Jalia on the Road (Jalia - World of Jalon)

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