“So what pressing matter of business has brought you so far to the north? Have you come to preach to us of your Creator, if so don’t bother! We forsook any belief we had in god’s years ago. Now we only live for ourselves striving to eke out whatever pleasure we can from life before it’s done with us.”
I could see that principle in general display all around me.
“Your highness it’s true that hard times have come upon your people and the Eastern people as well, but now there is an opportunity for freedom for both your peoples.”
“How so?”
“Your highness may have not heard of the East’s great victory over the West and the destruction of an entire Western city?”
“I have and it was with great joy that I relished the hearing of the news, but I fear the East has undone themselves. The West will not rest now until they push the last Easterner into the sea!” The king said with indignation.
I feared that I was embarked on a hopeless cause, but I tried anyway, “Therein lays the opportunity your highness. The might of the Western Kingdom will be gathered together all in one place. If we destroy their army in the battle for Kartasa we destroy their strength and the rest of their cities will fall easily to the combined forces of the East and the North.”
The king looked speculative, “What is it you want of me?”
My mouth dry I responded, “Your highness I ask that you send your entire fighting force in three weeks time down through the mountains and strike the enemy from the rear, even as those in the city will rally and come out to fight the enemy from the front. Together we will crush them!”
He gazed at me for a while before saying, “I need some time to think this over. Come back in two hours.”
I bowed slightly, every groveling inch of it wounding my pride at having to do so before such a pompous individual.
I left the tent then with Ziya.
Pausing outside I glanced at her and saw her expression was troubled.
“What troubles you Ziya?” I asked softly so that no one else would hear.
She looked up at me, “I’m surprised that he didn’t just out rightly tell you no. It is not like my father to even consider such a proposal that would risk our people to an open attack by the enemy. It bothers me greatly. My father is very crafty, you can be sure that anything he agrees to will benefit him greatly.”
I nodded appreciating her advice.
We turned around the corner of a tent to find at least twenty children standing there expectantly. Ziya started digging into her pockets and handing the food out to the grateful children, who devoured it as soon as they got a piece.
My heart bled at the scene before me. When all the food was gone the children one by one touched some part of Ziya with the reverence that a child would show a loving mother or father and then they were all gone.
Ziya looked up at me with uncertainty on her pretty face, “You won’t tell on me will you?”
“Never!” I said emphatically.
Ziya showed me what little of the encampment there was left to be seen. We walked by a group of working women and I smelled something sweetly arresting in aroma.
“What are they doing?” I asked Ziya.
She stopped and smiled, “They are making perfume. We may not have pretty close or jewels to wear, but at least we can smell pretty.”
The perfume had the sweet sensual smell of spring flowers with a stronger undercurrent smell that gave it a hint of spicy muskiness. It smelled really good.
I wasn’t interested in it of course, but on a woman it would smell really good. One of the women must’ve noticed my interest in the perfume, because she quickly stood up holding a little stone jar with a wooden stopper out to me saying something quickly in her native tongue.
I looked at Ziya uncertainly, “How do I pay her? I don’t have any food with me?”
Ziya had blushed slightly, “No need to she is giving it to you freely for saving me and returning me to my people unharmed.”
I took the little bottle thanking the woman graciously even though she couldn’t understand me. She seemed to understand though and smiled before sitting back down to her work.
Two hours later saw us both before the king again, who with a jiggle of his fat rolls began to speak, “I’ve decided that it would not be in our best interest to send our army to aid the East at Kartasa. It would leave our people open to attack and possible annihilation. It’s simply too risky. I know a great victory has been achieved by the East over the West, but it does no one good to get carried away with one victory.”
“Father what do you think will happen to us should the last Eastern city fall without our help? They will come looking for us father like never before!” Burst out Ziya hot temperedly.
“Silence your tongue worthless daughter before I have it cut out for speaking to me so insolently!” The king roared back in reply.
I was going to say something I shouldn’t, but I changed what it was when I felt Ziya tugging on my hand imploring me not to.
“So the message I am to give the East is that they stand alone in their greatest hour of need?” I asked with my tone tinged with bitterness.
“Not at all! I never said that we would not give aid to them in our joint struggle to survive!” Blustered the king.
“What aid other than military might can the king give that would aid the East’s fight for victory at Kartasa?”
The king looked smugly at Ziya and then back to me, “Here in the north we are cursed with an abundance of female offspring that are a heavy yoke upon our people as all they do is give birth to yet more mouths to feed. I am prepared to offer the fighting services of three thousand of our nation’s young women to serve in the defense of Kartasa. They may not be hardened warriors but they are well able to pull back a bowstring or fight limitedly in close combat. What say you to this? Will you take my offer of aid or not?” The king asked slyly.
Hot anger seethed up and down my body and a desire to sink my fist repeatedly into the king’s fat belly was an almost overpowering urge. He was using the East’s struggle for life, as a population control measure for his own people!
A voice of reason echoed in my head relaying through a message that some help was better than no help.
“I accept your offer of support. Can you have them on their way in three weeks time to Kartasa?”
“Certainly, and make sure you take my daughter! I only hope that she will be of more value to you than she has been to me.”He finished with as he gave Ziya a disdainful sneer.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I nodded my head curtly and quickly left the tent needing the freshness of the outside air after the closed in verbal filth of the tent’s atmosphere.
Ziya soon appeared beside me looking out over the tents of her people.
“Ziya?”
She looked up at me and I saw the moisture in the corners of her eyes, “I’m sorry!” I said at a complete lack for better words to say to comfort her.
She held back for a moment, but then she caved in and encircled my middle with her arms hugging me tightly. I tried to return the hug, but it was a little awkward because she was so short.
Eventually I pulled her back, “All right now dry up those tears. This is no way for my second in command to act.” I said the words kiddingly and she stopped crying and tried to smile.
“Yes Sir!”
“That’s better. Now Ziya on the way here I stumbled on a secluded mountain valley in the shape of an L. Do you know where I speak of?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“I want you to gather your girls and be there in one week so that we can have some time drilling and practicing before we head out for Kartasa, where we will slip into the city and join the ranks of the defenders.”
“I will do it!”
And she was on her way, but I stopped her.
“Ziya see if you can get some extra girls to come along as well as some older women, from the sounds of it a few extra shouldn’t be miss
ed.”
She grinned big and then she was gone.
I made my way back to Relentless, who stood alone with his ears laid back. He looked to be in a testy mood. No doubt some of the warriors gathered around had tried to touch him or his master’s stuff and Relentless wasn’t the kind of horse to tolerate that.
No he was the kind of horse that willingly took bribes from glowing eyed self-described demoness’s in the middle of the night, I thought darkly to myself.
“Come on boy let’s get out of here. I think we got the better deal this place has to offer anyway.” I said looking dismissively at the envious looking warriors gathered around, who were no doubt all thinking that they would look better than me on top of the big black stallion.
I let them have a taste of dust as I slung up into the saddle and let Relentless go. As I made my way past the last tent I wondered how many of the gathered warriors would be coming after me tonight to attempt to kill me for my horse and stuff.
Probably several if not all of them, but it didn’t matter because I wasn’t going to give them a chance to catch up to me with their flea bait horses anyway. I let Relentless fly towards the mountains eating away at the stretched out desert as I was eager to get away from these dead plains and back into the presence of my alluring nighttime visitor.
I reached my hand down and felt the contents of my pocket and brought out a big red apple and smiled. I’d snatched it up the second time I’d been in front of the king. I had been planning on giving it to a kid, but now I think I knew what I would do with it.
Chapter Twelve
Taming the Night
The fire in front of me was small intentionally so. It barely illuminated the night. All was still except for the evening chirp of insects. Despite my best efforts I was depressed.
I leaned back against a deadfall tree and morosely considered the situation. I had hoped to come away from the north with twenty thousand hardened warriors at my back with which I could smash into the enemy’s rear and take them by surprise.
Now…… now I had several thousand girls that had done little more than hunt for deer.
There was no way that I could attack the enemy from the rear with such a small untrained force.
Creator what am I going to do?
There seemed to be only one thing that could be done. After giving the girls a week’s worth of training or so we would move south and slip into the besieged city and wait for whatever our fate might be with the rest of the Eastern Kingdom.
I had been turning the stolen apple over and over in my left hand, which was propped up by my left knee as I reclined back against the dead tree. I threw the apple out into the darkness beyond the little fire. I saw the faint movement of a hand and the apple was snatched out of the air.
There was stillness for a moment and then part of the darkness moved and I saw the familiar glowing eyes watching me. I’d surprised her I could tell. She moved closer to the fire and I watched her come.
“How did you know I was there?” She asked in a softly perturbed tone of voice.
“Had a feeling you were there. My feeling was off by about a foot and a half though. You have to teach me how you move around so quietly.”
She moved closer and sat down.
Almost as if to herself she said, “The skill comes easily if your life depends on it each day.”
“And I thought it was just some of your demoness powers on display.” I said wondering if she would see the humor in my statement.
I wasn’t disappointed. I saw the faint glint of her sharp teeth, when she smiled slightly. We both knew that she was no demon, as to what she was though that was still a mystery to me. I could see her hand where it gripped the apple that she had snatched out of the air. The hand itself seemed normal and feminine enough looking, but her fingernails!
They had to be at least an inch past her finger tips and they looked as sharp as an eagle’s talons. She caught me glancing at them speculatively and she smiled wickedly flexing her fingers and sinking her talons into the apple’s skin.
I smiled back at her, which seemed to surprise her once again. She sure was a wild thing!
She began to eat the apple taking crisp clean bites out of it with her teeth that were as imposing as her nails were, perhaps even more so.
I just leaned back and smiled at her as she tried to intimidate me by eating the whole apple in front of me her teeth flashing in the light of the small fire.
The apple gone she tossed the core away with a flick of the wrist and then for dramatic effect she licked the taloned nail of one finger free of apple juice watching me all the while. I just continued to smile at her intimidation tactics. She looked away and seemed to sigh slightly right before she stood up to go.
“Leaving so soon? We have all night yet to have enlightening conversation.”
She looked at me enigmatically for a moment, “The road is long and the news you carry bad. You need your rest.”
I gazed at her surprised by her knowledge of what was going on.
“How do you know that? Are your kind in league with the North?”
Her eyes seemed to close off from me and she spoke disdainfully to me, “You ask too many questions!” And then she turned to go with a swish of her black silky cape.
“Wait a moment!”
She stopped and looked back her gaze a questioning icy glow.
“I got you a present.”
Her eyes widened in surprise and then narrowed suspiciously, “A gift?”
I held up the little bottle of perfume and then with great show I pulled the plug out. Taking the plug I shook a drop of the perfume off into the fire. The immediate area around the fire was suffused with the sultry essence of the perfume.
I watched her large pupils dilate for a second and her eyes glowed brighter as she turned around more fully to face me.
Oh she wanted the perfume I had no doubt of that, but how far would she be willing to go for it. I decided to press the limit with my midnight temptress.
“It comes with stipulations though.”
“Stipulations?” Her gaze was now openly suspicious.
“Yes you have to do three things.”
Her expressive eyebrows rose theatrically.
“First you have to walk over here. Then you have to tell me your name and then you get to take the bottle out of my hand.”
I held the bottle up clasped in my left hand, which had held the apple earlier. She looked at the bottle and then at me.
“I could just kill you and take it.” She said matter-of-factly.
“True, you could but what would be the fun of that and besides, who would you have to talk to in the middle of the night then?”
She confirmed my logic was sound when she moved toward me slowly. Her wary approach reminded me of the wariness of a wild animal sensing a trap.
“It’s okay you can trust me.” I said softly.
She drew back for a moment and practically hissed at me, “I trust no one!”
“Then perhaps you should start. Everyone needs someone they can trust.”
Contemptuously she spit out, “And do you have someone you trust?”
“Why yes I do my brother for one and the warriors I fight beside.”
She remained silent, but kept moving towards me until she stood directly in front of me. Her hand reached out and tugged on the bottle, but I didn’t let go of it. One sharp fingernail pressed down on my hand and after a moment’s resistance punctured it causing blood to escape. She looked at me threateningly her intentions clear.
“Trust goes hand-in-hand with another worthy attribute, which is honor. Without honor it’s hard to trust.” I said softly.
Our eyes were locked together, but hers were the first to drop away, which seemed to bother her greatly. She gave a tug on the bottle, but my grip on it didn’t budge. She withdrew her taloned fingernail and mumbled something unintelligible.
“I can’t hear you.” I said firmly.
She tossed h
er head back, which sent her lightly glowing hair cascading out from the hood she had worn on her head and glared sullenly at me and said in a higher audibled tone, “My name is Raya’nasa!”
I repeated the name liking the sound of it as it came off my lips.
“A well fared and pretty name for a beautiful woman such as yourself. Thank you Raya’nasa. You may collect your prize.”
I let go of the bottle and she quickly stepped back with it, looking around as if to make sure she wasn’t in the process of being ambushed.
Assuring herself of her surroundings she glanced back at me, “Good night Raya’nasa.”
That said I slumped down against the trunk and closed my eyes.
I heard her say, “You’re a fool!”
I smiled not opening my eyes and said, “That may be Raya’nasa, but at least I’ll die a happy one.”
Then there was silence and I peeked out of my eyelids and saw that she was gone. I shook my head, as she was right. I was a fool to try to tame such a wild creature as she was.
It could have been ten minutes or a half hour I wasn’t sure which, as I had been lost in my thoughts, when I heard the faintest of sounds.
My hand went towards my sword, but stopped when I heard her soft voice, “It’s only me. Raya.”
I moved my hand away from my sword completely puzzled as to why she’d come back. If she’d come back to kill me why announce herself?
I couldn’t see anything as the fire had gone out, but her voice had been close. And then of all surprises I felt her hands touch the one she had punctured with her taloned finger. I let her lift my hand and pull it towards her.
I felt her fingers wipe something wet across the puncture she had made. Her fingers were gentle as she cleaned it and then she pushed something spongy against it and then I felt her wrapping my hand with cloth. She tied it off and before she could disappear I brought one of her hands to my mouth and I kissed the back of it softly.
“Thank you again Raya’nasa.”
“Raya.” She said softly and pulled her hand free as she rose to her feet and was gone.
I lay there quietly feeling the neatly done bandage on my hand in the dark. Maybe I wasn’t such a fool after all to try to tame such a wild natured girl.
A Warrior's Legacy Page 14