Part Sixteen
North finished giving Tsuki's demands to The Lord and Lady and they stared at her so strangely. "North, mind who you are speaking to," The Lord said.
"No," The Lady said softly. She looked to the tent their prisoners were in and saw, in the light from the fire and torches, the Man of the East looking back at her. "That was not North speaking. He used compulsion. A Wizard...but he seems too young."
"Lady, you mean he has power?"
"Oh yes. This is...unfortunate. You have captured for us an Elf and a Wizard's apprentice," she whispered.
"What do we care?" The Lord said, "When is the last time Elves, Wizards or Kings cared for our people. We and the other circles have protected and advised the people of this region for generations now and received no aid from other races or any King."
"Yes, but one has claimed Kingship over the North and the South now. If we seem a threat to him..."
"He cannot touch us."
"Do not be sure. You know that there have been dark powers that plagued the people, especially in the north. For whatever reason, many people have confused their ways with ours."
"There are stories that one set himself up as a tyrant in the north and was called 'King of Witches'."
"Yes. We must be cautious."
"My Lady, they appeared only another merchant and his escort, I swear it to you."
The Lady nodded.
"They were bathing together," The Lord whispered.
"Which?"
"The Man and Elf. I did not realize it was an Elf until we were in close. We only see them occasionally on the road, when they travel with Men and usually their manner of dress is quite different. There is another concern also..."
"Hold. North, give them everything they have asked for. You may have South deliver the things to their tent, but you guard them."
"Perhaps, if you will it, My Lady, let another go in to them. That one questioned me about South. I felt compelled to answer him. I am sorry."
"Ash then. He was not among the party, so they should have no particular grudge against him. My Lord, if you would speak inside the tent. I trust not the birds that have appeared. It is said Elves may speak with animals."
The Lord and Lady entered her tent. When they were alone, The Lady turned and touched Her Lord's face with her fingertips, where she had stitched the wound Tsuki's sword had made. The Lord bowed and kissed her once. "I did not say so in the presence of the others, but I think there was another in their party that escaped our notice. We took some saddlebags from among their things, but the large horse and the pony seemed already fully loaded with packs. And there seem to be only two sets of clothing and bedding among their gear."
"So, they had at least another horse...?"
"Yes, but perhaps another in their party with the horse, or even several more."
"The Elf and the Man bathed together?"
The Lord made a small noise to clear his throat. "Aye, Lady, The Elf poured water upon him for his washing."
"Out in the open?"
"They were somewhat concealed by the position of their horse, but as we were concealed in the grass it was quite..."
"Yes. I understand."
"And now I think of it, My Lady, they seemed most interested in defending each other. They seemed concerned with the Halfling's safety, and he with theirs...but when North and South subdued the Elf..."
"I have spoken with them. North threatened the Elf's life and that is when the Man surrendered. From all I understand now, I am not shocked that Black came to us with his arm broken. I want to speak with the Easterling alone."
"Do you think that wise? If he is some sort of Wizard?"
"How is West? Is he mending?"
"South was the one that tended him. The arrow caught between bones, but he has also a knot on his head."
The Lady shook her head sadly. "Yew and Summons may sit with us...I cannot afford to have initiates present and the others are all injured or involved in grudges."
"As you wish."
The young man called Ash carried a tray of food with a candle burning upon it to the prisoner's tent. Two of the commoners followed with water and clothing. He opened the tent and saw the Prisoners were all awake and seated on the cots. They were silent, as if they had known he was coming and wished him not to overhear their conversation. Ash had only seen Elves and Halflings at a distance and so it seemed strange to him to see such beings at a close distance.
Tsuki watched the Men bring the things he had requested. He extended a hand in silent request for the shirt and then passed it behind his back to Dale.
Dale pulled the shirt on quickly and then swept his hair behind his back. He peered at the Men over Tsuki's shoulder and saw the young one gazing at him. Dale smiled his prettiest smile and spoke a greeting in Elven. The Men did not seem to understand, but they all looked as if they had never spoken to an Elf before. That was what Dale liked about Men, some of the time.
Except for those who were considered Elf-friends, many knew little of Elves and so they could not know if he was strange and unlike his kind. They mainly seemed to find him enchanting, which was entertaining in a way.
Tsuki spoke to the one who put the food on the table. "You are one of them," he said. He saw the cords and knife at his waist and the pendant he wore on a leather thong about his neck. "What do they call you?"
"Ash."
"You were not there today."
"No."
"Is it customary for your people to waylay travelers as they stop along the road to wash or eat?"
"It is really quite rude," Kato added, "We should never dream of being so inhospitable in my homeland."
"A most generous people," Tsuki agreed, "They give gifts to their guests rather than take from them."
"If the Lord has brought you here then you must be troublemakers. We take only from those who hoard and flaunt their wealth..."
"Of course," Tsuki said, "You may go."
Kato looked at the food. It was strange, but he felt famished and began to eat immediately. Tsuki turned and saw That Dale had his shirt. He rubbed Dale's arm and smiled for him. They brought a bowl and hot water. I am sorry I did not think to ask for soap."
"I will make due, though I would like better to wreak vengeance upon them for attacking before I had a chance to wash properly. My feet seem to have faired well, though yours seem rather like Kato's usually do, well minus the hair."
"It was fighting on the soft ground. I believe we were carried here."
"If there is water left I will wash them for you."
"And mine, Dale?" Kato asked.
"You can wash your own feet."
Kato laughed. "I have been serving myself a lot lately."
"Pit's fire! Do you never stop?" Dale asked.
"It's hardly worse then you sauntering off to burial chambers with such obvious invitation implied...or playing water bearer while Tsuki baths in an open meadow...or..."
"This food is men!" Tsuki said.
"You must be kidding," Dale groaned. "Are they cannibals as well as witches?"
Kato looked at the bowl before him and then shrugged and continued to eat.
"Not Men, men. It sounds alike, but it is the name of that food. Or it is one name of the food in the tongue of my ancestors. I have never seen it in the west."
"If it is called men, it is no wonder they do not have it in the west."
"But Tsuki said this was that food..." Kato peered at the stringy food. "We must think of another name for it. What about Nudelen?"
"Nudelen?" Tsuki asked.
"I think I have heard that word, but does it not refer to something more like...a dumpling?"
"No. It is a thick strip of dough cooked into a soup."
"A dumpling is boiled dough," Dale insisted.
"But this is a different shape, and the texture is also quite different. Taste it."
Dale shook his head.
"It is rather a different shape that nudelen. Like cute baby nudelen. I think it should be called 'noodles'."
"Do many make these noodles in the west?" Tsuki asked. He moved to the ground and knelt, to look at the food more closely. He smelled and tasted the carrots they had been served. "Does this seem like Western food at all?"
"No, but it is quite good," Kato said. "Is that carrot? It is sliced so thinly."
"Kato, have you eaten enough?"
"I could eat more..."
"Go outside with one of these bowls," Tsuki whispered. "I think the one they call North is there."
"The one that tried to kill me," Dale reminded them.
"Throw the food down in front of her and tell her it is 'Men' and that we will not eat it. Say it loudly and tell her to tell her cook to serve us some other food than men. Act enraged."
"I suppose I could." Kato lifted Dale's untouched bowl. "What good do you think it will do? I should hate to waste food."
"I cannot be certain, but suppose their cook really is someone from the east. I do not know if they would speak the languages I was taught, or if they would be disposed to help us, but I at least think it worth a try."
"Then the loud complaints should be a message to the cook?"
"Yes."
Kato went out of the tent, carrying the bowl and made his complaint just as Tsuki had suggested. He was belligerent and made a show of throwing the food to the ground and even spit. He said 'men' several times loudly.
North ordered him back into the tent. "Ash!" she called.
"Yes, Lady North?"
"Watch them. Do not listen to anything they say. Just do not let them leave." North strode off toward the cook's area. Ash felt sorry for the Easterling. Everyone feared North. The previous North had been quite old, but had seemed so much more kindly.
North drew her dagger, grasped the cook by his shirt, and pulled him to his feet. He was taller than she was, but she was not afraid of them. "The Prisoners say you served them men!"
The cook, named Fei, shook his head. He only understood half of what the small ferocious woman said. Everyone here spoke so loudly and quickly it was hard to determine which word meant what.
North shoved Fei away from her and pointed at his fire and cookware as she continued to wave the dagger before his face. "Men!" she said. "Men?"
Fei looked to the pan on the fire and he understood. She was saying that word that was the name for their race here, but she was also naming the food. They were not the same...Fei was not certain North knew what she was talking about. He laughed. For once, someone else in this place was confused by words.
Surely she did not think he cooked and ate people. They were the ones who performed some ritual in which wine was drank as if blood. Fei had seen the rituals many times and the words were often the same and spoken clearly and with gestures so that a large group could hear and understand. He understood every word of their rituals now, though there was much of the western Common Speech he did not understand.
"Fooled thou have the prisoners," Fei said slowly. He had learned the Common Speech as well as any of his people before coming to the west, but had since learned, that the scrolls he had been taught from were antiquated and did not account for many regional dialects and accents. Perhaps if he had met people here with any patience or desire for knowledge or cultural exchange things would have been well, but since arriving his life had been a series of unfortunate mishaps, mainly brought about by the fact that many people here were so poorly educated.
He did know many words in the western Common Speech, yet he had not met anyone here who had learned any words in his language, though in the east it was considered as a common language.
North sneered. "Make them something else! Do you understand?" She made her words slow. "Cook more food. Different food. No 'men'."
"Different food...I shall prepare."
North seemed to understand him. She looked at the cook, thinking that his accent made so many of his words hard to understand, but she was satisfied that he understood the order. She left him to his work.
Fei stood wondering who was in that tent among the prisoners that knew an eastern language, or at least the name of an eastern food. North had not truly seemed to know what she was saying. There was no reason the prisoners would suppose the food to be people, and so it must be they intended a message for him.
Fei stepped around the cook fire and looked toward the tent of the Prisoners. North, Ash and Their Lord were speaking to each other. The Lord opened the tent and called in. One of the Prisoners came out and The Lord escorted him through the camp. Fei did not see the prisoner clearly, except from the back, but when he saw the build of the Man, his hair, skin coloring, and the tattoo he wore, Fei knew he was not one of the Men of the West. Perhaps one of the People of the Sun, or one of the nomads. The tattoo was simple in design and only a single color, not like the clan tattoo on Fei's back, and so it seemed work of the nomads.
Tsuki was escorted to The Lady's tent. The Lord remained outside, but Tsuki found two others with The Lady within. The interior was lit by two candles on a small table. There was one chair, which The Lady sat in; she offered Tsuki a seat on the low cot.
"I will stand."
The Lady observed him as coolly as she could. They had not given him a shirt; he had only requested one for the Elf, who was scarred. The Man seemed not very large, but was quite fit and muscular for his size. He did not look like the other Easterling. There were differences in the facial features and in their coloring. This Man's eyes were lighter.
"What is your name?" The Lady asked.
"I am called Tsuki Eru."
The Lady did not know if these names had meaning. The names did not seem to be of the Common Speech.
"What was the purpose of your travel?"
Tsuki did not think giving any answer would harm his cause so he gave an answer. "We have business in the south."
"Where in the south?"
"That is no business of yours." Tsuki did not actually know their destination, but the answer was as good as any.
"You used compulsion on one of my people."
"I did." Tsuki had not know that it would work, but he was thankful it had. "North had already made herself my enemy and I had need."
"You are schooled in some magic craft."
"I am educated in various forms of magic and proficient at some more than others."
"Was there another in your party?"
"If you are asking, you must know, but I will not supply you with details."
The Lady considered that answer a moment. Tsuki seemed to confirm The Lord's suspicion, but then it was in his interest to suggest he might have others coming to his rescue, and so he had told her nothing useful.
"I came to your tent to negotiate our release."
"Did you?"
"Did Your Lord tell you we offered a ransom and it was not accepted? The ones with lower rank seem to think your ways honorable, and so I can only assume you are a hypocrite yourself or you should hold your dogs on a shorter leash. If all you wanted was support for your people, you could have asked for tolls. My party would have paid any reasonable toll. I request that you release us and our mounts and any weapons and tools we were carrying that we need to complete our journey. If you do not release us, I think that within a few days we shall be gone without your aid or consent. You may be left with far less than what I offer you now."
"You think you have the ability to escape?"
"I do not believe your people wished to kill us any more than I wished to kill them. You understand, your dogs returned to you because I did not wish to kill. I believe all your sacrifices are symbolic and so you would not kill us now, but even if you should plot to be rid of us by binding us hand and foot and abandoning us in the wild, we might find means to free ourselves and return for what is ours."
"And you might not."
"There is more than one party who may be following us." Tsuki turned and walked from the tent. He saw The Lord standing there and smiled at him with closed lips.
Inside the prisoner tent Dale and Kato sat eating their second serving of food, which was strips of meat from a game hen coated in a spicy sweet sauce and sprinkled with toasted seeds. When Tsuki came in he sat beside Dale and lifted his bowl, noticing slivers of carrot arranged on the top. He glanced up to the others. They were using eating sticks to lift their food, though they were not those Tsuki had made.
Tsuki looked down to his bowl again. The slivers seemed to form a specific character that had meaning. "It says 'help'," he whispered.
"What's that?"
"The character appearing in my bowl means 'help'."
"Is it a noun or a commanding verb or…?" Kato began. Though he only spoke the Common Speech and his own language he was well educated.
"It would be a noun. I wonder if your bowls also had messages, or parts of a message."
Dale shrugged. "There were carrot slivers, but the food smelled good, so I ate it."
"And these sticks," Tsuki said.
"Not as nice as the ones you made, but I rather like the way the bit of bark is left up here. It's pretty."
"It looks unfinished to me," Kato remarked and continued eating.
"It seems a part is left natural. I think it is quite decorative. Tsuki could smooth the working end and then I would enjoy these eating sticks very much."
Tsuki began to eat and when he had chewed and swallowed some food he spoke. "I tried to convince the Lady to free us, but I am not sure how things will work out. She may try tying us hand and food and leaving us in the wild before she is convinced."
They finished their food quickly and then rested. At Dale's suggestion, they each retained one eating stick, against the chance they might be taken by force. Dale said he was going to stab anyone who tried to put him in bonds in an eye.
The prisoners rested then, though they did not sleep deeply. Some time later the witches gathered to do their work. Even the common people who followed their faith knew the differences between the periodic rituals and celebration and the working circles. Even Fei knew and he had been with this camp less than a year and did not speak their language fluently. Tonight they were gathered to do some spells of healing and protection.
Tsuki listened to their words, vaguely interested in the work they were doing, but he did not leave the cot to watch; Dale was there.
While the witches were at their work, the rear flap of the tent opened. Dale lifted his head and saw a figure crawl inside. He smelled like smoke and spice and so Dale supposed he was the cook. "How'd ya get past the dogs? I tried speaking to them, but they are thoroughly domesticated and loyal to the witches."
Fei brought his small candle into the tent and beheld the one who had spoken to him. To him Dale seemed very strange: a creature with pointed ears, pale, luminescent skin, and a wealth of hair that in candlelight seemed colored like blood. His accent was more strange then those in the camp. "Could thou speak not quickly?" Fei whispered.
"The Dogs." Dale sat and lolled his tongue from his mouth and panted. "How did you…?" He pointed toward Fei. "Get past them." Dale gestured to the interior of the tent."
Fei laughed softly, as Dale's impression of a dog was most amusing. By then Tsuki and Kato were looking toward their visitor. Tsuki attempted a greeting in the language of the Middle Kingdom, as it was like a common language in the east and Fei seemed he might be from that region.
The words were not spoken exactly as they should be, but Fei was very glad to hear the attempt and he understood what Tsuki meant to say. "Do you understand the Middle Kingdom Speech?" Fei whispered in that language.
"I was taught the speech, but I have lived in the west since I was a boy and it is not spoken here, so I am afraid my skill with the language is now poor," Tsuki said slowly.
Fei understood the meaning in his words, though it was not spoken perfectly. "You make some mistakes, but I understand." He switched to the language of the People of the Sun, "Are these words known to you also?"
"That is the language of my ancestors. I spoke it often with My Teacher in my youth and practice it alone now," Tsuki answered in the language of his ancestors.
"You do speak it well, though I believe we both have poor accents. My name is Lung Fei Shih. I am a scholar who was ordered to accompany some military officers to be their translator. I was captured during the Great War and afterward released, but the many dialects and accents here are difficult for me to understand and my own accent seems to be strange to people here. I have had many misadventures, lost all my possessions and now do not even know what region I am in. If you will aid me, I will do what I can to help you escape."
"What is he saying?" Dale whispered to Tsuki. He was unable to understand what either of them said.
Tsuki asked Fei to excuse him for a moment and explained quickly to Dale, in Elven, what Fei had told him. Dale began to laugh.
"What is it?" Kato asked. "What did he say?"
"The Eastman's name is Lûhn Fay Scire!"
Kato laughed. "I suppose he does look a bit blue."
"I wonder why he has the long face!"
Fei saw the others laughing and glared at Tsuki, thinking he had made fun of him.
"No," Tsuki said. "I apologize for them. Your name sounds like other words they know and…wordplay amuses Elves greatly. I will stop them." Tuski turned to Dale, "You are insulting him. Stop. His name is Lung Fei Shih. You are not saying it correctly."
"Long?"
"More like Lung."
"Lûhn."
"Lung, it means dragon, I think."
"Why do we not call him Dragon."
"Lung is his family name. Fei and Shih are his given names. I am not entirely sure of the meaning." Tsuki turned to Fei. "How are your names written? The Elf would understand better if he knew the meaning."
Fei explained such as he could, though he did not see why this conversation mattered. The witches might discover them at any time.
"It is not lion…I believe his name means something like Flying-Teacher in the Common Speech. It is the nearest translation I can make."
"He does not fly?"
"No. And I doubt he instructs dragons or knows any personally. You should appreciate his family's choice. It is poetic."
"I suppose we should just call him Fei."
"That would probably be easiest for us all," Tsuki agreed.
"Hello, Fei," Dale said a little slowly, "My name is not a very good name, so laugh if you will. I am Dale Maple. If you are interested in helping us, I suggest you find us at least one weapon. We should prefer a sword."
Fei listened carefully. This Dale, he thought was at least making an effort to help him understand and doing so without raising his voice. He had missed a few of the words, but he understood that this group wanted a sword. Fortunately, he had anticipated this request. He reached out of the rear flap and drew one of Tsuki's swords inside. He held the sword in both hands, offering it to the group. "The question of Dale I answer…meat I gave to the dogs."
Tsuki took the sword. "I am Tsuki Eru. If we make our escape, we will take you with us. Be ready. I am waiting for a certain sign."
Fei said that he understood and then added, "Your name is Moon. Is that why they hold you? They are afraid you will steal The Lady's power?"
"I do not think they know the meaning, but they may be afraid."
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