Quests Volume Two

by Barbara G. Tarn

  "I think we can rest here another day," Keshav said. "You'll have time both to wash your clothes and learn some words. I'll happily practice what I've learned so far as well."

  Then he tried to explain everything to Luca with a mix of Varian and Gallian, but Luca understood even if some words sounded wrong to him. He grinned and gave his thumbs up – and then their food arrived.

  Luca and Rohan had a local dish called "polenta e osei" – basically a thick mush of cornmeal and small game birds with a meaty sauce – while Keshav and Babita had lentil soup. Luca said sometimes his mother did the polenta with sausages, which Keshav tried to translate for Rohan, and they ended up exchanging the words for food and cutlery and anything in the inn they could point at.

  Quite a fun language lesson, then they went to the stream to wash the two young men's clothes, again improvising a language lesson that went both ways – Varian/southern dialect. At dinner time the inn was very busy again, so they had to stop, but Keshav noticed Luca and Rohan kept exchanging vocabulary by pointing and saying the word.

  "By the end of the journey, they might be able to actually communicate," Babita said, leaning towards him so he could hear what she said. "It wouldn't be just wild sex, but also something else. I don't know about Luca, but I'm sure Rohan was used to the company of a sole companion besides his cousins... he is royalty after all."

  "That's what sort of worries me," Keshav replied. "What else do they have in common? Rohan had his family, whom he has given up, hunting, martial arts, games, listening to stories, boating trips with beautiful partners, watching entertainers... no work to do of any kind. When they exhaust the physical part, what will they have?"

  "We don't know," she replied. "Besides, sometimes the sex part lasts for some time. Especially for someone like Rohan who has been quite lonely for the past two and a half months... since someone he fancied kept him at bay." She shot him an impish smile.

  Keshav looked away. It wasn't his fault if the prince had a crush on him. It wasn't his fault if he had stepped into the Sour Stallion when Rohan was trying to forget his first love and he'd caught the prince's eye.

  "I'm not relationship material," he muttered.

  "Why not?" she asked. "What are you afraid of?"

  "I'm not afraid!" he snapped. "I just don't have time!"

  She shrugged and let it go. Luca and Rohan stared questioningly at them, but the noise was too loud to tell them what was going on. Besides, Keshav was not in the mood to discuss relationships. He waved them off and finished his soup.

  "Tomorrow we keep going," he announced as they stepped out of the main room and headed upstairs. "Try not to oversleep, will you?"

  "Yes, sir," Luca and Rohan chorused, each in his own language. They looked at each other and burst out laughing.

  Keshav scowled at them. "Good night," he said bluntly, heading for his room. He could hear them chuckle behind his back.

  ***

  Rohan had missed waking up next to someone. Not that he'd slept with Abhilash every single night since they'd become lovers, but they had happened to share the bed quite often. And since Abhilash had gotten married, he'd felt very lonely.

  Yes, he had managed to curl up against Keshav during the ship trip and had found the tattooed herald for a night, but besides that, he'd had very lonely nights. He'd slept mostly because he'd been exhausted from all the walking he was doing, otherwise he'd probably have brooded a lot more.

  When he'd felt Keshav stiffen under his touch, he'd understood there was no way he'd convince the scholar to be more intimate with him. And then Luca had smiled at him, and they hadn't needed any words before they'd found themselves naked and sweaty in each other's arms.

  So the physical part was back to normal, but he was a little bothered by the lack of communication. It hadn't been just sex with Abhilash, and he hoped that soon he'd be able to talk to Luca about his life and ask him about life in barbarian countries.

  He certainly paid much more attention now when Luca spoke and tried to understand what he said or tried to say it in the foreign language with the help of Keshav and Babita. Hopefully soon they'd both be fluent enough. They were both young and well-versed with languages, one because of his trading work, the other because royalty was usually more educated than the rest in case they needed to be sent as diplomats to foreign governments.

  They left the crossroads inn and followed the unpaved road in the opening between the trees. Unlike previous paths, this was a real road with enough room for two-way traffic of carts and wagons. Often riders passed by, headed one way or the other, probably messengers reporting to the king or taking his orders to the border patrols.

  After two nights in log cabins set up on the side of the road, where travelers could rest under a roof in case of bad weather, they reached another river. The road continued on the shore towards the north, but they decided to set up camp on the shore and see if anyone would show up and point them at a ford, a bridge or something like that.

  Rohan went hunting with Luca and then curled up next to him under the stars. He was glad it was summer and no rain seemed to threaten their adventure. Apparently marshes and meres made it hard to cross the forest in autumn and winter, but at the moment the ground was dry.

  The temperatures went down at night, though, therefore it was pleasant to have a warm body nearby when falling asleep...

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  The water of the river was cold, so Keshav gave up the idea of a full bath. He shaved, looking at himself in the water, then washed his hands and face. He was about to go back to camp and wake the others, when a sudden splash startled him.

  A head emerged from the river without approaching the shore. Water-green eyes stared at him from a pale face framed by brown hair. He couldn't tell if it was a male or a female, since the androgynous features could belong to anyone.

  "Surya bless you," Keshav greeted. "Are you here to tell me which way to go for the Genn?"

  "Upriver," the fleshy lips whispered, not allowing him to figure out the sex of the Waiora by the sound of its voice. "You will find a stone bridge and a path..."

  With a splash, the head vanished again. Keshav stared at the concentric circles. Some Waiora were definitely shy.

  He sighed and rose to go back to camp. Babita was awake and had put a pot on their dying fire to boil water for their morning tea.

  "I'll go to the river and bring some wood," she said. "Watch the water and wake up those two."

  Keshav sat and threw the last twigs they had gathered the day before in the fire.

  "Rohan, Luca!" he called, checking the pot. Since the two young men didn't seem to hear him, he turned towards the river. "Babita, bring that bucket of cold water, please!"

  Rohan sat up, eyes wide. "Don't you dare!"

  Luca yawned and stretched while Keshav chuckled.

  "We don't have any buckets, your highness," he reminded Rohan who scowled at him. "Now go to the river and when you're done we can have breakfast and head upriver."

  "Why upriver?" Rohan retorted.

  "Because a Waiora said so."

  Rohan grunted and glared at him again, then headed for the river shore with Luca while Babita was coming back with a few more twigs. The water was starting to boil, but adding wood to the fire helped.

  "What was with the bucket?" she asked, sitting by the fire and throwing the twigs in the pit they'd dug the night before.

  "They were pretending to sleep, so I pretended to throw cold water at them." Keshav chuckled. "Rohan didn't like the joke at all!"

  She shook her head with a smile, adding herbs to the boiling water.

  Soon they were on the road again. The sun was high up in the sky when they reached the stone bridge deep in the forest and crossed the river. On the other side the path was very clean and seemed to be well used, but only by pedestrians.

  The river ran through a series of hills that were quite barren. They followed the desert road for a couple of days until the path entered the forest a
gain. They spent one night in a clearing where someone else had already camped who knew when and the next day around lunch time they found a village hidden in the depths of the forest.

  They stopped to stare in wonder at the little timber houses that vanished into the undergrowth.

  "I didn't know there were woodcutters this far from any trade road," Luca commented.

  "I don't think they're Human," Keshav said as they entered the village.

  They stared wide-eyed at the blond, androgynous beings with pointed ears who lived in the hamlet. They dressed differently from Humans and all had very long hair.

  Keshav held his breath and heard Rohan gasp. It was as if the miniatures and paintings they'd seen in Godwalkar had come to life under their eyes.

  "Whoa," Luca whispered, impressed. Babita was speechless.

  The Genn stared back at them, unsmiling but also not openly hostile. For a moment the scene seemed to freeze, then one of the elders – Keshav assumed he was an elder because his long hair was platinum blond, not because he had wrinkles or any other Human sign of aging – came forward and stopped before them.

  "Greetings. What brings you into the depths of Appleyard Forest?" He spoke Varian and Rohan looked disappointed.

  Keshav tried to come up with an answer in Varian, since he was supposedly the expedition leader, but he was too awestruck to do it.

  "I'm not sure what I was actually looking for," he said in Amrendran after a couple of failed attempts. "I saw your manuscripts in Godwalkar and was wondering how it could be possible that your civilization was lost."

  The Genn smiled. "Not lost, hiding," he answered, switching to Amrendran with no apparent effort. "Although some of us sometimes interact with the Varians – when they're not on the warpath, that is."

  "Speak for yourself, Joyrise!" A woman with the same hair color came forward, frowning. "You're the one who likes to mingle with Humans!"

  Joyrise rolled his eyes. "Blondemelody, it's because of Genn like you that the Genn kingdoms were wiped away," he snapped at the woman. He turned back to look at Keshav. "I'm sorry, apparently there are still some descendants of the former royal families of the Genn who still think they have something more than everybody else. We live in equality, now. Councils of elders run the towns and cities – and villages like this one. The size of the council depends on the size of the settlement."

  "Which leaves us with two elders who bicker constantly." A golden-haired young man came forward. He could be the son of the previous two, except they all looked the same in Keshav's eyes – blond, ethereal, impossibly beautiful and ageless. Much like his father's people looked all the same to whoever wasn't born in the Islands Empire.

  "And I'm their unfortunate son," the younger Genn continued. "I have some half-siblings in the Human towns, but we don't show ourselves there very often."

  "Joyrise is the only one who ever lived and mated with Humans here," the woman said with contempt.

  "You don't know, Mother," her son retorted. "Some of us left and never came back. Even though they said they were headed for the Valley, doesn't mean they didn't stop in some Human town on the way."

  "Luca said there were Genn in Havenstock until half a century ago," Keshav said.

  Joyrise chuckled. "That would be me, yes. When I buried my Human wife, I came back here. My daughters are still there – well their children and grandchildren. Unfortunately you Humans don't live as long as we do."

  "Why, how old are you?" Keshav asked, puzzled.

  "I'm about a century and a half. But I'm a magic user and the descendant of the Immortal Half-blood... The Genn usually live to a century, which might probably be possible for Humans too if they weren't so busy fighting each other and dying young, at least in the north."

  "I've met a few old men in the universities of the south," Keshav said, frowning. "They were in their sixties and seventies."

  "I'm impressed. The oldest I've met around here was in his fifties. But then, I hear the south is much more peaceful than these barbarian lands."

  "Do you know the Genn who helped found Gajendra?" Rohan dared to ask.

  "Ah, no, I'm afraid they live in the underground cities under the mountains. I've always lived overground, first in the forest, then in Human lands, hiding my ears under a headband..."

  "Father, don't let our guests stand in the middle of the street," the younger Genn said. "They are obviously not hostile, only one of them is openly armed, but he's a Gajendran prince, so I think we're safe if we let them into our homes..."

  ***

  Keshav wandered down a path, lost in thought, and ended at a spring that cascaded down a set of rocks in the shadows of the leaves. The sounds of the Genn village didn't reach that place, so he sat on a rock and pulled out his notebook.

  They'd been staying with the Genn for a week. It was fascinating to watch them do their daily chores – sometimes with the use of magic – or art and crafts, to listen to their stories, to read more manuscripts with someone who could explain what was actually happening in the leather-bound books kept in a building made of stone but covered with vines so it still vanished in the general vegetation.

  He hadn't learned their alphabet, but both Joyrise and his son Silverleaf were happy to read to him and explain the miniatures if any. He knew a little more about their history, and how their kingdoms had fallen, but there were really no treasures left, except in the underground cities that were really off-limits for Humans.

  Therefore his quest was complete. He had found the Genn. He wasn't going to reveal where they lived and would keep the knowledge for himself. So now what? Was it really time to go back to Amrendra, and what? Become a clerk for King Rohit Rahul? Start teaching at Delen university?

  He was still quite bad at teaching. He was sure that if Luca and Rohan made progress with each other's language it was because they really wanted to communicate, not because he or Babita were teaching them anything.

  Joyrise and Silverleaf seemed to agree that one day the northern barbarians would conquer the south. The warmongering northerners would own the whole continent eventually. But none of them would be alive to see it, probably.

  "Have you decided what to do next?" Babita's voice startled him.

  Bird-songs and gurgling water, and then suddenly a Human voice. Keshav snapped back to reality and watched her as she joined him on the rock, trying not to trip over her long gown.

  "Well?" she asked when she was seated, since he hadn't replied yet. "Made up your mind or not?"

  "I don't know." He sighed. "I guess that my quest is over. What am I supposed to do with myself now?"

  She pursed her lips, staring at the small waterfall.

  "You could settle," she suggested. "Any place with a good library. You could be chief librarian. Or a copyist. I could sell maps and books. If you help me to find a place where I could open a small shop, that is."

  "I'm thinking I should write my own book," he said. "About my travels, and the lands that I visited. I'd be very vague on the actual whereabouts of this village, but everything else..."

  "We could write travel guides," she said. "With what inns are good, which cannot be avoided, what roads are safe..."

  "That too. And you could illustrate them." He smiled. "I'm sure you can do better than just copy maps."

  She wrinkled her nose. "I can't do miniatures like on those Genn manuscripts," she warned. "But if it's only an inked sketch of, say, an inn, a person or a place, I can try it."

  "Perfect. Then we have a new job and a new goal. We should get to Delen and see if we can set up some form of business. Unless you prefer Godwalkar?"

  "Gods no! My husband was from Godwalkar, but my birth family is in Delta City. I don't mind moving north, though. Maybe we can initiate some trade with the Gallians."

  "It's easier that they ask for an alliance against the Varians," Keshav said, thoughtful. "If we really wanted to be safe from future wars, we should probably move to Agharek."

  "I'm afraid it's too hot down th
ere for me."

  "Yes, it is quite hot. Delen it is for now, then. Do you think Rohan still wants to meet King Rahul?"

  "He's probably content with Luca," Babita said with a shrug. "They might go further south together, I'm sure both would be very much appreciated in Lakeshi. Rohan for his amber eyes, Luca for his blond hair."

  Keshav grinned. "You think they're handsome?"

  "They are. But they're too young for me. And not interested."

  "Who is not interested, you or them?"

  "Both, I guess." She looked at him. "You, on the contrary, are quite interesting. A bit head-in-the-clouds but that's part of your charm. Do you think you can be with us mere mortals more often?"

  "I am with you mere mortals! I'm Human! It's true that my studies take all of my time..."

  "And it's good that you never stop learning, but at the same time, I think you should settle somehow. Start taking some responsibilities. Things like that."

  He shook his head, unsure. "I don't know..."

  "Why do men never want to grow up?" she complained. "You're supposed to become head of the family! What are you waiting for?"

  "Scholars are not really supposed to have families," he replied, jarred. "How long were you married? How come you didn't have a family?"

  "Because babies never came! Besides, I had inherited someone else's son who was expecting me to be his mother, so why give him children? Any problem he went to his mother first, then came to me! What was the point? I was blind and in love when I married him. I'm not saying I'm happy he's gone before his time, but it was getting tiresome!"

  "So are you trying to do it again? With me?"

  She glared at him. "You're different," she muttered. "It wouldn't be the same."

  "Do you need to meet my mother to make up your mind?" he asked, sarcastic.

  She scowled, then took his face in her hands like Rohan had done. She leaned forward and kissed him. Again, Keshav stiffened. But Babita's kiss was much shorter.

  "I don't need to meet your family to know I want to spend the rest of my life with you," she said grumpily, holding her knees and averting her eyes.