by Paul Latham
Velar nodded. Ina released the final buckle and helped Velar lift the breast and back plate over his head, placing it gently beside the remainder of his armor on the table.
"That should be a relief," Ina said, patting one of his shoulders. "I’ll find you a meal and set Kilus to polishing the road off this armor."
"Thank you," Velar said. "And thank you for listening."
"Nothing to it, love," she replied. "It's an odd life you and my brother and the others have chosen but I think I understand the reasons and I think I understand the moments of confusion."
Velar nodded and studied the foam of his ale.
Confusion.
"One question though," Ina said. "You and the woman?"
"No," Velar said quickly. "Nothing."
"Oh." Ina cocked her head and frowned. "Why not?"
"Shilandra has her own purpose and her own goals and to be quite honest," he lifted his eyes to hers, "I'm not sure what they are yet."
Chapter Thirteen
"So now I'm going with you," Shilandra stated.
Velar nodded, his eyes fixed on Ina and a hunter who stood near the center of the street in a heated discussion. The morning sun only now breaking the horizon cast them in a deep, menacing red.
"Any reasons you would like to share?" Shilandra asked.
Velar shrugged.
"You talked with Ina for some time."
"Yes."
"About what?"
"The Chalice and the men looking for it."
"What men?"
"Four men. Some days before us."
"They're ahead of us?"
Velar nodded.
"But there's only four," Shilandra said.
"Only four?" Velar said, turning slowly to face her. " 'Only' you said?"
"You took down ten knights during your initiation."
"Ten?" Velar shook his head incredulously.
"It wasn't ten?" Shilandra asked.
"No!"
"Then how many?"
"Five!"
"There. You see? You only have four to contend with."
She smiled as though all their problems had been solved and Velar had to turn away. The woman needed to be held by her feet and dunked into a cold stream until reality possessed her again.
Ina and the hunter's conversation ended abruptly. Together they turned and approached Velar and Shilandra near the steps of the inn. The hunter stood taller than Velar with dark skin and near-white hair. He wore black leather, a curved sword at his belt and his boots appeared to be black, shined leather ringed with thin red lines. Shryke skin, Velar assumed.
"This is Coka," Ina announced. "He will lead you into the Sands."
"I like this not a bit, Ina," Coka whispered harshly.
"Another word and you’re finished," Ina said evenly. "Do as your told or you'll never sell another skin from here to Cronor."
The hunter's face twisted to a sneer.
"We can trust him?" Shilandra asked.
"What?" Coka's eyes widened. "The woman's going?"
"I wouldn't leave your back open to him," Ina said. "But other than that, yes, you can trust him."
"You said nothing about a woman going," Coka said, his tone brightening somewhat. Velar edged casually closer to Shilandra's side. She noted the movement and smiled up at him.
"What did you do to your face, Knight?" the hunter asked.
"A battle," Velar said and saw Shilandra's cheeks color out of the corner of his eye. "I took the better part of a catapult load."
A minor lie. More of a bluff to perhaps secure some of the hunter's respect, which he needed in order to safely traverse the desert with Shilandra in tow.
Coka nodded, his expression unreadable.
"Do you know of the Canyon?" Shilandra asked.
"Canyon," Coka said. "Hundreds of canyons in the mountains." His eyes trailed across her body and Velar felt a flash of something he would later identify as jealousy but burned for the moment like anger.
"This place is simply called the Canyon," Velar stated.
Coka frowned.
Shilandra sighed. "It's north and-"
"-east of the city," Coka finished, nodding. "I know of the place. Big. One of the biggest. Some ruins I think."
Shilandra nodded.
"It's good that the woman's going. Maybe we can work an exchange, knight."
"No exchanges," Ina said sharply. "Take them to the Canyon be done with it."
"Yeah, right, take them to the Canyon." Coka turned and walked to his horse.
"This should be interesting," Shilandra commented.
Velar nodded. "Very interesting."
* * *
The Sands consisted of nothing that resembled sand. Velar had seen the southern coast of Aylos and the endless miles of white beaches. That was sand. What they tread upon now appeared coarse and almost crystalline in nature. Velar felt sure that if he rubbed the black stuff between his hands it would draw blood.
"This horse rides much better than your horse," Shilandra commented, patting the flank of the palfrey Ina had acquired for her.
"We were riding double," Velar said defensively. "Any horse would ride with a strange gait."
"No, I think it's just your horse. Look how he stomps. Now look at how mine steps so lightly, almost daintily. She almost glides."
Velar shrugged. "She's a palfrey. Akeil is bred for battle."
The heat across the rolling black dunes beat down but not as harshly as Velar had anticipated. Shilandra had wrapped her head with a torn strip of her ruined gown at Coka's suggestion. The hunter had also suggested that Velar remove the better part of his armor. Velar declined the suggestion at the time but was beginning to understand the wisdom of it. He felt baked. Broiled even. But to admit the discomfort and ask the hunter to stop so Velar could disarm would amount to a loss of face Velar wasn't sure he could afford.
At the moment, Coka rode ahead of them by more than a few paces, singing softly to himself. Every now and then he would break into fits of sharp giggles as he recited a particularly bawdy refrain.
"Are you worried about him?" Shilandra asked, shifting her gaze from Coka to Velar and back again.
"I'm worried about everything."
"Including me."
Velar nodded. "Including you."
Shilandra opened her mouth, closed it again, then looked away to the horizon. Velar smiled as he admired the line of her neck, the tilt of her shoulders, the splay of her hair that fell from beneath her wrap.
"Worried how?" Shilandra asked suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, worried as in concern for my personal safety. Or worried as in concerned about my motivations?"
Velar thought for a moment. "While concern for your well-being would no doubt be a priority, I am forced to admit to some reservations as to the lack of true and stated motives on your part."
"Well put."
"Thank you."
Shilandra rode in silence for a moment, collecting her thoughts.
"I want to be a secultariate," she said, flatly.
"Why?" Velar asked immediately.
Shilandra blinked and looked away. "I've always appreciated knowledge. I've always enjoyed knowledge. I've always understood that knowledge is the true source of power."
"Isn't that your ultimate purpose?" Velar said, smiling. "Power?"
She stiffened. "Isn't that what it's all about, Velar?"
"I don't know."
"Don't you? You've trained for war, you've disciplined your mind for imaging. To what end?"
"To better serve."
"And that's your only motivation. To serve."
"For now, yes."
"You gain not one shiver of satisfaction from your mastery of matter and light through imaging or your mastery of men through your skill at arms. Not even the least little bit."
Velar kept silent and knew it would be considered an affirmation. But he would not admit out loud and only rarely to himself pride in any o
f his abilities. It wouldn't be appropriate.
"Fine then," Shilandra said through a strange smile. "I think I've made my point."
"And where does the Chalice fit in?" Velar asked.
Shilandra sighed. "If I can participate or contribute to the discovery of the Chalice then my place high within the ranks of the Secultariate order is secure. I will admit that I have a certain amount of fascination for the artifact but if you speak with others that have completed extensive research on . . . on-" Her hand waved in the air, searching for an example. "-on whatever, you'll find that they too have acquired a fascination for their subjects. It's quite natural."
"There's more to it than that, Shilandra," Velar interjected. "It's in your eyes. There something-"
"There's nothing, Velar," Shilandra stated, her voice rising enough to cause Coka to cast a glance over his shoulder. "I want to be a Secultariate. The Chalice is the best way I see to attain that goal."
"Look at me, Shilandra," Velar said. "Look at me and tell me that's the only reason."
Her green eyes met his. And his resolve almost melted. Her eyes were doe-like, slightly scared, meeting his gazed evenly until her shoulders trembled. She turned away.
"Tell me this then," he said. "Am I still just a hope? Or have I graduated to pawn yet?"
"I wouldn't know," she said. "Or I should say it's hardly my place to judge."
Velar nodded. "Well put."
Shilandra spurred her mount to a trot and split the distance between Velar and Coka. Velar watched her advance and then shook his head. She worked for someone besides herself. He doubted somehow that it was the Chancellor. Gelai perhaps? Possible. Which made her dangerous when or if he found the Chalice. Or was there a third party? Or a fourth for that matter. There was still so much he did not know.
Coka leered at Shilandra over his shoulder.
"What's the matter, pretty?" he shouted. "Did our lord knight piss in your porridge?"
"Silence, oaf," Shilandra snapped. "We didn't pay for any commentary from you."
Coka laughed uproariously.
Velar shook his head, looked to the horizon and suppressed a smile.
* * *
Close to dusk, Coka stopped at the peak of a dune.
"We stay here for the night," he grunted.
Velar and Shilandra set to laying out their bedrolls and pallets as the hunter planted four torches into the ground one on each side of the dune.
"Shouldn't be any shrykes," Coka said. "But sometimes they wander."
"We can't have a fire?" Shilandra asked.
"Nothing much to burn out here," Coka said. "Torches will last most of the night. That should be enough."
"Will we keep a guard?"
"Nothing can get close without me hearing it," Coka said and turned to retrieve his bedroll from his mount.
"I don't like this," Shilandra commented.
"We're in his lands," Velar replied. "We'll have to trust him."
Coka snapped out his bedroll. "Are you going to bed your woman, lord knight?"
Shilandra planted her fists on her hips. "Why you insolent-"
"I don't see how that's any concern of yours," Velar growled.
"It ain't," Coka said. "I'll keep my ears shut and eyes closed anyhow. But if you ain't, mind you, that exchange I mentioned?"
"Listen, you-" Shilandra began.
"That's enough," Velar interjected.
Shilandra glared at him. Coka leered at Shilandra, the tip of his tongue poking obscenely through rotten teeth and cracked lips. Velar looked from one to the other and back again, then shook his head.
There would be little sleep tonight.
* * *
Close to first dawn, he heard the call. High pitched and distant, careening over the dunes, piercing the chill morning air. Velar heard Coka snort, fart and roll over. Shilandra slept soundly curled up beside Velar and covered with edges of her blanket and part of his. Pushing to his feet, Velar scanned the horizon from the graying east to the north then to the dark starlit west.
Nothing.
But still.
The call came again. Velar tried to discern a direction but couldn't. The sound twisted and turned enveloping body and spirit with its tone of desperation. A strange curiosity, tinged with a bit of apprehension, tugged at Velar's intellect.
The wind lifted as he sank into the sands and watched the gray sky turn pink and tried to listen for Teacher's voice in the whispering of the sands.
Chapter Fourteen
"So, it's about honor," Shilandra said.
"Honor, duty, glory," Velar said.
"That's preposterous."
Velar shrugged and scanned the bleak horizon. "Perhaps."
"What kind of response is that," Shilandra snapped. "It almost sounds as if you have doubts."
"It's a system and any system can be flawed. But it is drilled into my being to the exclusion of all else." He smiled at her expression of consternation. "Besides, it's a better philosophy than most. Three principles that serve each other."
"Serve each other?"
Velar nodded. "Glory serves duty, duty serves honor."
"So, honor is the base?"
Velar thought for a moment. "Interesting way to put it, but I suppose so."
"Then what is honor?"
"Honor is living with yourself."
"You answer quickly."
"As I said. To the exclusion of all else."
Shilandra fell silent. Coka again rode several lengths ahead, only today he appeared to study the ground and sometimes the sky, muttering to himself almost constantly.
"But how can honor be a base," Shilandra asked, suddenly. "One person's standard could be higher or lower than another's."
Velar shook his head. "You have honor, or you don't."
"And who sets that standard?"
"It's not a standard. It's a sense."
Shilandra frowned. "A sense you're born with?"
Velar cocked an eyebrow. "Now there's an interesting question."
"And an important one at that. A peasant does not have the same sense of honor a knight has."
"Doesn't he? Perhaps the only difference is a knight is taught what to call it."
"I don't understand."
"A knight is engrained with the concepts of honor. A peasant is taught what is right or just and what is wrong. We are, of course, assuming that someone explains these concepts during their upbringing."
"You're saying that the concepts must be explained which would lead to the belief that honor or a higher ethic is taught and not something you are born with."
"Or perhaps you are born with it but you must be taught how to acknowledge it."
"Doesn't it amount to the same thing?"
Velar smiled. "Does it?"
Shilandra shook her head and put her fingertips to her forehead.
"You're making my head hurt," she said.
Coka pulled up and slid off his mount. Kneeling, he scooped up a handful of sand and brought it close to his face for inspection.
"What is he doing?" Shilandra asked.
"Looking for sign," Velar said.
"Sign? Signs of what?"
"Shrykes."
"We camp here," Coka announced as he pushed to his feet and threw the sand to the wind.
"What?" Shilandra snapped. "We still have plenty of daylight."
"I don't think it's worth arguing, Shilandra," Velar said.
"You're siding with him?"
Velar shook his head. "I just don't think it's worth arguing. I suspected as much."
"You suspected as much," Shilandra ranted. "Well, thank you so much for sharing!"
"I didn't dare risk being wrong."
"And what exactly does that mean?"
"Up here," Coka said as he struggled to the top of a dune. "Up here would be best. Get your armor on, Knight."
"This is completely intolerable," Shilandra said.
"No, Lady," Velar said. "It hasn't gotten that far yet."
/> * * *
Darkness fell quickly. Coka ringed the top of the dune with tall torches from his pack. Their yellow, flickering light danced and teased the surrounding dunes and shallow troughs and Velar wondered at the wisdom of it. The strange shadows played tricks on the eyes.
"The torches will keep them at bay," Coka explained. "They work up their courage and usually dash in one at a time. We have to kill 'em quick or the others will take its example and all rush together. We don't want that."
Velar nodded as he scanned the starlit horizon.
"The skins and claws are mine," Coka said. "It's part of my payment."
"Agreed."
"I cannot believe you are going along with this, Velar," Shilandra said.
"At this point, I don't think we have a choice."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Silence, woman," Coka snapped. "This is men's workings. Just hold the horses and be silent."
"Sleep lightly tonight, pig," Shilandra growled. "Or I'll show you workings."
"That's enough," Velar said, calmly.
"You're siding with him again," Shilandra whined.
"No, I'm trying to listen!" he hissed and pointed to his ear.
A low keening drifted from the darkness. Shilandra paled. Velar pulled his sword from its sheath and Coka grinned.
"That's them," he said.
A dark shape darted at the edge the light. Velar caught only a glimpse but saw the shape. Quick, serpentine movements generated by powerful hind legs. A large body that swept into an upright human-like torso. He could hear them pad across the rough, black sand and chills traced a wide path from his groin across his back and into his neck.
"Velar," Shilandra said quietly, "I don't like this."
It lunged into their circle from Velar's left, howling and reeking of a sulfurous musk. Velar spun and drew his blade across the creature's abdomen. The howl became a scream that shattered nerves as the shryke fell to the ground clutching the wound. It twitched and writhed in the sand as its wide nostrils flared and jagged, yellow teeth clenched.
"Good, boy, good!" Coka shouted. "That's the way to do it! Save the hides that way."
The horses neighed in fright. Velar saw Shilandra struggling to keep them calm. Another shryke ventured in and Coka leaped towards it wailing with delight.
