by John Booth
“Well this is a bit of a surprise.” Daniel said as he came to a halt.
“She tried to poison me, Daniel,” Jalia said, speaking so clearly that it was obvious to him that the crisis had passed.
“Surely she didn’t, Jalia, perhaps you imagined it?”
In answer, Jalia picked up the cup holding the dregs of the potion and pushed it towards Gally’s lips. From the way Gally struggled and turned her head it was clear Jalia was not mistaken. By common law, Jalia was entitled to kill the girl and Daniel was mildly surprised that Gally was still alive.
“I don’t understand. The locals have treated this girl like dirt, her name’s Gally by the way, but she has never hurt anyone. If you’re going to kill her, Jalia, do it quickly. She deserves that much consideration.”
Jalia hauled Gally to her feet. How she managed such a thing in her weakened condition seemed like a miracle to Daniel. Holding the girl by the rags tying her hands together, Jalia pushed her back towards the open cottage door.
As they approached the door, Jalia reached forward and ripped Gally’s skirt from her, revealing her naked lower half as she wore nothing beneath it. Daniel followed as the girls’ left the cottage, wondering what Jalia was up to. Right at that moment, he was beyond being surprised.
Jalia pushed the girl back across the orchard. Gally looked in appeal to Daniel, but he shrugged. Her fate was out of his hands. What happened to her now was entirely up to Jalia. Daniel’s eyes widened as he saw where Jalia was taking the girl. Jalia stopped and moved closer to Gally, kicking the girl’s legs wide apart and sending her falling to the ground.
She didn’t drop far, as there was a rush woven beehive below her. For a few seconds the girl sat there in silence as angry bees crawled and buzzed between her legs and up her thighs. Then she started to scream as the bees attacked.
Daniel winced in sympathy, but noticed with surprise that while the angry bees buzzed around Gally they avoided Jalia. It appeared that even enraged bees had more sense than to attack certain people.
Jalia left Gally sitting there for less than a minute before dragging her back to her feet. Gally screamed in agony. She screamed and sobbed even louder as Jalia dragged her to the side of the cottage.
Almost casually, Jalia lifted the girl off the ground and hooked the cloth binding her hands onto a gable of the cottage. Gally hung yelling and sobbing a few inches above the ground with her legs gyrating wildly.
Jalia, exhausted by her efforts, staggered back to the cottage and the waiting bed.
“You can’t leave her like that. It’s not decent,” Daniel yelled after her.
Jalia called back to him. “Take her down then, if you want. I’m going to bed.” She slammed the cottage door shut as she went inside.
Daniel approached Gally, her eyes growing round with fear. She kicked at him, fearing he was going to rape her.
He spoke calmly, trying to get her to stop kicking.
“Look, young lady. If you want to come down from there you are going to have to let me help you. You are unbelievable lucky to still be alive, although you might not think so right now.”
Gally let Daniel lift her down. Daniel was careful not to touch her stung areas as he lifted her from the hook. He took her into the cottage, sat her down and bound her legs together. He couldn’t help noticing the places the bees had stung, the whole area was red raw and swollen, and he winced in sympathy once again.
“Stay here and be quiet. If you try to escape, Jalia will kill you for sure and don’t even think of trying to take revenge on her. Do nothing and I expect Jalia will let you go in the morning.”
Next morning, Jalia was still woozy and her body didn’t feel quite right, as if something was missing. But she couldn’t work out what was wrong. However, she was anxious to leave the village as soon as possible.
She looked down at Gally who was still tied up on the floor. “Daniel has told me what this village has done to you. If you had asked for our help, we would have taken you with us. As it is, I can think of no worse fate than to leave you here with this bunch of despicable people.”
Jalia untied the girl’s bonds. Gally stayed on the floor, rubbing her aching body and stared at Jalia with frightened eyes. Everybody she knew would have killed her for what she had done. She still didn’t believe Jalia was going to let her live.
Jalia left the cottage without another word. Gally scrambled across the floor to the door, wondering if Jalia and her man were about to set her cottage on fire. Daniel had Jalia’s horse saddled and waiting outside and they set off down the road as Gally got to the door.
As they disappeared out of sight, Gally became conscious she was still naked from the waist down and that she had many bees’ stingers imbedded in her flesh.
She moved back into the cottage and closed the door. Before she reached for a pair of tweezers and a jar of healing ointment, she looked under the bed. What she saw there made her smile with delight.
Daniel and Jalia traveled swiftly along the north road as if they were being chased. Both of them wanted to get far away from the village. They made camp late in the day and didn’t bother removing their clothes before falling asleep.
The next morning Jalia was fully recovered and spitting angry. As they broke camp, Jalia pushed at Daniel, knocking him to the ground before stalking away. Daniel struggled to his feet and found Jalia already mounted and looking as though she planned to ride back to Drun Hill from the direction she had pointed her horse.
“What’s wrong?”
Jalia looked as though she might spit in his face.
“The bitch stole my money belt. There was a king’s ransom in it.”
Jalia hadn’t noticed the belt’s absence until that morning. As soon as she woke she realized it was gone.
Daniel rubbed his chin and felt stubble. He needed to shave.
“She will be long gone. With the kind of motivation that money belt will give her; she’s probably halfway to Delbon by now,” Daniel said calmly.
Jalia scowled back at him, “Do you think I don’t know that?”
“We have enough money, take mine.” Daniel reached into his belt for his purse and found it was missing. He looked puzzled because he was sure he had it when they left the cottage.
Jalia’s face turned bright red and she pulled his purse from her saddlebag, “I couldn’t stand being penniless. I stole it when I bumped into you, I’m sorry.” Jalia made to throw the purse back, but Daniel stopped her with a wave of his hand.
“You’re much better with money than I am, keep it.”
He grinned at this reckless thief and knew he was falling more in love with her each passing day. He wondered how any man could resist her, especially when she had the look on her face she had just now.
Jalia turned her horse towards the north and waited while Daniel readied his donkeys for travel. As they started out she turned in her saddle and looked at him, her head down and eyes looking up through her eyelashes.
“It was naughty of me to steal your money. You shouldn’t let me get away with that sort of thing, it’s bad for me.”
“Are you suggesting I punish you?” Daniel asked innocently, looking into her eyes for some sign of what she was talking about.
“Of course not,” Jalia snapped, moving her horse forward, “But if you were to, I don’t think I would stop you.” She rode away laughing. Swiftly riding out of sight.
Daniel grinned. He figured he had an answer somewhere in that.
The End
Jalia & Daniel return in Jalia in the North
You can follow the further exploits of Gally Delbar in Gally Delbar, Healer
The original poems about Daniel & Jalia follow on the next page:
The Poems
The World of Jalon started as a series of poems a year or so before I began writing the books. Those poems chart the story of Jalia and Daniel far beyond where the books currently go. The poems shown below correspond to this novel.
The Giant
Once upon a telling
A giant threatened the land
Mowing down the innocent
With his massive crushing hands
Negotiators were sent to mollify
The earth shaking mighty foe
But he ate them before they could explain
And soon no one would go
Villages offered all they had
To pay him to go away
They tried food and money and virgins
But none held any sway
A knight was sent to dispatch the fiend
On the end of a spear or a sword
But the giant pressed his amour to a can
From which he had to be poured
Finally a reward was set
For any who would kill
That evil murderous giant
The King would pay the bill
A young woman in a pretty dress
Took up that challenge tall
Without the slightest weapon
On the giant she did call
She approached his enormous castle
He had built with massive stones
The field on which she walked
Was strewn with human bones
She stood outside the castle
And shouted out to him
“I come to challenge you dear giant
Unless you be too dim”
The giant reacted with a laugh
At the little upstarts call
“I shall eat you up right now
Breasts and thighs and all”
“Oh no you won’t” the girl replied
And revealed a phial with liquid clear
“This is the most deadly poison in the world
And I’ll drink it if you come near”
“Eat me after that and you will surely die
I’ll disagree with you for true
But meet my simple challenges
And I’ll give myself to you”
The giant eyed the luscious girl
Legs so slender, eyes so blue
He really needed to eat her now
What was he going to do?
“I have these challenges, one and two
No trouble for one of your size
And if you complete them you can have me
Am I not a worthy prize?
If you can’t, this place you will leave
To start somewhere else anew
The way you be going, food here will be scarce
It is something you were going to have to do”
The giant nodded as he heard her words
That was why he had moved here first
He was looking at her breasts so pert
It was giving him quite a thirst.
She took his nod as an agreement
Looked up at his castle of rock
“I can’t believe you made this castle
Let me see you move one of those blocks”
The giant went to his own castle
Picked a block weighing over a ton
Lifted it up with a mighty heave
And the challenges had begun
She clapped like a delighted child
At a circus or a fair
“Bet you haven’t the strength to throw it though
Throw it up straight in the air”
The giant bent down to the ground
Flexed the mighty muscles of his race
Then with a moan that was heard for miles
Threw the stone up into space
“Oh mighty giant, you have won and I have lost”
Said the girl discarding her dress
“Stay there and I’ll come to you right now
That was certainly a deed to impress”
He stood there slavering as she took off her clothes
Standing still just like she had said
Till the block of stone weighing a ton more
Came smashing down on his head
The last thing he saw before darkness came
Was the girl, so naked and trim
“It wasn’t that difficult defeating you
You really are awfully dim”
Jalia the Giant Slayer
Jalia the Giant Slayer came home to the city
Where the Slayer had been promised much wealth
She had brought back the Giant’s penis as proof
That she had killed the Giant herself
It took her more than the best part of a week
To get an audience with her country’s King
The King laughed in her face and said no way
When she showed him the two foot long thing
The King knew she has bested the Giant some way
Jalia was known for her cleverness and wit
But the King saw no reason to pay her now
The Giant was dead and buried in a pit
Jalia decided the King had to pay
It had become a matter of pride
She was going to get the money she was owed
If she had to take it out of his hide
The city was brought to turmoil that night
Loud bangs and rumblings and roars
In the morning a trail of destruction was found
From the city gate to the castle’s front doors
The soldier reported to the king just how
Gates and alleyways were smashed in a row
Like an invisible giant was striding through the city
Without knowing where in wanted to go
The next night was full of much the same
Naked girls from the brothels ran screaming
As the giant ghost strode through their rooms
Destroying walls and doors and ceilings
The chancellor himself had been in one room
With two girl barely old enough for breasts
He screamed at the King to end this nightmare
He had been injured a little below the vest
So the King sent for Jalia, for who else could he call?
To ask her to save his fair city so bright
From the invisible destruction raining down
On each and every single blessed night
Jalia said, “Sure, if you pay in advance”
“And pay me for the giant I’ve already slain
Else you and your court can rot in this chaos
To me, both results are the same”
When the King had paid and the loot collected
The King asked her how she planned to proceed
“This terror at night is the ghost of the giant I bested
And his penis is all that he needs”
She laid down a trail of blood from the butchers
Down an old alley way to his knob
That night the alley way was blasted to pieces
Followed, at a safe distance, by a mob
When the mob reached the place where the penis was put
It was gone and only an eerie silence remained
Jalia said, “He is gone to hell now he’s retrieved his body part
And I suggest you foolish city folk do the same”
Jalia left the city the very next day
Concealed in her pack train were most of her fees
It has cost her some money to fake the ghost
With gun powder, and some helpers if you please
And the bonus she cherished had an accident been
The chancellor’s injury had made her helpers wince
But the bastard was no longer abusing young girls
As he had not been able to get it up since
The Magic Sword
There were two brothers who were traders
Since the day their parents died
They roamed the trade routes with two donkeys
While their feeble trade they plied
Yousef was very much older
Than Daniel who was still much a child
But it was Daniel who had to do all the work
And still Yousef he constantly riled
Whether loading up the donkeys
Or the meals he made for both
Yousef was never happy with Daniel
Said he was stupid and full of sloth
But Daniel was a happy lad
And never wished his brother harm
Just wished his brother didn’t beat him
And was just a little more calm
One day while gathering fire wood
He strayed near to a lake
And heard a pitiful crying voice
With pain you could not fake
He traced the voice to the side of the lake
Where a fairy he found in a web caught
With his rusty dagger he cut her bonds
She was weeping and looking quite fraught
When her hands were free she used her wand
Then she was free and whole and bright
She flew and kissed Daniel on the nose
Which was quite an amusing sight
She told him she would bless him with a gift
An exceptional one that would be true
She turned his dagger from rust to razor sharp
Told him it was now magic too.
If he ever needed it to come to him
The words “Magic Sword my hand” would do
Any word but ‘hand’ would be an instruction
To cut that thing right through.
But he was not to tell any one
Because then they the magic could also use
And a magic sword was a special gift
That an evil man might abuse
Daniel finished getting firewood
The magic sword back in its old leather sheath