Wanderer

by Nancy E. Dunne

  “Who are YOU?” came a female voice in response. “Why should I identify myself if you do not?”

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Sath muttered. “Let me handle this a moment, but watch my back, yeah?” The others nodded and he approached the stranger alone, pulling the hood up on his cloak as he walked. There was nothing gained if the female recognized him. “My name is Sathlir. We mean you no harm, but we were on alert after your spectacular performance at the guard tower just now,” he said, switching to Qatunari just in case.

  “Saw that, did you?” the female responded, her tone decidedly pleased. “My name is of no consequence to you, but I am pleased that I have found you for it is you, my Prince, that I seek.”

  With a roar Sath was on the female, knocking her to the ground, one giant clawed hand covering her mouth. “Shut your mouth, female!” he hissed at her. “No one here knows who I am, do you hear me? No one.” Sath paused a moment as he signaled to the others to stand down, his eyes burning into the cool green ones beneath him, and the female nodded her head. He removed his hand from her mouth but held her fast under him. “Why are you looking for me? Is it my father? Mother? Kahzi?”

  “Your bastard of a father, our Rajah, is just fine, your highness,” the female responded, a growl clearly present in her words that made Sath want to grin. “Your mother, our First Wife, also is healthy. It is your sister Princess Kazhmere, who is in great danger.” Sath growled loudly and sprang to his feet, pulling the female up with him. “PLEASE! Your highness…” she choked back a sob that gave Sath pause. “Please, Kahzi is my best friend and I fear that it is my fault that she is in danger!” Tears welled up in her emerald eyes and Sath immediately changed his tactic.

  “It’s all right,” he said, gently replacing the female on her feet and forcing the anger boiling in his eyes at the thought of his sister being in danger back down into the pit of his stomach. He managed a less than toothy smile and purred a bit at her. “Tell me what has happened.” Over his shoulder, he could feel the stares from his friends, and waved them over. “Do you speak Common Tongue?”

  “Ugh, of course I do, but why?” she asked.

  “Because these are my friends and I do not feel like translating this eve,” Sath said, chuckling. “If we are to help my…Kahzi, then we must all be on the same page, yes?” he said in Common Tongue as he shot a look at Tee, begging that the dwarf would keep his knowledge of Qatunari to himself. Tee nodded, his eyes narrowed at Sath.

  “They don’t know you have a sister or who you are. Trusted friends, indeed, Highness. Fair enough.” The female looked past Sath and addressed his friends. “So, you are the compatriots of my…long lost friend Sathlir?”

  Tee gripped the handle of his axe. “Aye, Cat, we are, who is asking? I presume you and Sath were discussing why you were thunderin’ up on us like you were?”

  “Cat. What a horrible word. I suppose I’ll have to tell you my name so that you’ll call me something that sounds less…grating than your common word, 'cat',” she responded. “My name is Annilanshi but you lot may call me Anni.”

  “Annilanshi?” Sath said, the name prompting a long-forgotten image of a young female playing with his sister in the nursery to flit through his memory. “Anni, you said?” She nodded, smiling up at him as she saw the recognition in his eyes.

  “Hello, Anni, I’m Hack,” the gnome warrior said, pushing his way past his taller companions. “I understand that you’re a friend of our Sath’s here, but I need more than that to keep you on my list of People Not to Kill.” Anni looked down at Hack curiously.

  “What are you, exactly?” she said, her eyes filled with wonderment and, to Hack’s surprise, hunger. Her countenance changed to that of a predator as she squatted down to his level, sniffing him and looking him over. She stopped abruptly as the tip of Elysiam’s scimitar poked into the underside of her chin.

  “Hands off the gnome, CAT,” Elysiam said. “I’m the only one around here that gets to look at him like he’s off the list!” Sath stifled a giggle as Elysiam’s face turned red at the realization of what she had just said. “Shut it, Kitty,” she hissed at Sath.

  “Hackort is a gnome, Anni. More than that, he’s my friend and we don’t eat friends around my camp,” Sath said, pulling the female Qatu back up from the ground. “The dwarf there is Tee, finer warrior you’ll never find.” Hackort punched Sath in the leg with his tiny fist. “OOF! Sorry, wee man, I mean other than Hack, of course. Both these warriors have saved my hide more times than I’d like to count.”

  “And the other one? Do we eat her?” Anni said, her voice full of innocent wonder more than malice as she pointed at Elysiam. Elysiam beamed an evil smile back at her.

  “I’d love for you to try,” the elf said, twirling her scimitar in her fingers as sparks of magic gathered around her hands. Sath and Tee roared with laughter.

  “I’ve gotten my fur singed by that one when she WASN’T trying to defend herself, Anni. I would not try it if I were you. This here is Elysiam, she’s a druid and she’s your best bet for raining fiery vengeance from the sky,” Sath said.

  “Aw, Sath, what a sweet thing to say. I see now what Ginny sees in you,” Elysiam said, punching Sath playfully on the arm. He snarled back at her through a toothy grin, sending her into fits of laughter.

  “Ginny?” Anni said, her brow furrowed. “What is a Ginny?”

  “I am.” Unnoticed by the others, Gin and Sath’s pet had approached the group silently. With a wave of Sath’s clawed hand, the magical tiger faded into nothingness. The wood elf now stood, her arms folded across her chest, staring at the back of Sath’s head as though trying to bore a hole through it with her eyes. “And it’s Ginolwenye, thank you. Who are you?”

  Sath chuckled uncomfortably. “Gin, this is Anni. She is someone I grew up with and a…friend we have in common is in danger. She’s come looking for my help…our help,” he said, moving closer to Gin. She took an obvious step back from him and he sighed. “I think we should hear her out,” he said, flopping to the ground. One by one, the others took seats near Sath and finally Anni joined them.

  “Well?” Gin said, clearly sounding annoyed. Sath wasn’t sure if it was because of the earlier joke with his pet or being left behind or…was she jealous? Ridiculous. He shrugged off that idea and nudged her with an elbow, grinning at her. She scooted closer to him and he couldn’t help purring.

  Anni watched the two of them suspiciously. “So none of you here save Sathlir speak my language?” she asked in Qatunari. Sath answered her with a warning growl. “Fine. Common language it is then. What I was telling Sathlir is that his…friend, Kahzi…err, Kazhmere is in grave danger. She and I joined a hunting party to explore Salynth’s Tower and I fear that she was separated from the rest of us and is still there…” Anni swallowed the sob that threatened to send her into a blubbering mess in front of her Prince. “I fear that she is still there at the mercy of the tower’s inhabitants…and I ask humbly for your help to rescue her.”

  “That’s good enough for me! How do we get there?” Hack shouted as he hopped up to his tiny feet. Elysiam kicked him squarely in the back and he fell over, shouting awful things about her and her family in gnomish as he went. “What was that for?” he said, rubbing his head. “Don’t you want to go kill things rather than just hang around here staring at each other and watching Ginny sleep?” Gin shot him a pointed glance and he bit his lip. “Sorry, Ginny.”

  “It’s okay Hack, just don’t call me that,” she snapped back. He hung his head a moment, and then came over to sit next to her. Gin smiled down at him and patted his arm, and he beamed a smile back up at her.

  “Amazing ability to charm a gnome you have,” Anni said, looking pointedly at Gin who stared back at her. “Are you a wizard of some sort?”

  “I’m a druid, Anni, not a wizard. And I don’t charm, I simply…am,” Gin said, struggling to find an answer for the strange question. “Your old friend Sath has been very helpful as I progress in my s
tudies as a druid.”

  “Just Sath? What’s a guy gotta do?” Tee said, grinning evilly at Gin.

  “Stop trying to get me killed?” Gin said, her serious demeanor soon dissolving into giggles. All of them save Anni joined in, and she watched the five of them carefully. The Prince was still as handsome as she remembered him when they were all children in the royal nursery. That gnome and the other elf druid seemed quite friendly. She did not know what to make of the green dwarf other than he was quick with a blade but not with his tongue like the gnome. Then there was Ginolwenye, the one they called Ginny, much to her displeasure. Why was the Prince so concerned with one such as that? Anni studied the druid. There could not possibly be anything between them. Ridiculous.

  “Sorry, Anni, please continue your tale,” Tee said, wiping tears from his eyes. “We tend to get a bit off track from time to time, and sometimes it’s nothing to do with the druids getting lost at all!” He fell backwards to the ground, rolling about and laughing as Gin and Elysiam rose from their seats to attack him with their tiny fists. “Sath! REEL in your woman!” he cried out in mock terror as the others continued laughing.

  “Your…woman?” Anni asked in Qatunari. Immediately Sath ceased laughing and shot a look of warning at her. “What does the dwarf mean, your Highness?”

  “You and I will talk and then I will fill them in on what they need to know,” Sath said to her in Qatunari. “Let me go talk to Anni so that she doesn’t have to rely on her second language to tell us the details and then I will let you all know what she says. Yes?” He avoided Gin’s gaze and stood, offering a hand to help Anni up off the ground. The female looked as though she would faint as she accepted his help, and Gin thought that she might have lingered a bit too long and a bit too close to Sath.

  “I’ll tell you what I think,” Hack said, once Sath was out of earshot. “Not that anyone asked, mind you. But I think that female is nothing but trouble, as usual. No offense, Ginny and Elys.”

  Tee rubbed his beard as he watched Sath having an animated conversation with Anni. “For once I agree with you, wee man,” he said to Hack. “Nothing good is going to come of this "Anni". I can feel it in my bones.”

  “Have all of you lost your minds?” Elysiam erupted suddenly. “This is a quest. A challenge. A chance to FIGHT THINGS. Isn’t that what we do?” The other three stared at her. “Come on! If you think she’s got the hots for tall, dark and furry there, Gin will put an end to that, won’t you, sister?”

  “Careful, Elys,” Gin hissed.

  “Bah.” Elysiam brushed Gin’s warning off with a dismissive wave of her hand. “You’re good enough with a fire bolt. I’m not the only one’s singed the Cat’s fur.” She pulled her blonde hair up into a ponytail and dug around in her bag for her helmet. “All I meant was that Sath knows who he belongs to and it isn’t that other Cat there. ALL of us know who claims Sathlir Clawsharp.” Gin smiled at Elysiam.

  Twenty-Six

  “You will not address me as your Highness or anything of that sort in front of them, do you understand me?” Sath hissed at Anni once he was sure they were out of earshot. “Some of them know some of our language and it won’t take them long to start asking questions.” Anni fell to her knees as was the custom in Qatu’anari when in the presence of the royal family, but Sath yanked her up by one arm before her forehead could hit the ground at his feet. She glared at him. “None of that either, no one bows before me like that. I am not my father. They only know me as Sath and I’d like to keep it that way.”

  “You mean the wood elf? Ginny?” Anni said, spitting Gin’s nickname as she said it. “I know it is not my place to ask, your Highness…”

  “SATH.”

  “Yes, sorry. Sath. What is the nature of your relationship with her? Is that why you no longer return home? Is that why your mother, our First Wife, cries out your name from her bedchamber and can barely look upon your sister, our Princess Kazhi?” Anni knew she was pushing a boundary but she pressed on, genuinely confused about the prospect of a Qatu having…feelings…for a wood elf. She was also not convinced that they were so far away that the wood elf couldn’t hear them. She had heard tales about the magic and preternatural abilities possessed by that race.

  “My relationship with anyone is none of your business, Annilanshi,” Sath whispered, his voice low and dripping with warning. “You know as well as anyone why I no longer make Qatu’anari my home. Now, tell me how we may save my sister. How did she end up in Salynth’s Tower? That has been barren of life for years. Why would you hunt there?”

  “You may not remember, Maj…Sath, but your sister is not one to let go of something once she’s set her mind to it,” Anni replied, smiling a little at the memories of Kazhmere dancing through her mind. “She wanted to explore from the first day we set foot on that cursed icy land at the edge of the Highlands.”

  “Why is my sister not on Qatu’anari where she is safe?” Sath demanded.

  “Again, you know your sister. She’s been sneaking out since we were all in the nursery.” Sath rubbed his chin, grimacing. Anni was right, he did remember his sister being dragged back to the nursery by their father’s Qal’Dai, the royal guard, having been caught out sneaking around in the wilderness alone. He could vividly remember his father bellowing at Kazhi for being too inquisitive and acting dangerously. His mother had told Sath repeatedly that their stubbornness had come from their father’s side, but he knew that it was her stubbornness that had seen her become First Wife. He remembered with a pang the row she had with his father when she learned that it was announced that Kahzi had been born dead since she was not a male and therefore could not ascend to the throne. He shook off the memories and focused his attention back on Anni. “She convinced me to go with her to the Highlands, Sath, to hunt there rather than the lands our masters taught us were good for hunting for those of our inexperience.”

  “Masters? What guild has taken in my sister, if I may ask?” Sath said as the fur on the back of his neck started to rise. One of his sister’s extraordinary stubbornness and tendency to forgive but not forget would be, to a fighting guild, both a valuable and deadly asset.

  “Your sister follows in your majestic footsteps, Sath,” Anni said, unable to hide the hero worship that dripped from her words onto Sath, making him immediately uncomfortable. “She has taken up the path of the hunter.”

  Sath shuddered under the weight of Anni’s gaze. “And you? You are progressing in the same path I assume?”

  “No your…Sath,” she said, smiling brightly. She had a lovely smile when it was genuine, Sath thought to himself sadly. “I am learning the ways of the bard.” Bards were not unique to Qatu’anari, as every race had members who composed epic songs to serve as records of their histories. But Qatu bards were different. The magic that Orana had placed in them came out in the music that they composed, and could be used for anything from healing wounds to increasing movement speed to charming others to bend them to the bard’s will. It was a tough path to walk, and Sath had to admit to a bit of appreciation for the Qatu female before him.

  “Ah, the magical speed, of course you are,” Sath said, admiration heavy in his tone. “Is that also how you were able to dispatch all of the guards at the southern checkpoint?”

  “Aye.” Anni blushed to the roots of her fur. “To be honest though, they were merely humans. No match.” Sath joined her in a hearty laugh, and then thought better of it. Gin would never approve of that, even in jest. “Kahzi wanted to explore and I couldn’t bear to see her go alone,” she continued, her face sobering.

  “I can appreciate that, Annilanshi,” Sath said. “Did you have a target in the Tower?”

  “I thought she was just exploring but I believe now that she had a target, sir,” Anni said. “She was driven to get to the very top floor because of stories of the fantastic treasures kept there by a sorcereress in ages past. I believe that was her target.”

  Sath grimaced. He had heard the same stories when he left his home and
began exploring the rest of Orana, and had attempted a few failed investigations of the tower on his own and with others. In fact, he and the Fabled Ones had been discussing a similar expedition but had not pursued the idea. “I see. So you and my sister gathered a group together and set out to explore the Tower?”

  “We should have, aye, but she wanted to go alone,” Anni said, lowering her eyes against the onslaught of temper that she knew was brewing in Sath. “I eventually talked her into letting me come along since I might be helpful with taming anything that we met inside the Tower. It was there that we joined a group already making their way inside.”

  “Come now, Anni. You didn’t want to go just so that you could charm them to attack my sister and then flee with her loot?” Sath asked, leaning in close and looking Anni in the eye. She gulped and he could smell the fear radiating off her so he averted his gaze.

  “No, Majesty…Sath, no! Of course not! Where would I be without Kahzi? Sent off to keep the rituals at the fires? Or worse, sent to the back alleys of Qatu’anari?” Sath growled loudly at her and she shut her mouth quickly, her lips forming a line. “Of course I would not betray her, not ever.”

  “I’m glad to hear that, Annilanshi,” Sath replied. “I will expect that same level of loyalty from you and I further expect that you will extend it to everyone that travels and fights with me. Is that clear?” Anni looked up at him, a mixture of relief and puzzlement on her face. “Including the druids.”

  “Of course, your Highness,” she replied.

  “Sath.”

  “Yes, Sath. Now, which of your companions can speak Qatunari?” she asked.

  “Why?”

  “Because I thought it might be helpful to teach all of them to speak it. It might help when we rescue Kahzi,” she said.

  “I don’t think there is a need,” Sath replied. “Tee is fluent, and Gin is…well, she’s getting there,” he said with a smile that turned Anni’s stomach. He was in love with that wood elf! “It’s a hard language to learn, just like Elvish.”