Origins: A Deepwoods Book - a Collection of Deepwoods Short Stories (Deepwoods Series 0) (28 page)

It was odd. Denney wasn’t sure why she thought this way, but
she had the impression that Wolfinsky knew very well that Siobhan would take
the back side. He had chosen to stay in the back to be near her. She’d seen it
before—if there was a choice, then Wolfinsky always chose to be near Siobhan.
Was it because of how Siobhan had rescued him from being a slave? Did he still
feel as if he owed her something for that? Or was it something else entirely?

Her uncle fell into step with Siobhan as the whole caravan
started moving. “Guildmaster. I’ve spoken to Man Fei Lei about this already,
but I think the only way to get a diagnosis is to carefully document everything
he eats and drinks for the next two weeks. That will give a baseline of
information about what types of meals he reacts to. From there, you should be
able to break it down to the ingredients, which ones every meal has in common,
and experiment. Take everything out that looks remotely suspicious and then add
each one back in, see how he reacts.”

“Sounds time consuming,” Siobhan noted, rubbing at her chin.
“And definitely not something we can easily do on the road.”

“No, doing this at home would be better,” Conli agreed. “I
wish I could see this through myself, as it’s a fascinating case, and I’d like
to know the answer.”

“As to that, sir, I think Fei would prefer it if you could
see it through. He mentioned to me this morning that he’d like to pick your
brain about medicine as you seem much more knowledgeable about things than most
of the Apothecarists we run across.”

Conli flushed and ducked his head. “You flatter me. I don’t
have anything against teaching him, if he’s interested.”

“Very much so. Fei finds the whole world interesting. He’s
just a little shy about sitting people down and grilling them about their
professions.”

“Is that right.” Conli grinned at her. “I’ll find a way to
corner him and force information on him, then.”

“That’s the spirit.”

They started walking. Denney found that most of this path
was worn in with hard packed sand. If she veered too far away from the cart,
though, it became loose sand and harder to walk on. In fact, it was loose
enough that if she didn’t watch her footing, she was in danger of turning an
ankle.

“Miss Denney, come back,” Wolfinsky urged and pointed a
finger to the area in front of him. “Don’t stray too far away. When those
sandstorms hit, I want you close enough to yank inside the cart.”

Oh, right. She obediently went back to walking in front of
him.

“And drink more,” he added with a frown. “You’re not
drinking enough.”

She took a healthy swallow from her canteen, surprised at
how quickly she felt dry again afterwards. It was like the water was absorbed
from her before it could even properly go down her throat. Denney snuck a peek
over her shoulder and found that he was following his own advice and drinking
as well. She’d thought it was just Siobhan, but really, he did look out for
everyone, didn’t he?

Wolfinsky caught her look and asked, “What?”

Not sure if she should ask, but too curious to leave it
alone, Denney decided to try prying a little. “Do you like guarding the back
over the front?”

“As to that, I do. In front, I can see dangers coming at me,
but it’s harder to see what everyone else is doing. I prefer being in the back,
where I can get the full picture.”

That did make sense. If Denney was an enforcer, she would
choose to do the same. She hopped onto the side of the cart and checked on the
puppies, but their water bowl was still full and they had found a shady spot to
sleep in. Satisfied, she hopped down again and debated whether to say something
more than she had. Two days earlier she might have let it lie, but after seeing
this giant man being used as a chew toy, she no longer had any real fear of
him. Deciding to push the matter a little, she pressed, “It’s not because your
guildmaster likes to guard the rear?”

“Ho?” His eyes crinkled up into a quick smile. “Caught that,
did you? It’s true, my Siobhan is a people watcher. If she has a choice, she’s
in a corner so she can keep an eye on the whole crowd. I try to stay in the
back with her, as she’s too quick to jump into a situation without calling for
help first.”

“I see.” ‘My Siobhan’ was it. Denney was absolutely certain
of it now. The man was at least half in love with his guildmaster. The last of
her fear toward him dissipated. She still wanted to stay on his good side, but
she now saw that to the people under his care, he was a gentle giant.

“Where did you grow up, Miss Denney?” he asked her.

An innocent way of figuring out her heritage? Probably. Most
people ended up asking in one way or another. “I was born to a Teherani mother
in Quigg.”

A dark thunderstorm swept over his face. “That is not a good
place for a child like you to be.”

Her heartbeat sounded heavy and loud in her ears. He
knew
.
“How…?”

“I was a slave there for seven years.”

“You poor man,” she breathed, the words tumbling out without
her truly meaning to say them.

“You’re a sweet girl, you are,” he responded with a gentle
smile. “You know as well as I how bad that city is. How did you escape the
place?”

“Conli came and got me when I was almost eleven.” Denney
never said ‘uncle’ aloud as she didn’t want to bring shame to his him in front
of other people. If they didn’t know the full story, they often came to the
worst possible conclusions, and his ability to work as a surgeon and
Apothecarist depended on his reputation.

“Fortunate, that.” Wolfinsky glanced over the cart and
ahead, to where Conli and Fei were walking with their heads together. “It was a
relief, meeting him. Master Conli’s a good man, one I can trust around my
girls, and that’s a rare thing. Sylvie especially can tempt most men past
reason.”

She was a startling beautiful woman after all. That was no
surprise to Denney.

From the other side of the cart, Siobhan complained, “Wolf,
I’m bored.”

This didn’t surprise the giant Wynngaardian as he drawled,
“Song or story?”

“Song.”

“Which one?”

“The one where the woman saves her village.”

“You always ask for that one,” he retorted, winking at
Denney to show that he actually didn’t mind this.

“I like it,” Siobhan protested, sounding amused. “So?”

Wolfinsky wasn’t really planning to sing, was he? He had a
nice enough speaking voice, but Denney couldn’t imagine him singing.

To her absolute surprise, he did just that. From his mouth
came this beautiful, steady voice that was amazing to listen to. He’d obviously
had some training at some point in his life, as he knew how to carry a tune
very well.

Also to her surprise, Siobhan joined in, singing a harmony
to his bass, and it was done so well that it was obvious she had done this many
times before. Denney listened with rapt attention as the song told a story of
courage and winning against all odds, complete with a happy ending.

Wolfinsky ended and said, “You didn’t join in? You’re
welcome to.”

“I didn’t know that one,” she confessed, and was jealous for
a moment that she couldn’t sing with them, as her heart wanted to join in on
the fun.

“Then let’s sing one you know,” Siobhan suggested, using the
cart as leverage for a moment to pop into view. “Name off some.”

Denney knew few songs that weren’t of the bawdy variety.
Conli wasn’t much for singing, either. It stymied her for a moment. “Today’s
Blossoms? Lady in the Garden?”

“Oh, I know the last one,” Wolfinsky agreed, already humming
the first few notes. “Siobhan, I don’t think you know all the words.”

“I’ll keep up as I can. I want to learn it, anyway. Wolf,
start us off.”

Wolfinsky sang, Denney singing timidly along, getting more
courage as Siobhan joined in. Beirly and Grae, on top of the cart, started using
the sideboards as a sort of drum to help keep a rhythm. Even the puppies joined
in, barking and wagging their tails, not understanding why the humans were
making such noise, but enjoying it. That set the people to laughing, making it
hard to sing, but they did manage to complete the song despite all the
interruptions. It was the first time she had traveled that Denney found it fun
and not completely stressful.

After that song, then took a break and drank a great deal of
water, discussing what to sing next. Wolfinsky and Siobhan both taught her two
songs, and then Beirly gave all of their voices a break and started telling
funny stories. There was quite an assortment of those, as apparently Wolfinsky
and Tran fell into trouble on a regular basis. Some of the tales of Fei’s
drunken episodes were just as hilarious and had Denney holding her sides.

Was this what their group was normally like on trips? If
they weren’t deliberately putting on a show to keep their guests entertained,
then Denney imagined it would be great fun to be a part of this guild.

Trudging through a desert with two puppies in tow was no
laughing matter. During the day, Denney was constantly worried about them
overheating, but fortunately the dogs seemed to have the sense to stay in the
shade as much as possible. She made sure their water bowl was topped off every
time the caravan stopped to eat, and between her actions and the rest of the
guild’s doting precautions, the puppies weathered the most brutal section of
the desert just fine.

After three hours of debate back and forth, they finally
landed on the names of Pete and Pyper. It took another two days for the dogs to
pick up on their new names and to actually respond to it, which Denney found
amazing, as normally it took a little longer than that. What she found
particularly amusing was that the puppies found everyone to be equally cuddly.
She’d settle in with them to sleep, using them as little mini-heaters against
the cold desert nights, only to wake in the morning and find them in Beirly’s
bedroll. Or Fei’s. Or Sylvie’s. Really, anyone was fair game.    

Denney thought she had this whole ‘traveling through the
desert’ thing down pat until the fourth morning. She woke up to a terrible
cramp in her right calf that nearly doubled her over. Gasping around the pain,
she called hoarsely, “Conli!”

Her uncle rolled out of bed with his eyes still struggling
to pop open, turning toward her. Somewhat to her surprise, Fei moved at the
same time, although with more grace and less flailing.

“Cramp?” her uncle guessed, shifting so that he knelt next
to her legs. “Right or left?”

“Right.” Although her left was giving sympathetic twinges
that might turn into a full blown cramp soon.

“You haven’t been drinking enough,” he scolded as he pulled
off her sock and stretched out her foot to a straight angle.

Denney hissed in a breath, as her foot didn’t like that
position at all.

Clearing his throat, Fei drew their attention to him. “I have
some skill in this.”

“Oh?” Interested, Conli didn’t let up on Denney’s foot, but
did look toward him. “Is this a skill from your hometown?”

“Indeed. If I may…?” gesturing toward her foot, Fei looked
to both Conli and Denney for permission. When it was granted with silent nods,
only then did he move, dislodging Conli to the side as a watcher.

He did not continue the uncomfortable position, but instead
relaxed her foot and then reached around with his thumb and pressed it squarely
in the middle of the calf muscle. Fortunately, he started off with gentle
pressure, then steadily increased it. “If you press here,” he explained as he
worked, “you counteract the spasm so that it comes back into a relaxed state.
It also helps if you press here,” he moved his other hand to the top of the
foot, settling his first two fingers in the hollow indentation between the big
toe and the second one, “as this is a known antispasmodic point. If you press
here, you must maintain the pressure until the cramp resolves.”

Conli stood long enough to move to Denney’s other side,
stripped off her sock, and then mimicked what the man was doing. “Here, and
here?”

“Precisely so. After the muscle has stopped cramping, then
it is good to bend the foot backwards, toes toward her leg, to increase
circulation for a few minutes.” Glancing up at her, Fei scolded, “You are not
drinking enough.”

Exasperated, she replied, “Yes, that just became clear,
thank  you.”

He found this funny, as his eyes lifted in a smile, nearly
disappearing into his face.

As soon as the cramp came, it left, which surprised her.
Most of the time when her muscles cramped like this, it would take several
minutes before it eased. At least.

Not that her impromptu aide would let go of her. Instead, he
bent her foot as he’d described earlier, toes toward her shin, and held it
there for several minutes. Only then was he satisfied enough to let go of her.

At this hour of the morning, most people were just rising,
and they took in the scene of two men bending over and holding her legs with
nothing more than a curious glance and yawn. Siobhan took the puppies in charge
for a morning walk before breakfast, just going a short distance away as they
attended to the calls of nature. Denney was grateful for the silent support, as
normally she did that herself.

“How did you learn about this?” Conli asked, finally letting
his victim go.

“It is standard training in my home. We grow up learning
about acupuncture points, how chakra flows—”

“Chakra?”

Fei opened his mouth, paused, frowned, then offered, “Think
of it as the natural energy of the body.”

Conli developed that look of intense interest that he
normally wore when he had stumbled across something medical he didn’t know.
“You remember all of this still?”

“Of course. As we walk today, we can discuss it.”

“I would be delighted to.” Conli meant every word.

Gaining his feet in a graceful rocking motion, Fei leaned
over and offered her a hand up. It was the first time that Denney could
remember, accepting the touch of another man, and not finding it
nerve-wracking. Was it because he had just been in physical contact with her
for several minutes? She grasped his hand, felt the strength in which he easily
pulled her to her feet, and looked up into those almond shaped eyes. There was
nothing in them but kindness and intelligence. He was, in fact, a dark-haired
version of Conli in many ways.

Thinking of him as such, a smile came easily to her face.
“Thank you.”

“You are very welcome. Now, for breakfast, you are required
to drink two glasses of water.”

“At once?” she objected. That would be rather difficult.

“Guzzle them,” he ordered, tone dry. “But drink.”

“You’re too dehydrated, you need at least two,” Conli
agreed.

Clearly this was not an argument she would win.

ӜӜӜ

“The two of you need to learn how to defend yourselves
better.”

Denney blinked, this comment coming out of the blue, and
looked at Siobhan. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s really bothering my enforcers,” she continued, as if
Denney were already on the same page, “that you and Conli don’t seem to know
how to defend yourselves very well. Your reaction outside of the baths
especially has them worried. They keep talking about it when they think you’re
out of earshot.”

Were they really? Denney felt very conflicted about this
information. She felt somewhat happy that the men were worried about her
safety, but also confused by what they expected her to do. “I’m not a fighter.”

“Denney.” Siobhan put a hand on her shoulder, leaning down
to look more directly in the eye. “Grae isn’t a fighter. Sylvie isn’t a
fighter. But if someone came at them, you can bet your britches that they’d put
up a whale of a fight. They’ve got good odds of getting away, too. What you
lack, I think, is the know-how of how to get free of a man if he corners you.”

Well that too. Denney honestly couldn’t think of herself as
a fighter, though. If someone came at her, even if she knew that she was going
to be hurt, she probably couldn’t bring herself to harm them.

Siobhan got this
look
on her face, as if she were
reading the back of Denney’s skull. Whatever it was that she saw, it made her
screw her mouth up to the side and nod to herself decisively. “Fei, I think.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Fei should teach you.” Siobhan didn’t have to shout very
loud, as the man she wanted was peeling potatoes and preparing dinner. “Fei.
Come teach Denney and Conli how to fight.”

Fei perked up immediately. “May I?”

“I’ll take over dinner,” Siobhan stated, already striding in
his direction. “This is more important. What were you planning to make?”

“Hot mash.”

“Oh, a favorite. Alright, I’ll do that. You go teach them. I
don’t want my friends as victims.”

As Fei moved, he gathered Conli with a touch to his shoulder
and a wave. Curious, the surgeon put his bedroll down, half-unrolled, and followed
to a flat spot a stone’s throw from the camp.

“What are we doing, exactly?” Conli inquired.

“You are a man of medical knowledge,” Fei stated factually.
“You will use your knowledge to fight. Denney-gui, you are a woman incapable of
hurting others. For now, I will teach you how to hit a man so that he is
stunned and you can run for help.”

Denney’s mouth parted in growing interest. “Can I do that?”

“Of a certainty, you can. There are many pressure points on
a man’s body where, with the right pressure, he will fold. First, we start with
simple things, ways for you to wrest free of a man’s grasp.”

What followed had to be one of the most interesting lessons
Denney had ever had the pleasure of receiving. Fei patiently taught both of
them how to break a man’s hold, how to grab someone from behind and flip them
over the shoulder, where to kick on the shins to temporarily cripple them.
Denney mimicked him as closely as possible, trying to engrave this knowledge
into her muscles. Fighting, no, she was no good at that. But temporarily
hurting someone in order to run?
That
she could do.

Conli learned the same things, but also others, things that
he seemed to grasp more readily than she did. But then, Fei seemed to know what
it was that her uncle was already comfortable with. Talking about pressure
points and chakra and all of that for a full day likely had something to do
with it.

She repeated the techniques again, several times, until she
could move at full speed and still do it accurately. Not that it meant she
could really escape Fei, of course. He was still faster than she was. But it
still bolstered her courage a little that she now could at least
try
to
run and have some chance of succeeding. Assuming that her opponents weren’t
much stronger and larger than she was.

Perhaps her teacher sensed this stray thought. He studied
her for a full moment before turning and calling, “Tran-ren, a moment.”

“Oh, am I playing attacker?” Easy-going about this, he came
over, grinning.

“Observe us, side by side,” Fei encouraged the two of them.
“Do you see how much disparity there is? I look like a child standing next to
him.”

“You are,” Tran drawled, only to lose his breath a second
later when Fei slammed a hand into his sternum. He got his wind back quickly
enough, chuckling. “I always get a rise out of him when I say that.”

Fei cleared his throat, looking above this. “You are only
six years my senior, Tran-ren. We will discuss this later. At length.”

Tran’s grin became feral. “Looking forward to it.”

Denney, watching the two, was reminded of bandy roosters in
the same hen yard. Did they quarrel with each other just for the fun of
fighting? Even the intellectual Fei seemed prone to doing so.

“Move at half speed,” Fei instructed. “Tran-ren, grab her.”

It might have been half speed for Tran, but it felt like
full speed to her, as he reached out and grabbed her by the collar with both
hands. Seeing a giant of a man, a Teheranian, looming over her struck a dark
spot in her mind and Denney froze, fear shaking her.

“Denney, don’t—” Conli consoled, moving toward her.

Fei stepped into his path, thwarting this, and instead
slapped a hand hard between her shoulder blades. “Do not freeze.
Move.
”

The pain of it sent adrenaline through her system and it
shook her out of her dazed fear. It also helped that Tran was still standing,
just standing, and waiting for her to react. Hands still shaking, breath coming
out in short gasps, she tried to remember what she had been taught. It took a
full second, but she remembered, and threaded her arms through his hands before
grasping her hands together in a large fist and yanking hard toward the right.

Tran’s hands sprang free and he nodded approval to her.
“Well done. You hit exactly where you should. Remember, always, to do it just
like that. If you don’t get a hand behind the elbow, it’s only half as
effective.”

Denney stared down at her own hands. That had…worked? “You
were going along with me.” He must have been. It didn’t make sense otherwise—he
was so much stronger than she was.

“Of course I did,” Tran agreed easily. “I didn’t want my
elbow to get broken.”

Wait, what? “No, I mean—”

“I know what you mean,” Tran interrupted, chiding her
gently. “But it doesn’t matter how big your opponent is, or how strong. You do
that, and he refuses to let go, and it will break his elbow. Why do you think
Shi-maee had Fei teach you? It’s because his techniques were designed so that
the smaller, weaker person could beat a stronger opponent.”

“In terms of brute strength, both Wolf-ren and Tran-ren are
stronger than I am,” Fei informed them both. “But in terms of fighting force, I
am their equal. I, too, use the techniques that I have just taught you on
opponents. They are the simplest way to put space between us so that I have
room to fight.”

Uninvited, Wolfinsky ambled over. “I’m going to be the real
test here. Miss Denney, I’m thinking that it was Teheranians and Wynngaardians
that gave you the most trouble? Yes, thought so. I’m going to attack you in a
moment. This time, don’t let your fear freeze you up. Fight through it, fight
me, and put me to the ground.”

Could she do that? Denney knew this man’s history. He was an
enforcer in a dark guild, he wore a weapon on his right hand at all times, and
he was the person that no one casually took on as an opponent. A part of her
really, truly, wanted to run away from this whole situation.

Wolfinsky wasn’t giving her that option. He took a giant
step forward and reached for her shirt. Denney kicked herself into motion and
rolled forward, ducking low, low enough that it wasn’t comfortable for him to
reach her.

“Good, good!” Fei encouraged.