by Guy Antibes
“We are looking for a sponsor. A Corandian merchant gave me the name.”
“I know the daughter. Kiro won’t sponsor a stranger, but she might help. Shall I send her a message?”
“Go ahead. We are out of ideas.”
“And nearly out of Taiyo, I suppose. I used to work for Corandian merchants, but there was a bit of unpleasantness…”
“I know,” Jack said.
The woman called a servant and scribbled out a message and urged the servant to hurry. Jack could pick up that much from her exchange in Masukaian.
In less than an hour, an older man and a young woman stepped into the inn, causing the woman to stop the servant. “Evidently, Kiro Ganshi will respond.”
The pair walked to the front desk and spoke in Masukaian. Jack didn’t understand any of it.
“This is Kiro Ganshi. Which one are you?” The woman asked.
“I am Jack Winder, an acquaintance of Reginart Ephram.” Jack mimicked the bow he’d seen others use when Masukaians met.
“My daughter, Namori.”
Jack bowed to Namori, who bowed back, barely concealing a smile. She was very pretty, Jack thought.
“You don’t know our ways, so I’m sure my daughter won’t take offense.”
“I have done something to offend?” Jack asked.
“Young men bow differently to young girls in Masukai. Are you here by yourself?”
Jack shook his head. “There are four of us. Two friends of my mentor and an older gentleman who spent two years in Taiyo, long ago. Grigar had expected his old friend from that time to be our sponsor, but the friend no longer lives in the port.”
“I see. I can sponsor you for a time. If you intend to travel inland, you won’t be doing that any time soon,” Kiro Ganshi said. “We can talk about that at my house. Gather your things. I will take care of the authorities for now.”
~
“And that was that,” Jack said. “I didn’t have to ask him or plead or anything. He said to pack up and be outside the inn in a half hour.”
“And what if he doesn’t come?” Helen asked.
“Then we get our sea legs back,” Tanner said. “Think a little more positively, girl.”
“I’m not your—” Helen paused mid-sentence. “Yes, I am.” She grinned at Tanner. “In that case, is that the Masukaian’s daughter?” She pointed across the wharf.
Namori Ganshi sauntered through the crowds followed by two uniformed Masukaians. She stopped in front of Jack.
“We have your temporary papers.”
“How did they know our names?” Tanner asked.
“They got them from the front desk,” Jack said. He turned to Namori. “We will follow you.”
Namori smiled. Jack realized she spoke Corandian. That would smooth their entry into Masukai. They followed the girl with the two guards, or whatever they called the uniformed men still bringing up the rear. They ended up at a gate leading into the wharf area that Jack was sure wasn’t meant to keep people out, but foreigners in.
The girl presented the papers, and when they walked through the gate, their escort walked back into the wharf.
“What are the guards called?” Jack asked.
Namori scrunched up her face in thought. “Constables? Father would know. We don’t call them guards because they are of a higher rank.”
“They have to be noble?” Tanner asked.
“No. Tests are required for all positions and even imperial ministers must pass tests. All but the emperor must be qualified to serve.”
“Even farmers?” Helen said.
Jack looked at Grigar, who nodded.
“The higher the score, the bigger the farm,” he said. “I heard about it, but I never left Taiyo.”
“He is right,” Namori said. “I am taking a test next month to raise my rank.”
“On being a good daughter?” Tanner asked.
She lifted up a corner of her mouth into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “An arms proficiency test.”
“Do wizards have classifications?”
Namori looked at Jack and said, “Of course, they do. If you are to move about the interior, you will have to be ranked as it is the Masukaian way.”
“Even outsiders?” Jack asked.
“Especially outsiders, unless you are in a delegation. Even then, the country will have to hire rated Masukaians to do most of the tasks. You don’t represent Corand, do you?” Namori said with a sly smile.
“No. We will tell you what we are here for when we talk to your father,” Grigar said.
“We have some distance to go. I will hire a cart.” Namori said as they exited onto a square filled with Masukaians.
Jack looked back. A row of the buildings extended to face this square and the wharf, with shops lining the street. The Masukaians obviously bought their imported goods from the storefronts.
Man-powered carts were lined up close to the large gate to the wharf.
“Two each. We call these rickshaws,” Namori said. She gave the three men instructions, and soon they were passing through the square and into a crowded street.
Jack felt a bit bad about having another person pull him in a cart, but then perhaps the cart pullers couldn’t gain any ranking for one reason or another. What if Jack had no skills for a rating? Would he have to resort to pulling people in carts all the way to their still-unknown destination? He shuddered.
“Are you cold?” Grigar asked.
Jack grinned. “I just thought what if we can’t muster very high ratings? Perhaps we can carry passengers all the way across Masukai.”
Grigar laughed. “It is worse than that. Low-ranking Masukaians don’t have much freedom of movement. This fellow in front of us can’t ply his trade in another city without filling out paperwork and getting permission. I learned about the levels of rank when I was here last. It looks like things haven’t changed a bit. With a sponsor in Taiyo, I didn’t have to worry about it. I couldn’t take employment, even if I wanted to unless I worked inside the wharf.”
Chapter Six
~
T hey reached a less crowded area of Taiyo. The houses were behind walls, like where Penny Ephram lived in Raker Falls. Kiro Ganshi had to be a wealthy man, thought Jack, as servants posted outside the gate rushed to open it.
The carts stopped in front. Jack looked across the street. All the gates had thresholds a few steps above ground level. That seemed odd to Jack. In Corand, you rode or drove through the gate into the courtyard. He was sure there were plenty more oddities to come.
Six servants ran out to carry their bags from the carts and followed them into an orderly, raked gravel courtyard. They walked across the gravel, disturbing the patterns of the raking, but when Jack looked behind him, servants were already repairing their steps made to the design. Another oddity.
Namori led them inside after giving the servants instructions. They scurried off with their bags. “This way,” she said.
They followed her through another gate to a landscaped courtyard. All the corridors seemed to be on the outside covered with overhanging roofs on elevated walkways. They walked across an arched bridge over a pond filled with water plants and big lazy fish. She knocked at a set of double doors on the opposite side of the entrance.
“Come in and bring our guests after they have removed their shoes,” Kiro Ganshi said in Corandian.
Jack was heartened to hear him referred to as a guest. They followed Namori into a receiving room with polished wooden floors, but everything was open under the spreading roof. Jack could see an elevated bed under a canopy on one side and at least two rooms on the other with a low table with pads around. Perhaps it was a dining area.
They stood in front of Kiro sitting on an elevated platform behind a wide low table filled with papers and implements. Their host clapped his hands, and servants appeared to plop down cushions on the floor in front of Kiro’s throne-like desk.
“I’m sure you are wondering why I consented to bring you
out of the wharf area,” Kiro said. “For one, Reginart wouldn’t recommend anyone lightly. That counts for you. Two, your youngest member said you were passing through, so you aren’t looking for someone to support you indefinitely, and three, I have something that foreigners might be able to do easier than I can.”
Namori frowned and said something to her father in Masukaian. The exchange was more heated, and that made Jack uncomfortable, but the daughter eventually nodded and folded her hands on her lap, her face smoothing out. In a moment, she looked like she had never had an argument with her father.
Kiro leaned forward. “Now tell me your story. Why have you journeyed to Masukai?”
“We are seeking to retrieve an object of power,” Jack said. “Fasher calls it the Battlebone. I don’t know what the Masukaian name is, but it allows the holder to see far distances. He is afraid it will fall into the wrong hands in Masukai, and that will have disastrous consequences for many countries in the world. We don’t know where it is, but,” Jack shrugged, “when Fasher gives me an errand, I have to complete it.”
“You have had other errands like this?”
Jack nodded. “Similar enough. They generally revolve around an object of power of some kind.”
“Your mentor must have great trust in a man as young as you,” Kiro said.
“He does,” Helen said. “Jack hasn’t disappointed Fasher Tempest yet.”
“I don’t do it alone,” Jack said. “Tanner and Helen have been with me for most of my journeys. Grigar has—”
“We should introduce ourselves to you,” Grigar said. “I am Grigar Soffez, a wizard of sorts for the family business of which I am a part in Lajia.” Grigar smiled a little less confidently. “We do not feel antipathy toward Masukai as others do in Lajia. I would hope you don’t hold the feelings of many in my country against me. I spent two years in Taiyo when I was much younger.”
“Two years in Masukai might be enough to turn a person against us,” Kiro said.
“Not me,” Grigar said. “Not at all.”
Kiro nodded. “And you two?” He looked at Helen and Tanner sitting together.
“I am Tanner Simple. I have known Fasher for a while. Helen Rafter,” Tanner nodded to Helen, “and I have served him during the same period.”
“Tanner introduced me. I am Helen Rafter, a mercenary.”
Kiro nodded and returned to Jack. “Are you a swordsman like the warrior couple, or are you a wizard like Grigar?”
“A bit of both,” Jack said. “More wizard, actually. I am a wizard’s helper if you know what they are.”
“A giver of power?” Kiro said. “I wouldn’t have thought it of someone so young and inexperienced.” He glanced at his daughter. “Of relative inexperience. We call them by a few different names. The most common is Akkora-blessed.”
“Akkora, the mist goddess?” Grigar said.
Kiro nodded. “If you were a Red Heron or a member of one of the warrior cults you would be called Zukori’s edge, as in the edge of a blade. Zukori is the god of battle and is followed by many warriors. My house is dedicated to the delight of Akkora.”
Jack would like Akkora better, he thought. “I can prove my helper status if needed. I hesitate to call myself a blessed person of Akkora.”
“Then helper is good enough for now, and that reinforces my decision to sponsor you. Are you aware that you need to be ranked?”
Grigar nodded. “I was aware of the process, but not that we would require ranking. Your daughter introduced us to the concept.” He smiled, nodding.
Kiro pressed his lips together and surveyed the group with his eyes, which ended up gazing at his daughter. “Namori. We have a blessed one in our midst. I will give you the task to educate our guests to the point where they can function outside Taiyo.”
Namori nearly grunted. Jack sat next to her and noticed she had to restrain herself when she responded to her father.
“I can use the servants?”
Kiro nodded. “Yes. I imagine you should start by teaching them to read and write.” He looked at his visitors. “Writing is important to your ranking. It separates the peasants from the rest of the citizenry. Masukai doesn’t have schools like you do in your country,” Kiro said. “We have academies for advanced study, but basic learning is done in the home.”
“I will arrange things. I assume you have done some preliminary study?” Namori said.
“I thought I learned a bit,” Jack said, “but when I heard your language spoken, I’m afraid I don’t know anything.”
“We will see,” Namori said.
“Now for my errand,” Kiro said. “I mentioned the Red Herons. They are a society of warriors and wizards who wish to change Masukai, and not for the better.”
Jack wondered how one would change it for the worse.
“They have increased in size and influence in Yomomai. When you go to the capital with Namori to seek out your object, I’d like you to make inquiries. Ranked foreigners are certain to attract their attention.”
“Spies?” Helen said.
Kiro nodded. “A term I’d rather not use, but yes. It doesn’t take a wizard to guess that your mentor, this Tempest person, is right in his desire to keep this Battlebone away from the Red Herons. As for me, I’ve never heard of it, but Namori can find out since you told us what it is supposed to do. I am thinking we are working in the same direction, and more information for me and my group will be more than the cost of keeping and educating you.”
“We can pay for our stay,” Tanner said. “We have enough gold to reimburse you.”
Kiro smiled and raised his hand to stop Tanner. “It is offensive to pay the one who has brought you into their house. I forgive you, of course, since you don’t yet know our ways, but you will before you set foot outside my manor.” Kiro gave them a bow from his sitting position. “We will talk again at the evening meal.” He turned to his daughter. “Namori, please show them to their rooms and assemble them in the Bright Emerald Pavilion for an orientation.”
~
Jack had no idea how large the manor was. Namori showed them to a long low building consisting of a line of smaller rooms. She asked a servant where their belongings were placed. Jack checked his things. His room was about twice the size of his bedroom in Raker Falls with a low desk at one end and a raised sleeping area.
There wasn’t a chair in the room, but the thick woven mats that covered the floor were springier than Jack expected. She cautioned them that shoes were not to be worn inside buildings, just like they had left them outside when they visited Kiro Ganshi.
The Bright Emerald Pavilion was a structure about the size of Kiro Ganshi’s living quarters. Instead of a sleeping area, there was a stack of small desks. The main area had low tables stacked along with cushions. He hadn’t seen a real chair since the inn.
Jack was the first shown to the pavilion. He stepped on the decorative rug placed over the woven mat. He guessed the polished wooden floors were reserved for special residents. Jack took a whiff of the place. Everything smelled like different kinds of wood and maybe some kind of polish. The ceilings were mostly exposed, with carved panels covering the bottom of the tiled roofs inside. The bottoms of the roofs were exposed outside on the covered walkways.
Tanner and Helen walked through the sliding doors, followed in a few moments by Grigar. They sat down in another side room that looked like a lounge of sorts with cushions on the floor and pillows propped against low cabinets in a U shape.
They sat down and shared their first impressions of the place. Grigar re-confirmed that the sitting was harder on his knees, but he could handle it now that they had a sponsor. Helen and Tanner were a bit awestruck by the difference, like Jack.
Namori stepped through the door with an older man carrying a stack of books.
“This is Haruno, the house steward, and he knows Corandian. We have brought some books, but we will obtain others.”
“I have my own books,” Jack said.
“Crutc
hes,” Haruno said. “In two weeks, you will not be permitted to use books with Corandian words.”
“Permitted?” Helen asked.
“If you wish to learn to speak in the Masukaian tongue, you will need to immerse yourself in the language. It is the fastest way, even if it is a bit uncomfortable.”
“Fast is better,” Jack said, “but I don’t think I’ll learn to read in two weeks.”
“Speaking first, writing second. Concentrate on learning the alphabet first. When you all know that, we will begin to learn the language,” Haruno said. “It is how our children learn.”
“It is how Haruno taught me as a child.”
“I apologize for her,” Haruno said.
Grigar laughed, and then Jack realized that the steward had said a joke. He hadn’t expected it.
“Let’s hope you get us to the point where you can apologize for us as well,” Grigar said.
Haruno brightened up and gave them a curt nod. “Namori will instruct you in some of the culture. We have a few serving maids who will also help you, but when you can understand Masukaian.”
Jack didn’t know when that would be, but they didn’t really have a choice to undergo all the instruction and continue to pursue their errand.
Haruno left the books on a sideboard that looked almost normal size and departed. Namori sat down between Grigar and Helen.
“We will begin with bowing. The basic greeting and the basic farewell. Bowing is an art in our culture, and you will need to learn it now before you deal with the servants, or they will be laughing behind your backs.”
“Which they will do anyway since we are foreigners,” Tanner said.
Namori smirked. She wasn’t anywhere near reserved like the other Masukaian women Jack had met during his very short time on Masukaian soil.
The girl stood. She had worn a Masukaian dress. “You will be wearing Masukaian clothing after tomorrow,” she said. “It is part of your learning.” She bowed deeply, with her back parallel to the ground. “That is how you greet a very senior person. What is a senior person? There are two criteria, age and rank. Age is easier to determine, but you will learn indicators of rank while you study.”
