The Blood-stained Belt (36 page)

'This?' He held
it for me to see. 'This is called a pair of spectacles.' Seeing the
look on my face, he chuckled deeply and asked, 'Never seen anything
like it before, have you?'

I looked at the
object – two round pieces of glass separated by a curved bridge and
held in place with a slender metal frame. I asked, 'What's it
for?'

Zaliek balanced
it on my nose and said, 'Take a look at the map.' As I peered
through the pieces of glass, Zaliek asked, 'Do you see any
difference?'

'Perhaps!' I
pushed the contraption more firmly onto my nose, peered again, and
said, 'Things seem to be a bit clearer.'

'Only a bit
clearer? That shows the difference in our ages, General Jina. In my
case, I couldn't see any of those small names without it.'

I gave the
spectacles back to him, sat down, and asked, 'Where did you get
them?'

Zaliek held the
spectacles up to the light, breathed on them, wiped them carefully
with the hem of his tunic, and put them away. He said, 'I got them
in Wejigara. They've got some clever people there.'

'Wejigara, eh?
That's a long way from here.'

Zaliek looked
at me keenly and asked, 'Have you had dealings with Wejigara?'

'They sent a
diplomatic delegation to visit us about five years ago. We
entertained them, held discussions, and then waved goodbye to
them.'

'What did they
want?'

'We couldn't
quite work that out. While they were here, they tried to get as
much information out of us as possible but they didn't give us much
in return. They left with invitations to seal an agreement of
eternal friendship, co-operation, and lucrative trade, but we
didn't hear anything more from them. Sharma thought of returning
the compliment by sending a delegation to them but finally we
didn't bother. As far as we could see, they were just here to sniff
around and see if there was any profit to be got out of us.'

Zaliek snorted.
'Sounds like Wejigara, all right. They're a sharp lot.'

'How do you
know about Wejigara?'

'I've just
arrived from Wejigara. I was living there.'

'Are you going
back?'

Zaliek shook
his head. 'No. I can't take that mountain climate any longer. Man,
I tell you, even in the middle of summer the wind cuts through you
like a frozen knife. And as for the winters –' He shook his head
and continued, 'I finished my second contract with them and decided
that it was time to settle down somewhere warmer.' Zaliek sat back
and looked at me half humorously and half expectantly.

I caught his
drift and asked, 'Somewhere like Keirine?'

'It's a lot
warmer than Wejigara, that's for sure.' Zaliek was still looking at
me expectantly.

I teased him by
saying, 'We're not training new recruits to fight the Dornites any
more, Commander Zaliek. We have the Dornites well under
control.'

'But what about
the Usserdites? Are they also under control?' Zaliek looked at me
shrewdly.

'The
Usserdites? Well, of course, they're a restless lot. With them, we
can't take anything for granted.'

Zaliek pointed
at the map and chuckled knowingly. 'Especially now that you've
pushed them back from the Great River, eh?'

'We need the
Western River Strip for our own people, not to mention our own
security.'

Zaliek got up,
put the spectacles on his nose, and looked at the map. He whistled,
'You've taken a lot of territory on the other of side the river,
haven't you?'

'We had an
ancestral claim to it.'

'You did?'

'Of course we
did! In the old days, when the People of Keirine were on the move,
they occupied most of that territory.'

Zaliek asked
sceptically, 'Courtesy of the local inhabitants?'

'By right of
conquest.'

'What happened
after that?'

'The Usserdites
forced us out about a hundred years ago. They colluded with the
Dornites.'

Zaliek raised
his eyebrows. 'Colluded with the Dornites, eh? And I guess they've
never been forgiven for it?'

'Forgiveness is
not the issue. The point is that we've taken back what belongs to
us and that's the end of the matter.'

Zaliek sat
down, sniffed, scratched his nose, and asked, 'Do you have place
for one more commander in your army?'

'Someone who
tried to make soldiers out of a bunch of Vaxili's first
recruits?'

'That's the
sort of person that I had in mind.'

'Someone who
tried to teach some of the same soldiers to ride horses, even if
all they knew up until then was herding sheep and riding on
wagons?'

'You've got it,
General Jina. That sounds exactly like the person that I've got in
mind.'

I asked, 'Would
a five-year contract do?'

Zaliek frowned
and scratched his head. 'To tell the truth, I was thinking of
something longer than that. It's time for me to settle down.'

'Commander
Zaliek wants to settle down? Well, that is news!'

Zaliek shifted
self-consciously and said, 'The fact is, I have a reason for
wanting to settle down.' I raised my eyebrows. He said, 'I have a
wife and son.'

'You have?
Where are they?'

'They're
staying at an inn just down the road.'

'I'd like to
meet them.'

Zaliek looked
pleased when I said that. He replied, 'My wife would like to meet
you, too. I've told her a lot about you.'

'What about
your son? Doesn't he also want to meet his father's old comrade in
arms, General Jina?'

Zaliek's face
brightened even more at the mention of his son. He said, 'One day
he'll hear all about you but right now he's a bit young. He's only
two years old.'

I looked at
Zaliek, sitting there with his weathered face alight with pleasure.
Images of the past came to my mind. I visualised Zaliek bellowing
at us on the parade ground, Zaliek leading our unit to safety after
the first battle of Gandonda, Zaliek sitting with me outside the
sick bay when I was recovering from the fever … I said, 'Yes, I
guess that we could consider something longer than a five-year
contract. I'll talk to Sharma.'

'How is
Sharma?'

'Sharma? Oh,
he's all right. He's got a lot on his mind, big responsibilities,
and so on – you know how it is, the crown sits heavily on the
shoulders – he gets distracted sometimes. But, basically, he's
fine. Of course, he'll want to see you when he's got time.' I stood
up and said, 'I'll see what I can do. Maybe we could meet at about
the same time tomorrow?'

Zaliek got to
his feet, clapped me on a shoulder, and said, 'Thank you, comrade.
I appreciate it.'

At the door, I
asked Zaliek, 'How long were you in Wejigara?'

'About twenty
years.'

'You went there
straight from --?'

'That's right.
When Vaxili had you and your mates locked up, I knew that it
wouldn't be long before they came for me as well. I got out of
Keirine right away.'

Next morning,
on my way to the headquarters building, I stopped at the inn where
Zaliek was staying. I was curious to see his family. In fact, I
could hardly believe that he really had a wife and child. I always
thought of Zaliek as the quintessential professional-for-hire, a
loner who would keep himself free to move on to the next assignment
once he had exhausted the possibilities in the current situation.
More than that, he always seemed to me to be a rough-and-tumble
sort of fellow whose identity was completely bound up with his
comrades and with his profession. And now he was a family man. I
had to see it for myself.

When I arrived,
Zaliek and his family were eating breakfast in the front room of
the inn. Zaliek jumped to his feet, shook my hand, and asked in a
low voice, 'Have you spoken to Sharma?'

I nodded,
'We'll fix something for you. See me later, all right?'

Zaliek relaxed.
He gestured to the table and said, 'Meet my family.'

Zaliek's wife
was a beauty. I literally stopped in my tracks when I got my first
look at her. However, what stopped me was not only her good looks
but the fact that she reminded me so much of Dana. She had the same
small build, the same athletic, compact body, and the same luminous
eyes. Of course, there were differences. Shani had the darker skin
and the purple-tinged black curly hair of the people of the distant
south-western interior. Also, her eyes pulled at the corners, so
that she looked like a sleek animal – an otter or a fox, perhaps.
Later, as I got to know her, I came to think of her as an animal
that was always curled up within itself, alert and self-aware even
when it appeared to be relaxed.

Zaliek
introduced me to Shani. I took her hand and muttered a few words of
welcome. She looked up at me calmly, smiled gravely, and said, 'So
this is General Jina. It is a great pleasure to meet you at last.
Zaliek has told me so much about you.'

I said
something like, 'Only good things, I hope.' Even as I said the
words, they didn't sound clever or original. In fact, they sounded
downright silly. I remembered another woman who made me gauche and
tongue-tied when I wanted to make a good impression and I cursed
myself inwardly. I felt even sillier when I noticed that Zaliek was
looking at me curiously. He took my arm and said, 'Sit down and
join us.' As he moved me away, I realised that I had been standing
there wide-eyed holding Shani's hand, saying nothing after my first
vapid words.

I tried to
cover my tracks by muttering, ‘So Zaliek really is married? I can
hardly believe it.’ I sat down across the table from them while
Zaliek put his arm around Shani, laughed mischievously and said,
'Look at Jina's face! He didn't believe me when I said that I had a
wife.'

I muttered,
'Oh, I believed you but it's still a surprise.'

Zaliek asked,
'Well, what do you think of her, then?' He sat back and looked at
his wife, stroking the hair above her ear.

I replied, 'I'm
pleased to see you all looking so happy.'

Zaliek snapped
his fingers and said, 'You haven't met my son. His name is Dipok.'
I leaned over and shook the little fellow's hand. Zaliek said,
'Looks like his father, eh?'

'No, on the
contrary. He's too handsome for that. He must take after his
mother.'

Shani lowered
her eyes modestly as a good wife should and Zaliek laughed in
delight. 'That's good, that's good! The more he has of his mother,
the luckier he'll be. All he needs from me is a big chest and arms
like hams. The rest he can get from his mother.'

Shani ran a
hand down Zaliek's cheek and said softly, 'Oh, Zaliek, you are a
big fool. The more your son is like you, the more I'll love him.
You know that.'

That silenced
Zaliek. I swear that with his lowered his eyes and his trembling
bottom lip, he looked just like a lovesick youth. Not for the first
time, I wondered at how a boisterous, vigorous, self-confident man
can be made tractable by a touch, a glance, and a word from a
woman. Thinking of this and looking at Shani, I thought, perhaps if
Dana had lived, I would have known the answer. I shook my head to
get the thought out of my mind. It was nothing but vain
speculation.

Zaliek took his
son onto his lap, rubbed his chin against the boy's head and said
fondly, 'Ah, he's our son, isn't he, no matter where he gets his
looks from. He's got a father to teach him how to take care of
himself and a mother to teach him all the finer things in life.
Life will be his for the picking.'

CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO: DECISIONS

Zaliek accepted
our offer of a position as senior commander on an indefinite
contract. However, he set one condition – that, just as in the
past, he would never be required to take up arms against the
Dornites. When he set the condition, I said, 'Zaliek, you should
explain your position. We have a right to know why we're making an
exception for you.'

Zaliek nodded
sagely, sat down, and told me his story. He had been born the
youngest son of a chief of one of the tribes that comprised the
federation of Bakuel, which was situated about five day's journey
to the south of Kitilat. When Zaliek was twenty years of age, his
father died. The body was prepared for disposal in the traditional
way: by burning it on a pyre of logs. Furthermore, also as was
traditional, his mother would die in the same fire.

I burst out,
'That's barbaric!'

Zaliek gave me
a long look and rubbed his chin thoughtfully before he replied,
'I've been a soldier long enough to see that the death of a willing
wife in the funeral flames may be less barbaric than what soldiers
do to people in the ordinary course of their business.'

‘Your mother
went to her death willingly?’

‘I didn’t say
that. What I said was that if a woman went to the flames willingly,
it might not be barbaric. I didn’t say that my mother was willing,
did I?’ Then Zaliek told me the rest of the story. His mother
wasn't originally from Bakuel. She had been raised further to the
south, the daughter of a chief, and her marriage had been arranged
as a means of cementing a political alliance. Nevertheless, the
marriage was a happy one. However, on the night before the funeral,
she came to Zaliek and said simply, 'My son, I can't do it. It's
not the tradition of my people. I don't have the strength of belief
to face the flames.' What was Zaliek to do? As one of the chief's
sons, he was expected to uphold the traditions of the clan. In
fact, he had been quite prepared to be present at the funeral
taking part in the traditional ceremonies while his parents, united
in death as in life, ascended together to the gods amidst the
flames. It was the ages-old way of the dead and no one ever
questioned it. But now his own mother was begging him to find a way
out for her.

Zaliek told me
that it was one of the most difficult decisions that he ever made.
On the one hand, he had been brought up to respect the traditions
of his clan. On the other hand, he couldn't face the thought of his
mother being dragged to the funeral pyre, screaming and writhing,
desperate in her resistance. If he didn't help her he would always
be haunted by the thought that he had betrayed her. If he did help
her he would be an outcast. After considering all the options, he
gave in to his mother's request and rode away with her that night.
But where to go? First, they tried to find refuge in her homeland.
They wouldn't accept her, fearing the trouble that might follow on
their heels. Next, they went to Kitilat and stayed there for a
while. However, Zaliek's brothers tracked them down and demanded
that they should be returned to the clan to be punished. Kitilat
had good trade relations with the nations of the interior and there
was a strong possibility that the King of Kitilat would surrender
Zaliek and his mother so once again, they fled. This time, they
travelled down the coast until they arrived at Griwasta, a Dornite
city, where Zaliek took service as a mercenary.