by C. R. Daems
"What do you think are their odds of surviving in the mountains?" he asked, looking at me.
"The Siren posing as a corporal will most likely die of a loss of blood. He won’t be able to keep up, and I doubt the other two will stop for him. The other two are wounded but not with life-threating wounds. If the Indians find them, they will kill them, since they are too old to make good slaves. I don't know anything about the two men, so I can't give you a better answer. The Abbot knows the men and could therefore give you a better answer."
"Could you track them?" Bradley asked liked a dog with a bone—with me the bone.
"After this many days, that’s unlikely. It's rained at least twice on the mountain." I shrugged. He accepted a bowl of stew and ate without saying anything. When he finished, he spoke.
"We entered the castle without any trouble. Much like at Arucci, Earl Nguyen and his family were murdered in a faked coup, which Baron Woods claimed to have stopped. He then assumed command. That's why I was several days late coming here." He seemed somewhat deflated and looked tired. "Any suggestions, Zara?"
"I think you have accomplished what Duke Phipps asked you to do. You ousted the Sirens from Arucci and Monis and killed all but … two, whose odds of survival are poor. It's now the Abbot's responsibility to adopt new rules for talented students who don't measure up to the standards for Monk."
"You're right, but you know dukes. You and Zara will have to come back with me to explain the situation." Bradley actually smiled. Shelly leapt to her feet, hate written in her face and eyes blazing fury. I jumped up and stood face to face with her.
"Don't, please. Neither Bradley nor Phipps is worth it. Bradley is a petrified mouse, and Phipps a dangerous fool," I said in a whisper so soft I doubted Shelly would have understood if she hadn't been able to read my lips. She nodded, and I turned back to Bradley.
"Baron Bradley, I will lead you and your thirty troopers into the mountains to search for your three Sirens."
"Why thirty troopers?"
"There are Indians in those mountains. A smaller force would be too much of a temptation."
"Why me?"
"Because you wouldn't believe anything I told you. So I need a witness Duke Phipps will believe." If I hadn't been so angry, I would have had a tough time not laughing. I had trapped the arrogant bastard. His options were few: agree he had done his job and let Shelly and me go, or go into the mountains with me. Considering what I knew about Phipps, they weren't good options. "You can wait for the other thirty troopers if you want."
"I thought you said you couldn't track them," he said with a small smile, thinking he had found a flaw in my argument.
"I didn't say I'd track them. I said I'd lead you and your troopers to search for the Sirens. If they are dead, we should be able to find remains. If they are camping, we may even find them. I'm not a god, Baron Bradley, as much as you and Duke Phipps seem to think—"
"We do not—"
"Yes you do. You expect me to know who the Sirens are, how to find them, and to kill them when I do. Three of them would have killed me if it hadn't been for Sonya. I'm just a woman who the Indians took for a slave after murdering her parents and who is trying to adapt to civilization. Commoners like me aren't gods. You want a god, force the Monks out here to look. They created the Sirens." I had lost it and knew it. Anything could happen after talking back to a Baron like I just had. But I would die fighting, and I prepared my mind.
"Zara's right." Shelly interjected just in time to stop Bradley from reacting. "She's willing to take you into the mountains if you feel it's necessary. The Sirens did their best to kill her, and it's taken days for her to recover. How is she supposed to know if they are dead or alive, where they are, or where they’re going?"
"Let me think about it," Bradley said and walked back to the tent his troops had set up for him. My suggestion was stupid now that I thought about it. Thirty troopers thrashing around the mountain would be easy bait for any sizeable tribe. And if they were slaughtered, I would be held to blame. And if we didn't find any trace, would that satisfy Phipps? And what if the Indians had captured the Sirens? On my own, I might have been able to determine that, but with thirty inexperienced troopers along, the tribe would just move on until we gave up—which wouldn't take long. I went to bed with a headache.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The Iappo
The next day, Bradley joined us at breakfast. He said nothing until he had finished.
"Yes, we have a delicate situation here which has us all rightly nervous. Duke Phipps expects me … us to make the problem go away. He isn't going to be happy with partial solutions or ‘we don't know’ answers. That's just the way it is, and we have to live with it."
"Baron Bradley, I'll make you a proposition. You let Lady Shelly go back to Duke Wetzel, and I will go and look for the three Sirens. I will make my best effort to capture or kill any I find or to verify their deaths."
"How can I trust you won't just disappear or come back and tell me what I want to hear?"
"Between us, you have already accomplished Duke Phipps's goal. The Sirens have been cleared out of the castles and are possibly all dead—only the Abbot will know whether that is true or not. Duke Phipps won't. As you indicated, dukes expect a perfect outcome whether it’s possible or not. Beside the three that are in the mountain, there may be twenty more living in the cities."
"What?" Bradley choked out.
"As I said, only the Monks know how many talented students they rejected, and nobody knows how many chose to join the group we call the Sirens. So telling the duke you accomplished the assignment he gave you is true to the best of our knowledge, and there is no way to dispute that," I said, and waited for him to nod. "But I will give you my word to do my best and to report back to you at Monis or Arucci and tell you what I find. But I want your word that you will let me go after that, no dragging me back to Duke Phipps."
"Baron Bradley, Duke Wetzel and I trust her word. You may consider her a savage, but she has demonstrated more integrity than most nobles I know," Shelly said. Bradley rose and walked off by himself. An hour later, he returned and sat down by Shelly.
"Lady Shelly, what are you going to tell Duke Wetzel?"
"That Zara and I visited the cities he designated and did what he asked—looked. We reported our finding to Duke Phipps and participated with a detail headed by Baron Bradley, which he sent to free Arucci and Monis. And that you freed the cities and ousted the Sirens, who were subsequently killed."
"Were they killed?"
"Zara will verify it one way or the other. And if she can't, I think it is reasonable to assume they died in the mountains. Personally, it isn't important. You accomplished what Duke Phipps wanted done—don't confuse him with details. It could keep you from being appointed earl of Arucci or Monis. If he asks whether they were all killed, I'd tell him the truth if I were you: only the Abbot knows how many there were. I doubt he'll ask, and even if he does, you weren't charged with killing every talented Trasslat Monastery trained person."
"I agree. But I'm going to report that all the Sirens were killed in the battle at Monis Pass. Initially, a few fled into the mountains, but you subsequently verified they died of their wounds. I'll leave Sergeant Rhodes at Monis castle for … "
"Four weeks," I said, hoping the Indians weren't too high in the mountains. "If he has to wait longer than that, then I'm dead. The Iappo aren't my friends."
"Alright, contact him with what you find. I trust him. Good luck, Zara, and thanks. Lady Shelly, will you need an escort?" He gave a wry smile.
"No, but thank you for the thought. I'll stay here until Sonya can travel, then take her and Joanna back to Trasslat. My detail is sufficient." He gave her the traditional kiss on both cheeks and wandered back to his area.
"I wish you would just wait three weeks and then report you found them dead or something, but knowing you, you're actually going to go looking." She gave me an angry glare. "Since I'm a Baroness in Hipula, I'll wait t
here for you, and you had better meet me there."
"I'm not suicidal, Baroness Shelly. I'll be there as soon as I can. Take care of Greystone for me? I won't need her in the mountains." I spent the next hour packing my bedroll with the things I wouldn't need and left it on Greystone. When I finished, I stopped to say goodbye to Sonya before trotting onto the rocky trail leading higher into the mountains.
For the next three days, I followed well-used animal trails leading higher up the mountain, finding occasional signs I thought had been made by the Sirens: campfires, tree limbs cut for some purpose, shit which didn't look like it was from an Indian diet, and an occasional boot print. Toward the end of the third day, I came upon the decomposed body of the corporal. The animals had done a good job of cleaning up, but between the clothes, size, and what remained of the skull I was positive it was him. Two days later, I found the bodies of two Indians with warrior tattoos. One had the tattoo of a raccoon and the other a wolf. I spent the day building a tree platform for the two bodies. It was late by the time I had the bodies settled on the burial pallet. I laughed when I finally finished. I spent too much time with the Ojaza, I mused. Maybe it was the warrior's wolf tattoo or maybe it was that the Sirens had stolen their identity.
I knew there wouldn't be any fires in the village, so I set some traps then found a spot off the trail with good cover and slept. As the grey light of dawn began to creep across the side of the mountain, I fetched the rabbit my trap had snared, cooked and ate, and was back on the trail before the sun rose. I moved slowly, staying off any obvious paths, knowing I must be close to the village or a temporary hunting camp. Just before sunset, I located their temporary summer camp. I estimated a little more than fifty: about forty-plus warriors, a medicine man, eight or so non-warrior women, and two slaves. And I saw the Siren captain—actually, I saw a wolf-warrior with a sporadic blue aura. I worked my way around the camp and headed higher into the mountains. It took me the entire next day to find what I was looking for—a watering hole with obvious activity. I used water and plants to reduce my smell and settled down in a tree with a fair view of the path to the water.
When the animals began leaving the area in a rush, I went on alert. A few minutes later, a full-grown male wolf entered the trail. I nocked an arrow, pulled back the string, and cursed myself, but like before, it was a matter of survival. My arrow struck true, and he dropped within seconds. After cleaning him, I carried him back to my hideout and spent the next several hours skinning him, leaving all but a small piece of thigh for the scavengers. It was late by the time I found a new campsite for the night, far away from the kill.
The next day I spent cutting up the skin and making slots for my arms and legs. Then I moved closer to the Iappo camp. With dirt and the wolf's scent on me, a wolf's skin covering me, and naked except for my sword and dagger, I must have been a once-in-a-lifetime sight when I entered the Iappo camp screaming.
"You have a coyote, a trickster among you, and a serpent who will spread darkness among the Iappo. The wolf-spirit demands the blood of the coyote that slew his warrior and the serpent that helped him. The animal spirits cry for the Iappo's honor," I shouted and heard an eerie echo that scared even me for a moment. I raised my sword and pointed it at the captain. "Coyote!"
It had the desired effect; the warriors began moving away from the captain and the sergeant. I howled like a wolf as I advanced on the pair at a run, letting the wolf skin drop away so everyone could see my wolf tattoo. The pair realized they couldn't choose the blue dimension without giving away their disguises, which would verify what I had said, so they drew their swords and waited.
When I was within a few feet, the sergeant lunged at me with a two-handed strike to my head—a very non-Indian-like technique. I ducked under it, slashed through his knee, and was past him before he could reverse his stroke. He collapsed onto his knees. The captain had begun scrambling backward before I had even reached the sergeant. I could imagine the look on the warriors' faces—warriors didn't back away from a fight. It wasn't their style. I think from the look on the captain's face he realized his mistake and stopped and lunged at me with a vicious strike to the ribs. I imagine he thought he could overpower a woman. His sword slammed into mine and slid into my guard and was momentarily trapped. I spun in a circle, and the pressure snapped his wrist. His freed sword arched high into the air. I stepped away from him.
"The spirits demand their deaths or they will abandon the Iappo," I shouted. The captain and sergeant had lost their illusions and were trying to leave while arrows by the tens scored direct hits. I waved to the medicine man, who approached cautiously. I explained to him where he could find the Indian bodies and left the camp. Now that it was over, my heart was beating like a horse at full gallop. While I was acting the wolf-spirit it had felt right somehow, but now I thought it a miracle the Iappo didn't kill me. Maybe they too were caught in the moment or maybe their minds didn't want to trust their eyes. I made my way back to my camp and the next day headed in the direction of Monis to avoid running into the Iappo by accident.
Bradley had given me a letter with his seal, so I had no trouble entering the city a week later or finding Sergeant Rhodes at the castle.
"I thought Baron Bradley a fool trusting you, although I agreed with you that he had accomplished what Phipps had sent him to do. Did you find anything?"
"I found the remains of the corporal. I don't know his or the others’ names. He died of wounds he received in the battle at the Pass. Three days later, I discovered they had killed two Indians and replaced them with their illusions. It didn't work, and the Iappo killed them. If I were the baron, I wouldn't repeat that because it would raise more questions and suspicions. But he can feel comfortable that those three are dead. He has my word on it. I saw the bodies."
"I'll tell him. I understand you and a Cheyo Guard took on a troop of sixteen—and lived. That must be some story."
"I'll tell you this, if you ever have to arrest a Cheyo Guard, you need at least twenty experienced troopers at your back, and I'd only give you even odds of living through the encounter. She was like a goddess of death."
"Wish I had seen it. I'll be leaving tomorrow. You want company?" he asked, looking around. "Do you need a horse?"
"Thank you, but no to both questions. I'm leaving now, and a horse would slow me down. They need to rest often, whereas I can run all day and night without stopping." I left him with his mouth hanging open.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The Return to Calle
I swung wide of Arucci on my way to Hipula. True to my word, I ran for more than twenty-four hours before stopping. It felt wonderful being free and well away from castles and royalty. I slept and hunted the rest of the day and had a hot meal of a raccoon I shot. With no need to hunt for a few days, I ran from morning to dark each day, knowing the trip from Monis to Arucci was considered four to five days and Arucci to Hipula nine to ten—a total of thirteen to fifteen days. Even swinging wide I thought I could make it in nine or ten days as the land was mostly rolling plains and even ground.
I reached the Forlorn River on the sixth day. There I stopped to fish, wash, and rest. As I lay there that night, I wondered if this were the life for me, traveling the country, living off the land, and free to come and go as I wished. With the Ojaza training, I could survive without civilization. But I had met some very good people, and helping them had been rewarding in many ways. Saving Ethel and her two children felt good, and she was certainly worth saving. Saving the caravan to Calle was satisfying as well as befriending Lutz and Raigosa. Saving Shelly was not only rewarding, but I thought she would enrich whoever decided to settle and work her land. And helping to rid the land of the Sirens … I didn't hate the Sirens, but I thought they would be worse than the current royalty if they came into power. I didn't think Duke Phipps was a bad or vicious leader. The Sirens terrified him, and he had lost his normal good sense to fear.
I woke in the morning realizing I still didn't know what I wanted
or where I fit. I guessed I was a bit more civilized but I was not sure I wanted to be totally civilized. Not sure why I felt good about being able to outrun a horse, or live off the land, or be a match against any swordsman, but I did. I intentionally ignored how I felt about the blue dimension.
I arrived at the gates of Hipula early in the day, ten days after leaving Monis. I had no trouble at the city gates; access during the day was open to anyone, although large groups might have been stopped and questioned. At the castle, I stated I was with Baroness Shelly. I think the guard recognized me from the last time, because to my surprise he waved me in. I decided to visit Lutz or Eaton if they were still here and ease my way back in. I found Lutz first in the practice yard working out with a group of soldiers. He stopped when he saw me.
"Zara, it's good to see you. There are at least ten different wagers on you: would you return, when, are you dead or alive, and so on. Now we can determine the winners and losers. It's officially thirty-nine days and twelve hours for the when-wager. You are officially alive for the dead-or-alive-wager. And yes for the will-she-return-wager." He laughed. "It's good to see you, Zara, especially alive and well."
"Thanks. What's been happening?"
"We arrived twenty-five days ago. Duke Brodka is still in charge. Lady Shelly said she wouldn't leave until you returned. She's paying my three companions and me to stay and accompany her to tour her lands. She sent Eaton and a couple of troops to Calle by schooner to deliver a report to Wetzel. Sonya and Joanna have returned to the Trasslat Monastery. Sonya said to tell you that you would be welcome at the Monastery. Oh, yesterday ten troopers and a captain arrived from Calle with official-looking documents. I haven't heard what's in the documents or why the troops and a captain. The troopers don't know, and I haven't had a chance to sit down with the captain." He frowned. "Maybe we should keep your return a secret until we find out. You do have a tendency to aggravate royalty with annoying truths."