by Nelson, J P
That made twice he had ridden up to our doorstep, then galloped away into the snowy weather. Was he always in such a hurry?
I looked at momma’s necklace; at first I was going to question her about it, but it looked so beautiful on her. Something about it made my insides tingle, almost like the bees buzzing. Instead I asked, “Momma? What’s a skipper?”
Chapter 6
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MY MOMMA NEVER took her necklace off, and even though we didn’t talk about it, I knew it meant a lot to her. Truth to tell, it looked like it belonged on her and I wished I could have somehow been able to give her such a beautiful present. I told her as much one day and she took me aside; with much concern she asked, “Komain, do you know what you give me every day that means more than this pretty jewel can ever mean?”
I just looked at her and I felt tears starting to come down my cheeks, because I wanted to do something so special and pretty for her, my momma. Somehow I was afraid if Roveir gave her pretty things she might give him all of my smiles.
She took my head in her hands and said, “You give me your love. That means more than anything to me.” And she kissed me on the forehead. I gave her the biggest, most special hug I could give her. From then on I didn’t think about her jewel again, except how pretty it looked on her.
Quickly we put together a duffle for the each of us; and she showed me how to do it the most efficient way. We went over and over what to do in the main keep, because we were going to stay in the stable area with Barlan inside the inner wall. It was really a special thing, she told me, because Roveir said the Bor-Duke wasn’t concerned about protecting the upper county slaves. Why, he hadn’t even considered ringing the old bell.
Momma said when Roveir had been Duke, there had been battle drills all of the time, just in case of an attack, so the people who lived outside the walls could have a chance to run for shelter behind the outer wall’s safety.
It was three weeks from the day Roveir first gave us that warning that the bell suddenly started ringing. My momma and I had practiced many times what to do, and while my heart started pounding, we moved quickly but smoothly. That bell was positioned in the tallest tower atop the main house, and the range of visibility was large, especially in the snow. So we should have plenty of time at the worst to get into the gate.
Roveir had told momma he had special concerns as to why orgs, or anyone for that matter, would want to attack Castle Fel’Caden with snow everywhere. He suspected magical assistance; but who? Magic was rare, especially in these parts. Gevard didn’t even have its own wizard. Roveir had heard of two or three tribal sorcerers up in the mountains, but that was his only guess, he had simply been away too long and was out of touch with things in general.
Momma said he had a serious problem with the Bor-Duke, Hestlin, calling him a fat pig who hadn’t been out of his wallow in ten years. There was a reason he hadn’t been vested to the full Duke position. Roveir believed the House leaders were simply waiting for him to die. Now, with war at hand, they were going to be forced to go ahead and raise Hestlin to full Duke status, simply for political reasons, and it seemed no one was happy about it. Roveir believed the fat-man, as he called him, was drawn back due to wartime responsibilities.
Roveir, momma told me she believed, was now taking on the Castle Responsibilities on an unofficial level; but at least someone with skill was doing it.
We were on our way, each carrying our own duffle and making good time, when we noticed off in the distance Barlan was having serious difficulties getting his horses and cattle together.
Now you might think my momma would tell me to run on to that gate while she went to help; she definitely wouldn’t have ignored Barlan, she just wasn’t like that. Instead, she said to me, “Komain, quickly, we have to help!” It was the way she was brought up, to put others first, and without thinking she was teaching me that same ethic. It’s one of the many things I loved about my momma, she was a true hero and I wanted to be like her.
We backtracked in the snow to the trail leading to the barn, and we did it at a run. Barlan’s helpers had all abandoned him at the sound of the bell and ran. Those horses were drafters and slow, but plenty fast enough to trample me and I was scared. But my momma put a stick in each of my hands and told me to start singing So’finua dai Thudas, an elvin dance tune, and get behind the cows which were loose and head for the gate.
That song has a nice tempo and somewhat quick rhythm to it, but instead of asking why I did just what she asked. Those milk cows stepped right out and started moving. A lot of commotion was going on but I kept right on singing and waving my sticks and making for the gate.
Some of those horses had started a panic and one of those stupid humans must have knocked over a lantern, because a fire was running through the barn and eating all the hay. My momma suddenly rode up beside me bareback on one of those big horses, reached down and grabbed me by my coat collar, and put me on top of a calf and told me to keep singing and look to that gate.
Now I was scared, and I watched my momma gallop to that barn and jump off in one movement, then run inside. At first I wanted to cry in fear of my momma, but then I remembered she was counting on me and I couldn’t let her down. I sang louder and that calf started to run and I had to hang on to a bell collar around its neck.
Suddenly, from around the outer wall, I saw Dahnté in full stride with that old man riding low like a jockey. It was too far for me to hear words, but I could hear echoes of what sounded like shouting from the wall. How could he have seen …?
Looking over my shoulder, I saw my momma staggering out of the barn carrying a scared goat, kicking and bleating in fear. She set it down and it apparently saw its own momma and went running, and then my momma ran back into the barn.
No one ever asked how the flames went out before consuming the barn, let alone all of the hay, and I didn’t know to ask. But between Barlan, Roveir, and my momma, not one of the stock animals, not even the chickens were lost that day.
I was first to reach the gate, and we were herded through the inner wall to where the rest of the stock was kept. The first person I saw, that I recognized, was Lexin. He pointed his finger at me and laughed, what with me riding a calf and singing, but those cattle were following me, not him, so I didn’t care.
Jumping down off of my calf inside the keep’s barn, I was beginning to fret for my momma when I saw the horse stock coming into safety. Barlan and my momma were each atop big, gray horses, and Roveir came in last. It was one time I was glad to see him. He made way over to where I was and looked down at me pleased like and said, “I wish I had you at Bindago, we might have won.”
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I felt like it was a compliment. I still didn’t like him, but I gave him a smile and a nod back. A smile of his own crossed his face and I thought I heard him chuckle as he finished helping put the animals in their pens.
The next few days were full of chaos, but I never really got to see what was happening. Momma told me our castle was one of the largest and best built in all of Aeshea and not to worry. Still, she had gone over three important drills, just in case, for inside the keep, like we were right then. She told me you should always have a plan, then a backup plan. Even if they don’t work outright, at least you have something to go by and having a well rehearsed plan will help keep you calm minded.
Never before had I seen so many people, and they were all crowded inside the inner walls. I was to stay in the barn area, but it had two levels above ground and one below and built of that same solid rock. When it wasn’t as noisy I climbed up atop the roof and looked. The person I saw the most, and who seemed to be in charge, was Roveir. I saw slaves who I knew from apple picking time, and I recognized some of those who had been children. I even recognized those two boys who had dragged me around by the ears; only they didn’t look so tough now, they looked scared.
Momma said the nobility and all their children were kept inside the main house, but what c
ame to my mind was that we were all trapped in this battle together.
One of the things Roveir was concerned about, momma said, was that the enemy outside the walls weren’t orgs, but humans. I found myself wondering what an org looked like, but I was glad they weren’t around right then.
Roveir had my momma helping with supplies and tending to the wounded. In the meantime I was to stay and help Barlan take care of the stock. It was the first time I was around him by myself, I mean when momma wasn’t with us. I learned to be comfortable with him and even talked some with him. He put me in charge of feeding the chickens, because that was one of the most important jobs to be done, and it made me feel proud for him to choose me of all people, me, a half-breed as some of the other slave kids were calling me.
Momma came to the barn sometimes to make sure I was all right and she told me we were under something called a siege. She could never stay long, but she would spend a few minutes with me, and when I told her about my important chicken feeding job she became so excited. She even took time for me to show her just the right way to do it.
For a while pieces of rock would sail into the middle of the keep. I remember seeing one of those hit a man, it was the first time I had seen someone die and I didn’t know what to think. Apprehension and self-dread washed through me, but another part thought, ‘Why didn’t he just move? He stood right there and watched the boulder fly right at him.’
Just then a huge arm grabbed me up and violently spun me around. I didn’t have time to be afraid as I felt the ground under me and this big person on top of me, at the same time I heard a crunching sound and the ground seemed to vibrate.
It was Barlan who had thrown me down and covered me with his own body. He got up quickly and looked around, and I saw right where I had been standing one of those big rocks had hit and then bounced onto and then off of the wall of the barn. The enemy outside catapulting those boulders must not have known the main house, barn, and barracks had all been built in that same solid rock and wouldn’t be broken that easily. But still, if it hit anything else, or a person …
Barlan picked me up like a little billy-goat and ran inside with me, slamming the door shut. Setting me down he checked me quick for injury and said, “Ah need yu hep, Komain. Da chikuns ahr squakin’ sometin’ ferce an’ day need yu to protect ‘em. Go sang to ‘em an’ day be okay.”
So I ran to my post and stayed there the rest of the day. Several times I heard thumps and rumbles where rocks were hitting our building, but we were safe. Except my momma didn’t come back that evening, or the next.
Barlan kept me occupied, but I was worried something terrible for my momma. I couldn’t fathom anything happening to her, let alone life without her, although outside our barn was lots of mommas, papas, even kids who would never go back to their quarters. I could hear the screams through the barn walls; it was so surreal. I could hear, but couldn’t see. Some of them were slave kids who called me names and threw mud at me, but somehow, someplace deep inside I wanted to stand up and fight, I wanted to make the screaming stop.
Don’t ask me to explain it, but I thought I could feel the pain, not just the people outside but the animals we were watching as well. The fear was so thick in the air, and even though I couldn’t see it, it stifled my breath.
The thumping of the rocks came to a stop late in the second day of the barrage, but when my momma didn’t come back I snuck up to the barn roof intending to look around for her. As I got outside, though, the night air was so thick with fog a human couldn’t have seen the end of their sword in front of them. But something wasn’t right; the fog felt weird. It made my skin tingle and I felt the bees-like buzzing in my tummy.
It was by happenstance that I looked in the direction of the east, but something had caught my attention. I thought I saw a swarm of firefly bugs way off in the distance. A moment or two of focus and sudden realization came to mind; I was seeing people flying in the air. How, I couldn’t tell, because they had no wings; or did they? The funny glow I saw was their heat, momma told me we could see living heat that humans can’t see.
My thought was to find Roveir … unless I saw momma first. I looked hard all around, not sure if I could recognize the shape of his heat. It’s something I had never tried before. Nobody seemed to notice the flying people. Then I saw him, or rather a big horse standing way off to himself who I figured had to be Dahnté.
I desperately hoped Roveir would be close by, so I slid down the roof to the building the barn was connected to, ran a rampart to another building roof, slid down the roof incline to a shed roof, jumped to the ground and ran through the obstacles of human heat while bumping between this person and that.
I came face to face with Dahnté and he turned to look right at me. He was chewing what must have been oats and in that moment I realized he must be a real horse and not a demon. Why would a demon want to chew dry oats? Without thinking I asked the horse, “Where is Roveir?”
That horse actually stopped chewing and looked at me, then he glanced behind me and I heard that booming voice, “Wait-to-hoy?!” The knob of his walking stick touched me on the shoulder and I spun around. His face looked ghostly in the fog, but he recognized me and asked with appall, “Skipper?! What are you doin’ here?”
Taking no time to explain I grabbed him by his free, right arm, and pulled him around to face the glows I could see were getting brighter, “Up there, up there. People are flying!”
He leaned down quickly and got seriously calm and asked, “They are what?! How, tell me what they are doin’?”
Quickly I outlined their placement, how far up I thought they were, how far away, and then I could see something like wings, but the wings didn’t have glows.
Roveir wasted no time but said, mostly to himself as he worked with Dahnté’s bridle, “Damn! Shavokahf hunters use gliders … use updrafts and thermals … understand winds … must have used Brakstein Ridge to jump … know of a glider once went thirty miles …” It only took a couple of moments to cinch his saddle tight, “This fog is probably magical … damn … only seen this shit in the islands …” and then he was up and reigning the stallion around quickly. He looked right at me and said, “Skipper, full sail and man the ship, we’ve got to seize the wind … go, NOW!”
He slapped Dahnté’s sides with his heels and said, “T’romonfia Bosiuro!” Then they bolted away at high speed.
I was confused for just a moment; didn’t he just say Tower of the Bell, in Elvish? Was that where he wanted me to go? Did he want me to ring the bell, was that it? This was important, wasn’t it? Full sail and man the ship, he said … he must have wanted me to ring the bell. Okay, then. Now where was I?
Nobody could see but me and my momma, but where was she? So how could Roveir see? The horse … horses must be able to see in the dark, like cats and elves and owls … it must be.
Running and dodging I finally found the main house, but I knew no one would be about to let me in, so I found a structure of vines and started climbing as fast as I could, which was fast. I heard horns sounding some kind of melody, and then the bells started ringing … what … I thought Roveir wanted me to do that?
Reaching the top of the wall and climbing over, I realized I was definitely not at the top. Another wall with a walkway around, so I followed the walk looking for something else to climb and turned a corner to find Lexin and Jess. They were standing in the walkway staring in a window giggling, “Look at her. Damn, the size of …” Then they recognized me and started yelling. I immediately turned and ran the way I came; only this wall wasn’t square. There were narrow cuts and turns all over, almost like a maze, so I turned and ducked every which way I could and found the passage had steps going down. I knew I was in big, big trouble if those boys caught me and I was now completely lost.
Twice I ran past narrow openings which looked over another room or corridor, up a short flight of steps beside a closed door, then down a long stairway. Where was I? Behind me I could hear my yelling pursuers. I
was glad they were loud; at least I could tell where they were. Most places I ran you could see up through the walls, sometimes maybe ten feet, sometimes twenty, but now I only saw ceilings and not the sky.
I found a metal ladder bolted into the wall and I grabbed a’hold and started climbing to what looked like an open area up above. Lexin and Jess were right behind me, but I noticed they weren’t chasing me anymore, they were being chased. There were four humans with small swords only a few paces behind them and they weren’t wearing Fel’Caden uniforms.
In these corridors it was easier to see, and I saw Lexin run just past my ladder, then stop dead still by a door and turn and catch Jess as he ran into him. Lexin shoved Jess into the first of their pursuers, opened the door, and ducked inside. As Jess was pushed back I saw his face of surprise and saw an enemy sword run through his body. One looked up and saw me and I did the jackrabbit right up that ladder.
I found myself in an open chamber, for sure, but there were people all over in a panic as I saw more of the enemy slicing this way and that. Doors were opening, people shouting, and I had no idea where I was. Nobody noticed me either. Looking to one side I saw a statue and a big podium; I was inside a chapel, these people had been praying. I couldn’t help notice the phrase on the podium, All Praise to Eayah.
Two staircases led up and two down, but they were full and I saw more of the enemy. Ducking behind the podium and around some curtains, I looked up and saw another open space. Grabbing some curtain I tested it against my weight and hoped it would hold. Scurrying up I was almost at the top when I heard more chaos, and this chubby little boy suddenly fell over the edge and tried to claw onto me. He must have been maybe two or three years old and his hair was black; I could tell because it was all in my face and mouth, and he was screaming.
