protective Cesar.

  ‘I know more of war than you can hope to understand. My men coat their spears in a deadly toxin. I will see if it afflicts him.’

  Oded was let past. He undid the poultice that covered the wound and with light fingers examined it. The wound desperately ne
eded cleaning and attention the six could not provide.

  ‘The poison rides in his veins.’

  ‘You lie.’

  ‘I carry an antidote, but it has been taken. If we do not get it to him soon, there will be no coming back.’

  ‘You speak of death as a trivial thing,’ said Lysander, more troubled than he let on.

  ‘If you knew it as well you might too.’

  ‘How can we get out?’ asked Tommy. ‘That Tuoni isn’t going to help us; you heard her.’

  ‘Her mother is a good woman and of…sounder mind. If we can get to her, we can get your friend the help he needs.’ Kara informed Oded that Nilah was in seclusion. It may have had something to do with him killing her son. ‘Then that works in our favour,’ declared Oded confidently. The six seemed less convinced. ‘We know where she is. If we can get her alone and reason with her, we stand a chance of getting out of here. Unless you want your friend to die? No? Then hear me out.’

  ‘As long as it doesn’t involve that thing,’ said Tommy, pointing to the pot and wrinkling his nose. ‘I’m sorry but I think I’d pass out.’

  Oded sketched out his idea: they would feign injury and draw the attention of one of the prison guards. When the unwitting man came into the cell, he’d get a wallop and Oded would “borrow” his clothes. Then a small number of them – the ones that were sprightly so as to go unnoticed – would be led out and into the light of day. The co-leaders’ chamber had to be within the ceremonial hall, as both tribes believed it was bad luck for the chiefs to sleep outside of the spiritual centre. They would have to pass through, ensure Nilah was alone, and convince her to help Mateo.

  ‘Sounds too easy,’ chimed Anna, ever the optimist. Lysander agreed and pointed out the watchtower sentries with their eagle eyes and unrelenting watch. Though he predicted failure with his head, he afforded the plan a gratuitous modicum of hope with his heart.

  ‘Who will go?’

  ‘We must stay with Mateo,’ said Cesar, tipping his head towards Andres. ‘He cannot be left by himself.’

  ‘Well I’m going,’ said Kara bluntly. ‘The rest of you haven’t the faintest idea about stealth.’

  ‘We snuck through Manor Hamilton easily enough.’

  ‘Because I cleared the way first. To remember your faces when that hood came off. Did you not ask yourself about the lace glove? Not once?’ Kara gave forth a wicked hoot, stopping herself when she caught sight of the ill boy.

  ‘Anna, Tommy, you are the lightest of us. You will go with Kara and Oded.’

  The butterflies in Tommy’s stomach quivered. At least he hoped it was butterflies. It could be parasites. Jungle worms. Oh Shaper, not jungle worms. They say they grow as they eat you from the inside, getting bigger and bigger, and you never know they’re there till one day you feel a wriggling at the back of your throat, and then they come out of you, and then you’re dead.

  ‘Tommy, you don’t look well,’ said Anna.

  ‘Is the room hot or is it just me? Maybe a little sit down. Yes. A little sit down.’

  ‘There’s no time,’ Oded fired back. ‘Someone’s coming. Positions.’

  Doing his rounds with not a care in the world, the guard went by, stopped, went back to the seven flopping about like fish on the ground, and struggled with his shaky fingers to find a key. Mainlanders. Riddled with disease. And what they don’t have they’ll soon be given, since jungle bugs love a nice white canvas for an evening meal.

  The guard’s hand found the key and then found the lock and then found the floor, hitting it along with his beefy body. The prisoners in the other cells erupted into cheers and cries. They begged the illustrious Oded to free them and lead a riot through the home of the Ilo, but he drowned out their cries with his own plans and, after dressing himself in the guardsman’s attire, led the three Carric kids down the hall and into the eye of the storm.

  Fourteen – On the Fifth Day

  The man’s Reyen accent was very strange, the stationed prison guards decided. The silky notes were made guttural, as if the language had fallen into disuse. But his clothes were theirs. And the face, when they glimpsed it, was not of a mainlander, though it did look oddly familiar. The day is long and its heated jaws bear down on them like an alligator. ‘Yes yes, go,’ the guards say, letting their eyes fall over the two young women in Oded’s company. Anna’s long dress is a spectacle, sweat making her neck glisten. Her friend has curls and a coral pout and skin fairer than any pearl. Oded stares the men down and sends the girls out in front.

  A panther and his human mate walk by as the four go to exit. Oded bars Anna from leaving and they wait. The cat sniffs and recognises their scent. It looks around and its human mate asks it in the Tongue what is wrong. It exhales out of its wet nose and shakes its head. The scent is gone with the wind and the sentries continue on with their patrol.

  Outside, the watchtowers and their keepers preside over the land. These men have the greatest farsight of the Ilo people, able to discern a single branch breaking where a mainlander would see neither the branch nor the man on top of it.

  ‘Look at him,’ says Oded to the quiet three. ‘He is tired. Who knows how long he has been there, or if he has eaten anything in the past day. The other watchtower sentries time their steps perfectly, turning clockwise at the changeover, but his turns are delayed; he hovers too long over one place. When it is his turn to watch over this direction, we go and fast.’

  Sure enough the tired sentryman turned round and round, lingering longer than necessary over each portion of the grounds, and when the window of time opened up, the four ran and hid behind the House of Healers, waited for the sentries to go round again, then ran and hid behind a forge, carrying on in this vein until they were metres away from the ceremonial hall.

  Unfortunately this is when they ran out of buildings.

  ‘What are we going to do?’

  ‘Can’t you, ya know,’ said Tommy, winking, nudging, spinning his hands in a circular motion and making explosion sounds while a confused Oded looked on.

  ‘Yes, because it turned out so well last time.’

  Oded didn't know what they were talking about, but an Ilo sentry was coming up behind and if his panther smelt them they would never have to worry about their weight again.

  Tommy looked at the jaws on the beast behind, then ran into the harsh light of day, pushing an Ilo man to the ground with his travel. It took three seconds before a watchtower sentry spotted him and, using the horn around his neck, announced to the entire Ilo people that enemies were in camp, triggering pandemonium on the previously silent boulevards. Women ran to protect their young. Men ran to protect their jungle juice. And arrows rained down at the group’s feet as they sped through to the ceremonial hall, Kara brandishing a mischievous grin. Crazy girl probably wanted this.

  Oded charged straight into the hall’s doormen, knocking them back and sending an echo down through the great structure’s length. Running past pillars, Anna holding up her dress, Kara giving a shove to a sentry so he rebounded into a pillar, and everywhere there are whistling arrows hitting stone and finding wood, missing Tommy’s torso by a hair’s width. The Trickster had an arsenal of evasion, diving, rolling and somersaulting as if it had been bred into her. Anna and Tommy were less supple and relied on chance to keep the pointy things at bay.

  With the thrones to their right, the group ran into a dining room where there were jungle courtiers taking breakfast. There was Jor, reaching for his bow upon recognising Oded. Oh, and there’s Tuoni, throwing a bowl of fruit with such precision that half a banana hits Oded on the ear and slides down his back. An exchange of Reyen slurs takes place as the four see a door, hop onto and over the table, send cutlery and bowls to meet their maker, and get to the door with faculties intact. The entire Ilo army may be a breath away, but this doesn’t stop the Carric kids from admitting the exploit was somewhat stylish.

  In the antechamber to the co-rulers’ bedroom, Oded blocked a door with a wooden barricade. Nilah
had heard the racket and removed herself from her bed to glimpse Oded’s face. It may have been nine years, but she saw him for who he was.

  ‘Take my son and now intend to take me. You dishonour your ancestors with your actions.’ Seeing the three behind him. ‘Ah, I see it clearly in this instant. You are spies of the Grelv. How wrong I was.’

  ‘We have not come here to kill you, Nilah,’ replied Oded.

  ‘You have done so whether you mean to or not.’ His words were like fumes befuddling her mind. Away, everyone away, husband, daughter, friend, foe.

  ‘A boy is ill, gripped by a poison that draws close to his heart. I have an antidote that can cure him.’

  ‘You could have collected that from the armoury effortlessly. Do not play me for a fool. I was bathing the dead when you were still in the womb.’

  The words retched out of her and she couldn’t reclaim them or force the spike of guilt down. She should not have let him go, she should’ve said something, stopped her husband. Guilt in day and night and sleep and dreams. Only in dreams that face.

  Men were ramming the barricaded door with their bodies tirelessly. The door would not hold out another minute.

  ‘He needs rest—’

  ‘You do not care for anyone but yourself.’

  ‘Please,’ said Anna. ‘Our friend is ill. We cannot do anything for him and he needs your help. He is a good man; he should not go like this, not here.’

  ‘I hear honesty in your words, girl, but I do not see a reason to care.’

  ‘Then you need to open your eyes,’ Anna spouted in an outburst, not caring any more for this woman’s indifference, thinking just of Mateo breathing his last in a dingy prison cell. ‘You lose this war, day by day coming closer to the end. Your people have fallen and your son has been taken too young. Do you not want to reside amongst the living instead of the dead?’

  The words caught in Nilah’s untidy mane, dripping down into her ear. She had been seeing her boy’s descent into the earth over and over. Whatever else she’d done was a blot under that unfeeling scythe, but this girl’s words…