The Duelist 3, page 16
“You’ll have to forgive me for not studying up, but can you tell me what’s happening next?” I asked the jackrabbit-man as we traversed the set of steep stairs up to the entrance. “I know a little from when Jenner tried to prep me leading up to this, but other than some sweat-lodge thing where we all sit around and drink a lot of tea, I’m pretty much in the dark.”
“Not to worry!” he laughed. “My father left me in the dark as well, and as much as I learned to understand his ‘trial-by-fire’ teaching method, I didn’t always appreciate the fact. So, I am happy to be your guide!”
“Thanks, Dread.” I clapped him on the back.
“First, we gather for the sharing of kebbar and purified water,” Redburn explained as we were all ushered to stand in a circle while Mec and Vane walked to the center. “I’m afraid I’ll have to leave your side for this part, but I shall be back momentarily.”
Before I could ask where he was going, my guide slipped away to join Mec and Vane.
Oh, yeah. That’s right.
It was easy to overlook the fact the mild-mannered Redburn was actually the governor of Mec Valley.
“My noble governors, Redburn and Vane, will do the honors of passing around the kebbar bark the Ashers of Old used to sustain themselves with when they felt the weariness of their burden.” The ram-lord gestured with his hand, and maidservants with silver-domed trays lined up in front of them while more dancing concubines removed the lids.
Then the three Lords of Nata each took a large platter piled with flat square pieces that looked like pita bread and went around the room so the other Ashers could take a sample.
It reminded me a little of a church communion thing I went to one time with foster family number-whatever. When I took a piece of the bread, I lightly sniffed it, but it didn’t really smell like anything, which I was thankful for because my stomach seemed to be doing somersaults. The other Ashers waited until all of the pieces of kebbar bark were distributed before holding them up like the ram-lord was doing.
I followed the crowd and held mine up as well.
“Mercedes be!” Mec toasted with his bark piece before he folded it up and ate the kebbar in one mouthful.
“Mercedes be!” I added my cry to the group and shoved the piece into my mouth.
Aside from being dry, the bread-like bark kind of tasted like a stale tortilla combined with seaweed, and I crunched through it hurriedly.
“Now, please, drink the water offered from my own fountain.” Gella Vane gestured to the pretty serving women who now had bronze trays laden with chalices filled with crisp water.
Redburn joined me again as he finished his own kebbar, and we both followed the mass of people as they started to stream out of the soaring entrance hall and down a set of stairs.
“Where are we going now?” I asked as I nearly levitated off the balls of my feet with nervous energy. Maybe it was in the bark, but I felt like I just downed three Monsters and a whole pot of black coffee. “What was in that kebbar, Dread?”
“Haha, yes, you must be feeling the effects quite strongly,” Redburn said as we jaunted down the stone steps and entered a series of descending staircases that reminded me of freaking Hogwarts. “I remember my first time trying kebbar. I had the energy of six men. I pleased my First Wife eight times that night.”
“Ohhhkay,” I said and tried to hold in the inappropriate laughter that threatened to bubble to the surface.
“My baths aren’t as decadent as the Asher Lord’s.” The craggy voice of Gella Vane floated up the endless staircase corridor as the multitude of Duelists marched ever downward. “But I do hope you glean from them as much pleasure as you can.”
Shortly after this declaration, it seemed as if we hit the steam barrier, and the lower we went, the thicker the atmosphere began to feel.
Something sharp and pungent assaulted my olfactory senses. It reminded me of the sharpness of citrus combined with the smoky undertone of frankincense, and my skin tingled wherever it was in contact with the steam.
When we all finally made it to the large chamber at the bottom of the stairs, the servant women congregated around us three to a man.
“Don’t be alarmed, but they are going to redress you in the ceremonial garb,” Redburn warned as he was being tended to by his own entourage.
“R-Right,” I said and reluctantly let these women undo my armored belt.
I tried not to feel awkward as they undressed me down to just the Duelist Stone around my neck and helped me into a thin pair of cotton-like shorts.
A low crystal chime sounded from somewhere, and more servants came in with steaming cups of the tea I’d read about.
“This is the Time of Solace,” Redburn intoned as he plucked two cups of tea off a passing tray. He then placed a hand on my shoulder and ushered me over to one of the large coal braziers set up around the large chamber.
Ashers of all shapes and sizes were congregating around them with hot towels draped over their heads as they sipped their tea. Every so often, a maidservant would pour a ladle of water over the hot coals in order to add more steam to the air.
If the Ashers weren’t bathing in the steam, they were actually bathing in the sunken pools dotted around the chamber as the pretty women tended to their every whim.
“I’m sure there are back rooms if you wish to partake in one of Vane’s concubines,” Redburn said as he followed my line of sight.
“Wha-- no!” I sputtered. “I’m married!”
“That is not something that matters in situations like these,” the jackrabbit-man said with an odd look on his face.
“Well… it matters to me, so I’m good for now,” I muttered and took a big gulp of tea.
Which was a mistake because it tasted like the inside of my Nikes after a hard run.
“Ha!” Redburn said and clapped me on the back. “You are devoted to your wives, I can tell. Not to worry, the Time of Solace is for you to use as you please. Most like to rest or meditate, but be sure you drink two more cups of tea at the very least.”
“What does this stuff do, by the way?” I asked and took a much smaller sip this time.
It still tasted like feet.
“The tea invigorates your blood so you will not become weak from the blood loss,” Redburn said and moved over to one of the wooden benches so he could sit with his eyes closed.
I took this as my cue to let the guy do his own ‘Solace’ thing and found my own low wooden bench next to one of the braziers.
A maidservant refilled my teacup, and I downed my second and third cups in a row before she could leave again. Even though the vile substance made me want to gag, it was better to get it out of the way now kind of like ripping off a band-aid.
If this was similar to the tea Madam Midgen forced on Horus, then I would never tease him about being bested by tepid leaf-water ever again.
Nasty.
Now that it was over, I could follow the jackrabbit-man’s example, and I crisscrossed my legs in order to enter my own meditative trance.
Slipping into that deep restive state had been getting easier, although I hadn’t tried it wired to the gills on super bark, so this time was a little tricky. Once I managed it, though, I was able to float along in between dreaming and full-consciousness as if I was traveling along a warm lazy river.
Images would occasionally swim to the surface, but they never stayed for long, and I didn’t feel any pressure to examine them for any significance.
When the fanfare of trumpets could eventually be heard again from the top of the manor, I was startled out of my light trance and almost fell off my bench.
“Take care, Alex, my friend,” Mec said and gripped me by the wrist so I wouldn’t complete my trajectory to the ground. “The floors are slick.”
“There’s a lot about this little favor you forgot to tell me about, Gavlain,” I said as we were all corralled back toward the Harry Potter stairs.
“Builds character,” the big guy said with an askance grin on his bearded face. “Besides, my first impression of you was when you were thrown into a life-or-death situation, and you were way more unprepared than this. And look at you now. You turned out just fine!”
“Suuuurreee,” I said with an eye-roll worthy of Rylan-status.
“Don’t worry, you’ll like what comes next, I promise,” the ram-lord laughed. “Keep up!”
I grinned back at the challenge and semi-raced the Asher Lord up the stairs.
That bark really was doing the trick because I took to those bad boys like it was cake.
The next stop on this Magical Mystery Tour was a large parlor-like room with huge sweeping ceilings and a dank-smelling smoke wafting in the air.
More of Vane’s concubines were there to slip white tunics over our heads before the Ashers were then escorted down another dim winding hall and finally outside in a burst of dazzling late afternoon sun and spectator cheers.
“How-- how long were we doing the ‘Solace’ thing?” I asked Mec as I blinked through my streaming eyes.
“Are you shocked you meditated for so long?” the ram-lord asked with an amused tone to his voice.
“No, just that it was so easy,” I replied.
“It is the fellowship of being united with so many Ashers over a single cause,” he explained. “You might have experienced the same sensation of camaraderie during the Herald Hunts.”
“Yeah, that was cool,” I said, and Mec laughed in his rolling thunder way that made me grin even wider.
“Cool, huh?” he repeated, and he placed a hand on my shoulder so we could both walk out into the knee-deep water of Gella Vane’s massive diamond-shaped fountain. “I admit, I have missed hearing those little Traveler-isms. I haven’t heard many since my grandfather’s passing many years ago.”
“Feel free to steal from my weird lexicon anytime, Gav,” I said as I punched the big guy in the arm. “What’s next, by the way? You said I would like it.”
“Oh, you definitely will, my friend,” he said and pointed over to the far end of the pool.
More beautiful women dressed in a cavalcade of rainbow colors began to file in with our previously absent shields held high over their heads.
A wide smile stretched across my face when I almost instantly spotted Zoie and Shay frolicking toward me through the crystal-clear water. They were barefoot and clad in almost toga-like dresses of blue and red respectively, and they were absolutely the most beautiful sight to my sore eyes.
“What are you two doing here?” I asked as I took the heavy-ass shield and set it down on the fountain’s ledge behind me. “I thought you were coming later. Not that I’m complaining.”
“We are here to help with the Burdening,” Shay explained as she pulled out a pair of shackles.
“Oh, right,” I said as I recalled the story Mec and his wife told me about the symbolic ankle cuffs that also somehow cut me just enough to let out my blood for the tithes. “Will they hurt much?”
“No, the tea and the kebbar act to numb the surface of the skin,” Mec spoke up as he gathered his own cuffs from his bird-wife, Breeta. “Watch, give me your hand.”
I let the ram-lord take my finger and run it around the sharp cuff, and I marveled at the blood beading to the surface of my skin without any signs of pain.
“Neat,” I said.
“Necessary,” Dawn, Mec’s antler-bedecked wife, corrected from behind us.
She was stunningly dressed to the nines in a ceremonial-looking priestess robe that was pure white with the golden symbol of the sun emblazoned on the front. Pearls and diamonds dripped from the small rack of antlers poking up through her platinum hair, and she looked as brilliant as a goddess when she smiled.
“Hello, Lady Dawn,” I said and watched the corner of her usually stoic mouth twitch upwards ever so briefly. Her expression reminded me that she had a pretty morbid sense of humor, and I smirked. “I notice how we are all not boiling to death yet. How am I doing, so far?”
“Quite well considering I haven’t even Blessed the waters of Gella’s fountain, yet.” Her lips twitched again before they stretched into another one of those blinding smiles. “You are a fast study on Alemic humor, Traveler Brightwood! Gavvy, you were right about this one.”
“Right about what?” the green parakeet-woman asked with a bit of a vapid look on her round face.
“Nothing, Breeta, my sweet,” Mec said with a doting smile and hugged her.
“Gavvy?” I mouthed at him, and he mock-glared at me over the top of his Second Wife’s head.
“Now, sit on the ledge, husband,” Zoie then instructed. “Let us adorn you with the Burdens of Mercedes’ Blessing.”
I did as she asked and observed how all of the other Ashers had their own wives or concubines tending to their feet. Some were dancing and gyrating around in an erotic display that looked just as gauche as it was uncomfortable to watch, so I fixed my eyes on my own wives, which was not a hardship in the slightest.
Zoie came out of the water and knelt on the ledge behind me. In her hand, she held her ink brush as well as a small pot of rich bronze ink, and my eyes grew wide in realization when I felt the first brushstrokes drying in the mild breeze.
“More tattoos?” I asked as I tried to watch her every mark.
“Yes,” she said and turned my head to face the front. “No peeking.”
“Alright, alright,” I grumbled as if I was put out, but really, the sight of my phoenix-wife kneeling in the water between my knees had me beyond delighted.
Shay’s right leg came up, and she patted the top of her thigh peeking through the wet red fabric. “Foot, please.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I said and rested my right heel on her leg.
Her green eyes locked with mine, and I couldn’t tear my gaze away even if I tried.
Shay clasped one of the cuffs of the shackles around my ankle with a snap, and then she lowered that foot back into the water while she maneuvered my left foot up to her leg so she could repeat the process.
“Nothing hurts?” she murmured as she began to massage my calves and shins.
“My feet feel like they just recovered from falling asleep, but other than that, no pain,” I said, and my eyes fluttered closed when she continued her in-depth massage up my knees and onto my thighs. “Mm, that feels nice.”
“Okay, done,” Zoie announced from behind me, and I heard her stow the ink bottle and brush away to wherever it was she also stashed her weapons, probably.
“I want to see!” Shay said and climbed out of the pool in an enthusiastic spray of water. “Oh, dearheart, you have outdone yourself.”
“What is it?” I asked.
“Here, husband,” she said and pulled out a set of mirrors that looked like little magnifying glasses from a chain around her neck. She adjusted them so I was able to see the design spanning from shoulder to shoulder and halfway down the backs of my arms.
“Holy fuck, Zoie.” I whistled as I observed the image of a bronze-colored bird-of-prey stretching its wings across my back. “This is amazing.”
“According to legend, after the Ashers came home, they were restored by one of the first Priestesses,” Zoie explained. “The men regained their vigor and the strength of their will. I have painted her symbol on you so you may have some of that strength now.”
“Thank you both,” I said. Their combined presence and encouragement did wonders for my nerves, and any lingering jitters I was having finally ebbed away to be replaced with a swell of determination.
Another chorus of trumpets rang out, and any people other than the Duelists still in the fountain hurried out and onto the ledge.
Mec’s wife then practically floated across the water until she was in the center and raised her regal head.
Just like she did with the pools in my back garden, she lifted her face to the sky, and even though she was kind of far away, the silver flash of her irises could still be seen.
The spectators gasped when Dawn lowered her head with a snap and stared out over the water with her chrome-colored gaze.
“Ashers!” the deer-woman’s voice resonated deeply, and I had no doubt she was channeling some supernatural force for it to sound like it was coming from my marrow. “Take up your shields! Show the Goddess you are worthy of her sacrifice!”
As if we were all tuned in on the same wave-length, every Duelist there raised their shields above their heads and let out a battle cry.
“Rahhhhhrr!” I added my voice to the almighty din and planted my shackled feet as I pushed the heavy shield to the sky.
This next part I was the most prepared for as it was the most crucial.
When Lady Mec initiated the first blessing, she explained how when the water is transformed into that of the Tithe Waters, it becomes highly acidic, and only the combined concentration of the Ashers can make the water just alkaline enough to withstand skin contact.
So it made it incredibly important the men found the concentration and willpower in order to tap into the synergy around them enough to keep the water mild.
This was the first step in the ritual, and from this point forward, there was no turning back.
Because the pools in Ithaca’s garden were small, it took barely any focus for me to transform them, but since Vane’s fountain was easily eighty times the size, the water didn’t change all at once.
Buzzing energy could be felt in the air above us as if there was an invisible ocean current rushing by, and if my hands weren’t full with the shield, I would have reached up to run my fingers through the streams tugging at me.
I lifted my shield higher and bared down on my focus, and I called up the tried-and-true seed-pod imagery I was so fond of whenever I was training my time-trance abilities.
The curious stream reached down and enveloped me in a swath of invisible energy that made the hair on my arms stand straight up.
It was an incredibly energizing feeling, like I was being all charged up as if I actually ran on batteries. The weight of the shield lessened somehow, and I saw the surface of the water begin to smoke.
At the same time, I felt the sensation of something dropping on my feet from under the water, and when I looked down, I could already see a small pile of gray pebbles as the drops of my blood were being converted into tithes.
