fate's pawn 2

 

Chapter 2

 

Kaz soon met the other eight female lay members; Dinalla, a superficially snooty girl with dark hair, who appeared to be better born than most, but who had the declared intent of making her own way, rather than marry to her family’s commands; Leea, a merchant’s third daughter, who was firmly fulfilling her father’s wish to have at least one son as a bodyguard of his mercantile trains across the Great Plain. Her sister, Dalla, was also there.

“How many sisters do you have?” asked Kaz.

“There are fifteen of us,” said Leea.

“Each lovelier than the last,” said Dalla, cheekily.

“But only if you line them up the right way,” added Leea, dryly. “The thing is, Daddy might be wealthy, but not fifteen dowries wealthy. Shanna joined the cult of Merkedes, the trader-god, and she’s doing well, and hopes to be a glyph-priest soon, which will mean she can perform the ‘Safe Market’ ritual, with wards major to prevent minor violence and set off alarums at theft. It’s said that the thieves guild worships a god who gives them glyphs to circumvent the ‘Safe Market,’ but it’s still god-magic, and not available to any Pelos, Nico or Portian.”

“Our sister, Frolla, suggested that she should join the thieves’ guild to have a toe in each camp. Daddy nearly had conniptions until he realised, she was joking,” said Dalla, with a giggle. “Nalke got married to a nobleman, and Penna married another merchant, who took her without dowry, Shomie is courting, and the little ones don’t have to decide yet.”

“And when I am an initiate, we can incorporate as daddy’s guards,” said Leea. “I’m getting close to the requirements.”

“Good luck,” said Kaz.

“I might even join you,” said Dinalla. “I was thinking about being a freelance bodyguard, because I can pass anywhere and look like a harmless woman.”

“Always handy,” said Leea. “Don’t mind Sono and Mono, they’re twins, and don’t speak our language well. They’re the orphaned children of a trader who got stranded here, and they had nowhere else to go.”

Kaz nodded to the pair with golden tan, and the lightly pointed ears of the Easterfolk.

That left three; a sullen looking woman who owned to the name ‘Farrally’ and no more, a stocky youngster named Lelyn, who muttered about being the child of another member of the cult, and Jesylli.

“It’s a way up in the world,” said Jesylli. “I grew up fighting on the street, it’s what I know. I need a cult to get anywhere and this one is as good as any. I don’t have much time for gods, they were never there when I was small, I rely on myself, me.”

Kaz was shocked.

“But did you not feel drawn to the cult by dreams?” she said.

“Oh, boy! You’re one of the crazy devouts, are you?” said Jesylli, with a yawn.

“What’s the point of joining a cult if you’re not devout?” asked Kaz.

“Half-price training, and the spells available,” said Jesylli. “I don’t even plan to initiate if I can get away with it; a bodyguard’s job for me.”

Lelyn touched Kaz on the arm, a touch which said not to mind Jesylli, and that she understood.

Kaz smiled at her.

“Perhaps, as you’ve grown up with it, you can help to educate me in cult dogma?” she said.

“I’ll do my best,” said Lelyn. “I thought I recognised the armour you were working out in; how did you come by it?”

“Oh, Lord Harkon said I might as well use it as have it lying around, as it belonged to his brother. Should I not have accepted?”

“You’re honoured; he’s jealous of Toval’s memory, but Toval feasts in Alethos’s halls, and would rejoice in another warrior using his kit. He was so determined! And Harkon the same, he’s risen fast for his dedication.”

“I will try to make sure I honour Toval’s armour and weapons,” said Kaz, ignoring Jesylli rolling her eyes.

 

 

       Kaz might not feel any fellow feeling towards Jesylli, nor to the eastern twins, or the sullen Farrally; but none of them seemed outright hostile, which was a good start. Whether that would change if Evalla tried to set them against her, she could not guess, but at least there were some other women who seemed pleasant enough, and Lelyn seemed about her own age as well, which was nice. She liked Lelyn on sight, a merry girl, still half child, but with a firmness to her mouth and chin which spoke of determination. The girl-woman had soft dark curls which she wore slightly longer than those of Glyph-Priest Arana, whom she resembled. Kaz’s delicate nose was also able to confirm that Lelyn appeared to be related to Glyph-Priest Arana, and the grizzled, balding Glyph-Lord-Priest who was the temple commandant, Lord Pythas. Their pheromones suggested that they were mated.

“I admire your parents, they are very hardy,” Kaz said to Lelyn.

Lelyn froze.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

Kaz blinked.

“Only that I think you are lucky to have such fine family. It must be a comfort to know that they are there, even though they must keep a distance.”

Lelyn let out a breath, explosively.

“No, you have no side to you at all,” she said. “How did you know?”

“I can scent relationships,” said Kaz. “Not as well as other Toróg, but then, I can handle daylight better, and see better in half-light. I don’t have such good darksense either, but it’s more than any human has.”

“What’s that?”

“Echo-location in the darkness, like a bat; but to most Toróg, a Trógling is short ‘sighted’ with darksense. I can tell if someone has eaten recently, or is hungry with it, too.”

“My! That sounds useful.”

“It can be.”

“I... I’ve had some trouble from some of those who know my parentage, sneering at me that I’ll get plum placements because of nepotism, not because I’m any good, and that I’ll be a tell-tale.”

“And you’ve had dirty tricks too, like Svargia.”

“Pushing me like that, whilst taunting me that if I tell, I’m a tell-tale, and a weak little baby,” said Lelyn. “And she still sneers at me, that I’ll never make the grade.”

There were tears in the corners of Lelyn’s eyes. Kaz pretended not to notice.

“Evalla,” she said. “Oh, how I do not like her. Your mother warned her off, but I think it made her more determined to find a way to get me into trouble somehow. I presume she’d love to get you appear to commit an offence which would lead to a public thrashing by your father?”

“Yes, how did you guess?”

“I’ve known Toróg like that,” said Kaz grimly. “Like Mistress Skarraga, who birthed me.”

“Your own mother?”

“Not mother; mothers nurture. I was born from her womb. But I am only a Trógling.”

“I don’t really understand fully, but that must have been hard.”

“I had a nurturer in the slave pens before she was deemed too old for work and was sent to the table,” said Kaz, in a hard little voice. “I hate Toróg.”

“I can see why.”

“We can work together, and then be a voice for each other. Svargia would back us too, but she is pretty independent.”

“She does help,” admitted Lelyn. “What do you suggest we do, though?”

“Well, we are scheduled to scrub the floors,” said Kaz. “What do you bet that Evalla will come to see how we are doing, and will manage to upset the dirty water?”

“No bet. What are you thinking?”

Kaz told her.

 

Evalla had not ceased taunting Kaz, and trying to spoil her work, but as Kaz had managed to get a lot of work in the laundry, under a brawny laundry-mistress who knew a hard-worker when she saw one, and who cordially detested Evalla, there had been no serious trouble yet. Kaz just knew that Evalla was itching to get her into trouble. Kaz had been pitted against Evalla in some practice bouts, and bore the bruises, inflicted more to cause pain because Evalla enjoyed it, she thought, than to punish faults and bad guards, as Harkon did. Evalla had not been pleased that Kaz had taken a severe beating without a whimper.

She could not hit as hard as a Toróg, and moreover was constrained to make it seem like a fight.

 

Sure enough, Evalla came along the corridor the two girls were scrubbing.

“Well, two for the price of one,” said Evalla. “And little miss Born-Here won’t dare tell, for fear of being thought feeble; and the trog is just a dirty, stinking trog.”

“Trógling,” said Kaz.

“Do I look as if I care?” sneered Evalla.

She marched forward towards the bucket, ready to kick it over.

“Do be careful, Initiate!” said Kaz, shrilly and loudly. “You’re going to stand on....”

Evalla, ignoring her, put her foot on the bar of soap, which had a glyph of invisibility carved into it by Kaz, who could still find it with darksense.

The door of Commandant Pythas’s office banged open, as he heard a shrill female voice; he knew his daughter was working here as part of the menial tasks lay members undertook to pay for their keep. He was not expecting Evalla to skid all the way along the wet floor and crash into his arms.

“Control yourself, initiate!” he roared, pushing her to one side. Evalla flailed wildly and sat down hard on her rump.

“Please, initiate, if you’ve finished playing with our soap, may we have it back?” asked Kaz. The glyph had been destroyed by Evalla’s weight and was now visible.

“You little shit! You did that on purpose!” screeched Evalla.

“I did warn you to be careful,” said Kaz. “I was afraid you would knock the bucket of dirty water over as well, but you did skid gracefully past it to throw yourself into Lord Pythas’s arms.”

“I did not throw myself into his arms, and you know it!” screamed Evalla.

“You appear over-wrought, initiate,” said Pythas. “Perhaps you should present yourself to the infirmary for a draft of Valerian to calm down; I’ll write you a chit.”

Evalla bit her tongue, looking horrified. Valerian was bitter, and yet she did not dare disobey.

If looks could kill, Kaz would have burned up.

Evalla peeled the soap off her boot and threw it at Kaz, who caught it neatly, one-handed, and managed not to squeeze it hard enough to shoot out of her grasp.

“Thank you, initiate,” said Kaz.

Pythas waited for the initiate to be out of earshot.

“Unofficially, well done. But watch your back, neophyte Kaz; I don’t think she dares do more than torment Lelyn, or risk a duel. But she thinks you are vulnerable.”

“Thank you for the warning, my lord,” said Kaz. “I will heed it.”

 

 

Next day, the Commandant held up his hand for silence.

“I have need of some guards to escort a seer of the Holy Wells Oracle. Apparently, she needs to come here to fulfil a dream. Harkon, I want you to lead a group of initiates to escort her in; you can give the five newest lay members a taste of what should be a safe mission, with a couple of initiates of your choice.” He smiled at the Eastern twins who were almost vibrating. “I’m assigning Sono and Mono under Lai-fah Lightfoot as their bodyguard here in Mesolimnos.”

“Thank you, my lord-brother,” said Harkon. “I’ll take Zalmox and Alcitha, and the neophytes will be Kuros, Evgon, Stakis, Protasion, and Kaz, I believe.”

“I’m not working with any trog,” said one of the male lay members.

“Fine, I’ll have neophyte Lelyn, then, instead of you,” said Harkon. “If you can’t co-operate with a sword-sister in Alethos’s service, then I fancy you might find this cult is not for you; perhaps one of your fellows will help you to pack when you leave later. You said something, my lord-brother?” he asked Pythas.

“No, I merely grunted approval, there has been too much laxity of late, merely because my wife and I have been on quests for our god, and have had to leave the city. I will be looking into this.”

The neophyte, Stakis, was gaping.

None of his fellows seemed inclined to take up the issue on his behalf.

 

oOoOo

 

The noise and bustle of the city assaulted every one of Kaz’s senses as they left the temple complex. True, in the temple, there were often stentorian voices barking orders, and the ringing of weapons as people worked out, but conversation was usually low in tone, and of those who were there, at any time, resident or visiting, many were to be found in teaching halls learning those skills and spells which were on sale here. Many lay members and initiates lived outside the temple, coming in, to worship, and for training; and many liked to hone their skills adventuring. Though the great lakes provided transport, and Mesolimnos, between two of the three smaller lakes, thrived on the trade carried, the land side of the city was full of many dangers, despite the trade route built and patrolled by Selenite soldiery, as part of the Selenite Empire’s attempts to expand to control Limnesthos. They had got a toehold by circling the Great Lake with their well-made road and using guarding the road as an excuse to get soldiery into the heart of Limnesthos. Since this was hardly more than a collection of city states, the residents found resistance hard. There was even a temple to Selen in Mesolimnos, and reputedly a secret cult of Daze, whom even many Selenites felt too chaotic. The sacred prostitutes of the cult of Phrodine had changed the colour of their welcoming light to green, rather than be associated with the blood red moon, Selen, but nobody could stop the Empire building its own temple.

It was some consolation, perhaps, that the Selenites had had to call in the aid of Alethosi and Pollonosite warriors to help deal with the ever-present incursions of the denizens of the Akerusian Swamp, not least the Marsh-Creepers who had killed Toval, Harkon’s brother.