Vharkylia had not heard of dark ale
And the Jzianrhun rice wine is too weak
If you want something that is real
Then ‘tis the beer of Zenache you seek!
She managed to get right up to the tree closest to her that bore up half the shelter and slung her bow over her shoulder as she cautiously looked to where the voice was coming from.
You can keep the wolves’ fancy fruit juices.
You can pour that rice wine down the drain!
The worst beer that my homeland produces
Will hold all the others drinks in disdain.
The singer was a human with dark hair and a bare barrel shaped chest. His red and brown striped trousers hung off a set of burgundy suspenders that somehow made Sajani miss Simon for a moment. His feet were bare and it looked like he must have recently woken up. He was standing next to a somewhat chipped porcelain basin set on top of an oversized makeshift backpack. His face had been heavily lathered at one point, but by this time was mostly shaven. Vykati don’t shave. But somehow Sajani found herself wondering how he’d managed while singing so joyously—and without a mirror. Apparently now they got to hear the chorus.
Give me the darkest of ales from Yazev.
Give me the best of the beers of Eborhoff!
I’ll take mead from the emperor’s palace!
And wine from the vines of Bath-Kanov!
At this point, the man turned and noticed Sajani crouched low in the bushes. The song ceased but a smile crossed his face. He bowed deeply before Sajani even had a chance to respond and said in an impressive humanized version of Vykati, “A noble wolf has come to honor my performance. Step closer and we will share song and drink together.”
She smiled back and rose to signal Tess and Chass that it was safe. She didn’t know exactly how she knew that. There could have been enemies hidden beyond the itinerate singer, but she seemed to instinctively know two things. She knew that this man was not a threat and she knew that somehow, she would like him.
She took a couple of steps forward and the man took her hand in his and bowed again even lower this time. “I am a writer and singer called Fenther Black, formerly of the Zenache town of Eborhoff which is also my ancestral home. I must say, you are truly the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”
Wolves don’t blush and neither do vykati, but Sajani did feel a little heat around the sides of her mouth as he said that. She laughed deeply, again reminded of Simon, who had never gotten a response like that from her, no matter how hard he tried to buck the old adage.
“How odd, kind sir,” she responded in the little Zenachen she knew, “To have grown so old and never met a woman.”
It was Fenther’s turn to laugh and his laugh was deep and robust and alive. He laughed the same way he had been singing moments before: like he was grabbing life in a huge bear hug and trying to squeeze it dry. About this time Tess and Chass appeared from behind the tree. Fenther walked up to Tess, took her hand, and bowed. “The jungle hides the greatest beauties of all Terah,” he said with a touch of sincere awe in his voice. Tess just looked confused as she slowly bent her wrist and took her hand back. Chass just rolled his eyes, which gave Sajani the impression that they’d heard at least part of the prior exchange.
“I’m Lady Sajani Adida,” she said placing her hand on her chest and them motioning to the other two vykati in turn. “This is Kaeya Tess and Vaeman Chass.”
Fenther rose from his bow and turned to shake Chass’s hand vigorously. Chass responded good-naturedly. He even seemed a little impressed by the human, perhaps because the singer showed no hesitation despite the more than half a meter difference between the two men. Fenther then turned again to face Sajani and said with a touch of skepticism in his voice. “Lady General Sajani? The Copper Wolf has come to my part of the world?”
Sajani didn’t hesitate, despite the fact that her two companions seemed slightly taken aback. The lady struck a pose and said somewhat regally, “I am and I have. What have you heard of me?”
“Only that you are the Minister of War for Vharkylia,” he said simply, “and that even some in my country’s military respect you.”
“I resigned my post and am making my way to take on the elf attackers. You are with the Zenache military then?”
“No, my lady. I’m just a humble singer and writer, as I said.” He then gave out another deep laugh similar to the one he’d had before. “Take on the elves? You must not know what you’re up against or you are not really the Lady of Rust. Even she would not dare such a death mission. She’d end up just as her mother did…”
Fenther did not have the chance to finish what he was saying. There was a chime of metal against metal and then Sajani had knocked back the man and pointed her black blade directly at the man’s throat. The she-wolf glared down at him with a fire in her eyes that made him look away instinctively. A low growl came from her throat as she said, “Maybe. But I’ll die as she did, protecting the wolves of Vharkylia.”
No one in her land would have dared say such a thing to her face. If her own battle prowess and skill wasn’t enough to keep them in line, fear of what other vykati might do was more than sufficient. But human etiquette and vykati etiquette are not the same thing.
Tess had never seen this side of Sajani. Had she known the truth, she would have known that the number who had, could be counted on one paw, without the use of her thumb. Benayle was one of them. She caught Chass’s attention and motioned with her head and eyes towards the two. The large wolf didn’t need to be told twice. He quietly walked the few steps between himself and Sajani and placed his hand on her shoulder. There was close to a third of a meter difference in height between the two, but that wasn’t what caused their leader to bristle instinctively.
“My Lady Sajani,” Tess said quietly, hoping to interrupt the thoughts that were still clouding Sajani’s mind.
It was enough. The Copper Wolf quickly sheathed her sword, shrugged off Chass’s hand and walked away, leaving Fenther on the ground with a confused and stunned look on his face. After a moment, he turned to Chass and asked, his accent thicker than usual, “What did I do?”
Tess answered, “Just a quick lesson in vykati diplomacy: never deny Benayle cake and never directly mention the death of Malita Adida. Call us whatever dog based profanity you want, but those two might just cost you the most.”
Fenther laughed hesitantly. “You’re serious?”
“Not completely,” she said with a smile. “But after what I just saw, I’d take it very seriously.” Chass helped the man up and even dusted him off slightly. The singer took a moment to put a long sleeved white shirt over his shoulders and turned back again to ask, “Does this mean I’m your prisoner now?”
Chass laughed as Tess said with a straight face, “Nah, we never take prisoners. Too expensive. But if you can handle a sword and a gun about as well you sing, we might have a place for you.” She meant the last part. Up until this point, they weren’t really looking for more to join them, but a local guide would be invaluable.
“I’m not sure your leader will agree with you, but I have to admit, I’d be honored to travel in the company of the noble wolf who just about killed me.”
“Then come with us back to the main group. We’ll give you some gear and take some of yours.” She was eying the large pack the man had brought with him.
“The only thing of value I owned was my dulcimer,” he said with a bit of melancholy. “The rest is yours for the taking, although I suspect, I’ll have more use for the razor and shaving kit than you will.” The two helped him take down his shelter and pack his few belongings. Then they turned back towards the transports and what they hoped would be, a sufficiently subdued Lady of Rust.
There was no need to have worried. Tess found the Lady of Rust alone a little way from the rest of the group, as she often was when she needed time to think. The others respected that. Sajani’s mood was back to normal. Tess had been prepared to argue out the nee
d for a local guide, but Sajani just nodded once when she brought up the possibility of Fenther accompanying them.
“Good call,” the Copper Wolf said briskly. “My Zenachen is horrible and no one else here speaks it at all.”
“Are you ok, my lady? I realize it was a huge misjudgment on his part, but he had no way of know…”
Sajani cut her off with a hand motion. “It was a wrong response on my part at any rate and I do intend to apologize to him when the chance presents itself.”
There was a nagging struggle going on in Tess’s mind through all of this exchange. It had never occurred to the young soldier that as huge of a figure as the Lady General had become, she still lived in the legendary shadow of one of her progenitors. She wondered if perhaps her leader’s intent was not as pure as she thought it was. The possibility that Sajani’s real hope wasn’t to stop the elves but to give up her own life as her mother had: in defense of the wolves of Vharkylia. Was she trying to live up to her mother’s shadow or to duplicate it? And where did that leave those who followed her?
She decided to chance finding out.
“My lady?” She started cautiously.
“Tess,” Sajani interjected. “You only address me that way if you think I’m going to disagree with you. What do you want to know?” The tone was slightly stilted, but not at all unkind.
“Your mother, my lady…”
Sajani laughed. It was a real laugh and not a forced one, Tess could tell. “I promise I won’t knock you off your feet and point a sword at your throat. I won’t even rip out your spleen with my bare hands. What about my mother?”
The threat to her innards, no matter how much true laughter proceeded it, was a little disquieting. “When I’m around you, I feel a lot like I’m living in a shadow—yours. I try to live up to what I’ve seen and been told about you, but no matter how hard I try, I don’t. I have to be content knowing that you trust…”
“I don’t live in my mother’s shadow, Tess.”
“You don’t feel like you need to do what she has done? To accomplish at least as much?”
There was a long pause with the two looking sincerely into the other’s eyes. Then Sajani spoke again. “I did when I was younger.”
“But not anymore?”
“Little one, you have it backwards. I did too. Most people get it mixed up that way. I don’t live in my mother’s shadow. You don’t live in mine.”
“I don’t…” Tess started.
“As long as the future is open to us, and it always is, we’re standing on level ground. And on level ground, our shadows and the shadows of the giants around us, can only be beneath us. The only way those shadows might cheat us into thinking we need to grow to fill them is if we are facing away from the light.”
“I never doubted you, my lady.”
“Yes you have, Tess. It’s why I trust you.”
Fenther was able to collaborate some of things that Ginger was meticulously calculating from the information given by the elven machines: the main army was briefly halted just north of the southern border of Zenache and sorties were being sent out constantly to put down the remaining national forces. So far, the elves had not moved into Rhidayar. This surprised Sajani, who had maintained so far that Ginger had to be mistaken about it. She couldn’t imagine why General Sestus would stand still for any length of time when he had such an overwhelming advantage.
“Why is he waiting?” Sajani asked the gathered troops.
Ghenis answered slowly, “He could be waiting for a better chance.”
“Better chance to annihilate us all?” Tess said sarcastically.
“He could be securing his supply lines.” Chass suggested.
“Possibly, but even those can’t have seen much challenge.”
“We could ask him.” Ginger piped up. His cat, which sat on his shoulders and had its head down like it was sleeping, looked up and blinked twice.
Tess let out an exasperated sigh. “Sure, we can either get him on that weird device in the transport, so he can know exactly where we are, or we can just stroll right into his camp and say, ‘We brought the biscuits, do you have the tea?’” She said the last part in Benayle’s voice.
Chass and a few of the other younger soldiers laughed. Aside from the fact that Benayle hated tea and wasn’t a big fan of tea biscuits, it almost made Sajani laugh too, but she knew the spark had to have already taken all that into consideration. “What are you thinking, Ginger?” She realized right away that her choice of words could have been better, as those who had been laughing before were now almost in hysterics and a few others were starting to laugh.
“Yes, Ginger, what are you thinking?” Tess added in Sajani’s voice.
The poor spark looked particularly crushed by Tess’s statement. The cat jumped down off his shoulders and stretched.
Sajani tried her best to quiet them back down. “I really meant that,” she added.
Again, not the right thing to say.
“We noticed,” another soldier answered. His comment seemed to bother the cat. It took a couple of steps forward and hissed.
“Enough!” she said somewhat gruffly. The others quieted. “You know they can track that thing Ginger, so you had to have some idea of how we could safely do that.”
There was a moment of silence as her troops’ minds assimilated the fact that they had been on the wrong side of the conversation. Ginger had perked up almost immediately and his cat jumped back up on his shoulders. The automatonic creature let out a meow that sounded a little like a warning.
“It takes time for them to find us, especially if we’re moving.”
Again, the spark was assuming that she understood the mechanics of such things. She waited patiently.
“If we don’t stay in contact too long, they won’t know where we are.”
Seemed simple enough, but she did have to wonder one thing. “If we keep shutting off for a while, won’t they realize that we know they’re tracking us.”
Ginger had an answer for that as well. “I’m pretty sure with the changes I’ve had to make, they already know that, but…I suppose, just to be sure, I can make it look like the signal is being blocked occasionally.”
“Blocked?
“Like the machine isn’t working right,” he simplified.
“Good,” she concluded. “Karnes and ‘fang, Ginger and I will take your place in vehicle one for a bit. I’ll try to make it up to you somehow. Doc and Ghenis, change places. Chass, you and Fenther will continue scouting forward. Sayli will help. The rest of you, mount up. I’d like to be moving in five minutes.”
Once they were moving and Ginger had the communications fired up, she had Doc cast a spell on her and spoke directly into the device. “Elf Command, this is Lady Sajani. I demand to speak to General Sestus.”
The general’s voice was heard from somewhere off screen, but he soon approached and brushed the soldier manning the station away. “Demand? My lady, you are getting a little dogged.” He smiled as though he was rather pleased with the joke.
Sajani ignored the jab. Most vykati would have. “I have a question for you, general.”
Sestus didn’t hide the surprise from his face. This obviously wasn’t what he was expecting. “Ask away, ‘Copper Wolf’, although I don’t promise…” the screen flickered off and on briefly and cut off the last part of what he was saying. Ginger had warned her that would happen every so often. The spark’s cat jumped up and batted at the screen once, but jumped back down quickly once the image returned.
“Why aren’t you advancing? Are you afraid?” The taunt did exactly what she hoped it would do.
“Your world has nothing on it that could make me afraid. What makes you think…” there was more flicker followed by, “We don’t need to answer to you.”
“So you are afraid.” She said. “Good. You should be. We’re well on our way to you now.” The screen flickered again. As it came back on, she noticed the general glancing off screen with an angry look on
his face.
“I’ll die of old age by the time you get here.”
“Only because you’re afraid to move forward.”
The screen went totally blank and the look she got from Ginger said it wasn’t because of anything on their end. “Did not hurt to try,” Ginger offered helpfully.
“Keep monitoring them, Ginger,” she told him. “He’ll be moving units out shortly.”
“Oh no!” the spark lamented. “I didn’t mean for them to attack Rhidayar. I just wanted to know…” His voice alerted the cat automaton and it began rubbing his leg soothingly.
“He was going to move eventually,” she interrupted. She motioned for the driver to pull over. “Let’s get everyone back to where they’re assigned.”
General Sestus was in a very bad mood. It was obvious from the moment that he signaled the soldier to cut the connection. Major LeBene couldn’t help but notice that every now and again the reports and intermittent contact with this Lady of Rust were getting the best of her commander. And it usually rolled downhill to her.
“Major LeBene, what is their position! Why wouldn’t you confirm?”
“Sir,” the major said as confidently as she dared, “It was too intermittent to…”
“So is your skill, major. Get out of my sight.”
For the first time in a long time there was an order that she was somewhat happy to follow. She knew that the only way for the radio to have done what it was doing was if someone was forcing it to act that way. A good soldier would have told her commander this, but she wasn’t feeling like a particularly good soldier anymore.
As she was leaving the tent, she could hear him giving rushed orders to start moving some of the forward units. It occurred to her that this “Lady General” knew how to play her game very well. Since she was such a small unit, she was probably hoping to pass their front line unnoticed—a moving line, not an entrenched line. Maybe someday, but not today, Major LeBene would tell him so. A good soldier would have.
The day after that, the forward scouts reported a single transport, elven soldiers moving before it, a short way from their procession. Sajani smiled as she realized her ploy had worked. The enemy was moving again. “Any way to avoid them?” she asked ‘fang.
Wolf's Pawn (Sajani Tails Book 1) Page 10