Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) (43 page)

Everyone stopped, and stared at Oaka.
“Are you joking, Oaka?” Basha asked, stunned.

“
It is possible.”
Gnat added to join in on the conversation. “Lord Fobata is a
Follower of Doomba, after all, and he’s Duke of Coe Aela. Noblemen
can be Followers.”

“
Point taken, Gnat,
thank you.” Oaka said. “I’m just saying, Sir Nickleby was the only
one who survived the encounter that started the forest fire, and
Uncle Smidge said it was rather suspicious
.
”

“
Sir Nickleby
survived and and wrote to Major Lupo.” Basha said. “He said he was
worried about the Black Wolf he might have found out of the forest,
possibly because it started the forest fire or something like that.
Why would he be worried about the Black Wolf if it was his
ally?”

“
Possibly because he
had not expected it, or maybe because he was worried about
disappointing Doomba for some reason?” Oaka shrugged. “I don’t
know, Major Lupo might be a Follower as well, we don’t know
that
.
”

“
You’re just trying
to find some reason to discredit Sir Nickleby.” Basha scoffed as
Monika rolled her eyes. “He was a good man!” Basha exclaimed. “It
sounds like Sir Nickleby was trying to find some information about
activity from Followers and Servants as well as Doomba, and the Old
Man told him
…
”

“
To stay away from
this affair!” Oaka cried. “What proof do you need? If the Old Man
was trying to prote
c
t us
…
”

Basha stopped. “No, why would Sir
Nickleby sacrifice himself, staying behind to fight off those Black
Wolves if he was a Follower of Doomba?” Basha asked.

“
Because he thought
he would survive.” Oaka said. “Because he thought those Black
Wolves wouldn’t attack him.”

“
Sir Nickleby was
told to protect me.” Basha muttered.

“
Maybe because they,
the Followers of Doomba, wanted to find out the truth of whether or
not you were a Knight of Arria, or something like that.” Oaka
said.

“
That does sound
reasonable.” Gnat said, thinking about Janus’s ‘mission’ from
Marlo.

“
Perhaps we should
stop talking about this,” Monika said, staring at Basha’s downcast
eyes. “The man is dead, and it does us no good to speculate about
this when Sir Nickleby can neither harm nor protect us now. I’m
sorry, Basha.” She whispered the last to him.

“
Oh, and there’s one
more thing I forgot to mention,” Fato said, staring down at them as
the argument ended, before he stopped to think for a moment.
“Actually, there are two things I forgot to tell you people, but
perhaps one is more than enough.”

“
You might as well
tell us all of your secrets, bird,” Oaka remarked, shaking his head
as he turned away from Basha’s unease. “You’ve certainly been
keeping a lot of them from us.” Oaka muttered.

“
Wait a moment,
Fato,” Basha said before the falcon could speak again. “Did you say
Tigora’l in your message?” He knew that word. Oaka’s argument had
made him forget about it until now.

Fato stopped a moment
to think and then nodded. “That’s right, ‘This may be the result of
the Tigora’l’s presence
…
’”

“
That’s enough,”
Basha said, turning around to fetch one of his packs, digging
around inside of it to pull out his wallet. “This contains some of
my most prized possessions,” He said, carefully removing his map
and his mother’s handkerchief to pull out the folded piece of paper
of prophecy. He could not lose any of this stuff.

“
The Oracle of Mila
told me,” Basha said, placing the paper on his lap before he put
away the map and the handkerchief back into the wallet, “That the
Tigora’l
…‘
Seek not only the Cup, but seek also the
Tigora’l in this quest,’” Basha read from the prophecy,
“‘seek him and know the truth.’” Basha looked up and said, “That’s
funny, I
don’t know the word or its
meaning, but I can almost recognize
…
”

“
Tiger of light,
Basha,” Monika said, as everyone turned to stare at her now. “In
the Old Language, that is. Tiger is Tig, light is ora, and of is L
with the apostrophe, to indicate it is part of the
phrase.”

“
How do you know that
phrase, Monika?” Basha asked, turning towards her. “And what does
it mean? Who is the tiger of light?”

“
I don’t know who the
tiger of light is, Basha,” Monika said, shaking her head. “I know
what it meant because I have heard of and read some Old Language
words from people whom I met, in the Za Desert and in other
places.” She said, looking down with a sorrowful expression. “But
the tiger of light is something very important, I’m aware of that
much at least. And I think we should look for him, or it, wherever
we might go in this quest. It might save us in the end,” She
whispered, looking up at Basha, “From a world of trouble.” She
stared at him.

“
Can I please just
continue?” Fato asked after a moment of silence from the rest of
the group, contemplating this moment between Basha and Monika as
awkward and unsettling, as they remembered the reason for this
quest, and this wasn’t it. “It’s just that I feel like confessing
right now, and it would be a huge relief on me.” The falcon
said.

“
Go ahead, confess
away!” Oaka cried, waving his hands. “Everybody else has!” Oaka
said, clearing his throat loudly and deliberately to disturb
Basha’s and Monika’s reveries. Oaka was still sullen over the
question of Sir Nickleby’s loyalty, and how no one else but him
would think to question such a man. They were
far
too
trusting.

Monika looked away from Basha, abashed
and reserved, but for some reason, Basha felt like he wanted
Monika’s eyes on him forever. She did not look back at him and
finally he turned away from her, knowing that he had to get back to
business as usual, even though he wished that he could change
things between them somehow. Basha took out his wallet to put his
paper of prophecy back inside of it. He could not forget his quest
for Jawen.

“
Fine, fine, if you
insist.” Fato said, clearing his throat. “Janus
was
talking to Nisa
yesterday,” The falcon said as everybody else stared at him again,
“Around the time that Oaka might have been fighting his duel with
Captain Goga.
”

“
Are you sure it was her?” Basha
asked, stunned.

“
I’m
sure, Janus told me she was protecting you all.” Fato said.
“
She was a little taller than average
height for a woman, with blonde hair, about mid 20s or
so
.
”

“
That’s her all
right,” Basha said, nodding and feeling a little self-conscious
about having Nisa turn up again, following him around like his
shadow, especially with Monika and the others right beside him.
Jawen, Nisa, Monika and even Iibala...why did it feel like his
whole life was surrounded by girls sometimes?

“
What would Janus be
talking to her for?” Gnat asked, perturbed. Must not forget about
Gnat being around as well.

“
Don’t know, he
didn’t say.” Fato said. “Didn’t look like it was too friendly,
though, as she might have held a knife at his neck.” Fato
said.

“
What?” Basha and
Gnat both asked.

“
That’s what it
looked like, but apparently he talked her out of it, or she decided
to let him go, because she moved away from him before too long,
knife gone back into her sheath. Janus had the nerve to ask me if
she was traveling with us.” Fato paused a moment to think as Basha
and Gnat both breathed some sigh of relief that nothing else had
gone wrong between their guardians. “That may have been the first
clue that she was following us,” Fato said.

“
You didn’t think
that anything else was amiss?” Oaka asked sarcastically. “Should we
trust that this Nisa is on our side?” He asked.

“
Janus could have
gotten himself killed! Why would your Nisa have done that to him?”
Gnat asked Basha.

“
She’s not
my
…
”
Basha sighed and shook his head, hoping Monika wasn’t paying too
much attention to this whole rotting episode. She was awfully
quiet, though, sometimes she seemed too introspective and reserved.
“I don’t know why, and I don’t see why Nisa should not be on our
side.” Basha said, answering Gnat and Oaka at the same. “Where were
they, and why
?
” Basha started to ask
Fato.

“
Why should she not
be?” Oaka muttered to himself, mimicking Basha, and shaking his
head. “You’re too trusting, Basha.”

“
And you’re getting
too suspicious, Oaka.” Basha muttered back to him. “Not everyone
else besides us is a Follower of Doomba.”

“
They were in front
of the blacksmith shop, near the stables.” Fato had
remarked.

“
That was around the
time that I was in the stables, and you
…
” Basha said, indicating
Gnat as he nodded. “That explains it. They must have been watching
out for us, Gnat. Janus was following you, and Nisa was following
me, and they both collided when Nisa may have thought that Janus
was a threat to me
.
” Basha said.

“
That does not
explain it. That’s absurd.” Gnat said, shaking her head. “Janus
would not have been following me. He doesn’t do menial things like
that. He was probably too busy with important matters to deal with
me, and why would Janus want to follow me?” Gnat asked, turning to
Basha. “There is no reason why he would. Not like your Nisa does.”
She muttered.

“
Why
does
…
” Basha groaned. His Nisa. Gnat was getting on his nerves a
little bit. Why had he bothered asking her to come along with them?
He did not really think that, Gnat was a good friend to have, and
he did want her to come after all. But it was just the thought of
Gnat poking holes at his shell and theories, exposing what he might
feel underneath about Nisa, or about any of the girls in his life
for that matter, that upset him. The idea that he had been followed
around by both the Old Man and Nisa all of his life unnerved him,
and it was indeed a violation of his trust and privacy for this to
have happened when he was unaware of it, but it comforted him as
well--in an odd, perverse way--to have these people with
him.

What if Nisa had been following him
when he ran off into the woods as a child, upset and angry to find
out he had been adopted by Geda and Habala? What if she had saved
him when these giant rats started chasing him through the woods,
and she killed the rats? She had been with him all of this time, he
just had not realized it. She had said she wasn’t his mother when
he was young, but she had been watching over him all of this
time--even more than a mother would. Would she be there to protect
him, no matter what? Possibly not, but still, she would be there,
no matter what, even in his darkest hour. He would never be truly
alone.

He thought that somehow, she was
probably the closest thing he had to a true companion, someone who
knew him intimately from all of the time she had spent watching
him. She probably knew all of the secrets he couldn’t share with
others, and even understood him better than he could.

Even though she, and the Old Man,
couldn’t possibly read his mind, they might know his actions and
reactions from afar, and what he meant by them, how he might react
in a certain situaton, and what he would say next. It was something
a normal person would never know or fully understand about a person
sitting next to them, even if that person was their best friend,
sibling, cousin, or whatever, but he believed it was possible for
the Old Man and Nisa to understand him in such a way from the time
and attention they had devoted to watching out for him. Could they
tell him fully why they had watched him, and what they had known
about him, someday? He hoped so, very much.

“
Well, I don’t know
what else Janus could have been doing, spying on me?” Basha asked,
overlooking Gnat’s remark. “He is a spy, after all, he has to be
doing some spying at least!” He said. “It’s part of his job
description!”

“
That may explain
it,” Oaka said, nodding. “You do look suspicious, Basha.” He winked
at his brother. “Probably didn’t want you spoiling what was going
on at Coe Aela.
”
Basha groaned and rolled his eyes as Oaka
continued
,
“Okay, Fato,” turning to look up into the tree with a smile. “Much
as I love to see you squirm with confessing deep, dark secrets that
you have been keeping from us, you still have one more thing to
confess, don’t you?” Oaka asked.

“
The Black Wolves
were chasing you and Basha!” Fato cried. “Not me!”

“
What? In the
forest?” Basha asked, stunned.

“
In the forest, on
the way to Coe Baba with Major Lupo’s message, I came across some
Black Wolves sleeping when they were awakened by an alert of some
kind, and then they went off to start chasing you and Oaka, Basha.”
Fato said, nodding. “That’s how it happened. One of the Black
Wolves did snap at me when he spotted me, but it wasn’t his intent
to chase me. He didn’t know that I was a royal messenger bird, that
I had messages of any kind. I followed after the pack to see what
happened, and then I went after you and Oaka to see if you two were
okay. I was curious to find out why the pack had been chasing you
two, and then I heard that you had both lost Sir Nickleby, and here
I am today!” Fato cried, lifting his wings. “Still following after
you two!” He exclaimed.