Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) (16 page)

“
Goodbye, Jona.”
Basha said to her before turning away.

“
Don’t forget
your
…
whatever it is, Basha, and do be careful. I saw that girl
before she left, and she looked hard. And scared. I’ve seen many
girls like that after
…
whatever happened to them.” She
said.

He stared at her,
wondering what she meant, and what sort of life she had led before
he came here, before he waved goodbye to her, the painter he knew
little about, and went inside her home one last time to search for
the blanket-wrapped burden he had to take. There was the sword he
had picked up earlier today at the warehouse, inside its sheath
once more and wrapped up tightly like someone had wanted to hide
it, and he wondered
what could have
possibly possessed him to claim this sword, to bind it to him, or
whatever he had said. He did not know what he was doing at the
time, half-lost in the blur of battle, and then
…
what had made Monika
bring this sword back to him? Did she know something of what he had
done to make it belong to him; did she want him to have it
then?

And why couldn’t she have brought it
here as it was, inside its sheath, without wrapping it up so
tightly? Did she feel something of what he had felt? Maybe there
was something to hiding it, to not wanting to touch or see it.
Perhaps no one else could bear it besides him.

He shuddered at that
frightening thought, but then he took it with him, though, just in
case. If it had saved him and his friends once
before
…
perhaps he needed it.

Oaka did not look at
him when he put the blanket-wrapped sheathed sword inside his
bag
,
layers upon layers of protection against the sharp edges of
the curved blade. They left Coe Anji, and the cottage by the ocean,
behind them then, going out into the forest once more.

“
Two very long, hard
days,” Oaka said, shaking his head. “It’s impossible that we went
through all of that in just two days.”

It was midnight,
officially the 12
^th
day of Markee now, and they had stopped to rest
at last. They had gone this far, for this long, because it was
early evening when they had left Coe Anji, and Oaka had wanted to
keep going, to put as many miles between themselves and it,
throughout most of the night. Basha thought he wanted to forget
about what had happened back there.

“
I have to say we
handled ourselves nicely,” Fato remarked. They were eating a small
meal before bed.

“
Basha, why did you
have to bring that
…
new sword with you?” Oaka asked,
for lack of a better term, after a moment’s silence from
him.

“
Must we talk about
this now?” Fato asked.

“
I did not want to
leave it behind,” Basha said, shaking his head. “It did its job,”
He said lamely.

“
It
did
…
that thing
…
” Oaka shuddered. “I don’t want
to know what you were thinking of when--” He sighed. “Never mind,
perhaps--”

“
You want me to
forget about it?” Basha asked. “Forget about--I know what I did.”
He said. “I cannot forget about it.”

“
All right, fine,
just don’t bring it up.”
Oaka
said, shaking his head. He was still disappointed that he hadn’t
been able to summon up his fire, again, back at the warehouse. What
was the point of having magic like that if you couldn’t use it to
defend yourself with? He just couldn’t understand it.

“
You’re the one who
brought it up,” Fato remarked.

“
Never mind!” Oaka
exclaimed, and then--“What’s that?” He asked when the horses were
agitated, and it sounded like something was moving in the forest
beyond their firelight.

“
Steady, I don’t
think it’s a Black Wolf,” Fato said, peering into the
darkness.

“
Is that much of a
comfort?” Basha asked, unsheathing his old sword when his new sword
was still in his pack. He was tempted to reach for his pack, but it
was too far away, and whoever or whatever it was--

“
Stop!” A voice
called, and all three of them recognized it.

“
Monika?” Basha asked
as the young woman approached, leading her horse.

“
I suppose we’re
even--I followed you all here now, after you followed me.” She
said, nodding at the falcon.

“
Hey, Oaka, it’s the
girl--”

“
Yes, no need to
remind me, Fato--”

“
Has she come back to
beat you up some more?” Fato asked Oaka with a snicker.

“
Have
you--”

“
No, I have not,
Basha.” Monika said, staring at him. “It’s been awhile since--I’m
sorry I got so worked up at the warehouse earlier, I just--did not
expect you two to burst in there like that.” She petted her horse.
“And then...there were a couple of men killed. Some seriously
injured. I don’t think you had anything to do with the deaths,
Basha,” She said, seeing the look on his face, “I might have caused
those. Those still alive had to be questioned, and then--I had to
leave before it got complicated,” She said. “Paperwork is not
really my forte.”

“
Nor for me either,
though I can’t really hold a pen.” Fato remarked.

“
You
mean
…
you call
…
” Basha started to
say.

“
Look, I am not of
your country,” Monika said. “Paperwork is very complicated for me
when I am not supposed to be here at all. I got into Arria because
I helped out in another case, prior to this, and actually, this was
the last part of the other case, but
it’s
complicated. I am not supposed to be here at all.” She
said.

“
So we’ve established
that.” Oaka said.

“
Oaka
…
” Basha said, and shook his head.
“I do not know what you have been through, Monika, but...I do not
know what you are talking about.” He said.

“
Never mind.” Monika
said, turning about. “Can I just sit here awhile? Talk about a few
things? I usually do not have company when I travel.”

Basha hesitated,
turning towards Oaka, who shook his head, but Fato nodded, and
so
it was up to him. “I suppose for a
little while,” He said, slowly nodding. “Just if you want to
rest.”

Monika nodded. “Thank you.” She said.
“Can I leave my horse with yours?” She asked.

Basha nodded, and Monika went off to
loosen the saddle from her horse’s back. Oaka leaned over and
hissed, “Are you sure we should be doing this? We don’t know that
much about her.”

“
I think she’s
friendly.” Basha told him.

“
I agree.” Fato put
in.

“
I think
she was helping out the Border Guards, fighting
those smugglers.” Basha said, nodding.

“
Yes, but she accused
us of being
monsters.” Oaka said. “And she
was involved in that barroom fight
.
”

“
That was different.”
Basha said. “She probably got involved in that barroom fight just
because she was there when it happened, and she didn’t have a
choice, and
as far as accusing us of being
monsters, we were...acting strange,” He said, talking about
himself. “And she didn’t know anything about us, or
not
that
much at any rate. She had no clue what we were doing
there.”

“
Neither did we.”
Oaka remarked as Monika came back, carrying her saddle and its
packs.

“
Why were you in Coe
Anji in the first place?” Monika asked, turning to Basha as she sat
down beside the fire across from them.

“
You get the first
question?” Basha asked.

“
It’s a reasonable
question.” Monika said, unloading food from a pack. “You know what
I was doing there, assisting your Border Guards. I know nothing
about what you two were doing there. For all I know, you were
following me from Coe Baba.” She said, unwrapping a piece of bread.
“You never traveled far from Coe Baba, that’s what you said
yourself.” She remarked, munching on the bread.

“
Good memory.” Oaka
said.

“
Close enough, Basha
made an impression on me.” She said, turning towards Oaka. “But
it’s a fact, is it not? You two haven’t been far from Coe Baba
before now? So what has brought you here, all this way? And why are
you still going?” She asked, turning towards Basha.

“
Oh, boy, here we
go,” Oaka said.

“
I’m on a quest.”
Basha said. “For Tau’s Cup.”

“
What? Tau’s Cup?”
Fato the falcon cried, with a pop-eye look, and everyone
turned
to stare at
him.
It was
creepy.
“You never said
!
”

“
Didn’t we tell
you
?
”
Basha
asked.

“
No!” Fato cried. “No
one tells me anything, apparently.” He muttered, growling to
himself. “I just thought that you two were going on some business
somewhere, and
if you had
told me, maybe
I wasn’t really paying
attention
then.
” He frowned, and tilted his
head. “Maybe I did hear
you
two mention
Tau’s Cup the other day, but I
didn’t know that
was what you
two were searching for.
”

“
We are on a quest
for Tau’s Cup,” Basha said, turning towards Monika. “Going all the
way to Coe Pidaria. Remember when I told you about Lovers’ Rock,
and the girl that I was planning to ask for? That was
it
.
I was about to go up on that Rock, about to ask ‘will you
marry me, Jawen?’ when I realized that I needed a dower to go along
with my marriage proposal, and not just any
dower
,
the best. Tau’s Cup just sprang to mind. I made my promise
with an oath to Tau himself.
I even got
approval from the Oracle of Mila to go on my quest.” He
said.

Monika, finished with
the bread, had moved on to a bit of meat, and now was about to open
her mouth
when Oaka
interrupted her.
“It was spur of the
moment, literally.”
He
said.
“I went along to keep him
safe
. S
o did Sir Nickleby.”

“
Sir Nickleby?”
Monika said, “I actually mentioned Sir Nickleby to the major,
Basha, just today. I told him that you had been trained by the
knight, and of course he knew who that fellow was.” Monika rolled
her eyes, “But then
where is he?” She
asked, “Why isn’t he here with you all?”

Basha and Oaka told
the story, with Fato supplying anecdotal evidence of his own. “I
was flying through the air from Coe Dobila, reciting my message
again when no one could hear me,” Fato said, “and then suddenly a
whole pack of Black Wolves started chasing me. They knew that I was
a royal messenger bird, and that I carried vital information for
King Sonnagh
,
meant for his ears only. I tried to lose their
pursuit, but instead I led them straight by accident to these poor
fellows. I tried to warn them, or at least Basha, but one of
them
,
Sir Nickleby
,
got killed instead when he made a valiant attempt
to stand against these Black Wolves. The Black Wolves broke off
their pursuit after a little while, for I had foiled them,
disappearing into the trees, and they had no clue where I was
going. So there has been no sign of them ever since.”

“
You have never said
anything about--” Basha started to say, but then he stopped as he
realized that it was a bit of a double standard, considering what
he had not or might not have said to Fato in the first place. He
had held back information, and Fato had repaid him in
kind.

“
What an amazing
story.” Monika said, finished with the meat and peeling an apple.
“I never would have believed
…
I’m sorry for what happened to
Sir Nickleby.” She said, looking up. “The major did remark that
that the knight was a good fighter, from what he had heard of him,
and I suppose that he was if he taught you
.
”

Basha shook his head. “I don’t know
half of what I did the other day, to be honest. That
was...something else.” He said.

“
Definitely something
else,” Oaka muttered, glancing at Basha’s pack.

Monika stopped just
before she took a bite. “Can it be
…
” She started to say, but then
she shook her head. “Never mind, I shouldn’t
. T
he point is, I
haven’t got any place else to go, not really, and
I want to join you all.” She said.

“
Are you serious?”
Oaka asked as they all stared at her, Fato most intensely of
all.

“
Yes, I am serious,
strange as it may be,” Monika said, staring back at him and Basha.
“I want to go with you all. I mean, I can help. I know how to
fight, you all saw me back there, I don’t need
any
…
whatever,” She said, waving her hand, although Basha knew
that she meant to say ‘sword’, his new sword to be exact.
“And
if we were to meet Black Wolves, or
whatever might be out there, then
you
could use all the help you can get,” She said, biting her
apple.