11. The Watch

Tien woke with a start to gentle tapping at the door. She lay there blinking, unsure of where she was, until she looked across and saw the silhouettes of Fen and Saka sitting up in their beds. Tien raised herself up onto her elbows and discovered that her headache was gone. She yawned and rubbed her neck, finding it still a little tender. The musician downstairs seemed to have gained an appreciative audience. The steady pulse of his motori floated up to them.

A second soft knock sounded. In a swift movement, Saka crossed over to the door, and mumbled something through it that Tien couldn’t make out. The muffled response must have been to his satisfaction, for he immediately swung the door open. A flock of cloaked figures filed in, dwarfing the room.

“It is good to see you”, Saka said, shutting the door after them. He beamed as he clasped the hands of each in turn. “Misty did herself proud to sniff us out!”

“Fen!” One of the visitors wrapped Fen into a tight embrace.

Tien’s bed was the furthest from the door, so nobody noticed her at first. She sat still and hunched over, looking on as the friends reunited. She realized that her knees had come up and that she was hugging them against her chest, as though, subconsciously, she was trying to hide. One by one, the strangers became aware of her. The room fell silent. Tien shifted awkwardly, wishing that she really could disappear. Although cloaks still shrouded the newcomer’s faces, it was clearly she who had intruded.

“Where are my manners?“ Saka’s hearty voice broke the silence. “Allow me to introduce Tien, a young Aryk lady. We had the good fortune to meet her at our last lodgings.“ He chortled at his own wit.

“You have seen proof of this, Saka?” The man who asked was still shadowed by his cloak.

“Ah.... the mark? Yes.” Saka beckoned for Tien to come and stand under the lamp. She reluctantly stepped forward, and Saka turned the flame up, tilting her face towards the light. The visitors closed in. Like a flock of vultures considering their dinner, Tien fumed, as they scrutinized the plum-coloured mark under her jaw. It burned under their inspection, and Tien scowled at Saka. “Proof enough?” Saka looked around at each of the Watch members, gauging their response to Tien. “She was missed by the Raseen, although I think we have you to thank for that, Renda.“

Tien’s head snapped around at the name. She saw that one man had not come close to look at her. He had thrown back his hood, revealing a familiar head of black plaits that were damp with sweat. His brown eyes were no longer blackened, nor were his teeth. Tien could see tiny smile lines crinkling the corners of his eyes. She would never have recognised Renda, but for his distinctive red eyebrows. He took her hand, gripping it in a firm handshake.

“I am Renda.” he said, “ I’m pleased to meet you under kinder circumstances. We are doing all we can to learn where your people have been taken, and for what purpose.” Tien glanced up at him.

“So you put my pack on me?” she asked. He nodded. “Thankyou,” Tien whispered. “I am grateful.” Tears choked her voice and threatened to fall. She blinked rapidly, determined that no one should see her face turn red and splotchy. Renda smiled at her, and waved a hand towards the frail balding man next to him. “Tien, this is Noth.”

Noth stepped forward and bowed formally over Tien’s hand. He wore an anxious expression, rather like a bloodhound waiting on an overdue dinner. Noth’s delicate eyebrows convulsed for about the sixth time, since Tien had noticed him. “How d’you do?,” he murmured.

A sweet-faced girl about Tien’s age was next. It was she who had been so pleased to see Fen. “I’m Mirello, Tien. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” Mirello cradled Misty in her arms like a baby, and rubbed her face against the dog’s silky head. Misty practically purred with contentment. “You my widdle booboo, aren’t you, darling Mistywisty,” Mirello cooed into the dog’s soft ear. “Yes you are; yes you are.” Misty licked her nose and Mirello threw back her dark head with a boisterous laugh, exposing a mouthful of small, even teeth. The little dog jumped at the noise and gave a reproving yap. Mirello put her hand on the shoulder of the slender girl next to her.

The girl pushed back her hood. She was the zenith of Tiran perfection. “Let me introduce the enchanting Berry,” Mirello said, patting Berry’s shoulder affectionately, “who does not approve of baby talk to animals. And probably not to babies either, for that matter!” Berry’s black curls were piled high, and her mouth stained deep red, as though she’d been eating raspberries. She regarded Tien impassively with oval eyes that shone like liquid chocolate against the smooth caramel of her skin.

Her name suits her, Tien thought, as she murmured an awkward ‘hello’. She ducked her head to break contact with Berry’s unblinking gaze, and reached a hand up to her own hair. She was suddenly conscious of her tousled braid, and the growing pimple on her chin. 'It hurts,' Tien muttered under her breath, 'so no doubt it is glowing like one of the volcanos of Luuon'.

Baran, a tall sinewy man, flashed a cheery smile. His teeth gleamed brilliantly in his black face. With introductions over, everyone sat down on the edge of a bed, or on the stools, and the serious talking began. Fen turned to Mirello who sat next to her on her bed. “Mirello, have you any news on where Andron may have been taken?” she asked.

“No. But you can begin your search for him.” Mirello’s face lit up and she spoke eagerly. “I tracked down the mother of Flip, Andron’s apprentice.” She glanced around at her friends. “Flip, as you know, was with Andron when he was captured. He may be able to help us. He’s hiding in Pasco. His mother gave me his address.” She passed a small piece of paper across to Fen. “Memorize it, then burn it, dadadada-da; you know the drill. It is a mercy that Flip wasn’t capt… “

“Andron!” Tien interrupted without thinking. ”As in, King Phan’s herbalist? Wasn’t he banished for trying to poison the king?”

“That is what the people of Pendelethe have been told.” Fen agreed. “Oh.” Tien wished she’d waited till the others had gone, to ask the question. “But it is a lie,” Fen continued. “Saka and I uncovered new information about Andron’s kidnapping. That is how we came to meet you, Tien.”

“And?” Renda perched awkwardly on the edge of his tiny stool. “What did you learn?”

“Not good news, I’m afraid. As we feared, Phan is just the tip of the iceberg. The truth, in its entirety, is far more disturbing.” Every one sat still, listening. Fen made eye contact with each one as she spoke. “Our king is being deceived and manipulated by his new medical advisor, Wiggo. Saka and I were intercepting a message from Wiggo to Thorasco when we were caught. Some of you may have heard of Thorasco. He is the Emperor of Malak.”

“Malak?” Noth’s mouth worked as he thought. “Really? But Malak is an insignificant island on the other side of the globe. And it’s in bad shape, if the sailors’ tales are true.” He seemed unaware of his dancing eyebrows. “Half the year they are plagued by unforgiving heat. Then there is their bitter winter. The Malak’s sold most of their livestock to our merchants, because they have run out of room to accommodate them. See, they live in underground caverns, while the surface of their land is uninhabitable. Malak would not be a wealthy or powerful empire by anyone’s standards.”

Uninhabitable! Tien smothered a smile. Noth is so definitely a Pascan, she thought.

“That could make their ruler all the more determined and ruthless in order to attain those things,” Saka countered. “Who knows what his motivation is. But we need to learn more. We didn’t have time to decipher the whole note. It was addressed to Thorasco, and it was coded, so the deciphering took time. The letter mentioned ‘a source of quartz juice’. Is that right Fen?”

Fen nodded. “It also talked of the ‘Thelpy tablets’, which Renda can tell us about. At the end, it went something like, ‘it is all going to plan, and Phan is none the wiser’.

Renda whistled softly. “So one evil is using another, unsuspecting evil to do his dirty work? But we have no idea what?”

“That’s it in a nutshell, Renda. We must learn more about Malak and the significance of quartz juice. And why Sounds like your forte, my man.” He tipped his head in the direction of Noth, who flushed, and sat a little straighter on his stool.

“So,” Fen concluded. “We have come back with more questions than answers…” She broke off, leaning towards Mirello with a worried look. “Are you all right Mirry? You’re white as a sheet.”

Mirello managed a feeble smile. “I’m alright,” she said fanning the air dismissively. “It’s just…it’s become complex all of a sudden, hasn’t it? And we are so few.”

The group sobered. They sat in silence for a time, each lost in their own thoughts. “Well the good news is that we weren’t questioned when we were caught.” Saka piped up. “The guards mistook us for a couple of Quarter wretches, trying to steal from the royal kitchen. We played along. In fact I put on a rather spectacular show of being a few bananas short of a bunch, wouldn’t you say, Fen?”

“Oh.” Fen looked surprised. “Were you acting, Saka?” She smiled as Saka staggered about dramatically, before pulling the imaginary dagger from of his back.

“You wound me, Fen,” he said in an aggrieved tone, as the others burst out laughing.

These are nice, kind people, Tien thought, looking around at them. But I must find out more about what they do; what their plans are. She cleared her throat. “Did you form this group to get rid of Wiggo?” she asked no one in particular.

“Oh, no,” Renda answered. “Things in Tira had begun to change well before Wiggo even arrived.” He paused. “As each day passes, Tiaran standards of beauty and perfection become increasingly difficult to attain,” Renda continued, his face twisting with emotion. “And now, we ourselves are works of art. We base our worth on pure facade.” Renda’s voice croaked, and Tien saw that his eyes were damp. “We’ve gone mad.“

Baran was immediately at his side, draping a comforting arm around his shoulders. Renda made no move to shrug him off. ”Phan is a very bad man,” Baran told Tien as he patted Renda. He shook his head sadly. “And many of Pendelethe is becoming like he.”

Tien adored the foreign lilt in Baran’s accent. Pendelethe’s three tribes spoke Tiran, but some of the Aryks and Pascans in remote coastal regions had developed dialects of their own. “You asked why we formed this group, Tien,” said Saka, while Renda regained his composure.

“Several of us were openly against Phan’s silent ‘Quarter’ initiative. Then when Wiggo slithered into the palace, we began to suspect that something more sinister than Phan’s schemes was being orchestrated. We formed an official group and went underground.”

“What use am I to your group?,” Tien asked slowly, her heart thudding with nerves. There was never going to be a perfect time to ask. “I mean, why am I here?”

Berry pursed her lips. ”That’s what I want to know,” she said, looking at Saka with narrowed eyes.

It was Renda who answered. “She is the first Aryk we’ve seen in a year,” he said, addressing Berry, who sat across the table from him. “Tien, you can help your people,” he continued, turning to her. “You have a wealth of knowledge about Aryk culture that can assist with the debriefing process. That is, once we find your people and begin to wean them off the Thelpy.”

Fen saw the confusion in Tien’s face and said. “Explain what the Thelpy tablets do, Renda. We don’t know.”

“What…? Oh, sorry.” Renda cleared his throat. “The Aryks have been force fed Thelpy tablets. The Thelpy works like a truth drug. “But that means they are alive.”

Hope flared in Tien’s eyes. “It proves my family is alive.”

“Yes, they are most certainly alive. We just don’t know where. The Raseen have orders to question them,” Renda assured her. He raised his thick eyebrows. “I hope to be selected to help with the questioning. That is my task.”

Tien grinned at Renda. Now that she had real hope of seeing her family again, the weight of the past days seemed to melt away. Relief made her light headed.

“And our task is to find Andron, hopefully with the help of his apprentice Flip,” said Saka. He’d jumped off his seat on the bed and begun to move around the room, stretching his arms. “Andron must have discovered Wiggo’s secret alliance, so Wiggo needed him gone. And we believe that Andron has the antidote to Wiggo’s Thelpy tablets.” “So we’ll find Andron, and get the antidote,” Tien asked Saka, as he came back to sit on the bed opposite her. “And by that time my people should have been found?”

“Couldn’t have summed it up better myself,” said Saka. “Come on now, Tien. Have you any better offers coming in?” He tipped an inquiring head sideways at her. Tien pulled a face and smiled at him, before nodding. She glanced around at the others to see what they thought of her joining them. Mirello, Fen and the men smiled back at her, though Noth managed to look worried at the same time. Berry sat with her eyes closed, clicking her perfect nails on the table.

“Well then, that’s settled. So you will take Tien with you to Pasco?” Renda asked Fen and Saka. They nodded as one. “And remember, Berry joins you on this leg of the journey, as we planned?” His tone was hesitant.

Tien’s smile vanished. Oh no! she groaned inwardly. Any one, but Berry. She felt her good mood souring. It would have been a pleasant, easy journey with just Saka and Fen as companions. Fen nodded, her expression mild. Saka snuck a quick look at Berry from under hooded lashes. Berry shrugged.

“Fine by me. I hope I can keep up,” she murmured, biting her bottom lip. There was insolence in her tone, and an undercurrent of tension in the room that Tien sensed, but did not understand.

“Good, “ said Renda. “Now, Noth has some news fr… "

He stopped as Noth raised a cautionary finger to his lips. They strained to hear. The clamour of the Green Moon’s patrons had stilled. Renda gestured silently for Mirello to go to the window.

“Are any Tiran erenraps tethered outside the inn?,” he whispered. The blood had drained from his face, revealing a generous smattering of freckles. His eyebrows stood out like ginger caterpillars. “How could they know where we are?,” Renda muttered.

Mirello sidled along the wall and moved the curtain aside a fraction, so she could see down to the street. She sucked in a sharp breath and dropped the curtain. “Four of them,” she hissed. “We need to go. Now!”

© 2006 by Shelly Taylor