Jabone's Sword (5 page)

The four youngsters would move immediately from one seasoned fighter to the next 'til they couldn't stand. He didn't know who was taking the worst of it: Jestia whose wayward lifestyle had left her lacking the skill necessary to cover herself, or he himself, who considered it a point of honor to hold up longer than the others. Finally he staggered and fell to a blow that when they started the day he would have easily blocked.

"All right let's call it a day," Tarius said, and she and the "adults" patted each other on the backs, triumphant at having yet again put these arrogant youths in their place while the battered children sat in the dust of the practice field.

Jestia had a nasty swelling over her right eye which was no doubt going to turn a nice shade of blue. She took the wet rag Ufalla handed her and put it over the knot.

"Is it just me or do any of the rest of you get the idea that they are trying to teach us some lesson about how prepared we aren't?" Ufalla asked.

"They're just trying to scare us," Tarius said.

"They're trying to prepare us for what we might face in the territories," Jabone said, finally catching his breath.

"Well I didn't agree to have the crap beat out of me on a daily basis. Even battle, real battle, couldn't be this brutal. They beat on us from sunup 'til sundown," Jestia griped.

"Hardly that long," Jabone said. "Besides look at us. None of us can do more than stand on shaky limbs and all the old farts walked away with a few hours fight still in them."

Jestia gave him a look filled with distaste. "You truly are the beast woman's son. Look at him grinning he's actually enjoying all this. Well I've had it. I've had it with sleeping in these earthen hovels you call homes and bathing in cold lake water and eating . . . Well I don't even want to know what, so that I can have the living crap beat out of me by the most celebrated fighters in the Kartik . . ."
Ufalla just started laughing then.

"What? What's so damn funny?" Jestia asked hotly.

"You are, you spoiled little brat . . . I knew. I knew you'd get bored with this like you get bored with everything else and go running back to your safe little castle," Ufalla teased. "Well, go then and good riddance. You'd more than likely get us all killed anyway."

"Don't you tell me what to do you hovel dwelling little wretch!" Jestia screamed back. She started to get to her feet, groaned, and sat back down. "I'm . . . I'm not going home. I was just going to say let's go if we're going."

"If you can ever walk again," Ufalla teased.

"I don't see you up dancing, Ufalldown," Jestia clipped back, using the name she'd teased her with since they were children.

"I'm not bitching, either."

"Funny I recall it was you that started bitching in the first place . . ."

"Oh, I don't think so."

Jabone tuned them out then. He saw his madra motioning for him. He got to his feet with an effort and walked to where she summoned him.

"Madra?"

"You fought well today."
"Thank you Madra."

"In seven more days one of our ships will sail with a cargo to the Port of Sagal in the Jethrik-held territory of the Amalite. It is right on the Jethrik border. If you still want it you, your companions and your mounts will be given room on board."

Jabone nodded his head eagerly. "I do . . . we do."
"Even the young princess?"
"Yes," Jabone answered, although he wasn't quite sure. "But Madra, why the Jethrik-held territory? Why do we not go to help our Kartik brothers in our territory?"

Tarius smiled at him and said lightly, "Now what would be the adventure in that?" She quickly became serious again. "Our Kartik brothers in the territory don't need our help. The Amalite rebels aren't attacking there they are in the Jethrik territory right on the Jethrik border."

"Why?"

Tarius shrugged, "Who can say for sure? My guess would be that it's because the Amalites look so much like the Jethriks. It makes it easy for them to infiltrate without detection. It's harder for the Jethriks to keep an eye on them. I would imagine that as much as the sea between us is what has always made the Jethrik their target of choice. Also, there is something to be said for their fear of the Katabull. They can say what they like about their gods and cling to their hateful religion, but in the end they fear the Katabulls' righteous wrath against them, and we did totally annihilate them when last they came against us. You always remember your last battle best. They aren't supposed to be practicing their religion but it's hard to get people to stop clinging to the lies they enjoy. But they fear us more than they trust their gods." She got a puzzled look on her face. "But there is something else, too, something I can't figure out. There are too many of them. These raids do devastating damage more than a handful of stragglers hiding in the forest could do. They have found themselves a place to hide in great numbers, a hive."

"A hive Madra?"

"What else would you call something that held many stinging beasts?" she said with a smile. She looked him right in the eyes and he held her gaze. "There is a stench to an Amalite, they aren't fond of bathing and believe such things as perfumes are evil. They may look just like the Jethriks but there is a smell to them, you will know it when you smell it. There are many things I must tell you all." She turned and walked back over to the three beaten apprentices still sitting on the ground and Jabone followed.

"Listen up because I'm only going to tell you this once. No one wants to think that genocide is ever the answer, but you can kill people much easier it seems than you can kill idiotic beliefs. It seems that even I was short sighted in dealing with the Amalites." She spit on the ground. "That even I didn't go far enough. I who loathed them, even I didn't understand how insidious was their religion how it had so completely corrupted the soul of whoever followed it. We killed every priest, every warrior that we found among the Amalites, leaving only their noncombatants alive. We burned their temples, we split their country between the Jethirk and the Kartik, and we moved to inhabit their land. But somehow their hateful beliefs have survived. The Amalites have rebuilt their religion and are somehow bringing their people back to it, in secret and in hiding in the Jethrik-held territories of the Amalite.

"You may think that we are over reacting to this threat. That they are persecuted. You may say to yourself, what harm is a belief. But you haven't lived in the time of the Amalites in power. You haven't fought these people who believe their gods want them to kill the unbelievers. They hate us all because they believe that is what their gods command. You think that mercy is a virtue and it is, but you must show the Amalites no mercy. None are to be trusted, all are suspect, and when you find a group hiding and doing nothing more menacing than praying you must slaughter them to the last man, or they will kill you and all that you love, for this is their way.

"If you don't understand why they are so monstrous, why they must be killed simply because of their beliefs, then you don't truly understand what the Amalites do when they come to full strength. How they fell upon the Katabull and tried to make us extinct. How they marched across the Jethrik killing every living thing, burning crops and homes, leaving nothing but waste and famine behind them, all in the names of their gods.

"They follow their beliefs blindly and they will show you no mercy because you aren't one of them. If you don't understand all that I have just said, if you don't agree, than you shouldn't go, because you will die.

"Also know this. Great warriors and queens make enemies without trying even among their allies, so it would serve you all to keep your parentage a secret." She looked right at her son then. "The Amalites hate me more than any other being, living or dead, and I still have enemies among the Jethrik, so guard your lineage carefully."

"But Madra you are celebrated as a hero among the Jethrikian people."

"Some, yes, but many of them still consider me a sort of heretic and something of great loathing. I have friends there it is true, and those who admire me, but many would kill you in your sleep simply because you are my son. The same is true of Jestia for much the same reason, and as for Harris's children, Harris is of their country and yet he helped me. They have never forgotten that." She looked at the two girls then. "Understand this. The Jethrikians don't respect women as equals as in the Kartik. You will not be treated as an equal there. They will make you fight for even a crumb of respect." She looked at Ufalla. "What you and I are they do not respect at all. The Amalites believe we are an abomination. They used to kill people for being queer and probably still would if allowed. The Jethriks barely tolerate us."

"Then why go there?" Jestia asked, her mind no doubt going in the same direction Jabone's had. "Why go to the Jethrik-held territories if they will only be hateful to us? Why not the Kartik-held territories?"

"Because we aren't needed there," Jabone said. "There's no real fighting there."

From the look on the girl's face she obviously didn't understand why that was a problem.

Tarius smiled and went on. "Pearson Garrison is on the edge of a small village just a half day's ride from Port Sagal. There, I assume you will go through some sort of formal training and then be sent out on patrol. I have written a letter in my own hand which I have already sent out ahead of you. The Captain of the Garrison is an old friend of mine and will see that you remain together and that you are treated well. His name is Derek. He of course knows who you are, but heed my words well you must guard your true identities." She looked at Tarius and Jestia in turn. "Being who you are will not impress these people or gain you special privileges, but it might get you killed."

"Come follow me," she ordered. She turned and started walking as the tired youths staggered to their feet and started to follow. She continued to talk as she led them on a forced march around the lake that made there tired legs burn. She fed them so much information that there was no way they could possibly remember it all. When Jabone could stand it no longer he called on the night and the change gave him immediate relief that his friends couldn't experience. Finally Jestia saved the others when she said, "Please, Tarius, we can't change. Could we stop walking?"

Tarius turned, saw her son and said with a smile, "Cheater." He just smiled back and shrugged. "Yes we can stop. But remember, stopping because you're exhausted won't be an option in battle." She turned to face the tired youths who except for Jabone had all sat down hard on the well-beaten trail.

She addressed her son. "You won't always have the option of doing that, either."

He nodded. "I know . . ."

"No you think you know, and there is a difference. You are the Katabull. Here you are treated like a god, but there . . . the Jethriks will barely tolerate you. The best you'll get from them is fear and the Amalites—and there are still many of them that aren't practitioners of their religion that are trying to live as good citizens of the Jethrik and Kartik nations they now belong to—the Amalites still hate the Katabull. It is an inbred fear that won't go away anytime soon. Those who don't run in terror may try to kill you. They are not allowed to practice their hateful religion but you can not wipe out a thousand years of carefully taught hate over night. We did not slaughter and lay waste to those who held no weapons. That is their way, not ours, but now, now when they are regrouping in secret to raise their religion from the ashes and to try once again to dominate the planet . . . Perhaps genocide would have been kinder in the long run. To kill them all out once and for all, leaving none to remember their stain with anything but hate."

She looked at Jestia. "And you."

"Me?" Jestia said, a tone of righteous indignation to her voice.

"Yes you. This is not a joke. This isn't something you can quit once you start it. Learn your spells well and use them wisely. Make your sword one with yourself. Go for the right reasons or don't go at all."

Jestia very uncharacteristically nodded her head yes and said nothing.

"And you," she said to the young Tarius, who looked extremely shocked to have been singled out. "You aren't as strong as bigger people, quit pretending to be and embrace what you are. You are fast and nimble. Those are your strengths. Your only weakness my non-blood kin is your pride. Admit to your weaknesses and find your true strengths."

"Yes, Great Leader," he said, and his face shone with unhidden elation because even though she had just rebuked him she had called him her non-blood kin, a high honor among the Katabull.

"We will stop them from infecting the world again, Madra," Jabone promised.

She patted him on the back affectionately and called on the night herself. "The rest of you may go. Come Jabone . . . Let us hunt, enjoy this time together while we can."

He nodded in agreement and together they ran into the woods in search of game.

The others watched them go.

"Great, she's left us in the middle of nowhere. We're no doubt miles from camp and I swear I can't walk another foot," Jestia complained, not bothering to get up. In fact she thought she might just lay right there until some wild animal came and killed her. Death she was sure would be a great relief right then.

"No, she knew about where we'd run out of steam, look," Ufalla said, pointing up the small hill to where the Marching Night's camp was. She got up and put down a hand to help Jestia up. Jestia allowed herself to be hauled up though the very thought of walking up that hill filled her with dread.

Tarius grunted holding his hand up towards his sister. Ufalla sighed and helped him to his feet as well. They started walking back to camp silently and Tarius said smugly, "Oh Ufalla did you notice Tarius the Black had no parting words for you?"

Ufalla laughed and turned to face her brother walking backwards up the path with so little effort that Jestia wanted to throttle her.

"She didn't talk to me because she had nothing negative to say to me. Only you could take a chastisement as a compliment. Maybe you'd better think extra hard about what Tarius said about your pride, brother."