At Last a Proper Brute to Redeem House Hadan

7. The Head Scout of House Ghazai

Bear won. He released the mage's body onto the ground. Its color slowly drained. The tribesman stood quietly for several moments, his chest heaving. Baya could see the sweat shining off the muscles of his back.

"I need water," he wailed. He looked about the crowd and Baya caught a glimpse of his face -- red, wet, and twisted. He repeated himself, sounding almost tearful. The crowd parted as he lumbered at them and disappeared through the sea of people.

"A nasty awful brute of a man," a woman said within earshot. She sounded disgusted. "A Bear son of a Bear son of the Great Wolf son of another Bear? How many more of these hideous beasts must the world endure."

Sometimes a hideous beast is exactly what you need, Baya thought bitterly.

***

When the entire meeting had ended the elders continued to discuss among themselves on the mats. The crowd dispersed and only a few conversational stragglers remained by the stage while most returned to the market. The voices of salesmen once again rose above the clamor. Someone was offering sunsalad sandwiches for a fair price and the smell of grinding coffee beans quickly reached Baya's nose, but she paid no heed to any of it. She stood a few moments with Kotem near the elders. Her finger traced over an inch of the delicate mud rock ridge that encircled the stage. It was so smooth it was barely noticeable.

"Damn the gods!" Baya overheard a councilwoman say, "Now we have a real pest on our hands." She wore an ochre gown with a four-part quatrefoil pattern between her shoulders -- a new symbol. The family must have only recently come into power.

"What talents has he other than killing, lying, and stealing?" another councilman said. The man had a hooked nose, thick grey brows, and a knobby chin. He wore a green turban and two decorative blades at the sides of his robe.

Baya approached the councilors and they recognized her father's face in hers.

"Daughter of Hadan!" one said, "You could have joined us on the stage."

But then I would not have been able to sway the crowd against your ruling, she thought.

She hoped that they knew more about the man from Khuzai. As she inquired, the council showed that they hadn't done much prying into Bear's current circumstances. Their interest in him ended at the description of his past crimes, which stretched over the past fifty years even though he couldn't have been more than a babe at his mother's breast two decades ago.

Baya asked, "And was the mage -- Lou'ai son of Ramaan -- a powerful man?"

"The most powerful. I thought he would destroy the Khuzai man in a few minutes. He was using limbs."

Baya nodded. Clearly Lou'ai was a mage of limbs. Although Lou'ai was nothing like the one that had killed her father, defeating him still proved Bear to be a mage-killer.

"And where did you find Bear?" she asked.

"I will direct you to another source for your inquiries about Bear," the councilman said, "but first we must invite you to the next council meeting. A private one tomorrow. Honor us."

Baya agreed, and the councilman directed her to a man in a boiled leather breast-plate, painted grey, from which white silwar puffed out about his shoulders. He had toasted skin and narrow, clever eyes under sharp eyebrows. His turban was ochre and he wore leather shoes stamped with symbols of wind. He supposedly knew more about Bear.

He smiled affectionately down at Baya -- she was still mostly a child -- and related his observations to her, "The servants of my master's house, House Ghazai, were looking for suncapers and mistshrooms along the western desert as they do every month. I never go on those expeditions, but when they got back, they told me that a dispatch from the Boiling Men approached them from the western caves with a ransom offer. They claimed it was a valuable prisoner. A defected military leader of the Lemia family. One with Adabi origin.

"My master wanted to pay the ransom. So I called the city guards and we set out with two parties to find the Boiling Men again. They showed us Bear -- and then all the crazy claims started. They said that they found him not in the eastern desert but in the western desert. And that they were very close to boiling him alive themselves -- as they tend to do when they don't like someone.

"This shot his ransom price up. Even though they must've been lying. So they grilled him in front of our parties and he was an open book. He wasn't drunk, but must've been when they first caught him. Bear was very angry, almost in tears," the guard chuckled, "just like today. But I think that he really didn't want to die as a liar."

"Instead it's gotta be the Boiling Men who were lying. As if they could handle a troop of Lemian men in the western desert! I think that Bear defected successfully, but didn't get that far. The Boiling Men must have captured him at the eastern caves, between here and Lemia lands. Lots of Bloody Boilers over there nowadays, too. So he must have been hiding out there, stealing wine and dates from our neighbors. Then, I assume the Bloody Boilers found him blacked out in the shade of one of the resting caves."

Baya thanked him and Kotem offered him a gold piece. His tale answered all the important questions. The two started back to the hostel, weaving through lilting voices of peddlers, colorful flapping canvases, and the aroma of speckled bananas, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, and peppers. At the end of the row was a busy basket weaver, and a few children surrounding her to watch.

As they pushed through a crowded stone archway towards the neighborhood, Baya shared her thoughts with Kotem, "That Khuzai tribesman is the man who will take my family's revenge," she said to him, "He needs me. He will be running out of money and has no social standing. Serving me can give him both of those. I've basically already got him."

"But he's practically a foreigner," Kotem said, "Are you sure he'd appreciate it?"

"He hates Lemia house passionately" she said, "You heard him. He said no one could ever hate them more than himself. And my family is the exact opposite of the Lemias! Serving us is exactly what he needs!" She was ecstatic. In her mind, she was already constructing a job offer for Bear.