After Ilker returned with more supplies, pots, pans, wooden plates, and above all moccasins, Lilly asked Wose, “What is your name again?”
“They call me the Wild Wose. You need never fear again. You will now be safe under the wings of the Herewardi.”
“I know you are called Wose, but who are you really? What is your true name?” She persisted.
Wose hesitated before admitting. “I was known as Starkwulf of Zamora in a former life.” Wose noted how she brightened and stilled when he spoke. It seemed Lilly was melting on his words. He was sure this meeting had been woven into the fates, and that his fate was somehow bound to this woman as if by some heavenly decree. This Lilly, whom he had never set eyes on before, he felt as though he had known forever.
“Starkwulf! A swan lord,” Lilly said with a smile. “Is that what I should call you?”
“I believe that would be alright. Although I must say it rings strangely in my ears, like some empty echo from the past.”
Once the maidens had put on their moccasins, he explained. “There is a large stream called Holbrook just up ahead where you can bathe your wounds and have fresh water to drink. I believe we could all stand a bath.”
After the bath and refreshment the women showed signs of revival, talking and laughing increased. Wose whispered to Ilker, “They sound like a bunch of waxwings in a hawthorn tree just chattering away. Don’t they?”
Ilker said, “Well, it’s got to be a relief to be free. I think the bubbly talk is their way of showing gratitude for escaping the jaws of Hell.”
“If only they knew.” Wose gave a stern look at Ilker and said, “I just don’t know how you could endure working for the Cha’Kal as long as you did.”
“A man will do anything he can to get back to his loved ones, Wose. I’ve got wives and children I dearly miss.”
“But the evil of that man is legendary.”
“Evil he was, but I must tell you, there was a time when he started to become tender.”
Wose frowned. “There is no way you can convince me a man that shoots down innocent women after sorely abusing them and gang raping them has anything redeeming in his soul at all.”
“Perhaps not, but hear me out. When I first met the Cha’Kal, he was crueler than any Pitter commissar I knew. Being three fourths human made him want to prove to all the Pitter hell-rats that he could be even more evil than they, and thus he set about to prove it with all his blood thirsty atrocities.
“I could clearly discern he had a true and abiding hatred for all women,” the Wose expelled, “Pssst!”
“That he did, but for a brief time in his life he softened.”
Wose found it difficult to hear Ilker’s reasoning. “What do you mean softened? Like he killed them swiftly and didn’t bother to torture them first.”
“He was a cruel bastard. I’m not saying he wasn’t. It’s just that when we rode into the Poisoned Lands to get noogs from his mother, whom I’m sure you know is Yggep the Bitch of Brimstone, I saw one brief moment of humanity shine through him.”
“Oh, that’s marvelous. The demon gave bread to a beggar woman I suppose you are going to say next.”
“No, it was rather deeper.” Ilker said, his face assuming a reflective gaze. “He was delivering some Hickoryan maidens to the Growlings when he took a special liking to one girl in particular. Her name was Dinetra. I must say, she was the blood of the gods. She caught his eye immediately and so powerfully that I saw she possessed the key to awaken that which was human in him.”
“Huh! Human, my ass. He’s got nothing, but rat shit for a soul.” Wose spat on the ground.
Ilker said, “He tried every way possible, even tenderness to persuade her to be his, but she told him she would sooner die than be touched by his filthy hands.”
Wose parried, “A wise girl indeed. Let me guess. He had her raped and killed mercifully.”
“No, he actually tolerated the abuse and pined all the more for her. Said he would do anything she wanted if he could just win her heart. Knowing that I had a gentle and appealing manner with women, which he had seen the camp whores show me, he asked me what he was doing wrong. I tell you it was the first time I had ever seen him humble himself and to ask me for help was almost unthinkable.”
“What did you do?”
“I tried to explain to him that love cannot be forced and must be won very slowly. Mostly I said this to extend the life of the girl. I talked to him about being gentle around her, showing genuine appreciation for her by doing her small favors, and giving her the time she needed to decide whether she could like him or not. After all I pointed out, you took her by force from everything she loved.”
“And because the bastard did these things, just to get his own way with her, you think that shows he had a soul.”
“I”m sorry, Wose, I thought so.”
“Then the bastard half-breed lost it again, didn’t he.”
“Dinetra was a girl of superb integrity. Maybe if the girl had had a little less integrity the Cha’Kal might have opted for defecting from Pitter ranks and become a little more human. Alas, the Cha’Kal courted her for over two moonths. Never saw him act this way before. It was the first time he ever showed restraint. His men were very conflicted about him and were suspicious he would blow any moment. He had her put in a beautiful room in the Citadel where the Growlings don’t even allow a Pitter to enter. He gave her several Grodor for servants, who saw to her every request. Then it happened.”
“What, he found out she wasn’t a virgin?”
“He went to her room one night with a hand full of flowers I had picked for him. He had told me that if she accepted his proposal for marriage he would defect from the service of Hyre Seath and become a Hickoryan, and they could live safely together in the Citadel with Gloomulah’s blessing. He gave her the flowers then told her he could not live without her and asked if she would marry him.”
“You’re not going to tell me she fell for that shit. Are you?”
“She acted delighted for the first time that night saying he would have her answer by morning, smiled big, and pushed him back out her door. He came back to my tent that night, shook my hand, and as happy as a lark told me he was sure she was going to accept his proposal.”
“Then Denitra is dumber than owl shit.”
“Next day the Grodor came running out of the Citadel to the Cha’Kal’s tent and told him, Denitra had slit her own throat in the night.”
“Oh, I’ll bet the Cha’Kal visited her grave every day with fresh flowers after that didn’t he? Probably even wanted to make you his blood-brother, aye.”
“Wose, he became tenfold a demon after that. Instead of reacting with grief, he responded with utter rage. He gutted the Grodor on the spot like a fish. Acted for weeks like he would kill me any moment, and then one day just walked up to me and said, ‘From now on I will take what ever I want from a woman and never again play any of your ridiculous Hickoryan games’.”
“And you think that made him a human. I tell you it only shows how dark his blood memory is. His seed code was evil from day one, the offspring of an unnatural womb.”
“But what I’m saying is there was ever so little a spark of humanity in him. Short lived as it was.”
Wose found himself grateful to the Norn Sisters that he was fated to save these women. The thought of that demon, The Cha’Kal, having his way with these lovely women enraged him. Watching Lilly picking thistles out of her legs, he guessed that she was probably in her late twenties. All the other maidens appeared to be much younger, perhaps just exiting their teens. One of the maidens with tawny hair looked to be no more than sixteen winters. They all seemed to be benefiting from the rest they had, and Ilker passed around several water skins admonishing them to drink slowly. Then he passed out some hard tack for them to munch on.
“This should hold you till we make camp later this evening.” Wose explained. “But we should be moving for now. Let’s be up and head for the next stream to
refresh ourselves before dark. I know you’re exhausted and that it will be difficult, but there is still danger we need to avoid.”
Wose assisted Jamie Lee, the girl with the crutch to stand up, “If you need anything more than a crutch just call on me and I’ll help you along.”
“You are too kind,” she told Wose, “I’m really not much worse than the rest. It’ll be fine. Thanks for the crutch.”
Then he turned to April with her bundled foot. “How about you, little lady?”
“I can walk as long as we don’t move too fast.” April said.
“Then we’ll move at a lamb’s pace and if you require a rest just give us a yell.”
As they began walking, Wose’s thoughts turned again to Lilly. Something is welling up from the depths of my being. Now my heart is flooding my senses with the hidden memories of my past. It’s like a spring has burst forth with living waters in a dry, waste howling wilderness. All of my joys and sorrows are gurgling up into the dust of my age apart from mankind. It’s turning my dry insides to grass and a fruitful garden. This is just too painful for me. Must not feel. Must be strong. Must re-cap this roaring spring.
His vision went dark, then formed an image of his former days of training pigeons. He remembered his favorite bird, a fire-back roller, getting struck out of the air by an evil Cooper’s hawk. The thought filled his mind, and he feared something dark and evil like the hawk would strike Lilly down. He then grimaced while the renewed bloody flames of revenge kicked back up in him, followed by flashes of his dead wives and children, and the girls slain in the desert.
Walking next to Lilly, the dark-haired young lady called Atla, looked like a porcelain doll he had once brought his daughter from Frisco. In fact she looked a lot like his daughter with the same apparent cheerful disposition. Wose knew by the signs and coded language she spoke that she was a beard of the Sire Sheaf.
Catching his eye upon her, she smiled at Wose. “I am the daughter of Fergenstream. I was a young girl in Witan Jewell when I first saw and heard of you, Wose. My husband, Brono and I have been on ambassadorial errands among the Rogue tribes and to the Prester stronghold in the Rockies. He is completing his mission as a godhi. We were returning with a band of the Hickoryans under Jon Dee Lee, who were seeking safe haven from the Pitters when we stopped at the Hickoryan encampment there in Redmond. We were bound for Fort Rock with Karl Throckmorton, when we were beset in the night by Sharaka braves. I was separated in the conflagration of the attack. Perhaps you know of my husband Brono, personal ambassador to the Elder Moot and a Herewardi swan lord.”
Wose recalled conversations with Sur Sceaf about Brono the ambassador and remembered that he was chosen at a very young age. “Brono the ambassador to Salmalhuer, oh yes, he is the friend of my liege, Sur Sceaf, and as I recall, Sur Sceaf has requested that if I crossed his path that I should relay his request that he return and aid in the new settlement on the coasts. That is, if Standing Bull does not kill him. You need to know, it was not Sharaka that hijacked you, but a renegade band of bullies, led by Standing Bull who rejected the counsel of Mendaka and the Tribal Elders of the Sharaka, and has now become a thorn in our side.”
“The one called Standing Bull could not even look me in the eye when I signed friend. He honored no sacred token, and they treated us like a herd of goats they were hurrying off to the slaughter.”
They came to a crystal clear stream flowing with melted mountain snow. Wose called for another rest so that everyone could refresh themselves and fill their skins with water for the morrow’s journey.
After Atla had drunk her fill, Ilker asked, “May I inquire, how did your mission to the tribes of the Haredic Jywds and the Presters in the Rockies go?”
“As you know they have a very powerful grip on the Rockies, and no enemy can come there to hurt or make afraid. I think no Pitter band dares even enter their territory. They are sympathetic to our cause and want to work with us to eliminate the Pitters entirely. They also assist other strongholds of righteous people such as the Apache in the Chiracahua Mountains and the Hutters in the Montan. They are willing to coordinate attacks with us and render us any service within the length of a bow shot of their own welfare.”
Wose said, “I would very much enjoy meeting those people someday. I have to admire the Presters because it is told they suffered over a nine tenths population loss in the great Earth Changes wherein their entire leadership was destroyed by the mountains falling upon them. With their entire leadership gone, it is a wonder they did not altogether dissolve and just become another Rogue Nation.”
Atla corrected, “The Presters will tell you their leadership was taken up, or ’translated,’ as they say, into the heavens and will return some day with greater knowledge.”
Wose acknowledged, “There are truths stranger than that, I suppose.”
Ilker added, “I would have to say I admire the Haredic Jywdic Tribe that dwells there with the Presters, because they managed to get out of the Pitter Empire whole and intact before being subdued and enslaved like the other Jywds. They recognized the beast for what it was early on and even escaped the Vardropi through the North Lands, a feat in and of itself. It is a miracle that either group has survived at all. It was not a bad idea to unite against a common foe.”
Wose asked, “I haven’t been farther than the Montan, what are the other peoples out there like?”
“Well I haven’t been to all the peoples,” Atla told him, “but I’ve seen many tribes, even met the Snowmen from the far north and the Bounders from the edge of the Poison Lands. I think thirty eight tribes in all. Most were redmen. They were a combination of settled city-states and frontier composed of mixes of various peoples, Rogue Nations, and lots of refugees from everywhere, either fleeing the Pitters or fleeing the savage beasts of the north. Some were friendly to the Herewardi, some indifferent, and occasionally, some were quite hostile. Fortunately, we were with Karl Throckmorton, and his merchant pass got us safely through all lands.”
Ilker was busy gathering firewood and had already set up several lean-tos for the maidens by tying blankets to the branches of trees.
Ilker glanced their way. “I am curious as to what manners of people are in the North and what they think of the Pitters.”
“Well, some are freedom lovers, like the Herewardi and Sharaka, and other tribes are every bit as evil as the Pitters.”
“So, is it true Presters are like a mix of Quailor and Herewardi?”
“Some say it is so and I suppose it is mostly true, but they seem to me very unique. The important thing is that they are not of the Evil Generation, and they share our hatred for the Pitters. The real miracle is that they and the Jywdic Tribe could make their differences work for each other. The Presters needed the population, and the Jywds needed a place to rest their feet, far from persecution and the wild beasts of the north, the wahelas, dire wolves, and dogmen. The two tribes have managed to be compatible, so it is working well for them. It showed me that the gods’ dealings with humanity are not limited to just one people and not just us. Apparently there are many heavens and mansions in the All Father’s Kingdom.”
Lilly interjected, “Yes, and it is good he allows each to think they are his special folk. It’s only when they become prideful and carry this too far that it turns to evil.”
* * *
Taneshewa had just finished assisting Paloma in teaching silk preparation to a class on the flach. Finished with their lesson, the children ran down from the flach onto the lawn for a game of ’Yggep the green teethed witch’ which involved hiding from the witch who would capture you and put you in her prison at Brimestone while others sought to tag you free without being caught.
Paloma and Taneshewa were laughing as they leaned over the railing of the upper deck and watched the game unfold.
“Paloma,” Taneshewa said, “I am trying so hard to get along with all my bride-sisters and to learn the Herewardi ways, but there seems to be an on-going problem with Swan Hilde.”
“She continues to treat me as a child and finds fault with just about anything I do. I tried to be nice and baked her some nut cakes. When I offered her some, she said, ‘They give me loose bowels. I can’t eat them’.”
“Then two days later when we attended theater, Mahallah brought some nut cakes and she scarfed down four of them. After that when I wore my customary skirt to go bathe in the river, she said, ’Haven’t you flaunted your nakedness enough before these young men. There’s already enough talk around about how you acted like a hussy with Aelfy. Honestly, you don’t get it, do you’?”
Paloma sighed. “Swan Hilde is insecure on even a good day. You represent everything she envies. To be frank, I remember feeling some of those same feelings when Faechild was chosen to be a bride. I felt so jealous of her youthful perfection, but I’ve overcome all those feelings now. Unfortunately, Swan Hilde often get’s stuck. Sometimes, she is not easy for even me to get along with, but I love her and have come to understand the problem is hers and not yours or mine. May I suggest you start spending more genuine time with her. Help her in her garden with her experiments. That’s what Faechild did and won her over. Believe me, she would even love a Pitter if he volunteered to help in the garden. You’ll find she’s just way too serious about life and all that studying took her away from learning how to get along with people.”
“You really think that would work?”
“I know it would, but to be sure, there is one more thing.”
“What?”
“Try making her think you are unskilled in bed and that you need her advice. Tell her you are afraid you are not pleasing enough to Sur Sceaf because you have noticed that after he left Swan Hilde’s house he always seemed so much more calm and content. Tell her you want him to feel that way with you as well.”
“Wouldn’t that be lying or at least manipulative?”
“No, I don’t see it that way. I see it as a way to disarm an undeserved enemy and make them an eternal friend and bride-sister.”
The Isle of Ilkchild (The King of Three Bloods Book 4) Page 5
