by Stephan Knox
“Where we—”
Tannin let go and held a finger to his lips. “There is still one more,” he spoke in a soft tone and walked quietly towards the trees. He inhaled deeply— boy— horse— and essence of skunk.
A furlough into the trees, Tannin spotted the two bay mares. And right between them stood a boy not even an age to be called a young man yet. His filthy body showing too many bones and pale skin from under the haphazard attempt to clothe himself with a few burlap sacks. He didn’t even have a weapon on him that Tannin could see. And when the boy saw them he crept back using the horse to hide behind.
He glanced around, listening, looking through the dead forest, and scented the air. It was just the boy, the two horses, and somewhere the deer.
Tannin pressed Aari to stay back a step and moved around one of the horses, sword held out and ready until seeing the boy sandwiched between the two. Like a fawn in tall grass, he remained completely still, but his eyes were locked onto Tannin. “Where’s your weapon?”
The boy shook his head.
“You going to give me any trouble?”
Again, he shook his head.
Tannin inhaled, satisfied with the response and relaxed, then returned his sword to his back. And patted one of the horse’s muzzles. “What’s your job?”
The boy, barely past the age of puberty, kept close to the horse’s flanks, nearly hugging it as if he could just vanish into the mare’s body and become invisible. His lips twitched as he contemplated his response and finally spoke with a light crack in his voice and the white scum around his lips marked him for being parched of fluids. “Keep the horses quiet.”
Tannin turned and scrubbed the one horse’s head some more, neither had made a sound even when Aari had cried out. “You do a good job at it.”
“You still found them,” he spoke then took a sudden step backwards, a hand covering up the tongue that had just mouthed off.
Tannin grinned still keeping his attention on the mare. “There’s more than one way to track an animal.” Tannin glanced around the horse to Aari who was keen on staying several steps away, gawking towards the large four-legged animals. Her gun drawn once more and trained on the animal, not on the boy on the other side. “You have your water still on you?”
Her eyes flickered to him then back to the horse uncertain if it was safe to take her eyes off it.
“It’s okay. They won’t hurt you. Come here.” Tannin reached under the horse’s neck and patted it on the other side, “Put your hand right here and pet it.”
Aari shook her head in about the same manner as the boy next to him did, but she pulled the leather strap, holding the water skin, from over her shoulder and tossed it to him. Tannin then tossed it to the boy. Who wasted no time popping the plug and turned it up.
He guzzled down a good third of it before pausing to swipe the back of his arm across his mouth. “Where is Kev and Soot?”
“In pieces over there. Want to join them?
He abruptly shook his head.
“And the five we encountered just before here? They a part of your band?”
Again, the boy shook his head, “Must’ah been Bran’s men. Just a bunch of crips tossed from the army. You must’ah done something to scare ’em off. They don’t attack no one with a solid defense.”
“Anyone else here I need to worry about?”
Another shake of his head, “They say Bran had 8 men, but lost three just last week.”
“You know this for sure?”
“I don’t know how to count, Kev said he knew how.”
Tannin glanced around, seeing nothing in the way of a camp, just a saddle bag thrown over each of the horses and not likely containing enough for three riders. “Where’s your pack?”
“Kev and Soot never let me have anything of my own. Said I had to earn it first.”
“Kev and Soot own anything?” The boy’s eyes flickered to the saddle bags, but nothing else. “They’re yours now. Except these horses. I’m taking the horses.
“Can I come with you?”
Tannin looked over at Aari who’d yet to come any closer than she already had then back to the boy. “You know how to ride these?”
The boy nodded. Shy but certain.
“Then okay.”
He grabbed the reins of both horses and purposely led them and the boy back to the bodies he’d dismembered so their tag-a-long got a firsthand look that he stood no match against Tannin’s sword should he get any ideas about taking off with the horses or robbing them. “Might want to help yourself to their shoes and take the coat. I’ll show you how to stitch the sleeve back on. And don’t worry about them, they don’t need them anymore.” But the boy shook his head and positioned himself around the mares, using them to block the bloody view. Tannin shook his head, the boy would have to learn one of these days, but he wasn’t here to teach him, he was allowing the boy to hitch a ride for a bit only because he didn’t figure Aari knew how to ride a horse and for no other reason. He clicked to the horse, leading them to walk beside him as he turned to fetch their packs.
“No wait! That thing may still be waiting on us,” Aari stammered after Tannin.
“Aari, it’s okay, it’s not real.”
“You don’t know that,” she spat at him with a glare. “I’ve seen pictures of it in a book before. I don’t know the words right but it’s a shay— ssee—” she struggled to recall how to say the name right.
“It’s not what you think,” he cut her off. “It isn’t real. It’s made of metal.”
“But what if there are more, and those are real?”
“Ever hear stories about the rusty whales that washed up to shore?”
“Yes.”
“They’re actually ships. Do you know what a ship is?”
She nodded, however their new companion only looked back and forth between them, not understanding the conversation. Not until they got to the packs and Aari stepped behind the horses, figuring the sea monster could eat them first while she made a run for it. That’s when the boy laughed.
Tannin ignored them both, collecting the packs and securing their gear to just the horse he would be riding. “Okay—” he glanced over his shoulder to the boy, “—both of you will ride that one. You lead the reins.”
“Wha-” Aari’s eyes widened as Tannin jumped, throwing a leg over the first horse and settled himself in the handmade blanket saddle.
“It’s that or stay here with the flying dragon.”
Her expression grew more worrisome with that suggestion that it was hard to keep from laughing himself.
“It flies?”
“Want to stay behind and find out?”
She scowled, then glanced at the horse, whose back was taller than she was. “How am I to even get on?”
Just then their companion came up beside her, cupping his hands together and waited. She set her foot in his linked fingers and up she went. The beast moved, and Aari would have pitched herself right off its back to the other side if it weren’t for Tannin suddenly being right there next to her, his hand snatching her, and keeping her on the horse’s rump while the boy hopped up, curling a leg in tight against his body as he pivoted to get it over the horse’s back without kicking her off in the process. He then sat up, scooping the reins in his hands, then looked to Tannin as though waiting for orders.
Tannin shook his head at them both. “There are easier ways of mounting a horse as well.”
The boy only grinned.
“You have a name?”
“Jima.”
They rode out, leaving the eerie skeletons behind them; the last to see them off was a tall circular wheel of oversized water buckets that stood as tall as some of the trees.
Tannin kept to his thoughts, calculating if the horses would be enough to make up for the lost time and still be able to catch the convoy while his senses kept track of the deer that was not too far ahead of them about a furlough or less. Dinn
er or trek. He twisted on the horse, always keeping a check on Aari and Jima. The boy seemed, so far, to be content to do as told, unwilling to lose the favor he’d been given, and get left behind instead. Aari just kept quiet in her usual retaliation when finding herself in a situation past her comfort zone. Perhaps that she was holding onto the boy in fear of falling off wasn’t sitting well with her ego either. Or her nose.
“You killed them, not even a chance to let them leave.” Aari broke the silence though it wasn’t much of a question.
“We don’t have the luxury of allowing anyone a second chance at us.”
He expected more rebuttal or disapproval from her, but she remained oddly quiet. Too quiet for her.
He twisted in the saddle and looked at her. “Did it surprise you?’
“You’d said you’d kill to keep anyone from taking me. I didn’t— I mean, I wasn’t sure.”
“I will kill any man for even thinking of taking you from me, Aari. I mean it. I need our union together,” he said then returned his attention to the road.
“Oh right. The union,” she muttered with a thickly cavil tone of disapproval.
He reached into one of the packs, blindly taking a mental count of supplies by feel, but wasn’t liking the results.
With supplies at a low and no certainty he would be able to catch his target, he caved, deciding the deer was the better choice. “Hold up here and make camp for the night.”
“Where you going?” Jima asked with a little more worry than one who’d technically been taken over would normally have intoned.
“Bring back some dinner.”
Aari already had a fire going with the help of Jima, who’d collected far more wood than they would need, but the air was damp, and the fire made for some added comfort. It was dark before Tannin returned with a couple of fouls strung up and thrown over his shoulder.
Jima’s eyes lit up like he’d never seen food before and while he wasn’t very good at it, he did as Tannin showed him, trying to pull the feathers out. Tannin stripped he bark from a then tree limb then used it as a spit for the two birds and roasted them over the fire.
After watching the boy lick and suck every last bone clean of meat and marrow, Tannin may have made a friend for life when he told Jima he could take the bedrolls from his late comrades for himself.
Aari, of course, wasn’t even given the option of whether she was sharing a bedroll with Tannin or not. But after coming face to face with that thing back there and then having to ride the horse— being nestled safely in Tannin’s arms and cocooned by the warmth of his body, wasn’t something she was about to complain about. Not this time.
SOME FAVORS GO TOO FAR IN DESIRE
The next morning, Tannin changed the course of direction, steering straight west instead of climbing farther north. The horses were in good condition and had them traveling at a good pace. At the rate they were going, in a few days he hoped to reach the nearby city of Horozoh to restock essential supplies and possibly gather some information about the convey and other current news of events. And while he said nothing of it to Aari, he needed desperately to relieve some pent-up energy caused by his sym’s sex drive that had more than doubled since he latest second puberty.
He stopped, however, just outside the city’s first maze of water canals to part ways with Jima. Giving him the two horses as a means to buy a new life start for himself.
“Go in and sell the horses right away, don’t keep them for long.”
“Who in Horozoh needs horses?” Jima asked confused.
“Someone who is hungry,” Tannin answered flatly. “Then look for a merchant named Chomo, offer him half of what you make off the horses to become his apprentice and to live under his roof. He’s a trustworthy bagger. You’ll have to work to earn your meals, but at least you’ll have a warm, dry place to sleep, and he can teach you a trade or two. If that falls through, go to where the boardwalks are painted red and ask for Toahk. It’s not a trade, but he too can keep a roof over your head, clothes on your body, and food in your belly. Which is more than what any of the others will do for you.”
“Can’t I stay with you? I can get better at cleaning the food, and like you said, I’m good with keepin’ the mares quiet.”
But Tannin shook his head. Every day he and Aari trekked alone was a risk. One more mouth to feed and back to guard would not do them well. Horozoh was the safest place for the boy. And there, Tannin and Aari left him to his own destiny.
Horozoh, the city of water, was also the city that manned the working hydro power station, which supplied almost all of the City of Maegray’s power needs. It was little more than a flooded public squalor of crowded hovels, but powerful at the same time. Deception went both ways here in Horozoh. Care had to be taken to a higher level.
Tannin quickly purchased some extra clothes from one of the fringe merchant shops to keep Aari under wraps, plus an overpriced coat that would swallow her up but keep her warmer than the parka would in the following months. He kept his acquired shemagh in place as they came in on one of the many pole boats that carried them through the canals that had once been streets leading into the inner city.
As the city swallowed them up, the boardwalks and floating barges became a cattle call of barters and merchants, waving and chiming, competing with one another over who had the strongest brew— the sweetest wines— the richest food— and the finest cloth. As the pole boat took them further down the main canal, they passed a small district of hanging balconies that had been painted red like the ones Tannin had mentioned to Jima. From which women and young boys lingered with little or no clothes on, keeping the cold air at bay with only a blanket wrapped around them which was easily enough waved open to show off their bodies to shopping eyes. Many of them also had dyed their feet and hands the same bright red color so there was no mistaking to which services they offered.
Canal banks sat in a haze of smoke; some perfuming the air with meats smoking in large metal barrels intermittent with ethereal fragrances of incense and herbs as their gondola drifted by. At one point they passed a stilt deck, lined with flowing drapes, and rather than tables, its guests were stretched on chaises or over piles of pillows while pipes puffing out their own aura of pungent smoke were passed from hand to hand and inhaled for their mind altering or numbing effects.
A raft floated close by, the man riding along held up two plump chickens by their feet, which squawked and flapped about in a panic as he waved the birds at them and anyone else passing within range of making a purchase.
An old-world gunner barge tied along one of the sea walls was loaded up with goats, pigs and a few milking cows. The burdening weight sinking the barge near to its gunnels in the water. Cages of birds, some for eating while others likely for pets or their fancy plumage filled another nearby boat.
Multitudes of smaller canoes and rowboats were in abundance, nearly clogging up the main thoroughfare of water moving from barge to bank and back to catch a customer were laden with stacks of late-season vegetables and legumes.
Overhead from the walkways, barters called out prices for dry boarding rooms, fortune tellers, and fees for body guards during their visit.
And in every corner of unclaimed space was a filth covered body, one could scarcely recognize as human, holding a hand out or a tin can, begging for any spare credits or morsels of food.
There were some sections of the city where the bustling chaos seemed to idle down. Those were usually due to the presence of Maegrethe’s militant soldiers. Some dressed in what was supposed to be their militant uniform of black fatigues and armored squares from black tires fastened together with either wire or cord. While others of their enlisted men looked just as impoverished as the beggars. But all had the sides of their heads shaved and marked with the brandished symbol of their now deceased Blood Lord.
Tannin self-consciously checked his tuareg as they passed too close for his comfort to a few of such employed hanging out on a dock.
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The group of five were helping themselves to one floating merchant’s distilled cider. While a foolish boy hovered close by on the sea wall, contemplating if their pockets were worth the risk. But for Tannin, not enough time had passed since his house call to Maegrethe’s fortress to feel safe that his story may have died away to be replaced with another. Just to be certain, he took a seat on one of the crates of their floating ride to diffuse his height over everyone else, then pitched a coin to the bank. The would-be-thief’s eyes caught the fleeting airborne movement of silver but looked out towards its source with distrust. Tannin nodded to the coin then jerked his head to indicate to the kid he should take it and be gone. Then he turned his back to him. Whether the kid did take it and leave only meant he would live one more day. Tomorrow, the boy would come back and second guess the risk again.
More than half way across Horozoh, Tannin and Aari departed their gondola, and climbed up into the suspended city of its remaining dwellings, from one scaffolding to another.
Tannin took advantage of his height, scanning the crowds that milled around them— testing the air and listening to sounds that did not belong in the city’s natural hum. He ignored several groups of suspended huts, heading to the city’s cliff edge and there they came to a boarding house with solid walls set into the stone encasement. Most importantly, they had doors that could be locked.
He procured a room and rested for some time, watching over Aari who instantly fell asleep and remained so like the dead in the comfort of a real bed. However, while her mind slept soundlessly, her body did not. He could see her sym moving inside her back and it produced a fragrance that went straight to his libido. Her scent was driving him crazy with rutting lust, reaching a point when he could no longer remain in the room and still trust himself to not take her right then and there while she slept.
He left her in the safety of their room, locking it behind him, and making his way along the hanging walkways strung up from one building to the next, heading for the part of the city where the walkways were painted red and sexual purchases were abundant.