“He's all right, Lady Water.”
Bubbling Water smiled, liking the boy. “Yes, he is, isn't he?”
“Why would anyone do that to him? He's a nice man. You know what he did yesterday? Three assassins attacked him at once, but he gave them their weapons back anyway. That's when I told him about your daughter.”
“Huh? What happened?”
“Well, they attacked him. He defended himself and broke a few bones, then called for a medacor. While I healed the assassins, he collected their weapons and gave them back.”
“Thank you for telling me, Hand,” Bubbling Water said, puzzled. Gave their weapons back, eh? she thought, almost understanding. An idea hovered at the edge of her mind, just beyond words.
Then she remembered her son waiting for her upstairs. Perhaps I'll ask the Wizard to give my son a lobotomy too, she thought. Running Bear often frequented brothels. Bubbling Water wondered if he owned the one where they'd found his father. She sincerely hoped not. 'Beat'! she thought in disgust, not sure which she loathed more—her son owning such an establishment or his inflicting corporal punishment on the courtesans. Sighing, Bubbling Water stood to attend to yet another difficulty on this awful day of days.
Oh, Infinite help me! she beseeched the ceiling.
* * *
After the Matriarch Water left the room, Healing Hand guessed she no longer needed him. Wandering from the refectory, he resumed exploring the house. Less than a full day had passed since he'd met Bubbling Water at the potter's stall. The maelstrom of their lives had already sucked him into its grasp, and anxiety gnawed at his soul.
Healing Hand, his mother and infant sister lived in the poorest quarter of Emparia City. They rented a four-room house from a landlord they never saw. Like most of the houses in the area, theirs was in disrepair. Larger than most, the house was also Gentle Hand's health clinic, where Healing Hand helped almost every day. Most of their patients were indigent, unable to pay, but Gentle Hand's concern was others' health and not her wealth. Despite being poor, they always had food, clothing and other needed items.
Healing Hand knew nothing of his father. Before he'd met the Matriarch, his obscure paternity hadn't mattered. His mother had told him she'd chosen to leave her mate. Gentle Hand's taking of his son had violated both custom and law, boys belonging to their fathers. Others often scorned her for having taken the boy. Gentle Hand reared him as if she hadn't needed a man to conceive him. On the fringes of society, such disgraces mattered little—except to wagging tongues. With the Matriarch Water's support, Healing Hand knew his paternity mattered very much.
Wandering through the Bear residence, Healing Hand searched the rooms for statues. The hundreds he'd found were hewn from stone ordinary and valuable, depicting creatures small and great. When he'd probed a human statue, he'd found a complete set of organs inside, each sculpted from different rock. The sculptor had missed no detail of the human physiology.
Climbing halfway up a set of stairs, Healing Hand stared at the statuettes filling every recess. Curious, he reached to take an obsidian raven from its niche. In a burst of feathers, it flapped from his grasp and flew down the stairwell. Startled, he looked at his palms, down the stairs, and back at his palms. Convinced the raven had been stone, he was afraid to touch any after that.
Descending, he wandered on. Chandeliers hung from vaulted ceilings. Plush, intricate rugs carpeted floors. Statues stood on every wall. Drifting from room to room, he saw no one, surprised so few people occupied so much space. Then he found a room dimly lit and spare of decor. Dominating the room was a stuffed grizzly bear, standing on its hind legs, baring its teeth in a vicious snarl.
“My brother wanted one,” Guarding Bear said from the shadows, “so he found this one and killed it with his bare hands.”
The boy looked up into the beast's face. Even dead, it frightened him.
“His talent the same as mine, he could have turned it to stone.” Guarding Bear brushed at the claw embroidered into the left breast of his outer robe. “Out of pride, he killed it with his 'Bear' hands.”
“Your brother's brave, Lord Bear.” Healing Hand stepped into the room.
Nodding, Guarding Bear sank back into his gloom.
Healing Hand thought unhappiness odd in a man of his wealth and station. Don't riches and power mean happiness? he wondered. Guarding Bear had riches and power in abundance, and little happiness. In the poorer quarters of Emparia City, Healing Hand knew many people living happily, despite being destitute and powerless over their fates. He began to understand that his life of poverty was little different from the lives of the wealthy. He realized that no single external condition determined happiness. A person needed harmony within.
Guarding Bear grunted, as though agreeing. “I've been poor, I am rich, I've had nothing, I have everything. I've been happy at all these times in my life, and I've been sad. My greatest accomplishments have demoralized me, and I've found peace in times of great woe. You should be cautious about letting others hear your thoughts, Hand.” Guarding Bear smiled, beckoning.
Stepping toward him, Healing Hand lowered himself next to the big man.
“I wish I could find peace in this time of woe. I don't believe I accepted that post. Security Commander of that pile of rubble is much too demeaning for me. I'm Guarding Bear!” he protested, as though that meant something. “Flying Arrow offered the position only to get me drunk and poison me. Infinite knows what he did to me then.”
Content to sit in his presence and listen, the boy said nothing.
Guarding Bear sighed. “My unhappiness is my own doing this time, eh? My mate scorns me for taking that position. I would if I were she. I deserve better than that. I must be dying of boredom to have accepted it. All I do these days is listen to spies. Of course, I can't do anything with what they tell me, because the Lord Emperor and the public are always watching me. The citizens of Empire worship me as the greatest general ever, but I can't so much as shit without someone's gossiping how large it was, or piss without rampant speculation on how many lakes I filled. Life was much better when I could fight through the night and carouse until dawn and no one talked about the size of my sword or the depth of my thrusts.”
Healing Hand grinned, but still didn't speak.
“You're a quiet one.” Guarding Bear tousled the boy's hair. “I cherish the memories of my youth, my brother at my side. We danced all night across the Imperial balls and no Lord Emperor Arrow could stop us. No one could.”
Guarding Bear sighed, and Healing Hand leaned against him. He put his arm around the boy. “Would you like to hear a story? I like stories, even my own. I gain strength from them, and peace. Would you like to hear how I met Bubbling Water? She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.”
Chapter 8
I suspected that the grounds belonged to some noble whose home stood deep within the gardens. If true, the home was probably a palace, and the Lady whom I'd met, nearly an Empress. Before intruding the next day, I scouted the property by walking around it. Nearly an hour passed before I returned whence I'd started. To purchase so much land in Emparia City, the palace owner must have gotten special dispensation—Imperial dispensation.—The Political Geography, by Guarding Bear.
* * *
About a year after Brazen Bear and I wiped out the Imperial battalion, I went to Emparia City to place a proposal before the Lord Emperor Smoking Arrow.
Our plan had worked. Aged Oak had more influence than I thought. That muckraking clam-digger from Cove persuaded Smoking Arrow that my brother and I could deliver twenty taels per family in Caven Hills taxes. Smoking Arrow accepted the face-saving solution and executed the “rebels” whom Aged Oak had “captured.”
The test of our control over the Caven Hills came a year later. Taxes were due. Brazen Bear and I had no trouble collecting the taxes. The natives brought the taxes they owed to us. They'd have licked our balls if we'd have asked. Our problem was depositing the taxes in an Imperial Bank.
The Caven Hi
lls was so poor we didn't have a bank. The nearest Imperial Bank was in Nest. We couldn't take the taxes there. If Scowling Tiger could, he'd ambush us and steal the taxes, then take them to the Emperor and claim he'd regained control of the Caven Hills. If that happened, we'd have no taxes to deliver—end of rebellion, eh? The face-saving “solution” wouldn't stop Scowling Tiger from trying to reclaim the prefecture.
To avoid that, I had my spy in the Prefect's administration whisper that we'd deliver the taxes directly by traveling westward around Nest toward Eyry, and thence to Emparia City. Scowling Tiger wasn't very smart to think we'd actually try that. All the land was under his control. While he sent out scouts and warriors to intercept us, we went northeast to Cove, laughing all the way to the bank. There, we deposited in Smoking Arrow's name a quarter million taels in taxes. Alone, I went on to Emparia City and requested an audience with the Emperor.
I didn't know how long Smoking Arrow would make me wait. The more in disfavor a person, the longer the delay—that's politics. I took up lodging in the best hostelry where peasants could stay, a place called the Peasant's Back.
The wait was excruciating. After three days I got so bored counting the flies and cockroaches in my room that I decided to take a walk. That visit was my first to Emparia City, and my first absence from my wild unruly land. I soon tired of wandering along crowded dusty streets, of looking at ugly stone buildings. I wanted trees and grass and bushes and hills. Oh, how I yearned to be home again!
From a wide avenue near the castle, I spied a thick copse of trees some distance away. Walking toward it, I hoped to find an unspoiled patch of forest within the city. When I got there, I saw trees, grass and bushes—all so carefully manicured I almost kept going right back to the Caven Hills.
I sighed. At least it was green.
Abutting the street for a hundred paces, the gardens looked empty. I saw no one at all wandering amidst the trees. The street was nearly empty as well. Across the street from the gardens were large hedged yards. Mansions peeked at me from over tall bushes. I didn't think the lack of people odd—few appeared to live in the area. Shrugging, I entered the gardens, walked along a raked gravel path, found a pleasant patch of grass and sat. Nearby was an empty bench of carved stone, two shady alders and a paracone bush. I breathed the scents of foliage deeply, wishing I were home.
“What are you doing here?” someone said.
I looked, my sword half-out of its sheath.
Behind two armed guards stood two women, one behind the other, all of them wearing activated electrical shields.
Sheathing my sword, I looked at the woman with black hair and flashing green eyes, the one who'd spoken. “Forgive me, Lady, if I'm intruding,” I said with a half bow. “I only wanted the grass beneath my feet. I find this city oppressive.”
Since I couldn't see her signature and find out her name, I examined her dress and her companions for some sign of who she was. What I saw surprised me.
They weren't companions. The two warriors were personal guards and the woman was a personal servant. The Lady was far more important than I could ever hope to be.
“You're not from Emparia City?” she asked.
“No, Lady, I'm from the Caven Hills. As I said, I meant not to intrude.” Standing, I bowed deeply and turned to go.
“Do you know the Upstart?” she asked.
“Who, Lady?”
“Guarding Bear, the one who led the rebellion.”
“I've met him, Lady—once.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “That was prudent, Bear.”
I smiled, her laughter a joy to hear. My very distinctive face was often on the psychic flow. Everyone knew Smoking Arrow had thrown sops to the executioner. After he'd learned the appearance of my face and signature, he'd consulted the flow with the Imperial Sword to find out what I was doing. He'd added to my infamy to insure he'd catch me quickly if he decided to declare me a criminal.
“I thought it better not to reveal that I know the rebel leader well.”
“Since that might get a person killed, indeed,” she replied.
“Am I that dangerous, Lady?”
“You're a rebel.” She shrugged as if that explained itself.
I smiled. “Would the Lady honor this humble peasant with a little of her time? Please, Lady, sit for a moment.”
“Thank you, Bear, I will. I was walking nearby when the sentries saw that someone had intruded.” Then she smiled. “The intruder was only you.” Stepping between the guards, she lowered herself to the bench delicately, like an autumn leaf in a gentle breeze. The personal servant stood behind the bench and the two warriors at either end, all of them watching me carefully, as though I'd attack her.
Does this land belong to some noble, I wondered, the house hidden so deep in the gardens that I couldn't see it? Does it belong to her? Since Emparia City isn't part of any prefecture, the property laws in the city are different from those in the provinces. Anyone can own up to a certain amount of land, even a female, and build whatever he or she wants. The thought of her being so wealthy shocked me.
“You do me much honor, Lady. I didn't know I'd become so famous that word of my doings would reach your beautiful ears.”
“I'd call it notoriety, Bear,” she replied. “Not fame.”
“So would I, Lady, if I didn't want to impress you. Since fame and notoriety are two sides of the same coin, I haven't exactly lied, eh?”
“They might be two sides of the same coin, but they won't buy you equivalent merchandise.”
“No, they won't.” She's no empty-headed noble, I thought, and she's immune to flattery. “How do I turn the coin over, Lady?”
“Your deposit in Cove certainly helped.”
“I guess most people already know about that, eh?”
“You duped Scowling Tiger into thinking you'd bring the taxes to Emparia City yourself. Well done.”
What else does she know? I wondered, intrigued by her. “You also heard that he'd have ambushed us and taken our taxes.”
“I did. How did you know he promised Smoking Arrow he'd deliver the Caven Hills taxes? Somehow, Bear, you have a frightening ability to besmirch Scowling Tiger's face. If you keep doing that, you won't live very long.”
I grinned and said, “But, Lady, I find it so amusing.”
Laughing, she pounded her knee with her small, dainty fist. I found the gesture curiously masculine for a person so feminine.
“In truth, Lady, I've done only what I thought right for the people of the Caven Hills. For too long we've suffered in ignorance. I hope to remedy the situation. As Aged Oak said, 'to pilot the prefecture from poverty.' No stinking outlander noble like the Lord Prefect Tiger will stop me.”
She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, as though I were a fresh, cool breeze on a sultry summer day. “Tell me the truth, Bear. Most people believe you're a peasant warlord who cares less for the Caven Hills than you do for Scowling Tiger. Tell me, why'd you revolt?”
“You don't know?” As she shook her head, I wondered why that information hadn't reached the people most able to use it. Not one Imperial official, not even Aged Oak, had asked the same question. Did they care so little? I wondered. “My village, where my father was Elder, owed half the taxes from the year before and couldn't pay this year's taxes. Only two of the ten village families earned more than fifty taels per year. We had no choice. Thirty taels was already too much. The Lord Emperor's increase was the straw that broke the peasant's back.”
She nodded, looking thoughtful. “An odd turn of phrase, Bear. Most people I know say, 'the servant's back.' Are all the villages so poor?”
“Nearly all, Lady. All the villages around ours owed back taxes. Some of them had been in debt for three generations—before the increase.”
“Infinite knows why you rebelled, eh? Well, some people warned Smoking Arrow he'd have trouble. He got more than anyone expected. What now, Bear?”
She asked the question so casually. I wondered whe
ther she was genuinely curious. Does she want to help? Is she perhaps my enemy's minion? I couldn't answer the questions. She was influential enough to know what Scowling Tiger said to Smoking Arrow and felt comfortable enough to call them by name. “Forgive me if I don't answer, Lady. I don't want you caught between me and the Lord Tiger. While I bear him no personal grudge, he most certainly has reason to bear me one.”
The servant touched her shoulder, and she glanced back, then nodded. “I have business elsewhere soon, Bear. First, you have admirers in high places who can't do what you've done because of those places. Second, your deposit was both foolish and prudent. Third, this humble lady would ask you please to forget your conversation with her. I have much more to lose than you, Bear.”
Seeing the simple honesty in her face, I wondered what that had cost her. I repaid her in kind. “Yes, Lady, I'll forget. I'd guess you're as famous as I am infamous—or at least enough that the flow would tell me your name. For your safety and mine, I won't consult it.” Then I frowned. “I'm sorry you need to go. I've enjoyed our conversation very much.” Standing, I bowed to her as any peasant would to a noble.
She returned my obeisance as if we were equals. Smiling, she disappeared into the trees like a wraith, her servant and warriors behind her.
Walking back to the hostelry, I felt pleased and puzzled both. She warmed me in all the right places and scared the Infinite out of me too.
The next day I endured more endless hours of waiting for the Emperor's summons. That afternoon I found the gardens again about the same time of day, hoping to meet her there.
Within minutes the Lady's personal servant appeared with two different guards. “You're not welcome here, Peasant. Please leave.”
“Eh? I don't understand. Just yesterday—”
“Has the Infinite addled your brains? I said you're not welcome here.” Suddenly, she guffawed and pounded her knee with her fist, then looked at me blankly. “Begone, I said.” The two warriors glanced askance at her, looking unsure of her sanity.
“Forgive me, I must not have heard you. I'll leave immediately.” Bowing, I left. The laugh and pounding of the knee had been a signal. The Lady, expecting me to return, had instructed her servant to do as she did.
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