The Sword

by Bryan M. Litfin

  Maurice stroked his chin. “So it’s not that you don’t believe in the gods. It’s that you think they’re unworthy of worship.”

  “Right. There certainly are powers out there, but they’re not out to help me. They don’t care for my well-being. That’s why I rely on myself.” Teo flexed his biceps and pointed. “Here’s my god.”

  Maurice chuckled. “I believe that strong arm of yours can accomplish a great deal in this world, but not nearly as much as you think.” He looked at the pendulum clock on his wall. “Come now, Teo. It’s time to make our appearance at the ceremonies.”

  “I’m not going this year.”

  “Hmm. You’ll be missed. The priests won’t like it.”

  “Even so, I’m staying right here.” Teo leaned back, crossed his arms behind his head, and put his feet up on the settee.

  “Suit yourself, then. I’ll make my perfunctory appearance and return as soon as I can. I only hope I don’t vomit from the smell.”

  “It is bad. The Elzebulians have been demanding more excrement than usual from the people.”

  Maurice opened the door. “I’ll be back before sunset,” he said with an air of resignation.

  “If not, I’m coming for you. You don’t need to be out alone on the Wild Night.”

  “There are a lot of people, Ana! Keep your eyes open.” Lina dragged her cousin by the hand through the crowded streets of Lekovil. Collection barrels, into which people were emptying their chamber pots and stable waste, lined the sidewalks. Some men even used the barrels as latrines. The smell in the air was a noxious combination of dung, stale urine, and sour beer. Most of the revelers didn’t seem to mind it, though. The beer had taken care of that.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have come,” Ana protested.

  “Then I’d be here alone, and you’d be worried sick.”

  “I know! That’s exactly why I came.” Ana huffed and shook her head.

  “Well, now that you’re here, you might as well enjoy yourself. Come on, let’s find something to drink and watch the entertainment.”

  Lina ducked into a tavern and returned with two earthenware cups overflowing with foamy beer. She took a long swig from one of them, leaving a frothy mustache on her upper lip. Two handsome men in the crowd noticed it and toasted her raucously, so Lina threw them a wink. She handed the second cup to Ana, who began to sip from it, but someone jostled her and caused her to spill beer down the front of her gown. She sighed.

  “Wait right here,” she instructed Lina.

  Inside the tavern, Ana asked to borrow the barkeep’s towel. He obliged, and Ana cleaned her gown as much as possible.

  “Buy you a drink?” A thin man with greasy hair slid over to Ana’s side. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead. His breath was atrocious.

  “I was just leaving.” Ana turned to go.

  The man grabbed her elbow. “Pretty girl like you won’t drink with the likes of me, eh?”

  Ana yanked her elbow from the man’s grasp and walked away.

  “You’d better be in by sundown, honey,” the man warned. Ana’s heart was beating rapidly as she left the tavern. She stepped out on the sidewalk and looked around.

  Lina was gone.

  Ana called her cousin’s name and scanned the crowd but couldn’t find Lina anywhere. A feeling of unease began to gnaw at her stomach. Where could she be? I told her to stay put!

  A cheer went up as the leading edge of the parade rounded the corner. The onlookers surged to the street to watch the entertainers as they passed by on wagons. Strangers pressed close to Ana as she was swept into the crowd. The smell of body odor assaulted her nostrils and made her gag. A hand groped her from somewhere within the sea of bodies, but she squirmed away from the prying fingers.

  The wagons neared the place where Ana was standing. Male and female dancers in skimpy outfits performed tawdry routines for the crowd’s delight. Musicians played on harps and pipes, their music mingling with the coarse jesting from the onlookers. Beer was flowing freely now as the crowd’s mood intensified. A man with two felt-wrapped mallets kept time on a large kettledrum, his fast rhythm mimicking a racing heartbeat.

  Lina! Where are you? Ana didn’t bother shouting anymore because she wouldn’t be heard over the din. She despaired of finding her cousin in the tight-packed mass of revelers. A glance at the sky heightened Ana’s sense of urgency: the sun was getting low. She had to act fast.

  With renewed determination, Ana wriggled away from the street toward the storefronts, not bothering to be polite, but shoving the drunken revelers aside as she forced her way through the mob. At one point she stumbled into the arms of a man with an enormous belly. “Aha! Come to me, gorgeous!” he cried as he pressed his moist lips to her face. Ana pushed him aside and broke free from the crowd, taking shelter in a recessed doorway to catch her breath.

  More wagons proceeded through the streets as the parade rolled along. The ones driven by the priests of Elzebul were drawn by black horses that seemed skittish in the pandemonium. Men began to lift the collection barrels to dump great quantities of excrement into the wagons’ troughs as they passed. The fetid mixture splattered the crowd, but the mood was so lusty that no one paid attention to the filth on their clothes.

  As Ana searched the throng, she finally spotted Lina, whose white-blonde curls identified her immediately. Down the street, two large men were escorting her into a seedy tavern. Ana ran to catch up, but when she tried the door, it had been locked. Desperate now, Ana circled around to an alley and found a door into the kitchen. She stepped around the kegs and crates on the floor until she could peek into the barroom. Her cousin sat at a table in the corner, hemmed in by the two men. The room was otherwise empty.

  “Lina!” When Ana called her cousin’s name, Lina looked up, but her expression wasn’t that of a merrymaker having drinks with new friends. She had the fearful look of cornered prey. Lina started to rise, but one of the men placed a hand on her shoulder and forced her to sit. The two men turned in their seats to face Ana, and she recognized them as the pair who had toasted Lina earlier.

  “We was just gettin’ acquainted, all friendly like,” said one. “How ’bout you join us?”

  Ana kept her voice calm. “My cousin and I have other obligations. Come on, Lina, we should be going.” She held out her hand to the terrified girl.

  “Aw, now that ain’t nice,” said the other man, rising to approach Ana. He came too close, staring into her eyes. “I think you should sit down with us,” he said.

  From behind Ana, a level voice spoke. “The women would like to go.”

  All four faces turned toward the speaker. A dignified old man, wearing the blue robes of a senior professor at the University, had entered through the kitchen. His bald head was encircled with a diadem, and his manicured goatee was pure white. He was handsome for his age with a regal bearing. Ana had never seen him before.

  The ruffian standing by Ana replied first. “Mind your own business, grandpa.”

  “My business is knowledge, my friend. And it is knowledge you lack.”

  The man sitting by Lina bolted from his chair and approached the professor, stopping a few paces away. “You sayin’ we’re dumb?” he demanded.

  “I said you lack knowledge. But knowledge can be acquired.”

  “What knowledge?”

  The professor faced the two men, who stood side by side with belligerent expressions. Ana beckoned to Lina, who rose from the corner table and joined her cousin. They clasped hands and began to ease away.

  “Perhaps you lack knowledge of how to attain wealth.” The professor held up a steel coin. He balanced the coin on his fist, snapped the fingers of his other hand, and displayed his palms. The coin had vanished! He made a throwing motion toward an adjacent table, which he then approached. Reaching into a bowl of nuts, he produced the steel coin again.

  “See? There is much you don’t know,” the professor said with a smile. The two men glanced at each other, then lunged toward the tables a
nd began searching the bowls for coins. Ana and Lina used the opportunity to slip through the back door, followed by the professor. They ran, rounding a few corners in the alleys until Ana felt sure they couldn’t be found. She turned toward the old man.

  “We’re in your debt, sir,” she said, panting.

  “I noticed your distress and followed you into the tavern. You shouldn’t be on the streets right now, Anastasia.”

  “You know me?”

  “Yes, by reputation. You are highly regarded by a friend of mine, but never mind that. My name is Maurice.” He bowed to Ana, then turned to Lina and made her acquaintance as well.

  “It’s late! We have to be getting home,” Ana said urgently.

  “There’s no time. You’re in more danger than you know. The Wild Night has always been a festival of wanton license, but tonight the priests are taking things a step further. A decree is being made to the crowds even as we speak. The laws of Chiveis are being suspended from dusk until dawn. Crimes will be overlooked if the offender pays a sufficient tithe of excrement. Tonight will be a night of lawbreaking.”

  “That’s horrible!” Lina exclaimed.

  “You women must come to the University. You’ll be safe there until morning. I’ll show you a back way.”

  Maurice led Ana and Lina through a maze of alleys and side streets. Now that the decree had gone into effect, the sounds of revelry in Lekovil had been replaced by the sounds of anarchy. Glass was breaking, women were shouting, and buildings had been set on fire. At last the threesome arrived at the main street again. Hooligans were looting the stores and brawling in the filthy gutters. A short distance away, Ana spotted the University’s gate.

  “We’ll have to make a run for it in the open,” Maurice said.

  Ana had just started to move when a hand yanked her back. She cried out, and Lina shrieked at the same moment. The two ruffians from the tavern had found them again.

  “Goin’ somewhere?” one asked. “We was just gettin’ to know ya.” He sneered at Ana and wrenched her arm to bring her face close to his.

  “There weren’t no more coins in them bowls, old-timer!” The second man knocked Maurice to the ground with a fist to the jaw. The professor struggled to rise, but the first man kicked him into a stone wall. Ana and Lina began to back into an alley as the two thugs advanced.

  “Let them go.”

  The voice was firm and commanding. Ana recognized it at once. An immense wave of emotion overcame her—relief and something more.

  The two men whirled. “You gonna make us?” one of them snarled.

  “It won’t be difficult.”

  The first man yanked a knife from his belt and lunged. Teo sidestepped the thrust and snapped the man’s arm with a loud crack. The assailant screamed and clutched his arm, which dangled loosely at the elbow. The other man dropped his own knife and held up his hands. The pair scuttled out of the alley, darting past Maurice, who was dusting himself off and licking his bloody lip.

  “Teo!” Ana ran to him and hugged his neck. “You came just in time!”

  “I told you, I always will.” He smiled warmly and looked into her eyes, his hands resting on her waist. “It’s good to see you again, Ana.”

  Ana introduced her cousin, who gazed up at Teo in awe. “Hi,” she managed to peep.

  Teo returned the greeting, then went to check on Maurice, who waved off the attention and signaled that he would be fine. They returned to the women, and Teo explained that Maurice was his mentor. Ana sensed that the wise professor had been deeply disturbed by the night’s events.

  Maurice spread his arms and addressed the three young people. “My friends, tonight we’ve seen the face of madness. The filth of Elzebul has been exposed for what it is—not uplifting, not ennobling, not virtuous, but a worship that is detrimental to the human spirit.” Maurice’s face was angry. “How long?” he cried to the sky. “How long will the Kingdom of Chiveis bear the burden of such corrupt worship?”

  Ana leaned close to Teo and whispered in his ear, “Teo, I think there’s something you need to show your friend.”

  CHAPTER

  9

  You’re stalling, aren’t you?” Teo grinned at Ana as she sat across from him in the University’s refectory. The room was nearly empty. A bright morning sun shone through the windows, but the normal breakfast crowd was absent. Lekovil had quite a hangover.

  “Stalling from what?” Ana asked as she buttered her bread far too meticulously.

  “From going home. I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t want to face your father right now. I’d be stalling too.”

  “I sent him a message as soon as I arrived here! He knows I’m safe.”

  “Safe, yes. But you sneaked away without his permission.”

  Ana looked glum. “I know. I hate it when I disappoint him.” Her shoulders slumped.

  “He loves you. He’ll be angry, but it will blow over. In the meantime, feel free to stall. I’m enjoying breakfast, just the two of us.”

  “I’m not stalling,” Ana insisted. “I always eat this slowly.” She turned her cheek and regarded Teo from the corners of her eyes, a playful smile on her lips. “Like a lady.”

  Teo snorted. “Right! What about the time we ran out of meat for a few days and then I finally took a doe? You made a sauce from some currants you found. I remember how you wolfed down that meat, with sticky red stuff all over your face!” He motioned toward Ana’s mouth.

  “I didn’t wolf it down!” Ana protested in mock indignation. “I nibbled it quickly.”

  Her description of the incident reduced Teo and Ana to a fit of boisterous laughter. For a time they enjoyed the joke as they sat across from each other, not needing to say anything else because they both understood. At last they fell silent, and Teo sensed a more serious mood descending on the table.

  “A lot happened out there in the Beyond,” he remarked.

  “And also when we got back.”

  “Good morning, you two!” Lina approached the table, all bouncy and cheerful and shiny in the sunlight. Teo rose to greet her and pulled up a chair. “I’m starved,” she said, reaching for the bread and topping it with butter and jam.

  The breakfast progressed at a leisurely pace, with Maurice making it a foursome a few minutes later. Teo felt there was more he wanted to say to Ana, but the moment had been lost.

  The hour was late by the time Ana and Lina decided to head back to Vingin. Teo escorted the women to the University’s gate. As they said good-bye, Ana leaned close to him.

  “Remember, you made a promise to me.”

  Teo was startled. “I did?”

  “To translate the book of Deu,” she whispered.

  “Oh, right. I’m planning to start that project right away. I finally have the time.”

  “Be sure and tell Master Maurice about it. I think he’s a seeker too.”

  “I’ll tell him today.”

  Teo paused, suddenly aware of the people coming and going at the gate. His thoughts were jumbled. Should I say something about . . . us? He decided to play it safe. “It was great to see you again, Ana. Please pass on my regards to your parents.” He gave her a polite hug and patted her on the shoulder. Ana nodded and took her leave, though she seemed a little put out as she and Lina set off down the street.

  When they were out of sight, Teo turned and made his way to his rooms. Retrieving a wooden chest from under his bed, he raised the lid and removed the leather-bound book, setting it carefully on his desk. He opened to the Table of Contents and read the headings there. They were divided into two groups, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Unfortunately, the New Testament was lost to water damage. Perhaps no one would ever know how the book ended.

  Glancing at the individual book titles, Teo realized he could translate a few of them, such as Beginning, Departure, Magistrates, First and Second Kings, First and Second Histories, and Maxims. However, many other titles he didn’t recognize.

  One particular heading caught his eye: H
ymns. He turned to the first page and translated it slowly: “Happy is the man who does not walk according to the counsel of the wicked, who does not stop in the road of sinners, and who does not sit in the company of mockers, but who finds his delight in the law of the Eternal One and meditates on it day and night.” Ana will like this, Teo thought. He resolved to give her Deu’s poetic words as a special gift.

  As Teo gingerly turned the pages and surveyed the entire book, a plan of action coalesced in his mind. Obviously he should translate the initial book called Beginning, as well as some of the hymns. But to ease into things and to get a feel for the Sacred Writing of Deu, he would also start translating the book called Ruth. Not only was it brief, it was a narrative, which made it easier to translate than the ones full of incomprehensible oracles. Furthermore, the main character was a woman. Teo thought Ana would like that. He decided to work on these texts when he had time from his other duties, sending them to Ana as he finished them.

  Now only one problem remained. Teo realized he needed to secure the services of a copyist to transform his messy, marked-up notes into nice, clean scrolls. Not just anyone could do the job. It would have to be someone intelligent, academic, and willing to drop everything to work hard on the project. Most importantly, it would have to be someone who would do exactly as he was instructed, telling no one about the project. Teo scrawled a note on a piece of parchment, sealed it, and strolled to the University’s main gate.

  “How can I help you, Professor Teofil?” the gatekeeper asked.

  “I have two tasks. First, I want you to send someone to locate Professor Maurice and ask him to come to my rooms right away. It’s an important private matter.”

  “It will be done, sir. And the second task?”

  “I want this sent out immediately.”

  “Where to?”

  “Send it to my student, Shaphan the Metalsmith.”