Common Ground

North of the Fens it was dry.

Reur recorded the transition from fen to bog to swamp and then, as they finished crossing another shallow tributary of the river, to mixed forest. The ground was definitely more uphill than before and more rocky. The foliage changed from grasses to bushes to stunted trees and upward, to the ancient, towering kalysut they had rested underneath the previous night. The wildlife grew by orders of magnitude, and Raven soon taught the raptor to hunt the hares and squirrels that became a welcome addition to their cook pot.

Tread and Mucker still insisted they boil the water. They insisted that the land would get wet again, it was only natural, this was the weird part. Reur noted their spirits rose despite the problems they may face ahead.

Raven blossomed a bit with Hornbeak around. Or maybe because she had more space to train the raptor. Reur couldn't tell. He sat down with her every night and they chatted, about culture and food and history and so on, and Reur made his notes. His curiosity was never satisified, and he had two tribes to research now. Often he wished someone had come with them from the Send, to give him another tribe to study.

Because now they had the time. Finding dry wood to burn was easy. The mud that clung to their boots had dried off a long time ago, and they didn't need to clean their clothes every day, or check themselves for worms. Mucker said they should check themselves for ticks, but the process was much simpler.

Life was practically easy, except for the underlying dread that somewhere ahead were the Totanbeni, a tribe devoted to murdering anyone who wasn't one of them, that sought to exterminate all their enemies, that would murder their own people in their sleep if it would make them more powerful. Reur's curiosity drove him. He knew enough about the magic of this land now to know that a tribe's magic was tied to its numbers, and that alone made the Totanbeni fearsome.

He spent most of his time with Tread or Mucker, learning their culture. No more spiders and trees and raptors and rocks; he had to learn the people here. His strange decision in the fens to be the leader of this group, to save and protect all of them, had made this more of an imperative.

So they found themselves on a deer track through the low scrub between the heavy growth above them. And, in time, the scrub disappeared. No more than a handful of minutes later, Tread ran back to them breathlessly.

"A town, ahead," he said.

"Is it ..." Hornbeak started, and Tread nodded, speaking over him.

"Totanbeni."

"How can you tell?" Reur asked.

Raven snorted. "Are there living people in it? We're north of the river. It's Totanbeni."

Mucker started moaning almost the instant Tread appeared.

"Well?" Tread said, his own manner somewhat hesitant.

"Well, what?" Reur said, marching forward. "I'd like to meet your people, Tread."

The village was large, almost town-sized. They came in from the south, where a small palisade leaned toward them. Strangely, the wall did not enclose the village, but just ran somewhat past the width of the town on the south edge. There was no gate in the wall. West and east the forest stretched on, but they could just make out an end to the trees north of the village.

Tread led them to the west edge of the wall along the thin track. Raven and Hornbeak brought up the rear, Raven speaking gently to the raptor, hooded on her arm, and Hornbeak loaded with packs. Mucker clung to Reur's heels, the two of them carrying the canoe, but Reur's eyes were on the top of the wall as he wondered about a palisade that protected a town only on one side. He walked slowly, and thus caught a glimpse of a head above the wall, which quickly disappeared. Reur thought it could have been a boy.

They rounded the corner to find Tread waiting for them. A hundred feet away, the wall of homes began, but fifty feet away, a short, carved totem sat alone in the cleared space.

The totem was of a demon-like lizard with sharp fangs and large eyes. The eyes were polished white, though the rest of the carving was wood. The fangs were brilliant white as well, and the lizard thing wore a spiky white necklace.

"Bones," Raven said. "Human, for certain."

"Why do you hesitate, Tread?" Reur asked, itching to examine the totem.

"We must be invited in."

"I see no people yet," Hornbeak said, but even as he did, a dozen armed men appeared between the buildings.

They would have been a fearsome sight, if their average age hadn't been more than twice Reur's. Reur watched them for a minute, and when none were forthcoming, he handed his end of the canoe to Tread and stepped forward.

"Hello," he said. "Take me to your leader."

They stared at him, shifting uneasily.

"I don't think," Hornbeak began, and Raven shushed him.

Reur kept walking until he was near the totem. A burned circle scored the top of it, about the size of his palm. He glanced at the people watching him. Their numbers were growing, though only in terms of women and children staring at him from behind them. His hands itched as he held them from his body. The totem stared at him, the eyes about belly height. His mind betrayed him.

"Why is it so short?" he asked out loud, and his hands whipped to his sides. The men at the houses bent their bodies low and held their spears in defensive positions.

Reur drew out his tablet and stylus, and crouched down next to the totem.

"What is it made of?" he said out loud as he sketched the design. "Hard wood, maybe kalysut?" He noted the ground around it, dead, but something ... he brushed aside some leaves and dug a bit into the hard earth with his fingers. "It's the trunk of a tree!" He found a bit of root, and picked at it with the stylus until it scraped off. Then he tasted it. "It was a kalysut," he wrote. "A totem of some lizard demon made of the corpse of a kalysut, and these bones." The necklaces was long ribs. The teeth were short ribs. The eyes were the tops of skulls. "Polished. A warden? There is a palm-sized burn mark on the top," he stood up, and stared into the eyes of an old, old man, who was trying to place a small cylinder on the totem's head.

It occurred to Reur that everyone seemed to be holding their breath at this point. The Kalkoraen motioned the man to continue, and, startled, the man dropped the cylinder. Reur caught it.

He turned it over in his hands, then placed it carefully on top of the totem. It fit perfectly within the burn mark. He crouched down and scribbled, "It matches the totem on the shadelshif..." and then he passed out.

********

Reur woke and failed in his attempt to not groan.

"Reur!" Tread said from his side. "You're all right!"

The mede opened his eyes to darkness and the too close smell of Tread. He heard the susurrating moan that was Mucker's mantra. He heard voices muffled, as though through a wall.

"Where are we?" His head felt stuffed with wool. His body tingled all over, as though the muscles had been asleep. Which is weird, because I've been asleep, but this is like when you sit on your leg all day, only all over.

"We're in the village. They call it Fensedge." Tread sounded excited.

Reur tried to sit up. "Help me walk," he said. "I need to wake up."

Tread guided Reur to his feet, and propped the Kalkoraen up with one hand while he shuffled about the darkened room. He saw Mucker hunkered over in a corner.

"Where are Raven and Hornbeak?"

"Raven is showing her raptor to the children. Hornbeak is with her, of course," Tread said.

"We're not ... dead?" Reur asked.

Mucker moaned louder.

"No! Nor are we prisoners. There's no one here who can detain us."

"What do you mean?" But Reur knew the cause of his excitement. Only, why is Mucker still moaning?

"The townsfolk say their guider and chief and best warriors were called to Totanbin for a grand council. So they're not here. So we're not prisoners."

"Er." Reur said. "Why did I pass out?"

"Kalysut root," Tread said. "You ate it raw."

"I did?" He knew what happened if you ate the root raw. It was like shooting a pint of morutsen. A lot of people never woke up from it. I ate it. What was I thinking? "Um. What were they going to do with the totem?"

"Blow us to small pieces all over the place," Tread said. "The eldest was very impressed that you planted your own doom on the totem, so he spared us after you passed out."

"Who was the old man who nearly dropped our doom? Was he the eldest?"

"No. He's the guider's apprentice."

Reur rubbed his head, and noticed that feeling was pouring back into his muscles.

"You said this town's guider, chief and warriors all went to some place for a council? What is the council for?"

"Totanbin. It is a sacred place." Tread hesitated. "I don't know what the council is for," he said stiffly.

Mucker moaned again.

"You do know," Reur said. "But don't worry. I'll ask someone outside."

He pushed the door open when they neared it and stepped into the light of the setting sun.

Women worked around a handful of cook fires, making the evening soup, chatting amicably and hollering at the children and men. The men laughed hoarsely and quipped madly with each other as they performed all the evening chores. Children ran underfoot, and a half-dozen or so hovered around Raven, who smiled back at them as she hooded the raptor for the night. Hornbeak scowled at all of them, but that didn't seem to frighten the children.

"I didn't know she got on well with kids," Reur said.

Tread gave him a funny look.

Here and there, though, a small group of women or a single man stopped in their tasks to stare at Reur. Their expressions were neutral. Raven approached them.

"We'll be eating with the eldest and his daughters," she said.

"Tread, get Mucker," Reur commanded.

"Mucker!" Tread shouted into the hovel. "Get out here! It's suppertime!"

Reur stared up into Raven's eyes. "I didn't know you got on well with kids," he said.

She shrugged. "I get on well with baby birds, what do you expect?" She looked over her shoulder to see if anyone was listening. "Their chief, guider and warriors are at some place for a grand council. They only hold grand councils if they plan to destroy a tribe completely."

Reur did not turn to look at Tread, but the silence emanating from him was palpable.

"I wonder whom they wish to destroy?" Reur speculated, but his heart filled with dread.

Raven's eyebrows raised in shock. "You can't guess?"

"Oh, I can guess," Reur said, waving his arms about. "But I don't think it will do them any good, so I hope they're going after somebody other than the Kalkorae."

Dinner was stew, heavily seasoned and loaded with game some of the boys had caught that day. The eldest had allowed one of the boys, the one who caught the most, to sit around his fire. The boy was the guider's youngest child. The guider's apprentice sat with them as well.

"And Caut nearly hurt his foot when he tripped over this hole in the ground, and that made the rabbit leap out from its burrow, because Caut tripped in the burrow, and there was a fox, but I knew we'd rather have the rabbit. Caut threw his rock at the fox, but I threw mine at the rabbit."

"And so we have rabbit," the eldest, Yhet, said, with a smile. He had no teeth; he was very old.

"Well done," Reur said, putting his finished bowl down. A woman smiled at him and offered to refill it. He shook his head.

"Yhet," he said, and the old man looked at him through yellowed eyes. "Your chief, I would speak with him."

"Reur," Yhet said. "I have told your companions, two Vagal and two young Totanbeni, strange companions they are, and I have told them, our chief, our guider and our warriors are on their way to the grand council at Totanbin."

"I am a stranger to your customs," Reur said, bowing slightly. "It would seem, to take your chief, your guider and all your warriors, yet to leave your wisest man behind, would be folly. Surely the protection of the town comes first, and for a council you need wisdom."

The man sat up a little straighter, and the guider's apprentice scowled a bit. He was nearly as old as the eldest. The more Reur looked at them, to more he thought they were brothers.

"For this kind of council, the chiefs need the wisdom of seasoned warriors," Yhet said.

"They plan a war," Reur said, trying to hide his own rising fear.

"Indeed they do, Reur. It came to us that a new tribe had appeared from the south, a great sea-faring tribe, that destroyed shadelshifs without using magic. This tribe was strangely garbed, and stranger to look at. They are short, and dark of skin, with hair that curls tight ..."

"Much like me," Reur said, standing up.

The eldest leaned closer, to see Reur in the failing light.

"I told you, I told you," grumbled the guider's apprentice. "He is not from here."

"Oh, wow," the boy said. "What's it like in the south?"

Reur looked down at him, his anger abating. "Not from the south, kid. The Kalkoraen medes come from across the vast ocean to the west. We live on islands with wonders the likes of which you may never know. And definitely won't know, if your people choose to war with us."

"It was said," Yhet interrupted, "that your people fired the first ship."

Reur bowed his head, remembering the shadelshif he had boarded at night. Am I responsible? He shook his head.

Tread spoke up. "We were at the coast when Reur's people appeared in their ships." He paused. "A shadelshif was sunk."

Who sunk it? I picked up the totem, but someone activated their magic.

Reur looked around the fire. Everyone was staring at him.

"I can't harm you," he said, honestly. "And I think you don't want to harm me."

"We have children ..." the eldest said.

"Father ..." the boy said.

"Husband ..." a woman said.

"Brothers ..." another one said.

Reur nodded, held back tears. If I hadn't come, if I hadn't ...

"We go to war all the time," the guider's apprentice said harshly into the silence. "We are Totanbeni. The bones of our enemies are as dust beneath us."

"I wonder the guider's apprentice did not go with the guider," Tread said softly. "My master would not let me out of his sight."

"You were an apprentice?" The aged man snorted. "Where is your master?"

"Dead," Tread said even more softly, barely audible above the crackling of the flames. He shot a short glance to Reur, then at Mucker, who looked ready to sick up. "Dead," he said louder. "To prevent him from attacking the Kalkorae, I killed him."

"Traitor!" the apprentice screamed, leaping to his feet. "They said they found the body! They said the guider's throat had been slit by these strangers, but it was you! You shall die for this!" His hand reached out like a claw, and Tread fell back, clutching his chest.

Reur leapt, but Mucker was faster. The hand and arm were slapped down, and the apprentice's was lifted above his head. Raven held the stricken Tread.

"Hold!" the eldest shouted into the commotion. "Hold!"

Mucker slowly put the limp apprentice on his feet, where he collapsed slowly. His arm twisted at an odd angle.

"We are many," Yhet said. "We are the Totanbeni. We do war. But we must conserve our magic for the coming battles, and not use it for such paltry disputes. Our apprentice, above all people, should know that." He took a deep breath. "Tread, murdered and guider's apprentice. Whatever you did or say, war would have happened anyway."

"But it can be stopped, surely," Reur said. "If we go to the council."

"They will only question you to use your knowledge against your people," Yhet said. "We are Totanbeni. There will be war."

Reur shook his head. "I came up here to learn your customs and return my friends, yet now I find I must make an effort to stop a pointless war. My people are peaceful, full of gifts and gratitude. They would pay for what they take. They would teach what they know. They would not come here to make war."

"We are Totanbeni," Yhet said again. "We do not accept invasion."

"It would not be an invasion!"

"To the Totanbeni, if you are not one of us, you will soon be dead."

"For your children's sake."

Yhet's eyes grew even harder. "I care for my children, and for our village's people. I cannot deny that this council alone makes our lives difficult. The boy here can attest to that. He never would have hunted today if the warriors had been here."

"But I wanted to hunt," the boy said.

"This is our culture," Yhet said. "Strangers must die. You go to your death, Reur of the Kalkorae. Eventually, after they have learned all they can from you."

"That would take a while," Reur said hotly. "I know far more than they care to know."

"I think," Raven interrupted. "You must let us go to the council, Yhet. Let the chiefs decide what to do with Reur."

Yhet looked at her. "You will most certainly die, and sooner than Reur. And your friend there."

She smiled. "My faith in Reur is stronger than my faith in Vagal right now."

He shook his head. "You are right, though," he added. "The council will decide. You must go to Totanbin."

"We shall."

Copyright 2005-2007 Eric Zawadzki and Matthew Schick. All Rights Reserved.
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