by Alan Black
“Seenger, stand watch for a moment while the rest of us gather some wood for a fire. We can build one across the coanyon opening. It may provide us some small protection and warmth.
The ogre tossed the wolf’s carcass onto a ledge along the rock wall. The other men gathered a small pile of firewood. Soon, a fire burned in the middle of the canyon opening warming the air about them and heating the rock walls.
They had allowed the torches to burn down to nothing, so Tanden had them rebuilt before any of the men rested. His plan was to remain in the comfort of the fire until daylight, but he wanted to be prepared if they had to move quickly.
Tanden said, “Tuller and I will take the first watch. We’ll wake you halfway to daylight. You, in turn, can wake all of us at daylight. Allow Durrban and the woman to sleep all night or they’ll slow us down tomorrow.”
Seenger moved silently to the rock wall. He sat upright with his back to the wall, bracing his staff across his knees. Nodding his head to his chest, he fell asleep.
Gadon lay with his back to the fire, complaining of having to sleep on the cold hard ground, rather than a warm, comfortable bed with a warm, comfortable woman to warm and comfort him. He fell asleep in the middle of his next complaint.
CHAPTER TEN
Tanden woke with the sun in his face. Rolling onto his back, he sat up with a start. The morning was at least an hour old and no one had come to wake him. He looked around their camp. Durrban was asleep, Seenger and Tuller were squatting by the stream doing something with an animal skin, while Gadon and the servant girl stood by the fire.
The girl was turning great chunks of meat cooking over the fire with a sharp stick. She was also attempting to show Gadon how her sling worked. In increasingly louder hushed tones the two were arguing over something. I-Sheera was smiling happily and that seemed to frustrate Gadon. The angrier he became, the wider she smiled as their voices grew louder and louder.
Tanden didn’t know whether their voices woke him or the smell of the meat roasting over the fire. He stretched and felt better for having slept longer than expected. All thoughts of chastising his crew for not waking him vanished. They had to take care of their bodies or they wouldn’t reach the south edge of the isthmus to find the White Wind. Even if they reached their destination, they would not be able to retake his ship if they were too tired to fight.
The camp voices quieted causing him to pause his reflections and to look up at his friend and the girl. Both were looking at him. The girl looked sheepish.
Gadon turned to the girl and said, “See there. That’s what your stubbornness has done! Now he’s awake. I don’t know what we should do with you.” He turned his back on her and moved to sit next to Tanden.
“Well, Tanden?” Gadon asked. “I was beginning to wonder if you were going to sleep all day.” At Tanden’s questioning look he continued, “I know you wanted to leave at daybreak, but I decided we all needed a bit more rest and some food before traveling. I didn’t see the need to wake you up just to tell you to sleep longer. You and I are strong men, but we’re dragging this woman with us, and that baby brother of mine is so worthless we’ll have to lead him around by the hand any minute now.”
“You’re right,” replied Tanden. “I was pushing us too hard. We’ll make better overall time if we’re rested. Next time wake me up to tell me when you contradict my instructions. It may not make sense to you, but I’m responsible and I must know. We should be moving soon.”
Gadon nodded and shouted to the woman by the fire. “Girl, bring us food. Durrban, time to eat. Wake up, we have work to do. Tuller, drag your lazy butt back here and eat as soon as you’re finished.”
I-Sheera handed each of them a piece of smoking dire wolf meat. Tanden nodded to her and asked Gadon, “What were you and I-Sheera arguing about? It looked like she was getting the best of you.”
“Never!” Gadon snapped. “This girl doesn’t know her place. I wanted the sling and pouch of rocks. She can make herself another, but she refused to give them to me.”
The woman smiled while dropping the pouch and sling at the man’s feet. She moved off to take food to Durrban who was sitting up rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Gadon continued, “Besides, slaves don’t own property, and they sure shouldn’t argue back with a free man.”
Durrban, hearing the conversation, said, “I thought she was a servant to Lady Yasthera il-Aldigg, not a slave.”
Tanden called the woman back to sit and eat with them, “Well, girl. Which is it? Are you slave or servant?”
I-Sheera looked puzzled and asked, “Does it matter which?”
Durrban said, “Well, in the case of the sling, a servant can own property, but a slave is property.”
She shook her head and said, “I’ve only had what was given to me and I kept it until someone else took it away.”
Tanden looked puzzled, “You don’t know whether you’re slave or servant?”
She said, “I know, but I truly don’t see that it matters.”
Gadon snorted, “Just like a woman to not know the difference.”
“No,” she said. “I know the difference. There just isn’t a speck of weight between the two stations.”
Tanden said, “Of course it matters whether you are bond or free.”
Joining them, Tuller and Seenger sat cross-legged on the ground. Each held a double-fist sized piece of wolf roast on a stick. Tuller looked thoughtful, spit out a large piece of gristle, and said to I-Sheera, “I can understand what you say. To Tanden, Durrban, and even myself, slave or free would make a big difference. But to a woman? Yes. I can understand that.”
I-Sheera asked, “If I was a servant then I’d be free to leave my master?”
Tanden and the others nodded.
She continued, “Fine, but where could I go? Without a protector, where in this whole world can a woman go alone and survive? How would I eat? What would I wear? Where would I sleep? A man can make his own way in the world, but a woman can’t.” Her questions held no hostility or anger. She made her point as if knowing she could not change the world. “Can a woman in your country carry money? Can she go alone to the bazaar? Even in my enlightened homeland a rich woman must have male servants do for her what she, by law, can’t do. A poor woman starves or is taken by another master. I truly know the difference between free and bond, better than all of you, but it doesn’t matter. I do as I’m told and I live.”
Tanden said, “It matters to me.”
I-Sheera shrugged and said, “My mother died when I was a tiny child. Although, I have no memory of her, I’ve heard whispered rumors she was taken away for consorting with demons. My father was a free man. The Red Wizard gave him a position in his army as compensation for losing his wife. He died quickly, far away in some long forgotten war. I grew up in Warwall’s household as a free woman, but what difference it made, servant or slave, I don’t know.”
Tanden asked, “Girl, can you answer me one more puzzle?”
“If I can.”
“Why aren’t you acting like you did on shipboard? You’re pleasant and helpful now. I don’t mean to offend you, but on the White Wind, you were less than pleasant and not a bit helpful.”
She smiled, “I do as I’m told, remember? My mistress, Lady Yasthera il-Aldigg, commanded and I obeyed. It would’ve been beneath her to speak to common seamen. I spoke in her stead, and I might add, in her true manner. To survive and succeed in a servant’s world, you must be all things to all people. When I spoke for her, I spoke as she would speak. That’s why I was rude. Gadon, what’s your excuse?” She poked the heavyset man in his side with the stick that had held her breakfast.
Her sudden change of tactic caught the men by surprise, Gadon more than the others. He sputtered, choking on a piece of meat. Laughing with the others, Tanden slapped him on the back until he started to breathe again.
Tanden said, “If we knew the answer to the age-old question of why Gadon complains, Tuller and I could die as happy m
en.”
Gadon made as if to jump up and thrash someone, but looked like he couldn’t decide who to start on. He sat back down, dusting the dirt off his piece of wolf. Continuing with his breakfast, he mumbled under his breath about how unappreciated he was in the world.
After the laughter subsided, Tuller said, “Seenger and I made a couple of water bags.” With obvious admiration, he pointed a finger at the ogre, “Seenger was able to skin his wolf in one piece with just a fire-sharpened stick. He sewed up one end and tied a cord around the other end. The skin should hold enough water to last us the rest of the day. I stretched out the wolf’s bladder. It’s two-thirds the size of Seenger’s waterbag, but it increases our supply.” He tossed a handful of sharp flat bones into the middle of the group. “These might work better than sharp sticks.”
Seenger and Tuller had set sharp bones into their staffs. Seenger’s staff resembled a heavy spear. Tuller’s new staff was fashioned like a boarding pike or a docking hook. Tanden picked out a dire wolf shoulder bone with the leg still attached. It had pieces of flesh hanging on it and it was discolored by blood. He believed it would substitute very well for a hand ax. He jammed the makeshift tool in the waistband of his trousers while the others chose short blade-like bones.
“Time to move?” Tanden asked. No one took what he said as a question any more than he meant it that way. He stood up, stretched painfully and walked slowly to the stream where he seated himself on a flat rock by the water's edge with his back to the others. He could hear them moving about the campsite chatting good-naturedly with each other as they prepared to leave.
After Tanden pulled his boots off, he sank his feet into the cooling water. His bruised, scraped feet were sore from climbing the cliff. It seemed like days ago, not just yesterday evening. He wiggled his toes in the clear water. He had not broken anything but skin and that would heal. He tore a small strip of cloth from his trouser leg, rinsed the cloth in the water, and dabbed at the cuts, abrasions, and bites covering his upper torso. He winced as he cleaned each wound until it bled cleanly.
I-Sheera and Durrban knelt next to him. Each took a small rag and cleaned the wounds on his back and shoulders. The scrubbing was painful, but Tanden believed it necessary. He did not allow himself to dwell on how he had become injured. That happened yesterday. Today, he needed to press foreward.
Gadon shouted, “Aren’t you ready yet, Tanden? Here we are standing around waiting for you to get done primping. You’re as pretty as you’re ever going to get. Let’s get moving.”
Tanden sighed. It was somewhat pleasant to have others attending to him. He thought “Time enough to relax when I get old, if I get old. Without Gadon’s prodding I might sit here and do nothing until I become dinner for a pack of wild squirrels and rabbits.”
He pulled his boots onto his bruised feet, maintaining a stern face. He was unable to allow the others to see the pain it was causing him. Suddenly, he remembered I-Sheera wore only light slippers. He looked down at her feet. She had wrapped strips of cloth around them as padding before putting her slippers back on. Her feet must be almost as bruised as his, but he couldn’t see any damage. Tanden turned his face rather than let his crew see his shame at having been so selfish in only thinking of his own physical comfort.
He gained control of his thoughts and checked over his crew. They were almost ready to leave their campsite. Seenger had a large wolf skin slung over his shoulders and held his spear in his hand. Tuller had a water bladder tied around his neck, plus his makeshift boat hook. The smell from the bundle I-Sheera carried told Tanden she had collected the pieces of uneaten wolf roast. Gadon had his club and the small bundle holding his newly acquired sling. Durrban picked up Tanden’s wooden club as well as his own. Only Tanden was empty-handed. His only weapon was the ax-like bone in his waistband.
The fire still smoldered. Tanden knew that without a red magician to hold fire in check, an unattended flame could soon spread and overtake a walking man. He had seen what an unchecked fire could do when he, Gadon, and others had come upon a band of Hummdhars hiding in a stand of trees. The commander of the Holden forces decided to drive the barbarians out with smoke rather than fight. They burned a pile of green trees and leaves, but the fire refused to cooperate. It escaped their planned stack of wood, spreading and leaping from tree to tree roaring into the Hummdhars, burning men and sauruses to death. To their dismay, they later found that the group also contained Hummdhar women and small children.
Tanden currently had enough concerns without having to worry about running from a forest fire, so he lowered his trousers and emptied his bladder. Gadon and Tuller joined him. Quickly, they extinguished the fire. He shook the last few drops off his penis. Turning as he stuffed himself back into his trousers, he almost burst out laughing at the shocked look on I-Sheera’s face. Both embarrassed and shocked she was unable to turn away. When she noticed Tanden looking at her, she turned away red-faced.
Without another word, Tanden took his makeshift club from Durrban and began striding upstream. Rather than backtrack, he decided they would move westward along the stream going uphill until they could locate an easier path to turn southward. He planned to stay banded together for now, if possible. not knowing what lay ahead. There was safety in numbers.
The sun was high and warm when Tanden turned away from the meandering stream to move southward. The small group climbed up the hillside through the dense, thorny underbrush along the stream banks. They picked and ate small berries growing in great abundance along their path as they walked. The juicy blackberries supplemented the remainder of their morning meat.
The brush gave way to more and more clear spaces as they moved back into the forest. The light dimmed noticeably as it filtered through the trees.
Gadon shouted suddenly, “Dragon!”
A bone-chilling roar filled the air and the ground shook.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Tanden spun around in time to see a monstrous, black-scaled dragon rear up on its hind legs to three times the height of most men. He had once seen a chained dragon at a festival in Harkelle, but there was no comparison between that creature and this. The chained animal was submissive and comical with its huge leathery wings clipped and tied, and teeth and fangs blunted. This dragon was neither submissive nor comical looking.
It shook and bellowed in rage at Tanden’s puny band. Its teeth and fangs flashed in its gaping maw. Hot frothy steaming saliva dripped from its mouth. Dropping again to all fours, the ground shook with its bulk. Again, it rose up on its hind legs, roaring in blistering rage. It unfurled its massive wings in fury with a snap of air that blasted the group with a hot gust of wind. Its wings, only partially unfurled because of the density of the trees surrounding them, were twice the length of the dragon’s height.
The half-believed stories told by drunken old men in taverns of hunting such beasts had not prepared Tanden for what stood before him. Someone screamed, but Tanden could not tell who it was, nor could he tear his eyes away from the towering beast before him.
For the third time, the dragon rose up with a quick pop of its thick, rigid wings. It lifted its huge body off the ground. Still, it could not completely unfurl its wings to take flight and it slammed back to the ground. Rushing forward, it crashed through a tree before stopping a short twenty feet from Tanden. It rose on its hind legs thundering an angry challenge.
Tanden was struck dumb. He wanted to run, in fact his thoughts were screaming at him to do just that, but his body was locked in place, refusing to move a muscle. The dragon’s bellowing froze him in place. All he could think was, “It went through a tree. Not around it, but through a tree. Oh, the six gods be damned, I’m a dead man!
He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the jaws of the beast to rip him apart.
The dragon dropped to all four feet again and rocked back, preparing to charge. Everything else in the forest grew ghostly quiet. The great dragon’s rage shocked all to silence. Gadon grabbed Tanden by the arm, yanking
him to the side. Screaming at his captain to run, the sailor pushed Tanden hard.
Tanden ran, but he didn’t believe he would escape the death behind him. He heard nothing beyond the pounding of his own heart in his ears. He swept up his crew before him as he ran. His sincere desire was that, for once in his life, Gadon could push his short legs to run fast.
A bellow and a crash of brush stopped Tanden short. The sound was farther away than he expected. He whirled around noticing Gadon was not with them. He spotted Gadon standing alone, facing the dragon. The dragon reared over Gadon and he fell to the ground. The dragon dropped to all fours, its body engulfing the man.
Tanden started to run back to aid his friend, but Tuller and Seenger stopped him. Each grabbed an arm, pulling him along, almost dragging him away from the scene. Durrban and I-Sheera ran ahead of them. Tanden tried to wrench free, but they held him tight.
Struggling for breath, Seenger shouted, “We must run or die.” Ogres were known to be afraid of little, Seenger even less than most. No sensible creature faced a dragon.
Tanden cried out, “But Gadon’s my friend, we must—”
Tuller interrupted, his voice ringing in Tanden’s ears. “He’s my brother, damn you! This is his choice. We must get away or he sacrifices himself for nothing.”
They were right and he knew it. He tried to regain control of his mind. As frightened as they were; they ran southward. Even in rout, they must stay together. He could not bring himself to look behind him; even long after Gadon and the dragon were out of sight.
None of them knew how far they ran. A wide, sloping hill brought them up short. Everyone was breathing raggedly. I-Sheera dropped to the ground, panting and heaving. Durrban leaned against a tree and vomited dryly into the air. Tanden and Seenger watched Tuller drop tiredly to his knees. Seenger turned away as Tanden watched tears streaming down Tuller’s face.