The Battlebone

by Guy Antibes

  “Do you want me to read to you or something?” Corina asked when Jack began to convert the rods to objects in earnest.

  Jack shook his head. “No. I can read myself. In fact, if you want to help, why don’t you visit the Ephrams and see if they have any books on Masukai? I have exhausted every book in Raker Falls. I thought I could get all I needed from the library at the extended school, but they didn’t have more than a few chapters on the place among all the textbooks.”

  “I can do that now,” Corina said and quickly left the clinic.

  Fasher finally came out of his office after treating a patient. “Where is Corina?”

  “She is gathering information on Masukai. I’ve exhausted all my sources in Raker Falls,” Jack said. “I have to read something interesting or productive until I have to leave.”

  “Whatever you read won’t be enough to prepare you for the place. They speak a different language and even have their own alphabet. Not many libraries contain a primer on the language.”

  “But Penny’s father traded with the Masukaians. Perhaps he has something more specific.”

  Fasher raised his eyebrows. “That is possible.” He looked out the window across from Penny’s old desk. “She will be back soon?”

  Jack shrugged. “I hope so too. It isn’t too interesting holding onto a rod.”

  “Corina isn’t strong enough to make those. That should be enough for quite some time.”

  “Three hundred rods? That is probably a year’s worth.”

  Fasher nodded. “I expect you to be gone for longer.” Fasher left the room, still gazing out the window.

  Jack sat back. He had been thinking more like three or four months, but a year! Longer than a year, according to Fasher. He would be twenty when he came back and getting close to twenty-one. He hadn’t expected such a commitment. He wondered if he should quit his job with Fasher and began to think of pluses and minuses about being gone for so long.

  No matter how he weighed the alternatives, everything came out to going. The biggest plus was that he had no other prospects for meaningful work. If Grigar Soffez was truly going on the journey, Jack could learn a lot more real magic. That was the biggest advantage. Then if he felt confident enough about his magic, he could go out on his own. The problem was that Jack really didn’t know what wizards did other than heal and fight in battles. Despite all his travels, he was still mired in Raker Falls.

  Corina walked in the door just as Jack picked up another rod.

  “Are you in luck, boy!” she said breathlessly. “I have four books on Masukai. One of them is about their language. Penny’s father said that the Masukaians refused to learn our language.”

  Jack groaned. He didn’t know how to speak anything but the language he grew up speaking. All the surrounding countries, including Lajia, spoke the same tongue. “I have 240 rods’ worth of studying to do.”

  “Corina,” Fasher said, calling from his office.

  “My dear love can’t bear to be without me for long.”

  “Is that a problem?” Jack asked.

  “Not as long as I am the same way with him.” She grinned and left Jack to the rods and the books.

  Jack grabbed the language primer first and flipped through the first few pages, which wasn’t easy with one hand holding an iron rod. He stopped when he looked at the Masukai alphabet. Nothing made any sense to him. The characters were all slashes, curves, and circles. The only things that looked recognizable were the spaces between characters, but even the characters and spaces were vertical, not horizontal like Corandian writing.

  If Jack had to learn how to read, write, and speak Masukaian, it might take a decade or more. He sighed and flipped through the pages. At least there were some words and character combinations, but those were horizontal. His head began to hurt when thinking about converting his left-to-right reading into top to bottom.

  Corina returned to Penny’s desk. “Is it making any sense?”

  “Not yet,” Jack said, closing the book.

  He took another book, flipped through the pages, and sighed. Mercifully, no Masukaian letters, he thought. It was on the Masukaian culture. That might be more digestible, he thought. One of the other books, the thinnest one, was a dictionary on trade terms. The entries had the characters followed by a phonetic representation of how the term might be pronounced and then the corresponding Corandian definition. The last of the books talked about Masukaian politics and history.

  The four books together seemed to provide more information than anything else available in Raker Falls.

  “Thank you for borrowing these,” Jack said. “This gives me more than I can absorb while I’m still here.”

  Corina gave Jack a wry smile. “That won’t be long. Lord Ephram wants to talk to you before you leave. He said there were a few personal items he wanted you to bring back in exchange for the books.”

  Jack raised his eyebrows. “I can keep these?”

  “I guess,” she said. “He said what he wanted won’t take up much space in your bags.”

  Jack grimaced. “I don’t know what I’ll be facing in Masukai, but I’ll do my best.”

  “He told me privately that best efforts would be acceptable,” Corina said. “It is a difficult task.”

  Jack nodded. It was plain for him to see that Fasher had arranged the long absences so he could be alone with his new wife. If the errands hadn’t been so much fun, he might have objected. Penny made her position clear, but she had never complained to him about being pushed aside.

  Complaining was the last thing Jack wanted to do, even if he felt slighted. He had no love for fetching and carrying for Fasher while he was in Raker Falls. The excitement came when he was back on the road.

  ~

  Jack still had images of Black Fingers in his mind as Lari, the head housekeeper, led Jack into Reginart Ephram’s study. He hadn’t been inside the house since he saved Penny from Myra. The last time he had talked to Penny’s father was when he had thanked Jack for his role in saving his daughter just after they defeated the Black Fingers.

  Reginart was an imposing figure, but he seemed relaxed for a merchant. Jack guessed he must have made a huge amount of money before he retired, judging from all the books and expensive art objects and curios in the room.

  “Sit, Winder.”

  The voice still had the power of absolute confidence that whoever listened would obey.

  “At least you won’t bring any further misfortune to my dearest Penneta while she is away in Dorkansee.”

  Jack managed a smile. “No, I won’t. I wanted to know if you had any firsthand information on Masukai that I could know before I depart for the coast.”

  “I do.” Reginart sat back. Jack prepared himself for some reminiscences. Penny’s father was in a pose he had seen many times in the pubs of Raker Falls. He didn’t disappoint as he told Jack of his days as a merchant in Dorkansee and the trading empire he had built. “It all came crashing down due to a Corandian employee working for the company in the Masukaian port of Taiyo. It is the only port where foreigners can enter the country. The man had somehow seduced the wife of one of the town’s nobility. She was a relative of the emperor in Yomomai. Just like that my ships and all my trade goods were confiscated, even the ships that were en route. I received no compensation, and the ransoms for my Corandian staff were ruinous. At least for the Masukaian part of my business. The Masukaians refused to trade with Corand as a result of that one indiscretion.”

  “Is that why you came to Raker Falls?”

  Reginart shrugged. “One of the factors. I’m not a noble, and because of that, I went as high as I could within the Dorkansee upper class, even though we had a very nice estate in the First Ring. My daughters were growing up, and Fasher wondered if we would like to join him in Raker Falls, once I told him that I might be ready to retire.”

  “So you did.”

  Reginart nodded. “And I am very happy with my decision. Once I eliminated all those working poisons
out of my system, I’ve quite enjoyed the life here, except for unwanted visitors. Fasher and I have decided to put some money into the Raker Falls’ guard. We need better-trained people and perhaps a wizard or three to protect us here.” Reginart leaned forward. “I asked Fasher about you as a candidate, but he just laughed in my face. The offer might be an open one.”

  It was Jack’s turn to laugh in the man’s face. “Not me. I like doing what I am doing,” he said. “So I understand you might want something from Masukai?”

  “My money back,” Reginart said, but he waved his comments off. “I’m not serious, of course. There are a few trinkets that I’d like for my daughters. I’ll give you a list. They won’t take up much space. If you do that, you may take the four books I gave to Corina. If you return them, all the better.”

  “Have you been to Masukai?”

  “Three times. Each trip was a trial. The seas around Masukai are filled with pirates. You have to fight your way in and fight your way out. I had to clad my ships with metal to keep wizard bolts and fire from burning my vessels to the waterline. Most of our ships’ rails were filled with catapults and small ballista. You should learn as much of their language as you can. One of the books is a dictionary, and another is a primer. The other two are a history book and a book on culture. It is a dangerous place to tour.”

  “I got that impression from Fasher when he first told me about the errand.”

  Reginart pursed his lips and sat forward, resting his forearms on his desk and threading his fingers together. “It is highly offensive to talk to anyone in a foreign language. They get upset if you make a cultural mistake, and the Masukaian culture is very different from what you are used to. Spend a lot of time in Taiyo, where they are a shade more tolerant before you head into the interior. I heard the worst place of all is Yomomai, the Imperial Capital.” Reginart laughed. “They are a single country, but they insist you call their king ‘emperor.’ Nothing is royal, everything is imperial, in their language, of course.”

  “Of course,” Jack said.

  Reginart pulled a sheet of paper out of a drawer and folded it. “Whatever you can get from this list.” He leaned over the desk and gave the paper to Jack. “I know of one trusted Masukaian. I put his name and address in Taiyo at the bottom of my list. If you run into trouble, he might be someone to help.”

  “Thank you,” Jack said. He read the list and looked at the name. “I don’t know what these things are,”

  “You’ll find out. They won’t cost you much, but I had promised my daughters that I would get them these and then the Masukai trading died.” He paused and looked at Jack. “I have something else I’d like to talk to you about.”

  Jack nodded.

  “What is your relationship with my daughter? I never did find out, and she would never tell me. There has always been something between you two, but I could never find out what it was. With all the anger at you, I’ve been wondered if it was just an act to placate me.”

  Jack wondered how he needed to respond. “No hidden relationship, sir. Rivals might be the best way to describe our relationship, I guess,” Jack said. “Penny can be annoying at times. I don’t hate her, by any means, but she can get aggravating.”

  “You are brutally honest.”

  “Nothing that I haven’t said to Penny’s face more than a few times. She says the same about me, right?”

  Reginart played with a letter opener shaped like a sword. “Penneta did until you both returned from Passoran. Her sister could tell even before I could. You two…?”

  “Nothing between us. She did kiss me on a dare the day before she left.” Jack told Penny’s father the story of Penny’s prank. Jack smiled as he related the details.

  “A softening then? She wouldn’t contemplate anything like that before?”

  Jack frowned. “Maybe the errand did her some good,” Jack said. “She might have been less stiff, after her brush with Myra and the Black Fingers.”

  Reginart grinned. “That is as good a description as any. She became less stiff. I am encouraged by the changes in her and believe she will accept that her life will be better after time spent in Dorkansee. I still have friends and associates who have promised to keep an eye on her.” The man cleared his throat and stood. He extended his hand. “Good luck and make sure you return. The offer is open to join the new Raker Falls’ Guard.”

  Jack took the man’s hand and gripped. “I’ll be sure to return so I can reject your offer again. I’ll try not to seduce anyone’s wife while I am in Masukai.”

  Reginart’s face turned serious. “At one time, I would have thought you would do exactly that, but talking to Fasher about Penny and you during the time of your employment, I know that was never the case.” He gave Jack’s hand one more squeeze and let go. “I’m sure you are anxious to get on with your studies.

  Jack left by the front door and walked back to his house, fingering the list of trinkets in his pocket. He wondered what Reginart said, and what he meant.

  He sat down and stared at the large basket filled with uncharged rods, trying to decide what to do next, but in the end, he pulled out the list and looked it over. Penny’s father even made a few sketches of what he wanted. His requests really were trinkets. A little jeweled sword as a letter opener, a pin with a device of a circle half red and half white, and four other items without sketches. Two necklaces, two rings, and two hair ornaments. Jack didn’t even know what a hair ornament was, but he could ask Corina.

  Jack took a deep breath and tried to figure out what Reginart was getting at when he asked him about his relationship with Penny. Would he have tried to warn him off his daughter if there really was something between them? He shook his head at the astonishing thought. Penny did look rather nice all dressed up, but he knew the girl too well to give it any further thought.

  He grabbed a rod and put it in front of him. He could read and power up the rod at the same time. The language warning spooked Jack. How would he be able to function if he couldn’t speak a word of Masukaian, especially if it were true that the Masukaian people took offense if foreigners didn’t speak the language?

  Jack took out the history book since it was written in a language he could understand. What he found, as he already knew, was Masukai was an insular country populated by the Masukaian race. The people were quite different from the rest of the countries Jack had visited. Everyone, so far, spoke the same language. The accents might differ, but Jack would be able to understand everyone. Masukai had always been separated from Lajia by a band of water called the Riftsea.

  Sometime in the far distant past, the continent ripped apart. A mountain range rose up on the Lajian side, and the land dipped to create the Riftsea. The sea was twenty miles wide at its narrowest point and could only be navigated for an hour or two between tides. If a vessel couldn’t make it across the Riftsea in that time, they would be swept away by the fast tides that constantly moved back and forth between the Middle Sea and Wallden Sea far to the west of Lajia. The Wallden Sea extended between the country to the east of Passoran and the country of Bornan to the west of Lajia.

  Jack doubted if he would ever set foot in either country. Masukai spread across the whole of the southern edge of the Riftsea. The fast-moving water served as a strong deterrent from invasion from the northern countries.

  Insular was right, Jack thought. Everything was different. The Masukaians were shorter with straight black hair and complexions a bit darker than Lajians, but there were more differences. Their faces were shaped differently, too, distinctively enough so that anyone who Jack knew wouldn’t be mistaken for a Masukaian. They wore robes over tunics and loose trousers that tied at the ankles. Jack looked at a drawing in the book and wondered how he would fare in a land where he towered over the inhabitants.

  He had already said he would go, and to Jack, that was a binding commitment. He changed out the rod and read on. All he could do was prepare, but he knew he wouldn’t have enough time to master the language. That w
as his biggest barrier.

  ~

  Fasher tapped his finger on his desk as Jack sat down. Jack had carried the last of his three hundred rods and had left them outside the door.

  “You are ready?” Fasher said.

  “I don’t think I can ever be ready to go to Masukai,” Jack said. He had learned the history well, and the culture book just made him anxious and a bit afraid to face Masukaians. His language skills were rudimentary. He could puzzle through how to pronounce words using the Masukaian alphabet, but he didn’t know if his pronunciation was even close.

  Fasher smiled. “I can understand your fears. Your traveling companions are in the same situation except for Grigar, who has a smattering of words to his credit, so he says.”

  Jack looked at the desk. Fasher had tapped on a letter, presumably from the Lajian wizard.

  “What objects are you taking?”

  “Eldora’s box, my cuffs, my copy of the Serpent’s Orb, Takia’s Cup, and my sword and knife. Eldora’s box is the most important.”

  “Copy?” Fasher said, sitting up straighter. “You made a copy?”

  Jack pulled it out of his pocket, along with the real Serpent’s Orb.

  “That would be the first on my list too. Will you leave the Serpent’s Orb behind?”

  Jack nodded. “It is full of power, and you might need it here. He leaned over and put a leather pouch on Fasher’s desk. “That contains the Orb and the finding cube.”

  Fasher nodded and slipped the object of power into his desk drawer. “The most important object of power that you possess is yourself. Make sure you return to me intact. It won’t be easy, I must warn you, but try not to get yourself killed. The horse you brought from Rockedge is yours to take and sell in Arsinport when you depart for Masukai. Beware of pirates.”