by Guy Antibes
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Chapter Twenty-Four
Journey to the Plains
~
Ulu’s knowledge of the jungle exhausted itself a few leagues to the west. Bellia remembered Menna’s technique for marking the trail, so she continued to blaze trees to keep them going in a straight line.
At the end of each day, Bellia taught Ulu how to fight with Yezza’s sword. The little man learned swordsmanship quickly. His slashes were more like slices as if the blade were an extension of his clawed hand. Bellia could sense flashes of ferocity underneath Ulu’s generally placid exterior as she pressed him with her Pock blade.
Bellia noticed the jungle trees and plants thinned as they walked until the jungle covered the hills behind them. New plants took their place. A week into their trek, their trail ran into a road.
“We’ll make much better time.” Bellia sang. “We also need to speak words among the other people. If they hear us singing to each other too much they might not welcome our presence.”
Ulu thought about Bellia’s notes. “Your people don’t sing at all? Perhaps when something is important one of us can sing to the other.” The little man smiled.
“Good thinking Ulu.” Bellia said with words and clapped her companion on his back as they continued up the road. People began to pass by.
“Smile and nod if they say hello or if they nod to you,” Bellia said. After that each person who passed, Ulu gave them a big grin and nearly bowed. It made Ulu happy to see the strangers respond to his actions.
“In the jungle, if I did such a thing the treasure hunters would kill me. Many generations ago, we found that those who sought the temple wanted to kill us. That’s why we painted ourselves and made the claws. It frightened them. Now I am happy to make people smile, rather than angry.”
“You’re a good man, Ulu,” Bellia said as huts and cottages began to appear along the road. The forest and meadows soon gave way to plots of cultivated land. A village could be seen in the distance.
“Perhaps we can sleep in a bed tonight and have a hot bath.” Bellia rubbed her hands.
“Bath?”
“Like washing in a pool of hot water except the bath is inside of a house.”
Ulu nodded. Bellia could see the man having some trouble imagining what such a thing might be.
~
They walked up to a two-story wooden building. The sign of the Laughing Horse was written in the language of Palubat. Bellia opened the door and went to the counter that sat between an eating room and a tavern.
“I’d like rooms for my friend and I.”
The woman behind the counter was well fed and ill bred. She gave Bellia a dirty look and then sniffed at Ulu. “The both of you stink. You’ll have to have your clothes washed and baths before you can have a room. There’s a bathhouse down the street. Don’t come back if you’re not clean.” The woman made herself busy looking over a blank piece of paper.
“I guess you get to find all about baths right now,” Bellia said as they walked outside and back out on the dusty street. The picture of a tub and a brush hung on a board in front of a large single story brick building. Bellia walked in to the smell of soap and felt the humidity.
“Two baths with clothes washed.” She said to a little old man sitting behind a table in a waiting room.
“Ah. Pilkie sent you? The lady at the inn?” Bellia nodded. “She’s good for business. I’ve got a couple open. You’ve got an hour apiece. Leave your clothes outside your door.”
“Your money?”
“I landed in Palubat, so I’m not quite sure how my money works here.” Bellia took out one of her silver Griannan coins. He saw the man’s eyes widen. “That’s way more than enough. While you’re bathing I’ll stroll down to Pilkie’s and get this changed.”
The man slowly rose and walked with a limp back down a central hallway. He opened one door and then another across from it. “Take your packs in with you. I’ll be gone so anybody could rummage around in your bags, including the girls.” The old man cackled and walked out the door, turning in the direction of the inn.
“You can sing to me in here. Many people like to sing songs while they bathe.” Bellia went through the open door and glanced back to see Ulu do the same. She took off her pack and looked at the tub. It was a big wooden thing. A brush and a bar of soap lay on a shelf just above the tub on the far side. A cleanish towel was draped over a chair.
Bellia looked up and saw a pipe leading down the ceiling to a valve that opened to let water fall into the tub. Bellia heard Ulu sing.
“How does water flow into the tub?”
Bellia smiled and sang back the instructions to work the valve as she stripped and tossed the clothes into the hallway outside her door. Ulu had already done so. She turned back and locked the door.
The water was cold as it first splashed into the tub, but became much hotter when the tub was half full. At a comfortable temperature, she closed the valve and slipped into the steaming bath.
She had enjoyed her last real bath at Flathua. It seemed like a lifetime ago. They were six in Menna’s party then, all excited to get going on the ship to Eustia. The company ended at the Temple of Helevat. Their quest ended when they lost their lives and she, her fingers. Bellia felt like she had finally started her own quest when she set out from Helevat.
She pulled her maimed hand out of the water. Sometimes she felt like she could move fingers that were no longer there. She looked at her two hands. Mutilation. The fingers that remained were thin and well shaped.
What would a man think? The thought surprised Bellia. She’d been so immersed in other things that thinking of herself in terms of feminine appearance had been pushed back by more important matters, except for her relationship with Ned. She felt the heat of embarrassment creep into her face in spite of the hot water.
Her hair, always clipped to chin length, hadn’t been cut since she left Testia. The army had insisted that soldier’s hair not touch their shoulders. Now it flowed down her back and she wondered if she should let it grow like Yezza’s. A touch of freedom? She smiled at the concept.
But what to do next? Bellia looked at her hands again and reminded herself she suffered a career-ending injury for a magician. Could she even dare to hope the book might restore her ability to cast spells without codework? Rullon might help. He just might be the wisest man on Eustia, especially since now she knew he was a former Prior at the Temple.
Bellia had half-entertained the thought of learning to be a wizard at Rullon’s instruction before she lost her fingers. Living a life of ease off of her wealth didn’t appeal. Her thoughts drifted off as the heat relaxed her body.
She woke as Ulu sang of men in his room and danger. Bellia shook the sleep out of her head and rose from the tub. She quickly put on her smallclothes, and then wrapped the towel around her. She pulled her short sword from her scabbard. A man stood at Ulu’s door, a knife in his hand. Two others held Ulu by each arm.
“Where’s the guy with the coins?” the man standing in the doorway said as Bellia opened her door.
“Here I am. Leave Ulu alone.”
The man’s eyes narrowed. “A woman with a sword, eh? Well I don’t care. Now it will be self defense. Won’t it, boys?” A grin split his stubbled face as he turned around.
The other two dropped Ulu and faced Bellia, who was dripping in the hallway. She backed into the front room, one hand on her blade and another holding the towel around her. All three followed Bellia, moving as if their movements were choreographed.
The man with the knife pulled out his sword. “If she nicks me stab her.” He slashed at Bellia who dragged her sword up the man’s forearm opening a cut to the bone.
The other two advanced on Bellia as Ulu, who evidently didn’t feel the need to fight with a towel around his waist, fell upon the last two men. Ulu’s eyes began to glow with a blue light as he downed both men with no more than four swipes of his sword. He was about to do more, when Bellia sang “Stop!”
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The light dimmed and the man regained his mild manner. “Go back and wash the blood off. I’ll see where the old man went,” Bellia said. She knocked on the doors and found the old man sitting on a chair, a pipe forgotten in his hand.
His eyebrows shot up marking his face with alarm. “You’re alive?”
“I’m no ghost. Not so sure about my friend. You better get someone in here to clean up all the blood and fix a living man’s arm. I’m finishing my bath and will be expecting my change and my clothes.” The old man had to be in on the attack. Bellia could see the town was as friendly as the woman at the inn. She showed Ulu how to lock his door and told him to clean himself up.
A knock at the bathroom door and Bellia opened it to an empty hallway. Their clean, but damp clothes lay folded on the floor. The men were removed and the floor was wet from a quick mopping.
Bellia called to Ulu who grabbed his clothes. A few moments later they walked on damp flooring to the front door. The old man sat at the table, smoking his pipe with his elbow resting on his other arm crossing his chest.
“My change?”
“It’s at the Inn. Pilkie will tell you how much your silver coin was worth.” The old man glanced at the floor. “No one will cheat you now.”
“Is life down here always like this?” Ulu sang.
“Not for everybody, but I imagine strangers always have to be on their guard.” Once outside she continued, “Your eyes flashed with a blue light. What’s that all about?”
Ulu knitted his brow and pressed his lips together before he replied. “It is why we don’t fight with metal weapons. We can use our bone claws to kill men, but we are in control. Our legends say fighting with metal weapons will bring on the frenzy that can only be stopped by the gods or by death. I had forgotten.”
“Then why did you stop?”
Ulu gave Bellia a blank look. “Why you commanded me, of course. You are one with the gods. That is why we can practice with the swords and I don’t lose control.”
Bellia snorted. “I’m no god, but if that works, then I’m all for it. You fought with much skill and determination.”
“The Reberrants serve the gods.” Ulu bowed to Bellia.
“You can serve me by not bowing, Ulu. You’ll call attention to us.” She saw the townsfolk looking at the strangers.
Pilkie was considerably more civil this time. “Two rooms. How long will you be staying with us?”
“One room for tonight plus dinner. We will be leaving tomorrow at dawn. If you would have someone prepare a few days of trail food for us to take, I’d appreciate it. Now how much does our stay at The Laughing Horse cost me?”
“Half of your coin is left. That includes the amount for your baths.” She sprinkled some iron and copper coins in her hand. Bellia knew she was being cheated, but she wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible before something else happened.
“Is there a place I can buy a map?”
“Across the street at the general store. It’s the one with the big windows.”
Pilkie led Ulu and Bellia up the stairs. She sensed the tension and anger hidden beneath the innkeeper’s exterior. They would be on their guard tomorrow for some distance from the town.
“Ulu, you stay here and guard our bags while I purchase a map to take us north.”
“That would be fine. I would like to sleep some more. The frenzy seems to have drained my strength and I need to rest.”
Bellia ignored the stares as she made her way through the inn and across the street into the store. The eyes of everyone in the store drifted towards her. She could feel hostility mixed with curiosity. She spied flutes behind the counter.
“I need a map to Togolath. Do you have anything I can use?
The shopkeeper thought. “I have a detailed map of the mountains. That can get you to the plains—a dangerous place for visitors. It’s better if you head directly south and take a ship. If you have a desire to die out on the plains, I have a map that isn’t as detailed, but that covers from here to Grianna. It doesn’t have many towns on it, but it is better than dead reckoning.”
“I’ll take both of them. What about one of those flutes? I don’t know much about flutes. Do you have any with eight holes?”
The shopkeeper brought the collection over. Bellia picked a black flute, but it was carved out of wood.
“How much?” She pulled the change from the inn out of her pocket and let the man pick the right amount from her hand. Two iron coins and a copper did the trick. “Thanks.”
The next morning after they had traveled north for a few hours, Bellia pulled out the flute.
Ulu looked surprised. “I thought you left it with my father.”
“This is a different one. See? No golden mouthpiece. I wondered if the tunes have any power or if it’s all in the flute.”
Bellia began to play. Visions of the jungle came into their heads. This was the Temple vision song as Bellia thought of it. She stopped.
“Home.” Ulu smiled and sighed. “We have brought the Temple with us. It makes me happy. I can nearly picture—” he sang his wife’s name.
“That’s enough for now.” Bellia felt the magic within her as she played the vision-music. No code punching to make visions with music. What else unsettled her was the fighting frenzy of Ulu. Could the Reberrants not be Reverents as she thought? Could they be an army used by the gods? But on whose side? She didn’t remember the Reberrants fighting as an army when she played for Trill’s village. But she had learned from playing before Menna’s party that different people could see different visions.
She shivered. What if the Reberrants proved to be on the wrong side? Then she wondered whose side she was on? She laughed; she didn’t even know all of the players. Perhaps there was something more to talk about with Rullon. She would have to wait a long, long time before she could pose the question. Bellia trusted Ulu with her life and as long as she could stop his frenzy, she had no worries.
Mountains appeared along the horizon. They passed a town about every other day. She discovered that they paid about five times more than the going rate for her initial bath and night’s stay in their first village. She cashed in another silver for Durnna coinage for the rest of their time in the country. On the other side of the mountains, they’d travel through Sanreala where the Middab still ruled the plains.
The road went over a low point in the mountains. Linked valleys took them up and over. At the top of the highest valley, as they began the descent into country of Sanreala. They looked down towards seemingly endless rolling grasslands extending out to the horizon. They reminded Bellia of the dunes beneath the House. But there was a big difference. These plains teemed with life.
“This is the land that gave birth to Yezza, the other woman with two swords in our party.”
Ulu pulled out his sword. “A ferocious woman to use these swords so well.” He swished the blade in the air. His skills had grown as they continued their sword practice. Bellia thought that if the fighting frenzy took hold, she doubted if she’d be able to withstand Ulu’s fury.
A town fronted the plains at the bend of the road as it curved south. Bellia’s path took them directly west. Further on, about two or three hundred paces from the last building, a little city of tents started. From the bluff over the town, she saw three huge circular pens beyond the tents. She saw white animals in one, presumably sheep. Another held horses and the other some other animal with long curved horns on their heads pointing forwards and shaggy reddish coats.
The town was large enough for two inns. The first refused their custom since they were on foot and looked like vagabonds. Bellia thought it somewhat insulting. The second place had the feeling of a well-worn piece of furniture. The inside had skins embellished with brightly colored embroidery hanging on the walls.
A tall black-haired man, with skin the color of Yezza’s, came to the counter.
“A room for a few nights. My friend and I have traveled from Palubat.”
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�That’s a fair distance on foot.”
“It is. How does one cross the plains? We are headed to Togolath.”
“That is a very dangerous and difficult journey indeed, halfway across Eustia. May I ask you some questions?”
“You may. I don’t think I have anything to hide.” Bellia said, hoping it would be true.
“Your friend wears a plains blade and his boots have the cut of a plains woman’s shoe. And you wear the clan token of the Wolf tribe around your neck. How came you by these? It is most curious.”
“We are the remnants of a party of soldiers of fortune. We traveled into the jungles to seek out a treasure. One of us was a woman from the plains. She died in a fight with robbers. Ulu, here, had lost all of his possessions and had to take what he could find in the lady’s things.”
“I doubt she was a true plainswoman. The token must be a copy, for I have seen the original with my own eyes. How did you come by it?”
Bellia spoke in the language of the Middab for the first time. “Ah, Yezza was a feisty woman. She felt her blades were more than a match for any man’s, yet I bested her in a duel. She gave me this as a token of my victory. She had a few of them around her neck.”
“Yezza? A severe woman with fierce ice-blue eyes?”
“You know her?” Bellia hadn’t expected Yezza to be so well known.
“She was the mother of my tribe, the Wolf. She killed her husband, the chief. That is the tribe’s true token you wear around your neck. Her people sold her off to a rich merchant in Togolath as punishment.”
“She escaped.” Bellia said. “Then she made her way to Testia where we met. We traveled from there to Palubat.” Bellia shrugged her shoulders hoping that she had given the innkeeper sufficient information.
“You must have really impressed her. She wouldn’t have given the token without a great deal of respect. People of the plains highly value their clan token and its history.”
“As I said I defeated her in a fight along the way. She presented the token freely”
