#54 - Liryen's Carbine Horse Guards

“Ahriminash!  Ahriminash!  AHRIMINAAAAAAAASH!”  The fading crash of smashing tea cup and plate fading behind him and Teel’s laggard boot heels were drowned by Ahrimaz’s shouts as he sprinted up to the dimly remembered office that he’d first tried to pretend to be him in.

He bounced off the door jamb of the partly open door and found Ahriminash already up from behind the desk and the father with him, already responding.  He nearly stumbled making the turn into the room.  “I need a squad of carbiners!  Right now!  You have a village down toward Cylak… name of  Mudredyr? I have to leave the Ambassadors are in danger and in this world I’ll be able to do something!  Save Didara!  I need a physician surgeon and Limye and a squad.  I can do it with a squad!  This time those villains won’t kill her!—“

“Whoa! Whoa! Son, please slow down.” Ahrimiar caught him by the shoulders, turned him around and sat him down at the stove.  “You need to tell us what you need and a squad takes a bit of time to get together.”

Ahriminash sat down next to him.  “I’m not saying I won’t give you a squad but you have to be a bit more coherent than that.”

Teel arrived at the door and at Ahriminash’s nod joined them.  “I just told Ahrimaz that there are elephants in this world as well as his world.”

Ahrimiar turned to look at Ahrimaz’s desperate face.  “In your world they were attacked?  And you didn’t say that one of them died in your world.”

“They were on the way to Inné… got waylaid…”

“What’s this town you’re talking about? At a place called Mudredyr if I managed to pick that out of the flood of words you just poured on us?”  Ahriminash turned to ring a bell on his desk and a page came trotting down the hall.  “Would you fetch the Stag Lord, please?”

“Mudredyr… it was in Cylak… the war kind of washed over it and it was half-rebuilt as an Innéan town… um… Innéan settlers.”

“What happened?”

“They were waylaid by bandits who were drawn from all over this area by the gems and gold they wear as normal clothing.  The Rigans in my world didn’t successfully warn them that they’d be drawing riff-raff like flies and only gave them infantry escort… their horses wouldn’t go on with elephants and we had to teach our horses that Jagunjagun wasn’t a horse-eating monster… Didara… their version of a scientist I thought… had an injury, a wound.  It was a spearhead that their medic couldn’t get out and they pushed on here to Innéthel to get physicians help but it was too late for her.”

A door slammed down the hall and Pelahir and the page set to summon him came panting in.  At least the page was out of breath though Pel wasn’t.

“A problem in Cylak?  The herds don’t even come down toward Inné till spring,” he said.  “I’ve had no letters.”

Ahriminash laid out what Ahrimaz had blurted out in such a rush and Pel got to his feet.  “I’ll have my coronshion at the military dock in less than three hours.”  He pulled his pocket watch out of his vest, chain dangling.  “Make that three and a half hours.  That village Mudred… we can reach faster by the river and then taking the White Road across.”

“There’s a road from White?”  Ahrimaz asked and Ahrimnash cleared a swath of papers off his table.  An Innéan and Cylak and Yhom map, with the Rigan cities on the edges, had been painted as a new top.  “Here,” he said, pointing.  “Dah if you would…”

“I’ll get the Liryen Carbine Horse Guard.  They should be up to this.  Ahrimaz, you’ll need to arm up with my son’s things… I’ll lend you a sword since we won’t hand you the country’s sword for this.  We can save your friend and perhaps arrange better contact with these people.”

“In this world that’s a Cylak town and yes they’ve had bandits in the hills for years."   

Ahrimaz leaned over the map, hiding his shaking hands by tracing all the strange roads the connections between three separate countries, listening to them just accept his crack-brained demand and start putting together a military force that they were apparently just going to hand him.  “Um… not your Ahrimaz?  You’re going to just let me ride away with Innéan soldiers?”

Ahrimiar raised an eyebrow at him and Ahrimaz froze, cringing inside, waiting for a wrath that never came.  “What would you do with them?  They all know you aren’t our boy but that I’m accepting you as my son.  They think I’m crazy or that you’ve gone crazy and if you give them insane orders they will not obey.  If you give them sane orders, and Pelahir and his Bucks are with you, they’ll do as they’re told.”

“Pelahir and his Bucks.”

“His coronshion , and all our horses will run with Cylak stags.  Particularly this Horse Guard.”  Ahriminash said.  “We can’t slight the Cylak Stag Lord our protection.  All are excellent shots with both carbines and bows.  We don’t have as many guns as you Empire seem to have. Inné has had to be bowmen for years.  Now we have our different shooters.”

“I… yes… how can I help get us on the road faster.  Teel, where did you have word of the Elephant Ambassadors?  The Rummmammalo?”  The familiar rumble shook its way out of his chest and all the other men in the room jumped.

“That’s their tongue?” Teel asked, then nodded sharply.  “They were at Riga-Feren, last I heard.”

“And Mudredyr is ten days away by fast horse from there,” Ahrimaz said.  “About the same as from here.  They were ambushed a half day closer… in the broken hills there." He pointed on the map.  "If we leave today, we can make it.”

“Especially if you go by river.”

“May I come with?” Teel leaned over to lay his finger on White.  “I grew up there.”

“Get your kit together raconteur,” Ahrimaz said idly, mind already racing, already thinking of how to arrange his men for river and then road.  “If you fall behind, I’m not coming back for you.”

#53 - The Research Curious

Merry Yul and other Holidays to you!  Here's a post as a year-turning present!

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“These foreign iti-igi can hear and speak more than our own,” Didara rumbled to Jagunjagun.

“And they like the shinies that our iti-igi make,” he answered quietly.  He was very calm for a young male.  “Perhaps we should cease our explorations with these cities for now?  The iti-Queen/Doge of Mak did warn us that there are musthe iti in the hills who may attack us for our shinies.”

“And because they fear us as monsters.”  She added swaying from foot to foot as her iti continued to speak to the Feren Queen/Doge.  Against her gold coat Ologbon was a dark figure that waved his iti-igi like arms, his smile very bright.  He was a good friend and she felt very safe with him.  They’d grown up together and he’d not hesitated a moment when she said she wanted to explore across the great strange sea when the Riga had appeared in their magical sailing ships that could carry all the Rigan Iti AND more than one of the People and their iti partners.

“The branch-head iti-igi Queen has promised us escort.  She says her stag is in this innean place innetheloooom.”

Didara, the Truly Curious, of the Research Curious, laid her trunk over Jagunjagun’s head and watched Ologbon speak with the Riga-Feren Queen/Doge.  A child iti-igi broke away from his mother in the crowd, ducked under the reaching hands of the iti-minders and sat down between Didara’s feet.  “These strange calves are so trusting,” she rumbled.  “They are not our Iti-igi who know us and grow with us.”  She patted the child on the head and lifted it, squealing with delight, over the heads of the minders to offer it back to its parent.

Ologbon looked over his shoulder and boomed at them.  “Come come come please. Speech.”

“Let us go and be diplomats instead of the Curious.” Jagunjagun said severely.   

She shook her ears at him, making her bells clash.  “You do the talking.  I shall take notes.”

**

Teel had his booted foot up, crossed over the saddle, stretching.  He leaned his elbow on his knee and watched thoughtfully as Ahrimaz, whooping, landed the jump, on a strange horse, no bridle.  Then a second and a third in quick succession.

Wenhiffar watched them do another round and then said.  “Enough for today!  Here!”  She tossed his coat up at him as he thundered past, a wide grin on his face. He did another round of the arena, finishing with a triple jump before he and the bicolour mare reared to a playful stop in front of their instructor.  “Nicely done,” she said.  “The two of you should ride them cool on the woods path.  She waved.  “M’sieur James, you’ve had very good teachers, but they’ve let you get away with a lot of things.  I am not about to put up with that.  Should you choose me as a teacher while I’m working with my fetch-son here, be aware of that.”

“Yes, Maitre!” he said and swept her an elegant bow, even from his awkward position.

“Go on.”  She sniffed and left them to walk their horses cool, the stable children… for some reason addressed as ‘Tiger’… waiting to rub them down and put their blankets on, once they came back.

Teel straightened up and led the way outside, calling ‘Door!’ as he ducked under the lintel, Ahrimaz, with a bemused look on his face, following.  In the woods, the trail through the thick winter trees barely wide enough for one horse, Ahrimaz let the mare take her own pace, both hands on her withers, just soaking up the heat she radiated.

In the steam rising off the horses images swirled up and broke apart and he blinked, wondering, thinking he was seeing things.  Faces.  Mostly women, hair floating up around them. Horses running.  He shook his head.  Why was he seeing Didara, alive? Her gold belled ears flapped silently as the image broke apart.  “Teel?”  He could finally focus on why the raconteur had insisted on joining him in what seemed to be an entirely unnecessary riding lesson.  “You have some kind of question that’s set your trousers on fire with urgency?”

Teel half turned in the saddle as his horse turned a near hair-pin corner on the trail to head back to the barn and it let him look back at Ahrimaz.  He grinned.  “You might say so.  You’re a prophet now, you know?”

“What in Aeono’s great and grand world are you babbling about?”

Teel raised his voice so that it carried as he turned his head forward, but the trail widened so that Ahrimaz could urge his mare up beside.  “Why don’t we let the children take the ladies in and I’ll tell you inside, over a cup of hot wine?  I’m very chilled.”

“Son of a scorching leopard.  You have some kind of news that you’ve been twitching with for the whole lesson!  I know you… or at least your equivalent on the other side.”  Ahrimaz shrugged and dismounted.  “Here, child, she’s nearly cool.”

“Thank you, M’sieur Ahrimaz,” she said and he nearly stopped again.  Where had he learned to just speak to the lowly like that?  And where had she gained permission to just answer?  These people.  No propriety at all.

“Why don’t we go upstairs to speak for a change?”  Teel raised an eyebrow at him  “You’ve been hiding in the basement for moons now.”

“I… suppose.  I’m not sure…”

“Use the Green Parlour,” Wenhiffar said from where she sat mending a piece of tack.  “M’sieur James, you know where it is.”

“Yes, Madam.”  Ahrimaz bit his lip as they went inside, wanting desperately to go down and hide from everyone once more.  Sure and Teh were at his heels and blocked him turning to the stairs.

They finally sat down in a small room painted like a Yhom forest, dark green spike-needle trees, with cups in their hands.  The brand new stove based on Ahrimaz’s designs brought from the Empire burned pine and was tiled in white and dark green.

Ahrimaz gulped down the hot brandy laced wine set the cup on the rustic table.  “So?”  He sat on the edge of the cushioned chair.  “What’s the news you want to startle and surprise me with?”

Teel sipped and grinned at him over the rim of the cup.  “Your ele-phants are here, just as they were in your Empire.  We have them in this world too.” He grinned over at Ahrimaz.  “Two of them have landed in Riga.”

Ahrimaz froze, hands clenched together.  “You… they… ELEPHANTS? Didara and Jagunjagun? HERE? ALIVE?”

 

#52 - You Speak! You Hear!

In Riga-Feren the crowd was considerable as the side of the ship was lowered to the pounding of a large drum, the enormous noise generated by a tiny dark man on the deck of the long-distance ship.

The Feren Doge and her entourage waited at the end of the dock, in raised chairs, gleaming in the best silks imported from Tuin, glittering like a flock of peacocks and secretary birds.  They’d had frantic messages from the other Rigan cities, starting with Dham, and were the best prepared.  The ambassadors from Rummummalo had seemed more amused than affronted by peoples’ reaction to them and the name of their country was the best translation that could be made of the peculiar low rumble.

The Doge leaned over to her closest advisor, who straightened an already immaculate shawl of office, points not daring to be anything but perfect.  “They are herbivores, truly?”

The advisor nodded.  “Leaves, grass, fruit.  So my people tell me.  Though they were tremendously surprised at wine and seem to adore the sweetest.  We are almost certainly assured of  an enormous trade.  They’re willing to trade their ancestor’s teeth, or parts of them, for our goods.”

“Excellent.  See if they like fruit brandy, from Inné, hmmm?  Should we try and discourage them from going on?  Let them trade only through us?”

“The Doge of Dham has already attempted that.  They learned of all of the peoples here and wish to do at least a survey of everyone they can easily reach.”

“Drown it,” the Doge said mildly, smiling and waving her gilded and bejeweled fan.  “And they’re too big to restrain.”

“I wouldn’t want to offend their Queen, my Doge…”

“Of course.  Here they c… oh, my.”

The side of the ship had been dogged down, forming an enormous gang plank, and from the dark of the interior a shape loomed.

The first elephant that Feren saw raised a wave of astonished oooh’s and one or two frightened screeches from children.  He paced out of the hold, holding a staff in his trunk.  It was ivory and as tall as a man, carved and painted and decorated every thumb length from pointed tip to gold band at the other end.  His ears were elaborately painted in gold filigree and his own tusks had gems embedded in them that flashed every step he took.  On his forehead a round mirror shone and he wore a white and gold and grey cloth drape that ended in silver tassels around his… knees?  Yes, his knees.  A net of silver lay over his back, with each junction adorned with enamel plaques.

“Oh my,” the Doge whispered.  “He’s five times the size of the Cylak King Stag.”

The elephant paced deliberately down the dock, then somehow managed to spin in the tight space and bend his front knees as the second elephant emerged and drew a shocked silence from the crowd at its size.  The drummer on the deck of the ship ceased his drumming and the elephant raised its trunk to pick him up, swinging him down to sit upon its neck, in a space on its neck scarf where people were apparently allowed to sit.

Where the first elephant had silver paint, this one had gold and instead of gold, diamond chips glittered.  The tusks this one had emerging from its mouth were carved much more intricately than the first and this one had no net upon its back.  This one had gold bells set in a series of rows all down the gently flapping ears and the glittery chimes flowed out into the silence.

The elephant stepped off the gangway and its eye caught the Doge, whose chair was its own eye level.  It nodded once, raised its trunk and the second elephant joined in the thunderous sound of trumpeting.  It was so loud, and so unexpected that people fell right over here and there, to be caught or picked up.

The Doge stood, and as she did, the elephants trumpeted once more.  “Welcome, heralds of your Queen, Ambassadors of Rummummalos!”  As she did her best to repeat the low-rumbling name, the fellow on the second Ambassador’s neck nearly fell off in shock.

“Grand, Grand Doge!” He said, his voice very low for someone his size.  “That…” and here he made a sound like a deep rumble that carried up through people’s feet.  “Grand One speaks, hears like Earth Movings!”

The advisor hissed into the Doge’s ear.  “Apparently only a few people can hear the elephants true speech.  I’d heard the rumour from Dham…”

“Welcome to our home,” she said, not turning away from the Ambassadors, but clearly taking in her advisor’s words. “Good to know.”