The Orphans' Promise

by Pierre Grimbert

  Raji finally took leave of his guests, not bothering to say good-bye. Léti burst into tears again, unable to bear the idea that Yan would judge her for her deed. Rey comforted her as much as he could, putting his arm around her shoulders again, just as he had done the whole way back. An innocent gesture, but one that nevertheless plunged Yan into a feeling of deep anxiety.

  Under other circumstances, the young Kaulien would have rushed over to console his friend, no matter what the cause of her sadness. Someone had already beat him to it, though, so he looked on silently.

  He felt weak in the knees. He turned away from the group to lean against the wall, half-listening to Corenn and Grigán’s story. He didn’t give a thought to announcing his success at the magician’s test. That didn’t mean anything now. He had lost Léti forever. Magic didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered.

  When night fell they gathered again for a “Council of the Heirs,” as Corenn liked to call their meetings when they made important decisions or proposed theories about the secret of Ji. A nostalgic wink at the Permanent Council of the Grand House.

  The Mother had kept them from opening up the debate immediately upon their return. Grigán’s frustration, Léti’s distress, and Yan’s gloomy mood—which everyone noticed except the person he most hoped would notice—would have greatly altered their ability to think.

  Now they were calm and rested enough to broach the questions that had dogged them since day one of this adventure: What to do? Where to go?

  Corenn retold in a few words what happened at the Small Palace, adding a few details she had left out in the first telling. She finished by telling the story of the tragic battle with the Zü.

  “It’s a shame that the man hadn’t simply given up his search. That would have made things a lot easier, now.”

  Léti nodded, with an empty gaze. She took a deep breath and cleared her voice with some difficulty. Her friends gave her their full attention.

  “I didn’t want to… I didn’t want to kill him,” she said softly. “I mean, not like that. I regret that. It was so… I was so scared…”

  “You reacted exactly as you should have,” Grigán affirmed.

  Rey added, “He was the one who attacked you.”

  “You did well,” Corenn confirmed. “He was an assassin. You were merely defending yourself. You did well.”

  Each one of them gave her words of encouragement, but her eyes glimmered with tears again.

  In normal times, Yan would have found the right words. But since seeing Léti under the actor’s arm, he had no more desire. He stayed sullen and silent, which hurt Léti even more.

  “He… he seemed to really suffer…” she started to say before breaking into tearful sobbing.

  The heirs didn’t know how to respond. Disturbed by this emotional display, but powerless to comfort the young woman, they exchanged unsure looks.

  After a long silence, Grigán stood up, his face looking grim. He circumvented the rest of the group and grabbed Léti firmly by the shoulders.

  “Look at me. Look at me!” he ordered the young woman, who covered her eyes while hiccuping noisily.

  The heirs waited, dumbfounded, for what would happen next. Though he was irascible, Grigán was rarely so furious. Yan and Rey even worried that the warrior was about to hit Léti. No, he wouldn’t…

  “Look at me! What will you do the next time a Zü tries to kill you? Answer me! What will you do?”

  Léti answered despondently, “I don’t know!” Her face covered in tears. “I don’t know…”

  “You will strike him!” the warrior screamed. “You will strike him, even if it kills him, even if it hurts him! You will strike him to save your own skin! And your friends! You understand?”

  The young woman looked at each one of her companions, all the people who had protected her, defended her, rescued her. Her gaze fell on Yan’s face. The young man had already risked his life for her. He didn’t love her, and yet he was ready to sacrifice himself for her! Shouldn’t she learn something from that? Her remorse: Was it anything more than a new form of selfishness?

  “Do you understand?”

  “Yes, yes,” she said with a whimper.

  “Good! When you strike someone with a sword or any blade, it hurts! Inevitably! But he was the one who forced you to do it! Him! Does learning to fight still seem like fun to you?”

  “No,” Léti, whose tears had dried up, responded. “I mean yes; I still want to learn.”

  This calmed the warrior, who said, “Good, a session full of exercises on hurting people first thing tomorrow! And I don’t want to hear any more of this… senselessness!”

  “All right,” Léti responded, lifting up her head.

  The warrior’s lecture had shocked her enough to shake her out of her pity. Enough for her to find a new motivation.

  “And it would do you well to join us as well, Bowbaq,” Grigán added, encouraged by his success. “One of these days, you’ll come across someone who isn’t scared of your size.”

  The giant reminded them, “I don’t want to kill. Defend myself, yes, but not kill.”

  “Fine, whatever you want! You should learn how to knock someone out; at least then you could get away!”

  The warrior sat back down before anyone could respond, very content with himself. Blowing off some steam had done him good, and he told himself he should resort to this type of solution more often.

  The others looked at him, surprised. Before them was a new Grigán. The atmosphere was still heavy from his shouting.

  “As for me, I would like to be able to kill several of them all at once,” Rey said, flatly. “Can you teach me that?”

  Everyone laughed at the joke, and the heavy air in the room dissipated.

  “Tell them one of your jokes. That will immediately make them run away,” the warrior responded, with the same comedic success as Rey’s joke.

  Once they had all calmed down, Rey asked, “Tell me, did you know you were being followed?”

  “Of course,” the warrior responded, unable to mask his pride. “Corenn briefly spoke with a Goranese man on our way out. That gave me plenty of time to see the killer slip away from his master to follow us.”

  The others, curious now, looked at Corenn.

  “The Goranese man was offering me a deal, that’s all. It happened to us dozens of times! But this one might interest master Raji, so I took the time to hear him out.”

  Rey warned her, “If Raji finds out that you used his name in the Small Palace, he will fall over dead.”

  “I didn’t say it. I’ll pass on the information to Raji, and he can do with it what he will. A favor for a favor.”

  There was a long silence. They hadn’t yet mentioned their main problem, as if the question itself were too daunting to bring up. Someone had to do it.

  Rey started, “So what are we supposed to do now?”

  “I think it’s obvious,” Grigán responded. “We head to Junine as fast as we can. Queen Séhane is our only chance of finding any other heirs, if any are left. Or at least more information.”

  “She’s also our main suspect,” Rey reminded them. “The only person mixed up in this affair who has enough gold to buy the Züu. Also, the only one who hasn’t been attacked.”

  “At least as far as we know,” Corenn corrected. “Who among you has had the latest news from the Baronies?”

  No one, of course. The Mother was right.

  “And our enemy is a man. He may just be an intermediary, sure, but that’s unlikely. I have already met Séhane, and I don’t think she’s guilty,” the Mother said.

  “All right, all’s well then. Let’s leave for Junine as soon as we can.”

  “I think we should meet with the Züu again. Wait a dékade and return to the Small Palace.”

  Corenn’s idea was a surprise to everyone. It seemed too dangerous, and the gains hardly worth the gamble.

  “We can’t return to the Small Palace,” Grigán tried to reason with her. “
I think we’ve already risked our lives enough as it is.”

  “The Züu might be willing to grant a delay of our sentence. I think that’s worth it to wait. To minimize the risks, I will go alone, of course.”

  The heirs protested spiritedly, spontaneously throwing out a series of “out of the question”s and “oh no”s, which made Corenn smile. Her friends thought that she was the unreasonable one.

  “But really, what could you possibly hope for?” Grigán shouted, exasperated. “The Züu are merciless. They would never help us. Ever! To get rid of them, we would have to kill them all, which is impossible, or find our real enemy. That’s our only chance! You said so yourself!”

  “Yes, and we could do that much more easily if they gave us a delay. Besides, I’m hoping I can find out something more from another conversation.”

  Taking Grigán’s place, Rey objected, “They will never reveal anything. They would refuse to even show you the sky, if they knew it was important to you. They love the mystery and fear that they inspire. And after all, there’s no reason to expect that they know anything!”

  “But knowing what they know would help us a lot, wouldn’t it?” Bowbaq asked timidly.

  “Of course it would,” Corenn responded in a weary voice.

  “I see.” The giant looked pensive. After a pause, he added, “Corenn might be right.”

  “What?” Grigán exclaimed.

  “Well, if returning to the palace can help me return as quickly as possible to Arkary, then let’s do it. I will go with you, Corenn.”

  “There you have it, another idiotic idea!” the warrior said explosively. “Very well, since everyone is spouting ridiculous ideas tonight, I propose that we forget about it for a moment. No objections?”

  There were none, and the decision was put off until the following day, to Bowbaq’s great relief.

  The giant needed some time to think and to make a choice. If he was wrong, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

  Which could very well be a short one.

  Yan let Grigán know he was heading out for some fresh air, asking him not to seal the trapdoor just yet. He embraced the stillness and purity of the night air, and it helped to calm his troubled mind. He wandered for a while, not sure where his aimless steps would lead him.

  Raji was lounging under his porch, watching the stars, a pitcher of Cyr beer within reach. Yan waved to him subtly, and thought about chatting with the smuggler. He eventually decided he wasn’t in the mood for a conversation and walked off in the opposite direction to be alone and mull over his problems.

  After pacing for a time Yan decided that he hadn’t devoted enough of his time to Léti. Not only had he missed the day of the Promise, he wasn’t there for his friend when she needed him.

  Léti didn’t love him, and he was to blame. She had taken a liking to Rey, to no one’s surprise. Yan too was quite fond of the actor, but for Léti, this affection was obviously turning into something more like love.

  He could see everything clearly now. He wasn’t frustrated, angry, or distraught—just disappointed. Terribly disappointed. For him, Léti had always represented his future, his hopes and dreams, the best of this world. What did he have now? His life was already shaping up to be a long and tedious wait.

  The stable door creaked open, letting one of the heirs through. It took a moment for Yan to recognize the approaching figure of Corenn.

  “Good evening, young man. I guess neither of us can sleep?”

  “No, not really… I don’t think anyone will sleep well tonight,” he added after a pause.

  “Just imagine how hard it must be for the Züu!” she joked.

  Yan smiled, but there was no laughter in his heart. In any case, it seemed very unlikely that the red killers would have a fitful sleep. The very thought that they could sleep like anyone else seemed odd and disquieting.

  “I want to ask you a favor,” Corenn admitted. “Talk to Léti. Take her for a walk. Say some comforting words to her. She needs to get her mind off the violence she’s seen in the past few days.”

  Yan searched the Mother’s face, wondering if there weren’t other motivations lurking behind her request. The Kaulienne was smart and perceptive, but how much did she know?

  “That’s a good idea,” he agreed. “But it would definitely be more effective if someone else took care of it.”

  From what he could tell, Rey, Bowbaq, or Corenn were just as well suited. And none of them would have to suffer in return.

  “I don’t think so,” the Mother asserted, a mischievous smile on her lips. “Things are rarely as simple as they appear, Yan. Trust me; go see Léti. She’ll surprise you; I’m sure of it.”

  Corenn spoke in veiled terms, but her message was clear. The fact that at least one person thought he still had a chance raised his spirits a little.

  They walked along in a somewhat awkward silence, self-conscious of their newfound intimacy. Eventually Yan remembered that he also had something to tell her.

  “I’ve done it, you know,” he stated blankly.

  “What’s that?”

  “The coin. Well, the test, I mean. I made an object fall over. It took some time, but I’ve done it nonetheless.”

  Corenn stopped abruptly and solemnly studied the young man’s face. Was he kidding? No, he was very serious.

  “Impossible,” she muttered. “That’s impossible. You must be mistaken.”

  Corenn didn’t dare believe it. If he really had succeeded, that meant that Yan carried such a powerful Will in him that he could one day become the most skilled magician in the world. The idea that she had helped unveil such a power made her shudder.

  “No, it’s true,” Yan insisted, not understanding the emotion in Corenn’s voice.

  “The wind. It must have been the wind.”

  “I thought about that, but there wasn’t a breath of wind when I did it. And I also switched out the coin for my queen moon, and with its wider base the wind couldn’t have… I hope you don’t consider that to be cheating?” he added, seeing the troubled look on the Mother’s face.

  Corenn’s eyes fixed on the little blue shell that hung from Yan’s neck. It was heavier, more stable, and its shape more irregular than the scarred three-queen coin. Using the shell would have only made the task harder. No, it wasn’t cheating, but was he lying?

  To Yan’s surprise, she gently placed her hands on the young man’s shoulders. He didn’t imagine his success was going to cause such a debate. Didn’t he just do what was asked?

  “Listen, Yan. It’s impossible for you to have succeeded because… well, it’s just impossible! The test’s only purpose is to try your patience. You wait for a few months in frustration, and then you receive your training. I don’t know anyone who managed to succeed without studying for several moons. That would be as if… as if you knew how to write before learning how to speak. So I’ll ask you one more time and afterward will never again doubt your word. Yan, is it true?”

  Witnessing such surprise, the young man came to have doubts himself. He never actually saw the shell fall… but he did feel the Will. His Will.

  “It’s true,” he confirmed, with as much conviction as he could muster.

  Corenn released his shoulders and paced around under the starry sky. She needed some time for it to settle in her mind. So Yan had an incredible aptitude for magic. All right. It wasn’t going to be as easy for their other friends to accept. She decided to keep it a secret for a few more days, at least until she witnessed the miracle for herself first.

  Three days. Yan had done it in three days! And he thought that was a long time…

  With the exception of Rey, all the heirs slept poorly, as Yan had predicted. It took Yan a long time to fall asleep, his mind troubled by the day’s exhausting experiences. Léti relived the Zü’s agony in her dreams; Grigán tossed and turned nonstop, vexed by their disagreements; while Corenn spent a long time reflecting on the barrage of events that kept throwing them into chaos.

/>   As for Bowbaq, he didn’t sleep at all. He dedicated the night to a long meditation on good and evil, the forbidden and the necessary, reason and emotion. By daybreak, he had made his decision.

  He got up early, before everyone else, and prepared a customary meal from Arkary. There were smoked meats, dried fruits, rolls of cheese, and biscuits from Lermian, accompanied by an infusion of cozé. The giant couldn’t find any milo, though—the traditional drink of the White Country—in Raji’s storehouse.

  As it was raining in Lorelia again, Bowbaq prepared the meal in the stable, and presented it on a little table he had improvised from a few wooden planks and logs. The cozé was still boiling when Grigán joined him. The warrior looked just like he felt: very tired.

  “I was intending to complain about all of the noise up here,” he said, smiling. “But I am so hungry that I’ll eat first. Thank you, my friend.”

  Bowbaq gave him an awkward smile, feeling his resolve weaken. If the others didn’t arrive very soon, he would never have the courage to confess.

  As if answering his prayer, Corenn, Léti, Rey, and eventually Yan joined them, all showing their surprise and thanks. They all saw it as a sign that the giant was getting better, and the news delighted them.

  Bowbaq’s heart beat faster and faster in his chest. He could wait no longer and spoke slowly to the group. “I don’t deserve… your friendship,” he announced, solemnly.

  Their smiles grew, and then immediately disappeared when they realized the giant wasn’t joking.

  “What are you talking about now?” Grigán grumbled.

  The warrior felt a little guilty. Maybe Bowbaq was hurt by his remark yesterday?

  “I could… I can help us,” he confessed. “There’s something I can do. I didn’t mention it to anyone. I’ve known it, but I didn’t say anything. That’s why I don’t deserve your friendship.”

  Corenn and Grigán, who had known Bowbaq for a long time, were skeptical about how serious his tone was. The giant had always tended to exaggerate. But Yan, Rey, and Léti took him very seriously.