Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) (22 page)

Unfortunately, that meant risking his
neck, and the necks of his future hatchlings after him in turn, by
traveling along with these stupid bozos who were now being chased
by Black Wolves again.

And the second
message he had received at Coe Aela, to be delivered to Coe Kiki
after Sir Nickleby’s message
…
it wasn’t meant for the ears of
Basha and his friends, but it might have been important to them at
this point.

Rule #9 of Being a Royal Messenger
Bird, Keep your wings clean, trim long pinions. Rule #10, Refresh
your mind with memory tricks. Rule #11, Be quick in flight, but
remember to rest, and Rule #12--Keep on task, Do Not Delay With
Flocks.

Why had he not
followed this rule? Perhaps he wasn’t the smartest
bird
,
apparently ravens, crows, and parrots were smarter than he
was
,
but that didn’t stop him from trying and failing to be smart.
And he would be punished for it.

Part
Two
: Coe Aela

Chapter 8: Welcome

We come from all around, we come from
every

Town. We seek food and shelter, warmth and
hearth,

Happiness and safety too. Well, you are in
luck, for you

Have found it here, Welcome to the Smiling
Stallion inn!

--The Smiling Stallion Inn song, Arria

Iibala raced down the road, not even
bothering to take one of the horses out of the stables when the
animal would only mess her sense up. Somewhere up ahead of her,
someone was dying, and she had to stop it somehow. The sense of
death she had was common to her, especially living so close to the
cemetery with the standing stones; she hated experiencing that
sense of death nearly every day. But this time it was different. It
was closer, it was fresher, and it was dying, not dead already. If
she could stop the dying, it would end her sense of it.

Her father’s ranch was located about five
miles or so outside of town proper on the northeast road that would
lead all the way to the Oracle of Mila’s cave. If she wanted to go
anywhere besides the cave, she had to go south to the main road,
which was intersected by the northeast road at the point it started
to turn south to avoid the graveyard. She had to pass by the
graveyard every time she went into town. It annoyed her, messed up
her senses every time.

She wished she had ridden a horse. Iibala
slowed down, huffing and puffing. Had she really been running
for...two miles now? Oh, this was exhausting! Why had she been
running all this way? It was urgent, yes, but she didn’t have to
kill herself over it. She landed against a rock, huffing and
puffing, and stared up at a menhir. Oh, why…she recoiled in
disgust, trembling as she felt death, and more; there was someone
here already. She turned away, and saw, sitting on top of a rock, a
figure she recognized. Could that be Sisila? What was she doing out
here? The feeling of death Iibala had was growing stronger.

She approached slowly, not wanting to alarm
Sisila, and apprehensive as well about the baron’s youngest
daughter being out here. There was no reason for her to be, so
early in the morning, and yet--could she be connected to this
sense?

Sisila looked up and gasped. “Iibala?” She
called.

“
Yes, it’s me!” Iibala
called back, coming up to the rock—not a dolmen, at
least.

“
What are you doing out--”
Sisila said, turning around on top of the rock to face
her.

“
I might ask you the same
question.” Iibala said.

Sisila sighed. “I was...trying to
reconcile...have you ever had a strange dream, a vision of sorts if
you will? One so vivid that you can’t believe it’s not real?”

Iibala hesitated. “I’ve had dreams of those
sorts, of horses and men. Some of them intertwined with me.” She
smiled wickedly.

Sisila blinked and frowned. “You’ve been
around too many stallions.” Sisila remarked before she turned away
and said, “I’ve had dreams of those sort as well, of life-like
quality and not--well, of horses and men.” She gulped.

“
Then you don’t have a very
good imagination, Sisila.” Iibala said.

“
Anyway, last night I had a
dream unlike any other I’ve had before,” Sisila continued, “But it
haunted me. Of figures standing out here around an open grave,
waiting to lower down an empty coffin. Jawen, Geda, Habala, Lapo,
the mayor, my father, even you and I were out here standing amongst
the townspeople, dressed in mourning black, not far from the grave
of Kala, Basha’s mother. I wanted to scream at them to stop.” She
lowered her head.

“
Sisila, that’s not
altogether uncommon, to have such a horrible nightmare, considering
what you have been through.” Iibala said. “My father, your beloved
Oaka, and dear, sweet Basha are gone, off on a quest for Jawen,
wretched though it might be. Natural that you might think that--”
Iibala hesitated a moment. She did not want to say ‘they might be
dead’, for there was a likelihood that it might occur. “However, do
not fret, for though my father can be annoying, he is still a
knight. He has years of experience under his belt, and though his
best years might be behind him--”

“
It’s not just that,
Iibala.” Sisila said, turning back to her. “Are you in love with
Basha?” She asked.

Iibala burst out laughing. “I’m not--I might
be attracted to him, and I might have grown fond of him, but no,
right now I’m not in love with him.” She sighed. “I was trying to
get to him at the Courtship ritual because--well, because he’s
improved a lot since I dated him several years ago,” She turned to
Sisila. “Do you know what I did to him then?” She asked.

“
You dumped him for an
older man, laughed in his face when he caught you two together, and
then said that he wasn’t a man. Oaka told me so.” Sisila said,
glaring at her.

“
That’s right, but Basha
has grown up a lot since then, and I’ve seen that I was wrong, I’ve
seen that--well, he has great potential.” Iibala said. With what
her father had suspected, Iibala thought it might be a good idea to
be on the tiger’s side. “I wasn’t about to let that go to Jawen
without a fight. I did not like the idea of Jawen getting any more
than she already had, for Jawen does have a lot because of her
father.”

Sisila shook her head.
“Well, if you had felt true love for Basha, you would have known
that true love means sharing a soul, of sorts.” Sisila said,
turning around to face the graveyard. “I felt that I was in the
grave, in the coffin, as well as standing amongst the
mourners.
Despite the normal life of the
town going on behind me, despite the graveyard and the burial now
my limbo, I felt my soul connect to Oaka, and I knew where he was,
that he was still alive, even though in grave danger. He was still
alive and standing right next to me almost three hundred miles
away.”

Iibala opened her mouth, about to say
something important to Sisila in the form of some advice, when they
spotted movement from the main road, not far from Sisila’s rock,
and--she knew what it was.

“
Father!” She cried,
running toward the familiar horse with its rider draped across its
back, barely noticing the other rider keeping pace alongside. The
sense of dying was stronger than ever before.

She reached the horse, and raised her head.
“Oh, father,” She gasped, staring at the wounds barely healed all
over his body. Skin and muscle had been torn off in some places,
barely revealing bone, and he appeared to be in agony still, a
pained expression on his pale face.

“
Is he okay?” Sisila asked,
just catching up with her.

“
Is this man--” A voice
started to say, and they stared up at the woman riding alongside
him, a woman in her 30s as hard as the rocks that surrounded her
with brown hair.

“
He is my father.” Iibala
said, “What happened to him?”

“
He was attacked by wolves
as far as I can tell,” The woman nodded. “I’ve done the best I
could do, but he needs to rest. I’ve brought him back here as fast
as I safely could, as he said he lived in Coe Baba when he was
coherent. Other times, he said Coe Kiki, and some other places.”
She added.

Sir Nickleby moaned. “Iibala?” He asked,
opening his eyes.

“
I’m here, father,” She
said, reaching up to grasp his hand, though he flinched. She did
not blame him. She now realized how weak, how old, and how hurt he
was after this attack. “Can you come with us back to our home?”
Iibala now asked the woman. “We may need some help getting him
inside.”

“
Of course. I have to, as
it is my duty.” The woman remarked. “Grab the reins of his horse,
Iibala, and lead the way.”

“
What is your name?” Sisila
asked the woman as Iibala did as she was bid, and they started off
towards Iibala’s home.

“
I am Mirari.” The woman
said.

“
Mirari the healer from Coe
Ryn?” Sisila asked.

“
Yes. I was on my way here
from Coe Anji. Right at the start of the season, the ship dropped
me off there, just a little bit earlier than usual this year, as a
matter of fact. And I happened across Sir Nickleby and his horse
right along the roadside about a hundred miles from here.” Mirari
shook her head. “What was he doing out there?” She
asked.

“
It’s a long story.” Sisila
remarked, glancing at Iibala. How could they share such a story now
to a near stranger?

Mirari the healer? How was
it possible that Mirari had found-- “It’s a blessing you found
him,” Iibala managed to say, although she wondered why this had
happened. It was now the 14
^th
day of Markee,
approximately 8 days since Basha, Oaka, and her father Sir Nickleby
had left Coe Baba on Basha’s quest. Eight days, and already her
father was on the brink of death. What had happened to Oaka and
Basha? She hoped they were okay. Sisila had said Oaka was, that she
had felt him last night, but what about Basha? It was almost like,
whatever had happened, this quest was doomed. And she knew who to
blame.

A sable passant bear wavered in the
field of white that hovered above the turrets and battlements of
Coe Aela, a rectangular limestone castle of immeasurable age at the
edge of Mila Forest. Guards walked along the allure, or wall-walk
behind the parapets of the curtain walls, keeping up their rounds
even though there was no enemy to fight anymore. They saluted their
commanding officers, especially Captain Goga, commander of all the
guards, whenever they did pass by them. Otherwise, there was
nothing else for them to do except to watch.

Suddenly, they heard howling in the
distance and they stopped to turn their heads towards the north,
where most of Mila Forest was spread out in front of them, with the
mountains and hills of the Popo Hills region beginning behind them
towards the south. The howling was of numerous strains, yet all
echoing one another in the end and coming this way.

Goga ordered some of his men to follow
him towards the gatehouse, while a few of his men were sent down
into the bailey to stand on either side of the gate, ready to fight
if any unwelcomed invaders managed to get through, although the
portcullis currently was lowered.

Marlo, the old steward of the castle,
stepped outside to see what all of the fuss was about, as the
servants coming inside the castle were complaining and gossiping
amongst one another about what was happening. Marlo wanted to
squelch any rumors that anything amiss was going on, as he had to
see to it that the servants were well-content with their lot in
life and ready to serve, but he had a feeling that he could not
scrub this emergency away from their minds.

“
Marlo?” A voice he
instantly said just inside the doorway.

Marlo turned around, and bowed. “My
lord.” He whispered.

“
What is going on?”
The lord asked, staring up at the wall in fear.

“
It will be all
right, my lord,” Marlo said, feeling a need to reassure the man he
had helped to take care of since birth.

Goga had two men stand by on the winch,
ready to raise the portcullis if he felt so kind as to let someone
through. He knew that the howling meant something, he could almost
understand what they were saying. If these were just ordinary
wolves chasing something through the forest, he had nothing to
fear, but it was rare for a whole pack of wolves to be howling like
this in the middle of the morning. If it was Black Wolves, Hyena
Wolves, however, then he had much to fear. He also needed to know
just what they were chasing.

“
Hava!” He called,
turning around.

His dark-haired secretary, who appeared
to be in his early thirties, was standing right behind him. “What
is it, Captain Goga?” Hava asked, annoyed.

“
Bring me my
telescope,” Goga said, pointing down.

“
All the way in the
barracks?” Hava asked, appalled.

“
Now, Hava, and be
quick about it!” Goga told him.

Hava sighed, and started jogging off
along the allure towards the rear of the castle grounds, as the
stairs there led down towards the barracks. Goga shook his head at
the man’s incompetence, already wishing to be rid of him as he
turned back around to peer out into the distance.

“
What is going on?”
He heard a voice boom loudly from below behind him, and Goga
grimaced as he turned towards the center of the bailey, for
standing there was none other than Lord Fobata, Duke of Coe Aela,
with Marlo the steward just behind him.