[The Anagolay]
A woman is standing by the window. Her mellifluous auburn hair is draped on her shoulders like a cape. I admire the curls of it that seem to form small hoops with each other. She is of my age, younger with the glow of moonlight on her. The high skirted dress of fine blue linen is at odds with her swarth skin. She turns her light brown eyes to me and the tranquil state changes into alarm, fear.
I blink. The window reforms into a bleak, scarcely square instead of the wide, plastered arc. There is no woman.
Lila finishes with the bandage as my awareness kicks up. The memory, why it chose to show is a mystery that I cannot dwell in. On my heels, I test the strength of my shoulder, I can lift my arm yet cannot swing it. Painful but bearable. I take the basin with a quarter of water and plunge my head, soaking my hair and face. The dye wears off instantly as I scrub.
We pick the mess on the floor and dump them on the basin. A poor attempt to cover our tracks. I place it beside the chamber pot when a high-pitched shriek echoes in the street. The silence that followed makes the hairs on my neck stand up, tingling like a snake up to my back. It is as though the city held its breath.
Lila is on the window in an instant. "What was that?"
Move. We need to hurry. Sensing the urgent glance I throw her way, she searches her satchel and hands me a tunic.
"Give me the dagger," I say as I tie my cloak. She hesitates, then from somewhere close to the room we are in, a door is shoved. She tosses me the dagger.
No doubt about it. A raid.
I did not think they would react this fast, an equivalent of an alligator hunting and we are meat.
We scramble to the alley, into the street. People got out from their homes, curious and weary. Lila and I cannot move as quick. Soldiers ransack the buildings, kicking doors. A whistle broke, I just had the time to glimpse a soldier from the window we came from before Elites are inside Ferryman's Demise.
We got locked in the crowd as Erasmus drags a man, the tavern's owner and made him grovel on the cobblestones.
"Sir, sir! I did not know anything, that room was unoccupied! Please!"
"Anyone who is suspected of aiding or sheltering a halfling, redhead with a beard, enemy of the conqueror and suspected to be the Anagolay will bear punishment just as this man," he announces.
Around us gasps and murmurs circulate. One woman casts her eyes to the heavens.
"No! No!" The owner clings to Erasmus's knee and he merely kick him. "I know nothing! I saw nothing!"
I grip Lila's arm, tugging for her to walk on but her feet are planted, eyes not leaving the scene.
"We need to go." I squeeze her, she shakes her head. Meanwhile, Erasmus signals to his sergeants.
"Behead his entire family and make him watch–"
"No!"
"–and raze this establishment to the ground."
I hold Lila firmly as she tries to run forward. The viewers could not do anything either, terrified, they know what will happen to them if they interfere. So, all we did was look on as soldiers take two boys, the wife and throw a torch on the Ferryman's Demise.
* * *
We found the tavern I rented when I pretended as a mason on the shabbier parts of Sebelicia city. I perch on a stool at the bar, drinking. Lila has been awfully quiet after what we witnessed and I left her alone unable to stand it.
Might be past midnight and I had almost a barrel of coconut wine. Strings are being struck, creating a jolly music that reverberates with the singing of drunk men. It is even warmer here than noontime. Odors mix like a witch's potion intoxicating but despicable. I notice a girl, face powdered, hair in a messy bun and lips of irate red on one table giving me looks that could thaw any man. She laughs when I wink at her. I start to stand when Lila appears, blocking any view of the lady.
"We need to talk," she says, terse.
"Perfect timing." I roll my eyes at her and dunk the rest of my beverage.
"Did I interrupt your flirting?"
"What do you want?" I growl. Patience is not one of my specialty, especially that a headache has been thrumming ever since that scalp wrenching encounter with General Elricht. And my body aches in parts that I do not even know exists. I need rest. Two days of sleep at least.
"You're not deaf. Room. Now."
I follow her grudgingly to our room on the third floor. Crossing my arms on my chest, I face her when the door closed.
"We have a problem," she says.
"Again, there is no we, even if you are an Eng't Urh."
"Fine. You have a problem." She spats, venom on her words. I raise my eyebrow at her.
"You changed."
Lila knots her forehead. I steer closer. She is bold from the start but there is something else, like a thread I missed.
"You have your fangs out, kid. After three weeks at most with the captain you seem to have found... a resolve or something of the sort."
"What?"
"Perhaps your Sir Gaviel eased the stiffness off of you?" I wiggle my eyebrows, indicating an errant scandal. She opens her mouth while her eyes almost pop, cheeks redden and I laugh.
She clears her throat, embarrassment flaring her nose. "You set a trap for Aeon's seeker."
"Is that what this is about?"
"You–"
"I did not set a trap for anybody. That so-called seeker is stupid enough to follow tracks that were not mine."
Words abandon the kid.
"What? You think Aeon is the only one with trackers? Thraine guerrillas sent their own trackers to search for me."
I sit on the stool and prop my feet on the table. "Aeon's seeker followed our tracks to Kuraka Leonne. Thraine followed theirs. After you left, I made sure that mine were gone and I point the way to the Thraine. It was a sight really, watching them tail each other."
Lila tilts her head, lips slightly apart not quite believing. "Until, Aeon's seekers found their way to the Thraine camps."
She shakes her head at me.
"I heard Galahad made it to Aeon."
She sighs, shaking her head still. "Do you know what his last words were?"
I smirk, looking smug. "My apologies your majesty, I am an… idiot?"
"The Anagolay aided a Vanuyan girl."
My smug smile drops.
"That's right." She casts me a wry look. "Still think you're invincible?"
I stare at her, waiting for her to break laughing but she remains solemn.
No. That cannot be true.
"He said it to all available captains and generals present," she says, confirming my fears. "Hence, they are chasing us – you – in fervent."
I feel my chest constricting. My ambiguity gone. No problem I could fix it… lay low for a year or so but taking sides? Anagolay is not on any side of any war nor is he known to rescue girls that should have been long dead.
No.
I stand, grip the table so hard I hear my knuckles complain. This changes everything.
"I think they believe the prophecy is…" she falters.
"The prophecy, of course." I scoff and whirl at her quick. "This is all your doing."
Lila tenses, with the candlelight her face under the hood is imperceptible.
"Yes."
Anger, rash and unrestrained shots me, I act without thought. The dagger poised to jab on her gut.
Only, it happened before my mind could process. Limbs balk, air stops. Lila disappears in a blink while I stand seized, not able to breathe.
It is like drowning.
Lungs burn starved of air. My muscles resist, clenching under a force that holds me in place. Right hand outstretched stabbing someone that is not there.
I am seeing stars. Gradually, my insides tremble, heart leaping to get out of my chest.
Then I can breathe.
Sharp intake, gulping, gasping as though I cannot get enough of the taste of air. I have never been so relieved. I let go of the dagger, falling with a clang.
"Easy, easy…"
I slump on my knees as I hear Lila's voice. It surrounds the room that reminds me of an echo in a yawning cave. "Breathe. Just breathe."
"It should be clear…" I found my voice. "That if I can, I would skewer you."
"I know…know…"
With a swipe, I look for Lila but she is not in the room only her voice is. "Your current path… current path… does not lead to where you must go… must gooo."
To where I must go? Current path?
"You think you know how the world works?" I snort a laughter. "You view us from a safe place at a safe distance. How dare you talk to me about paths!" I growl, spitting with the effort.
It is quiet for a moment. She picks up where she left off, not hearing a word I said. "...delaying that which you cannot escape… cannot escape… escapeeee."
My impression is wrong. It is not an echo – there are other voices, whispery thin, deep, raspy, not necessarily in that order that repeats what Lila says. All of a sudden, I am weary. Superstition gripes my mind and fear punches anger, it is a knockdown. I back myself up on the open window letting the light enter. It made the shadows profound.
"Call it destiny… it destiny… fate…"
"A curse." I blurt out masking the uneasy churn of my stomach.
"Do you see… see…"
See what?
"You have seen it…seen it… before."
I could feel myself cringe as the images, lucid as a sunny day spills in front of me.
The valley between lush mountains with the ocean on its back, glinting like a giant pearl; ruined, devastated. Carnage, a day old, feasted by carrion birds and wild animals. The boy, always the boy, who scavenged for the bodies of his family. Finding them, remains inside out. Buried them with the hundred strangers, leaving nameless stone markers. Moribund, the boy.
I was that boy.
"Gakaloai will suffer as greatly. Suffer… as greatly…"
My tribe…will perish.
"What do you want from me?"
Fit of tremor, fear and anger, apparent as I ask. Somewhere from the shadows, Lila steps up to me, the dagger on her open palms. The serene face of hers redefines calm.
"Your help."
* * *
There are an estimate of twenty fishing villages, towns, or cities on Freobel. Thirteen have been taken by Aeon from Faye and from Thraine. Six still belongs to the Thraine and only one is from Gjid, the Gakaloai.
Out of stubbornness or bravery which is tantamount to plain stupidity, Gakaloai rooted their feet and resisted Aeon's reign by not caving in to intimidation and hide. Of all the seven tribes, they stayed intact on their land, not unscathed, but surviving.
The bounties that are awarded by the sea are not overwhelming but enough. Seaweeds, shrimps, crabs, fishes… Enough for the people to stay satisfied. Besides, the land is inherited by their ancestors of old. It is said that the eyes, the reddish-brown of their eyes, are what gives them the right as owner and as proof of genealogy.
Aeon does not really care. The tribe would have stayed invisible to them if not for where they are. Before, Aeon did not have a speck. At the present if they siege Gakaloai's area they will surround the remaining Thraine cities that rebels. Better even than getting Lur.
If they get to my tribe, they can and will crush the guerrillas once and for all. Which is why, Lila explained, they needed my help. Which is why, she continued, we needed to work together. We. Work together. I work with them. Them being herself and the captain.
As in the Captain Gaviel Remenniah. Captain of Unit II Elite. An Aeonnite.
I halt in my tracks. "How, may I ask, did he know I am Gakaloai?" I am fuming as she stops on my side.
"Oh."
Oh?
"I described you to him."
Something snaps. I move my knuckles over the other hand, snapping my knuckles.
"You described–" Like it was not a big deal. I breathe deeply for a moment, swallow a snide remark afraid of repeating the events of the pleasant previous evening.
"Sorry," she says.
"You stabbed me in the back." I fling my pointing and middle finger at her. "Twice."
She purses her lips, to stifle a laugh or dread I cannot decide.
"Who stabbed who?"
We stopped by on a stall which sells spices, salt, dried herbs, unknowingly as we steer in the marketplace. The man who tends to it, asked.
"Me. You want me to stab you?" I bark, he quails. Lila jumps between us as I look at him wildly, she says in a boy's voice, "He is only messing with you, sir."
She grabs me away. I shake her hand off. "Will you calm down?"
I glare at her. We walk to where we are headed again. "He's not going to tell anyone," she whispers.
"Right, because you two are now buddies who shares sensitive facts to each other you are not supposed to share!"
Lila does not reply.
"You made a mistake trusting him. He knows more than you give credit him, you know that?"
I massage my chin, rough after a recent shave, as I try to loosen the set jaw. We spent the morning rearranging our faces. I have to settle on my innate one. Lila and I found a dye for her hair, an oil for her skin. A shade similar to latik, a reddish-brown sugar (Muscovado) from the sugarcane melted to make rice sweets. She covered her entire face, neck, arms with it.
We turn a corner to a narrow street. The crowd thins. Shadows longer as the midafternoon sun dips. The establishment is a two-story house, an extension of single-floored rooms on the left, fenced on all sides. All wood painted in a flat flaking blue, thatched with straw. Half the base of the house is converted in a pub, no wall separating it from the backyard like an open mouth. Tables are continuous up to the yard, the center is a makeshift ring.
Dear Minna, guardian of fishermen and seafarers. This is the last place I should be going.
Lila and I settle on one table near the bar, in good view of the two young ones sparring with bolos. Audience is few, scattered and are also studying to learn moves on how to attack. The sound of them slicing in the air and hitting blades is like the chime of bells.
"No, no," someone barks in the front. "Do not put your foot that far. Balance." The fighters follow and reposition.
"You owe me drinks," I say to Lila.
"Fine."
"Where are we exactly? It's like a fight club," she wonders.
"Something like," I say. I nod to the center.
"Places like this pop up on Aeonnite cities like flowers in a barren land."
I explain to her the Kitchra, fighting style of Thraine that Aeon likes to call 'the fluid' which does not even begin to translate it, was banned. It is a style that can be used with one weapon or two, and targets vital parts of the body like the top of the head, eyes, neck, chest, hands. The movement of weapon hand or hands is lightning quick, incessant, wide arcs meant to half the opponent accompanied by combinations of high kicks in a fluid manner.
Some Kitchra masters started to teach willing Faye'ins. Learned Faye'ins practiced in secret, taught more boys until they multiplied like cockroaches under Aeon's noses.
"This place saved my life." I do not know who was more surprised to hear what I said. I cleared my throat immediately and went to the bar to get a drink.
The man there is cleaning the flagons. He glanced up briefly when we entered allowing me to see his oblong face with prominent jaw. Large, brown eyes and strong, wide nose; features he got from his father. His long, profuse hair is tied in a braid up to his knees. He wears a clean smock and breeches that are tight near the ankles.
"Can I have some cider…Tato?" I greet in Faye'in.
He starts. He stares at me as the flagon falls, then he is checking my face, fingers fumble in my eyes, my teeth, my hair. He leaps over the counter, running to the one instructing near the ring and they both look at my direction. The spar breaks.
I wave. "Denai."
The one I called stumbles from his bench and I run to his aid. Tato uprights his brother, as I kneel with him on the ground.
"Royu," he breathes. "Royu, son of Boyo the fisherman?"
"That him." I smile.
"You came back," he pats my cheeks. "You finally came back."
I take him in after years of not seeing each other. The untamed hair, his square face, his easy dimpled smile reaching the eyes that are hooded by the same untamed brows, the nose that is a tomato just like his mother… His legs that stopped bluntly on knees are wrapped by shorts.
"Yes, my friend."
While Tato lifts Denai back to the bench, I see a boy that was watching the fight leave. He left on the place he was sitting on a soft leather satchel. Lila sees it too, standing a few benches away from us.
Denai calls off the training. Tato runs to the kitchen, coming back with flagons brimming of buko juice, slices of bread, bananas, sweet potatoes as I wave Lila over to join us.
"Denai, this is a… friend of mine."
She smiles awkwardly at him. "I am Denai and this is my brother…" Tato comes back and sits with a grin on his face as he sets a bowl of boiled eggs. "…Tato."
Lila nods at him. "And you are?" Denai asks.
We have been speaking in Faye'in so I try to excuse her. "He does not speak much." I say. At the same time, Lila mumbles, "K-Kan."
She understands Faye'in. She is an Eng't Urh, idiot. Of course she would understand.
"Kan, Tato here," Denai begins putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Cannot speak at all. His tongue was cut by an Aeonnite." He says lightly.
Lila must have look stricken because Denai adds an apology. "I did not mean to startle you kid."
Tato moves his hands in a way that could be considered speaking, with signs only his brother could translate.
"I know." He says to Tato. "See my legs? It was courtesy of an Aeonnite as well."
Lila tries not to look as though she pity them.
Their father was a master of Kitchra who taught strays like me since we were seven. He was taught by a Thraine rebel and in turn started to disseminate what he learned.
"He became infamous on our city and one day we were surrounded by soldiers." Denai is telling Lila.
It was on a raid, I remember, we were thirteen. Tato and Denai were spared so that they could watch their treacherous parents die and were left with permanent disabilities. "Some students got killed. 'Tay was hanged and 'Nay… soldiers abused her before killing her too." He chuckles in some kind of a dark humor. But his eyes harden for a second.
"Ah. But you would not believe who visited us when 'Tay was still teaching." He bursts in another chitchat. "He descended upon us, clad in all black like night itself. A myth? A legend? No. He is real, eh."
"The one and only, Anagolay." Denai finishes dramatically.
"Uhuh…" Lila makes a show of looking at me.
"It is true!" He says. "Only his fierce eyes were seen as he walked towards the center. We boys went still as a rock. He moves swiftly, challenging our father to a duel."
Tato says something to Denai. "Yes! Royu was trembling like a kitten." I open my mouth but Denai is unstoppable.
"We all know that the Anagolay is a master of Kitchra like nothing we have ever seen and that the duel might only last for so-so rounds but our 'Tay, a shame, he was down like that!" he claps his hands together. I shake my head, snickering.
"You see, the name of Anagolay is said to be passed on from one student to another. Some think he was recruiting that day for the one that will inherit him." Tato nods.
"We never knew who he chose."
"Who knew…" I echo.
"We did not hear anything about him for years until he got involved with the Thraine boy Sanim."
Lila nods along, eyeing me. I disregard her by eating a boiled egg. "So, Royu. Care to explain why you left us for a decade?"
I almost choke. "That long?"
Tato signs, frantic. "He says you have some explaining to do."
"Yes, I got that." I exhale. "You two have not changed a bit."
Denai crosses his arms, catching my drift. "Royu, you cannot change the topic."
"Right." I say, given up. Tato regards me while signing.
"He says: The last time I saw you, you have a ravaged look in your eyes. I knew that you were going to kill someone."
"Did you?" Denai adds quickly.
"I-" Tried to assassinate the king. Instead I say, " - Wound up in a bad crowd, did things. I manage to get away, got a work."
They stare at me long and hard, waiting for me to continue. "I was not planning on coming back." I admit. Both of them transforms from glad to disappointed, I raise my hand to explain.
"It is just… It is hard for me to see all this and not remember everything that have happened. I–"
I look at the brothers, my only family left. I have known them for the longest time and I still ran away from them. They are expectant, dismayed, to hear it from me but I owe them at least this.
"Forgive me but I, I wanted to forget. And not care."
For a ridiculous moment I start to laugh. "Apathy, apathy is easier. Apathy offered me an out… While conscience is proving to be a pain in the ass." I scratch my head and sigh. Squaring his shoulders, Denai pins me with his gaze.
"Screw it, Royu. You left without a word. You really thought we would not blame ourselves?"
"I never blamed you."
"Screw you." Denai seethes. "Did you even consider that it crossed our minds, that if you were not here that day your family would have survived or that you could have died with them?"
"I wished – I wished it every single excruciating day of my life." I say between gritted teeth. "That I could have died, and they lived."
"We all wanted something like that," he says. "Yet here we are."