Kiravi's Travelogue Ch. 08
Sorry everyone for such a long gap! We've been extremely busy and this wasn't a simple chapter to write and push out to y'all! We hope its' length (our longest so far) makes up for it!
That being said, this chapter is both the longest and takes up the longest period of time of any chapter so far. It is rather montage-esque in places, but its finale more than makes up for the whirlwind earlier sections in its level of detail. Enjoy!
We made it through the night, dear readers, though I'm sure you knew that. Someone had to live long enough to write this record, clearly. Though, it isn't wrong to say that I've seen stranger things than a dead man writing a tome on these travels of mine.
We made it through the night, Leotie and I, though the feeling in my joints and the pounding in my head made me wish we hadn't. The pain that had been pushed down and numbed by the potion had come barreling back, tempered only by time and whatever curative effects the elixir had had on the bloody gashes. Of course, I was grateful, but I found myself wishing Serina could focus some of her wild magic on me.
Smiling like sheepish first-time lovers but groaning and cursing like old soldiers, we disentangled ourselves and retrieved what was left of our clothes. Out we went, collecting Niknik where he'd slept at the cellar entrance, into pale sunlight. The matron was already awake, brewing root tea and frying dough on a flat stone beside the cooking fire. She grinned toothlessly at Leotie, rasping quick-fire questions at the huntress. Leotie blushed -- blushed, dear readers -- but responded quickly, securing us a plate and two warm mugs.
"She says the riot was over before the sun came up," Leotie kept her face level as she spoke.
"Is that all she said?" I grinned and got a soul-piercing glare and a jab of pain in my ribs for my trouble.
"She says if we want to go to the palace, then now is the time," Leotie continued, her blush somehow deepening until her already red-hued skin was practically maroon.
I decided to show mercy only because the renewed pain riddling my body made it difficult to focus on anything else. "Leotie, tell her thank you." I fumbled at my waist for whatever currency I still had.
The matron's wizened claw laid on my hand, as small as a child's in comparison. Her bright, intense eyes bored into mine, and she spoke directly to me even though Leotie still had to translate, "She says thank you, Kiravi, for killing five of those bastards and..." Leotie stopped, scoffed, and rolled her eyes, but the matron kicked her in the shins, "And for rescuing such a pretty young Bhakhuri maiden."
I laughed and laughed until my bruised ribs ached and I thought my barely closed wounds would burst back open. "Tell her that that was my favorite part."
Leotie's face was a rich purple by the time we left the hovel.
The color, though, left both of our faces in the cold air and the weak light of dawn. Blood still flowed, tacky and slow, in the cobbles and gutters. A few fires still burned, especially around the palace, delaying dawn's light with the uncounted columns of smoke. Families moved amongst the ruin, turning over the bodies in their endless search for loved ones and relations. A chariot smoldered on its side while children cut whatever meat was left from the dead camels that had pulled it. Rafts of bodies, like a grisly spring flood, sloshed against the bridge piles while we crossed over to the east bank. Charred boats bobbed in the blood-frothed water. Smoke curled from the spell-scarred walls of the Palace, but the Old Nobles had never managed to get inside.
The east bank was worse than the Bhakhuri slums, the carpet of bodies and scavengers' cawing both without end. It had taken we Anghoreti countless generations to learn how to tame the land, build cities, support thousands and thousands of mortals in one place. Then, in a single night, Tebis had been reduced to a half-dead state, a sickly corpse of a city that wouldn't recover for a generation.
We found Serina in the traveling house, huddled with our left-behind travel gear amongst a trembling mob of refugees. They parted before us like wind-blown grass, unsure which side a man dressed like an easterner but armed like an Old Noble had fought for. The oracle -- my oracle -- shrieked with relief and glee and threw herself at me, wrapping my blood-streaked waist in her tiny arms.
Leotie made a face, one that was hard to read but neither obviously pleased or upset. That inscrutable emotion changed, though, when Serina peeled away from me and threw herself at Leotie, crushing the huntress in a hug just as sincere, "I was so worried about you, Leotie. I'm so happy you're safe!" Serina sniffled quietly, so short that she could bury her face in the hollow of Leotie's neck. A surprising flash of tenderness flicked over Leotie's face, and she hugged Serina back, gently at first, before truly wrapping up the smaller woman in her arms.
"We were worried about you too, little one." She pulled back slightly to look down at Serina, "And hey, why were you only worried about me? Bad things can happen to him too, you know," Leotie responded with false indignation.
I couldn't help but laugh even with the daggers of pain that shot through my wounds. "Bad things did happen to me, Leotie."
Serina seemed to notice for the first time the dark, reddish-brown stains covering my kit and my bloody bandages that needed changing. She gasped, rushing over to me and fussing over the dirty and stiff dressings. Then, before I could stop her, she was tearing more strips from the bottom of her already raggedly shortened dress to change the bandages.
"What happened?! Who did this to you?"
I obligingly remained as still as possible while she worked, and we both gave the short version of the massacre in the street, as well as all the other anarchy we'd witnessed through the night. Of course, we again left out what exactly had occurred in that old matron's cellar.
"What about you?" Leotie asked, "Why are you here instead of the temple?"
Serina scowled. Usually, when she was upset, her face still held an adorable and child-like quality. There was no hint of a girlish pout this time; her scowl would be more at home on Leotie's face than hers. "They tried to trap me there," she spat the words, hands shaking as she fastened the bandage around my stomach wound. "They were arrogant, and they lied. They didn't want to help me, just use my power."
"Lied? What did they lie about, darling?" I asked her, trying to keep my voice soft even while wincing.
"It's...hard to explain. I can try to tell you later? Both of you?" She muttered, her eyes searching mine and Leotie's face with an earnest need to share her story with us.
"Of course, darling," I said earnestly. I glanced at Leotie when I called Serina darling and embraced her. The huntress made another hard-to-read face but smiled when she caught me looking.
We left as quickly as we'd entered, though I soon needed to borrow the staff we'd looted the night before to help me navigate back down Temple Hill. The women spoke more about the night before while I sweated and swore and winced with each difficult step. I overheard snippets of Leotie describing the palace and the Mayor and of Serina tiptoeing her way through the story of some ritual that she would also tell us about later.
"Kiravi hasn't told you yet, but he's going to be a Mayor soon," Leotie said, and the venom in her voice made me wince. Despite what we'd shared the night before, the promises we'd made to each other, I could still sense her fear and hurt. We hadn't had time to discuss it before passing out in the cramped cellar or after waking up that morning, but I'd made up my mind. As slumber had wrapped me up in its soft embrace, I'd thought of a single option I'd hoped would satisfy honor and spare my lovers' hearts.
"That's not certain," I countered even as Serina gasped with girlish excitement. "We'll see when we arrive at the Palace, alright?" I paused and took the minor risk of embracing first Leotie and then a confused Serina in the middle of the empty street. The girl hadn't thought through the implications as Leotie had, not yet. "The Mayor left it up to me to decide what to do with the title. And, haven't we done the Mayor yet another service?" I smiled to break the tension and pointed at the bundle of swords under Leotie's arm.
We continued on our arduous trek to the palace. The stink of unclaimed bodies, sewage, and smoke hung thick around us. Stray dogs clustered around some of the bodies, growling at us when we passed but staying near the spoils they'd claimed.
Both women were ahead of me, still chattering much more amicably than I'd expected them to do when they suddenly stopped. I nearly bowled them over but soon realized why they'd paused. We still had little grasp of the city's layout and had simply been feeling our way back down to the river.
The aftermath of our battle spread out in front of us, untouched by the roving bands of gravediggers. Dogs and ravens hopped and picked through the bodies, each corpse draped precisely where I remembered it falling. The stench of stale blood, voided bowels, and scorched flesh was an almost physical thing. My conduit flinched away from the place, reacting to the stain my powerful magic had left on the cobbles.
"This," Serina whispered, swallowing nervously, "This was you?"
"Yes," I grumbled, moving past them to pick through the massacre. I spent enough time seeing the faces and bodies of those I'd killed when I slept and dreamt; I didn't need to revisit them in my waking hours.
"All of it?" I heard Serina ask from behind me as they followed.
"Yes. All of it," Leotie mumbled the answer before whispering something else to Serina that I couldn't make out.
By the time we reached the clapper bridges, it was impossible to walk without stepping on the mat of corpses. The swirling flies were insufferable this close to the river, but we pressed on without being stopped until we were halfway down the bridge.
I approached cautiously, hands raised over my head as far as my wounds would allow me. "Hello!" I shouted at the magic-scarred walls. "Hello up there!"
"You've lost!" A harsh voice snapped back from the gaze of smoke wreathing the battlements. "The Lady Mayor told you last night! She will not treat with you, any of you! If you're here to surrender, know that your death will at least be swift!"
I grumbled and scowled. "I was not given this sword!" I turned and pointed at the bundle Leotie carried, and she dutifully brandished the weapons in the dim light. "Nor was I given those! I took them from the still-warm corpses of Old Nobles. Yesterday I spoke with the Mayor." I decided to lay it on as thickly as possible. "Last night, I butchered her enemies. Today, I demand to speak to her again!"
My words echoed off of the walls and died in the smoke and fog. Water faintly swirled around the bridge piles. Serina and Leotie breathed faintly behind me. A dog yipped insistently at the bank we'd just left. But nothing from the Palace wall.
Until figures appeared in the archway and trooped out to meet us.
"I remember you, Kiravi al-Kiral," one of the guards said, his face still streaked with dried blood and dust. "We had to be certain. You'll understand."
"Of course."
Most of the carnage had been cleared away, but blood slathered the arch and the bridge leading into it. The stone was deeply scorched by so much magic that my conduit ached. The dust of the courtyard was sticky with absorbed offal in a wide fan that abruptly ended a few paces beyond the archway, the high-water mark of the rebellion. But, once we'd entered the Palace proper, it was as if there'd never been a vicious battle for the city. It seemed there'd been little to no betrayal amongst the Palace staff.
Qusirlay awaited us not in her throne of cushions but pacing back and forth in front of a line of seated scribes, each furiously transcribing her angry words. From the brief snippet I heard echoing down the corridors, it was a message to the rural mayors, commanding them to present themselves and explain whether or not they had any involvement with the uprising. When she saw us, though, she stopped immediately and crossed over to us. The scribes waited patiently, easing cramped hands and legs.
"My dearest Kiravi!" Her rich voice was more than a little hoarse. "You've survived! Wonderful! What a waste it would've been to lose such a delicious man to the Old Nobles' foolish tantrum!"
Despite, or perhaps because of, the stress I knew she was feeling, Leotie let out a very uncharacteristically feminine giggle. Serina just looked bewildered. "I wish I could be returning under better circumstances, Mistress."
"As do I, as do I," seriousness crept back into her voice. "I've already heard the rumor swirling around that some monstrous brute was murdering his way through the city. Must've been you!" She clapped her hands together, and her rotund body jiggled. "And, a blood-soaked terror with burning hair and a vicious hell-beast at her side? I suppose that was you, Mistress Leotie?" If I hadn't been so exhausted and swimming in a rising sea of pain, I would've demurred, but as it was, I barely managed an affirmative shrug. "Four more?! Four! What a service you've done for the Empire and me." She leaned forward conspiratorially, "My dearest Kiravi, you must learn to be more like your companion here and catch fewer blades with that delectable body of yours."
I heard Serina make a sound, some sort of surprised splutter at Qusirlay's lascivious statements, "I will endeavor to remember that, Mistress Mayor, but may I also introduce my other companion: Mistress Serina, of Wakh."
Qusirlay seemed to notice the maiden for the first time. She beamed and clapped her hands again, fat rolls and bangles trembling equally. "Oh my, Kiravi, another fair maiden in your tow? Such competition for such a divinely carved physique!" All three of us felt the blood rushing to our faces in embarrassment, but the formerly dour Mayor continued, "Ah! Your eyes!" She waddled forward and brazenly grabbed Serina's cheeks between pudgy hands, "Tell me, child, are you god-touched? An Oracle? Ah, what I wouldn't give to study your power!"
Serina's eyes narrowed in anger at the suggestion of being studied, but I placed a hand on her shoulder, "She is, Mistress. That is the reason we are here in the city, to visit the Ettuku temple. Unfortunately, her business there is concluded, and not happily." I sighed, sensing the gap in the conversation, the tension in my companions, and the looming responsibilities of navigating the aftermath of the insurrection. My two companions -- my two lovers -- stared at me expectantly, Leotie's face twisted with fear and conflict. She knew the consequences of my coming decision, and Serina at least suspected its gravity.
"I suspect you did not return here just to parade your beautiful if damaged self in front of me and introduce another of your fine companions." Qusirlay had switched into her serious and dour persona as she so easily did. "So why are you here, Kiravi? My time has many demands upon it."
I swallowed a nervous lump in my throat, palms and temples sweating. If my idea did not pass Qusirlay's scrutiny, I had no alternative planned. "To speak to you about our business yesterday, Mistress Mayor. The lands and title of Kuva."
"Ah, yes," she chirped, "have you decided to retire there with your fine companions and wile away your days in luxury?"
Both of my lovers looked at me with different flavors of the same, horrified emotion, "No, Mistress. Nor would I like to sell them to the crown through your person."
She furrowed her brow in confusion, "What, then? Shall you simply gift them to the state?"
"No Mistress," my mouth was suddenly and damnably dry, "I wish to gift them to my father, Mokay al-Kiral," I pressed on despite the small gasp I heard from Leotie, "My journey here began due to a question of honor, and of my worth to the al-Kiral name. If I may ask, Mistress Mayor, that you send word to him of his new lands and title with the message that the gift was earned by his son in noble combat on behalf of the Empire."
Qusirlay narrowed her deep-set eyes, looking me up and down, glancing at Leotie and Serina, "A strange request. A selfless one. Why, I wonder?"
I forced myself to look only at the Mayor; gazing at Leotie or Serina would certainly break whatever composure I had, "I'm on a different journey, Mistress, one that needs to be seen to the end." I paused and awkwardly cleared my throat, "Though, I fear I may not be as selfless as you assume." I grabbed one of the swords from Leotie's bundled grasp. "I believe, under the laws we discussed at length yesterday, that I now have four more Mayorships that I can sell to you? We need traveling supplies for when we leave the city."
Qusirlay was silent for several long moments, squinting at me curiously, before a wide smile slowly split her face, "I suppose you're right, Kiravi al-Kiral. Perhaps more right than you know." It was my turn to raise an inquisitive eyebrow, "I told you that the city is whispering stories about you and your...companion. The loyal citizens speak of you as an avenging tool of the Empire, a sure sign that the Emperor is fated by the gods to rule. Those who rose up and survived, however?" She stretched up to gently prod my forehead, "They've already put a price on your head. As much as it pains me to deprive myself of such a delicious distraction, I must insist that you flee."
The realization hit me like a hurled mud-brick. But, of course, she was right; a single night of bloodletting wouldn't mean the end of the insurrection, and the remaining Old Nobles would be seeking to settle new scores and old.
"How far do you think we need to go?" I chewed the inside of my lip, already contemplating our options based on what little I knew of the Seleyo and the Niza beyond.
"At least as far as the mouth of the Mother Rivers, perhaps across to the Niza valley." She sighed and all at once looked as if she felt the weight of all the responsibilities of her office, "The discontent runs deep and wide, further than I could've imagined, Kiravi. So, you must go, I beg of you. I'll order you to if I must."
"I understand, Mistress." Another river journey? This one much further and arduous if I understood where Tebis rested in the valley correctly. A new wave of throbbing pain from my many wounds flooded through me when I twisted to look at my lovers for the first time since I'd sacrificed easy wealth for their futures.
Tears gathered in Leotie's sandstone eyes and threatened to burst free at any moment like a summer storm. The most genuine, warm smile I'd ever seen her give me was plastered across her gorgeous face. I couldn't help but smile back, even as I winced from the fresh pain. Ever so slightly, so quickly I nearly missed it, she mouthed to me with her plump lips, "I love you."
Serina beamed too, if only because she could see that I was happy and felt that my decision had satisfied my reason for banishment. My mind had not changed since the night before, dear readers; my purpose was no longer to return home bedecked with knowledge but to remain with my lovers until Serina's need was satisfied. Nor had I changed my feelings towards them, either one. I loved them, both of them, and we would flee Tebis so I could keep them safe.
"As for your payment," Qusirlay's rich voice recaptured my attention, "I will provision a fine canoe for you at the docks below the cataract, with everything you will need to reach the sea." She sighed, "I can offer you little in the way of flint and obsidian; my treasury will soon run dry trying to repair the damage here." She tapped a bejeweled finger against her lips before swiveling and waddling over to her private throne of cushions. An attendant was called and sent away just as quickly after a few hushed words, "You may keep the swords, of course, and that fine staff. I have no use for them." The attendant hurried back, his arms laden with two clay pots and a bag made from a boiled camel's stomach.r"