The Fateless: Errata

by Seri Anne Lynn

  Aidan bolted upright, his chest pounding and out of breath. “What? Oh sorry, I think I fell asleep,” he stammered, trying to regain full consciousness.

  “Yeah, sounded like you were having one heck of a dream too,” Rowen chuckled. “Anyway, I thought you might want to eat. Everyone’s in the kitchen. Tybor made his famous gumbo, you don’t want to miss that.”

  Aidan could smell the spicy aroma wafting through the room, “Gumbo? They eat gumbo here?”

  “Well not really, but Tybor is an Ambassador to the Otherworld and even has family in New Orleans, so he’s familiar with it. He loves Cajun cuisine, so he makes his version of it here. They don’t have all the exact ingredients in this world, but he comes up with some pretty good substitutes.”

  So that explained the accent, he sighed as the realization set in, but then let his mind drift to the comforting smell of food he recognized. He hoped that if they have recipes like gumbo, then maybe there was some chance of him being able to eat a decent meal that didn’t look like it was something fed to the livestock. He made a mental note to ask about pizza before joining them in the kitchen.

  Entering he could see that Tybor and Tat had already helped themselves to a generous bowl, and that there were bowls set out for Rowen and himself.

  “Dun’ be shy boy. He’p yerself ta some of de best gumbo dis side of de gate,” Tybor encouraged him.

  Aidan quickly sat down and began doing just that. Although the taste wasn’t exact, he had to give Tybor credit for doing with what he had. He was not thrilled that there wasn’t any rice, but the barley like ingredient seemed to make a good alternative.

  “So watcha think? Perfect for a rainy day?” Rowen asked with a grin across his face.

  “Mm-hmm,” Aidan nodded while scarfing down another bite.

  It didn’t take them long to finish off the gumbo, saving some for Gyrren when he got back. Surprisingly, it was Tat that started up a conversation about what their next steps should be. Aidan was glad to hear it too, maybe now she’d stop asking him what they needed to do for a change.

  “...And then we can catch a skitterdu going to Graymark up at Yon’s Pass,” Tat suggested tracing the route with her finger over the map that Clover and Biscuit packed, “Graymark has to be big enough to have a huvel point to Breah Dorn.”

  “Nope, that won’t work,” Rowen commented, “There’s no way you will get to Breah Dorn without getting approval from the Ceil. She had all the huvel points shut down between upper and lower Breah last year when the devotee attacks got too bad in that area. There’s only one left anywhere near here, and that’s down in the heart of Myrr territory, so we’ll have to find a way down there.”

  “Dat wouldn’ be a good idea righ’ now Rowen.” Tybor interjected, “Dere’s been some trouble in dose parts since last you were here.”

  “What the hell!” Aidan interrupted grabbing the map from Tat’s hands and almost ripping it in the process “This map... it’s nearly the same as the one from back home. I mean... this is the U.S.. The names are all wrong, but it’s the same damn place!”

  “I thought you knew that already,” Rowen tried to keep a calm voice in hopes it would placate Aidan. “Like I told you, the worlds were duplicated when they split. The Otherworld is mostly a mirror image of the Notherworld. I mean some of it’s changed, like cities and all – and some geographical shifts that happened over there but didn’t happen here changed a few things, but it’s pretty much the same.”

  It took a bit for it to sink in, but when it did Aidan looked as if he’d just snapped out of a long nightmare.

  “So, if that’s the case, where are we now?” he scanned the faces in the room, demanding to know. Tat, annoyed by his outburst, tried to remain calm as she leaned over and pointed on the map.

  “Ok,” Aidan tried to get a handle on this new revelation. “So in the US that would be about southern Georgia, just north of Florida, if memory of my fifth-grade geography class serves me right. So, Florida,” he hesitated, trying to wrap his mind around it. “That’s where we’ve got to go? Where ‘Myrr Territory’ is? So what’s the deal with this Myrr place? Why can’t we just go there and get this ‘Ceil’ thing or whatever?”

  “OK, umm, how to say this...” Rowen sighed. “Let me put it in terms you’ll understand – hopefully. The Myrr isn’t just a place, it’s a people. I will just come out and say it. They are mermaids dude; or rather mer-people, I guess to say mermaid would be a bit sexist. And these mer-people aren’t quite like you’ve seen in cartoons and stuff,” he rambled on.

  “They don’t have a big tail like a fish, well not all of them. Some do, but those are more wild-like and less people-like. A good many of them though are at least partial land dwellers and have legs, but still do just fine in the water too. And well, the thing is,” he sighed again before continuing. “They are not the friendly type, especially to outsiders.

  The land is what we call the ‘Octaginaw’.” Rowen cleared his throat, taking a second to think how to explain this without coming off too offensive to anyone, “And to put it nicely, it would be about like what you’d call slums I guess, or rather, not where any self-respecting Fae would be caught dead.”

  “Dere defin’ely be some roughnecks down dere, das for sure,” Tybor interjected, noticing that Rowen was having a hard time of it since Aidan looked more perplexed than ever. “An’ den dere’s de pirates.”

  “Pirates?” Aidan looked faint, easily understanding that word.

  “Well again,” Rowen tapped on the table. “Maybe not like you would think of pirates with the whole big ol’ ship on the water, peg legs, and eye patches or anything, but it’s close.

  The Myrr and the ‘Devotees’ as the pirate thugs like to be called, have had an on-again-off-again truce going on for a few centuries now, depending on if they can find anything to have a war over. And the ‘Ceil’, that’s a title by the way – kind of like a Governor, anyway; she tries to keep order and keep it from falling into all out and out Shadderah.”

  “Shadderah?”

  “Oh, yeah that’s another place.” He took the map from Aidan and flipped it over and pointed to a globe. Aidan recognized it to be the entire continent of Australia, “Here. But the name often gets used to mean, well, basically translated ‘land of the damned’; or like we’d say back home, would be like another word for Hell. And the Ceil these days, well she’s one tough ol’ bitty if you know what I mean.”

  Rowen paused for a second and looked over at Tybor, not sure he should use phrases like that in front of him. He knew that if his amma would have heard it she would have washed out his mouth with soap, even if he was sixteen years old. Tybor raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Deciding it was safe to continue he added, “So, that means we brave the Myrr and find an open huvel.”

  “Oh.” Aidan nodded as if all this made perfect sense to him.

  “An’ like I says,” Tybor slammed his fist on the table. “It jus’ ain’t a good idea righ’ now. It jus’ ain’t safe. Yer amma woul’ turn me into a three-eyed one-legg’d toad if she dought I’d let you’n go off to da Octaginaw’s righ’ now.”

  “We don’t have a choice. There’s no other option. We’ll just have to figure it out.” Rowen reasoned.

  “An’ why’s dat? Why do you’s kids gotta go bravin’ da Myrr anyhow? What’s so importan’ you’n all willin’ ta risk dyin’ ta get ta Breah Dorn?”

  “It can’t be that bad, can it?” Aidan suddenly lost his appetite and felt like the mock gumbo he’d eaten was about to make a reappearance. “Like Rowen said, we’ll just have to figure it out. I mean, if there’s no other options.”

  “We’ll manage. We’ll just have to be careful about it and–” Rowen tried to reassure Aidan, but Tybor interrupted.

  “Answer me Hoss. I’m not sure what you’s tryin’ ta pull here but I know when somethin’ ain’t righ’. An’ I know damn well you couldn’t bring either of dese two drough da gate, so start talkin’ or I’ll get Virginia on
da com righ’ now.”

  “Ok, ok. There’s no need to go gettin’ mom involved,” Rowen knew the elf would be true to his word, “I didn’t bring them over. They were already here. I ran into them on the road when I was searching for the wyren for Amma. I agreed I’d help get them to the temples in Breah Dorn, I think that’s really what Amma had me sent over here for.”

  “So you’s lied ta me?” Tybor looked as if someone had slapped him in the face, obviously not expecting this from Rowen.

  “Well,” Rowen shrugged, “I didn’t want to but...”

  “But what boy? An’ why’s you’s three goin’ to da temples so importan’?”

  “It’s me,” Aidan interrupted. “Well, me and Tat I suppose. We’re... Errata... or so I’ve been told, and maybe if we go to the temples–”

  “Da Gods can fix it? Dat’s what you’n tryin’ ta do?” Tat and Aidan nodded. “So, I see. Errata huh?” Tybor asked and none of them answered, “Well, dat ain’t so bad. Ya knows if you’n jus’ lay low an’ avoid da Doves you ain’t gotta go to no temples. You’s can live here in da Notherworld.”

  “But we do Mister Tybor,” Tat sighed. “You see it’s my fault, and I’ve got to fix it and this might be the only way we can.” She explained, revealing the entire ordeal of everything that led them up to this point. He listened intently with arms crossed, as if the outlook of everything depended on what this girl was saying.

  “Mhmm. A’ight. Ya know, Errata jus’ means yer fateless, an’ from my point of view dat’s not necessarily a bad ding. Jus’ means you got no seal so yer not beholden ta no Gods, no boss, no King or gover’men’ or nothin’. Means ya get ta make yer own fate. An’ da only true fate is da one ya make. So how can bein’ fateless be a bad ding?”

  “Maybe not,” Aidan answered. “But I do want to go home at some point... and there’s that whole thing with making everyone else Errata if I touch them that might put a damper on that some.”

  “Dat’s true. I suppose da Fates wouldn’t be too happy ‘bout dat.”

  “So like I said, we brave the Myrr, there’s no other option,” Rowen reiterated.

  “Yes there is.” Tat piped up and all eyes suddenly landed on her. “Another option... I... I mean,” she stuttered. “We... we’ve just got to go to the Ceil and convince her to let us huvel from there to Breah Dorn.”

  Everyone went quiet as if they were hit with a curse of silence. What, was she crazy? Get an audience with the Ceil and explain to her that two Errata’s and one human child of Fortuna needed illegal transport via huvel to Breah Dorn?

  “Are you out of your mind? That has to be the stupidest–” Rowen began to say but Tybor interrupted.

  “Well, now jus’ wait a minute. Dat migh’ jus’ work.”

  “Ok, so it’s just crazy time now is it?” Rowen sniped.

  “Jus’ dink ‘bout it, it’s not like de Ceil is no fan of da Fates. Heck, she’d prolly come closer ta gettin’ married to a Myrr den callin’ da Annokai.”

  Aidan scrunched his eyebrows as the look of confusion spread across his face with the mention of the Annokai. Rowen cut in before he could ask, throwing his hand up at Tybor to tell him to hold on and then turning to look at Aidan. “Just think police, man; it’s easier that way.” Then he continued, “But that still means dealing with the Myrr.”

  “Not much dough. Da Ceil dun moved her place up to jus’ souf of here on da Graymark border. Like da girl dun said, we should go to Yon’s Pass and...”

  “We? What’s this ‘we’?” Rowen interjected.

  “Well I goin’ jus’ da same as you’s a goin’, an’ I’mma bettin’ fer da same reason too.”

  Rowen looked defeated and scrunched his brows together, realizing that Tybor was insisting on it out of respect for his amma. “Fine,” he sighed, knowing better than to challenge an Envarian elf’s stubbornness.

  “So’s like I sayin’, we’re goin’ to do what da girl dun said. So le’s git dis grub gone an’ get us some rest.”

  After they emptied their bowls, Aidan thought it was rather odd that they sprinkled the bottoms of the dishes with sand. It confused him even more when they took a rough looking sponge-rock thing and scrubbed them out before swishing them in a pan of nearly boiling water. Next they dipped it in another pan of cold clear water; but as strange as it were, he followed suit; figuring they knew more about how things worked over here than he did.

  Once the table was cleared and cleaned, Rowen and Tybor began a game they called Galleywan. It was some sort of card game played with what appeared to be ordinary playing cards.

  The game began with drawing five cards each from the top of the deck then fanning out the remainder cards face down on the table. They each laid a card face up on the table, and since Rowen had the highest card he bounced a small red rubber ball. This allowed him to discard one of the cards in his hand face down and grab a few cards and play them face up before Tybor could catch the ball.

  The higher the ball bounced the more time the player has to choose from the other cards laid anywhere on the table. It seemed in some ways it was much like poker. Laying out four of a kind, or four in a straight meant a lot of points, especially if they were royal suits.

  Aidan watched mainly out of curiosity. It was interesting to see how things were like the world he knew, yet also vastly different.

  He couldn’t decide if it truly fascinated him or if he was just bored because there wasn’t anything else to do. His addiction for his digital games kicked in, but he hadn’t seen the first sign of any kind of screen since he’d gotten here.

  Figuring this was the best he would get in the way of entertainment he watched with enthusiasm until the game was over and Tybor laid all his remaining cards out on the table.

  After Tybor won the first round, Rowen talked Aidan into attempting to play with them. He had a good sense of how the rules went by now, but Aidan mildly protested that he didn’t have any confidence in his ability to win.

  Tatyana didn’t really care for any of it. So she figured she should catch up on sleep. She hadn’t really done much traveling before, and this trip physically pushed her limits beyond what she could handle. Tok nuzzled her leg under the table, as if agreeing now was a great time to go find a cot and get some sleep.

  A few rounds of Galleywan later, the storm subsided with a scarce shower left here and there, leaving a mostly clear view of the night sky creeping in. Deciding they might as well spend the night in the outpost then continue on in the morning, the shutters of the lamps were flipped downed and they were out in no time.

  Chapter Seven

  Unhappy Trails

  T he morning greeted the three young travelers with muscle aches from muscles they didn’t even realize they had. Rowen was shocked to find out just how wore out he was considering these excursions weren’t really anything new to him. Perhaps it was because he’d been finding it kind of difficult to sleep these past few days. After all, he’d failed miserably in his mission.

  Maybe that’s the real reason he hadn’t gone back to face his family. He dismissed the idea as quick as it came into his head, Amma wouldn’t want him thinking like that.

  He knew that Fortuna was in control. If she hadn’t fated him to save his amma as he’d planned, then he was right where he needed to be. This was his tribe’s way, or rather Fortuna’s way, and the way his amma had drilled into him since he was a small boy. There was no point in fighting what the Gods fated.

  Guilt and regret washed over him, even so, he knew that the opportunity to help Tat and Aidan would be his redemption in this situation. He could even hear his amma in the back of his mind telling him as much.

  Aidan stretched, then jogged in place before he sorted his pack. While the others seemed sluggish and barely awake; he was wide-eyed with the anticipation of finding some way to get home. He was sore, but he wasn’t going to let it slow him down in the least.

  After getting everything set to his standards, Aidan watched Tat fiddle with the cont
ents of her pack. To his surprise there was still a great deal of food packed in there. This got him to thinking. Perhaps someone had magically enchanted the packs. Considering the amount shoved into them, it just didn’t add up any other way, especially seeing how they barely weighed anything yet appeared stuffed full. He shrugged the ridiculous thought out of his mind, and decided it wasn’t possible. It was just another thing here that was messing with him.

  “Well, I guess we have plenty enough for breakfast,” Tat commented, noticing that Aidan was staring at her. She gathered up several items wrapped in cloth and paper and carried them to the kitchen.

  Aidan sighed. He hadn’t considered eating breakfast. It made sense of course, especially since his stomach was grumbling profusely. He reasoned that they would need their strength if the next part of the journey were anything like they’d experienced so far. Nevertheless, he was eager to get moving again.

  The rain let up and the sun peeked through the straying gray wispy wafts of clouds that cast a grayish-orange hue across the span of the horizon. To Aidan, there was no need to delay. Why couldn’t they just eat on the move like more civilized people? He gritted his teeth and followed Rowen and Tat to the table, figuring it was best to just keep his impatient thoughts to himself.

  “Where’s Tybor?” Tat asked as she sat plates out for four but noticed there were only three of them.

  “Who knows,” Rowen shrugged grabbing a biscuit.

  Tat only seemed slightly interested in an actual response, still not sure how she felt about the elf. Instead, she decided to concentrate on making sure there was enough food for everyone. There appeared to be plenty of food, possibly enough left to do them every meal for a week if they stretched it out.

  She noticed that Aidan seemed irritated but didn’t want to ask him about it. She was doing her best to make all of this right, but was it enough? She definitely didn’t feel like she was really helping much at all.

  The tea kettle she’d put on earlier whistled like a howling banshee, startling Tok and interrupting her downward spiraling thoughts.