Wolves of Nakesht
by Janrae Frank
Oil-fed torches mounted on walls or atop street posts broke the dark streets into patterns of bright orange and deep shadow. Few people traveled the streets of Aekara at that late hours, and none walked boldly — save two plainsmen, one scarcely more than a youth, the other, his lean, weather-worn mentor. A slender girl waltzed between them, watching the swirling folds of her mid-calf skirt turn orange and red, then black as they passed from light to shadow and back. The elder warrior wore a lion's black-maned pelt as a jerkin. She slew the beast with a dagger, so the Euzadi called her the lion-hawk, Chimquar. All believed Chimquar a man.
The ringing clash of steel ended the quiet. The handful of people abroad halted to mark the direction of the sounds. Their errands would not bear close inspection and the fight meant first brigands, then guardsmyn. Chimquar and her wards suddenly became the only people on the streets for many blocks around the clash.
Chimquar paused, listening to the sound of fighting coming from the direction in which they traveled.
"Do we go on?" Hazier asked.
Chimquar nodded, her hand resting on the hilt of her Sharani longsword. Her wards dropped back a short way as she had taught them. Makajia produced a long dagger from beneath her skirts.
A Sharani war cry carried down the street. "Aroana God defender!" Chimquar halted. It had been several years since she heard that cry on any lips save her own. For the first time she hesitated to answer it. She planned to join her sister, ending her long exile. Anaria, alone, would understand her concealment in men's raiment, first of her race in the far lands of men. The others would not, and Chimquar would once more be the scarcely tolerated outcast in their midst. Chimquar longed increasingly to see her homeland.
"Aroana! Aroana!" The cries came again, insistent, desperate. The Sharanis had no allies, no aid. Chimquar drew her sword, thrusting aside her concerns. They would have aid.
Chimquar saw three women at bay near an alley, encircled by swordsmyn. The Sharanis had taken toll of their attackers, their swords gleamed red in the torchlight. Yet they could not hold much longer against so many. One woman fell as Chimquar reached them. The remaining pair moved to stand over their fallen comrade. A man lunged in; one Sharani shifted slightly avoiding his thrust and opening a long gash in his side.
"Aroana!" Chimquar shouted, entering the fray. The first male to turn died. Momentary confusion ensued among the men at the unexpected attack by Chimquar and Hazier. Makajia darted about, wielding her dagger to great effect. Three men fell in the first minutes of surprise. Chimquar's sword whirled in a circular motion, parried the attack of two foes, then slashed out, felling one. She eluded a thrust and lunged in under the man's guard; the dagger in her left hand catching the returning move of his sword and she sent her own blade home. Chimquar moved on another man. She had neither time nor light enough to mark the nature of her foes, yet she recognized the moving patterns of their attack. She fought Euzadis — renegades.
Hazier stepped back, giving ground. His shoulder struck a wall and his backward step came short. A sword arched at his head. He ducked forward, lashing out with his own weapon. The man sprang back, another rushed in. Hazier moved sidewise, his foot stuck something and he fell backwards, frantically blocking the rain of blows from his opponents with his sword and dagger. Makajia darted out of the shadows where she had hidden knowing herself overmatched by the warriors. Her dagger flashed. One man no longer endangered her brother.
"Renegade!"
The second man turned to see the tall man with the lion mane about his shoulders. His surviving companions were already in full flight. "Chimquar," he snarled, then fled.
Chimquar let him go. She stood nearest the fallen Sharani whose companions now stood off in the wake of their fleeing foes. Chimquar knelt, cradling the Sharani's head and shoulders, and glanced briefly at the returning pair. Makajiatore a strip of cloth from the bottom of her white blouse and pressed it to the wound in the woman's ribs. The womangazed up at Chimquar, astonished to behold a plainsmon. Pain deepened the lines in the Sharani's weathered face; herbreath came in ragged pulls. She and her companions all wore the Sharani Saer'ajan's livery and Chimquar marveled that they had come so far into these lands. The double-axe embroidered above the unicorn blazon marked the woman as ha'taren, paladin of Aroana, one of the elite from which captains and generals rose. Chimquar had been ha'taren, hence her greeting came automatically, "Kalur Aroana bai ew, ha'taren," she murmured.
"Kalur Aroana widare ew, Euzadi," the woman returned hoarsely. Her eyes clenched shut as a wave of pain tookher.When it eased, she gazed again at the nomad. "Tamlys Lodarien." She forced the words out, indicating herself.TheSharanis dropped to their knees beside her. Chimquar sat back, allowing them to bend nearer. One warrior clasped Tamlys' hand mutely.
"Meadusea." Tamlys named her first, then the younger one: "Katalla Maelistya."
Hazier joined his mentor. The lingering excitement of the battle and the nearness of members of his mentor's legendary race gave Hazier's face an expression disrespectful of the dying Tamlys. Katalla favored him with a savage, withering stare. Hazier dropped his eyes quickly. Chimquar caught the exchange of glances and their portent of trouble.
"The farther east… we go," — Tamlys struggled with her words — "the fewer allies we find."
"Chimquar is ever the Sharanis' ally."
"So." Tamlys sighed. "We have found you."
"No words," Meadusea said, concerned. "Rest, Tamlys."
"My time nears." Tamlys' voice steadied as though she found strength with acceptance. "I must speak. Jalaia Torrundar's daughter said…" Her voice dwindled off into silence. Then she spoke again, "She said: 'seek Chimquar.'"
Chimquar tensed, wondering how much they knew of her. Her left hand closed on the leather pouch at her side and the lump of the crest ring it held. Ending her exile meant facing the nobles and ha'taren that had made her outcast. If these women knew that Chimquar and Tomyris Dovane de Danae were one, what would they do? But the Thunder God's daughter would never have betrayed her. Chimquar looked up. Katalla and Meadusea stared at her as if awaiting some response she had not given.
"Jalaia said you would aid us." Meadusea's soft, gave voice took the strands of the tale from Tamlys."A storm separated us from our company. We could find neither them nor the object of our quest." She was older than Chimquar and no less proud. Chimquar saw the brief passage of doubt and confusion mingling with the sorrow in Meadusea's face. The ha'taren had never before encountered hostility as unreasoning as in the eastern Lands of Men. Chimquar averted her eyes. Meadusea's distress provoked memories best left alone. "Hazier." Chimquar spoke Euzadi. "Pile some bodies across the alley. They will return that way."
Katalla's hand went to her sword, her black eyes narrowed. Hazier moved to his tasks and Katalla watched.
Tamlys opened her eyes and clasped Chimquar's hand. "A plainsmon… I did not believe. But you will aid them. You will!" Tamlys' eyes searched the nomad's face, seeming to reach her soul (as some ha'taren could) and Chimquar tasted the full, bitter cup she had brewed in her youth. Chimquar beheld a great strength and gentle wisdom in equal measure in those searching eyes, provoking memories of her shield-sister, Shayla Odaren, who had not survived the Great War. She felt alone, walled out by her own choices. "I will aid them as far as it is in my power, Tamlys," she murmured. "I swear it! By the Powers of Earth, I swear it!"
"Jalaia spoke true," Tamlys whispered and died.
Meadusea slipped her arms under her shield-sister's body, took her from Chimquar and rose. "Those men will return."
"Yes." Chimquar scanned the street as she spoke. "How far are your horses?"
"Four blocks," Meadusea replied, calm despite the tears running down her cheeks.
"Makajia will take you to our meeting place. Go quickly."
"What about you?"
"Hazier and I will distract them. You get clear of the city." Chimquar gestured and Makajia moved to Meadusea's side.
"Meadusea!" Katalla cried angrily. "You listen to him? What more harm do we need?"
"Jalaia trusts him," Meadusea turned away, walking beside Makajia. The Euzadi girl's step had lost itsgaiety.
Katalla faced Chimquar, her expression an open challenge. The brooding power in Chimquar's eyes forced Katalla to drop her gaze. The Sharani cursed under her breath.
The sound of footsteps mingled with shouts. "Chimquar," Hazier warned, "they come."
Katalla raised her eyes to Chimquar's again, held them a moment, then she set off after Meadusea and Makajia.
Chimquar removed a torch from a wall, scanning the bodies. Katalla needed to learn the lessons of those lands, as Azkani, the old Euzadi seer, had taught Chimquar. Anger casts a spear without gauging the distance. A half-smile crossed Chimquar's lips, remembering the hunched, arthritic old man that had taught her the Euzadi ways, making possible her concealment.
"Chimquar?" Hazier stood beside the bodies piled across the mouth of the alley. The shouts and footsteps neared.
Chimquar glanced up and down the street, wondering how much more shouting it would take to draw the guards. She could not wait for them. "Torch the pile, Hazier," she said, quietly.
The youth wrestled a torch from its wall-mount, and they emptied the unguent contents from the hollow bases upon the bodies touching the burning end to their lacquered, leather armor. The flames licked up, greater and eager, filling the air with stench. Men in the alley howled in rage and frustration, turning back to find another path. Chimquar ignored them. Some bodies still scattered in the street wore Euzadi headbands of worked leather, the tribal marks obliterated with blood and black paint: Renegades, followers of Bakran, Chimquar's bitterest foe. Asking after her, the Sharanishad drawn Bakran's attentions. A cold rage kindled within her. Cautiously, she walked down the west end of the street."Bakran! Bakran, do you hear me?"
"I hear you!" a male's deep voice answered east of her.
Chimquar's keen ears heard the movement of his men. At the end of the first block she trust her torch into the southopening of the cross street. It was a dead end. "Bakran?"
"Speak one, Chimquar." He sounded pleased. "I have you this time."
Nay, Bakran. You do not have me. She spied an iron gate in the middle of the next block. A narrow balcony jutted from the stone mansion half a spear's length above and beyond the gate. Lit windows shove around it. She walkedslower with Hazier at her heels. She heard men moving at either end of the street. "Hazier, that gate, the balcony,then the roofs. Confuse the Sharanis' trail when you find it."
He hesitated and she shoved him. "Go!" He gained the gate. Chimquar ran behind him, gauging the distance of the closing warriors. One reached her and she hurled the torch in his face, climbed the gate, and sprang at the balcony. Her hands caught the edge. She pulled herself up, swung one leg over, then the other. Chimquar stood silently before the closed glass doors. A soft harmony of lute and pipes came from within the room. Hazier waited on a sturdy vie-covered trellis beyond the balcony. Chimquar turned from Hazier to see a renegade climbing the gate. "Go on,"she ordered the youth.
"Chimquar," he protested.
"Nay! Go on." Her voice rose slightly. "Go after your sister."
"You're going to get yourself slain." His words came bleak and drawn out.
Chimquar smiled at his concern. "I won't Hazier. Now, go!"
"Aroana defend you!" He swarmed up the trellis.
A thud, and the scrape of a scabbard on stone, turned Chimquar. The man had gained the balcony. She sprang before he could get both legs over, seizing his sword arm and jerkin with a twist that hurled him through the fragile glass doors. The tinkling clash of falling shard of glass preceded the woman's scream. Men's shouts followed immediately. Chimquar bounded across the balcony and went up the trellis to the roof. A man emerged onto the balcony, sword in hand, glanced about, and reentered the manor house. The garden below filled with light as men and servants poured out bearing weapons and torches. Chimquar crouched in the shadows of a chimney, watching until the confusion died down, then she crossed the roof, and sprang onto the next. She made her way from roof to roof, leaping the narrow streets until she reached the stable.
Chimquar dropped silently from the roof behind the stablemon, startling him. He eyed her doubtfully. She threw a handful of coins at his feet. He stooped to retrieve them and she slipped into the stable after her horse.
She rode quietly to the west gate. The guardsmon there, accustomed to the strange comings and going of the nomads, let her out a narrow, postern gate. The morning sun rose on her right hand as she turned her little plains-bred mare north.
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