Wolves of Nakesht
by Janrae Frank
Oil-fed torches mounted on walls or atop street posts broke the dark streets
into patterns of bright orange and deep shadow. Few people traveled the streets
of Aekara at that late hours, and none walked boldly â save two plainsmen, one
scarcely more than a youth, the other, his lean, weather-worn mentor. A slender
girl waltzed between them, watching the swirling folds of her mid-calf skirt
turn orange and red, then black as they passed from light to shadow and back.
The elder warrior wore a lion's black-maned pelt as a jerkin. She slew the beast
with a dagger, so the Euzadi called her the lion-hawk, Chimquar. All believed
Chimquar a man.
The ringing clash of steel ended the quiet. The handful of people abroad halted
to mark the direction of the sounds. Their errands would not bear close
inspection and the fight meant first brigands, then guardsmyn. Chimquar and her
wards suddenly became the only people on the streets for many blocks around the
clash.
Chimquar paused, listening to the sound of fighting coming from the direction in
which they traveled.
"Do we go on?" Hazier asked.
Chimquar nodded, her hand resting on the hilt of her Sharani longsword. Her
wards dropped back a short way as she had taught them. Makajia produced a long
dagger from beneath her skirts.
A Sharani war cry carried down the street. "Aroana God defender!" Chimquar
halted. It had been several years since she heard that cry on any lips save her
own. For the first time she hesitated to answer it. She planned to join her
sister, ending her long exile. Anaria, alone, would understand her concealment
in men's raiment, first of her race in the far lands of men. The others would
not, and Chimquar would once more be the scarcely tolerated outcast in their
midst. Chimquar longed increasingly to see her homeland.
"Aroana! Aroana!" The cries came again, insistent, desperate. The Sharanis had
no allies, no aid. Chimquar drew her sword, thrusting aside her concerns. They
would have aid.
Chimquar saw three women at bay near an alley, encircled by swordsmyn. The
Sharanis had taken toll of their attackers, their swords gleamed red in the
torchlight. Yet they could not hold much longer against so many. One woman fell
as Chimquar reached them. The remaining pair moved to stand over their fallen
comrade. A man lunged in; one Sharani shifted slightly avoiding his thrust and
opening a long gash in his side.
"Aroana!" Chimquar shouted, entering the fray. The first male to turn died.
Momentary confusion ensued among the men at the unexpected attack by Chimquar
and Hazier. Makajia darted about, wielding her dagger to great effect. Three men
fell in the first minutes of surprise. Chimquar's sword whirled in a circular
motion, parried the attack of two foes, then slashed out, felling one. She
eluded a thrust and lunged in under the man's guard; the dagger in her left hand
catching the returning move of his sword and she sent her own blade home.
Chimquar moved on another man. She had neither time nor light enough to mark the
nature of her foes, yet she recognized the moving patterns of their attack. She
fought Euzadis â renegades.
Hazier stepped back, giving ground. His shoulder struck a wall and his backward
step came short. A sword arched at his head. He ducked forward, lashing out with
his own weapon. The man sprang back, another rushed in. Hazier moved sidewise,
his foot stuck something and he fell backwards, frantically blocking the rain of
blows from his opponents with his sword and dagger. Makajia darted out of the
shadows where she had hidden knowing herself overmatched by the warriors. Her
dagger flashed. One man no longer endangered her brother.
"Renegade!"
The second man turned to see the tall man with the lion mane about his
shoulders. His surviving companions were already in full flight. "Chimquar," he
snarled, then fled.
Chimquar let him go. She stood nearest the fallen Sharani whose companions now
stood off in the wake of their fleeing foes. Chimquar knelt, cradling the
Sharani's head and shoulders, and glanced briefly at the returning pair.
Makajiatore a strip of cloth from the bottom of her white blouse and pressed it
to the wound in the woman's ribs. The womangazed up at Chimquar, astonished to
behold a plainsmon. Pain deepened the lines in the Sharani's weathered face;
herbreath came in ragged pulls. She and her companions all wore the Sharani
Saer'ajan's livery and Chimquar marveled that they had come so far into these
lands. The double-axe embroidered above the unicorn blazon marked the woman as
ha'taren, paladin of Aroana, one of the elite from which captains and generals
rose. Chimquar had been ha'taren, hence her greeting came automatically, "Kalur
Aroana bai ew, ha'taren," she murmured.
"Kalur Aroana widare ew, Euzadi," the woman returned hoarsely. Her eyes clenched
shut as a wave of pain tookher.When it eased, she gazed again at the nomad.
"Tamlys Lodarien." She forced the words out, indicating herself.TheSharanis
dropped to their knees beside her. Chimquar sat back, allowing them to bend
nearer. One warrior clasped Tamlys' hand mutely.
"Meadusea." Tamlys named her first, then the younger one: "Katalla Maelistya."
Hazier joined his mentor. The lingering excitement of the battle and the
nearness of members of his mentor's legendary race gave Hazier's face an
expression disrespectful of the dying Tamlys. Katalla favored him with a savage,
withering stare. Hazier dropped his eyes quickly. Chimquar caught the exchange
of glances and their portent of trouble.
"The farther eastâ we go," â Tamlys struggled with her words â "the fewer allies
we find."
"Chimquar is ever the Sharanis' ally."
"So." Tamlys sighed. "We have found you."
"No words," Meadusea said, concerned. "Rest, Tamlys."
"My time nears." Tamlys' voice steadied as though she found strength with
acceptance. "I must speak. Jalaia Torrundar's daughter saidâ" Her voice dwindled
off into silence. Then she spoke again, "She said: 'seek Chimquar.'"
Chimquar tensed, wondering how much they knew of her. Her left hand closed on
the leather pouch at her side and the lump of the crest ring it held. Ending her
exile meant facing the nobles and ha'taren that had made her outcast. If these
women knew that Chimquar and Tomyris Dovane de Danae were one, what would they
do? But the Thunder God's daughter would never have betrayed her. Chimquar
looked up. Katalla and Meadusea stared at her as if awaiting some response she
had not given.
"Jalaia said you would aid us." Meadusea's soft, gave voice took the strands of
the tale from Tamlys."A storm separated us from our company. We could find
neither them nor the object of our quest." She was older than Chimquar and no
less proud. Chimquar saw the brief passage of doubt and confusion mingling with
the sorrow in Meadusea's face. The ha'taren had never before encountered
hostility as unreasoning as in the eastern Lands of Men. Chimquar averted her
eyes. Meadusea's distress provoked memories best left alone. "Hazier." Chimquar
spoke Euzadi. "Pile some bodies across the alley. They will return that way."
Katalla's hand went to her sword, her black eyes narrowed. Hazier moved to his
tasks and Katalla watched.
Tamlys opened her eyes and clasped Chimquar's hand. "A plainsmonâ I did not
believe. But you will aid them. You will!" Tamlys' eyes searched the nomad's
face, seeming to reach her soul (as some ha'taren could) and Chimquar tasted the
full, bitter cup she had brewed in her youth. Chimquar beheld a great strength
and gentle wisdom in equal measure in those searching eyes, provoking memories
of her shield-sister, Shayla Odaren, who had not survived the Great War. She
felt alone, walled out by her own choices. "I will aid them as far as it is in
my power, Tamlys," she murmured. "I swear it! By the Powers of Earth, I swear
it!"
"Jalaia spoke true," Tamlys whispered and died.
Meadusea slipped her arms under her shield-sister's body, took her from Chimquar
and rose. "Those men will return."
"Yes." Chimquar scanned the street as she spoke. "How far are your horses?"
"Four blocks," Meadusea replied, calm despite the tears running down her cheeks.
"Makajia will take you to our meeting place. Go quickly."
"What about you?"
"Hazier and I will distract them. You get clear of the city." Chimquar gestured
and Makajia moved to Meadusea's side.
"Meadusea!" Katalla cried angrily. "You listen to him? What more harm do we
need?"
"Jalaia trusts him," Meadusea turned away, walking beside Makajia. The Euzadi
girl's step had lost itsgaiety.
Katalla faced Chimquar, her expression an open challenge. The brooding power in
Chimquar's eyes forced Katalla to drop her gaze. The Sharani cursed under her
breath.
The sound of footsteps mingled with shouts. "Chimquar," Hazier warned, "they
come."
Katalla raised her eyes to Chimquar's again, held them a moment, then she set
off after Meadusea and Makajia.
Chimquar removed a torch from a wall, scanning the bodies. Katalla needed to
learn the lessons of those lands, as Azkani, the old Euzadi seer, had taught
Chimquar. Anger casts a spear without gauging the distance. A half-smile crossed
Chimquar's lips, remembering the hunched, arthritic old man that had taught her
the Euzadi ways, making possible her concealment.
"Chimquar?" Hazier stood beside the bodies piled across the mouth of the alley.
The shouts and footsteps neared.
Chimquar glanced up and down the street, wondering how much more shouting it
would take to draw the guards. She could not wait for them. "Torch the pile,
Hazier," she said, quietly.
The youth wrestled a torch from its wall-mount, and they emptied the unguent
contents from the hollow bases upon the bodies touching the burning end to their
lacquered, leather armor. The flames licked up, greater and eager, filling the
air with stench. Men in the alley howled in rage and frustration, turning back
to find another path. Chimquar ignored them. Some bodies still scattered in the
street wore Euzadi headbands of worked leather, the tribal marks obliterated
with blood and black paint: Renegades, followers of Bakran, Chimquar's bitterest
foe. Asking after her, the Sharanishad drawn Bakran's attentions. A cold rage
kindled within her. Cautiously, she walked down the west end of the
street."Bakran! Bakran, do you hear me?"
"I hear you!" a male's deep voice answered east of her.
Chimquar's keen ears heard the movement of his men. At the end of the first
block she trust her torch into the southopening of the cross street. It was a
dead end. "Bakran?"
"Speak one, Chimquar." He sounded pleased. "I have you this time."
Nay, Bakran. You do not have me. She spied an iron gate in the middle of the
next block. A narrow balcony jutted from the stone mansion half a spear's length
above and beyond the gate. Lit windows shove around it. She walkedslower with
Hazier at her heels. She heard men moving at either end of the street. "Hazier,
that gate, the balcony,then the roofs. Confuse the Sharanis' trail when you find
it."
He hesitated and she shoved him. "Go!" He gained the gate. Chimquar ran behind
him, gauging the distance of the closing warriors. One reached her and she
hurled the torch in his face, climbed the gate, and sprang at the balcony. Her
hands caught the edge. She pulled herself up, swung one leg over, then the
other. Chimquar stood silently before the closed glass doors. A soft harmony of
lute and pipes came from within the room. Hazier waited on a sturdy vie-covered
trellis beyond the balcony. Chimquar turned from Hazier to see a renegade
climbing the gate. "Go on,"she ordered the youth.
"Chimquar," he protested.
"Nay! Go on." Her voice rose slightly. "Go after your sister."
"You're going to get yourself slain." His words came bleak and drawn out.
Chimquar smiled at his concern. "I won't Hazier. Now, go!"
"Aroana defend you!" He swarmed up the trellis.
A thud, and the scrape of a scabbard on stone, turned Chimquar. The man had
gained the balcony. She sprang before he could get both legs over, seizing his
sword arm and jerkin with a twist that hurled him through the fragile glass
doors. The tinkling clash of falling shard of glass preceded the woman's scream.
Men's shouts followed immediately. Chimquar bounded across the balcony and went
up the trellis to the roof. A man emerged onto the balcony, sword in hand,
glanced about, and reentered the manor house. The garden below filled with light
as men and servants poured out bearing weapons and torches. Chimquar crouched in
the shadows of a chimney, watching until the confusion died down, then she
crossed the roof, and sprang onto the next. She made her way from roof to roof,
leaping the narrow streets until she reached the stable.
Chimquar dropped silently from the roof behind the stablemon, startling him. He
eyed her doubtfully. She threw a handful of coins at his feet. He stooped to
retrieve them and she slipped into the stable after her horse.
She rode quietly to the west gate. The guardsmon there, accustomed to the
strange comings and going of the nomads, let her out a narrow, postern gate. The
morning sun rose on her right hand as she turned her little plains-bred mare
north.
Makajia heard the peace bells jingling and sprang to her feet. "Chimquar!" she
cried joyously, then paused to ascertain the direction and raced off. Her skirts
swirled around her legs, scarcely hampering her stride. "Chimquar!"
A slow, shy smile tickled the corners of Hazier's mouth. He glanced at Meadusea,
who sat across from him, then leaned and picked up a silver bracelet set with
turquoise stones, which Makajia had dropped. The girl had been polishing and
adding the last touches to her handiwork.
"You are fond of your mentor," Mead
usea said.
Hazier watched Makajia running. He could barely see Chimquar. "When I was a
child, I ran to him like that."
"Little flower," Katalla said sarcastically. She stood beneath the cottonwoods
lining the stream bank, pulling a cream-colored shirt over her mail. She flicked
her wet braids out and laced the cuffs tight. Then she picked up her brown
tunic, stalking to Hazier and Meadusea.
"I did not understand Chekaya's words," Hazier said, shaking his head.
"You insist on that name." Meadusea grinned wryly.
"Chekaya," Hazier struggled silently with his common. "A swift cat â dog footed.
Chekaya Tamures' powerful Chekaya."
"You can quit calling me that," Katalla said with asperity.
Hazier dropped his eyes, his mouth twisting petulantly.
"What goes here?" Chimquar drew rein near Hazier. Makajia slipped off behind
Chimquar and took the reins close to its head like a squire for a knight.
Meadusea had seen squires, pages, stable hands, and nomad boys hold or take a
horse for warriors and nobles, but never before a non-Sharani girl.
Meadusea rose with Hazier. The youth clasped Chimquar's arms in brief greeting.
Chimquar turned to Meadusea. "Kalur Aroana bai ew, Meadusea." Chimquar's soft
accent mingled Sharani and Euzadi.
"Kalur Aroana widare ew, Chimquar."
Katalla stood mute and hostile behind Meadusea. Chimquar reminded herself of her
promise to the Tamlys, refusing to be provoked, yet denying Katalla a proper
greeting. The young Sharani was slender, promising more speed than strength.
Meadusea had shorn off her umber braids as a sign of her sorrow, tying a suede
band around her head. She was the same height as Chimquar, large-boned and
powerful where Chimquar was lean and long-muscled.
Chimquar ran her thumb and forefinger down her seamed, sun-battered face. A
score of years on the Great Plains of Murshay'di had burned her darker than the
Sharani, aged her face to match her years in a way that the long-lived Sharani
did not. "You buried Tamlys?" she asked tersely. She walked past them, heading
for the stream. Hazier walked beside her.
"We did." Katalla stalked after the Euzadis.
Makajia led Chimquar's horse beneath the trees, tethering it with her own.
"You're not a friendly one, are you?" Meadusea said, her words milder than true
Frank, Janrae - Wolves Of Nakesht Page 1
