by C. Litka
01
We stayed in Finvere as the guests of Bowing Pine Scholar for several dozen rounds. Within a few rounds we were all able to pick up the basics of the language. Thanks to my com-link, I was remarkable for my linguistic ability. However, the language of Windvera, spoken in these islands, was almost close enough to be considered a dialect of the language of the Saraime, so that Naylea and Py picked it up rapidly and by the time we departed, we all were fluent in it.
Bowing Pine, as she insisted we call her, was a retired Elder of Laeza. She had chosen to spend her fading rounds on her home island rather than in one of the Order's communities. The Laezans have few hard and fast rules, even within the Inner Order, which encompasses the members who have chosen to devote their lives working within the Order, so this was perfectly acceptable. Bowing Pine, though half-blind, saw clearly and deeply what she did see and took to my two companions and myself with kindly patience. She proved to be a wise, patient, and knowledgeable mentor to us in our new surroundings.
Finvere Island had only one town of the same name, which was common practice throughout these small islands. The moss roads from several directions lead into the forest, and then down into a long, deep, green-lit, and smoke scented crevasse - a massive crack in the island hidden by trees and vines arching over its entire length. Its two sides were lined with the terraces and honeycombed with caves - the family homes of all the island's inhabitants, though the distant fields had shelters they used during planting and harvesting. There were several thousand families living on the produce of the fields, the livestock they raised, and the game they hunted, in the vast floating jungle that we'd been shipwrecked in.
Bowing Pine lived in a large terrace with a multi-chambered cave behind it, along with a quiet old servant to look after her, though she claimed she did not need her at all. From talking to the people of Finvere, we gathered that Bowing Pine Scholar was the glittering jewel of their community - a native daughter, who had made good. They were delighted that she had returned to her people and island in her old age, not with a fortune in coins, but with a fortune in wisdom - and though she'd dismiss it - in fame and prestige as a scholar as well. 'You'll not find many Elders of the White Sash living in the islands of the Catarias,' I was solemnly assured. 'Indeed, not any others at all.' She was a pampered guest of the community, and as her guest, we were pampered as well.
Meals were prepared on the open terraces, so the aroma of smoke and food always was in the air. Since the entire crevasse was roofed over with vines and trees, the people could go about daily life without fear of the large roving dragons that would occasionally drift overhead. There was a great fortified cave built on the side of the crevasse that was stockpiled with food and water to outlast the rare, but periodic appearance of fine-feathered nomadic barbarians who sailed through these islands, usually only once in several generations. On Finvere, they were content to strip the fields for food - what little material wealth Finvere possessed was not worth the shedding of blood it would cost to breach the redoubt. I was very happy to discover that peoples of these islands lived a peaceful, agrarian life with only the occasional dragon to fear. It made the prospect of traveling through them a much more comfortable prospect, since it soon became apparent that if we were ever to find a way back to the Saraime, it would be found on the large island of Windvera.
Windvera lay some thirty or so rounds of travel away. Bowing Pine, who had spent much of her life on Windvera said that she had heard of steam-powered boats being used in several of the Eleven Kingdoms, perhaps relics or copies of the ships used by the barbarians that were driven by smoke and steam. However, the vast majority of the native machines were human powered. So there was some hope of finding a boat that would carry us back to the Principalities. But I was rather counting on the Order and its connection to the Order of the Saraime to see us home. Bowing Pine was vague and evasive on that score, but I wasn't about to let her off the hook.
My opportunity came to question her half a dozen rounds into our stay. Py and Naylea were off giving the martial arts demonstrations that Py loved to do, so Bowing Pine invited me to share a pot of tey with her in the dappled green light of her terrace.
After a bit of polite conversation?
'You have picked up our language very quickly,' she said politely as she pumped the tey into my covered mug.
'I have a good ear and I'm motivated. I am curious to learn about the connections between the Order of Windvera and the Saraime. The differences are so very small, which I find very intriguing and suggestive.'
She smiled faintly. 'If there had been no Order here when you had arrived, there would be an Order here 10,000 rounds from now. Your companions are like seeds. Having been blown here, they would no doubt set down roots and grow a new Order.'
'That is true. Yet, I find it very curious to find your Order so similar to one of our islands, far across the Endless Sky. All the more since I have gathered from our conversations that the Order here is very old and extensive. It strikes me that a seed planted so long ago would have grown into a tree that reflects the society it grew in - even if the fundamental message remained the same. I'd think things like dress, chants, and such would have become distinctly different, assuming, of course, there was no continuing contact.'
'You are not of the Order, so I would suggest that perhaps you do not fully understand the underlying changeless nature of our Order. The Order is like a bamboo reed - it can blow this way and that, but that doesn't alter the reed in any fundamental way. So it is with the Order. We have few hard and fast rules, but obviously, the similarities you see are those of the unaltered reed.'
I nodded and took a sip of the tey. 'I take your point, but the similarities I note would seem to be at more of a superficial level - like a common dress or chant that one would think that over many thousands of rounds they would slowly come to reflect the local styles of dress, or the chants, the local styles of music.'
She shrugged. 'I cannot say. I studied the leaves and petals of plants, not societies. You will have to ask other scholars about that. I can say that the founding of the Order is lost in legends. And you mustn't forget the barbarians. There are many different tribes of barbarians that have visited Windvera and these islands over time. They travel far and wide, often bringing prisoners with them, slaves and perhaps even Laezans, like your companions. Perhaps in this way, the two Orders - or many Orders on many islands - cross pollinate each other, as I would say in my studies, and by doing so, retain the little details as well as the greater Way.'
'An interesting idea. I'm sure it has merit,' I said with a slight bow. 'However, the Saraime islands are remarkably free of barbarian invasions. So it would then seem that the Laeza Order of the Saraime would have been isolated and subject to the organic growth I mentioned. And that should be reflected in minor differences between our two Orders. But that is not the case.' I paused and she smiled blandly at me.
I decided to press my point. 'It seems that we are dancing around the question I wish to ask. So I shall simply ask it. Is the Order of Windvera in contact with the Order of the Saraime? Of course, you understand the reason I am asking this. We would like to return to our home islands. My friends have their mission to pursue and are anxious to do so. And since you've told me that there are steam and smoke powered boats in some of the kingdoms on Windvera, it would seem possible for the two Orders to be in occasional contact, even with an Endless Sky between them. And if so, we'd like to beg a ride home.' I had no intention of letting her off the hook, and I knew that lying was against the teachings of the Order.
She smiled, her faint, patient smile and rebuked me mildly, 'You are refreshingly bold in your questioning of me, Wilitang.'
I shrugged. 'Please forgive me. But it is a matter of great importance to me and my companions. We are far from home. Indeed, my original home is lost to me. I was building a new one in the Saraime, and would like to return to it, if possible. And, Scholar, the striking similarities between t
he two ancient Orders suggests to me that they have closer ties than what you seem willing to admit.'
She gave a little shrug, but said nothing. No lies.
'I'm a retired trading ship captain, and, at the moment, an out of work chief engineer - someone who runs the smoke and steam engines of a wide-sky ship. I am, like you, a master of my trades, and I feel that we can speak as equals in that sense. It is in that spirit that I am talking to you on matters that gravely concern me, and my companions and our future course.'
'I was not objecting to your questions,' she said softly with an off-handed shrug. 'Just noting a fact.'
I laughed. 'I was also, at one time, Magistrate LinPy's lieutenant during his first circuit in the Shadow Marches of Daeri. Questioning witnesses was part of my job. So please forgive my boldness when I say that you are being evasive, Bowing Pine Scholar, in your responses. Old habits die hard. I seek the truth.'
'LinPy was a magistrate?' she asked, 'I understood him to be an advocate. He seems rather young to be a magistrate.'
Another evasion. Still, perhaps a change of course was called for. Perhaps I needed to make the case that it was worthwhile to see us home.
'LinPy is likely older and wiser than he looks or sometimes acts. He has held tight to his boyhood innocence long after most us have lost it. However, he grew up within a community of the Order, trained for the law, and acted as a magistrate's lieutenant for many rounds. And he proved to be both a wise, popular, and a successful magistrate - though perhaps slightly too unconventional for some elders. In any event, he had long cherished his boyhood dream of leading bandits to the Way, so his masters decided to indulge that desire by asking him to be an advocate. I do know that they expect great things from LinPy. He is easy to underestimate with his open, boyish charm. But I served under him for 500 rounds, and I can tell you, there's more to him than his never ending good will - though that in itself may be enough, to make him great.'
She nodded. 'Thank you. And the fine-feathered NyLi? What of her?'
I settled back in my chair and considered the question for a moment. The truth, I decided. Despite her dim eyes, she was too wise to lie to. 'NyLi is also from the same distant islands I hail from. She, too, spent her life in an Order, though one that was quite different from the Laezan Order. It was a martial and a mercenary order that trained and employed NyLi as a thief whose services they would hire out. She was quite good at it. They tried to make an assassin of her, and failed, punishing her failure with a mission that she was not expected to survive. She did, and finding herself on these islands, took to heart the Order of Laeza, and its Way. Trained from childhood in the art of deception and martial arts, the Order felt that she could use those skills for good, fighting for the livelihood, safety, and justice of the powerless peoples of the islands. I assure you that both my companions are highly valued by the Order in the Saraime. And they, in turn, are devoted to the Order and their still uncompleted mission. If it is possible to return to our islands, I think we have a right to claim it.' I then leaned forward and added, 'If you have any other questions, I will be happy to answer them. But I believe I have now paid for my answer.'
'And the Shadow Dragons? How do you come by them?' she said with a placid smile. She was not one to be bullied.
'How does anyone?' I replied with a laugh. 'What have we done to deserve them?'
She laughed.
'I raised Hissi from an egg - an egg given to me by Siss, to look after me, perhaps, which she has done. Hissi is very much my daughter. But as to why they travel with us, I cannot say, save that they seem to need someone to annoy. And they don't like paying for their own meals. Can I answer any other questions you may have?'
'Oh, I have many, but they can wait. To address yours, I trust that you understand, Wilitang, that I answer your questions - or not - as I do, because they concern matters I cannot address. You must seek your answers on Windvera - at the Prime Community of Marsh Waters. And I should caution you not to read too much into what I have said, for I truly do not know what you will learn should you continue on to Marsh Waters.'
'Thank you. I regret cross-examining you like this, Scholar, but I am sure that my friends would not dare to. I am, however, certain they wish to continue with the task that they've been given, and if there is a way, they will want to pursue it.'
'Just so. Still, you and your companions may find a new home in these islands. We live peaceful lives, the barbarian raids are mostly things of the past, and the people - well, many follow the simple Way. Look about Finvere - you'll not find a more pleasant island, with kind, friendly people. You could do worse.'
'It is indeed a welcoming place and our good fortune to have been shipwrecked on such a peaceful island. I have been far more unlucky in the past,' I admitted with a laugh. ' Why, if I hadn't been sold in to slavery, I would've been the main course of a village feast!'
'In these Saraime Islands of yours?'
'In their distant fringe islands', I replied and spun a tale or two over tey. And then we discussed the journey ahead of us if we wished to reach the Marsh Waters Community. It would be a long one. We would need to walk the long chain of Catarian islands, more than a dozen in number, to the island of Kaliza. There we could find a wide-sky ship to carry us to the great island of Windvera and on to a Laezan community where we could arrange transportation to Marsh Waters. Then it would be another long journey across the large island, 100 rounds or more by wagon, but since there was frequent travel between Marsh Waters and all the major Communities in the Eleven Kingdoms of Winvera, the journey would be largely routine. I asked about sailing directly to Marsh Waters, since we'd be traveling in a boat to Windvera. She said that Windvera had a gravity, and that they only had human powered airships where we'd likely land, which were mostly unreliable and dangerous. We'd probably arrive faster, and indeed, more likely to arrive at all, by wagon than by air boat.
After she had excused herself, to rest and meditate, I had another cup of tey - very good tey - and considered what I had learned. She clearly knew more than she was authorized to say. Though why she'd need authorization was a mystery in itself. I was all but certain the two Orders were in communication with each other. But realistically, that communication could be very irregular and widely spaced - many thousands of round apart - especially given the fact that neither Py nor Naylea had any knowledge of the Order extending beyond the Saraime. So even if it existed, it may offer no real chance of us finding our way home and her silence arose out of the fact that she did not wish to raise our hopes. A ship every decade or two might be all it would take to keep the two Orders so similar. To Marsh Waters we must go to find our answers.
02
The Finvere round was not the same as the standard Saraime round, and indeed, each island we crossed in the Catarians had different durations for their rounds. The timelessness of the Pela was very much in evidence in the Catarains. So there was no hard and fast way of measuring how long we stayed, save that it was long enough to master the spoken language, even without the com-link's help, and learning some of the customs of the islands,.
Knowledge of the local customs became more important because Py and Naylea, once confirmed as members of the Order were approached and asked to settle some local disputes, in essence, acting as magistrates. As in the marches, justice on these islands was administered by a traveling magistrate. Several minor disputes had arisen since his last visit that the claimants were eager to have settled. Py demured, claiming, and rightly so, that he was unfamiliar with both the local law and customs. But the claimants persisted, and Bowing Pine assured him that all they wanted was someone totally impartial - and not of the island, like her - to decide the matter. She assured him that the elders in the community would advise him on local law and customs. In the end, he agreed to mediate the conflicts, but failing that, he would leave the cases for the magistrate. Naylea and I acted as his occasional lieutenants, mostly for show. I was amused to see how happy Py was i
n his role of mediator - it seemed his natural calling. His good nature, easy humor, and earnest attempts to find a middle ground made him a popular choice to settle disputes in Finvera, and, as word spread before us, in every town we stayed in during our passage to Kaliza. It slowed our travel but, on the other hand, it meant that we were always treated as pampered guests. I, at least, found no reason to complain about the pace of our journey. Plus, my coins stayed in my belt and pockets.
'Will you get into trouble with the circuit's magistrate?' I asked Py after our hearing in Finvere.
He smiled, and shrugged. 'Bowing Pine assures me, Magistrate Crusien will not mind, as long as I only mediate minor cases and not pass judgments. If they accept my suggestions, I will have saved the magistrate time and trouble.
'Still you're rather sticking your nose into his business...'
'With any luck, we shall avoid meeting him. His circuit is wide, our path narrow.' he added with a wink.
Narrow or not, we did cross orbits with Magistrate Crusine, who had heard of Py's volunteer mediation. What he may have thought of Py's actions before meeting Py, I cannot say, but since it is nearly impossible not to like Py, and given his prior experience as a magistrate, they were soon talking shop and parted friends.
The Cataria Islands proved to be a chain of islands in a very literal sense, for many of them were linked together by smaller versions of the floating jungle in which we'd been shipwrecked. The Catarias were made up of several main chains of such islands and many smaller strands as well, forming a linked but loose spider web of islands. To reach Kaliza, where the islands ended on the Windvera side, we merely had to follow the moss road that led across the islands, traveling along the tops of the floating jungles between the islands. There were only two gaps in our journey to Kaliza where we had to take a small, oar-powered ferry across to the next island chain.
Like Finvera, the islands were peaceful, farming islands, boasting a single large town surrounded by the farm fields that stretched around the island. We were welcomed in every town, since our notoriety preceded us. This time Py was notorious as a magistrate from islands across the bright sky, who traveled with two fine-feathered "barbarians", one of which was also a Laezan, and two Shadow Dragons, as Simla dragons were known as in these islands. We still had our feather wigs, so that we could have passed as natives, but since we were greeted with curiosity rather than fear or hostility, we didn't bother. As for Siss and Hissi, while Shadow Dragons were not rare in the islands, they lived independently of humans, so that being accompanied by two Shadow Dragons was remarkable in itself.
Siss and Hissi traveled in style. Assured of easy and safe travel, we had reduced our gear down to our kit bags which we slung between the two spars and took turns pulling along behind us. In the weightless condition of the islands, this took little effort. The two dragons, however, took this to be their personal coach, and as soon as we weren't looking, they would attach themselves to our packs, and went to sleep, traveling without effort - on their part.
They had been a great hit with Finvere's children. Hissi, of course, loved to play with children, but I was surprised to see that Siss joined right in with the games of tag and hide and seek. I would have thought that Siss, older, and having grown up "wild" would look down on such play. But no, she too joined in, though Bowing Pine's old Shadow Dragon, Long-tailed Companion, was content to watch the proceedings. Throughout our stay in the town, the dragons had the youngsters racing up and down the cliffs and terraces. Opinions may have varied as to the desirability of all these laughing, yelling youngsters racing about, but I'm sure they all slept soundly when it came time to rest. I know the dragons did.
The native Simla dragons lived mostly in the forests and floating jungles, though they could wander where they cared to unmolested by humans. We'd usually meet several during our trek between islands and in the villages. For some, Hissi and Siss would hang back and gossip, I suppose. Others would trail alongside us, ignored by our dragons, until they gave up and turned away. As soon as this happened, Hissi and Siss would start barking their laughs. Knowing both our dragons and the sex, I had no doubt that they were comparing notes on the silly boy dragon that had been attempting to chat them up for the last kilometer or more.
The only other dragons we came across were the distant shapes of hunting dragons drifting overhead. The narrow moss road was usually lined with wide-spreading fist trees that offered some protection from surprise attacks by dragons aloft, but an eye aloft was still needed to keep us from being surprised, fist trees or not. We spied half a dozen large dragons during our journey. None came close enough to be an immediate danger, though we hurried on to the nearest woods until they drifted past, since the fist trees alone would not have protected us from a hungry and determined dragon
Those were the highlights of our journey across the islands. We crossed 17 islands, each ranging from 15 to perhaps 20 kilometers long. Some we crossed without stopping, others only to eat and drink, stopping to sleep only when we got tired of walking. These stops, however, usually meant spending several rounds hearing minor cases, so our pace was not breakneck. Naylea and Py grew ever more cheerful as they put Blade Island and the Temtres behind them - at least for now.
