Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) (21 page)

“
That
story
…
it reminded me of something horrible,” She said, turning
away.

“
Oh. I’m sorry.”
Basha said, after a pause, not really knowing what to say. If
Monika had experienced anything like what Mila had
suffered
, then they really
did owe her an apology.

“
Don’t be. It’s over
now, and
you’re not to blame,” She said,
shaking her head. “I killed him who was.” She whispered, riding
off.

Basha sat there for a moment on top of
Talan, and shuddered.

“
A small white bear
and a big black bear had been in the woods, foraging.” Monika said
the next day, telling them all about a dream she had last night.
“When Tau’s Cup slid past them, they became unsettled.”

Basha ate his food, feeling a little
bit unsettled as well. Monika was the problem when she had
disturbed him deeply, not because she posed a threat as such, but
because he knew so little about her, with what she had said
yesterday after Oaka told the story of Tau’s birth, and then what
she had done later that night.

Last night, after everyone had eaten
and gone to bed, Basha stirred because of a smell that was both
sweet and sort of sickly burning. Basha opened his eyes, and rolled
over to see Monika crouched by the flames, which she had reignited,
not even moving as she stared into them. The flames sort of looked
like the colors he had seen in the Oracle of Mila’s cave when the
Oracle was doing her prophesying, and he wondered if he would hear
Monika mumbling in the Old Language, like the Oracle had been, if
he was close enough to her. He fell asleep again at this point. He
woke up in the morning thinking it was just a bad dream he had, but
now he was not so sure.

Oaka sat there beside him, nibbling.
Oaka had continued traveling with them, not even stopping to ask
why he should after another dispute with Monika, although he had
gotten reprimanded. Basha had found Oaka sitting by the side of the
road, reading Sisila’s letter to himself again as Joko grazed
somewhere else. Basha had been seeing that piece of paper a lot
more often these days, as Oaka seemed to keep taking that piece of
paper out to read and reassure himself whenever he was worried.

“
What’s bothering
her?” Oaka had asked as Basha approached him.

“
Monika is upset
because--” Basha had sighed. “I know you don’t trust her, but have
you thought that whatever secrets she might have, she might have a
good reason for keeping them?”

Oaka had looked up. “I don’t think
so--”

“
Oaka--she has
suffered in the past. Long before I first met her.” Basha had said.
“When she came to Coe Baba several months ago in the Sna, she was
limping. She had been in a fight. She had nearly died because of
it,” He inhaled, and said, “I think it was similar to what she was
doing at the warehouse, trying to free those slaves. I think she
was one of them, once.”

Oaka had stared at him. “I did not know
that--”

“
Monika has some
issues with trusting others,” Basha had said. “Understandable,
given what she has been through. And I think we should give her
some time to--relax, and trust us some more. Then she might be
willing to tell us what she knows. Okay, Oaka?” He
asked.

“
Fine, Basha,” Oaka
had sighed. “Just as long as you are aware of what’s going on.” He
had stood up and shook his head as he muttered, “I thought--well, I
thought she was a Follower of Doomba.”

“
Why, on Arria’s good
green earth, would you have thought that?” Basha had
asked.

“
Because--well, don’t
they keep secrets and tell lies?” Oaka had asked.

Basha had sighed. “Come on, Oaka.”

By the time Oaka and Basha had caught
up with Monika, she had stopped, and set up camp for lunchtime,
with Fato already landed on top of a rock nearby. “Monika, I am so
sorry,” Oaka had said, dismounting from his horse as she came over
to him.

Monika then punched him in the gut, not
hard enough for him to fall down, but enough to make him double
over and wince. “That is for making me--” Monika had groaned. “Do
not upset me like that again.” She said, turning away from him as
Fato laughed.

“
Heard you loud and
clear,” Oaka had grunted and groaned as Basha grimaced in empathy.
Even so, Oaka had continued on, though he kept clear of Monika for
now.

“
The big black bear
roared and motioned in the direction that the Cup went.” Monika
said now. “The fleas off of his back leapt onto the back of the
white bear. However, the white bear only went after the Cup for a
short distance before he turned around. The fleas now attacked
their old master, the big black bear, in a swarm. The small white
bear grew bigger, red eyes gleaming. And that was it, there wasn’t
anymore.”

“
Not much of a
dream.” Oaka said. “I think you were just replaying in your own
mind the arguments we’ve been having.” He winced to himself,
remembering.

“‘
Dreams often have a way
of truth, if we look so far into them, that we might see the future
ahead for us in our sleep.’” Monika said, nodding. “That was from
‘A Book of Fay’, if I recall.”

“‘
A Book of Fay’,” Oaka
said, and chuckled. “Prophecies and dreams, and now we’re
referencing the Fay! Next thing you know, we might be wishing for
the moon to come down.”

“
Oaka, the Fay did exist.”
Fato declared.

“
Never figured you for an
idealist,” Oaka said, staring at him in shock. “Or a dreamer. Basha
is the one who would be saying that.”

“
Yes, well, you don’t know
the half of it.” Fato declared. “I believe the Fay did exist,
because…well, where would magic have come from?” He
asked.

“
Magic is--was--” Oaka
hesitated. “It’s a human thing. Maybe it’s from the
gods.”

“
Don’t tell me it’s
human! What about the animals? The unicorns and
dragons
,
don’t tell me that wasn’t magic that created them!” Fato
exclaimed.

“
All right, it was
magic. It’s a natural thing. But I don’t believe in the Fay
because
,
well, they were not natural, were they?” Oaka asked. “Fay
were
somewhere between gods and men,
right? What’s natural about that? Gods exist if you believe in
them, men and animals definitely exist, but Fay were more of a
fancy to me, a wish fulfillment.”

Fato opened his
mouth, but then
…
howls in the distance.

“
Lowercase wolves?”
Oaka asked.

“
No, in the middle of
the day?” Basha exclaimed. “They’re Black Wolves, Hyena Wolves,
Wolves uppercase!”

“
Let’s get out of
here!” Monika cried, standing up. “Grab everything, and load the
horses!” She told them.

Fato had been keeping
secrets from his friends
,
if you could call them friends,
for how much they had been ignoring him these past couple of
days
,
throughout this whole trip. Basha had been nice about letting
him join up with them, after what had happened to Sir Nickleby;
Fato understood that sometimes grief made people hard. Basha was a
nice fellow, all things considered, and at least he listened to
Fato sometimes. Oaka, a little less so; he had big problems with
trust, Fato could understand that as well, apparently Oaka had been
very upset over the loss of the knight, because he had been such an
important man, and Fato might have teased the boy too much. He
wasn’t about to let somebody debase him first without debasing them
as well.

Ah, Monika was a sweet girl, even if
she was a little secretive and reserved, always ready to pet him
and scratch him if he landed on the pommel of her saddle and leaned
towards her. Monika even took some of the load off of him, for
besides being the target of Oaka’s dismay for awhile, she took over
as the main hunter for the group, sharing her kills with the boys.
Now Fato could keep most of his kills for himself instead of
sharing, and the meat tasted good.

But even Monika did not know the truths
Fato concealed.

The fact of the matter was, he wasn’t
carrying a very important message; he wasn’t even sure if it was
worthy of King Sonnagh’s ears. He probably would just relate it to
some court orderly instead, typical. What happened on the day the
Black Wolves first started chasing him, and then Basha and Oaka was
this: Fato had been flying along, but singing his ‘Fato the falcon,
Fato the falcon, royal messenger bird extraordinaire’ song instead
of reciting the message. He was thus distracted, and did not notice
the pack of Black Wolves until he was almost on top of them.

Luckily, the wind had been in his favor
that day, and there was a convenient branch upon which he alighted.
The pack of Black Wolves appeared to be resting after a morning
meal. He watched, horrified yet fascinated as they lied upon the
ground, gnawing at fleas like they were a bunch of dogs lazing
about. But then a howl in the distance alerted the pack members,
and they rolled over and sprang up onto their paws, setting off.
Against his sane and better judgment, Fato decided to follow after
them, to see what had triggered their agitation and what could make
them move like this. He also wanted to know what they were up to so
that he could tell King Sonnagh; this would definitely be worthy of
the king’s notice.

The Black Wolves were already in a
swift lope and he could barely keep up. As Fato skimmed through the
canopy, though, he did notice several members of the pack pausing,
one at a time, to sniff and scan the area. They were looking for
something, he could tell.

At last, he became so dangerously
curious that he spiraled downwards to get a closer look. A halted
Black Wolf, who seemed not to notice the falcon, caught whiff of
something in the opposite direction and yelped to alert the pack.
Once several yelps had answered back, then the Black Wolf twisted
round to maliciously and playfully snap at the hovering Fato.

However, the falcon, half-frightened
out of his wits by this action, inadvertently glided away in the
same direction as their quarry, thinking to himself soon afterwards
that the Black Wolves were after him. Accelerating through the
forest, he got brief glances of Black Wolves sprinting round pine
trees, howling in gory anticipation, right behind him.

He even passed by a human hurrying to
get away from this formidable force, his long legs flying--that had
been Oaka.

When passing over a gap in the forest
canopy, he spotted another human directly below him. The falcon
immediately circled round and dived down. He had to warn him. He
had brought these Black Wolves upon these poor fellows.

“
Wolves! Coming this
way! Get out of here, boy!” Fato cried, and then flew
off.

He did not see most of what happened
next. He flew up high, and then realized that he had not been
chased by the Black Wolves. Instead he realized that the Black
Wolves had been waiting for the boys and chasing after them even
before one of the Black Wolves--just one--had noticed him. That
made him think for a moment, and he decided to go back down to see
if the boys were still alive.

At one point, coming down, he spotted
the Wolves surrounding something, snarling, possibly a person that
had been knocked onto the ground. But then the Black Wolves had
scattered with a puff of smoke billowing up into the air and,
coughing, Fato had avoided that spot, knowing that whatever or
whomever he might find down there would be dead.

The boys were fine for the most part
when he spotted them, although crying about the loss of Sir
Nickleby and worrying about why the Black Wolves had been chasing
after them. Fato was concerned, especially when one of them turned
out to be ‘Basha’. For Fato had been carrying not one, but two
messages. Over a month ago, Fato had taken off from Old Fort
Ca--near Coe Jaja, and south of Coe Kiki--with his first message,
from a Major Lupo to a Sir Nickleby in Coe Baba, basically saying,
‘Keep Basha safe’, amongst other things.

Fato had stopped at a couple of places
along the way, including Coe Aela where he had received his second
message that was to be delivered to Coe Kiki, but he had to take
care of his first message before delivering the second. So Fato had
been heading north, on his way to Coe Baba, when he had spotted the
Black Wolves and turned around, just in time to meet Basha
personally. Sir Nickleby was dead, that had to be whomever (or
whatever) the Black Wolves were surrounding before. He wouldn’t be
receiving his message in that state, but it still remained lodged
in Fato’s head--‘keep Basha safe’. Apparently Sir Nickleby had
needed the message.

Fato wanted to know more about them,
why in the world Black Wolves would have been chasing after them in
the first place when they didn’t seem that dangerous or impressive.
Maybe the boys would have just been eaten by the Black Wolves, but
the Black Wolves had already eaten, so why them? Fato decided to
find out more. He decided to stay with them, and help them if he
could, because they needed all of the help they could get in their
pitiful, weakened state. At least he had done something noble for
once, if not exactly smart, for all of the good it had done him
now.

He was a royal messenger bird, but he
wasn’t the only one, nor was he the most important one. It was a
little hard for him to stand out amidst the flocks of different
birds, all shapes and sizes. He might have been one of the
predatory birds, built to survive long flights and fend for
himself, but he wasn’t one of the largest raptors. Some eagles and
hawks were much larger than him. But Fato had dreams about being
the noblest amongst them. He wanted to be a real royal messenger
bird, used and kept by the king of Arria himself, trusted to
deliver the most important messages. What glory that would be for
him and his future hatchlings after him.