The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (34 page)

“Honor? What honor?” gasped Gully.

“Conjures almost exclusively belonged to the imperial family of Balmorea. That was my first clue. In our history, the symbol I drew is a special sigil of the old empire, for the exclusive use of the imperial family alone. So sacrosanct is it that, to this day, I feel like I have violated a taboo by even drawing it in the sand. I have heard of tales of a unique pendant that only belonged to the direct bloodline, a pendant of the imperial insignia that was more important than even the imperial crown, and made of a crystal that was indestructible. It was believed lost completely when Balmorea fell. But look at what is around your neck, given you by your father who was a conjure. It is too much to be a coincidence!”

The patriarch finally lifted his head and said out loud, as others from the camp had drawn around at Gully’s pleas for help and were listening, “Your father was the last of the imperial Balmorean bloodline, and kept it secret to keep it safe!”

Gully was utterly shocked. He could not believe what the patriarch was saying about his father.

“And you are his incontrovertible heir by blood seal. You are, by rights, king and emperor over all of Balmorea that is left!”

“What?!” exclaimed Gully in horror. He stood and spun on his heels, looking around him at the curious and expectant faces of the Mercher clan that had gathered.

Exoutur and Raybb came in a rush and pushed through the crowd to reach the patriarch. Exoutur rushed to his father’s side and tried to help him up while begging to know what had happened, but the patriarch began to pull down on Exoutur’s arm instead, pulling his son to his knees.

Gully could not speak to answer he was so flummoxed.

The patriarch grasped at Exoutur’s tunic and said, “Look at the pendant around his neck, my son. Look at the pendant! And his father was a conjure! In our lifetime, there has existed a true conjure! Kneel before him! The bloodline has not been lost!”

The patriarch shouted at all those that had gathered around, “Bow! All of you! The final heir to the empire of Balmorea has found his way home to us!”

Everyone dropped to their knees, even Exoutur, and even the big man Raybb, in the same way that the patriarch had.

Gully looked up, and through a gap in the trees overhead his eye beheld the first star of the evening, the Father Star, as it began to shine its solitary, sanguine light in the growing night. His mind cried out,
what sort of lunacy is Pelaysha visiting upon these poor people?

Gully’s hand unconsciously grabbed at the pendant hanging exposed around his neck. He slowly spun where he stood and gaped at all of the members of the Mercher clan that were gathered, human and animal. His heart pounded in his chest and he felt as if he must be the only sane person left in the camp. All of the clan knelt with heads bowed, or whatever approximation their animal form could perform, in deference.

Adjacent to him were the patriarch, and Exoutur, and Raybb. But he also saw many others that he recognized among those assembled, including Raybb’s bear form with Maarbeth. He saw young Wyael in the front of the crowd, having now returned with his parents because of Gully’s shouts. Even Abella Jule, cloaked in a dark shawl and kilt, knelt with head bent to the ground.

Gully felt the panic rising up in him.
This cannot be happening
, his mind screamed.
They cannot be kneeling before me!

His face blushed furiously, almost burning his skin. His voice finally erupted in his throat and he shouted, “Stop this! Stop all of this nonsense now! I am a no more than a street urchin! A thief! And you are foolish enough to kneel this way? You must stop this! This is no more than a mockery of me and an embarrassment to all of you! Stop!”

The patriarch finally looked up, but he was not angry. He was smiling at Gully and began to rise with difficulty. Gully reached out to take the patriarch’s arm and help the old man to stand.

Gully pleaded with him, his voice both quiet and desperate, “I beg you,
make this stop!
”

The patriarch held out his arms, staff in one hand, and addressed those still kneeling, “You may all rise. I know you are all curious as to what has happened, how we have discovered this.”

Gully glanced around nervously again to see that those who had been kneeling began to stand and craning their necks for a better look at Gully and the pendant. In the meantime, what had to be all of the remaining clan had joined the crowd gathered around to find out what was drawing so much attention and discussion.

Exoutur and Raybb stood as well, and moved out to join the surrounding crowd, leaving only Gully and Aian in the center.

“In my conversation with... Gully...” said the patriarch, making a slight sour face at the name, “I discovered by accident that his father was not a familiar as we thought. Ollon, Gully’s father by blood seal, was not a familiar, but a conjure in fact, having created a bonsmoke fox that he was one with, and he referred to it by that name. We all know the implications of this, how only the extended family line of the imperial rulers of Balmorea produced conjures. And more, you see the crystal pendant around Gully’s neck. There is none among us that have not heard of it as synonymous with the direct line of Balmorean rulers from the earliest days of the empire all the way through the great fall, when it was thought lost, along with the bloodline of the ruling family.”

Gully watched the crowd as the patriarch spoke aloud for all to hear. Those gathered murmured amongst themselves and pointed at Gully as they caught sight of the pendant when it reflected and refracted the firelight.

“Clearly, it was not lost, even all of these so many hundreds of years later,” said Aian aloud. “Ollon was the last of the direct line of royals, and when he took in Gully and performed the blood seal with him, he produced an heir. Now that heir has found his way back to us, and you see him standing before you!”

“Fate...” he said, turning to face Gully directly, “fate has protected and kept the bloodline for all this time until it could be reunited with us.”

The crowd erupted with cheers, which caused Gully to flush red in the face yet again and stare down at his feet in embarrassment. The very feet that were now wearing his father’s boots.

Exoutur stepped forward and said for all to hear, “That would explain Ollon’s impatience to wait. He had good reason to perform the seal as early as he did, to ensure the continuation of the line!”

“Yes, Exoutur,” said the patriarch, “The puzzle starts to fit!”

Gully leaned towards the patriarch and whispered, “Goodsir, I must speak to you in private. All... this... cannot be the case.”

The patriarch smiled at him again and said, “My dear Di’taro, if you will allow me the use of that name since I now have a distaste for the name Gully, the very last thing in the world we are trying to do is mock you or make you feel ill at home. What we wish for you is precisely the opposite. But you are right... we should talk more on this matter.”

The patriarch addressed everyone and said, “This night is a special night for us as a people, but Gully and I must speak some more, privately. Exoutur, you and Encender should join us, as well as you, Raybb.”

Gully was surprised to find that he wished again that Gallun and Gellen were present. He would find their company a comfort right now when his head was spinning and on the verge of splitting open from all that had happened in the span of only a few days.

The crowd dispersed, talking loudly and animatedly amongst themselves at the turn of events that evening.

Gully looked over and saw the men waiting on him. It came as a shock to see even Encender now present, humbled and attentive before Gully. But Gully flashed angrily when he saw the patriarch offering his chair to him.

“Absolutely not, patriarch!” snapped Gully. “I will
not
sit in your chair and leave you to struggle with an uncomfortable log! Take your own seat, or I will quit this camp immediately!”

The patriarch smiled again and said, “I suspected that would be your response, but I wanted to show you at least the honor of offering it to you.”

Gully grumbled, “Do not offer it again.”

They all sat down and fell into an uncomfortable silence, all seeming to wait for Gully to be the first to speak.

Gully gritted his teeth and then said, “I’m lower than spit on a cobble and worth less!” He even glanced helplessly towards Encender, expecting agreement from at least him if not anyone else around the fire. The patriarch’s elder son showed no emotion at the comment, and instead ducked his head down without meeting Gully’s eyes. “I am not a king!” said Gully, his voice tinged with anger. “Or... or some...
confounded
emperor! Not even the emperor of a tattered and wandering ‘empire’ of only a few hundred people!”

Gully reined in his anger and drew his hand across his forehead to wipe the sweat forming there. He said more gently, “I’m sorry. I mean no offense by that, and I do not intend to speak heartlessly towards a group of people that have been more than kind to me.”

“That... that I’ve grown quite fond of,” he mumbled.

The patriarch’s smile would not budge from his face. “I know that you are shocked and confused by all of this. It is a shock to all of us, I assure you. I am shocked to learn that the bloodline has survived in secret for all this time, and that conjures are still in existence. But you must understand, I am also greatly comforted to find this out. The very sight of the pendant hanging around your neck, in its rightful place, brings to me a joy and a hope that I have never experienced in my entire lifetime of wandering. To think that I lived to see this moment is a gift with no equal in my life!”

“Here, here!” called Raybb loudly. And even when Gully glanced at Encender, the man that would have killed him met his gaze and nodded his agreement curtly.

“You must listen to me, though...” said the patriarch. “Like this or not... prepared for it or not, you now hold a
very
special and honored place among us as a people. Not just the Mercher clan, mind you, but among every remaining Balmorean that exists anywhere. You give us hope that we can survive as a people after all.”

Gully shook his head in confusion. “I do not know how to give you what you want from me!”

“It is enough that you are here! That you are among us! There is no additional duty for you to take on, especially given what you already bear. We do not ask that you suddenly take on as the leader of us as a people. Or act as some spoiled king among us, since that is on your mind these last few days. All we ask is that you be yourself among us. Your presence makes us all feel heartened, steeled against the trials to come. Your presence, whom you are... makes us feel less like the gypsy clan of Merchers... and more and more like Balmoreans again. Things are happening, Gully Snipe! Things are very much happening!”

Gully held his head in his hands and tried to think through all that was going through his mind, but his thoughts merely careened around in a hopeless melee.

He finally said, “I doubt that I have any choice in this. But I will at least ask this... treat me as you did before. No more kneeling and all of that. Do not now begin to set me apart if we are to be in this together.”

“Agreed,” said the patriarch. He stood and said, “We should celebrate tonight! Given the danger that faces us because of this greedy and traitorous Domo Regent, we will have little other chance to do so!”

They all began to go about making preparations for a celebration, but Gully was unsure how to best help.

He was about to follow after Exoutur and Raybb to offer them assistance when he spied Wyael hiding behind a tree and watching him shyly.

Gully motioned him over to the fire while the patriarch spoke to a few people about the feast. Wyael moved slowly, but finally came and sat on the ground near Gully reluctantly.

“Is something wrong, Wyael?”

The patriarch finished speaking to the others and watched the interchange between them.

Wyael shook his head in answer, but still refused to look up at Gully.

“Earlier, you practically knocked me down in the woods. Now you will not so much as look me in the eye. How am I to believe that something has not changed?”

Wyael finally looked up nervously at him, his eyes large. He said, “Is it true, sir? Are you really a... a king now?”

Gully sighed very deeply. He shrugged and said, “What makes a man a king, Wyael? In truth, I do not know how to answer.”

The patriarch, leaning on his staff and watching the two of them, said quietly, “Indeed. A very good question, indeed, Di’taro.”

Gully patted on the log next to him and said to the boy, “Come up here and sit by me.”

Wyael stood and sat next to Gully as requested. Gully leaned over to him and whispered into his ear, “You can keep the secret with me. I’m still just a thief, despite all this mule-rot about kings and empires! I will treat you as I always have if you will treat me as you always have! Is it agreed?”

Wyael grinned and whispered back in Gully’s ear, “Will you still teach me what you promised earlier?”

Gully laughed and whispered back to him, “As long as you keep your end of the bargain, I swear to you that I will!”

Wyael nodded vigorously in agreement, and Gully pulled the boy into a hug.

“May I have the fox back?” asked Wyael.

“My fox? My Pe’taro? You only just gave it to me!” said Gully, hurt.

“For only a short time, sir! Your father was a conjure and I want to paint him the right color, and then I will return him to you! I wish I knew a real conjure like you! We have bedtime stories about what powerful fighters they are because they can appear and disappear so fast that their opponent is fighting no more than smoke!”

Gully nodded and took the fox from the pocket of his surcoat and stared at it in his hands. He marveled at the thought of his father being a bedtime story hero in real life and then gave it to Wyael to be repainted.

~~~~~

By the time the feast had ended, Gully took his leave and told everyone he was going to sleep. He entered Gallun’s and Gellen’s shack to do so, but after trying, he found that sleep would not come. He lay for a while, turned one way and then the other on the mat, then finally got up and went outside to sit by the fire again.