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Topiara - Chapter 41
Yiren eyed the skinny pony that Corwin had procured for her to ride south with trepidation, and Lyara felt the first twinge of frustration. The young woman wasn't dressed for travel at all – she was still in the same gown she'd been wearing to attend to Corwin and seemed to possess very little else that she was bringing with her. "How do I…" she started, not really wanting to step from the boardwalk in front of the inn to get close to her mount.
"Don't you have any trousers?" Lyara asked, bringing Yiren's startled gaze up to meet hers.
"I have only this," she swept her hand down her gown, "and another like it. I didn't know that I needed…"
"You don't," Farranby sighed and took hold of the pony's reins and led the animal closer to her. "You'll just need to gather your skirt up to get into the saddle, and then tuck and fold it to protect your modesty as you choose. Put your foot here," he pointed to a stirrup, "and throw your other leg over the back…"
It took a few moments, but finally Yiren was settled in the saddle, looking at her hands as if wondering where to put them or what to do with them. "I think it will be best if you just hung on to the mane," Lyara sighed eventually. "One of us will lead your pony to stay with us."
"I've never done this before, Mistress," Yiren offered in an apologetic tone. "These great beast always frightened me."
"There's nothing to be frightened of," Sharin told her. "Your pony will only do as it is told and carry you with no complaint."
"We need to be moving," Lyara stated after showing the Vryie woman how to clutch at the thick, coarse hair at the base of the pony's neck to maintain her balance. "We're wasting good daylight." She took charge of the pony's reins and mounted Surefoot. "Corwin said that the stories he heard told that our man headed straight south toward the trees – so that's the direction we'll go."
"We'll be back this way again," Jilan stated with a note of certainty. "When we've accomplished whatever it is that needs to be done in the south, I'd like to spend more time here. Something tells me that this would be a good place to build a new life – and maybe a new system of education, built on first-hand experience and knowledge rather than convenient half-truths."
"Still thinking about starting that new school, eh?" Farranby asked the younger man as the ponies began moving slowly and surely through the early morning streets of the city.
"Why not?" Jilan tossed back with a large grin. "In a city dedicated to the arts, to bring a new art of learning into being?"
"What do you think?" Sharin bent toward Lyara. "Would you be happy settled in Alinber?"
"I don't know," she answered honestly. "But then, I've never really allowed myself to think of anyplace in particular as a home for such a long time – and I really don't see myself heading back to the Kauwlut Homelands and living in a tent for the rest of my days – much less see Jilan willing to go there with me…" She cast her lover a long look. "I suppose that if he feels he would be happier here, I could learn to call it home."
"You are Kauwlut?" Yiren asked in a very small voice.
"I was taken in a raid from my father's tent when I was young," Lyara nodded. "I told you I knew what it meant to be far from everything you know and understand."
"Was it… bad… your taking?" Yiren asked, not sure she had the proper Talandri words to express herself properly. "Do you have clan and family still there?"
"Clan, yes – family, no," Lyara answered. "My father was killed in the raid, my mother died soon afterwards. When Jilan and I traveled there, I found clan members or those who knew of them."
"They would not take you back into the clan, then – you'd been gone too long?" Yiren tipped her head to listen.
"They didn't know immediately that I was the one who had been taken all those years ago. I only claimed clan affiliation – which was not denied me."
"I've been gone long enough that I fear that my family will have forgotten me," Yiren sighed and clutched just a little tighter to the pony's mane. "I was taken from a small group who had come to the edge of the trees to harvest seeds from flowers that grow best there – to take back and grow to make my father's h'sun festive for the feastday to come."
"How long have you been gone from the trees?" Farranby asked.
"My vri'i has been hiding within the wood my father gave me for seven turns of the year," she replied, touching the bodice of her gown with reverence.
"H'sun?" Lyara asked with a glance at Farranby.
"It would be the equivalent of a Hall high in the trees," he explained. "The more highborn actually live at a higher level from the dangerous ground. H'sun are found virtually in the canopy at the very top – they are very open and airy and comfortable."
"You have been in the trees before, Master?" Yiren glanced at Farranby. "And yet you didn't find your daughter then?"
"I didn't know that was where she was taken," he replied shortly. "I was wandering, lost in my grief. I spent several years in service to Sylru'an before returning to Talandri lands."
"Are we going to be anywhere near places with which you'll be familiar?" Lyara asked him.
"Sylru'an trees are nowhere near the borderlands with the Talandri," Farranby replied. "They cover the foothills to the Arch'rad – mountains of stone and fire and ice far to the south."
Lyara felt the hairs on her arms raise at the sound of "fire and ice" – words so familiar to her from the last message the Nilyaron had sent her. She glanced at Jilan, wondering how to tell him that she'd finally discovered a piece of the puzzle that the old Oracle had left for her – and that it was going to be important that they take the trip to this forbidding-sounding place together.
The five ponies walked sedately through the city gates and were pulled to a halt once the open prairie lay spread before them in unending dryness in every direction. Jilan watched as Lyara pulled her lodestone from beneath her tunic and watched the way it twisted and turned on its cord until it hung quietly. "Which way is south?"
She pointed – in a direction that had no road and no visible landmarks on the horizon upon which to train the eye. "That way," she said and gave Surefoot a gentle nudge in the ribs to begin the journey in earnest. It was only a few seconds later that she heard the other ponies trot up next to or behind her again.
The day passed slowly, with frequent pauses to check to make sure that their direction continued true south. At Lyara's insistence, the ponies received one hour without a rider for every two that they carried saddle and human – and the ponies were afforded first sips of water at each stop and pause. Conversation had continued sporadically – always being carried out in the Vryies tongue, in order to practice – but as the afternoon wore on, the arid landscape stole the desire to speak from most of them.
Lyara had to admit that Yiren was proving to be little trouble, despite the continual note of disquiet Topiara radiated into the back of her mind. She was uncomplaining and quiet – dismounted and walked along on the ground with the rest of them whenever asked, clutching her wooden amulet tightly whenever required to descend as if the tiny piece of carved wood would protect her.
Luck was with them that day, for just as the sun was beginning to dip toward the western horizon, the sound of running water made the entire group sit up taller in their saddles and pay notice – and nudge their ponies ahead faster. Almost indistinguishable until practically on top of it, a small, clear stream ran in a deep gulch across the barren landscape – green shrubs disguising just how deep the gully ran until the ponies were nudged into cautious descent.
Lyara halted the party long enough to refill all the water bladders that had been drained over the course of the long, hot day and to top off those that still had held water supplies from Alinber.
"Do we set up camp here?" Jilan asked, looking about them and seeing the small flat bank.
"We'd be hard put to defend ourselves here," Lyara noted, seeing rather the steep gully walls and the brush as all to easily hiding attackers.
"We're not being followed," Farranby responded, drawing attention to the fact that had been made very plain to all of them several times over the course of the day. The prairie had indeed been empty – not a sign of another traveler had come their way. "I don't know that we need to worry too much about being prey for bandits."
Lyara looked around again, and saw that her companions were hungry for just enough green on the ground to remind them that not all was dry and wasted. "We'll set a watch schedule then," she compromised. "Agreed that we'll be hard to spot after sundown – especially if we keep our campfire small."
Yiren looked around her and shivered. "We're IN the ground," she peeped with a real note of terror in her voice.
"We're no more in the ground here than we are over the ground when we're standing on a hillside," Jilan soothed her as he dismounted Fleetwind. "This is just a scratch – we can still see the sky above, can't we?"
"You have to get down from your pony – she needs her rest," Sharin had already slid from Shadow and grabbed at the reins that Lyara tossed in her direction. "Besides, if your vri'i is safe in your amulet up there," she pointed, "it will be just as safe in your amulet here, won't it?"
Jilan put up a hand to help her from her tired pony. "You'll be safe. Trust us."
Lyara snorted softly, feeling riled for very little coherent reason at Yiren's trepidation and Jilan's gallant offer of assistance. She turned and found a sturdy branch that was mostly barren of leaves to which to tie Surefoot and begin to unload the pack from her saddle before disencumbering her pony entirely. "Let's get a fire started," she told Sharin a little more sharply than she'd intended.
"Looks like baked tubers will have to do for tonight," the group's cook mused to herself as she too unloaded her pony and tied it not far from Surefoot.
"I'll go for wood," Farranby offered after dumping saddle and pack on the ground where his pony stood and leading the pony over to join the others. "There should be plenty of dry in the underbrush along here."
"Don't wander too far," Lyara warned. "We can always start green wood, if necessary."
"Green wood smokes," Farranby countered, "which is not great if you're worried about others finding us…"
"Then hope you find dry wood close by. We're just too far from just about anything to get caught unawares. If there's no dry wood, we wait until the darkness is almost on us to light our fire – and make it a very small one." She turned. "Jilan, have you seen any small animals that might make for easy hunting?"
Jilan shook his head at her and returned his attention to Yiren, who was insisting on dismounting into the branches of one of the low shrubs. "Didn't see a thing – did you, Lya?"
"I was hoping your eyes had been sharper than mine," Lyara replied tiredly. "Then let's get camp set quickly. The sun will be down before too much longer."
Jilan's sharp eyes may not have seen prey crossing the dry prairie, but his bow had brought down two small lopers before the light was too dim to see anything. Farranby had found several larger branches that had been torn loose of their roots in what must have been a long-ago flood, and dragged them back to the camp to be broken down into useable lengths for the cooking fire. While Lyara and Jilan skinned and skewered the fresh meat for roasting over the open fire, Sharin skewered five tubers and buried them into the loose sand beneath the red-hot coals. Yiren was adamant about not descending from her low bower in the shrub, still convinced that she was inside the ground where her vri'i was even more exposed and endangered.
Lyara cut some flexible twigs from the green bushes and, using thin straps cut from the very bottoms of her leather trousers, stretched the loper skins and leaned them against the stones that ringed the cooking fire to hasten the drying process. "What are you going to do with them?" Sharin asked as she poked at the tubers to test to see if they were done yet.
"Not sure," Lyara replied, turning the skewered meat so that it would cook more evenly. The smell of the fresh and succulent meat was beginning to make her mouth water. "It never hurts to have workable skins on hand, just in case they're needed."
"Kauwlut habits die hard," Jilan remarked from where he lolled against the trunk of a nearby shrub. "Hey, Farranby, where are we going to get some of those light-weight clothes you were telling us about back when?"
"We won't start seeing anything like them until we're a lot closer to the trees," the older man replied, moving to sit next to his young comrade with his elbows propped against his knees.
"How many more days' ride to the trees?" Lyara asked quietly.
"Two, maybe three," he answered, tossing a twig that had been poking him in the backside into the flames. "And somewhere between here and there, we're going to have to figure out how and where we're going to leave the ponies."
"This whole area looks to be pretty deserted," Jilan complained, tossing his own twig into the fire. "Do people actually make a living out here?"
"There are a few," Farranby told him, "but you have to really look for them. I'm sure we'll run across someone between here and the trees – just whether or not we'll be able to find them again when we come back out will be another question, however."
"We can't just turn them loose and hope they stick around and wait for us," Sharin worried. She was very attached to Shadow by now – any thought of having to leave her pony behind forever was painful.
"We'll find someone to take care of them for us until we return, don't worry," Farranby's voice reached out to soothe. "We have enough specie to make it more than worth their time and trouble – and to make them think twice about betraying us."
Sharin tugged and brought the first tuber from beneath the fire and flipped it onto one of two trenchers she'd pulled from the pack. "They're done," she announced and glanced at Lyara. "How's the meat?"
"Done," was the response, with Lyara using another green twig to move the hot meat from the skewers and onto the other trencher. "Let's dig in and then set the watch schedule for the night."
Yiren was finally lured from her branch by the smell of food – and she attacked her tuber with relish, while picking daintily at the loper haunch that was the closest chunk of meat she could reach. "This is the only thing I think I will miss about Alinber and life on the ground," she finally commented without urging, displaying the nearly empty tuber skin.
Lyara hauled up a small bladder of bitters, took a sip and passed it along to Jilan. "I'll take the first watch – Farranby, you take over for me at midnight and then Jilan can relieve you a couple of hours before dawn. Sharin, you can keep an eye on things from him at dawn, before we mount up."
"Do I help watch?" Yiren asked, looking around the circle of faces illuminated only dimly by the flickering and slowly fading firelight.
"Not this night," Lyara stated. "You rest – you're uncomfortable where we are. You'll be helping us later – when we get to the trees. If you want to help tonight, you can water the ponies and then tie them up securely again before you climb back up into the branches to sleep."
The red hair glowed warmly in the firelight, and the Vryies woman nodded. "This I can do," she agreed readily enough. "I do not want to be unhelpful – you perform sha'adrah by bringing me back to my people."
"What's a sha'adrah?" Sharin asked and reached for the bladder of bitters from Farranby.
"It's…" Yiren thought for a long moment. "In your language, I suppose it would be a 'good deed' – but for us, it is an honor to be of service whenever we can. Sha'adrah is a level of darkness to a vri'i – a measure of the strength that vri'i holds."
Lyara tossed the last piece of meat at Farranby after giving Jilan the other one. "We've got a lot to learn about your people yet, Yiren," she commented dryly. "We don't want to come among them and offend through ignorance…"
"Oh no!" The flame-colored head shook vigorously. "You already perform sha'adrah by trying to learn to speak A'avri'i – and you try to understand my fears and traditions. I have heard it said by our ai'inshaa – our holy men – that there are those among the chan'vrii who do possess vri'i. I believe you to be some of those."
"Perhaps all men possess vri'i, Yiren," Farranby suggested, tossing the bones of his last piece of loper over his shoulder into the bushes. "Perhaps it is the vri'i themselves which have different forms and ways of making themselves known."
"Those who enter lands foreign to them and steal children as slaves have no vri'i, Master," Yiren pronounced flatly.
Lyara nodded. "I have to agree with her there. There are good and bad in all – and we usually end up knowing which is which in very short order. Those who steal children as slaves to enrich themselves are missing something important – something that makes them human. Calling that something that they're missing a vri'i is something I can live with."
"But," Jilan protested, "remember that Sidon was captured by Kauwluts who then turned around and started treating him better than he'd ever been treated before…" He turned to Lyara. "We left him with the Kauwluts, remember? He was in a better place, more respected…"
"I think that there's no hard and fast rule," Sharin offered, retrieving the now-empty trenchers from in front of the group and using a small square of leather to wipe away the remaining meat juices from the one. "Men are men – it's up to us all to learn which ones can be trusted and which ones should be avoided. And it's up to us to decide if we would be among those who can be trusted, or if we have no vri'i, as Yiren would say."
"I'inshaa, Mistress, you speak truth," Yiren clapped her hands in agreement. "And I am glad to hear truth spoken around me so freely again – it is almost as if I were home again. I go now to water the ponies, as you ask." She rose to her feet, crossed her arms over her bodice and bowed to Lyara and turned to her task.
"This is certainly turning into almost as much of a learning experience as our trip north did," Jilan commented, watching the young woman work on conquering her fear of the ponies so that she could lead them down to the stream to get a drink.
Lyara nodded, finding that it hurt to watch him watch another. And once more, Topiara sounded a delicate note of warning in her mind.
"I'm heading up to the top of the gully for first watch," she decided suddenly and moved away without another word. There was suddenly no question that she wanted to be alone with her thoughts and the prairie night – where hopefully she could put whatever was stirring uncomfortably in the back of her mind into some sort of understandable form.
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