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Mysterious Flower

by Lady Pirate


Chapter Four:

Journey

Marly's thighs burned from squeezing the horse, her hide hurt from the constant jarring of the horse walking on uneven ground. The troop of men were quiet, no one talked or whispered, the only thing you could hear were the noises of the woods behind them, and Whiskers, the cat, who purred his dislike about the grating ride.

Even though Marly had been up half the night on first watch, she was not the least bit sleepy; in fact, she was up before most of the men, her hair in a fresh braid, with sadness, spite and excitement dancing around in her stomach.

They stopped for a two-day rest when one of the horses hauling the gear stepped in a hole, and broke it’s leg. They stopped on the edge of a lake where most of the men opted to swim. Marly disappeared while this was going on; she wanted to get as far away from the swimming men.

Around the lake, Marly discovered a waterfall with a chamber behind it. She walked into it. One eyebrow raised involuntarily as she ran her hands over the ancient script that had been carved into the walls. "What is this?" She moved aside so that light could fall onto the writing. She knew it at once; it was the tongue of the Natives. And her first language.

"Ditaha lisu ina witaro

Anada ina witaro lusu ditaha

Witaro isu pesuna

anada pesuna isu witaro

Bewira ofo taha pesuna suhadawi

tahata lusu ina ditaha

Sutayu ota ofo taha suhadawi

anada suta yu ofo pesuna ditaha"

She studied the script again, reading it to herself. It didn't make sense, it talked about poison, death, shadow and water. What did they have to do with one another? She shrugged, and took out a piece of thin paper, and a colored wax. She laid the paper over the script and ran the long side of the wax against it. The script appeared darker, and very visible on the paper. She folded it up neatly and put it back in her pocket, telling herself she would look at it later.

She walked back to the camp careful to avoid the shore of the lake. Marly sat down under a tree near enough to the lake where she could hear everything that was going on but far enough away where she could not see them.

She took out the paper and laid it out flat on the ground, putting rocks on the corners to hold it down, so the wind would not claim it for it's own.

For a long time she just looked at it, wondering what it could be talking about. "Found something interesting already?" Jacen asked coming up from the direction of the lake. His hair was wet and shining, his pants on, but his boots, socks, and shirt where folded neatly in his arms, as he walked.

"Yusu" She answered in Native tongue, she shook her head, "Sorry, yes. I found some script in the chamber behind the waterfall a little ways up. I can read it but it doesn't make since to me."

He walked behind, and looked at the paper, "Read it." He demanded.

"Ditaha lisu ina witaro, Anada ina witaro lusu ditha. Witaro isu witaro, Bewira ofo taha pesuna suhadawi, tahata lusu ina ditaha. sutayu ota ofo taha suhadawi, anada suta yu ofo pesuna ditaha."

"Which means?" Jacen asked irritably.

"Death lies in water, and water lies in death. Water is poison and poison is water. Beware of the poison shadow that lies in death. Stay out of the shadow, and stay out of the poison death." Marley translated for him.

Jacen shrugged, "That’s your area not mine." He said walking away. "Good luck with that though." He said before disappearing into one of the tents.

Marly rolled her eyes, and when back to staring at the script. "Okay." She whispered to her cat, Whiskers, who had just pranced up to her demanding attention. With one hand Marly scratched Whiskers, with the other the carefully wrote the translation at the bottom of other paper.

She looked at the fist two lines. "Death lies in water, and in water lies death." She thought to herself for a moment. "Something to do with the water means death." She said aloud before writing it beside to two lines. 'Water is poison and poison is water.' Water again. "If death is water and poison is water, then may some one could be poisoned to death, but by what, was the water poisoned or was something in the water poisoned?"

Her stomach lurched at the thought but she wrote it down. “'Beware of the poison shadow, which lies in death.' Okay so the shadow is poison, maybe this is the cause of death. This shadow." She looked at the next lines, "Stay out of the shadow and Stay out of the poison death." She stared down at the last two lines. If water means death and if something could be poisoned to death, does that mean that is water is poison or that something in the water is poison. Shadow usually means something that you can't see clearly. So maybe there is something in the lake. And if you get in the water it mean you death, because there is something in water that you can't see clearly, that will come and poison you, thus causing you to die." The solution came to her in a rush, it made her stomach knotty, her skin crawl. If this was true...

There was a cry of pain from the lake.

Was it too late?

Marly was on her feet by the time Jacen was out of his tent. "I found out what it was." Marly said, racing to the edge the lake, Jacen feet behind her. "Water means death, because there is something in water that you can't see clearly, that will come and poison you, thus causing you to die." She told him her solution.

Without at word he took off toward the shores of the lake, Marly on his heels. There was utter silence when they reached the lake, bodies were floating on their backs. Marly counted them quickly "There's only forty-five bodies there." She said, her voice shaking little. There were suppose to be fifty, not forty-five "Look." She walked over to the lake, another body had just been pulled under, and there was a snake like figure with at least sixteen stick like legs on each side, and a long curling head or tail. You couldn't see any of the details clearly, only a shadow what it was. "There’s the shadow."

"Let’s get out of here." Jacen said, grabbing her arm, and pulling her away from the tent. Jacen’s face was blank when Marly looked at him, but his eyes where dark. Darker than Marly remembered them being, his movements where slower, his shoulders hunched. His jaw was tight.

While Jacen packed, Marly let all the horses go, then threw her bags over her bay mare, Kayla, and joined Jacen on the edge of the clearing. "May their souls find peace." He whispered. A wind blew threw, and with that Jacen brought his stallion, Fang, into a gallop, Marly beside him.

They rode until the horses where lathered in sweat and foam gathered around their mouths. Jacen slowed as he came to a road running though the forest. He turned on the road, and then brought his horse to a walk, Marly beside him. "There's a town a few miles up the road." He said, "We can stay there for the night. Then in the morning we take Bell'm Road with merges into the south road, from there, we turn North on the main road leading to the Capital."

"How long till we get to the capital?" Marly asked, looking over at Jacen who had urged his mount into a steady walk.

"I don't know, depends on the conditions of the weather, how long the horses can make it, how many people we run into. It all just depends." he said coldly. He rubbed the side of his face. When he with drew his hand it was covered in dead skin. The side of his face was burning like hot coal on his face. More skin was falling onto his leg, like dust covering a wood table.

Marly jumped off her horse, and brought his to a halt, "Get off the horse." She said, her voice urgent. Jacen didn't move, "Get off the damn horse, or I won't be able to help you! The more time you waste the worse it's going to get! So lets move!" Jacen slid off his horse and stumbled to the side of the road, where he slumped against a tree, hand firmly pressed to his face. Marly threw the horse's reins over a branch, and crouched down beside Jacen.

She leaned his head back, after pealing his hand away from his face. The whole left side of his face was turning violent shades of orange and red. So much skin had fallen off you could see the blue and purple veins threw the skin that was left. Damn, this was not good, not good at all.

Marly jumped up and pulled a rag, and a water sack from her saddle bag. She wet the rag and held it to his face. "Keep this here." She ordered. He lifted his hand to the rag, and pressed it firmly against his burning face.

Marly jumped up again, and raced a little ways into the woods. She looked at the leaves of the trees, nothing. She walked deeper into the woods until she found a tree with red leaves, that where shaped like the six pointed star. She fell to her knees, and began to dig, with her hands into the dirt. She pulled grass away in her hast, and dirt went flinging everywhere, until she had reached a root in the tree. She followed the root to the base, where it snapped easily off.

Marly grabbed it, and broke it into small pieces as she ran. She fell to her knees beside Jacen who was just barely conscious.

"Jacen, listen to me, you can't pass out." She took a chunk of root, and rubbed the acid that came from it on to his face. "This is Dicemapusanagu Posien, if you fall asleep, or in this case pass out from pain," She rubbed more acid on his face. "It will make you an easy target for the poison. You may never wake up." She finished rubbing the acid on his face. A few minutes later an oozing blue goop seeped out though what was left of his skin. Marly grabbed the wet rag from Jacen's hand and let the ooze fall into that, where it would not touch the healthy skin that was left on his face. Marly took the rag, tied the ends in a knot, careful not the touch the poison, and threw it into the woods.

Jacen seemed to snap out of a trance, "What am I doing on the ground?" he asked. Marly smiled. She knew from reading, that lose of memory was a normal side effect of the withdraw of Dicemapusanagu Poison. "What are you smiling at?" He stood up, and dusted off his pants, remounting his horse. "Come on." Marly mounted her horse, and followed close behind him. “What happened?”

Marly brushed off his question, and instead asked, "How do you feel?" She asked him after a moment of hesitation.

"Fine." He said too quickly. Marly didn't believe him but she let it drop, she knew the whole left side of his face was numb, and the fact that he was trying to figure out what happened and was not remembering was probably scaring him as well. But, his memory would return so enough, and he would think himself indebt to her.

--------------

Jacen soon came to the same conclusion as Marly did, a conclusion which made his stomach twist with fear. The poison had come from the lake, and it had killed his men. His throat got tight. His men. The men he had trained as a young Spymaster, the men who had sworn loyalty only to him. His men.

Jacen tried to remember why he was on the ground, but he wasn't coming up with anything. He ran a hand though his hair. The whole side of his face was numb, though he could tell the feeling was coming back, from the small twinges of pain, that felt like a thousand tiny needles poking the left side of his face. Like the motion had triggered his memory it came back to his in small pieces.

Burning coals on his face.

Dead skin in his hand and on his pants.

"Get off the horse."... "Get off the damn horse, or I won't be able to help you! The more time you waste the worse it's going to get! So lets move!"

Leaving the horse, though he didn't know how.

A wet rag and a gentle hand.

"Keep this here."

Marly disappearing for what his body thought was hours, but what his head told him it was only a few minutes.

"Jacen, listen to me, you can't pass out." An urgent voice in his ear.

A burning sensation, then a cold that felt like snow.

Something sliding down his cheek, that felt the mint jelly he ate with is lamb during the winter.

Jacen look back over his shoulder at Marly who was watching him very carefully. Something told him that it had been her voice and her gentle hand. He turned his attention back to the road in front of him

They entered the town right before the sun hit the trees. Jacen who knew the land better than Marly.

'The Caspian Pub and Inn.' in the middle of town. They stabled their own horses, because the stable boys had already gone home, and walked into the main room of the building. They where instantly surrounded by rings of smoke, and the smell of beer, and old leather.

Marly pulled her cloak closer around her at the wolf whistles, and woops from a group of men at the bar. Jacen walked to the bar a few feet away from the group of men, apparently oblivious to the cat calls, and other animal noises they where making towards his companion.

He greeted the bartender warmly. "Mr. Irion'vine." They shook hands.

"Mr. Black." Irion'vine said back, "What brings you this way, old friend?" He asked, looking over Jacen's shoulder towards Marly. "And who's your friend?" He asked in almost a casual tone.

"Irion'vine this is Marly." Jacen said in kind of a sigh. "We'll be needing two rooms for the night." Jacen said, "Just put it on my bill."

"Two rooms?" Irion'vine asked raising his bushy eyebrows. Irion'vine was a big man, with a beer belly, and a big black beard and mustache that covered the whole bottom half of his face, and then merged with his mess of hair that stood a few inches straight up, before falling down over his shoulders. He was not the kind of man you would want to run into in a dark ally.

"Escort." Came Jacen's one word answer, after a second he added, "They're having me bring her all the way from Jehana, I don't know what all the fuss is about, she’s old enough to take care of herself, but then again she does only look sixteen." He said stressing the age, though he knew Marly was older than sixteen. He knew Irion'vine and Marly was young enough to be his daughter, therefore, he would treat her like she was his daughter. And in 'The Caspian Pub and Inn' Irion'vine's word was law.

“Hey, little girl, you want to get a room for the night?” One of the men called.

Marly's face had gone pale from a few of the comments that where being thrown her way, and she was inching closer and closer to the bar where Jacen and Irion'vine talked. She reached one hand into her cloak and closed it over the cool metal handle of a knife. The comments kept coming.

BAM.

Irion'vine's hand hit the wooden bar in front of the group of men, if it would have been the war hammer hanging over the bar it would have broken though some one’s skull. The room fell into instant silence. “Stop.” He said they fell silent after for a while.

The one who had made the comment to Marly about the room walked over to her, and wrapped an arm around her neck. She froze, “I’m going to give you three seconds to get the hell off of me.” She warned, “One, two.” Irion’vine made a move to pull the man off, but Jacen shook his head slightly. “Three.” Marly said. She snapped into action, grabbing his arm, jerking it behind his back, throwing him onto the bar. The room grew silent. She jerked his arm back until something popped, and the man screamed.

“Let go.” He whimpered. Marly hesitated a few seconds before letting him go. He rubbed his arm, “It’s okay, I like a girl who can handle herself.” He made a move to lick the side of her face, but she backhanded him hard enough to send him to the ground. She pulled out a forked knife, and flipped it a few time, before throwing it at him. It missed head but her aim was so direct, the seal of the knife was press against his skin. “Ha! You missed.” He said.

“Are you sure about that?” Marly asked her black eyes flashing. She held out her hand, and the knife came flying back to it. She turned her back to him as he walked back over to his friends.

Jacen looked at Marly, she appeared calm, but he could tell she wasn’t by the tension between her shoulder blades.

They began to give her catcalls again, but Irion’vine had had enough. “Out!” He yelled at him.

“You, can't kick us out, we’re paying customers.” One said.

Apparently, this was the wrong thing to say, because Irion’vine, despite his size, moved with all the sharpness of a twenty-five year old. He jumped the bar, grabbed all of them by the scruffs of their necks, the same way lioness carries around her cub, and threw them out of the door. There was moment of stunned silence, and then everything started back up again, as if nothing had happened.

Jacen sat his saddlebags down on the bar and sat down on an old wooden stool. Marly, on the other hand, hesitated before sitting down next to him. Irion'vine looked at both of them for a long time before speaking, “What happened to your face, Jacen?”

Jacen touched the left side of his face gently with his fingers.

“Dicemapusanagu Poison.” Marly said. “Nasty stuff, Dicemapusanagu Poison.”

Irion'vine and Jacen both stared at her, “And what is this di-di, dipatamus poison.” Irion'vine asked.

“Di-ce-ma-pu-sa-na-gu Poison is a sneaky poison, that's mostly water bound. When a person gets in the infected water, the poison absorbers into said person's skin. Basically, it is a skin rotting poison, it picks a target, and gathers there, rotting the skin fast enough so that the person can't feel it, but the skin does die and falls off in great amounts, until nothing is left. The poison doesn't work anymore once it hits the air, but you have no skin to protect you, and you die from a common cold.... The longer you wait to treat it, the more skin it rots, the more you're at risk...

“Jacen was lucky, there documented cases where it has it other areas of body. Arms, from the tips of the fingers up. Legs, from the toes up, to name a few. Most people don't know what’s going on until it is to late because it most commonly hits arms, and legs, which are covered most of the time. Like I said, lucky.”

Whiskers purred impatiently from the floor, and Marly picked him up and placed him in her lap, stroking the top of his head, while he purred happily. Out of the two men Jacen was the first to speak, “And you know this how?” he asked.

“I read.” Came the simple answer.

Irion’vine laughed, and slapped the bar with a merry fist, causing both Jacen and Marly to jump. Whiskers did not enjoy this. He made that ever clear as he jumped up to the bar and settled himself there. “Well, Jacen, my old friend, you have quite a journey ahead of you. That should be interesting. I'm a little sorry myself; I'm not coming along to watch it.” He laughed some more, as he handed them each a key, one for each room. He was still laughing as we walked away to refill someone's mug.

“Is that really what it is?” Jacen asked, not looking at Marly.

She nodded, which he saw out of the corner of his eye. "Why would I lie?" She asked him. “I'll be upstairs.” She said, looked at the door. The group of men who were throwing comments at her, were standing in plain view on the other side of the window, making rude hand gestures. She picked up her cat, and walked up the stairs. She didn’t trust herself right now. Her muscles where still burning from the small tussle with the man, muscles she hadn’t used in years. Fear, anger and her adrenaline jumped around inside her. It was a dangerous mixture of emotions, emotions that fueled fighters.

Irion’vine walked back over to Jacen, and handed him an ale. “Drink it, lad.” He said. “You look parched and you’re going to need it.” Was that the dry feeling he got in his mouth every time he began to think about where Marly's loyalty was? He took the ale from Irion’vine, and took a sip. It had been watered down; Jacen looked up sharply at Irion’vine. "Your traveling with a lady now, lad, you've got be a little more careful." Jacen frowned at him, and took another sip of ale. “So where did you say she came from?”

“Jehana.” Jacen said.

“Near the sea?” Irion'vine asked.

“That's the one.” Jacen ran his fingers though his hair, ruffling it.

“Confused yet?” Irion’vine asked. When Jacen didn't answer, Irion’vine let out a sharp bark of a laugh. “Come on now, lad, I've never seen your face so screwed up than right after she finished explaining what Dicemapusanagu poison was. And when she said she'd be upstairs... I should have someone paint a picture of it, and title it... ‘Lad Who Thinks too Much.’” Irion’vine laughed at his own joke, and Jacen shot daggers at his old friend.

“Or maybe I should have a picture painted at you and have it named... ‘Man, Who Doesn't Think Enough.’” Apparently, Irion’vine found this stunningly funny, and laughed, his great belly rolling.

“Let me fill you in on a little secret, me boy, don't go thinking too much about it. I grew up in a house with all girls, the more you think about them the more they confuse you. The less you think about them the more they want to confuse you. It's best only to think about them when they want you to. No more and no less.”

He did have a point; Marly was confusing only when she was working in translating, or explaining something. Unless she wove her web of words and trapped you in it.

“See, there you go again, with you face all screwed up.” Jacen took a big gulp of ale to cover the thinking face he was apparently wearing at the moment. “You can try to hide it all you want to, Jacen, but you can't. This girl has you thinking more than you want to, and you know it."

Jacen had gulped down the rest of the mug before the answered the bartender's comments. “You would know if I lied, wouldn't you?” It was his way of saying yes, without saying yes.

“Yes, I would.” Irion’vine took the mug off the bar and put it under the bar. “I assume you’ll be leaving early tomorrow, I’d suggest you get to bed. And tell you friend that she has nothing to worry about. Matt and his group of friends won't give her any trouble and if they do, they will have me to answer to.”

“I'll tell her.” Jacen said. He lifted his saddlebags off the bar and swung them over his shoulder, before heading up the wooden stairs. The floorboards creaked and groaned under him, as he walked to his room. He swung open the door. It was a modest room, the one he always got when he stayed here. It was small, about the size of his room back at the keep, with a bed, wardrobe, night table, wash table, and a small dresser, that was combined with a small desk and chair. He threw the bags on the bed, and walked next door.

Jacen knocked on the door. “Who is it?” Marly's voice floated under the door.

“Me.” There was a rustling from behind the door, before it opened a small bit.

She looked threw the small crack in the door. Her eyes where sparkling in the candle light, and the corners of her lips where turned up in amusement. Marly opened the door and let him in, closing the door behind him. “Can I help you?” she asked, her amusement gone.

“Irion'vine says you have nothing to worry about, that Matt and his group of drinking buddies won't give you any trouble and if they do, he'll take care of it.” Jacen said flatly as he looked around the room. It was the same as his, with a few miner changers in the decorations, such as curtains, and vases full of dried flowers. A painting of a woman with her brown hair pined to the top of her head, hung on the wall beside the bed, while on the other side, a picture of the Goddess Faratalutayu, the Goddess of fertility hung on the other side over the night table. It appeared she had settled in nicely. One of her bags was sitting open on the desk, while her cloak was laid over the back of the desk chair, her other bag sat in the desk chair. The covers of the bed where pulled back in a nice triangle, but there where no wrinkles, suggesting that she hand not touched it other than to pull back the covers.

"Then I thank him." Marly said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Anything else?" She asked tentatively, almost softly.

"Um, yeah, we'll be leaving early. I'll come and wake you up..." Jacen began.

Her eyes narrowed, “You want my keys?” She asked slowly.

“So I don’t wake the whole hall up trying to get you away by knocking.” He said. “Trust me; you don’t want to see Irion’vine in the morning. Marly took the hint, and grabbed the key from the bedside table, and handed them to him. Jacen took them and pocketed them. "Is there anything you need, while we're in town?" he asked, "We can stop and get it on our way out."

She shook her head, her braid swung and landed on her shoulder. "No."

Jacen turned and left, closing the door softly behind him. What was with him? What did he treat her like she was a little girl? She could take care of herself; she had been doing it for a very long time now. She would show him, she was not a little girl. She'd do what ever it takes.

She blew out the candles, and slid between the covers. She closed her eyes taking a deep breath.

--------

“Oh, and why not?” The King asked.

“Because the law is my side.” I said harshly, “And please don’t interrupt it’s rude.” He looked surprised. I felt a smile pull at the corners of my mouth, “The Law states:” I reached down and pulled a law book out of my bag, “‘Any contender that wishes to try for Knighthood must be given an equal opportunity.’ Any contender, I believe that means male or female, and you can’t kick me out for being common either, because once again it says ‘any contender’. The law goes on to read ‘Any Native wishing to try for Knighthood, must be approved by a Knight of Rona, and I have that approval.”

“By whom?” The King asked.

“Me.” Brandon said, “I known all along that Romous was a woman. I gave her that approval. I provided her with everything she needed.”

“Brandon?” The King asked, “She’s a woman.”

“And she’s the best fighter we’ve got.” Said the Spymaster, “She can beat anyone in this room. –She’s the best fighter I have ever seen.”

“You stand behind her?” The King asked.

“I do.” Brandon said, “And I wouldn’t if I didn’t trust her.”

“We didn’t mean to surprise you about my being a woman.” I told him, “There was just a miscommunication.”

The King looked at me long and hard, “I believe you can stay, but I want that law changed.”

I wanted to ague with him, but I didn’t. I had gotten what I wanted today, and there would be other days where I could get that law changed. If I played my cards right, of course.

I stayed seated at the table while the other knights filed slowly out of the room. I rose slowly, and walked over to Brandon who was leaning against a pillar, his arms crossed over his chest.

“Thank you.” I told him stopping a few feet in front him.

He nodded silently, “Miscommunication, hmm, that’s a nice way to put it.” He said laughing. “Though I believe there was no miscommunication evolved. You made it very clear to me that if I even though of telling anyone, you would dice me into cubes and feed me to the pigs.”

I smiled, couldn’t help, “Yes, well, it’s seems I over estimated you. I was counting on you to speak to the King.”

He shrugged, “Well, you still have you knighthood.” He said, standing up straighter. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.” He added with a knowing smile. He nodded to her once, and headed for the door.

“Brandon?” I called after him.

He turned around, “Yeah, McNi?”

“We’re still on for dinner tonight…right?” I asked him, I could hear the uncertainty in my own voice.

Brandon gave a half smile, “Of course.” He said, before leaving the room.

I grinned, and swung my hips a few times in a victory dance. Ha! I was just that good!

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250 Reviews

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Sat May 12, 2007 5:06 pm
Night Mistress says...



really good. put up another piece soon.





I love her dearly, but I can’t live with her for a day without feeling my whole life is wasting away.
— Miss Kenton, The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro