They drank great amounts of wine and mead they had in store but when Rapheth tried to make amends with Ephron and bring him a cup of mead to drink with him Ephron spurned it. The split between Rapheth and Ephron was clear as the sun and it now had wound down to the men that had come with them. The mercenaries, nearly half of them, who were looking for sport took the side of the war-like Ephron.
"He is weak, Ephron, as you said before. He even gave up his steel sword to a stranger. We will not make open battle with him now but when the time comes, when you have something to offer us,we are willing to follow you. For a price."
"I will see to your price," said Ephron, mulling and plotting over a cup of wine in front of one of the many campfires lit that night. "Do not worry on that count."
Chapter Eighteen
Kaisha and Diwa visited and prayed often together and spoke of news about the slave revolt and how to protect each other should anyone become suspicious. Lady Diwa often felt guilty that some of her troubles with ambitious suitors had dried up now that Kaisha had moved to Egi. To which kaisha said the only solution they had now to that was mroe prayer.
The revolt was gaining traction and attention and dangerous for those involved. Some now assumed, rightly, that these slaves were getting help. Kaisha had a neighbor, an old widowed noblewoman who had become very nosy. Kaisha had politely turned down her latest parties and was not seen in all the right places with the nobility any longer. One thing that had changed Kaisha's mind about Lady Makset was that she'd heard from a slave in transit from her home to the Soudan that the woman was a spy for the Black Alchemists' guild. Whether this was true or not Kaisha was not sure but she'd thought it better to stay away. She'd heard many things about that particular guild that curdled her blood. Lady Makset also disliked the Aishanna-La. Another reason to leave her alone. Kaisha had much on her plate in her own household anyway. Slaves were being moved through her house nearly every month. Sometimes two or three people, sometimes as many as fifteen. She always made sure they had enough to eat, that they had their wounds or illnesses taken care of and that they had extra clothes and food before they moved on.
A letter had just arrived. Lili set it upon her writing table along with the other letters. Kaisha was helping a slave woman who had gone into labor. The woman went into hysterics but Kaisha, having helped one of her own servants through labor before, calmed her and helped her through it. After having delivered the child, a girl, Kaisha washed her hands and sat, resting with her eyes closed and praying silently as the woman and child slept.
"The father of the child is hiding close by." Kaisha's eyes flew open.
"What did you say?"
"The child's father. He killed his master, you know. They served the same master, all of the ones staying here now." Said Lili. This was the second time she'd heard of a slave who had killed his master who was now hiding under her roof. This alarmed her.
"He killed his master? Why?" Demanded Kaisha.
"He is the would-be husband of the woman." Said Lili. "The entire household had to flee, else the law would have required death for them all." Lili's hands trembled and she fumbled at her tunic.
"I am harboring a murderer then?" Kaisha felt her face burn hot.
"But listen mistress! The master tried to have his way with his daughter, a child of eight years who is their first child.. . "
"You mean rape her?"
"Well. . ." Lili said suddenly looking embarrassed.
"It is rape. It happened to my mother by pillagers. It happened to you by my husband."
"Yes, my lady."
"My mother was barely out of childhood." Kaisha was now lost in the morbid thoughts of her unknown, dead mother.
"My lady," Lili said gently, "he only did it to protect his child. I do not know what I would do if someone tried to hurt Lemuel." Lili's eyes were wide with empathy and sadness. Kaisha closed her eyes to force back tears of anger. She breathed deeply, then opened them again.
"Do not worry Lili. I am sorry about becoming angry." She looked up at her maidservant. "I am tired. Leave me for a while. Make sure the cook has supper ready in a few hours. What will we be eating tonight?"
"Curry soup with onions, goat and nookal."
"Good. Something simple." She murmured. Lili left quietly about her tasks as Kaisha rested longer. She was very tired but she knew she was on the right path after all these years, doing something for others instead of always thinking of her next luxury or her own happiness. She saw a shadow move at the side of her eye. She turned her head to see an odd looking man standing there. He was one of the runaway slaves. A man with a very round face, hooded, dark eyes that were intense and strangely colored. They were dark blue, the color of deep, dark blue pools of water in sand. She had never seen anyone with eyes that color. He did not look away. Kaisha felt like flinching under his gaze but she fought the urge. The man was short and of wiry build but had the look of someone slightly misshapen. She drew herself up.
"Yes?" She demanded. "Do you need something else?" The man shook his head slowly. His mouth was pinched and drawn into a down turned frown which gave his dark gaze a menacing look. It was not the first time Kaisha caught this man staring at her and it unnerved her.
"Why do you stare at me so? Do I offend you?" She asked in irritation.
"Offend? No. You are doing a great work. As my former master would say, the great work."
"Great work? What is that?"
"The ultimate achievement in an alchemist's life."
"You are an alchemist?"
"No, my master is. Or was."
"Do not tell me you have also killed your master?" To that the man did not say a single thing. Kaisha decided she did not want to know.
"Why do you stare at me so?"
"Because I have never known anyone in a station such as yours to condescend to slaves in such a manner. We are animals here. Or objects to be used, moved and thrown out. But you talk to your servants as if they are family." Said the man. He changed his stance under his ragged robe. She looked his clothes over. He will need new clothes before he leaves.
"That is because I was not born wealthy or to nobility. My. . .my mother was a village girl from the eastern steppes and my father was a raider. I never knew either of them. What I know was that I was named after my maternal grandmother." Why she felt the need to disclose these faded details of her family past she was not sure but she felt compelled. The man's intensity demanded it.
"You are from the Rurriana kingdoms then?" He said suddenly.
"The places just beyond, I have surmised. Well, my mother, anyway."
"The steppe tribes. I have always found them to be a fascinating people with a myriad of fascinating ways and traditions. It is possible your father was Harushian. They are known far and wide in the east as holy terrors."
"I am glad my mother escaped them." Kaisha fought the anger and shame she felt whenever she thought of her past.
"I am sorry. I do not mean disrespect, my lady," he said quietly. She changed the subject.
"You were a traveler?"
"Of a sort. A tinkerer here and there. Until I had the misfortune of encountering slavers who tricked me into going with them after too much drink."
"I am sorry."
"So am I."
"You say your master was an alchemist-"
"A Black Alchemist. He did many unspeakable things to me. But I remain. I have survived it all. And I now have eyes in the back of my head." He smiled revealing a few missing teeth. Kaisha was not sure what he meant by that and wasn't sure she wanted to. "I see that you have amazing skill with herbs and you know about childbirth. Unusual for a woman of your station." She smiled.
"I was once a scion of the citadel. I learned my skills there."
"Low! Great Mothers! If you are interested, I can show you alchemical principles-"
"I do not trust alchemy, sir."
"Not all of it is evil, my lady. No more than ladre or the sword is evil. It is your intentions that
matter not the object of the knowledge itself."
"I do not like swords either."
"But you like ladre or find it useful, at least? People kill for ladre, subjugate others for it, which is why we are here now. Would you swear off ladre?"
"Of course not."
"Alchemy is the same. Swords are not playthings, I know, but you seem to wield one rather well."
"What do you mean?"
"I saw you in the garden late one night with a beautiful scimitar. Large for someone of your height but I saw you wield it not altogether badly."
"I see. You spy on me? And who else do you watch around here?" She said with growing irritation yet the man's forthrightness intrigued her.
"Please, so not be angry, my lady. It is my way. I cannot help but be forward."
"You are strange."
"I cannot help that either. My father was strange. My master has made me even stranger. Anyway, I will not press you further but I would say this. To know alchemy is great knowledge to those who embrace it. There is the White, which is very similar to what you do. It is study of herbcraft and even surgery to fix and heal the body. There is Gold Alchemy which is, the study of metallurgy, the making of machines, jewelry and weapons. Then there is the Black."
"What do Black Alchemists do? What is it about?"
"Each discipline has an apex of learning or Great Work, which one must give his entire being and soul to achieve. Very few achieve it but in the White it is the finding of the absolute cure, that elixir which can cure any illness and give long life. The ultimate expression of the White is eternal life. For the Gold it is the making of a device that can travel through time and space, to anywhere in order to find the ultimate knowledge of the heavens. The Great Work of the Black is to have dominion over everything, even life and death. Meaning, to raise the dead. Which I am glad has not happened yet as far as I know. Some have come close." Kaisha shivered.
"I heard that under the Red Kings alchemy flourished. White Alchemy, if I ever chose one, it would be that. Those are the good alchemists are they not?" She asked. The man smiled slightly.
"Well that is the question. Like I said, alchemy is knowledge and it can be good or ill, like its practitioners. Most White Alchemists are good at heart but some are not. In fact, there is a spirit that infects many in these guilds of pride and ambition. White Alchemy is suppose to help the healing of others but many prefer to be locked up in their towers and secret laboratories studying the art rather than using it to help the people. Secrecy breeds the corruption of the alchemical arts. Goodness or not depends upon the practitioner. There is one more art that is the most fleeting and mysterious of them all."
"What is that?"
"Thaumaturgy." He said in reverent tones. Kaisha's mouth dropped open.
"You mean the men who fold time and air! I have heard that no one knows it anymore. Except one. The prophet of God."
"I have heard of his feats as well. He has not studied at any school that my master heard of but my master was obsessed with the desert prophet. He and many others wondered how he possesses such power. My master would pour over every book and scroll he could find to understand the power and workings of thaumaturgy."
"It is quite simple to me. He gets it from God. Either one is blessed by Him with it or not."
"But many refuse to accept this. To them it has to be written down in a scroll or book by men. They cannot believe that only gods bestow it."
"How sad. Is it related to Gold Alchemy?"
"It sprang from the Gold but it is a discipline born of all three. Any alchemist of the three disciplines can study to be a thaumaturgist. The problem is that it is more legend than fact. No one knows how to practice it without a device and even the great time and space traveling devices of old cannot be built anymore. No one knows how to build them. But a true, master thaumaturgist needs no such devices. He can say a word or think a thought and move from one place to another in an instant. Such a one can even move backward and forward within the stream of time if he is powerful enough."
"You speak of time and travel devices. The mother of the citadel, I remember she had such machines. When I was a girl I crept into her study with a friend and we saw a large globular thing, something like a round map with metal parts and the seas and landmasses drawn upon it. They even moved of their own accord!"
"Aha! A chilyabium. One of the great expressions of Gold Alchemy. A thaumaturgic device, extraordinary! How did she come by it?"
"I have no idea. She did not talk about them. They are banned so she was not supposed to have them. But if Mother Berenice used such things they cannot be evil," she said. "I suppose that it really is true with anything. They are what they are, as you say. Even swords." The man nodded. "Maybe I will learn what you can teach me." She wondered at him.
"You do not. . . hate alchemy? I find it interesting that you seem to have embraced some part of it."
"Even in the blackest depths of suffering there is wisdom. I have acquired knowledge someone of my station would never have learned in the motherland. So, the gods were willing that I live, my persecution served a purpose."
"Maybe mine has too," she said this more to herself. He nodded.
"I have but a meager knowledge but any meager learning passed on gives the individual people more power instead of it being in the hands of a few. The guilds have too much knowledge and they refuse to share it, to the detriment of society."
"You speak strangely. Only Aishanna-La outside of the large cities speak as you do about sharing knowledge. What is your name?"
"My name is Ioltoslav. I am from a village in Ruthenia. Two Stones, it is called. My true reason in approaching you, my lady, is that I fear you are being watched."
"I am not surprised. By whom?"
"Spies of the guild brotherhoods, most likely. You do a good work but it undermines much of what this whole society is based upon. Be very careful."
"I have suspected as much. I shall be careful and thank you for your care, Ioltoslav. So, you are from Ruthenia?"
"I am. You look like my mother, which is why I noticed you. You and I, we have the blood of the Rurriana peoples. I can always tell. There is a certain melancholy in us all. I myself have been away for so long I feel my dusha is starved. Sometimes I thought it dead and me just a living husk."
"Dusha?"
"The soul. All of the blood have it. Of course all men have it but those of the blood, of Rurriana, it is particular and markedly different. Marked with suffering, it survives. Your mother passed it to you, as she passed on her mother's name to you also. But, I digress."
"Rurriana." She said quietly. Ioltoslav deftly went back to their former subject.
"Save your property. Hide it and all that you hold dear so that it cannot be taken from you. There are those who, besides their own alchemical work, make a living from finding ways to rob and cheat others. My master was one of those, may all the gods of the heavens and beneath and elsewhere curse him forever!"
"Dak Rullak! Ioltoslav, I would have my first lesson tomorrow. What do you think?" He smiled slightly and bowed to her. His eyes lightened.
"It would be my honor. May I leave you with a preamble lesson?"
"You may," she said, very pleased.
"All the disciplines have various applications and expressions. But the elixir of life from the White, the knowledge of the heavens and all the things in it from the Gold, and the power over life and death from the Black are each the quintessence of these main alchemical disciplines. And the quintessence of all three is the Perfection of Man which they seek, in their own ways. It is said that if a man is able to study and master all three, which is quite impossible, he can then understand the great secret of thaumaturgy. Of course this has never been done. And the work of what is known as Black Alchemy has become twisted and evil." Kaisha's mind was buzzing with learning these new secrets. Women were not supposed to know such things. This man was a bold thinker. She liked that. She imagined that Anet as a child would hav
e jumped at the chance to learn.
"In my own tradition we feel the Perfection of Man was the original state that was lost and that it will eventually be brought back to us in Him. The First One in the far future. After all, He gave the first knowledge of things to the first tribes." She said. He smiled.
"I think people often forget the first fathers of all of us knew things and understood things without tinmak devices."
She found through Ioltoslav that instead of viewing these runaways as nameless people, who needed to be moved out as soon as possible that they, like she, all had histories, lives and dreams that had been stamped out; dreams that now had been lit again, like hers. The woman's husband of whom she had helped deliver the child, was competent with a sword and he was more than willing to help her practice. She at least learned how to hold it properly and her arms became stronger. It was hard work but exhilarating.
One night she wrapped up most of her money boxes and her jewel chest and had them secretly taken to Diwa's house under the guise of gifts. Diwa had a secret room to store them. She feared changes would come soon and not change that would be kind to her. Ioltoslav had a dark and sad past but his place as a teacher to her seemed to give him a new life and a certain happiness that tempered his intensity. She gave him salves to rub in to help with pains and aches of which he had many though he rarely complained about them. Kaisha could tell that Ioltoslav had a cursory knowledge of the human body and its insides. He drew for her a human body without skin, with muscles, nerves and bones and joints and what they looked like of which he taught her the names of each group of muscles and how they worked and the various systems in the body.
This current group stayed with her for several months and she was happy to keep them as they had come to be like a family. And she began to think deeply on her conversations with Ioltoslav of the homeland of their people. Of lands of the Rurriana. He talked of hoards and khaganates and lands and peoples she had only seen on maps and heard about in history lessons. But it was where her mother was from. Maybe one day I shall go there to know who I am. One day.
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