The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (25 page)

Encender glanced at Gully, frowned impatiently, and said, “Bayle, this is my daughter, Abella Jule. Abella, this is our... guest... Bayle Delescer, who lives in Lohrdanwuld even though he claims to have grown up in the bogs and marshes south of here.”

Gully remembered the patriarch mentioning his granddaughter, the only one besides Gallun and Gellen that had been rescued from enslavement in Maqara.

Gully held his hand up and said, “Aye. It is very nice to meet you, Abella Jule.” The girl held her hand up as well and smiled very sincerely at him, but Encender took her by the elbow. He said curtly, “My wife has requested I come see her, and Abella must accompany me back.”

Without waiting for either his daughter or Gully to respond, he walked away swiftly, still holding onto his daughter’s arm. Gully could hear him warn her, in a whisper still loud enough for all around to hear, “He is a thief and to be avoided, Abella.”

Gully’s heart sank a little at the words, but he had admitted his vocation to them, and he therefore could not begrudge Encender’s reluctance to believe his claim that he meant them no harm.

He hoisted his bag onto his shoulder and turned to go back the way he had come to return to Gallun’s and Gellen’s shack. This time, Gully kept his eyes more focused on his feet as he trudged along, only looking up to make sure he was walking the correct way.

He had gone only a short distance when he heard his name called again, and he looked up to see the large man, Raybb, both human and bear form together, waving him over to a fire where they, or rather he, was preparing what looked like breakfast.

Even through the beard that hid his mouth, he could tell Raybb was smiling at him, and it made Gully’s spirits lift a little. And it was quite remarkable to watch both a man and a bear working in perfect unison to prepare food.

Raybb said with his rumbling voice, “Good morning, Bayle!”

“Ho there, Raybb, good morning,” said Gully. “Have you seen Gallun or Gellen, by chance?”

“They left early to go hunting. They will be back any time now, I would expect.” Raybb pointed a spoon at the bag slung around Gully’s shoulder. “I see Encender returned your belongings to you. You received your knife back as well?”

“Yes, I got that back, too,” said Gully.

The human half of Raybb paused to talk to Gully while the bear half continued with breakfast. Gully found it fascinating to watch a bear perform such tasks, a human intelligence unmistakably behind the motions rather than the clumsy fumbling of even a tamed and well-trained bear. The only thing that seemed to limit the bear was what it could handle due to having claws instead of hands, but the human half of Raybb would reach over without a thought and without looking when a hand was absolutely necessary.

Raybb said, his voice softer and kindly, “I know that Encender can seem bitter and unforgiving, but do not judge him too harshly, Bayle. He is tasked with our protection and survival as a people, and he is fighting a battle that he knows he can only lose one day, no matter how desperately he, and all of us, want him to succeed.”

Without even looking back, Raybb took a wooden bowl from his bear half and began to stir the pasty looking contents as they talked.

“And when Gallun and Gellen did not return from their hunt over a week ago, it worried everyone. If the most prepared among us can be taken, then what chance do we stand as a people?” said Raybb sadly.

Gully said, “Encender has every right to be suspicious. The people of Lohrdanwuld are scared witless about the disappearances. They have no idea how they happen, and no one in the entire kingdom seems to have any way of stopping them. Of course, now I know the truth... those in power have no interest in stopping these disappearances! They profit from them! And they lay the blame on you, the rumored gypsies, monsters, cannibals even, deep in the woods. To be truthful, I imagine they don’t work harder to find you because you serve a purpose. You take the blame for their deeds and serve as another easy source of slaves they can sell to Maqara. It is all infuriating to me!”

He added, “But as you said, I do not judge Encender harshly for his opinion of me. No one has any real basis to place trust in me, and I accept that. But does he not judge Gallun and Gellen too harshly? Who is telling him not to judge
them
so cruelly, especially after what has happened to them?”

“Well, the patriarch, for one,” said Raybb. “But you must understand, it is deeply ingrained in our clan and in Balmorean culture to see their capture as a grave failure in their duty, so the patriarch faces a difficult task in changing hearts and minds among the clan in this respect.”

Raybb’s bear-half finished what he could do in his preparations and sat down on the ground next to them with a loud grunt. Gully glanced at the bear again curiously.

Raybb laughed and said, “I am sorry for scaring you so yesterday evening.”

“You were doing your part to protect the clan,” said Gully with a shrug.

Gully blushed slightly for a moment and then asked, “Er... Raybb... this is probably a strange request and probably inappropriate. Would it... would you mind if I touched the bear?” Gully turned even redder in the face once he had spoken the request out loud. “I do not believe I would ever have this kind of strange opportunity anywhere else,” he said rapidly, in way of explanation. His embarrassment was only barely overcome by the unique opportunity he felt like he had.

Raybb roared with laughter and said, “You are welcome to do so! The clan is so used to it that we think nothing of the animal forms among us. After all, they really are all people, even if they are shaped like what you have only ever known of as wild animals.”

Gully reached over and placed his hand on the bear’s shoulder, then in the center of his chest. Every bit of his childhood training told him it was a dangerous thing to do and that the bear would try to attack him, but Raybb let him place his hands upon him freely.

Raybb said proudly, “Oh, the very best part of being a familiar, especially a bear, is that I can scratch my own back anytime I like!”

Gully chuckled and agreed with him that it would be a marvelous ability indeed.

He then said, “Tell me about the skirts, ‘kilts’ I believe I heard you call them, that many of the men in the clan wear. It would be strange for an Iisen man to wear a skirt.”

Raybb’s eyes twinkled merrily and he said, “Yes, I know. You are right, though, we call them kilts and not skirts. They are not just for males, but more particularly are the most practical article of clothing for transmutes, male and female, who must be able to undress quickly before they change form.”

Gully glanced down at the charcoal-gray kilt of a nubby fabric that Raybb wore. “You wear one and yet you are not a transmute.”

“I find them to be more comfortable, especially in the summer. There are other men in the clan that like them as well. Because of the transmutes, Balmorean society has never had a strict taboo on nudity in public like the Iisendom does. It is still polite to be dressed when convenient, but no one would think twice about being unclothed otherwise. And our animal forms go unclothed all the time. You’d never see a bear in breeches, that’s for sure,” said Raybb with another deep laugh. “I have never understood that taboo among Iisenors anyway. Everyone knows what the male body and the female body looks like, so why such a fuss over it?”

As Gully sat back down next to Raybb, a small girl, probably aged seven or eight years, came racing up behind his bear form, leaped upon him, and started climbing all over him as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Raybb’s human half grunted from the attack and said, “Maarbeth! Not so rough, please. You’re not as small as you used to be! And heed your manners while we have company!” The bear grabbed her off his back, carefully because of his claws, and set her down in front of them while she continued to squirm and laugh. Exoutur approached at a more leisurely pace after the girl, greeting Gully with a “good morning.”

Raybb said, “Bayle, this is Maarbeth. She is my daughter, and Exoutur’s, too. Maarbeth, this is our new friend and fellow Balmorean, Bayle.”

The small girl stared at him with wide eyes, her black hair a tangled mess from wrestling with her father. She pulled nervously at the skirt she wore over dirty breeches. She said, “Hello, sir,” while biting at her lip so that the words almost did not make it out of her mouth.

Gully said, “Good morning, Maarbeth. I know of a bear that’s been hard at work making breakfast for you.”

Exoutur sat down on the ground next to the bear and leaned against him. He pointed over towards a nicer hut and said, “Maarbeth, it’s time to eat. Go and fetch four bowls, please.”

Maarbeth ran off to do as she was told and Gully asked, “She is the daughter of both of you?”

Exoutur said, “She is, by adoption. Her parents disappeared almost four years ago and she has been with us ever since. In less than a year hence, we will perform the blood seal with her and she will be permanently ours. Unlike the blood seal you went through, we are waiting until she is nine, as is customary, so that she will understand the meaning of the act. We will have many witnesses to it, most of the clan in fact, and it is always cause for a celebration.”

Raybb added, “Unlike in Iisen, and the cities in particular, an orphan child is never left to want and to fend for itself in our culture. It is a privilege, a sacred honor and duty, to step in on behalf of parents that are gone and to take a child and raise it. The patriarch has a hard time deciding whom to allow to have a child unlucky enough to lose his parents since there are always many that would gladly take him. You were lucky, Bayle, to have had a family in your city of Lohrdanwuld take you in when Ollon disappeared. If I am not mistaken, many orphans in the city go without. It is shameful how Iisen treats its most helpless.”

Gully nodded, “Aye, you are correct, and I
was
lucky. Astrehd, my foster mother, was very kind and good to me, even though all I wanted was to have my father, Ollon, back. She gave up trying to keep me from wandering and looking for him. And Roald, my foster brother, continues to love me and welcome me as his brother even though his mother passed into her nighting a year ago now.”

“Ah, you were doubly blessed in your life,” said Exoutur, very pleased, “to have had Ollon, and then the Delescers, take you in when you needed family the most.”

Gully was far luckier than most, and he felt a little ashamed of himself for not showing the gratitude to Roald that he deserved for accepting him so completely and sharing with him so freely. Gully merely nodded to Exoutur in response.

Gully asked, “Forgive me if the question is improper, but the two of you live together as a paired couple, openly, even raising a daughter together as one?”

Exoutur laughed and said, “Yes. We know full well how Iisenors view such inclinations, even using such crude insults like ‘swayed’ and ‘knockered’ to refer to people like us. For those with Balmorean blood, though, it has always been accepted as no different. We do not even really have a word to describe it, one that makes it separate from attractions to the opposite sex.”

Raybb said, “The closest we have is to sometimes refer to it as same-attracted.”

Exoutur frowned and said, “I hope our relationship does not offend you, but here, amongst our people, we have no inclination to behave—”

Gully interrupted, “Oh no, no! Not at all, actually! I mean, you are right that many in Iisen see this kind of attraction as unnatural, and it is looked down upon as perverse, and railed against by almost all if it becomes public, but I have never felt that way.”

He thought for a moment about how much to say, but his Iisen upbringing would not let him betray Roald’s trust, even among people that would accept it without question. He said, “In Lohrdanwuld, there is someone I’m close to that has confided in me that he is this way. He is a good person, someone I very much respect, and it matters naught to me.” He chuckled and added, “But to be honest, to know Balmoreans accept this so readily is probably the
least
unique thing about your culture.”

Raybb laughed again as he stood to receive the bowls with which Maarbeth had returned.

Exoutur raised his eyebrows at Gully and scolded him amiably. “
Our
culture, Bayle.” He pointed at Gully’s left hand and said, “The blood seal cannot be undone. Remember whom you are.”

Gully nodded and said, “Yes, you are right. But tell me, how is it that you seem to know so much about Iisen culture? How have you learned all that you have?”

Raybb began spooning up what looked like a porridge made from pannyfruit into the bowls. He said, “Oh, we go into the cities, Lohrdanwuld and East End, quite often. We have even gone as far as Wilch’s Post on a few occasions.”

“You do?” asked Gully, surprised to find out that the Mercher clan had moved so freely among the cities and people of Iisen.

“Of course we do. We trade for things that we cannot make ourselves, and the only place to do that is to go to the nearby cities,” said Raybb.

“We only go in very small groups,” added Exoutur. “A large number of us at one time would draw attention because of our appearance. But if there is just two or three of us, we blend in easily enough that no one in the cities thinks anything of it. Maarbeth is quite fond of the fountain in the Bonedown Square in your home city. Raybb is, too, but he doesn’t like to admit it.”

Raybb frowned at Exoutur for telling on him as he handed a bowl of porridge to his husband. “I’m merely curious as to how the mechanics of such a fountain work!” grunted the big man.

“Of course, Raybb, of course,” said Exoutur with a knowing grin.

Maarbeth had settled in Raybb’s bear lap and was rushing through her breakfast like it would be taken away from her at any moment. Gully had not realized how hungry he was until he took his own first bite of the porridge and discovered how good it was.

As they were finishing, and after Gully had turned down a third helping of the porridge, the ocelot half of the patriarch arrived. Exoutur said to him, “Father, we have some porridge left over if you have not had breakfast yet. You are welcome to it.”