Oath Bound (Book 3)

by M. A. Ray

  At least embellishing the clothes won her a little space, too. All the Ishlings had wanted to watch very closely, but she’d said, “I can’t make it pretty if I can’t see what I’m doing!” So instead, they were all over Dingus. He didn’t seem as uncomfortable as he would’ve if anyone bigger than a breadbox had tried to touch him; he sat a little ways away from Kessa, tailor-fashion on the ground, surrounded by the swarm.

  “Deengoos fix my dress,” Peepa said, around the thumb in her mouth.

  “I’m making you a new one,” he told her, and when she smiled at him with that thumb in the middle of it, Kessa could just see him go mushy. They all had him wrapped around their cute little tails. Lucky for him, he had all them twisted around his pinky finger, and they’d do just what he wanted, sometimes without even asking why.

  Zeeta put her tiny hands on his knee. “I wants to try. I can try, Dingus?”

  “Huh! Sewing is for mens!” Tai said.

  She put her fists on her waist. “Kessa is sew. Kessa is not a men, she is a beautiful lady, and she’s sewing more good than Dingus! So there!”

  “Oh, you is excuse me, Zeeta,” Tai said, and he probably would’ve said more.

  “When you’re a Big,” Dingus said quickly, stopping the bicker in its tracks, “sewing’s supposed to be for women, but really, it’s for anybody who needs to. Come here, Zeeta, I’ll teach you.”

  “See?” she said to Tai, and climbed triumphantly into Dingus’s lap, which had taken less than a day to become the absolute prize place. Kessa didn’t want to think what would happen to these guys when Vandis came back. She definitely didn’t want to think about what Dingus would be like. He was happy right now, really happy, and she liked seeing it. He was much more fun when he was happy, and when they left the Ishlings behind he’d mope for months, she just knew it. Dingus miserable was no fun at all, and no way would Vandis let all the Ishlings come along—which would make Dingus completely miserable.

  Kessa wasn’t sure how she’d feel about it herself, but Dingus, she was positive, had not thought that far. He cupped his big hand over Zeeta’s, guiding her through the stitches, and she picked it up in no time flat. After a couple minutes he took his hand away and watched her finish, directing her to knot off the seam when she got to the end. “That’s a real fine job you did,” he said, and Zeeta seemed to grow a whole inch. “You’re one smart chickadee.” He inspected the little tunic, and then held it up for Peepa.

  She pulled her old one off as quick as she could, and Dingus helped her put on the new one.

  “Yes, yes, I is,” Zeeta said primly. “Stupid pickpockets isn’t live to be my old.”

  Dingus’s face fell. “Oh.”

  “Don’t be sad, Dingus,” she said, patting his chest, which was about as high as she could reach. “Us Ishlings is only want that you smile.”

  “Don’t get sad.” Tai glared at the ground. “Get sad, get stupid. Get stupid, get beat. Get dead.”

  Dingus scowled. “It shouldn’t be that way.”

  “Should, shouldn’t? What’s difference? Is,” Tai said, and Zeeta nodded.

  “Tai.” The tiny boy glanced up, and Dingus said, “Not here. Never with me.”

  “You is good inside, Dingus,” Tai said, huddling, “but what’s—”

  He winced, and so did everyone else, at the shriek that cut the air. All the kids rose on their hind legs, and Dingus was halfway standing when a fat-bellied Ish kicked Vylee into the camp. She’d hardly tumbled to a stop before Dingus was beside her, saying something soft, checking her little arms and legs.

  The Ish didn’t even look at Dingus, which Kessa could’ve told him was a big mistake. He jabbered away in Ishian and stabbed his finger at the ground in front of him: get over here, come here right now. Laben, Kessa thought, and then, uh-oh. Some of the kids bellied toward him.

  “I don’t know how you got out of gaol so fast,” Dingus said, “but—”

  Laben chattered like Dingus hadn’t said a word, thrusting the finger back the way he’d come, and his dirty, matted crest shook with the force of it.

  Dingus unfolded to his full height, which Kessa had to admit was getting pretty impressive. Laben only just reached his hip. “Shut your fat fuck mouth,” he bit off. He stepped over Vylee, shielding her with his legs. “You don’t talk to them. You talk to me.”

  “I saw you,” Laben said. He craned his head back and bared little brown fangs at Dingus. “You turned me in, didn’t you? For what? Little Ishling fingers on your—”

  Dingus kicked him hedball-style, so hard he skidded across the ground. “Big man with a big gut, little kids getting starved and beat.” The knuckles in Dingus’s big fists crackled, and he stalked up on Laben as the Ish rolled to his feet. “What’s to stop me killing you? I don’t see a goddamn thing… do you?”

  “You have no idea who you’re fucking with,” Laben said, and struck out with a tiny flash in his fist.

  “Dingus!” Kessa screamed, but before it got all the way out of her mouth, Dingus had Laben pinned to a tree by the throat.

  “Neither do you.” He didn’t react, not even a wince, when Laben’s knife dug and tore at his forearm. Blood dripped onto the needles at his feet, but he drew back his free arm. “Now you get to see how it feels.”

  “Oh,” Tai breathed, under the crunch of Laben’s nose breaking, the sounds Dingus’s fist made on Laben’s flesh. “Oh.” The Ishlings watched, motionless, round-eyed, and even the ones on their bellies lifted their heads, while Dingus thrashed Laben to a bloody pulp, growling like a dog, low, threatening.

  Kessa slid off the log and lay on her stomach, gesturing the Ishlings to do the same. She had to pull Tai down next to her. Please don’t let him. Please, Lady, don’t let him, she prayed, shaking. She swore she could still feel blood spattering hot on her face…

  After what seemed like forever, Dingus’s fist stopped, drawn back, ready for another blow. He looked away from Laben, squeezing his eyes shut, and emitted another growl that prickled the hairs on the back of Kessa’s neck.

  Laben slid down the tree and thumped into a heap at Dingus’s feet, coughing and whimpering. Between his wide-set legs, Kessa could see the ruin he’d made of Laben’s face. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding her breath until it rushed out. Laben spat on the ground, thick blood, broken brown teeth.

  “Go,” Dingus rumbled. “If I see your fat carcass again, Lady’s my witness, I’ll kill you.”

  Laben dragged himself away. When he didn’t leave fast enough, Dingus gave him a little encouragement: a boot to the ass. Kessa slapped a hand over her giggle; Laben pushed up and all-footed drunkenly into the trees.

  Nobody moved. Nobody spoke, not until Dingus faced the camp with thunder on his face.

  “Dingus?” Vylee whispered, and his eyes whipped onto her. “You is—you is making blood…”

  He shook his head, blinking hard, and looked at his arm. His voice was only a little thicker than usual now, and his words were calming. “I’m okay, little bit. Just gotta clean it. He hurt you?”

  “Not as much bad as you is hurting him.” She smiled.

  Tai did a backflip. “You is kick him right in the tail!”

  Dingus shrugged. “He didn’t do what I said.”

  “I think we is keep you a very, very long time, crazy Dingus,” Zeeta said, and when he sat down, toeing the medical kit toward him, she tugged his sleeve until he bent down so she could kiss his cheek, embracing his head. He blushed bright, collar to hairline, like Vandis did when Kessa kissed him.

  “For a while, anyways,” he said, and bent to retrieve the supplies to clean and stitch his arm. Kessa would’ve been glad to help him out, but he had way more help than he needed.

  By suppertime, Kessa had picked up her embroidery again. She wanted to finish Voo’s sleeves. Dingus had gone down to the stream to fetch water for the noodles, leaving her with all the Ishlings except Tai, who hadn’t been more than ten feet from him since Laben got the business, and would
n’t have moved from his shoulder-top perch once if Dingus hadn’t made him. The other Ishlings played with an unfortunate frog, which hopped and croaked whenever poked by a curious finger. Kessa had laid three or four stitches at the most when Tikka pranced into camp, trilling out, “Hello, you two! Would you like to come up to the house—” But the old lady stopped in her tracks when she caught sight of the Ishlings, and her forehead wrinkled. “Who are all these children?”

  “Us is Dingus’s friends!” said Voo, frisking up. “He is help us from the market! Before we are pick pockets, but he is tell us, no, that is bad to do and my friends isn’t stealing—so here we is!” He beamed at Tikka, who folded her arms and frowned so ferociously down at him that he quailed. “Um… bye!” he squeaked, and darted back to the frog.

  Tikka hopped up on the nurse log and turned dark, narrow eyes on Kessa. “Where is Dingus? Since this seems to have been his idea.”

  “Well, yes,” Kessa said. “He’s just—” She sent silent thanks to the Lady as she heard Dingus coming back through the trees, singing a hituleti song in his deep, soft voice. “—coming now,” she finished.

  “Oh, hi, Tikka,” he said, smiling as he set down the buckets. Tai leapt down to join the fun with the poor frog. “How’s it going?”

  Tikka didn’t smile back. She crouched and folded her arms under her breasts. “What is this, Dingus?”

  He gave his head a bewildered little shake. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Who told you to bring these Ishlings here?”

  “Well—nobody. I just thought—”

  “You thought you’d thank me for my hospitality by bringing a pack of little hooligans onto my land, where my daughters and granddaughters live, to steal things from me.”

  “They’ve been up at the house?” He looked over the Ishlings, hurt. “Guys—”

  “I haven’t seen them. That doesn’t mean they weren’t there.”

  “Are you missing anything?”

  “Not yet,” Tikka said, “but it’s only a matter of time.”

  “No. They told me they wouldn’t. They’ve kept their word so far. I trust—”

  “I don’t. Nor should you. They have no family.”

  “Wait.” He held his palms out. “Wait. They’re less people because their families aren’t around? They didn’t ask for that! It’s not their fault. I’m sorry I didn’t ask first. I should’ve—”

  “Yes, you should have. You should have given me the opportunity to say no, because that’s what I would have said, and I’m saying it now. This is absolutely unacceptable.”

  “I don’t understand!” Dingus glanced over the Ishlings again. They watched, silent, as the frog hopped away toward the stream. “I’m just trying to keep the Oath. I don’t want to start out by breaking my promise! I want—”

  “I want you to get these thieves off my land!” Tikka screamed.

  “You mean… just… throw them out?”

  “I don’t care how you do it. Just get it done. I want them out of here by dawn.”

  “You gotta be fucking kidding me!”

  It exploded out of Dingus’s mouth, and even he looked surprised he’d said it. For a moment there was dead silence. All the Ishlings watched him, heads low between their shoulders, but Kessa stared at Tikka, whose face contorted with disbelief.

  “You can be sure Vandis will hear about this,” she mustered. “That leaf was premature on you, young man, if you haven’t learned respect for the Masters,” and Kessa’s mouth fell open.

  “Hey!” she said, or started to, but Dingus cut her off before she got even that out of her mouth.

  “What about respect for the Oath of Service? Why make a vow if you’re not gonna honor the soul of it? You go on and tell Vandis, and whoever else you want. Tell everyone—I don’t care! Nothing’s gonna stop me doing what I swore to do, not even a branding iron right here!” He laid his right hand over his heart. “I’m my Lady’s Knight. I swore to Her, nobody else, and there’s no doubt in my mind She wants this done. If you want ’em gone by sunup, we’ll be gone with ’em.”

  “Vandis left you under my protection. That means nothing to you?”

  “You might not agree with me having it, but this leaf here means I’m fit to be on my own for a while.” Dingus strode toward the firepit, toward Tikka, and started breaking camp.

  “I can’t imagine what Vandis was thinking!” Tikka shrilled. “To give a little boy a leaf and toss him out into the wilderness was the pinnacle of irresponsibility!”

  Dingus’s big hands shook and he nearly dropped the awning into the fire. “You talk shit about me all you want, but talk shit about Vandis and we’re gonna have a problem.”

  Tikka stretched up as high as she could on the nurse log and slapped Dingus hard across the face; he stared at her, and Kessa watched the color climb his neck. He drew in a breath that shivered.

  Kessa had never moved faster in her life. She nudged between Dingus and Tikka and grabbed his shoulders. “Guys!” she called to the Ishlings. “Help Dingus pack up! Dingus, make sure we don’t take anything of Lady Tikka’s, okay?”

  “I—”

  “Okay?”

  Dingus shut his eyes. “Yeah.” He breathed, and spun away to do what Kessa said.

  Kessa faced Tikka now. “Everybody keeps saying that, in Windish, the woman is in charge. Well, I say we’re going. Dingus is right. The Lady would want this. It is in the Oath, and I know that ’cause I heard him take it myself.”

  “Everything’s so black and white to you children, isn’t it?” Tikka hissed. “One day, when you’re a mother, you’ll understand what it is to protect a family of your own.”

  No, Kessa thought. I never will. She pushed away the memories of her own mom and said, “Dingus is my family. You’ve got your mind made up, and I’ve got mine.”

  “Then there’s nothing more to say.” Tikka leapt off the log and pranced out of camp. At the edge, she turned and added, in a hard voice, “I’ll be checking that you’ve left.”

  When she was gone, Kessa went to take down her tent. “What a bitch,” she muttered.

  They were packed in no time at all. The last thing Dingus did before he shouldered his heavy pack was lay the two books he’d borrowed on the nurse log. “Everybody got their tails?” he asked the kids.

  “Yes, Dingus,” they chorused.

  “Let’s go.”

  On the way out, Dingus hooked an arm around Kessa’s shoulders and squeezed her in a sideways hug. “You were great,” he said. “Like Margaret fuckin’ Dragonslayer.” He let her go and left her grinning by the faint light of the last embers as she smothered them. It took her a minute to catch up with him and the all-footing Ishlings.

  “Hey, Dingus.”

  “What?”

  “Do you know where we’re going?” she ventured.

  He laughed. “Yeah, I got an idea. Trust me.” Scarier words were never spoken.

  Menyoral

  Dreamport

  Vandis stamped his seal into a blob of blue wax. He rubbed at his face, gathered his writing things, and blew out the candle. He hadn’t had any supper yet, and it must be midnight—no, he saw when he stepped out into the dim main office and saw the grandfather clock from Before, it was about half past one. Well, maybe he could scrounge some leftovers from the kitchen. It wouldn’t be much, but it’d tide him over until breakfast.

  He dropped his letter to Dingus on Jimmy’s desk for his secretary to frank in the morning and wandered downstairs, carrying the candle he’d used to melt the sealing wax. It didn’t take long to discover there was nothing he wanted to eat in the empty mess hall. Vandis didn’t want day-old bread and a slab of pickled herring washed down with sour dregs from the bottom of the barrel. After the day he’d had—he wanted something hot, something that would fill his stomach, and a drink. Fair winds. Make that a lot of drinks. Sobriety felt like a crushing weight.

  Instead of grabbing the leavings, Vandis hurried back upstairs for his cloak
. Amid all the chaos and stress of his visit, he’d forgotten to stop by and see Wynn, and short of flying straight over to Windish, he couldn’t think of anything that would make him feel better than that.

  Even after what had happened on the lift that day, the entrance hall was deserted. Earlier, things hadn’t been so sedate; when he’d gotten back from the audience, he’d found Headquarters crammed with notables, all wanting to know what Vandis could do for them. Thank You for the quiet, he thought. His footfalls echoed off the polished floor.

  She laughed, echoless. Thank Jimmy for that, My own. You ought to have seen the place before he shooed them all away.

  Well, thanks for Jimmy.

  You’re very welcome. Since Dingus isn’t here, someone’s got to be looking out for you.

  He wouldn’t be able to do anything. Vandis passed between the welcome desks, running his gloved fingertips across the surface and rapping them at the corner.

  Oh, I don’t know. He does snarl rather convincingly, She said, with an airy giggle.

  His mouth curved up. He’d laugh himself sick at my vestments. Kessa, too.

  Aye, that they would, but it would be no bad thing.

  No. He sighed heavily into the high-ceilinged, empty space, closing his eyes. Next time I set out to make a mistake this stupid, would You mind giving me a hint that it is a mistake?

  Even I can’t say what would have happened on the lift today if he’d been there. It was a mistake for your heart, but your mind… well, your reasoning was sound, at least at the time.

  Maybe. He stopped in front of the enameled globe and lifted his half-burnt candle high, seeking out Windish. The light flicked off the shiny surface, but it didn’t reveal what he most wanted to see.