Chapter Three
Supper was amiable, slightly subdued and especially late this night. Anet was visiting the citadel. There were new faces at the citadel, such as the young ones that came to wash her feet after her long treks across the desert before they all sat down to eat. Ones such as Yusanna, a feisty little girl that reminded Anet of herself when she was a girl. There was little Lia, who in her talents for visions reminded Anet of herself also. And there was Yadua, the mysterious mute woman who had helped save Lia's life.
Lia, who at first was withdrawn and cried most of the time, seemed to finally be getting along quite well with the other sisters. Irtal, one of the newer shepherdesses of the citadel and a candle-maker, had taken Lia under her wing. And when she wasn't helping Irtal with the sheep and their lambs Anet often heard from Instructress Helga or Instructress Iddina that she and Yusanna would get up to mischief.
A meal of goat in spiced gravy over potatoes, preserved lemon onion chutney and quass was delicious, as usual. Sister Madeah never lost her touch in the kitchen. Anet motioned for Irtal to hand her the bread plate and she took another round of flatbread and poured a bit of olive oil upon it.
"I wonder what the king will say after all is said and done." Said Instructress Helga.
"I have no idea what to expect," said Anet.
"After all is said and done we will have a true king. Enough about the usurper! It is good to have you among us again, Anet. You are sorely missed." Helga actually permitted herself a slight smile.
"Are you sure? I was a bit of an imp."
"And we have plenty more imps running about the place but none so curious about the outside world like you." Helga smiled broadly now, her fine lines broke into a wave of happiness, a true rarity. Anet was delighted to see it. Though still dour, Instructress Helga seemed less dour than before and the word was that she was a little softer on the students these days. Beloved Sister Carise had since passed away and she had left her only valuable worldly possession, her beautifully carved walking stick, to Instructress Helga. Helga used it as she now had a limp from an arthritic leg.
The prophet Ilim, who now lived among the scions, had a new task having to do with the city of Jhis. This was the most momentous and dangerous of their spiritual journeys. He had specifically asked for Anet to accompany him on this task. He'd received a letter from the king and showed it to her. it was written in a luxurious, metallic blue ink and dripping with cryptic courtesy. It had even come in an Egian made tinmak messenger; a golden dragonfly. But behind those words were iron teeth. Mother Berenice had first discerned the danger in the beautiful little thing but it did not miss Ilim either. Anet later ascertained that it's faceted glass and web wings were stained with the barest hint of a subtle poison, the powerfully potent venom of the giki-serpent. Ilim mentioned that there may be someone other than the king behind the poison. Ilim's powers of perception had grown over time, so she did not question it. They consulted Saujiah on it and he bade them go and prophesy anyway, for they would give a sign that the end of Jhis had come. Airend-Ur had a point to make to the wicked king and his court.
"Let him think he has set his trap," said the messenger. "He has hardened his heart against the First One. He sees a vision of the demise of his house and the judgment against him. I have sent it." So they prepared for the journey. In the morning they would be leaving.
"I have not yet seen or heard of the king we all await." Said Irtal quietly.
"He remains hidden for now but Ilim and I know of his coming. The prophet knows who he is, through and through. That is all I can say, until the sign."
"Until the sign." Said Instructress Helga confidently. "Are you sure you will not need the warrior scions to accompany you both to the city?"
"No, no. We trust in Saujiah's word on this. But please make sure to send a group of sisters to Beth-Ayin ahead of us. Afterward, Ilim will visit the faithful, as many as he can. He will especially want to visit Beth-Ayin, as the brothers and sisters there have not seen him in an age."
"I worry for him. His health is no longer the best."
"I know but he insists he must go to see them. God will strengthen him." They ate and talked in broken, muted conversation; at times light, at times somber. The youngest ones were all in bed. Anet was grateful for the peacefullness of the small company as she meditated on what lay ahead. Her dreams of running in the desert, of seeing the great city of Assenna were back, if sporadic. And also the disturbing dream of the dead queen. There were other dreams too. She thought on the holy messenger Saujiah. At times, he had appeared gaunt and other times as a strong, mighty man. She now discerned that his look ebbed and flowed according to the work he was doing, whether he was at mortification and deprivation or doing a dynamic work. He was now full of dynamism, like her.
Speaking of dynamism, she might have to do battle with this dark one, whoever it was, trying to reach her. She ate the rest of her meal in silence, listening to the usual goings-on and gossip of the citadel and town. And wondered how Kaisha her old friend was faring.
. . .
They set off before dawn the next morning. Ilim was in a grumpy mood. Anet was glad for the camels instead of mules or donkeys, but these seemed to give the prophet something to gripe about. The camels were, in his opinion, too wide and fat. Unnatural beasts! These new camels had been imported from Egi, camels with six legs instead of four, created and bred, most people suspected, by Black Alchemists. These monstrous creations did not seem to bother those who stood to gain monetarily from them or from those primarily concerned with comfort, but it was one more sign of the slow creep of certain black alchemical ideas encroaching Hybronian society. Ilim was muttering about the current laziness and wretchedness of the people of the land, in particular the youth. And how many had grown so fat and lazy that they now needed to breed "malformed beasts" to hear him tell it, to bear their ever-growing backsides.
"If animals can be deformed in such a way for the comfort of others why not eventually people?" He griped. The camels took these insults patiently in stride. Anet had to admit she'd found these unusually large camels rather strange but thought nothing more of it as she had other things on her mind. Like what sort of welcome they would receive in Jhis. Frankly, she was tired of hearing about the forsaken place and did not want to go. Her skin crawled just thinking about it. Someone powerful there was trying to reach them, someone with ill intentions.
Though she had figured out that Taliat had no gift of reaching her through dreams, the way the dream had made her feel left her in no doubt that the queen, who was her own kin, would have thought nothing of slaying her. In fact, she had tried to kill her, not knowing Anet was a relative. If Queen Taliat had known, it would have made no difference. And now another person in Jhis, close to the king she surmised, was trying to harm her with venom-laced letters and in dream. The only thing keeping this person out of her head and from doing true damage was Airend-Ur, and for that she was forever thankful. Anet was so focused on who was trying to infect her mind that she barely heard Ilim, who was now fussing specifically at her. His voice slowly faded in seemingly out of nowhere, finally rustling her out of her thoughts.
"Anet! Do you not hear me, child? Something is wrong! Can you not feel it?" She looked around quickly, now on alert. Ilim's perceptive powers were at work. Finally Anet felt it, like a force moving just under the sand. Even their animals were becoming nervous. Anet put her hand on her sword hilt. It lay in its scabbard attached to a belt of bones beneath an old sash around her hips. She was ready to spring from the camel at a moment's notice. They were both silent. Her breathing became still. She scanned the area. Nothing but sun, sand and pink-orange sky. Ilim then glanced at her in alarm. She heard it, like a sigh beneath the sands and then they were upon them! Two figures shot up like fire bugs out of a dune about two hundred paces before them. Anet lept off her camel, her eyes trained upon them. They were difficult to see, disappearing in the air like moving glass pieces. Ilim detached his staff from his sid
e and swung it in front of him. One of the figures landed beside her and within the same moment she was upon it, feeling the low whirring energy emanating from it ride over her in long pulses of power. She lifted her wide bronze blade, her body both rigid and ready to bend. She felt herself being filled with fired sparks of energy. At first they looked like men but as the figure came down upon her she could see that it was mechanical, a skeleton of human bone and iron dressed in leather armor. Anet swung her sword in a powerful arc nearly cleaving the skull from the boneman's spine. Pieces of metal flew off into the air. It lifted a foot to kick her. A long blade shot out from its big toe bone. Anet lifted her robe and it billowed in a wide arc. She swung it over her body and whirled away, quick as a sand snake. The boneman's toe blade sliced through her robe, just missing her torso. She swung both arms up and struck the creature full on with the blade making a hairline crack in the skull and then she came in again, bashing the boneman in the side of its head, cracking the skull. It fell, dislodging completely from the body and tumbled on the sand but the body itself continued to fight. However, it was now slowed. Sweating, she deftly avoided the boneman as it swung round clumsily with its thin sword trying to strike her. She bashed and deftly hacked away at it, breaking through bones and shearing off bits of metal, but she was tiring. Seeing what looked like fire, light and tubes within it, in a fit of fearlessness she reached into the ribcage and grabbed a handful of tubes and wires. They burned and she cried out while pulling the mass out with all her might. The skeletal figure shook and jerked, went still for a moment and then crashed into the sand. She dashed towards Ilim, who was now standing uphill on a sand dune, blocking each strike of the other boneman. Anet crept up behind only for the second boneman to whirl from Ilim to her and it went striking her down. She clashed swords with it but it was stronger than the other one and it forced her nearly to the ground. Ilim swung his staff, bashing the side of its head.
"Ilim, father, its chest! It is the weakest part!" She cried. Ilim immediately attacked the back of the ribcage with the point of his staff, breaking off two rib bones. The figure swung its sword down upon him and he blocked the sword with his staff and scuttled back. Anet leaped up and hit it in the chest, driving with all her strength and broke another rib bone. They both rained down blows upon it but the boneman did not go down, returning nearly blow for blow. They would soon tire while seemingly this thing could fight on forever. Ilim snatched off his turban and head mantle and threw it over its skull. This slowed the boneman somewhat and Anet, in a lightening moment, went for the chest, tearing at the copper wires and tubing, pulling them out. It finally fell. They both stood staring at the thing in horrid fascination. Ilim turned to her finally.
"What in the red world were those things? Have you ever seen them before?"
"No! It would seem someone has taken the concept of tinkering machines to a new plateau," she said.
"Those. . . were tinkering machines?"
"That is the only thing I can think of. I have never seen them before. I did once see a man who had a mechanical heart."
"Juhi!" Cried Ilim.
"But he was a real man, father." His face darkened into a black scowl.
"I think those were once men, Anet. It must be the work of Black Alchemy."
"Another import from Egi we do not need." She said.
"As we get closer to Jhis, things may get even blacker. And I am getting too old." He said. He took her burned hand into his.
"Child. I am sorry I have been dragging you into this for so long."
"Do not worry over it, father. I have some salves and solutions to clean and mend it. It is not too severe." It looked worse than it actually was. Their animals had run away and they had to walk a league before they caught up to them. After mounting their camels again they were both quiet for most of the journey. The rise and fall of sand dunes and the scuttling of scorpions was the only excitement they met up with afterward. However, they remained on high alert all the way into the city, wondering how far and how black Jhis had become and who'd sent the poisoned wing and the mechanical men after them into the desert.
"It is someone of the king's court. But not the king. I have heard it through the voices of the sands that the king keeps company with a powerful alchemist." Ilim said one night. They were a day's journey from Jhis now. Anet wrapped her torn robe close about her, shivering against the cool night air.
"The king's sword they say is a black sword of flame and smoke. Fearsome thing. They say it is the star sword of Ishuye." She said.
"People say so many things. It is why I have lived off and on among the tribes. Too much kingly propaganda and weavings of lies in cities. It pollutes the mind. And the Ainash have done nothing but encourage the poison and added to it. You cannot see or hear anything but lies now," said Ilim.
"True." She said. He was silent for a long time. Then:
"There is something you must know, Anet. I once said that I would tell you about your family." She snapped to attention.
"Yes?"
"I know it has been so long and I should have told you before now. Both of us were so busy that I could not." He was quiet for a moment and then he looked at her again. "Your father was a minor nobleman of the Aishanna-La. His name was Ific na Kuyin, of the House of Kuyin. A respectable, upper-class family in Jhis. They were also faithful worshipers at the temple. Good people. Your mother was Egian nobility."
"Egian." Anet said quietly.
"Yes. You have perceived this because of your dream?"
"I was not sure at first but I have come to know it."
"Well, now you know."
"She was related to the former queen."
"Yes. You are descended from the House of Kuyin and of the House of Seht, Anet. They were sisters. Lady Eilannat had three daughters. Anetaliat was your mother's name. She was also called Netaliat. She was the eldest by ten years. Taliat was the youngest. There was another daughter, younger than your mother and older than Taliat. Her name was Eilat. She died young. Anyway, your mother defied convention at the risk of death and married someone that did not have her family's approval. The Seht family, like many Strabian people, disdain anyone who is not Strabian like themselves, even if they are of noble blood. They hated even the name Reshaim for these are descended from King Dahlan's concubines, not his queen. This fact they wish to keep secret for the Strabians too have Reshaim blood in them though they refuse to admit it. The fact that your mother's suitor was Aishanna-La made the insult worse as they did not and do not like this religion, the very opposite of their own rites and beliefs. She ran away and when her father's men came to claim her back and punish her the only thing that stopped them was a bride price seven times bigger than any nobleman would normally pay for his bride. That and most likely the protection of God Himself. Your father paid it and prayed fervently over the matter and that saved her life. So they started out with very little but soon they were blessed after a few years and they grew in wealth and influence and then they had you. Your mother was a courageous woman and your father always supported her. She had made a name for herself as a kind and generous woman and often worked to help the poor in the city. She converted to her husband's faith soon after marrying him. But she was always at odds with the Golden Temple priesthood. Women were not allowed into the temple and she would go inside anyway as she was well versed in what the holy book said and what it did not say, and they could not lie to her on this matter. So they resorted to trying to shame her, which did not work either. Nor did it work on your father as he once even denounced a priest for catching him coming out of a brothel. One day she had come in for prayers and they dragged her out and had her publicly whipped. Enraged over this, your father withdrew his support from the temple and many others who saw what happened withdrew from the temple in protest. This angered and created fear among the Ainash priesthood. You see, they were gaining in influence over the Aishanna-La community, Anet. It is my belief and the belief of others that one night the priesthood hired thugs
to burn down your parent's home. To put an end to this growing challenge to their authority. An old friend of mine, Eliaz, happened to be visiting their home when it happened. The fire happened so fast that there was little time to escape. Many say it was sea fire, an evil thing! In that, I began to suspect the priesthood's sinister connections to Black Alchemy. But no one had any proof. You were only a small babe at the time. Eliaz grabbed you but could not get to your parents for the raging fire, and he fled from the house. Your parents burned to death in that fire. As well as almost everything they had. Eliaz happened to grab a few valuable things from your room for safekeeping. They were in a safe box. A deed and a seal and a ring, your mother's ring, given to her by her mother before she was cut off from the family. The priest Zarhaz was given them for safe-keeping. These things will become useful to you in the future and they are the only things left of your heritage and past. Your name, in full, is Anetaliat Anetarieth na Seht-Kuyin, as your mother kept her family name."
"She kept her name?"
"She did. She never did anything just because others did it. She had her own mind. As you do. And your father was ever loyal to her, as you are loyal to me and to God. You have all the good qualities they had, Anet. And you are not common. Not that there is anything wrong with the common man or woman, but you have more than one great destiny laid out before you, child." Anet was stunned at this news. She wanted to know more. About the whole of the Seht dynasty.
"That is all I know." Said Ilim, shrugging. "I no longer have access to the records at the Golden Temple. I do not even know if they destroyed them or not."
"Well, now I can know truly where I came from and where I am going." She said softly.
"Yes. It is all in the name." They were both quiet after the revelation.
Ilim finally went inside the tent and went to sleep. Anet kept watch that night for a few hours longer before going to sleep. She watched the moons as they made their voyage across the sky. Even though the last regime was gone and the dark queens of the moons defeated, they were not dead and the moons here in Hybron seemed alien and distant to her. How far and different was her memory of them when she was a child so many years ago, first learning how to fend for herself. Then, she would look up at the milk moons and she thought of pleasant, wonderful things. Now they seemed like cold, snake eyes. Watching and sinister. Her mind sometimes wandered into the territory more and more of marriage and children. What it would be like to be in love and to be in the arms of a husband? She closed her eyes and prayed fervently to keep her mind on what lay ahead. She, for the first time in years, was not sure of her destiny. Life. Sometimes it was pure joy and sometimes it was just too much. She was of noble parentage but still felt like the common woman. She did not feel changed. She had come to a fork in the path. We the little people, the ones who are ruled, by seasons, by portents, by culture, by the mighty men of fame and power, by the gods. We are the beasts with all the burdens.
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