Chapter 13 – Saljid III
Upon the fields we sneer at Dark
For he is kept at bay,
Yet never must the low forget
That Dark is here to stay.
I
The water from the river tasted like shit, probably a sewer outlet upstream, and it would undoubtedly kill quicker than alcohol, but at least he wouldn't get drunk on it. Jorden sat back from the water's edge and frowned. He would rather go thirsty than dare another sip.
Taf's next words surprised him. “Don't drink that, it's terrible!” Yes, he thought, I had noticed that. “Sometimes it is even salty.” Jorden hadn't thought about that, the sea undoubtedly quite near.
Of course there were no tides in the Domain that could bring the salty seawater in from the harbour, the river only salty during sustained drought. Jorden had soon guessed there were no tides, probably due to the fact that the sun and moon were fakes. Hura wasn't quite all-powerful.
But there was a river, and he now sat on its grassy bank. It was a shallow river that flowed from his right to his left, probably entering the bay some distance east of the wharves. There was nothing much on the opposite bank some two hundred metres away, just some hills and storm clouds in the distance and the line of the city shield. There was not a great deal on the bank Jorden sat upon either, the city seeming to end abruptly some two or three hundred paces back from the water.
The river often flooded, no doubt, and that would explain much. What wasn't explained was why Taf had brought him there if not to drink. She answered by removing her top and skirt and diving into the river. She was gone a long while, Jorden wishing he had a watch. He was sure that it had to be at least two minutes, and he was beginning to think she would never surface. The outsider knew that she was reasonably competent beneath a great depth of water – she had saved his life after all – but over two minutes...
Then Taf surfaced, drew a breath, and swam to shore. She had a few somethings hanging from her underwear as she rose from the river, the aestri removing them and tossing them toward Jorden. Then she slipped back into her skirt and wrapped the strip of cloth around her chest. Jorden looked at the things she had thrown to him. They looked to be a cross between a squid and a jellyfish with a few extra eyes thrown in for good measure. They were blue and semitransparent, and looked about as appetizing as the sewer rats of the previous evening. The outsider was not sure where to begin.
Taf sat next to him and took hold of the largest blue thing. She didn't eat the jellysquid, however, just sucked on a small opening between its multitude of legs, legs that waved about as she did, then tossed it back to the river. Jorden just stared. He had been the recipient of some odd meals in his time within the Domain, but this was one local delicacy that he doubted he could ever bring himself to partake in.
“River squal,” she told him. “The juice is better than anything you would get within that place in the city.” She passed one to Jorden.
He didn't hold the squal for very long. It was as slimy as it looked, and it had far too many eyes, all of them looking at him. He thought they looked somewhat sorrowful. The squal, however, was not in such a mood at all. Indeed if it had anything which resembled a brain, then it would simply have wished for the giant to hurry up and suck its bladder dry and return it to the water. At present it was finding it difficult to breath.
Jorden couldn't, and he put the squal aside and shook his head. “I'm not really that thirsty Taf,” he lied.
The aestri shrugged and drank the rest, then threw them back to the river to refill. She then tried to wring the water from her hair. “How is your nose now,” she asked eventually. It didn't look at its best, and it was a deeper shade of purple than usual.
Jorden touched it carefully. “Just broken, I think. Not quite pulverized.” There was a throbbing from the centre of his forehead down to his teeth, and back to his ears and jaw-bone. “I'll survive.”
Taf nodded.
Gradually the mind of the aestri turned to other matters, thoughts that had been scattered by the fight at the tavern. She thought of the words of the Kaedith Ellin, and the words of Suzy.
“I would come with you if you decide to go,” she said unexpectedly. “The Katerina is getting old and dangerous, and I would like to see more of the Domain.” It was true that she would dearly miss the sea, but it was also true that she had spent most of her life out on the sea or on the wharves. A change would be nice.
Jorden had no idea what she was talking about. “Go where?” Not to his world, he knew, because he wasn't going there either.
“To speak with Hura, silly. The Kaedith Ellin said that only Hura could return you to your world, and Suzy said so too. I thought you might wish go to Hura and ask if she would help you.”
The outsider mumbled to himself momentarily. “Perhaps,” he then said. “I could always drop in and say hello, I suppose.” Jorden picked up a small stone and tossed it into the slow moving water, wondering how much of the word of either kaedith he could believe.
“Will you?” Taf asked again. “I would like to come too. I would dearly love to see the lands of the Domain.” Mostly she just wished to be with Jorden for as long as possible.
“If I knew how to find this Hura of yours then I would, but honestly I've never been really sure if she is real or mythical. Some talk of her as a woman that drops in for lunch every year or two, and others say she made the sun and moon themselves while waiting for something interesting to happen. If Hura had a less cryptic address...”
“Everyone knows where Hura lives, silly,” Taf smiled. “She has lived there for nearly a thousand cycles.”
Jorden frowned. “Perhaps she has, but where's there.”
Taf shrugged. “About a hundred thousand footfall from Nowhere, more or less.”
The outsider glared toward his companion. That was the sort of cryptic reply he expected of the kaedith, not his friend. “That's not much help, Taf,” he put forth sarcastically. “It's finding nowhere that's the problem.”
And the aestri nodded in agreement. “Maybe,” she said in thought. “But there should be road-signs and people we could ask along the way.” She looked across the river. “It is a long way, though, and we would need to start as soon as the Darkness departs.” That was a good time into the future, and there would be ample opportunity to prepare. The aestri began to feel excitement at the prospect of such a journey. That was until she remembered Suzy's tale of death.
Jorden stared at the aestri.
II
The road sign stood amongst some of the few presently productive fields of the Domain and pointed up-river on the southern boundary of Saljid. There were a multitude of names engraved on its one large arrow, the cities that lay along the road that vanished into the grasslands of the buffer. Some names were familiar, some not, and some where really odd names for cities.
The numbers next to the names were quite substantial, the smallest next to the name Lennon read 200, a small TF trailing that. Jorden asked Taf the significance of the letters.
“Thousand footfall, silly.”
Jorden cleared his throat and returned his gaze to the sign. That meant that the city of Hell, the childhood home of the Kaedith Mariland, was over a million footfall. That was a long walk, Jorden considered, but Hell was only halfway to Nowhere. “I always wanted to be Miles from Nowhere,” Jorden joked, “and I always knew I'd go to Hell some day.” He whistled. “It's a long walk from here though!”
Taf missed the humour of the statement. “It is a long way,” she quietly confirmed. “Even if you made good pace you would be fortunate to cover more than...” Numbers were not the aestri's speciality, the calculation taking some time. “Thirty or forty thousand footfall in a day, and that would take you...”
“Two or three months if I walk non-stop,” Jorden finished for her. “That sucks. Are you sure there are no coaches?”
Taf shook her head, then she shrugged. “I think that you would be best that you forget your v
isit to Hell and travel from Ponomilo, but Orani may make a special stop for you if you asked her. She will still be grateful that you saved the Katerina.”
As was often the case, Jorden had lost the line of Taf's conversation. “Orani?” Memory was slow to return. “Ponomilo, right.” The Katerina was going there next light. He checked the sign. Ponomilo was nearly as far as Nowhere. “I can take the Katerina to Ponomilo and go from there!”
“There would be ferries to Rome and coaches and wagons to Nowhere,” the aestri told him. “That would be a very easy journey. Perhaps you will not go to see Hell then?”
Jorden hissed. “No, I'm not really all that interested in Hell, I just thought I would need to pass through it to get to Nowhere.” He paused. “You do realize that Nowhere is a pretty stupid name for a city.” Although perhaps Hell wasn't particularly inappropriate.
Taf cocked her head. “Is it?”
“It makes things even more confusing, that's for sure.”
“It has always been called Nowhere, I think, and it isn't as silly as some names – like roam that is spelt wrong.” The aestri looked to the thoughtful face of her friend. “Then you will go to Ponomilo next light?”
Jorden nodded slowly, looking to the empty road leading on toward the storms of Darkness. “I guess so.” It was a long wait, a very long wait. First he had the equivalent of six months in Saljid amongst the aestri, then the voyage to Ponomilo of at least some weeks, then ferry rides and coaches... It would be the better part of a year before he would even see Hura, and then he had to convince the local God to help him!
“To be honest, Taf, I feel like starting now.” He pointed to the storms. “What's it like out there.”
Taf shrugged. “It's not really a place for a man or second-form aestri. Do you think that the people flock within the city shields for no reason?”
Good point. He had seen the storms that whipped the oceans into wild frenzy already, and it seemed wise for all ships to seek the shelter of the nearest protected port, yet what of the land. He could see there were storms by the clouds on the horizon, although there did not seem to be an over-abundance of rain as yet. The river had run well, but it was not flooded.
He doubted that the people feared a few storms. “Everyone?” Jorden asked. “The whole population of the Domain?” He watched Taf nod. “Why?”
It was a difficult question for the aestri. She frowned. “Because Hura has little power over the Darkness. She gives shields and protectorates, but they are expensive to maintain and few in number. It is easiest to protect the cities and larger villages and leave the lands to the... to the storms and rain and things.”
Jorden frowned. “It's the things I'm worried about.”
III
The outside world of the Domain did not sound a wholesome place to be, though there was no-one that would give Jorden any exact details. Anyone that the outsider spoke to about such things would simply frown and say that it was no place for a man, especially one that wasn't much more than a boy, or respectable member of any order to be. Then they would leave it at that.
So it seemed Jorden was destined to remain in Saljid until the next light. He would need a job, perhaps even a place to stay if he could not become accustomed to the ways of the aestri. Then he would need to wait... and wait and wait.
But fate had other ideas.
In three days Jorden decided that he did not wish to stay within Saljid a moment longer than necessary, regardless of what the lands beyond the shields might have to offer. It was mostly anger that drove him on, yet there was also a certain measure of fear...
The incident had come unexpectedly, yet most conflicts do, and Jorden was beginning to feel that he could live quite happily amongst his aestri and Burgo friends. And they were indeed friends. Kaeina was more helpful than anyone Jorden had ever met, and would spend hours explaining the art of fire-making so that Jorden could cook his food. Or sometimes she would try to teach the preserving of skins. Then Aestri Raindrop made Jorden two sets of what she called real clothes from some cloth that the outsider had bought. They consisted of nice heavy shirts and knee length skirts, or kilts as Jorden preferred to call them. He was somewhat reluctant to wear the clothing, yet as it was a gift from Raindrop, and as he had seen other men of Saljid wearing such things, he decided he could live with it.
He wore underwear beneath and knew he would never really get used to wearing a dress.
The food was good, especially the meat he cooked for himself, and there were no more hauls of sewer rats. There were also several offers of jobs in local thorian owned machinery shops. It seemed it would be a pleasant enough wait. He still worried a little about what his mother would be thinking at home, but there wasn't a lot he could do about it.
Even Midnight seemed pleased with his news of the coming employment. It was toward the end of a long sleepy day in the loft when the aestri guardian came to visit, again wrapped in her black shroud.
“I just have to decide which job to take,” Jorden told her. “I like the carriage works the best, but it's on the far side of the city.” And the city was not a small place, he and Taf had spent many hours pacing its narrow streets. “I'll probably take the position with the nearby shipping fitters instead. Orani has given me a great reference, and they seem to know her well.”
They sat in a circle within the common room, a small group of only four who had not gone to the buffers that afternoon: Jorden and Taf, Midnight and Kaeina, the yellow eyes of the burgo flicking often toward Midnight.
“There would be better accommodation within the city than here,” Midnight put forward. “And the carriage works pay well, I have heard.”
Jorden shrugged. “I'm happy enough to stay here, if it's all right, and I'll pay my way. I haven't got much else to spend my money on.”
Kaeina smiled, she was wearing a new vest that Jorden had also bought the cloth for. “But surely it must be crowded in Finesilver's tiny room,” Midnight went on. Jorden began to wonder if she was trying to politely ask him to move on. She seemed as pleasant as any of the aestri, although perhaps not quite as warm, but there was always the hint that she would rather he was not there.
“It's not too bad,” the outsider said quietly. Taf smiled and let herself fall gently against his shoulder.
Midnight managed something of a smile as well. “If you are sure you are comfortable, then stay. The loft aestri seem happy with you.” Jorden hoped so, and he was certainly happy with them. He was just glad that Midnight was not one of them. He wondered briefly where the aestri actually lived, yet as long as it wasn't in Taf's loft it didn't matter.
The dark aestri then stood and straightened her dusty black wrap. “But I must be on my way and...” Then she frowned, and hissed a breath. “It's already late and I told Suzanna that I would come to collect some loma beads from her.” She glanced to Taf and smiled. “Your legs are younger than mine, Finesilver. Perhaps you would be so kind as to run to her loft to collect them for me.”
The younger aestri rose immediately. “Of course,” she said and flashed a ragged grin. “I will be back before you could skin a rat.”
Midnight continued to smile as Taf departed, yet it was a smile that vanished when the aestri was out of sight.
Then, for no apparent reason, Midnight frowned down upon the man, something she was only able to achieve while he sat. “I had hoped that you might leave of your own accord, outsider,” Midnight hissed, “but I will force you if I must.”
Jorden was caught unaware, the sudden change of mood quite unexpected. He stood, as did Kaeina, and noticed the frown upon the burgo's thin white face. His eye, however, tended to concentrate on the suddenly agitated aestri. “If you want me to leave then just say,” Jorden said as politely as possible. He didn't need to make any enemies. “I didn't realize...”
“Then leave,” she went on, her voice calm yet threatening, “for if you spend another night in the lodgings of Finesilver then you will be no more than de
ad flesh. I have taken the life of a man before, so the life of some pathetic outsider child that cannot be with his own kind means nothing to me.”
“This is not the way, Midnight,” Kaeina broke in.
The aestri flashed an angry glare. “This does not concern you, burgo.” Kaeina stood back a pace and remained silent, her frown still present. “The lust and attentions of man are not for aestri, outsider, and ecstasy to Finesilver is to fly her kite upon the roofs of the warehouses, or to play with a field mouse like a first-form cub. She does not need a twisted man using her for his demented purposes.”
Jorden glared in disbelief. “Use her! That's the last thing she needs after what she's been through with some of the crew on that ship.” The outsider found that he was shouting, his heart in his throat. “I love Taf. She's a friend. I would never do anything to hurt her.”
Midnight ignored all that she did not wish to hear. “The advances of the crew are something that all aestri of the sea have to face. I was their plaything often enough; Finesilver will not be yours.” The black cloaked figure turned and walked to the edge of the room, then she paused and looked again to Jorden Miles. “You will be out of this loft before the setting tomorrow or I will claw your heart from your chest.” And then, like a shard of darkness itself, Midnight vanished though the opening.
Jorden found that he was shaking. He shook with anger rather than fear, although he had no doubt that the aestri could carry out her threat. She would not have warned him if she planned to cut his throat in his sleep, so there was no immediate danger. Even the anger quickly cooled, only to be replaced with confusion. He had really thought that the aestri were not like that, not like the quick tempered kaedith.
He looked to Kaeina. “What the hell was all that about?”
Kaeina had thought it was all quite self-explanatory, but totally uncalled for. “Midnight is unlike many of the aestri,” the burgo said quietly. “There are few pleasures in her life, and little joy. The aestri I love are light-hearted and carefree, but not midnight. And she behaves toward her offspring like no aestri should. For a mother to disown her cub in such a way...” Jorden stared toward the burgo. “Finesilver is the daughter of Midnight, although there are few who know of it. They knew that Lamplight was, Midnight and Lamplight were close, as aestri should be, but Lamplight is dead.”
“Oh crap,” Jorden murmured. He didn't believe this was happening. The nightmare was rearing its head yet again. He understood the anger somewhat better at least. Midnight would likely get on very well with his own mother. “It isn't like that with Taf, she's a really good friend and I'd never do anything to hurt her.”
The burgo smiled and came close. “I know that Jorden,” she said softly, “and the loft aestri know as well. We all like you very much, but that will not change the mind of Midnight. It would be safer for you to leave here and find another lodging.”
Jorden nodded. “And better for everyone. I doubt if I'll just leave the loft though. Once I get going I'll probably keep walking right on out of Saljid. While I'm here the problem will be too.”
Kaeina shook her head. “Don't leave alone, Jorden. It is not a place to go alone. Take Taf. She will wish to go with you.” The burgo placed a hand upon the shoulder of the outsider. “And always be her friend, no matter what,” Kaeina added, then even more sternly, “no matter what. She will always be your dearest friend, here and beyond.”
“I don't know, Kay. If there is any danger out there, and I wished you'd tell me if there was, then I'd rather she didn't come. I'd rather just getting myself killed.”
Kaeina smiled broadly. “In the event of any threat by those of darkness, I think that Taf would be much better equipped to survive. You might not do so well on your own.”
Jorden stared. Again he was given more vague references to the land beyond the shield. But Kay was a friend. She wouldn't let him do anything that was too dangerous. At least Jorden hoped that was the case...
Movement at the door distracted him.
The Aestri Finesilver was frowning as she entered. “Where is Midnight? Suzy thought I was going mad.”
“She wanted you away from here so that she could ask Jorden to leave the loft,” Kaeina told her diplomatically.
Taf kept her frown. “I had hoped he could stay,” she whined. “I don't want to go back to the Katerina.”
Jorden shook his head. “You don't have to, Taf, I've decided to brave this Darkness thing and head for Nowhere. There's really nothing for me to do here now.”
“Now?” Taf whined in dismay. “No Jorden, not now!”
IV
“But I do want to come,” the aestri said. “If you have decided to go, and will not change your mind, then I wish to go too.”
Jorden walked the street with Taf in tow. It was a fresh bright morning, the loft and its aestri left well behind, and his mind was well made. “I'm going Taf, even if it kills me,” which it probably would. “And you can stay here. I don't really think your mother wants you to go off to certain death with some common boy.”
The aestri frowned. “Who?” she asked as she trotted nearer to his side, no matter what the people of the street might think.
“Your mother,” he repeated. “Midnight.”
Taf grunted. “Is she?”
Jorden had not really considered that Taf would not know. When the burgo had said that few knew of the relationship, then he thought she had meant few others outside those concerned. “So Kaeina told me. I didn't realize that you didn't know.”
She shrugged. “I only remember Pandora, although I knew she was too old to have been my mother. Aestri don't bear young much past seventy or eighty. Midnight was around a lot, but I never thought of her as much more than coven mother, and a teacher.”
They walked further along the street. “So can I?” the aestri asked.
“What?” Jorden answered without thinking, then added “No” when he realized her meaning.
“That's just silly Jorden. You know that I will follow you anyway, whether you want me to or not. And who will help you find food? You wouldn't even know what to eat, and certainly couldn't catch it.”
“I'll carry supplies,” he said, and the realities of the trek began to throb within.
“You couldn't carry enough to reach the next village, silly, and you would soon run out of money buying food at every town.”
The outsider sighed in defeat. “If you must come then come. I'm leaving today, so I hope you can manage.”
Taf nodded. “Of course I can,” she chirped, “but I will need thirty of your silver coins.”
“What!” Jorden coughed. “That's over half of what I have, Taf. We'll need that. What the hell do you want it for?”
The aestri was quiet a moment, she knew the next few words would not be easy. “A protectorate.” The outsider had that blank look that Taf knew so well. “A charm, one of the cheapest there is...” That was because there were few of the lowly who were silly enough to wish to wear one, and most had absolutely no need.
“Come on, Taf,” Jorden moaned. “I need this for food and gear.” Perhaps some clothes so that he did not have to wear the kilt all the way to Hura's front door.
“Please,” Taf whined. “I love you Jorden,” she said. It was the centre of the street and within earshot of several shocked residents of Saljid. “And I really wish to come. Please!”
Jorden could not believe he was counting out thirty silver shards. There were not a lot left in the pouch when he had finished. Taf smiled and hugged him, bringing further looks and murmurs, and ran off with the cash.
The outsider stood and waited, feeling distinctly ill at ease. “Stupid aestri,” he said to whoever was listening amongst the crowd, or most of them. “They're mad little things.” Jorden smiled.
People walked off and ignored him, having their own thought as to who was actually mad.
V
It was not much to look at, just a clear piece of crystal on a length of leather cord th
at Taf hung around her neck. “I hope it makes you feel better,” Jorden told her, “because it means I have to eat whatever you decide to give me for the next few weeks.”
Taf smiled. “It does. It makes me feel a lot better.”
Jorden was now broke, or near enough that it didn't matter. By the time he had bought a pack he could hang on his shoulders and a bed-roll and some decent shoes and a knife and a water bottle and so forth, he found that he would have to continue wearing his kilt. It was all he had except for the spare skirt and the old safari suit from Johnathon, and the long pants were too hot on his legs. Of course the kilt was a little on the cool side.
Taf had nothing except her charm and the clothes she wore, and her knife from the Katerina. She was barefoot and only partly dressed, yet seemed quite willing to walk out amongst the storms of Darkness. Jorden had tried to buy her a coat or at least a decent top, but she had refused. Too much to carry so far, she had told him.
The time of departure came, the city of Saljid at their backs. Life and friends now behind them. He had a fear that Midnight would really be out to get him now that Taf had decided to leave as well, but the aestri had taken care who she told of her plans. They walked beyond the sign on the southern edge of the city, the river flowing amongst the open lands to their left, and there met Kaeina who had come to bid farewell. She had been soaring above in wait, knowing they would soon take to the road. Now she stood before them.
The burgo smiled. “I guess that this will be farewell for some time,” she said to Taf. “I did not think I would have to say this so soon after your returning for the Time of Darkness.”
Taf shook her head. “Sorry, but I'll be back, and I will probably have plenty of time to spend with my friends if the Katerina sails without me... Unless I meet her in Ponomilo.”
“I'm sure that you'll be back, although I do fear for you. To go amongst the wilds like this...”
Jorden stood and waited. He was primed and ready to be on his way, almost eager to see what awaited them in the darkened lands. He would not hurry the farewell, however.
“I'm sure that you can survive,” Kaeina went on. “There are others who do.” She came close and hugged the aestri. “I will miss you... we all will miss you.” They remained locked together for some time.
It was only when they parted that Kaeina noticed the shard of crystal. Her smile vanished. “Oh Taf, no.” The burgo placed her hand around the protectorate. “You don't need that, not out there. You can't...”
Taf backed and held the shard. “Yes I do, for now at least.” She watched Kaeina turn to the man, her mouth open. “Please. I really need this. I'll be all right, and if things get bad...”
The burgo nodded, but was still obviously not very happy. “Be careful,” she said. “I have things that I need to do in Saljid, but when I'm finished I might come and see how you're faring.”
Jorden wasn't completely sure what the heck was going on, but he understood the burgo's last statement. “You don't have to do that Kay, I'm dragging one too many of my friends into this already.” He didn't wish to involve another. And though he had known Kaeina for only a few days, he felt that she was already a very close friend.
“I know I don't have to,” she returned, a touch of a smile upon her lips, “But I will. Until then...” And the burgo left abruptly, her wings beating the air above their heads.
“It would be wonderful to fly,” Taf said. “And it would be much quicker.”
Jorden mumbled and moved on, the aestri slow to do so. “Do we really have to go now,” she asked for the last time. “The Time of Light would be much nicer.”
The outsider shook his head and walked on, knowing that he was being stubborn and self centred. “You can stay,” he said. “But I'm going.”
“Then I must go too,” Taf said, and followed the man on into the Darkness.
Long Days in Paradise - The First Book of the Shards of Heaven Page 14
