Clearing the Web

by Cary J Lenehan

  She would not be drawn on any more detail. “It is not my story to tell.” The door to the cell is open and Verily is sitting inside the cell with the Hobgoblin prisoner Saygaanzaamrat and holding his hand. Interesting…why have I ignored him? No-one has mentioned him, but still…we have all ignored the Hob.

  Christopher looked at him, really for the first time. He is a big man, taller and heavier than any of the rest of us and totally bald. He has prominent and strong incisors on both his top and bottom jaws that overlap up and down and he has grey skin that is, in appearance, more like that of a lizard than most people except Basil. I can also see that, for the first time since I first saw her, Verily lacks composure.

  “Well,” said Rani from behind, “we are all here now. Why is the door open and why are we here?” Her words are meeting silence. “Is anyone going to tell me?”

  It was Saygaanzaamrat who replied. In Hindi, not very good Hindi, but it is Hindi. “Me want to join Mousehole, village yours,” he said, with a heavy accent, “and me want to marry Verily like all you marry. She not pretty, all hair and she does not even have the teeth that Cat girl has, and she not very strong, but me like her to talk to and she make me feel nice…soft and warm…inside. Me want protect her and hold her. She tell me she want me to do this.”

  I hear the sound of crickets…someone needs to say something. “Verily, what do you say?”

  It is her usual velvet voice, but very quiet. “I am sick of Human men. They only want me because of my body. They do not want me. Men see me as beautiful, and what has it gotten me? Ten years of being raped by men, and by women, all of whom I hated and who only wanted to possess my beauty. You heard Saygaanzaamrat. He thinks I am ugly. He is bright and strong, and he wants me for who I am inside and he wants to protect me. Do you realise what a relief that all is?”

  “Strangely,” Bianca spoke next, “I do, in a way. My beloved husband thinks that I am beautiful. I pray that he stays as deluded, but he is the only one who does. I was judged all my years for being plain and an orphan and poor. Here, and with Christopher, I am accepted for what I am. I imagine you feel the same sort of way.” Verily nodded. “If this goes to a vote,” she turned to the Princesses, “they have my support.”

  “But,” said Rani, almost speechless “is it right to mate with another race?” Theodora is blushing as she leans close and whispers in her ear. I remember something from the Confessional…something I can never mention, about her encounter with an Insak-div. I wonder if that is what she is talking about. It certainly has an effect on Rani. She is giving her wife a very odd look. “You don’t even know if you are built the same.”

  “We fit,” said Verily, blushing, “very well indeed.”

  “You might not be able to have children.” Rani is clutching at straws and all of the others, including her wife, are smiling at that poor attempt…well it might have been a smile that Saygaanzaamrat has on his face. It took only a moment of looking at the faces around her before Rani realised that the same, and more, can be said about her marriage. She added “Oh,” after that pause. She looked around at the others. “You all think that she…that they…. He is a prisoner.” I keep making excuses, but she does come from a culture with no mixing. She is working on it.

  “So was she,” Christopher found himself saying mildly.

  Saygaanzaamrat is turning to me: “Verily has talked about her beliefs, but I not understand what she saying very well. Spirits failed tribe. We could have been all die. Spirits supposed to make prosper, not get all killed. I not happy with spirits. I happy to talk to you about your spirits.”

  “In that case, I will talk to you as often as you wish. I hope that I make sense to you.”

  “I give in,” said Rani. “I suppose that you want to move him from here to your room?” she asked Verily…almost sarcastically.

  “That would be good,” I don’t think that she even noticed the tone. “This bed is both very small and very hard and he needs teaching in more than I can give him. Trust me; you will learn to like him. I have. He wants to stay with me.”

  The five left, leaving Verily to help Saygaanzaamrat gather his few things and follow them. As the pair come out of the guard house hand in hand, the first thing they see is Ayesha talking to Basil and Astrid outside the barracks. Verily is nervously approaching the two. This could be awkward. I can see Verily looking around the courtyard. I can see others looking cautiously at her. She is getting nervous. She stands nearly five hands shorter than the Hob and she has grabbed his hand for support.

  Basil and Astrid are just standing there. Astrid, as she almost always does, has her spear in hand. Verily is walking slowing but keeping her course. My most unpredictable parishioner is whispering with her husband…they are both nodding to each other.

  Astrid

  As we agreed, Basil speaks first and uses Darkspeech: “Welcome to the world of Humans, fellow monster,” and his grin is genuine. “My male ancestor was Kichic-Kharl and changed his name to Kutsulbalik when he married my female ancestor. From all of the Kichik-Kharl I have met, he must have looked far less Human than you do and he managed to have a long and happy marriage with lots of children. I hope that you two do the same.”

  My turn. “I hope that you don’t hate me for killing your tribesmen and stabbing you there.” I point at his groin.

  “It was battle,” he shrugged. “In battle, you do what you do. I am now well there.” He glanced at Verily as he said that. Verily noticed that. Is that a faint blush appearing on her face? “I am Saygaanzaamrat, but,” and he now addressed Basil, “if you say I have new name to show I am new me…that sounds right to me. We choose new names when adult anyway. You will choose new name for me. Choose well.” And I thought that I had a toothy grin.

  A lot of people are watching us. “We monsters have to stick together,” I need to make a point. More loudly and this time in Hindi: “Welcome to Mousehole.” I need to do more for the rest of the village to see. She put her spear down and went to Saygaanzaamrat and gave him a hug, then while Basil was reaching up and doing the same, went and hugged Verily.

  “I hope you are as happy with your monster as I am with mine.” Make it more cheerful. “And it will be nice to not be the only one who gets sideways looks occasionally. You will get used to it and they do get less over time.” She kissed Verily and hugged her again, getting the little girl lost in her embrace. “Do I get to be the maid of honour?”

  Oh shit. The calm and collected Verily, the one who never shows emotion, has almost collapsed in my arms. She is weeping like a young girl against her mother’s breasts. I think that I heard a muffled ‘thank you’ but her body is just shaking with emotion. Saygaanzaamrat and Basil are looking at us with that dumb look husbands get…useless the pair of them.

  “Basil, you two are not needed here. Go and show Saygaanzaamrat where Verily’s room is, and put his stuff there and then show him the village. Verily needs a woman to be mother now and we may be a while.” The men hurried off from this display and she led the weeping girl over to the veranda and took a seat.

  Verily lay there, curled up, shaking and sobbing in Astrid’s larger lap being held tight, as if the last ten years of Verily’s life had finally caught up with her. Astrid stoked her hair and rocked her and softly sang an almost wordless song to her. I hope this song helps…it is almost all that I remember from my own dead mother.

  Theodora

  “The Cat seems to have found a kitten to care for,” said Rani. “I would not believe that Verily would fall to pieces like that. Mind you, how could she fall for such a creature?”

  “She has been…you barbarian westerners are so…” I have not been angry with my husband before. I am now. I don’t know what to say. “I fell in love with you, and that was something that I was not expecting to do. People fall in love with who they will. At home, all of our races marry each other. Admittedly those women that marry Insak-
div men usually do it just because they…well they like the sex. They cannot have children, but everyone else does.

  “Basil’s great-grandfather was a Kharl. He was short, had no hair, had green skin and very big teeth and tusks and yet Basil’s great-grandmother fell in love with him. My ancestor, whom I will point out, is not human either, and Basil’s general, who is, both trusted him with my life. If I took Basil home, they would make him an officer and heap rewards on him and praise on Astrid.”

  She turned on her heel and stormed off into their house. I am livid. I can see Rani doesn’t know what to say back. That is her problem. She can go and ask Christopher or one of the men. She needs to work it out before I can even speak to her again.

  Theodora locked herself in her study by putting a chair behind the door. I can hear that Rani is trying the door. I am ignoring her. I am still mad. She didn’t calm down until night time. Outside I can hear housework being done, but much more quietly than Valeria usually does it.

  Theodora worked off her anger at Rani by thinking on the theory of the rings to protect the hunters from the Masters. It is hard. Controlling humanoids is a water spell, so I am best doing it, but the best way that I can work out to cast a suitable spell requires far more mana than I can safely handle without being overdrawn and, with this many rings to make, that could be dangerous. It is something that I will only suggest if it is an emergency.

  How many will we need? I wonder if there are other ways around the problem…and if that is a way out. I am taking in new spells fast since I left home. We all have a fixed number of spells that we can learn that grows as we do. Yet I wonder if I am going to run out of the ability to learn more at this rate. This spell will take a lot of mana, but if I make the spell specific only to the people of Mousehole, instead of having it being able to be used by anyone, then…

  By the time she emerged she was ready to see Eleanor. I am still ignoring my husband…even if she has been waiting here the whole time. She has to be made to realise that if you rule a place that has different races in it you should treat none of them differently to the others.

  I just realised that this is the secret to how Granther has kept his Empire together for all this time without too many problems. It isn’t just through people like Basil or through the power of his magic. Father Christopher seems to realise this straight away, why doesn’t Rani?

  As Theodora walked past her husband, she told Valeria to tell Rani, who stood beside her, that if she asked, she would be back in a while and left the house and went to see the jeweller.

  Rani

  Rani slumped and stood dejected for a while. Love is supposed to be perfect and happily ever after, and it has been that way until now. I had better see one of the men, one with common sense who might understand my wife better than I do. Basil knows her best, but he is probably still with the Hob…I suppose that it has to be the priest then.

  When Theodora came home, Rani apologised and said what a fool she had been and told her about going to see Father Christopher and what he had explained to her. Rani had also been out into the fields and had found some of the first spring flowers and had gathered them into a bunch and had them hidden behind her back. She brought them out now and handed them awkwardly to Theodora.

  I feel such a fool doing this. It is just a handful of plants. Her wife smiled happily and, took the flowers. She laid them on the table beside them, then reached up and drew Rani’s mouth down to hers for a long and deep kiss. It worked. I am forgiven.

  “See, if you are going to be a princess, you have to think like one. The world is much bigger than Haven and the way you were brought up is much smaller than the way it is elsewhere. Now, help me find something to put these flowers in and we can go to bed and make up properly before Fear comes home from school.”

  While they were walking back to the kitchen she added. “Now that I have the maces made, I also have a solution to the Master’s control spells. I have been to see Eleanor and we start on them tomorrow. We need to work out how many we need.”

  Chapter III

  Rani

  5th November

  To sort out what is next we need to talk with everyone. I think that we will need to have a meeting after the evening meal tomorrow. So many have started living entirely in their own houses now, even if they still draw food from the common kitchen, that we cannot just pass the word around at a meal. I have to send Valeria around to tell everyone about it.

  We are last…everyone is already there. Those who are definitely going hunting are more-or-less sitting together. Shilpa, Elizabeth, Danelis, Tabitha, Dulcie and Umm are in a clump, and there are several groups of married couples while Fãtima, Bilqĩs, Goditha and Parminder, of the young mages, sit well apart. Away from everyone else, but Astrid and Basil that is, is the last clump of the priests, their wives, and Verily and the Hob. Even I can see that all of the children in the room are looking at the Hob from the far side of mothers or sisters and several are peering at him out of folds of skirts.

  Rani sighed. It looks like my reaction is already being shared by others here. My Theo-dear is looking at me in a meaningful way. It is going to be my job to sort this out, isn’t it? “By now you will have heard that Saygaanzaamrat is no longer a prisoner and that he has asked to join the village as Verily’s husband.” Well, that got them all leaning together and muttering.

  The Hob unexpectedly stood up. He made everyone else, even Hulagu and Astrid seem small. He spoke up in his broken Hindi: “Me no longer Saygaanzaamrat. To celebrate that me new person Basil has given me new name. Me now Azizsevgili. You can call me Aziz. Me not tell what it means, because me embarrassed.”

  Rani looked around, Basil and Astrid have innocent looks on their faces and from the smiles on Ayesha and Theo-dear, even though they are hearing the name for the first time, they know what it means. Right, I will find that out later. “Me am put old life behind. Me am study to learn this language and want to be good husband. Me am hunter and want to look after my little ugly one. Me hope you learn to like me. Basil and priest say you will and me trust them. Astrid tell me have to tell you that if you are tell monster stories to children, me can act in them for you.”

  That broke some of the tension and caused a titter of shocked amusement to go around. He turned and looked at Astrid meaningfully. She has a huge grin on her face. “Me thought she making joke of me.” He sat down.

  I will try again. “That aside…what we now need to know is who is going to come on the next stage of the journey to attack the Masters, and who is going to stay in the village and look after the children, and keep both the children and the village safe for our return.” She paused.

  “It will not be safe to come, and it may not be safe to stay. The Masters have already sent people here to invade us and they may send more. Whoever stays must be vigilant, must keep up the watch at the lookout and must keep watch on the hills around the valley. Although it is hard to come that way, it is not impossible. We will finish blocking the way we came in before we go, but there will be other ways we don’t yet know of. We also have to decide when to go and how to go.”

  Hulagu stood. “I have been thinking about the second of those. I offered to take my köle back to the tents, so I was thinking of leaving a few weeks after the snow clears, but they said that they want to stay with me until I am finished. This meant we could go sooner, but then I thought; if we sit here as if we are all staying, the Masters may think we are not coming. If we then sneak out, we may surprise them.” He sat down.

  Yes, that could work. If the Masters had an early attack on the valley planned, then we will still be in place to deal with it. It looks like we don’t have very far to go and a week or so of quick and stealthy travel would see us there, so we have all of spring and summer to get to our target.

  The only drawback I can see is that several women are pregnant and so this would both slow us down and make the wom
en clumsier as time grows on. Still, it is actually better than what I had planned… They are all looking at me and waiting for me. She eventually spoke up. “I agree, now who wants to go…please raise your hands.”

  I am not going to push them. It is up to them. There are whispered conversations everywhere. Eleanor keeps trying to put her hand up, but Robin is objecting. Norbert has two women telling him he is staying and Goditha has Parminder pointing at her belly. On her small frame her pregnancy is showing more than on many of the others.

  Aziz and Verily have obviously agreed between them what they will be doing and they both have their hands up without consulting. She nodded at them and they put them down. We will have beauty and the beast with us. Bryony must have worked it out with Stefan as well. Her hand is also raised. Nod to her. Valeria has hers raised as well. Otherwise it is only the original party who are interested in going.

  “Thank you all. Eleanor and Norbert; do not be disappointed, but you will not be going. You are needed here. If the valley is attacked, the bulk of the fighting will be on you two. Valeria, you are staying as well. We cannot take Fear with us and we need you to care for her here.”

  “The rest of you are free to stay and listen to what we discuss, but you can leave now if you wish. I just want to talk a bit about weapons and what we now have with those who are going.” Most stayed, but they quickly realised that nothing really interesting was being said and went home. The rest were not kept long either.

  As they walked home Theodora spoke up. “Now we have more time to cast the spells, I am going to extend my mace spell and make some spears, and perhaps even swords. With the rings, that should give us a better chance of coming back to Fear.”