The Broken World Book Three
A Land without Law
T C Southwell
Published by T C Southwell at Smashwords
Copyright © 2010 T C Southwell
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
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Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter One
Talsy looked up from the sheep hide she scraped and spotted Kieran marching along the narrow dirt track that led into their village from the fields. Jumping up, she left her task to intercept him, heading him off before he reached the sanctuary of his hut.
"Did you find him?"
Kieran snorted. "Do you really think anyone can find a Mujar if he doesn't want to be found? What am I looking for? A rock? A tree? Maybe a sheep or cow?"
"It would be a three-legged one," she pointed out.
"Well, I didn't see any three-legged ones today, okay? I have other things to do apart from search out reclusive Mujar." He brushed past her and ducked under the low doorway into his stone and thatch hut.
Talsy followed, banging the rickety wooden door shut behind her. Kieran turned to glare at her, then bent over a stone basin and scooped water over his face.
Talsy glowered at his back. "We've been here a year now -"
"I know how long we've been here!" Kieran wiped his face with a towel as he turned to face her. Talsy frowned and bit her lip, wondering why she always felt the need to remind him of it. A year ago Chanter had led them into this valley and made them gather herds of sheep, cows, and all manner of domestic beasts. Then he had pulled the mountains closed behind them and trapped them here.
Kieran flung the towel aside and walked over to the table to pour himself a cup of mead, flopping into a creaky chair. "What do you want me to do about it? I also thought that we were going to search for the staff, but at the first mention of it, he damn well disappears!"
"There must be a reason." She sat opposite him.
"Yeah, there is. It can't be done, that's why he took off."
"He hasn't left us. He's still in the valley somewhere."
Kieran took a deep swig of mead and wiped his mouth. "Well, it's a mighty big valley. Why don't you go looking for him, he's your Mujar."
She picked at the peeling calluses on her palms. "He worked us to the bone building this village. I thought we would set out as soon as it was finished."
"Me too. Didn't help much though, did he? He could have built this place in a day, from solid stone too, not rocks that have gaps between them, which the wind howls through when it's cold." Kieran glanced around at the roughly built house. "It's as if he just wanted to keep us busy to keep our minds off finding the staff, and now that it's finished, he vanishes." He leant closer. "He doesn't want to look for the staff. He knows it's hopeless."
"I don't believe he'll just sit back and watch us die."
"No, he won't let us die. He'll guard us until he dies, by which time life won't be worth living and we'll be dead anyway."
She traced the grain in the table's grey wood, followed it to a knot and let her fingers stop at its centre. "We're completely cut off from the outside world. Do you think it's already terrible outside?"
"Probably not, but it will be."
"I don't want to spend the rest of my life cooped up in this valley."
Kieran poured another mug of mead and pushed it over to her. "Why not? Maybe you can persuade him to marry you, and then you two can live happily ever after. That's what you want, isn't it?"
Talsy glared at him. "Yes, but I'd rather know that my children will have a future."
"What children? Mujar can't have children with Truemen, you know that."
She allowed herself a slight smile. "That was true, but is it now? There are no laws anymore."
The Prince paused with his mug halfway to his lips and stared at her. "You can't be serious! What kind of monsters would they be?"
Talsy banged the table. "How do you know they'd be monsters? They'd be beautiful, like he is!"
"You don't know that. Anyway, he'd never allow it."
"How would you know?"
Kieran stared at her, sipping his mead. Talsy's eyes sparkled with rage, and an errant strand of flaxen hair fell over one flushed cheek. He had hoped that her infatuation with the Mujar would fade with time, but instead it had grown stronger. During the months of building, she had hardly strayed from Chanter's side, but the Mujar had always left her at night and returned in the morning. A few days ago, she had asked Chanter when they would leave to find the pieces of the Staff of Law, and he had fallen into a deep silence. Talsy had become embroiled in a one-sided argument with him, and afterwards he had vanished. Since then, she had been morose and moody, prone to fits of rage and even the occasional tantrum. Kieran had been tempted to put her over his knee, but remembered Chanter's advice and refrained. Now his patience was wearing thin.
Kieran set down his mug with a bang, licked his lips and leant forward. "He told me himself, he'll never be with you."
She recoiled as if he had slapped her. "What? You're lying! Chanter would never confide such a thing to you!"
"Well, he did. I got the impression that it was for your own good, if that's any consolation."
The colour drained from her face, and she stared at him with such despair that he looked away, ashamed. She leapt up, and he jerked in surprise when she swept up her mug of mead and hurled it at his head. He ducked, and the projectile sailed over him to smash against the far wall, spraying mead.
"You bastard!" Talsy spun on her heel and headed for the door.
Kieran leapt after her, reaching the door before she did.
"Wait!" He tried to grab her, and Talsy swung a fist, took him by surprise and hit him on the mouth. Kieran grabbed her in earnest and pushed her against the wall hard enough to make her grunt.
"Listen to me,” Kieran said. "A Trueman cross Mujar is unnatural. It can happen now because the laws are gone, but it shouldn't be allowed."
"Maybe a cross between our races is exactly what this world needs. They might be better than both of us!"
He shook his head. "You can't improve on perfection, and you're the first to agree that he's perfect. You might end up with children with our lack of morals and his powers, imagine that. What havoc they could wreak."
"But they might have his nature and our lack of power, what about that?"
"He won't allow it. It's unnatural, forbidden. You might very well succeed in seducing him, but I think you would regret it."
"No I wouldn't! That's my dream, to be with him and have his children, who would be so much better than damned Lowman brats!" She glared up at him. "He wouldn't kill them. You know he can't kill, so who would? You? I bet you'd volunteer, wouldn't you, you bastard! But you'd have to get past me first, and he wouldn't let you kill me!"
Kieran gave a grunt of disgust a
nd released her. Sitting at the table again, he picked up his mug of mead. "How can you say such a thing? How can you even think it? I would never harm a child."
"And you think Chanter would?"
"No one has to kill them. If you have Chanter's children and we fail to mend the Staff of Law, they'll die in the chaos. If we succeed, the law will kill them."
Her eyes filled with horror. Unable to look at her, he stood up and went over to the basin, bending to wash his face. When he straightened, she sat at the table again, staring at its grey grain. He took the chair opposite her, rubbing his face with a towel.
"Maybe it won't," she burst out. "How do you know it will?"
"Okay, let's say it won't. They'd still be freaks, outcasts. The chosen don't hate Mujar, but not all of them love them. Would they find mates? Will they be able to have children? Will they be mortal? Truemen and Mujar are utterly different, from different worlds, created by different gods." He put down the towel and fingered his swollen lip. "It's a bad idea. I think Chanter would say the same thing."
"You don't know him." She stood up. "He loves me, and he'll love his children too."
"No one even knows how they breed, but certainly no one's ever seen a female Mujar."
She turned away, heading for the door. "That doesn't mean they don't exist. Maybe they're hidden somewhere for their own protection, otherwise they'd be in the Pits too. I'm going to find him, and I know how to do it."
"How?"
The door slammed in answer, leaving him alone in the draughty hut. Kieran rubbed his jaw, fighting the ache that grew in his chest. Talsy had fallen under the Mujar's gentle spell, and no one could break it but her, not even Chanter.
Talsy strode back to the hut she shared with Sheera, wiping teardrops off her cheeks with rough hands. She ripped open the door and slammed it behind her, causing Sheera to look up in surprise from the pot she stirred. The old seeress took in Talsy's dishevelled state with a glance.
"You been fighting with the Prince again?"
"Don't start!" Talsy went into her sleeping alcove and yanked the privacy curtain across with such force that she almost ripped it from its rings.
Sheera clicked her tongue and shook her head at the bubbling pot. "You shouldn't be fighting with the Prince, he's a good man."
Talsy gritted her teeth as she lay on her bed. "He isn't a damned prince, so stop calling him one!"
"Sure he is, born and bred," Sheera stated, unperturbed by Talsy's tone.
"He was raised a woodsman, and that's all he is!"
"Don't go telling the Queen that."
"If they'd both been strangled at birth, we wouldn't be in this predicament now."
Sheera pulled the curtain aside and wagged a wooden spoon at the supine girl. "Don't be so nasty, young lady. Kieran did nothing wrong."
"Except let Tyrander take the Starsword from him."
"He came to rescue you, ungrateful girl!"
"But he failed. I could beat him in a fight!"
"Hah!" Sheera licked the spoon and turned back to her pot, leaving the curtain open. "He should put you over his knee, if you ask me."
"I'd like to see him try!"
"If he wasn't so concerned about hurting you, he would in a second."
Talsy gritted her teeth. "He's scared of Chanter, that's why he's careful."
"Scared of Chanter?" Sheera turned and raised her brows. "I hardly agree, dear girl."
"He is," Talsy retorted. "I've seen it."
"That's not fear, that's respect, big difference."
"He still wouldn't go up against Chanter."
"Who would?" Sheera stirred the pot. "What Trueman could stand up to the power of a Mujar?"
"Exactly."
"But if Kieran chose to make you his, Chanter wouldn't stop him."
Talsy scowled. "He would. He loves me."
"Not in the way you think, child."
Talsy rolled onto her side, facing the wall, and pulled the pillow over her head to block out Sheera's words. The old seeress sighed and turned back to her pot, muttering, "You're asking for a world of pain, lass."
As the first streaks of dawn lighted the sky with pale fingers of pink and gold, Talsy crawled from her bed and dressed in her tough leather clothes. She packed a bag with dried food and slipped in a water skin, tucking her hunting knife into her belt. Letting herself out of the hut, she closed the door behind her. Frost whitened the grass and a mist hung in the valley, bright with the sun's first rays. In the barns at the edge of the village, animals stirred in their warm straw beds.
Walking briskly to ward off the cold that nipped at her skin, she set off towards the distant mountains that enclosed this peaceful valley. Grey teeth of weathered rock thrust up from the green-furred soil in sheer cliffs that defied any to conquer their mighty walls. At the valley's far end, Chanter's wall loomed high and sheer, impossible to scale, but the mountains offered a chance of freedom over their jagged slopes. Swathes of scree filled the gaps between the peaks, making it treacherous footing, but atop them were inviting passes leading out of this Mujar-made prison.
The sun was overhead by the time Talsy reached the foot of her chosen escape route, a stretch of scree that led to a wide canyon between two towering peaks. She paused to rest and chew some bread, glancing back at the vale. A moving figure far below made her squint, then curse. There was no mistaking Kieran's flowing gait that ate up her lead. Stuffing the bread back into her bag, she headed up the slippery slope of loose shale. For a while she made good progress, but Kieran caught up fast. Then her foot slipped and she slid several feet down the loose rock, causing a minor rock slide around her. Stones clattered and bounced, tumbling away down the hill below. She hoped that one would hit the Prince and deter his pursuit, but none did, and she toiled upwards again, sweat running down her back.
Halfway up the scree slope she paused to rest against an outcrop of solid rock, panting as she sipped water from her flask. Kieran had reached the bottom of the scree and climbed upwards, making better progress than she had. If she was going to beat him to the top, she had little time to rest. Putting away the water, she slung the bag over her shoulder once more and turned to continue her ascent.
"Where do you think you're going?"
The soft words almost made Talsy jump out of her skin. She slipped, grabbed wildly for the rock and missed, starting to slide down the mountain. A strong hand gripped her wrist and pulled her up onto the outcrop, then held her steady, and she looked up into silver-blue eyes with a grin of pure delight.
"Chanter!"
The Mujar regarded her gravely, not returning her smile. "Why are you climbing the mountain?"
Talsy was too glad to see him to answer his question. The wind ruffled the jet hair that rose in a crest from his high brow. His fine-featured face surpassed any perfection ever created by a sculptor's art. Her eyes swept over his lean, broad-shouldered frame, whipcord muscles visible through the open front of his black leather tunic. His left hand held her wrist, steadying her, and her eyes avoided the stump of his right arm.
"Where did you come from?" she asked. "I didn't see you."
"Above." Chanter looked down at the toiling Prince. "Are you running away?"
"Sort of. He'll try to stop me, at any rate."
"Why?"
"I'm going to look for the Staff of Law. If you won't help, I'll do it alone."
Chanter regarded her sadly. "It's no use. You'll never find all of it, even if you find any."
"At least I'll have tried. I can't just live here and let the world go to ruin!"
"Where will you look? How will you know where to start? Half of it could be at the bottom of the sea."
She sagged against the rock. "I'll ask the wind to help."
"I already have."
"What did it say?"
The Mujar sighed, watching Kieran climb. "The staff was sundered into five parts. One fell into the Whispering Sea, another amongst the mountains far to the north. The third fell on the plains of
the Aggapae, a horse tribe not far from here, and a fourth landed in the Kingdom of Zare, a very long way to the east. The fifth part the wind did not see, it only knows that the four don't make a whole staff."
"Then we do know where they are! All we have to do is fetch them!"
He shook his head. "The fifth part is missing. Why toil to find the other four when without the fifth it can never be made whole? And even if we could make it whole, we don't have the laws to give it."
"We'll make up the laws! We'll find the fifth part! You can search for it as a bird!"
Chanter lifted his right arm. "A bird that cannot fly."
Talsy averted her eyes from the stump. "We can't just give up."
"You have a good life here." He gestured to the valley. "I'll keep you safe. Why face the horrors and hardships of the chaos outside?"
She frowned at him. "Chanter."
"Yes?"
"You owe me."
He inclined his head. "Yes."
"Wish."
The Mujar's eyes met hers, almost pleading, then slid away. He could not deny her. "Wish," he granted.
"Take me to find the pieces of the Staff of Law."
For what seemed to her like an eternity, he stared into space. "Why?"
Talsy tried to remember another time when the Mujar had shown any curiosity as to the reasons for her wanting to do something, and failed. The question was odd coming from him, and she thought about her reply before giving it.
"Because a Trueman broke it, and now this beautiful world is doomed unless someone fixes it. It's your world, but it's also mine. I intend to right the wrong, undo the evil that was done by one of my people. Or at least," she added, "try."
Broken World Book Three - A Land Without Law Page 1
