[Sir Gaviel]
I am a fool.
I act like nothing ever occurred. At the mess we are sitting down for dinner. Talk of Nim is all the rage.
"A boy just died," Lebenen comments.
"If you ask me, he deserved it."
He deserved it?
Bones crack at my grip. I separate the meat from it. Chewing wordlessly. Lieutenant Hughes notices.
"Anybody wants more rum?"
Few roars in approval. I raise my own flagon. Hughes is not touching his plate, eyes on me.
"See something Lieutenant?"
"In fact, yes."
"Cheers to that."
He follows me on the training hall, locking the door. I do not pay him any attention. A wooden dummy we used for hand to hand is tucked under my arm. I stand it upright.
"Captain."
I strike it. Once. Twice. I do not stop. Fierce blows after another. It is a wordless act. I cannot hear. The silence is deafening, numbing my senses. Hughes tries to stop a right hook. I tackle him. We fall on the dirt. He scrambles up and knees my stomach. An elbow hits his face. I duck as he jabs and punch his side.
He clocks my jaw. I drag his shoulders to me and I headbutt him. Hughes backs away, shaking his head. I kick his feet under him.
"Soldiers talk." On his back, he seethes. "You do not want to become the subject, Captain."
He spits blood. I pull him up.
As I am not finish, I turn to the wall of my room. Lila says something. Her words are garbled, it seems underwater.
"Stop it!"
I am still hitting the wall with a force that would cave a skull. There is a small tug. Lila is pulling my arm.
"Stop! That's enough!"
I glare at her. All the raw, muzzled ire I release. No question of the vehemence. She recoils, only briefly. Her hands hold my arm tighter, defiant.
"It's not your fault." Lila sternly prods. A quiet pleading. "It's not your fault."
Just like that, my hearing and senses flood back in a click as opening a door. Coarse, hard breathing I thought was some gust, is my own. My hair had long escaped from its braid, sticking to my forehead and neck. Shoulders stiff, legs trembling.
There is a throbbing pain in my hands that sears to my core when I move my fingers. I do not know what happened next. Did I sit down? I am not certain. What sanity left in me realize the indignation ebbs as the storm dies, leaving me hollow and weak.
When I come to, I am curled in a fetal position. I am that ten-year old boy who committed serious evil by killing hundreds of people.
Shaking from the coldness of my sins, I grimace at a pain that shoots up from my knuckles.
"It's okay, it's just me."
I hear Lila. From the white curtain of my hair I see her. Close, kneeling over. She helps me to a sitting position, knees protecting my chest. One of my hands is bandaged. Lila is currently cleaning the bruises on my left, gingerly, on the chafed skin.
"I'm sorry," she says so faintly, I am not sure I heard her right. I tuck my chin on the hollow of my throat.
Indeed, I am a fool.
The scene rushes back. A shrill broke everyone's thoughts and Mik, Nim's younger brother, clutched the body in his intensely. Wholly believing it would bring him back.
General Miraz whispering to me, "You are soft Captain, just as what your General told me."
"You must find a way…" I falter. "You must find a way to cut ties with me."
Gently, Lila lifts my chin, parting the hairs on my face.
"Everyone… anyone who associates with me… will die."
"Shh…" She runs a hand on my hair, smoothing it. Like a madman, I shake my head. "Everyone is… everyone will."
Die.
It is all because of me.
"That's not true." Lila says. I can only stare at her. Her face is moist, eyes puffed and red.
"Everyone is dying every day. It is only a matter of how. You can't blame yourself for it."
"I killed Nim."
"I know. It's not fair but it's not your fault."
She goes back to tending my hand, blotting the blood.
"I was seven when my father left us. My mother was pregnant but miscarried and I lost a father and a brother in three days' time. I always thought I was the reason he left. My mother never blamed me. But I blamed myself. When my grandfather died two years ago it just…" Lila sighs shakily.
"Enough of this sob stories. You get the point, right?"
"You have a family."
"That's beside the point." Lila stares at me.
"Gav, don't listen to those thoughts. They are meant to lead you astray." She rests a hand on my chest, contemplating on where my heart is.
"Listen to the small voice telling you it's not your fault… It was never your fault."
Lila inches closer, gathering me on her arms as a mother to her son. It occurs to me that I have been convulsing in sobs. Tears springing in endless streams. I am utterly wailing, pitifully, on her shoulders. Clinging to this small girl as to dear life and I do not care. I never thought my pain runs this deep until I release it. Everything I ignored over the years flows out relentlessly. I can scarcely breathe.
Lila strokes my head speaking on my hair, comforting a soldier that is a mere child.
* * *
I fell asleep for the first time in days – no, for a very long time. I notice the difference right away. I do not feel strained. I feel… light, renewed, almost satisfied. As if dawn have finally arrived after a long torturous night. Already the effects are overwhelming.
My head is propped in a pillow and I am covered with a blanket, Lila probably arranged it. I was senseless after a breakdown. I sit up, clearheaded. Looking around embers light my chamber.
Lila sleeps on her side on the bed, perched on her right arm. Her breathing relaxed, even. She sleeps with the air of someone who did not have to wake and wave a weapon in the middle of the night.
From what little I learned of her folk, the Mystics, they were driven out by the humans who only wanted power. Estranged, they returned to their own realm and never made contact. At least, the stories say. It never occurred to me that there is a version of the story I have not known. The Mystics'.
It is a great marvel for me that they have families. Even Lila's mundane manners. Her suffering as tantamount to the rest of humanity. A creature of flesh and bone, blood and muscle yet the same enigmatic, enchanted creature.
If not for her fathomless eyes that hide a well of truth, I would consider her as ordinary. Human.
A rapping on the door jars my thoughts. One man stands outside. Lila's eyelids flutter, disturbed.
"Captain, we need to talk."
Hughes.
Fully awake, Lila takes her cloak, disappearing as I head for the door. "What time is it?"
"One or two hours after midnight." Quite early for a friendly visit.
"What do you want, Hughes?"
"We need to talk."
There is an urgency in his voice that made me unbolt the door. He charges in, shrouded by a cloak. He is dressed in civilian clothes, partnered clay shirt and hose. His eyes are hunted. Paranoia oozes out of him.
Hughes eyes the space, searching for ghosts perchance as he thrusts an object in my hand. I do not have to unwrap it from its sack to know it is a sword.
My stomach roils in understanding of his behavior. When we were in Horr, I noticed him looting one dead Xengu of his bolo. He saw the secret of the blade and wanting to confirm his suspicion, he investigated it himself. I just did not expect him to act on it right away.
"I remember telling you not to dig on this matter," I say. He reveals the sword for me. It is a typical bolo. Wooden handle is polished but the quality of the blade speaks for itself. Thinner but sharper and stronger. The glimmer is clearly of Aeon's.
"Did you know about this Gaviel?" He accuses.
"We do not question our orders Lieutenant. You ask questions you die."
"Then the kingdom really gave it to the Xengus," he fumes. "Our kingdom."
He curses. Arguing to himself of what he believes and what he is actually standing for. Souring, betrayal etch on his very feature.
"Why are we arming those infidels?"
"You know why."
"I thought…"
"You thought we played fair and earned the right to lay claim Freobel? No, Hughes, the ends does not justify the means."
Hughes locks his jaw. Eyes burn with hate, confusion. "Have you wondered if – did we ever do something right?"
"Hughes, that is a question a soldier of your position has no luxury asking."
He stands as a statue, unsure of what his knowing will bring him. I feel honored and burdened by his trust. If he revealed himself this openly to the others, they would instantly bring him to the King and sentence him of sedition.
I am not the only one anguished by emotions unshed. Lest, his situation is different from mine. His father is a patron of Aeon. He is loyal to the king before he can even walk or talk. He was born to it.
"You were never here." I take the bolo from his hands, wrap it and hide it behind my cabinet.
"We never had this conversation."
He frowns deeper.
"Your compassion gives you away, Captain." Hughes cracks a small smile then closes up. Face turning blank. He salutes taking his leave.
I sigh as the door closed.
/What is it?/
Lila shows up on my side. "Your Lieutenant is right. The Anagolay mentioned something like this. Aeon is paying the Xengus to kill the rebels."
/So, to speak. The plan however is more cunning than that./
She turns sideways at me. "Oh my g– divide and conquer."
"You know about it?"
"Are you kidding?" Lila drags a hand to her face. "It's been written down in history." Her pacing starts again.
"Your history?"
"Uh–"
I move to lock my door when it bursts open. Hughes stands wide eyed looking beyond my shoulder. In a flash, I knock Hughes down, who with shock reacted slowly.
I haul his unconscious body next to my cot. I work busily, searching his body with weapons. I confiscated knives and long daggers from his belt, on his ankle strap, the boots. Securing his arms and legs with rope, before gagging his mouth.
He will wake in a few minutes, this will have to do. I pull the curtain close hiding the corner where he is.
Maybe, maybe with the blackness he did not recognize her – I purge the thought.
He would. No one would mistake her for anyone especially not someone who is haunted by it most of his nights.
"What are we going to do with him?" Lila asks, fear laces her words.
"I do not know."
/For now, do not disappear. He will know you are not a Vanuyan./
Lila hugs herself, cold not from any wind.
"We can convince him to help us." I say under my breath the only solution I accepted.
"Will he?" She murmurs back. I can hear the doubt there. Both of us knows another option but we do not dare mention it.
"We will see."
Soiling an almost brightening dawn for me, fear nuzzles my gut as familiar feeling as breathing. Too soon, Hughes stirs.
I draw the curtain slightly. The alert eyes of an Elite, pernicious as he observes, adept as instilled by his training. He not only sees a kingdom but a friend that betrayed him.
"Hughes, let me explain."
His grey eyes harden even more with as much hatred and stubbornness. This is to be expected after all.
"You asked if we ever did right, rarely. Mostly, no. You already know that now."
He shifts.
"There is only two choices Hughes. I silence you permanently or you become our accomplice."
A sound of I could only guess as laughter courses behind the gag and I stoop to take it off.
"You are pathetic," he hisses the instant he can speak. "You think I will help you?" Hughes pauses. Lila sheds her cloak, folding it on the bed. Her sleeveless dress showing every bit a Vanuyan she seems to be. I see him waver. Guilt crossing his features but is gone in a blink.
"Traitor! How dare you call yourself an Elite–" Focusing on me solely, he insults over and over again. I sigh inwardly.
"You deserve to burn in hell with fire as scathing as the sun!"
"Anything more you want to add?"
"You are a Faye'in," he spats, disgust at the word. I keep emotions on my face at bay though Hughes knows he hit a nerve.
"I heard rumors about it. That you are not truly Aeonnite. You are just a bastard son of a man who took interest with a slave."
Lila gasps.
He is not certain. He does not know anything, I tell myself.
"It is hardly a news, Lieutenant. I hear those rumors as well as you do. Let me tell you the truth of it. I am Aeonnite. I was raised by my mother in the kingdom of Faye alone because my father was brutally murdered while they abduct my sister," I say levelly.
"So, I guess you can call me a Faye'in."
He has no comeback for that, stunned. Lila is gaping at me.
"The king saw me one day and he brought me back to Aeon."
He snorts. "You are a much more ungrateful bastard than I thought–"
I cut him off with a swift move. I lean near to his ear. "You think he rescued me?" I brandish my words like a rapier, quiet and deadly.
"Think again."
I lean back, Hughes trailing every movement. His lips are set on a thin line. Afraid perhaps that I might cut his tongue, he resorts to silence. The memory of times we spent interrogating rebels might have taken hold of his resolve. I folded the captain back to the deep recesses of my mind.
"No need to rush a decision."
Regaining his footing, Hughes smirks. "I will die first."
"I do not wish for your death, Hughes. We brought enough of that on our wake." I replace the gag on his mouth, draw the curtain close. Leaving him alone to think.
As I settle on the stool of my desk, Lila boldly confronts me. She is close, at eye level to each other. Her lips are moving without a sound. I read them.
"Who are you?"
I start. Her question almost a physical shove.
I know what you mean, I answer in thought.
/You think I should be loyal to Aeon, to someone like king Cirrhinus…/
Lila shrugs, hesitant.
/When my father was killed, my sister gone, my mother decided to leave home, taking me with her. We went to a city in Faye. It was already colonized. More Faye'ins dress and talk like Aeonnites. She thought we were safe./
/There was a plague then. My mother caught it./
/I was also seven when she passed away. No home, no family. I wander the slums where I can find scraps of food if I clawed for it. King Cirrhinus happen to pass by one day when some older, brute kids took notice of my color and beat me for it./
I smile wryly at her, knowing that if a Faye'in boy is in Aeon the same thing will transpire.
/With a blackeye and a bleeding nose, the king took me to Aeon. He gave me a second name. Food on my mouth and a roof over my head. I thought he was a great ruler who cares for his brethren…/
Lila shifts, eager to hear more and I clench my jaw, unsure whether to continue.
/It was not long before he drafted me to his military and I saw the horrors he could undertake./
I rub a spot on my temple in a tight circle, not wanting to remember.
/Cirrhinus does not care if who we kill is innocent or not, he only wants everything to bend according to his likings./
The plaintive streets are warmer than the sleepless nights in the barracks, where every now and then a penetrating shriek would wake us. We became starkly aware of someone dying of torture, of any means our masters see fit. Our lives are nothing for them but to manipulate.
/I know I have a debt but I already paid it in full. He did not save me, Lai. He sentenced me to a slow death./
Lila does not break her gaze.
"I'm sorry."
"You should not be," I say. I brought it all to myself.
* * *
I tried to spent the next days similarly, ignoring all lingering glances from the infantry and in Elite. No one asked about Hughes as I send the other four of my unit to their families. Lila found a cat the other night and now there is one kitten, and another cat with a missing left forelimb and a dog. She fed and named them all.
She still tries to spoon-feed Hughes which he rejects, turning his head sideways.
"You are not even trying to convince me."
I quirk a brow. "Of what?"
"I think he's wondering why you are not torturing him. Or forcing him to a decision." Lila says. "We don't do that."
"We?" Hughes snorts. "Look at you playing house with a Vanuyan."
/He only says that to arouse a reaction, Lai. Do not bite./
"Do you even know the concept of modesty? I guess you would not. A man sharing a small space with a proper lady not his wife would have been unthinkable. But then again, a savage tribal woman go about your men differently. How would you know about proper etiquette?"
Lila falls for it. She locks her jaw, narrowing her eyes.
I take a quill pen from my table. With its feathered end I tickle his ear. He cannot stand it when his most sensitive part is challenged. She smirks at me.
Hughes reddens. He wiggles his head to try and counter but I hold his head in place. He coops his laughter until he could no longer hold it. He bursts with air and laughter so loud I jerk away.
Lila did not miss a beat.
She spoons the food to his wide mouth and Hughes has to swallow or choke. Coughing, he casts us grim looks. Lo, the threat of the feather made him eat everything Lila offered.
The cat she calls Hopia hop-walk towards me, eyeing me with a cocked head. I offer my hand for her to sniff, deciding she can trust me, she robs her head on my palm. I scratch below her chin and the feline closes her eyes, purring. She is the cat with a blunt stump instead of a left foreleg.
Hughes eyes Lila when he think she is not looking. "How is she even alive?"
"You can ask her," I say the same time Lila says, "Um, I'm right here."
"And your perfect plan is to hide her? How long is she cooped up in your room?"
"You're asking how long I've been here or how long your captain been a traitor?"
A spark of pride courses through me. I taught her that.
Hughes glances at me. "Long enough."
How do you make a blinded, loyal soldier betray the kingdom he worships? A kingdom whose hold on its brethren is controlling, unjust.
"You came here of your own volition Hughes. You were asking questions because you are in doubt. I do not need to show you the truth. You have seen it. You decide."
Hughes does not respond, unreadable.
"You asked how I lived?" Lila stands, making him look up. "Life finds a way. Always."
* * *
"Someone will come looking for me." Hughes says.
"Yes." They are coming right now. Hughes and I feel it.
I loosen Hughes' bind long before so he can eat and drink on his own. He did not try to escape but he is immutable. He is holding a flagon with sugarcane wine still half full as I finish mine. Lila, on the other side of the curtain, walks in circles.
Fifty yards.
Ten people, based on the footfalls. Including General Miraz. Two light-footed ones, one of which might be Dunn.
"You are out of time."
"You are going to make that decision now."
"Hughes…" Lila beseeches, drawing the curtain. He refuses, deliberately, to look at her. I hide the leather armor under a linen shirt then, fasten the rapier on my side.
Twelve yards and closing.
Lila stops me short. "Gaviel, no one should die because of me, this is ridiculous –"
Starkly calm, I put a hand on her shoulder.
/Lila, hide./
I open the door before they could knock. Taking the scene in a second, Dunn and a member of his unit carrying a torch, is closest to me. General Miraz is steps further. At his back are the rest clad in full militia armor and weapons.
Still, two Elites alone, I have a chance.
"Captain Gaviel Remenniah, we receive a report that Lieutenant Hughes Vertii is missing." Dunn asks, stepping close. "Do you know where he is?"
My muscles coil, waiting for the exact moment to react.
"Inside." I reply vaguely. He is about to say more when Hughes claps my shoulder and greets them. Like someone fresh from an epiphany.
"General Miraz, Captain Dunn." He salutes. I recover from the surprise fast. General Miraz rolls his eyes and growls slightly. I look closer at him. Disheveled and annoyed.
"I have no time for this!" He barks. "Your father is looking for you, you bastard! Why did you send a missive saying you were in his house, Captain you submitted this–"
"That was a ruse General, forgive me. I meant to let my Captain submit it so that no one would look for me."
Hughes lies as smoothly as glass. His breath is foul and his words are slurred. Dunn does not buy his act.
"And where have you been, Lieutenant?"
He feigns a blush, too real to deny, which he hides. "I spent it unknowingly at a pub, Captain, Sir." He hesitates then bows low. I have a clear view of his ears. It is deep red.
"I apologize!"
How could he do that while blushing? He did spend some time in a pub. Dunn regards me.
"I was about to strangle him myself." I say, framing the lies to reality. Dunn gives in and sighs. It certainly is not the first time he heard of this excuse. The others are shifting, uncomfortable to the endeavors of a naughty Lieutenant but also finding themselves on the same shoes. Soldiers are particularly infamous for it.
"Subject the Lieutenant to a disciplinary action Dunn. You Captain…I give you a last warning." General Miraz says. "If this happens one more time you will shoulder all the punishment. Understood?"
"Yes, General!" We reply. Thank the skies General Elricht is not here then.
Dunn's man hooks his arm to Hughes. With a meaningful glance in my direction, Hughes went with him voluntarily.
"I apologize for the behavior of my lieutenant." I declare.
"We captains' have that problem once in a while. I had one last week," Dunn answers.
"Who?"
"Verius. Spends a whole day with a woman then faints in the training exercises." He watches them walk away. "You tried to cover for him."
I abducted him and tried to make him a traitor. And succeeded. "I do not know what you are talking about."
Dunn shakes his head at me. He excuses himself and follows them afterwards. Inside, I am left gaping at my door. That was a dream, that could only be a dream.
Lila grabs my hands and rocks them, my focus transfers on her.
"We changed his mind."
I do not know what went to my head. I embrace Lila. Suddenly conscious of my actions I jolt, releasing her.
"Forgive me."
"Ah – yeah – no – it's," she flusters, abruptly turning away. I hold my face feeling the heat suffuse up to my scalp.
* * *
Hughes is grounded, I heard from Dunn. I take two rungs at a time, up the stairs to a landing towards the lieutenants' quarters. Hughes's room is the last one to the left. I hear him groan lightly as he sits up from his bed.
"It is open," he says, hoarse. I push his door to reveal him, bandages crisscrossing his back and chest.
His dark hair is unkempt, beddings ruffled. The space is half the size of mine, with his table, cabinet and shelves piled on one corner, a stool near his pallet where a physician tended to his wounds not long ago.
"The standard?" I ask as if a code word for fifteen whippings. He nods. We keep our voices down, careful to avoid eavesdrop.
"Man, I am really glad General Elricht is not around," he says. "If he was here, I would be displayed on the field, bleeding under the scorching sun."
"If he was here, we will not be breathing, the two of us." I say. "Where is he?"
I take a shirt from his pile above the cabinet then help him dress, maneuver it with less strain to the wounds.
"Called. Urgent they say," he croaks. "You will not believe what the slave boy just told me."
I take the stool and sit across him. Gossip is still as popular here and quite fast.
"The Anagolay stole some supplies from our regiment that were heading to Sebelicia. Captain Erasmus's unit included. He stranded them for days."
Hughes is amused. So, that was the fuss these past days.
"Miraz looked irritated."
"I bet it was not just some supplies he stole." As much as I want to banter with him, I need to talk about what happened.
"Hughes, I–" He interrupts before I could muster the words.
"Gaviel, do you remember when you first became captain?" Hughes goads uncharacteristically. "I was seventeen and you were…"
"Fifteen," decidedly, I fill in. "How could I forget, you were all giving me the stinking-eye."
He chuckles but ends up wincing. "Of course! You were young. Quite the looker. Although we were sure you are unworthy and inept. We were envious… I thought back then, I would never follow you. That same night you proved me wrong. You saved ten lives including mine…"
His eyes shimmer with the memory. As I recall we were sent to scout for hostile natives when Thraine guerrillas ambushed us. They had us trapped. I managed to lead them all out alive.
"I think I understand why you did what you did. It was the right thing. I wish I could have chosen differently."
"Hughes…"
"I still have nightmares of that night."
"So do I."
"What we do… what we did. Not just on Vanuyan. We were impelled to establish a civilized kingdom for… for progress."
"For these people, we are the savages."
"I could be hanged just by saying these things," he snorts.
"You will not be alone."
"I thought I sensed something in you. I was right." Hughes tries to cross his arms and fail. I cock my head, surprised.
"Me too."
We startle. Lila closes the door as if she just entered. I stare at her pointedly as she removes the hood of her cloak. She smiles at me, cryptic.
"I just wanted to say thank you. Personally."
Hughes nods, stolid. He hides his discomfort well. "My name is Lila, Lieutenant Hughes."
"Hughes will be fine. How…"
"She can pass through walls like a ghost." I murmur. She glares.
"You are right. I do not need to know," he says. "The less I know the safer for us." I agree with him. "The rest, we should not be talking about here."
Hughes nods once. "I will keep your secret to the grave–" The feeling of relief at his words is like a fine spring in an arid land, I relish it. "– And I mean that because this endeavor of ours almost always ends in death."
Lila and I exchanges a glance.
"There are still things I need you to clarify for me," solemn, he says.
"I know. Midnight at my quarters. Two nights from now."
Back at my room I ask Lila, "Do you think the Anagolay would do any job that is offered to him?"
"If he gets paid, he will," she says, slightly shocked at my question.
"You have seen his face, I presume."
Hesitantly, Lila nods. I smile, sympathetic. "There is little we can hide from you," I say. "No one has ever seen him that lived."
"Well…" She walks to the table and pours herself a cup of water.
"Have I seen him?"
The look on her face says it all. I scour my brain to find any man that would somehow alarm me. Someone suspicious and…
I blink. That man from Horr.
He did not seem out of place. In fact, he blends perfectly. The type that is fleeting to immediately forget. If it were not for the way he observed us as we pass him by, I would have forgotten him. He was unafraid. He saw us as if we were not a threat but a match. As if he was weighing what we would do. Conniving. And when he looked at me squarely…
Lila watches me from the corner of her eyes.
"Was he the one?" She takes a minute.
"Yes." She answers and sighs. "Actually, you've probably seen him more than once with his disguises."
She clicks her tongue. "The thing about him, he embodies the characters he creates. He becomes them. It is scary to see him at his game."
"What does he look like without any disguise?" I urge. I sense her reluctance but eventually she describes him.
"I think he's five-seven feet tall. Brown complexion. Curly brown hair, not the kinky curls but the graceful, sweeping ones that reaches his shoulders. He has mud brown eyes. But from a far looks more of a reddish-brown. Fit and lean in a good way... It's probably because he was a fisherman."
Reddish-brown eyes, fisherman…
"Why?" She asks, serious.
"I am going to need his help. And you are the one who is going to convince him."
"What help?"
Hughes mentioned Erasmus heading to Sebelicia. The Anagolay tried to delay them. I might be overreaching here. I tell her.
"He will probably try to kill you before he will listen to what you have to say."
Lila looks up on the ceiling, collecting her thoughts. She releases a long breath through her nose.
"I know."
* * *
Two weeks since the day I irrevocably decided to save Lila. Two weeks since my unit trained the new recruits. Five days since Hughes became a traitor to a king he once would march into oblivion for.
So much has changed in such a short time.
"Cap?" Lila steals my attention back to the moment. She peers, questioning. I smile at her.
"Captain, come on, we do not have the whole night." Hughes props himself on a stool, gesturing with hands holding flagons.
"Where do we begin?"
I accept the flagon from him, placing myself in the middle of them. Hughes on my left, elbow on the table. Lila sits on my right, at the edge of the bed.
"One will not understand how things are if one does not know how things were." I say, drinking the alcohol. My nerves are instantly hit, leaving a sour taste in my tongue.
It is concentrated.
Lila on the other hand, finishes her fresh milk comfortably, given to her by Hughes.
"How considerate of you," I say to him. Hughes looks away, suddenly shy.
"How do you know Freobel's history?" Hughes clears his throat, recovered. "All Aeon did was destroy all evidence of it."
"I have my ways."
Lila crosses her arms, also skeptical. The dog, Kabang, sits attentive, while Hopia sleeps on Lila's lap. I look at both of them, beginning the tale.
'Long ago, before invaders and colonizers, before the three Kingdoms arose. At the time enkantos walk the earth, was one land with one people. The land has no name. There was no need for it. Aborigines scattered on the great land but because of separation, through time, different cultures started in different areas.
Then, the first foreigners arrived bringing with them a promise of peace. New culture, new civilization, a way of living was introduced. They did not force the aborigines to yield but some, lulled by the offer of a new beginning, were converted in their faith. Years and years add up, occupying a vast expanse, ruling hundreds of people, they became known as the Kingdom of Thraine.
All the while, on the far reaches of the land, unbeknownst to the Thraines, is a blossoming people. They are not quite the aborigines and they are not of Thraines. Similar and dissimilar. River of time flowed and with it, the balance of collapse and anew, Kingdom of Faye sprouted. Small steps then big steps, the kingdoms rooted its place on the land.
Thus, with the aborigines: Gjid, the Thraines, and Faye. Come the three Kingdoms.'
Lila grabs my flagon, chugging the contents like it is cold water and she is parched. Hughes did not see the spectacle, mulling over the details.
"This is the part I know," he offers, as I receive my flagon back, empty.
'Explorer of Aeonnites found a wonder, accidentally in an expedition. Unknown, exotic, they thought they have found an uninhabited land. Surprise was at every corner. Until they encountered some painted people. Primitive in ways. –
"I guess that would mean a tribe of Gjid." Hughes inserts.
'– Our people approached the savages with care. Bearing gifts and promises of welcome. It is fate that we have discovered that these savages wear gold and do not know the value of it.'
"Yes. Decided to claim the land, naming it after the prince, Freobel." I confirm. Hughes scowls, recalling more information.
"The weapons we had were sophisticated, albeit the first wave of colonizers was defeated by a fighting technique, 'the fluid' of Thraines. Yet, Aeon was relentless; because of gold, because of spices. Armada after armada. Long years of attacks, moves and countermoves, at last Aeonnites succeeded. A herald says that every founding festival."
I nod in agreement.
"Gjid went into hiding. Unfortunately, some were still captured and were made slaves. Thraine continues to rebel and Faye…"
"Faye accepted us." Hughes says. "Faye allowed themselves to be conquered."
Lila snorts.
"Not that simple. When the Faye'in king realized he has no power to defeat Aeon, he believed that the only way to protect his people was to be under their rule."
The lieutenant scowls at my words.
"That's why he married off his daughter." Lila murmurs.
"But the Faye'in king was late to realize that instead of lessening the harm to his people, he made it worse. Thraine's consider it as the ultimate betrayal and they hated Faye'in ever since. The distrust that started from Faye entertaining Aeon transformed into rage."
Hughes falls silent. Lila is the one to say, "Instead of working together to protect the land, they turned against each other and Aeon took advantage of that."
"How long?" he asks, emotions darkening.
"Cooked up ever since Aeon befriended Faye… centuries ago."
"Did no one question it?"
Even as he does, he already knows the answer to that. All Aeonnites do.
"Well, the color of your skin is enough for you to think you are superior," Lila states. "Any difference in what you look and they are beneath you. Uneducated. Uncivilized. You don't even bat your eyes to second guess yourself. You justified your brutality by making it seem you have made people out of us."
Her every tact word pierce right through Hughes and I, carrying heated intensity we are not prepared for. We both stare at her.
"No offense."
"Anyway, Faye did not saw it coming, not even Thraine. Xengus are just one of Aeon's pawns."
"Why is General Elricht the great strategist of divide and conquer if it was centuries ago?" she asks.
"His ancestor was the king's adviser before," I clarify. "He has been living up to the expectations. It was him who executed it so successfully under the reign of Cirrhinus's father."
"Now Cirrhinus is called the conqueror, owning half of Freobel." Hughes points out.
"But… I have another question… How does the Vanuyan fit in all this?" Lila says.
Hughes and I exchanges looks.
"I shouldn't have asked that."
"No. You are right. We cannot talk about our kingdom without mentioning that." Hughes says. Feeling the guilt, he dips his head.
"A prophecy." I tell Lila, grave. "The royal family has the tradition to consult an oracle every time a new king is crowned. At the coronation day, the oracle would announce his prophecy.
"Usually it is predictions of his future rule, successful bounties in life. When it was Cirrhinus's prophecy, nothing can be further from the norm."
She is eager, nodding for me to continue and so I take a deep breath and recites, the way I heard it from the oracle.
'A traveler unknown,
sought akin he had lost.
Warriors of golden brown,
who suffers, who sows.
Alas! Alas! From ashes and dust,
they will rise up
and overthrow your kingdom.'
"Woah."
"Woe, indeed."
"No, I mean…" Lila jumps up. She gasps slowly, catching her nose and mouth with her hands.
/What is it?/
"Newt…"
"Captain, listen." Hughes stands, alarm on his gait. For a second I thought we were discovered and that Elites are coming to get us, ready to slaughter us, then I hear the drums.
It was announcing the time, a quarter to midnight when it changes into a call, fast and urgent.
A call for physicians! A call for the Captains and Lieutenants available! Gather at the main infirmary. The seeker, Galahad Sephius, found.
Only survivor.
My heart thuds as quick as the drums. Galahad was sent after the Anagolay.
"Hughes, go ahead, I will follow." I say. He nods, deadpan and he leaves.
"Lila, Lai, look at me…" a part of her focus I regain. "Get your cloak."
Those that are not roused by the drums, are fetched by the slave boys knocking hard on their doors. I sidestep one running to another quarters as we head for the main infirmary. Lila, hidden on my side, feels as nervous as I am.
We are at least a hundred yards away but a crowd has already gathered. They block any path that would not end in someone bumping an invisible girl. Torches that are carried looks close to fireflies.
"Make way!" a voice bellows.
I spot General Miraz and his men are opening a path. I tail them and we manage to slip through at last.
I keep a distance from lighted corridors, we have to take an indirect route towards the room. There are two entrances and exits in each healing ward, the one we are taking is a roundabout way which is why only a few torches are lighted. We veer left to another gallery and at the end is an archway where light and voices are flooding out.
It opens to a space with a hundred cots lined side by side by rows. Columns filed the middle and the room is brimming of people. Backs on me, they almost form a half circle around one isolated cot. Noiselessly, I ease my way to the thinnest part of the crowd on the far column.
"Idiot!" one voice yells.
"You should have expected a trap. This is the Anagolay we are talking about."
I now hear Ixas on the front center. I near the front, behind a column. My line of sight can see a few heads closest to a body covered with bandages.
I thought there is someone choking when pieces of words float to my ears. "We are… the trap…we… him… straight… Thraines…" The voice is thin and scratched as though a cat with disease on his throat is speaking.
I try to put some missing words in his speech. We are expecting the trap… as we followed him but we…
"He says that," a female voice chirps, a slave girl near Galahad as he whispers to her, "We are expecting the trap so we followed cautiously but we did not expect him to lead us straight to a Thraine's soldier camps."
Disapproval wafts the room as though someone unburied a decomposing body.
The slave girl stands, so does the other physicians that obscures my view of Galahad.
I almost regret it. I see him – what is left of him. I feel Lila stiffen on my side. Galahad's whole body is burnt seeing the blisters poking out of bandages, patches of black on his face, hair completely singed. He is missing his legs and left arm and he is bending more to the left. There is no saving him. It is a miracle that he reached this far.
"The…the Anagolay…" he chokes.
His final words shatters a peace I did not know I had.
"The Anagolay aided a Vanuyan girl."