Adversaries Together (35 page)

“
You begin to believe it.”
Kira nodded.

“
Begin to act it out.” Fery
said.

Roth tossed a couple of small sticks into the
fire as Wynne spoke, “So the edict was a prophecy fulfilled by its
bias.”

“No,” Roth shook his head, “the edict was
before the bigotry became so widespread.”

“I can’t remember a time they weren’t
maltreated.” Wynne said.

“It’s an outgrowth out of another
issue.”

“What exactly?” Fery asked.

“When Reg’s boy found me on the coast…”

“What does that have to do with it?” Fery
asked

“Let him get us there…” Wynne patted his
daughter on the thigh.

“Sorry.” She said and Roth winked at
her.

“
I was fairly far gone.
Mostly just drifting meat, a beached carcass.”

“
Reg certainly got you back
on your feet fast enough.” Kira said.

“
He had to.”

“
How so?”

“
Reg’s Novosar, but his
wife was Athingani. When he heard me mumbling during my fever in
the cant, he realized I was too.”

“
The cant?” Kira
asked.

“
It’s the language of the
Athingani, more than a dialect but not quite its own language.”
Wynne explained.

Fery blinked, “So he helped you just because
of that?”

“
He healed me because of
that. I told him about you,” Roth pointed to Kira, “and Goshen, how
I was thrown over. I was done with it all, honestly.” Roth laughed
and shook his head.

“
You gave up?” Kira said
hesitant.

“
I had been beaten
repeatedly, lost all my coin, and barely had the clothes on my
back.” Roth broke a branch and tossed the halves into the fire, “So
yeah, I just wanted to head back to Anhra, maybe get a contract,
and get back on my feet.”

“
Makes sense.” Kira said
softly, “You never owed us anything. In fact, we owed
you.”

Roth shook his head, “I gave that debt to
collect to Jena.”

No one spoke. The wood cracked as the flames
sighed their heat into the thin night air.

“
Debts.” Roth continued,
“Are just what we owe, what we trade between us, what we collect
and hold over each other. The Athingani make no oaths because
they’re for all; everyone is owed everything by
everyone.”

“
That doesn’t make any
sense.” Fery scrunched up her face.

Roth smiled, “Yeah, a lot of what they
believed didn’t to most.”

Wynne nodded, “It’s both simpler and more
complex than we give it credit.”

“
It’s much easier to live
than to explain.”

“
You just say yes.” Kira’s
gaze was lost in the fire and she seemed to be speaking to no one.
Roth looked at her, seemingly satisfied with her queer
insight.

“
When the first reeves
showed up in the villages and told the folks that the land was now
part of Rautia or Havan or Midhalm, Arderra, Sulecin, Rikonen, even
Heveonen. It was greeted as strange but there was no resistance.
Everyone went about their business.”

“
But no one really paid the
alcavala did they?” Wynne said.

“
Not a one.” Roth
nodded.

“
So their reputation
started as cheats with outsiders.” Wynne explained.

“
It’s disloyal to refuse to
pay alcavala; we all need to put in for all. How could you not
understand that?” Fery asked looking confused at Roth.

“
They never refused, it
never occurred to them. They never considered themselves part of
those cities or lands.” Roth said.

“
But that couldn’t be all
of it.”

“
No,” Roth sighed, “We
trained warriors. The Cathedral wanted crusaders, the Novosar
wanted defenders, and the Spires and the Essians wanted drones.
What the Adrenines were to making a navy, we were to making an
army.”

“
Why you? I mean, them.
Or…” Kira asked

“
There were free cities,
mostly due to being out of the way or too far away to bother with,
too poor. Athingani were a people, a people found in some degree
everywhere. A people that didn’t mix with others, didn’t look like
others, didn’t act like others.”

“
Strangers to all.” Kira
said.

“
We were apart. As such, we
were prefect brokers. To equip, instruct, and ship off to the
realms skilled soldiers. That was the vocation, where the coin came
from to pay the alcavala.”

“
But it couldn’t last.”
Wynne added.

Roth shook his head, “Soon everyone had an
army, some might have had more numbers but everyone was fairly
equal in skill.”

“
The Eris Valley War,
Battles of the Lake District.” Wynne said.

“
Carlisle’s Campaign, the
Union of the Spires, and even your Ranald Feuds…we trained all
those men. They learned to kill and to die from us.” Roth paused
suddenly angry; he spat and gestured for Wynne to pass him the
bota.

“
Most of those conflicts
were ages ago though.” Fery said.

“
Those conflicts,” Roth
drank, set the bota down, and continued, “Those conflicts made the
world we know. The last one nearly sixty years ago,
here.”

Wynne nodded, “The Feuds defined Essia
against Cassubia. The Seven Spires became so by taking their valley
and fighting their own civil war, and Novosy only exists because of
Carlisle.”

“
I know but… I mean they
taught us that but still.” Fery said.

“
It’s difficult to imagine
it actually happening, of things being otherwise.” Kira said in
sympathy with Fery, “It seems as though there has always been The
Cathedral, the Seven Spires.”

“
Every generation feels
that way, they always take their memories as what the right way
is,” Roth gazed into the fire but then looked around the pit, “It’s
difficult to explain a deeper time awareness to you
Sovi.”

“
Sovi?” Fery
asked.

“
You call us Athingani, we
call you Sovi.”

“
It’s been speculated that
the Athingani like the Adrenines are an altogether different kind
of human that we,” Wynne looked at Roth as he explained it to Fery,
“Sovi.”

“
We refer to the Adrenines
as Austri. At least, the true Adrenines.”

“
True Adrenines?” Kira
asked.

“
Adrenia has been a nation
for a long time now. The realm was once made up of one people, the
Austri. You see them today—short, slouched, long feet, blond wiry
hair, dark skin. There are many Adrenines now that look like you.”
Roth said gesturing to the three.

“
What makes you
Athingani…Athingani and not Sovi?” Fery asked.

“
Most Athingani were
stocky, broad shouldered, with a thick brow and dark features. They
were said to have come from the northeast and loved living in
mountains.” Wynne said.

“
That’s the stereotype.”
Roth nodded. “But not all were that. Some were tall, thin, light
haired and soft featured like you all. Some Athingani joined with
Sovi, the children often took after their Sovi parent.” Roth
gestured to himself.

“
What about their
children?” Kira asked.

“We can’t have children.” Roth took a swig
from the bota.

“Wait,” Fery said, “Athingani can’t have
children?”

“Half breeds can’t.” Wynne corrected.

“Oh.” Fery was quiet as though she had
crossed a line.

“We live a long time though, so at least
there’s that.” Roth tossed the bota to Wynne.

“How long?” Kira asked with an eerie
casualness.

“Longer than your kind.”

Looking to change the subject Fery asked, “So
when they had their borders set, they realized you were within all
of them.”

“Loyal to none.” Wynne nodded.

“
The edict allowed for us
to be exterminated.” Roth turned to the darkness and pointed in the
direction of the pool and sculpture, “That monument is to the last
of the mentors. When the edict was pronounced it came on the heels
of outlawing of mercenary service.”

“
So you were criminals but
unbeknownst to yourselves” Fery realized.

“
We knew soon enough.” Roth
stood to stretch then moved a few steps away to gather some more
wood to throw on the fire. He kept talking, “They came from all
quarters all at once so we couldn’t organize against them at first.
When we finally did, there were maybe a thousand mentors
remaining.”

“
And they stood their
ground here? Made this their last stand.” Kira asked.

Roth threw down some wood near to where he
sat and started feeding the dwindling flames, “No, that thousand
assembled a few leagues from here. They had a large encampment
meant to stand as a safe haven. They brought in as many ordinary
folk as possible, to protect them.”

“
But they couldn’t.” Wynne
said.

“No,” Roth was grim as the fire began to
burn bright again, “They weren’t just defeated by all the
margraves, the reeves were instructed to kill everyone in the
bivouac. And they nearly did.”

“
That’s what this
commemorates? A genocide?” Fery was aghast.

“
No, it’s not. It has to be
for those that escaped.” Kira looked to Roth.

“
Barely a hundred survived.
One of those was Gammon Serero, a stonemason, who spent the rest of
his life nursing the remnants of his people. He carved that
monument. Tore down a mountain and tried to rebuild.”

“
So the Athingani now are
descendants of those?” she asked.

“
Some can claim
that.”

“
The rest are found
children, mix breeds.” Wynne said matter-of-factly, “Like
yourself.” Roth shrugged.

“
And Reg’s son.” Kira
added.

“
How can you not want
revenge?” Fery asked

“
We don’t think that
way.”

“
But how?”

“
We just don’t. We were
guilty, putting the sword in your hands and expecting you not to
turn it on us was folly. We paid for it—in coin, in
blood.”

“
And now?” Kira
asked.

“
And now we live as best we
can.”

“
Still doesn’t explain why
you came for Kira, why we’re here waiting.” Fery added.

“
He came because he was
responsible for me.” Kira said flatly.

“
And we’re here because
he’s responsible for Jena.” Wynne added.

Roth didn’t betray any emotion, just sat
staring at the fire. When he spoke, it was distant but decisive,
“We’re here because your people deserve a chance at salvation,” he
looked to Fery then turned to Wynne, “Because I owe Kira and Jena
and might be able to help you as well.”

“
I just don’t think I
would’ve done the same.” Fery said weakly, Wynne rubbed her back in
support.

“
It’s not about you.” Wynne
said.

“
I still really don’t
understand.” Fery said throwing her hands up trying to lighten the
mood.

“
The Light that shines on
only one shines on none.” Kira mumbled her scripture.

“
You could say that,” Roth
smirked.

Siracene Highlands,
31
^st
of Mabon

It was an odd sensation but as they walked
Goshen could actually feel himself getting better. Vigor, he
thought. The swim to shore had destroyed him but Declan had perhaps
rightly teased him that he had finally worked out the last of the
venom from his system. Prior to this sojourn, Goshen had never
given a second thought to poisons but now he could boast being the
victim of two different kinds. He made a note to talk with vicar
Alin once he made it back to Sulecin. And that was when he stopped.
He wasn’t going to see the vicar; he wasn’t going to be welcomed by
The Cathedral ever again.

Jena punched him in the shoulder from behind,
“Do you ever stop daydreaming?”

“
It’s called thinking, not
daydreaming.” Goshen stumbled forward frowning at her.

Declan cackled ahead of them and called back,
“Thinking, he says.”

The three had been moving through the thick
forest staying clear of the highland’s coulee basins for days. It
had been slow going due to the terrain and the fact that they were
constantly on guard. The first day they had caught a glimpse of a
line of deep black smoke from behind them near the shore. Jena was
certain that the crew of the ship was responsible and that they
were hot on their heels. As they moved, the three settled into a
kind of routine.

Declan was a better tracker than Jena, though
it seemed not by much, but given she was looking over her shoulder
every few moments, she gladly conceded the trailblazing to him.
Jena had told them both that after encounters. Declan didn’t seem
to have a preference though he made it a point to mock the idea
that there was anyone else in these land to encounter. Goshen had
advocated for the road and, surprisingly, Jena had agreed. When
they found it, the road was actually more of a wide path, a
remarkably level path about four spans wide of tightly compacted
white gravel, but still just a path. They followed it for two
afternoons and made their fastest progress. Unfortunately, so did
whoever was behind them. On her rearguard rangings, Jena has spied
a camp perhaps five leagues behind them. The three had agreed that
going back into the woodland would be the best route.