Falling From the Tree (Darshian Tales #2)

by Ann Somerville

  “I wasn’t there, ask young Karik.”

  “Well?”

  “The b-beast was ll-lame and acting wuh-weird. W-we tr-tried to catch it, but it k-kicked Pa in the knee. Then it ki-kicked him in the s-side.”

  Kei winced. “Oh dear. So it was sick—that explains it.”

  “Not just sick,” Gyo said. “Ka-chi, tell him about that gall.”

  Karik had almost forgotten he had it with him to show Kei. “Y-yes. A ll-lump in its br-brain. I br-brought it for you.”

  “Oh?” Kei immediately looked interested. “Well, as soon as we finish here, you can show me in the workroom. I’m sure Pira doesn’t want lumps of beast brain all over her table.”

  “How wise of you to work that out, Kei,” she said dryly. “Everyone got enough tea and cakes? Supper won’t be until Arman gets back.”

  Everyone nodded that they had enough. “Come and sit, Ma,” Kei said, squishing up to give her room.

  “Don’t call me ‘Ma’. I bless the fact every day I didn’t have to raise you,” she said, but smiled to show it was just a joke.

  Misek grinned. “I see she’s got the measure of you already.”

  Kei sighed. “I’m bullied all day, at the academy, here, Arman’s always so horrible to me.” Risa hooted with laughter, and Pira showed frank disbelief at this statement. “It’s true. Only today I came to have lunch with him and the wretched man cut it short to go to a meeting with Lord Peika. I ask you, isn’t that mean?”

  “Poor, poor Kei,” Misek said. “Best come back to Ai-Albon so we can treat you right. Or come to the herbarium—I could do with another hand.”

  “Speaking of which, how is it? And will Pia manage all right with you gone?”

  “It’s fine and of course, you idiot—would I leave my wife on her own? Her brothers are going to stay, and Reji said he would spend a week or so with her and Keira. I think Lori and Peit were going to drop in when they were next out hunting. We sorted everything before I left and I should be home before the next major batch of transplanting. I’ve got you two pounds of nern seeds.”

  “Oh good, we really needed those.” Karik looked at him, and Kei explained. “New painkiller, we think. It seems to be good for women’s monthly pains, and I’m trying it on a couple of patients who’ve had broken arms that still ache.”

  Karik nodded. That was Kei’s other big thing—painkillers. Pijn was just too strong and too dangerous for so many things, especially chronic pain. “C-can you gr-grow nern pl-lants here?”

  “We’re going to try. Now, Gyo, Karik, tell me about the trip.”

  Kei listened as Gyo enthused about the joys of driving the wagons and the little dramas of the journey—still not mentioning the argument with the other traders, though. That was fine—if his friend wanted to keep it private, especially in front of Pira whom they only just met, that was understandable. Risa and Misek added a little more detail as they consumed several mugs of tea and ate all of the delicious cakes. Pira was a wonderful cook, and clearly enjoyed watching them eat.

  But finally Kei stood up. “Well, come and show me this lump, Karik. Gyo, do you feel like helping Pira? She could do with some pots washed.”

  “Sure, Kei.”

  “We won’t be long,” Kei assured Risa and Misek. “I have a feeling you won’t want to smell what I’m about to look at.”

  Risa pulled a face, and Misek chuckled. “You guessed right, Kei. I had enough of that when your father was alive.” At Karik’s enquiring look, he added, “Kei’s Pa used to make the most amazing stinks. So did his Ma, come to think of it.”

  “All in the nature of scientific investigation, something I’m sure Karik understands,” Kei said haughtily, but dropping Karik a wink which made him grin. “Come on, the workshop is at the back so I don’t make the house reek.”

  “Mind you don’t do that now, young man,” Pira said, wagging a spoon at him. “Don’t you dare spoil my cooking.”

  “No, Ma.”

  Kei put his hand on Karik’s shoulder as they walked to the bedroom to fetch the wax-sealed pot Karik had the gall stored in. “What did you use, nitre distillation?” Karik nodded. “Hmmm, I was afraid of that—you really need alcohol for storing flesh, although I don’t blame Jena for not wanting to waste her stocks. I suspect this is going to be rather horrible.”

  Despite this dire warning, Kei was still completely cheerful as he led the way towards the back of the house. “It’s a bit of a mess, I’m afraid,” he said, pushing the door open.

  Karik fell in love the moment he saw the room. There were plants being dried, pots with concoctions steeping in them, books and notes, scales for measuring seeds. Never in his life had he felt so instantly at home. He made a beeline straight to where something was dripping slowly through fine cloth. “Wuh-what’s this?”

  “I macerated some quem leaves with chalk. I want to see if it’s more effective than uyris flowers in lung fever for easing breathing.” Kei let Karik have a sniff. It was pretty disgusting, and Kei smiled at Karik’s expression. “Yes, that’s the problem. If you give it to someone who’s already ill, you just make them want to throw up, although it does ease the breathing very well. I’m playing with different combinations. Pira had a bad cold a few weeks ago and it made me determined to find something to help prevent colds getting worse. Elderly people shouldn’t get lung fever as often as they do.”

  “Wuh-was s-she very sick?”

  Kei nodded. “For a week or so I was really worried. She’s only sixty-three, but she’s had a very bad year. She didn’t need this on top of everything else.”

  “A f-friend?”

  “Yes, of course—though she’s our housekeeper really. Poor lady, she lost her husband six months ago and she couldn’t keep their tanning business running, since they have no children and she couldn’t manage on her own. All he left her were debts, and she had to ask for charity from the state. Lady Nera asked if we could offer her a place to live and do some easy work, and we were glad to help.”

  Karik frowned. “A s-servant? Like Ah-Arman?”

  Kei grinned. “Not quite. Neither of us would ever order her about as Lord Meki does with Arman, and even if she couldn’t work at all, she would have a home with us. She’s been very happy about you all coming to visit—she does love company. She gets rather lonely and depressed, and we can’t be here all the time. I hope you’ll be nice to her while you’re here.”

  “Of c-course.” The idea of Kei having a servant was rather odd, but Pira seemed to be more like an adopted family member.

  Kei unsealed the pot with a sharp knife, but the faint hiss of gas he released didn’t bode well. “As I thought, it’s gone rotten. Let’s take it outside—I’ll have to put it in the midden straight away or it will make everything in here stink.”

  He kept the bung firmly in place as he carried it out to the garden where there was just barely enough daylight left to see what they were doing. Kei took it to the compost heap and tipped out the contents of the pot. Immediately there was the most appalling smell, bad enough to make Karik almost gag. Worse than that, the gall had simply turned to an unidentifiable sludge. Kei poked it with a stick and then covered it with some plant litter which cut down the smell immediately. “So much for that. Can you describe it?”

  Karik did so as much as he could and Kei nodded. “Interesting—I’ve seen that a couple of times in jesigs—never heard of it in urs beasts before. How long had Reji had that animal?”

  “He tr-traded it th-ree months ago.”

  “Ah. Then I bet you’ll find it came from Urshek originally, or near there. The lump is a very slow-growing cyst caused by a parasite you get in Kuprij and in the wettest areas of the south. The worm gets into the brain and makes the gall which you saw. Sends the animals mad, makes them very aggressive and dangerous. The Prij have a lot of problems in lemuls with such things too—jombekers aren’t quite as prone to them but it’s still a problem. I think there are some letters at the academy about these infectio
ns—perhaps you could look at them before you go?”

  “I’d ll-like that.”

  “Good,” Kei said, beaming at him. “So, how are you finding being away from home for the first time? Homesick?”

  “All the t-time,” Karik admitted. “Wuh-wish Pa was here.”

  “Yes, I know. I’m sure he didn’t want to send you away on your own for your first visit to Darshek. When I came up here to do my training, I cried myself to sleep for weeks. Even when I moved up here with Arman, I missed everyone so much.” Kei smiled. “That’s why I go back every summer. That was the deal I cut with the academy—I had to be allowed to go back to the village once a year if they wanted me. But I still miss your parents and Myka and Fedor and everyone else. I’m glad I see Reji and Risa every so often. It’s so good to have you all here. I’ve really been looking forward to it.”

  The way Kei said it, it had to be true. “I wuh-wanted to come, only P-Pa—” He stopped. He didn’t want to complain about something that wasn’t his father’s fault.

  “Yes, unfortunate, that. Never mind, you’ll be home soon enough and then you and he can swap traders’ tales. Oh, before it gets too dark, let me show you something.” He walked over to a bed and crouched down in front of a small shrub. “Recognise this?” he asked, touching the plant with his palm.

  Even in the gathering gloom, Karik knew what it was. “That’s....”

  “Yes, the sample you sent us. It grows amazingly fast if you give it enough water. Since Jena didn’t have a name for it, we called it ‘kariken’, so now you have a plant species named after you.”

  Karik stared at the nondescript bush. He had found it growing half shaded by a boulder, and since he’d not seen it before, he’d told his Ma. It was she who’d picked the leaves and collected the seeds. Karik had found more plants like it, but hadn’t thought it anything remarkable. It wasn’t common and tended to like damp environments where water ran off rocks. “R-really?”

  “Yes, really. We’ve managed to get it to grow in Utuk and in Urshek. I think it’s probably more suited to wetter climates, but it seems adaptable.”

  “Wuh-why?”

  Kei understood what he was really asking. “Because I wanted to see if we could propagate it for one thing—and it turns out that if you made an infusion of the dried leaves, and mix a little nitre weed with it, it becomes an excellent foot wash for prevention of fungus. We’ve just ordered it used in the army, so soldiers all over Darshian are going to be a lot more comfortable, thanks to you.”

  If Kei had suddenly announced the Rulers wanted him, Karik, to join their ranks, he couldn’t have felt more proud. Ma would be so pleased. “I’m g-glad,” was all he said. The bush looked so ordinary—the only thing about it was its dark red leaves, almost crimson in certain lights, but they were spindly and sparse, at least on the specimen he’d seen near the village. This one was much more lush.

  “I thought you’d be pleased. If only everyone in the villages on the plain had your eye, we could probably solve all the ills in Periter.” Kei stood up and then seemed to hesitate. “Karik...everything was all right on the journey up here? I only ask because Gyo seemed a little uncomfortable about something, and so did Risa.” Karik tended to forget Kei was a soul-toucher—of course he’d noticed something had been kept from him. “You lads didn’t have an argument, did you?”

  Karik hesitated too, but then shook his head. “N-no.”

  “Feel like telling me about it?”

  “I-if you wuh-want.”

  “Then come into the workshop. I need to seal up that filtration I’ve made.”

  It was now almost completely dark, and Kei used a little sparking device to set the lamp alight—Karik hardly ever saw one used in his home, of course, with Pa around. Kei lit two other larger lamps which efficiently illuminated the worktable, then fussed with the filtration equipment and decanting the dark liquid. “Just tell me what you’re comfortable with.”

  Because it was Kei, and because Kei never judged or got angry, Karik found it easier than he expected it to be. Kei listened in complete silence, just nodding from time to time as Karik slowly explained—he decided not to mention what he’d heard about Arman.

  When he was done, Kei still stayed quiet, apparently lost in thought, although his hands were fiddling with the quill he’d used to label the bottle of filtrate. “It’s odd how these things come up again,” he finally said in a low voice. “I forget about the time in Utuk for days at a time, then something—a voice, something I read, even a colour or a smell—will bring it back as if it was just yesterday I was a hostage. Don’t be too hard on Edi. He had a very bad time of it, and I know it might seem cruel of him to bring up...the deaths, but it’s not something any of us can ever forget.” He rubbed his chest a little. “I think I need to have a talk with Gyo about what happened to his mother, and about the war. I know Pia finds it hard to speak about it. Does Jena talk to you?”

  Karik shook his head. “It m-makes her sad.”

  “Yes, it probably does. Some people cope by talking, others not.” Kei looked at him with a wry smile. “And I understand you want to talk to Arman while you’re up here.”

  Ma must have told him, but Karik wished she hadn’t. He’d almost decided it wasn’t something he’d bring up after all. But since Kei had raised it, Karik supposed it would have to be done. “Wuh-will he t-tell me?”

  “He might. A lot depends on how he thinks you’ll deal with it.” He placed his quill down carefully and straightened the papers on the table, carefully placing slips of paper in his books and closing them. “But tell me this—do you want to know who your blood mother and father are?”

  The answer to this question was important but all he could say was, “I d-don’t know.”

  Kei nodded as if it had been what he expected. “Just as Arman doesn’t know if he wants to tell you. It’s been much on his mind, Karik, what to say to you. My advice is to be patient. Arman doesn’t do well when pushed, and this is a subject on which he finds it impossible to be entirely calm. I think you’re old enough now to know adults don’t always know the answers to everything. I certainly don’t,” he added with a smile. “Tell me, what do you think of these flowers? Have you seen anything like these in your wanderings?”

  Voyaging: 6

  Arman walked up the path to his home, and wished he didn’t know he had a house full of visitors to greet him. Neka had sent him Kei’s message that Misek and the others were at the docks, and that Kei would be going back early to help Pira prepare. Arman would have liked to have joined him and would certainly like to spend some quiet time with him this evening. There had been an unusually large number of fraught interactions over the harbour improvements today, to the point where the usually genial and placid Lord Peika had actually shouted at one of the architects to get out of his sight or he would wring his pissing neck. Not that Arman could blame the Ruler—the architect was about as irritating as it was possible to be—but it showed how short tempers had become after Lady Jilki’s death. Colonel Jiv was doing his best, but he had so much to absorb before he could really become an effective replacement.

  Sighing, Arman opened his front door and shed his cloak and his boots. He heard voices in the kitchen and so headed in that direction. There he found Misek, Risa and Gyo all helping Pira prepare supper. Misek came over and clasped his hand warmly. Arman returned his greeting with real affection—Misek was one of his favourite people, and one of Kei’s dearest friends. “How was the trip?” he asked as Risa also shook his hand.

  “Very good. Even with all that winter rain, the road was fine.”

  “Excellent.” Arman made a point of checking with traders from the plains that his road improvements and the maintenance programme were continuing to be effective. So far, they were. “And how are you, Gyo?”

  The boy had stood when Arman came in—gods, had he grown so much in just five months? “I’m fine, Arman.”

  “You look it. I see Pira’s put you to work,” he
added with a smile at her.

  “Not me. That lazy Kei set them to it and then escaped all the chores,” she said in mock reproof.

  “Ah. Then I’ll find him and chastise him for you, mistress Pira. Where is he?”

  “Out in the workroom. The other lad had something nasty to show him, didn’t want to make my kitchen smell.”

  “Oh?”

  “A gall from the brain of the beast that kicked in Reji’s ribs,” Misek explained. “Karik brought it all the way from Ai-Albon to show Kei.”

  “An unusual gift—most people would bring sweetmeats,” Arman said with a straight face. Risa grinned. “However, knowing Kei, I’m sure he prefers the gall. I’ll go fetch them and you can have your revenge for him abandoning you.”

  “Dinner will be just half an hour,” Pira called as he left the room. Good, he was hungry.

  Pira had already lit the hall lamps, lighting the corridor with a soft yellow glow. He walked to the end and opened the door of Kei’s workroom. “Oh, hello,” his lover greeted him cheerfully. “You’re late.”

  “I’m sorry, I had to stop Peika killing a damn architect and then he needed to blow steam at me for a few minutes.”

  Kei came over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Lord Peika wanted to kill someone?”

  “Technically I was going to hold the man down while Peika strangled him. Not a court in the land would have convicted us, I’m sure. Hello, Karik.”

  “Huh-hello, Ah-Arman,” the boy said, looking a little apprehensive.

  “What’s this I hear about you presenting Kei with bits of dead animal? A strange way to show affection, I must say.”

  He was only joking, but immediately regretted it as a slow flush crept over Karik’s fair cheeks. Kei nudged Arman in the ribs and not gently. “Don’t be mean. It’s actually something quite interesting—first report of a grass parasite in an urs beast brain. I’m hoping it’s an isolated case—those things are damn hard to get rid of.”

  “Oh—you’re right, that is interesting.” In parts of Kuprij, on the smaller islands, they were a major pest and had to be dealt with by stringent culling and grass burning. “Misek said it was from the beast that attacked your father?”