by J. K. Barber
Chapter 5
Jared sat absently scratching the top of Jugger’s head, as the rest of the Illyanders sat around the table in the common room of an inn called The Jackal. The hunter had let Olivia take the lead as soon as they had left The Isabella, their belongings hastily packed and taken off of Damon’s ship. The Eastern captain had not been on deck as Jared, Iluak, Talas, Olivia and the twins had disembarked. The woodsman could not blame Damon for his conspicuous absence, given Talas’ last words to him. Their friendship was over, and Jared couldn’t bring himself to admonish the priest over the abrupt severing. Had Damon lied to Jared for over fifteen years that Sasha was dead, the hunter was certain he would have done something much more severe than what Talas had done. The woodsman was almost certain he would have tried to shed the captain’s blood then and there.
Talas was apparently a more magnanimous man than Jared, though. As his eyes wandered to Sasha, the hunter contemplated how forgiving he himself truly was. The love he felt in his heart for the swordswoman immediately sprang forth, but it was quickly followed by his anger over the way she had lied to him to smuggle their son aboard The Isabella. After a moment though, he noticed that the edge to his fury had disappeared. His eyes darted rapidly to Talas then to Olivia and then back to Sasha and Gabriel. So much time lost, he thought as he considered the newly reunited husband and wife. So little time left, he remembered looking at Sasha and his son. Soon, they would find the Ice Queen and hopefully, finally defeat her for good. Then Sasha and Katya would be gone, if the obscure lore that Talas had dug up was to be believed. The twins would then… disappear? he asked himself. The texts were decidedly vague on the final fate of the last person who had served as host for the Great Mother’s Avatar. He shook his head, trying to clear it of such thoughts. Jared didn’t want to spend his last days with Sasha arguing over whether it had been a good idea to bring Gabriel along or not. In his heart the hunter found himself agreeing with Sasha. The swordswoman only had a short time left, and she wanted to spend as much of it with her son as she could before her days on Aronshae were done. Had their roles been reversed, Jared would have done the same thing, and he knew it. What truly angered him though was that she had lied to him to do it. Trust was not something that came easily to the hunter, and any damage done to his faith in another person was not a wound that healed quickly, if at all.
But as Jared looked at the red-haired woman, the mother of his son and the first person he had ever truly loved, he felt most of his resentment drain away. The red hot fury of anger’s first bloom had been replaced by a warm feeling that had settled deep into his bones. Despite his resentment over her lie, he did not want to waste a single moment of the short time they had left together in anger. Again, the hunter’s gaze wandered to Talas and Olivia. His heart ached, trying to imagine losing so many years. Jared reached a decision. His fight with the swordswoman had gone on long enough. The little time they had remaining was too precious to be wasted.
As the woodsman’s mental machinations reached their conclusion, his attention was freed to concentrate once again on the conversation going on in front of him.
“Why don’t the Eastern Kingdoms unite and drive Salamasca out?” Katya was asking. There was an incredulity in the Master Sorceress’ voice that made her thoughts clear on the matter. Illyander had defeated the Ice Queen and forced her to flee their lands. Why couldn’t this country do the same?
“It’s not that simple,” responded Olivia. “This is not Illyander, united under one ruler, able to act as a single people should the need arise. The Eastern Kingdom is too fractured. There are many rulers over many different peoples.” Olivia paused, lowering her voice so that only the Illyanders around their table in the corner of the tavern could hear her next words. “And even if they did unite under one banner, I’m not sure these people could do it.”
“Why is that?” Sasha asked. Gabriel slept peacefully in the crook of the Master Swordswoman’s arm. Jared found himself envying the child’s naiveté. “From what I know of the Eastern Kingdoms, there is a long tradition of proud and able warriors; some of whom have studied how to fight since the day they could walk. Surely, a nation of such fighters, drawn together against a common foe, could easily defeat one woman, no matter how powerful.” Small nods around the table showed that most of the Illyanders agreed with Sasha’s words. Even Iluak, who thankfully had finally put on a flimsy linen vest that still left most of his smooth muscled chest bare, dipped his head in a single motion of concurrence.
“What you know of these lands is woefully limited and probably mostly wrong,” the older woman replied. Sasha’s brows knit together in anger and she opened her mouth, but Olivia raised her hand to forestall the obvious objection. “I’m not trying to insult you, simply state the facts as plainly as possible so that you realize your ignorance. The sooner you recognize that you are in a strange land with even stranger customs, to your western eyes, the better chance you have of surviving. It is just as easy to die, and die quickly, in Tammat as it is in the open desert. There are things you need to learn and learn fast.” There was an earnest tone to the woman’s voice that held the attention of everyone around the table.
“Like what?” Iluak asked. The therianthrope was probably the most out of place, having just begun to adapt to life south of the World’s Edge Mountains before being shipped across the ocean to an even stranger land. To his credit, the young man had a knack for adaptability that was serving him well. He read the lay of the land quickly and adjusted accordingly.
“Like why women wear veils.” Sasha supplied, preempting Olivia’s response to Iluak’s inquiry.
“Yes,” Katya, said. “Sasha and I noticed that all the women cover their faces, but you only do it some of the time.”
The scout sighed slightly, as if this were a question she had answered many times before. “Amongst the Easterners, women are expected to cover their faces in public. It is considered scandalous for anyone outside of an Eastern woman’s household to view her face uncovered.”
“But you don’t always keep your face covered,” Sasha observed. “Like now for instance.” The swordswoman gestured with her free hand, indicating the public room of the inn.
“You are correct,” the scout replied. “Although I am not required to wear a veil, because I am jai, I frequently do as a show of respect. It often makes the people I deal with view me in a more favorable light. You girls, however, shouldn’t concern yourselves overly with the custom. You are not expected to wear veils, being Illyanders.”
“Who knew we’d have to learn so much to travel around the Eastern Kingdoms safely,” Iluak joked.
“Second, and more importantly,” Olivia said, “stop calling it the Eastern Kingdoms.”
“What should we call it?” Katya asked.
“It is the Eastern Kingdom, singular. At one time all these people lived as one nation under one Khalif. To refer to their land as plural implies that they are fractured and disconnected from one another.”
“But they are,” Sasha pointed out.
“Yes, to a certain extent that’s correct,” Olivia responded. “But they don’t need that fact pointed out to them by a jai such as you and not in such an offhand way.”
“Jai?” Iluak asked.
“Outsider,” Jared responded, finally contributing to the conversation.
Olivia nodded to the woodsman, continuing. “It refers to foreigners as well as those who are outcasts; thrown out of their sulta, or tribe. Here in Tammat it won’t really be much of an issue. However, once we get outside the city, things will change. You’re going to be treated as even less than an Easterner who was banished from their birth tribe.” The scout looked at Jared, an apologetic expression on her face. “And you…,” she began.
“I know,” Jared said dismissively. “I learned enough about Eastern culture from Sirus to anticipate how I’m going to be treated as a jai-jin.” The hunter had seen the pitying looks from the Easterners as soon as he had stepped off th
e ship, from those who had deigned to even look at him at all.
Jared waved for Olivia to continue, but Sasha interjected before the scout could resume her culture lesson. “And how is that?” she inquired curiously, though there was an edge to her question.
“The child of an Easterner and a jai is thought of by many as beneath notice.” Jared said quietly. “They may refuse to talk to me or deal with us simply because of my presence.”
“But why?” Katya asked, her voice full of sympathy. She looked as though she wanted to reach out and comfort the hunter, but the intervening table between them prevented such a gesture. Jared saw the sympathy in the sorceress’ eyes and fought down his instinct to be angered. He knew that Katya was doing so out of genuine affection for him, but still it rankled him for anyone to look upon him with pity.
“Because a jai-jin,” Olivia said, returning her gaze to the sorceress, “is a living reminder of what the Eastern Kingdom has lost. To an Easterner, one’s bloodline is very important. They can typically recite their lineage back twenty generations. Some can even list their ancestors back to the time of the last Khalif. When the kingdom fell apart, many feel that the Easterners began a slow decent into a shadow of what their people once were. Great cities were destroyed or abandoned, their ruins all but completely reclaimed by the desert. Storehouses of knowledge were lost and the keepers of their history died without passing on their lore to successors. Much of what made the Easterners who they are as a people vanished in a relatively short period of time. What remains they feel has been corrupted by dissension amongst themselves and contact with the jai from Illyander. Half-breeds such as Jared point out to some Easterners that even their bloodlines have become corrupted.” Olivia gestured apologetically to the hunter. “No offense meant.”
“None taken,” he responded. It was nothing that the woodsman did not already know. However, Iluak, Katya and especially Sasha were visibly offended on Jared’s behalf. Talas, who had remained silent since he had left the boat, simply stared at his untouched mug of bitter Eastern ale. The priest’s thoughts were his own and no one intruded upon them.
“That’s terrible,” Sasha said, her voice rising enough that Gabriel woke and began to fuss in her arms.
“But unchangeable and completely unrelated to the task at hand,” Jared replied, waving off the growing indignation from his friends. The hunter felt his ire rising at their expressions of pity but once again pushed his feelings down. “I truly appreciate your concern,” he said with all sincerity. “However, there are more important matters we need to attend to; ones that we can actually change.” The rest of the Illyanders grudgingly accepted Jared’s comments and quieted once again. Sasha comforted Gabriel, bouncing him slightly to calm him. The swordswoman’s eyes held concern and anger for the hunter’s plight but he turned away, directing his attention back towards Olivia. If there was one person he would not accept pity from, it was Sasha.
“Jared makes an excellent point,” Olivia continued. “I need to tell you what it is you need to know as quickly as possible so that you can accomplish your task without getting yourselves killed before you even leave Tammat.” The scout’s voice held a tone of gravity that drew everyone at the table’s attention; save Talas. The priest still only had eyes for his mug, though Jared suspected that the older man had heard every word spoken so far.
“For many reasons,” she stated, “the Easterners are a fractious people, and as such they have very little recent history of cooperation. Even if we were able to unite them behind a single cause, which will not happen, they wouldn’t know how to work together to fend off the Ice Queen.”
“Why is that?” Iluak asked.
“After decades of bloody civil war between the various tepeys, the population was devastated. The Easterners lost nearly half their people to fighting amongst the tribes, and they realized that they were wiping themselves out. So, several of the leaders from the most powerful sultas met under a flag of truce and hammered out a way for people to settle disputes between members of different sultas without it becoming all out tribal warfare.”
“I’m sorry,” Iluak interrupted. “Tepeys?”
“Tribal leaders,” Olivia supplied. “The chief of a sulta is called a tepey or tepet, depending on whether they’re a man or a woman, respectively.”
“So they set up a court of some kind?” Katya asked, nodding her head in a gesture of tacit approval.
Jared chuckled, drawing the eyes of the Illyanders. “Not even remotely,” the hunter said with a wry grin. The sorceress shot him a mildly scathing look.
“No,” Olivia responded to Kayta’s question, ignoring Jared’s comment. “More like they set up a code of how to kill each other without things escalating beyond the people involved.”
“So rules for dueling one another,” Sasha said. “That seems pretty civilized. We have a similar code in Illyander.”
Again, Jared laughed, earning himself a glare from Sasha as well. The hunter quieted, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible. Now was not a time to antagonize the swordswoman.
“There is no code, per se,” Olivia said, her voice hesitant as though she were trying to navigate through high grass, knowing that there were snakes somewhere around. “There’s no formality to it.”
“Then how does someone know they’ve been challenged? Choose seconds? Determine the end of the duel?” The red-headed woman said, looking confused.
Jared could not resist. “Usually you know when you’ve been challenged, because the person is coming at you with a sword. There are no seconds, and all the duels end the same way. One person is dead and the other isn’t.”
Both the twins wore expressions of disbelief. “But,” Katya sputtered. “That’s….”
“Barbaric?” Jared suggested. “Insane?”
Olivia raised a hand, heading off the conversation between the hunter and the sorceress. “It’s how things are done here. You’re not going to change it, so there’s no point in arguing about it. I simply want you to be aware of it, so that if you have to kill someone, you realize there’s going to be a price.”
“I thought you said there was no court,” Iluak replied, his face mirroring the confusion on the faces of Sasha and Katya.
“There isn’t one,” Olivia said.
“Then how do they determine who’s in the right?” the young therianthrope asked.
“Right has nothing to do with it,” Jared supplied.
“No one determines guilt or innocence in these instances,” Olivia said quickly, before the hunter could respond further. “When someone kills someone else they have to pay the lifeprice.”
“The what?” Sasha asked.
“In the Eastern Kingdom,” Jared said, his tone one of amused disdain, “everyone has a price on their head, literally.”
When the hunter did not continue, Olivia spoke into the hanging silence. “If you kill someone, then you have to pay their tribe their worth. Usually in gold, but sometimes goods are exchanged as well.”
Everyone around the table looked at the older woman in shock; everyone except Jared and Talas, though the priest did finally look up from his mug. Katya’s mouth opened and closed several times before she finally sputtered, “You mean they put a monetary value on someone’s life?”
“That’s horrible,” Sasha said, unconsciously holding Gabriel a little tighter to her chest. The infant grasped her braid tightly and fell into a deep slumber.
“Again,” Olivia cautioned, “you can’t look at this from a western point of view. Things are the way they are, and you need to understand and accept them if you’re going to survive here.” The scout took a deep breath and continued. “In order to prevent war between the sultas and escalating plots of revenge amongst tribes, the tepeys and tepets decreed that each person would wear a strand of beads woven into their head wrap called an utcha that displayed what they were worth to their sulta.”
“Basically letting people know if they could afford to kill each other,”
Jared said, his tone clearly indicating what he thought of the practice.
“What?” Talas finally asked, his voice cracking slightly, from emotion or disuse the hunter could not tell. The priest looked around the room, as did the other Illyanders, seeming to notice for the first time the strings of beads that hung from the headdress of every Easterner in the room. Jared scanned the room as well, seeing that the utchas varied somewhat from person to person. Some strings were longer than others and the materials from which the beads were made differed as well. The longer strings made from more valuable materials indicated that the person was very important to their sulta, though he did not see any correspondence between the person’s physical appearance and their worth, which puzzled him. The hunter’s knowledge of Eastern culture was spotty, gleaned from conversations with Sirus and traders in the markets of Valshet.
Olivia solved Jared’s confusion with her next words. “A person’s lifeprice is determined by each tribe’s tepey, and it can be based on any number of factors. Their skill with a sword is common, although not the only thing that can make a person valuable to their tribe. Often scholars or herbalists are considered to be of high worth for their knowledge that they can then pass on to later generations. Also, the tepey’s children are valuable for obvious reasons. Tepets and tepeys themselves are considered untouchable; the lifeprice for them being high enough to devastate most sultas.”
The Illyanders looked as though they wanted to interject but Olivia continued on before any debate could get started. “I’m telling you these things for two reasons. The first of which is obviously to help you survive. The second is to answer one of your earlier questions. The reason your Ice Queen is doing so well in the Eastern Kingdom is that the Easterners don’t know how to fight together against a common foe. As sultas there is too much dissention amongst them to ever unite behind one leader, as you Illyanders do behind your king. Also, because of the Hep, their law regarding fights between individuals, there has been no reason for a tribe to know how to fight as one unit for over a thousand years. Instead, the emphasis has been on the fighting skills of the individual for generations. Even if you could convince the sultas to fight as one, they wouldn’t know how.”
