by Aaron Hicks
“You should sing at the inn some night. I’m sure you’d be a big hit. Your voice is very lovely.”
She blushed, stopped, and said, “It’s nothing, and I wouldn’t want to embarrass myself.”
“You wouldn’t be embarrassed, well maybe at first, but once people started listening, you’d have everyone’s undivided attention.”
“Which is not something I crave.”
“Ok, but just think about it. I think you’d enjoy it, and make some friends.”
Uktesh polished one of the sharpened blades and while he placed it with the other finished blade, Laurilli came out of her room. She rubbed her eyes, and looked at the two of them blearily. Heathyr cheerily said, “Morning or I guess ‘afternoon’ is more appropriate sleepy.”
She groaned a reply, sat at the table, and just looked at the food that waited for her. Uktesh smiled and started to sharpen another blade as he watched Laurilli. First mechanically, then as she woke up, more quickly, she started to eat. By the time she was finished, had cleaned up, and he was half done with another blade, she was fully awake and back to her normal exuberant self. She sat next to him, and had polish the blade Uktesh had left for her to polish, and was spreading it with the rag. The three of them sat and worked in silence for a while before Laurilli said, “This feels nice, like when dad would come home and we’d just relax knowing that he was safe, and knowing that we would be fine for a while.”
Uktesh saw Heathyr visibly sadden for a moment at the mention of her absent husband, “Tell me about him, your husband that is. He saved my life and I know almost nothing about him. I would also like to know the story of how you met.”
Heathyr began to speak, “He was the most handsome man I’d ever seen. I knew from the moment we met that I would marry him. I was living in Granger still, in a modest town called Ispad, working at my father’s inn, and practicing to be a refined lady. In those days I had more suitors than friends, and I had a lot of friends!” Her eyes twinkled at the memory, “My best girlfriend was a year older than me and was already married with a child on the way, and in those days my father was doing his best to gauge who would be best for me to marry. I was fifteen and I didn’t care for most of those who came knocking, but one evening Thulmann walked into the inn and, like you hear in plays, the whole room stopped talking and just stared at him!”
Uktesh placed the sharpened dagger next to Laurilli, who listened intently. “We’d never seen anything like him. He came in like a man dressed for a one man war. Two sword hilts stuck above his shoulders, a brace of hunting knives were across his chest, three knives and a dirk were in his belt, and tied to his belt was a hand bow. I thought there was going to be a fight then and there by the way people were acting, but Thulmann just walk through all the tension and ordered two drinks from my father, a spiced wine and a spiced berry juice.”
“When my dad gave him the drinks and said, ‘Well son, ‘et’ll be two coppers’ and Thulmann placed a silver on the counter and said, ‘Just in case there are damages.’ My father gave him a nod of respect, something he never did until he had the measure of a person and judged them to be worthy of respect, and Thulmann returned it. He turned his back on the bar counter and looked out at the looks that were still staring at him, ‘I’m looking for someone, who may have passed this way, and any knowledge would be precious to me indeed. I’m searching for a girl,’ some people snickered then, but your father continued,’ I don’t know what she looks like, but she’d be a young woman barely out of childhood, with a voice that can charm the angriest of people.’”
“Now you should know that being an innkeeper’s daughter isn’t all that exciting, but the reason why we were the only inn in town was because my father allowed me to sing for fifteen minutes twice a night, once at twilight, and the second time at midnight, before I went to bed. So all the people there had heard me sing and just the week before when a stranger had been causing a ruckus I sang my fifteen minutes early and by the end he had calmed down and was eating and singing along! So when your father said those words, everyone looked at me. Once I turned my head to look at Thulmann, I found myself caught in his gaze and couldn’t look away.”
Uktesh finished another blade and nudged Laurilli, who’d completely stopped polishing with a glob of polish still on the middle of the blade, “He was so handsome and when he gestured to the seat next to himself and said, ‘Would you care to join me for a drink?’ I could hardly breathe for the excitement and my father nodded to me to join him. He slid me the spiced berry juice and I sipped it politely while he stared at me. “‘You’re very beautiful.’ he said to me.”
“I’m sure I blushed even though he was not the first person to tell me. There was an honesty about how he said it that made me blush, plus he barely knew me!” Uktesh smiled at Laurilli and saw her return it. Heathyr continued her story, “He was so handsome that he took my breath away. It took two more sips of the berry drink before I said, ‘Thank you.’”
“And then he pretended to forget that he’d said anything at all. ‘Thank you for what? The drink? I’m sure you’ve had it before.’”
“I went from flattered and slightly embarrassed to frustrated so quickly that I tipped the rest of the juice over his head and stormed away! I walked into the kitchen and scared Mari in my haste. But if I scared her, Thulmann armored and armed as he was, dripping red berry juice terrified her even more, ‘You’re not allowed back here!’ she said and she attacked him! Later she confessed that she thought the inn was under attack and that I was running from him, but at the time Thulmann was empty handed, and my own voice had flown away for fear of him getting hurt. Something about your father made it so that I couldn’t seem to get control of my emotions. Mari brought the knife up over her head and slashed downwards like if you were really angry and just wanted to pound the blade into something,” Uktesh glanced at Laurilli who reversed the knife she was polishing and again began to polish. The hilt was up by her thumb, and the blade was down by her elbow. That would never work in a real fight, which is probably why Thulmann lived to marry Heathyr. “Thulmann was so calm though. He just grabbed her by the wrist and when she tried to punch his face with her free hand he grabbed that too and said, ‘Lady, I apologize for frightening you.’ He said that with the most sincere eyes I’d ever seen! ‘I was following this young maiden, in order to apologize to her for upsetting her to the point that she would pour the drink I’d bought her over my head. Though for the life of me, I don’t know what I said to set her off.’ Then he looked at me, expecting an answer, and again I felt my anger rising.”
“‘Put Mari down and you know what you said to me!’ I’d yelled.”
“‘If I said something to upset you I’m sorry. Sometimes when I’m around beautiful women, I say what I’m thinking without knowing it.’ He suddenly blushed deeply and started looking panicked, “I didn’t say anything terrible did I?’”
“‘I don’t remember,’ I lied peevishly, ‘think back on what you were thinking and tell me if you should be apologizing for any of it. I’m not a gem to be ogled, if you want to look at me, you do so from the neck up!’”
“His face became so red that I thought he would burst, ‘I’m so sorry! I can’t believe that I said that to you.’ You must understand Uktesh, I didn’t know what he had been thinking either. He dropped Mari to the ground and put one of his hands of his hip and the other behind his head and tilted his body backwards and laughed a loud nervous laugh.”
“Is that when dad started doing that?” Laurilli asked, interrupting the story.
“Oh no, he’d been a fool about girls since he was young,” but she said it with fondness.
Uktesh handed Laurilli another sharpened blade to polish, as Heathyr continued her story, “Well I didn’t know what he thought that he had said to me to have that kind of reaction, but I said, ‘That’s right! You shouldn’t tell random women that they’re beautiful. You should only tell that to your wife.’” Uktesh quickly glanced at Laurilli to s
ee her blush prettily, so that’s where she got that from.
“Well Thulmann must’ve thought that he’d said something else because he said, ‘Wait. That’s it? That’s what I said that you took offense to?’”
“‘Yes, well no, but when I said “thank you,” you just pretended that you didn’t know what I was thanking you for,’ and I swear his face blanked of all expression. Then he started laughing again, a full belly laugh that was so contagious I joined in. Even Mari smiled a bit, though I think that she was nervous about the clearly unstable lunatic in her kitchen.”
Heathyr broke off with a smile, her eyes glazed as she looked into a past only she could see, and Uktesh wished that he could’ve met Thulmann before, under better circumstances. “‘Lass you are beautiful and where I come from abstaining from telling someone is as much an insult as telling someone that they’re ugly. But now that I know your customs, I won’t tell Mari that she too is quite attractive, and would be doubly so if she would stop glaring at me.’ Mari blinked in shock and blushed furiously. Then he told me why he came to this town searching for me, “And to think that I came here to try to convince you to come back to Sinai with me.’”
“‘M-m-marriage?’ I stuttered, I remember that clearly,” she said and winked at Laurilli. “‘I don’t even know your name! I can’t marry you!’ I said it and then I wanted to take it back cause I wanted to marry him. So I added, ‘Well, that is, you can’t marry me so soon. First we need to court, then you’d have to ask my father…’ and I realized that I was rambling on, and speaking so quietly it must’ve seemed like I was muttering to myself, so I looked him directly in the eyes and said, ‘… and then if my dad approves I would have to agree!’”
“He didn’t seemed surprised, but he did say to himself, ‘Why do women keep thinking I want to marry them? I’d have twelve wives at least if I’d married at every misunderstanding.’ and I wasn’t sure if this was his inability to control his words around beautiful women coming out again, or if he was truly mad.
He cleared it up with us though, when he said, ‘No lass. I wanted your help rescuing my sister. She was attacked by bandits and before they could hurt her, they were all killed by two Afflicted drakes, who, it seems, have taken her as an orphan. Drakes are as intelligent, if not more so, than humans, and they seem to be protecting her, even from me. They said that the day she leaves their care, will be the day she’ll die. With their abilities, I’m not sure that they’re wrong. But they won’t even let me get close enough to Lyssa to talk to her. I need your soothing voice to sing to the drakes, so that I can rescue Lyssa. There’s a rumor that these two are particularly cunning, but there’s also a rumor that they fall asleep at the purest of sounds. I’ve hired the best musicians and singers I could find, but each time we’re repelled. So I ask, will you travel with me to the mountains west of my home town of Manori and help me get my sister Lyssa back?’”
“I couldn’t believe that he was on such a noble quest! I felt, for the first time, a stirring in my chest for adventure and excitement, more than the simple life I was being raised to live. I saw us rescuing his sister, getting married, going on more adventures, and having children. Then I saw us raising them on the steps of a mountain, maybe by a waterfall, and then I realized that I must have been staring at him like a moon-struck fool.” Uktesh smiled with a full understanding of that feeling. Then they heard a knock on the door, something that during the time he had lived with Laurilli and Heathyr he’d never known to have happened. As they didn’t get many visitors and by the look that passed between Heathyr and Laurilli, they were surprised too, and a little fearful. Could this be a message from Thulmann, or is it a notification of his death? Uktesh thought fearfully for the sake of the women.
Uktesh walked to the door with two of the recently sharpened knives and thought, I can’t be too careful. This could also be retribution for killing those men yesterday. Three of them did escape. Before Uktesh opened the door a man yelled, “Hail inside! Open up! This is by order of the Triumvirate, and direct from your ruler, the Lord Marshal of Sinai!”
Heathyr walked to the door and opened it. There stood a man in dull armor, wrinkled clothes, and bags under his eyes that spoke of many days on the road, and more not sleeping well. “Are you well sir? Would you like some water to get the road out of your throat?”
Behind him the ten or twelve people snickered. The man straightened his spine and said, “No time for that I’m afraid. I have been given the duty of informing you, that come the first day of next month before the sun has reached its zenith, every male member of every household, above the age of sixteen, will be required to join the reserve militia training in Bainbridge.”
“That’s only two days away! How are we expected to defend ourselves if all our men are off fighting?”
“We only ask for those above sixteen. At seventeen they are nearly men, and are soon to be away from your apron strings anyways. Besides, this is for the reserve militia only, more than likely they will only see fighting if the fighting comes here. As to your defense the guard will see to your safety.”
“Bandits roam the roads like cockroaches, it isn’t even safe to travel to Whitebridge. There is less travel because of that, less trading, and food is more expensive.”
“I understand your fears, but once we get your boy trained, he can come back here and personally defend your home.”
“Well you are out of luck, because we only have one male and he’s fifteen.” Uktesh did not know what was going on, or why Heathyr was so cold to this man. The man seemed ready to let it drop at that. “Hey isn’t that Uktesh?” one of the villagers yelled. Uktesh recognized him as one of the men he’d beaten yesterday, and next to him stood two more of the men from White Bridge.
“You’ve gotta get him to join. He’s the best fighter in five villages!” said one of the other men from White Bridge, all the other men who stood there looked as unable to believe it as the man in armor.
“Even if he was the best warrior in the world, I wouldn’t take him.” He said with great satisfaction. “He’s too young by two years. We don’t make boys fight our wars, we’re not the Beletarians!”
He turned and left and took the men with him. Uktesh shut the door slightly shaken. I never thought that I would be recruited to fight against my own people. At least I have two years to think about what I’m going to do. He sat on the couch and felt Laurilli softly settle next to him. Then he felt her warm hand in his and her thumb made circles on his skin.
They sat in silence for a few minutes while Uktesh thought of all the ways out of this, until Laurilli asked, “What are you thinking?”
What am I thinking? I’m thinking that the only way not to fight my people is to leave my new family. Unexpectedly he felt tears slide down his cheeks, “I’m thinking,” his voice tightened and choked off his words. He cleared his throat and started again, “I’m thinking that the only way out of this is to leave you and Heathyr. But even contemplating that breaks my heart. How could I leave my new family?”
Laurilli rushed into his arms and clung to him, “You can’t leave, you promised! You promised me!”
She sat back and stared into his eyes pleadingly, and Uktesh knew that to leave had never really been an option. I’m a coward. Though brilliant in spars, I’m frozen in battle, and I’ll die in the first battle we have! Then he realized what he had to do, he had to become brave.
“There’s no way I’d ever leave you, I’m not that much of an idiot.” She hugged him again. He returned it, he lost himself in the feel of her body against his, the smell of her hair, and the warmth of her feelings for him. There was a polite cough and Uktesh opened his eyes to see Heathyr smile at him. He smiled back and gently pushed Laurilli back from him and said, “So you were telling us about how you and Thulmann met?”
Laurilli settled next to him again and resumed where she had left off polishing the sharpened knives while Heathyr continued to make a sheath for one of the knives. Uktesh began to sharp
en the blade again that he’d been about to finish when the man had arrived, and Heathyr said, “Where was I? Oh, yes, his quest, well I decided to go with him and I was able to convince my father to let me go, but only if I took my uncle with me.”
“My uncle was a woodsman, who had trained in the army as a scout. They’re the ones who have to be the best, because they’re on their own most of the time. We left with the best wishes of everyone in town, and after journeying to Sinai, it was only a few days to the mountains where the drakes lived. It had been a peaceful trip, Uncle and Thulmann became fast friends and each, it seemed, respected each other enough that they really listened to suggestions that the other had. Like once when we crossed a river, they had decided that fording was not a good option so they brainstormed and created a bridge that would only hold one horse at a time, but it worked and got us across safely.”
“Thulmann had met the drakes before so he led us to where he’d met them before. Then we waited. We waited for nearly two hours before Thulmann decided to set up camp. We waited for most of the next day before Thulmann said that he was, ‘going to find his sister and kill the drakes if need be.’ I would’ve laughed if the situation wasn’t so dire. We started travelling immediately and found that the drakes had been killed only a few hours earlier. They had battled fiercely, and the scores of dead were a testament to their skill, and also to the dedication of those who had killed them.”
“Thulmann started looking for signs of his sister, but he couldn’t find any, which was good. If she had been there, she surely would’ve died. At this my uncle stated that since Thulmann didn’t need me anymore that we should go. But at the stricken look on Thulmann’s face, I couldn’t leave. So I told my uncle as much, and added that, now that we knew his sister was in mortal peril, we must aid in her rescue.” She paused her story, “And you know what they did? They laughed! ‘Mortal peril!’ my uncle gasped out between breathes, ‘You’ve been reading too many stories!’”
