The Lion of Ackbarr

by Erme Lander

  She wandered downstairs, “Marta, do you know where Jon lived with his mother?”

  “Yes, on the east side, close to the gates. You’ll have to ask around.”

  Gavin came in having heard the last comment, his eyes looking for food. The big man seemed to have a stomach as bottomless as Jon’s. “What was his father’s name?”

  Mika shrugged, he’d talked as little as possible about his father and home life.

  “Hanion.” Marta supplied, “He’s not pleasant.”

  “Let’s look then. Unpleasant I can deal with,” Gavin said, rubbing his knuckles.

  Chapter 15

  This part of Ackbarr Mika had only explored with Jon briefly. It was the first area she’d seen that was overcrowded and insanitary. Washing hung from the windows. Small and not so small boys peeing on the street corners. Even the streets felt cramped here, eyes watching them from dark doorways. It reminded her of the forest back in Cassai, danger lurking behind every corner. Responding without realising, Mika began to walk on her toes, a smoothness in her gait, unaware her nostrils were flaring, breathing in the multitude of rank smells.

  Dusk dimmed the alleyways further as they ducked into taverns, asking about Jon’s father. She got the feeling people didn’t want to talk, whether just to her or whether it was Hanion’s reputation, she wasn’t sure. Her features were glanced at slyly from the corner of eyes, she’d worn her Medici robes, giving her a grudging respect from traders.

  Gavin’s huge presence behind helped to bolster her courage. She was unaware it was the slender Cassai youth they watched, not Gavin. The look in her eye demanding respect from those further down the food chain. Gavin noticed and remained silent. Long years of working with Belindros had taught him when to keep his mouth shut and when to use his bulk to persuade matters.

  They quickly became frustrated, days passed as they walked through the streets every evening, seeing large families crammed into small rooms. Dirty alleys where whores shrieked at being disturbed, their customers shifting away, faces averted, fingers fumbling at the ties to their trousers. Finally they found Hanion.

  A tavern they’d been in before, the barman recognised them and nodded towards a tall, raw boned man sitting in the corner. Gavin loomed his way, blocking the exit. Mika dragged a stool over to sit opposite him, trying not to breathe in the rank sweat and bad breath. Something inside her recoiled, she disliked this place, this man, her eyes grew colder. Hanion played it cool, his hand only trembling slightly as he drank from the clay cup and stared back.

  “You’re Hanion.”

  “May be.”

  Gavin leant over and knocked the cup from his hand. “Answer him.” It smashed in the suddenly quiet room.

  He looked sulky as the barman turned his face away. Gavin was twice the size of any man there and had the look of being able to use the sword strapped to his side. “Yes.”

  Mika led the interrogation, “Where’s Jon?”

  “What does it matter to you?”

  “Answer me.”

  “Jon happens to be my son. I have the use of him until he’s thirteen and apprenticed to the man of my choice.”

  “Jon is a member of Belindros the Medici’s household.”

  He grinned, showing blackened teeth, “Tough titty boy, he’s mine.” She was struck that Jon didn’t look much like his father. Dislike for the man swept over her.

  She bluffed, “Tell me or I’ll dislocate every bone in your body.”

  “You’re an apprentice Medici. You harm me and I can have you expelled boy.” Her hopes plummeted.

  “He can be expelled. I can’t be.” Gavin’s voice was quiet. “Mikon, step outside for a bit and get some fresh air will you? I’m sure Belindros wouldn’t like you to get involved in anything nasty.”

  Gavin dragged Hanion upright and Mika pushed her stool away feeling sick. There was nothing she could do, no other way to get Hanion to talk. She turned, seeing the group of men standing behind them, watching the show. Their eyes were hostile, glaring. She winced and realised the mood was directed at Hanion. He wasn’t liked. The atmosphere was ugly, the expectation of a fight. Mika wished she’d brought her rapier. She squared her shoulders and the crowd parted to let her out.

  “City guard coming by.” The warning was low, enough to carry within the room, not to the outside. Gavin swore and shoved Hanion backwards into the wall, no time to try anything.

  “Too late big man.” Hanion had managed to keep his smirk, although by now it looked in a rictus. Gavin knotted his fists, controlling his urge to pummel this man into the ground. Hanion slid out of the tavern as the city guard walked by.

  “We won’t find him again.” Gavin’s voice was matter of fact.

  “What shall we do?”

  Gavin shrugged, “Keep looking. Someone will talk. They don’t like him.”

  A week passed, the lessons failed to keep her attention while she worried. She was reprimanded gently several times at the hospice by Abran. Varian as sharp tempered as ever, gave her no quarter, insisting she concentrated and piled yet more work onto her. Enos asked her about Jon and looked surprised when she said he’d gone missing. His offer to ask his family to keep an eye out for Jon touched her, despite knowing they wouldn’t find a street child amongst the hundreds. The rumours spread quickly, Orai hadn’t been taken on by another apprentice yet. He slyly tried his best to ingratiate himself with her and began to cause trouble when she refused his advances.

  Belindros called her into his office close to the end of the week. Mika went, expecting to be told off for her lack of concentration. He surprised her by asking about Jon and listened to her concerns. She told him about the meeting with Jon’s father. Belindros nodded and said he’d ask the journeymen apprentices to make enquires. Working down in the city, they heard many things others didn’t.

  Her dreams echoed her frustration. She frequently woke in the night, sweating and shaking. Disturbed by their intensity, she struggled to contain her subconscious wish to rend, to taste the iron sweetness as she sank her teeth into prey and shake it into submission.

  Mika came back after lessons to discover the compound in a bustle. Belindros had just got off his horse, Gavin’s was being led to the stables. Guards and servants stood around, talking.

  “He’s in there boy.” Belindros waved a hand and stalked off to his rooms. Mika rushed into the bathhouse. Jon had been stripped by Gavin and dunked in the tub. Marta came in behind her with an armful of towels and clothes.

  Mika barely recognised him, Jon had never been big, but now he looked half starved, his limbs mottled with bruising and he was curled up in the tub shaking. His head had been shaved, taking away his identity. Gavin sat next to Jon, talking soothingly, splashing warm water over him. Jon clung to her hand when she gave it too him.

  “Someone talked.” Gavin’s voice was quiet. “I found him at the docks, sent Amos for Belindros.” She nodded. Jon didn’t look like he was listening, his eyes were glazed, body shifting passively under Gavin’s big hands.

  Gavin dried Jon and carried him upstairs, wrapping his blankets around him. Mika sat with him, helping him to eat, several of his teeth were loose. The story came out in odd muddles, none in the right order.

  “I’d met Da a few times, he was always asking for money, for drinking.”

  “What money did you give him?” She guessed he’d given something to Hanion.

  “My allowance.” He sniffed and Mika’s anger grew. Jon didn’t get much, only enough for sweets and the occasional treat.

  “He asked me to steal things from here, said a Medici would never miss it… I said I wouldn’t do it… It was supposed to be the last time we’d met. I’d refused to take any more money, he hit me. I tried to run, but someone tripped me up.” A child’s indignation over the unfairness. He’d been grabbed on his way out. “He wouldn’t let me go.”

  Gavin came up to relieve Mika so she could eat and Jon was still mumbling through his experiences when she returned. Gavi
n’s eyes were flat with anger and although his voice and hands were gentle with Jon, she didn’t think much of Hanion’s chances if their paths crossed again.

  “He tied me up, I tried to promise to steal things. To get away.” He looked earnestly up at Mika and she nodded her approval. “He wouldn’t believe me. He came in drunk one evening, started yelling about how people where talking about me. That there was only one place for me now.”

  Mika hugged him. “You should have told me. No secrets Jon.”

  He agreed, shivering, looking even smaller in his blankets with no hair. He fell asleep, still muttering.

  Mika heard about the rescue from Gavin later, when Jon had fallen asleep deeply enough for her to leave him.

  “You should have seen him.” Gavin was chortling as he referred to Belindros, “Sat on his horse, staring down his nose in the way he does best.” Mika was too relieved about finding Jon to join in the laughter at the long table. They’d found Jon at the docks, waiting to be transported further downstream. The man had protested he was going to be apprenticed as a sailor. Gavin snorted at this, it was well known that boys were sold for the whorehouses or as slaves. Belindros had claimed him for his household and paid the apprentice fee to the river man. Jon was officially Belindros’ for the next five years.

  Jon spent several days looking subdued and took a while to regain his cheerful nature. Gavin walked him to the palace and back each day, Jon had insisted he go. Mika was surprised by his determination to learn. He attacked it with a fierceness, refusing to be beaten.

  “I’m not going back there,” was all he would say. Mika’s heart bled for him, there was no way she would ever let him go back.

  Mika went to thank Belindros. He refused to accept her thanks, saying gruffly, “I knew his mother, she was a lovely lady.” His eyebrows were down, his face glowering as he changed the subject, “Lanen, find it and tell me it’s properties.” Mika knew better than to ask more. Belindros stayed out of her way for the next few days, insisting she help in the hospice.

  Now they’d found Jon and he was safe, Mika went out with the others in her group in the evenings to let off steam from the tests with her tutors. Not feeling the cool air, they larked about, jumping off walls and benches in the ornamental parks and scaring lovers in secluded corners with delight.

  Mika and Lissina watched the others race ahead, Jenna picked up her skirts and raced with the boys, laughing at their teasing. Lissina squealed and held onto Mika’s arm as a shadow separated itself from the trees. Mika felt it was a little contrived, Lissina had been using any excuse recently, even changing her desk with Jenna to be closer to her. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it, she liked Lissina, but not in the way Lissina wanted.

  The shadow cleared and Jace stared coolly at them. It was the first time she’d seen him close up. Again, she noticed the striking resemblance to her mother, the dark sandy hair and green eyes, freckles across his nose. His eyes flickered to Mika and became startled before returning to boredom. She could feel a magnetism flowing between them, creating an attraction that tugged at her.

  Jace inclined his head to Lissina, who flushed and clutched Mika’s arm tighter as he walked away with an easy stride. Another shadow detached itself from the trees and loped after him.

  Lissina sighed. “I would love to stroke that cat. Is that something all Cassai can do?”

  Mika shook her head, “It shouldn’t be here.”

  She was pushed teasingly, “You’re a romantic. It was roaming the countryside killing things before he caught it. It’s well fed now. Happy.”

  “It should be in Cassai, hunting small creatures in the forest.” Her feelings plummeted, there was something wrong about a wild creature following Jace around like that. In a foul mood she ignored the others returning and Lissina chattering about Jace and his attentions.

  Sorting through dirty equipment in the examination rooms, she asked Belindros about Jace.

  “That’s the King’s Advisor, stay away from him. He eats children like you for breakfast.” For once he looked serious. “His habits are not pleasant, I’ve had to deal with the fallout on many an occasion, so stay away”

  “What do you mean?”

  “There are rumours about him, rumours I choose to believe. The royal family is cursed in your land. If they inbreed too much, something happens, a changing.” Mika went cold and tried scoffing.

  Belindros was serious, “No, I believe this.” He was speaking quietly, his eyes on the corridor in front of them, watching the open door. “I have had to deal with the consequences of Jace’s appetites. A cat’s penis has barbs it on you know, that’s why a female cat screams during intercourse.” Belindros’ face was in its most clinical expression, Mika’s insides went liquid at the thought.

  “I have also read historical accounts from your land, Mikon. As a Medici I have access to much information. I believe Jace has control of his gift and can change at will.”

  “I saw Jace inside the cat cage at the menagerie. They didn’t attack him.”

  “The dominant male is supposed to be able to control others of their kind, to force them to change and he can smell when the females are on heat. It makes him uncontrollable. Thankfully there is only Jace, any others have been exterminated by your people. Only the women breed true and they have always been few and far between. There are more males born, but they can not breed true changers, not like the females. There is only one woman currently alive that might be suitable, but she is married to a powerful man. Jace can not touch her.”

  His voice was quietly angry, urgent. “That is the real reason why the King wants your land completely subjugated. It’s not the timber or the plants in your forests. Excuses, all of them. He wants to breed killers, killers controlled by only him. I have heard the King has dreams of owning an army of men that is fearless and unstoppable. While Jace continues to be useful, the King will protect him from those wanting their revenge for his actions. The King is only lacking in support from his nobles for his vision of destroying Cassai. He feeds their basest appetites with those shows during the feasts he gives. When he has their blood lust roused, then he will lead them over your mountains.”

  Mika remembered the high passes she’d travelled through to Fenin and saw in her mind thousands of men pouring down into the forests of her sparsely populated country. She shook the thought out of her mind. “How did he come to be here?”

  “Jace escaped your country when he was about your age.” He watched her carefully as he spoke. “The rumours are that he narrowly escaped being gelded.”

  “They don’t do things like that in my country!” She snapped back at him unthinkingly.

  “He raped a woman from the royal family. There are many things you don’t hear boy, so stay away from him.”

  They finished quietly, Mika no longer wanting to talk.

  Mika locked her door, sweating. She’d been having the dreams again. They’d been coming stronger since she’d met Jace. She’d seen him several times, watching her with a puzzled look on his face, that quickly changed to an insolent stare when anyone noticed. She’d tried not to notice him, copied his coolness if he met her gaze, messed around with the rest of her class, shoving and laughing. But every time she saw him she felt vulnerable, she got the feeling he was curious too, trying to work something out.

  That tugging between them, she remembered Belindros’ words that he would be able to control others like him. Was this what she was? Had she changed at Fenin? She spent the day fretting over everything that had happened, turning it over in her mind until she’d felt sick with a pounding headache, unable to eat much at dinner. She had to find out if it was true and learn to control it.

  The household was empty, Belindros had collected everyone up to go to a concert. She’d pleaded a headache. She’d wanted to go, but this was more important, otherwise she’d end up with everyone dead around her again.

  She sat on the bed and thought about her dreams. Closed her eyes and concentrated. T
he forest felt far away from here. Minutes passed and nothing happened. Two dimensional trees flickered in front of her closed eyes, echoes of animals distorted by distance. Thoughts of the day kept intruding, Jon’s shrill laugh, the way he folded up at Gavin’s teasing. The smell of dinner in the kitchen, firelight, reflections in puddles.

  Frustrated, Mika stripped off and lay down. Trying to conjure up the sensations, the feelings she’d had in Fenin. A streak of anger ran through at her inability to summon this changing. That it happened of its own accord, beyond her control and as she thought of Jace’s mocking eyes part of her stirred. Her skin twitched as though something lay beneath. Sweat trickled down her back. The room was stuffy with the shutters closed. She didn't want to be in here, she wanted to be outside, in the cool air, stalking. The eyes grew larger in her mind, she whimpered and stretched. Anger, why was she trapped here? She encouraged it, focussing on the eyes, tickling the sensation. Her mouth yawned and kept yawning. Twisting back, arching on the bed, joints popping as they changed direction. Unable to cry out, she writhed and remembered nothing until the morning.

  Mika woke to find the room wreaked. Cold and shaking, she gazed at the claw marks on the walls, deep wide gouges that could never have been made by her fingers. The blankets were shredded and covered in fine pale hairs. The room stank and she ached. It was true. She covered her face, she’d killed Rylan. She forced herself to breathe deeply, holding back the hysterics that threatened to take hold.

  Relief made her weak as she noticed her door was still locked. She lay stiff on the bed, the moments endless as she listened for noises, desperate for some form of normality. She heard someone moving around downstairs and Gavin’s voice out in the yard and slumped with her hands over her eyes.