Catechist - A Triumph Of Souls Part 25

"No?" A querulous Simna turned. "No what?" He gestured toward the toppled Hymneth and his angelic attendant. "You heard what she said. She wants to stay here."

"Nothing has changed, Simna. You heard what I toldhim. It does not matter." Walking over to where he had earlier dropped his spear, Ehomba recovered the weapon. Returning to the p.r.o.ne form of the Possessed, he brooded aloud over his lack of options.

"I vowed to Tarin Beckwith, a man of n.o.ble mien and honorable intention, on the occasion of his last breath, that I would return the Visioness Themaryl to her family. Though I have come a great distance and been too long away from home and friends, I intend to do this thing."

Her exquisite face upturned to him, Themaryl gaped in disbelief. "But I want to stay! It is as your friend says. I have cast my lot with this person. I will not go with you. Do not ask it of me."

"I will not," Ehomba replied. So saying, he bent down and slipped a slender but muscular arm around her waist. Lifting her up, he slung her over his shoulder, a position that found her stunned and outraged.

"Let me go! Put me down this instant! I, Themaryl, command you!"

"Only one woman commands me, and she is not here." Holding the kicking, flailing form firmly against his shoulder, he turned to the stupefied Simna. "Tie her hands before she thinks to try and draw my remaining sword, or to go fumbling in my pack. Quick now, Simna!"

"What? Yes, bruther. Hold her."

The swordsman was a master of blades, not knots, but he bound the wrists and legs of the Visioness securely enough with cord drawn from the richly brocaded curtains that framed one entryway. Unable to raise himself up or move more than his head and neck, Hymneth the Possessed raved and ranted at the meddling interlopers, vowing all manner of punishment and torture if they did not release her at once.

Seeing his master's distress, Peregriff was about to call out to the castle guard for a.s.sistance, only to find himself instantaneously confronted by a sleek black feline shape.

"I'd hold my tongue if I were you," Ahlitah warned the senior soldier. "Or I will." Prudent as always, Peregriff held his peace.

They left the general hovering over his master and calling not for armed soldiers but for medical a.s.sistance. No crawling along damp, filthy storm drains for them this time; they strode boldly out the main entrance to the fortress. The startled twilight guards scrambled to react, only to shy away from the presence of the long-striding Hunkapa Aub and the triumphantly snarling black litah.

Thus did the four visitors and one unwilling other depart the temperate and accommodating land of fabled Ehl-Larimar. As they did so it was hard to tell who was making the most noise: the enraged and disbelieving Visioness Themaryl, or the master of blades Simna ibn Sind, with his ceaseless grumbling about their failure to even look for, much less obtain, any treasure. Only Ehomba's promises of riches to come kept the seriously aggravated swordsman from remaining behind. The herdsman mollified his sorely disgruntled companion somewhat by placing him in charge of the Visioness and her security.

For the first time in recent memory, a determined Ehomba found himself heading deliberately and purposefully east.

XXIV.

As if to confirm that their luck had changed, by dint of a hard march and fortuitous timing, they reached distant Doroune just as theGromsketter was concluding the return leg of its tour of the trading towns and cities to the south. A joyous reunion there was, with Stanager Rose and all her crew astounded yet pleased to encounter their former pa.s.sengers once again.

No one was disappointed that their eastward crossing of the Semordria was less eventful than before.

Following Captain Rose's instructions, they allowed themselves to be put ash.o.r.e well to the southwest of Hamaca.s.sar and its twitchy time guardians. By traveling south and then east from the point of disembarkation, they also avoided Laconda North, where because of the difficulties arising from their previous visit they would have been less than courteously received, and reentered Laconda itself from the west.

Simna was concerned that they might have difficulty approaching the capital quietly if the citizens of that prosperous province recognized their long-absent Visioness, but he needn't have concerned himself.

After the long and tiring journey, her aspect was less than regal, and they arrived in the city without incident.

Disclosure of the Visioness's presence among them occasioned scenes of riotous joy among the populace, and the travelers were conveyed without delay into the presence of the Duke and his family.

All Themaryl's relations had gathered to salute her return: father and mother, doddering grandparents, gabby aunts and uncles and innumerable cousins. Haggard and drawn, she was forced to endure embrace upon embrace.

"Oh my delight," one uncle declared upon looking at her, "you do look like you've had a time of it!"

"I am not the same person I was when I was taken from here, Bennrik," she replied stiffly. "Things changed, and I changed with them."

"But you are home, back in the bosom of your family and your people, and that is all that matters." Duke Lewyth rose from his modest seat of power to gesture grandly at the outlandish quartet of foreigners who stood together and formed an exotic island in the midst of the rejoicing throng of aristocrats and courtiers.

"And for that we have these stalwart, brave strangers to thank!" Smiling graciously, he nodded at Ehomba.

"Have you anything to say to the people of Laconda on this joyous occasion, sir? Any words you might care to speak will be received with grat.i.tude and appreciation."

It was Simna who spoke up, raising his voice above the general clamor. "You have to understand, n.o.ble sir, that my friend here is no orator. It is more in his nature to ..." He halted as, to his considerable surprise, Ehomba not only stepped forward but mounted the royal dais to stand opposite the Duke and next to the Visioness Themaryl. He did not bother to raise his hand to quiet the crowd, but instead simply began speaking in his usual calm, measured tone.

"I vowed to the dying Tarin Beckwith of Laconda North to return this woman to her home and family.

This I have done." As he spoke, he ignored the Visioness's sullen, unyielding scowl. "My obligation to him is at last fulfilled." Turning to her he asked simply, directly, and utterly unexpectedly, "Now that I am free of any responsibility in this matter, I would like to know what it is thatyou want."

She gaped at him. For an instant she thought that the tall, singular southerner was taunting her, making fun of her condition. But in spite of herself she had come in the course of the long journey back to Laconda to know him at least as well as any of his odd clutch of companions. In all that time, she had never seen him taunt, or ridicule, or mock anyone. Was it possible that the query was an honest one?

She did not have to meditate on a reply. Nor did she hesitate. "I want to go back to Ehl-Larimar."

Ehomba nodded. Below, surrounded by celebrating, unwitting Lacondans, a dreadful realization was dawning on a profoundly confounded Simna ibn Sind. Hand on sword hilt, he began backing toward the nearest door.

To say that Themaryl's family was not pleased by her p.r.o.nouncement was to understate the matter rather severely. Their vociferous objections to her announced departure manifested themselves in the form of clutching hands and the subsequent arrival of alarmed troops. Bearing in mind that these were her own people, Ehomba and his friends perpetrated as little violence as possible in the course of fleeing from her homeland. Despite the destruction of the sky-metal sword, the herdsman still had its oceanic counterpart and his walking spear to scatter the hostile. Where those uncommon weapons proved inappropriate to the task, he commanded the contents of his seemingly bottomless backpack.

TheGromsketter was unavailable to take them back, having embarked on an expedition up the Eynharrowk from Hamaca.s.sar, but they eventually managed to make contact with the crew of the legendary oceangoing three-masterWarebeth. News and stories travel fast on a river, and her captain had heard of the exploits of Ehomba and his companions. For a few of the remaining pebbles in the herdsman's possession, he agreed to carry them westward back across the Semordria, a body of water with which Simna, at least, was becoming all too familiar.

The pall that had hung over the fortress of Ehl-Larimar's supreme ruler vanished at the announcement of her return. A downcast, disbelieving Hymneth greeted them in his private quarters. Unarmored, trembling so violently he could hardly rise, he embraced the woman he had never expected to see again. Smiling rea.s.suringly, she rested her head against his and gently stroked the side of his misshapen, elongated face.

In the course of his difficult and less than exemplary life there had been much that had intrigued Hymneth the Possessed, and even more that had infuriated him, but he had rarely, if ever, been as bewildered as he was now.

"You brought her back. You crossed half a world to take her away from me, and then you brought her back." From beneath inhuman, bony ridges he stared at Ehomba, his confusion palpable."Why?"

"I fulfilled my obligation to a dying man. Once I had done that, I was free." The herdsman nodded at Themaryl. "She has a good heart, and became less overbearing during the course of our return to her homeland. Though under no formal obligation, I felt obliged by circ.u.mstance to grant her one request.

That request was to return here."

Hymneth pulled slightly away from his restored consort. "This will not change me, you know. I am still Hymneth the Possessed, lord of the central coast and of all Ehl-Larimar. Supreme ruler of this part of the world."

"I know." Ehomba smiled enigmatically. "I can only hope that you will now do a better job of it."

With that, Etjole Ehomba and his friends departed that naturally blessed but ill-governed province and once more made the difficult trek back to Doroune and the eastern coast. There they waited until they made contact with an especially bold captain and crew who agreed to attempt a crossing of the Semordria to the southeast, in hopes of landing their well-paying pa.s.sengers not in the delta of the Eynharrowk, but somewhere nearer a certain small southern coastal village.

When Hunkapa Aub announced that he was remaining behind, regretful farewells were exchanged.

While Simna delivered himself of effusive praise and a few obligatory coa.r.s.e jokes, and the black litah growled diffidently and offered up a sociable paw, no words were exchanged between the s.h.a.ggy sorcerer and his dark, lean counterpart. Simna knew that much pa.s.sed between them, even if only by glance and gesture, that he was not a party to. Nor, frankly, did he want to be. As for himself, he chose to remain with Ehomba, reminding him yet again of his promise to reward a certain itinerant herdsman with wealth and fortune.

And so it was that after adventures too many and tortuous to mention, the three remaining travelers found themselves put ash.o.r.e at the trading town of Askaskos, from which it was but a moderate and easy journey north to the last, small village on the southern coast. To Ehomba, the look on the face of his wife as he appeared outside their house was worth more than all the knowledge he had acc.u.mulated in the course of his travels, and all the riches he might have claimed. His children, grown since last he'd seen them, cl.u.s.tered close, Nelecha gripping his waist so tightly that it impacted his breathing.

Mirhanja and the other villagers extended a ready and grateful country welcome to the comrades of their wandering son. There followed several days of celebration and feasting, during which Simna ibn Sind in particular proved highly voluble on the subject of their many extraordinary exploits.

It was during one such evening feast, while Simna grandiosely held forth on the difficulties of crossing the wide and perilous Semordria, that Ehomba confronted the black litah. Belly full, half asleep, the big cat ignored the attentions of the young children who giggled into his mane and toyed with his tufted tail.

"What will you do now?" Ehomba asked him. "Compared to the distances we have covered together, it is not so very far to the veldt where first we met."

"Not so very far, no," Ahlitah responded. "But far enough. Haven't thought much about it. I have trouble thinking when my stomach is full."

Nodding, the herdsman sat down beside the n.o.ble head. "The domesticated herds of the Naumkib are extensive and require constant vigilance. This is because the hills where they graze are full of predators.

One such as yourself would be a welcome ally to those who must spend long hours watching over them."

The litah considered. "You saved my life, but I no longer owe you. The debt is repaid in full."

"More than in full," Ehomba admitted readily. They sat in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of happy feasting and tolerating the children's antics, until the litah spoke again.

"Among these predators that trouble you, are there cats? Cats like me?"

Ehomba's expression was grave. "Too many to count. Lionesses and she-cheetahs, leopards sleek of flank and smilodons long of tooth."

"It is a long way to the veldt." Ahlitah growled uncertainly. "You would trust me to guard your flocks and not devour them?"

His chin resting on folded hands as he watched the nearby celebration, the herdsman shrugged. "I have trusted you with more than a cow these past many months. Besides, those who stand watch over the herds also share in their bounty."

"And I would still be free to leave at any time, to run when the need overcame me?"

Ehomba glanced over at his ma.s.sive, clawed companion. They had been through much together. "I would not ask of another that which I could never ask of myself."

The litah snorted. It was his way of saying little while saying much.

There came a morning when Simna ibn Sind confronted the other companion of his journeys well to the north of the last house. While admiring the supple play of cloth against the bodies of the young women who came to draw water for the day's activities, the swordsman hesitated at first to speak his mind.

"Come, my friend," Ehomba told him. "Something is troubling you."

"Hoy, I don't want to insult you, bruther, or the hospitality of your friends, which has been all that a man could ask for."

"And yet you are not content," Ehomba observed sagely.

"It's not that the food isn't good, or the accommodations unsuitable." The swordsman struggled to find the right words, then finally decided to plunge ahead. "It's just that I've spent my life trying to avoid places like this, Etjole." He made a sweeping gesture. "Maybe this is enough to satisfy a cat, but I don't belong here." He took a deep breath. "Also, there's the little matter of some treasure you've kept promising me. I knew when I first met you that you had access to some. I thought you were searching for it yourself. Then I believed you when you told me that it could be found in Ehl-Larimar. The only reason I'm here now is because I've kept on believing you." His tone and expression hardened.

"I've put myself in death's way for you more times than I care to count, bruther. Now I expect some reward."

Ehomba gestured at the sharp-edged mountains, the quiet village, the pristine air and peaceful surroundings. "Is this not reward enough for you? Were not the adventures we had treasure enough?"

The swordsman did not reply directly, but instead grinned while briskly rubbing the thumb and forefinger of his right hand against one another. Ehomba sighed. "There is no treasure here, Simna." He squinted up at the cloudless, impossibly blue sky. "Would you not like to go for a walk on the beach instead?"

"Listen to me, Etjole! You promised me that-" The shorter man halted his nascent tirade. A wide, sly grin spread across his weatherbeaten, sun-scoured face. "A walk on the beach? By Goulouris, long bruther, I'd be happy to take a walk on the beach. I'd nearly forgotten about the beauty of the beaches above your village."

There were children playing at the water's edge when they arrived. Ehomba's daughter was among them, and he tried his best to explain to her the reason behind the comical antics of the funny man from the far north who threw himself on the sh.o.r.e and rolled about wildly, laughing at the top of his lungs while throwing fistfuls of pebbles up in the air and letting them land on his face and body. Eventually, the teary-eyed swordsman rose and began to gather some of those pebbles. Laughing Naumkib children helped him, delighting in his joy and praise when they handed him a particularly large or bright pebble.

Simna ibn Sind spent a pleasant and gratifying morning at the seash.o.r.e, collecting pebbles until his backpack was half full.

"I'm not a greedy man," he told Ehomba when he was sated. He hefted his pack higher on his shoulders, and the weight of diamonds within clinked as they shifted and settled. "This little is enough for me. I'm going to go home and buy myself a small kingdom."

Ehomba regarded his friend gravely. "Are you sure that is what you really want, Simna? To own a small kingdom?"

The swordsman hesitated, his smile fading. For a long moment he stood there, listening to the waves roll in to rustle the beach of diamonds, to the music of children playing, the chatter of merapes on the rocks offsh.o.r.e and the cries of seabirds and dragonets. Then he looked up at his tall friend and grinned anew.

"No, long bruther, I'm not sure that's what I want-but I am going to give it a try."

Ehomba nodded sadly. "Come into the village with me and we will arrange for the supplies you will need. I can give you some directions, and an introduction to a certain helpful monkey you may meet."

Simna left the following morning, the herdsman escorting him as far as the fifth beach north of the village, where the fog began.

"If you're ever in the far northeast," the swordsman told his friend, "seek out the khanate of Mizar-lohne. That's my homeland, and I'll settle myself somewhere nearby." He grinned one more time.

"There are always kingdoms for sale thereabouts." He sighed ruefully. "Who knows? Perhaps I might make another journey to find Damura-sese."

"You have been a good friend, Simna ibn Sind, and a boon companion." One last time, Ehomba put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Travel well, keep alert, and watch where you put your feet. Keep looking, keep searching, and perhaps one day, with luck, fortune might smile upon you and you might find Damura-sese."

The swordsman nodded, started to turn to go, and then paused. The sun was not yet high and it fell in his eyes, making him squint. "One last thing, Etjole. One thing I must ask." He moved closer so he would not have to squint as hard. "Are you, or are you not, a sorcerer?"

Turning away, the herdsman gazed off into the distance and smiled: that same familiar, enigmatic smile Simna had come to know so infuriatingly and so well in the course of their long journeying together.

"I have told you and told you, Simna. I am only a student, an asker of questions, who knows barely enough to make use of what the wise ones of the Naumkib provide me."

"By Gunkad, long bruther, answer the question!" Not to be denied or put off any longer by clever evasions, the swordsman fumed silently and stood his ground, both physical and forensic.

Ehomba looked down at him. "Simna, my friend, I swear to you by the blue of the sky and the green of the sea that I am no more a 'sorcerer' than any man or woman of my village, be they herder of cattle, hewer of wood, thresher of grain, or sc.r.a.per of hides."

The swordsman met his gaze evenly and looked long and hard into the eyes of his friend. Then he nodded. "What will you do now?"

"Watch over the cattle and the sheep. Be with my wife and children. In the time I was gone, my son reached the age when all Naumkib are initiated into the lore of adults. That is a task I must begin tomorrow."

"Hoy, I wish I could stay, and I don't want to offend you, but I'm really not interested in sitting through some quaint ceremony where a boy learns how to castrate cattle or dock sheep or paint his face with vegetable dyes." With a last regretful grin, he spun on his sandals and headed north, pausing once at the top of a ridge to turn and wave. Then he vanished, welcomed and swallowed up by the sea fog that hung perpetually over the coast north of the village, and Ehomba saw him no more.

On the morning of the following day the herdsman took his son Daki out of the village, heading inland.

Mirhanja packed them a lunch and bade them good-bye, but not after extracting from her husband a promise to be back well before nightfall.

The trail father and son trod was narrow and overgrown in many places with weeds and vines, so that it was difficult to see. It wound its obscure way into the gra.s.sy hills behind the village until it terminated next to a plain rock face at the end of a shallow canyon that looked exactly like a hundred other similar heavily eroded canyons. Clearing away some brush and dead twigs, Ehomba exposed a narrow, dark opening in the weathered granite. Preparing torches from the ample supply of dead wood that lay scattered about, the two men entered.

The downward-sloping floor of the tunnel had been worn smooth by centuries of running water and sandaled feet. They walked for an indeterminate time before their torches were no longer necessary.

Daylight filtered in through cracks in a ceiling that was now high overhead. A little farther on, the tunnel widened and became a chamber. Very soon thereafter it widened a great deal more, and became something else entirely.

The slim but well-built Daki, wearing a solemn expression others would have immediately recognized as being derived from his sire, contemplated the sight before him with respectful reverence but without awe.

"What is this place, Father?"