The Peasant (8 page)

The mother's features relaxed somewhat—despite knowing her name already. Only the Infinite's blessing was better than the Matriarch's beneficence. “I'm Gentle Hand, Lady Matriarch. Please answer my question.”

“We brought you here for your own protection, Hand. I'll explain in a moment.” Why did she give him her matronym, and not the patronym? Bubbling Water wondered. Usually boys received the father's name and girls the mother's. She realized from the strong maternal link that no man lived at the house of Hand. “First I must ask, on the chance that someone identified the boy, if you have other relatives here in Emparia City.”

“No, not here, except my daughter, who's safe with friends.”

Why doesn't she mention the father? Bubbling Water wondered. “Thank you, Hand. Your son knows something that might, uh, be dangerous. I need to learn what he knows. If it's too important, I'll erase the information, and you'll both be free to go.” Normally, the Matriarch would've had a psychological Wizard meddle with the boy's mind. The Bear Family usually retained one for just such situations. They hadn't had a Wizard for a year, the previous one having died peacefully in her sleep.

“You intend to alter his
mind
?”

“Why should that alarm you, Hand? The procedure is simple and painless, without adverse effect.”

“But, Lady Matriarch …” Gentle Hand seemed at loss to explain.

“I've applied to train under the Imperial Medacor.” Healing Hand spread his large palms beside his shoulders in an elaborate shrug.

“Oh? Just training, or perhaps Medacor Apprentice?” The Imperial Medacor trained apprentices in the final stages of their certification. From among them, he usually chose one to become Imperial Medacor after him. “Soothing Spirit has trained at least a hundred Medacors in his tenure,” Bubbling Water said, “but hasn't found a successor.”

“We hope, Lady, that he can become Medacor Apprentice.”

“Of course; I should have known. Any sign that someone's altered your mind, Hand, would alarm castle security, who have the Lord Emperor's safety to consider.” A prescient vision suddenly seized Bubbling Water with enough power that her senses echoed with the scene. “The Lord Spirit would regret losing a colleague, and perhaps a successor.” Half the vision told, it released her as quickly as it'd captured her. Sweating, Bubbling Water contained herself, letting little of her reaction escape her shields.

The boy looked at her with concern. The mother's fear for the son's safety returned to Gentle Hand's eyes.

“I'll consider not altering the boy's memory, Hand. However, before I decide, I need to know what he knows. The fewer who know the better.”

Gentle Hand nodded, but remained where she was.

“I need to talk with your son alone, please.”

Gentle Hand folded her arms.

Smiling, Bubbling Water stepped to the door and poked her head out. “Rolling Bear?” Her son strode the corridor toward her. “Give me your sister,” she said, taking the sleeping girl from him. She stepped close to the younger woman. “As I trust you with my child, Hand, so I ask you to trust me with yours.” Bubbling Water folded back a flap of blanket.

A bright smile lit Gentle Hand's face. Gently, she took the infant, who woke and cried softly. “She's beautiful,” Gentle Hand whispered. “And hungry. Oh, blast, I just let down.”

“Is your daughter breastfeeding, Hand?” Bubbling Water asked, her own breasts beginning to leak at her daughter's cry. She adjusted the level of prolactin in her blood to stem the flow of milk.

Nodding, the woman smiled at the infant in her arms. “If I may, Lady?”

“Oh, thank you, Hand, would you? Infinite bless you.” Closing the door behind the woman, Bubbling Water turned to the boy. “You haven't told your mother what happened?”

His eyes still on the door, Healing Hand shook his head.

“Then you understand that the information is dangerous. If you're willing, I want to link minds with you.”

He nodded immediately.

She smiled. “Your degree of trust surprises me, but remember that you're equally vulnerable, eh?” she admonished.

Sitting at the edge of bed, Bubbling Water first put each of her thoughts, memories, and emotions into their compartments. Lowering her many layers of shielding, she increased the adrenalin in her hippocampus to open a direct path into her memory. Her mind open, she watched the boy.

Healing Hand, younger and more flexible of mind than she, dropped all his shields effortlessly.

Ready, she asked him to review how he'd cured Rippling Water.

Swiftly, he recalled what happened.

Raising her shields, Bubbling Water set up a neural reinforcer to keep the memory fresh until she could review it. Smiling, she embraced the boy. Linking minds revealed the depths of the soul. Healing Hand was a glittering jewel amidst ordinary rocks.

“Why don't you sleep now?” she suggested, the contact having tired them both. Pulling the blankets up to his chin, Bubbling Water soothed Healing Hand to sleep, emitting peace and safety.

I wish I'd had a Wizard, she thought. Psychological Wizards could do what she'd done with far less risk. Although she had put her mind into niches before contact, she couldn't prevent all transference. She regretted she'd exposed the boy so young to the experiences of herself so old. Excessive transference sometimes overcame a young mind, resulting in death, or worse, insanity. Much of what Healing Hand saw he was too young to understand. Dreamful sleep would dull the blinding images. Her having put her mind into compartments and the boy's maturity, however, might enable him to emerge unscathed.

Soon, Healing Hand's breathing was smooth and regular, his mind wandering among the clouds. Gathering chemicals into her uterus, Bubbling Water made a sedative. Teleporting a small amount into his carotid artery, she felt the boy's sleep instantly deepen.

Bubbling Water rose from the bed and stepped to the panel beside the door. Punching a few buttons, she turned on the room dampers. Operating on the same principle as electrical shields, dampers flooded the area with a pattern that blocked all psychic energy.

Her back to the door, Bubbling Water slid to the floor and opened her awareness. She was glad she hadn't tried to erase the memory. Healing Hand had already sorted through it, creating too many links with other memories. A Wizard would have to erase it. She'd also learned what she needed to know: An implant in Rippling Water's brain produced incurable flu-like symptoms. The residual traces of signature in the implant were those of the Sorcerer Lurking Hawk.

I'll feed the Sorcerer's testicles to Flying Arrow! she thought, furious. How did the Traitor get close enough to implant my daughter? With the damage now repaired, Guarding Bear concerned her more. Flying Arrow had lured him to Emparia Castle by making Rippling Water ill. Why? she wondered.

With little to do but wait and pray, Bubbling Water struggled to contain her worry. With an effort, she succeeded.

Then the prescient vision intruded.

Nearly everyone wanted to know the past, present and future, and prayed to the Infinite for one or all of the prescient talents. Bubbling Water had met only one Prescient Wizard, the talent rare. The woman lived in a cave at the summit of a small mountain. She ate insects and rats. She wore rags that did little to protect her and covered her nudity less. Hating visitors, she raved most the time. She died before she was forty, looking twice as old.

Thank the Infinite I'm not a Prescient Wizard, Bubbling Water thought. Her prescience a trace and spontaneous talent, its images faded so fast she sometimes couldn't remember them. The vision she'd seen earlier returned vividly to her mind.

Healing Hand would indeed become the Imperial Medacor—and would serve her son the Lord Emperor.

Her talent fickle, the vision didn't tell her which of her two sons was destined to rule the Eastern Empire.

* * *

The Captain Silent Whisper peered from the shadows toward the eastern gate of Emparia Castle. Why is it that I like peasant and his mate so much? the Captain wondered.

After his three-year compulsory tour at Burrow Garrison in the Eastern Armed Forces, Silent Whisper had returned to Nest and joined the city militia. While rising in the ranks to Captain, he'd discovered that the Mayor Foraging Puma regularly filched from the city coffers. The malfeasance would lose him his head if the Prefect Guarding Bear caught him. The penalty for not reporting a crime as severe as for the crime, Silent Whisper coerced Foraging Puma into recommending him for the General's personal guard. Thus, years of planning had finally borne fruit for the bandit general Scowling Tiger. The evening before Silent Whisper joined the peasant's personal staff, the bandit had sent a minion.

“The Lord General with long claws congratulates you, Lord Whisper,” the man had said from the nighttime shadows in an alley in Nest.

Silent Whisper looked back and forth on the street. Seeing no one, he stepped into the alley. “Thank the Lord Tiger,” he whispered, trying to see the man's face in the darkness.

The man pulled farther back into the shadows. “You'll thank the Lord General Claw even more for his instructions. You won't try to assassinate the peasant—not yet. Your general directive is to gather information and send it by courier to the Lord Claw. Your contacts will see you at regular intervals. Please don't fail to report. Your specific directive for now is to bring an Emparia City Wizard to the peasant's attention. He hasn't had a psychological Wizard on retainer for over a year, eh? His name is Spying Eagle—a rather unfortunate coincidence. Anyway, he wants the peasant to retain the Wizard.”

“Why?” Silent Whisper asked, shivers crawling up his back.

“That's not your concern—do as ordered, eh? You'll receive other directives in the future. If your service pleases the Lord Claw, he won't ask you to assassinate the peasant.” Then the man disappeared into shadow.

What will I do if he orders me to kill Guarding Bear? the Captain wondered. Why am I questioning that? I'll do what Scowling Tiger orders me to do!

B
ubbling Water's generosity was as famous as her sharp tongue was infamous. Where did she learn her philanthropy? Certainly not from her fellow nobility, most of them indifferent to their inferiors. Bubbling Water learned it from Guarding Bear, who taught her that no circumstance need stop her from helping her “constituents.” This word, foreign to our tongue, comes from the dead language of the north. A constituent is “one who empowers another to transact business for him or her.” Guarding Bear taught Bubbling Water to hold the interests of her constituents above her own, and her legendary beneficence is an example to us all, women and men both.—
Noble and Peasant
, by the Matriarch Rippling Water.

* * *

Silent Whisper rubbed his eyes, not believing what he saw.

Servants eased Guarding Bear into a chair in the Bear residence refectory. The unconscious General stank of alcohol.

“Lord Captain,” Bubbling Water said, frowning at her mate.

Wiping the fatigue from his eyes, Silent Whisper stepped toward her and bowed. I deserve a rebuke for taking all night to find the General.

Last night, Silent Whisper had asked at the castle gate every hour if Flying Arrow had finished with Guarding Bear, the answer always a polite no. Three hours before dawn, the castle watch had changed. The new sentry had told him that the General had left at least a half-hour before, blind drunk. His men watching all the castle gates, Silent Whisper had known it a blatant lie. “I
saw
him, Lord Captain,” the new guard had added. “He was staggering down a corridor and muttering how he wanted to fornicate with some wench. We all know the Lord Bear's liking for fornication, eh?”

Vowing to cut the man's throat later, Silent Whisper had sent the news to Bubbling Water. He'd then organized a quarter-by-quarter search of the city, checking known houses of harlotry and drink. More than twelve hours later, they'd finally found Guarding Bear.

“Yes, Lady Matriarch?” Silent Whisper asked.

Her voice low and speech quick, she said, “Code: Bloody hand. Relay the countermand to all cells, request confirmation and report back as soon as possible. Thank you for your diligent work last night, Lord Captain.”

“Yes, Lady Matriarch.” Relieved, Silent Whisper bowed and left.

* * *

Noting his surprise, Bubbling Water wondered what his previous superiors had been like.

Stirring, Guarding Bear mumbled, “Whass tha' 'bou'?”

Bubbling Water calmed herself, angry that Flying Arrow had exploited her mate for a yet unknown purpose. “Did you enjoy getting drunk last night?”

He looked at her through a bloodshot eye. “I don' drin' ta eck sess. You know tha'! Why 'cuse me, eh?”

“You've been drinking—and doing Infinite knows what else! Why didn't you come home at a decent hour, instead of keeping us worried throughout the night and far into the next day? Why did you go to a brothel? Thousands of women would've spread their legs for you for free! In your inebriated state, the courtesans could have set you up for anything!” She sighed at her inability to control her tongue.

“Wha' broth'l? I didn' go ta a broth'l,” Guarding Bear groaned. Clasping his hands to his thick black curls, he put his head between his knees and vomited.

A servant discreetly cleaned the mess from the rug, lifting every speck and dispelling the odor with his talent.

“Get Hand!” Bubbling Water said. A servant fled the room. Sighing, she caressed her mate's shoulder. “Forgive me, My Lord, my love, for yelling at you. I'm so angry at that cursed nephew of ours. Obviously, he did this.”

“Obliviously,” Guarding Bear said.

“Something exciting happen, Mother?” Running Bear asked, striding into the refectory. His hair styled, he wore robes of fine silk and brightly glittering jewelry. Running Bear looked as if he'd be dancing through the night at an Imperial Ball.

Bubbling Water frowned at his appearance. He's so unlike his brother, she thought. Rolling Bear practiced his swordsmanship diligently, but Running Bear's only interest in sword-play was where he might sheathe his. “Another night of carousing ahead, Son?”

“Just returned from one, Mother. What happened to Father?”

“Found him blind drunk in a brothel this afternoon.”

“Oh? Which one?” Running Bear asked.

She told him its name.

“And those wenches didn't try to
find
me? I'll beat 'em until …” The young man put a hand over his mouth.

“ 'Beat,' Son?” Bubbling Water asked. “Did you say 'beat'?”

Running Bear looked around as though for someplace to hide. Just then, Healing Hand entered the room at a dead run. Running Bear left the same way.

“Come back here, Running Bear!” she yelled.

Sheepishly, her son returned.

“Please make yourself comfortable in the library upstairs, young man,” she said calmly. “I'll be there shortly.”

Running Bear nodded and left, looking dejected.

“There.” Healing Hand withdrew his large hands from Guarding Bear's large shoulders.

Guarding Bear looked much better. “Find more than alcohol in me, Hand?”

Healing Hand nodded.

“See!” Guarding Bear said to her.

“Men!” Bubbling Water said, disgusted. “Did you drink it, or was it given to you without your knowledge?”

Guarding Bear examined his fingernails.

Frowning, Healing Hand looked back and forth between the mates. “The first one, he drank, but—”

“We were celebrating my new position!” Guarding Bear interrupted.

“New position?!” she was furious he hadn't consulted her first.

“He also has a gap in his memory,” Healing Hand added quickly.

Guarding Bear groaned and implored her with a glance.

“Congratulations,” Bubbling Water said.

Guarding Bear scowled and stomped from the room.

She dropped into a chair and looked toward the ceiling. “Oh, what the Infinite has my nephew done to my mate?”

“I saw something else, Lady Water,” Healing Hand said. “The Lord Bear should have his head examined.”

Bubbling Water laughed. “From the mouths of babes. Thank you, Hand, I'll have the Captain find a Wizard to treat him.” She put her face in her palms, wanting to give her mate a frontal lobotomy.

“He's all right, Lady Water.”

Bubbling Water smiled, liking the boy. “Yes, he is, isn't he?”

“Why would anyone do that to him? He's a nice man. You know what he did yesterday? Three assassins attacked him at once, but he gave them their weapons back anyway. That's when I told him about your daughter.”

“Huh? What happened?”

“Well, they attacked him. He defended himself and broke a few bones, then called for a medacor. While I healed the assassins, he collected their weapons and gave them back.”

“Thank you for telling me, Hand,” Bubbling Water said, puzzled. Gave their weapons back, eh? she thought, almost understanding. An idea hovered at the edge of her mind, just beyond words.

Then she remembered her son waiting for her upstairs. Perhaps I'll ask the Wizard to give my son a lobotomy too, she thought. Running Bear often frequented brothels. Bubbling Water wondered if he owned the one where they'd found his father. She sincerely hoped not. 'Beat'! she thought in disgust, not sure which she loathed more—her son owning such an establishment or his inflicting corporal punishment on the courtesans. Sighing, Bubbling Water stood to attend to yet another difficulty on this awful day of days.

Oh, Infinite help me! she beseeched the ceiling.

* * *

After the Matriarch Water left the room, Healing Hand guessed she no longer needed him. Wandering from the refectory, he resumed exploring the house. Less than a full day had passed since he'd met Bubbling Water at the potter's stall. The maelstrom of their lives had already sucked him into its grasp, and anxiety gnawed at his soul.

Healing Hand, his mother and infant sister lived in the poorest quarter of Emparia City. They rented a four-room house from a landlord they never saw. Like most of the houses in the area, theirs was in disrepair. Larger than most, the house was also Gentle Hand's health clinic, where Healing Hand helped almost every day. Most of their patients were indigent, unable to pay, but Gentle Hand's concern was others' health and not her wealth. Despite being poor, they always had food, clothing and other needed items.

Healing Hand knew nothing of his father. Before he'd met the Matriarch, his obscure paternity hadn't mattered. His mother had told him she'd chosen to leave her mate. Gentle Hand's taking of his son had violated both custom and law, boys belonging to their fathers. Others often scorned her for having taken the boy. Gentle Hand reared him as if she hadn't needed a man to conceive him. On the fringes of society, such disgraces mattered little—except to wagging tongues. With the Matriarch Water's support, Healing Hand knew his paternity mattered very much.

Wandering through the Bear residence, Healing Hand searched the rooms for statues. The hundreds he'd found were hewn from stone ordinary and valuable, depicting creatures small and great. When he'd probed a human statue, he'd found a complete set of organs inside, each sculpted from different rock. The sculptor had missed no detail of the human physiology.

Climbing halfway up a set of stairs, Healing Hand stared at the statuettes filling every recess. Curious, he reached to take an obsidian raven from its niche. In a burst of feathers, it flapped from his grasp and flew down the stairwell. Startled, he looked at his palms, down the stairs, and back at his palms. Convinced the raven had been stone, he was afraid to touch any after that.

Descending, he wandered on. Chandeliers hung from vaulted ceilings. Plush, intricate rugs carpeted floors. Statues stood on every wall. Drifting from room to room, he saw no one, surprised so few people occupied so much space. Then he found a room dimly lit and spare of decor. Dominating the room was a stuffed grizzly bear, standing on its hind legs, baring its teeth in a vicious snarl.

“My brother wanted one,” Guarding Bear said from the shadows, “so he found this one and killed it with his bare hands.”

The boy looked up into the beast's face. Even dead, it frightened him.

“His talent the same as mine, he could have turned it to stone.” Guarding Bear brushed at the claw embroidered into the left breast of his outer robe. “Out of pride, he killed it with his 'Bear' hands.”

“Your brother's brave, Lord Bear.” Healing Hand stepped into the room.

Nodding, Guarding Bear sank back into his gloom.

Healing Hand thought unhappiness odd in a man of his wealth and station. Don't riches and power mean happiness? he wondered. Guarding Bear had riches and power in abundance, and little happiness. In the poorer quarters of Emparia City, Healing Hand knew many people living happily, despite being destitute and powerless over their fates. He began to understand that his life of poverty was little different from the lives of the wealthy. He realized that no single external condition determined happiness. A person needed harmony within.

Guarding Bear grunted, as though agreeing. “I've been poor, I am rich, I've had nothing, I have everything. I've been happy at all these times in my life, and I've been sad. My greatest accomplishments have demoralized me, and I've found peace in times of great woe. You should be cautious about letting others hear your thoughts, Hand.” Guarding Bear smiled, beckoning.

Stepping toward him, Healing Hand lowered himself next to the big man.

“I wish I could find peace in
this
time of woe. I don't believe I accepted that post. Security Commander of that pile of rubble is much too demeaning for me. I'm Guarding Bear!” he protested, as though that meant something. “Flying Arrow offered the position only to get me drunk and poison me. Infinite knows what he did to me then.”

Content to sit in his presence and listen, the boy said nothing.

Guarding Bear sighed. “My unhappiness is my own doing this time, eh? My mate scorns me for taking that position. I would if I were she. I deserve better than that. I must be dying of boredom to have accepted it. All I do these days is listen to spies. Of course, I can't
do
anything with what they tell me, because the Lord Emperor and the public are
always
watching me. The citizens of Empire worship me as the greatest general ever, but I can't so much as shit without someone's gossiping how large it was, or piss without rampant speculation on how many lakes I filled. Life was much better when I could fight through the night and carouse until dawn and no one talked about the size of my sword or the depth of my thrusts.”

Healing Hand grinned, but still didn't speak.

“You're a quiet one.” Guarding Bear tousled the boy's hair. “I cherish the memories of my youth, my brother at my side. We danced all night across the Imperial balls and no Lord Emperor Arrow could stop us. No one could.”

Guarding Bear sighed, and Healing Hand leaned against him. He put his arm around the boy. “Would you like to hear a story? I like stories, even my own. I gain strength from them, and peace. Would you like to hear how I met Bubbling Water? She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.”