The Way of Things: Upper Kingdom Boxed Set: Books 1, 2 and 3 in the Tails of the Upper Kingdom (82 page)

He swallowed. “Yes, Major.”

“Good. No more talking to birds.
Go to sleep. I will protect you.”

“Yes Major.”

He quickly dropped to the ground
and lay flat as in sleep, and Major Ursa Laenskaya couldn’t help but think she
was the happiest she’d ever been in her life.

***

She was having the most wonderful
dream.

They were lovers once again, and
she was in his arms in a romantic cavern and he was kissing little kisses on
her neck, chin and throat.

It felt so real that she didn’t
mind the waking for in fact, she was waking to many, many little kisses on her
neck, chin and throat.

“Good morning,” said Kerris, and
he smiled at her, the sun, moon and stars rolled into one, just for her. And he
stroked her forehead and kissed her there, and then her cheeks with kisses
there as well. He seemed happy to keep going, so she shrugged, grinned, and
snaked her hands in his hair, pulling him over and on top of her.

“Aw
geez,”
came a voice from the fire. “That’s why momma always threw
the cats outside…”

Kerris grinned. “And good morning
to you, too, Solomon.”

Fallon cupped his face in her
hands. “You remember? You remember his name?”

The grin broadened. “Of course I
remember. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Oh, um, no reason. It’s just,
well, yesterday and…um, well, your brother…”

“Kirin? What about Kirin?”
Suddenly, the blue eyes grew round, and he breathed in sharply. “Kirin!”

And he scrambled off her,
knocking her with elbows and knees in his dash to the fire. Shafts of strong
early morning light sliced in from the cleft, and the fire was quietly burning
away its wood, throwing a healthy glow over everything else. The grey lion
dropped down beside them, hands moving all over his brother’s form, as if
testing to see if he were indeed solid, if he were indeed still there.

“Is he fine? Did you help him?
Did he eat? Why did you let me sleep?” The questions poured out of him as
Fallon lowered herself down as well. Solomon passed a roasted carcass toward
them. Kerris waved it off, but Fallon accepted happily and began to peel strips
of white flesh and pop them into her mouth.

“Calm down, Kerris,” said
Solomon. “You were right yesterday. He’s not good. He’s in what we would call
shock, he’s lost some blood, but what is really going to kill him is
dehydration. We do need to get some fluids into him. I’m amazed he’s lasted
this long.”

Kerris sagged, defeated. “I knew
I should have brought some skins! It’s all my fault!”

“I said
Calm. Down.”
And he said it in such a way that both lion and
tigress felt the urge to utterly and completely obey. It was the way of things.
Or rather, it was the way of Ancestors.

“Yes, yes,” muttered Kerris.
“Forgive me. What can we do?”

Solomon sat back, plucked at
another of the roasted birds. “Well, what he needs is water, so we can do one
of two things. One, we can go back to the Humlander, get the supplies that we
need and bring them back here, or Two, we can bring him down to that river.
Ultimately, that’s what we need to do, because its cold and clean and we can
bathe his wounds without worrying about spreading infection by using those
bloody cloths.” Both Kerris and Fallon were nodding, as if they understood.
“But I’m afraid that right now, in his condition, carrying him to the river
might just kill him, so here’s my plan.”

He rose to his feet. The cats did
likewise. He laid a hand on their shoulders, looked them in the eyes, as if
charging them with some solemn vow.

“Kerris, you will take Fallon and
your pony back to the Humlander. Get everything you can carry. Fill the skins
with water from that stream. But I need you both back here before nightfall. He
needs water ASAP, and might not last another night.”

He turned his attention fully on
Kerris now.

“Kerris, you need to stay
here,”
he tapped the lion on the side of
the head. “You need to stay with us, completely, no exceptions. You need to
protect Fallon, get the supplies and get back, otherwise your brother will die.
Do you understand?”

Eyes wide, Kerris nodded. “I,
I’ll try. Really hard.”

“You need to do this.”

“Yes.”

“And I know that you can. You
saved my life the other night. You saved your brother’s life. Fallon’s told me
of the times when you saved
her
life.
You are a protector at heart. A lion heart. You need to believe that.”

Kerris swallowed, nodded again.
“Can, can I take the sword?”

Solomon nodded now and the lion
moved to where it lay on the ground by the fire. He picked it up in his left
hand, tested it for balance, released a long breath.

“Alright then. Let’s go.” And he
held out a hand to the tigress, who took it, and together, they slipped through
the crevice and disappeared into the bright sun of morning.

After a moment, Jeffrey Solomon
turned back to the lone figure by the fire, folded his arms across his chest
and sighed.

“Okay, Captain. He’s gone. Tell
me what the hell is really going on.”

***

She had forgotten how to ride on
a horse without a saddle, and so as they scrambled over rocks, roots and fallen
branches, she wrapped her arms around the grey lion’s waist, tucked her head
into his back and hung on for dear life.

For his part, Kerris seemed
completely at ease, one hand twisted in shaggy mane, the other holding the
sword down low, occasionally using it to slice away at saplings that got too
close. The mountain pony moved tirelessly, even with two large cats on his
back. He seemed to know what was depending on him, and she wondered how much
horses really understood.

The last time she’d been on a
horse without a saddle was that morning at
Sha’Hadin,
the morning he’d thrown her up and onto the great wide back of alMassay, the
Captain’s Imperial stallion. She wondered what had become of him, that
magnificent animal, whether he’d escaped into the trees or whether his was one
of the skulls they had burned in the fire. Her heart grew heavy at the thought.

She wondered about Sireth and
Ursa and what had happened to them. The few feline skeletons did not seem to
match theirs, but if she really put her mind to it, there was no way to be
certain. Wherever they were, alive or dead, she hoped they were together.

She wondered about the Captain.
Knowing what she knew of him, how his pride, his honor meant everything to him,
remembering the commander of
Sri’Daolath
and
how the removing of his mane and tail had dishonored him for life, she had the
sickening sensation that for a man such as the Captain, it might be better to
let him die.

And lastly, she wondered how
Kerris would live if his brother truly did die. They had a hard relationship,
the silver and the gold, as different as the moon from the sun, the mountains
from the jungle, Yin from Yang and she wondered if they needed each other as
much as they pushed each other away. Perhaps that was the way of twins, forever
dependant, forever despising it. Or perhaps it was just them.

Yes, she wondered how he would
live.

He felt good in her arms.

So after a long morning of riding
and wondering, she felt the pony slow and looked up from Kerris’ back.

“Yes,” she shouted. “There it is!
That’s it!”

“The palanquin…” he muttered as
he slid off onto the ground and reached a hand round to help her. “I saw that,
in the pit, in
Swisserland
…”

“Come on. We’ve lots of stuff
inside…” And she danced off toward the vehicle, unaware that Kerris was not
following, for he was looking up at the sky and the black clouds rolling in
above their heads.

“Oh, oh Kerris, look. Look at
this…”

With a deep breath, he turned in
her direction. She was holding up a bolt of fabric that was on the hood of the
Humlander, wrapped in a black leather cord. It smelled of incense.

“This isn’t ours. We didn’t leave
it here…”

“That’s perfect,” he said softly,
as he ran his fingers along the fabric. It was a dark gold, almost bronze, with
elaborate embroidery along the edging. He looked up at her. “And we can use
this cord instead of the rope…”

“For what? What are you
thinking?”

“For Kirin,” he said. “A
keffiyah. For his head.”

“Oh! Yes! That’s perfect! Um,
Kerris?”

“Mmm?”

“When did you last see Sherah?”

He frowned at her. “Well, the
same time you last saw her, I suppose. Under the pistachio tree. Why?”

She stepped forward, plucking at
his tunic. “Where did you get this?”

“This? Oh, well, that was an
angel. I was dying, and I fought a dog and cut off his head and she saved me.
And gave me my life back, although why an angel would want to do that is beyond
me.”

She slipped her hand under the
tunic, to the long line of stitches down his chest and belly. “And these? Do
you remember how you got these?”

“That same angel, I suppose.”

“Do you remember what she looked
like, this angel?”

“Well, I was not quite dead yet,
so no, I’m afraid I don’t. Say, do you think that same angel left this for
Kirin? I did ask her to help him too…”

Fallon stared at him. He couldn’t
see it, couldn’t remember. Something was preventing the memory. But maybe,
after all he had been through on this journey, it was a blessing.

So with one last glance around to
see if an angel or an Alchemist might slip out of the shadows, she opened the
hatch to the Humlander and climbed on in.

***

Mi-hahn began calling them before
dawn.

Ursa was beginning to regret her
desire to be ‘left in’ with this new falcon. Her young voice was high, shrill
and over-eager, and for some reason, it reminded her of the Scholar. They
picked at the rest of the boar, pulled some scraps of innards for the falcon,
and waited for the sun before rising to call her back.

!!!Mi-hahn!!! Mi-hahn!! Sireth!! Ursa!! Happy! Joyous! Mi-hahn!!

“She likes her name,” Ursa
growled and lashed her very long tail from side to side.

“Most falcons do,” said Sireth,
and he turned his face to the sky, rolled a scrap of liver flesh in his palm a
moment before hurling it up to the sun. A shadow swept down and snatched it
mid-air.

!!! Sireth Mi-hahn belly yum!!!

“Do they all sound like this?”

“She’s young, remember?” He
rolled another piece of meat, tossed it high for her to catch. “Her vocabulary
will improve. After all, it’s not many birds that can speak Imperial.”

The Major grunted.

“You try,” he said.

She made a face, but reluctantly,
rolled the flesh in her palm before hurling it like a spear far, far into the
sunrise. Mi-hahn caught it easily.

The Major grunted again.

“Most of our falcons were born
and hand-reared in
Sha’Hadin,”
he
said. “I can’t remember a time when a wild falcon became companion to a Seer.”

 
“You are not a normal Seer.”

He smiled. “Of course, you are
right.”

With a deep breath, he held up
his hand, palm sideways, fingers extended. “I wonder if she will land. It would
be a good sign, if a little early.”

“Just don’t set your mind on it.
She might catch fire.”

He laughed.

They could hear the sound of a
hurtling weight, like a stone from the sky, and even though he was wearing a
blindfold, he clenched his eyes tight.

!!!!Mi-hahn Sireth catch Mi-hahn!!!!

And she swooped so swiftly over
his hand, talons extended, leaving red ribbons along his finger.

“Aiya!”

!!! Mi-hahn surprise surprise!!!

With a gasp, he grabbed at his
hand, blood springing up from the ribbons. The Major shook her head

“That’s why you wear gloves,
idiot. I am going to find breakfast.”

And suddenly, without warning,
the falcon landed on his head. She began pulling at his hair with her dagger
talons, jabbing his forehead with her hooked beak.

!!!!surprise Mi-hahn surprise surprise!!!

“Mi-hahn, no! No! Bad Mi-hahn!
Bad!”

She turned and walked away,
leaving the student and the headmaster well alone.

***

She realized after a while that,
at some point, he had stopped helping. She had emptied the Humlander of almost
everything they had taken from their campsite inside
Ana’thalyia
(which was not everything there had
been
at the campsite, to be sure.) A few
bedrolls, a few waterskins, a teapot and some cups, a bag of dates and a
dagger. They had found the Captain’s short sword at the dog encampment, inside
a burnt tent. As she had pulled them out of the storage space, he had been
packing the items inside the bedrolls for easier carriage back to the cliff.
But as soon as she held out the short sword, he had snatched it from her hand
and now, as she was done, the last items lay beside the rolls, untouched.

She scrambled out and looked
around. The sky was clouding over, thick black clouds that meant rain. She
hoped they did not mean thunderstorms, for lightning might be problematic. He
was sitting with his back against the vehicle, the short sword in his lap and
the tip of the long poking into the earth between his feet.

Solomon had said it earlier. He
did not look right.

She didn’t know what to say, so
she sat down next to him and waited.

“It’s going to rain,” he said
finally.

“Yep.”

“No lightning, though. At least
it’s not calling.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“We should get going.”

“Yep.”

And so they sat when they should
have been going, he looking at the ground, she looking at the darkening sky.