Falling From the Tree (Darshian Tales #2)

by Ann Somerville

  But Nym wasn’t to be distracted or deterred, and once he enlisted his mother’s help, Jembis had no hope of arguing about it. At least Nym had closed the bedroom door and asked his mother to leave them to it, once the bowls and soap and clothes had been brought. It wasn’t too bad at first—he was allowed to stay in bed, the sheet and blankets around his waist as Nym very gently and skilfully washed Jembis’s face and upper body. He even wiped a cloth through his hair, just to remove the dust, he said.

  “You’ve done this before?” Jembis asked, starting to relax under the careful handling. This was really nice. Embarrassing as hells, but nice.

  “Yes—with Eido, when he was sick.” Nym’s mouth tightened for a moment, but then he smiled in a rather forced way. “He never made the fuss you did, though.” He got Jembis to lean forward so he could wipe his back, being careful not to hurt the still painful bruising. Father had a powerful arm, Jembis thought ruefully. “You’re not used to people looking after you, are you?”

  “I do the looking after, usually.” Nym let him sit back, and raised a questioning eyebrow. “My father does a lot of animal trading, and we brought in wild caught stock every so often. That was my job, caring for the young animals.”

  “Oh.” That information surprised Nym—did he think he was just deadweight? “So how will he manage now you’re...not?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t care. I was going to leave when I turned eighteen anyway. There’s lots of jobs I can do with animals—I mean, with a good arm,” he added ruefully.

  “Yes, indeed.” Nym became rather thoughtful over this, though Jembis couldn’t see why. “Right, now for your lower bits.”

  He started to pull back the covers, but Jembis gripped his wrist hard. “Please...don’t.”

  “Jembis, I won’t....” But then he let go and looked at haaaim oddly. “I’m not going to molest you or anything. I’d wash you the same as I’d wash Jaika or Pa.”

  “Please.” Jembis was surprised himself by how revolted he was by the idea, but he just couldn’t face being touched that way.

  Nym just sighed. “All right. I’ll give you the cloth and you wash your privates. I’ll come back and do your legs. Will that do?”

  Jembis nodded, and without another word, Nym gave him a freshly wrung out cloth, then left the room, to Jembis’s intense relief. He was left alone for a good quarter hour or so, more time than he needed, even though he did as thorough a job as he thought Nym would expect.

  Nym’s expression was unreadable as he came back, knocking first, and carrying a towel which he arranged over Jembis’s groin before pushing the blankets back and finishing the job. By the time he had combed Jembis’s hair for him and helped him clean his teeth and wash his mouth, he’d recovered his composure. He settled a clean shirt over Jembis’s head. “There you go. Sweet-smelling and pleasant again.”

  “Thank you.”

  Nym nodded as he cleared up. “Maybe one day you could tell me what made you so nervous.”

  “Why, so you can tell everyone again?”

  Nym winced. “All right—I suppose I deserved that. I won’t breach your confidence again, though I wish you could believe me when I say we just want to help you. Ma and Pa are furious about your father—they think it’s disgusting. And Jaika really likes you. No one wishes you ill.”

  Jembis kept his mouth shut—he wasn’t convinced that Nym didn’t wish him ill, at least sometimes, though he was being really nice today. Different—not so standoffish. “Do you have a job too?”

  “Oh yes. I’m a partner in the business. Pa’s been covering for me so I can help you, but I should really be getting back to that soon. When you’re up to getting out of bed, though.”

  “I don’t need anyone now. You can go if you like.”

  Nym just smiled. “Maybe tomorrow, all right? You still look pretty wobbly.”

  Jembis was suddenly startled by the sounds of distant shouting, and doors being banged elsewhere in the house. Nym got to his feet, listened for a moment. “Stay here,” he said sternly, then left, closing the door behind him.

  Jembis quickly assessed where his clothes were, and his boots—force of habit. When Nym didn’t come back in a few minutes, he decided he really had better get dressed, but he was just swinging his legs out of the bed when Nym came back in, looking grim.

  “I told you to stay here,” he said in a gruff tone that made Jembis think his temporary good humour had disappeared. But his next words made it clear Jembis wasn’t the cause of his mood. “We’ve been locked in again—the soldiers are in the streets and there’s a curfew. No one in or out until further orders.”

  “Why?”

  Nym shrugged. “Who knows? This happens every so often—every time there’s trouble in the city, they decide the Darshianese have to be caged up. Usually only lasts a day, two at most. We’re used to it by now—good thing Lomi went to the market early.” He smiled reassuringly. “You’re safe, I promise. So long as you don’t go out and I wouldn’t recommend that anyway.”

  “I didn’t know about this, but we don’t spend much time in the city. I don’t like Utuk.”

  “Me either. I wish we could move back to Temshek. But the business is well

  established here, and it’s important to our clan. We supply a lot of healers, Prij and Darshianese, in Utuk.”

  “You could leave,” Jembis said diffidently. “You’re all grown up and everything.”

  “Yes,” Nym said with a more natural looking smile. “But I love my family and I’m interested in the work. One day we’ll move back. None of us want to grow old in Kuprij, that’s for sure. So where were you born? Where’s home?”

  “Uh...well, I don’t really have a home. I was born here, but I’ve spent most of the time travelling. I really like Andon. Darshian’s nice too. The Welensi Islands are beautiful but the people are really fierce. Some of the Prijian islands are interesting, but I like the north better.”

  “You’ve been all over, haven’t you? Guess you don’t like getting stuck in the one place for long.”

  “Never had much choice. Father travelled and I went with him. Living in a house like this would be good,” he said wistfully. “Not that I could ever do that.”

  “Well, you might. You might have to learn a trade or something, that’s all. Now you’ve got away from your Pa, you could.”

  Jembis shook his head—Nym was pretty naïve. “Not in Utuk. And I’m too old to be apprenticed. I could get a position on another ship soon enough though. It’s not the travelling so much as the animals I really like.”

  “You sound like Eido. Anytime he could persuade someone to give him a lift to the city menagerie, he’d go. Ma didn’t want him keeping pets in the house, but he would play with hisks or jombekers in our friends’ houses. Ma says...she wishes she’d let him have them now.”

  Nym was sad again. “Hisks can be a nuisance,” Jembis said. “And you don’t really have room for your own jombekers.”

  Nym rubbed his eye, as if he had something in it—Jembis knew better. “That’s what she said. I guess we just wish we’d let him do what he wanted, if he was only going to live such a short time.” He cleared his throat. “I, uh—”

  “You don’t have to hang around, you know. I’ll be fine on my own,” Jembis said quickly. Just being around him upset Nym, and he didn’t want that.

  “I’m sure, but it’s not very friendly.” He cleared his throat again. “I’ve some reading I need to do—some letters and things. Do you mind if I bring them in here? I can keep you company and still do some work.”

  “That’s fine.” Jembis would have preferred to be on his own, but he had to admit it would be dull. He wasn’t much good at sitting still with nothing to do, unfortunately. But if Nym wanted to be in here, then Jembis wasn’t in a position to argue with him. It wasn’t as if he even had the chance right now to leave the house again. He wondered what the trouble was in the city that had caused the lockdown. Probably wouldn’t find out—probably didn’t ma
tter. This was going to be a really boring few weeks, he thought, suppressing a sigh.

  ~~~~~~~~

  Nym leaned on the wall after he left the back room. Damn it—and he’d thought he was doing so well this morning. Everything about Jembis and his situation kept bringing Eido to mind. It would have been so nice to remember his brother if it didn’t hurt so pissing much. He wondered if he was falling apart, going mad from grief. It happened, he knew it did—people even killed themselves sometimes. That idea had never occurred to him, but he understood how someone could find themselves that desperate to end their sorrow. Right now, he never thought he would be happy again, and he could almost have envied Eido being out of all this, if he hadn’t known that Eido loved every moment of his life, and wanted to live and be with them all as long as he could. “As we wanted you,” he whispered, his eyes filling again.

  “Nym, dear, I—” His mother stopped short as she saw the state of him. “Oh, my darling boy—what’s happened now?”

  “Nothing...it’s just the situation, Ma. Ever since he came, I just...I was wondering if I was going mad.”

  She took his hands. “If you are, we all are. It will pass, in a fashion at least. When my mother died, I was like this for a long time. You’re doing better than I did.”

  He put his arms out and pulled her close. “I’m trying to be strong,” he murmured. “I just keep getting reminded of Eido.”

  “I know, darling. But look at it this way—remembering him is a good thing.”

  “That’s what Jembis said.” Nym heaved a sigh. “Ma—did you know he can’t read? Not even a little bit?”

  She leaned back to look at him. “No, but it doesn’t surprise me. The ignorance of the poor in this city no longer shocks me.”

  “I didn’t realise. He’s smart enough, I just assumed a smart person would be able to read.”

  She smiled sadly. “Going to make him a project?”

  “You think I should? Eido would have done.”

  “Yes he would, though I was more thinking of it as something that might keep Jaika in the house. She seems to like the lad, and since he’s going to be here for a while....” They looked at each other in perfect understanding. “I’ve still got some of your beginner’s books somewhere.”

  “And I could probably get some more once we can go out again—do you think Jaika will do it?”

  “She likes being with people and helping them. It’s why I wish she’d pay more attention to her books, because she’d be a marvellous teacher or healer. She doesn’t need to work in this business, but she doesn’t seem to think of any other possibility.”

  “Then maybe this is just what she needs,” Nym said. “I was going to do some paperwork while I sat with him. I’ll go find her and see if she wants to entertain him for a while.”

  “Good idea, son of mine,” she said, smiling at him, and reaching up to touch his cheek. “You have such a good heart.”

  “You wouldn’t have thought that if you’d seen me yesterday.”

  She shook her head as she stroked his face. “Darling, no one expects you to be perfect, least of all me. Now, go find your sister and see if you can persuade her to try. Have you spoken to Jembis about it?”

  “No. I only just had the idea.”

  “Well, let’s leave her to talk him into it. It’ll be an interesting experiment at least,” she said with an impish grin. It reminded him that his mother could be quite a prankster when she was in the mood—not that any of them had been feeling playful lately.

  He found his sister in her room, moping. “Stupid soldiers,” she said grouchily as he came to her door. “What have we done this time?”

  “Nothing. It’s never anything the Darshianese have done, you know that. Anyway, never mind about that—I need your help.”

  “Me?” She narrowed her eyes. “Is it nasty work?”

  “No,” he said, laughing at her suspicion. “I don’t think so anyway. It does need your people skills though.”

  She sniffed. “You said I was noisy.”

  “Well, you are, sister mine, but you’re the friendliest of the lot of us, and I’ve got a shy bird needing taming.”

  “Huh? Nym, you’re making even less sense than usual.”

  “Do try to pretend to have some manners, Jai-chi. Jembis can’t read.”

  “Really?”

  “Not a word.”

  “That’s terrible!” He waited for her to work it out for herself—it didn’t take long. “Do you think he could learn, even at his age?”

  “He speaks two languages, he’s bright enough. Trouble is, I’m not much good at teaching and we, uh, got off to a bad start.”

  “Bad start! You threw him out of the house!”

  He waved at her to keep her voice down. “Yes, I know, and now he thinks I’m horrible, not that I blame him. But I still don’t like to see someone not being able to read.”

  “Me either,” she said firmly. “Does Ma still have any of our children’s books?”

  Nym hid a smile—he knew he could rely on her. “I think she might do. Are you going to try and teach him? He doesn’t see any reason to read, you know—just warning you.”

  “Well, that’s just silly,” she said, getting off the bed. “I’m going to go down there right now and talk to him.”

  “Good for you,” Nym said. “Only, Jai-chi—he still is rather sick. He needs to be treated very gently.”

  “Like you did yesterday?” But as Nym’s face fell, knowing he deserved the barb, she took his hand. “Sorry, Nym-chi, that was mean. You must have been upset.”

  “I was, but it’s no excuse. But after all that, he’ll need a bit of coaxing, since he thinks we’re no better than his Pa.”

  “That man,” she said, her mouth twisting in anger. “If he comes here, I’ll show him a thing or two!”

  “If he comes here, you leave him to me and Pa,” Nym said, worried she would be as good as her word—she had a hell of a temper, and cruelty was one thing that always got her furious. “He won’t touch Jembis, I promise you that.”

  “No, he won’t,” she said, her jaw set in the same familiar determined jut as their mother’s did when she was angry. “What are we waiting for? Shoo!”

  Nym smiled to himself as he went back down the stairs. Poor Jembis—but it was for his own good.

  ~~~~~~~~

  As Nym came back into the room bearing tea for them all, Jembis used his eyes to plead for help. Miraculously, the man understood. “Enough for now, Jai-chi. You’ve got your own lessons to do now.”

  She pouted, but stood up, to Jembis’s intense relief. “I’ll come back tomorrow, Jembis. I think you’ll pick this up really fast. I’m pleased with you.”

  He gave her a smile, glad to have made her happy, only he really wished his head didn’t ache so much. As she left, Nym took her place and handed him a mug of tea. “Too much?” he asked quietly.

  “A bit. You could have warned me.”

  Nym’s mouth quirked. “Now where’s the fun in that? Did you mind it, really?”

  Jembis considered. “No, I guess not. But I’m not a child, you know. In a few months, I can marry, make a contract—I could join the army now if I wanted. She was telling me children’s stories!”

  “Ah. Sorry about that. I don’t suppose she knew where to start, with you being grown up but not having the reading skills of an adult. If you really hate it, I’ll tell her to leave off. Do you?”

  “I just don’t see the point. It’s not like I need to read, not Darshianese, anyway.”

  Nym smiled slightly. “You never know—you might want to send someone a letter one day. If you don’t hate it, Ma and I would be really grateful. Jaika’s been really at a loose end since Eido died—they did so much together, and she misses him as much as I do. Ma thought it might help her settle down a bit. We’d consider it a favour,” he said, turning his handsome dark eyes on Jembis with a pleading look.

  “I don’t mind. But only until I can leave.”
/>   “Of course. How are you feeling? You’re making a terrible face.”

  “My head hurts. My ears ache,” he added, which made Nym laugh. It was nice to hear him laugh. Though Jembis was still rather wary of him, this family were good people, and he could probably trust them—up to a point.

  “Then rest—you’ve earned it. I’ll leave you in peace—you can use the bell if you need anything. There’ll be someone around downstairs, but I’ve really got to do some work in the store room for Ma.”

  “How long do I have to stay in bed? I’ve hit my head before, you know. I always just got back to work.”

  Nym grimaced. “I’m sure, but it’s a wonder you didn’t die. Joti explained it—your brain got bruised, and if you push yourself, you could make it bleed again and that would really kill you. Which is why what I did yesterday was criminally stupid.”

  Jembis didn’t want to open that all up again, and he’d already forgiven the man for it. “But if I was really careful and quiet?”

  “Tell you what—take it easy today, and if Joti agrees, you can get up tomorrow. Maybe sit with Lomi in the kitchen or something. But you won’t be doing any work—Pa would have my hide.”

  Jembis was rather startled by that. “He beats you too?”

  “Pa? No, of course...it’s an expression, Jembis. We don’t believe in hitting our children. Certainly not like this,” he said, gently touching Jembis’s bruised jaw. “That looks like it hurts like hell.”

  “A bit. Had worse.”

  Nym looked revolted. “How could anyone do such a thing?” he murmured. “Was he always like that?”

  “Mostly. Has a right temper on him. The sailors all steered clear of him, I know that.”

  “Didn’t you have any friends on the boat? No one to keep you safe?”

  “They looked out for me, best they could. I learned about animal tending from them. But Pa scared them, I guess. No one knew whether being my friend would help them or harm them. I manage,” he said with a shrug. “It’s not unusual.”