by P. S. Power
Taman shrugged at him.
“That’s a start for now. Just leave from noon to three free each day. Remember that you set up things with Count Lairdgren and Doris as well. Traveling around, trying to blend with different places ten times a day is good practice after all. Attempt to collect data before you go each time. Learning how to do that, if you have the option, can’t hurt.”
It was all guesswork, which he was starting to understand. The plan was just to have him stumble around, doing harder and harder things until he either died or worked out how to be some kind of incredible spy. There had to be a better way of learning things. Only, after a few moments, he understood why there really wasn’t. Just moving from the woods, inside Noram, left him feeling out of place at Lairdgren School. That was only hundreds of miles from his home. Not thousands. Not in a different land, much less a world.
Looking around at the people in the distance, with their belts and skirts on, nearly caused his breath to catch in his throat. It was moving into night already, so they were harder to work out than not. He was starving as well. Willum wanted to ask Taman how she got food, but that was obvious enough. She had a food magic set up behind her tiny black and white pod home. He could have simply walked behind the thing and gotten whatever he wanted. If he could work out how it functioned.
More, she wouldn’t even have thought twice about him helping himself. Or if he asked her to provide it for him. Women in Noram were equal to men, but she was the host, which would have pushed at her to aid him, at the merest hint.
Instead he smiled. Then shifted his eyes to brown, and hair to black. At least he tried for that. Taman didn’t say anything, just making a bit of shimmering in the air appear, near the light from her pod. In the dim glow it was kind of obvious that his attempt to fix the color hadn’t worked too well. His hair was a shining, metallic looking red. His eyes were a nifty orange, like Queen Bumie. Smiling, he changed those to brown, which felt slightly different, the hair was harder in a way, since it didn’t really feel much like anything at all. He just kind of told it to do things until it worked its way around to the right shade.
Then he made his magical clothing change from brown on brown like a school kid, to bare feet with only a wrap around his waist. That was a nice green color this time, which wasn’t the most popular, but had been the most common one on the men out that night. He didn’t know if it meant anything at all, so it was a risk. Every other color would be as well.
His skin was nearly shining it was so pale. It was possible to hide that kind of thing with mud, but being dirty was a risk there. These were a clean people, as far as he could tell. At home his family, being bakers, had bathed and showered daily. Not everyone else always had. He didn’t know about the rest of Noram, but Clemance had asked his sister to bathe with him. Then Dumas had invited himself along. That had been shifted by Doris, but not into a lack of doing it, just into a family thing. Which meant it was very different than what he was used to at home.
Here everyone just used the same washing pool without seeming distracted by it. That meant he needed to change his thinking on that kind of thing. All of it.
“I’m going to go see if I can find something to eat. Clearly I’m not from here, so pretending to that won’t work. Let me…” He walked off. After all, he needed to eat. No matter what world he ended up in, that one would come up each and every day. Learning how to do that sort of thing was probably crucial to anything working out at all.
He also had to hurry, since spending the night walking around in the dark wasn’t a great idea. Even if the people there were nice to him, not hitting him with clubs or secret weapons, that was still kind of strange. No one wanted an unknown person walking up to them in the night. He didn’t have any coin for the place either.
Working for food, or collecting it himself was doable. Even if it took more time from his day. Not that he was going to be doing that in the dark. He could, being hard to hurt and not feeling tired at all. That bit was nice, now that he thought about it. Falling out of a fruit tree was going to mean a lot less to him than it would be to most people. It was tempting, but he didn't know how to find that kind of thing there. Especially without a light.
Willum could, potentially, borrow one of those from the space port, then return it later, but someone might notice the theft, even if it were temporary. Also the light in the forest could scare people if they noticed it. He didn’t know enough about the people there to understand that part. There was no way to even observe or ask about it at that time of day.
Interestingly, as he walked around, trying to think, a man waved at him, smiling. He was in a deeper green skirt, with tattoos on his skin. His left arm was covered in the things, which looked like a blocky spiral in several places.
“Hello! Are you new here?” The tone was friendly, even if there wasn’t a smile to go along with it.
Willum nodded, matching the expression as closely as he could. It could be that smiling was the right thing to do. In Noram it would be, but this was a different place. The idea was kind of panic inducing, to be honest. He was just truthful about the whole thing, since there was no way he could blend in as a person from around the area.
“That’s right. I’m currently trying to find out how to get a meal here? I don’t have any…” He stopped for a bit, then realized that he’d never learned how to say coin in the language he was speaking at the moment. “I don’t have anything to trade right now. I can work for it however. Or collect it myself. I don’t really know how, here.” Hunting wasn’t impossible for him. He could even make a spear or bow, at need.
The man smiled at him then, as if speaking of needing to eat was comforting.
“Ah! I’m going to the bachelor house now. We have a meal there each night. Mainly fruit, but some meat at times. You don’t have a wife here?”
He nodded, since it was literally true.
“Not at all. I’m from far north of here. Noram? Right now I’m studying with the pale lady. She’s my Aunt.” It was simply true, even if it was probably cheating a bit, letting anyone know that. Taman was at the very least a known quantity there. Then, he needed food, and could be lying about that, even though he wasn’t. The man in front of him didn’t know that.
The other fellow was probably a few years older than Willum, but not by enough to seem old at all. It was hard to tell, given that they were a different style of person there.
The man slapped Will on the arm then, grabbing him, as he turned to walk.
“Come then! We can get food there. You can sleep with me? My pallet isn’t huge, but it’s cozy enough for two.” The way the words were spoken were sly seeming. As if what was being offered was a bit more than just a bed to share. Which got the ten pages from the leather book he’d seen to flash behind his eyes. The thought of it made him want to run off, since it was very unnatural, but he didn’t let that part show. There was nothing wrong with the other man, and it was a kind offer.
Besides, he had orders to get rid of that kind of thinking. This was, if nothing else, good practice for that.
“I have other work to do. We could… Do something before that for a bit, if you want?” He didn’t know if that was the right thing to say at all.
There was a relieved looking nod at him however.
“That would be fun. I wasn’t… You’re very pretty, but some men don’t do that kind of thing. Even before they get married. I… I’m Coatl.” The man didn’t take his hand or anything, just smiling at him.
The funny thing was that Willum still wasn’t sure what the man would want. It could be totally innocent. Or he could have his behind coated with oil, while the man treated him as a woman.
A thing that he had orders not to let bother him. It still tried to, but he just focused as they walked. Trying to watch everything, without considering what it meant. Just recording it all and not feeling anything.
The bachelor house was made of wood and leaves. It was large however, and noisy. Inside the thing was l
it by what seemed to be oil lamps. The shape was different and they were made of clay, not glass like they would be in Noram. There was a low table that had been loaded with food already. There was no bread or meat, but Coatl grabbed a broad leaf from a stack of them, then loaded it up with things.
Will did the same thing, hoping that no one would mind that much. They moved to the side, just sitting on the dirt floor. Near a group of other men that weren’t all that old. One of them ate a few bites, then looked up at Coatl directly. Smiling.
“Found a man to make your night warmer, Coatl?” It was teasing in tone. Like what his da would have used with one of the boys if they did something that he thought was a bit naughty. It wasn’t scolding however. It would have been in Pine Creek if anyone had brought the idea up. They wouldn’t have though, so it was different.
The man next to him opened his mouth to laugh.
“I don’t know? He said that he’s busy later, but also that he might do something first? It could be just to get the food, but that’s free. So, I can hope?”
The other man there ate again, a small green fruit that wasn’t peeled first or anything. Will had one of those himself, so tried it. Using his right hand, the left holding the big leaf, like everyone else was doing.
“I’m Will. From up north.” It was the story that he decided to go with. No one seemed to think he was lying, being far more interested in what Coatl was going to be doing later. That part was instructive, since it was, thankfully, a lot more limited than what had been in the book.
They spent half an hour eating, Coatl standing then, his face a bit sad.
“You need to go now?”
It was an out. A thing that he should have probably taken. The thing there was that doing something with the man, or even several of them, would make him friends, very quickly.
“I can spend a few minutes? Where…” He hoped that they weren’t performing in the middle of the room, since he knew that failure was a real option. One that would be embarrassing, he didn’t doubt.
The smaller man pulled him outside. Just behind the house there, which was well away from everything else. What they did then was troubling to him, but he shut that part of his mind off, trying to entertain well enough that he’d be invited back the next night. It was a little awkward, but Coatl was nearly as bad off as he was skill wise. Thankfully. More eager to perform, however.
Willum got through it all, feeling off about what they’d done, but managed to hug his new friend well enough at the end. He didn’t kiss him. That felt wrong. No one there had done that at all, so far.
Coatl grinned at him, a thing that was nearly invisible in the darkness.
“We can do this again? If you want.” There was a slowness to the words, as if the man expected to be rejected now that Willum had used him. As if that had been what had happened.
“Yes. I won’t always be around, but we can meet up a few times a week? Unless I’m gone, but then… Well, that’s part of my studies here, I think.” So was what he’d just done, most likely.
He had to not think about it, even as he said his goodbyes and walked away. Then, shaking a bit, he settled in front of Taman’s pod and focused on his magical rock. The thing tried to hit him with real pain now, but he held it off, hiding away in his own mind from things. That worked. Really well, actually. Right until day broke and Taman came for him, pulling the glassy stone from his fingers.
There was no breaking in his focus then. In fact, the world seemed oddly still and glassy. A tickle hit his mind, as the pale woman stood in front of him. She nodded.
“Very good. You normally wouldn’t find someone this clear inside for the first few years of meditation. So it seems my clever trick is working. Do this every night, until I say otherwise. Now, did you find anything to eat last night? I can’t promote theft here, but you have to do what works.” She wasn’t judging him for that.
Feeling blank and calm, he looked right into her eyes. Then he faked a smile, trying to do it right, so his eyes crinkled.
“I ate at the bachelor house? I met a fellow, Coatl. Then I did some, um…” He shrugged. It wasn’t that he was feeling ashamed at the moment. He just didn't know the words. Even in Standard. “Pages two and three of the men’s portion of that book you had me memorize. I figured that it would let us be friends faster, in case I needed to eat there again. I could also collect food, I think, but I don’t know if I’ll have a chance.” Suddenly, meditative mind or not, he felt awful.
Taman, his aunt, who was responsible for helping him learn to be a spy, smiled then.
“Oh? Thank goodness! I wasn’t certain you could do that kind of thing at all. I’d actually planned to take most of the next year to build up to it. You did well with the ladies yesterday. That… I think you’re a natural at this, Willum. You even managed to feed yourself. What would you have done if you hadn’t met Coatl?” She said the name as if the man himself were familiar to her. They did all live inside of walking distance, so it was possible.
“Asked around. Then, if that didn’t work, I probably would have either waited for daylight, to see if I could find something off in the forest, or would have tried to use the food device behind the pod here. I’ve never done that, but I have used magic, so maybe I could work that out?”
She nodded at him, her eyes shining happily.
“Do that now, then. I’d like some egg toast if you can manage it? Then I have an errand for you. If… Can you recall the pages of the book for me. Without seeing it? I don’t know if you have a perfect memory or not.”
He tried, which had the thing floating in front of his eyes almost solidly. Then he read off the pages for her. She, he noticed, had to go and physically get the book to make sure he was right. He was. Not perfectly, but it was very close. A few words were dropped out in places. That or substituted with other ones.
“Not bad at all. So we can return the book. It needs to go to Warden. I want you to get a meeting with the Count, if possible. You should be able to, as Countier Lairdgren. This time that’s good enough. I’ll send a note with you. Do what he tells you to, after that.”
It would probably be servicing the giant man, in order to prove he was willing to sell himself that way. He could do it. It wasn’t that wonderful for him, but Willum was really trying to get into the job he’d been given. Not that he’d chosen it for himself. Then, you really didn’t in life. Carlisle hadn’t been given the option to be anything other than a baker, for instance. Diana had been ordered to go off to school, by the Count there. It hadn’t even been a command, just her being told that it was what he wanted.
So, Will had been selected to be a spy. It was so different he couldn’t see how to succeed at all. Oh, he might be able to make it as one in Noram, or even in his own world, with enough training and practice. That wasn’t impossible at all. Going to different realities would be mind blowing. Exciting, except that he doubted it was possible to adapt to unknown things fast enough to really fit in.
The food unit, when he found it, was about four feet long, three high and two wide. There was a bucket filled with dirt, leaves and rocks on one side of it. The device had words all over it as well. In Standard, which was easy for him to read, if nothing else.
“Working material in here…” There was even an arrow, along with a flap that moved when he pushed on it. Inside, when he peeked, there was dirt and a few rocks sitting there. On top of that was some old food. It was a bit like a compost heap, though the things inside were too meat heavy for that. He figured that adding a bit of dirt wouldn’t harm anything, since it was nearly empty inside.
Then he looked at the whole thing, taking it in and trying to understand what to do. There were sigils in different places, with tiny blue words right next to them. Explaining what was needed. The one in the center, the largest of them, even helpfully spelled out that he was supposed to imagine what he wanted. That was egg toast. In his head it was the kind that his mother made. With honey, fresh butter and some scrambled eggs o
n the side, along with two sausage links. When the bell chimed, there was all of that on the far side, in an open slot. It had room for much more food, but there was a problem.
It had been dumped right in the box. Making a rather nice mess of things.
In all it took him half an hour to work out that he could empty the working material into the bucket, which ended up heaping full, then turning the whole thing off and back on. It was left clean. After that he imagined a large leaf for the food to be on. That actually worked, so a bit after that he moved to the front, handing one of the two bundles to his aunt. If she was upset that it wasn’t on fine china, she didn’t mention it to him. In fact, she examined it carefully first, taking it in her left hand, bending it like a cone, as the people of Soam had done the night before.
He did the same.
“So that we’ll fit in better? We should have fruit and nuts then. Not that I didn’t ask for the egg toast. The sausage is good as well. You could do it faster?” It was a question, not a command or even an admonition.
“Well, now I could. Not this first time. It wasn’t that hard to figure out, but I didn't know I needed to catch the food. I had to clean up.” Which left him feeling slow and silly, but just got a nod from her.
“All right. From now on we won’t eat anything that the people here don’t. That means if we crave skewered meat, we need to leave for it. After you clean up, meet me back here. I’ll have things ready for you. It’s a few hours later in Warden, so that part should work well enough.”
The idea wasn’t a fun one for him, but he tried to school his mind on that score. He had a job to get done. One that he almost certainly wouldn’t love. To his mind that meant a giant doing him from behind painfully. Though since he’d been changed nothing had actually hurt him, except for the magical rock. It could be that only his sense of self was going to suffer for what was being done to him. From what he was doing, he reminded himself. No one had made him do anything yet. They’d just suggested things.