by DAVID B. COE
Still, R'Shev knew what he had to do. There was more at stake here than his safety. He might not have thought of himself as Nid'Qir anymore, but he was Qirsi, a brother to every man and woman west of the Silverwater. The Fal'Borna were a hard people, fearsome in battle and uncompromising in the marketplace. But their hair was white, their eyes as yellow as his own. They had to be warned.
He was on his way from the village well before sunset, and for the rest of that day, and over the next two days, he drove Ebbie, his old black cart horse, as hard as he dared. The distance between Kirayde and the Silverwater wasn't great-less than eight leagues. He was safely in Fal'Borna land just after midday the day after he left the Mettai. But even after he reached the river and crossed over it on a stone bridge just south of Turtle Lake, near what little remained of the Y'Qatt town of C'Bijor's Neck, he didn't stop. Instead he turned north and followed the shores of the lake and the wash above it toward Lowna, the closest Fal'Borna settlement.
As he traveled, he continued to reflect on his conversation with Kirayde's eldest, asking himself the same questions again and again. As a merchant, and particularly as a Qirsi in Eandi lands, he spent much of his time alone with his thoughts. He often had dialogues with himself, sometimes even speaking aloud so that Ebbie's ears would twitch, as if she were trying to listen in on his conversations with himself. He considered it a skill of sorts, a way of keeping his mind sharp, a way, at times, of staving off boredom.
Why would the Eandi risk war now? The answer to this question, the easiest of all, became clear to him as soon as he realized that his travels would take him so close to C'Bijor's Neck. The same pestilence that had ravaged that town was said to be decimating Fal'Borna villages on the Central Plain. What better time to strike?
But why would they speak to the Mettai? Would they have been asking permission to march through Mettai lands? Did they plan to attack from the north? That would surely be unexpected, and anyone who knew the history of the Blood Wars understood that the sovereignties needed every advantage they could get. But the Eandi had never shown any consideration for the Mettai in the past, and they'd long made it clear to the dark-eye sorcerers that the land on which they lived belonged to the sovereign, not to the Mettai. R'Shev could think of no reason why the sovereign's commanders would suddenly see fit to ask permission to march an army through the Companion Lakes region.
All of which brought R'Shev back to the same question: Why would they speak to the Mettai?
"What was it the eldest said?" he asked aloud as he steered his cart along the lakeshore.
Ebbie snorted and shook her head, drawing a grin from the merchant. "Weren't listening, eh? That'll teach you."
R'Shev had asked the man what the army's commander said, and the eldest refused to tell him. But then he said, "Stelpana's sovereigns have allowed us to remain here for generations, but they've never been happy about it."
At the time, R'Shev had taken this to mean that the commander threatened the Mettai, but the eldest denied it. He said a bit more then, referring vaguely to things that had happened recently-R'Shev hadn't understood what he meant. And then the man said, "The Mettai have never had any dispute with either the clans or the sovereignties… but there may be others in my position who feel differently."
Again, R'Shev had been confused by this-the eldest had spoken in riddles throughout their conversation. But this was essentially the last thing the man said before warning R'Shev to leave Stelpana, and it struck the merchant as being at the crux of whatever he and the sovereign's marshal had discussed.
He considered the matter for nearly the entire day, repeating the eldest's words to himself as if they were a litany. By the time the sun began to go down, he was well past Turtle Lake, once again following the course of the Silverwater. Eventually he made camp for the night, lit a small fire, and ate a modest meal of cheese and hard bread. He tried to sleep, but still his thoughts churned, keeping him up. Eventually he pulled out a sealed flask of H'Bel wine, one he could have sold, and opened it. He rarely drank alone, and was usually reluctant to treat himself to something that could have brought him gold, but he needed his sleep, and he knew that with his mind working so furiously he wouldn't get any without a bit of help.
Sleep still came grudgingly, and he was awakened repeatedly by strange, frightening dreams in which he was pursued by hordes of Eandi warriors. Still, he managed to sleep later than he had intended, waking to a high sun and a pounding headache. His stomach felt tight and sour, and all through the next morning, as the motion of the cart jostled him, he cursed himself for ever opening that flask.
Near the end of his third day out from Kirayde, R'Shev finally reached Owl Lake, turning slightly westward to follow its shoreline. Before long, he reached Lowna. He was no closer to figuring out what the eldest had been trying to tell him, but at least now he could warn the Fal'Borna. Perhaps they could glean something from the man's words that he could not.
He steered his cart to the center of the village, where most peddlers were just putting their wares back into their carts.
"A bit late, aren't you, old man?" one young Eandi trader called to him.
Another Eandi laughed, but R'Shev said nothing, searching instead for anyone who seemed to live in the village. The two men shook their heads and went back to packing their carts. For a moment R'Shev considered warning them to leave Fal'Borna land. With a war coming, they were no safer on this side of the Silverwater than he had been in Stelpana. But his first allegiance was to his people, and he feared that such a warning given to the dark-eyes might eventually get back to Stelpana's army. Best not to let the Eandi know that the Fal'borna would be readying themselves for an assault.
A moment later, he spotted a Qirsi woman and two young girls walking away from the marketplace. He flicked the reins, and Ebbie started after them.
"Hello there!" he called.
The three of them turned. The woman was older than he had expected her to be, given the age of her children. But she had a kind face, and she smiled at him, though she looked just a bit puzzled. The two girls eyed him warily.
"Hello," the woman said in return. "Can I help you?"
"I hope so," R'Shev said. "I'm searching for whoever governs your village. An eldest perhaps?"
"You mean our a'laq?" she asked.
"Of course," R'Shev said, shaking his head at his own foolishness. It hadn't been that long since last he was among the Fal'Borna. He should have remembered. "Your a'laq. Do you know where I might find him?"
The woman smiled, clearly amused. "Actually, our a'laq is a woman. Her name is U'Selle." She pointed at a small house just off the marketplace. "She lives there."
"Thank you." He always carried sweets with him to offer to children. He pulled some out now and held them out to the girls. "If it's all right with your mother, you're welcome to these."
The younger of the two girls, a beautiful, fine-featured child with brilliant yellow eyes, turned away, burying her face in her mother's dress. The older child, who was also very pretty, though with a look of deep sadness in her eyes, merely stared back at him and shook her head.
R'Shev frowned.
"Thank you anyway," the woman said, running her hand over the older girl's hair and patting the back of the younger one. "They're shy with strangers.”
"Well, then perhaps I can give them to you, kind woman, and you can see that they have them later, after they've had their supper."
She smiled, and stepping forward, took the sweets from him. "Thank you."
They walked away, leaving R'Shev to steer his cart toward the house the woman had pointed out to him. Before he reached it he heard someone coughing, and he realized that there was an older woman sitting outside the house. He climbed down off his cart and covered the remaining distance on foot.
The woman was still coughing when he reached the house, her body racked by the paroxysm. She saw him approach, waved him forward even as she still struggled to draw breath. Once the spasm had passed, s
he sat back in her old chair and closed her eyes briefly.
"Forgive me," she said. "It gets worse with the colder air."
"Can I get you anything?" R'Shev asked. "Some water perhaps?"
She dismissed the offer with a wave of her hand. "I'm all right now. You're looking for me?"
"I am if you're the a'laq."
The woman nodded. "That I am, for the moment at least." She eyed him for a moment, her eyes narrowing. She was small, her face wizened, her body bent and frail-looking. But her eyes remained clear and her voice was strong, despite her coughing. "Have we met?"
"I don't think so, A'Laq, though I've traded in your village before." "Ah," she said. "A peddler. I tend to avoid getting involved with disputes in the marketplace. Best you work things out on your own."
He grinned at that. "A wise policy, A'Laq. But that's not why I'm here."
"Then why?"
"I've come from Kirayde, a Mettai village south of Porcupine Lake. While I was there, an Eandi army, nearly two thousand men strong, stopped outside the village. The army's commander spoke briefly with the village eldest, seeking some boon from him, though I've yet to figure out what it might have been. The eldest refused him, but I gather from all he told me later that the commander intended to speak with other elders in other villages. And I gather as well that eventually this man and his army intend to cross the Silverwater and bring war to the Fal'Borna."
Her eyes didn't widen; her face didn't blanch. She didn't say anything or leap to her feet or otherwise betray any hint of fear. If the strength of a leader could be measured by her calm in the face of such tidings, U'Selle had to be very strong indeed.
"You're certain of this?" she asked after a brief silence, her voice even. "I am, A'Laq."
"How many days has it been since you saw this commander and his army?"
"Three."
She raised an eyebrow. "You got here quickly."
"As quickly as I could, A'Laq." He grinned. "A younger man might have been here sooner."
The woman smiled at that. "Maybe. A younger man might not have known what to do with such news. I'm grateful to you. All of us will be before long."
He nodded.
"I'd like you to speak with the members of our clan council. Would you mind remaining here for the night? We can offer you food and perhaps even a place to sleep."
"I can sleep in my cart, A'Laq, but I'll gladly take the food. After a while a man tires of his own cooking."
"Very well." She stood and started to make her way down the lane. After taking only a couple of steps, though, she turned and faced him again. "What's your name, friend?"
"R'Shev, A'Laq."
"And what clan are you from?"
"I was born Nid'Qir."
That, of all things, made her eyebrows go up. "Nid'Qir? And here I thought you seemed so nice."
R'Shev laughed. "I left the peninsula a long time ago."
"Ah," she said, turning away and starting off again. "That must be it."
'Doryn had just returned from the lakeshore with five beautiful trout when N'Tevva and the girls reached the house. He was outside still, preparing to clean the fish. At the sound of the two children calling to him, he straightened and waved to them.
Vettala reached him first. "Look what I got!" she said. She held out her hand, showing him a small sweet of some sort.
The girl had come such a long way since she, Jynna, and several other children first arrived in Lowna, their lives shattered by the plague that had killed their families and destroyed their home village of Tivston. Jynna had grieved for all she lost, as one would expect, but Vettala had been so devastated by all she'd seen that horrific night that she wouldn't even speak. Now, only a few turns later, she looked and acted like any normal child. Mostly. There were difficult days when she brooded in silence, nights when she couldn't sleep for the grisly visions that haunted her slumber. But even these were growing less frequent. She and Jynna called S'Doryn and N'Tevva by their names, but in all other ways they treated them as they would their parents. For their part, S'Doryn and his wife, who had despaired of ever having children of their own, were grateful beyond words for the chance to take care of these girls and raise them as their own.
"What is that?" S'Doryn asked the girl, staring at the treat she held as if he'd never seen such a thing before.
"A sweet! Jynna got one, too! A peddler gave them to us!"
"A peddler. Is that so?" He looked at N'Tevva, his eyes narrowing. "And just how much did we give him before he gave us the sweets?"
His wife grinned. "Nothing. I promise," she added, in response to his skeptical look. "He just wanted to know where he could find U'Selle."
"You caught five of them?" Jynna said, seeing his catch. She sounded impressed.
S'Doryn looked at her. "Yes, I did. Even without your help." He glanced at N'Tevva again. "I think T'Noth and Etan are going to join us, so I wanted extras."
She nodded. "All right. The fish look lovely."
He smiled and then went back to cleaning them, while N'Tevva took the girls into the house and began to prepare the rest of their evening meal.
He had just finished with the second fish when he heard voices. Glancing up, he saw T'Noth approaching the house. He quickly looked up a second time. Etan was walking beside his friend, but so too was the a'laq. S'Doryn rinsed his hands in the bucket that held the three remaining fish, and then went to greet them.
"I don't mean to interrupt your supper, S'Doryn," U'Selle said. "As I told T'Noth and Etan, I was just out for a stroll, so I thought I'd join them."
"Of course, A'Laq," he said, though he wasn't certain he believed her. There was something strange in her voice, in the way she looked at him. "Etan," he said. "The girls are waiting for you inside."
"All right," the boy said, bounding into the house.
S'Doryn looked at the a'laq again. Her eyes flicked toward T'Noth. "I think N'Tevva could use some help," he told his friend.
T'Noth eyed them both, a slight frown on his square, youthful face. "Of course she could," he said.
The a'laq chuckled. "Forgive us, T'Noth. I need a word with him."
"I understand, A'Laq." He looked at S'Doryn once more before following the boy into the house.
"No doubt you'll tell him everything once I'm gone," U'Selle remarked quietly, watching the man walk away.
"Only with your permission. You know that."
She nodded, taken by a fit of coughing. "I do know that," she said, when she could speak again. "I'm afraid I have to take you away from your supper, at least for a while. I need everyone on the clan council at my house immediately. I'd like you to summon the rest for me."
"Of course, A'Laq," S'Doryn said. "I just need to tell N'Tevva."
She nodded and he started toward the house. After a few strides he stopped and turned again. U'Selle had already begun to walk away. "Can you tell me what this is about?" he asked.
She looked back at him and shook her head. "No, not yet."
Lowna was by no means the largest village in Fal'Borna land, but it wasn't the smallest either. It took S'Doryn some time to find all the other members of the clan council and direct them to the alaq's house. By the time he and the last of his fellow members were able to join the rest, night had fallen.
A peddler's cart stood outside U'Selle's home and when they entered they found another man there with the a'laq, a stranger S'Doryn had never seen before. S'Doryn knew immediately that the man wasn't Fal'Borna; he was too tall, too narrow in the shoulders and chest, and his complexion was entirely too pale. He was an older man with a wispy white beard that made his face appear even thinner than it was. S'Doryn assumed from the man's appearance that he hailed from one of the western clans.
Seeing that all of them were there, U'Selle stood.
"I'm sorry to have summoned you on such short notice," she said. "If this could have waited even until the morning I wouldn't have disturbed you." She indicated the peddler with an open hand. "This is
R'Shev," she said. "He's just come from the Companion Lakes, where he saw something that alarmed him enough to drive his cart all the way here in just three days. I'll let him tell his story in his own words."
She sat once more, looking expectantly at the stranger. R'Shev stood, his long legs unfolding as if he were a child's toy. On another occasion, S'Doryn might have found his appearance comical. But as soon as the man began to speak, in a clear voice that was nearly devoid of any accent, he realized that this was no laughing matter.
It was bad enough that so large an Eandi army had been seen within ten leagues of the Silverwater. But to have the leader of a Mettai village issue such a stark warning was truly frightening. Yet there was still more to the man's tale. Like R'Shev and the a'laq, S'Doryn wasn't sure what to make of what the eldest of the Mettai village had said, but the words sounded ominous.
"So war is coming," said Y'Bej, one of the other council members, when R'Shev had lowered himself into his chair once more.
"Yes," U'Selle said. "That much is clear. It seems that word of the plague sweeping across our lands has reached the dark-eyes. They think we've been weakened, and so they've chosen to attack us and exploit that weakness."
"Did the eldest say this?" Y'Bej asked the peddler.
"This is my thinking," U'Selle told him before R'Shev could respond. "Do you disagree?"
"No, A'Laq," Y'Bej said.
"What about the rest of you?"
No one spoke.
U'Selle nodded. "I'm wondering," she went on, "if any of you can make some sense of the rest of what Kirayde's eldest told our friend here."
"Perhaps the eldest knew of the baskets and their curse," S'Doryn said. "When he referred to all that had happened, perhaps that's what he meant. Could it be that the commander was thanking the Mettai for weakening us?"
"Or maybe he asked them to make more cursed baskets," said E'Vylia, the village herbmistress.