Sam smiled. Ix looked questioningly at him, but Nalia just nodded. She had seen where he had lived in Telani, in the desert of Southern California, before they had moved up north to Oregon.
“Okay,” Sam said after he had meditated to learn the vibrations of where they had stopped. “I’m ready to go back. Ix, do you want me to teleport us so you can save your strength?”
“Yes, that would be good.”
Sam entered the khulim and in a few minutes, they were at the outskirts of Somas. After the short trip into the town, racing the setting sun, they met up with Stumin Kiles.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” he asked them, “this jumping through the air to another place thousands of miles away?” He tried to hide his nervous trembling, but it was evident.
“We do it all the time,” Sam assured him. “We did it several times since we talked to you last. It will be fine, you’ll see.”
“Okay then,” the mayor said. “I suppose I am ready.”
Nalia helped to direct and console the man while Sam entered the khulim once again.
Then they were at Whitehall, in the familiar area in front of the stable. At the sound of them talking, two of the grooms came out to take care of their mounts. All four of the travelers headed for Dr. Walt’s library, Sam knowing that the old scholar would be there. Dinner time was an hour away, so they could make introductions before heading to the dining room.
“That was…remarkable,” the mayor of Somas said. “It felt sort of—I don’t know—slippery. Not unpleasant, but different.”
“Yeah,” Sam agreed. “You get used to it.”
“I would think so. To travel so far in the blink of an eye, it is a small price to pay. Imagine what such a power could do for trade. Teleporting food and trade goods instantly from one place to another, one could become rich very quickly.”
Spoken like the mayor of a trade town, Sam thought.
As the four approached the door to the library, Sam could hear Skitter’s thoughts within, though he wasn’t talking to Sam. What was Skitter doing in Dr. Walt’s library?
To their knock, Danaba Kemp opened the door. Sam couldn’t see much around the former leader of the Red Fangs, but he did see a bit of reddish brown fur. Hi Sam, Skitter sent to him. I thought I sensed you nearby. Look who is back.
Danaba moved out of the way and Sam got his first full view of the room. Dr. Walt was there, of course, as well as Skitter. A tall, muscular woman with black hair pulled tight into a pony tail was standing rigidly with feet spread and her hands clasped behind her back. The swords on her back looked formidable and Sam didn’t think for a moment that she didn’t know how to use them.
On the other side of the woman was his mother.
“Mom,” Sam said, rushing to sweep her into a crushing hug. Her eyes went wide and she jumped a bit at first until she saw it was him and then she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him back.
“Hi, Sam,” she said, when he released her and she could breathe again. “You look well.”
Sam looked at her searchingly. “Mom, you’re speaking Kasmali.”
“I am. I’ve been practicing. I’ve also been practicing speaking with the hapaki. I feel comfortable doing both now.”
“That’s great,” Sam said. “So I take it that your mission was a success?”
“It was.” She pointed down and Sam noticed for the first time that there were three hapaki in the room: Skitter, Max, and another one. The new hapaki had dark brown fur, shot through with gray, almost skunk-looking. It was a little smaller than Skitter, with a nose that was longer and sharper. Sam wondered again if the different communities each had their own unique physical features.
Greetings, and welcome, Sam sent to the new hapaki. My name is Sam.
Oh yes, the new hapaki’s thoughts pushed their way into Sam’s mind. I have heard much about you. You are the Hero of Gythe and Friend of the Hapaki. He heard Skitter chuckle in his mind.
Sam felt himself flushing again. That title again. He wondered what he had to do to make people—and hapaki—stop using it.
“We were just telling Dr. Walt about our trip,” Nicole Sharp said. “Oh, and Sam, I want you to meet Captain Chisin Ling.” She gestured toward the woman soldier. “She was a great help not only in escorting and protecting me, but also in helping me learn Kasmali. And other things.” She gave the captain a conspiratorial look as she casually made a knife appear in her hand, twirled it in her fingers, and then made it disappear again.
“Hi, Captain Ling,” Sam said, eyeing his mother’s hand and wondering if he had just seen what he thought he had seen. “Thank you for watching over my mother and keeping her safe.”
The woman nodded and smiled. “It was my pleasure. Nicole has told me the most wonderful things about your world. I especially enjoyed the stories of your armed forces and the—what are they called—the sea lions?”
“SEALS,” Nicole corrected.
“Ah, yes. Remarkable. We have nothing like that here, though I am trying to talk General Kemp into starting a group patterned after them.” She looked out of the corner of her eye at Danaba Kemp, who was wearing an exasperated look. Sam tried to hide his smile.
Realizing how things had gotten away from him, Sam cleared his throat and spoke. “Dr. Walt, everyone, this is Stumin Kiles, mayor of the town of Somas. His town is approximately where Nogales, Arizona is on Telani. He has heard of the new government being formed and would like to take part. He will also be rallying for support with the other local leaders where he is from. He was kind enough to come back with us to speak with you. We’ll take him back home on our way out tomorrow morning.”
“That is fantastic,” Dr. Walt said. “Welcome, Mayor Kiles. Please, come in, sit. Would you like something to drink? There are several of the local leaders still in Whitehall. Perhaps we can have an impromptu meeting after dinner. I would love to hear about your area and your ideas on what we will try to accomplish.”
As Stumin Kiles sat and began conversing with Dr. Walt, Sam and the others took their leave. “We’ll see you all at dinner,” he said as they walked through the door, but he wasn’t sure if the scholar and the mayor heard him.
Sam spent the time before dinner talking with his mother and the hapaki. He marveled at her smooth communication with them. It hadn’t been that long since she had departed on her mission and now she seemed like she had been in Gythe for years. It made him happy to see her like this. He couldn’t remember ever seeing her so engaged, so committed to something. It was as if she had regained her energy and her reason for living.
Nicole stopped talking mid-sentence and looked at him. “What?” she said.
“Oh, I was just thinking how much Uncle Grayson would have loved to see you like this. His last words were that I do something good with the fortress. I think he’d be proud of you.”
Her eyes became watery and she pulled him into a hug, kissing him on the cheek. “He’d be so proud of you, too, Sam. I think our family owes it to Gythe to do all we can. Besides, I feel like I belong here. I haven’t felt like this since your father and I first looked at you sleeping in your crib when we brought you home from the hospital. It’s just a feeling of—oh, I don’t know—that we’re exactly where we belong. I like it.”
“Me too, Mom. Me too.”
Dinner was a blur of stories going back and forth, interspersed with talk of the new government and how it would eventually spread to other locations from its humble beginnings in Whitehall. By the time it was done, Sam was full and happy and ready for a little training before bed.
Nalia had taken to asking the other Zouyim to help with Sam’s physical training. Tonight, he was sparring with Palusa Filk and her triple staff.
“You are really very good, Sam,” she said as she whirled and struck at him with one of the end sections of the staff. He blocked it with the dull thunk of hardwood striking porzul wood.
“Thank you,” he panted, moving to try to strike her with an overhand swing of Ahimiro
in its staff form. “Nalia has beaten at least some skill into me.” He caught Nalia smiling out of the corner of his eye.
“Really, though,” she continued, not even breathing hard, “for the time you have been training, it’s remarkable. You have natural talent.” She looked toward Nalia. “But shh, don’t tell Nalia I said that.” She laughed, blocked his strike with the center section of her triple staff, and somehow got the section in her right hand through his guard to strike him hard in the abdomen.
“Oof,” was all he could get out.
“All right,” Nalia said. “Enough. We do not want to cripple him this night. He must be able to move tomorrow.”
Sam swung his staff around so it was nestled in one hand and he saluted Palusa Filk with the other, bowing to her. “Thank you, Palusa. It’s nice to spar against a different style of fighting. It will make me better. After I heal.” He winced as he straightened.
“Thank you for allowing me to practice with you, Sam,” she said as she saluted back. “I am rusty and must regain my skills, but in no time, I think you will be besting me when we spar. I must take advantage of the time to train now, while I can.”
“When is it my turn?” Ix’s voice came from a dark corner of the training room. Sam started. He hadn’t even known she was there. By the look on the faces of the other two women, they didn’t either.
“When you show your true colors and try to betray us,” Nalia said. “Then you will have all the combat you could ever desire.”
“Nal,” Sam said, “be nice. Ix hasn’t given us any reason to doubt her motives. She’s been a great help.”
“Thank you, Sam,” Ix said as she slunk toward them.
Sam watched her. She was very graceful, but in a different way than Nalia. Nalia was smooth, fluid, sexy in the way she was perfectly efficient in her movements. Ix was…dangerous. It was like the difference between a crane and a snake. Both were graceful, agile, and efficient. Both were lethal as well. He had never really thought of it before.
Nalia noticed his inspection of her as she came closer. He realized his mistake just a moment too late, when he saw her mouth thin to a tight line. He would have to discuss it with her later, let her know that he wasn’t looking at her body, but that he was comparing the two of them, how graceful they were. No, that would not end well, either. He’d have to figure out how to explain it to her.
“Well,” Sam said, “I’m tired. I think I’m heading to bed. We should get an early start in the morning. Goodnight everyone.” He left the room quickly, telling himself he wasn’t really running. He just needed sleep.
Chapter 51
The next two days seemed to last much longer than should have been possible. Sam thought that maybe that time had slowed down and each day was actually forty or fifty hours.
He looked from Ix to Nalia and sighed. “Come on, guys,” he pleaded. “We really need to just get along.” They both looked back as if they didn’t know what he was talking about.
He had tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to Nalia what he noticed about the way the two of them moved, but every time he tried to explain it in a different way, he seemed to make it worse. He finally gave up and instead told her how much he loved her and how every second with her made him happy he was alive, no matter what they were doing. It eased the tension a little bit, but not when Ix was around.
With a sigh, he pushed his quarreling companions from his mind. The area they were passing through was as it had been for the last three days, sparsely covered with vegetation, mostly the desert plants he was so used to seeing when he was where he grew up in Telani. There were a few large hills or mountains in the distance, but otherwise the terrain was fairly flat with rock formations dotting the landscape. The red-tinted rock reminded him of Arizona and New Mexico in Telani and for good reason. That was precisely where he was.
They had been following the road due east. Whenever they stopped and he looked around at the area, there was no sign of anyone else having been there for a long time. He was sure that the road was used, but he guessed that with the time of the year and the unpredictable weather, most travelers waited until the spring to utilize it.
By the time they got to the next settlement, the sun was setting and their surroundings were growing dim. It was starting to snow as well. They decided that it would be best to return to Whitehall and enter the city in the morning. None of them knew what it was called or what to expect, but they all agreed that they would better be able to handle anything they found there with a full day of light ahead of them.
By the time they returned to the fortress, Sam was exhausted. The traveling hadn’t been anything extraordinary, but the constant tension between Nalia and Ix was weighing upon him. He ate dinner, saying little, and went straight to bed, his mind frantically trying to figure out how to help the women make peace. He hadn’t even completed his first thought before he was asleep.
They found out the next morning that the name of the town was Kryzyq. It straddled a large river as if it was guarding it. Low mountains surrounded the buildings, pale and washed out with their light dusting of snow upon them. To Sam, the hills looked to be the soft, rolling type instead of the sharper, harsher kind, but it was hard to tell with their white blankets.
On second look, Sam revised his assumption of the place. He would probably classify Kryzyq as a city, not a town. It was much bigger than Somas. He thought for a moment about leaving them to their own devices, figuring that Rasaad’s forces wouldn’t attempt trouble with such a large population—he expected they had several hundred people judging by the size and number of structures—but quickly changed his mind. Any advance notice they received may well save lives. He couldn’t selfishly leave them on their own without telling them what to expect.
“Are you thinking we should just let them find out about Rasaad themselves?” Ix asked. Sam looked over to notice she was staring at him, as if inspecting his thoughts.
“It occurred to me, but I decided against it,” he said. “If warning them prevents what happened in Somas, lives could be saved.”
Ix nodded.
“We must not spend too much time in this city,” Nalia added, “just warn them and then continue on. Rasaad’s forces are behind us, but it is a tenuous thing. We must hurry and get the artifact and then be gone before she is able to arrive. I do not wish to do battle with her entire army with just the three of us.”
“Oh, you’re no fun at all,” Ix said with a smirk that deepened into a smile when Nalia glared at her.
“Please,” Sam said, “don’t bait her like that, Ix. Let’s just be nice today and get our job done, okay?”
The miray of Kryzyq was easy enough to find. She was in the government center in the middle of the city. The first person the three asked directed them straight there.
“What is a ‘miray?’” Sam asked.
“It is the title for a leader,” Nalia answered. “It is much like a mayor but with more power. Some cities, even a very few towns, use this structure of governance. Whereas a mayor may be overridden by a city or town council, a miray may not. He or she is supreme, holding the office until resigning or until being removed by unanimous vote of the council.”
Sam considered it. “Holding that much power, it seems that there would be abuses. I would think that sometimes it would transform into a dictatorship or other oppressive form of government.”
“It is true,” Nalia said. “That happens sometimes, but it is surprisingly rare.”
“Regardless, we need to talk to the miray,” Sam said. “We’ll just warn the city and then we can move on.”
Remarkably, they were ushered in immediately when they presented themselves at the city government office.
“The miray believes in communicating with her constituents and any others who seek her out for consultation,” the short, skinny man sitting at the reception desk said as he brought them down a short hall to the miray’s office. He knocked softly and, when a firm voice said, “Come” from the other
side, opened the door to admit them.
Sam froze when he spotted the miray. She was just getting to her feet from behind her modest desk. Her appearance was completely unexpected. Sam tried not to stare, but couldn’t seem to stop looking her over, couldn’t seem to make himself move even though Ix ran into his back when he stopped.
She was of medium height, about two inches shorter than Sam, and wore what was probably this city’s version of formal government attire. Snug pants that seemed to be made up of one long piece of cloth that was wrapped tightly from ankle all the way up the legs and around the waist and hips melded into some sort of tunic that Sam would think—if he didn’t know better—was made of elastic or spandex. As he scanned her firm body, much too toned for someone who spent her time behind a desk, part of him knew he had been looking too long already.
When he looked into her eyes, he got another shock. Bright green orbs contrasted with her fire red hair and seemed to glow from the midst of a face more beautiful than any he’d ever seen, except for Nalia’s. She looked as if she could have been related to Inoria and Emerius, with that hair and those eyes. By Gythe’s standards, she must be very ugly. According to the conventions of beauty on Telani, she was breathtaking.
Ix pushed him, laughing. He heard her mutter under her breath, something about “likes the ugly ones.” Nalia glided in after Ix, looking Sam over coolly first, and then fixing her gaze on the miray.
“Good morning,” the woman said, in a voice that was too alluring. “I am Miray Shiran Slayth, leader of Kryzyq. I understand you have something to discuss with me? Please, sit down. Would you like refreshments?”
“No,” Nalia said curtly.
“Uh, no, thank you,” Sam added. “We will be brief. You must be very busy.”
“Nonsense,” she said, smiling. “It’s my job to be available for whatever matters may be important to the city. Please, sit. What is it I can do for you?”
There were several chairs scattered throughout the office. Sam sat directly in front of the desk, wishing the miray would sit down so he could stop looking at those pants, trying to figure out if they were all one piece of cloth or just that they appeared that way. It was distracting. Ix and Nalia sat down also, the assassin on his left and the Sapsyr on the other side.
Harmonic Magic Series Boxed Set Page 91
