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Part 13 - The Game of Seeker and Sought
🕑 Added 2020-02-08 16:39:35 +0000 UTC
GOZHELI: What thief do you take me for
brother of mine, am I one who at night
creeps to seize the toil of others
and sows blame for the deed elsewhere?
VANACO: Only a man do I take you for
brother of mine, for even honest men fear
when days yet to come promise poverty
and destitution for his children and theirs.
-
VANACO: So brush aside the bindings of fear
and speak truth to me, who ever loved you:
The sajam of our father has gone
and only we two knew where it lay.
-
GOZHELI: Cease your rambling accusations and wailing,
let your aspersions haunt the shadows
that ever gathered in your jealous mind.
I am no thief and will not speak.
-
VANACO: That sajam was the hearth for my children
and mine by birth besides, coward and thief!
Our father would weep to see you now
but yet more to behold what I will make of you.
-Excerpt from Qaridyn sa’Gozheli.
---
Jackie moved aside to create a space for the two new arrivals, and for a moment they simply stood by the flames quietly. The woman was lean and wiry, with hair that had been crudely hacked short. Her eyes seldom rested anywhere for more than a few seconds. The man was older and leaned heavily on his walking stick as he moved, but his face was lively and alert under his scraggly, greying beard.
“We’re grateful for the food,” the man said gruffly, his speech oddly-cadenced with a slight lilt. “And we’re sorry if we startled you. We’d thought you were some Raedhilym folk from the way you’re traveling fancy, but it’s clear that’s not so to look at you.”
“Oh, you’re Aesvain!" Tasja blurted out, staring at the man with interest. He had the grace to look embarrassed when all eyes in the circle turned to him, flushing and lowering his gaze. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I’ve just never met one before.”
“This one’d be Sjocelym,” the man said, chuckling as he looked over at Gusje. “And a Sauvain too, I’d say. An interesting group of travelers.”
“We’re Gadhun Draatim,” Mark said, provoking raised eyebrows from the two Aesvain. “I’m Mark, and this is Jackie, Arjun and Jesse. Our Cereinem guide is Gusje, and the observant kid is Tasja.”
“Call me Rusve,” the man said, with seeming amusement. “She’s Izho.” The woman nodded mutely at the group but did not speak, and Rusve lowered himself to the ground with a sigh.
Jesse unclipped his canteen and held it out. “Water,” he said formally. Rusve nodded and took a sip, then passed it to Izho. She sat beside him and took a long swig before passing it back with a grudging nod of thanks.
“Aesvain,” Arjun said thoughtfully. “You are very far to…” He trailed off and looked over at Jesse.
“Sun’s Height,” Jesse supplied. “We had heard your people were all far to Sun’s Shadow, near Idran Saal.”
Izho frowned, and Rusve shook his head. “True,” he said ruefully. “All the ones that’ve made it. I take it you’ve never been to Idran Saal?”
Everyone shook their head.
Rusve sighed. “It’d been a good destination to walk to over the Vaehim Vai, but the city is more of a small fort. The honorable King Citsuje, blessings and so forth-” He paused as Izho spat in the dirt. “-hadn’t sent aid with quite so many folk in mind, so we’d arrived part dead and kept right on dying. Bread got dear. First it was qim, then you couldn’t buy a loaf for a pocketful. We started trading utelym, coins we’d had in our families past all memory, and when we were dry of those the bakers started asking for our sajamyn.”
Izho scowled and spat in the dirt again while the visitors exchanged a blank look.
“Hearthcoins,” Tasja explained, looking sickened. “To cook and bake, or to forge. They’re family treasures, never traded.”
Arjun nodded, a look of interest on his face. “Before,” he said, “I see the word on…” He gestured frustratedly, not finding the proper words. “Drawing of houses,” he eventually finished. “With sajam, without sajam.”
Tasja nodded. “The scriptorium registers all of the sajamyn in a city,” he said. “Which family has it and where their house is. There are houses that are built for fire and houses that are built for sajamyn, so a family has to be listed in the registry in order to own a sajamen-house.” He paused, looking discomfited. “Without a sajam, the only option is to live in a jan-house, which is… less desirable.”
Izho spat in the dirt once more. “Say what you mean, Sjocelym,” she snarled. “Cold mud and ashes. Half your pay for woodmongers and half for food, or use the common hearths and hope you’ve not caught a robber’s eye.” She glared around the circle at the others. “We’ve kept our sajamyn because they are our future. We’d have better starved than handed our childrens’ inheritance to thieves for bread.”
Rusve grunted. “Never thought I’d meet anyone who hadn’t seen a sajam,” he remarked. “Gadhun Draat, eh? Not sure how it goes out your way, but for us they’d as well have asked for our hearts.” He fished in his ragged shirt and held up a large coin with a thick metal ring through it, tied around his neck on a fine cord. “I told them they’d have it off my corpse, and they said they’d be happy to wait a few days. So! We left.”
“Tried to leave,” Izho rasped, glowering. “But they’d posted guards. Didn’t want dirty Aesvain wandering their fine fields. They’d made laws against wandering vagrants, sleeping rough.”
“And the ones they’d arrested never came back,” Rusve said grimly. “So we’d resolved not to get arrested, simple as that. It’s worked out better for some of us than others, and for the rest we’ve been wandering far - eating sticks, and birds, and now,” he nodded to Jesse, “fine dinners from giant folk.”
Jesse returned the gesture and the group around the fire settled into an uneasy silence.
Gusje leaned forward pensively and hugged her knees to her chest. “I had thought my people would be safe among the Sjocelym,” she said quietly. “Is this what we won, when Vimodi agreed to take them in? Was he just planning to steal from them?”
“Vimodi probably was,” Jesse murmured. “Now, who knows. We have to hope that they’re focused on each other now that he’s gone. Our ‘agreement’ with the guard captain should at least prevent them from acting maliciously.”
Jackie scooted closer to her and threw an arm around her shoulders. “Is okay,” she said reassuringly. “We did first part, opened the wall gate. Tesvaji do next part. Tesvaji is-” She puffed out her chest and frowned, then flexed her free arm menacingly to evoke the chief’s muscular physique. Gusje couldn’t help but giggle at Jackie’s impression, although the tension did not leave her posture.
“I pity the Sjocelym that tries to extort your mother,” Mark added dryly. “Honestly, if you can survive in the desert then the valley should be fine with or without greedy merchants. Once things have calmed down in Sjan Saal we can go back to check on things and return-” He coughed, his eyes flitting to the Aesvain. “Ah, return the documents Tasja took.”
Izho snorted. “An agreement with the Sjocelym is worth nothing,” she said venomously. “They speak only sideways.”
The conversation died down again at her outburst. Rusve gave her a reproachful look and sighed. “It wouldn’t be right to apologize,” he said, “since we’ve come by our anger honestly. I’d hope you’ll forgive us if we’ve been poor company.”
Arjun shook his head emphatically. “Good to know now, not at Ce Raedhil,” he said.
Izho spat, and Rusve lifted an eyebrow. “You’ve set out for the big port, eh?" he inquired. “What’s drawn you there? Trade?”
Mark gave Arjun a cautionary look, but the older man only sighed and turned to the two Aesvain once more. “Questions for scriptsmiths,” he said.
“Pah,” Izho grumbled. “They’ve been the worst thieves. We’d not learned to keep our saon draim hidden at first and they came in with their pens and blades, their talk of registrations and permits. A scripted forge-hammer or an icemaker and they’ve confiscated it straight-off. Anything else they’ve charged you money to keep, and if you can pay they’ve taken your money and returned anyway the next day - they’ve got need of it for the camps or the wall, and off it’s gone.” She shook her head disgustedly. “Thieves.”
Jesse raised his eyebrows at her emphatic tirade, then gave the others a worried glance.
“That sounds less than ideal,” Mark grumbled, then shot an annoyed look at Tasja. “You know, we asked you about the scriptsmiths before and you didn’t mention they were prone to confiscating goods.”
Tasja went pale and raised his hands, shaking his head frantically. “No!" he sputtered. “I didn’t - I mean, it’s not like they don’t take things sometimes, but it’s always something that’s dangerous…” He paused. “Or potentially dangerous. Sometimes they think the owner is dangerous,” he muttered, “or it’s necessary for a project. Or there’s a decree…” He shook his head. “Jaa tseve,” he swore. “I just never thought about it like that. All the saon draim I used were owned by the city.”
Mark sighed. “Great,” he said sullenly. “I have a wonderful feeling about this trip.”
---
The night passed slowly, punctuated by the fitful moans of the Aesvain sleeping under some lent tarps. Arjun volunteered for first watch and simply neglected to wake a replacement, sitting against the truck with a sheaf of Tasja’s pilfered documents until the pale light of dawn began to filter through the grasping trees. Only when rays of true sunlight began to impinge on the clearing did he gently nudge the rest of them awake.
“Shit, Arjun,” Jackie said blearily, “you let us sleep all night?”
“I can sleep in the car,” he shrugged, stretching. “And it was a restful enough night. The Aesvain were quiet.”
The others slowly roused themselves to shiver in the chill mountain air as they blinked away the last traces of sleep. They let Gusje and Tasja remain asleep in the back at Jackie’s insistence while they picked through the discarded packets from dinner for instant coffee, and after a few minutes they all had a mildly dissatisfying cup to nurse.
“So,” Mark said. “I think we can make it the rest of the way to Ce Raedhil today. I had a talk with Rusve before he turned in and it looks like the road is a lot more level from here on.”
Jackie sighed, her breath blowing ripples over her lukewarm coffee. “I’ll be honest, I’m not very optimistic about our chances there. Based on what we heard last night…” She took a sip and winced. “It sounds like it’ll be Vimodi all over again.”
“The truck is the problem,” Jesse said. “It’s too valuable to them. We can’t take it into the city.”
“It’s valuable to us too,” Mark said crossly. “I’d rather keep it close.”
Arjun shook his head slowly. “I agree with Jesse,” he said. “Arriving in the truck will invite conflict. It’s too conspicuous, too desirable.” He looked over at Mark, his expression blank. “I would rather not see a repeat of Sjan Saal, if we can avoid it.”
Mark leaned forward, letting out a long breath. “You know,” he said quietly, “I get it. What I did to Vimodi wasn’t exactly kosher. It was ugly and it was practical.” He looked up and met Arjun’s eyes. “You get to be conflicted about it. Hell, I get to be conflicted about it. But that was that, and this is this. We can’t let it screw with everything else we do going forward.”
“So you’re still in favor of taking the truck into Ce Raedhil?" Arjun said disapprovingly. “Mark, this isn’t about whether or not it was right to kill Vimodi. We may have been naïve coming into Sjan Saal, but we know now that showing off the truck will invite conflict. It doesn’t matter if we can win - if we can avoid the issue entirely, we should.”
“Even if it puts us all at risk?" Mark retorted, raising his voice. “Guys, not taking the truck means leaving it in the woods somewhere. It means not having a quick escape out of the city. Sure, we’ve got guns-”
“And also, what was it?" Jackie cut in, her tone bracing. “The ‘big swinging dick of righteous authority’? Because when you were talking about being careful and cautious back at Ademen Tacen I thought to myself, ‘wow, insightful, he’s really good at being mindful of his actions.’ Except you aren’t.” She stood and looked down at him, narrowing her eyes. “You just know the right things to say to seem thoughtful when you think that’ll sound impressive. You don’t care about avoiding violence as long as you can justify it.”
“Hold up, what the fuck?" Mark said loudly, shooting to his feet. “I don’t need this armchair quarterback bullshit! I didn’t make Vimodi come after us, and when he did-”
“He what?" Jackie yelled. Behind her, some of the Aesvain popped up from the grass, alarmed. “He made you do what, exactly? Fuck, Mark, the funny thing is - given everything else, I don’t even think you were wrong to shoot the crazy bastard.” Arjun gave her a surprised look, but she waved him off. “At that point he was obsessed and we would have regretted letting him hit back at us,” she conceded, although her tone was far from conciliatory.
“That said, it was our goddamn mess and it’s our fault if we don’t learn from it,” she continued, dropping her voice. “He didn’t have to die. The Sjocelym are a bunch of greedy fucks who want what we’ve got. Fine. We have the option of kicking their asses or trying to look uninteresting, and we are going to pick option B every time because we just tried option A and it sucks.”
She looked over at Mark, who was still looking mutinous. “Mark, they’re not ready for us,” she said, a pleading note creeping into her voice. “I think you know that. It’s the same as when Tesvaji asked us to fight the Aedrem. It’s not a fight. It’s not justice. It’s only temptation leading to death, and it’s avoidable.”
“Jesse, back me up on this,” Mark said, looking back at where the larger man was sitting. “We have to keep the truck with us, it’s our lifeline. Nobody’s making them-”
“She’s right,” Jesse said quietly, not looking at Mark’s shocked expression. “If we bring the truck into Ce Raedhil we’ll either die in the city or we’ll leave it as mass murderers. Any of our other gear is a curiosity, something they’ll try to buy or maybe cheat away from us - but you can’t buy a Sjocelym chariot at any price, so they won’t bother asking first. They’ll try to take it, over and over again, and each time someone will die until eventually it’s us.” He shook his head slowly and frowned. “Even if it’s more dangerous at first, I’d rather try the other way.”
Mark’s face hardened. “Fine,” he said stiffly. “I get it.” He turned abruptly and walked away with rapid, angry steps.
“Ah, shit,” Jackie sighed, watching him storm off. “I’m not sure I should have been so hard on him. It’s not like his point is invalid, it’s just…” She shook her head, not finishing her thought.
Arjun settled back against the truck, squinting into the brightening daylight. “It was a conversation we had to have,” he said grimly, “and it’s good that nobody else had to die before we had it. I’m…” He hesitated, looking over at Jackie and Jesse. “You were right, Jackie, they’re not ready for us. Just the four of us threw a whole city into chaos.” He closed his eyes and let his head thunk wearily against the side of the truck. “We’re not good for this place.”
---
They stayed at their encampment with the Aesvain until midday, letting the truck drink the sun until its batteries were nearing full. The clearing was quiet as each group went about their morning routine, with conversation at the truck at a frosty minimum thanks to the lingering miasma of the previous day’s altercation.
It was only when the sun tracked far overhead in the sky that Mark gruffly indicated that the truck was charged up enough to proceed. As the last of the solar array was stowed Rusve and Izho walked over to bid them farewell.
“You’ve been the first we’ve met that left us glad we did,” Rusve said, chuckling. “Thank you for the food and company, travelers.”
“Freely given,” Jesse replied, using the Sauvain response. “Where will you go now?”
Rusve shrugged. “Utine, like as not,” he replied. “We’d been heading for Sjan Saal, before, but after what you’ve said about the troubles coming there I think we’ll be walking to the forest rather than the valley.” The old man straightened up and touched his fingers to his lips and forehead before splaying his hand out towards them, palm upward. “Maja ease your path, friends. Safe journey.”
Izho shot a venomous glare at Rusve, drawing surprised looks from the others. “Maja, now?" she hissed. “We are Aesvain-”
“You are rude,” Rusve interjected, cutting her off with a sharp motion of his hand. “And we are not in Tinem Aesvai. You’d best be used to it, and remember who to thank for your fortune while we travel this land.” He made an impatient gesture towards the bemused travelers. Izho’s eyes widened momentarily before she mimicked his earlier genuflection and stepped back. Rusve gave them one last exasperated shrug before turning to hobble back towards the milling refugees.
Jackie looked at the others, quirking an eyebrow. “What was that about?" she asked sotto voce.
Jesse shook his head, watching the Aesvain group up and begin to head out. “We can ask Tasja about it,” he said. “We should get going too, though. It’s already pretty late in the day, and Rusve said there was a slope on the other side of the ridge. We should try to get down the other side before it gets too dark…”
He trailed off, noticing that Jackie and Arjun were staring at him. “What?" he asked, suddenly feeling self-conscious.
“Are you feeling-" Jackie began, only to be shouldered aside by Arjun as he made his way towards the truck.
“Good thinking,” Arjun said, ignoring Jackie’s annoyed look. “Traveling at night is best if we want to keep a low profile, but I’d rather not fall off the side of the hill. Come on, let’s go help Mark finish up.”
He clapped a hand on Jesse’s shoulder and steered him towards the truck, leaving Jackie staring after them.
“What was that about?" she muttered.
---
Any hopes of a grand view when they summited the ridge were dashed by its thickly wooded top, although tantalizing glimpses of a broad green expanse were visible through gaps in the forest as they made their way down the slope. The road from the top was choked with overgrowth and doubled back on itself frequently, making for a tortuous and lengthy descent that took them most of the afternoon to negotiate.
The road bottomed out as the light filtering through the tree cover began to dim, becoming a wide, flat causeway made of loosely fitted flagstone that stretched northward. Although a far cry from the ancient desert highway they had used to inspect the warding stones it nevertheless allowed them to make good time. As dawn broke the road delivered them to a picturesque lakeshore, gentle clear waves lapping against a stony beach and early-morning steam hanging low over the water.
Gusje was spellbound. She walked slowly to the shoreline and stood watching the fog swirl with hypnotic languor in the morning sun. A compulsion drew her further towards the undulating water until her feet were fully immersed and growing numb with the cold.
“She’s the happiest person here by far,” Arjun said wryly, then switched to Ceiqa to address Tasja. “Do you know where we are?" he asked.
Tasja startled and hurriedly averted his gaze from a particular part of the lakeshore that had captured his attention. “Ah, perhaps,” he said hesitantly. “I’ve never been this way, but the only lake of any size in the area is Tel Satisva. That would mean we’ve traveled most of the way to Ce Raedhil already.” He shook his head, letting his breath out in a rush. “Traveling by chariot is amazing.”
Arjun laughed and shook his head. “Would you believe people from our home think it is…” He frowned, searching for the right word, then gestured helplessly at Jesse.
“Annoying, unpleasant,” Jesse ventured. “People tend not to drive for long distances if they can help it. They’d rather…” He paused, considering how much he wanted to explain. “They’d rather go by other means,” he said vaguely.
The scribe shook his head wonderingly. “I can’t imagine. I’ve never left the valley before this. One day in the chariot and we’re almost at Ce Raedhil. It’s so fast my mind can’t keep up with it.”
“Want to see if we can make it all the way before nightfall?" Mark asked.
They tarried at the lake for a while longer despite their enthusiasm to move on, but the sun was still high in the sky when they began seeing signs of development alongside the road. The forest cover had been cleared back, low stone walls erected to pen in crops, the odd herd of tari and-
“What the shit?" Jackie sputtered, sitting upright in her seat. “Guys, you seeing this?”
About fifty meters distant in the middle of a fallow field, a small herd of grazing animals looked up to mark their passage, ears fanning lazily and trunks coiling down beneath their wizened faces. A single gobsmacked herdsman stood among them, staring wide-eyed at the truck as it rolled forward.
“Those are elephants,” Mark said, sounding stunned. “Tiny elephants. Are they babies?”
Arjun shook his head, leaning closer to the window. The animals were squat and hairy, the tallest of them barely coming up to Jackie’s height. “No, look at the tusks,” he said. “They’re cut and capped, the poor things, but I believe those are fully grown. Pygmy elephants of some sort, remarkable.” He looked over at Jackie, a slight smile appearing on his lips. “Now we know where they get their cheese.”
Jackie choked and shot him a betrayed look.
“Sahjavasja,” Gusje said wonderingly, oblivious to the English conversation. “Father told stories about them, but I had imagined… they look so strange.”
“There were a few herds in the valley,” Tasja said knowledgeably. “They take well to the wet lowlands.” He turned to the travelers, noting their reaction. “Do you have sahjavasja where you’re from?" he asked.
Jesse shook his head slowly. “We have… something similar,” he said. “Bigger.”
“They would be,” Gusje said, rolling her eyes at him. “But still, one of those your height would be something to see.”
“No, they’re much larger,” Jesse said. “Taller than me by a lot, and overall about as large as the chariot.”
The two stared at him, waiting for some indication that he was joking, then exchanged a subdued look. Before they could ask further, however, Mark brought the truck to an abrupt halt. Complaints about his driving quickly faded as the group clustered to the front of the vehicle to peer out at the sudden vista that had opened before them.
A turn in the road had revealed the beginning of a slow, gentle slope down into a basin, and through the gap in the trees they could see the land stretch out for miles until it met the ocean at a far shore. As the grade flattened the treed slope gave way to a patchwork of fields and orchards, and from there…
At the innermost point of the bay a dark spread of buildings spidered outward along countless small roads that all converged in a chaotic tangle near the shore. From their conflux sprang up six towering edifices that glittered in the afternoon sun, rising far above the mass of lesser construction huddled around their base. Four stretched proudly upward for hundreds of meters while the other two ended in jagged crowns of girders and twisted metal at no more than half their height.
Around those shining monuments sprawled a vast, dirty labyrinth of ramshackle wood and stone. There were a couple of spots where it had flowed up over the jutting wreckage of ruined buildings like so much moss on a stump, but more often it simply sprawled and tangled its way out until it reached the long wall encircling the port. Far beyond it in the bay the dark motes of ships plied the shimmering waters in long, ponderous ant lines tracking up and down the coast.
“Oh, God,” Jackie whispered. “It’s a city. I mean… a city. Those buildings...”
“The Raedhilym Pillars,” Tasja breathed, his eyes sparkling with excitement. “I’ve read about them, seen pictures, but none of them comes close. The Archive, the Lighthouse, Stonesails, the Ministerium, the Spear and the Sheaf.” He grinned at Gusje, exhilarated. “Isn’t it amazing?”
Gusje nodded dazedly. “I thought the cerein was the tallest thing in the world,” she said, a touch sadly. She blinked rapidly, then shook her head. “It doesn’t seem real. It’s like-”
She broke off, finally looking at the grim expressions on the travelers’ faces. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
None of them answered, but eventually Jesse shook his head and looked at her with an unreadable expression. “Those buildings are…” He trailed off, looking back towards the city. “It’s going to take a while to explain.”
He spent a few minutes simply trying to figure out where to start, and when he spoke he felt an odd compulsion to do so quietly, reverently, while the hulking forms of the Pillars stared down at them from on high. Soon the mood in the truck was somber, and silence reigned as they rolled slowly down the road to Ce Raedhil.
