by Guy Antibes
“Looks like the horse was meant for you,” the stable master said. “You two look like you could ride right out of a story.”
Bellia thought her story was still being written. Her mount needed a name. She laughed. “Ulu, our new traveling companion has a name. Nudge.”
“That’s not a name for a horse,” Hal said.
“It has meaning to me and I think this steed is exactly that, a nudge. So that’s his name.”
Even Ulu shook his head with a dubious look and sang, “It is your horse to name.”
Bellia and Ulu were mounted, ready to leave. “We’re going to get something to eat, do you want to join us Hal?”
“No. I want to get back home tonight. I’ve got to ride back with supplies for my wife.”
“Here is something to keep your children occupied for a time in the winter.” Bellia pulled a little spiked trinket out of a little sack Bellia made from some scraps of leather at Hal’s farm. “Open it with your wife and children around. It’s something fun.”
“Ah, jacks, that’s we called them when I was a lad. My children will be thrilled. Thanks. I wasn’t sure about the two of you, but I am now. Good luck on your journey to Togolath.”
“If I run across Wully, I’ll tell him I met you.”
Ulu led them towards the market square. Bellia turned back to wave. The size of the town surprised her. Far down the road they came to an actual dining place. It reminded her of Kell’s Inn at Greenwell. They walked in and an older woman came up to them and recited a selection of meals.
Bellia had rarely eaten in such a place, and only as a child. They chose what they wanted and waited for their meal.
“Bellia, what did you give the farmer?” Ulu asked. Bellia could see the curiosity in his face and smiled.
“Did it look like Hal was successful?”
“Not really. He had much land that was not tilled. I fear he may run out of food in the winter.”
“I’m not so sure he is that poor, yet. Well, Wully saved my life. I’d be remiss if I let his sister go through too much hardship, so I put a jewel in a little sack of tossing stars I made out of metal scraps. They should have enough to buy out the farms around him, but I think Hal is a smart man and will just hire the help he needs.”
“You spend your jewels wisely, Bellia. I feel good that you blessed them with such a gift.”
“I feel good, too.” She smiled at Ulu and at the lady who put before her the best meal she had eaten since she was a girl at the House.
~
Nudge was a magnificent horse, but he still needed some training. As Ulu plodded along, Bellia went ahead for rides along their route, learning all about Nudge and having Nudge learn all about her.
From accounts of cavalrymen in the histories at the Blind God’s Temple, Bellia remembered how they wrote about training horses to take commands from the rider through their knees and heels. Nudge figured out the commands along with Bellia. In a few weeks of training, Bellia could ride and stop Nudge and twirl him around with the pressure from her knees and heels. She learned to bring Nudge up on his hind legs and paw in the air. The horse learned the commands so easily, that Bellia wondered if he had been trained earlier. Now she truly felt like a warrior from the stories.
The day came when the leaves began to turn, as they rounded the mountains and headed directly for Togolath.
“See what I’ve learned? It’s time for a demonstration, Ulu.” Bellia stroked Nudge’s head. She jumped up on the saddle and took Nudge through his paces.
Ulu clapped his hands, laughing. “Very good, Bellia. I too, have something to show you.” Ulu jumped up on his saddle from behind his horse and then, holding his hands in the air, gave Bellia a demonstration of his own.
“Amazing. How did you learn?”
“You wouldn’t keep quiet about it while we rode together, so while you were out practicing, I taught Vila how to carry me without the reins.”
“Vila?”
“Nudge is Nudge and I thought why not my horse? She is Vila, a girl’s name.” Ulu smiled and then sang it. The horse shook her head.
“Ulu. You are such a good companion. I don’t know how I would have made this journey without you.” Bellia grinned and slapped Ulu on his back.
“You would find a way. The gods guide one of their own. I am merely along as a witness and a help when you need it.” Ulu sang.
“How do you sing Nudge? It’s a phrase I don’t know” Bellia said.
Ulu sang it. Bellia repeated it. “Is that right?” Ulu nodded. “I will teach Nudge to come when I sing his name as you have done with Vila.”
~~~
Chapter Twenty-Nine
On the Road to Togolath
~
Farms decreased in size the closer they got to Togolath. The easy going rural people on the eastern side of the mountain, gave way to a more cynical populace along the shores of the Inner Sea.
“We’ll stay in inns every night from here to Togolath,” Bellia said as they dismounted inside The Twisted Goose’s stable yard as twilight turned into evening.
They walked into a raucous scene. The innkeeper could hardly hear them and they could hardly hear the innkeeper through all the singing and laughter in the main room.
“Can we have a locked room?” Bellia asked.
The innkeeper looked taken aback. “They are all locked with inside bolts. You’re not from here are you?”
Bellia shook her head.
“Come round for breakfast in the morning and we can talk,” the man said.
They took their bags up the stairs. This time they had to share a room as the inn was packed. Their room number written on a wooden tab on the keychain. The lock was hefty and the door certainly looked stout.
“Let’s get our other bags and bring them up. Strong doors must be here for a reason.”
They had to fight off a gang of youth who approached their bags in their horses’ stalls. Bellia had to yell stop a couple of times to Ulu who just about triggered himself into a fighting frenzy.
“It’s different all right.” Bellia said as they reached their room. She looked at the lock and it showed evidence of many attempts to force it. “It reminds me of the army. The troops didn’t keep much with them, so if something was stolen, it didn’t mean much.”
Ulu just shook his head. Bellia could see the man was upset. Bellia went to sleep. She woke up later in the night to see Ulu sitting in the dark waiting for someone to come through the door.
Morning came and Bellia found Ulu lying on his bed with his feet still touching the floor.
“Wake up. We need to go down and have some breakfast and get some information.”
Ulu rose, bleary eyed. “Perhaps in a bit. If I do not join you perhaps you could bring something up to me when you return.”
Bellia tossed him the key. “Make sure you lock the door if you leave. There won’t be as many people around during the day.”
She found the innkeeper, behind the bar of the tavern inspecting glassware and crockery. A few patrons sat at tables, eating their morning meal.
Bellia sat down. The innkeeper spotted her and put his rag down.
“Eunis, some breakfast for three. I’ll be with the sandy-haired young woman,” he yelled through a pass-through in the wall and sat at Bellia’s table.
“Did you spend the night well?”
Bellia gave a little laugh. “I did but my companion was up all night guarding the room.”
“I noticed you’re not from around here and I thought you might benefit from a little foreknowledge. I have to give the same talk to everyone who comes to the inn from Banta way.”
“I’m from considerably farther than that. We’ve journeyed all the way from Palubat.”
“Over the plains? You should have taken a ship. You could have been killed. The plains are dangerous.”
Bellia looked around. “They don’t have locks and bolts on the tents.”
“Point taken,” the innkeeper said with a cro
oked smile. “Still.”
“Danger takes many forms. I’ve seen a few myself.”
“You’re a bit young to say that.”
“Nearly twenty-one and I’ve already seen more danger than I’d like to.”
The man looked at Bellia and the short sword she wore on her belt. “You’ll see more. Well, now. This part of Banta isn’t lawless, but some people flaunt the law. We have the same penalties as the folks to the east, but in the last few decades, it doesn’t seem to matter, the jails are full up. We’ve got plenty of guards, but many are bribed, so the worse ones don’t stay locked up.”
“Are people assaulted on the streets?” Bellia wondered if Rullon was in constant danger in Togolath.
“If one takes precautions, all is well. My rooms get tried, but I haven’t had a break-in when the doors have stayed locked. I hope you didn’t leave any of your belongings outside?”
Bellia shook his head. “When I saw the stout locks on the door, we grabbed our goods. I had to fight off a gang of young men to do it. Were my horses safe?”
“Horse theft carries an immediate penalty of hanging. No time to bribe, so it happens rarely.”
“I have a friend in Togolath. Is he safe?”
“As I said if you take precautions you have nothing to worry about. The benefit is we have plenty of freedom. The Council of Togolath rules with a light hand. They think it’s good for business and in a sense it is.”
“But all the crime.”
“Most men have turned from religion. It seems they are powerless to affect men’s lives. There is nothing to keep a man from looking after his self-interest. If you can’t take it, you move east around the mountains.”
“I met a farmer who must have done that.” Bellia thought of Hal and his family. Breakfast arrived at the same time Ulu, looking a bit more disheveled than usual, sat down.
“There are benefits. Taxes are low; just enough to pay for the guards and the tax collectors. People still watch out for each other and local towns have to pay for any education for their children and other city services. It seems to work, as long as—”
“You take precautions.” Bellia laughed. “We will. Are people honest in their business?”
“As much as you’ll find anywhere else. It doesn’t pay to cheat people if you want to stay in business.” The innkeeper looked at Bellia with tight lips. He must have known some cheaters in his time.
Bellia liked the food better on the other side of the mountains. Perhaps it was the environment she didn’t like. She thought of Pilkie and the baths. This village was no different than that town.
~
Nudge and Vila seemed to have a spring in their step as they traveled closer to Togolath. Bellia became excited when the spires of Togolath appeared in the distance and the road became wider and crowded with traffic in both directions.
“A river.” Ulu said as he pointed to a large wide moat outside the city walls.
“The city is a port. Ships come here and trade goods from other lands.” Bellia thought of port of Barloo. Would she feel the same excitement here? What would Ulu think of all the activity?
“In ancient times, they built the walls and dug that moat and lined it with stone in a big ‘V’.” Bellia put the heels of her hands together and straightened them to show the ‘V’ “It is deep and the city drains it every ten years or so and cleans it out. I’ve read that it makes the city impregnable to armies, but no armies have invaded for hundreds of years.” Bellia wondered if those walls were built after the wizards were bound to codemaking.
They approached gates to the city. No guards intercepted them. Bellia and Ulu rode under gates forty feet high that hadn’t been closed in fifty years, so Bellia had read. Togolath prided itself on being a free city.
“We are here.” Bellia felt a twinge in her stomach. Now that she arrived, she felt even more uncomfortable with her ability to act like anything other than a warrior. She would have to rely on Rullon for guidance.
Ulu looked in wonder at the high buildings. They had passed through towns much larger than Hossel’s Corners, but had more often tended to skirt them on this side of the mountains and stay in smaller places. No other city they passed had buildings taller than three stories, but in Togolath, spires and towers fifty paces high thrust up into the sky. The architecture and buzz of the city even took her by surprise. Both of them spent as much time gawking up at the buildings as watching where they were going.
“I’m looking for the Street of the Limping Man,” Bellia leaned down from Nudge to make sure the guard heard her request.
“Nice part of town. You need to turn right at the next big street and head up Harbor Hill. It’s at the top.”
Bellia thanked the guard while she continued her gawking. The road they turned on was as wide as the one they rode in from the gate. Monuments lined the center as the pavement rose to the bottom of a hill a thousand paces away. Togolath was the largest city in Eustia and it showed.
They reached the bottom of the hill and asked a woman carrying sacks of food.
“We are looking for the Street of the Limping Man.”
“Follow that street and keep going up at every turn. The street of the Limping Man circles the top.”
Rullon must be well fixed, thought Bellia, for when they reached the top of the hill, they could see all around the city.
Ulu stared at the ships and the inner sea that thrust into Eustia like a huge thumb. “So much water.” Ulu said.
“There’s more than that, Ulu. This is a small sea. I’ll bet on a clear day, you might be able to make out the other side from here.”
“My wife would not believe this. Perhaps not even Father,” Ulu said.
Bellia thought about her Reberrant friends. It seemed like so long ago. What a different life Trill and his people lived. Her musings stopped as they confronted a well-dressed man walking out of a gated villa.
“I am looking for Rullon. He said he lived on this street.”
“He does. I just visited him. Rullon’s the best healer in the city, but he’s hard to get an appointment. He was gone for months to Testia and the city breathed a sigh of relief when he returned.” The man smiled. “I don’t know if he will accept your case, whatever it is. You look in good health to me.”
Bellia wondered if Rullon would have any time for her? She decided she didn’t come all this way to be turned away from his door. Bellia dismounted and Ulu did the same. She led Nudge into the courtyard and Ulu brought Vila and the pack horse.
“Tie the horses up. I’ll see if Rullon can meet us.”
Ulu said nothing. He reached up and grasped Bellia’s shoulder. “Have no fear, Bellia.”
Every step from Ulu to the door seemed twenty paces and an hour long. She felt a line of sweat on her upper lip. What if Rullon forgot her? What if the offer was an offhand farewell, not meant in seriousness? Bellia felt her palms dampen as her breath became short. She was so close to the end of her quest. Helevat was only an episode. This was near to the end point that lay on the other side of the sea.
She knocked on the door, wiping the sweat from her hands. She looked at her mutilation and for some reason realized she hadn’t practiced the new magic after the bathtub incident.
“Yes.” A man answered the door. It wasn’t Rullon.
“Rullon?”
“My master doesn’t take patients without an appointment. I can give you a list of competent healers in the city.”
“No. He invited me to see him should I ever visit Togolath. Could you give him this?” Bellia rummaged around in her purse.
The man looked at Bellia and then out at Ulu. “My master doesn’t take bribes.”
“Just show him this.” Bellia put the gold token of the Blind God in the man’s hand.
The man looked down and recognized the token. “Please come in. I didn’t know you followed his god. Forgive me.”
Bellia relaxed a little as Rullon’s servant looked past her at Ulu. “You too!” he called
as he disappeared into the house with the gold token.
Ulu ran across the cobbled courtyard and grinned at Bellia. “No fear,” he chided.
The lobby of the house was elegant without garishness. Columns were carved with flutes that extended up and held the ceiling with what looked like spreading leaves. Pale yellow and muted green velvet chairs decorated the tiled floor.
“Bellia!” Rullon rushed into the room, showing her the token. He hugged her, as if she were a long-lost friend. “I feared the worst. I had word from Lily in Palubat two months ago that you had passed through. No one has ever survived the ghosts of Helevat.”
“I brought one to meet you. This is Ulu.”
Rullon blanched. “Ulu. I am honored to meet you.” Rullon gave Bellia a concerned look but extended his hand to the Reberrant.
“I have traveled far for your advice,” Bellia said.
“It’s quite a way from Tuathua to come for advice. How did you get here?”
“Through Durnna through the Sanrealan plains and then to the farms of Banta and around the mountains. It’s taken us two and half months.”
Rullon noticed Bellia’s hand. “What—you can’t practice magic. We thought—”
“There is much to discuss.”
“I just shared the midday meal with a patient friend of mine, perhaps we can fix something for you and I can just sit and let you eat and talk. How about that?”
“I admit I’m hungry and would like to meet your wife again.”
Rullon’s face darkened. “I fear she caught a fever on our return trip across the sea. I hired Warnt soon after I returned. But that only makes your visit more of a treat, to see someone from the Temple.” His smile was a bit more reserved.
As Bellia and Ulu ate a meal of fish soup, something neither had eaten before. The story began and as she told it, Bellia left nothing out. The fight with Yezza, the wolf token. The House and her father’s amulet. Bellia took it out of her sword belt and showed it to Rullon.
“We will speak of this later,” Rullon said after examining it. “Continue.”
Rullon smiled at Bellia’s meeting with Lily. “A lovely lady.”
The Temple of Helevat took the rest of the afternoon. The room darkened and the lanterns were lit behind their panes of glass. Dinner was served as Bellia continued to talk.
