Even were I now to find the woman Mobious sent me out to fetch, how would I return with her? And could I possibly leave Nanda?
I have traveled through all of Kaveg. I started at the far regions under an assumed name and met all the different kinds of people in the land. I stayed in a public sleeping house in Stray Tor and in the guest wing at Weary Castle. I survived without my purse after it was lifted from me in Halif nine seasons out of Voferen. I learned odd jobs, or rather, ordinary jobs and earned my food and shelter.
I fell back once on familial affiliations when I caught rumbelung a day’s journey from Weary and I asked the farm girl who found me to take me to the castle there and abandon me to the hospitality of my cousin, Kierri. But soon after my recovery, the healer who had cared for me took me on as an apprentice, continuing the training I had begun so poorly under Mobious’ and Tahnt’s instruction and allowing me the opportunity to earn my keep again.
Even in Voferen Kahago, before my parents left, I was encouraged to earn my own keep. Mum consulted me on the simpler matters of state and I helped Da care for his precious horses and colorful sapets.
∞
“Careful there, Geoffrey, the adults aren't going to want to take the baby back if you handle her too much. Just a touch, to introduce yourself.” Da crossed the stables with the new hatchling’s harness. All of the sapets stood to attention when they smelled my father approaching. The parents of the little sapet I had been trying to pet flew to the corners of the nesting cage after Da shooed them from the harness which he set in the nest for the hatchling to play with.
“Now, you silly things, come out and let your creation learn for herself.”
He waved a hand in the air and the entire aviary came to life with the colorful sapets flying about. Da took my hand and we sat on the bench in front of Backward’s stall to watch the antics. The aviary was part of the same building as my father’s stable because many of the sapet’s duties and tricks involved the larger animals and both species were encouraged to get along from birth. Backward, Da’s oldest working stallion, loved the scratching he got from his feathered friends and he obviously enjoyed their partnership in the ring. He stepped up to the front of his stall and nuzzled my father’s neck before he too watched the silly creatures playing.
All at once the thirty-two sapets, minus the new hatchling, all flew high up to the dusk gathering sky, formed a cluster, folded their wings, and dove. When they’d fallen so far that the lead sapets were about to hit the dirt, their beautiful, multicolored wings spread and they soared off in every direction, leaving my mum standing in their wake with clenched teeth and closed eyes. One small red sapet circled back and perched inside the swinging alcove of her sleeve.
Mum took a deep breath and raised an eyebrow at her. “No, Catherine, my clothes are not a playground.”
In response, the sapet tilted out of the sleeve, gripping the edge in her talons and swung upside down chirruping delightedly. Mum sighed.
“You will just have to get used to it, Laurienel, they love you as much as I do.”
I stared at Catherine swinging just kitjes from the ground at the end of the sleeve as Mum negligently crossed to our bench, “You taught them to do that, Stedon. I’m almost afraid of what you’re going to teach my golden-haired angel.”
Mum scooped me into her lap and Catherine finally let go as I tried to grab her. But in her rush to escape my rescue, she flew straight into the wooden stall with a bonk that made me giggle.
“And just twenty-two seasons ago you were calling him anything but an angel. I will never understand you, woman.”
“Finally, you have a grasp on your limitations.” Mum leaned over and kissed Da, while I tried to struggle out of her arms. “And if you are truly not already aware, Stedon, twenty-two seasons ago I was swearing at you, not him. Yes, hello Backward, I am quite fond of you as well.” And as she reached up and pat the insistent horse on his muzzle, I escaped to chase Catherine.
“What should we do with Fierell, Partner?” My mother called Da by his title when they discussed matters of state.
“Has the messenger officially returned from Forte then?”
“Aunt Turenel insists we foster Geoffrey to her at Forte. Her message suggests that he would benefit from the influence of your birth home.” Mum absently scratched Backward’s ear. “I believe, perhaps, she is not so insistent as my sister has convinced her to be."
My father sighed. "Fierell can be convincing.
"The word is the people of Forte miss your father, my bond.”
“Yes, I was in the maze when the messenger arrived. Apparently, since my father left rule of Forte to Turenel and Fierell, the elders have been given no Hearings.”
“I have had conveyed a reiterance of our open gates policy.”
“I heard," Da replied. "The messenger returns home tomorrow to collect her family.”
“She requested a private audience with me during which, once granted, only Mobious attending, she asked if perhaps you would return for a fortnight.”
My father stood and crossed to the door for a closer look at the sky. “For the Forte Night," he corrected her. "It’s our winter festival, during which the first ruling family could openly be challenged for the lordship. Geoffrey and I are the last decendents of Lord Mowden, all that remains of the first family but Fierell rules.”
“No one would ever challenge your family.” Mum laughed.
“A stranger challenged my grandmother when she was lord. Gran was bested in her own choice of weapon, a dance.” Da stroked the purple sapet perched on the door latch. “The stranger became the rightful ruler of the castle and only then revealed that she had secretly bonded with the former lord's son, my father. The Fortians want me to take your sister's lordship.”
“Fierell will not let you win.”
“I cannot challenge Fierell. I have promised all the people of Kaveg to partner you in looking after their interests.”
They were silent for a while. Then my mother, the queen said quietly, “Fierell sent an unofficial message.”
“It was not conveyed to me.”
“A personal message.” My mother gazed at me as I hung upside down from a tree branch in imitation of Catherine and her mate, Runt. “She has kindly offered to care for Geoffrey when we go to attack the dragon as she hears rumors we intend shortly to do.”
A drum began sounding the evening news from Voferen’s highest tower. My father turned away from the door to face Mum, “Then her misunderstanding must be corrected.”
Mum nodded. “The messenger will be given company on her return journey after the funeral this evening. Her escort will remain in Forte to reassure Fierell that she is mistaken and to judge the appropriateness of the community as a foster home for the prince.
Da startled the sapet into flight turning on my mother, “Geoffrey will not be raised by your sister.”
Mum placed a firm hand on his arm, “No. He will not.”
Da reached up to calm Backward and himself. “Your brother Ko will know which guardesmen to include in this diplomatic escort.”
The only sound for several moments was the pulsing reverberation of the drum on the heights, the sapets’ song, and my laughter. My Mum and Da looked at and past each other as they often did when making decisions. The drum ended its report with the slow, deep beat that heralded any funeral. Each beat later and lighter than the previous until the listener was left expecting a beat that would never come.
Then my Mother said, “It shall be so." She stood. “Come, Geoffrey, let your father get you ready. We go tonight to say goodbye to Zera.” She put a hand out for me.
“You’re not dressing with us?” I took her hand, subdued by the tone of their conversation and their silence.
She led me, in her stately way, to join Da at the doorway. “I must help your Uncle Ko. He is unhappy.
"He loved Zera." I observed, innocently unaware I should not have known that.
Mum and Da looked to each other f
or guidance then Mum whispered, "He did." To my Da she added, "and he was not expecting his daughter to attend this evening.”
Da was also surprised. “Kierri came from Weary?”
Mum responded with a tired smile and a nod.
“And young Tgeha?” Da asked.
“Tomorrow he'll be sent to his father in Stray Tor.”
She stepped through first as Da opened the door. He squeezed my hand and looked at me. But I knew he was thinking of Tgeha when he smiled, “Such a big fuss over such a little boy.”
∞
Mobious gave me a choice after Mum and Da were killed. He offered me the queen’s circlet telling me I could challenge all tradition and rule alone. Or I could abandon the nation and satisfy myself; he offered me a sword to go and kill the dragon that had killed my parents. He considered me wise when I picked the third option; the journey to find my queen. I considered myself a coward.
So two nights ago, I came to the conclusion at Annie’s hatching ground that I had as much chance of running into the woman I was supposed to find back at Voferen Kahago as I had wandering about the land. And at Voferen I could at the least restore some measure of peace while enjoying the woman I had found. I decided to go back and to take the queen’s circlet to my own brow.
But here again, my decision is overruled. My search interrupted. My mind is exhausted with trying to fathom what has happened and where I am when I am meant to be on that battlefield protecting my friends and my people.
I must sleep. Nanda woke a moment ago and warned me that tomorrow would come soon and we'd be fighting all day. Her idea of fighting. I much prefer her bloodless battles to Fierell's selfish war.
I cannot recall the last time I slept. It must have been well over a day ago for it was full night when I turned to strike down one of the five and found myself parried by Nanda in that large hall lit by twenty little suns where it was still but early in the evening.
After that play fight, I was bustled along until I found myself in a public house. I have never been in a room so crowded as that. I was jostled and stepped on with no word of apology. I stretched to my height to grab a breath above the bodies and choked on the smoke that filled the space. I was handed a mug and given advice I could not hear above the din. Music was playing, but I could not find the band or identify the instruments. I believed for a moment that a man truly could die of confusion and that I might be about to prove the theory.
And then there was Nanda, tapping on my shoulder and offering me a toast. She led me away from an intense little woman’s questions to a cool corner where some of the other men who’d been in the fighting arena were playing games of skill with small arrows. I recognized the round board from a game that Nanda had taught me in Forte.
I let her talk for a bit, replying as generally as I could. Each answer I gave took me back to our first days together in Kaveg. She must have felt as I do now, trying to answer my questions without appearing insane. I remember that I was furious with this cryptic stranger by the time we reached that small river. I set about cutting down a log for a bridge, thrilled to have the opportunity to do something physical again and not have her taunting me with evasive answers. I was protecting her because she was fool enough to get involved in my fight and while she did save my life, surely I deserved more respect and trust then:
Where were you born?
Oh, pretty far away, I’d guess.
I was swinging at a tree, working up a sweat and fuming as to why she should bother me so, when I heard her splashing. I turned on her only to discover that her clothing was all folded on the riverbank. I immediately averted my gaze but she went on undisturbed. She laughed at the brightness of the day and the sheer joy of getting clean and I knew what Mobious had meant when he said her laughter would be a joy that will raise in your heart a passionate and overwhelming sorrow that you might ever be denied such a beautiful sound.
I had been grilling her with personal questions while she had not asked anything of me. I had not told her why we were being chased by five men intent on killing me. I had not told her where we were going. I had not told her who I was. Meanwhile, she was so tired, confused, and frightened that something as simple as getting clean could make her deliriously happy. Heat rose in my cheeks as shame welled in my heart that I thought myself so worldly, but was still so uncompassionate.
When she called that she was ready, I forded the river fully clothed and forced myself to drip dry on the march. I was determined to not demand of her any more than she would demand of me and I believe she spoke not one more word to me until we saw the castle.
She held no such reserve this evening in the pub. She brilliantly upheld the conversation in spite of my evasive answers. Going on endlessly with story after tale about the strangers around me.
The first time I saw her that garrulous was in Phelat not many days after we escaped from Forte. The silversmith’s assistant had been trying to corner her since we'd arrived. Once he did get her to himself, at the edge of the corral, she didn’t stop talking long enough for him to do anything but agree. His flattery died on his tongue because she wouldn’t let him speak. When he tried to take her hand, she began gesticulating wildly. When he tried to put his hands around her waist and kiss her, she turned suddenly, waving at the greeting I had not shouted from the stable. The welt on his face where her thick braid hit him kept him from the brightly lit center of the dancesquare that evening, where Nanda happily spun from partner to partner, leading a few of the younger girls out as well on the simpler dances.
I trust her loquaciousness this evening was not an attempt to discourage me as I was not trying to take her hand or flatter her and she did invite me, under strict conditions, to spend the night here when it became apparent I had nowhere to sleep.
Which I really must try to do.
Five
∞Nanda Junior’s journal∞
Nov.20
Forte, Kaveg
Last night, I set down my journal pages to sneak over and put a hand under his nose when I thought he'd stopped breathing.
He must have known. A man who sleeps reaching for his weapon notices when a person crawls up and sticks her hand in his face. I stayed for a long time on that warm rug in front of the crackling fire watching that familiar face. I don’t know why he let me study him. He gets all bashful when he catches me looking at him in the day. So I sat there until one of the logs crumbled. Then I crawled up into the cold and oddly prickly bed to pass out.
A shaft of sunlight caught the canopy of the large bed sometime much too early in the morning and the light woke me from a dream. I wasn’t surprised to see Geoffrey with a bare chest sitting on the hearth. It was the hearth itself that had me puzzled. And the spitted sparrow turning over the fire. The smell of roasting apples brought me to the full realization of where I was, or at least where I wasn’t.
Geoffrey was lacing up his shirt. He must have gone out and harpooned a new bird. Last night at the wall he’d been shocked when I told him to unlace his shirt and doublet. I showed him how, if we tied a tail to our spear, we could drag the target back, wherever it fell.
We wrapped the shirt lace around the hilt above the two ornamental rubies to prevent slippage and swung the minni a bit to assure ourselves it was secure. Then I tossed another stone at the makeshift aviary, he threw, and we ate slightly burnt sparrow forty minutes and five hundred feathers later.
He complained that his ties were dirty from being dragged up the ravine. I taunted him, saying I couldn’t tell since he’d refused to bathe with me at the river. He blushed. He was so upset when I stopped to wash the stink off.
∞
“We have five men hunting us through these woods and you have decided to bathe now?” He stood by a felled tree, his eyes averted. I’d almost missed the shocked look on his face when he turned from his work to stare at me swimming about in the tiny river with only my short sundress on.
“I haven’t been this dirty and bloody since I was born. Besides, it�
��s four men since you sliced that tall guy’s throat, and they are hunting you.” I had no idea then how disturbed he was by my immodesty. I figured I was overdressed for swimming, but my dress needed cleaning too, so why not? I’d only stripped out of my jeans, sandals, and sweater. And I’d been wearing the little dress un-tucked, over my jeans so he knew it was long enough to cover any naughty bits. “What are you building, anyway?”
“A bridge! For you!” He threw his arms up in the air still, as always, holding his sword.
The movement created intriguing ripples on his muscled back. Doublet undone, his originally white shirt clung to the sweat on his back and twitched with every motion. A light breeze rustled the leaves and raised goose pimples on his arms. He shook his head and the steep angle of the morning sun revealed specks of gold in his beard. I never appreciated how beautiful he was when we were in America or how very little I knew about him.
“I’m sorry. Can’t you swim?” I laughed but he wouldn’t take the bait. So I gathered my things, swam them to the other side and dressed while I was still dripping.
Once I called across to him that I was decent, he forded the pond fully dressed, holding his sword and rucksack above his head as he reached the middle and the water rose to his nose. He didn’t even shake himself off when he came out on my side. He just continued on into the trees, dripping wet. I was ashamed of taunting him so I let him go ahead and fell into line a few strides behind. I don’t think he spoke again until we reached the castle clearing, last night.
∞
I enjoyed the silence this morning, watching him fix his shirt. When I finally spoke, it was in defense of my breakfast.
“I think your bird is burning.”
He quickly pulled his shirt on and continued to lace up.“It's expected to smell like that. You cook it with the feathers on to trap in more of the flavor.”
“If that smell is any indication of the flavor, I say let it escape.” My stomach was turning flip flops. Sitting up took an edge off the nausea. But as soon as I inhaled deeply, I was overcome with the stench of the meal, the smoky char of the fire itself, my own filthy, sweaty BO, the dust of the bedding, and the thick, heavy musk of stale blood on my shoulder and clothing. I stood shakily, searching the room for somewhere to hide from Geoffrey while I puked my guts.
Geoffrey's Queen: A Mobious' Quest Novel Page 5
