Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2)

by Courtney Bowen

  “This is disturbing.” Fato remarked.

  “Who are--how do you know that?” Basha asked. They chased her until she died, just like they had almost chased him to death.

  “Basha, I am--” Lord Lagotaq said, and then stopped. “Never mind that. Corr wielded the Black Sword as a Knight of Arria before he became the first ruler of Arria,” He said abruptly, standing up and crossing around the desk, and the stunned group, towards the study’s doors. “And that is all you need to know about for now. Anything more could put you all into jeopardy, more so than you are now. I suggest that you all drop the matter entirely, you too, Monika,” He added, “Until it is safe to talk about Basha’s mother and the Knights of Arria.”

  “When will that be, your Grace?” Basha asked in a low temperment--he had never expected answers of any kind about his mother Kala, when she had been gone from his life for so long, but now that they were being hinted at, he wanted more.

  “Complete the task that you all were sent out to perform, and then we can talk about her, and the Knights, to your hearts’ contentment.” Lord Lagotaq huffed. “Complete the task, and get Tau’s Cup. I am afraid to say that, for now, it is not safe for you all to linger anywhere for very long. Select what supplies you need from my stores, rest here awhile for a couple of days, and then continue on your way. I do not wish to make you all stay or go, when you do need your rest, but it is the only way that this can work out for me.”

  “Are you in danger too, your Grace?” Monika asked.

  “You can say that.” He paused a moment before opening the door. “I am afraid, as well, that we must keep apart. One meeting is more than enough, but two meetings like this--we cannot possibly meet again like this in private, without drawing some attention to ourselves, and I will probably not speak to you all again.” He said, opening the study door with the guards waiting outside. “Goodbye, my friends.” He said, bowing his head and gesturing for them to leave before they could protest.

  “Goodbye your Grace,” The group muttered in different tones, bowing and curtsying as best they could before him, and then they trooped out of his study, because of his command.

  “Lead them to their quarters,” Lord Lagotaq instructed his guards, “And let them have access to the stores. They are free to replenish their supplies, and take as much as they need. I will give you further orders later,” He said, closing the study door.

  “Do you think he was lying?” Oaka muttered to Basha as they followed after the guards. “About Corr and everything?”

  “Lying? I don’t know.” Basha said, his mind still reeling over everything he had just heard as he shook his head. “He seemed knowledgeable, more knowledgeable than I ever could be about what happened, and he seemed to believe everything that he was saying. He seemed so earnest. And though he didn’t explain enough, perhaps not even half of what he really knew, I think that there has got to be a reason why this is all going on.” He muttered.

  “You believe in a reason for everything, don’t you?” Fato remarked. “What if there is no reason, for any of this?”

  “I agree with Basha. There has to be a reason of some kind, even if it is sort of random.” Oaka remarked to himself, glancing over at the bird. “It might be just a fluke that we have ties to the Knights of Arria, it might be just a fluke that we happened to pick up the Swords of Arria where we found them, and swore some kind of oath so that they now belong to us, because someone else might have done the same if they had ties to the Knights, but still, it is a reason of some kind. Lord Lagotaq might have reasons of his own for why he doesn’t want to tell Basha or any of us more about the Swords of Arria, and it might be totally random on his part, but it is still a reason.”

  “I didn’t mean for this conversation to get philosophical.” Fato remarked.

  “You could be descended from Corr, Basha.” Gnat hissed, focused on that still. “I could be…that’s royalty, that’s nobility. Good grief, so could Goga!” She exclaimed.

  “Royal, noble blood, that’s just what Goga needs.” Fato muttered to himself and shuddered. “Imagine, Goga on the throne of Arria, what could be worse than that?”

  “Nonsense. Absurd.” Basha said, shaking his head. “I don’t believe it, neither Goga nor I could…she never would have…I never would have…how can it be that she, my mother, would die alone far to the north, without friends or family, and without much in the way of material wealth, if she was descended from Corr? And Goga? How can it be possible?” He asked.

  “She may have fallen…” Oaka started to say, but then stopped at the look on Basha’s face. “Don’t ask me.” He said, raising his hands. “I don’t know.”

  “Perhaps she might be distantly related to Corr, like I am distantly, distantly related to one of the Knights of Arria.” Monika remarked. “Perhaps she was a descendent of one of Corr’s daughters, or maybe a younger brother of King Marvola. Same with Goga.” She, and the others, shuddered once more at the thought of Goga.

  “Never mind that.” Basha said. “The one thing that gets me, though…south to north. How did he know that?” Basha asked. “My mother…the man they found in the snow, they say he was wearing southern clothes unsuitable for the north, perhaps from as far south as Coe Kiki. Perhaps she did come from that direction as well. How did he know that?”

  “Maybe he was just lucky at guessing?” Oaka asked and then shrugged. “I don’t know, Coe Baba is the northernmost point in the kingdom. You can’t really get there from anywhere else besides traveling south to north.”

  “Please, I’m supposed to have a smaller brain than you humans do, and even I know that’s wrong.” Fato said. “Or at least…did any of you mention Coe Baba to him?”

  “I think I did when I introduced ourselves.” Basha remarked.

  “Never mind then.” Fato sighed as Gnat giggled slightly. “I thought he just guessed that part as well.”

  “Perhaps we should avoid Coe Kiki as well.” Monika remarked.

  “Why should we do that?” Basha asked, staring at her.

  “If Lord Lagotaq is so adamant that Coe Kiki is a dangerous place, then perhaps we should consider avoiding it.” Monika said.

  “No, I don’t…this may be my one and only chance, our one and only chance, for all of us to see Coe Kiki before we…” He hesitated, about to mention ‘go into the Wastelands’, but he didn’t want to bring it up just yet, when it was so closely tied to death. “In any case, we should not be afraid of everything, should we?” He asked. “Lord Lagotaq said we should only avoid saying that name in Coe Kiki and in other places. Otherwise it might be safe, far safer for us in Coe Kiki than in Coe Aela, surely.” He said, not quite sure why he should avoid saying Kala’s name in such a safe place as Coe Kiki, but perhaps he might as well follow Lord Lagotaq’s command on this matter if the duke was right. “Coe Kiki is the capital of my country, and I don’t want to miss seeing that, few of us would. Plus, Fato has to get there to deliver Janus’s message about Fobata, and…”

  “Don’t try to make us into your excuses.” Fato muttered.

  “I believe Janus might be heading in that direction as well.” Gnat added in a low voice.

  “Exactly!” Basha cried, as Fato glared at Gnat. “If Janus and the other servants get free of Coe Aela, in that servants’ rebellion that Gnat was talking about…” Basha snapped his fingers. “Then that’s where he would be heading. Gnat needs to get there if she wants to be reunited with him and the rest of the servants.” He said.

  “I wouldn’t mind seeing Janus again.” Gnat remarked.

  “I wonder if Nisa would be following the servants...” Basha muttered to himself, thinking of his protector they had left behind at Coe Aela. He had thought that she couldn’t possibly have followed their escape route, especially when they had climbed Old Smoko the mountain range, and he hoped that she was okay, and had not been found out by either Lord Fobata or Captain Goga while she was still in Coe Aela.

  “Are we really supposed to trust a woman who
uses knives indiscriminately, in threatening people like Janus, a spy in service to the crown?” Fato asked.

  “She might have a perfectly good reason to do so, if she suspected him of misdoings.” Monika muttered to herself. “All right, all right, I suppose we cannot avoid that city, much as I wish we could,” Monika sighed to herself. “Especially if we have to do so much. Why do we have to do so much?” She muttered.

  “It’s just the way things are,” Basha sighed.

  “Do you want me to leave when we get to Coe Kiki, Basha?” Gnat asked, her voice strained and croaky as she looked up at him.

  “No, I…it’s up to you, Gnat,” Basha told her, “But we’ll be going into dangerous terrain soon after that, especially in the Wastelands, and you’ll be much safer in Coe Kiki,” He said. “If you didn’t want to be chased anymore by people or things like Captain Goga.”

  “I would be much safer, too,” Oaka remarked, holding up his hand. “Can I stay in Coe Kiki as well?” He asked.

  “Coward, through and through!” Fato cried.

  “You can stay there if you want to,” Basha said, staring at his brother, “But I would be going on, with or without you.”

  “All right, all right, I suppose I will go on too,” Oaka sighed, lowering his hand. “Don’t want to break my promise either.” He muttered.

  “That settles it? Good,” Basha said, turning away from his moody, brooding friends. “We can do this,” He said to himself as they reached their quarters, and the guards finally left, with some instruction as to how to reach the Great Hall for meals.

  “Or die trying!” Fato cried and the group moaned.

  Goga opened his eyes, and groaned softly to himself in the dimness that surrounded him. “Where am I?” He asked, trying to peer about and move, but he could barely lift his head.

  “You are in my cave,” A husky female voice replied, lined with dripping stone in both her voice and location, though it was difficult to discern her figure as she bent down, and arranged a few pots set atop a grille. The dark, matted brown hair covered up her face and form, the shadows overcame the light. “Your horse was scared when I saved you, and you had a great fall.” She said.

  “Who are…that was you?” Goga gasped, staring at her as her words struck him. He couldn’t believe it, she was…he remembered part of what had happened. The Coe Wina guards had been chasing after him, into the foothills southest of the fortress as he attempted to escape the valley, but they were gaining on him as his horse was far from well rested, having traveled from Coe Aela for days now with Goga as his rider. The animal was also unaccustomed to hilly, rocky terrain, traversing it with great difficulty, unlike the horses born and trained to move over mountains.

  Goga had tried his best to encourage the beast, but it was no use, the Coe Wina guards would catch up with him at any moment. Suddenly, clouds gathered in the sky, and were rent apart by lightning flashes until a spector appeared before him and the others; a crow it seemed to be, with dark wings spreading out and talons spearing towards them. With a thunderous screech, it swallowed him up whole as the Coe Wina guards were forced to flee with their animals panicking. That spectral crow, though it had been a conjuration of sorts, an illusion, had been such a fiendish thing that he couldn’t believe she had created it.

  “My name is Yaggee. I saved your life. You owe me for that, Goga, at a great price.” She said, turning back towards him with a pot in her hands.

  He winced at the sight of her face. He usually avoided female company, too busy with his duties to his brother and Coe Aela to bother much about friendship, love, and marriage to a woman, but at least he knew that this woman was not pretty, and far from beautiful. He would not have been interested in her. “How do you know my name? And what sort of a price?” He asked. “I have little in the way of money with me, and you…”

  “Oh, Goga, Goga,” She said, ignoring his dismay as she put the pot down on the ground of the cave, and submerged her hands into it. “I have no need of your money. Not that you ever had enough that you could have given me to satisfy your life debt.” She said, removing her hands from the pot, now covered in a gooey, mud-like substance. “I am not cruel. I can be reasonable.” She said, as she began smearing the muddy substance onto his head and rubbing it in. “What I ask of you now is more than enough to pay off your debt to me, and can put yourself at a higher stance in life, because currently, baby, you are low, am I right? As low as you have ever been, and you work for your brother.”

  “So what do you want out of me?” He asked, perturbed at her condescending treatment of him, although the massage to his scalp felt nice and soothing, easing the pain and weariness he had felt these past few days. He wondered what was in the healing salve she was using.

  “I need a military man for my mission, one that I hope you will enjoy as well, and you are just the sort of man that I need for the job, especially with your connections.” She said.

  “Connections? What sort of connections?” He glanced up.

  “Don’t make me laugh, Goga.” Yaggee said. “I may live in a cave, but I know enough about you and your family that I am liable to want to be a part of it, to know the advantages that you and your connections have brought you, and you don’t even make use of half of.”

  Goga immediately tried to get up and leave, although the pain in his head increased tenfold and he was forced to lie back down again. “I will not tolerate being forced to do anything revolting!” He cried.

  “Goga, I will not force you to…” Yaggee huffed as she flicked off the last of the healing salve back into the pot. “I may be a witch, as some might call me, but at least I have some sense of decency and decorum.” She picked up the pot, carrying it back off to the side. “I will not ask you to do anything to compromise yourself, your values, or your tastes.” She grimaced, turning back to him. “What I am asking you to do is revolt against King Sonnagh of Arria.”

  Goga stopped as he tried to sit up. “Usurp the throne?” He asked.

  “That is exactly what I am asking you to do.”

  “How? With what?” Goga asked, gesturing around at the cave where she lived, void of anything except her supplies, and himself, where he would probably live from now on. “Humble as my circumstances are. As you may have noticed, I don’t exactly have an army with me, not even a platoon.”

  “That is where you and I will come in,” She said, coming over to grasp his hand, “And we will join forces, baby.”

  “You are scaring me.” Goga managed to say, removing his hand from hers.

  “That is the way it should be, Goga.” She smiled in a manner too devious and calculated to be called true or warm.

  That evening, after settling down into their quarters, and then dining on the fine food that Coe Wina had to offer, a treat after several days of climbing and descending the Old Smoko with low rations, Basha stared out one of the many windows in its Great Hall across a rugged landscape, full of hills and mountains in the distance, with so many ‘dips’ or vales in between them, similar to the sight that he had seen upon the heights of Old Smoko, although everything had looked so much smaller up there. Now that he was closer to the ground, or at least as close as he could be on top of Coe Wina’s motte in Lord Lagotaq’s castle, he began to see how far he would have to go to traverse its length, the heights and falls he would have to take along with the others, and he still did not know if he was going the right way.

  Should he turn back now, go around Coe Aela without Captain Goga to chase them, and risk crossing Black Wolves or other creatures on the return trip to Coe Baba? Should he accept defeat in his inability to get the Cup, blame for the loss of Sir Nickleby, and acknowledgement that he was worthless to Jawen, a true balnor who did not deserve her? Perhaps he should, although he was not sure if he was ready yet. He did not know that…

  He heard footsteps behind him, and turned around to see Monika approaching him. “Hello, Monika, nice evening wear.” He said, staring at her.

  “Hello, Basha,
I suppose it is,” She said, staring out the window as well and ignoring his final word.

  She was wearing a dress, not a particularly good dress as it did not fit her and overwhelmed her body, but it was a dress nonetheless. Basha had gotten used to her wearing trousers and shirts instead of a dress as they traveled together, not really expecting her to change for any reason when it was so practical for her, and so it was a big surprise to him.

  He might have missed the fact that she was wearing a dress at the dining hall this evening, especially as she was already seated by the time he came down and he was distracted with his own thoughts, but there had been a buzz in the air from Oaka, Gnat, and Fato on the other side of the table. They must have seen her arrive wearing the dress. Was he always the last one to know, missing everything about him, as he careened through life without a care, or at least not too many cares, considering what he was going through? Perhaps he should be more careful and observant of things around him, but he was stumped right now about what to do or say at this point with Monika. She wasn’t a ‘boy’ anymore, not in his eyes at least. She could be…if he wasn’t already practically married to Jawen…

  “What are you thinking about?” Monika asked, staring at him now.

  “Jawen.” Basha said, not lying, definitely not lying, he was thinking about her in that moment when he looked into Monika’s eyes.

  “Jawen, mm-hmm,” Monika said, looking down. “She must be really special to you for you to have gone to all of this trouble for,” She said.

  “You have no idea.” Basha said, looking away from her now to stare out the window again. “Jawen was…she has been my obsession for many years now,” He confessed. “I have been in love with her ever since I was a child, even when I did not know what true love was, not really.” He said. “She was the first person to tell me the truth about my birth, of my birth mother Kala. Not even my mother Habala would tell me the truth about that until after I asked her, when I had heard what Jawen had to say. She was honest and smart, perhaps the smartest, most honest girl I had ever met up to that point,” He said, adding ‘up to that point’ as he wondered if Jawen’s honesty rivaled that of Monika’s, when Monika had kept such secrets about herself and what she knew that he had no idea if he knew the real Monika yet. Certainly Monika was intelligent, perhaps even more intelligent than Jawen, although theirs were such different types of intelligences, on such different matters, that perhaps it was not fair to compare them. He was not the best judge of character, after all, especially when he was so flawed.