Arnica

by I. Christie

  The curalies in the neighboring tree started to jabber excitedly, warning that trouble was near. Peeking up through the tree foliage, she spotted fast approaching airships. The two ships swooped down into the town's open square and from the bellies of the planes swarmed soldiers dressed in black and another group dressed in dark red.

  It looked like they came often for the mayor walked up to one of the soldiers as if he knew him. He was dressed in red wearing a very fancy sword on his back. Swords were banned weapons and were the choice weapons of the outlaws.

  A snicker of distain caught Horiku by surprise. Cupping her chin in her hand she reviewed her motives and the source of this discordant feeling. She was better than they were. So why did she need to disrespect them?

  They did not warrant respect, she thought fiercely, then felt as if she missed something important. One of the rules of Kiuzu behavior was to not look down on other's burdens or the paths they choose.

  Horiku decided she had seen enough and would go meet the warrior she was expecting further away from this town. It would be better that she was kept from stopping here… but surely she would hear from other towns that this was not a place to visit. So why did the Queen say she would come here? Crazy warrior. Would she take that as a challenge? A Kiuzi would. A Kiuzi would capture the rouge soldiers and turn them over to the monks.

  Horiku laughed at herself. She clambered down from her perch and carefully made her way further away from the town. At nightfall she turned to see what the burning smell was about. A large plume of smoke was curling into the darkening night sky.

  Frightened, she headed back to Ringlett, afraid of what she would find.

  It was difficult to move quickly at night, especially when the trail was in disrepair.

  She was surprised she arrived at the outskirts without a twisted ankle. The traveler's hut was a black spot on the ground. Timbers from other structures, a distance away, were snapping from hot embers that lit up like twinkling red spots in the night. She moved along the forest edge, grateful they did not set the forest on fire too. There were no signs of life in the forest. Even the curalies were gone.

  Harsh laughter came from inside the village. The planes the soldiers came in were gone. Straining her ears, she tried to locate the laughter. Was it something she dredged up from her past or was it happening?

  She was about to step out of the forest cover and enter the town when a hand grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her against the tree. Another hand covered her mouth firmly. She was effectively pinned. Dark clad soldiers moved past the tree they were behind. The soldiers tromped into the town, past the smoldering buildings and out of sight behind the silhouettes of still standing buildings.

  She was released and before she could look around, she knew she was alone. Who was looking out for her? Was it a Kiuzi warrior or…maybe the dark haired warrior.

  Whoever it was may have saved her life.

  Feeling an aversion to the town, Horiku started a slow jog away, thinking it best to distance between it and her before she found a place to spend the night.

  The next morning she climbed to the treetop. A dark haze from where Ringlett once stood spoiled the clear morning sky. She was going to have to return to see just what mischief went on there. It was sure to attract the police from neighboring towns and everyone else within sight of it...and maybe the Queen's warrior.

  With anticipation of finally meeting her quarry, she started back to Ringlett. In short time she reached the town, grateful for daylight and the ride she grabbed with some curiosity seekers. The place smelled of burnt wood and other things, but not of burnt bodies to Horiku's relief. She hopped off the back of the truckbed and joined the gathering sightseers. Official looking transport vehicles were onsite with uniformed police moving around blackened smoking ashes. A clean up crew with shovels was dumping debris into a truck. No one wanted to turn the ashes under because of what they might find. A monk was walking with a woman wearing a commander's uniform. The commander appeared to be upset about something and the monk was merely listening.

  Horiku tried to remember what temple was nearby.

  "What happened?" she asked one of the young men watching the clean up crew.

  "Bandits and outlaws! One of their own deserted that gang that calls themselves the Black Alliance so they burned down his town." The man spat in the ground, and scratched his foot over the spit.

  "Did they catch him?"

  "Yep. And his family. Took 'em away someplace."

  "Good riddens to them all. They damned the place with their awful behavior. The holy one is here to clean up the place, but he's going to need a lot more help," his companion retorted.

  "Who's gonna want to live here, even if it's been cleansed?" another asked.

  "The young and foolish that want to start a family and a new life," a wiser person answered.

  Horiku waited until the clean-up crew left. The authorities had left earlier. She, along with others moved through the burnt village. They were looking for something of value and she, memories of a happier childhood, or she hoped that's what her memories would be. She found an older burt foundation that could have been her home. Now she was not sure.

  Was it was haunted by her parents? Her breath caught. Back came the images of a terrorized child, herded along with her parents into the forest.

  Unconscious of it at first, a hand rested on her shoulder. She buried her face in her hands and wept for the town, knowing that from that day long ago, there were many whose consciences were weighed down with knowledge of what they had done. A gloom had settled over the townspeople that never lifted. She knew they could have called for a monk to cleanse their town and help them pay restitution. She could not understand why they choose to live with the heaviness of guilt and watch everything they attempted wither and die.

  The stranger spoke. Startled she looked up into the dark eyes of the warrior she had seen in the Seer's Dish.

  "Do you have a place to stay for the night?" she asked again. Her accent was light, which surprised Horiku. The warrior could speak the common language.

  "I… was just passing through." Horiku wiped her eyes on her sleeve, torn between memories and duty.

  "I have some food and tea if you would like to share a morning respite."

  Horiku did not see any weapons or travel pack with her. She wondered if she had belongings. Horiku nodded to her wordless. Readjusting her pack hidden under her cloak, she headed up the path into the woods with the stranger, glumly resisting the impulse to look back.

  They left the trail and went deeper into the wooded area. Forest debris was thick and slippery from the retreating morning mist. The warrior walked lightly, her head and eyes always moving. Horiku barely noticed their arrival at a well-constructed camp. She was gently pushed onto a fallen log, and handed a cup of hot tea. She did not know how long the warrior tended to her. From time to time, the warrior would tell her stories…strange stories from another world. They were stories of loss and searching for vengeance, with each story showing it was not the answer.

  "Compassion?" Horiku asked hoarsely. It was the first time she responded to JG.

  Horiku studied the woman before her in detail. The warrior's hair was loosened and fell over her back on one side and over her chest on the other. Her clothing was that of a traveler, but she had a staff that looked well used lying near her. Horiku was curious how she came to have it. Calmly the woman collected her hair and bound it into a club.

  Horiku thought long hair on a warrior would be impractical. She studied the strong hands as one reached for her cup, while the other picked up a stick to poke at the fire. The stick did not appear to be a dangerous weapon, but then, anything could be used as a weapon by a skillful warrior. Because she did not look like a warrior, she was dangerous. Kiuzi, when in travel mode, did not look like Kiuzi. On the other hand, trainees…at this thought she managed a small smile.

  "We need to break camp. The soldiers will be back. The one they're looking
for, is still loose."

  "The member that left them?"

  She nodded. "He's been hiding in the forest. Chances are they will find him today and he will tell them he saw you, thinking they will spare his life."

  "How do you know this?"

  "I've been following him for four days now. He's been running like a hunted man.

  He watched you get off the plane and of your confrontation with the men in the village.

  Nice moves, by the way."

  Horiku looked at her amazed. "You've been watching all of this?"

  The warrior smiled as she cleaned up her camp, removing evidence of their presence.

  The trainees that Horiku had gone out with were efficient like this warrior. As the warrior gave a last look around the area, she pointed to a rock she wanted Horiku to stand on. Then she proceeded to clear the area of footprints, including a very large print of a leopard. Horiku shivered at the thought that one of them had been here, and by the freshness of the print, only this morning. She could not remember leopards being in this area.

  "You can travel with me for as long as you like or until I get you away from here safely," the warrior offered.

  Horiku's eyebrows lifted in surprise. She could take care of herself…but then she thought of the soldiers that had recently visited the place. For some reason, she had no interest to fight, even if it were for her own life.

  "Thank you," she bowed slightly.

  They traveled quickly and when her footsteps became heavy, the warrior would stop and rest. Sometimes they would jog at a ground breaking pace and sometimes they would walk slowly. She was not sure just what the warrior was listening to but she seemed to know what was going on around them. At one stop for rest, she pointed out things in their environment for her to notice. Horiku's admiration for the woman rose more than a few notches. The gypsy trader that had taught her did not even know some of the things this warrior knew, and this warrior was not even from Arnica.

  It was near dusk that the warrior found a rest spot. It was a public space with a clean fire pit, fresh wood stacked nearby and from the lack of smell, a cleaned waste facility.

  When Horiku finished her toilet and was pulling her clothes back in place, she got a bad feeling that they were not alone. Hurriedly, she joined the Queen's warrior. The dark warrior was calmly stirring a pot of liquid over the fire with her staff leaning against a rock near her foot.

  "We have company." The warrior's head tipped to the side just enough to catch her eyes. "They'll be more tired then you because they haven't taken as many breaks, but they are good fighters. You ready?"

  Horiku nodded. "We must not kill even to defend ourselves," she explained quickly. She stood back to back with the woman warrior, waiting for the soldiers in bright red to burst into the clearing.

  "Understood. Focus on breathing and movement," the warrior encouraged Horiku softly, "then stop thinking."

  She wondered how the warrior knew she was feeling out of sorts.

  The soldiers filed into their campsite, encircling them. Each woman set an imaginary line for the soldiers to cross.

  "They have darts," the soft voice informed Horiku. "But they won't use them because one of their own may get hit. It would mean extra dead weight to carry until they wake up, so stay in a crowd."

  Horiku could feel the warrior behind her prepare to move so she rolled forward, taking out the nearest soldier with a kick and disabling jab to his neck.

  For a while they were preoccupied with staying in motion to avoid the dart throwers, blocking killing or maiming blows, and knocking out as many soldiers as possible. Horiku did not have time to watch the techniques of the tall warrior but she was aware that there were less warriors moving around her. The dark warrior did not use the staff but her hands and feet as Horiku. Horiku was hopeful this meant the warrior would be easy to assist learning the ways of a Kiuzu warrior, though the thought that she would be the one teaching her gave her a momentary pause. It would have been a painful lapse had there been any more soldiers standing.

  The warrior moved efficiently through the fallen soldiers, stabbing them with their own darts. Horiku walked among the unconscious, verifying that they were not faking it, and removing their weapons. She removed a travel sack from two of the men and put their weapons in it. Next, she found a log in which to hide them under.

  "Well, all in a warrior's day. Shall we finish our meal?" the warrior asked.

  "We should leave before they wake."

  The dark eyes regarded her with humor. "Not until I finish my dinner." She leaned forward and whispered. "Is it alright to exchange names now?"

  Horiku smiled. The dark mood over her had dissipated. Perhaps the fight pulled her out of her morbid thoughts. "If you wish. I will teach you our ways, the ways of an honorable warrior, Kiuzi."

  The stranger looked amused but returned Horiku's bow.

  "My name is Horiku, Kiuzi trainee of the 7th level, aspiring to be an honorable Kiuzi, justice maker, and guardian to those that live Drosu, the compassionate life," she bowed to the dark warrior not taking her eyes off her.

  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Horiku, 7th level Kiuzi trainee. I am Jina Gari Zohra, a traveler. Friends call me JG or Jina Gari...you may also, since we shared kit, battle, and conversation."

  Horiku tried to form the names on her tongue. "Jina Gari, JG, Zohra. I think Zohra is for battle and Jina Gari for a peaceful night around a campfire, JG for when we know each other longer."

  JG turned to the food that was steaming in the boiling water, effectively hiding her smile. "Ahh. Do you also have a battle name?"

  "Not until after my singu."

  "A warrior's initiation, hmmm?" She glanced back at the young woman, noting some of the shock she had been under was wearing off.

  "May I, Jina Gari?" Horiku gestured to the fire where their dinner was cooking.

  JG nodded.

  Horiku began her guest's lessons, sitting properly and by starting the ritual of serving a meal, which she could see was ready to eat. She pulled out her own eating utensils, and rearranged Jina Gari's.

  "What should I be doing?"

  Horiku stood up and took a position at her side, emulating the posture of an equal receiving her meal. It had not even occurred to her to treat the warrior as anything less or more.

  "I see. Do we talk during the meal?"

  "Not normally. During eating a Kiuzi warrior thanks all that have contributed to the meal before her. There are thousands, sometimes too many to think of in the time given for a meal on the road, however, one never forgets to thank from where the food came from. I usually thank the guardians of the land, those that gathered it, those that delivered it, and whoever fixed it, and the Queen, because she provides Kiuzi with most of our needs…and trainees," she added, remembering that she was not Kiuzi yet.

  "Alright."

  "You can ask questions, since you are unfamiliar with our ways, Jina Gari."

  JG smiled at the young woman, thinking that 'our' was not referring to the people in the villages she passed through, because some yammered, laughed, and shouted through-out dinner, which reminded her of most inns or public eating places she had visited on her own side of the galaxy.

  "Tell me about your Queen."

  Horiku nodded and chewed a few times, then swallowed her food. She looked into the fire as if thinking about the request.

  "She is goddess incarnate." Horiku took another bite waiting for the warrior to respond to that announcement.

  "Hm." JG waited, knowing Horiku was testing her, though she was not sure for what.

  "She is mentor to Kiuzi warriors and to the followers of Drosu, the compassionate way of life. She is also high priestess and has the final say to all issues that affect Arnica."

  "What does she have to say about these soldiers that are attacking travelers and towns?"

  Horiku looked amazed and then laughed. "Jina Gari, this 7th level trainee is not even high enough to step upon the shores of Allint to know what
they say in the Queen's halls. And the Queen most certainly would not discuss such serious matters with a trainee."

  "Come-on, crumbs eventually fall to the floor," she encouraged.

  "A Kiuzi warrior never gossips or converses on matters of the Queen. It is an honor code."

  "You speak as if you were part of her honor guard."

  "Honor guard?" She considered what that meant. "It is correct. Kiuzi are her guards, and it is with honor that Kiuzi serve the royal family of Gei."

  "So, is that all you can tell me of your Queen?"

  Horiku thought about it for a while and sighed. "I'm not sure what else there is to tell about her. She has been Queen for seven ers…." Horiku stopped abruptly, realizing that perhaps she should not speak any more of the strange happenings that led to Queen M'Lu's early ascension to the throne.

  "So is her council made up of family members…or is that not spoken about?"

  "The Queen's lodge consists of the Guardian, the Sacred Jester, the Commander of the Kiuzi, and the Council. The Guardian assists Queen M'Lu in the protection of all sanctioned meetings, peoples, roads one takes, and and watches over our sleeping journeys. She also acts as a judge in disputes that are brought before her." She paused as she thought about what she had said. "She assists the Queen in protecting Arnica," she summed up. Remembering the touch of guardian she smiled. "She is C'Lea, Queen M'Lu's elder sister." A small sigh escaped her. Remembering where she was, she continued, "The Sacred Jester, Ji'am, is our collective unconscious manifested into sound, at official meetings, and works unseen in satirical arts and comedies. Sacred Jester shows us our shadow, unwanted parts of ourselves with humor, and sometimes with bluntness.

  The Kiuzi you know about and the Council is composed of inhabitants on Allint that meet to attend to the business of Allint, 1st Continent."

  She watched the dark warrior, waiting for any more questions. However, JG had decided Horiku would not be able to tell her what she wanted to know which was how the Queen had affected her. Did everyone on Arnica feel the same way when the Queen communicated with them? The only thing she got from Horiku was she liked the queen's sister.