Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) (28 page)

“
Once or
twice, but I never found out anything definite.” The Old Man said,
though his tone didn’t sound very reassuring.

“
Nor
have I, but I had to try, in the best possible way that I could
think of, not that I could think of very much beyond the obvious,”
Brigga shuddered to herself, “Unpleasant as it was, so that I could
understand him better.”

“
Oh, Brigga…” He almost reached
out for her.

“
I don’t
think I would make a very good spy,” She remarked to herself, as
the Old Man looked away from her, “For all of the nasty things that
I had to do, and would have to do, to find out the truth. There are
so many hidden corners in the human mind, and whenever I tried to
penetrate Smidge’s secrets, I always hit a wall of some kind as he
blocked me off. I could never get close enough to him.”

“
Perhaps
it’s for the best, Brigga.” The Old Man remarked, turning back to
her. “You don’t want to get too close to him, especially if he
proves to be a Follower of Doomba. I fear for you, your safety if
Smidge finds out your true purpose.” He added. “You should not have
done this without talking to me first.”

“
Don’t
worry about me, Old Man.” She smiled. “He got kicked out of the inn
last night, fired or fried, literally. He quit working at the inn
so that he wouldn’t get caught and arrested.” Brigga then grew
somber. “He won’t be bothering me anymore.”

“
What happened?” The Old Man
asked.

“
Habala
caught us in the storeroom last night,” Brigga cleared her throat
again, “I was trying to be accommodating with Smidge, to find out
more about him, although I didn’t want to go beyond what that
called for. We were…kissing, for the most part, but she knew that
something else was going on here, that I didn’t want to be
there.”

The Old Man finally
laid a hand on her shoulder and she gripped it tightly. “She
threatened Smidge, even hurled some fire at him, and he left,
though it was dangerous for her. I fear for Habala, Old Man,
interceding as she did.” She said, pausing in her chore. “Smidge
must be ver angry with her. In any case, Habala accused me of
spying on them, just as Nisa had done, trying to keep an eye on
Basha and Oaka.” She continued on with her chore. “I didn’t know
that she knew what Nisa was up to for all of these
years.”

“
Ah,
yes, I think she found out soon after Basha returned from running
away into the forest, about eight years ago,” The Old Man said,
“When our daughter saved Basha from the rats.”

“
Habala
told me as much.” Brigga said.
“She suspected what was going on, with what little Basha
had to tell her about his nightmares of burning rats, and then she
questioned our daughter. I don’t know if Habala knew precisely what
was going on for all of these years, but now she knows for sure. I
confirmed it.” She paused again. “I know I should have kept quiet,
I know I should have denied it, but I was so stunned by what she
knew, that I confirmed it. See? I wouldn’t make a very good spy.”
Brigga said, continuing again, “I can’t deny anything for very
long.”

“
That’s
a pickle.”
The Old Man said.
“Can we trust Habala to keep our secrets?”

“
I
suppose so,
because she kept
quiet about Nisa spying on her boys for all of these years,
although I bet that was mostly because she hoped that Nisa would
protect her boys whenever she wasn’t around.” Brigga remarked. “And
Nisa has done that fairly well for all of these years, but now that
the boys are gone, I fear that Habala might doubt us and our
motivations even more, probably with good reason.” Brigga sighed
and stopped hanging up laundry. “I am still being pushed to the
edge of this world.” She said, indicating the inn. “Habala doesn’t
believe me.”

“
What do you mean? What else
happened?” The Old Man asked.

“
I told
her what I suspected about Smidge.”
Brigga said and then, seeing the look on the Old Man’s
face, added, “I couldn’t help it, Habala has to know. But Habala
doesn’t want to believe me, she doesn’t want to believe that Geda’s
brother, whom she has known for most of her lifetime now, is a
Follower of Doomba. And I think she is a little paranoid about it.
If Smidge is a Follower of Doomba, if he, out of anyone, could be a
Follower of Doomba, then what about Geda, Smidge’s brother? Of
course, Geda isn’t, only Smidge is, but she doesn’t want to let
such doubts and fears infest her mind.” Brigga said, bending down
to pick up more laundry, and then she asked, “Geda isn’t, is
he?”

“
No, not
Geda,” The Old Man confirmed, and he sounded absolutely confident
in that. “It was Smidge’s choice, if he chose to
be
come a Follower of Doomba.
Geda never fell in with such a bad crowd like Smidge did.” The Old
Man sighed. “I should not have trusted Smidge. I should have
realized that, out of all the people here, he had some of the
strongest motivations to become a Follower of Doomba. Perhaps I
should deal with him before it is too late, make sure that he
doesn’t harm anyone anymore.”

“
What can you do?” Brigga asked
him.

“
I could
try capturing and imprisoning him, keep
ing him out of the way as I question him about his
actions, but his absence would be noticed by his family and the
townspeople. They would search for him, seeking answers. Eventually
I would have to deal with the matter even further, to handle Smidge
and maybe even stave off the townspeople’s attention, but do I have
that right when it comes to Smidge?” The Old Man hesitated. “I
don’t know how guilty Smidge is, the extent of his crimes. I know
about some of his activities and I have guessed at others, but I
don’t know if he is guilty enough to deserve an execution, which
might happen if he is left to me.”

Brigga stared at the Old Man. “You really would do
that?” She asked.

“
I have done such things before to
other Followers of Doomba. And so has Nisa.”

Brigga grimaced and
looked down. “I had not thought…actually, I have wondered, but I
had not thought...Old Man, are you certain about the veracity, the
rightness of your actions? And involving Nisa in them?”

“
I know.
Usually I am certain and usually I try not to involve Nisa in the
worst, but sometimes I cannot control what happens. Smidge’s case
is not as clear-cut as others have been.
He might be guilty enough to remain imprisoned for a
long time, possibly the rest of his life, but I don’t know if I can
keep him for the rest of his life.”

“
Maybe you shouldn’t do this.”
Brigga said. “Leave Smidge alone for now until you are certain
about his guilt and his crimes.”

“
But
what if he does do something horrible, even worse than what he has
done to you or anyone else?” The Old Man asked.

“
Then you can handle him without
any remorse, but for now, I think you should let him be. Keep your
eye on him and make sure that he doesn’t do any harm, but
otherwise, let him go.”

“
All right. I suppose that is the
best we can do for now, much as I hate…wait a minute. Brigga, could
you go to the constable and report that Smidge tried to molest
you?” He asked.

“
I can’t
do that.” Brigga said. “I thought about it, but I fear that if I
report on Smidge, there will be too many questions about what I was
doing with him, why I chose to be
with Smidge in the first place if I did not really want to
be there. They might uncover my purpose and your purpose as well.
Can we really convince them that Smidge is a Follower of Doomba and
that we are innocent of trying to frame him? Because if we can’t,
then Smidge goes free and we are in trouble.”

“
I suppose you are right about
that as well.” The Old Man grimaced.

“
Personally, I worry about Habala.” Brigga murmured,
straightening up again with a sheet of bed linen stretched out
between her hands, and she sighed. “She is in the middle of all
this.” She hung up the sheet. “Habala was my best friend when we
were growing up together here in Coe Baba. She was always so nice
to me, and we got along well together, but then things changed, we
changed, and we split apart to live our separate lives.” She twined
part of the sheet to the line, to stop it from blowing away with
the wind. “I never really got to know her better again, and I never
got her to understand why I did what I did with you and Nisa being
born out of it.” Brigga paused again, and the Old Man glanced up at
her.

“
What is it?” He asked.

“
I
thought that she would know that what I did was for the best for
me,” Brigga said, smiling to herself as she thought about her
former lover and their child. “But she was so confused with her own
life, as was I, and we split apart because we could not reconcile
the differences between us anymore.” She did not look back at the
Old Man. “We had to live like this, and we would do so much better
apart. I wish it wasn’t like this, but it was, and so we remained
like this for years, but now circumstances have forced me to come
back into her life, and she doesn’t like it one bit. I’m just as
hesitant about this as well, considering what she has done, but I
hope that, one day, she will come to see me in a better light and I
will see her, too. I hope that we can be friends again.” Brigga
whispered.

“
I hope
so too,” The Old Man said,
both of them not just talking about Habala and Brigga
anymore. He glanced up at the roof of the Smiling Stallion inn.
“Well, I had better be off.” He murmured.

“
Take
care of yourself.” Brigga said, still not looking back at
him.

“
You
know that I will. Take care of yourself,” He added back to her, and
then left. Brigga continued to hang up the washed laundry, and then
left, heading back into the inn as she wiped away some drying
tears.

Chapter 10: Harmless

I am not as bold and as brave as you
think I am,

I am just an ordinary man. But even
ordinary men

Have their moments of glory, true.
Bravery is just a

Matter of doing what you think you
cannot do.

--
Song of Bravery, Urso

Gnat ran into the forest, dodging trees as
her feet slipped over dirt and twigs and jumped over underbrush
until she reached the edge of a pool. She wanted to run away and
escape everything she had heard today, but she could not, not when
it might look suspicious.

She clambered over rocks to reach the other
side, where a waterfall dribbled down the face of an outcrop.
Besides, she had nowhere else to go and no one else to depend upon
when she might be alone.

She slid herself inside through a cave mouth
hidden behind the waterfall. At least here in Coe Aela she had some
company, even if they were all miserable like her, and had their
own worries. She slowly lowered herself down, step by step, inch by
inch, nearly slipping when the cave was slick with the spray that
sometimes dripped down the hole. No one cared for her here as much
as they might care for their own children. She got down onto the
floor, and walked towards the shape rising up from beneath the
surface. She had no parents to call her own.

She bowed her head. “I don’t know what to
do,” She said, whispering when she felt like she should always keep
her voice low here. She felt safe down here, but it was a sacred
place. “Oh, I don’t usually stick my neck out for other people, you
hear me, because I know I’m always going to get into trouble
eventually.” She paced around, still thinking. “But I don’t want to
see them die. I don’t want to see me die either, but I know I will
escape. I always escape, but not without a bit of pain.” She
paused. “I am Gnat. They call me a tiny little bug they cannot
destroy, but I cannot control everything.”

She whispered, even lower than before, “I
can slip in and out, find my way around anything, maybe because I
am small and insignificant. But I cannot say the same for others.
They are the ones who will be killed, for being important and
significant in some way. I do not know why. Maybe they made someone
angry, or maybe they are being prevented from doing something
important.”

She stopped and shook her head, realizing it
was ridiculous as she turned to the figure to ask, “Do you even
understand what I am trying to say? Do you understand?” She asked
and reached out, longing to touch it, but then she turned away.
“No, I shouldn’t. You don’t understand me, anyway, and certainly no
one else here does. The problem here is that nobody listens, or
pays any attention, to me, except for…well, it means trouble for me
when they do, but then I have nobody else to talk to. No one else
listens to me, and then…no, no, thank you. I will not stir, or
cause any more trouble to fall upon me, but I have to help them,
don’t I?” She asked the figure.

“
These others, they
probably have a future, a destiny to protect, and Goga and Fobata
here are trying to stop that from happening. I suppose I have to
help them because it is the right thing to do, if they need me to
survive, if they need me to help make things better. I would have
murdered them if I didn’t help, and I don’t want to harm anyone
like I’ve been hurt. They seem nice, Basha and the girl
especially…” She sighed. “Thank you for listening to me, but I have
to go back. They are probably looking for me, looking to assign me
another task to do. But thank you anyway for being here, and thank
you for everything,” She said, turning away. She still had a lot to
do, but it was a start. She walked back, and clambered up towards
sunlight, leaving the figure for darkness and the water that
dripped down the rock wall.