Kei's Gift (59 page)

In another time, in another place.... Kei felt destined to look forever across a gulf created by circumstance at those he loved—or those he could so easily love. He could only hope that after he had a chance to consult with the masters at the academy in Darshek, he might find the answer to what was troubling him, and be able to return to Ai-Albon to live as he wished. He couldn’t help but worry that Arman’s future looked even less secure than his own.

The front door opened and Tiko stepped in. Kei put his finger to his lips to signal him to be quiet. Tiko waved at him to come outside.

Kei got his cloak and followed. “Neki can watch him for a little while,” Tiko said. “You and I need to talk about the journey plans, and I want you to see something.”

Tiko’s soldier slipped inside the house—Kei could trust the man to come find him if there was a problem, which he wasn’t expecting. “Word’s come back—the Rulers want him up there with all possible speed, and want me to work out a way of doing that.”

“And will they tell him the truth?”

“When they meet him, yes. They don’t seem too concerned by his conditions—it’s only what one would expect. You’ve done a good job with him.”

Kei grabbed his shoulder and glared at him. “And what does
that
mean, exactly?”

His anger surprised Tiko. “Just what I said. You’ve convinced him to help.”

“I did nothing of the sort. He came to that conclusion on his own—he always said he would help, but he had to decide what he would give up to do that. You know if he does this, he’ll be treated as a traitor. He might never be able to go home.”

“Yes. But he’s burned that wagon already, if you ask me. The minute those men of his get back to Kuprij, the general’s a dead man.”

Kei went still, shocked to his core. “No. Surely they understand.”

“Yes, they do. They understand one of their generals freely and without any coercion sat in an enemy gathering and told them the Prijian invasion was wrong. You gave me to understand the sovereign of Prij wasn’t the most forgiving person in the world. What do you think will happen when she hears about that?”

“But...to make a man live in exile, or to return to be killed.... How can we ask that? How can he even offer?”

Tiko shrugged. “As for your last point, well, he has more of a conscience than most Prij, or maybe he really did lose his mind when that boy of his died. Living in exile may be hard, but I’d rather one of them did it than seventy of ours. At least he’s had a choice about it.”

“But...do you think he’s realised that yet?”

“You tell me, healer. Does he strike you as someone who does things without thinking? Normally? Because he strikes
me
as a thinking man, and a clever one. Which is why the Rulers want to meet him before they tell him much because this might just be some huge trick.”

“It’s not,” Kei protested. “I know it’s not.”

Tiko laid a kindly hand on his arm. “I know you think you know, but if you’re completely truthful, you’re not unbiased and you know you’re not completely in control of your gift.” As if reminded by his own words of that very fact, he took his hand away, even though, in fact, Kei was no longer troubled by the milder emotions he sensed from others. “I’m not calling you a liar, nor do I say you’re wrong. But you’re not a military man. He strikes me as sincere. But he wouldn’t be a general at his age if he wasn’t very good at inspiring confidence.

Kei felt depressed at hearing this—that Arman’s great sacrifice was still seen as a game by the Rulers, and even by Tiko, when Kei knew how much it hurt him. “I still stand by my belief in him. Now, show me this thing.”

Tiko led him to the edge of the village to the wainwright’s workshop. Actually the wainwright, Ruik, was also the village carpenter, the same man who’d made the clever chair for Arman’s convenience so quickly. “Oh, you found him. Come in, healer. Tiko said you might be interested in my little cart.”

Kei frowned. “I know nothing about wagons or carts.”

“You don’t need to,” Tiko said with a grin. “Come over here.”

He was taken to the back of the workshop, where an odd-looking, lightweight cart stood. “I built this for my son, who likes racing urs beasts and wanted to see if a way could be found to race the carts too. This beauty is one of the fastest I’ve designed, and see this?” He showed how the seat was suspended in leather webbing. “That absorbs a lot of the jolting. Makes it a sweet ride.”

Kei was still puzzled. “The general can’t drive such a thing.”

“No, I know. But Ruik has a larger cart in which he can fix such a seat at the back. The general could sit in it, tolerate faster speeds, and the cart being smaller, will also move much more easily than the wagons. The only problem is the cart is too small to sleep in, but he doesn’t need to sleep all day, does he?”

“No. He only does that because he’s in the dark and forced to lie down. If he could sit, especially forward...and you would lift him in and out just as easily?”

Ruik nodded. “The cart is designed so you can slide the box out from the structure. All it needs is four fit men to lift it from the back with poles. I built it to move smaller loads around the place that didn’t need a wagon for the job. I can make a throne for his majesty so wonderful the Rulers of Darshek would claw each other’s eyes out just for the right to sit in it.”

He grinned as he described it, and Kei smiled in response. “All right. Make it and we can test it—how long will that take?”

“Oh, just today and tomorrow. I don’t have to build most of it from scratch, just modify a few things I have.”

Ruik reminded Kei of his father when he’d hit upon an idea. His enthusiasm was infectious. Maybe this strange object really would come to life.

Tiko took him away from Ruik’s preparations, over to one corner of the workshop near the stove. “Now, this cart can do nearly twice the speed of the wagons, but the beasts can’t. We could easily do a good fifty miles a day—more if we were lucky with the weather and the road, and the beasts were the best quality.”

Kei stared. “But that would mean we could be in Darshek in three weeks or less.” The journey by wagon usually took over five—much longer on foot, of course. They would be travelling as fast as unencumbered beasts could do.

“In theory, but the road won’t necessarily sustain that speed every day, and the general is still injured, so that might slow us down too. What I propose is that we move as fast as we can to Ai-Tuek, Ai-Albon and so forth, and let him spend a day resting in each as needed. We’ll still make better time than we would in the wagons, and he’ll spend more of that time resting. The Rulers have already ordered the villages to provide whatever we need in the way of lodging, fresh animals, food and so on. We’ll travel light—can he sleep in a tent, on just a bedroll, do you think?”

“No. Not yet. He’ll need a well-stuffed pallet or a cot, and to be kept warm.”

“Then we get that, and he shares a tent with you or me. The weather is a little warmer—there won’t be a way of fixing a permanent cover to this cart, so he’ll need to be provided with better clothes. Seya says they’ll provide whatever they can from here, and Ai-Tuek can send people to meet us if there’s anything we find we’re lacking. So you won’t be delayed much more than you would have been in getting home. Just a month or so, if that.”

Kei’s main concern was how this speed would affect Arman, but if he truly could be made comfortable
and
they could end this tedious journey faster, then this could only be a good thing. “I’ll make a list—he’ll need a good, comfortable bed when we stop in the villages, decent fresh food, and a bath. It will do much to allow him to tolerate this pace. It’s not otherwise something I would recommend—the journey to now hasn’t been kind on him.”

“Yes, I know,” Tiko said, sounding surprisingly sympathetic. “I’ve been surprised how patiently he’s borne it, considering. Give me the list, and we’ll follow your directions completely. No point in getting him there as a corpse.”

Kei scowled. “I don’t like to hear my patients described like sides of meat.”

“You can be a touchy little bastard, you know that?”

But Tiko wasn’t really annoyed. In fact, he looked very satisfied with himself. Even Kei felt his mood lifting at the idea of things moving faster than they had been. He liked to ride beasts but the trudging pace they had been maintaining was frustrating, although it was faster than being on foot—barely. He imagined Arman felt the same, although he’d never complained.

“There’s something else. There’s just the four of you now—can you protect him from the likes of Jik?”

Tiko stopped smiling. “Seya will see to it,” he said solemnly. “She’s damn furious at his disobeying a direct order from the court and from her, let alone him attempting to kill someone receiving the hospitality of the village. She’s not the only one angry at that. Don’t worry about Jik. Still, if the general could travel now, it would be better.”

“He could—but two days of proper rest, proper food, would make a lot of difference.” Kei had felt rather annoyed with himself when Felik pointed this out and how the poor diet of the journey was inhibiting Arman’s healing. Kei had got so used to eating whatever he could, whenever he could, that he’d forgotten how important this factor was to an injured man. It was a reminder that his knowledge and experience were still in their infancy, whoever his parents were. He really did need to finish his training at the academy, or find someone to mentor him. Felik had been a healer for fifteen years, and he understood how things were with a patient much more quickly than Kei did simply because of that experience. Kei had hoped to have at least as long to work with his mother as his teacher and his senior. He’d never expected to be handling such things as he had so young. It mortified him Arman had been suffering because his healer was sloppy and forgetful.

He made himself pay attention again to Tiko, but the captain was mainly just running through the other supplies they’d need. “Do you need me still, Tiko? I should return to Arman.”

“No, go on. Now you’re also to rest and recuperate. This’ll put us all to the test, so I want everyone fit and ready. You’d better believe
I
intend to eat some decent food for a change, and get myself a bath—I swear there are animals living in my loincloth.”

Kei had to smile at the image. “Better hope none of them like to eat snakes then, or your wife will divorce you for inability to perform.” He ducked Tiko’s quick cuff to the back of his head. “Don’t worry, I don’t need encouraging to enjoy not having to sit on a beast all day, or shit sitting on a pole. Or eat real food—don’t ever tell Neki but he makes the world’s worst bean stew. Do me a favour and find him another duty on this part of the trip?”

“Oh, gods, don’t remind me,” Tiko groaned. “I’ve never farted so much in my life after it was his turn to cook. I’d rather eat nothing but jerky for a month than go through that again.”

“Agreed. Perhaps I’ll volunteer for the rest of the journey. I’d cook every night to be spared that.”

“Right, then, you’re on, my lad. Neki can dig the latrines.”

Poor Neki. So strong, so kind—and the taste sense of a six-day-dead urs beast. Kei had had to find something else for Arman to eat that night—Neki’s stew would have blown a hole through his stitches. “You can give him that news. I’ll see you later. Will Rei be returning to his home?”

“No, his sister says he can stay—you won’t be disturbed. I thought it best.”

“Thank you.” Rei was a very kind man, but Kei wasn’t sure Arman would be able to stand interacting with a stranger for very long, at least not today.

Tiko waved him away, and wandered over to talk to Ruik, who’d been making a huge amount of noise as they talked. Kei was curious to see this cart when it was done. If it could travel this fast, and more could be made which could carry bigger loads or more people, it might give life in north Darshian a very different character. Arman had spoken of the possibility of there one day being a means of fast transport up and down north Darshian—of a day when it might take a month instead of more than two to transport goods the vast distance between Darshek and the Trejk Mountains. There seemed little point while north and south were still split by the Prijian occupation—a split that would now continue, since the Prij had been evicted from the north.

It had been a great blow to Darshian, the separation of the country this way in the year Kei had been born. The very little he had seen of the south had shown him what riches it held, with its fertile, well watered land and mineral wealth. No wonder the Prij had laid greedy eyes on it, living on their mountainous, overcrowded island home, and had been quick to bring both food and plants back to Kuprij to brighten the rather stark existence there. Pity they’d not brought the culture back too. Pity they only wanted to dominate, not learn. In twenty years, their society had not changed at all, except in what it ate and how wealthy it had become. In their hearts, they were still the savage marauders, desperate for living space, who’d surprised Darshian with their ferocity and overwhelmed the larger population with pure brutality. That such a society had produced a Karus was astonishing. That it had produced Arman as well, was a miracle.

Neki was at the door when Kei arrived at Rei’s house. “Ah. I was just coming to tell you he’s woken up.”