Chapter Five (old)
Arthus
Upon my return, I was greeted with the sight of our new traveling companion leaning over her shoes. In my hour absence, the two women had worked wonders. A friendly fire blazed in the center of the clearing. A pair of metal spit supports that I assumed were Wren’s flanked it waiting for the meat that I carried. Katraina sat beside it. Her once ragged locks now fell about her face in a neatly trimmed fall of shining brown and gold.
As I approached, she looked up and regarded me with shadowed blue eyes. “I see you were successful.”
I lifted my brace of cleaned hare with a smile. “Of course. You look much better.”
“I feel much better.” She rose and moved to pick something up off the ground. “Here is the spit,” she said as she extended the metal bar toward me. I recognized my extra shirt as it draped her bony shoulders. The leggings, however, did not look familiar.
As I skewered my catch, Katraina returned to her shoe repair. Neither of us spoke until I settled the meat over the fire. “Where is Wren?” I asked.
“Over there.” She pointed with her chin to the farthest side of the clearing from the horses. “She wrote some letters on parchment a few minutes ago and has been talking to those birds ever since. How many of them have you seen? They came after it was too dark to see.”
Before I could answer her, a flurry of flapping signaled the flight of the gathering. A moment of two later, Wren emerged into the firelight with a large black falcon on her leather covered shoulder.
“Do you have any extra meat?” she asked.
I looked from the golden gaze of the bird of prey on her shoulder to her own mysteriously dangerous gaze. “Is she incapable of hunting?” I asked before leaning over and cutting of some of the meat with my knife.
“Volante has been especially good and I wish to reward her. Besides, she needs to get used to your scent. Put the knife away and bring the meat over and lay it in my hand.” She lifted her right arm palm upward toward me.
I obediently rose and sheathed my dagger. Volante watched me closely as I stepped toward her and her mistress. As I approached, she moved uneasily on her perch.
“Volante, easy.” Wren’s soft command didn’t turn the falcon’s intent gaze from my hand, but she didn’t shift as I covered the last inches. Laying the meat on Wren’s extended palm, I smoothly stepped backwards. Wren threw the meat into the air. In one smooth powerful sweep of wings that barely missed Wren’s head, the black female was airborne. I watched her ascend as she disappeared into the night, midnight wings against a velvet sky.
“Well done.” Wren smiled as I dropped my eyes to her face again and blinked it into focus. She wiped her hands on the rag hanging from her belt. “None of my brothers did so well on their first encounter with Volante.”
It made sense. She was an impressive bird.
“How many falcons do you have?” Katraina asked.
“Seven falcons answer my call: three females and four males.”
“Volante is beautiful.”
Wren glanced up into the darkness at the distant hunting cry of a falcon. “Thank you. I think she is too.”
I seconded Katraina’s observation. “All of the ones I have seen so far are remarkably fine looking birds.”
Wren dropped her face and a fall of freshly cleaned hair slid forward around her shoulders in a silken sheet of darkness framing the changing colors of her eyes. Of course it was hard to tell in the firelight, but she looked pleased. “The meat is going to burn unless someone turns the spit,” she pointed out.
With a soft cry, Katraina jumped to save our dinner. I couldn’t help but laugh at her alarm. She frowned at me. “I am hungry,” she declared.
“I can always find more.”
“But it would take so long to cook.” She continued to rotate the spit slowly. “I tried to patch my shoes the way you showed me, Wren, but they still don’t look like they will hold.”
While Wren examined Katraina’s footwear, I went to retrieve the rest of my gear. I found that Wren had already found and distributed my extra blanket. Aside for that and the tunic on our fellow traveler’s shoulders, my pack looked undisturbed. After removing my bedding and settling Trader for the night, I returned to the fireside in time to hear Wren’s proclamation.
“It is decided. We are going to have to stop for supplies, and when we do, I will find you some new shoes.”
“But I have no money,” Katraina protested.
“You are coming with us and these are not going to protect your feet across this clearing, not to mention the miles ahead of us.”
“Where are we going?”
“I was just wondering the same thing,” I commented. Sitting down on my spread blankets, I calmly regarded Wren. “So, where are we headed?”
“That depends on Katraina.”
“On me?” Katraina paused briefly from turning the spit to frown at Wren.
Now began the lies. I had seen it often enough among the hunters to know that they would use any means necessary to get their prey. I couldn’t really expect that this strange woman would be any different. Frowning into the fire, I waited for the tale I was to support.
“I am seeking your brother and I need whatever information you can give me.”
I raised my eyebrows and regarded Wren in surprise. This was a new tactic. Then I glanced at Katraina to see how she was going to respond. Her narrow shoulders stiffened and she didn’t meet Wren’s steady gaze. “So you can catch him and bring him back to his death for a bounty?” she asked.
“No.”
Both of us looked at Wren. “What do you mean ‘no’?” I asked. “I thought he was the bounty.”
Her veiled brown eyes met mine. “No. This is a hunt, but not a bounty hunt. I want to hear his explanation.”
“No one hunts down a man with a price on his head just to hear his side of the story,” Katraina pointed out.
“I do if I believe he is innocent,” Wren replied.
Katraina’s chin came up and she opened her mouth to argue, but when she met Wren’s completely serious gaze, she hesitated. “You would do that?”
“My brother was wrongly accused of a crime that he claims he didn’t commit. I have risked my life, my work, and my reputation to keep bounty hunters’ off his trail. He isn’t able to tell me his side of the story, but I know that he isn’t capable of what he is accused.”
“Arnan Romany,” I whispered. Even as I did, I began to see the similarities in their pasts and fame. She, like the famous criminal, mysteriously appeared only a year ago. Both were known for their superior skills with weapons and woodcraft.
Ignoring me, Wren spoke again, meeting Katraina’s questioning look with an open face. “I have met your brother, Katraina. I don’t believe he would kill a man he called friend. I wish to help him.”
Katraina watched Wren’s face for a long time, searching her gaze and features. Wren remained completely still and patiently waited for her to finish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wren
A flurry of reasons I could give her to increase her trust flickered through my brain, but I held them on my tongue. Now was not the time to reason and cajole. The trust that I was asking for would only take time to develop. It was time that we didn’t have if we were going to reach Tourth before the other hunters, but that didn’t change the reality of the situation and Katraina’s emotions.
“At least tell me what direction to head so that we can start our journey toward him,” I suggested. “Give me a week to earn your trust. If you are still suspicious of me, you can leave and I will not stop you. Otherwise, you can join us and help us help your brother.” I extended a hand toward her. “Are we agreed?”
The firelight glinted in her eyes as she looked from my face to my hand and back. Then ever so slowly she clasped my hand with her eyes on my face. “He is headed north.”
I smiled warmly and nodded. “Then tomorrow we go north.”
Arthus shifted in the darkness on the opposite side of the fire. “Now that you have worked that out between you, I suggest that somebody rotates the spit again before the other side burns too.”
Katraina didn’t immediately react, so I turned the handle and checked on the meat. The outside was nicely browned except for the burned side, which was black. Pulling the rag from my belt, I lifted the skewer from the flame and smiled over at Katraina, who was watching my movements hungrily. “It looks about done.”
The meal passed in silence partially because each of us turned our full attention to the meat, but not completely. Every time I looked up, Katraina was just looking away. She could watch me all she wished. I meant her no harm.
Despite our serious discussions of before, Katraina and Arthus quickly settled into their flowering friendship of earlier. I offered to take the last watch, the hardest to handle the next day, and the two of them stayed up talking in low voices. Used to sleeping through wind storms and hail, I rolled into my blanket and fell into sleep.
Arthus woke me with a gentle shake as the moon was setting. I gathered my blanket around my shoulders and joined him at the fireside.
“A quiet night,” he commented as he added another log to the fire. “I spotted a glow to the south and smoke above the trees.”
“Roark?” I asked.
“I didn’t wander far enough to check, but I would wager it is him.”
I nodded and shifted the logs with a stick. Sparks speckled the dark night, dancing up to join the stars in the velvety deep above.
“Shouldn’t you be getting to bed?” I asked as he continued to sit and watch the flames.
He didn’t respond right away. When he did, he raised dark eyes to regard me. “You are a puzzle. You stand up to Roark and defend a bounty and the money it was worth, but you are willing to throw away a bounty hunter’s dream ransom for a man you only met once.”
I silently returned his gaze. It wasn’t something I could explain in a moment. Somewhere inside me I knew that Tourth wasn’t guilty. When I began on this course of work, I had promised Deus that I would never deliver an innocent man into the hands of his pursuer. To do so would be against everything Deus instructed.
Arthus studied me a moment longer and then shook his head. “I am going to bed.” Rising to his feet, he shifted his sword and stretched. “I wish you a quiet watch.” Crossing to his bedroll, he settled in for the night.
Once I was certain that he was asleep, I crossed to my pack and retrieved my prayer chain. A rope of worn wooden beads crafted by Daelia to my specifications, eight large beads for each of my siblings with ten smaller beads trailing each for the prayer requests and praises connected with each. Slipping the smooth beads lovingly through my fingers as I returned to the fireside, I began to prepare my heart for prayer. I settled on the ground with the warmth of the fire at my back and facing the direction of Roark’s camp and began to pray.
“Great Deus, king of heaven and earth, pardon me, a sinner, for I have sinned against your word…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wren Romany - © 2006 Rachel Rossano
Upon my return, I was greeted with the sight of our new traveling companion leaning over her shoes. In my hour absence, the two women had worked wonders. A friendly fire blazed in the center of the clearing. A pair of metal spit supports that I assumed were Wren’s flanked it waiting for the meat that I carried. Katraina sat beside it. Her once ragged locks now fell about her face in a neatly trimmed fall of shining brown and gold.
As I approached, she looked up and regarded me with shadowed blue eyes. “I see you were successful.”
I lifted my brace of cleaned hare with a smile. “Of course. You look much better.”
“I feel much better.” She rose and moved to pick something up off the ground. “Here is the spit,” she said as she extended the metal bar toward me. I recognized my extra shirt as it draped her bony shoulders. The leggings, however, did not look familiar.
As I skewered my catch, Katraina returned to her shoe repair. Neither of us spoke until I settled the meat over the fire. “Where is Wren?” I asked.
“Over there.” She pointed with her chin to the farthest side of the clearing from the horses. “She wrote some letters on parchment a few minutes ago and has been talking to those birds ever since. How many of them have you seen? They came after it was too dark to see.”
Before I could answer her, a flurry of flapping signaled the flight of the gathering. A moment of two later, Wren emerged into the firelight with a large black falcon on her leather covered shoulder.
“Do you have any extra meat?” she asked.
I looked from the golden gaze of the bird of prey on her shoulder to her own mysteriously dangerous gaze. “Is she incapable of hunting?” I asked before leaning over and cutting of some of the meat with my knife.
“Volante has been especially good and I wish to reward her. Besides, she needs to get used to your scent. Put the knife away and bring the meat over and lay it in my hand.” She lifted her right arm palm upward toward me.
I obediently rose and sheathed my dagger. Volante watched me closely as I stepped toward her and her mistress. As I approached, she moved uneasily on her perch.
“Volante, easy.” Wren’s soft command didn’t turn the falcon’s intent gaze from my hand, but she didn’t shift as I covered the last inches. Laying the meat on Wren’s extended palm, I smoothly stepped backwards. Wren threw the meat into the air. In one smooth powerful sweep of wings that barely missed Wren’s head, the black female was airborne. I watched her ascend as she disappeared into the night, midnight wings against a velvet sky.
“Well done.” Wren smiled as I dropped my eyes to her face again and blinked it into focus. She wiped her hands on the rag hanging from her belt. “None of my brothers did so well on their first encounter with Volante.”
It made sense. She was an impressive bird.
“How many falcons do you have?” Katraina asked.
“Seven falcons answer my call: three females and four males.”
“Volante is beautiful.”
Wren glanced up into the darkness at the distant hunting cry of a falcon. “Thank you. I think she is too.”
I seconded Katraina’s observation. “All of the ones I have seen so far are remarkably fine looking birds.”
Wren dropped her face and a fall of freshly cleaned hair slid forward around her shoulders in a silken sheet of darkness framing the changing colors of her eyes. Of course it was hard to tell in the firelight, but she looked pleased. “The meat is going to burn unless someone turns the spit,” she pointed out.
With a soft cry, Katraina jumped to save our dinner. I couldn’t help but laugh at her alarm. She frowned at me. “I am hungry,” she declared.
“I can always find more.”
“But it would take so long to cook.” She continued to rotate the spit slowly. “I tried to patch my shoes the way you showed me, Wren, but they still don’t look like they will hold.”
While Wren examined Katraina’s footwear, I went to retrieve the rest of my gear. I found that Wren had already found and distributed my extra blanket. Aside for that and the tunic on our fellow traveler’s shoulders, my pack looked undisturbed. After removing my bedding and settling Trader for the night, I returned to the fireside in time to hear Wren’s proclamation.
“It is decided. We are going to have to stop for supplies, and when we do, I will find you some new shoes.”
“But I have no money,” Katraina protested.
“You are coming with us and these are not going to protect your feet across this clearing, not to mention the miles ahead of us.”
“Where are we going?”
“I was just wondering the same thing,” I commented. Sitting down on my spread blankets, I calmly regarded Wren. “So, where are we headed?”
“That depends on Katraina.”
“On me?” Katraina paused briefly from turning the spit to frown at Wren.
Now began the lies. I had seen it often enough among the hunters to know that they would use any means necessary to get their prey. I couldn’t really expect that this strange woman would be any different. Frowning into the fire, I waited for the tale I was to support.
“I am seeking your brother and I need whatever information you can give me.”
I raised my eyebrows and regarded Wren in surprise. This was a new tactic. Then I glanced at Katraina to see how she was going to respond. Her narrow shoulders stiffened and she didn’t meet Wren’s steady gaze. “So you can catch him and bring him back to his death for a bounty?” she asked.
“No.”
Both of us looked at Wren. “What do you mean ‘no’?” I asked. “I thought he was the bounty.”
Her veiled brown eyes met mine. “No. This is a hunt, but not a bounty hunt. I want to hear his explanation.”
“No one hunts down a man with a price on his head just to hear his side of the story,” Katraina pointed out.
“I do if I believe he is innocent,” Wren replied.
Katraina’s chin came up and she opened her mouth to argue, but when she met Wren’s completely serious gaze, she hesitated. “You would do that?”
“My brother was wrongly accused of a crime that he claims he didn’t commit. I have risked my life, my work, and my reputation to keep bounty hunters’ off his trail. He isn’t able to tell me his side of the story, but I know that he isn’t capable of what he is accused.”
“Arnan Romany,” I whispered. Even as I did, I began to see the similarities in their pasts and fame. She, like the famous criminal, mysteriously appeared only a year ago. Both were known for their superior skills with weapons and woodcraft.
Ignoring me, Wren spoke again, meeting Katraina’s questioning look with an open face. “I have met your brother, Katraina. I don’t believe he would kill a man he called friend. I wish to help him.”
Katraina watched Wren’s face for a long time, searching her gaze and features. Wren remained completely still and patiently waited for her to finish.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wren
A flurry of reasons I could give her to increase her trust flickered through my brain, but I held them on my tongue. Now was not the time to reason and cajole. The trust that I was asking for would only take time to develop. It was time that we didn’t have if we were going to reach Tourth before the other hunters, but that didn’t change the reality of the situation and Katraina’s emotions.
“At least tell me what direction to head so that we can start our journey toward him,” I suggested. “Give me a week to earn your trust. If you are still suspicious of me, you can leave and I will not stop you. Otherwise, you can join us and help us help your brother.” I extended a hand toward her. “Are we agreed?”
The firelight glinted in her eyes as she looked from my face to my hand and back. Then ever so slowly she clasped my hand with her eyes on my face. “He is headed north.”
I smiled warmly and nodded. “Then tomorrow we go north.”
Arthus shifted in the darkness on the opposite side of the fire. “Now that you have worked that out between you, I suggest that somebody rotates the spit again before the other side burns too.”
Katraina didn’t immediately react, so I turned the handle and checked on the meat. The outside was nicely browned except for the burned side, which was black. Pulling the rag from my belt, I lifted the skewer from the flame and smiled over at Katraina, who was watching my movements hungrily. “It looks about done.”
The meal passed in silence partially because each of us turned our full attention to the meat, but not completely. Every time I looked up, Katraina was just looking away. She could watch me all she wished. I meant her no harm.
Despite our serious discussions of before, Katraina and Arthus quickly settled into their flowering friendship of earlier. I offered to take the last watch, the hardest to handle the next day, and the two of them stayed up talking in low voices. Used to sleeping through wind storms and hail, I rolled into my blanket and fell into sleep.
Arthus woke me with a gentle shake as the moon was setting. I gathered my blanket around my shoulders and joined him at the fireside.
“A quiet night,” he commented as he added another log to the fire. “I spotted a glow to the south and smoke above the trees.”
“Roark?” I asked.
“I didn’t wander far enough to check, but I would wager it is him.”
I nodded and shifted the logs with a stick. Sparks speckled the dark night, dancing up to join the stars in the velvety deep above.
“Shouldn’t you be getting to bed?” I asked as he continued to sit and watch the flames.
He didn’t respond right away. When he did, he raised dark eyes to regard me. “You are a puzzle. You stand up to Roark and defend a bounty and the money it was worth, but you are willing to throw away a bounty hunter’s dream ransom for a man you only met once.”
I silently returned his gaze. It wasn’t something I could explain in a moment. Somewhere inside me I knew that Tourth wasn’t guilty. When I began on this course of work, I had promised Deus that I would never deliver an innocent man into the hands of his pursuer. To do so would be against everything Deus instructed.
Arthus studied me a moment longer and then shook his head. “I am going to bed.” Rising to his feet, he shifted his sword and stretched. “I wish you a quiet watch.” Crossing to his bedroll, he settled in for the night.
Once I was certain that he was asleep, I crossed to my pack and retrieved my prayer chain. A rope of worn wooden beads crafted by Daelia to my specifications, eight large beads for each of my siblings with ten smaller beads trailing each for the prayer requests and praises connected with each. Slipping the smooth beads lovingly through my fingers as I returned to the fireside, I began to prepare my heart for prayer. I settled on the ground with the warmth of the fire at my back and facing the direction of Roark’s camp and began to pray.
“Great Deus, king of heaven and earth, pardon me, a sinner, for I have sinned against your word…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wren Romany - © 2006 Rachel Rossano
posted by The Romany Epistles at 10:19 AM
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