Blades Falling Softly, page 2
part #1 of The Brightest Shadow Series
"I think I might want another side of those stories." Noreinu chuckled and moved away to the small stove in the corner of the room. "Cup of neth?"
The familiar brewing process required no words, so Anyinn told her husband about the events of the day while they created the neth. Her husband was remarkably good at brewing neth, though her own sein was far better suited to heating than the fire. They kept two servants, a distant cousin and one of Anyinn's old students, but even they always insisted that the couple brew the tea themselves.
By the time they sat at the table with their cups, the recounting had lapsed into silence. Noreinu remained silent throughout, but now Anyinn caught his gaze and asked the question she had long held back. "Is there anything to these rumors of Deathspawn? Our valley is remote enough that few have seen anyone from Teralanth, or any barbarians from the Chorhan Expanse, so I always wondered..." Her words trailed off as she saw Noreinu shake his head.
"They are not human, Anyinn. They call themselves 'mansthein' instead of Deathspawn, but they are... on my last trip to Nol Keralaln I saw several of them. Some might be mistaken for human from a distance, but... there is no question of it up close. There are others who appear even less human, hairless with mottled skin. And I heard rumors - credible rumors - that there are other clans and groups with monstrous size or beast-like claws."
Anyinn sighed and took a deep drink of the soothing neth. She could discount rumors from local warriors, but her husband was better traveled than she. "But they don't sound like monsters from children's stories."
"They sound like an empire, and that is bad enough." Noreinu set down his cup heavily and locked his gaze with hers. "They have fought wars in Fareshel and there are rumors that they might attack kingdoms in Eltar Trathe."
"Because they want what all empires want?"
"Who can say? But the Coalition believes that they will not attack us: the patchwork of clans across Nol is too formidable for them to fight. That's why they want to begin with trade and challenges. Boulanu may be a fool, but he could be right. Challenging via the rites could be a way for them to get a toehold in Nol, to steal what they can't win fairly."
She withheld her thoughts on the rumors of war: in her experience, every valley believed it had the strongest clans and every nation thought their warriors were more formidable than others. Her travels in Tur-Nol and the Chorhan Expanse led her to believe that every land possessed its own traditions of sein, each with something to recommend it. If these mansthein wanted to avoid war, it was more likely because their armies and greatest warriors were engaged on other fronts.
Since her husband had said nothing else, Anyinn decided to speak the inevitable conclusion. "So you believe that they truly do intend to force their way into the Taynol Valley."
"I can ask tomorrow, but I believe it's likely. We're in one of the few fertile parts of Nol where there's space for them to stake a claim. This could be the tip of the spear, Anyinn. If they send the representatives, it might fall on you to stop them."
"I will do what's necessary." She reached out to rub his hand and smiled, only for him to smile back wryly.
"But you hope 'what's necessary' is negotiation instead of violence, don't you?"
Anyinn only smiled again and returned to drinking her neth. She would do her duty, as she would against any human invaders who attempted to seize her clan's home. Hopefully that would be the end of it, yet the rumors of monsters worked their way beneath her skin, whispering promises that this time would be different than all previous challenges.
After the meal, Anyinn returned to her room and drifted into her own sein, reordering her soul with the familiar exercises. It left her calmer, but for once, she did not feel true peace. Soon enough, she would learn whether or not these invaders would change their lives.
Her practice left her with no grand insights to the arts of sein, yet when she sat down with her manuscript, Anyinn began to write.
Canumon
Though Canumon meant to meditate atop the hill, he found himself repeatedly hesitating. Part of his struggle was the strangeness of the wind on the hilltop, so different from his home in far eastern Nol. His mind also swarmed with thoughts of his wife, child, and quiet grief. It had been years since he'd been unable to master his own mind, yet he found himself distracted even by thoughts of food supplies and broken cabinets.
Of course, the armed warriors advancing toward his position were also relevant.
He had chosen this hilltop away from fertile lands because it was designated as a neutral place for anyone to train, not that he expected it to matter. Canumon slowly rose to his feet and saw the humans loping up the side of the hill like a pack of monkeys. All he could do was fold his arms in his sleeves as properly as possible and wait.
"Get out, Deathspawn!" The first of the men shook a club in his direction, as if he was an animal to be scared off. "You've invaded enough of our land!"
"I live in our town to the north and I have no intention of moving." Canumon had been speaking their tongue for twenty years, yet still found himself self-conscious of every inflection. As if it would matter. "This is no invasion."
"Just die!" A woman hurled a javelin at him and Canumon carefully stepped aside. His hands started to leave his sleeves and he considered defending himself, but restrained the impulse.
As a younger man, he would have fought them, demanding that they acknowledge his right to live in the land where he'd spent his entire adult life. When he looked back, Canumon had to admit that part of him was still repulsed: human bodies were covered in fine hairs and their eyes were always dull shades. If he had been able to interact with them, perhaps those feelings would have faded, but he'd just proved again that entering the space between their communities was an act of war.
Any revulsion faded before his second realization: they were all young and frightened. Human ages could be slightly difficult to determine, but he understood human sein, and most of the mob advancing on him were beginners. Only the leader was a real threat, his sein fully formed as if he had been training for ten years or more.
So Canumon simply stood and allowed the club to strike him across the face. Even gathering his sein against it, the blow hurt, sending him arcing off the side of the hill like a toy.
Canumon curled his shoulder as he hit the ground for the first time, blunting the impact without looking too adept. After bouncing again, he let himself skid through the grass and dirt before returning to his feet. In the distance, the humans shrieked victory and hatred at him, but they no longer attempted to pursue.
Faking a limp, Canumon slowly made his way back home. For the most part he was uninjured, though he found himself rubbing his jaw where the club had struck. That one was going to hurt. He felt the inside of his mouth with his tongue, noting how the point of one of his teeth shifted. Worrying at it with one hand, Canumon hoped that it wouldn't fall out.
He chuckled at himself, a warrior of his age and training nearly losing a tooth to a crude bludgeon. As a younger man, going through a rebirth focusing on the spiritual instead of the physical had seemed like the wisest of decisions, far wiser than his brutish peers. But of those peers who were still alive, he doubted they worried about losing teeth or aching backs.
Of course, had he been able to enter the rebirth chamber again, he could have mended those youthful mistakes. But he had about as much of a chance of that as jumping over the ocean, given the cost of a proper rebirth. Especially not with their funds going toward Gowanisa's medications.
As he walked, Canumon couldn't help but scan the landscape around him, despite the familiarity. It was an old habit from his military years, though these days his analysis was more social than tactical. As soon as the hills became slightly less rocky, they ceased being wilderness and he entered the mansthein side of the valley.
The lands of Nol were not cleanly divided between mansthein and human, instead forming a messy patchwork of old villages and recent military bases. To them, it was probably a Deathspawn stain on their nation. Until the generals back in Orphos had decided that Nol mattered, they had been restricted to the margins along the least desirable lands.
As he entered the outer periphery of the village, he witnessed yet again the brutal work required to survive in those borderlands. He passed herders first, moving their bovals from pasture to pasture, or rescuing the foolish creatures from obstacles. Beyond that came the fields, though only flavorless local grains could survive. Beside the town lay a small forest of trees, carefully tended to produce more of the fruits they naturally grew.
There had been a time when he'd hoped that the town would grow into the wastelands and they would begin intermixing with the human village on the other side. As much as humans liked to shout about Deathspawn, he thought that simple interaction and trade could have worn them down. But just hanging on to life here was difficult enough, for both sides, and if anything the hatred seemed to be intensifying.
Canumon rubbed his jaw again, pushing at his tooth from the outside. If he could have sat down with the old man who trained the human warriors, he thought that they could have come to an understanding. Surely their differences wouldn't matter so much, if they could speak long enough to reveal their similarities. Yet now it seemed he would never get that chance.
As he moved past the ramshackle houses of transient warriors to the stable center of the town, Canumon noted something new: a tent. And not just any tent, a vast canvas in the emerald of the Laenan military. Yet the mansthein he saw buying food nearby were Feinan, with self-supplied armor instead of the standardized kit of the Laenan military. That combined with the fact that they had shown up during the hours he'd been gone was more than a little strange.
Not that it had anything to do with him anymore. Canumon watched from the corner of his eyes to see if the soldiers would follow him, but they paid no attention and he returned the favor. That left him free to walk past them to the house.
It was nothing much, just wooden rafters above clay walls. The two rooms were enough for the pair of them and the baby, but it would be tight when Laghy grew up, especially if they managed to give him any siblings. Any that would be more than painful memories.
He let those thoughts run off him like rain and pushed through the doorway. Inside, he found Gowanisa lifting Laghy into the air as if he was jumping, the boy chortling at each leap and waving his arms aimlessly. His wife was covered in a sheen of sweat - she'd always been able to drop down and train in the most distracted of environments. For him, peace and solitude had been the bare minimum.
Gowanisa noticed the moment he entered, of course, and made their son reverse direction on the next leap. When he caught sight of Canumon, the boy shrieked "Ca!" and began flailing in his direction. With a fond smile, Gowanisa carried him in another jump into Canumon's arms. Once he held the boy, she wrapped her arms around him so their son was held between them.
"You're back early."
"It didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped." His cheek must not have bruised yet, otherwise she would have understood. Canumon rubbed her back and leaned over their son's head to kiss her briefly. "Why are there soldiers in town?"
"They wouldn't tell me." Gowanisa drew back, smile fading as her attention shifted beyond their walls. "But there was a commander who wanted to talk to you, a Laenan man who said you'd served together. Do you know a Kanavakis?"
"Huh, maybe. Which faction is this group, if-"
"Ca!" Laghy headbutted his chest, disgruntled by the lack of attention. Canumon gave his wife an apologetic smile and pulled back to lift the boy into the air.
It seemed that he'd had enough of leaping games, however, instead grabbing at Canumon's hair with both hands. The boy liked to play with it, and seemed intent on shoving as much of it as possible into his mouth, but Canumon needed his hair, especially if he'd be meeting old comrades. He took Laghy down to his bed and gave the boy his finger instead.
Immediately Laghy latched on, pointy little nubs stabbing into his fingers. Their son had strong and even teeth, which was a blessing he thanked the Dark Lord for every day. Sometimes mixed blood between Laenan and Feinan led to snarled teeth, but so far the boy had grown up healthy.
Between bites, Laghy babbled on, imitating the way Canumon and Gowanisa spoke about their days. The sounds nearly brushed against words at times and Canumon responded attentively, wondering at how the noises tumbling like a stream would one day soon become real words. At the moment, the boy only used a few words coherently, or at least they'd only translated a few of his intentions.
With no warning whatsoever the boy went from frenetic energy to exhaustion and so Canumon tucked him into bed. Glad as he had been to see their son again, he needed time to talk to his wife. He had much to say about the confrontation at the hill, but when he emerged into the central room again, he spotted her by the stove.
That alone was nothing unusual, and the frying strips of boval meat were ordinary enough fare, but there was a steaming kettle on the stove. It wouldn't be neth, because his wife had always hated it, and there was a pungent odor that stirred memories...
"Is that...?" He stepped closer, reaching toward the kettle before pulling his hand back.
"I think I might be." Gowanisa didn't turn to face him, but when he embraced her from behind, she relaxed back against his chest. He slid a hand over her stomach even though he couldn't possibly feel the new life there.
"That's wonderful! Do you have enough herbs? I can make another trip to the city if you think it will be too long until the next market day. Wh-"
"Canumon." She turned around in his arms and dropped her head against his shoulder heavily. "I don't... I don't know if I want to feel hope this time. I'll do everything I can for the baby, but if we lose another..."
There was nothing he could say that had not already been said, so he only gripped his wife tighter. With their previous child, she hadn't even begun showing, so they had endured the loss alone. Not that the villagers would have understood, since most of them spawned violently without the herbs to manage a controlled pregnancy. Yet despite that pain, he still found hope swelling within him.
"Let me know what you need," he said finally. "We still have the money we put away from the match last year. I'll find something, do whatever I can."
"I know you will." When Gowanisa looked up at him, the pain in her smile mixed with other emotions. She leaned up to kiss him, this time more passionately, and Canumon slid his hand down to the small of her back.
A knock on the door. Both of them growled irritably.
There was no real choice, especially if it was who he expected. Canumon went to open the door and found himself face to face with Kanavakis. Canumon hadn't seen the man since he'd left the Laenan legions over two decades ago, but the commander hadn't changed much. His hair was grayer and his paunch larger, but he still had those steely red eyes.
"Laenan Canumon. Sorry to trouble you."
It had been a long time since he'd been called that, since the villagers didn't bother with titles, yet the old grammar returned quickly. "Kaen Kanavakis. If you're here for meat, I'm afraid we didn't prepare enough for an army."
Kanavakis chuckled, very briefly. "I need your fists, Canumon. Not to recruit you, not that again. But there's trouble with the humans further west and we need a civilian. Someone who can fight the way they do. I told them that if anyone could get along with these Nolese bastards, it was you."
"You came all this way for me?"
"Not just for you. It's more complicated than you know... the Senate is arguing over this again, but one of the Feinan factions sent an army. They're ostensibly under Laenan leadership, but how long will that last? So we need to move first, and move quickly. We don't need you to murder anyone, maybe just kill a few humans in fair duels. But if it doesn't work... well, you might need to leave anyway."
Canumon glanced over his shoulder at Gowanisa. She had poured herself a cup and held it steadily, but her fingers were very tight. "How certain is this?" Canumon asked.
"Everything's already in motion. We would need you to move to a place called the Taynol Valley and participate in an unknown number of duels. They'll start a damn war we can't afford, unless you can manage to get through to the humans. They're brutes, but the one thing their culture has is proper styles of combat. If you can fight well enough for them to respect you, this might not end badly."
"We... will think about it. We need time and more information."
"You need time?" Kanavakis looked over the tiny house with a barely disguised sneer. "This pissant little village isn't worthy of you, Canumon. If you do this for us, you'll be richly rewarded. You can still live in Nol and have a family. But this goes high... all the way to the top, do you understand me? This is the only moment that people like us can make a difference."
"We'll consider it." Canumon spoke with a friendly tone, but refused to look away from his former commander's gaze. "Wherever you're marching, you wouldn't have set up the tent if you were leaving tomorrow. There's time to think."
"But nothing to think about. Don't make a mistake, Canumon." With that, Kanavakis turned away and left them alone again, though now Canumon couldn't ignore the sounds of the soldiers bartering outside.
At least their visitor hadn't woken Laghy, but in his absence the home felt wrong, as if it tilted violently to the side. Gowanisa finished her herbal drink but didn't say anything, just staring at him. Despite the abruptness of it, Canumon realized that he was seriously considering the offer.
"Do you know anything about this Taynol Valley?" he asked. "If it isn't far, we might not have to give up the house. I know it's sudden, but offers like this... they're not meant to be refused."
"I should have torn out his throat when he came in the first time." His wife set her cup on the stove, her claws raking the metal as they pulled away. "But you're right, there's not much of a choice. Apparently you need to kill some humans or our lives will be ruined anyway."
"If it's to the west, we'd be deep in human territory. Do you think that you can find the right herbs there? We'd be nearer Nol Efeltalia, and I know there's some mansthein shipping there, but I don't know if it would be practical."
