Jalia on the Road (Jalia - World of Jalon) (2 page)

Jalia took his nod as agreement and looked down at the boulder on which he sat. “I have heard that giants are strong, but I cannot believe that you are as strong as people claim. Lift the minor pebble on which you sit for me, if you are able.”

Jalia estimated that the boulder must easily weigh a ton and would be impossible for even four strong men to lift. The giant grunted in agreement, getting up and moving to the other side of the massive chunk of stone. He lifted it easily, if a little unsteadily, up into the air. He held it over his head triumphantly in defiance of Jalia to conceive of a feat truly worthy of him.

Jalia clapped her hands together like a delighted child seeing a clever act performed at a traveling show. She laughed with genuine pleasure.

“I would bet though, that even you haven’t the strength to throw it into the air. Go on, I challenge you. Throw it high into the air and you will be mine.”

The giant nodded and put the boulder down on the ground. He flexed his mighty muscles. With a groan that must have been audible for miles, he tossed the boulder into the air.

Jalia watched its flight and judged time and distances. This was the tricky bit of her plan. She put on a distressed look.

“Oh mighty giant, you have won your challenges and I have lost” she wailed. She slipped off her dress and stood naked in front of him. The scent of the strong red blood coursing though her body came close to overwhelming the giant in his befuddled state. “Stay
right
where you are and I’ll come over to you. That was certainly a deed worthy of my body.”

Jalia walked towards the giant. He waited impatiently, saliva dripping from his mouth as the smell of her blood grew stronger. He reached his arms towards her as the block of stone, obeying a law much older than those of giants or men, smashed back down on top of his head.

The last thing the giant saw before darkness overwhelmed him was Jalia standing triumphantly over him.

“It wasn’t that difficult to beat you. You truly are incredibly stupid.”

Jalia stood looking at the giant’s body for some time. The boulder had crushed his skull like an egg in a manner no human could have achieved. She slit his throat just to be sure, using a discarded sword she found on the ground. It took a lot of effort to saw through his flesh and she almost gave up. There wasn’t even a trickle of blood to show for all her efforts.

She was well aware that Brun Trep would never believe she had killed the giant without bringing back indisputable proof. Her father had had status in Bagdor and she had been schooled with the King’s eldest son until the age of twelve. Two planks would have scored higher at algebra than that particular chip off the family block and Jalia knew the King was every bit his son’s father. She had met him on many occasions.

There would need to be proof of her conquest that could not be denied. He would try and get the money back from her, she was sure of that. But once she had the money in her hands he would not find that easy.

She walked back up the rise and retrieved her sword and knives. With considerable effort she cut off the giant’s penis. It was nearly two feet long and almost as wide as her waist. She wrapped it in the giant’s shirt, which she cut from his body, and packed it onto one of the grazing horses. Only after she washed herself clean in a nearby stream did she bother to put her dress back on.

Mounting the horse, she set off in triumph back to Bagdor, hopeful of receiving a hero’s welcome for her magnificent deed, if not from the King, at least from the rest of the court.

She strode through the King’s palace like a conquering hero, ignoring the whispering of ladies in waiting over the state of her clothing. She staggered under the weight of the thing she carried in blood soaked cloth. It stank of decay.

A guard she recognized barred her way when she reached the Audience Chamber.

“You have a nerve coming back here,” he told her cheerfully. “Do you know how many of your father’s creditors are out looking for you?”

Jalia smiled bitterly. “Small men with no imagination to speak of. They knew the risks my father was taking to make them rich. I demand an audience with the King.”

The guard shook his head. “On your own head be it, Jalia al’Dare. Don’t say I did not warn you.” He pushed the door open and Jalia strode forward.

King Brun Trep laughed at her as she entered the audience chamber. “Jalia al’Dare. Come to see me on some fool’s errand, no doubt. When your father’s creditors find you are here, you will wish you had stayed wherever you have been hiding.”

Jalia threw the penis towards him. She held onto an edge of the cloth, which unrolled neatly, depositing the enormous organ in front of the startled King.

He was nonplussed at first. He never expected to have to pay that bounty. It was just a way of getting fools to drive the giant from the area. Then he remembered that he did not pay large bounties to young girls, especially to one who no longer had any social standing.

“Throw her out onto the street. She has plainly stolen this trophy from a true hero,” he told his guards. The King grinned as he realized that Turan’s creditors would soon take care of Jalia for him. He wouldn’t even have to pay the Assassins Guild’s fee to get rid of her.

As Jalia was dragged out of the palace, she cursed the King and swore revenge on him. Revenge that would make King Brun Trep rue the day that he tried to cheat Jalia al’Dare.

Dusk was approaching as two weary traders trod the road between Bagdor and Delbon. They walked beside four donkeys carrying all their worldly assets, the donkeys’ well being too important to ride them while they were laden down with goods.

In the front of this small train was Yousef al’Degar, a thin, bitter looking man in his early twenties. His face was burnt dark brown from the sun. He had black hair and wore a long thin beard that drooped five inches below his chin.

To the rear of the donkeys was his brother. Daniel was fourteen years old and looked younger. He had been an unexpected child, being born eight years after his brother and he looked nothing like him, lighter of complexion with dark brown hair and a round handsome boyish face.

He was given to unreasonable bursts of cheerfulness that Yousef was unable to whip out of him, despite many years of diligent effort. Daniel skipped in and out of the dark forest on either side of the trail, though why he was doing this was not clear to either of them.

“Time to make camp, Daniel,” Yousef said and gave out a long weary sigh. “Remember, that lake about a quarter of a mile from here in the forest. We can water the donkeys and camp safely for the night. Raiders avoid that lake, it has a bad reputation.” Yousef dragged Furd, their lead donkey, off the trail and into the trees.

He moved confidently through the trackless forest towards the lake, though it was some distance away and hidden from sight. They had traveled this route a number of times since he and Daniel had abandoned their parent’s farm and set out to earn their fortunes. Both brothers had a gift for direction and Yousef was sure he would lead them true.

Daniel loved going into the enormous forests between Bagdor and Delbon. Mostly, he and his brother traded the lucrative southern desert route linking Delbon to Enbar Entar. On that route, they would trade spices and silks in one direction and crafted silver and ironware in the other. This journey’s trade items were unguents and medications from the alchemists of Bagdor, which they planned to sell to the citizens of Delbon for a large profit.

The air was heady with the smells of luscious foliage from ferns and deciduous trees, some of which had stood in this place for over a thousand years. Birds sang in the forest canopy and squirrels and foxes flitted across the forest floor.

The brother’s arrived at the edge of large lake, which filled a whole valley. The land dipped downwards as they approached the lake’s shore. The lake was alive with waterfowl, which flew up squawking as they approached. Seeing so many birds Daniel felt that, with a little luck, they would be eating well tonight.

Yousef sat down with considerable relief on the trunk of a a fallen tree and gestured to Daniel that he should set up their camp. This was always the way with the brothers. Yousef would provide direction and spend their money while Daniel would do all the work. This he did with surprising cheerfulness, as if he enjoyed it.

Daniel removed the heavy bags from the donkeys and inspected their backs for sores. They could not afford to allow any of their pack animals to become sick. He checked the donkeys’ hooves for stones or sign of damage and spent some time cleaning them. Daniel took the animals down to the shoreline and let them cool their hooves in the water while quenching their thirst.

On returning to the camp, he started a fire and having filled the kettle; put it on the burning logs to boil. It was going to be a warm dry night so he didn’t bother to unpack the oiled sheet they used as a tent in poor weather, but he did unroll their bed sheets and find comfortable places around the fire for the two of them to sleep. His brother looked on with disdain as he did all these things. Yousef always hoped for a chance to show displeasure and punish his brother for poor work.

Not far away, hidden in the trees, three beings stood engaged in animated discussion. They were a strange trio by anybody’s standards. One was a tall woman, well over six feet tall with ample bosoms in proportion to her height. She was dressed in flowing silks and even the most ungenerous of men would have described her as breathtakingly beautiful.

The second of the trio was a creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull. He stood a foot taller than the woman beside him. The third of the trio looked like a young girl, being of human size and most closely resembled a man’s erotic dream. She was clothed, if clothed was the appropriate term, with a diaphanous material that was little different from wearing no clothes at all.

The bull headed creature was making protestations to the woman. Despite his shape, he spoke in a cultured voice. “This is stupid, Clea. You bring us here to boost your magic and for what? So you can create a thing of magic for a human child who trades in trinkets. And worse than this, you insist on going through this ridiculous charade. Can you give me a single rational reason why we should assist you in your endeavor?”

Clea gave him an angry look. It was clear she was the kind of person who was not used to being questioned. “I would remind you that I am a Princess of the Fairie and deserve respect. This boy will bring us the Black Pyramid and we shall finally be free of the most evil part of the curse the Magician Kings laid on us. Is that not worth you lending me your power?”

“How can you know that for sure?” the nymph like girl enquired. Despite her apparent youth, she spoke to Clea as an equal.

“Because this was all foretold centuries ago by a human prophet. I suspect that you can guess which one, Ella. Even Turock would know the name of this particular human.”

“Jer a’Dall,” Ella said with surprising reverence in her voice. “If he said this, then it will happen, even though more than eight centuries have passed since his death. But for all that, I suspect there is more to this than you have chosen to tell us.”

“I concur,” Turock said with a nod of his massive head.

Clea spoke with urgency, now their course of action was finally agreed.

“We must change to the forms the Magician Kings imposed on us to work this magic. Quickly, I have been given a precise time and location and that time approaches rapidly. I will tell you more of this matter once the Black Pyramid is destroyed.”

A glow enveloped the three and they shrank, becoming near human creatures, excepting that they were now only eight or nine inches tall. They wore gossamer wings on their backs. Turock possessed a handsome human face while the other two looked much the same as they had been before, only much smaller.

Turock and Ella focused their magical energies onto Clea. She glowed brightly as they augmented her magic. When they finished, she rose in the air and flitted through the forest to carry out the task outlined to her nearly a millennium before.

Once the chores were complete, Daniel retrieved his hunting bow with his two good arrows and set off along the lake in search of game. He might have chosen to fish, but he had less luck with a spear than a bow and the waterfowl looked healthy and plentiful.

Daniel was a good hunter, but he was in a hurry, as he knew Yousef would punish him if he took too long about his task. He hunted along the bank of the lake, looking for an opportunity to shoot a bird on land. He faced the risk of losing one of his precious arrows should he hit a bird and not kill it outright..

If he had more time, he would have found a place to hide and wait for a bird to come to him. He could then choose a safer kill. As it was, he hoped to shoot a bird foraging inland and then place his body in the way, stopping it escaping to the lake if the shot was not instantly fatal.

He moved along the shore, the bank behind him was disturbed by his passage and the birds would not settle there again for a while. Daniel hoped he wouldn’t have to go too far before he found a suitable shot.

It was as he passed a small bay that he heard a female voice crying for help. The voice seemed close but faint, and he had to backtrack before he parted some reeds and saw who was calling.

Daniel was confronted by the sight of a pretty fairy. She was stuck to a spider’s web, which was sufficiently large to make Daniel wary of meeting its builder. He had never liked spiders.

Daniel had never seen a fairy before though he had heard many travelers’ tales about them. This one was extremely attractive. If she had been of human size, he would have been smitten.

Princess Clea wore a silk dress that revealed more of her than Daniel had ever seen of a woman. The web held her arms spread and in her right hand she held what looked like a tiny twig. Daniel knew from campfire stories that this must be her magic wand. It seemed obvious to him that she could do nothing with it while unable to wave it. She writhed from side to side, unable to free herself from the web.

He drew his dagger from the sheath on his belt. It was a wicked looking thing, ten inches long with a one and a half inch wide blade. It wasn’t particularly pretty, having a crude wooden handle wrapped in coiled string and the blade looked old and pitted, but it was still Daniel’s most prized possession. In fact, apart from the clothes he wore, it was pretty much his only possession. The fairy recoiled from him as she saw the blade in his hand. Daniel thought she must think he was going to use it on her. It was no surprise when she begged him to spare her life.

“Don’t be silly, I’m only going to free you,” he said as he cut the web from her, all the while keeping a look out for the spider that had spun it. His neck itched from the thought it might be dangling on a thread of silk behind him.

As soon as her hand with the wand came free, Clea waved it and web on her back dissolved. For the first time, Daniel saw her delicate, almost invisible wings, which she used to fly into the air.

She rose until she was level with Daniel’s head. She moved closer and, to his surprise, kissed him lightly on the nose before flying back a few feet. It was a sexual kiss despite her size and Daniel felt its effects on his body.

“I am Princess Clea of the Fairie. You have been so kind in rescuing me that I must return the favor with a gift.” She pointed her wand at Daniel’s dagger. The dagger’s blade changed until it shone as if a master metalworker had honed it and its handle changed to one of mahogany. Daniel saw its blade had an edge so sharp that it looked as if it might be able to cut the very air in two. He held it up and admired it. Then he remembered his manners.

“Thank you for your gift. I am Daniel al’Degar of Delbon and I shall treasure it always.”

“This sword you wield is magical in nature,” Princess Clea said. Daniel thought the dagger must look like a sword to a fairy and that was why she used those inappropriate words. “Take care to protect it, because whoever possesses it can wield its magic. To the words, ‘Magic Sword, my hand’ it will fly from your belt into your hand.”

Clea flew closer to Daniel, her wings blowing air onto his face and whispered to him, “If you use the words ‘magic sword’ and any other words it will take them as instruction to go to whatever you have named. All swords have two edges and this one’s second edge is in the need to be careful in what you command it to do. I remind you, whoever possesses the sword will be able to command it so take care to keep it with you at all times.”

She flew back towards him and this time she kissed him lightly on the lips before flying away deep into the forest.

Daniel adjusted his trousers, as it turned out that a fairy kiss was more potent than that of a human girl and he was feeling sticky.

Yousef was furious when Daniel returned to their camp empty-handed. He informed Daniel their shortage of supplies meant Daniel would not eat that night. This shortage of food hadn’t stopped Yousef preparing and eating a meal while he waited. Later that night, he beat Daniel for half an hour as a punishment and as a lesson not to do it again.

A few days later, the traders road left the forest and entered the vast plains surrounding Delbon. The plain ran in all directions save to the north where the steep cliffs of the
Delbar
Heights
rose. The plains were farming land and dotted with small villages though they would not approach them. The villages weren’t friendly to strangers as they were subject to frequent attacks by raiders. Raiders would raid a village to steal food, enslave any young people they could catch and kill anybody who got in their way.

The King of Delbon paid little attention to such matters. Like other leaders of the city-states, what happened outside his city walls was only of interest if food became scarce. Delbon had much farmland within its walls so this was highly unlikely.

The Delbon Plain was a dangerous place for traders. Daniel and Yousef worried because they hadn’t come across any other traders to band together with. This left them vulnerable, and they did not choose to light a fire when they camped.

It was on the third night out on the plains that a band of six men attacked them. The men wore dark cloaks with deep hoods and were practically invisible in the dark. They were overwhelmed before they knew what was happening. The men stripped the brothers of their weapons. Tying and gagging them sharing out the booty in the trade bags.