Blades Falling Softly, page 10
part #1 of The Brightest Shadow Series
Finally the Zeitai himself emerged, flanked by four Deathspawn wearing identical coats. He walked with the supreme confidence of a master and should have seized her full attention, yet Anyinn found herself fixing on the coats. The buttons and elegant tails were so similar to those that Canumon and his wife had worn when visiting their house, they must be traditional Laenan garb.
Anyinn took a step back as if she could evade the realization. All at once she wasn't staring at a horde of monstrous Deathspawn, but a camp of uncertain soldiers in an alien land. Her own thoughts had betrayed her and she struggled to find the thread that had taken her to that point... and there was no time to think. A point of a light and a point of darkness seared next to one another and she heard Feinouya gasp.
Yet it was no true battle, and it couldn't be, given the vast difference between them. The madman didn't even reach the Zeitai, cut down by the four guards as soon as he approached.
Though the Zeitai still loomed ominously in her vision, she forced herself to see that he was just a man: a short Laenan man wearing elaborate robes. She encouraged herself to fixate on the details: strange loops of silver spanned the front of his coat and sleeves, too finely wrought to serve any defensive purpose, so they must be ornamental. He cast a scornful glance at the corpse of the madman, called out a few commands, and then returned to his tent.
"What kind of fool was that?" Feinouya's voice came ragged and when Anyinn turned to look at her, she took another step away. The clan head stared with bloodshot eyes, and as much as Anyinn wanted to ask her about what they had witnessed, she couldn't bring herself to speak.
The mansthein didn't retaliate for the attack, yet the result could never be called peace. Everywhere she went in the Straedi lodge, Anyinn heard whispers of what had happened. Many of the observers seemed to have misunderstood, yet the more she heard, the more she doubted her own memories. Eventually she fled to her chambers and began writing furiously.
Even though it had nothing to do with her manuscript, Anyinn found herself grasping whatever paper she could find and recounting the events. She did it more than once, desperately, as if writing down the experience would make the inexplicable clear.
Over the next several days, the two sides remained in an uneasy stalemate. Though she had scheduled a meeting with Canumon, when she approached the mansthein side of the lodge, she was immediately met by hostile soldiers. Since the truce sat balanced on the edge of a blade, she retreated to her writing.
When she looked over her accounts, she was surprised to see that they shifted from one day to the next. Her memory of the event seemed extraordinarily clear, seared into her memory, yet she had been equally confident when she had written the earlier accounts. It troubled her to find that she had written "Deathspawn" at times when she'd meant to write "mansthein".
The worst of it all was that she felt no attack and sensed no violation of her mind. Instead the events simply mellowed like a fond memory, all pleasant sweetness and retroactive warmth.
She desperately wanted her husband, but Noreinu had yet to arrive, and in her calmer moments she thought that it was safer for him to remain away. Speaking with Canumon could also have helped her sort through the uncertainty, but the sides remained hostile. Instead the uncertainty simply stretched on and on until one day the clan head arrived in her chambers to announce the news.
The scouts had returned successful: the West Wind had arrived to fight for them.
Canumon
As much as he wanted to stay in bed, Canumon knew that the day wouldn't wait for him. With the afterglow fading, he couldn't help but think about the delicate balance with the gathering human army. Every day, the humans seemed to grow bloodthirstier, and the talk in camp was starting to consider striking first.
When Canumon swiveled his legs off the side of the bed, however, Gowanisa grabbed his arm and pinned him back down. It was actually a traditional Feinan wrestling technique, though ending with her sprawling on top of his chest was not the traditional conclusion. His wife gripped his hair and pulled him into another kiss.
"Do you need to go?" Her teeth bit at his lip, but in the end he had to pull away.
"The humans apparently have their champion, so the rite might be superseded. Unless w-"
"I know." Gowanisa dropped against him, now demanding only a place to rest. "It's just that, for a little while, I was able to forget about all of it. As soon as we get dressed and go back out, we'll be choking on that shadow again..."
"Shadow is a good way of putting it." Canumon reluctantly pulled himself upright again and bent down to retrieve his pants. "But I'm not sure who's casting it. If things are bad for us... the soldiers are on edge, and I don't like where it's going."
"Ugh, don't remind me. Are you sure we can't st-"
At that moment they were both interrupted by an exuberant voice screeching, "Ca! Oma! Oma! Ca! Oma!"
Gowanisa groaned and pulled one of the cushions over her head. As soon as he had his pants tied, Canumon headed over to the room just beside theirs. It was a relief that the boy had slept so long, but now nothing would stop him from making an absolute nuisance of himself until he was given attention.
Fortunately, nothing was wrong with Laghy except his lack of anyone waiting on him the moment he woke up. Canumon let him chew on a finger and bounced him around for a while, which was enough to make him happy again. That made him the only person in the entire Taynol Valley in a good mood, or so it seemed.
Eventually their son insisted on seeing his mother as well, so Canumon carried him back to the bed. He smiled fondly at how Gowanisa had wrapped herself in the sheet, but as he sat down, his lower back twinged. All at once, he looked down at the two of them and realized that they'd grown old. Their training might have kept them in excellent physical condition, but their sein could only slow down the ravages of time, not end them.
With Laghy babbling and crawling between them, it really didn't matter. Canumon pulled his wife and son closer to him to ward off reality a little longer.
It couldn't last. By the time soldiers pounded on their door, he was dressed in his combat robes and had finished his meditation. If all went according to schedule, he wouldn't fight Anyinn or any other human that day, but the schedule might no longer be relevant. They'd delayed any conflict with their status as warriors, but now far greater masters might seize hold of events.
"They've demanded a meeting," Kanavakis said as soon as Canumon got close. "Their champion can't possibly match a Zeitai, but they're projecting confidence."
"What's the plan, Kaen?"
"I have no idea. We stay back and await the Zeitai's orders. If another of those insane humans appears, don't hesitate to bring him down before he can interfere. But if he acts like these rumors, capture him alive so that the Zeitai can pass judgment."
Zeitai Terza was far from Laen Karnak and had no real jurisdiction, but Canumon kept his thoughts to himself. What mattered was that the Zeitai had power and the willingness to use it. That was the same reason he had little hope that the humans had found a champion simply to even the scales.
They had power. They would use it.
Both sides met at a great marble diamond beside the lodge, not so different from the Lonely Diamond where he'd fought Anyinn. Not so long ago, and in another sense very long indeed. On their side, the soldiers mostly maintained order, but he heard a few growls, and he could understand the sentiment behind them.
Across the diamond, the human crowd had shifted, eyes filled with a terrible passion. He fully understood them adamantly defending their land, but this was something different. Canumon searched for Anyinn and was relieved to find her sitting serenely, untouched by the rage of the others. Her Tranquil Blade piercing his sein would have been welcome at that moment, but the day wasn't really about them.
No, today their cause would be championed by the lone human man sitting cross-legged at one point of the diamond.
Though a few observers scorned the man known as the West Wind, everyone with any real sein training watched him closely. His pants and vest looked simple compared to Nolese robes, but his powerful frame sat with unnatural stillness. He had darker skin than humans in Nol, and instead of hair with pale highlights, pure raven locks flowed down his back. Though he didn't carry any apparent weapons, a band of willow sticks lay across his lap. That could be enough.
Then the Zeitai arrived, surrounded by his officers. He didn't step onto the marble floor and didn't even look at the human who had come to challenge him, instead focused on the Tayn clan across the diamond.
"My people requested to enter your land according to your own customs. Why are you bringing foreigners to challenge me?" He spoke in crisp Futhik and a moment later his words were translated by one of the four around him. Understanding both languages gave Canumon a strange sense of echoing, but the human crowds waited until the translator finished.
"That is our question for you." The human clan head, Feinouya, stepped forward to answer. "It is one thing for a Nolese Deathspawn to begin a challenge rite, but why have you come here? Your very presence is a threat."
A few of the soldiers growled at the slur, but the Zeitai's pale red eyes displayed no reaction whatsoever before he spoke. "I threaten no one, unless you have no legitimate reason for demanding my presence here. State it."
"By our laws..." The clan head hesitated and glanced back at someone Canumon couldn't see, though it wasn't Anyinn. "We are formally challenging your presence in the Taynol Valley, aside from the entry rite. For that reason, our representative will challenge you. Unless you successfully defend your right to stand here, you must depart our lands or face the Nolese Coalition."
The Zeitai growled and gestured to one of his officers. His brief command - "Humble the fool" - was not translated into Nolese, but many of the soldiers laughed.
One of the uniformed officers stepped into the arena and hefted a long spear. Its end carried a vicious point designed to pierce even the skin of warriors, but the officer took a reversed stance with the blunt end forward. Even that could be lethal in the right hands... though as the West Wind stood to his feet, Canumon doubted that he feared for his life.
When the blunt end of the spear thrust forward, the West Wind finally moved, deceptively languid. His willow stick met the spear head on, bent... and then somehow the spear tumbled into the air. In a single flowing movement, the West Wind stepped forward and brought the snapping stick against his opponent.
The officer toppled off the side of the marble at terrible speed, though he didn't appear to be injured. Everyone stared in shock as the spear tumbled end over end, eventually falling into the West Wind's free hand. He tossed it aside as he turned toward the Zeitai, then spoke.
"This is insult." His Nolese was rough with a barbarian accent, but Canumon doubted that the Zeitai even heard it. For him, the only real response had been the grace of the movements with the willow stick.
Waving aside his other officers, Zeitai Terza stepped onto the marble. For the first time, the West Wind smiled.
For a time, they simply stood and observed one another. Even the untrained soldiers hushed in anticipation, though they couldn't see that the match had already begun. Both masters extended themselves and analyzed their opponent with all of their senses, knowing the other's sein. Yet after that ended, they remained still a moment longer, their physical eyes meeting in the silence.
The two of them reached the center of the arena in a single step, exchanging techniques with cautious precision. Every one of the Zeitai's movements was traditional Laenan combat, polished to an impossible shine. His opponent moved with a fluidity that put most Nolese warriors to shame, yet followed none of their paths, his willow stick swishing faster than the wind.
Ferocious as the exchange was, it could almost have been mistaken for a simple brawl to someone without sein training. Both of them kept their feet planted and used only simple steps, and they countered everything thrown against them so effectively that no force escaped. While lesser masters might fight with great gusts of wind or shimmering sein, the two had such perfect control that they wasted no energy on demonstrations.
Canumon knew that he would have lost in the first few exchanges and could only watch in awe. It ended faster than he could follow, all he saw was that the Zeitai's palm struck the West Wind's chest and the human man dropped back a step.
Yet that had not been everything: though Canumon had missed the movements, one of the Zeitai's looping chains dangled from one end, sundered by the willow. Only when he raised a hand and touched his cheek did Canumon see the line of red tracing across it.
Both men smiled, and Canumon started to hope that they might not be within the deadly grip of this war. Yet when they stepped toward one another again, they had clearly decided that the time for games was over. Their next exchange ended swiftly, the West Wind hurtling backward so swiftly that Canumon lost him completely.
His eyes needed to observe too many places at once. First he noted the Zeitai, eyes still focused without a hint of satisfaction. When he twisted his wrist, some of the silver chains in his uniform snapped around his arm, but Canumon couldn't understand the flow of his sein or how he used the chains. Beyond that, his eyes traced over the crowds, still recoiling from the explosion of wind.
Anyinn wasn't misled, instead tracking the West Wind in a different direction. The man had broken through one of the fortified stone pillars on a walkway and torn through the roof as well, shingles now raining down on the marble. But Anyinn was looking to the side... and there Canumon discovered the West Wind standing, apparently unharmed.
For a moment Canumon blandly observed that the West Wind was unusually durable for a human, despite his soft and pliable style. Then Canumon realized that this was no friendly demonstration and that foolishly staring at the fight put him in great danger.
One of the heavy shingles shattered against the marble, cracking it, but the Zeitai was already gone. The two met in an explosive burst, several more pieces of the walkway tearing free and scattering below. Panic set in on both sides and the crowds began to scramble to find cover.
Most were in position to retreat safely, so Canumon intended to join them, but at that moment something crashed into the side of one of the lodge's great multi-tiered buildings. One of the masters had thrown the other into it, but it scarcely mattered which was which.
The wood groaned like a wounded animal and then part of the building gave way, crashing down the side of the hill. Canumon realized that several soldiers and humans stood underneath, some oblivious and some staring in horror. If the dying building collapsed on them...
He crossed the space at a sprint, ducking another flying roof tile. When he arrived he simply grabbed whoever was closest and pulled them away... and in that moment felt a human's sein moving alongside him. Anyinn grabbed those nearest her, on both sides, and began pulling them to safety.
As they leapt away, she glanced over at him. They smiled at the strange parallel, but there was no time for words.
Though they managed to prevent anyone from being crushed by the collapse, the battle between the two masters still raged across the walkways of the lodge, threatening everyone below with a hail of debris. Canumon and Anyinn ducked behind a mossy boulder large enough to withstand the fragments and finally found space to speak over the crashing and screams.
"I could do that," Canumon said with a casual gesture toward the chaos, "but I have a cramp in my leg." He was gratified to see Anyinn's grim expression soften, if only for a moment.
"The two of them are going to tear the lodge apart." She kept her hand on the hilt of her sword, but there was clearly no point in drawing it. "I'm not sure we can survive either result."
"Even if we do, whichever one wins will have demonstrated a threat that will destroy any hope at negotiation. They might be fighting honorably now, but real concerns will take over once they finish."
Anyinn shook her head slowly. "The only way this could be any worse is if that insane hero joined them..."
As he heard her words, Canumon's eyes widened and he grinned, not caring how many teeth he showed. "Anyinn... would you like to go insane with me? These two ruffians have interrupted our appointed duel."
"But..." She paused as she realized what he truly meant, then shook her head again. Yet even as she did, he saw the steel in her eyes. "They've respected each other enough that I think it's worth the risk. Let's try."
With that, she lunged out from behind the boulder, and suddenly Canumon was committed to his mad idea. They couldn't move as swiftly as the two masters, but they could deflect pieces of debris and make their way to one of the central platforms. That alone was safe enough... the suicidal part was when they leapt up onto the walkway between the two masters.
"Stop this at once!" Anyinn called out. They weren't cut down immediately, so Canumon joined her.
"We have yet to duel to settle our differences. We cannot allow your battle to end ours."
The West Wind frowned, willow stick rising, but Anyinn spoke to him in a harsh tongue Canumon didn't know. When the West Wind replied, he spoke far more fluently than he had in Nolese, though Canumon still understood none of it. Which was just as well, because he needed all his attention for the Zeitai staring at him with burning eyes.
"Why bother with this ploy, Nin?" Zeitai Terza - the greatest warrior ever to come from the entire Laenan race, the supreme commander of their military - stepped forward without expression. Just staying on his feet was difficult enough, but Canumon forced himself to answer.
"I no longer serve, Zeitainan. The army hired me because they needed someone to earn their way into this valley by honorable combat. Whether or not my family finds a home may not matter to you, but it is everything to me."
For a moment he feared the Zeitai would strike him down, but eventually Terza opened his fist, letting the silver chains fall free. "This has become more important than you know. You're a bold man, so normally I would wish you well, but everything else is worthless compared to what's at stake."
