Battle Cry

by Lara Lee Hunter

  The office to which Helena took them was wide and broad. There were several rows of seats perched in front of and facing a long wooden structure behind which sat a man in crimson and blue robes.

  He looked up as they entered and Helena said, “Greetings judge. I bring you those who would have you hear their case.”

  Reena moved forward out of instinct but Helena’s hands held her back.. Her feet stilled and she stared at the judge. His face was stern, all angles and planes. He was older, far older than most of the men in her own homeland. How was that possible? Dying young was sort of the condition of their lands.

  When he spoke, his voice was a deep and pleasing baritone that reminded her of her father’s voice so much that she almost burst into tears. He said, “Come forward and be heard.”

  Helena’s hand nudged her forward and she went, refusing to shuffle and keeping her head high. She wasn’t sure where to stop but when she saw his eyebrow creeping up slightly, she halted.

  Clearing her throat she spoke, “My name is Reena. I come from the outside. By that I mean I come from the outside that is past the farms and other lands that surround the city far to the west of here. I had to cross the desert and a large water to get here and I am in dire need of speaking to Calliope.”

  The judge’s face had an expression of astonishmen she was sure was as foreign to that visage as she was to this courtroom. He looked at Helena who nodded and then back at Reena and then beyond her at her gathered tribe. “Are you telling me you come from a city that lies within the lost lands?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t know what the lost lands are. I only know that I lived outside of the city known as Aretula. Myra, the pirate who commands the ship Lilith found us at the edge of the desert where the great waters began. She brought us here, to Olympus. She told me that nobody believes there is life in those lands, but there is. I’m here, and there are others.”

  “Young lady, do you know the penalty for lying in a courtroom?”

  “I am not lying.” Reena’s chin lifted and her shoulders squared. “I come from exactly where I said I come from and I am here because I need help from your leader. I am on a quest and it is a quest that I cannot fail in.”

  The judge leaned back in his chair, his fingers resting lightly on his belly. “A quest? It has been centuries since a quest has been given or received here in this city.”

  Reena’s anger was starting to surface but she held it back. She could not help though the sarcasm that coated her words. “Can I suppose it is a good thing I am not from the city?”

  Helena nudged her elbow, a silent reprimand that Reena understood all too well. Lucas cleared his throat and Lauren fingered the small Dirk at her belt. The judge leaned forward again and spoke, “You had a long journey if what you say is true.”

  Tears filled Reena’s eyes. Behind the judge’s stern look was kindness; she could see it but was not sure if she could trust it. Or anyone or anything. “Yes, a very long journey. My people are tired and they are hungry. On board the ship Myra treated us well and we rested well, and for that we are eternally grateful; however, none of us had ever been on a boat before and most of my people were very ill.”

  “I should imagine so. Myra loves the oceans. She probably took you through a bad patch just to watch you be sick.” The judge actually laughed at that. “She’s a good person, for a pirate, but she has the oddest sense of humor of any woman I’ve ever met.”

  Reena felt some relief by the fact that the judge actually knew Myra. She didn’t dare comment on whether or not she thought Myra had deliberately made her tribe sick though; that might be something that they only did here and amongst each other. A lot of tribe members would joke around with each other and say things that they would never allow anyone else to say, and she was pretty certain that that was the case here.

  “Please sir, we need to see Calliope. There is no time to waste. Our journey here was far longer than I ever could’ve imagined. There is much going on in my homeland and there is a war. We need your help, we need help badly.”

  The judge leaned forward again, all his casualness forgotten. His eyes sharpened and he gave her a long and level gaze from below his bushy grey eyebrows. “If what you say is true, then I will get you the first appointment that I can with Calliope.”

  Emboldened by his statement Lucas stepped forward. “May I ask when that might be Sir? As Reena has said, time is growing short. We’ve been gone far too long and the journey back will be no easier.”

  The judge opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, Deal, who had been standing behind Lauren and several others stepped forward, his attention caught by the large stained-glass window on one side of the room. The judge’s reaction to the young boy was the same as Myra’s had been. His mouth sagged open and a look of complete shock crossed his face.

  “It can’t be!” He actually rubbed his eyes and took a harder look at Deal. “Come here Blake.”

  Deal’s father looked down at him and frowned. “Please do not order my son, Sir. Ever since we got here people have been looking at him incredibly strangely, calling him by another’s name and asking him questions that he cannot answer.”

  Deal’s father was a quiet man. He went by the name Oak and most of the time unless you knew he was there you would never notice him. He was strong as an ox, and incredibly fast. He was a good man in the woods because he could blend in with almost any scenery and hide from you in plain sight. He could also pick off a bird with nothing but a stone and he always seemed to know which mushrooms are poisonous and which were not. He rarely ever spoke however; it was is not his way.

  The judge looked at him, his face showing concentration. Finally he spoke to Oak, “What is your name?”

  “I am called Oak.”

  The man straightened his shoulders and met the judge’s eyes squarely. I am also from the lands that the rest of my tribe is from. I have journeyed here with them. This is my son, his name is Deal.”

  The judge looked utterly flabbergasted. He raised a hand to his forehead and wiped it hard. When he did manage to speak, his voice shook and it was obvious that that was a strange occurrence because Helena looked startled and a little afraid. “Come with me, you will see Calliope right now. I happen to know that she has nobody in the chambers at the moment.”

  Helena said, “But judge… That is not the way of things!”

  The judge gave her a hard and cold stare. “Do you doubt that these are the people that we’ve been waiting for for a very long time? Do you doubt that this is a matter of complete urgency Helena? No? Good, then I will do as I see fit.”

  The tribe followed the judge as he walked through a small door, his robes flapping at the back of his shoes. His shoes were what drew Reena’s gaze. She’d never seen anything like them, and it occurred to her that everyone in Olympus had those same shoes she had not paid attention to before. They fit completely over the foot, much like the rough leather shoes that she wore on her own feet most of the time. They were not sandals such as the ones worn in Aretula.

  The Judge led them to a set of doors, intricately carved and guarded by two sets of soldiers. One of the soldiers said, “They are bearing arms.”

  The judge replied, “I saw that. They are foreigners, and their customs are different.”

  “It matters not,” the soldier said, “They drop their arms or they remain outside.”

  Reena said, “I cannot drop mine, it is to go with me everywhere that I go.”

  “Then they will not be seeing Calliope,” the soldier said to the judge rather than Reena. That irritated her; she was standing right there. If he had something to say about her he should say it and stop pretending she was not there!

  The judge grabbed Deal by the arm and hauled him up in front of the soldiers. “Does he look familiar?”

  The soldier’s mouths all fell open. Deal squirmed and sputtered out, “Hey what is it with you people?”

  Oak stepped forward, “I don’t know what game you are playing
with my son, but I’m not going to tell you any of you again to leave him be.”

  The soldiers looked at Oak, then back at Deal. The youngest of them, a young man who could barely be twenty, allowed his mouth to form a perfect round circle. The oldest of the soldiers said, “They can go in, but they must go in with guards.”

  The younger of the soldiers hastily stepped forward, but the older guard held up a hand to stop him. He put two fingers to his mouth and blew, a long low whistle that brought more soldiers from around a bend.

  He sent four of those newcomers into Calliope’s chambers with them.

  Going into Calliope’s chambers was almost like entering the temple. The doors opened and they walked along a red carpet. Fresh flowers sat about in small vases that were attached to the long rows of seats.

  At the end of the aisle stood another of the long wooden benches like the judge had sat on, but it was raised even higher and surrounded by a pure cleaning wall. Calliope sat behind it, her brown head back to the papers in front of her.

  The judge announced them: “Calliope, I bring you foreigners from the lost lands. Or so they claim to be. They have a story that I think you’ll find interesting, although I’m not sure we can dispense justice for them.”

  Her head came up and Reena found herself staring into a pair of the shrewdest brown eyes she had ever seen. Those eyes seemed to probe at every fiber of her being, to look deep within her and to weigh everything inside.

  Calliope’s face was lined; she was not young it all. Nor was she particularly beautiful although it was clear that she had been when she was younger. Her chin had a decided cleft and there was a scar beside her right eye as well as many lines around her eyes and mouth.

  Before Calliope could speak, the judge had taken ahold of both Oak and Deal and moved them forward. Reena’s hand went to her sword, but Lucas halted her. She looked over at him, confused. What was going on here? Why did Deal look so familiar to these people and why did they seem so upset to see him?

  The effect on Calliope was just as great. Her eyes sharpened and her hands clenched together, so tightly that the white of her knuckles showed through her age-spotted skin. She stood slightly, but then she sat back down just as abruptly.

  She spoke, and her voice was anything but tired or old. It was strong, and it carried well. She said, “So, you come from the lost lands. Every ruler of this land has waited their entire lifetime to see if anything ever came out of that forsaken place. I think many of us have long since forgotten that there was ever anything there. Perhaps that is for the best and yet here you are and determined to prove us wrong.”

  Reena stepped forward, though she did not really know what to say. If Calliope was not happy to see them that could put all of her hopes into tatters before they even ever had a chance to bloom. “Calliope, we come to you because we have to. We don’t mean to intrude upon you or your land. I don’t know what it is with Deal or Oak that frightens and stuns you and your people so, but I do say this: they are under my protection. They are of my tribe and I will not allow any harm to come to them.”

  She had some other things she was going to add there but Calliope’s laughter broke into her speech before she could finish it. Calliope said, “You are a mere girl! How can you protect anyone? I doubt you could even protect yourself!”

  Reena said calmly and very quietly, “You do not know me and you do not know what I am capable of.”

  That stopped Calliope’s laughter cold. Her gaze sharpened even further and she leaned forward in her seat and asked, “What is it that you want?”

  Reena said, “I come to ask for your help. I come to ask you to join us in war against the Governor of Aretula, the greatest and only city in our lands.”

  Chapter 7

  Calliope said, “There is no way I could ask my troops to go to Aretula to fight your governor. He is not our problem.”

  “Not now,” Lucas shot back. “But he might be if he ever discovers that there is something that lies on the other side of the desert.”

  “I doubt he will,” Calliope said. “Men like him are content to rule in their own small worlds. If he was anything more than a tempest in his own teapot I would be more inclined to help you.”

  Reena wanted to weep. All the time that they had spent struggling to get here, to meet this woman, to ask for her help and she was ignoring all of those things. She was making a decision without even considering what it might mean to them. How could she get her to see things her way? Was there even any point in trying? She had to, no matter what she had to try.

  Gathering her courage and stealing herself for the rejection that she was sure would come, Reena said, “Calliope we’ve come a great distance, we would not come that distance if we did not sorely need your help. I am on a quest and part of that quest was given to me because I am the one who has this.” She reached behind her back and removed the sword from the scabbard. The effects of the sword were almost as tenacious as the effect Deal seemed to have on the people. All of the soldiers moved forward, a few of them staring in open-mouthed astonishment. Calliope said sharply, “How dare you come in here with a sword that was stolen from my people and try to use it to gain my favor?”

  Reena replied, “I dare because I have no choice. I would not see the people who live in my lands hurt anymore by an insane man whose sole goal is to kill as many as possible in his lifetime.”

  Calliope shot back, “Where did you get our sword?”

  Reena said, “It is not your sword. It is nobody’s sword. I won it in a fight against a madman in a hut at the mouth of the desert. He was insane, driven that way because he had gotten lost in the desert, and because before he ever came to our land he was a killer in yours.”

  Calliope’s anger vanished like the morning sun. “Tell me about this man.”

  It was a command, and Reena knew it. None of the other members of her tribe were speaking and she knew that that was because they were giving her the respect that they had entrusted her with. They were proving to Calliope that she was indeed the leader and that they would stand behind her. She didn’t know if that would help any, but she was grateful for their support.

  Reena said, “He was mad, as I said. He told me that he wanted to come to our land, the land that you call the lost land because he had heard that some had traveled over there and became kings and gods. He was correct.

  “Over there in Aretula the descendants of Barkley still rule. They have inherited his bloodlust, and they continue his tradition of the Arena.”

  Calliope said, “You’re going to have to explain some things to me because they are foreign to me. Your land is obviously not the same as this one. Explain to me what the Arena is.”

  Reena said, “Lucas here and I have both been gladiators. I was the only girl, woman, to be named as a gladiator in history.”

  Calliope said, “That sounds like quite a feat. You must’ve done something very brave in order to be named a gladiator.”

  Reena replied, “No, just very foolish. Over there the Arena is the end-all and be-all. It is entertainment for the crowd, it is how the Governor keeps people under his thumb. It is how he keeps them frightened and entertained all at the same time.”

  Before she knew it she was spilling out all the secrets of her land. She was talking of the arena, of the soldiers roaming the lands looking for Outlaws and why so many people were Outlaws. She told Calliope of the Culling and how her own parents had decided to be Outlaws, to be branded as traitors to the Governor rather than allow her mother to be taken to a tavern to be used by whoever had coin enough to pay for her favors.

  She told Calliope what it was like to live in the woods always on the move and to never have a home. She told her what it was like to lose friends, to hide in the haystacks so the soldiers never found them. She told her of Hector and Kale and their bravery. She found herself crying as she explained how angry she had been at the cowardly man whose life she had saved in the arena, and how much she had resented having to save his
life when it was her father’s life that she had really wanted to save.

  When she got to the part about the man in the hut who had held the sword Calliope said, “Think very hard. What did this man look like? Can you tell me what he said?”

  Reena began to try to describe him as best she could. What she remembered the most she told first, and then she began to try to think of the other things, but eventually she had to give up.

  Calliope looked over at the judge who looked back at her steadily. There was something going on here, something that Reena could not understand, but she had a feeling that it had something to do with that man and the sword, and not just them but other things as well. Calliope was too interested in this man.

  The judge asked, “The man of which you speak, you said he turned the soldiers into art. That he wanted to turn you into art. Did you see what he did to them?”

  Reena shook her head no, “No and I am glad. He was horrifying; there was something beyond madness about him. It was almost like looking into… In the desert we saw this thing in the sand it was like there was a wind tunnel sucking all the sand into it. There are poisonous creatures out there; a few of my tribe were bitten by them and they died almost instantly. These creatures were sucked in by this shifting tunnel and it was almost like there was a creature down below it waiting to eat them. When I looked at that man that is how I felt. When I saw that sand sucking down into the very earth itself and taking the poisonous creatures with it, his was the face I thought of. I know how that sounds, but I can’t explain it any better.”

  The judge said, “You don’t need to explain it any better. The man that you are speaking of, if I am correct and Calliope is correct, and I am sure that we are, was no great loss to this city.”

  Lucas said, “Myra said that once upon a time you sent people to our lands. Criminals and others. People who were murderous and power mad. You sent them there and if that man could survive who knows how many others could as well? We already know that Barkley did survive there, instead of killing him you sent him West and now all of the people of that city have to pay for your mistakes. You owe us this aid that we are seeking, whether you wish to admit it or not, it was your city’s duty to deal with Barkley and you failed to do that.”