另类小说人亚洲小说

Chapter 43

God Hand

Few things require quite as much nerve as riding calmly up to an Uruk village whose inhabitants are on alert.

There were bowfolk on the roofs, children playing with knives, hulking brutes in layers of leather and metal, nimble females with axes and swords, and even one, standing right in the middle of the road, armored from head to toe in mail with plate helm and breastplate.

“This doesn’t look like the place to fight our way into.”

“Relax, not part of the plan. This will go as smoothly as Skank will let it.”

.....

“If she loves her daughter, I don’t anticipate that being very smooth.”

“It’s okay, she’ll wrinkle the fabric, but she can’t completely tear it.”

Right. Whatever that meant.

I breathed, to remind myself that Gustavian was more than an accomplished killer. He had built a plan, hopefully not a dumb plan, that used his other skills.

“Gustaian?”

“Yeah?”

“Look at the town.”

“It’s a village.”

“No, the Crimson Hand town.”

“Okay, yeah, it’s there.”

“It’s also the wrong view.”

“Huh?”

“We’re at the wrong village. Latla should be... there.” I pointed to a distant column of smoke.

“You sure?”

I shrugged. “Sure as I can be.”

“HEY! IS THIS LATLA VILLAGE, OR THAT ONE OVER THERE?”

The tension broke like a tsunami onto a beach. When the laughter and snickering was done, several of the village defenders pointed at a village beyond the one I had identified.

One by one, the villagers started returning to business as normal.

“WOULD YOU LIKE TO NEGOTIATE FOR A GUIDE?” asked their chieftan.

Well, they soaked Gustavian for the cost of that guide, but we made it to Latla before dusk.

Latla, having been warned we were coming, was more laid back.

There was more of an honor guard rather than the entire village mobilized to meet us at the gate.

“Took you long enough.” The chieftain said, eyeing our young guide. “You got lost?”

“I got us lost.” I admitted.

Gustavian was also breathing hard from the trail we’d just finished climbing. “Great chief of Latla village, I come to see my daughter.”

“Of course you do. But come, join me in my hut for some tea.”

Well, he didn’t call it a hut, he called it a kurtulmak, which is a very special subset; for simplicity, think of it as a hut with wings like a mansion would have. If it ever becomes relevant to the story, I may go into cultural details. For now, just know that refusal would have been a grave offense.

#

“Would you like some tea and stew?” the chieftain offered.

“Great chief,” Gustavian said, “we mean no offense, but we also know the bargain implied. If I am to face my former wife, I may need to fight her champion. One doesn’t share food and drink with those one may have to spill the blood of.”

“That saddens me, but I do know why you are here, Nightslayer.”

Nightslayer? That sounded like a stealth class, but I found nothing there.

“I seek only my daughter, who was taken from me. I will not force nor compel her, but no other will deter me from this goal. For nearly a year, I have seen her only in dreams.”

“Is there any chance that you would wait until she is considered an adult by clan law?”

“One year seems like a thousand years; you would ask me to wait that long?”

“I would, if it would mean all people live to see another day.”

“I will not force her nor compel her, but I do intend to leave here today with my daughter.”

“Yours is a warrior’s answer; I hear it and respect it. But know that it saddens me.”

Gustavian nodded.

“You may go now. I am tired, and shall remain here. One of my daughters shall lead you to where you will find your daughter.

I don’t know what I expected Gustavian’s wife or ex-wife or ... I never asked what she was to him, and will never have that opportunity.

She looked fairly ordinary, clad in woven leathers with linen underneath. It was accented in purples and whites, and the fur inside her cloak was white with grey spots. She may have once been slim and muscular, but that was starting to go the way of the housewife.

“You look good.”

She spat into the road, as though he had insulted her. “You ass. How did you find us?”

“The way I find anything. I kept looking until I found you.”

“You can’t have her.”

“She’s our daughter, not a pet. She’ll make up her own mind.”

“You’ve brainwashed her! I’ve had to raise her while you’ve been running around with your elf-whore.”

“Ugh. We’ve been over that. Nothing happened. Not with Adara, and not with any other woman. I’ve kept to every promise I ever made to you.”

“Oh, do that. Act like you’re all superior! You left us, again and again.”

“And I always came back.”

“With wounds! You go out and risk your life, and you were home just long enough to heal and drop off coins.”

“You knew what I did for a living.”

“There was enough coinage for you to take a normal job.”

“I’m good at this job!”

“Everything changed when Letrope was born! You knew it would, and you just refused your fatherly duties.”

“I refused nothing. I showed our princess -”

“That is not her name! That is not who she is! That has never-”

The front door of her hut exploded, and a bundle of cheerful human that barely came up to the bottom of my shoulder came barreling out.

Her mother looked thin by comparison. Her leathers were worn and dirty. In one arm was a small thing unmistakable for anything but Pooka Bear. In the other, a backpack leaking poorly packed garments.

She made a beeline toward her father, and her mother had no problems placing herself between them.

“YOU CAN’T HAVE HER!”

#

“Kid’s made up her mind.” Gustavian said.

“She is a CHILD! She doesn’t get to make up her mind!”

“Mommy-”

“Go back to your room.”

“No.”

“You stay back!” She whirled on Gustavian. I was expecting her to have a knife, but it was a washcloth stained with the dirt of Latla.

“Lady, I’ve got a right to see my daughter.”

“A right you forfeited when you left.”

I was able to get around them.

.....

“Does this happen often?” I asked Letrope.

“Is daddy drunk? They usually only fight when he’s been drinking, or mommy has.”

“Various herbal teas. He hasn’t been drinking in that way for about a week and a half.” I extended a hand. “Let me see your pack, and we’ll see if we can get it together properly.”

We went back into the house.

It is difficult for a child to pack; every toy and trinket and piece of junk has strong emotions tied to it. Difficult decisions were made, but the bulging backpack contained far more when everything was packed properly.

We stepped out into a crowd. In the middle of it, Gustavian and a young Uruk warrior circled each other.

Letrope dropped her pack firmly on my left foot. It’s amazing how much pain you can suffer and yet not take damage.

She ran into the circle, and hit her father in the butt with Pooka bear. Her charge ended between them.

“No, daddy! Don’t hurt Mandrake, he’s nice. Everyone here is nice! You told me about the mean ones, but these ones are nice people. They’re people, daddy! You can’t do this.”

Mandrake reached out to move her out of the way, and she slapped his wrist with her free hand. “And you! Don’t hurt my daddy! I’ll never forgive you!”

“Little one, this is a matter for adults.”

“Letrope! Get out of there this instant. Come back here.”

“No, mommy.”

“Now.”

Her shriek far surpassed her size.

She shoved first Mandrake, and then her father.

“This is dumb! This dumb, and it doesn’t have to happen!”

“Princess, it does.”

“No.”

“Your mom doesn’t want you to go. Mandrake doesn’t want your mom to miss you, either.”

Tears streamed down her face. “Why would mom miss me? Isn’t she coming with us?”

“I didn’t think to ask.”

Letrope grabbed his hand, led him to the edge of the crowd nearest her mother.

He sheathed his knife, and extended his right hand in her direction.

“Look, mistakes were made. We don’t have to keep making them.”

“Neither of us is leaving with you. You are NEVER forgiven! Just get out! Go away and never return!”

“I’m going. With the princess, if she wants to. You want to stay? Fine, stay. But it’s not a trick. Come with us.”

“You have no right to my daughter.” She brought out a band of black metal, held it where all could see it. “By blood and iron, I lay claim to my daughter. I name you thief for daring to kidnap her.”

Gustavian rubbed his eyes, drew forth an iron band from one of his belt pouches. “By blood and iron, I lay claim to OUR daughter. I’d rather take her in peace, but if I gotta kill this guy, then he’s dead.”

#

Oh gods, the screaming. The recriminations. The sheer boredom.

I shouldered Letrope’s pack, began making my way through the crowd to our horses. I had time to secure the pack to Mask, in spite of his protests.

I then led both animals to and through the crowd, into the circle.

“What is the meaning of this?” Mandrake asked. “Animals are not permitted in blood duels.”

I sighed.

With the index talon on my left hand, I cut open the palm of my right. I held the hand out, letting blood drops hit the earth where all could see.

“I am Rhishisikk, and I am the Speaker of Only Truth. There is no cause for this to even be a blood duel.”

Gustavian looked at me. “Uh, yeah, yeah there is.”

“Mother of Letrope! You claim that for one to take a child from their parent is a crime?”

“I see what you’re trying, you little kobold! She is MINE. I bled to bring her into this world.”

“And when her father returned wounded, you think he did not bleed?”

“Not for her! He bled for himself!”

“Oh? You said earlier that he left the coins at the house, in your care?”

“My daughter is not some bag of turnips, to be purchased by coins!”

“I claim that your daughter was purchased by blood, and by both of you. I claim neither of you has right to raise her alone while the other lives.”

Okay, I didn’t have any weapons sticking out of me. That was a good start.

“Remain here in Latla, or leave; it makes no difference. Both of you are parents, and your daughter is entitled to both of you, hunter and hearth-keeper.”

“He LEFT US!” she demanded.

“What hunter can do so from his homestead?” I asked. “I can say many things of Gustavian, known to you as Nightslayer, but he cannot perform this miracle, to perform a hunt without leaving his house.”

“No!” she said. “It was more than that. He was gone for weeks. For weeks!”

It was clear she was losing the support of the crowd. By simply rephrasing the profession of adventurer as a type of hunter, and her as hearth-keeper, I had made it a story the Uruk could understand, could relate to, and wanted no part of.

“It is true, Gustavian has no right to take her from you, just as you have no right to keep her from him. There must be some other resolution, and I do not see what that resolution is, if both of you are remaining in your current positions. I am not a Maker of Justice, only a Speaker of Truth.”

Mandrake put his knife into its sheath. “This is a thing for the laws of women, not of the violence of men. Let us take them all to the chieftainess.”

Gustavian turned to me. “You f*ing traitor.”

With a single blow, he left me sprawled in the dirt.

#