by R J Hanson
In that time Roland discovered that he and Kodii could speak in the common tongue, but Kodii’s native language was very close to that of the Slandik. Roland purchased clothes and traveling gear for Kodii but found that he had wasted his money when buying boots for the man.
“They make feet dull,” Kodii had said, and would say no more.
On the subjects of weapons, the only item Kodii agreed to was a good steel dagger insisting that everything else he needed was around him.
It was a clear, hot day of summer and Kodii spent most of it watching the waters and the currents that the Coarse Wind flowed through. Kodii then borrowed a fishing net.
“Aver Sl’Okin, you help?” Kodii asked. He apparently didn’t recognize that the Slandik had nicknamed Roland as a jest, not an honor.
“Sure, with what?” Roland asked.
“Large fish in these waters,” Kodii said. “Hunter of other fish.”
Kodii then held up the net.
Roland, less stringent now about wearing his armor aboard ship after nearly drowning twice, stripped to the waist and gathered pullies and rope. He had seen the large predatory fish and this would be a tough catch. Eldryn found gloves for them all and readied himself.
“What are you doing?” Roland asked Marnie as she joined the group and began pulling on her own set of gloves. She also wore a fine mercshyeld dagger and steel studded mace that Eldryn had purchased for her along with pants, shirt, and boots more fitting for travel.
“I’m helping,” came her spiteful response.
In the past couple of weeks Roland had genuinely tried to make peace with the girl but she seemed bent on the idea of blaming him for her father’s death. Her venom had lost some of its sting, but that was likely only due to Eldryn’s intervention. The girl had developed a fondness for Eldryn so apparent that even Roland had noticed it.
“This isn’t the sort of work for a girl,” Roland said, not realizing he was only making things worse.
Marnie ground her teeth and shoved her hands into her gloves defiantly.
“Girl?” Marnie said. “I’m almost fourteen, you know. I’ll be a woman in a few short years!”
Years, Roland hoped, that would be spent far from him.
“There!” Kodii yelled, pointing to a creature more a beast than a fish. It was nearly ten feet in length with prominent side and dorsal fins. It was slender and quick in the water, but what caught Roland’s eye was the four horns or tusks that protruded from around its mouth. They appeared to be two to three feet in length and barbed along their inner edge.
Kodii and Roland stood ready with the net while Eldryn held the rope that had been run through two pullies attached to the main mast. Marnie stood with her knees bent and her weight on her toes ready to dive into action. What action that would be she apparently didn’t know for she had never done any regular fishing much less fishing for sea monsters, but ready she was.
Kodii and Roland threw the net and ensnared the fish with their first try. They quickly gathered the ropes along the edges of the net while Eldryn pulled to take up the slack. The moment the net closed about the large creature it began to thrash wildly.
Roland moved to Eldryn’s side to help him pull against the strength of the sea beast. Kodii stood at the railing pulling on the net itself. As the fish cleared the water Kodii could see that it was already cutting through the net with its sharp tusks.
“Quick, quick,” Kodii called.
Roland and Eldryn responded by redoubling their efforts. All could hear the strain of the ropes and chains used to secure the pullies and the net.
As Roland and Eldryn hauled the vicious creature up and level with the railing, Kodii pulled the net to the deck. Roland, Eldryn, and Marnie all relaxed then, thinking the fight was won. If they had been paying attention to Kodii, or the Slandik crew for that matter, they would have thought otherwise.
All of the Slandik crew, none really thinking they could haul the large creature aboard to begin with, still watched from perches among the sail riggings of the ship. Kodii, who had been standing next to the creature, leapt in front of it.
Roland, Eldryn, and Marnie were each stunned when the creature lifted its head up akin to a serpent preparing to strike, and then strike it did. As those barbed tusks were thrust forward, Kodii flipped over the creature’s head to land astride it. He moved with a speed that matched the quick sea beast. Kodii hooked the fingers of his left hand into the eye of the creature and drove his steel dagger home into the base of its skull. The move was so swift, and so decisive, that the creature was dead before any of the others could move.
A great cheer came from the crew of the Coarse Wind and Roland, Eldryn, and Marnie joined in.
“Spears,” Kodii said simply, pointing to the tusks.
Kodii, with the help of the other three, spent the rest of that day skinning the sea beast that Kodii called ‘fork snake.’ Kodii began work on the tusks fashioning the bases of all four to mount to a shaft. Then he worked very carefully to remove the saw-edged teeth of the creature.
Some of the crew roasted the stripes of meat harvested from the group’s catch, and it made a fine meal.
Marnie, to her credit and to Roland’s surprise, did her share of the gutting. At Kodii’s instruction, she also helped to skin the sea beast by undertaking the arduous task of scrapping the hides.
The following morning Roland rolled from his hammock, grabbed some left-over meat from the feast the evening before, and climbed to the deck. He saw that Kodii, who apparently hadn’t slept, was still working at whatever he was crafting. Roland noted a few weapons that Kodii had made along with braided strips of the sea beast’s hide and smaller tools made from its bones.
“You worked all night?” Roland asked.
“Spears and snares,” Kodii said. “Hunter’s tribe in danger when hunter not ready. Hunter’s tribe go hungry when hunter no weapon. Now ready.”
Kodii held up four spears with the tusks secured as heads. Kodii also wore something much like an axe at his waist. Upon closer inspection, Roland saw that it was a plank about a foot and a half in length, with a handle carved at one end and the saw-edged teeth of the ‘fork snake’ set along both edges and the top of the plank.
“Four spears?” Roland asked. “Wouldn’t one suffice?”
“Three for far,” Kodii said making a throwing motion. “The other…”
Kodii then showed Roland that indeed one of the spears had a thicker staff than the others. Kodii also showed him how the toothed weapon on his waist could be attached to the opposite end of the spear. Kodii affixed the axe to the end of the fighting spear and took it up. He showed Roland a few thrusts and parries with it that Roland thought to be very similar to the way a quarter staff was used by some in combat.
“Show me,” Roland said taking up the borrowed two-handed sword he had used for his trial dive in his armor. The sword had been fastened, aside other long weapons, to a weapons rack kept above deck for quick retrieval. The Slandik usually kept a short, light blade handy, but the longer and heavier weapons were secured here for communal use should the need arise. It seemed the sons of the frozen plains and icy waters of Janis had discovered long ago that a long sword was a bit difficult to carry through hatches and quite dangerous to the crew below deck.
Kodii held his spear before him and nodded. Watch their feet and both ends of the weapon, Roland heard Velryk saying as he remembered his training of the quarter staff. Keep your middle low and wide, and take care to not push your thrusts too far. Roland saluted and moved his feet into what his father had called the ‘horse stance.’ The horse stance was a posture in which a warrior would stand wide with both legs bent lowering his center of gravity. It took its name from the appearance, as though one was sitting on a fat horse. It was used primarily when one could not see his opponent and might need to shift his weight suddenly, and of course when fighting a man with a staff or spear. Roland had learned that it was also quite useful on the rolling waves of the sea
.
Kodii stretched one foot far out behind him with most of his weight resting on his forward leg, which was bent, bringing his waist in line with his forward knee.
They began slowly as Roland tested a thrust or slash and Kodii would swing out of line, parrying with one end of the spear while at the same time swinging the other end around for a strike. Kodii didn’t step back and forth, or from side to side, however. Roland found that Kodii moved by sweeping his feet in circles, never lifting them more than an inch or two from the deck, and then shifting his weight from one to the other. To Roland it seemed more of a dance. A dance that could be deadly.
Kodii’s unusual style pressed Roland and, their pace quickening, forced him to parry more than attack. Roland was at a clear disadvantage in that Kodii had clearly fought men with similar tactics that Roland now employed, however, Roland had never seen this style of fighting before. Roland loved it.
Roland found himself working furiously to keep pace with Kodii’s dance. After several long minutes, and Roland’s breath coming harder to catch, Kodii struck a blow to Roland’s lower back.
“Woohoo!”
The cheer surprised both men and that was when they realized they had drawn a small crowd. The cheer had come from Marnie.
“Would you teach me how to do that?” Marnie asked Kodii.
“A short weapon is easier to wield for a girl,” Roland said.
“Then, perhaps you should stick with your short axes,” Marnie replied.
“A spear or quarter staff can be quite useful,” Eldryn said. “Roland what harm would it be that she learns something.”
“I was just trying to help,” Roland said. “I thought…”
“You don’t excel at thinking,” Marnie cut in.
Kodii nodded to her and tossed her one of his other, lighter, spears. After a few moments, Kodii gestured to her boots and waved his hands. Marnie removed them and he began instructing her in the stages of the ‘dance.’
“I don’t know why she is so angry at me all the time,” Roland said as he and Eldryn had moved off to the side to observe. “Surely she can’t hold her father’s death against me. I understand the emotional response at the time but, El’, it’s been weeks.”
“You treat her like a child,” Eldryn said. “She hates being reminded of that.”
“She is a child,” Roland said.
“Roland, she’s only a few years younger than us,” Eldryn corrected.
“Age is not always measured in dates,” Roland said, thinking of the ages that he and Eldryn experienced in the few short breaths they held the Hourglass.
“She is a child,” Eldryn said. “I agree with you. But she has a good deal to be angry about. She doesn’t yet see her good fortune in that we happened along at all. All she can see is how much she’s lost. Furthermore, you may not realize it but you have a way of being thoughtless at times.”
“Me? When?”
“What’s the name of that tavern girl in Fordir?” Eldryn asked.
“What?”
“You heard me,” Eldryn said. “What is her name?”
“I don’t see how…”
“You don’t see,” Eldryn said. “Make no mistake, I don’t accuse you of malice of any sort. You have a good heart and are a good man. But, sometimes, you are thoughtless.”
“Not so thoughtless as to miss how she looks at her knight-savior,” Roland said, hoping to turn the tide on this conversation.
“Don’t start that,” Eldryn said.
“You know you’re her hero, El’,” Roland said, pushing his barb a bit farther. “What would your mother say about you carrying on with one so young?”
“I don’t ‘carry on’ with anyone,” Eldryn snapped. Then, more calmly, “we both agree she is far too young. I’m just saying it doesn’t help to point it out to her all the time. We’ll find a safe place for her in Vanthor, or perhaps a good ship with a suitable destination. And you leave my mother out of this.”
As the days passed, Roland, Eldryn, and Marnie took turns taking time out from helping around this ship to spar with Kodii and learn the nature of his unusual fighting style. Kodii gained in weight and muscle as the group discovered he had gone without food more often than not in the weeks prior to being put on the Block.
Roland and Eldryn noticed Marnie’s blisters and her attempts to hide her bloody sores. Her hands and feet were not accustomed to the hard life of a sea going vessel, not to mention the hours of arms training she worked so hard at with Eldryn and Kodii. For such a young girl she did possess an inner steel that was undeniable.
“What are your plans once we reach Vanthor?” Roland asked Kodii one evening over a meal of fish soup.
“Aver Sl’Okin,” was Kodii’s only response.
“I don’t understand,” Roland said.
“Aver Sl’Okin,” Kodii said again. “Word means lead to food. Word means lead to prosperity. Divers in tribe use the swimming anchor. Two meanings. Swimming anchor pulls them down fast to the best oysters. Aver sl’Okin blessed by shaman to lead to good herbs in sea. They follow Aver sl’Okin to food, to prosperity for tribe. A man comes to Kodii. He frees Kodii. He is called Aver Sl’Okin. Kodii follows Aver Sl’Okin.”
“Your family?” Roland asked.
“Tribe is family,” Kodii said. “Women shared. Children shared. Work shared. Meat shared. Aver Sl’Okin share work and meat with Kodii.”
As he spoke Kodii’s thoughts did go back to the woman he loved and the two boys he was teaching to hunt. The woman would have another hunter by now. The children did indeed belong to the tribe but they were his sons and he loved them. He thought about the day when the Tall Walker came. A great beast that stood nearly thirty feet tall. It could eat a large man with a single bite. It was loud in the jungle, but fast, faster than any man could be. Faster than any boy could be.
“You owe me nothing,” Roland said, having no idea of the memories that stirred the love in Kodii’s heart. Roland could have no idea, for Kodii hid those emotions well.
“You give to Kodii,” Kodii said. “Kodii give to Aver Sl’Okin. Share. Tribe.”
Chapter VI
Friends Near and Far
It seemed to Roland and Eldryn that much more time had passed since leaving Modins. It had only been two months and so much had happened. So much had changed. They had changed.
Finally, land had been sighted. It was Vanthor, the southern-most city in the lands of Lawrec. Roland and Eldryn found that they would miss this group of Slandik brothers.
The ship approached the docks and both young men looked ahead at the city. They stepped off of the boat and led their horses onto the docks of Vanthor followed by Kodii and Marnie. Their goods were off loaded and they waved their farewell to Captain Scalyern.
“Keep my name and my ship in your memory, Aver Sl’Okin,” Captain Scalyern said. “Call on us in the house of Thorvol should you have need.”
Roland, Eldryn, Kodii, and Marnie looked around themselves to see an embattled city. It was now the month of Merc, named for the god who kept the fires of the sun burning. It was the seventh month of 1649.
Several ships at the dock were offloading troops bearing the standard of Prince Ralston and supplies. The group of friends made their way through the hapless town. Even for a city so far from the front, the movements they witnessed made them believe that the situation here was desperate. Perhaps even more dire than they had heard.
This was the side of war no books or bard’s tales spoke of. This was mud and blood. This was the sound of the wounded moaning, and, those who were haunted by what they had seen, crying. There were men here that had been broken. There would be wives and children elsewhere waiting for a reunion that would not come.
“Pardon me, friend,” Roland said to a passing soldier. “Could you tell me what the trouble here is?”
“It is Daeriv,” the soldier replied. “He has moved on the city of Skult, up the river. The Prince himself has ridden there to personally oversee the t
own’s defense.”
“What of Lynneare?” Eldryn asked the tired soldier.
“Lynneare? Warlock of the Marshes? It is not wise to speak his name too loudly. He holds a castle in the middle of the marshes to the north and west. He does not trouble us, but no man enters those marshes and returns. They are haunted by things as old and evil as the Bringer of Ends himself.”
“It sounds as though our road leads to Skult,” Roland said to Eldryn.
“It does indeed,” Eldryn replied.
Roland then gave Eldryn a look that Roland thought was subtle. It was not.
“You’re not leaving me here,” Marnie said. “This place is terrible. I have learned to fight. Kodii is a good teacher as are you, El’. I can share Eldryn’s horse with him and travel with you.”
“You can…” Roland began and was cut off by Eldryn.
“Marnie,” Eldryn said. “We talked about this. Our road is too dangerous for you.”
“For a girl you mean,” Marnie said. “Or is it because your big, stupid friend thinks I’m a child?”
“We’ll give you some money,” Eldryn said. “We’ll find a ship bound for Modins and from there you can take the letter I wrote for you to my mother, Shaylee, in Fordir. She would be lonely now and would enjoy your company.”
“You want to send me to your mother’s?”
“She is alone,” Eldryn said. “She has no one to stand for her. She will need someone that can use the spear and the mace. She will need strength.”
“When will you come for me?” Marnie said pleadingly to Eldryn.
Even Roland noticed the change in her tone. He could hear her childish ideas of love in her every word. Once again, the fact that she was only five years younger than he and El’ was lost on him.
“I don’t know where our road takes us,” Eldryn said honestly. “We have yet to discern our course here.”
“You mean he hasn’t discerned it yet,” Marnie shot back. Her dreamy tone was quickly replaced by her usual, argumentative to Roland’s thinking, tone. “The great Roland with his big ideas hasn’t told you what you are to do.”
